Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 17, 2018 - Crossover with Locked On Bears

Episode Date: October 17, 2018

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Wednesday edition of Locked On Patriots, Wednesday, October 17th, 2018. Mark Schofield sliding into the big chair for this crossover Wednesday installment. A little bit later we're going to have my discussion with Lauren Cox, the host of Locked On Bears. Before we dive into a loaded show though, I want to remind my discussion with Lauren Cox, the host of Locked On Bears. Before we dive into a loaded show though, I want to remind you to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, where I do a lot of Bears

coverage and so you might want to check out my work over there, especially given the fact that Patriots are playing the Bears this week. You can also check out my pieces over at The Score, Matt Waldman's rookie scouting portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites. If they're covered football, chances are I'm doing some coverage for them. As I said, chatting with Lauren Cox, doing some crossover stuff. That's a little bit later. But first, going to do some sort of news notes and press conference coverage here.

Now, from the New England Patriots, Josh McDaniels, Brian Flores, Bill Belichick, all addressing the media over the past couple of days. And obviously, a name that is at the forefront of many people's minds as we look ahead to the Chicago Bears is Khalil Mack, the very disruptive, very dangerous edge defender, outside linebacker, defensive end type player for the Chicago Bears.

Now, as we talk about Lauren Cox in a minute, look, he's a little banged up. So you probably have to wonder about his status, whether he's going to be a go. But if he's anywhere close to 100%, he's going to be a disruptive force. And it's probably no surprise that Bill Belichick's first question on his press conference on Tuesday was about Khalil Mack. He was asked why he's such a disruptive force defensively. Belichick's answer, he's big, strong, and fast. He's got a lot of power. He does a good job of power rushing and he's fast enough to get the edge. He has good ball awareness, so he does a good job of tackling the quarterback when he has to tackle him, but he has a chance to get the ball out. So he's got good ball awareness

and he can strip that ball out josh mcdaniel's asked about him as well curious to get your read on khalil mac and how he impacts the offense and if there's anything you do to disrupt a defensive player like that josh mcdaniel somewhat effusive in his praise of khalil mac absolutely this guy's a tremendous football player we've played against him a couple of times before when he was in Oakland. He's very athletic. He's powerful. He's quick. He plays with great effort. He's got a high motor. He's very disruptive both in the running game and in the pass game. He's got a knack for creating turnovers when he gets near the football, which he's already demonstrated in Chicago already in the short time that he's been there.

He's just a great player, and I think they have a number of guys on this defense that are really good. As you game plan for a team like this, you have to take into account the guys that can certainly disrupt you in any play and create negative situations, whether that's tackles for loss, sacks, strip sacks, turnovers. You've got to take all that into account as you start the game planning process, and hopefully we can do the best we can to neutralize him. We're going to have to play really well against him. We're going to have to play well against Akeem Hicks and Eddie Goldman and Leonard Floyd, and they've got a really talented linebacker core that's quick and fast and a really good secondary that's got a knack

for taking the ball away. He's certainly at the top of the list, but there's lots of guys on their defense that we're going to have to do a great job on. So really, really good unit all together, top to bottom. Josh McDaniels was asked about Tom Brady and his game-winning drive against the Kansas City Chiefs. Specifically, Sunday marked the 43rd time that Tom Brady was on the field for a game-winning drive. Given that many players contribute to drives like that, what stands out to you specifically about Tom Brady that he has been on the field for that many game-winning drives in his career? Josh McDaniels' answer, I would say that the first, there's a number of things obviously that go into executing well in those situations. And you've said it right off the bat, it's usually a team

thing. It's an offensive thing. The whole group really has to go out there and execute. In reference to Tom, I think the first thing that stands out to me is he obviously embraces the moment and the opportunity to go out there and attempt to do his job under pressure in those types of situations, which I think is the first thing you have to be able to do if you're going to go out there and have some success. He's a great leader under pressure like that because he stays calm. He has great poise and he's very situationally aware. He knows the situation. I've gone through it a number of times, understanding the difference between having a minute and 10 seconds and no timeouts versus two minutes and 50 seconds and three timeouts. There's a huge difference in

