Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 11, 2018 - Sunday Morning Tailgate

Episode Date: November 11, 2018

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there everybody, Mark Schofield here welcoming you on into a Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield sliding into the big chair on this Sunday, November 11th, 2018. Hope you've got your coffee, your breakfast. Hope you're getting ready to go. I'm going to do everything I can to get you ready for this Sunday slate of action. And as we do on every Sunday show, we're going to do some news and notes, some injury stuff here at the outset.

Then a little bit later, I'm going to talk some news and notes, some injury stuff here at the outset. Then a little bit later, I'm going to talk some DFS recommendations for you. Fantasy men, women out there who'd like to play a little bit of the daily fantasy action. And then the third segment of the show, we're going to revisit some college football action from Friday through Saturday and just Saturday night. Obviously the big game Saturday night. A lot of listeners to this show probably had their eyes on that Clemson at

BC game. But before we do all of that, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites. Friends, if there's an outlet covered football, chances are they've got me doing some work on this game we all know and love for them. Before we do the business at hand, I do want to thank the loyal listeners to the Locked On Patriots podcast. Had a fantastic, fantastic, fantastic week.

Crushed it. I mean, we were up in terms of listen-ins about 30% over the week prior. So I thank all of you who are new listeners. And I hope to have one more new listener tonight. Today I met a lovely, lovely woman at Mass on Saturday evening at St. Catherine Drexel up in Frederick. She's a Patriots fan from Rhode Island down in the Baltimore area. Got a chance to talk to her about the Patriots.

We were sitting in front of her, and she noticed that my daughter wore a little Patriots dress to Mass on Saturday evening. And got a chance to talk to her. I hope she's checking out the show. She also mentioned going to some places in the Baltimore area sometimes to watch games. And if that's something you are interested in, remember, friends, if you're in the Baltimore area, our great friends over at Dog Watch Tavern down in Phelps Point.

There's a Patriots meetup group. They go there for every single game. It's packed with Patriots fans. My parents go there from time to time as well it's just like being at gillette so again thank you to all the new listeners hope we got one more in listening to the show today let's do some news and notes now and when the patriots released their injury report on friday things were looking up they didn't list anybody is out they didn't list anybody is doubtful uh they had a couple players listed as questionable. Trent Brown with an illness. Rob Gronkowski with his lingering ankle and back injuries. Dante Hightower with a knee injury.

Jacob Hollister with a hamstring. Shaq Mason with a calf. And Sonny Michelle with a knee. Now for the Titans, Jack Conklin was listed as out with a concussion. And some questionable players. Dan Cruikshank with a knee, a safety. Taewon Taylor with his foot, the wide receiver. Linebacker Derek Morgan with a shoulder. Tajay Sharp, another wide receiver with an ankle. And defensive lineman Benny Logan with a knee injury. That has all changed.

Shaq Mason has now been downgraded to out. So it will be the Ted Karras show again at right guard for the New England Patriots. The other injury of note, Rob Gronkowski. There is conflicted news on Gronkowski. On Saturday afternoon, around 1230 or so, Ian Rappaport confirmed a report from Kevin Duffy of the Boston Herald that Gronk was going to be held out against the Tennessee Titans. Obviously, the Patriots have a bye week next week. The plan is to perhaps get him rested over these next two weeks,

get him ready for the late season playoff stretch run. But then a little bit later, Mike Reese from ESPN reports that Gronkowski did travel with the team. He remains questionable for today's game against the Titans. So we don't know. My guess sitting here right now, I haven't seen anything lately.

My guess is the first report is probably more in line with what we're going to see. They hold Gronkowski out, rest him up, get him ready to go for the Jets in two weeks. Sonny Michel does seem on track to play, however. Excited to see him sort of get back into the lineup. Interesting to see Sonny Michel back in the lineup for the New England Patriots. Looking around the league, some other sort of news and notes from an injury perspective. Two players to watch on the San Francisco 49ers. We got some definitive status on them. George Kittle, the tight end, was removed from the Week 10 injury

report. He was limited in practice this week, but going to give it a go on Monday night against the New York Giants. Pierre Garçon, however, he has been ruled out. He missed practice all week, but going to give it a go on Monday night against the New York Giants. Pierre Garcon, however, he has been ruled out. He missed practice all week, battling knee issues for most of the season. Kendrick Bourne and Marquise Goodwin are going to handle the wide receiver load for the 49ers against the Giants, but if you're looking for a player to start out of that offense, it's George Kittle right now. Josh Allen has been ruled out for week 10 against the New York Jets and that means you get Matt Barkley against Josh McCown in that Bills Jets game wow that's like an old throwback to USC UCLA days

