Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 9, 2018 - Gameday Edition

Episode Date: November 9, 2018

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a game day edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield slotted into the big chair on this Friday, November 9th, 2018. Going to get you ready for Sunday and the New England Patriots headed to Tennessee to take on the Tennessee Titans of the AFC South. We're going to talk about what I'm going to be looking for. Some things to watch for when the Titans have the ball. When the Patriots have the ball. A little bit later, a little look ahead at some college football action.

And I'm going to be keeping an eye on Saturday. As well as a recap of the night that was mine. And some Toto live in concert. 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, as I've said. If there's an outlet that's covering football, chances are they've got me covering it for them. Let's get into it now.

Starting with the Titans and their offense. And as I alluded to in the crossover show with Jimmy Morris from Locked on Titans, it's hard to start anywhere else than with Marcus Mariota. And when you look at sort of the raw numbers on Mariota to this point in the season, it's not like he's having a great year overall. I mean, you look at adjusted net yards per attempt,

just five, 5.00. That is 30th of qualified passers. Only Jameis Winston, Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, and Josh Allen have the worst adjusted net yards per attempt. Five touchdowns, five interceptions. That's not exactly great either. But, and here's the big but, you look at his game against Dallas,

and Marcus Mariota truthers have an argument now. And I consider myself a Marcus Mariota truther. He was my QB1 coming out. I liked him more than I liked Jameis Winston coming out. And that was basically 99.9% on the field ranking. But there were struggles, obviously, for Mariota. But what we saw from Marcus Mariota on Monday night was a different quarterback. I'll highlight a couple of plays for you.

There's a play at the end of the first quarter. It's a third and nine situation where he throws the deep out route with perfect timing, perfect placement, perfect precision, perfect anticipation. And it's all done from the pocket, on time, in rhythm. And then a little bit later in the first quarter, their last offensive play of the first quarter, it's another third and nine. This time Dallas brings the blitz. But he shows you the ability to sort of climb and fire,

throws the out route in the face of the blitz. Another very good throw to move the sticks. Fast forward to the second quarter. Third and seven situation, the 659 mark. Crowded pocket, pocket breaking down around him. Blitz coming. What does he do? Another great anticipation throw. Gets it out well before the break moves the chains. And then on another third down. A third and 10 at the 456 mark of the second quarter against Dallas. This play right here. I just got done working up a piece for Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio. I'll do a video breakdown of it, but I'll talk you through it. You hear me so often talk about processing speed at the quarterback position. The difference in a quarterback's thought process when the post-snap look he sees from the defense

doesn't quite match up with the pre-snap look. And you see it on this play in a big way. They come out, Mariota in the shotgun, three receivers to the right. You look at Dallas as a quarterback, and I'm putting you in Mariota's mind right now. You look to the left. You see the cornerback to your left, right across from the line of scrimmage from the wide receiver. He's in press alignment, feet parallel to the line of scrimmage from the wide receiver. He's in press alignment, feet parallel to the line of scrimmage, looking at the wide receiver and doesn't even know where you are.

He's not looking at you. That's a man coverage indicator. You look the other way. You see press coverage, press coverage, press coverage over the three outside receivers, all of them down near the box or on the line of scrimmage. You look in the middle of the field. There's your free safety staring right at you. That's cover one. That is man coverage across the board with that free safety running free.

And then you look right in front of him. You've got Sean Lee and you've got another linebacker right in your face in both A-gap. They're mugging they're sugar in the a gaps you're thinking blitz you're thinking blitz cover one but then you bring your tight end sort of in motion on the right he's split out why now he comes in more to a wing and the defenders don't trail him they more slide a little bit one of the defenders actually backs off a little bit. So now you want to wait. No. This is a little different.

