Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 25, 2018 - Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: November 26, 2018

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Hello and welcome into a glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair on Sunday night, November 25th, 2018. And yes, we get to say those words yet again. A glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast as the New England Patriots take on a familiar foe in the New York Jets down at MetLife Stadium and they come away 27-13 victors over their rivals

the New York Jets. And we're going to have our great, our good, and the bad from this divisional AFC East divisional victory that gets the Patriots 2-8-3 and more importantly, thanks to the Denver Broncos and a curious decision at the end of the game from Ben Roethlisberger, gets the Patriots back into position, into the second seed right now. As if the playoffs started today, your New England

Patriots would have a first round bot. But before we dive into all of that, the usual reminders up top. A reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can check out the work at places like Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites, InsideThePylon.com, Minnesota Rivals, Football Guys. Chances are if an outlet is covering football in some way, shape, or form, yours truly is helping them cover the game. And yes, the New England Patriots, they take care of business. They get the job done 27-13 in a game that had sort of all the hallmarks and all the staples of these AFC East clashes between the Jets and the Pats

over the years, particularly those that are played on their turf. Close game at the start, tied at halftime, never really had the feeling that the Patriots were going to run away with this one. And they kind of do at the end, and it never really sort of gets close, you know, into the fourth quarter because the Patriots pull away. And just another one of those types of games. Let's start big picture now when we look at the great stuff, at least the great stuff from

my vantage point on Sunday afternoon. I'm going to start with offensive misdirection. And this is something I talked about in the week leading up to this, you know, the Tape Tuesday show, breaking down this Jets defense. In the game day edition on Friday, talking about what I wanted to see. Offensive misdirection. I feel like the offense did a very good job of that with some fake Jets sweeps, some fake jet sweeps, some fake end-to-rounds, a lot of play-action stuff. You saw on a number of plays this Jets defense. Guys running away from the ball carrier.

Guys getting fooled. Their angles of sight, their sight lanes adjusted by this Patriots, whether it was Brady, whether it was ball fakes, whether it was motion, misdirection, whatever the Patriots did, they were successful on those misdirection type plays, but a huge role in this victory. The Stephon Gilmore interception, I thought that was a great play. We'll talk about that a little bit in the moment. Obviously, the touchdown to Rob Gronkowski, good to have him back in the lineup, good to have Gronkowski back in the end zone, you know, kind of where we think he belongs, right? Especially because, look, you know, Jets had the lead.

You know, the Jets get out to the lead 7-0. You're thinking, ooh, you know, we got to get ourselves back in the end zone here, don't we, guys? And that's what the New England Patriots are able to do. They get a touchdown pass from Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski. Huge play at that moment. Josh Gordon's hands. Josh Gordon's hands were phenomenal in this game, as they were so many times previous to this game.

Although there were some drops here and there, and yes, he had been dealing with the finger issue, but his hands, you had sort of that play-action backside slant route that he caught, and then that comeback route, which we're going to get to as well, where he sort of scooped it off the turf, a low throw from Brady. We're going to talk about low throws in a bit. His hands were fantastic in this game, so very impressed with them. Offensive line, Shaq Mason being back I think played a huge role.

Dan Fouts, what he wasn't calling Josh McCown, Ryan McCown, Dan Fouts was extolling the virtues of Shaq Mason. Perhaps Mr. Fouts listens to the Locked on Patriots podcast and he's listened to our odes to Shaq Mason before. But Shaq Mason did a fantastic job. Joe Dooney had a number of great blocks. They were using him as a puller a lot against the Jets. And he really had some great, great plays getting around center

and getting to the second level. I think the offensive line as a whole did a very good job. Yes, there were a number of hold and penalties, but I think that in part was due to this crew, which is a crew that throws a lot of flags. Sonny Michel, obviously you can't talk about this game without talking about the job Sonny Michel did today. Just when you thought he was going to be out,

you see that back injury, you see him get twisted back, you're thinking, here we go again. Gets himself back into the lineup. 21 carries for 133 yards. One touchdown. He had a long 33, which we're going to talk about. Tough running down near the goal line. Great change of direction.

