Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 19, 2017 - Falcons Crossover with Aaron Freeman

Episode Date: October 19, 2017

Aaron Freeman from Locked On Falcons joins Mark Schofield for a crossover edition of Locked On Patriots. They break down how both Atlanta and New England look so far in 2017, what to expect on Sunday night and whether the Falcons are viewing this meeting as a true revenge game. Also, the show is sponsored by our great friends at MyBookie.AG. Check them out here and use promo code LOCKEDON when you sign up! http://record.webpartners.co/_DK_3VE4-6vsWqcfzuvZcQGNd7ZgqdRLk/1/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, it's Jamie, Progressive number one, number two employee. Leave a message at the... Hey Jamie, it's me, Jamie. This is your daily pep talk. I know it's been rough going ever since people found out about your acapella group, Mad Harmony, but you will bounce back. I mean, you're the guy always helping people find coverage options with the Name Your Price tool. It should be you giving me the pep talk.

Now get out there, hit that high note, and take Mad Harmony all the way to nationals this year! Sorry, it's pitchy. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey, everybody. Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. And I just wanted to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by our great friends at mybookie.ag. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast You are locked on Patriots,

your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everybody. Hello everybody, you are Locked On Falcons and Locked On Patriots. I am one of your co-hosts for today's crossover pod, that is Aaron Freeman. I am joined by Mark Schofield, the host of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And we are going to talk about this upcoming Sunday night matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. This episode is brought to you by MyBookie.ag.

You play, you win, you get paid. Go to MyBookie.ag and enter the promo code LOCKEDON to get a 100% deposit bonus. Well, Mark, welcome to the show. Aaron, my friend, how are you? It's been too long, man, since we caught up. Yes, yes. We last talked about quarterbacks. We did.

Last year's draft. I'm sure we will have another conversation about quarterbacks for next year's draft. I'm sure we will. But we sort of, we didn't talk about the elephant in the room at the time, which was the Super Bowl. We kind of ducked that one. Yes, we did. I think it was a little bit too raw for you at that moment. It's still too raw. It's still too raw?

I understand, man. Believe me, I understand. Yeah, well, I mean, the good thing about this game is that band-aid will be finally sort of ripped off, I guess, to a certain extent. I'm sure. I mean, you know, I wanted to ask you, like, Atlanta fans,

I mean, how are you guys looking at this game Sunday night? Like, is it still like a raw thing that you guys just want revenge? I think so. That seems to be the overwhelming sentiment. It certainly was heading into this past week. Unfortunately, the Falcons losing to the Dolphins seemed to sort of derail that a little bit in the momentum that I think people had expected to go into this upcoming Patriots game. And so that's been a little bit more the focus of what the team can do to get right coming off of a disappointing and surprising loss.

But I certainly think as we get nearer to Sunday, people are going to start getting revved up and hoping that they can take a little bit of solace if the Falcons can sort of beat the Patriots. It certainly won't win them any trophies or get them any sort of hardware, but it'll certainly at least exercise somewhat a demon to prove to folks that, yeah, we were the better team and due to unfortunate circumstances, we did not wind up winning that game. Yeah, I mean, are you concerned at all about, you know, you see last week the sort of collapse against Miami. Are you sort of concerned that there was either, you know,

guys looking ahead to this game or a Super Bowl hangover? Are there any of those concerns? Or do you think, you know, Miami just made some plays to pull that one out? I mean, I think you can't help but draw that conclusion because you know i think part of the issue was the expectation was with the falcons coming off the bye heading into that dolphin game that any sort of issues with you know falling into a trap game or looking ahead would somewhat be mitigated because they they had that little bit of a break but But it seems like that was the case, falling to an inferior Dolphins team that they really had no business losing to.

