Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots - November 7, 2019: Nine Down, Seven To Go

Episode Date: November 7, 2019

With a record of 8-1 at their bye-week, the New England Patriots are well-positioned for a deep run into the playoffs. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Bobby Krivitsky, host of Krivitsky and Kyles Podcast, to offer his thoughts on some first half highlights and a prediction on the Pats’ remaining seven games.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello to all of you Foxborough faithful and welcome to your thought-provoking Thursday episode of Locked On Patriots, your daily home for news, notes, analysis, and the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. This episode is brought to you in part by Peloton. Peloton is offering a limited-time offer. Get $100 off accessories when you purchase the Peloton bike and get a great cardio workout at home. Go to onepeloton.com, use promo code LOCKED to get started. My name is Mike DeBate and I am your host of Locked On Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at M-P-C, and be sure to follow Locked On Patriots on Twitter at L-O underscore

Patriots. And today is Thursday of the Week 10 NFL schedule, and the season is more than half over. And it's amazing, folks. You think the holidays go by fast? The NFL season is a blur, and it's hard to believe that we're closer to the playoffs than the beginning of the season. Now, normally we would be preparing for the Patriots matchup with their weekly opponent. We'd be breaking down the matchups and providing predictions on what you will see on the field.

But as you know, this is the Patriots bye week, and they will return to action in 11 days against the Philadelphia Eagles. But don't worry, we will be covering that matchup starting on Monday, going to have some special guests, and of course, Crossover Wednesday will be back with our friends at Locked On Eagles. It's going to be a great week, and there's no love lost between these organizations, folks. We know that. If you think I will be referencing Lane Johnson's chances of having fun, you will be right, and you'll be right often.

But during the bye week, it gives us a chance to reflect on the year so far, and we've done that up until this point. We've opened the Locked On Patriots mailbag and presented some midseason medallions. And today, I'm excited to welcome Bobby Kravitzky of Bleacher Report to offer his thoughts on the best moments of the season so far and talk a bit about some of the moments we'd rather forget. And I'll ask him to gaze into the Belichickian crystal ball here on Locked On Patriots and give his prediction on the second half of the season for your New England Patriots. So folks, stay locked into Locked On, pun intended, and I hope that you enjoy today's show.

But first, we start with the news of the day, and coming off their first loss of the season, the New England Patriots returned to the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium on Wednesday to hold the only practice of their bye week. Conditions were perfect for the full pad session, but attendance was not. Neither strong safety Patrick Chung or tight end Benjamin Watson were spotted during the short open window at the beginning of practice. Now, neither one suffered any reported injuries during Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens, so the reason for their absence, even if it's possible it was only for the initial 10-minute window of practice, still remains a mystery at this point.

When it comes to Chung, an injury is certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Don't forget, Chung was listed as questionable on the injury report for the Ravens game. He's been nursing both heel and chest injuries. Now, Chung was also on the field for only 27 of New England's 70 defensive snaps against the Ravens. That's a noticeably lower number than his usual playing time share of close to 100%. The Patriots giving him additional rest heading into the home stretch of the regular season certainly seems possible. Now, the same could also be said for Benjamin Watson. Don't forget, Watson is 38 years of age. He played all 67 of the team's offensive snaps on Sunday night and

really has been their only option at tight end. Now, teams are not required to release injury reports during their bi-weeks, so we really won't receive any updates on Watson and Chung's conditions until next week. But after this practice, the Patriots have four days off before returning to work and starting preparations for their upcoming game against the Eagles. So now the Patriots begin a few days of well-deserved rest and relaxation. But before we look forward, it's more than acceptable to take a look back here on Locked On Patriots. And Bobby and I will do that in just a moment. However, before I proceed with that, I wanted to take a minute to address all of you guys out there.

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and we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. My guest today is a rising star in the sports media universe, particularly in the New England area. His passion for Boston sports is evident in all of his content. He is a sports anchor and reporter. He is the co-host of Kravitzky and Kyle's podcast. He's a former NFL and NBA columnist for Bleacher Report, and he is the host and producer of Learfield IMG College Audio.