Great vision. Great ability to identify cutback opportunities and exploit them. Just a fantastic game from him. And if you are someone or you know someone that was thinking that he was a bust, I'd like you to sort of recalibrate your thinking at the moment because he is certainly anything but a bust. I think he's been a fantastic, fantastic pickup for this New England Patriots offense. And they might need to rely on the run game a bit as we get down the stretch here

and have it him is going to pay dividends for this offense. Speaking of offense, the offense in the second half. You come out of the halftime break tied 10-10. You're getting the ball first. What do you do? You go field goal, touchdown, touchdown to start things off in the second half. I thought that was a tremendous job by Josh McDaniels and company sort of coming out of the halftime break,

really sort of taking care of business as we get into the second half of this game. Like I said, you go 15 plays, 61 yards, 626 off the clock and a field goal on your opening drive. Then you go four plays, 75 yards for a touchdown on your second possession of the second half. Then 10 plays, 80 yards and 429 for your second touchdown of the second half. You go field goal, touchdown, touchdown. It's 27-13 as we get into the fourth quarter, and the game is pretty much in the Patriots' hands at that point. I thought offense did a fantastic job, particularly in the second half.

And then finally, big picture, look, the run game. 200 yards in the run game for the first time since 2014. That Jonas Gray Sunday night game. First time they put together 200 yards on the ground since that game. And credit obviously to guys like Michelle and the guys up front. James Devlin, I think those guys all had a fantastic, fantastic afternoon. Again, this ground game goes for 36 carries, 215 yards. Tom Brady, however, with that one kneel down,

he's now one yard further away from that 1,000-yard mark, which he's been trying so hard to hit. Let's get into some of the micro here, some of the specific plays. Obviously, the touchdown to Gronk, a deep ball, the 34-yarder against his own coverage. Great play there. Flipping through my notes here, New England's third drive of the game. We start to see that pull in action.

They have a first and 10. Sonny Michel with just a three-yard run, but you're seeing Joe Thune with a good pull around to the right side there on that play. Fantastic play at that moment. New England's fourth drive of the game. This is some of that misdirection stuff. They begin the drive with 21 personnel.

So you have two running backs, one tight end, two wide receivers. They show that fake end around with Patterson and then a handoff to Sonny Michel for a gain of 11. So you get the linebackers going with the jet motion look. You hand it back to Michel going the other way. That same drive, they bring Le'Adrian Waddell in for an extra offensive lineman. Brady on a second and 10 throws that deep out to Julian Edwin,

takes a shot on the play too. But if you want to talk about Brady perhaps having that noodle arm or the inability to drive the ball into tighter windows, I invite you to look at that play, that second and 10 play, New England's fourth drive of the game to, again, recalibrate your thinking. We're going to start using that phrase, recalibrate your thinking, a little bit more and more here on this show. Josh Gordon, that backside slant route, that was on that fourth drive of the game,

his second and 10 play. Again, his hands were fantastic. Jets' fifth drive of the game. I had literally just made a notation. The Patriots had just kicked the field to make it 10-7. That first play on the following drive, pressure doesn't get home.

Quincy Newen runs away in a crossing route for a gain of 41. My next play before it begins, I'm writing my hand notes here. Defense needs to step up. Next play, play action, pressure. You get Stephon Gilmore with the interception, which is exactly what the defense

and the team needed at that moment. And they got it. Trey Flowers with the pressure, forces the underthrow, and you get the interception. You know, coming out of the halftime break, some great stuff. Their first play of the second half,

Sonny Michel with a great cutback, showing you balance and power, the things you want from a first-round running back. He identifies the linebacker filling the hole, so he cuts back away from that great change of direction. You get a first and 17 play later on that drive. You get a crossing route to Gronkowski. Again, that misdirection stuff, play-action look,

linebackers dive, you throw up behind him, that misdirection stuff we've been talking about. Then that gain of seven gets into a second and ten. Under center, power toss, crack toss with Patterson cracking on a linebacker inside and Sonny Michel on a toss. Gain of nine to that point. Offensive line had gone, in the run game, had gone six carries for 52 yards so far on that drive. So, fantastic in the run game from New England