those types of situations. And I think his experience under pressure in those scenarios, he understands what needs to be done and how long we have to do it. Like I said, his overall competitive nature and desire to really be on the field in those situations, those are the things you hope for from your group on offense, and he certainly does a great job of that as one of our captains. I'm going to close this out now with a couple of questions and answers from Brian Flores, Patriots linebacker, coach, and defensive play caller. First question, when you're game planning for the Bears and installing your defense, how helpful is it that their offense is similar to what you just played with Kansas City? Brian Flores' answer, well, I'd say that we've got obviously a great test against the Bears this week. They've been playing well. They're running

the ball well. They do a great job on third down. They do a great job with time of possession. Their offense, there are some similarities. Obviously, head coach Matt Nagy was with Andy Reed for a long time, so there's definitely some similarities. But at the same time, they've got some totally different personnel and some really good skill players on this team as well. So it's a big test for us. We've just got to do a good job this week preparing, shredding together some good practices, and hopefully we go out there and perform well on Sunday. Brian Flores was then asked about Mitch Trubisky, the quarterback I've been covering for Pro Football Weekly, and his answer sort of matches up with what I see from Mitchell Trubisky in his

second year. What have you seen from Mitch Trubisky in his second year? And Brian Flores responds, the first thing I would say is he throws a very good deep ball. He throws a good deep ball. He's accurate, an accurate passer. Obviously, we know him as an elusive guy in the pocket and someone who does a good job as a scrambler extending plays. And then he does a really good job of finding receivers down the field. So he's been impressive. A good young player, good young talent, somebody who's getting better, really better week to week. It will be a challenge for us, you know, a guy who can scramble like this and extend plays and at the same time find receivers down the field and put the ball on them pretty accurately. So he's been impressive. He was then

asked about Patrick Mahomes and a comparison between the two quarterbacks. And Flores responded, obviously it's something we worked on last week. So we'll just try to carry that over as far as trying to keep him in the pocket, doing a good job staying with our receivers in the deep part of the field, understanding that they can extend plays. So there's definitely some carryover. Things we talked about last week will carry over to this week as far as that's concerned. So hopefully we do a good job in practice. We'll talk about that at meetings and walkthroughs in practice, and we'll talk about it daily. Hopefully we execute on Sunday. So there's just a little bit of the color and the flavor from three of the Patriots coaches as they address the media on Tuesday.

Up next, we're going to have my conversation with Lauren Cox doing some crossover stuff here on this Wednesday installment of Locked on Patriots. And don't forget, get your questions in for Thursday's sort of listener take show. I loved having your questions last week. It was my favorite show of the week. The show did the best numbers as well. So clearly the listeners out there, you guys and girls like it as well. So get your questions in at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com.

Or if you're in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, you can hit me up there. Or if you want an invite to that, let me know at Twitter or via email that you'd like an invite. So I'll end my conversation with Lauren Cox. But first, friends, maybe you're going to listen to this conversation with Lauren Cox on this crossover show and think, I got a good angle. I know how to handle my money this NFL weekend. And that might be true. And if it's true, I'm so happy for you. But let me just remind you, who you're betting on is important. Where you're betting is even more so.

That's why I always tell people to bet with my bookie. Trust me, guys and girls, they are your best bet this season. They have been in business for years. They have great reviews online. And their mobile site is so user-friendly. lay down some cash and wouldn't big today now i would only recommend a service to my listeners that's been good to me personally and that's why i'm urging you to make your way to my bookie you win they pay they have in-game live bet and the most rewarding player perks in the business and for you fantasy guys and girls out there you can

even bet the over and under on how many fantasy points a player will score each game. So join now and MyBookie will match your deposit dollar for dollar. Use promo code LOCKEDON to activate that offer. Visit MyBookie online today. That's M-Y-B-O-O-K-I-E. And don't forget that promo code LOCKEDON when creating your account to claim that bonus. A bonus again of matching your first deposit 100% up to $1,000. MyBookie, you play, you win, you get paid. All right, everybody, welcome back to this Wednesday edition of Locked on Patriots. This is the crossover day, and I'm delighted now to get a chance to talk to my boy, Loren Cox, the host of Locked on Bears. Loren, how are you, my friend?

