Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots May 17, 2018 - Timeline Takes, Cooks in the Clutch and "Remember the Titans"

Episode Date: May 17, 2018

Mark Schofield addresses some takes from the timeline, talks about the Brady to Cooks connection to beat Houston and revisits "Remember the Titans."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Thursday, May 17th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for your Thursday installment of your favorite Patriots podcast. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Been doing some video work over on the timeline. I've come to the realization that people like the videos right there on the timeline, so that's what I've been doing. Dropping in like two minute or so videos

on some quarterback play. Had some plays from Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Kirk Cousins. Put up a Matthew Stafford video. Taron Christian from South Dakota State broke some stuff from him down. Video yesterday also on Jared Goff, another no-throw decision. So check those out. Share those around. People seem to be enjoying those.

Also follow the work over at Inside the Pylon, of course, as well as Pro Football Weekly working on another piece for some younger quarterbacks seeking perhaps a rebound in their second season, as well as Eli Manning, what we might expect from him in 2018. A couple of things on tap today. We're going to get to play three of our breakdown and countdown of the top 10 offensive plays of the Patriots' 2017 season. Also, as I teased yesterday, football and film rolls on with a trip back to another high school football team. We're going to do some timeline takes at the outset.

But first, a little bit of business. Friends, help me help you. In football and film this week, we talked about Jerry Maguire. That's one of the lines from this movie. Help me help you. And what I mean by that is this. Look, you've probably heard on this show a couple of times, some advertisements. We get some stuff advertised on this show, for example.

But I know that there are people out there listening to this show that either have a business, work for a business, where maybe they want to reach some demographically desirable audiences. For example, you want to get that 25 to 44, 25, 54 male demographic. Look, those make up a nice bulk of our listeners. And what's been amazing about doing this show is I look at the statistics on the show and where people listen from, and it's really a worldwide audience,

which is amazing. I mean, I'm looking at the breakdown right now. And just in the past month, obviously, the lion's share of listens are from the United States, are from the New England area, of course. It's locked on Patriots. But people listening from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia, Ireland, France, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Brazil, the UAE, Austria, Israel, Republic of Korea, Iraq, China, New Zealand, Denmark, Russia, Switzerland, Serbia, Jamaica, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Mexico, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Poland, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Turkey, Colombia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Bahamas, Slovenia, Thailand. It's amazing to see people listening all around the world. And if you work for a company, if you have a company that you want to get in on that,

hit me up. You can find me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. My email address is on my Twitter profile. Or if you just want it here, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. Again, help me help you. If I can put more money in your pocket, and you can throw some advertising dollars my way, it's a win-win for everybody. So again, if you fit that bill, let me know. Hit me up. Two quick timeline takes I want to get to. First,

congratulations out to offensive tackle Matt Light. He was inducted to the Patriots Hall of Fame just yesterday. He's the only 2018 inductee to the Patriots Hall of Fame, beating out finalists Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour. He will be inducted. His ceremony will be held Saturday, September 29th, which is the day before the Patriots' Week 4 home game against the Miami Dolphins. The time of the ceremony will be announced later, but it is free and open to the public on the plaza outside the Patriots Hall of Fame. Congratulations to Matt. And remember, we just talked earlier this week about arm length of the offensive tackle position. We played that clip from Dante Skarnecchia, obviously in regards to Isaiah Wynn, who has been pegged as somebody that might

have to kick inside instead of playing tackle in the NFL because he doesn't have ideal arm length. Well, what was one of the things that Skarnecchia said? Matt Light played offensive tackle for how many years in the NFL with 33-inch arms, and now he's getting inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame. So, if you still have reservations about whether offensive tackles can play in the NFL with shorter arms, again, Skarnecchia's example of Matt Light is a perfect one. And here we see him now inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame. So our congratulations out to Matt Light. Other quick little timeline take-O-T-T, Kazmar, K-A-C-S-M-A-R, has a tweet out, Need to look at this deeper sometime, but it looks like getting pressure without blitzing is more effective for a defense than getting pressure with a blitz. Makes sense.