But a lot of that has to do with some of the issues that has been plaguing this team throughout the entire season, which is they have been a pretty abysmal second-half team. They have really not been able to do anything in the second halves of pretty much any of their games. And it showed against Miami, and they ultimately wound up losing that game. What do you think the issues are in the second half? Because Charles McDonald was screaming about Steve Sarkeesian, calling for his head,

saying that they got away from running the ball, you're up 17-0, and you're up back there throwing it, which Patriots fans might recall that was an issue in the Super Bowl. Do you think it's getting away from the run game or what do you think the second half issues are? It's a lot of theories I could have. I can only speculate, but I think part of it is having sort of new coordinators and maybe they're not doing a great job making the proper adjustments at the midpoint and teams are making the adjustments to sort of catch up with the Falcons in at the midpoint and teams are making the adjustments to sort of catch up with the falcons and then the falcons aren't really doing much um after that

point to sort of readjust and keep those teams guessing i think maybe a lot of it is complacency i think when you get off to these fast starts you you tend you have a tendency to get a little bit complacent and i think the problem that is occurring this year that wasn't necessarily the case last year because of the offensive play calling was Kyle Shanahan in those games. There were a lot of games last year where the Falcons would get up big and then let the team come back. But in almost all of them, whether it was in the third quarter or the fourth quarter, they would be able to dial up a touchdown that would sort of just basically put the nail in the coffin. And that is not happening this year with Steve Sarkeesian.

And I think that's been a big problem for them. This was an issue for them last year is basically what I'm saying. And now when you don't have that high-flying, potent offense, one of the best offenses in NFL history, it's harder to sort of pull these games out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I hear that. What have you seen from Matt Ryan so far this year? I know he's thrown some picks, but I've watched that Detroit game,

and it seems like those were just some good plays. I mean, what have you seen from the QB? I think Matt Ryan is certainly not off to as fast a start as he was a year ago. I think his play has been normal Matt Ryan play, which is solid top 10 quarterback play. He's had a couple of picks that have been more bad breaks than necessarily bad throws. A couple of them have been.

But I think some of the issues he's been dealing with this year is lack of timing, and one of the issues he's been dealing with this year is lack of timing. And one of the reasons why the Falcons offense hasn't been as explosive this year is because they're not being able to hit some of those deep shots. And he's not really hitting on those throws like he was a year ago. And he's been dealing with a little bit of issues with mechanics and footwork and, you know, getting moved off his spot and some throws when he's trying to reset his feet but it's it's not an overwhelming thing it's just because the margin of error right now for the falcons is so small those you know those handful of plays per game tend to get magnified a little bit more what about the the run game you know one of the things i'm worried about this weekend is at's ability to run to the edges with Coleman, with Freeman,

getting blocks from guys like Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu on the outside. I'm worried about the Atlanta run game. Should I be? I think you should. I think that's really where the strength of this team is going to lie. There's been a lot of talk about finding ways to get julio jones the ball more i don't personally think that's been a major issue with the pockets i think how they've used julio is is more of a problem but it'll be interesting i think

going up this week against the patriots just because of the injuries they have at the cornerback position you know finding ways to feed julio is going to be very enticing if it's Malcolm Butler and Johnson Badamosi that are covering him. But I think, you know, when I look at this matchup, I look at the Falcons running backs with Tevin Coleman and Devontae Freeman, both as running in the ground game and as receivers, as where the Falcons really have a significant advantage against a slower Patriots defense that doesn't have a lot of speed at that linebacker position. And I feel like the potential problem could be that they wind up focusing too much on finding ways to feed Julio and sort of leave some of their other options available. But I say that now, and then, of course, Julio could wind up, you know,

I'm never going to complain about the Falcons throwing the ball to Julio. So it's a positive thing, I think, for the Falcons to work out that they have two potential outlets for them to really attack this Patriots defense with Julio and their running backs. But I also think they need to stay balanced and not get too Julio-centric with their offense because that tends to create more problems than solutions. We'll have more with Aaron Freeman in a second.

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You play, you win, you get paid. What do you say we spend the next five minutes just waxing poetically about Julio Jones, man? I mean, I don't want to pull the Band-Aaid off or anything like that, man. But that catch near the end of the Super Bowl on the sideline. Yeah. I mean, my goodness. He's just a special, special player.

And, you know, we'll record this on Wednesday. Belichick had his weekly press conference, and he was just effusive with his praise for Julio Jones this morning. I mean, how good is Julio Jones? Well, you know, when he's on his game, and that's usually most of the time, he is arguably the best player in the NFL. You can certainly make that case. And, you know, it's weird because I think a lot of the criticism that Sark is facing is because julio jones is without a touchdown through five games and one of the things that the team talked about

during the offseason was that they would find ways to get julio jones the ball more in the red zone and find ways to get him you know more touchdowns because that's always been something that you know the you know the people i tend to have the biggest problem with is the fantasy nerds. But they tend to knock Julio a little bit in comparison to some of the other elite receivers because he doesn't score as many touchdowns as some of those guys do. And so that's become a more glaring issue now that, you know, five games into the season Julio jones doesn't have a single touchdown and part of that is because he's not really being asked to take the top off the defense quite to the degree that he was a year ago where the falcons were able to use other weapons to sort of move the

chains and then let julio do his thing down the field and create those big plays so um you know julio's a great player there There's no doubt about it. And, again, it's the same as what I said before. Like, well, you know going into a game, Belichick is going to try to take away your best weapon, and that's without a doubt, that's Julio Jones. Now, he's down, you know, some injuries in the secondary, and I do wonder what you think, how that's going to affect things. But if he is successfully able to contain Julio,

then I think it creates opportunities for other playmakers on the Falcons offense. You know, I always joke on my podcast that Julio is the sun because the gravity of the solar system revolves around him. And so the Falcons have been successful, certainly last year, of using that to their advantage they haven't quite had the same level of success in 2017 I like that Aaron I like that um also in talking to Charles you know I asked him about the Atlanta defense and he said you know the run defense has sort of been the core strength of this Atlanta defense so far

and looking at it on film, I seem to agree. You know, Eric, do you agree with that assessment? And, you know, what has stood out from that run defense so far? I actually disagree with Charles. Really? I think the run defense is... Lay it to your boy! I mean, I think teams that have been...

that wanted to be committed to the run have been successful running the football against the Falcons. It's not been like huge, huge gashing plays, but it's been a way of teams to sort of keep the Falcons offense off the field because they're able to sort of just pound the ball. Like Buffalo was just able to work the Falcons on the ground. Miami was able to dominate them in the first half of this game, and that was problematic. Chicago was also well. They haven't been great tackling. They're not always disciplined with their run fits. I think a team that is committed to the run can run

the football effectively and move the ball against the Falcons. So yeah, I feel like the past defense is their core strength on defense i think their secondaries play has been you know close to outstanding for the most part and i think that's where they their strength is um and i think at times the run defense and the pass rush have been more their weaknesses. It seems to alternate. Some weeks it seems like they can't get enough pressure on the quarterback, and some weeks it seems like they can't stop the run.

So I think those are the two areas that can be exploited with this defense. And tell the Pats fans that are listening right now why they should be worried about Sunday night? They should be worried about Sunday night because the Falcons are certainly going to be up for this game. Several players have admitted that they've been waiting months for this rematch. So they're definitely going to be

up for this game. I think they should be worried because Julio Jones is on the Falcons, and if the Patriots don't get Gilmore or Eric Rowe back, that could create a lot of problems in covering Julio Jones. And then I think on top of that, you have

the running backs with Tevin Coleman and Devontae Freeman, who I think are potent weapons. I think Taylor Gabriel showed in the Super Bowl that Malcolm Butler can't check him. Austin Hooper had a couple of plays against Patrick Cook. The Falcons have a wealth of weapons. They have the advantage in the speed. And really right now the Falcons just have to go out there and show that they have that

and do it for four quarters as opposed to two quarters. And if they do that, I don't feel like the Patriots can keep pace with them. See, now I'm scared. Well, I think there are a couple of things that the Patriots can do that can sort of keep things offset, and I think a lot of the things that they'll try to do is control the ball with their offense because of the weapons that they have.

I'm curious, with Gronk playing in this game and he wasn't in the Super Bowl, Gronk scares the bejesus out of me Because he is you know, arguably one of the greatest tight ends to ever play the game But I remember earlier this season people were talking about he doesn't look a hundred percent recovered from his injury from last year What are what are your thoughts on that? And do you feel like he's getting back into normal Gronk shape these last couple of weeks? Yeah, Aaron, I think he is getting back into sort of that normal Gronk shape. And, you know, we've seen him get involved more and more in the passing game the past few weeks. You know, against the Jets, he had the two touchdown catches.

One of those came, you know, when he's got Jamal Adams on him, who, even though he's a rookie, he's an incredibly talented player. But, you know, Gronk is just a physical beast. I mean, he's just a massive human being. And it's hard to find somebody with both the size, the speed, and the athleticism to hang with him. And he's going to draw defensive pass interference penalties. They're going to do things to get him into favorable matchups, too. Like the touchdown

that he had against Adams. They had him in a tight alignment with Chris Hogan, which makes it that much tougher for Adams to even get close to Gronkowski off the line of scrimmage. And when you give a player like Gronkowski even a little bit of an advantage pre-snap, that just makes it that much tougher to cover him. But the issue with Gronkowski, as always, is he's one awkward tackle away from being sidelined. And it will be interesting to see how Atlanta handles him. I'm very curious to see how they do that. I mean, Deion Jones, I think, might be a guy that draws that assignment sometimes. I'm curious to see what they do.

But I think Gronkowski is starting to get back to form. And more than anything, that's going to help out this offense and Tom Brady. I'm curious, what are your thoughts on sort of the cohesion of the other weapons that the Patriots are using? Brady, Cooks, it seems like the Patriots do a good job spreading the ball around to all their wide receivers and tight ends and running backs with White and Cooks and Gronk and Hogan and Amendola. What are your thoughts on sort of is one of those guys emerging as a go-to guy?

I know James White really sort of tore the Falcons a new one in that Super Bowl, and that has been an issue a little bit with the Falcons covering running backs. Do you feel like one of these guys has the potential to emerge besides Gronk as a go-to weapon for Brady this week? You know, Aaron, it's interesting. Like, you know, with Edelman out, I mean, Edelman was always sort of Brady's go-to. Like if it's a third and seven, he's going to look to Edelman, you know,

to move the sticks. You know, now with Edelman out for a primary target after Gronkowski, it's really sort of varied week to week. A couple weeks ago against Houston, it was Brandon Cooks who we was looking to after Gronkowski. Then it was Danny Amendola. Sometimes it's Chris Hogan. Last week, he was even trying to get Philip Dorsett involved. And there was a play where he threw an interception on a deep post route to Dorsett where Brandon Cooks was wide open underneath. And so I think he's still sort of, Brady's still sort of trying to feel out the rest

of the guys out there and trying to get a sense of who he can turn to in that third and seventh situation when maybe you've got coverage rolled down towards Gronkowski to take him away. I think, you know, it might just still be a situation where it's a week-to-week thing, where depending on the matchup he sees from the defense, depending on the coverage looks that he's getting, that's going to determine where he goes with the football. And

sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. Sometimes it's good when you've got a guy like Mohamed Sanu on the other side of Julio Jones, and that's who you're looking to. Sometimes it's bad when you're forcing it to guys in double coverage like you did Philip Dorsett. So it's kind of been a week-to-week thing, and I guess we'll have to see how it plays out on Sunday night.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see because the Falcons are going to want to play man coverage. And in the past, when Brandon Cooks was a Saint, they used Julio to shadow him. I mean, not Julio, Tufant um to shadow him and um he he was able to sort of shut him down and so i'll be curious to see if the falcons try that strategy again but because of you know the patriots are more than likely to want to you know spread the ball around then you know i don't know if that strategy is always the best um to to

sort of – it could create problems for other players, even if Trufant's doing his job. I'm also wondering, speaking of coverage, how do you feel like the Patriots, if they don't get Gilmore back from the concussion or Eric Rowe from the growing injury, how do you feel like they'll try to keep Julio in check? Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me to see them get Devin McCourty involved somehow in trying to contain Julio Jones. And you look back to week one with Travis Kelsey,

and now Kelsey and Jones aren't exactly the most similar of players, but when you talk about Belichick trying to take away a team's biggest weapon, a team's biggest threat, New England approached that game week one trying to take away Travis Kelsey. So they had Devin McCourty a lot either just shaded to him over the top or sometimes even covered him one-on-one. And so it wouldn't surprise me if Gilmore is out, if Rowe is out, that you see Devin McCourty, who was a cornerback at one point in his career,

see them use McCourty against Julio Jones in those situations, not just over the top as safety help, but even cover a man off the line of scrimmage. A lot will, like you said, sort of depend on the health of Eric Rowe, the health of Gilmore. I think if Gilmore is back, they'll probably rely more on him against Julio Jones. But if he's out, look for McCourty to sort of step into that role because Patriots like to do a lot with three safeties on the field. They don't mind putting Harmon back there and letting him play free safety and then moving McCourty down into the box or to cover guys one-on-one off the line of scrimmage. And so if Gilmore's out, look for that sort of three-safety look,

Chun on the field to help with the tight ends, Harmon back there playing free safety, and then McCourty down over Julio Jones. How do you feel about the Patriots linebackers if they try to get matched up with Devontae Freeman and Tevin Coleman in the passing game? I'm already breaking out into cold sweats. I mean, you know, and Aaron, this is a copycat league, you know that. And I'm terrified about, you know,

Sarkeesian looking at that week one tape, seeing how Andy Reid schemed Kareem Hunt in the passing game and doing the same thing because, you know, Freeman, Coleman, they're incredible athletes. You know, they're quick, change of direction ability. You know, they're great in space with or without the football. And I think they're a matchup problem for Hightower, who's not that great in coverage,

for Marsh, who was on Kareem Hunt on that long touchdown pass and got beat in coverage. And Kyle Van Noy is okay in some situations, but I'm worried about him too with these two guys. And so that's an area I think Atlanta would be wise to exploit because you've got talented guys coming out of the backfield, you know, similar to what New England did against Atlanta in the Super Bowl with James White. I mean, you can get those matchups where you have guys that are shifty, that are quick, that can make moves in space, get them

on linebackers who aren't great at covering in those situations and take advantage of it. So I think, you know, if that's the way this game plays out, if New England tries to take away Julio Jones, if they bracket him, if they use Devin McCourty on him, there are going to be opportunities for Freeman, for Coleman out of the backfield to make some plays. Would you say that giving up the chunk yardage, giving up the big plays has been the biggest problem

for the Patriots' defense this year? Yeah, Aaron, I think so. And, you know, they've started to get better. I mean, they had a really bad start against New York on Sunday against the Jets. You know, the Jets score on two of their first three possessions. They score touchdowns. But they started to get better as that game went on. Against Tampa Bay on the short week, you know, after that debacle against the Panthers,

they played a lot of zone coverage. They tried to simplify it a little bit. They gave up some touchdowns. They gave up some passing yardage, but they were able to claw out the victory. So I think the defense has started to get better, but it's still going to be a communication thing. It's still going to be our guys executing their assignments

because we saw those blown coverages against Carolina. I would imagine with Freeman, with Coleman, Atlanta's going to do some things with motion, with movement, pre-snap, to try to get guys out of position, to try to get guys running the wrong way. You know, so those are things that scare me as well. I mean, this New England defense, it's not what we've expected to see from New England teams in the past. Are they getting better?

Perhaps a little bit, but they're not there yet. And to come up against an offense like Atlanta with the weapons that they have, it might be, in terms of scheduling-wise, the worst time for New England to get a team like Atlanta on the other side of the field. Maybe two weeks ago would have been even worse, but I'm a little concerned with their ability to contain all those weapons right now. I'm curious about the Patriots' pass rush, because I know they're not really a blitz-heavy team. We saw in the Super Bowl Dante Hightower do some things as a blitz there,

but I'm wondering, because one of the issues that I've heard people talk about with the Patriots is they have no pass rush, and from my observations, it really hasn't been an ineffective group. Do you feel like there's anything they can do unique this week to try to dial up pressure and try to slow down this falcons offense or are they just going to rely on sort of trying to play a little bit more of a disciplined conservative approach not not not give up plays over the top and and just hope that they can uh take care of business on the offensive side of the ball. You know, it's interesting. They, I think, against the Jets, did a little bit more in the blitz game.

You know, we saw a couple of plays in that game where they blitzed Malcolm Butler off the edge. You know, they blitzed some guys off the edge from the corner spot, from the slot spot as well. Stuff we haven't seen the Patriots do a lot of in the past. And so I think going into this year, they looked to play good coverage in the secondary with the additions they brought there with Gilmore. They wanted to get the pass rush they could from up front, but really rely on coverage downfield and coverage type sacks. They haven't gotten both of those pieces to fit yet. They haven't had the coverage that they've needed. They've gotten some sacks here and there from Dietrich Wise,

the nice rookie out of Arkansas that they got in the fourth round. I think maybe it was the third. But they just haven't had both of those parts on the same page playing well at the same time. And so I think we might see some more blitz looks from the Patriots against Atlanta. We might see some stuff with Butler coming off the edge or Jonathan Battamosi, who was pressed into action at the corner spot, coming off the edge. Patrick

Chun as well. He's blitzed from time to time. So they might have to do that. They might have to dial some stuff up where you force Matt Ryan to make a throw quicker in the play that he wants to. You force him to get the ball out of his hands and then hope to get a tackle downfield once the pass is caught, if it's caught you know rather than giving him time to set up and take a deep shot to a Julio Jones and so it wouldn't surprise me Aaron at all to see them dial some some stuff up some pressure schemes to try to get the ball out of Ryan's hands quicker than he wants to I'm curious you know I imagine the Patriots game plan they're going to put a lot of this on their offense because I think it sounds

like we both sort of agree they're they're at a little bit of a disadvantage defensively going up against the Falcons' offense and their weapons. Do you feel like they're going to try to control the ball with their passing game? You know, a lot of short passes, getting Gronk the ball, take a couple of shots down the field if they can, but also then rely on their running game. You know, if they have to play this ball control style, are they going to lean on their running game. If they have to play this ball control style, are they going to lean on their running backs?

And do you feel like those running backs are capable of being leaned on in order to help them out and keep the Falcons' offense off the field? Yeah, Aaron, it's interesting. Traditionally, New England has been sort of this ball control offense, but they've relied on the passing game to do it. They're a throw-first team. They'll throw to set up the run. They view the passing game as an relied on the passing game to do it. You know, they're a throw-first team. They'll throw to set up the run. They view the passing game as an extension of the run game.

But this year it's been interesting. They've been running the ball a little bit more on first down and having success running the ball on first down. I mean, I, you know, against the Jets, they had excluded a kneel down by Brady at the end, 16 rushing attempts on first down for 73 yards, which is, you know, 4.5 yards a carry. And they're actually averaging like 4.67 yards per carry running the ball on first down for 73 yards, which is, you know, 4.5 yards a carry. And they're actually averaging like 4.67 yards per carry running the ball on first down, which is better

than they've done in the past. Like last year, they're averaging 3.89 yards per carry on first down, you know, which was below the league average. You know, they were 19th in that last year. They're eighth right now. Atlanta's up there as well. But, you know, anytime you can have success running the ball on first down, you're putting your offense in position to move the chains, to get first downs, to keep you on schedule and keep your defense off the field. And so while in years past, I might have said, look, Aaron, they're going to throw the ball, they're going to throw the ball, they're going to throw the ball. Now they might run it a little bit more. And I think you're going to see a little bit more of Deion Lewis. Mike Gilleslie had the fumble against the Jets early last week that was came in a pretty bad

spot in that time Lewis seems like he's getting more carries getting more playing time getting more snap counts and so while I think in the years past like I said it would have been a game where they throw it 50 times now Brady might throw it like 30 times but they're going to run the ball a little more now having said that they might come out and throw it 50 times. Now Brady might throw it like 30 times but they're going to run the ball a little bit more. Now having said that, they might come out and throw it 70 times Sunday night. I mean, you just never know with Bill Belichick, with Josh McDaniels, what they're going to do. But that's the way I see it right now. I think they're relying on the run game a little bit more.

I expect to see a little Deion Lewis more than anybody else on Sunday night. Okay. Now I guess I should flip the question that you asked me earlier. What would you tell Falcon fans why they should be nervous about this upcoming game? I mean, the easy answer to that is, look, they still got number 12. You know, and I think anytime you get Brady out there, you've got a chance to win. And, you know, more globally, New England, I worry about their defense still.

I worry about their ability to contain the weapons. But, again, it's hard to bet against Bill Belichick. It's hard to bet against what Matt Patricia has been able to do. Atlanta's going to score some points, I'm sure. But I think it might be one of those games where the New England Patriots do just enough, you know, where they hold Atlanta to three instead of seven. Maybe it's just on one drive, but maybe that's all that they need to do.

So, I mean, it wouldn't surprise me to see this be like a 31-28 type game. Both teams put up points, but New England maybe has that one stop down the stretch that allows them to pull this out. But I think it's going to be close. I think it should be a fun game. I agree. I agree.

That's about where I feel like the game is going to be something in the in the 30s upper 20s type of game probably decided by a field goal or something like that so um you know i think some of the people uh that may be checking out my bookie this week uh will have some opportunities to make some money with some of the lines that are coming up. What's the line on this? I feel like it's three, right? I think so, yeah. Man, I don't know. Atlanta taking the three points, that might be the play. Yeah, I think so.

I think that's where I'm going to go. There you go. And if you do it, again, mybookie.ag use that promo code LOCKEDON when you get yourself signed up. They will match it 100% up to your first $1,000 deposit. So definitely check that out. Aaron, my man, it's been real.

Yeah, I look forward to chatting with you later this season when we get into draft season and talking all the things. But I'm sure we will definitely be talking quarterbacks. Definitely. We're going to be talking about Lamar Jackson. Yes, yes. I'll bring Charles on and he will hold him down.

Yes. Charles is very excited about Lamar, but he should be. He should be. Lamar's a special player. All right, my

brother. All right, man. Have a good one. It's been real. Everybody, again, check out mybookie.ag. Get yourself signed up.

Use promo code locked on. Check out Aaron on Twitter. Patriots fans, you should be following him. Aaron's a great football mind he is at Falc fans F-A-L-C F-A-N-S

he does great work over there so check him out Aaron always a pleasure we chat in soon my friend alright man have a good one so there you have it everybody little crossover action me and Aaron breaking down the Sunday night game between the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons again give Aaron a follow on Twitter.

He is at FalcFans, F-A-L-C-F-A-N-S. I will be back Friday for your game day edition. A little different this week. I'm taking a lot more of your questions before I get into my thoughts on what to expect Sunday night. But until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. dog. Bye, goal. Bye, wedding ceremony. Stop. At MetroPCS

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