Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 22, 2018 - Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: October 22, 2018

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Hello there everybody and welcome into a glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots. They say football is after all a game of inches and on Sunday it's Soldier Field that came down to the final yard. Mark Schofield here in the big chair for this glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots and on Sunday at Soldier Field, they came down to the final yard. Mark Schofield here in the big chair for this glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. We are going to recap New England's 38-31 victory over the Chicago Bears. We're going to have the great, the good, and the bad, but before we do all of that, a reminder to follow me on Twitter,

at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Inside Pylon, Big Blue View. Basically, if they're covering football, chances are I'm doing some work for them about this game we all love. And speaking of love, we love wins

here at the Locked on Patriots podcast. And it doesn't matter how they look. You don't get style points in the National Football League. What matters is getting away with a victory. And that's what the Patriots do. Again, 38-31 over the Chicago Bears. And again, the game came down to the final yard, which of course we're going to get to. We're going to start with the great stuff and some thematic stuff here.

And a big theme, a big takeaway for me, you know, watching this game and sort of re-watching it to do some final notes and stuff before I hit the record button here, is the idea of competitive toughness. And it's one of those terms you hear certainly during draft season. You've heard me talk about competitive toughness a lot at the quarterback position. But we saw it from this team and we saw it from some individuals. And that really stood out to me. We're going to get into that as we go through the course of this podcast today, recapping this victory.

Let's not forget sort of the context of this. You know, the Patriots, they head to Chicago facing a team, albeit Khalil Mack banged up, but a team with a very good defense, and you're doing it without arguably your best offensive weapon outside of Tom Brady with Rob Gronkowski not making the trip. And so there's some competitive toughness at the start. You're down one of your best players. There's a horrible, horrible, horrible sequence

in the midst of this game, which we're going to get to. We termed it a tsunami of, well, I can't say exactly what we termed it a tsunami of in the Locked On Patriots slack discussion today going on during the game. But let's just face it. That sequence in the midst of the second quarter was not good. You had a horrible turn of events after horrible turn of events. And as a team, they came through that.

Some teams lacking the competitive toughness aspect to them, the situational awareness, the mental toughness. They might have folded up the tents. Not this team. That's a good sign. Also some other players, some individuals working through some competitive toughness moments. Cardell Patterson, J.C. Jackson, Keon Crossan. And so that's something that really sort of stood out to me,

but also stood out to me on the big picture, put in the great category of the offensive line. We know Khalil Mack was dealing with the ankle injury, but this is a defense that has been one of the more ferocious pass rushes so far in the 2018 season. We heard a lot about the Chicago Bears defense this week. Brady sacked once for a four-yard loss. On the ground, look, they picked up 21 first downs in this game, five of them on the ground. They averaged six yards per play. They ran the ball 27 times for 108 yards for an average of four yards per rush. And so the offense fared pretty well against this tough defensive front.

James White, you know, Dan Fouts at the end of this game said, look, you know, he wasn't expected to be thrust in sort of the closer role, but he had a fantastic day. And we'll talk about why he was thrust into that closer role in a bit, but, you know, he carries the ball 11 times for 40 yards. You know, he's not really a sort of between-the-tackles type guy, but they had to use him that way. Kenyon Barner, 10 carries for 36 yards.

Nice little spot role for him today. And White, of course, targeted 10 times in the passing game, the most on the team, 8 receptions for 57 yards, and 2 touchdown passes. So a huge game from him but yeah the competitive toughness then sort of stands out let's get into some specific stuff you know related to this game in the great side of the ledger and we start again with another fantastic open and drive from new england patriots that resulted in a touchdown on the game's first

possession we saw schematic diversity We saw tempo at times. We saw them go from the run game with 11 personnel, some jet sweep type looks with a running back screen where you get surprise of all surprises. A great cut block by Shaq Mason out there. Sonny Michel on the first play of the game on a little draw. Great jump cut for a gain of 18 yards. They had a first and 10 play on that drive where they bring White sort of they start him out

and then they motion him back in and then they sort of toss to him on moving to the left. Another great design there for a gain of 7 and that's a design we're going to return to. This idea of putting the wide receiver out and then bringing them back in towards the backfield.

