Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots July 6, 2018 - Super Bowl 36 Revisited

Episode Date: July 6, 2018

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I'll tell you what Tom Brady just did gives me goosebumps. I'm Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. Super Bowl XXXVI pitted the St. Louis Rams against the New England Patriots. For the Rams, they had the best record in football at 14-2. They were the greatest show on turf, a high-flying offense led by quarterback Kurt Warner, who had weapons like Isaac Bruce, Torrey Holt, Azazir Hakeem, and running back Marshall Falk. Meanwhile, the Patriots entered the game with an 11-5 record.

They made the playoffs after they lost their starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, early in the season to an injury. In stepped in number 12, Tom Brady. Brady led the team to an AFC East title and a berth in the divisional round playoffs. In that game against the Oakland Raiders in the snow, the Patriots pulled out a victory, an improbable comeback featuring two tremendous kicks from Adam Vinatieri. Then the Patriots went on the road and defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in a game which saw Brady get injured and Bledsoe come back onto the field to lead the team to victory. But it would be Brady who saw the start in Super Bowl XXXVI.

And up against such a high-powered team, such a high-powered offense, the Patriots began the night doing something that no team had done before. Eschewing the tradition of individual introductions, the Patriots went a different route. And now, ladies and gentlemen, choosing to be interviewed as a team, here are the American Football Conference champions, the New England Patriots took the field as a team, something that sort of exemplified their entire season. But as you might expect, given their high-powered offense, it was the Rams who would strike first in Super Bowl XXXVI on a 50-yard field goal. If, like me, you grew up listening to Pat Summerall and John Madden,

it's great just to hear their voices again. The field goal gave the Rams a 3-0 lead, which they enjoyed until the 8-minute and 45-second mark of the second quarter. That's when the Patriots' defense scored the first touchdown of Super Bowl XXXVI. Linebacker Mike Vrabel blitzed off the edge and got in the face of Kurt Warner as he attempted to pass. The errant throw fell into the arms of cornerback Ty Law, who returned it for the touchdown. The extra point gave New England a 7-3 lead. The game would remain at 7-3 until very late in the second quarter. With under a minute remaining, Brady and the offense looked

to strike, and the young quarterback dropped back and looked for David Patton in the corner of the end zone. Here's Brady back. Firing end zone. Touchdown! Patriots' David Patton made a great catch. And that's the guy they're going to work on is Dexter McQueen. They didn't get him the first time, they got him that time.

David Patton made a heck of a move, though. Did he ever. And what a catch he made. And what a throw Tom Brady makes. Watch him, he starts out, then he starts up. He threw a little out and up, and he threw it right to that second pylon. See the out there, he sells him in the out, McLean takes a step up. Brady throws it right over to a perfect spot for David Patton connected on a short out and up route. The receiver showing the out route to the sideline before breaking vertically.

Brady used a perfect pump fake and Patton ran a perfect route and came down with a well placed throw with an acrobatic catch in the back of the end zone. The short touchdown pass gave New England a 14-3 lead headed into halftime, something nobody saw coming. Up next, the second half of Super Bowl 36. Super Bowl 36 saw only three points scored in the third quarter. Again, it was New England adding to their lead as Adam Vinatieri knocked through a 37-yard field goal. But things were about to get much more exciting. Headed into the fourth quarter, the Patriots enjoyed a 17-3 lead,

but the Rams were driving. Then in an instant, it looked for a moment like the Patriots had just sealed Super Bowl 36. Facing a fourth down and goal, quarterback Kurt Warner rolled to his right, but then disaster struck, at least for the moment. They're going to go for it. I'm Mike March's play call sheet. He has an area called you know must score and fourth down plays in the goal line. He's thought about this he's visualized this and he has the play that he wants for this

situation. He hasn't used that sheet must score too much today. Or he's used it and hasn't worked. He's got to be a little bit more aggressive. He's got to be a little bit more aggressive. He hasn't used that sheet must score too much today or he's used it and has it worked well in motion here is Warner he's going to try to scramble in the

Patriots have it. They scoop it up. This could be the longest. This is to Bucky Jones to Bucky Jones to the five. The flag was for a defensive hold and penalty. Linebacker Willie McGinnis basically tackled Marshall Falk as he tried to release into a pass pattern. That penalty negated what would have been a back break in, fumble return for a touchdown by Patriots defensive back to Bucky Jones. Given new life, the Rams looked to capitalize. Touchdown Rams. the Rams looked to capitalize. Warner's short touchdown run cut into New England's lead, and the extra point made it 17-10. The teams traded punts then in the fourth quarter, but late in the game, Warner and the Rams offense struck again. seven left. Warner lofts it and Ricky Proll is going to score. Ricky Proll has come up

with some big ones, none bigger than that one from 26 yards out from Kurt Warner. How about Kurt Warner's big ones that he's come up with? Maybe none bigger than that. Proles touchdown reception and the extra point tied Super Bowl 36 at 17. Up next, the drive. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. After the kickoff, the Patriots took over deep in their own territory with no timeouts. Up in the booth, legendary coach and broadcaster John Madden had his thoughts on New England's plan of action. With no timeouts, I think that the Patriots, with this field position, you have to just run the clock out.

