Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 27, 2018 - Tape Tuesday

Episode Date: November 27, 2018

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Tape Tuesday installment of the Lockdown Patriots Podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair on this Tuesday, November 27th, 2018. Happy to be here as always. What we're going to do today, our Tape Tuesday Fair, we're going to dive into the two players you guys voted for on Twitter. You guys and girls, I put up polls now to do these because, I don't know, as I've always said, it's your show.

It's not my show. And I always say, I want to report and talk about what you guys want to hear, what you guys and girls want to hear. And you guys voted for Sonia Michelle and Kyle Van Nooy. So we're going to talk about those two players a little bit later. We're going to get in to the Minnesota Vikings as we start looking ahead to Sunday afternoon against the Minnesota Vikings. But before we do all 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. Chances are if there's an outlet covering football, as you know, they've probably got me doing some work for them. A few bits of business at the start here. A reminder, Thursdays are our Take Thursday shows. Please, please, please send in some questions, whether it's stuff on football, stuff on the Pats, stuff on quarterbacks, stuff on life, stuff on cooking, stuff on whatever.

It's a Take Thursday show. If you see a take out there that you want me to chime in on, you want to hear my two cents about, whether it's people yelling about Baker Mayfield, people yelling about Cliff Clinsbury, whatever, you can hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Pass those along or via email if you want to, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com.

Even in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, which, by the way, if you still want to be a part of, we're letting people in all the time. You can come be a part of the community over there. Hit me up for an invite, again, at mark.schoolfield on Twitter or mark.schoolfield at insidethepylon.com. As I said, we're going to talk Tape Tuesday stuff. We're going to start with Sonny Michel. Obviously, Sonny Michel had a big

game for the New England Patriots against the New York Jets. He was the person that people voted for on the offensive side of the ball they want to hear about. So I'm going to talk about a couple of his plays. Started with a 31 at the 1026 mark of the first quarter. This is on New England's first possession of the game. And this is just an example of a running back making a tough run. The Jets sold out on a number of occasions against a potential Brady quarterback sneak. We're seeing the Patriots face that look from a defense more and more. It's a third and one. They got shaded defensive tackles in each A-gap. They've got a defensive lineman head up on both tackles, and they've got linebackers down over the guards as well. They are expecting a Brady sneak, so the Patriots run it to the edge, sorting Michel to

the right edge, and as he takes the handoff, he gets hit by, of all people, Marcus Cannon. Cannon's trying to execute a reach block, and the defensive tackle sort of slides off of him. And as Cannon looks to sort of peel back, Michel runs right into his own right tackle. But he still manages to fight forward through contact, again, with his own right tackle, and gets forward for the first down. I thought that was kind of a humorous way to sort of start things off. Let's go second quarter at the 725 mark. This is a first and 10 play. New England Patriots on their own 30. This is a run to the right end. And what I love about

this is the vision on this play because this run actually starts up the middle, but we get pulls from both Joe Thune, the left guard, as well as James Devlin, who aligns as an up back, but to the left side of the formation. Michelle starts to the inside, but he has the vision to get in behind Devlin, follows him around the right end, and then it's the burst around the right end where you have two defenders that have the angle, including the defensive back who peels off a block attempt from Josh Gordon, and Michelle has the foot speed to get around to beat him to the edge and that's one of those sort

of x-factor type things we just talked about his play strength on the first example now we're talking about his ability to beat you to the edge and get the corner a tremendous run it's just a gain of 12 but I loved seeing that from Sonny Michel. Next play we're going to talk about. This is a play I highlighted when we had the postgame show, the glorious victory edition. It's just a six-yard run, but in the context of the moment, it's huge because this is a second and 10.

