Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 23, 2018 - Black Friday Gameday Edition

Episode Date: November 23, 2018

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a game day edition of the Lockdown Patriots Podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair, Friday, November 23rd, 2018, the day after Thanksgiving here in the States. Maybe you're on your way to do some shopping. Try to take advantage of a little Black Friday action. Maybe you're actually back at work today. I know some people, for example, my brother-in-law works for the federal government, doesn't have the day off. I know some people are back at work today. Wherever you're at, hopefully I can bring you away from what you're doing for 20 minutes or so, get you caught up on

all things New England, as well as recap some of the action that we saw on Thursday, on little Thanksgiving day. Before we do all that, though, 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, Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites,

as I've said before. If there's an outlet that's covering the sport of football, chances are I'm covering it for them. What we're going to do, though, at the start, usually on Game Day Edition, we talk injuries. I think it is important to start there because something did sort of pop up, perhaps while you were yourself getting things ready for Thanksgiving. Tom Brady, of all people, added to the New England Patriots injury report, their most recent injury report, which was released on Thursday. Dwayne Allen, tight end, did not participate in dealing with a knee injury.

Limited participants include Rob Gronkowski, ankle and back injuries, Shaq Mason with his ongoing calf injury, Sonny Michel with a knee injury, and Tom Brady with a knee injury as well. And word is that Brady, according to his source, suffered that injury on that trick play, on that catch that he made where he sort of stumbled forward and fell near the first down marker against the Titans just two weeks ago. So I think it's time now that we've seen that fail to a certain extent in the Super Bowl and now land Brady on the injury report. I do believe Josh McDaniels that it's time to retire that play.

I think it's time to put it on the scrap heap. We can do some other trick plays, but I don't want to see Brady used as a receiver anytime soon. Also listed as a full participant in practice, Julian Edelman with a foot. The Jets dealing with some injuries still. Players that did not participate include wide receiver Robbie Anderson with an ankle, guard James Carpenter with a shoulder, linebacker Brandon Copeland with an elbow, quarterback Sam Darnold with a foot. That's something to to watch as well as safety Marcus May with a thumb and shoulder injury a player listed with limited participation why receive a Quincy and UNO ankle and then full

participants that's a big long list you've got Kelvin Benjamin tackle with a knee safety Terrence Brooks with a thumb cornerback Morris Claibjamin tackle with a knee safety terrence brooks with a thumb cornerback morris clayborne with a shoulder ride running back isaiah crowell with an ankle spencer long their center with a knee and finger injuries linebacker frankie lou neck injury running back elijah mcguire foot injury defensive tackle steve mcclendon ankle safety rontez miles knee and hip injuries and linebacker ke Pierre-Louis with a foot injury. That's sort of the injury update. Let's get into what I'm expecting to see, what I'm looking for on Sunday when these two teams square off at MetLife Stadium. And I'm going to start

a little bit differently. Usually I start when the Patriots have the football play. I'm going to start when the Jets have the football because here's what I'm looking for on Sunday against this New York Jets offense. And I'm not usually this sort of adamant about what I'm looking for, but I'm looking for a dominant performance from this defense. I think this is one of those weeks where if you

want to sort of make your case that we should still be considered one of the better teams in the AFC, that we still have a shot at, you know, at least a bye for the first week of the playoffs. You've got to come out on the defensive side of the ball and take control of this game. This Jets offense, particularly if Sam Darnold cannot go, and the fact that he did not participate on Thursday

makes that less likely that he can go. I think as a defense, you need to take control of this game. You need to get three and outs. You need to force a couple of turnovers. You can't let them drive down the field and score on you. This is a game that the defense can't win. This is one of those opportunities as a defensive unit that you can go out there and say, we're not going to let you score.

We're going to throw a goose egg up on the board. Now, maybe you don't, but this is that kind of opportunity in front of the New England Patriots this weekend. We talked about this Jets offense on Tuesday in the Tape Tuesday show. They've had their struggles. It's a very limited schematic pass game. And we talked about that on the crossover show as well. It wasn't just me saying it.