You have to play for overtime now. I don't think you want to force anything here. You don't want to do anything stupid because you have no timeouts. Rich Hill, from Pat's Pulpit, disagreed with the legendary coach's ideas. Seeing what the Rams had done on the offensive side of the ball and looking at how the Patriots defense was playing at this point in time Rich didn't want to play for overtime I want to go ahead and say that I had perfect vision what was about to take place is like yeah Madden's wrong in retrospect but honestly I have no idea I think at that point in the game the Patriots defense had tired out a little bit. The Rams were starting to be a little bit more productive. And so you didn't really want to have to rely on

that coin toss. So they had time on the clock. Why not go for it? They had literally nothing to lose. So I mean, they're not going to get stopped and give the Rams time to have a counter drive. So I think going for it was always going to be the right choice. For Super Bowl 36, I wanted to talk to one person about this game, and that's Matt Waldman, creator of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Matt is one of the smartest football minds in the entire industry. And he and I sat down to talk about Brady's final drive here, and Matt shared his thoughts about how the Patriots should approach the final moments of Super Bowl 36. I'm well I mean to me I mean I understand you know I mean Madden is a great coach and you know when you look at the whole situation you understand

why if you don't really know Tom Brady at that point and who would really know him to be the player that he turned out to be you would think well he's a young player let's let's just make give him an opportunity where we can maybe get the ball and settle down and have a game plan moving forward but obviously Bill Belichick knew his quarterback better than John Madden and that's to be expected and I think what they did here which was nice is that I was surprised by that but you you can kind of see the from the first play of that of that series you could kind of see the smarts there with what they did and how it kind of set the stage for the rest of the play up next the thrilling conclusion of Super Bowl XXXVI.

New England's final drive began slowly, with two short completions to running back J.R. Redmond. And he's going to throw it. Nothing stupid. Gets it up. The J.R. Redmond. As complete. Gets out to the twenty one. I would. I don't I don't agree with what the Patriots are doing right here.

I would I would I would play for overtime if I had good field position I won. But in this field position I would play for overtime. Now just a minute. They have no timeouts left. Brady again throws. good field position I would but in this field position I would play for overtime now just a minute they have no timeouts left Brady again throws that's the Redsman again the two short

completions did not do much for New England in terms of field position but as Matt Waldman breaks down they were like a boxer feeling out his opponent and they set the stage for what was to come. Because they line up in this kind of two-by-one receiver set, and Brady looks to the right side, and he looks deep and goes short. So he looks deep, sees that it's not there. He does a great job of stepping from pressure off the right side and just checks down to J.R. Redman. And it's a really heady play because he's about to get, get, he's getting hit as he throws the ball. And while it's a short game, it actually kind of sets up some things down the line. It sure was. And it was, and I think that

it's that, the fact that Belichick had faith in him to, to look downfield and throw as their first play, you know, backed up in their own area, certainly shows a lot of confidence in him. And while it was a close call for him, what that ended up doing is the fact that the defense kind of saw him looking downfield early, backed up in that area, it caused them to, I think it caused them to play off a little bit more and play a little looser because they were like, he is looking deep. He's not trying to, they're not trying to run. They're not trying to dump down just necessarily yet.

He was trying to attack us. And if it weren't for our rush, we wouldn't have done something. So they kind of played off. And what was nice about that is it set up that next play because Brady was like, okay, this time I'm not going to go deep right away. I'm going to check it down because they're playing loose once again because they saw I kind of helped set that up so let's go to Redmond and get another quick 12 you know and next thing you know they're you know what they're the 35 and they're they're getting or close to that and they're threatening

at the 30 you know on their second play and then they're they're hurrying up on the next play, and then they stop the clock. So what you get there is kind of a game within the game in the first two plays where it's like I attack deep, put the defense on notice, and then I'm going to go right back to the guy I checked out to because it's an easy opportunity. And he didn't waste money. I mean, you look at it and you go, well, you know, a good bit of time went off the clock.