obviously there was some news Des Bryant expected to be sidelined eight months with that Achilles injury he's going to struggle now to get some free agent interest it took him so long to find a team expected to be sidelined eight months with that Achilles injury. He's going to struggle now to get some free agent interest. It took him so long to find a team now that he suffers that injury. That's going to be tough for him to sort of come back from. For the Seattle Seahawks, Chris Carson, he's been questionable with a hip. He's been getting better, according to Pete Carroll, but he has been held out of practice all week. He's going to be a game-time decision.

That's something to watch for you Seahawks fans out there. Also got some news on the Baltimore Ravens. Joe Flacco has been dealing with a hip injury. Now the Ravens are on a bye, but there's a question about if he cannot go, who will start for Baltimore? Would it be Lamar Jackson? Would it be Robert Griffin? Would there be both of them?

Now the Ravens have done some two tight end stuff in the past, so you might see more of that from the Baltimore Ravens when they get back to the field. This is another interesting thing to watch. Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills, he will not play against the Dallas Cowboys with his foot injury here in Week 10. We were wondering, many of us were wondering,

Jalen Mills, we've talked about him a lot. Struggles against double moves. Amari Cooper runs some pretty good double move routes. Maybe he was going to be able to pick against Jalen Mills at times. Doesn't seem like that's going to happen. With Mills being ruled out. Anyway that's some quick news and notes on the injury front. Up next.

I'm going to look back at last week. My DFS picks. As well as make some more recommendations for this weekend's DFS slate. That's ahead on this Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked on Patriots. And before we get to this week's picks on our DFS fantasy recommendations, I want to take a look back at how I looked at last week and hit some big ones, I think.

At the quarterback spot, our blue chip pick was Cam Newton against Tampa Bay. He was QB4 in PPR formats. You know, overall ranking. So I think we kind of hit on that one. But we did miss on Alex Smith slash Baker Mayfield as our sort of value picks. Alex Smith was QB22.

Baker QB26. Can't really count those at wins. At the running back spot, one win, one loss. Kareem Hunt was our blue chip pick. He was running back two overall last week in PPR formats. I think that's a win, but Nick Chubb, I'm just going to shy away from the Browns for right now. I think I've learned my lesson here. Chubb was running back 31. At wide receiver, decent results. Brandon Cooks, wide receiver 12. He was our blue chip pick. John Brown was wide receiver 19.

He was our value pick. Same goes for the tight end spots. I had Greg Olson as our blue chip pick. He was tight end 15. And Chris Herndon of the New York Jets against the Miami Adams, value pick at tight end. He was actually tight end 14 this week. So pretty good overall, I think.

Obviously missing on Chubb Hurts, missing on the value pick at the quarterback spot Hurts. But we will try to do it again better this week. And so here we go without any further ado, our DFS recommendations for this week. And in terms of a blue chip pick at the quarterback spot, we're going to go with Patrick Mahomes against the Arizona Cardinals. I mean, yes, he's 9,800 over on FanDuel,

but we know the numbers that Mahomes has put up this year. They've been fantastic. And you look at the Arizona Cardinals, what they've done on the defensive side of the ball this year, frankly, it doesn't matter. But, I mean, if you do want to look at it and get into the numbers a little bit, their pass defense has actually been pretty good against opposing passers in terms of fantasy points that they've given up. They're best in the league right now against the quarterbacks, believe it or not. They have given up just 14.7 points per

game to opposing passers. And part of that is, look, they've only given up six touchdown, excuse me, eight touchdown passes to opposing passers. But part of that is sort of who they've been playing. You look at the Arizona Cardinals' schedule so far this season and some of the quarterbacks that they've played. Look, they get Alex Smith. They get one game against Jared Goff. They've got Mitchell Trubisky, who they played against. Russell Wilson, a game against the 49ers

that did not have Jimmy Garoppolo on the field. And Case Keenum in there. You know, another game with C.J. Beathard against them. So, you know, the opposing passers haven't had to do much against them because the other thing to consider is, you know, they're getting out to some big leads. Other teams are getting out to big leads. They haven't had to throw the ball a ton against them.

Kansas City Chiefs are a different animal, though. They're a passing team. They're going to throw it until They haven't had to throw the ball a ton against them. Kansas City Chiefs are a different animal, though. They're a passing team. They're going to throw it until they don't have to throw it anymore. Think back to that game against the Cincinnati Bengals a couple of weeks ago. They basically threw it until that game was over. And so even though the numbers might say go with Mahomes, the Cardinals haven't given up a ton of points to opposing quarterbacks, I still lean Mahomes here.

But if you want to go value pick, I'm going to come back to Alex Smith. Why? What have I been saying all season long in terms of streaming quarterbacks in this season in DFS? Do it against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are playing, start the opposing passer. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they're facing Alex Smith. So I think that's something that you do. At the running back spotuccaneers, they're facing Alex Smith.

So I think that's something that you do. At the running back spot, we're going to go with Kareem Hunt against the Arizona Cardinals, sort of for the flip side of what we were just talking about. A lot of teams have had success against the run against this Arizona Cardinals defense. They've given up 29.0 points per game to opposing rushers. They've given up 10 touchdowns on the ground to opposing running backs. They've given up also two receiving touchdowns to opposing rushers. So Kareem Hunt, I think, is on track to have another big week. Our value pick, Tariq Cohen.

Cohen is just $6,400 over on FanDuel going up against a Lions defense that also struggles at times against opposing running backs. They've given up 26.4 points per game to opposing runnerbacks on FanDuel. Two receiving touchdowns, six rushing touchdowns. You've heard me talk about how much I like how Matt Nagy, Mitchell Trubisky, used Tariq Cohen as part of their offensive weaponry, especially in the past game. And so I expect Cohen to have a big game. Let's go to the wide receivers. First, I'm going to pick Michael Thomas at

Cincinnati. He's $8,600 on FanDuel, but I still think he's a smart bet. Why? Well, no Dez Bryant, so you know that they're still going to be running the offense in the past game sort of through him. The other thing, the Saints give up the most points per game to opposing wide receivers. Then the Bucs, then the Bengals at 36.0. So Thomas is in line to have a big game for all of the reasons we've just put out there. Opposing wide receivers have nine receiving touchdowns against the Cincinnati Bengals. I think Thomas is in line to have a big day. Our value pick, and it's time to do it. I'm a believer now. Josh Gordon at Tennessee, $6,700 on FanDuel. Why? Just a couple of teams behind the Packers

in terms, I mean, excuse me, behind the Bengals in terms of points per game given up to wide receivers. The Tennessee Titans, 33.1 points per game to wide receivers. We're seeing Brady trust Josh Gordon more and more. We saw the big touchdown there to close out that game against Green Bay. This is a week, I think, to get on that Josh Gordon train. Finally, let's look at the tight end spot now. Our blue chip pick this week is going to be Travis Kelsey. Yes, he's the most expensive tight end this week on FanDuel. $8,000. Buy a lot. Next is Rob Gronkowski, but I'm very wary of putting him into a DFS lineup right now. We don't even know if he's going to go. But Travis Kelsey, he gets that matchup against the Arizona Cardinals.

Again, I think the Arizona Cardinals are going to give up some yards, give up some touchdowns. Yes, they've been stingy as they've been against opposing quarterbacks, just 7.4 points per game on FanDuel to opposing tight ends. But this Chiefs offense is something different entirely. And so I do trust that Andrew Reid and company are going to keep slinging it until there's no reason to sling it anymore. They're a passing offense. I think Mahomes, Hunt, Kelsey all have big days. If you want to go cheap though, here's an interesting name at the tight end spot.

Benjamin Watson for the New Orleans Saints against Cincinnati. We just talked about Michael Thomas, how he might be in line for a big day. The Bengals give up the third most points per game on FanDuel to opposing tight ends, 14.4. They've given up five receiving touchdowns to tight ends this year. That's a pretty big number. Only three teams, the Patriots, the Raiders, and the Panthers, have given up more receiving touchdowns to tight ends than the Cincinnati Bengals. And so if you want to stay cheap at tight end, $5,900, that's Ben Watson.

You might want to give that one some consideration. That will do it for our DFS slate this week. Hopefully we have a good week, just like we did last week. As you know, every time I do this, though, I will revisit them. I'm all about transparency here at Locked On Patriots. I want to let you guys and girls know that if I miss something, I'll take ownership of it. If I hit on something, I'll tell you about it and move on. I'm somebody that lets the losses linger more than the wins. But again, that's our DFS slate for this week. Those are our recommendations.

Up next, we'll look back at the week that was in college football. That's ahead on this Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked On Patriots. And let's look at the college game now because looking around, there's a place I want to start. Some of you probably know. I want to start Friday night. Friday night we saw a game in the late hours. Unranked Boise State hosting Fresno State,

the number 23 team in the country. This was going to be a fascinating game to watch kind of from a quarterback evaluation perspective because you've got Marcus McGarrett, who's getting some buzz now from Fresno State, going up against a guy I've been talking about a ton, Brett Rippon. And what was going to be interesting about this game was

this is going to be the best defense that Rippon was going to face all season. Fresno State, a top 12, top 15 type defense right now. And it was Fresno State that had a 10-3 lead at the half. But then Brett Rippon sort of took over. The Boise State scores 14 in the fourth quarter. They go on to the 24-17 victory. Rippon connected on a 49-yarder in the fourth quarter to pull out the victory. Rippon finished the day the night

24 of 29 for 269 averaging 9.3 per attempt one touchdown. He did have one interception a bad back footed throw that he sort of forced into the end zone one that he probably shouldn't have attempted. McCarrion for his effort 24 of 35 for 283 and one touchdown no interceptions averaging 8.1 per attempt but I came away, very impressed with Brett Rippon, as I've been all year long, basically. And I did a nice video for him over our latest first down installment for Inside the Pylon. You can check that out, youtube.com slash insidethepylon.

I did a video breaking down Rippon's game against San Diego State, a game where he struggled, but I was still pretty impressed with seeing some of the stuff he did. Let's sort of look big picture now, top 25 type stuff. Alabama takes care of business against Mississippi State. Two of them, 14 of 21 for 164 and one touchdown, but he finished this game on the bike. Got to wonder about that knee. Seems a little banged up right now.

Michigan, they get off to a sluggish start. I was watching some of this game, but they take care of business eventually. They score 14 unanswered in the second quarter, another 14 unanswered in the third quarter, and then they tackle another touchdown as well. This was a 7-7 game. It ends up 42-7 Michigan over Rutgers.

Just took the Wolverines some time to get going. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State. A shootout like you might expect. comes down to a two-point conversion Oklahoma State scores a touchdown they fail on the two-point conversion try Oklahoma holds on 48 47 Washington State the Cougars they keep rolling Gardner Minshew 35 of 58 for 335 and two touchdowns and if you get a chance check out the mike leach interview at the end of after this game here where minshu sticks a fake mustache on leach it's just tremendous stuff west virginia 47 tcu 10 will greer 25 of 39 343 and three touchdowns with the report that justin herbert might not be coming out according to mike lombardi will greer might be in the mix now for qb

one especially if the next guy we're going to talk about doesn't come out ohio state 26 michigan Might not be coming out, according to Mike Lombardi. Will Greer might be in the mix now for QB1, especially if the next guy we're going to talk about doesn't come out. Ohio State 26, Michigan State 6, Dwayne Haskins 24 of 39 for 227 and a touchdown in that game. Kentucky upset by Tennessee. Kentucky, they were in a nice little spot. Now they lose that game against Georgia. Back-to-back losses now losing at Tennessee.

That's a tough loss for Kentucky. They were looking at really sort of making themselves in position for a nice little bowl game, but they drop one to Tennessee. UCF 35, Navy 24. UCF keeps rolling. Mackenzie Milton 17 of 21 for 202 touchdowns Penn State over Wisconsin that was an interesting one to see unfold and then also another final on Friday night Syracuse 54 Louisville 23 Louisville has just fallen big time you know so they've sort of fallen off obviously

losing Lamar Jackson you know but the game I think a lot of listeners to this show were very curious about. And the show was in town. I did not see any locked on total signs at game day on Saturday morning. I was a little disappointed about that. Unless I missed it. If I missed it, if you did have a locked on total sign at game

day, please, please, please, please send it my way. Like I said, I promised that I would tweet you out I would give you a follow every single day for the rest of the year if you did that I have that locked on total sign please let me know but this is Clemson at BC that was the big one well BC got off to a little bit of an early lead. They got a punt return to take a 7-3 lead, but those would be the final points

they would score. Clemson goes on to win 27-7. BC unable to pull off the upset, but hopefully the Tennessee Titans also fail to pull off an upset. I'll have more on that game later this evening into tonight.

Hopefully another glorious victory edition of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Until then, keep it locked right here. It's me, Mark Schulte, and Locked on Patriots. Thanks for watching!