Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots May 9, 2018 - Numbers, Brady in the Clutch, Regrets and More

Episode Date: May 9, 2018

Mark Schofield talks number changes, Brady versus Stafford in the two-minute drill, Offensive Play of the Year Number 8 and "The Best of Times." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning, welcome into Locked On Patriots for Wednesday, May 9th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for Wednesday edition of Locked On Patriots. Going to do a couple of things today. Football and film will roll on. We're going to talk about the eighth best offensive play of the year from the New England Patriots as determined by me. We're also going to talk two-minute drill. Do a couple of other things as well. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield.

Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com as well as Pro Football Weekly. Got a couple of pieces in the works for PFW you'll be able to check out soon. Also, new video up at the ITP YouTube page, YouTube.com slash InsideThePylon as promised, a look at Easton Stick, two plays from the 2018 FCS Championship

against James Madison. Looking at his process and speed and decision making. Before we get to it, I want to remind everybody, if you can, if you would be so kind to leave a review over on iTunes. We have a ton of reviews up there now. I think 74, 75, last time I checked, all four and five star reviews except for one one star, which was before my time. But still, the reviews do help.

As the reviews come in, iTunes gives us a better rate and bumps it up a little bit. Help me help you. So if you can leave a review over at iTunes, that would be greatly appreciated. Also tell your friends, the more people that listen, the more I get to do this, and that makes everybody happy. But as I said, a couple of things on tap today. We're going to start with numbers. Numbers aesthetics actually because the Patriots released a roster update with some New Jersey numbers and if you are like me and you find roster number aesthetics interesting, this is a fun day. A couple of numbers stand out. Jordan Matthews takes Danny Amendola as number 80. He will be wearing the number 80 for the upcoming season. Coradel Patterson comes over wearing number 84.

A bit interesting because there has been some speculation that perhaps Patterson will be used more as a running back than anything else. But he's wearing a wide receiver number to start things off. Kenny Britt, number 88. He's going to be wearing that. Deron Harmon helps out Jason McCourty. Harmon releasing the number 30 to Jason McCourty because that's his number. Harmon will switch to number 21, now available after Malcolm Butler moving on in free agency. Danny Shelton will be wearing number 71. Adrian Claiborne wearing number 94.

The only one that sort of sticks out to me in an interesting way, Riley McCarron reserved wide receiver wearing 17. I'm a bit more of a traditionalist when it comes to receiver numbers. I like to see numbers in the 80s, but I see more and more wide receivers are wearing numbers in the teens, and it's starting to grow on me. So as much as 17 is more of a quarterback number traditionally, I'm kind of digging it for a wide receiver.

So I'm digging Riley McCarron wearing number 17. We haven't seen any number updates on the rookies yet. That will come a little bit later, as well as the undrafted free agency rookies. So we haven't seen that yet. That should be coming soon. But some new numbers out for your New England Patriots. Just wanted to touch on that briefly.

Now I want to talk two-minute drill for a moment. Dan Orlovsky, friend of Inside the Pylon, a quarterback expert, former quarterback himself, was on Good Morning Football yesterday morning. And during his segment, he was talking about why he believes Matthew Stafford is the best quarterback at the two-minute drill in today's NFL. And in support of that, he talked about a play, an two-minute drill situation where Stafford made a ridiculous throw with velocity and ball placement.

And the Monday film session, they were watching the replay of that game. And Orlovsky asked Stafford, why did you make that throw? And Stafford basically said, I knew if I made that throw, we'd either win or it was going to be picked and we'd lose. And Orlovsky's main point is because of Stafford's fearlessness as a passer, he is the best at the two-minute drill. And I certainly appreciate where Dan is coming from. I think as a quarterback, you have to play with a level of fearlessness. I've talked about it on this show. I've talked about it on many other shows. You cannot play this position scared. You have to maintain aggression, especially in those types of situations, because if the defense is going to be dropping seven or eight into coverage