New England has the ball at the end of the first half on their own two-yard line. They're backed up, and we get a run from Sonny Michel and he's able to sort of finish it through contact. He takes the hand off aiming inside. This is a run that's designed to go to the inside but the hole's not really there. Number 96 defensive tackle Henderson sort of peels off hits him but Michel fights off that tackle attempt then it fights off a tackle attempt from the corner and finishes this run downhill getting tackled by that tackle attempt. Then he fights off a tackle attempt from the corner and finishes this run downhill getting tackled by Jamal Adams. Again, it's just a six-yard run,

but it gives the Patriots some seriously needed breathing room so he can get off the Ryan Allen punt before halftime. And that's, again, we talked play strength, then foot speed, and vision, then play strength again. And I'm sort of painting you the picture of a complete running back. And that's what I think the Patriots have in this rookie. Go ahead to the third quarter here. Open play of the third quarter.

This is that big run that opened New England's possession. It's a 31-yard run. And a tremendous example of a running back sort of by process and speed at the running back position. Long-time listeners to the show, long-time followers of my work know I spend so much time talking about processing speed as a quarterback. But you need it at every other position on the field, including running back. Here, you have an inside fullback lead. And what Michelle sees as he's taking the handoff from

Brady is the linebacker sort of filling the hole, that right side A gap. So he sees that and instantly puts his right foot in the turf and angles it back towards the backside. You see that linebacker step up and fill one hole, one potential hole, one gap. You cut away from them. That's incredible processing speed from a rookie running back. What does he pick up when he aims back to the left side? Trent Brown taking care of two Jets defenders because one of the linebackers, actually the safety, Jamal Adams, he comes down and he tries to fit in the hole. Now that Sonny Michel has gone to the left side, he's aiming for that left A gap. Jamal Adams tries to get in there. And as he comes sort of over the top of what Trent Brown is doing

in blocking that defensive lineman, the safety starts to get into that gap. Michel, again, makes a second cut behind the backside of Trent Brown, and as Jamal Adams flips around, peels over the top of that to get into the A-gap, now you get Sonny Michel cutting around, basically the sea gap behind into the outside of his left tackle so that vision right there and that cut helps Trent Brown sort of block two players on this play and that's really what sort of sets the stage up for this 31 yard run and what I love even more about this run the very next play it's a first and 10 it's a hitch route a quick hitch to Tom from Tom Brady to Philip Dorsett.

And you get Sonny Michel just doing enough sort of in the pass protection game. The Jets, they kind of show pressure and they bring it off the edge. Sonny Michel steps up, takes on the outside edge rusher that's Blitzen, gives Tom Brady just a little bit more time. We talked a lot this preseason about how will they trust Sonny Michel in pass protection. They certainly trusted him on that play. Let's go ahead to a little bit later in the third quarter. This is a play that comes on a 10-22 mark. It's a second and 10. And this is that crack toss play, that toss play to the right. And of course, it gives me a chance to talk about you get a missed crack inside from

Josh Gordon, but you also get a pretty decent block here from Patterson on the edge. But we get play strength again. He finishes this run going downhill, runs through multiple arm tackles, particularly around his legs. He's got that leg drive going. Again, we're building the picture of a complete running back. On the previous two plays, we talked about some mental stuff, the vision, the cutback some mental stuff, the vision,

the cutback, the recognition, the process and speed. And now again, finishing a run strong. Fourth quarter, 13-23 mark. First, the competitive toughness just to be back in the game at this point because this is after he had that back injury. He gets twisted like a pretzel. You think you might not see him again. He comes back and rips off another 33-yard run. This is more of a counterplay where his footwork starts to the left a little bit, and then he bends it back in behind James Devlin. And again, the vision to find the cutback. He sees the advantageous angle.

You've got the linebacker, number 54, starting to flow. Trent Brown does a great job sort of getting up to the second level on hem work in a combination block. Brown does a great job here. Blocks down on the defensive tackle. Then gets up to the second level and will handle the linebacker. And again, Michelle identifies the cutback opportunity. Cuts in behind Trent Brown. And then foot speed.

Outruns an advantageous angle that the safety has. And turns this into a 33-yard gain. Power, vision, speed, play strength, competitive toughness, process and speed. Those are the traits that you need to have as a running back to be successful in the National Football League. You need to have those traits all at a very high level. We saw all of them at a very high level from Sonny Michel on Sunday. Up next, we're going to talk a little Kyle Van Noy, some defensive stuff, and a little bit later, just finishing up with a few minutes on the Minnesota Vikings, Stephon Diggs, Adam Thielen, Kirk Cousins,

my thoughts on them and their defensive front. All ahead on this taped Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this taped Tuesday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And we're going to switch gears now and talk about the defensive side of the ball. And in particular, Kyle Van Nooy, who I think had a quietly stellar game against the New York Jets. We're just going to talk about a couple of plays. But really, he did so many things well from a design and execution standpoint,

from a fundamentals and execution standpoint, from a fundamentals and technique standpoint. I was very impressed with a lot of what he put on tape against the New York Jets. And let's start midway through the first quarter. This is a play that comes down at the 734 mark of the first quarter. And this is a first and 10. Jets have the football on their own, 39. And Van Noy aligns on the left edge, so the right side of the offense, and he's got a wing tight end aligned inside of him. And the Jets run the football to his side of the formation, to his side of the field. They have Josh McCown, their quarterback, in the shotgun, flanked by a running back to each side. And they run a lead play towards Kyle Van Noy.

And Van Nooy basically has two different blockers he ends up fighting through on this play. As the play begins, you have that wing tight end who attempts this sort of reach block here to him, as well as the right tackle who also tries to get a little bit of Kyle Van Nooy before the right tackle gets up to the second level. Van Noy initially looks like he's going to lose the edge here because he has these two players that he's fighting with. But as that right tackle peels off, Van Noy then sort of asserts himself over that Wayne tight end and gets himself to the outside. So he starts to set the edge. But now he's also got the running back that's leading the other running back, the ball carrier, to the right side. Van Noy splits between them to get upfield.

And the running back, Elijah McGuire, tries to bounce outside around him. Van Noy's not having that. He gets right into the waist, gets right into the midsection, gets his helmet towards the sideline. It's a perfect form tackle and he brings him down two yards behind the line of scrimmage. From everything you see on that play, this is just fundamental how to play outside linebacker against a wide stretch run type play he fights through the initial two blocks gets himself to the edge forces the runner back to try to bounce it but he doesn't lose the edge then makes a perfect form tackle keeping that head towards the outside as well doesn't let him get outside of him just a tremendous job from Kyle Van Noy let's go to the third quarter this is a

play that I already talked about a bit. We'll talk about it again. This is that play-action boot play. It comes at the 5.46 mark of the third quarter. It's a first and 10. The Jets have the football at the New England 34. And they've kind of been rolling on this drive here. You've got, this is their first possession of the second half.

It opens with a 15-yard play to Robbie Anderson. Another three-yard run, a six-yard pass, a 12-yard run by Crowell on third and one. You get an incompletion, but then a penalty on defensive holdings. So they got first and 10 at the New England 34. And they've got this play set up pretty well, the Jets do. They use some motion pre-snap, they identify man coverage, play action boot, and it's there. There are a couple of routes that he can throw to, particularly a route in the flat as well as a cross or two. I know, shocker, that a cross or a route would be open.

But Van Noy, again, tremendous job. He collapses and pinches down a bit but recognizes the boot and gets himself between the throwing lane, gets himself upfield quickly into the face of Josh McCown, gets his hands up, and prevents him from getting off the throw. It's another fundamentally sound play here because if he overcommits on the run action that's going away from him, he's going to give Josh McCown the edge here, but he doesn't. He sees it. He recognizes that McCown still has the football, and he's booting towards him,

so he gets himself outside and upfield, doesn't let him get to the outside, doesn't let him get to the edge, doesn't let him get around him, and gets his hands up. So when McCown tries to throw this pass, and what he's trying to do here, he's trying to hit this crosser.

It's not happening. He's getting his hands out, tip to deflection, forces a second down play. Again, fundamentals on the edge. We've talked so much as Patriots fans about the Patriots over the years and the seeming inability to have somebody that can consistently set an edge for them. Using Kyle Van Nooy down on the edge in this 3-3-5 type of bear look, which they used often against the Jets, seems to be paying dividends in that respect. A couple of minutes later, it's a 4-13 mark of the third quarter. It's a second and six. Now, we get Vannoy bringing some pressure. This is a green dog blitz. Patriots come out. They've got that sort of 3-3-5 look here

where they've got Butler, they've got Malcolm Brown, and they've got Trey Flowers as your three up front. You've got Simon to one edge. You've got Hightower to the other. You've got Kyle Van Noy in the middle of the field as sort of a linebacker. Josh McGowan is in the shotgun. And what you see here is a green dog blitz because if Kyle Van Noy sees the snap, he's checking the running back. When he sees the running back is not releasing on a pass route, that's when he blitzes. And what's eerily similar to one of the runs

we were just talking about with Sonny Michel is this is, again, processing speed, seeing which way that player is going, which gap he's going to try to fit, and then exploiting the other one. Because the running back who's responsible for Van Noy and protection steps up and into the right A gap. And that's what Van Noy initially sort of aims his green dog blitz for, is that spot. But then when he sees that running back over commit

upfield, he aims through the other A gap. So he twists around him and you see the running back start to turn and look back, but it's too late. Van Noy splits through the opposite A gap and now has a free shot at Josh McGowan. Now he doesn't get home. He doesn't sack him. But he blows up what could have been an easy completion here and forces McGowan to sort of turf it and prevents a big play. And so that was a great little play by Kyle Van Nooy there. Let's go to the final seconds of the third quarter. This is a play at the 0-0-4 mark. And it goes for no play.

It's officially no play, but it's another great example of Kyle Van Noy sort of setting the edge. This time he's aligned on the right side of the defense over the left side of the offense. He's got two tight ends across from him. He's got a tight end and a wing tight end. This is another three-man front look,

but this is your more traditional old school three four from the Patriots you see three down linemen up front you've got uh Danny Shelton inside you've got Trey Flowers and then you've got Lawrence Guy so you've got your three guys up front then you've got four linebackers with Simon on one edge Kyle Vannoye in the other and you've got a Landon Roberts and Dante Hightower this is like old school football here, a traditional 3-4. They run it to the left side. So again, to Vannoy's way, it's a sort of an outside zone, stretch zone type play. Vannoy initially slides inside to take on the inline tight end because he has Patrick Chun outside of him. So he doesn't have to take it outside too much. Chun's now responsible for

setting the edge. But Van Nooy does a great job taking on the initial inline block from the inline tight end, scraping off of him, working off of him, and chopping this down for no gain. It gets called back because of a penalty, an offensive holding penalty. But had this gone in the books, this would have been another tackle for Van Nooy, which you would put on sort of a highlight film on how to play the edge, how to play the outside linebacker spot in a Patriots defense.

Last play we're talking about, 857 mark of the fourth quarter. And this is just a simple, sometimes you get asked to do the safe thing. This is a first and 10 play. And again, the 854 mark, the Patriots just scored to make it 27-13. Van Nooye aligns in the middle of the field again, sort of as an inside backer type. This is another 3-3-5 look. And they just throw a simple check down route to the running back.

And he's tasked with making a tackle on a running back in space and zone coverage. And he does it perfectly. McGuire just runs a simple little sit route over the middle, and he makes a nice, safe-form tackle. This is one where you don't want this three-yard pass to turn into a 13, 14-yard gain. He picks up seven yards, but in this situation, you just want to make the perfect, safe-form tackle. You're up two scores.

Make them work the length of the field. You don't want to miss a tackle in this situation. Give them a cheap, easy one for 20, 25, 30 yards, and that's what Van Noy does. So from start to finish, I thought a very impressive performance from Kyle Van Noy. Fundamentally sound, showing your textbook how to play the edge at times, making plays in the middle of the field. That green dog blitz was a great example of sort of process and speed, and so those were some of the things that I was really impressed with from Kyle Van Noy's tape against the New York Jets. Up next, we're going to start looking ahead to the Minnesota Vikings.

But speaking of looking ahead, we're getting into the holiday season. Hanukkah starts on Saturday night. For those followers and listeners of the Jewish Persuasion and Jewish Faith, Happy Hanukkah. A little early Happy Hanukkah wishes. Obviously, the Christmas season is upon us as well. It is Cyber Week. I love how we've gone from Black Friday to Cyber Monday

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And what's amusing about the sheer volume of work that I do and tape that I end up watching for all the various sites that I write for and all the various pieces I end up doing each week in podcasts and Minnesota Golden Gophers and things like that. When I was sketching the outline for this show, I figured that I was going to have to sit down and watch some Kirk Cousins. But then I went to my little accordion keeper thing. It's a file cabinet type thing where I have all the notes I have on the NFC quarterbacks from this year, and I pull them out,

and I start flipping through, and I realize I have to get this, like, stack of pages and pages and pages upon all of Kirk Cousins' notes and games from this year except for, you know, his game just on Sunday night against the Packers, and it dawned on me that just a short week and a half ago, I did an X's and O's breakdown on Kirk Cousins for Pro Football Week. I had completely forgotten, but I was rather happy to see that because it saved me a couple of hours worth of work. So we'll talk about Kirk Cousins in a second. At the outset, I do want to mention this. Patriots secondary, they're going to have their hands full Stephon Diggs, Adam Thielen

Might be the best pair of route runners On one team in this league Those two guys are fantastic Fantastic, fantastic route runners Stephon Diggs Specifically on double move routes Out and ups, sluggos, stick nods Things like that

Thielen, the same thing Great footwork, get into it, out of breaks Stick nod in the red zone We're going to talk about that in a minute But those two guys are fantastic, fantastic route runners like that. Thielen, the same thing. Great footwork, get into and out of breaks. Stick Nod in the red zone. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But those two guys are fantastic, fantastic route runners. Thinking about trying to defend them has already given me a headache. I'd imagine you're going to see Stephon Gilmore on Thielen. And then, because I think Diggs is a little bit quicker. So I don't think that's the best matchup for Stephon Gilmore. And then I think you might see sort of a bracket type situation against Diggs. That's off the cuff, off the top of my head. What they also love to do

from a schematic standpoint, as we sort of work our way into Kirk Cousins, which is obviously is a big focus given the contract he just got. Schematically, they love mirrored route concepts. If you've listened to the show, you've probably heard me talk about them. It's when you get the same look to both sides of the formation. It's incredibly quarterback friendly. Because simple example, a play I used to run in college all the time, the 5-8-5. Okay, you get on each side of the field, you get a comeback route along the boundary. And you get a post route from one receiver and you get the other receiver, you know,

we would have back out of the backfield or whatever tagged with a different route so you know x585 a scene okay so you get to one side of the field you get a comeback route and a seam route and to the other side of the field you get a comeback route on the outside and a post route it's basically the same route combination and then as a quarterback you pick either you know if it's cover three we usually would work that weak side so you would check that seam route to the comeback route if it's cover three, we usually would work that weak side. So you would check that seam route to the comeback route. If it was cover two, you'd work that strong side, check that post route, perhaps splitting the safeties to the comeback route. And if it was straight man coverage or something like that, you pick your best look, whether it's short side of the field, your best one-on-one matchup, whatever. It just simplifies the decision-making process.

The Vikings do this a ton. They will go mirrored Ohio concept, for example, which is a go route on the outside and a quick out route from the inside receiver. They do that all the time. You will see that to both sides of the field, and it just gives Cousins his idea, pick your best look. Some other sort of mirrored route concepts they do, they will go flat seven smash to both sides of the field. So you get the corner route deep, receiver in the flat, and he picks his best side. They will use a lot of flood concepts as well. They like to do that where you get either digs deep and feeling in the intermediate area or feeling deep and digs in the intermediate area, and then Dalvin Cook releases the flat. They love those sort of three-level floods to one side of the field.