This is a little different. Maybe it's not cover one, but I still got these two. I can tell what kind of gum Sean Lee is chewing. That's how close he is standing in that A gap. But clock's running down. I got to snap this thing right we've got a seam route from our number from our middle trips receiver now we got a seam route from him and we've got dual out and up routes wide receivers doing one first and then our tight end who just motioned in he's gonna chip and then do another out and up now if, if it's cover one,

if it's sort of a man coverage scheme, now we're going to have a safety right in the middle of the field. So I can't throw that seam route in the middle of the field because that safety is going to be waiting for it. But you've got those two little out and up routes on the right.

You get one of those guys to get their defender to bite on it. You got a big play there. That's where you got to go with the ball. But I got Sean Lee in my face. I'm going to have to get this out. Mariota takes a snap. What happens? Everybody drops. They rotate it to cover two. Sean Lee, whose gum you could smell just a second ago, has now flipped his hips to the sideline, and he's running with who's going to become the

number three receiver. And it's not where they start, it's where they end up. And so the guy that becomes that number three receiver that he has to run with as they drop into this too high Tampa 2 look is your wide receiver that's running that seam route up the middle of the field. That's a matchup you're going to win. That's a matchup you're going to throw. Now with that middle of the field open, it's what we call middle field open read. That seam route that's attacking that empty spot now, that's what you're going to throw.

I just took almost three minutes breaking this play down it happened in a matter of seconds that's process and speed at the quarterback position and on this play mariotta does all of this he threads the needle on that seam row with sean lee trailing him with those two safeties widening at the snap and then convergent on it he basically threads the needle between three defenders and people might say he's just throwing it into triple coverage the other guys were open that's the right read that's the right throw and he makes the snap decision when that post snap look doesn't match up with the pre snap look that's the Marcus Mariota that people like myself and others were waiting to see and we saw him on Monday night. Will that be enough, though? This is a defense in the New England Patriots that will take things like that away.

This is a defense in the New England Patriots that they look at this Titans team and they think, okay, what do we want to stop? We probably want to stop, first and foremost, the run game. We don't want to let Deion Lewis get going. We know what he can do. We heard Jimmy Morris talk about it. He's becoming their future back. So all week long, Belichick's going to stress the run. And then in the pass game, what are you going to take away? You're going to take away Marcus Mariota making those plays

from the pocket. You're going to take away Marcus Mariota's ability to make anticipation throws. How do you do that? You give him some different looks. You don't just sort of spot drop. The Dallas Cowboys tried it. They probably rotated a little bit too early in the play. They could have done it a little bit crisper. So that's another thing you're going to do.

And more than anything else with Marcus Mariota, you've got to pressure him but contain him. And if you go back, I've got my notes from last year, that divisional round game, and that offensive line was banged up. Quentin Spain was banged up a bit. But there was a great two-play sequence in the third quarter that really sort of showed how you could get after two guys in particular Taylor LeJuan and Quinton Spain who are still the starting left tackle and left guard. It's a first

and ten play. Trey Flowers, Ricky Jean-Francois, they do a twist, that tackle and exchange. And they don't switch it up. LeJuan and Spain don't switch it up well. They get up pointed at each other. Meanwhile, nobody's helping up their quarterback, who the Patriots just sacked.

Then on the next play, one of those great sort of do-your-job type moments, Trey Flowers lines up in the big gap between those two guys. He attacks there, and after they just got beat on this twist, LeJuan sort of over commits, helps inside. Now you get the linebacker, in this case, Marquise Flowers, delays. He's on the outside of Taylor LeJuan, the left tackle. He delays, steps back like he's going to

drop. And then he comes right past LeJuan. And on the previous play, Taylor LeJuan had been beaten by that twist. He got up angry, pointed to Quinton Spann, doesn't want it to happen again. You see that inside rush. He overhelps on Flowers and lets, he overhelps on Trey Flowers, excuse me, and it's Marquise Flowers who runs right by the left tackle for that sack. That's what you got to do. You got to pressure this guy. You got to get after him.