and expecting you to throw the ball there are going to be some really small throwing windows that you have to challenge you can't just check it down in those situations you're going to have to push the envelope and Stafford certainly does that and so I do understand where Dan is coming from I do however have to make a case for Tom Brady

this is locked on Patriots I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't take up the sword and the armor and the shield for our boy. And so let's start statistics. 2017 situational stats. Matthew Stafford, last two minutes of half situations. These are his splits from NFL.com. 46 of 83. Completion percentage of 55.4 for 474 yards, average of 5.7 per attempt,

two touchdowns, three interceptions for a quarterback rating of 65.0. Tom Brady in 2017, last two minutes of halves. 51 of 83 for a completion percentage of 61.4%. For 661 yards, average on each attempt, 8.0. Six touchdowns, zero interceptions. Quarterback rating of 110.6. Now those are just last season stats. If you look at Tom Brady sort of over his career, his average career quarterback rating is 102.5 according to NFL.com. But it's 119 in the last two minutes of a half and it rises to 112 whenever Brady's in the red zone. So if we want to talk about ability in those two-minute situations,

I think there's a case to be made, obviously, for Tom Brady. And we've seen Brady do it on big stages. I mean, the world got to know Tom Brady in a two-minute drill situation in Super Bowl 36. The world has seen Tom Brady do this a number

of different times. Now, if you want to zoom out for a bit and sort of look at Stafford versus Brady on career splits, you could make a case for Stafford as being on the same page. Matthew Stafford's career splits. Traylon with under two minutes to go. 102 for 199. For 1,206 yards 13 touchdowns 4 interceptions

quarterback rating of 87.3 that's actually better than Brady from a quarterback rating perspective Brady same split trailing with less than 2 minutes to go he completes just 53.25% of his passes 10 touchdowns 4 interceptions quarterback rating of just 53.25% of his passes, 10 touchdowns, 4 interceptions,

quarterback rating of just 83.4. I say just 83.4. It's still pretty good, but Stafford's is better. When you're coming out a little bit more, trailing with less than 4 minutes to go, Stafford's quarterback rating in those situations, 84.3, whereas Brady's is 88.6. So Brady much better when there's you know four minutes to

go or so and I think when we look at Brady and the course of his career how he's done it from when he first came into the league how he's still doing it now I think the case is there for Tom Brady. And ask yourself this. Five minutes to go, trailing by five, who do you want to have the football, Tom Brady or Matthew Stafford? I mean, if your answer is Matthew Stafford, that's okay. But for me, there's no hesitation. I want TB12 out there because I've seen him do it on the biggest stages. I've seen him do it in a Super Bowl with the game on the line. I've seen him do it on the biggest stages. I've seen him do it in a Super Bowl with

the game on the line. I've seen him do it with playoff berths on the line. And so the guy that I would trust in that situation is Tom Brady. You can make a case for Matthew Stafford. You might be helped a little bit by the numbers, but I think overall and given his body of the work, I would go with Tom Brady. That will do it for the first segment of the show. When we come back, we're going to get into our two summer series that we've got rolling right now. We're going to talk about the eighth best offensive play of the 2017 season from the New England Patriots, and then football and film rolls on.

We're going to talk about some of the more universal themes when it comes to movies and just simply being a human. That's next with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now, and we're going to continue our countdown of the Patriots' top 10 offensive plays of the 2017 season. And folks, you had to know this moment was coming. The play we're going to talk about comes from Super Bowl 52, and had that game turned out differently, this play might have been much, much higher on the list, but given the fact that the Patriots ultimately fell short, I couldn't in good conscience move this play up

farther than it is. This play comes to us as the eighth ranked play of the Patriots' top 10 offensive plays, and it's the touchdown pass from Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski, that gives the Patriots their first lead of Super Bowl LII. It comes with just over nine minutes remaining in the game, and it gives us, again, a chance to talk about some of the concepts we've talked about throughout this entire season. And Brady lost one for Gronkowski, reaching for a touchdown. They look unstoppable right now.