And then the touchdown. You get Edelman on the short motion. They throw smoke to him. Smoke screen. Touchdown with Hogan blocking in front. He sort of gets Khalil Mack rolled up on his back, but it's a great open and drive. And

they come on. Go right down the field and score. It's 7-0. Then Chicago takes over, get them into a third and 10 situation. You know, Trubisky was showing off some athleticism early and often in this game. He had a third down conversion here with a scramble, but you get them into a third and 10. Trey Flowers, great job, great play, individual effort, get into the release point, getting that right hand up,

tips the pass, and they're forced to punt. Patriots sort of take over there. They work it down the field. And they are forced to punt as well. So let's skip ahead here, go to Chicago's second drive of the game. Their first play, it's a wide zone look to Tariq Cohen. And this must have been something that the Patriots were stressed to defend this week. They had the fear of Tariq Cohen, their athletic running back, getting to the edge. They go wide zone with him. Great job by Kyle Van Noy to set the edge,

chop that down for a loss of three yards. A second and ten play later on that drive. You get an inside run from Tariq Cohen. They started to switch it up a bit. Great run fit from Melanion Roberts to sort of chop that down for just a gain of three yards. Trubisky misses on a third and seven situation. He has a band-aid post route to Allen Robertson. So they settle for three.

So you're thinking, okay. Game started to settle in now. Not too worried. But then the bad sequence begins, you know, which we're going to get to. Some other great stuff. Chicago's third drive of the game. It's a second and five play. They run boot action

with Trubisky flowing to the right and he's looking to the flat. Kyle Van Noy is covering Trey Burton. You get a great exchange between Kyle Van Nooy and Patrick Chun because Chun's rotating it over to pick this up. Kyle Van Nooy is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He has Trubisky running at him. He's supposed to cover the flat. He waits, gets a chip on Burton, which slows him up enough.

It allows Chun to get over there. So when Van Nooy decides, I've got to let go and break down on the quarterback, which he does, Chun is there because Burton's been slowed up. So that was a great little play right there. New England, last play of the first quarter. It's a second and ten play. They were on play action, as seemed to Josh Gordon. Very quick read and throw from Tom Brady.

Great route and catch, as well as toughness from Josh Gordon. That was a big play at that moment. You sort of needed it to settle things a bit. Unfortunately, things spiraled out of control in the first play of the second quarter. But I digress. Great play, great throw, great toughness there from Josh Gordon, another player who we saw a lot of toughness from. But later in the second quarter, it was 17-7 Bears.

The Patriots needed a spark, and Patterson, he delivers it. After the Bears punch one in to take that 17-7 lead, Patterson returns the next kickoff for a touchdown to get a huge block from J.C. Jackson on the return as well. Patterson with a great cut-and-go type of run on the return. That was a spark that the Patriots badly needed at that moment in time. They get another one because now you get the special teams touchdown. Defense needs to respond as well. Hopefully you can get them off the field.

That's what the defense does. They get him into a third and 11 situation. They force Trubisky off the spot. This time they go 3-2-6, and they use a linebacker as a spy on Trubisky. He has to move, reset, and throw. Their accuracy drops. He misses on the cross, so you get pressure from Adrian Claiborne as well as Adam Butler, and it forces the incompletion and a punt.

The Patriots come back with a touchdown drive, a fantastic sort of answer, again, coming out of that horrific sequence. Some big plays on that drive, which overall it was great. The biggest one I think was that fourth and one. They decide to go for it. They go back shoulder to Josh Gordon on a vertical route. And if you want to know if Josh Gordon is firmly in Tom Brady's circle of trust,

throwing a back shoulder to him on a fourth and one situation on a vertical route in that moment was huge. They follow that up with Kenyon Burner, a strong run and a gain of him on a 4-1 situation on a vertical route in that moment was huge. They follow that up with Kenyon Burner. A strong run and a gain of 6 on a toss play. And oh hey, Shaq Mason pulling in front of that. He's good, kids. He's good. And then the touchdown, a third and goal play.