Can devote more players to coverage without a blitz. And I think, as Scott said, that makes complete sense. And, you know, people have often asked me, asked me, how do you sort of defend quarterbacks? How do you, as a quarterback, want to see teams like the Patriots defend quarterbacks, whether they're younger quarterbacks, more experienced quarterbacks, etc.? And in response to at least one of those subsets of questions, I've always often thought that the worst thing you can do as a defense, when you're going up against a

younger quarterback is to blitz him. I think you want to more play coverage and try to confuse him on the back and don't blitz him because in a sense you're making it easier on him. And here's what I mean. You're giving him more defined reads. You're giving him hot reads. If you're a quarterback, you see the blitz, you have a built in hot read, a built in outlet to throw. It simplifies the decision making process for the quarterback. And that's sort of what I think Scott is kind of getting to. If you can get pressure with three and drop eight, that's advantageous for the defense, right? Because think about it. You've got four or five receivers in the route structure. You've still got a numbers advantage as a defense. And if you're still getting pressure, well, that's great. But if you have to bring more guys,

the numbers advantage shifts. And as I mentioned earlier in the show, I've been doing a series of videos on Twitter. And a play that I'm thinking about breaking down is a touchdown that Kirk Cousins had against the New Orleans Saints from week 12, I think it was. And New Orleans brought a zero blitz, which meant blitzed everybody except for three defenders who were in man-to-man covers. There was no safety help deep. And there was a bust in the secondary. Two guys covered one receiver. Makes it an easy throw. And even though Cousins had eight guys bearing down on him and they didn't have enough guys in there to block, it was such an easy throw for him. I remember, I think it was Doug Gilmore who does games for ESPN. He was breaking down a Pac-12 game. I think it was Utah and Arizona or

something like that. And in that game, the defense blitzed. The offensive line picked it up, and it was a touchdown throw in the red zone. And Doug's quote was, if you blitz and don't get home, the next thing you'll hear is the band starting to play. Because if you don't get there, the quarterback's going to have an advantageous situation. He's going to find man coverage. He's going to find a mismatch. He's going to find a breakdown, or you just might not be able to cover everybody. And so to Scott's sort of point, yeah, it is much more advantageous for a defense to get home without blitz and to get pressure without blitzing because then you're still covered on the back end. If you have to blitz and you don't get home without blitzing, to get pressure without blitzing, because then you're still covered on the back end.

If you have to blitz and you don't get home, that band is going to start to play. Up next, we're going to talk play three of our countdown of the Patriots' top 10 offensive plays of the 2017 season. And that's next with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. 30 seconds left. Brady, pump.

Brady, rifles to the corner. Oh, it's caught. Touchdown. Brandon Cooks. Incredible. Tom Brady delivers in the clutch. Now this is why they went out and got Brandon Cooks. Not only a speedster, but a really refined wide receiver.

Both feet in, ball controlled all the way through to the ground. Another incredible drive led by Tom Brady. Perhaps you recognize that. That's Tom Brady to Bren Cooks in the closing minutes, closing seconds really, of the Patriots' week three victory over the Houston Texans, taking on Deshaun Watson in a very game visit in Houston Texan club and that's Brady to Cooks the game winner and what's fascinating about that play Kevin Harlan Dan Founce on the call is that it's one of the tougher throws in football to execute it's a vertical route along the boundary against a cover to look it's sort of that's quote turkey hole shot that John Gruden described it as

where you've got to get it basically over the corner who's going to be sort of sinking under that vertical route carrying that vertical route a little deep and before that safety can really rotate over the pump fake that you heard described by Harlan kind of helps in that sense to sort of freeze that safety in the middle of the field because the Patriots run a three vertical concept and that safety's got two vertical routes coming to him. He's got one from, I believe, Danny Amendola as well from the inside, from the slot. And so the inside vertical route does work to hold him, but then you've got the sideline to contend with as well. It's almost a situation where Brady's, by design, throwing that into triple coverage.