Hey, I'm doing well. I'm glad to be here and hoping we can get down and dirty with this New England Patriots-Bears matchup. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about it. What's great is, see, you usually are kind enough to have me on your show to talk a little Mitchell Trubisky. So now I get a chance to ask you some questions, and I'm excited about that. And so, of course, I've got to start there. Mitchell Trubisky, i've had my thoughts on what i've shared them with you on your show and on some other places but where are you sir on the

second year quarterback so it still is a lot of this up and down it's a little bit of a trubisky roller coaster at this point because when you watch him play there's there's these throws that he makes where you're like, oh my god, what is he doing? Why is he putting the ball there? And one of them was intercepted against the Dolphins. A couple of them could have been intercepted but weren't, and he's gotten away with some really bad throws that really just leave you scratching your head, and you go back through on tape, and you don't even really see the the decision making process there you don't see what he was necessarily thinking or or if he did see you're not really sure why he decided to make the decision anyway but then you

also see the plays where he connects with taylor gabriel deep down the field and hits him in stride and you see the mechanics are all there, and everything just looks smoothly like the franchise quarterback they wanted to draft with the second overall pick. And a lot of his success and failure has gone with the offensive line and the pass protection that, you know, like against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and especially in the second half against the Dolphins last week, he had a lot of time to throw, wasn't really under pressure, so he's getting confident, getting in a rhythm. He's able to strike the ball downfield, but when the pressure gets on him and

he's forced to kind of, you know, get out of the pocket a little bit more and, and really kind of have to improvise a little bit, sometimes he rushes his decisions. He doesn't see the field very well and the mechanics start to go. And then you see some real questionable throws. So when the Bears give him time, he is lights out, But other times it can be a little rough. Lauren, one of the things that Bears fans point to, particularly in the offseason coming into this year, was look, they've written Matt Nagy, an offensive-minded head coach, who's going to help his development.

What have you seen from the head coach from a developmental standpoint, what have you seen from him as a pure play caller? So the big play calling question marks with Nagy have been with this running game and with Jordan Howard you know as far as the negative side of the spectrum Howard hasn't really been that lead go-to back for the last few games and the running game hasn't really been able to get going from a more downhill standpoint. They'll do some sweeps and some outside runs with Tariq Cohen, but they're not consistently able to kind of pound it in the middle. And for me, I've been disappointed in Nagy in that sense

because we're still seeing the Bears be predictable in the running game. When Trubisky goes under center, they run the ball the majority of the time. I think he passed the ball once from under center against the Dolphins, and that was it. It's just one pass and a bunch of runs. They don't really run a ton from shotgun, and a lot of times they'll put in two tight ends and load up the box and then run up into loaded box.

You just don't see them necessarily put the running game in the best position to be successful. But from a passing standpoint, it the best position to be successful. But from a passing standpoint, it's hard not to be impressed. It's hard not to be amazed sometimes with just the route combinations, the concepts to attack specific players in coverage, to attack certain coverages that you might expect from the opposing defense, and really be able to utilize their new weapons and their respective skill sets. You know, you've seen Taylor Gabriel allowed to be a wide receiver again, and not just kind of the gimmick or the decoy that he was at times with the Atlanta Falcons.

He's a good route runner. He's a good deep speed threat. And they're getting him the ball in a lot of different ways. They're throwing Tariq Cohen a lot of passes out of the backfield and letting him work after the catch. They're really getting their speed weapons in position to make big plays. And then he's still coming back to Allen Robinson for some downfield throws, some quick underneath stuff and use his size. And then they're just getting the ball to a lot of different places, getting different weapons involved in the passing game.