on their opening drive of the second half. Jets, seventh drive of the game. This is when the Pats had a 13-10 lead. At one point, you get the holding penalty on Stephon Gilmore. He was on a deep ball for Quincy Newell, which negated an incompletion. But on a first to 10, you get a play-action boot play. Kyle Van Nooy, great recognition, stays home,

gets his hands up, deflects the pass at the line of scrimmage for an incompletion. Then later on that drive, Kyle Van Noy on a second and sixth play gets great pressure, forces a throw in way, and then on third down they're able to sort of get off the field. On third down, force the Jets to settle for three. And soon possession from New England. I write in my notes, offense needs a touchdown. What do they get? A touchdown on that drive. You saw great anticipation from Brady on a throw to Chris Hogan. Ball is coming out well before the break.

Another first and 10 white with great burst. Joe Thune on the pull again. Seals off the linebacker for a huge run to the right side. And then you get the touchdown, sort of an inverted Haas. I think the Patriots call this gaudy. There's a couple of different route concepts you could call, but it's a go on the outside and an option route on the inside. Edelman just runs the hitch on the inside.

They did this a lot with Rob Gronkowski outside and Edelman in the slot inside of him. As Fout said, that forces a defense to play man coverage. You're not going to go zone over there, and you can't double one of those guys when they're on the same side of the field. It'd be tough to do, and then you're really giving the offense a mismatch to the other side. Gronkowski runs the fade route to the outside. Edelman catches an easy hit.

She's got free access, soft coverage over him. Gronkowski sort of seals the defender away. Easy throw, easy catch and run, touchdown. And soon possession for the Jets. This is their eighth possession of the game. New England has that 20-13 lead. Hoping the defense gets a stop. Well, what do you do?

They get a stop. Kyle Vannoy has a great play on the edge. It's negated by offensive Holden, but he has a fantastic job setting the edge and making a play out there. Third and 14 situation, Holden penalty puts them back into a third and long, first and long situation that results in a third and long. The Blitz finally gets home. You get an effort sack from Dietrich Weiss. There's a little nut stunt inside between him and Butler. blitz finally gets home. You get an effort sack from Dietrich Wise.

There's a little nut stunt inside between him and Butler. Wise finally gets home. Pressure finally gets home, and you get the sack. New England's next possession, Sonny Michel. After the injury, he's back in. They go counter. Devlin with a great lead block. Sonny Michel with a great run, good vision, good change of direction, good cutback.

Third and 10. The drive looks like it's going to stall. You get back-to-back incompletions from Brady. Wondering about those. Going to talk about those throws to the left flat here in a minute. But James White's in. Come back, throw to Gordon. Big long throw.

Big play in that moment to keep the chains moving. And again, that drive is capped off by Sonny Michel. Great effort, touchdown. So, you know, that's some of the great stuff that I saw sort of on the micro level from this Patriots offense and defense on Sunday. Up next, we're going to talk about some of the good. But before we do that, look, I get questions all the time about football. Obviously, people know what I do. People hear me on this show.

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on this glorious victory installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And we're going to talk about the good stuff we saw from New England's 27-13 victory over the New York Jets, starting with a Landon Roberts versus the run. He didn't have, obviously, a massive impact on this game, but he did flash a couple of times on tape, and I wanted to make sure that I mentioned him. So Landon Roberts had a very good game against the run. Dante Hightower, very good game, sort of applying pressure.

We're going to talk about two plays in particular, but there were a number of moments when he put some pressure on Josh McCown at times, or Ryan McCown, excuse me. Yeah, he got exposed on one or two plays here in coverage, but I thought if what you're looking for from him is to mostly be an edge rusher at times and then do some stuff sort of underneath zone coverage at moments, you're getting what you want from him. So he had a good game.