And New England has its first lead of the game. Gronkowski beats Darby for the touchdown. Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth there on the call and as Michaels said at that moment the Patriots looked unstoppable. The Patriots fighting back and taking a 33-32 lead on the Steven Gronkowski extra point after that touchdown but we know how the game ended up. Now that play similar to the first two plays we've talked about, allows us to again talk about motion and shift and pre-snap movement and how the Patriots do such a great job getting Tom Brady both information and advantageous matchups throughout the course of a play based on what they do before the snap.

This is a second and goal play from the four-yard line. The Patriots come out with Brady and the shotgun, three receivers on the field. Rob Gronkowski is in a tight split to the left, just outside left tackle Nate Solder. Danny Amendola is outside of him. The ball is on the left hash mark. Now before the play, the Eagles have to decide what they're going to do with Gronkowski, and they put Corey Graham on him, a veteran safety, a 10-year veteran, a 6-foot even safety. They have Ronald Darby, a younger player on the outside, 5'11 corner over Amendola. They bring Amendola in motion across the formation. Now the Patriots have to decide what to do.

Are they going to have Darby the corner trail the receiver, or are they going to kick the inside player, Graham, the safety across the formation? They kick the inside player, Graham, across the formation. Now Brady knows it's man coverage, and I've got my beast of a tight end in a tight split with all this room to the sideline in a one-on-one matchup against a 5'11 corner. On second and goal in the Super Bowl, that's a matchup you want to exploit as a quarterback. And that's exactly what the Patriots do. You get a good release from Gronkowski. Darby doesn't try to jam him. He just tries to run with him. Brady just lofts it up, puts it over the shoulder of Gronkowski.

It's a difficult play for Gronkowski. Instead of just throwing it up there where he wants a jump ball situation, Brady actually puts it over his shoulder. But Darby has no chance to sort of rake over Gronkowski's back. If he tries to do that, he will get flagged for defensive pass interference. It's just an easy matchup, and the Patriots get that matchup thanks to the pre-snap alignment, motion, and shifting that we've seen so often from them. There is your play number eight. Again, I wish this was play maybe two on the season. Unfortunately, the last nine minutes of that Super Bowl didn't quite turn out the way we would have hoped, which leads to some regret, which is what we're going to talk

about next. Regret and some of the human emotions we feel just in everyday life and how they played into a role on the next movie we're going to talk about in the football and film series. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out today's show, talking to our third movie in the football and film series. And I'll

just say this at the outset. Look, this movie wasn't exactly an Oscar winner. Nobody was really taking home any hardware after this one came out. Last time I checked over at Rotten Tomatoes, this movie was reviewed and rated 33% fresh. When it came out, film reviewer Pauline Kael called the film

a small-town comedy where the whole population is caught up in some glorious foolishness. I'm talking about the 1986 movie, The Best of Time, starring Robin Williams as Jack Dundee and Kurt Russell as Reno Hightower. And the premise of this story is basically this. Jack Dundee is now a man and middle-aged. He's living as a banker and he's clearly distraught with the course his life has taken. And he sort of points back to 1972 when he was a wide receiver on the Taft Rockets. And their big, big rival was Bakersfield, the Tigers.

You know, small town versus big city situation. And for years, Bakersfield has just been blowing Taft away every single season. They've just been dominating this rivalry. But finally, Taft in 1972 has a team that they can finally believe in, and they finally think can beat Bakersfield. And the big reason for that is quarterback Reno Hightower, played by Kurt Russell. And in that 1972 game, the game was a scoreless tie.

And in the final moments, Reno Hightower drops back and he has Jack Dundee, aka Robin Williams, wide open on a go route, right at the goal line. And as time ticks off the clock, Jack Dundee, played by Reno Hightower, drops the ball and the game ends in a scoreless tie. And the movie actually opens with Jack Dundee sitting in his office at the bank where he works, working for his father-in-law, who happens to be the biggest supporter and booster of the Bakersfield Tigers, watching that game again. Regret.

It's eating away at him. And whether you've played sports, whether you haven't, there's always something that you have in your life that you regret. And that's why this movie, even though it's poorly, poorly reviewed and critics didn't like it, it hits home with people because we all have those moments in life that we regret, that we want to revisit and do over. And the premise of the movie is that.