They will do that to both sides. The thing with Cousins you need to remember is one of the things he's very good at is throwing on the move to his left. One of the very first pieces I ever, ever wrote for Inside the Pylon was talking about how good Kirk Cousins was rolling and throwing to his left. His mechanics, both his front and back shoulders, his left shoulder, that front shoulder, his back shoulder, that right shoulder are so crisp and tight when he's throwing on the move to his left. As a right-handed quarterback, first you got to get that left shoulder curled in towards the target and then

you're going to finish with your right shoulder pointing towards the target as well. So you make sure you get all of that shoulder torque involved to generate velocity when you're rolling to your left as a right-handed quarterback. He does that so well. I mentioned stick nod. They love that down in the red zone. They would run it with their tight end Kyle Rudolph. Stick concept is something they like to do. They like to get Dalvin Cook out of the backfield aligned as a receiver at times with stick concept, which is that, you know, out route on the, I mean, excuse me, a go route on the outside, an out route from the middle trips receiver,

and then the inside trips receiver, that number three receiver, he has that option route, whether a curl versus zone, or if he sees man coverage, he turns it into an out route as well. Stick concept. Down in the red zone, they would go stick nod,

where that inside receiver shows you that stick route, where he starts to go out and then breaks vertically. They did it to Kyle Rudolph for a touchdown back in week one. They hit it for a touchdown against, I'm trying to find it. Who was it? It was Arizona. No? Can't find it right now.

Stick-nod. Oh, against, no, that was the San Francisco one. This was against the Lions in week nine. It was a play at the 325 mark of the second quarter back in week nine. You get stick nodding on the outside to Adam Thielen. Again, they will use it with both of those guys. They'll probably use it with Diggs as well. I haven't seen it on tape.

I might have just missed it, but stick nod down in the red zone. So a couple things to remember. Mirror route concepts, stick concept, flood concept, stick nod in the red zone. So a couple of things to remember, mirrored route concepts, stick concept, flood concept, stick nod in the red zone. Finally, last thing I'll mention, they will go Y-ISO at times with Kyle Rudolph and Dalvin Cook shedded to his side of the formation. What you can remember about that is it gives you Stephon Diggs and Adam Thielen, usually in a three receiver set to the other side of the formation, which also sounds pretty nightmarish to deal with. Final thing to mention about them is their defense. They can get pressure with three. They can get pressure with four. They don't have to blitz. Daniel Hunter is a fantastic pass rusher,

obviously something you're going to have to be worried about. Trent Brown, Marcus Cannon, they're going to have their hands full with him on the outside. They do have some guys inside as well that can do some stuff on the interior. Linval Joseph, Sheldon Richardson, those are some beasts on the inside. Gauntlet's having a really good year. The second level is Anthony Barr. Their strong side linebacker, Eric Hendricks,

is good as well. Their corner's a little bit banged up. I believe it was Rhodes who got banged up a little bit on Sunday night against the Packers. We'll have to watch that. Mackenzie Alexander, third-year player. He's coming into form. Trey Waynes has been getting a little bit better. They've had a lot of early round picks in the secondary.

Trey Waynes was a first-round pick. Harrison Smith, very good safety, was a first-round pick. Xavier Rhodes was a first-round pick. Mackenzie Alexander was a second-round pick. They've got some talented guys there. George Iocco, who was a starter last year for the Bengals, he's a reserve for them. So, you know, this is a talented defense. This is a talented

team. I think the Patriots should win this game. But this is by no means going to be a walk in the park. Regardless, I will do everything I can to get you guys and girls ready for that, including tomorrow. Andy Carlson, fantastic, fantastic Vikings.

I hesitate to call him a Vikings reporter. He has his hands in everything. I'm going to tell you all about him a little bit more tomorrow, but he's going to come on. We're going to talk a little Vikings. Pats, then remember, take Thursday. Get some questions in via Twitter at Mark Schofield or email mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com

or the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. Mark.schofield, email mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com or the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. Mark dot, not mark.schofield, the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. If you would like an invite at Mark Schofield on Twitter is a way to hit me up or mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com is another way to get an invite to the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. So that will do it for today. I will be back tomorrow. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Scofield, and Locked on P.