Kyle Vannoli, we talked about him already. He had a very good game. Patrick Chun, I think, had a very good game. The touchdown to Edelman, which we talked about, just a great use of formation and design. We talked about that in the first segment of the show. But, again, you put probably your two best, you get Gordon in there as well, but two of your best offensive receiving threats

on the same side of the field. I love it when teams do that, especially with a matchup nightmare like Rob Gronkowski, and then a shifty guy like Julian Edelman. Again, since I write for Pro Football Weekly, I talk about the Bears a ton. When they go Y-ISO with Trey Burton to one side of the formation and Shade Tariq Cohen to that same side, I think that's their most dangerous formation. I love to see New England doing stuff like that with Gronkowski and Edelman

to the same side. It would be even cooler if they see some stuff with Gordon to that side as well, but, you know, baby steps. We're getting there. We're getting there. James Devlin. Again, I've done shows about him. I could write a book about that guy. Still kicking around.

Although I think I know where I'm going with book number two here into the offseason here. But that being said, huge game from James Devlin. Patriots did a ton with 21 offensive personnel, 22 offensive personnel. Devlin saw a lot of action., played a huge role in this win. Just can't say enough about what that guy brings to this run game. Defense in the second half, defense in the fourth quarter. I mean, when you look at this was a tie game at halftime,

and then Jets only get a field goal in the second half. And that field goal, it comes on their open and possession of the second half. So you look at the Jets' final drives of the game. Their second half drives, they go field goal, 12 plays, 55 yards on their open and drive in the second half. Then six plays, 22 yards and a punt. Three plays, four yards and a punt. 13 plays, 54 yards, and it ends on downs 4 yards and a punt 13 plays, 54 yards and it ends on downs

When you get a play at the end of the game With Jason McCourty Getting his hands in there And so defense in the second half did fantastic And of course Can't talk about the Patriots without talking about Number 12 Tom Brady I thought Brady had a good game

There were some misthrows that we're going to talk about But he goes 21 of 31 for 283, two touchdowns, no interceptions, played a clean game, no mistakes. Obviously, he eclipsed Peyton Manning's mark for passing yardage in both regular season and playoff games combined. Now, there's a bit

of a factor to that in that the Patriots have played a lot of playoff games. Manning did too, but the Patriots have played a lot of playoff games. A count and stat like that, it's nice. It games. Manning did too, but the Patriots have played a lot of playoff games. And so a count and stat like that, it's nice. It means something. It sounds great. But I'm sure if you ask Tom Brady,

and I'm sure he'll get asked about it, he'll say, that doesn't matter. What matters is winning Super Bowls. And he might be right about that. We're going to talk about Tom Brady throwing to the left a little bit as well. But now we've gone big picture.

Let's go sort of the micro. Some good stuff that I saw. Jets' fourth drive of the game. This is, again, we were just talking about a high tower gets some pressure on a play-action boot-type play. Gets a near sack of McGowan down near the goal line. Forces an errant throw and an incompletion. Next play, it's an RPO-type slanted Quincy Inunua. Goes for seven, but it could have been bigger. Patrick Shum with a great form tackle in the open field, preventing that play from getting going. Then on New England's next possession, which was their fourth in the game,

again with the game tied at 7-7, you saw some good stuff. You saw a first and ten power lead, Tony Michel, for a gain of five. And you saw Shaq Mason, James Devlin with some great blocks. Next play with a second five, Michel to the right side for a gain of seven. James Devlin used to actually trap, so he was aligned to the right wing and it comes back to his left, trapping on. Williams, one of their defensive tackles. That goes for a gain of seven.

Patriots were stymied in the red zone, though, and they tried back-to-back throws to Gronkowski, two fades. The first one, Gronk actually had to make a great play, a good play there to prevent an interception. And the second one, due to some pressure, poor throw thrown out of bounds. Patriots had to settle for three. So some other good stuff here that we've seen from the New England Patriots

from their game against the Jets. Their fourth drive of the game, game tied at 7-7. A couple good plays on that drive. You get a first and 10 power lead. Sonny Michel gaining five to the right side. Shaq Mason, James Devlin, some great blocks on that play. And the next play, a second and five. Sonny Michel gains seven to the right side.

And on that play, you had fullback James Devlin on the line, sort of an offset eye. And he executes a trap block on the defensive tackle, Williams, working from his right to left. That's Devlin's right back to the left. A good play later on that drive. The Patriots attempted two awkward fade routes to Gronkowski, trying to punch it in on second and goal from the third and four situations.