It is my pleasure to welcome in today Bobby Kravitzky, the Locked On Patriots. Bobby, thank you for joining me today. Mike, thanks for having me on, and you're far too kind with that introduction. I assure you, it is well-earned. It's one I've been looking forward to, and I think we'll have a lot of fun today, and I think you could provide some great insight to our listeners here at Lockdown on what the Patriots have done so far and where they might be going. Bobby, the Patriots are 8-1, and they sit atop of the AFC East as well as the AFC.

Yet the narrative surrounding this team is much more negative than it should be, in my opinion anyway. And I've been saying all week that negative attention could just be wishful thinking of the national media and other NFL fan bases, or could it be just a product of a level of success achieved during the Brady and Belichick era, which has been really off the charts. But success is something that the Patriots have had a lot of so far this year. As you look back on 2019 so far, what has stood out to you as some of the best moments for this Patriots team?

Yeah, it is unfortunate that negativity sells, and so you repeatedly see different sections of the media play up to that and pander to that. They did a lot right, and nearly most games at that level, they're determined by a handful of plays, and if some of those flip in the Patriots' favor, for example, James White kicking the heel of Marcus Cannon and falling down just short of the goal line, you flip a play like that or Julian Edelman's fumble, and you could have a different outcome in that game Sunday night against the Ravens.

As far as top moments from the course of the season, I think the feel-good moment was Matthew Slater's touchdown against the Bills. I know that tends to get lost in the shuffle here at this juncture in the season, but that was certainly a treat to see. Sam Darnold seeing Ghost was very entertaining. I still can't believe that both the Jets and the NFL allowed that to make it out onto the broadcast. And the start to the Browns game was wild.

I've never seen a play at any level of football where Kyle Van Nooy takes out the offensive lineman, a heady play by Van Nooy, and his cleat comes up and knocks the ball out of the running back's hand, and it ends in a defensive touchdown, a scoop and score for Dante Hightower. I've never seen anything like that. The chemistry with Mohamed Sanu and Tom Brady was certainly encouraging Sunday night against the Ravens, and I know he's no longer here, but Josh Gordon made two ridiculous catches against the New York Jets in the first matchup of the season, including one to set up a touchdown. He also had that hurdle against the Steelers on opening night, so it's unfortunate that he's not a part of the mix anymore.

But I include those plays that he was able to make earlier in the season in some of my highlights and top moments. Yeah, and I think you mentioned some great ones, and really there have been a lot of feel-good moments. I'm glad that you mentioned Gordon because he does deserve some credit for the contributions he made while he was here, and unfortunately, for, you know, a number of different reasons, I'm sure, it didn't end up working out this year for Josh, but hopefully he'll go on to big things in Seattle, just not come back to haunt the New England Patriots, because that's something we definitely

don't want to see, you know, as fans or as, you know, media members that cover the team. You know, we want to see this team go as far as we can. I'm glad that you mentioned the kick of James White, of Marcus Cannon, not being able to lunge for the end zone in that, and the Edelman fumble, because that leads me quite nicely into my next question for you, Bobby. Things can't be sunshine and rainbows all the time, and the Patriots have had some tough injuries. They've had some personnel turnover and some tough moments on the field. If you were to bury the game ball, so to speak, what would those moments be? In other

words, what would you prefer that the team erase from their psyche so far in the 2019 season? Well, let's start with the offensive line play, and that jives nicely with we're going to bury any football that has negative connotations to how the run game performed that particular week because it's been a struggle. It's been a very disappointing year for Sonny Michel, even though clearly, and Dante Skarniecki has said as much as you'd expect from Scar, that it has way more to do with the offensive line. Not that Sony is blameless, but it's just been a struggle, and it's really limited how dynamic this offense can be. So I know everyone's on Isaiah Wynn countdown until he can come back week 12

against the Cowboys. Hopefully he can elevate this offensive line. I know you asked me about low lights, and those two are as high as any. There's certainly some concern about the Patriots' run defense as well. Obviously, that's the first thing I think we're probably going to have to do away with the boogeyman shirts. I think that Bill is awfully upset with not only how they played, but how they schemed up for the Ravens.