You got to sack him. You know, we heard Jimmy Morris talk about how the offensive line was having some struggles. These are the types of things I'm going to be looking for. We've seen these twists and these stunts and, you know, We heard Jimmy Morris talk about how the offensive line was having some struggles. These are the types of things I'm going to be looking for. We've seen these twists and these stunts and the spot usage of Adrian Claiborne, Trey Flowers being kicked inside. I want to see more of Trey Flowers lined up across from Quentin Spann. I want to see him attacking the left side of this Titans offensive line.

That's what I'm looking for. Those are the things I'm going to be watching. We saw Marcus Mariota start to step up in a big way Sunday night. I like him as a quarterback. I'm rooting for the kid. Just not this week. Up next, my thoughts on when the Patriots have the football and how they're going to attack this Titans defense. That's ahead on this game day edition of Locked On Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you now on this game day edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this game day edition of Locked On Patriots. And now we're going to talk about the Titans defense, Patriots on offense, what they're going to do against this defense. And a good place to start is sort of the difference between this Titans defense from last year

and the defense we're going to be going up against on Sunday. Last year, this was very much a cover one, cover three type team. Again, I looked back at my notes from doing shows going up into the divisional round game last year, and this was a team that was cover three, cover one basically all of the time. You look back at that game, that divisional round game, you're seeing a lot of cover three looks, a lot of cover one looks.

It's different now under Dean Pease. You know, I spent so much time last year when we were getting ready for the divisional round game against his team, talking about, oh, you've got to have your cover one, your cover three beaters. You know, for example, I looked at, I broke down, charted out one game. They were in cover one, 12 snaps. They were in cover three, 13 snaps. Cover three in cover one 12 snaps. They were in cover three 13 snaps. Cover three Robert four snaps. Cover two man under just four. Cover two just

three. Cover six one. Cover three pattern match just one. So you had 16 man type snaps 21 zone in one sort of combination coverage. And I was looking at plays like you know obviously the usual beaters high low concepts, mills concepts Hosh concepts with the inside stuff,

some cover one beaters with Mesh, with Tosser, with Y-Juke. You get that, you know, option route underneath. It's different under Dean Pease. Pease is known as more of a zone-type guy, but he will mix it up. Bill Belichick has always said of him, look he's gonna mix it up. He won't just sit back and be sort of in the same coverage all the time. So you know Brady is gonna have to sort of work through some reads. He's gonna have to sort of work through some progressions and things like that. So that's the thing

that I'm gonna be looking for first. What kind of coverage is Tennessee dropping into? What kind of coverage are they using from a down-to-down basis? I'm also going to be watching some numbers, and I'm going to work through some numbers with you here right now. First number I'm going to be watching is the over-under of 5.3. One of the best shows out there, one of the best accounts on Twitter is NFL Matchup on ESPN, at NFL Matchup. You know, Greg Cassell, Sal Palantonio, Matt Bowen doing breakdown stuff every weekend. It's a great show. But they also spend all week long not just breaking down stuff on Twitter, but putting out some really sort of interesting statistics that I always pay

attention to. And there are a couple that I'm going to highlight here. First, like I said, that 5.3. What's that? That's the yardage given up on first down by the Tennessee Titans. You might think 5.3, that's a lot. Well, actually, it's one of the best in the league, believe it or not. NFL Matchup put up a tweet with the best

first down defense according to yards per play. The Cowboys 3.9, the Bears 4.4, Ravens 4.7, Jaguars 4.8, Texans 5.0, Redskins 5.1, and then there's the Titans at 5.3. They're getting up to just 5.3 yards per game on first down. 5.3 yards per game on first down.

5.3 yards per play on first down. That's impressive. And so that's the first number I'm watching when the Patriots have the football, 5.3. Are they getting above that? Are they getting more than that? Or is Tennessee sort of putting them into those second and long type situations? So that's one number I'm watching. Another number that I'm going to be watching is this number, 33.7%. That's their pressure percentage according to NFL matchup.