Both of those fall incomplete. Gronkowski made a good play in the first one to prevent an interception. Also in the first half, Sonny Michel, when the Patriots were backed up after they forced a Jets punt, they were backed up in their own territory. This will be their final possession of the first half.

Fakes in second and 10. Sonny Michel, good job running through contact. Breaks the tackle of Anderson at the line of scrimmage. Shows good balance. Gets New England some breathing room at that time, which they kind of badly needed. New England's first possession of the second half. We talked about the bulk of scrimmage shows good balance, gets New England some breathing room at that time, which they kind of badly needed. New England's first possession of the second half, we talked about the bulk of this.

Good play, though, was that fourth and one. Patterson into the game now. Play after Sonny Michel suffers that twist to his back. Fourth and one, tough run through contract, but gets them a first down. Very tough run from him. Jets' next possession, this is their seventh of the game. This will be their final score and drive of the game. tough run through contract but gets them a first down very tough run from him uh jet's next possession this is their seventh of the game this would be their final scoring drive of the game

uh first and ten of landon roberts with a very good run fit also later on that drive you get a second and ten pressure from dante hightower which forces a poor throw on a running back screen which if i'm remembering that play right and i I am, that screen was dialed up and it looked like it could go for yardage. So it was good that Hightower got some pressure there to sort of force a poor throw. And then finally, New England's final drive of the game. You had just got the stop on downs. Jason McCourty with a good play at the catch point.

Rakin at the catch point. On the previous play, that 3rd-and-1 sprint right situation, JC Jackson with good coverage. And then you get a 2nd-and-7 play, Shaq Mason with a great block on the nose tackle, then working to the 2nd level, sprints James White for a 24-yard gain, which put the Patriots in position to sort of just run out the clock.

So those were some of the good plays. Up next, we're going to talk just a couple of bad things. I don't want to dwell on the bad too much after a win like this. That's coming up on this glorious victory installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this glorious victory installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And a couple of things, we're not going to dwell too much on the negatives here, but there were some bad things we need to talk about. We'll start off with penalties. Penalties, penalties, penalties, penalties, penalties. Now, I do think, look, this was a crew that throws among the most flags overall as an officiating crew,

so we probably shouldn't be surprised that there were a lot of penalties. But look, 11 penalties for 105 yards, and some of these came at some less than opportune moments. And so whether it's getting it cleaned up as an offense, some holding penalties on Trent Brown, you had two in the same drive, for example, figuring out how these guys were going to call that, whatever it is, that's got to get figured out. Tackling. Jonathan Jones, for example, at the end of the first half, he had a play where he could have stopped the receiver a couple yards short, forced a much, much, much tougher field goal try than was actually attempted, but let him get free for a couple of extra yardage. Jonathan Jones needs to do a better job tackling at that

moment. I thought a lot of the players could have done a better job of tackling because, you know, not that this would have definitively kept him out of field goal range, but his pass to curse, you stop him short, you're forcing him to maybe take a 58, 59-yard field goal instead of 55, and Myers drills it. Some other sort of big pitcher stuff, third downs. Generally, for the offense, they were not good on third down today, particularly in the first half. But overall, look, just 5 of 12 on third downs. I'd like to see New England convert in a little bit better clip than that, maybe 50%. But I would like to see them a little bit better on third downs. I'd like to see them a little bit

better in the red zone as well. They were just one of three on the red zone overall on Sunday. We'd like to see that number tick up a little bit better. A couple of specific plays off the top of my head before we get into some other stuff. Josh McCown had two big scrambles in this game. The first was on New York's first possession of the second half. And on that play, Adam Butler just vacated, vacated. He freelanced. He thought McCown was going to flush to his right. So he vacates his passing lane. McCown sees that. He's able to exploit that. And that comes on a third intent. And so, you know, you need to be a little bit better in that moment. You know, do your job. Don't freelance in a moment like that. And that play came at the...