They get White on a great design. You get him isolated. Mismatch offense gets a mismatch. You get him on Leonard Floyd in an iso situation. Runs an out route. Brady hits him. Touchdown. And suddenly the world seems right again. Patriots 21, Bears 17. Skipping ahead

and now into the third quarter. I thought of New England's seventh drive of the game. This is when the Bears were actually up 24-21. They come back. They use a little bit of tempo. They get Hogan on a curl hitch route. Hogan had a nice drive here on this sequence.

He had a pretty good game overall. Six catches for 63 yards on seven targets. Then the very next play, second to three, they get him on the Haas route up the seam. They have a face mask tacked on as well. They get a third and three play on that drive. They get White again on Floyd, the matchup they want.

They exploit it. Unfortunately, get a bad play on that third and one, which we're going to talk about. They're forced to settle for a field goal, which cuts it to 24-24. But they needed that drive. They got a good drive there at the end. And then the big special teams play, which really sort of perhaps changed the flow of this entire game.

Patriots get another third down stop. Chicago tries to go running back screen. They read it perfectly to risky. He's forced to sort of turf it. And then they get the blocked punt. And this was interesting. We talked about this a little bit in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. They had gotten close on a punt earlier in the game.

They just didn't get there. They must have seen something because they came back to do a similar punt block type look, and you get Hightower with the block, Kyle Vannoy eventually with the scoop and score. Now you get a 31-24 lead late into the third quarter. Huge play at that moment. Get that special team score,

your second special team score of the day. Big contribution from special teams there on those two plays. The Patterson kick return for the touchdown and then this one. Chicago's next possession. I loved Malcolm Brown on one play. They get Tariq Cohen catching the ball on a quick little crosser. Brown obviously rushing the passer, breaks back upfield, chops him, you know, takes him down from behind.

Great effort play. Trent Brown, who had a solid day. He was great in pass pro on New England's eighth drive of the game, a second and five play. Slant flat concept where Brady was thrown into white. Trent Brown with a tremendous job against Mack in pass protection. Jonathan Jones'

interception. That was a great individual play. I must have missed the... All right. After that recovery from Brown, you get a third intense situation. Trubisky flucked and you get Jackson with his sort of nice redemption interception. Trubisky trying to make a throw on the move. Kind of a throw is a 50-50 ball, and Jackson sort of just wins at the catch point. Tremendous play from him. And then the other intercept in Jonathan Jones, he's sort of beaten on a corner route, but it's a poor throw, perhaps influenced by some pressure, but Jones

makes a great recovery. One-handed catch for the interception. On New England's ensuing possession, Josh Gordon, second and ten play um running a little yankee concept to get the deep route from hogan it looks like a dig route from josh gordon sort of at the intermediate level makes the catch break some tackles pulls it downfield 55 yard gain down to the one just competitive toughness athleticism all that kind of good stuff adrian clayboard he finally gets home on on Chicago's 12th drive of the game on a 3rd-and-10 play. Gets through with a quick dip move, gets through the blocker,

gets his first sack as a Patriot. And then I guess finally the last great thing, the Hail Mary play at the end. And Evan Lazar actually had a tweet about this, which I hope you caught. If not, you should check it out at EZLAZAR. You can follow Evan on Twitter. And he caught up with Devin McCourty in the locker room after the game to talk about that. And does it surprise you to know

that the Patriots sort of preach a different aspect of situational awareness on Hail Mary plays? They do. And if the ball is thrown short of the end zone, they've got what they call one jumper. And in this case, it was Josh Gordon. If you look back at that play, Josh Gordon was the only guy going for the ball. Everybody else is taught not to jump if the throw is short of the end zone. Why? Because if you look at successful Hail Mary plays, when there are plays made where the catch is made short of the end zone

