Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 30, 2018 - Friday Gameday

Episode Date: November 30, 2018

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Hey there everybody, Mark Schofield here on a Friday game day edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair on this Friday, November 30th. We have made it to the end of November. Which means that come tomorrow, we are officially in December, which yes, means holiday season and all that fun stuff, but it also means the Patriots back home in a month where they tend to dominate. We talked about the Patriots record in the month of December during the Brady and Belichick era a little earlier this week.

So excited to see the calendar flip that page over to December. What are we going to do today? A little tweak to our standard game day fair. We're going to talk Patriots, Vikings at the start. Segment two of the show, we're going to talk a little bit around the league, a little other NFL action. And a little bit later, some college football action. We've got some college football conference championship games to keep an eye on, whether it's just because the college game is fun, or whether it's because we want to keep an eye on, whether it's just because the college game is fun or whether it's because we want to keep an eye on a quarterback or two. Again, this is my brand in addition to Toto. Of course, though, best way to keep up with my brand, follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly,

The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites, friends. If they're covering covering football chances are i'm doing some work for them let's get into it now our sort of expectations here for sunday against the minnesota vikings we're going to start with the patriots when they have the football and i think there's some excitement building in a sense about the return of rexhead. Obviously, we saw Patterson over the past couple of weeks with a guy like Burkhead out, handling some of the load, but I think having Burkhead back gives the Patriots three pretty solid options now at the running back spot with James White, Bessoni, Michel, and now Burkhead. They can do some things with Burkhead from a matchup perspective,

how they like to use him, sometimes split out wide. You can go tempo with him, and if you get sort of a base defense look, you can split him out, get him matched up against a linebacker. If the defense goes small nickel-dime type packages, you can run him in between the tackles and to the edges. And so Burkhead gives them a little bit of flexibility, similar to sort of James White. You can do some different things with them. They used early in the season the two running back packages with Burkhead and White on the field at the same time. I'd look for some things like that as well

against this Minnesota Vikings defense. A matchup obviously I think people wonder about is Daniil Hunter and this talented Vikings pass rush against the Patriots offensive line, which with the return of Shaq Mason to the fold looked much better last week against the Newots offensive line, which with the return of Shaq Mason to the fold, looked much better last week against the New York Jets. Having Shaq Mason back, obviously a huge boost to this New England Patriots offensive line. Something I'm going to be watching, specifically with respect to Tom Brady,

are those throws to the left flat. Thursday I made my usual weekly appearance on Sportsnet 650 up in Vancouver where my buddies sat and John and I talked at length about Brady and those throws to the left flat. We've seen him miss those a couple of times, more than a couple of times over the past couple of games. And so is that a sign? Is that the canary in the coal mine moment? Or is it just a weird little glitch? I mean, I hearken it in a sense to, is this a Chuck Knobloch moment? Is this the sign when Knobloch first couldn't make that throw from second base to first base? And it eventually ended his career.

Now, I'm not saying we're anywhere close to that. But you'd have to imagine when Knobloch missed those first couple of throws, people were like, huh, that's interesting. All right, well, something to that. But you'd have to imagine when Knobloch missed those first couple of throws, people were like, huh, that's interesting. All right, well, something to watch. And then the problem sort of snowballed. Again, we've talked so much on this show, people have talked so much over the past couple of years about the eventual Brady decline. I'm not saying we're there yet, but it just makes us ultra sensitive and ultra alert to when you see something go awry. So I'll be watching those throws to the left flat.

I'm going to be watching route concepts. It's going to be curious to see Xavier Rhodes. Can he go? No, he did not participate in practice on Wednesday. He did not participate as well as Stephon Diggs, Chad Beebe, and David Morgan. Going to be watching those guys. Adam Thielen with limited participation as well. I'm going to be watching the route concepts they're going to use.

How are they going to use Gronk? Who's going to be up against Gronk? Are we going to see, like I thought, maybe Harrison Smith, Andy Carson, our buddy over at Purple for the Winston. Nope, nope, not so fast, my friend. We're not going to see Harrison Smith against Gronk. That's not really the matchup. Smith's sort of Achilles heel, those man coverage moments.

We're probably going to see a J-Ron Curse up against Rob Rob Gronkowski so that's going to be something interesting to watch and as far as that third cornerback spot on the outside if Xavier Rhodes can't go is it going to be a Holton Hill and if so are we going to get a Holton Hill versus Josh Gordon type situation that will be something interesting to watch as well flipping the script let's talk about defending against this Vikings offense, which is an offense that is starting to come into form, starting to make some plays in the passing game. Obviously, the two first names you got to worry about, Stephon Diggs, Adam Thielen. Now, you know, Diggs didn't go and practice on Wednesday,

so we do wonder about him and his status for Sunday. Feeling a bit hampered a little bit by a calf injury. Sitting here right now, I know people have been talking a lot on Twitter and elsewhere about how you're going to defend those two guys. People said maybe we see more zone coverage. I'm not so sure that Belichick does that. He wants to play man coverage. He wants to play cover one. It gives you some flexibility with what you're going to do up front.

So my initial inclination, again, you get Stephon Gilmore, you put him on Adam Thielen and say, look, this is your guy. I think that's probably the better matchup between the two when you're looking at Gilmore versus Diggs or Gilmore versus Thielen. Then I think you see some dedicated safety help over the top of Stephon Diggs. Cone-type coverages, maybe even once in a while you see a true double on him, but give them some different looks. Sitting here right now, I think that's the way they go, but Belichick might flip it up and he might say, no, Gilmore, you're getting Diggs.

If he goes, maybe he's hampered by the knee injury, whatever. He's your guy. Lock him down. Then we'll do the cone, the bracket type stuff against Adam Thielen. But whichever matchup it is, I think that's what we're likely to see. Gilmore trying to lock one of those guys down and cone, bracket, dedicated safety help to the other guy. As far as Kirk Cousins, two things on him you do have to remember. One, very mobile quarterback.

You know, underrated mobility to him. They do a lot of boot action with him. Patriots have been working against covering that this week. Handle those boot action type plays. Edge defenders are going to stay home. Active, hands up like Kyle Vannoy against Josh McCown last week in that game against the Jets. So you have to be ready for him to get moved out of the pocket.

Some pocket mobility with him. Pressure is going to be key the book on Kirk Cousins like almost any other quarterback if you pressure him they're going to make mistakes the only one I haven't seen that true with this year is Phillip Rivers who believe it or not has a quarterback rate of 93.8 when pressured this year I did a piece on that for pro football weekly if you'd be as so If you'd be as inclined to give that a click, I'd greatly appreciate it. But that's something to watch with him. If you can get pressure on Kirk Cousins, he tends to make some mistakes. So if they can get some semblance of a pass rush, you can do some stunts, some twists. We talked about that a little bit on how to get pressure on you know this quarterback situation how to get pressure

on Kirk Cousins that matchup between Trey Flowers and company against Brian O'Neill and company the Bears use some twists and they also got a just a pure breakdown up front to get some pressure on Cousins and get home so that's something I'm gonna be watching for as well as far as an overall prediction I think this is a pretty pretty good game you know i think that the patriots will do enough to win i think it's going to be like a seven eight type point victory i don't think it's going to be a blowout or anything like that but again calendar being december you got to believe that the patriots going to find a way to get this done so that would do it here for our sort of talk about the game up next i got one more listener question i I missed one before yesterday's show, so I

want to get to that. We'll take a spin around the league. Some games I'm going to be watching a little bit later. A spin around the college football landscape. That's all ahead on this game day installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Friday game day edition of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And a quick

reminder, if you could, be so inclined as to leave a review over at iTunes. We cracked the 100 review mark, so I'm extremely excited about that. Mostly, I'd say probably 99% five-star reviews. Did get a three-star review recently, said that the

game review shows were more too focused on the review, not enough insight. And I'm going to take that to heart. I'm going to try to be better next week. I always want to get better at doing this for you guys and girls out there that have been so loyal, listened to the show over the year. But if you've loved the show, if you've enjoyed the show, if you haven't liked the show, leave a review.

Let me know what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong. I would love to hear from all of you. Also, if you want to be part of the conversation, join that Locked On Patriots Slack channel at Mark Schofield on Twitter. Mark.Schofield at InsideThePylon.com is an email. You can be a part of the conversation over there. As I said, though, I did miss a question that I have to get to.

Our great listener, NMAC, at Reluctant Underscore Trade on Twitter, always sends in a question for the Take Thursday show and I appreciate it so much. Because, again, I love hearing from all of you listeners, all you men and women out there

who listen to the show and when somebody takes the time each week to send in a question, it means the world to me. So, I missed it. Wanted to make sure I get to it. Hey, Mark. Controversial question for Thursday's show. Were the Patriots right to try to trade Gronk before the season started? Enjoying the shows, learning loads.

Thank you so much for getting that in. And I don't think it's that controversial of a question. It maybe gets us sort of into the hot take realm, perhaps, which longtime listeners to the show know I don't tend to go down that road. But I don't think it's a controversial question. I think it's a great question. And I think the Patriots were right to try to create Gronk. I think in this day and age of salary caps, roster construction, trying to maximize your dollar as an organization. It behooves you every season to sort of take stock of where you're at, take stock of where

each player on your organization, each player on your roster is at, and see if it would make more sense to move on. I think we're going to see more and more of that over the next couple of years as you see teams that have gotten younger, particularly at the quarterback position, which gives you that flexibility from a roster construction standpoint. Look at the Jacksonville Jaguars. Blake Bortles, I said it before this year started, that's going to be the one to watch if they move on from Blake Bortles. And it seems like that process has begun, sped up in part by some of his ineffectiveness. But my larger point is this.

If you know that somebody is probably going to want a big play day, A or B might potentially walk away from the game. And let's not forget, Gronk had made some intimations that he might hand him off. And that Bill Parcells line, if a player's talking about retirement, he's already got one foot out the door. And so I think the Patriots were right to explore any potential suitors for Robert Gronkowski's services. Now, it would still be a situation

where you look at what he means to this offense, what he means to this team, and if you believe the rumors, the fact that it might more than annoy your GOAT quarterback in Tom Brady, then you probably don't pull the trigger. But if somebody comes out of the blue and says, look, we'll give you two firsts and two seconds

for Rob Gronkowski, this year's first and second, next year's first and second, some sort of offer you can't say no to, then I think you do it. And so I don't think they were in the wrong at all to try to trade Gronkowski to at least explore the opportunities. And nothing ever came of it. It is a business after all. And the Patriots, they are in the business of trying to make themselves a better team every single day. And if somehow there's a way to do that while trading Rob Gronkowski in a way that from the cost-benefit analysis makes sense I think it's the thing to do but again

thank you so much for the question man I again love love love hearing from you let's talk about some of the games I'm going to be keeping an eye on this weekend. We're going to start with a game between two quarterbacks at the one end of the spectrum. This game between Houston Texans and the Cleveland Browns. That's going to be a fascinating game to watch. You've got Deshaun Watson. You've got Blake Baker Mayfield. Two quarterbacks that could perhaps grow a butt- little feud rivalry in the afc i'm not

going to go as far as to say the next man in brady but two quarterbacks playing on high level two teams that are playing pretty well you know i was on sports that's 590 in toronto on wednesday night and the opening question was should we be taking the houston texans seriously as a super bowl contender and when you look at where they've come from, from where they started, 0-3 to 8-3, that's a nice little run they've put together. And they've got a fairly favorable schedule down the stretch. They've got Cleveland and Indy at home. They've got two road games remaining in back-to-back weeks,

but one's at the Jets, one's at the Eagles. Who knows what the Eagles will look like come Week 16. And then a home game against Jacksonville, who seems to be blowing it up. You know, those are five winnable games. They could finish 13-3. You know, and you could be looking at a situation where maybe they don't get a first-round bye,

but they're hosting another wildcard weekend game. And so, you know, interesting to watch them. Interesting to watch Baker Mayfield and the development that he's shown on tape over the past couple of weeks. Then I loved about watching his game last week against Cincinnati. He always has a plan of attack.

When he moves in the pocket, when he breaks the pocket, he knows where to go with the football. He's not just making it up as he goes along, kind of like I'm doing with this show. Just kidding, just kidding, just saying. But always has a plan. So fascinating to watch that game.

The game on Sunday night, I think, is a huge matchup. Obviously has playoff implications. Chargers at Steelers. That's going to be a very interesting game to watch. Phillip Rivers, like I said, 93.8%—93.8 quarterback rating this year when pressured. If the Steelers bring pressure, it might play right into what the Chargers are doing on offense. Important game for both of those teams for playoff position.

Chargers trying to keep pace with the Kansas City Chiefs. Steelers trying to lock down that division and keep pace for perhaps a number two seed. Who knows what's going to happen with the Chiefs. They get a game on the road against the Raiders. Hard to see the Chiefs dropping that one. But the Chiefs' schedule overall, they've got a couple of hiccups along the way. They've got two games on the road remaining this week against Oakland

and then a week 16 at Seattle, who chances are is going to be fighting for their playoff lives still. They're on the outside looking in right now. That's always a tough place to play. Then you get three home games, one against the lives still. They're on the outside looking in right now. That's always a tough place to play. Then you get three home games, one against the Ravens. They're in the mix. One against the Chargers, which shapes up to be huge, but that's a home game on a Thursday.

You know how those Thursday night games tend to favor the home teams. And then Oakland at home. And so it's hard to see Kansas City coughing up this divisional lead, which is, again, just one game, but it's possible. So that's a game we're going to be keeping a watch on. The rest of the games, other than that Vikings-Pats game, the rest of the games are kind of a mix. You could look at, for example, Baltimore-Atlanta

and see how we get Lamar Jackson in his next start, start number three. Chicago looks like they're going to be without Mitchell Trubisky again. Will Chase Daniel have enough to win on the road for a second straight week? But any Sunday, any NFL Sunday is a good NFL Sunday. We are, as always, looking ahead to those games on Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, and even into Monday with that Washington-Philadelphia game. You can almost look at that one. It's kind of a suitable elimination game.

If Washington loses that one, you can't imagine them really coming back without Alex Smith's services. If Philly loses, it might be a knockout blow for them as well. So that's going to be an interesting one to watch. Up next, we've got some college games to talk about, including, yes, I'm going to talk about them.

I'm going to be talking about them a lot. Brett Rippon. More Brett Rippon talk. Unlocked on Broncos. I meanippin talk on Locked on Bronc. I mean, no, on Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. Going to quickly close out this Friday game day edition of Locked on Patriots to talk about some of the conference championship games we got this weekend.

We've got a loaded slate of conference championship games, and it kicks off tonight of all nights at Levi's Stadium, Pac-12 championship Utah and Washington Jake Browning 196 for 301 on the season 2,692 passing yards 16 touchdowns if you like a run game this might be a fun game to watch because I imagine both of these teams are going to come in really sort of establish the, take a lot off the plate of their quarterbacks. I would think Washington wins this one, but it's going to be a fun game to watch. Saturday gets kicked off at high noon. Texas, Oklahoma, a little Red River shootout redux in the Big 12 championship game. Kyler Murray, more and more people have been asking me about Kyler Murray and

if he could sort of translate to the National Football League. And I think that from a skill set perspective, he could. You look at the athleticism, the speed, the ability outside of the pocket, the ability to make things happen with the football in his hands, ability as a thrower as well. Fantastic college football quarterback. I do think that, again, teams might be scared off a bit because of the height, the frame, the size.

He's got $5 million guaranteed waiting for him from the Oakland A's. And so with that kind of situation, I would imagine teams, a team might take a flyer on him when he decides to leave school, maybe in the early day three or something, midday three, but I'm not so sure about long-term NFL prospects, but you never know. So that's going to be an interesting one to watch. Next conference championship game on the slate, Memphis and UCF. And a bit of a bittersweet conference championship game.

Obviously, Mackenzie Milton is going to be out. Looks like the fans at UCF are going to be wearing some leis in his honor. Obviously, he's from Hawaii. He got that horrible injury that he suffered last week against South Florida. Memphis, 11-0. It would be great for that program if they finish the season unbeaten and get themselves into a nice bowl game yet again. Just a bittersweet moment for that team because, obviously,

they had high expectations of, you know, more than just a good bowl game, you know, a New Year's Day-type game. You know, they wanted higher expectations, and without McKenzie Milton, hard to see that happening. SEC championship game. Yet again, we get Alabama, we get Georgia. I think a lot of people sort of saw these as the two best teams in the SEC this year. People expected these two teams to meet after that meeting in the national championship game.

So we get to see them yet again going at it. And it's hard to pick against Alabama in this game. Tua Tagovila, just a fantastic season. I think he could pretty much start putting his name on the Heisman right now. People have been saying, Dane Brugler, for example, had a tweet out just the other day that he talked to somebody in an NFL organization that Alabama has 17 eligible players that could be drafted on their roster right now.

Not all of them could come out, but they have 17 players that are draft eligible that teams would be interested in. It's basically like a minor league football team. That's how good they are. Hard to pick against them. Saturday night, 7.45 p.m. Eastern. The game of the week.

It is Fresno State at Boise State in a Mountain West championship game. I've been talking about Brett Rippon all year long. Excited to see this game. Excited that it doesn't kick off at 10.15 Eastern. That was a late night last Saturday night recording the ending to that podcast at two in the morning.

I love you guys. I love you guys. So I do what I gotta do. But like I say, I was a little bleary-eyed at in the morning. I love you guys. I love you guys. So I do what I gotta do. But like I say, I was a little bleary-eyed at church Sunday morning. But I'm excited to see this game on the blue turf. I want to see one more big game from Brett Rippin. I'm hoping against hope that the only reason that he has not been announced

to receive an invite to the Senior Bowl down in Mobile is that they're waiting for this conference championship game to be behind us. And Jim Nagy can come out and say, we got another invite. Because I've been trying. I've been lobbying. We'll see. But excited to watch that game.

We got a Dr. Pepper ACC championship game. Clemson-Pittsburgh. I think Clemson wins this game. I think they win it pretty handily. I think Clemson's the better team. Pittsburgh coming in at 7-5. Clemson 12 this game. I think they win it pretty handily. I think Clemson's the better team. Pittsburgh coming in at 7-5, Clemson 12-0. Trevor Lawrence, people thought he might take over, and he did. And he's become their starting quarterback, and he's off to a great season.

I know people are already on board. I've been telling people 2020, that 2021 class, he's QB1. Now, I'm not going to plant the flag firmly on that hill, but he's an exciting player to watch and another exciting player to watch Dwayne Haskins triggering that Ohio State offense they're in the Big Ten Championship game against Northwestern and Clayton Thorson who already has accepted his invite to the Reese's Senior Bowl down in Mobile Haskins an interesting player to watch because if Justin Herbert stays Haskins might find himself as de facto somehow

QB1 but would he come out after just one year as a starter that's going to be fascinating to watch great slate of college football action I love championship weekend it's my favorite college football weekend of the year bar none so I'm excited to see it all play out

that will do it for today's show I will be back on Sunday for your Sunday morning tailgate we'll be talking about some of these games we'll be getting you ready for kickoff, getting you ready for the NFL Slate of Action, revisiting some DFS stuff as well. Until then, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield

and Locked on Patriots.