Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 4, 2018 - Sunday Morning Tailgate

Episode Date: November 4, 2018

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🎵 Hey there, everybody. Welcome on into this Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield slotted into the big chair on this Sunday morning, March 4th, 2018. Hope you get your breakfast, your coffee, you're ready to roll here. I'm going to help get you ready for today's slate of NFL action. Before I do, 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. Friends, if there's an outlet covering football, chances are I'm covering it for them. And as my friends Sat and John over at Sportsnet 650, out in Vancouver, sportsnet650.ca on the interwebs, as they call me, I am the hardest working man in all of football media. Reminder, I'm on with them every Thursday, 1 p.m. Eastern. What we're going to do today, our usual Sunday morning tailgate fair,

we're going to have some DFS recommendations for you, a blue chip pick and a value pick at each of the skill positions on the offensive side of the ball. A little bit later, I'm going to talk some CFB, primarily my day in College Park. That's right. I was a credentialed media member for Michigan State at Maryland and Big Ten football. Gotta love it. But first, some last minute news and notes, starting with, of course, the Packers at the Patriots. And there are three players now listed as out between these two teams. You've got Shaq Mason and Brian Schwenke to interior lineman for New England, now listed as out. Shaq Mason with that calf injury, Brian

Schwenke with a foot injury. And if you listened to Friday's game day edition of Locked on Patriots, you probably know that that has me a little worried. Obviously, the Patriots going up against Kenny Clark, who was the first ever recipient of an ode to an opponent here in the Locked on Patriots podcast. That's right. I spent an entire segment extolling the great virtues of Kenny Clark, the interior defender nose tackle for the Green Bay Packers.

As a result, the Patriots making a move on Saturday afternoon, promoting James Ferencz to the active duty roster from the practice squad. Obviously, the Patriots, they listen to the show, I guess, because they're also worried about depth on the interior offensive line. For the Packers, wide receiver Geronimo Allison, he is now listed as out, confirmed by the Packers. They also have Randall Cobb, linebacker Nick Perry, and safety Jermaine Whitehead as questionable.

Other playstrips listed as questionable, Trent Brown with his ankle, Marcus Cannon with his concussion, Joe Cardona with his shoulder, Julian Edelman with his ankle, Josh Gordon with his hamstring, Nicholas Grigsby with an illness, Genio Grissom with an ankle, Rob Gronkowski with his ankle and back, Dante Hightower with a knee, Jacob Hollister with a hamstring, Sonny Michel with a knee, Corderell Patterson with a neck injury, and John Simon with a shoulder injury.

According to Roto-World, Patterson has been limited in practice all week. Neck injuries are tricky, so Patterson isn't a lock to play. Patterson started a running back last week, but he won't have much of a week 9 role if Sonny Michelle returns. Taking you around the league though, some other news around the National Football League.

Sam Bradford released by the Arizona Cardinals as Roto-World parted. The Giants reportedly have no interest in bringing in free agent Sam Bradford, but as Roto-World said, well, they should. Bruce Irvin, also waived by the Raiders, might be an interesting name. I'm sure you're going to hear it associated with the New England Patriots.

Patriots might want to kick the tires on him. He's on the books for $9 million next season, but he'll probably get claimed as a third-down rusher at some point. Derek Anderson will not go for the Bills against the Bears, meaning Nathan Peterman, baby. And if you, like me, have the Chicago Bears as your defense in some fantasy leagues this year, you might want to make sure they're in the lineup. Speaking of the Bears, Kyle Long, their right guard,

placed on injured reserve, dealing with an injury to his foot. Zach Martin, questionable for their week 9 game, the Dallas Cowboys against the Titans. However, tight end Jeff Swaim is listed as doubtful. Kiki Kuti, I've talked about him a bit, thinking, oh, that might be a little bit of a boost to his game with Will Fuller being out for the season. Well, he will not play in Week 9 against the Denver Broncos. Baker Mayfield.