And this is the dropbacks where defense applies pressure to the quarterback. The Patriots have seen pressure 33.7% of the time. That's one of the highest numbers in the league. We talked about it with Jimmy Morris. Titans like to blitz. They like to blitz a lot. That's how they've been trying to get pressure. While traditionally pressure isn't the way to get after Tom Brady because he's been so good over his career at getting pressure,

that number's flipped a little bit. That number's flipped a little bit because, as I talked about in the crossover show, Tom Brady this year against the Blitz has a quarterback rating of just 63.3. That's tied with Joe Flacco for the worst in the league. We're used to seeing Brady 90, 98, 100, 110% against the Blitz. This year, it's 63.3. So that's another number I'm watching. And finally, this is the number that's going to determine that pressure versus Brady number. Least pressure allowed according to NFL matchup on ESPN.

The way they define that as percentage of dropbacks where the offense allows quarterback to be pressured. For the Patriots, fourth best in the league, just 22.8%. So if they can hold the pocket for Brady, keep him upright, Patriots are going to have success passing the ball. But those are some of the numbers I'm watching. From a scheme-based perspective, I think that while the Titans have done a good job

at keeping defenses out of the end zone, over the past couple of weeks, we've seen the Patriots struggle with the red zone offense a little bit. We saw it on Sunday night against the Packers where they had a fourth and goal play. They had seven cracks at it inside the 10 and they couldn't get it in. You know, we saw it against the Buffalo Bills. I want to see them get back to some of the things they were doing last year. I want to see some of those mesh concept routes. I want to see them not just relying

on either winning fade routes or getting James White in matchup situations. Part of that will certainly be if they can get Rob Gronkowski back. That brings an extra element to their red zone offense. But red zone offense I think is going to be big, and I want to see the red zone offense do better on Sunday than it has been the past two weeks. But those are some numbers. Those are some scheme thoughts.

Up next, I'm going to have a couple of things for you. Some college football games I'm looking ahead. I'm going to give you an update on Presley, the producer of this show, so to speak. I talked a little bit about my cat. Finally get some news on him, so I'm going to talk about that for a little bit because it's Friday and

we like to end on good news because it is good news. And of course, the night that was, see in total live. That's ahead on this game day edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to sort of close out this game day edition

of Locked On Patriots. We're going to talk quickly now some college games that I'm looking ahead to this weekend. And it's an interesting slate of games. There's a game tonight a late one number 23 Fresno State at Boise State yet another chance to see Brett Rippon in action Boise State coming off four straight wins now they get a chance to knock off a top 25 team that will set them up to finish off their slate and again yeah another chance to see Brett Rippon in action as we look ahead to Saturday big one sort of to start the day.

You've got Ohio State at Michigan State, number 10, at number 18, Michigan State. A couple weeks ago, this game probably had a little bit more luster to it. Now it's a noontime start. Brian Lewerke, like I talked about last week, had a chance to see him. And, hey, hey, hey. Yeah, that's kind of where we're at with that. You also get Will Greer in action with number nine West Virginia. They're hosting

TCU also in noontime starts. Two interesting games to watch perhaps with some draft implications as well as Milton McKenzie, UCF, hosting Navy at noon. So that noon slate, maybe not as bad as the usual noon slate. So we've got that going for us, which is nice. As soon as we get into the 3 o'clock hour,

we've got Mississippi State at Alabama. I'm not sure anybody really expects Mississippi State to pull off an upset, but maybe we get a little exciting football in that 3 o'clock hour. As we get to the nighttime, Auburn at Georgia. Those games are usually a little bit interesting. Auburn, maybe they get the rebound they needed last week. Jared Stenum, maybe he bounced back. People kind of hopeful on that front.

Georgia, the number five team in the country. Florida State at Notre Dame. Those games tend to be a fun little rivalry-type atmosphere, but Notre Dame, the number three team in the country, trying to hold pace. The big one, perhaps, game day's there. Game day's there. Clemson at BC.