I'm trying to pull it up right here. That was at the New England 34. So if you stop them there, let's just say you force an incompletion or something like that, it'd still be a 51-yard field goal, but it's a lot better than giving up a first down on a third and 10 to Josh McAllen scrambling with his legs. So don't freelance. Don't do that. Some micro stuff here. Tom Brady, New England's sixth possession of the game. This is the one that ends in another Gostowski field

goal. This is the opening possession of the third quarter. You get a first and goal a crosser type throwback to James White where he's working from right to left so it's a throw to the left flat low outside and incomplete second down James White in and out to the left flat low outside and incomplete and then on third down Brady sees them drop an eight has to buy a little bit of time, climbs, and his throw for Gronk on sort of an out and up route is just too far. But throws low and outside when he's throwing to the left flat are starting to become a little thin for me when looking at Tom Brady. And so I'm going to keep an eye on that going forward, but definitely wanted to see that. We talked about the Butler freelance.

New England's eighth drive of the game. It's a second and ten play. Brady under center. Play action play. Slides and misses again. Low to white in the left flat. He had three throws like that, and Fouts mentioned it too. For all the things you want to say about I'm calling Josh McGowan, Ryan McGowan

he identified this issue too three different throws, the left flat, low and outside so you're wondering if that's sort of becoming a thing here with Tom Brady so I did want to mention that I'm trying to check my notes here, is there anything else on the bad we mentioned the tackle by Jonathan Jones, you're going to have to do a better job

there the penalties, some specific ones. The hold it on Brown. The false start on Gronk and Gordon. The hold it again on Brown as well as a chop block on Andrews. Those all came on the same drive, New England's third drive of the game. Now, the chop block on Andrews, we were talking about this in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. He was trying to chop block a different, He was trying to cut block a different guy.

He whiffed on it. It wasn't like it was an intentional thing or anything like that. He just got himself caught up with the other defender who was already engaged. And so it wasn't an intentional act, but you still don't want to see that. Let's close it out. We'll do some game balls. I think Sonny Michel gets himself a game ball. The offensive line, Shaq Mason and company, yeah, there were a lot of penalties.

But I think they get themselves a game ball. I'm going to give some to Kyle Van Nooy and Patrick Chun. I think those two guys had some very, very, very good games. And Brian Flores, because it seemed like he figured something out at halftime. The defense did a much, much, much better job in the second half. Guys like J.C. Jackson, Jason McCourty at the end of the game there making some big plays. And so, Brian

Flores as well will get him a game ball for the Patriots defensive play call. As for the take of the game from the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, which again, if you would like to be a member of the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, just hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield, or you can

email me, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com for an invite. And it comes to us from Calvin S. This came at 1.26 p.m., so just 26 minutes after kickoff. Death taxes and the defense being horrible in the beginning of road games. And I think we're all sort of feeling that,

especially around halftime. It's, look, the defense isn't getting it done, but as we just mentioned, Brian Flores andime. It's, look, the defense isn't getting it done. But as we just mentioned, Brian Flores and company did a much, much, much better job in the second half. So that will do it for today's glorious victory edition. I will be putting out the polls on Twitter, again, at Mark Schofield on Twitter, for tomorrow's Tape Tuesday show, Tuesday's Tape Tuesday show, what we're going to be talking about, what we're going to break down. And then we're on to the Vikings, who, as we speak, are underway with the Green Bay Packers.

Tuesday will be taped Tuesday. Wednesday, I will probably have somebody on to talk about the Vikings. Last I checked, there is not a locked on Vikings. So we're going to, I know a couple of Vikings people that we can have on. Thursday, your take Thursday, get some questions in for that. And then Friday game day, and we are just rolling. We are back at it now. Patriots coming off the bye.

And back into the second seed. Obviously, Denver pulls out and wins. Denver, back-to-back wins over the Chargers and the Steelers. Denver seems to be getting a little bit better right now. But the Broncos, giving the Patriots a little bit of help in hand. Patriots now sort of control their destiny for the two-seed, at least.

So there's that. But there's a lot of football left to be played. As Bill Belichick famously said, the season begins in earnest after Thanksgiving. And that's, my friends, is where we're at. So that will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow. Check out our friends over at my bookie.

Check me out on Twitter, inside the pile on Pro Football Weekend, the score, all those great places. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.