Brown's offensive coordinator, Freddie Kitchens, is expected to use more spread packages with Baker Mayfield. I'm going to talk about him in our DFS segment. You might want to take a flyer on him this week. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, the Browns fired Hugh Jackson and Todd Haley for not building their offense to Mayfield's strengths. Cleveland plans to incorporate some of the air raid schemes

Mayfield ran at Oklahoma with their move to Kitchens, who comes from the pass-heavy Arians tree. This is something I have tried to spread the gospel of far and wide. Build an offense to what your quarterback did in college. I was on with Mack Robinson of Brownswire, the Brownswire podcast this week, and he asked me, you know, what can they do to help him? And I said, look, you sit down with Baker Mayfield and you say, look, man, what are the 15

plays you love to run? What are your favorite 15 plays, 10 plays, 5 plays? Give me those. I don't care what playbook they came from. I don't know if they came from your playbook at Oklahoma. I don't care if they came from your playbook in Pop Warner. Give me the plays you like to run. We'll build them into this offense. And it sounds like that's what Freddie Kitchens is doing.

That's a good sign for Baker Mayfield. Darren Sproles. ESPN's Tim Mc Baker Mayfield. Darren Sproles. ESPN's Tim McManus reported that Darren Sproles could return in Week 10. Eagles are on a bye this week, so that's something to watch. Stephon Diggs. Questionable with a rib injury, according to ESPN's Courtney Cronin. He is doubtful for Sunday's game with Detroit, so you might want to get some Adam Thielen shares this week.

You might expect Thielen to get a ton, and I mean a ton, of targets. Redskins tackle Trent Williams. Expected to miss about a month. He had surgery on Thursday. This four-week timetable is a blow to Washington's offensive line. Ty Neske will fill in on the blind side until Williams returns. Ryan Tannehill, Ian Rappaport reporting he is about two weeks from returning. So it's Brocktober into November. Brock-vember rolls on here for the Miami Dolphins. Some final sort of injury news and notes.

David Njoku removed from the Week 9 injury report. He looks to be good to go. He's been limited in practice the past two weeks, but his status was apparently never in doubt. I'd look for him to rebound against the Kansas City Chiefs. Pete Carroll expecting Chris Carson, who's questionable with a hip and a groin injury, to play in Week 9 against the Chargers.

Ben Roethlisberger dealing with a finger injury. He was not listed on Pittsburgh's final injury report for Week 9. That's a Baltimore-Pittsburgh game. Roethlisberger's going to go. That's going to be a fun game to watch. Mohamed Sanu with his hip injury. He's going to play in Week 9. It's a Baltimore-Pittsburgh game. Roethlisberger's going to go. That's going to be a fun game to watch. Mohamed Sanu with his hip injury. He's going to play in Week 9 against Washington. Michael Thomas was removed from the Week 9 injury report.

Also removed from the roles of his agent. That's something that's kind of off the field. But the Saints wide receiver ready to go this week for a potential shootout against the Los Angeles Rams. Speaking of that shootout, Alvin Kamara with an illness, removed from the Week 9 injury report for the New Orleans Saints, as was Cooper Kopp, knee. He was removed from the Rams Week 9 injury report.

So look, everybody's coming back. Expect points in bunches, which means, considering I know nothing, it's probably going to be a 10-7 game. But that's a look around the league. Up next, I'm going to have my DFS recommendations for your Sunday slate and a little bit later a recap of my day in College Park. That's ahead

on this Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked on Patriots and we're going to do some DFS recommendations right now. I would tell you how I did last week,

but as you all know, I wasn't here last week. So let's just roll right into it. At the quarterback spot, my blue chip pick, Cam Newton versus the Tampa Bay Bucs. And yes, this is basically streaming against Tampa Bay. That is going to be, in all likelihood, that's going to be your blue chip pick for the rest of the season. And the reason why we're going to be basically streaming against Tampa Bay is that, look,

they're giving up 26.3 points per game, two opposing quarterbacks on FanDuel. They're just giving up stuff in bunches in the passing game. They've given up 20 touchdowns, just one interception. You're going to want their opposing quarterback in your lineups. If you want to go cheap, I got Alex Smith as a suggestion against Atlanta. Atlanta, another defensive struggle, and they're giving up the second most points per game to quarterbacks this year, giving up 25.7 points per game to opposing passers. So Alex Smith having another quiet sort of Alex Smith type year.