He went from 121 left to 41 left, but still they were moving the ball. And I think that showed you that there was some life left to live there. And it was kind of that exploratory punch that kind of jab and kind of circle around that worked out all right. After a Brady spike, the quarterback hit Redmond again,

this time in the left flat, and the running back raced upfield the reception before getting knocked out of bounds. They need about 40 more yards before they're going to be in field goal range. There's Brady. Not much pressure. Throws out to Redmond again.

Redmond gets the first down. Yeah, and I think that at that point it's like, and part of that philosophy probably too, is let's make the young quarterback drive the field. Don't give up a big play, but make him drive it. And let's see if he can. And if we can get some pressure on him around the edges, maybe we'll disrupt him enough that he'll make some bad plays. And at the same time, there's not a lot of time left now.

Still, it's second and 10, 41 left. They're like, let's make sure that the outside is well covered because that's probably the area that they're going to want to throw to. So we're going to try and take away that outside range. And they did. I mean, he looks to his right. There's some pressure coming from the left that gets into his face, but he does a really nice job on this play that when the end gets, you know, a push on the left tackle, you've got Redman on the left side. Brady's still looking down to his right, sees it's not covered, and he's very poised with a quick turn.

And you can tell when he turned that the ball was coming out just as he pivoted. I mean, there was no hesitation. He knew where Redman was. And Redman, to his credit, you know, makes the first man miss in the open field. You know, former Arizona State star, shows some nice bursts against the cornerback playing that outside flat, and he drives to be able to get close to the boundary and out of bounds for 11. The Patriots had a new set of downs, and as Matt talks about there, to this point the Rams had played somewhat conservative, using soft coverage

to take away deep throws. Up in the booth, John Madden had noticed that as well, and he wondered if the Rams were going to finally start to get after Brady. And on the next play, that's exactly what St. Louis would do. Well, the Rams are getting a little too loose, I think, with their defense. When they had them backed up, you'd think they would have pressured them a little more. Here they come. Here they come. And Brady throws. Incomplete.

He just got rid of it. Yeah, he sure does. I mean, you get a linebacker in safety coming off the right guard side, and you can tell that the way the protection was set up, they weren't ready for this. You know, this wasn't something they spotted and called at the line because if it was going to be a slide protection on that way, then the running back is supposed to work the opposite side

of the slide to the right. He would go inside and pick up one of these two guys, probably the linebacker and then brady would have at least a shot to step up and work underneath the the defensive back who's layered with it but that's not the case and you've got you know so when you look at it as soon as he drops back and he sees those men coming he's like well that's not going to be accounted for i have to get rid of this and it's just thatise and awareness to get outside the pocket and throw it away. Brady's quick thinking and throwaway prevented what could have been a disastrous sack.

But the fact remained, the Patriots were on their own 41-yard line, and with no timeouts and just 29 seconds left in Super Bowl 36 they needed a big play to flip the field and get into range for Vinatieri. The play that they dialed up 64 max all-in. A three receiver route combination off of the levels concept with receivers crossing from right to left from Brady's point of view. And I'll admit that as a coach and as an analyst, I don't think they should have done. But they had the guts. They have a young quarterback. And they did it. They were backed up.

They were inside their own 20. They had no timeouts left. And they're calling these plays. And not only calling these plays, but making these plays. Yeah, I mean, it sure is. And it's one of those situations, too, where, you know, it's a tough, you know, the Rams try and defend a little bit of the middle of the field here with the drop back of a defensive tackle into the middle zone. You know, first, number 90 looks like that, you know,

he's going to come towards the center, and then he starts to drop back up the left hash. And Brady's looking from right to left because, one, he's looking to see if the safety on that side deep is going to give up anything he sees very quickly during his drop that that's not going to happen and then when he takes that hitch he's following those next reads which is Troy Brown working that dig across the field and you know you kind of knew you would have to imagine that what must have been going through Brady's mind on one level is on a very fundamental level is the Rams are going to take away the sideline because they're going to try and make

them believe this. So you can see the outside shade coverage there by the cornerbacks. And then they're like, maybe we can confuse them because when he takes that, you know, what we've seen from them thus far is he's taken either, he's trying to look for somebody up the boundary or, or outside or downfield

you know on those levels and then when he comes when he checks down he's checking down into a flat or into a short middle area so if we can sneak a defensive tackle back there with the drop then maybe we'll catch brady you know not seeing that and he'll target somebody over the middle there but brady you know in hitch, when he hitches like that, that defensive tackle then comes sliding back up like, maybe I better account for him scrambling, and kind of climbs up to try and get into the way of the passing lane there as well. And Brady just fits it right over to Brown,