and the guy sort of gets into the end zone somehow, if everybody is in the air, the guy that comes down with it can sort of fall and lunge forward into the end zone because nobody's there to make the tackle. So if you look at this play, yeah, Josh Gordon goes up, doesn't win at the catch point. White makes the catch. But as he comes down with his feet firmly planted right in front

of the end zone, right in front of the goal line in perfect tackling position is De'Ron Harmon. So he's able to just make the tackle from there, make a safe, secure tackle to make sure he gets him to the ground and prevents a fall into the end zone type touchdown situation. Just another example of situation awareness from this Patriots team. And so that's some of the great stuff. We're going to get into the good and then the bad that we saw. And there was stuff to talk about in both categories. But first, look, this is one of those games where, you know,

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MyBookie. You play, you win, you get paid. Mark Schofield back with you now on this glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And we're going to talk about the good stuff we saw for New England's seven-point victory in the Windy City. First, Tom Brady.

I know he always, unless he does something totally, you know, incredible at this point, he just always seems to slip into this good category now. 25 of 36 for 277, three touchdowns, one interception, which we're going to get to. Quarterback rating of 108.2. Another good, solid afternoon, albeit with the one mistake, which we're going to get to, believe me.

Josh Gordon, four catches for 100 yards. We just broke down that great individual effort play, the 55-yard catch and run. We mentioned Hogan. Julian Edelman, a quiet five catches for 36 yards. Did have the one touchdown. Had some incredible blocking moments, which we're going to get to as well. Some of the main guys on defense, like you'd expect.

You know, Kyle Van Noy, six tackles, six of them solo. Patrick Chun, seven tackles, six of them solo. Adrian Claiborne, like we said, gets on the book with his first sack as a Patriot. And so, you know, Dietrich Wise Wise he had a sack there as well big play from him but that that was some good sort of individual moments I want to talk I wrote it down here I guess we'll get into it right now the decision to punt with 30 seconds left you know I I could see where you could go both ways on it, but ultimately, I'm completely fine with that decision. Given the situation, you've made them burn all their timeouts.

If you miss a field goal there, you know, you're giving them the ball basically on the cusp of Hail Mary range. You know, because let's say you miss the field goal. You're going to be taking that field goal try. You're at the 33. So the ball will be placed at the 40. And they ended up attempting their Hail Mary from their 45. And the throw was one yard short.

So basically if you miss it, you are putting them right into field goal range with 26, 25 seconds left in the game. if you miss it, you are putting them right into field goal range with, you know, 30, you know, 26, 25 seconds left in the game. And look, you know, if they get 10, 15 yards, it's a much easier sort of play to get into the end zone there. And so I think the decision was the right one to punt it. I'm fine. I think it was a good decision. Now the execution of the punt probably could have been a little bit better. I know Allen is more worried about a block in that situation, but really just went into the back corner of the end zone. I would have loved to have seen him drop it down at the 10-yard line or so.

You want a couple of other seconds left off the clock. Now you've got a situation where maybe they've got like 20, 21 seconds left to work with. That could have made a difference. And so while the execution was poor, I was fine with the decision. Third down offense, I was pretty pleased with the third down offense. Six of 13 on the day. One for one on fourth downs as well. So that was some good stuff to see.

Some more specific stuff, working through the game, working through my notes here. We talked a lot about the great stuff, the good. Dwayne Allen, obviously he was thrust into a situation here as the Patriots' only tight end. Gronkowski didn't make the trip. Hollister wasn't active. He was out as well. So Dwayne Allen was forced into the only tight end role. He didn't have a catch on the day. He wasn't targeted, I don't believe, unless, no, he wasn't targeted at all. But he did have a very good block, number of blocks on this day. He didn't have a catch on the day. He wasn't targeted, I don't believe, unless, no, he wasn't targeted at all. But he did have a very good block,