There's frustration with Jeremy Bates. You look at this offense, what they do from an X's and O's standpoint, it's simplified. And part of that might have been the fact that yes, you're dealing with a rookie quarterback and then you've got to get

Josh McCown in there. And if you've been dealing with some injuries, there's a lack of talent around the quarterback position as well. All that adds up to is an opportunity for you as a defensive unit to take control of this game, to force some turnovers, to get some three and outs, to get your offense some advantageous field positions, some short fields. So that's what I'm looking for when the Patriots defense

is on the field. I'm not talking complete and utter domination, but I want to see this defense really sort of step up to the plate. It's a big opportunity in front of them. They struggle to run the ball. I want to see the defensive front, the front four, the front three. If they're in a four, two, five, if they're in a three, three, five, I want to see them be front, the front four, the front three. If they're in a 4-2-5, if they're in a 3-3-5, I want to see them be able to stop the run. And I want to see if they can do that without having to sell out to do so. I want to see them be effective with the guys up front. I want to see good coverage in the secondary.

I don't want to see people running free. I want to see Stephon Gilmore step up and have the kind of game we're accustomed to seeing from him. I want to see the linebackers. I want to see Stephon Gilmore step up and have the kind of game we're accustomed to seeing from him. I want to see the linebackers. I want to see them disciplined. If they do some misdirection stuff, if they do some RPO stuff, if they try to get you to adjust your eye angles and to get you out of position, I want to see discipline at the second level. So I think this is a game that the defense can really sort of put their mark on this season and say, okay, we had a bad performance out in Nashville. We've had a bye week to sort of clean things up. It's time to make a stretch run, and it begins on Sunday against a divisional rival in a game which we should win.

And we're going to make sure that as a defensive unit, we do everything we can to get that done. Schematically, I'm not looking for anything sort of exotic. I don't think against this offensive unit you have to do anything exotic. You play your stuff. You pick your spots to blitz here and there, but you don't have to blitz often. You try to win some one-on-one matchups, whether it's against the pass game or against the run game, and you get off the field on third down. That's what I'm looking for.

Up next, my thoughts on what to expect when the Patriots' offense is on the field. That's ahead on this game day edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Friday game day edition of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And it's time to talk about what I'm looking for, what I'm hoping to see when the Patriots' offense is on the field. And first and foremost, I want to see some of our guys back in the lineup because the past couple of weeks, this offense struggling at times without Rob Gronkowski on the field, struggling at times without Shaq Mason on the field.

And I want to see those guys back because those two players, I think, add such a comfort level to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots offense that maybe they sort of need right now. And I know that, yes, Rob Gronkowski has not been the Gronk of old. He seems to have, I don't want to say lost a step, but it does seem like there are times when he is struggling to sort of get separation, even in sort of one-on-one situations where you'd expect him to win those one-on-one matchups in years prior. And maybe that does sort of raise the question about, you know, his future with this team. Something we've talked about here at times, other people have talked about as well. But I want to see those guys back because I think if those guys are back and rested and ready to go for the

stretch run, that's going to be a boon to this New England Patriots offense. So that's one thing that I'm looking for. Another thing I'm looking for is a healthy Josh Gordon. I do think that at times he's been a little bit hobbled by that hamstring. Obviously the finger injury had, you know, a week off now, two weeks to rest that up, get that finger back to where it needs to be. Because remember, when he came over to New England, one of the things that Tom brady everybody else they were raving about was his hand strength his ability at the catch point and maybe that slipped a little bit dealing with his finger injury but i want to see that back i want to see some consistency in both the run game the pass game as as well as Tom Brady's mechanics. Those are things I'm looking for as

well. I want to see them getting out of the rut they got into against Tennessee in those sort of second and long situations. I want to see them staying ahead of the change. And I know that might be at times considered more of an antiquated philosophy of offensive football. But second and five is a lot different than second and nine. Third and five is a lot different than third and nine. And to sort of drive that point home, I know I have mentioned our great friends over at NFL Matchup on ESPN at NFL Matchup. You need to hear this number.

This number, 35.0%. What is that? That is the Patriots success rate on 30 medium defined as third and three through third and six. They put out a tweet on November 21st. I tweeted it out this morning measuring third down offense in three different situations. And the only situation where the Patriots showed up because they do top 10, bottom 5 in each of those is on third and medium.

Okay? And we're going in a different direction than you might be hoping for. The best third and medium offense in the National Football League, believe it or not, is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On those third and three through six situations, they convert on 63.9% of them. Then you've got the Chiefs at 61.5%, the Steelers at 55%, the 49ers at 54.3%, the Rams at 51.4%, the Colts at 51%, the Falcons at 50%, the Texans at 50%, the Ravens at 50%, The Saints at 48.6. But your bottom five, Washington at 39.5%. Denver, 39% even. Dallas. Now, this was obviously before they played on Thursday, but Dallas at 38.2%. And then the Patriots at 35.0%. And the Raiders at 33.3%.

