Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 22, 2017 - Glorious Victory Atlanta Edition

Episode Date: October 23, 2017

With a special Hound of the Baskervilles opening, Mark Schofield has his Glorious Victory Edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. New England emerges with a 23-7 victory over the Atlanta Falcons and Mark has his "Great, Good and Bad" from the Sunday night contest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Fearless is just one tap away. With the new FEP Blue app from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, you can access your health benefits on the go. Download it now at fepblue.org app. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I have said that over the great Grimpen Mire,

the hundred-dense white fog, it was drifting slowly in our direction. It banked itself up like a wall on that side of us, low but thick and well-defined. The moon shone on it, and it looked like a great shimmering ice field, with the heads of the distant tors as rocks borne upon its surface. Holmes's face was turned towards it, and he muttered impatiently as he watched its sluggish drift. It's moving towards us, Watson. Is that serious? Very serious indeed. The one thing upon which Earth could have disarranged my plans. He can't be very long now. It is already ten o'clock. Our success and even his life may

depend upon his coming out before the fog is over the path. Those are the words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from his work The Hound of the Baskervilles as he describes the fog. I thought it very fitting on a night which fog did play somewhat of a role in the Patriots' victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Mark Schofield here with you on yet another glorious victory edition of Locked on Patriots. Patriots on Sunday night come out victorious 23-7 over the Atlanta Falcons. We're going to do as we do for these glorious victory episodes. Some great good and bad from Sunday night. And it was a great victory.

Finally, one of those complete performances that the Patriots and their fans have been looking for on both sides of the football. Patriots come out in the rematch game, come out victorious. Just a great effort on both sides of the ball. We're going to start with the bad. There were some things that the Patriots will need to clean up going forward.

Penalty is the biggest one. Penalty is the biggest one. They had two penalties, two hold-in penalties on their opening drive of the game. One a hold-in penalty on Chris Hogan. Another hold-in penalty on their opening drive of the game. One a hold-in penalty on Chris Hogan. Another hold-in penalty on Nate Solder. Rob Gronkowski got into the act as well. He was flagged for an offensive pass interference penalty. That negated what would have been a big throw from quarterback Tom Brady to the tight end.

Where Gronkowski made an incredible diving catch. Brady on that play, as you probably saw all night long, as Chris Collinsworth talked about near the end of the game, a great job sliding in the pocket on that throw. But it's for naught. It's erased by a pass at DeFerrin's penalty. And that was a good call. Some of the fans at Gillette did boo,

but Gronkowski, full extension of the left arm as he pushed off there. Some other penalties. Gronkowski had full extension of the left arm as he pushed off there. Some other penalties. Gronkowski had two false starts on the game. One of which looked like it was going to be a drive killer. He had a false start on the third and 11, but he made up for it in the next play. Deep out route along the sideline with Brady again doing a great job. Moving in the pocket, making a great throw to hit Gronkowski along the sideline. Shaq Mason had another hold and penalty on a run in the fourth quarter,

first down run from Mike Gillisley that negated that play. Patrick Chun on special teams. He had a hold and penalty on Atlanta's first punt of the game. This was a punt that Danny Amidol actually made a fair catch on on New England's 47-yard line. New England would have had incredible field position to start that drive,

but the hold and penalty tacked on from the spot of the foul negates that potential start and field position. So penalties, something to clean up. Michelle Tavoya at halftime talked to Bill Belichick about it. Penalties was one of the things he said that that team needed to clean up. The other thing that Belichick mentioned was pass protection.

Atlanta, they got to Brady. They got to him a couple of times. Sacked him twice for a loss of eight yards total, but he was pressured a lot. He took a big shot on what looked like a bad interception from him that was negated by a rough in the passer penalty, a blow to the head. So pass protection, penalties, those are some things that New England is going to have to clean up. But enough of the bad stuff. Let's talk some good stuff before we get to even the great stuff. Good stuff, A lot of

good stuff in this game. I want to start. Look. Cassius Marsh. That field goal block. That was a big play at that point in the game. It's a scoreless tie. Does a great job there of getting small. We've talked about getting small before on this show. With respect to the running back position.

Here he does it on the field goal block team. Gets himself small. Wiggles through two blockers. Gets the arms extended. And what was great about that play is you see this more often on punt blocks. But even on field goal blocks. You've got to get to a spot and get your hands up. It's not so much that you attack the kicker himself

or the spot where the ball is being kicked but you've got to aim for a spot 2-3 yards in front of the kicker and that's where you've got to get to on a kick block play and Marsh did a great job of that, getting himself small getting through that little crease

getting his hands up getting through that little crease, getting his hands up, getting to the spot, and blocking the field. It was a big play at that moment in the game. Let's talk for a moment on that first touchdown pass. Technically, in the books, as a touchdown pass from Tom Brady to Brandon Cooks. It comes on a fly sweep play. And some nerdy football stuff for you. You're seeing a lot of the fly sweep in the NFL right now. Where the quarterback takes a shotgun snap and simply flips it forward

to usually your receiver, sometimes a runner back, coming in motion. Rather than handing it off. And this is a play that has been around in football circles for years now. And it got a lot of prominence in the 2012 Orange Bowl.

Believe it or not. West Virginia versus Clemson. West Virginia goes out and drops 70 on the Tigers. And over and over again, they're running this fly sweep. Gino Smith, Tavon Austin, and he's just taking the snap, flipping it forward to him. And after the game, Dana Holderson, the head coach of West Virginia,

he's asked about that play. The announcer's, I honestly think it was John Gruden who was in the booth for that game. They're going crazy. They're thinking it's this incredible design. They've never seen it before. And Hodgerson mentions a coach, Bob Stitt. At that time, Stitt was the head coach of the Colorado School of Mines, a Division 2 program and that's where Holgerson got the design from

and the reason why Stitt designed the play that way it's genius when you think about it because people have been running fly sweep and jet sweep and stuff like that for years but they've been having the quarterback hand the ball off Because people have been running fly sweep and jet sweep and stuff like that for years. But they've been having the quarterback hand the ball off. So when Stitt was studying this play, he found that sometimes there were mistakes made at the handoff point. Whether the timing was off, the depth was off, the relationship between the quarterback and the guy he was giving the ball to.

And sometimes there were fumbles. And sometimes they lost those fumbles. And so Stitt sat down and said, Look, why don't we just have the quarterback flip it to him? Because then it's a pass. And then if there's a mistake and the ball hits the turf, it's incomplete. We're not losing any yardage. We're not running the risk of a fumble that we lost. It's just incomplete. Second and 10. And so Stitt took

that design with him to the University of Montana, where he's now the head coach for the Grizzlies. And I actually wrote a piece about it on insidethepylon.com that you can check out. I actually linked to it, did something interesting tonight. I don't know if you caught this, but had a piece up at halftime of this game with my first half observations where I linked to it as well. So I'd invite you to go to LockedOnPatriots.com, look at that halftime piece. You will see the link to my breakdown of Bob Stitt's fly sweep. He can do some different stuff with it, but its first core element, there's that little flip forward from the quarterback. In this case, Brady to Cooks.

It goes for a touchdown, but the interesting aspect of the design is if Cooks drops it, it's just an incompletion. It's not a fumble. It's not a live ball. It's just second down. So it was nice to see that design from New England. Again, as somebody that watches more football than I should probably care to admit,

just a great design that we're seeing more and more teams use. So good stuff so far. We talked about the Marsh field goal block. We talked about the little fly sweep. Quick shout out. I love special team stuff. Danny Amendola recovering the onside kick on the hands team. You always like to see that.

Atlanta finally gets on the board. You don't want to give them another chance to get points there. Get your hands on the ball. Get the offense back on the field with a chance to run out the clock. So, shout out to Amendola on the hands team. Brady's touchdown to James White.

Again, just a brilliant job of placing the football from Tom Brady. You know, because that comes you know, a pass over the middle on that angle route. We've talked about angle routes on this show before. We talked about it with Christian McCaffrey,

that little dart outside and then cut back on an angle from the running back. That's what White ran. Now if you put that throw high, Collinsworth talked about this, you put that throw high, there's a chance it gets tipped, it gets deflected into the air, and you're coming away with a turnover on an interception.

But Brady puts that low and away from the defender. First it allows White to use his body to shield the football from the defender. And the ball is put in the only place where White can catch it and the defender can't. Because if the ball gets tipped at that point, it's just going to fall to the turf. So just a great throw and an even better catch, I'd say, from White. Because it's still a tough catch to make. You've got to make that go into the turf with a guy draped on your back.

So that was a great throw, great catch. Just great execution from both quarterback and running back slash receiver there. Let's get to the great stuff. And there was a lot of great stuff in this game. I mean, some more great stuff we saw from the offense. First down running again. You know, I spent a lot of time over the past couple of shows talking about the Patriots running the ball on first down.

And we saw more of that again tonight. On their first touchdown drive, there were some big first down runs on that drive. Dion Lewis, who had a nice game, he had a run for 25 on a first down on that drive. He had another four-yard run on a first down play on that drive. Mike Gilleslie, on the play before the touchdown, had a run for about five or six on first down.

So again, first down running. Played a big role in this game. Some of you even noticed that as well. Some of you even noticed that as well. I'd like to give a shout out to Matthew Cook at TheMattCook13 on Twitter. Hit me up during the game with a tweet. That last touchdown drive showed beautifully how much those runs on first down can do for the Patriots.

And he was right. You know, it played a role throughout the game too. But, you know, first down running. Talked about it. Gets you into second and short, second and four situations. That's where you want to be as an offense. And so, again, that was great to see. Great to see that continue. Third down conversions.

Huge from New England on this night. 7 of 13 on third downs. Conversely, Atlanta 2 of 9. I mean, that's a big, big difference. When you can stay on the field as an offense, we can get off the field on third down as a defense.

And they made some big plays on third down. They converted some third and lawns as well. On their first drive of the game, they had a third and 11. Why cross concept to Gronkowski? Moves the sticks. They don't come away with points on that drive, but again, moving the chains on third down. A third and 16 on their first touchdown drive. Again, when you're thinking, man, they might not come away with points here.

They might not even pick up a first down here. We get a false start on third and 11 from Nate Solder. Brady, great job sliding to his left, finds Chris Hogan to move the sticks. That third and three, which turned into a third and eight. This is on New England's fourth drive of the game. Gronkowski jumps offside, so now it's third and eight. Brady slides in the pocket,

finds Gronkowski on that deep route along the sideline, gets both feet down. Great catch, great job by the tight end there. Conversion on third down. Leads to a field goal at the end of that drive. Brady even had a scramble on a third down situation. Don't see that from him often. Moves the sticks there.

This is their opening drive of the second half. Another third down conversion on that drive. Throw to Brandon Cooks on third and eight. So look, moving the sticks on that drive. Throw to Brandon Cooks on third and eight. So look, moving the sticks on third down. Critical to an offensive success. Patriots great at that tonight.

New England's defense. Just an incredible job from these guys. And I talked about it with Aaron Freeman this week. I talked about it a bit with you guys as well. The weapons Atlanta had coming in. Guys band up. Eric Rowe out again.

Stephon Gilmore out again. Johnson Badamisi, Jonathan Jones, Malcolm Butler, great job from those guys. Good coverage all night long. You know, at halftime, Julio Jones had two catches for 30 yards on four targets.

He ends the game, sure, nine receptions for 99 yards and a touchdown. But a lot of that stuff came when the game was kind of in hand. Patriots were playing cover two. They were giving him some stuff over the middle. Sure, the touchdown over Malcolm Butler, just a great, great individual play. You want to talk about strength, hand strength at the catch point? I mean, Butler was in position. That wasn't the best

throw from Matt Ryan there. Butler's in position to make an interception there. Sure, it's over his head, but still. And Julio Jones just rips it out of his hand at the catch point. When we get into draft season and I start talking about the catch point

with wide receivers and tight ends, that's what you're talking about there. Just a great job from Julio Jones on that play. But again, back to this Patriots defense. At the outset, we're worried about those weapons in the passing game. Great job from them. Game balls all around to that secondary. We were worried about runs to the edges. New England did a really good job on those,

particularly in the first half. Look, Devonta Freeman, sure, he ends the game 12 carries for 72 yards, an average of 6 yards per carry. Some of those came a little bit later in the game, but they were ready for those, particularly in the first half. There was a toss play to the left side. Donta Hightower flowed to it well, held it to no gain. Another run to the right edge. Daunt to Hightower. Flowed to it well. Held it to no gain.

Another run to the right edge. Kyle Van Noy blew that up. So they were ready for those runs to the edges. They did a good job with those as well. So, look, great job all around from this Patriots defense. Little game ball situation to Adam Butler. Notches his first NFL sack. That came at a big moment in the game too. That was a second intense situation.

Turns it into third and 20. Atlanta's able to get some yardage on third down. They make it into a manageable fourth and six situation. But they get stopped on that fourth and sixth. And so a big play from Adam Butler there, the rookie out of Vanderbilt. Some other great stuff from this game. David Harris pressed into action a little bit.

Patriots expecting the run game. Dante Hightower was also out near the end of the game with a shoulder injury. Didn't look to be too serious. He seemed to be pretty happy on the sidelines. But Harris made some good plays in this game. He had a tackle on Freeman in the flat on a pass to the right flat where he flowed to the ball well. Looked

aggressive on runs on the inside. I thought I'd mention him. Those fourth, the third down and the fourth down stops. When Atlanta basically had the ball at the one-inch line. Just, again, great job from this defense. The third down play, it's a little boot with Ryan rolling to his right Julio Jones is lined up on the left

side, he comes all the way across the field on a crossing route and Butler is right on his hip and he's there to break up the throw that's a long distance to cover an athletic freak like Julio Jones, and Butler stayed right with him.

Great job. Great individual effort there in coverage from Malcolm Butler. And then that fourth down play. Look, I don't know what Steve Sarkeesian was thinking there, but you line up empty and then bring a guy in motion. Most high school defensive players are going to sniff that out.

Obviously, Van Nooy, great job. Trey Flowers, great job on the edge there to cut that down for a loss of five. Just an interesting, somewhat odd play call, I'd say, from Steve Sarkisian. But a great job by that New England defense to stop that. Some other stuff I want to mention just quickly here. That second half camera angle when the fog was rolling in that we talked about, using a little hound of the Baskervilles at the intro here. But that second half camera angle, you really sort of got to see how these plays come together.

You know, when I talk about breaking plays down and some of the articles you can see on LockedOnPatriots.com, you sort of use that end zone camera angle. Get it through NFL.com, the NFL Game Pass program. Yeah, it's... Gotta pay for it. But it's worth it

to break this stuff down and to try to educate the fans as best as I can. But that second half camera angle was just great to see it live. And you saw some really cool stuff. You know, there was just a simple completion to Julio Jones along the left sideline in a scramble

situation where Matt Ryan's flushed. He's rolling to his left. Jones has run a curl route. He then sees his quarterback in trouble and he floats back to the sideline to get open for the quarterback. That was great. Get to see a little duo. A little run scheme that the Patriots used with Deion Lewis where you get two double teams up front. You get a great look at that.

And my personal favorite, there was a throw to Brandon Cooks on the Haas concept, which is a New England staple. Get a slot receiver running a seam route, get the outside receiver running a hitch. It's just sort of a two-man combination concept. But there was a throw early in the third quarter, I believe. Maybe it was the fourth. Where Brandon Cooks was running that seam route from the slot, and you had that camera angle, and you saw Brady make an anticipation throw, something I talk about

a lot, but the ball comes out well before Brandon Cooks has even thought about turning around. He turns around and the ball is on him. And that camera angle gave you such a great view of it. You know, for a football nerd like me, it was a joy just to see that. So I hope, you know, if you watch the game, you enjoyed it as much as I did, because I just thought it was really fun to see that. It gives you just a great angle, a great view of how these plays come together. It gives you a sort of a feel for

what it's like to be in the pocket, to see these routes come together. You know, nothing can really truly duplicate that, but it was just a great view of it to see how the blocking sets up, how the routes set up, where these guys are looking to make these throws. And so that was just a lot of fun to watch. I hope you enjoyed that camera angle as much as I did. But more than anything, you probably enjoyed the end result, the 23-7 victory for the New England Patriots over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night. Great win for New England. Now it's on to the Chargers,

and I'm going to be saying the Chargers because I'll screw up the city. So I'm going to be saying the Chargers all week long. We're going to start getting ready for them. We'll do some stuff for them in tomorrow's show, as well as probably a look at one or two concepts from New England, either Haas or Duo or that fly sweep again to talk about that some more again, your Tape Tuesday show. We'll have some crossover stuff for you. Going to get some guests lined up for you as well. But we are on to the Chargers. And look, hey, wherever this season goes, a couple weeks ago,

it looked like, man, they're not catching Kansas City. But here we are now at 5-2, tied with the Steelers, tied with the Chiefs, Patriots right back in the thick of it here in the AFC. And that's nice to see here as we get into this late October, early November stretch.

Get one more home game with the Chargers, then five in the next six either on the road or at a neutral site. This is where we're really going to find out about this New England Patriots team. So it's nice to see them with a complete performance tonight on both sides of the football. Hope you enjoyed today's glorious victory edition of Locked on Patriots. I'll be back like I said for the Tape Tuesday show. Check out LockedOnPatriots.com.

You'll see that halftime observations piece I talked about. I'll be putting some more stuff up over there. Follow along with all my exploits on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Until we chat again, keep it locked right here, everybody, to me, Mark Schofieldield and Locked on Patriots. Whatcha doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. By singing dog.

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