Number two Clemson at number 17 Boston College. Game day's going to's there. Game day's there. Clemson at BC. Number two Clemson at number 17 Boston College. Game day's going to be there. Chestnut Hill's going to be nutty. BC's going to be nutty. I hope if you are a BC fan, if you're in the area, that you go, you check out game day, you have a blast. I would love to see some Toto signs in the audience. A locked on Patriot sign in the audience, a locked on Toto sign. If you're going to game day and you get a locked on Toto sign, I will shout your blessings

from the rooftops. I will follow you. I will tweet you out every day for the next, for the rest of the 2018 calendar year. I will tweet out, follow recommendations for you. If I could see a locked on Toto sign on game day, maybe if, if, if I don't get to see it, but it's there, tweet me a picture of it. I want to see a locked on Toto sign on game day. How about that? This is an interesting game because you remember back to 2014. That was number 24 Clemson, an unranked Boston team. They go into Chestnut Hill, and that's a game that comes down to the final drive.

I remember watching that game. I believe I was at an Austin Grill with my family trying to get our son to eat his tacos. But I'm keeping one eye on the TV, you know, and you're watching, you know, BC try to, you know, pull off the upset. Tyler Murphy, Tyler Rouse had him open for a chance to win the game. The sophomore running back couldn't hold on to the ball, comes and takes over, runs out on downs. That was the last real close game between these two teams.

BC obviously hoping for a bit of an upset there. So that's kind of the college football action I'm looking forward to. I also promised an update on our cat Presley after an array of tests, ultrasounds, neurological consults, all sorts, ophthalmology consults. It turns out all the stuff we were worried about, he had some pancreatitis, which is getting cleaned up. He's got some medicine, which is good. There is a liver issue, which just seems to be sort of an age and generation, the C word. We were also worried about sort of a brain stem, brain injury, brain

tumor, perhaps. And we're telling us we might need to have the little guy go for an MRI. Turns out the neurological exam was fine. Long story short, our feline ophthalmologist basically diagnosed him with dumpster diver eyes and degeneration. What that means, we took him in as a stray. And apparently during the formative years of a cat's life, that first year, if they don't get all the nutrients they need, you're going to get sort of these ovals that sort of show up on the eyes that you can't really do anything about. And it leads to some degeneration. So what we have to do? Nightlights. That's why. I was thinking that our cat was slowing down because every morning at like 3.30 in the morning, he would jump into the bed and scream at me for food, even though we had fed him right before we went to bed.

He had stopped doing that. Now we know why. It was dark. He wasn't going downstairs to get food. So now we get some kiddie lights, get some nightlights for him, maybe even get him some motion center lights. Who knows, but we're going to illuminate his path to the food dish, which means probably a lot more sleepless nights for me. But we do it because we love our pets. Now, without further ado, my final thoughts on the night that was, Toto Live in Concert. Yes, that's right. We were able to catch Toto Live in Concert at the Warner Theater. And it was a fantastic show. I got to say, they came out early. They went hold the line with the second song of the night, which was amazing.

They did a nice little medley in the middle where they sort of brought some chairs to the front of the stage, played like snippets of some of their other songs. Always got reminded that, look, Steve Piccaro, he wrote and Toto actually played on Human Nature by Michael Jackson which was fantastic of course you know they closed it sort of down with Africa at the end nice long extended version of that and their encore song was actually Hashpike

by Weezer which is pretty funny given how Weezer covered Africa earlier this year which got a lot of attention but super fun show if you follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield you saw me tweeting out clips of songs here and there throughout the night. If you want, if you're curious to see how it was, you can check me out on Twitter, at Mark Schofield.

And as such, I think there's no better way to play us out tonight than a little bit of Toto's Africa from this evening, live from the Warner Theater. I will be back Sunday for your Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked on Patriots. Until then, keep it locked right in to Locked on Total. I'll see you next time. Ancient bellies He turned to me, I said, you say Hurry boy, he's waiting there for you I take a lot to take me away from you There's nothing that I've been made of more than ever. I've missed the rains down in Africa.

Gonna take some time to do the things we never did.