Converting just slightly over than one-third of the time on third and medium from third and three to third and six. And this is what I mean about sort of staying ahead of the change because you get yourself into that situation when it's third and four, third and five, third and six. In years past, that would be fine for New England, but seemingly this year they've struggled in those moments. And as they point out in the tweet, this is the situation offenses focus on the most when game planning because it's the most likely sort of situation. So I want to see some improvement there. Now, can it come against this defense?

I believe so. Look, you heard me break them down on Tuesday. You heard the crossover show on Wednesday. This is a defense that outside of, say, Jamal Adams, is struggling to find consistent playmakers. It's a defense that when you look at the secondary, they made the splash to get Tremaine Johnson, and he's been underwhelming.

Morris Claiborne, a little banged up a bit. Buster Screen, we talked about him on Wednesday. Darryl Roberts might be sort of their better corner right now. But he was taking off waivers from New England. And Marcus Mays banged up. Rontez Miles has banged up. They're banged up in the secondary. The linebackers struggle with misdirection looks at times.

I broke that down with how they had a bad game against Buffalo. Seemed like the only guy making any sort of consistent run fits was Jamal Adams. Guys like Darren Lee and Avery Williamson, Jeremiah Attachew. They're moving every single other way, slow to react to the ball. And so this is similarly what we were just talking about when the Patriots defense is on the field. When the Patriots offense is on the field, this is an opportunity to execute, to take care of business,

extend drives, convert in those 30 medium situations, and finish drives with seven instead of three. The more and more I've thought about this game over the past, say, 24, 48 hours, the more and more I'm coming to believe that this is, I don't want to say a make-or-break type game, but this is one of those show-me type games. This is an opportunity in front of the New England Patriots to sort of come back from the bye on both sides of the ball

and have a complete performance against a divisional rival, yes, a team that is down, a team that's a year or two away from truly being competitive, but these are the types of games that you're expected to go out and handle your business, get the job done, get out of there with a convincing win, and move on with your season. And that is what I want to see from this New England Patriots team.

That's what I want to see from their offense. That's what I want to see from their defense. That's what I want to see from their special teams. I want this to be executed well in all three phases. Schematically, I want to see some misdirection runs. I want to see some packages with Patterson using him more as a decoy, using Edelman more as a decoy, doing the things that Buffalo did. Show them misdirection, show them that fake jet sweep, the engine rounds and things like that, but then just run at them to the other side. You don't have to be that cute.

Show them a little nice direction. Show them a little counter. Show them counter toss, things like that. Get those linebackers changing their eye angles. You're going to have success running the ball against them. In the pass game, when they go man, if they decide to go man coverage, I want you to see if Tremaine Johnson is on the field. If he is, you get a matchup, whether it's Gordon against him, maybe you sometimes get Edelman against

him, whatever. He's been struggling. You take advantage of that. You target him in the pass game in those cover one situations. They tried it with Adoree Jackson. It didn't work. This is a better matchup. When they go single high looks, if Marcus May is in there, I want you to show him some high lows. He's shown

a tendency. If he sees dig route in front of him, if he sees shorter route in front of him, you can get him to bite down, throw over his head. I want to see Mills concept. I want to see Yankee concept. Things we've talked about on this show. Give him some different high low looks. Throw over his head when he breaks downhill. If he's in single high situations, he's a guy you can manipulate with your eyes.

Tom Brady, this is a chance to do that. You go Haas, mirrored hitch seams to both sides of the field. You get him in that single high moment, move him one way, throw to the other. It's basic stuff, but you can go out and execute and have the type of game we expect to see from the New England Patriots. So that's sort of what I'm looking for.

Up next, we're going to talk a little bit about the action we saw on Thursday as well as a final prediction. That's ahead on this Friday, game day edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now

to close out this Friday, game day edition of Locked On Patriots. And typically what we do here is we talk about a little prediction. And I'll do that at the end. My prediction has somewhat been revised a bit since Wednesday. Again, I've been thinking about this game a lot. Probably too much.