Baltimore, Greg Roman, plus the bye week. There was a lot of elements there to be able to counteract what the Patriots like to do defensively. And I was surprised that they chose a more conservative style of defense as opposed to resembling more how they attack the Rams in the Super Bowl, give guys a gap, let them get downhill, and just aggressively attack Jared Goff and Todd Gurley in that running game, as well as a passing attack. And so I was surprised they didn't take a similar approach, but Lamar Jackson is someone,

as we saw, he'll put you in a blender no matter what you do. So we're going to go ahead and move on from that game quickly. And then I just think that the offensive line to circle back to them I think there are some encouraging moments that go beyond waiting for Isaiah Wynn to get back and hopefully solidify the left tackle position for them Ted Karras for instance this was his second consecutive game with a clean sheet in pass protection I thought Marcus Cannon had his best game in a while Shaq Mason he missed the game against the Browns to get healthy, and now the bye week should go a long way towards getting him back to playing, at least at a level that

resembles how well he was performing last season. So I do think there are valid reasons for optimism when it comes to how the offensive line will play and its ability to elevate this offense as a whole coming out of the bye week. I agree with you. I think those are great, great analysis. And I'm glad you mentioned the run defense because I handed out on the Locked On Patriots yesterday what's called the midseason medallions.

And some of the guys that have really stood out, and Stephon Gilmore, Julian Edelman, the coaching staff, were a lot of my stars. But the run defense is something that I think a lot of people are concerned about, and with due cause. We've seen teams that run these RPOs, these run-pass options, that have been very difficult for the Patriots to pick up. I don't think it's necessarily because of the fact that they're just not used to seeing

these types of coverages or that they're so exotic that they're confusing the Patriots. I think it has to do with the speed and the athleticism of the linebacking core. It's gotten a lot better with Jamie Collins, but you're still seeing them struggle to get into position to be able to do that. I think they'll look at that in the second half. Another game ball that is always a concern that they may want to bury and move on from and hopefully won't be an issue is the kicking game as well. We've seen now a revolving door of kickers, and this team had only employed

three starters since Bill Belichick took the control of the team in 2000. Now we're on their third kicker of the season. So it's definitely a concern, and you've mentioned some good points. So the good thing about it is this team is very focused. They look at the time that they have, they utilize it well, and what they do is they take what other teams do focused. They look at the time that they have, they utilize it well, and what they do is they take what other teams do well, they take their own weaknesses, and then they push it back. So I look for that,

and I know the team is at heart at work during the bye week to get that taken care of. Bobby, you provided some great retrospectives on the past 29 seasons so far, but there's a lot of football left, and we're going to discuss whether the best is yet to come in Foxborough, and we'll do so in just a moment. But first, I have a question for you.

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Visit MyBookie.ag today. You play, you win, you get paid with MyBookie. I'm speaking with Bobby Kravitzky, host of Kravitzky and Kiles, whose co-host, Taylor Kiles of Pat's Pulpit is a mutual friend of myself and Bobby's and a great analyst for them. I highly recommend you checking out this podcast. Very, very good. Very great analysis and also spot on entertaining.

Great stuff by Bobby and Taylor. So I highly recommend checking this out. So, Bobby, we've delved into the Patriots 2019 past, but it's time to travel back to the future. And the Pats kick off the second half of 2019 on Sunday, November 17th, and they take on the Philadelphia Eagles. When you look at the Patriots' schedule, we see the matchups with the Eagles, the Texans, the Chiefs, the Cowboys, and even the Bills. Those are the marquee games still to come. Is there a game in particular that worries you more than most? And if so, could that game or a couple of games derail the Patriots' path