where the outside cornerback playing that outside shade leaves a big you know a big cushion there and then brown just does a great job because of the the cornerback overreacting slides inside and brown's able to get another what you know seven to ten yards on it and get them in the field goal range yeah absolutely i mean that can't be underestimated at all i mean or overstated at all because it is one of those scenarios that you don't like thrown in the middle of the field with 21 seconds left um but it's the type of route that was perfect for it because it is a route that's breaking and you're throwing in stride so you give your receiver a fighting chance if brady threw this behind the receiver um or a little too high or a

little too low which can happen in those scenarios when we talk about pressure situations. It may look like a simple play, a simple pitch and catch, but these are the types of scenarios where even good quarterbacks who are starting in the league in this scenario can throw the ball a little off. And if they do that, it can really ruin a play where the receiver stumbles and falls and he's

on the ground and now time's running out well i we started seeing tom brady become tom brady i would say closer towards the the raiders game so we we had a general idea of who he was and what he was capable of doing but to have that game-winning drive they needed to have one big play you know like that that's how every single game-winning drive takes place you can't just dink and dunk your way to a two-minute drill game-winning drive it's not going to happen so there had to be one play to take place and of all of the receivers possibly on the field, it had to be Troy Brown. I mean, Troy Brown was going to be that big play guy because he was his top receiver. He was the one that, you know, model of the Julian Edelman that we see this day and age. He was able to do it all, get that quick separation, and he had such an amazing rapport with Brady.

So I'm not surprised that it was Troy Brown that did it, and I'm not surprised that they needed that big play to win the Super Bowl. For both Rich Hill and Matt Waldman, the connection between Brady and Brown was a legacy type moment for both players. Oh, seriously, if you had to rank the, you you know let's say the top five wide receivers of the bill belichick era how would you do it who would be your top five i mean you i think you go moss i think you welker edelman brown and maybe dion branch but i think those are the five right yeah 100 that's he is one of the the all-time greats of the franchise. He was a huge part of those Super Bowls.

And a factor in him playing in on the defensive side of the ball, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a more impactful receiver in most franchise histories. Yeah, I mean, I definitely would because we can always talk about things you saw from him at Michigan and what you saw with him before the Super Bowl matchup that you can say, this is who Tom Brady was and we could have seen it coming and all of that.

And yes, that's very true in the extent that because he made that moment happen here. Because the Super Bowl is really what solidifies, it's the big games that solidify what you really are. It magnifies who you really are. Win or lose, it magnifies where you are. Because I'm a Titans fan. So the year before, I'm watching Steve McNair

get within a yard of winning the Super Bowl on an incredible drive against the same team that Tom Brady is facing and you know while the the the Titans lost that game anyone who watched that game realized what Steve McNair was in that game even though you could have seen him first you know seasons before and saw the the what he did the fact that he could do it on that stage the fact that he could make the near impossible happen in crazy scenarios and and bring that team down the down the field really created the local legend and the regional legend and and for those who are diehard nfl fans the legend that steve mcnair was so when you look at tom brady it's the same thing it's like yeah he he made the simple plays he took

the complex situations and the pressure field situation and he executed it on a simple level and that's one of the things that makes brady great i talk about it a lot even today when comparing with other quarterbacks who may be more physically gifted, who may actually have better tight window accuracy, who can do some things, you know, with his with their scrambling ability or off balance throws. But when it comes to here's a simple route that's breaking open in a scenario where you should be able to get it to him and he should get 20 30 yards downfield and you can't place it accurately enough for him to make the catch um because you're rushing because you're so excited about it and it's just a regular season game and you have the lead you know not being behind with seconds remaining or tied with seconds remaining in the biggest game of your life and the biggest game, you know, of the year, you know, Tom Brady, the fact that Tom Brady is able to execute and make

the simple things work and find the simple solutions in situations that seem complex or pressure pack is what makes him great and makes other great quarterbacks great. And this game absolutely defined that for him. But New England still needed a few more yards to be safely within range for Adam Vinatieri. And like this team had seen all year long, another relatively unknown figure emerged at a critical moment. Right now it would be a 53-yarder. Here comes the blitz and here's Brady. emerged at a critical moment. You know, every player has a little bit of a place to go you know it was a big little dump off pass to him that just you know got them a little bit closer changed the hash marks

so you know Vinatieri had a little bit of the more favorable direction for him I don't want to say people really forgot him but he really didn't do too much outside of this Super Bowl. If you look at his playing history, I'm really happy for him. Is he on like 98.5 or something in Boston radio? So he's made a whole career out of it. Very, very happy for how he's stuck around in Boston lore. But he rose up to the occasion. I can't think of uh another patriots player that

really just came out and was such a big factor in the super bowl without really doing too much else otherwise uh you know i don't i don't want to call it like the danny amandola where you just kind of sit and wait for the entire regular season and then bust out on the scene in the postseason. But that was kind of what Wiggins did. He was open. He did his job. He converted on all of the opportunities that he had. And I think part of the reason he doesn't get more attention is that none of those catches were circus catches.