Probably because I spent a lot of time Thursday morning with just myself and a turkey. More on that a bit. But let's sort of talk. We're going to talk about the first two games just ever so briefly. Not going to talk about the night game. You know why? I didn't make it. I just pulled it out there. More on the reason why in a minute. But first, the early game, Chicago, they get to 8-3, chase Daniel in the lineup in place of an injured Mitchell Trubisky. But the big story here, again, what else? The Bears' defense.

And it's to the point now where you have to really believe that with how opportunistic this Bears' defense truly is, that they can almost, I don't want to say carry the Bears deep into the playoffs, but at least aid them deep into the playoffs. And look at the fourth quarter. Yet again, it's a situation where the offense struggling a little bit. Offense goes downfield, scores a touchdown. Then the defense comes out. They give up a field goal.

Tie game. 16-16. Offense comes back. You get a chance to sort of take things over again. It's midway through the fourth back. You get a chance to sort of take things over again. It's midway through the fourth quarter. You get a chance to take the lead again. And they go 3-0. And now, look, Detroit, they have the ball on their own 41.

Six minutes left in the fourth quarter. Tie game at 16. You get a chance now, depending on how you play it, to take the lead. Eddie Jackson with a 41-yard pick-six. And he just read that play so well. He had a blitz inside, slant-flat concept. He's covering the flat route from the safety spot in the middle of the field

and just jumps it. Matthew Stafford never even saw him. 41-yard touchdown, pick-six, and now it's 23-16. Then Lions get the ball back. They're driving. They get a third and nine at the Chicago 11. Matthew Stafford throws for Roberts, the young tight end. And it's like he wasn't even looking for the football.

Kyle Fuller with the pick in the end zone to ice it. And Chase Daniel played okay. You know, not going to take anything away from what he did, stepping in and being replaced with Trubisky. You know, 27-37 for 230, two touchdowns, no picks. But this defense is so good. And it obviously starts up front, you know, with the pressure they can get.

You know, Khalil Mack and others. But the secondary is playing well too, whether it's Fuller, whether it's Eddie Jackson, who seems to be a star. Big shout-out, by the way, to Kyle Krabs at Grind to the Tape, who was one of a small handful of people, a small handful of people who was high on Eddie Jackson. Seems to have nailed that pick. That's why you should be listening to Draft Dudes, handful of people, small handful of people who was high on Eddie Jackson. Seems to have nailed that pick.

That's why you should be listening to Draft Dudes, also part of the Locked On Podcast Network. So big win for Chicago. That gets them to 8-3. Detroit drops to 4-7. Tough to see them now sort of getting themselves back into playoff contention. Then you get the afternoon game, Washington at Dallas. Amari Cooper. A lot of people mocked that trade.

Myself included. I was on the radio with my boys, Sat and John, and I actually was on the radio with them on Thanksgiving Thursday. Revisited my thoughts on that trade. Basically saying, look, when they made that trade, my thought was, look, is Amari Cooper calling the plays? Is he dialing up the concepts? Is he coming up with the route concepts?

No? Well, then, until he is, I'm not going to think this was a good trade. I might have to take an L on that one because it certainly seems like he's made this offense better. Eight catches, 180 yards, two touchdowns in the second half. It was a 10-7 game. Dallas up a half. They score 14 in the third quarter. They end up winning 31-23.

Dak Prescott, 22 of 31 for 289, two touchdowns. Zekiel Elliott, 26 carries, 121 yards and a touchdown. Two fantastic, fantastic touchdown celebrations. First, revisiting the Salvation Army bucket. Scores early in the game on their opening possession. What does he do? Pulls out $21. Puts it in the bucket. Then a little bit later in the game, Dak Prescott with a scramble for a touchdown.

What does Elliott do? Picks up Prescott. Puts him in the bucket. Last year, actually drew some awareness to the Salvation Army. Hopefully, it does so again. But the Cooper trade seems to be paying off because now you've got a receiver that can give you some separation on routes and that can do some things after the catch, which is something that Dallas seemed to be missing.

And I talked about this on the radio with Sat and John on Sportsnet 650 up in Vancouver. You have that component to the pass game. You have a little bit better execution in the run game, and that mirrors more what we saw around Dak

Prescott his rookie season. Takes a little bit off of his plate, a little bit off of his shoulders, enables the offense to execute better. So myself and others might have to take a little bit of an L on this Cooper trade. It seems to be panning out right now. And big shout out to my friend Joey Ferriola at NFL Draft. Joey, who pointed out that if you look ahead to the next draft class at the wide receiver spot, there might not be a surefire first round receiver in this group. And if you really need a receiver, better to get a guy in Amari Cooper and give up a first for him when you're looking ahead to this class. And let's remember, Ari Cooper's just 24. He's not going to turn 25 until June.