to the number one seed or even a first-round buy? And that part of the question is why the Chiefs game in particular should be the one that merits the most concern and could end up being the reason, coupled with the loss to the Ravens that the Patriots are forced to play on the road in the postseason. But the game that actually concerns me the most, even though the stakes aren't quite as high, is their first matchup coming out of the bye week against the Eagles, because no Carson Wentz isn't nearly the same level of threat to make plays with his legs

that Lamar Jackson is, but their personnel is well-suited to replicate a lot of what Baltimore had success with against New England's run defense. They've got two very good tight ends who are contributors and important targets for Wentz in the passing game, and Zach Ertz and Dallas Goddard. Jordan Howard is a hard runner who will make plays. They've got backs who are change of pace backs like Darren Sproles who will get involved in the passing attack and try to get matched up with

linebackers. They have, in my opinion, the best offensive line in football. So this is an offense that can really give the Patriots defense a lot of trouble. They just saw what happened and have a few weeks now because they're in their buy as well to digest and look at the film and see exactly how the Ravens teamed it up and what they can now customize to implement into their offensive attack so this is a game where once again it's a huge test for this Patriots defense yeah and I agree with you I actually think coming out of the buy is such a big component of how this team is going to fare in the second half of the season. They've had two weeks now, or will have had two weeks on November 17th, to stew over this loss to the Ravens.

And typically, that New England Patriots team under Bill Belichick, under Tom Brady, has come out of situations like that firing on all cylinders. They're usually highly motivated, they're playing with a chip on their shoulder, and they're trying to prove something. And I do believe that will be the case when the Pats take on the Eagles. But the Eagles, you said, provide a lot of different matchup difficulties, especially with Carson Wentz. And I don't think he gets enough credit for being the mobile threat that he can be and also being able to beat you with his arm. He's a very adept thrower of the football as well. So that will be

interesting. Kansas City Chiefs game obviously looms pretty large. We've seen inconsistencies with the Houston Texans, but make no mistake about it, Deshaun Watson is up in that quarterback class of guys like Lamar Jackson that can hurt you with his legs, he can hurt you with his arm, and I think it can be a difficult matchup there as well. So we're all looking forward to the second half of the season. And Bobby, once again, I think you've

given us some great, great pearls of wisdom. I appreciate you coming on today and I thank you for your appearance. Before I let you go today, my friend, I just wanted to give you an opportunity, I should say, to let our listeners know where they can find you on social media, where they can find your great work

because, again, I cannot recommend the follow or following along with what bobby does high enough so the floor is yours my friend let our listeners know where they can find you well mike i really appreciate that and this is a show that i listen to regularly it's one of the best for patriot fans to tune into so to be on it i can't thank you enough for having me on as a guest and as as far as being able to just plug my work and tell everyone where they can find me, my Twitter handle is a great place to start. That's at Bobby Kravitzky.

Not the easiest to figure out how to spell on its own, so I'll do that for you as well here. That's K-R-I-V as in Victor, I-T-S-K-Y. So it's just my name, at Bobby Kravitzky. That's a great way to find Taylor and I's show, Kravitsky and Kyle's, which is also available in iTunes. It's on SoundCloud. And we tend to put out two episodes a week, typically Tuesdays and Fridays. Sometimes the Patriots schedule forces us to adjust, but we will have an episode coming out this Friday as well, featuring Matt Chatham. So be sure to stay tuned for that.

Definitely. And again, I thank you very much for the kind words on yours and here with Locked On Patriots. The pleasure was all mine to welcome you in today. It will not be the last time you'll be in the guest seat, my friend. I guarantee it. You always bring stellar content. And again, go out there and make sure to follow, make sure to listen to Kravitzky and Kyle's via your favorite podcast provider as well

because they put on a great show. Bobby, thank you so much. And again, my deepest appreciation for coming on today. As for me, I will be back to put a lid on the Patriots by week and to bring you the latest Pat's news notes and analysis. As always, please join us each and every day on the Locked on Patriots podcast. Subscribe and listen via your preferred podcast provider. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate of Locked on Patriots.

I thank Bobby Kravitzky for his appearance today. But most of all, I thank you so much for listening. Have a great day, everyone.