And it's really helped increase the confidence in this young quarterback. And I just feel like you could take it another step forward if you spread the ball out a little bit more to run and create some more favorable matchups in the ground game to add that much more balance. I want to kind of build off of that previous question and ask your view on overtime, because I know a lot of Bears fans, a lot of Bears writers, said that Nagy got a little bit conservative in overtime,

probably to this team's detriment, obviously. The Dolphins end up winning that game. Where do you stand on that question? I think it's hard because it is such a small sample size. And, you know, the big play that people kind of question is like third and four near midfield. And they go and they run the ball with Jordan Howard and get zero yards and ultimately settle for either 53 or 54-yard field goal. I want to say 53, and Cody Parkey misses it a little bit to the right.

And I like one of Nagy's points kind of after the game. He's like, well, you know, if we had passed it or whatever and gotten four yards closer, you know, he's still hooking it right from 49 yards. The distance was not necessarily the issue on that missed field goal so you know I I don't know because if if he passes again he's he's abandoning the running game and if he runs it doesn't get anywhere then he's not aggressive enough so I I didn't have too many problems with the lack of aggression in overtime I think there were a lot of other issues in that game that led to a Bears loss, and Matt Nagy's play calling, to me, I don't know, felt fourth or fifth on the list. You know, you mentioned

in sort of your discussion so far, Lauren, two players that probably aren't really household names, but they're certainly names that are well known in the Chicago area. That's running back Tariq Cohen, wide receiver Taylor Gabriel, who have, you know, stood out over the past couple of weeks into the past couple of weeks into the early part of the season. Gabriel had two big catches on deep balls. As you alluded to, they're using him more as a receiver, not a gimmick-type player. Cohen did have the fumble, but still has caught a lot of plays

and made some impressive plays for this Bears offense. How important are those two guys to what this offense is doing right now? Yeah, they're the key cogs that move this scene. Tariq Cohen, when he is on the field, there's a little bit more energy, there's a little bit more juice, and it just feels like big plays are coming. Even when he had a 21-yard touchdown run, he makes a guy miss, and he's out in the open field. It's just something about his speed, his mentality, his just energy

in this offense that has a really significant effect, and he's just a matchup nightmare. They got him matched up with some of the Dolphins linebackers that aren't particularly great in coverage, and you've got to do something to get this guy out of the backfield, and so you're going to see him try and do similar things against the Patriots. Try and get him against some of these linebackers that just can't keep up with someone that fast and that quick. And similar with Taylor Gabriel on the outside. They win after Torrey McTier, one of the Dolphins cornerbacks. And I think four of Gabriel's five catches for like 105 yards were all against that same cornerback,

two of which were just big, deep bombs down the field. But it's clear they isolate matchups they use that speed to kind of create the difference in those matchups and you know if they start to take some of that away then you go to Allen Robinson's size and you go to Trey Burton's size and they do a lot of different ways to get a lot of different receivers involved but it's clear that Gabriel and Coe are kind of the two that they look to first. Lauren you mentioned the Patriotsots, so let's kind of bring this discussion about the Bears' offense to a close, looking ahead to Sunday. And how do you anticipate Matt Nagy and company attacking a Patriots defense, which showed

some nice things at times, say Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs, but then gave them some big plays as well? I'm sure you've seen some of what New England's done this year. What are your thoughts on how this offense is going to attack this Patriots defense? Well, I'm certainly going to be looking at these Patriots linebackers, kind of like I was getting at there. You know, maybe Kyle Van Noy in coverage, trying to isolate Tariq Cohen on him and even Trey Burton to some extent.