And so maybe that's a selection for you. But if you really want to have some fun with it and kind of roll the dice, look, I mentioned Baker Mayfield. He's getting to go up against that Kansas City Chiefs defense, which yes, has looked better, but they're still giving up 21.7 points per game to opposing passers on FanDuel. Baker Mayfield, what's he going off for on FanDuel? Just 7,400 as opposed to Alex Smith, 7,500, and Cam Newton, 8,600 over on FanDuel. So if you're buying into Freddie Kitchens and what he's going to be doing with their rookie quarterback out of Oklahoma, maybe you get yourself some Baker Mayfield. Let's shift gears now, go to the running back spot. Our blue chip pick Kareem

Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs at Cleveland. Kareem going off at 8,500. Why? Well, look, Cleveland's defense, the fascinating thing about the Browns this year, they're generating a ton of takeaways. They're not capitalizing that on offense, which is kind of frustrating for them, but they're struggling on the defensive side of the ball in terms of giving up yardage, particularly to running backs. They've given up 10 rushing touchdowns to running backs this year. They haven't given up a passing touchdown to a running back. So that's something to watch.

That might make you sort of hesitant about Kareem Hunt. But they're also giving up 26.2 points per game on FanDuel to running backs. If you want to go value his opponent, Nick Chubb, because this Kansas City Chiefs defense, however, they've given up seven rushing touchdowns to running backs, three receiving touchdowns to running backs, and the second most points per game to running backs this year on FanDuel, 29.4. Nick Chubb going off at 6,600 on FanDuel,

so maybe you want to get him in your lineups. Going wide receivers now. Blue chip pick. It's an interesting week for wide receivers because if you look at it, Adam Thielen going up against the Detroit defense. He's the most expensive receiver this week, 8,900. He's going up against Detroit,

which has been pretty good against opposing wide receivers. Detroit giving up, let me see, 27.6 points per game to wide receivers. Detroit giving up, let me see, 27.6 points per game to wide receivers. That's bottom 10. So they're one of the 10 stingiest defenses against the wide receiver position.

And then you look down Antonio Brown while Pittsburgh, Baltimore, those are always slugfest. I don't know if you want to go that route. DeAndre Hopkins, Houston at Denver, he might see a lot of coverage rolled his way. Then you might say Michael Thomas. Yeah, you might want to do that, but this Rams defense,

they're also kind of stingy when it comes to giving up points to opposing wide receivers, just 29.2 points per game. That makes them one of the 12 toughest defenses to go up from a wide receiver perspective. And so it's just an interesting week. Julio Jones, do you wonder about him ever getting into the end zone? Mike Evans going up against Carolina. Tyreek Hill's been dealing with injury. Then you've got

Robert Woods. Maybe. But I'm going to go actually for Brandon Cook, $7,500. It sounds cheap, but he's the most expensive wide receiver that I trust this week. Flipping it around to the value slot. I'm going to go with John Brown of the Baltimore Ravens.

I know I just said, look, those Ravens, you know, Steelers games, they tend to be slugfests and things like that. But I look at what he's going off for, just 6,500. You know, that's pretty cheap when it comes to wide receivers. And, yeah, he was limited last week against Carolina, just three catches for 28 yards. But you look, you know, two weeks ago against New Orleans, seven catches for 34 yards and a touchdown

and a longest reception of 56 yards. You know, he had a game a couple weeks ago against Pittsburgh where he had three catches for 116 yards and a touchdown, the 71-yard reception in that game. I'm thinking we're going to see something more on the lines of that. It's a home game for Baltimore. The weather looks to be pretty nice here in the Maryland area. Let me just double-check that for you.

Tomorrow's weather in the Baltimore area is going to be 57 degrees, sunny skies. I'd go John Brown. Finally, the tight end spot. Our blue chip pick is going to be Greg Olson against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay, they struggle against quarterbacks. They struggle against tight ends as well. The Buccaneers have given up 14.6 points per

game to oppose the tight ends. Most in the league, they've given up four receiving touchdowns to tight ends. If you want to go cheap, my pick, Chris Herndon. Who? Yes, Chris Herndon of the New York Jets. The Miami Dolphins gave up 10.7 points per game and five touchdown receptions to opposing tight ends, tied for most in the league.