number of blocks on this day. He was sometimes tasked with handling Mack as well. But on a second and ten run into New England's eighth drive of the game, they go with a little Y-Wam action, and James White gained seven yards, and it's Dwayne Allen with a Wham block on the inside, and he executed

it very well. So I thought that was a good play from him Chicago on their 11th drive they have a first and 10 play it's the last play of the third quarter they go crosser to Tariq Cohen Jonathan Jones with an immediate tackle for just a one yard gain I thought that was a good play first play of the fourth quarter second and nine situation they go zone read Adrian Claiborne with a great tackle on Tariq Cohen to hold it for just a three-yard gain. I thought the New England drive that ended with the touchdown to make it 38-24

and had the long Gordon catch. I thought that drive as a whole was good. It started with Gordon on a hitch route with such strong hands. Then they get into a third and two situation. White catch from Brady. A two-runner back set. Both running backs

chip and release. Barner is covered on the right side of the office. White is completely uncovered, so Brady just checks it down. Then they go a little zone lead run and play. Barner for a three-yard gain. Then on second and seven, Brady has all day to throw. They only rush three.

Hogan runs like a hitch route at the start, but when he sees sort of Brady buying time, he breaks over the middle. Great throw, get a catch, get run. You get the play to Gordon and then the touchdown. And this is something that I wanted to return to. If you've watched the Patriots, you know that at times they do this all over the field. They also love to do it in the run zone where they go empty to start. They put the running back to the outside.

And then they motion the running back or shift the running back back into the formation. Patriots do it a ton. If you've watched them, you probably have seen it a hundred times. Well, they do it again. And they had done it earlier in the game and run toss with that. This time they bring White back in, and he just keeps going, and they go a little fly sweep, the little snap to Brady, the quick flip forward, and it's just an easy, you know,

scoot around the right end for a touchdown. And Dan Fouts is up in the booth saying, look, you've got to think this is man-to-man coverage, but nobody trails him. They don't know what they're doing. Well, what probably happened was they were in zone, and they just assumed that New England was doing what they always do and they just weren't ready for that little variation of that. So I thought that was a very creative, good design from Josh McDaniels.

Great execution of it. New England's final drive of the game up before the punt. It's a 3-1 situation. It's a very big play at that moment. It's before the 2-minute warning. You want to get a first out here to make them start using their timeouts. Make sure Chicago burns those.

You need a big play. White on the left side for a two-yard gain. The big block there, Julian Edelman. He lines in a wing and he basically comes behind the tight end as a lead block on that critical block on Amos to sort of extend it. Make sure that White gets that first out and now you force them to

start burning their timeout. So good play there as well. That's some of the good stuff. Up next, we're going to get into the bad, both the big theme stuff, the big picture stuff, some specific plays. And a little bit later, look, don't forget we do game balls and our take of the game. But a reminder that, look, this is not the only show on the Locked On Podcast Network. You've got great shows from the MLB podcast to the Collegiate Podcast,

which is going underway. But I always remind people, look, draft season is a year-round endeavor. So please, please, please check out my friends Trevor Sycamore, John Ledyard over at Locked On NFL Draft. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this glorious

victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. New England Patriots coming out with a 38-31 victory over the Chicago Bears in the Windy City. We're going to do the bad stuff right now. And the best place to start is with the tsunami of whatever. The tsunami of awfulness that took place, you know, into, let's see, I guess it's really started, yeah, late in the first quarter. New England has a 7-3 lead. Bears have just gotten a field goal.

The ensuing kickoff, Patterson decides to return it. Gets hit. Ball pops out right into the hands of a Bears player. But defense comes out on the field. They start to stiffen a bit. They give up a first down. But then you've got a third and sixth situation. You get pressure on him.

Adrian Claiborne looks like he's got his first sack as a Patriot lined up. Trubisky spins out of it. Trubisky, at this point, he ends up back at his 30-yard line, and then he manages to scramble for the touchdown. So now you're suddenly looking at, oh, my God, it's a 10-7 game. This is not what should be happening. Well, okay, you're suddenly looking at, oh my God, it's a 10-7 game. This is not what should be happening. Well, okay, you're going to respond. You're going to bounce back, right?