But you'll see, you know, a few different route concepts to try and isolate and open up that middle of the field a little bit more. Whether it's, you know, Anthony Miller kind of going on a post route over top and some outside receivers spacing it out. So you're kind of left with linebacker on running back out of the backfield, a lot of motion as well to try and get these matchups a little bit more, I guess, visible and easier for this quarterback to read. But it's a lot of quick stuff. It's a lot of rhythm throws for Trubisky. You know, just kind of take some yards where they are. And if they can mix in some big plays here and there with downfield passes,

that's when you really kind of see this offense take off. But they've got to hold up a little bit better in the red zone. And I don't know, I'm not necessarily sure that space is going to be there against this Patriots defense. Mark Sofa, Lauren Cox, doing some crossover stuff here on this Wednesday installment of Locked On Patriots. In a moment, we're going to shift gears and talk about this Bears defense. But first, I want to remind everybody about the great stuff

we've got going on on the Locked On Podcast Network, including Locked On NFL Draft. Sean Ledyard, Trevor Second, they do tremendous work covering the NFL Draft all year long. Check out that show as well as the many others on the Locked On Podcast Network. Hey there, Locked On Patriots listeners. Mark Schofield here, the host of Locked On Patriots. And some of you might know me even more as the Crazy Africa Toto Guy.

And that's true. I have a soft spot for a little 80s synth rock. And I will be seeing those guys in just a couple of weeks and if you want to have an experience just like that seeing one of your favorite bands or seeing a great game in person you need to know about our friends over at Vivid Seeds. They are an online event ticket marketplace dedicated to providing fans of live entertainment with experiences that can last a lifetime. With Vivid Seeds listeners can watch their favorite teams and artists perform in person. They help fans find their seats to any watch their favorite teams and artists perform in person.

They help fans find their seats to any of their favorite live events, including sports, concerts, theater, and more. They offer great prices and an easy purchase and experience. When you use promo code LOCKEDON over at Vivid Seats, listeners can receive $20 off orders of $200 or more if they are a first-time customer so go to the app store or google play and download the vivid seats app enter that promo code locked on to receive that 20 dollars off orders of 200 or more as a new customer of vivid seats every purchase is backed by a 100 buyer guarantee so from the biggest concerts and games to the hottest theater and more vivid seats has it all download the app enter promo code locked code LOCKEDON for $20 off orders of $200 or more as a new customer.

Make memories that last a lifetime and that Vivid Seats help you get to your favorite live event. Mark Schofield, Lauren Cox back with you now on this crossover installment of Locked On Patriots. Going to shift gears now and talk a little Bears defense. And of course, there's no short of storylines when you're talking about a defense going up against Tom Brady in the New England Patriots offense, especially a defense of this caliber. The name to start with is Khalil Mack.

And Lauren Cox, can you put Patriots fans at ease and tell us that Khalil Mack's ankle tweak is actually going to keep him sidelined and away from Tom Brady as far as possible? Well, the Miami Dolphins neutralized Khalil Mack, even though he was on the field with this ankle injury. And, you know, we're putting this out for the Wednesday show, so we don't really know what Mack's status is going to be. The latest we had heard from Matt Nagy is he's still going to be further evaluated this week. So, I mean, at this point, I would consider him as questionable as you can get for Sunday's game. And if the Bears aren't getting a healthy Khalil Mack there, they're a little bit in trouble from a pass rush standpoint, because we saw it against the Dolphins this past week. Khalil Mack had one

pressure in the game. Leonard Floyd still hasn't produced much this season at all, and one pressure. He's dealing with broken all in one pressure. He's dealing with broken bones in one of his hands, so maybe he's not quite at full strength either. But, I mean, their top pass rusher was inside linebacker Danny Trevathan, who they used a little bit more as a pass rusher when they dropped Mack back in coverage a little bit more, and Floyd as well. So I'm telling you, when Khalil Mack is healthy and really has that juice,

he broke through a triple team against the Arizona Cardinals. There's two linemen and a running back. Split the two linemen and went around the running back and brought down the quarterback. There's not always a lot you can do with him at full strength, but chances are the Patriots won't see Mack at 100%. You know, another defensive player to watch for Patriots fans and somebody that, you know, people in the draft community certainly know well is Roquan Smith, the rookie linebacker out of Georgia, a player that when I get a chance, albeit in limited format, because I knew he was never falling to New England, but when I got a chance to sort of take a look at him, he was just blown away by the athleticism, the ability to play sideline to sideline, down the field, cover guys on corner routes in the end zone. How has he sort of transitioned to the pro game so far?