Chris Herndon seems to be developing a little bit of a you know friendly quarterback tight end relationship with Sam Darnold so I think you might want to get in on that so he's going off for 5400 over at FanDuel maybe get yourself in on that action up ahead I'm to recap my day over at College Park, seeing some Michigan State, Maryland, as well as some of the other college football action. That's ahead on this Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Sunday morning tailgate

installment of Locked On Patriots. And first, a recap of my day out at College Park. I was lucky enough to be a credentialed media member for what was just a strange and fascinating, fascinating game to cap off. It's been a whirlwind week for the University of Maryland football team. As you know, their head coach, DJ Jerkinkin had been suspended following the death of a player during off-season workouts there was a massive investigation done into how that death occurred uncovering what was deemed a toxic atmosphere but the school decided to first reinstate DJ Jerkin and then following some backlash and players walking out they decided the following

day to terminate in part ways with head coach DJ Durkin, making Matt Canada, again, the interim head coach for this team. So I was there primarily just to see Brian Lewerke, but then you have all of this other stuff going on, you know, with that program. But that being said, this was a game of football. Let's just put it that way. Michigan State wins it 24-3.

It was an ugly game. It was just ugly. And I think the ugliness could kind of be summed up in a sequence of plays into, I believe it was late third, early fourth quarter where you get and I'm trying to remember if I've got the exact sequence.

You get a Michigan State punt for eight yards. Eight yards. Down to their own 34-yard line. So you get a 17-3 game. And late in the third quarter, one of the final plays of the third quarter,

Michigan State goes to punt. Now, it was a windy day. The wind was in the punter's face, but it goes for eight yards. Eight. And now the Terrapins are driving. They get a third and fourth. The Michigan State 28. Again, they're down 17-3.

They get a chance to get this in the end zone, make it a one-score game. You get a fumble. Recovered by Michigan State. Joe Bocci, their linebacker, number 35, who is a player. That kid can play. I was there with Kyle Krabs from the Draft Network. He and I were just sort of raving about him, how good he looked. So Bakke forces the fumble, recovers the fumble, and Michigan State

takes over the chance to sort of ice this game. Well, they get second and seven. Brian Lewerke, his pass, intercepted. Intercepted. It was just a bad interception. He had some pressure at his feet, but just a poor, poor throw. Intercepted. Now Maryland gets it again. They go basically, they get a first down, but then they go three plays and out after that. On second and nine, Kaysom Hill, their quarterback, he pulls a Yario or a Premion where he goes to throw.

The ball sort of slips out of his hand. He's sacked for a loss of nine, setting up a third and 18. His pass falls incomplete. Maryland has to punt. Now you get Rocky Lombardi coming in, benching Brian Lewerke. On a third and four, he throws a pass that is intercepted by a Maryland defender who returns it down to the one. It looks like he's going to get in for that touchdown

that Maryland so badly needs to get this to a one score game, but he fumbles at it like the one yard line. It's recovered in the end zone by Michigan State for a touchback. And what's amazing about that play is this was third and fourth to Michigan State's 16. They throw an interception. It's a near touchdown, but because it's a fumble that they recover in the end zone for a touchback, they actually gained four yards and get a first down. And on that next play, Connor Hayward, 80-yard touchdown run to basically put that game away. That was the sequence that just blew my mind. It kind of summed up the game in a nutshell. You know, I think the easiest way to sort of sum up that game is one of the writers for The Athletic, Nicole Auerbach, was there.

And she tweeted out at one point. I'm trying to find the tweet. I'm not sure what that was. And that could literally sum up that game. I'm not sure what that was. And that could literally sum up that game. I'm not sure what that was. Brian Lewerke, I came into the season with some high expectations for him. He has not lived up to them. Let's just put it that way. He has been underwhelming this year. And today was kind of a prime example of that. Let's take it around now quickly now some of the other scores. Ohio State survives against Nebraska, who looked feisty today, 36-31.

Impressive win for them. Looking around the rest of the top 25, Clemson blows out Louisville, 77-16. Syracuse with a 41-24 win over Wake Forest. Auburn getting off the snide a bit. They get a 28-24 win over Wake Forest Auburn getting off the snide a bit they get a 28-24 win over Texas A&M Jared Stidham, a late touchdown strike to Travion Williams a late touchdown strike secures the Auburn victory

for the Tigers that throw coming to Seth Williams, an 11-yard touchdown pass with just 1.41 left in the 4 fourth quarter to give the Tigers the win. Jared Stidham in that game, 18 of 29, 239, and two touchdowns, no interceptions. You could say it was probably his best game of the season. So a big win for him, perhaps a little bit of a rebound for Auburn as well. Keeping it around the top 25 here. Some other scores of note. As my page reloads here.

And it's slow. It's slow. It's slow. What else do we have? Iowa State 27-3 over Kansas. Kind of a big win for them. And of course. The night game.

The one that everybody was sort of waiting for. Number one versus number three. LSU. Alabama at LSU tonight. And watching this, you never really get the sense that it was really a game. LSU needed to get some turnovers, needed to generate a spark type play, a big type play. They never really did that. And Alabama's offense just showed that with Tua, they are just, I don't want to say unstoppable, but they're as close as you can probably get to unstoppable because that was a very good

LSU defense. But Alabama did everything they needed to do to win that game. And they come out with that game with a 29 to nothing victory. Tua goes 25 of 42 for 295 and two touchdowns he did throw one interception but the crazy thing about that interception was it comes on a deep shot you know not that late into the second quarter with about four minutes remaining and you get the sense LSU takes over deep in their own territory. You almost felt like that was a play that gave Alabama the advantage because the LSU offense, they were just not moving the ball at all. Obviously, Alabama goes out.

They stop them. They force a punt. They get good field position. What happens? They go down the field, score a touchdown, Tua hitting the tight end on a beautiful throw in the corner of the end zone. So Alabama takes it to a 16-0 lead at the half. And I know Gary Danielson was up there in the booth basically saying, look, you know, LSU, they need to run some clock. They need to get to the second half where they get their linebacker back.

But it's like, look, man, linebacker's not going to score you points. And that was the big issue. And so Alabama, it's hard to see a team beating them right now maybe clemson look they win 77 to 16 today maybe you think look that might be the team to do it but i'm really hard pressed sitting here right now to see a team beating alabama another game that i gotta touch on near and dear to my heart, Wesleyan. They have their other little three game, and they pull out a win. Wesleyan pulling out a victory 21-14 over Williams in a little three game. And yes, it does not erase the pain of losing to Amherst a couple of weeks ago,

but it's a win. And now, look, fingers crossed, because technically, technically, if Williams pulls off an upset next week over Amherst, you split that little three, three ways. It could happen. That will do it for today's show. I will be back hopefully later tonight with a glorious victory edition of Locked on Patriots. But before I go, remember, look, it is now Sunday.

We are just a couple of days away from the midterm elections. And I've been imploring you begging all of you please go out there and vote not telling you who to vote for what to vote for why to vote anything like that people's politics are their own but I'm begging you to go out and make your voice heard and I've been given more personalized shutouts over the past couple of days looking at the metrics for the lockdown Patriots podcast seeing where the bulk of the listeners come from. I gave shout-outs to, obviously, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to California, the Commonwealth

of Virginia. Today, it's our great friends in New York, listeners to the show, every day in New York State. So happy to see that. And look, you've got some fantastic stuff to vote for. Obviously, look, you've got governor, you've got a senator's race, you've got every house district is on the ballot, and you've got some ballot measures as well. There's question one, New York campaign finance city charter amendment. A yes vote is a vote in favor of amending the city charter

to lower the amount that a candidate for city elected office may accept from a contributor. The proposal would also increase the public funding available for a citywide candidate participating in the city's public matching funds program. A no vote is a vote against that. There you go. There's stuff that you can weigh in on that isn't just purely a candidate. For example, question two, New York. New York Civic Engagement City Commission Charter Amendment. A yes vote is a vote in favor of amending the city charter to create a civic engagement commission. Maybe that sounds great. If so, go ahead and vote for it. Maybe it doesn't sound great. Well, guess what? A no vote is a vote against that. So you can go do that as well. All I'm trying to say is this.

Regardless of the political back and forth you hear day in and day out, there is serious stuff that you can vote on, that you can weigh in on, ballot questions like this, up and down on the ballot, in every state, every county, every district. So please, go out and vote. That will do it for today's show. Like I said, I will be back later tonight. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, fingers crossed,

with a glorious victory edition of Locked on Patriots. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Scofield, and Locked on Patriots. Thank you. Thanks for watching!