He's a young player. So it's looking more and more like a very, very, very good move by the Dallas Cowboys. As I said, not going to get into the nighttime game. You know why? Wasn't there for it. You know why? Had to put myself down. Why?

Let me tell you a quick little story, my friends. Third year in a row, my wife and I host a Thanksgiving, both sides of the family coming over. Fantastic to get everybody together. As I've said, we're extremely lucky that my wife's parents, they're in the Maryland area. My parents, they're in the Maryland area. My parents, they're in the Maryland area. My wife's sister and her husband live down in DC. My wife's brother, he lives in DC. So everybody's pretty local except for my brother who's back up in the Wilmington, Massachusetts area. So the bulk of us, you know, we had with our kids, 11 of us around the table was fantastic. Great to have everybody together. But for the third year in a row, we get our turkey from Maple Lawn Farms up in Fulton, Maryland.

Fantastic big family-owned farm. We love it. The turkeys there have been great the past couple of years. And for this year, we decided, look, between all the stuff we're going to be having, let's get a more older 15 to 18-pound turkey. My son and I, we have this little tradition where we go up there. It's about a 40 minute ride from where we live in Maryland. And so I pick them up half day on Wednesday. We head straight up there. We go to the farm, we check it out, we get our turkey and we come home and we start, you know,

doing some prep work and stuff like that together. It's just a fun little tradition. Although his portion of the prep work is maybe folding some napkins and wondering when he can start playing on his Amazon Fire tablet, but I digress. And so for the first year we went to get our turkey there, line out the door. Last year, it was a smallish line, but it wasn't overly crowded. And I thought, hey, this is great. You know, this year there was no line. So I started to hey, this is great. This year, there was no line. So I started to wonder, like, hmm, is everything okay? And I look back there, as I start to check in, there's maybe 12, 15, 18 turkeys back there. And I'm like, I had reserved a 15 to 18 pound turkey. And they're like, well, a lot of people have already

picked theirs up. So the best we can do, the closest we can get to your 15, 18 pound range is a 21 and a half pound turkey. Here you go. To which I responded, do you have a wheelbarrow for me to wheel this out to my car? Because it was heavy. And yes, I just got done from a power lift of meat, but still bear with the jokes, kids. Okay. So that meant for a family that, both my wife's family, my family, we eat Thanksgiving meal in the early afternoon, 12.31. It's more of a lunchtime thing because then you do dessert around like 4, 4.30 and then people can go their separate ways. That's kind of how we've always done it. Meaning, to get that bad boy into the oven on time for that kind of timetable, when you're doing the Martha Stewart perfect roast turkey

recipe, which by the way, I wholeheartedly endorse, it gets the Schofield stamp of approval. I've done it for years now. I was up at, the alarm went off at five on the dot to get that bad boy rinsed, pat it down dry, to sit out for two hours. Then you've got to rub it down with some room temperature, some softened butter. You've got to get the stuffing in there. And we, as I said, we make two different stuffings.

Then you've got to put that then in the oven as about a four, four and a half hour process where you're constantly basting it every 30 minutes with a first you put a cheesecloth soaked in wine and melted butter on top of it and you leave that on for three and a half out of the four and a half hours you baste it every 30 minutes it's a process came out great but i gotta say by around eight o'clock nine o'clock Thursday night, I was almost down for the count. So I didn't stick around for the evening game. If you were hoping to hear my thoughts on it, you might have to wait until Sunday.

But it was a fantastic holiday here for my family here. I hope, hope, hope if you were celebrating Thanksgiving that it was a fantastic holiday for you and yours. I hope wherever you are on this Friday, you are enjoying life the best you can. I will be back on Sunday with your Sunday morning tailgate edition. I know there's some college football that I didn't really get to.

Yes, there's Ohio State, Michigan. You don't need to remind me of that. Friday night, 10-15. Utah State at Boise State. Winner clinches the Mountain West West Division. Brett Rippin, big time game for him. You might want to watch that one. But like I said, I will be back for a Sunday morning tailgate edition.

The eyelids getting real heavy. Until then, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.