You get that play we talked about, that seam route to Gordon, some toughness there. First play of the second quarter, you get a first-intent situation. You run Michel inside. He's spun down awkwardly, and he's seriously, seriously hurt. He fumbles, and Chicago recovers. And it was one of those, you could tell that he was hurt with the way he sort of dropped the ball. And if you want to get a sense of how bad it does seem, you know, it was termed a knee injury. He was carted

off. And immediately when I saw it, I sent a tweet to my boy, Chris Gary, who is at Chris Gary Ortho on Twitter. He's an orthopedic surgeon and the chief of sports medicine at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. Thoughts on Michel? His response, no good ones. Probably tells you all you need to know about Sonny Michel's status right now. So now the Bears have the football. What do we see? You were getting illegal hands to the face penalty at one point. Trey Burton is open over the middle on a fourth and four.

They get a chance to get them off the field. You've had the bad turnover, but you get them in a fourth and four. Burton's wide open. They get a second and ten situation, zero blitz. Claiborne misses him again. You get a defensive hold and penalty on Harmon anyway. And as I wrote in my notes, nightmarish sequence

underway. Now you get him into first and goal. Pressure is better on first and goal. Trubisky needs to be smarter here. You get a good blitz from Chun. Dangerous throw. Second and goal. Inside run. You're at the seven. Okay. Third and goal. They go bunch. Chase Daniels in the seven, okay. Third goal, they go bunch.

Chase Daniels in the game as well. They've got two quarterbacks in. He goes out to the right. They throw a goal line fade backside to Kevin White versus J.C. Jackson. You get an illegal hands-to-the-face penalty on J.C. Jackson. First and goal. Another risky throw from Trubisky. It hits a landed Roberts right between the five and the two he doesn't make the catch note in margin here my page my my notes here my note

taking page ugh next play touchdown that was just a horrific horrific sequence mean, it could not have gone worse. Penalties. We had a ton of penalties in this game. The illegal hands to the face we just talked about. Keon Crossan had a bad one. Had a bad one that almost gifted them three points before halftime because the Patriots punted before halftime. Crossing gets run out of bounds and doesn't really come back inside.

It doesn't really come back inbounds. And so that's unsportsmanlike conduct, 15 yards. And you get a first play right away as Burton opened the middle of the field. And they're basically into Hail Mary territory. You could have gifted them three yards in that situation. That was a bad penalty. I mean, the Patriots committed seven penalties for 64 yards, and those were the accepted ones.

Some of these were waved off. Like, for example, during the middle of that nightmarish sequence, that illegal hands to the face on the Trey Burton play, that was waved off because Burton was open. So, yeah, penalties were bad. Missed interceptions. We just talked about Landon Roberts with a missed interception. And there was another one too.

Yeah, first and goal situation third quarter. They were on a switch concept. It should have been picked by Gilmore. Trubisky kind of floats one. Two missed interceptions, both of which in the red zone. And both of those ended up with touchdowns. You make just one of those picks, and it's a completely different game.

So the missed interceptions, those hurt. The Brady interception and the squander on that drive, that was the chance for the knockout blow. New England, they get the sack from Claiborne. You force the punt. It's a bad punt in that sequence as well. Actually, not just a bad punt. They got really good field position.

Let me just take a look at how that happened. Yeah, so they're pinned. It's 4th and 20 at their own 6. And it's just a 34-yard punt Chicago 43 So that one makes the fair catch You're on the cusp of field goal range anyway You know, Soldier Field is dead Dead at this point They go first down

Kenyon Barnum run for 4 Patterson ended around on 2nd and 6 for 4 So it's 3rd and 2 You're at the 35 yard line From there It's a 52 yard field goal Worst case scenario You run it here, you get stopped

Maybe you think about it on 4th and 1 But you get the chance for the knockout blow You're up 38-24 They go 21 offensive personnel You get pressure on Brady Who flips it to Devlin in the flat. Amos almost intercepts it initially, but then he sort of like,

as Devlin's trying to make the catch, he like pops it away into the arms of Fuller. Devlin alertly makes the tackle. Otherwise, Fuller could have returned at a good distance. And the reason why, there's pressure from number 95.