You're seeing small positive steps forward. But I don't know. I guess I can't help but still feel a little bit disappointed with Roquan Smith. And he missed all of training camp with his contract holdout. So, you know, I guess he was going to start slow, and it's still now this would be his fifth career start against the Patriots. But we've seen sometimes he's thinking a little bit too much on the field, you know, in the running game.

Kind of the one weakness coming out of college was his inability to really take on blocks and shed. He's more the, you know, uses athletic ability to run around the blocks and not really get swallowed up. But, you know, even in the Dolphins game, when their interior offensive line can square up on him at the second level, he was struggling to get off it a little bit. And even sometimes in coverage, he's thinking a little bit too much and not flowing as well as you might like. So it's still a work in progress with him.

He's missed, I think, six tackles in the last four games. So there's just a lot of these kind of little first year player mistakes that you see all the potential there. And I'm particularly curious to see, you know, if he gets to match up with a guy like Rob Gronkowski, because Roquan is kind of brought in to be that coverage linebacker, that new age athletic freak. Let's, you know, this, this is kind of what it was for, for these new NFL tight ends. And curious to see if he gets many of those opportunities and how well he's going to hold up. Lauren, looking at this Bears defense and its depth chart,

if an outsider, perhaps like myself, were to point out a potential weakness, you might say it's the secondary because of the guys like Mack up front, Roquan, and some of the other linebackers. But is this secondary actually a weakness, or are we seeing a veteran guy like Amukamara, Kyle Fuller, an emerging strength on the defensive side of the ball in this secondary group? So they were certainly an emerging strength entering last week's game against the Dolphins,

but they proceeded, as a team, they missed 19 tackles in Miami and missed 15 in the second half in overtime, and a lot of those were in the secondary and it did really start to raise some question marks this secondary has been really really strong when the pass rush is there because it allows them to be more aggressive because they know the quarterback's not going to be able to hold on to the ball very long so when the receiver makes a break on the route the defensive backs can be more aggressive in jumping on those breaks those breaks because they're confident the receiver doesn't have enough time to run a double move because the pass rush will get there before the quarterback can get the ball out. But against Miami, you know, it was a lot of dink and dunk from Brock Osweiler, and they just couldn't come up and wrap up afterward.

And it was definitely a real concern. And Prince of Mookamara left again with a hamstring injury. That's two games in a row the hamstring injury has taken him out. So he could be potentially sidelined, which would leave undrafted rookie free agent Kevin Tolliver, formerly of LSU, once again as the starting outside cornerback there. And that certainly is a nice target for Tom Brady to circle for a weakness there. But, you know, Kyle Fuller's making some plays on the ball. Eddie Jackson's been making some plays on the ball, and Adrian Amos continues to be a pretty solid kind of box safety. There's a lot to like about this secondary, but man, they got to tackle,

they got to wrap up, and they're much, much better when this pass rush is getting home. You know, Lauren, getting to host this show, and any show actually on the Locked On Podcast Network, you get to talk to a lot of smart people. And I'm excited to ask you this question as you are a very, very smart person and I value your football opinion tremendously. I love asking guests on this show to put on their sort of defensive coordinator hat and try to come up with a game plan to slow down this Patriots offense. And so, you know, with this Bears defense, you know, play the part, you know, of, you know, Vic Fangio right now. How are you slowing down Tom Brady and company?

Well, the one thing I've learned over the years from watching Tom Brady is the last thing you want to do is blitz him. And it's kind of like, I think it's kind of like the Aaron Rodgers thing where you just, you can't take players out of coverage or else this quarterback is going to figure out exactly where to put the ball. So, I mean, I think the key is, I mean, it's not anything special. You have to get pressure with four. I mean, you really have to be able to affect the quarterback.

And even Brady can, you know, not really let the pressure affect him all that much. You have to get home with that pressure. You have to physically hit the quarterback, which is really hard when the Patriots are getting the ball out quickly. So, you know, there's not, I don't have a genius answer here, but I would maybe go to some more three-man rushes and drop eight in coverage and try and take away some of the quick game and really just hope some of your cornerbacks can hold up long in the play because you know Brady's not going to beat you with his legs.