None of them were really big receptions like that Troy Brown play. Troy Brown gets the recognition on that drive because it was the field flipper, whereas Wiggins had, I'm not sure exactly off the top of my head but it was like two three catches on that drive for 15 20 yards you know he just picked up consistent chunks but he wasn't the field flipper so he was a good role piece and i think that's what people would remember and honestly i would say people probably remember wiggins better than most tight ends in the belichick era given the amount of production he actually had in new england the completion to wiggins and then the spike from brady stopped the clock and set the stage for vinatieri and to this

day that image of the brady spike followed by the quarterback slowly catching the ball to hand to the referee gives me goosebumps but the entire drive had the same impact on John Madden I'll tell you what Tom Brady just did gives me goosebumps yeah and you know it's one of those scenarios where you have to give a lot of credit to bill belichick in the way that he also he and the staff you know coach their team and how their team seemed prepared because you could see the linemen getting up to the line they were they were there was an urgency but they weren't panicked in terms of how they approached it and it also trickles down from your quarterback and your and you know when your quarterback grew up idolizing joe montana who you know is the ultimate

cool customer at the quarterback position you know you can understand that this is someone who imitates a lot of that who you know tries to you you know, learn from that. And I'm sure that Tom Brady, who talks about being there to see the game with the catch against Dallas, you know, with his father, and how that was one of the ceiling moments for him. You know he remembers the John Candy game against the Bengals. You know he's thinking, if I'm at that time as a young, budding quarterback, probably in high school,

he's probably thinking, if I ever get in this situation, I want to be like that. I want to do things like that. I want people to remember me about it the way I remember Joe Montana, which is that nothing rattled him. But still, the Patriots needed one more play, a field goal from Adam Vinatieri and Rich Hill wasn't quite confident yet. You never want to say that it's going to be for certain, you know, this was their first Superbowl. They didn't really have any of that.

I think they can't lose, you know, right. Clear eyes, clear his heart. You know, they, they just couldn't, they didn't have that with them. So whatever they made, clear heart. They just couldn't. They didn't have that with them. So whatever they made, as we said at the beginning, was just going to be gravy. And he knocked it through. He made it. But I was never for a second convinced it was going to be 100%,

which is kind of a test. This would be from 48 yards out. And this has been a year of that. Vinatieri and making some great kicks against the Raiders. Two of the greatest kicks that I've ever seen in my life. No time on the clock. The score read 20-17. The Patriots were world champions uh i was freaking out uh this was their first super bowl this was the first championship uh i had seen in in boston

sports so this was a monumental occasion for the entire region and they were such underdogs they were not expected to do anything and they came out and i mean this final drive kind of encapsulated a lot of what they represented this whole year where they weren't going to take no for an answer and they were just going to compete until the very last minute. And ultimately it worked out for them. They had to have a lot of very fortunate breaks go their way in the 2001-2002 season. And they were Super Bowl champs. I want to thank my great guests for this episode, Rich Hill from Pat's Pulpit.

You can follow him on Twitter at PP underscore Rich underscore Hill, as well as Matt Waldman. You can follow him on Twitter at Matt Waldman. He's also the creator of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. You should check that out every year. You can get a look at it, mattwaldmanrsp.com. I also just want to take a moment and thank all the guests that were kind enough to come on with me and talk about these games. Rich Hill, who I spoke with for each one of these Super Bowls, took a lot of time with me, and I really appreciate

that from Rich. Aaron Freeman, coming on to talk about Super Bowl 51. Danny Kelly, to talk about Super Bowl 49. Michael Kist, Super Bowl 39. Bill Rossetti, Super Bowl 38, and again, Matt Waldman here for Super Bowl 36. This has been an amazing experience and I'm truly lucky to be able to spend

time with each of those individuals and talk about these games and get their thoughts and their reflections on these perhaps iconic games in football history. I hope you've enjoyed these episodes as well. Again, something a little bit different here through the bye week, a little bit of a narrative focus, trying something a little bit different, but I hope you enjoyed these. I've enjoyed putting them together for you.