You have the corner sinking under it, you have the safety rotating over, and then you have the sideline, the side boundary to contend with as well. And so it's an extremely tough throw, particularly when Brady has pressure in his face from Jadeveon Clowney as well. He makes this throw under duress, and it carries a pretty long distance too, but as Harlan described it, Brady rifles this in there, showing some pretty decent velocity for a man who, according to some, was losing his fastball. All of this happens at the end of a drive that the Patriots needed. They began the drive down by five in their own territory, needed another sort of miracle-type type effort type game from Tom Brady you know and it's again it goes to the greatness again that's my that's my crutch as a word I need to stop saying that I digress it goes to the greatness of Tom Brady because this drive had some problems

with the way it started it opened with an incomplete pass to Danny Amendola. Then there's a hold in penalty. So they're facing second and 20 on their own 15. Brady hits Gronk for eight yards. Third and 12 with a two-minute winner on their own 23. Hits Gronkowski again for a 15-yard drive. Brady sacked and fumbles. Big play there by David Andrews To make the recovery

In completion to Cooks near midfield Big play on this drive Brady to Amendola for 27 yards That's the play before this touchdown And on this touchdown That was Brady's 6th career game With 5 or more TD passes Tying Dan Marino for 3rd most all time

His 6th career game with five touchdown passes and no interceptions, his second most all-time. We eventually at some point are going to see Tom Brady retire and that's going to be a tough day because the fact that he still does stuff like this at such a high level and Dan Marino was sometimes thrown at that mix of best quarterbacks of all time and perhaps even better than Tom Brady. But here we see him tying a Marino record. And Marino was known for throwing the ball all over the place with Mark Clayton and Mark Duper.

Nobody would ever say that Brady was a gunslinger, vertical-type guy like Marino, but he can do that too. And this play, emblematic of Brady from the comeback to the big throw, under duress at the end of the game. Just an incredible play. And if this is number three, friends, you've got to know, we've got some great stuff in store for plays number two and one. But there it is.

Tom Brady to Brandon Cooks, the third best offensive play of the Patriots 2017 season, judged solely by yours truly. So again, if you don't like the countdown, if you like the way it's been going, at Mark Schofield on Twitter, you can at me on there. A lot of people say, don't at me.

You can at me. I'm okay with it. That's what the Twitter machine is for. Because this is supposed to be fun, right? It's just football. Up next, when football meant a little bit more, perhaps, as football and film rolls on

with Remember the Titans. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. All right. We're in a fight. You boys are doing all that you can do. Anybody can see that. Win or lose.

We're going to walk out of this stadium tonight with our heads held high. Do your best. It's all anybody can ask for. No, it ain't, Coach. In all due respect, you demanded more of us. You demanded perfection. Now, I ain't saying that I'm perfect, because I'm not.

And I ain't gonna never be. None of us are. But we have won every single game we have played till now. So this team is perfect. We stepped out on that field that way tonight. And if it's all the same to you, Coach Boone, that's how we want to leave it. Yeah. I hope you boys have learned as much from me this year

as I've learned from you. You've taught this city how to trust the soul of a man rather than the look of him. And I guess it's about time I joined the club. Herman, I sure could use your help. Ed Henry's kicking my ass out. Listen up. This is our time now. Second half is our time. We're gonna make some changes on defense. They're spreading us out too far. We're going to put Sunshine, Allen, Glasgow, Davis.

You're going to play both ways the rest of the game. I don't want a receiver to get across that line of scrimmage. Coach Yost will tell you where you're playing, all right? Let's go. It's our time. Everybody in. Our time, our time, our time. Titans on three. One, two, three. Titans! Denzel Washington, Will Patton, and Wood Harris, among other members of the cast of the 2000 movie Remember the Titans, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, directed by

Boz Yakin. The movie tells the story of Herman Boone, portrayed by Denzel Washington, and his efforts to integrate T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. Will Patton plays Boone's assistant coach Bill Yost, who was the head coach of that team, but when the school integrated and integrated their football team, Herman Boone was named the head coach. The current head coach, Bill Yost, in an effort to sort of keep the team unified and in a sense to keep the white players willing to play, he's named as the assistant coach under Herman Boone to serve as his defensive coordinator. And Yost was nominated for the Virginia High School Hall of Fame, but that was sort of pendant as this season wore on. What you sort of heard there was, in an essence, their halftime speech in the state championship game,

where they were losing. They were losing. They needed to make some changes, and that was sort of their halftime speech, the changes that they made. They brought some players back in, including, at the outset, Ryan Gosselin. We all love Ryan Gosselin, but he was an absolute liability at cornerback for this team. That's been meaned. It's now set in stone. And one of the changes they made was to put him back on the bench and bring Petey back onto the field, portrayed by Donald Faison of Scrubs fame. So for those of you that know me more as the Toto slash Africa slash Scrubs gift guy, you knew that I was going to be bringing up Donald Faison. So a lot of people, when I first

mentioned the football and film series, there were a lot of people that reached out and basically said that it's Remember the Titans, period, full stop. That's it. That's the movie. And I understand why people feel that way. You know, it's a fantastic movie. It has obviously the underpinnings of it. The sort of racial struggle that this team goes through is a mirror, a microcosm of what this country has been struggling through, you know, not just back in 1971, but up to this day,

you know, we've been struggling through, you know, the racial divide, you know, and this movie just shows one team using, you know, one group of men and boys, you know, unifying through sports, you know, and there's a moment in this movie that really hits with me. Now, it's that trip they took to Gettysburg. And again, well, this is sort of, you know, based on a true story, not all of the stuff happened the way it's portrayed in the movie. The other schools that they played were integrated years before. That's not the way it is in the movie. The three in the morning run that we're about to talk about and this speech, they weren't part of the

movie. The team did go on this tour to Gettysburg, but it didn't have sort of the dramatic effect that we see in the movie. But for me, you know, the Gettysburg speech was very powerful, even though it didn't happen, you know, because of, you know, the imagery of this team fighting this racial divide, and that speech on that hallowed ground, that was one of those things that sticked to me. Anybody know what this place is? This is Gettysburg. This is where they fought the Battle of Gettysburg. This is where they fought the Battle of Gettysburg.

50,000 men died right here on this red, bubbling with the blood of young boys. Smoke and hot lead pouring right through their bodies. Listen to their souls, men. I killed my brother with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed my family. You listen. Take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together, right now on this hollow ground, we too will be destroyed.

Just like they were. I don't care if you like each other or not, but you will respect each other. And maybe, I don't know, maybe you will learn to play this game like men. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the swelling trumpets and a speech like that, but a powerful moment in a powerful movie. And if you haven't seen it, you've got to check out Remember the titans i know big friend of the show my man jack duffin at jack j-a-c-k-d-u-f-f-i-n a browns fan who chimed in in the poll the uk votes for remember the titans as he said it's remember the titans all day long it's so good no one else comes near. Shout out to Jack. Give him a follow again,

at Jack Duffin on Twitter. Jack, I know you were waiting for this episode and here it is. Hope we did you proud with the clips we chose and how we've talked about it. But Remember the Titans, a fantastic movie. Definitely check it out. I can't do it all justice

in just six or seven minutes, a seven minute segment or so. But definitely give it a watch if you haven't seen it. That will do it for this show, and that will do it for this week of Locked On Patriots. I will be back Monday. We'll be finalizing the countdown of the top 10 offensive plays and then getting into 10 defensive plays,

which means I've got to talk defense. I don't do that often. It might be a little rusty. And then we'll continue football and film as well. As always, you can hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on P.