So you just kind of got to, you know, you can try and flush him out of the pocket a little bit and and hope that your pass rush can get home but I'm not relying on a blitz to get after him you got to get pressure with four you got to try and take away some of the quick stuff and and really hope that your back end can hold up for maybe some extended plays if you can't get home you know and when you mention which I think is you know a very valid and very apt and accurate statement, you know, you got to get pressure with four. Does it really just come down to max ankle? You know, because obviously the Bears are going to have much more success getting pressure with four if he's close to or at 100%. I think it mostly comes down to max ankle. I mean,

we haven't talked about Akeem Hicks, who's probably been their second best pass rusher this season from the interior. He kind of rushes more from that left side of the defense, right side of the offensive interior. And he's been pretty consistent at getting after the quarterback. But even he wasn't able to get a lot going against Miami. And, you know, some people are pointing to the heat as being a potential issue. So a return to Chicago could be curing some of that ailment. But yeah, when Mac's getting pressure from that side, it's more about, you know, Leonard Floyd holding down the opposite side enough to keep the quarterback in the pocket to not allow the quarterback to step up around Mack. And he just creates so many more opportunities for the other pass rushers because of the attention he takes. And if he doesn't have to take as much attention, which he might still, even with the ankle injury, it really does make everyone else's jobs that much harder. So the ankle is certainly the biggest key to the Bears

pass rush in this game, but it's not hopeless completely without him, but it's a big difference. All right, Lauren, last question here. We'll get you out of here on this one, and it's a question that I always ask people. Who on Chicago's defense, what mix of players on their defense, or what scheme would you have to use, or do you think they're going to use to try to contain a 6'6", 260-pound tight end whose side gig is trying to tell people not to eat Tide Pods? So for defending a guy like Rob Gronkowski, I'm not as concerned at this point in his career of him outrunning anybody necessarily in coverage. I mean, he can if you're a slower linebacker,

but the Bears are a primarily single deep team, so you're going to see a lot of cover three, a lot of cover one, and whether it's Roquan Smith, one-on-one with him, your single deep safety is going to be right there over top to try and bracket that a little bit. Or if you're sitting in cover three, I think you'll see them make more of that three- know, three seam adjustment where, you know, even if you're an underneath defender, if your tight end or your slot player is going vertical, you're staying with him and

you're completely vacating your underneath zone and following him deep as to not put your safety in a lot of difficult situations. And obviously the Patriots are smart enough to know that if Gronkowski is taking that much attention, there's going to be space in the area that he vacated, but the bears have done a pretty good job of defending tight ends this season. They haven't really let any individuals rack up big yards,

whether it's Jimmy Graham in green Bay or OJ Howard with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They've done a pretty good job of keeping tight ends under wrap. So I'm expecting a decent job against Gronkowski. I think there'll be plays there, but I would be more anticipating, you know, the Patriots going to more of their running back plays and getting James White more involved in the passing game and just moving guys into the space that Rob Gronkowski vacates in the defense.

Lauren, fantastic stuff as always. My friend, before we let you go, remind the people where they can find you. Check out your work and what you've got going at Locked on Bears. So, of course, it is the Locked on Bears podcast. You can read my Bears analysis at Bears Wire and NBC Sports Chicago. And I'm also an analyst for Pro Football Focus and write about the NFL there as well. So you can find it all on Twitter at CoxSports1. It's like FoxSports1, but with a C.

Fantastic stuff, my friend. Thanks so much for hopping on to us. Look forward to catching up with you down in Mobile at the next Senior Bowl. That will do it for today's crossover installment of Locked on Patriots. I will be back tomorrow with your Listener Thursday,

Take Thursday show. Again, send your questions in at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. Those of you that are members, you can usually hit me up in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Those of you that aren't members, hit me up for an invite, you know,

at markschofield on Twitter, mark.schofield at insidethepylon. Join the conversation we've got going 24-7 at the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me going 24-7 on the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots.