Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 19, 2018 - Semi-Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

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Hello there everybody, welcome on into a semi-glorious victory edition of the Lockdown Patriots Podcast. Mark Schofield slided into the big chair on Monday morning, November 19th, 2018. It's Thanksgiving week and we are giving thanks here because the Patriots, yes, it is a semi-glorious victory edition. Now, I know what you're thinking. I know what you're saying right now. You're saying, Mark, how can this be a semi-glorious victory edition? Patriots didn't play. They're on the bye. Exactly. We won the bye week. Nobody got hurt. I didn't hear anybody getting arrested or anything like that. We have won the bye week. It feels good.

It feels good, doesn't it? It feels great. Now, we can't go overboard and call it a true-on-glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast because we've got some standards here. We've got some high standards, and we hold ourselves to them. But we will say this is a semi-glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast because again, nobody got hurt. We didn't hear any bad stories.

There were no stories last week of horrific team dysfunction. Seth Wickersham didn't drop a hammer on all of Patriots Nation on last week. And for that, we are truly grateful. What we're going to do today, we're going to recap some of yesterday's action. Start setting the table for this week. Speaking of this week, we are going to do today we're going to recap some of yesterday's action start setting the table for this week speaking of this week we are going five shows i don't know if

the other show is going to do that but i made a promise to my listeners here we are going five shows this week plus your sunday morning tailgate edition we're going to be doing tape tuesday tomorrow tomorrow we're going to be looking at the jets as well as a request from the number one listener to this show my mom you're going to take a take a look at Josh Gordon. Wednesday will be your crossover show. Thursday will be a Thanksgiving edition of Take Thursday. So get some questions in on Thanksgiving, on recipes, on hosting the entire family, football questions, life questions, total questions, whatever.

Get some questions in because, you know, I want this to be your show on Thursday, and then Friday will be our game day show. We're back at it, folks. It's Jets Week. It's J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets Week. But before we dive into yesterday's action 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. So chances are you've probably seen my work somewhere, especially if you're listening to the show. Let's dive into it.

We're going to start with the early slate of games and a couple of surprises. I was talking about this Steelers two weeks that they've got ahead of them. We'll stop there because for about 58 minutes or so, it really seemed like Jacksonville was going to pull this game out. We're seeing again this Pittsburgh Steelers team sort of struggle with Jacksonville. This was a game that, look, Jacksonville had the lead. They were up 16-0 at one point late in the third quarter. To their credit, the Steelers come roaring back. And I think part of this has to go,

part of the credit for this victory with any other group has to go to that Steelers defense. Because you see what the Steelers defense was able to do after Jacksonville got out to that lead.

They basically forced three and out after three and out after three and out. It's a 16-6 game. They get a touchdown to Antonio Brown for 78 yards. They go for two. They fail. So it's 16-6, basically at the end of the third quarter with about 107 left. The ensuing Jacksonville drive, they go Fournette up the middle for no gain, Fournette up the middle for one-yard loss. Bortles, a pass complete to TJ Yeldon for seven yards, punt. Jacksonville defense forces a punt, but then we come back. Jacksonville offense, Fournette plus two, Bortles sacked, Bortles sacked. Punt. Steelers ensuing possession. They fail on fourth down. Jacksonville takes over on their own 44. 647 left. They are up by 10. What do they do? Fournette middle. One yard loss. Fournette middle. No gain. Bortles, pass and complete. Punt.

They were on a minute and 31 seconds off the clock. Steelers come down. Score a touchdown. Jacksonville's in super possession. Now you've really got to ice this game, right? Fournette, middle. Four yards. Fournette, middle.

One yard. Timeout by Pittsburgh. And you had the two-minute warning after that second down play. Third down and five. Fournette, middle, one yard. Timeout number two by the Steelers. Punt. And then Pittsburgh goes down and scores a game-winner.

That was a team playing scared. That was a team playing not to lose. And what do we remember about Jacksonville in the AFC Championship game? What did Doug Peterson say to himself watching that game in the locker room while he was getting ready to take the field for the NFC Championship game? Not going to let that happen. Not going to let that happen. They played scared. And that's what Jacksonville did.

So kudos to the Steelers, but you've got to give credit more, I think, to their defense than anything else. Looking around the rest of the league in the early games, Alex Smith, just horrific. And on the anniversary of the league in the early games, Alex Smith, just horrific. And on the same, on the anniversary of Theismann's injury, and you all probably saw Theismann tweeting out how it looked the same exact way, broken bones in his leg, season over, carted off, just horrific to see. And now that out of seed east for, you know, it looked like this division was going to be a runaway. But now, Washington 6-4, Dallas 5-5.

And if I check my calendar, I'm pretty sure, kids, we're going to see that, oh yes, indeed, Washington goes to Dallas this Thursday. So when you're, depending on your schedule, our family eats early afternoon. So we'll be done and in front of the TV for that 4.30 kickoff. Maybe you're a team that eats dinner. You have a true Thanksgiving dinner at night. By the time you guys are sitting down for that meal, the Dallas Cowboys might be in first place. Imagine that. Some other early stuff to mention. Lamar Jackson gets his first start in the NFL. And remember when there were all those stories pre-draft that Lamar Jackson might switch positions and everybody's saying, oh, he should be a wide receiver. Well, maybe they should have thought about running back. Lamar Jackson carries the ball 27 times for 117 yards, a long of 21,

in Baltimore's 24-21 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Both teams now sit at 5-5. There's a glut of teams now sitting at that 5-5 mark. It's probably not sustainable having your quarterback carry the ball 27 times, but it got them the W. He also goes 13 of 19 for 150 yards did throw one interception maybe I'll talk about that a little bit later this week but Baltimore gets a win and a much needed win for them because you sort of look at the standards

right now you've got Miami at five and five India at five and five Tennessee at five and five Baltimore at five and five Cincy at five and5. That's one, two, three, four, five teams now in the AFC at 5-5. And that 5-5 spot right now gets you the final playoff spot. Obviously, that will change, but you've got a lot of teams there in the mix. And a team that's in the mix now, the Indianapolis Colts, who won their fourth straight game, blowout win over Tennessee. What to make of the Tennessee Titans? Obviously, there are some issues there.

Marcus Moriarty lost the game due to injury. Their defensive coordinator was hospitalized before the game, so a lot of issues there. But that was a blowout win for Indy. They've won four straight. They look to be coming on. Fascinating to watch that. Other early game we'll talk about.

We don't need to get into Tampa Bay, but Dallas, we just got done talking about them a bit. Chance to go ahead in the NFC East. They get a win over Atlanta in Atlanta. Kind of an impressive win for them. Zeke, you're at 122 yards on the ground. So those were some of the early games.

We'll get to the late games a little bit later. We're going to talk about a story that popped up on Sunday. But before we do all that, remember friends, maybe, just maybe, you're starting to feel it. You're starting to feel that luck coming around, you know? You've won some bets.

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this semi-glorious victory Monday, here at the Locked On Patriots Podcast. Again, we won the bye week. Feels good. Feels good. For those of you watching on News Channel 8, I'm fist pumping like mad right now.

Let's get into the afternoon slate of games. I think the big one that people were keeping an eye on was that Eagles-Saints game. This was basically must win for the Eagles and it wasn't pretty. You gotta wonder if they're having fun right now. You gotta wonder if they're having fun right now. Saints just dominant 48-7 over Philadelphia and this game was never really close. I mean it was 10-0 at the end of one. It was 24-7 at halftime. I mean, it just wasn't close at all. I mean, you look at, for example, Mark Ingram's 14-yard touchdown run, and I know the Eagles' defense is beaten up.

I get that. But Sean Payton, great play design, puts Alvin Kamara in the win, has him come in jet motion. You fake the handoff to him. Everybody's running to Kamara in the wind, has him come in jet motion, you fake the handoff to him, everybody's running to one side of the field, and it's just a simple, you know, edge stretch run to the right, and Ingram's just untouched, there's nobody there, there's just nobody on that side of the field. Drew Brees is, you know, for all the attention that Mahomes has got, I think you make a strong case for Drew Brees as MVP right now when you look at how he's playing. 22 of 30 for 363, four touchdowns, no interceptions,

nearly perfect on the passer rating. They're just rolling people right now. The Saints are just rolling teams right now. And when you look at their schedule, okay, they've got a home game against Atlanta on Thursday. That's a Thursday night game. That's going to be fun. Then they come back another Thursday night game next week at Dallas. So back-to-back Thursday

games for them. That three-game stretch coming up after this Atlanta game, that's their last real tough stretch. They go at Dallas, at Tampa Bay, at Carolina. Three straight road games. Then you come back, you've got a game against Pittsburgh at home, Carolina at home. They're 9-1 right now. I mean, how many losses do you really see left ahead of them with the way they're playing? So they seem to be playing great football. Drew Brees is playing great football.

As for the Eagles, questions now. Whole lot of questions now. And I know they're banged up. But look, those of you who declared the dac versus wentz wars over and done and decided i know you might have declared that one a little bit early because in the wake of dallas's rise up the stand-ins i saw some tweets out actually from an eagles beat writer saying look, Dax got 12 game winning drives. Wentz has four right now.

So the Wentz wars might be back upon us after we thought they were long gone and buried. I'm not excited about that. As someone that was on the front lines of the Wentz wars, I'm not excited about that. Denver, big win for Denver over the Los Angeles Chargers. And this was a game that I think, again, we talked about this on Friday. Teams plan not to lose as opposed to teams plan to win the game.

Because you've got a situation here. You're the Chargers. You've got a chance to put this game away. It's 3rd and 7 at the Denver 48. I understand, I guess, I mean, shoot, it's 4th and 7 at the Denver 48. Okay? I understand, look, you're only up at the time, 22-20. So if you go forward and get stopped there, yes, you're handing them great field position

I get that But teams sort of playing to lose I mean playing not to lose We're seeing that more and more Because what happens? Chargers punt Broncos go down the field Kick the game, win a field goal

Show some confidence in your offense You've got Phillip Rivers punt. Broncos go down the field, kick the game, win a field goal. Show some confidence in your offense. You've got Phillip Rivers. Show some confidence in your offense. That's all I'm saying. Now, Rivers had made a bad mistake earlier in the game. They saw a little radar blitz look from the Broncos. Rivers tries to throw.

A little tunnel screen to Travis Benjamin. Gets picked by Vaughn Miller, who read the play perfectly. But still, I think coach is going to be more aggressive in these situations. You play to win the game

as Herm Edwards once said. Another late game we'll talk about quickly. Arizona-Oakland. I know people really weren't excited to watch that but that was actually

a fun game to watch. Josh Rosen did some nice things in that game. He was only 19 of 20, I believe, double-checking the numbers. Yeah, 19 of 20 for 136. Three touchdowns, two interceptions. Again, little bump he is. Beautiful route and read and throw in the touchdown to Fitzgerald, the first one.

Christian Kirk, that play he actually audible to. Audible to a tunnel screen. Great decision there from him. And he actually had a great quote pregame. He called that, learn the MF-er rule. You see a lot of MF-ers to one side, you go to the other side. Again, what are we talking about on this show,

week in and week out? Sometimes show it and show out. It's not a hard game. If you can count, you can probably play quarterback. They got 10 guys over there, throw it to the other side. Shouldn't be that hard. So that was a fun game.

Sunday night's game, that was an interesting one. Mitchell Trubisky doing some Mitchell Trubisky things, running all over the joint. I do sort of wonder this about Chicago, having watched a ton of Chicago to this point. You know, this was a game, they're up 14-0 at halftime.

They get outscored 20-11 over the final two quarters. Our team's sort of catching on to what they're doing offensively in the second half. Because you look at what the Bears did in the second half on offense, they got one field goal.

The touchdown they scored was a pick six. Offense kind of slowed down in the second half. So you do wonder if teams are making some halftime adjustments against them. That's something to watch. Kirk Cousins, that's a situation to watch too. A lot of people now really sort of scratching their heads Over the big contract he was given

30 of 46, 262 Two touchdowns, two picks Including the aforementioned pick six Trubisky goes 20 of 31 for 165 One touchdown, two interceptions Also chipped in 10 rushing attempts For 43 yards, made a lot of plays with his legs Another up and down type of performance

From Trubisky, but with that defense, up and down performances might get it done. So that's kind of a spin around the NFL. Obviously, we've got the huge game tonight, Rams, Chiefs, that looks to be a ton of fun. I need Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce to come through in a big way for those of you that care about my fantasy team, i.e. none of you. But that's a look at the NFL slate. Up next, we're going to talk quickly about one story that surfaced on Sunday, and I just wanted to share some thoughts on it. That's ahead on this semi-glorious victory edition

of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back with you now on this semi-glorious victory edition of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And I want to spend a few moments talking about a story that surfaced on Sunday morning that got a lot of buzz on the timeline. It even prompted a response from one of the figures mentioned in the story. And that was the news that the Cleveland Browns, and it was coming from Dorsey, were considering interviewing, wanted to interview, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

for the head coaching job. And if you do a quick little search around, say, Twitter, for example, you see a lot of people sort of literally calling it the most brown things ever, one of those craziest things they've ever heard, the most Cleveland thing they've ever heard. The most Cleveland thing they've ever heard. And I do want to say this about it. If I were in charge of an organization that seemed to be floundering, that seemed to be, you know, maybe they've sort of righted the ship after they've moved on from Hugh Jackson.

Maybe. You've got some young talent. Obviously, it's a scenario where you want to win for that team. You want to win for that city. I would talk to any smart person I could about ways to improve what we're doing. And you have to remember a lot of times that NFL head coaching interviews are in some ways fact-finding missions. You're trying to talk to other smart people about things that might work, trying to get ideas. And yes, you are looking for a head coach, but you know going in that you're going to interview a ton of people. You only got one job. And so I would talk to

anybody smart around about improving our process, improving our organizational structure, whatever. You know, wherever you think your organization has a weakness, how can we make it better? What would you bring? You know, I would talk to, I mean, throw out names of brilliant people. Yo-Yo Ma. Okay. I'll talk to him about throw out names of brilliant people Yo-Yo Ma okay I'll talk to him about practice trends how should we practice how do you practice

how do you approach your performances Spielberg what would you do I know you probably never gave a moment's thought to helping a football team

win games but I'm asking you now what what would you do? What would you change? I would talk to any smart person that would be willing to come in and meet with me. And I would take any idea that I could to try to improve what we were doing as an organization.

And with Condoleezza Rice, remember, you're talking about someone who grew up in a football family. Son of a high school football coach. I mean, daughter, excuse me, of a high school football coach. She's always said that, look, her dream job, commissioner of the National Football League. She was one of the inaugural members of the college football playoff selection committee.

She's been an athlete her entire life. And a lifelong bronze fan. And yes, she was the secretary of state for the United States. And so why wouldn't you talk to somebody like that? I mean, I would talk to anybody. Now, in terms of Condoleezza Rice as head coach, I did say this in the Lockdown Patriots Slack channel. I think a better role for her with an NFL team might be like a director of football operations, that type of role.

I'm not so sure that in terms of down-to-down decision-making and things like that, I'm not so sure that her skill set is tailored for that type of head coaching position. And she basically said as much in the statement she put out there, kind of distancing herself from any such talk. But again, if it were me in Cleveland, I would be more than willing to sit down with her and say, look, you've watched this team inside and out for years now. What would you do to fix it?

How would you fix it? How would you go about fixing it? And if her answers and her plans and her thoughts made a ton of sense, I'd be like, okay, well, you know what? Maybe we bring you here in some capacity, whether it's an advisory role, director of football operations, whatever. We're going to win games. And we need the best and the brightest around us.

And if her ideas make sense, if her ideas are that sort of best and brightest category, then do it. We should be past the point of like just brushing off ideas because, oh, it's Cleveland and this sounds silly.

Maybe. But maybe it's crazy enough to work. And so I just wanted to share some quick thoughts on that. That will do it for today's show. I'll be back, like I said, our Tape Tuesday show this week. We're going to dive into the Jets as well as take a look at Josh Gordon again. Look, when the number one fan of the show makes a request, I'm going to hop to.

My mom made a request to look at Josh Gordon, so that's what we're going to do on Tuesday's show. Again, Wednesday, crossover show. Thursday, your Thanksgiving take Thursday. So get some questions in on recipes, what I'm making, how we're handling watching the games, whatever. Or football questions, life questions, lawyer questions, total questions. And speaking of total, I have to give a shout out

to the one and only Jack Duffin, longtime friend of the show. He is also a host of the Browns UK podcast, along with at Paul Brown underscore UK. They were kind enough to have me of the show. He is also a host of the Browns UK podcast along with at PaulBrown underscore UK. They were kind enough to have me on their show. Give those guys a follow. Give Jack a follow. You know why?

He just sent me the logo for Locked On Toto, which I just tweeted out. It is just hilariously fantastic. I do appreciate that, Jack. The fact that somebody around the world that I've never met took the time to create something like that for me, no one would bring a smile to my face. What a time to be alive.

I'm literally touched by that. So, Jack, thank you. You can follow Jack on Twitter at Jack, J-A-C-K-D-U-F-F-I-N. Jack, again, I'm literally touched by that. I'm tremendously grateful. Just brings a smile to my face. So give Jack a follow. Tweet out the Locked On Toto tweet.

Who knows? Who knows? My life has taken a bunch of crazy turns over the past couple of years. If I end up, after all of this, hosting a Locked On Toto podcast that is blessed by the band, that might have just brought everything full circle.

And the fact that that's even a possibility, so you're saying there's a chance, makes life worth it. Again, I will be back tomorrow with Take Tuesday. Until then, bless the ring