Jack Dundee visiting a professional woman, shall we say, is again in bed bemoaning the fact he didn't catch the ball. And the woman he's with says basically this, play the game over again. And Jack Dundee has this crazy idea that they're going to get everybody back together, they're going to play the game over again, and somehow he convinces everybody, including Reno Hightower, the quarterback, who's now the owner of a garage that specializes

in basically putting ridiculous artistic pieces on the sides of vans, like trying to do Michelangelo or Van Gogh on the side of a van. And he gets people to buy in, and they decide to play the game. And along the way, he does some sort of underhanded things, which aren't really worth getting into. But they start playing the game again, and of course, Bakersfield, they're blowing them out.

It's 26-0 or something at halftime, and they're getting killed. But then, there's the moment. The rain's starting to come in, the field's a little muddy, but something happens as Reno Hightower comes back out onto the field for the second half. Whoa, Nelly, he's wearing his white shoes. Oh, my God. Whoa, Nelly, he field wearing his famous white shoes, and the crowd goes absolutely wild.

And what's important to remember about this moment, and sort of the overall theme of regret, is that throughout the film, Hightower was the one most reluctant to replay this game. He didn't want to do it. He was pushing back on the idea. And only when he saw his wife get paint thrown on her by somebody wearing the Bakersfield Tigers mascot's outfit, the tiger suit, did he agree to play the game. And of course, at halftime of the replay,

Hightower finds out that it was Jack Dundee who was wearing that suit who did it knowing that that was the only way he would get Hightower finds out that it was Jack Dundee who was wearing that suit, who did it, knowing that that was the only way he'd get Hightower to replay the game. But he still had the white shoes, which shows you that there was still that level of regret inside of him, even though he was pushing back on the mere idea of playing this game. And so perhaps sparked by shoes or what it was, who knows, Taft gets themselves back into this game. And wouldn't you know it, they have a chance to win on the final play. And would Hightower throw Reno the ball?

Would Hightower throw Jack Dundee the ball again? Half these people came here tonight, Jack, to watch you catch the ball. The other half came to see you drop it. I wasn't going to throw it to you. Just to show you up, but I want to win. I'm calling somebody else's number. I can get open. You drop that damn thing again, Jack, your life is over.

Just throw me the goddamn ball, Reno. Can you get open. In response, Dundee simply nods. And he has a tough task across from him as he's facing cornerback Dr. Death, who has been planting Dundee into the turf with his jam at the line of scrimmage throughout the entire second half. But using a move that he learned with his female friend that we started the movie talking about Dundee does get open Hightower does throw him the ball and armed with this chance at redemption Dundee pulls in the game winner and pulls off the win for Taft it's a silly foolish

movie but there's perhaps no more human element or emotion than regret. We all feel it. That's why this movie resonated with me. It's because sitting here today, a man of 41 years old, I can still tell you plays from my high school days that I'd love to have back. I'm sure those of you that played sports at some level have plays that still stick in your mind. Imagine having the chance to do that again. Imagine having one more shot at that moment. Or perhaps it's other things in life, whether it's a conversation with somebody or a moment professionally or a moment with family that you'd love to have back. That's why this universal emotion of regret is so powerful and it makes for powerful filmmaking. Even in a dumb, little, silly movie. And we see it in Hightower. The guy that was pushing back, the tough, burly, brisk guy,

pushing back on the mere idea of playing a game again, still had those cleats, still had those shoes, still wanted his shot at redemption too. That's why I think Best of Times is one of the best football movies of all time. I know people might disagree with me on this one, but I've made my case for it. As always, you can hit me up on Twitter with your thoughts on these movies, at Mark Schofield on

Twitter. I will be back tomorrow for a Thursday show. We'll continue our countdown of the offensive plays. We'll continue our look at another movie, this time I believe with a guest, fingers crossed on that. And we'll probably do some quick timeline takes at the outset to try to keep things current as well.

Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.