I think it was James White. Looking at it, it looks like James White was responsible to sort of pick him up because Brown opens to the left, everybody else fans to the right. I think it's a 50-pass protection, but I'd have to look that up off the top of my head. But he'd be responsible for the interior guy who comes free, and that's 95. And it doesn't look like White gets enough on him. So he forces Brady to make the quick throw. And instead of putting the game away,

now you're giving them the ball and a chance to sort of cut back into the lead and make it a one-score game. And, oh, that's exactly what they do. So that was bad. Containing Trubisky in the pocket, there were so many times where he sort of got away. There were times when they would go stunt and he would see it and see grass and take off.

I talked about him a lot this week. Here and elsewhere, you've got to contain him in the pocket. Don't let him into those scramble door throws. I know we talked about press conference stuff with Flores and Bill Belichick talking about how he's so good in those scramble door situations. That's what he does. That's his game. They didn't do a good job containing that.

Defense on third down, they gave Chicago. Chicago converted eight of 16 third downs, a lot of it with Trubisky's legs, and so that was poor. Just quickly through some specific stuff here because I know we are running long here. You know, yeah, Dietrich Wise twists inside, breaks the container on a third and six situation. So that's one.

Emner with a face mask on a kickoff. That was a bad sort of start to that drive, which ended up in a touchdown for Chicago. The sack before the Patriots settled for three to tie it at 24-24. Nichols and Roquam Smith with good pressure. Andrews was beaten on a quick sort of speed in and out move by Nichols, which led to the one sack of Brady for that loss of four yards. Jonathan Jones, after the interception, Chicago at a second and ten, they throw a crosser to Gabriel.

Jones is in sort in zone coverage underneath He has an easy shot to make a tackle On Taylor Gabriel To hold this to a minimum game But Gabriel gets right around him And I mentioned the punt Just the execution there was bad So that will do it for the bad stuff

Let's finish it up here with some game balls I jotted down Offensive line Other than the one sack balls. I jotted down offensive line, you know, other than the one sack, just a fantastic job from that offensive line. And so, you know, I think they deserve game balls. James White for stepping up the way he did. Daron Harmon for that tackle. Patterson for the kickoff return. He had another big return in this game as well. The toughness that he showed and responded and bouncing back from that. Same with JC Jackson. He had some critical penalties like we talked about,

but he comes back with an interception on a 50-50 ball. Loved seeing that from him. Take of the game from Ricky Keeler on the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. If you listen to this show, you know that I'm huge for owning my losses. If I missed on a guy, if I missed on a preview or a prediction

or something like that, I own it. You know, Ricky, at 146, in the Locked on Patriots Slack discussion today during the game, just don't let Patterson take a kickoff anymore. That was at 146. And then a little bit later, at 203,

forget what I said earlier on Patterson, LOL. You make a mistake, you own it. And hats off, kudos to Ricky for saying, you know what, I missed on that. Forget what I said. And I just thought that was humorous. It was just a nice sort of one of many lighthearted moments during the locked on Patriots Slack chat we had going today during this game. And if you'd like to be a part of that, let me know.

You can hit me up for an invite on Twitter at Mark Schofield or reach out via email, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow with Tape Tuesday. I don't know which angle I'm going to go with it yet. I'll figure that out. Also, this week's going to be a little bit different, a little bit different because obviously the Patriots play on Monday night.

So next week's game day show, that is going to be on Monday. Friday will probably be a little recap of Thursday night football. Maybe some more detailed tape stuff on the Buffalo Bills. And the Sunday morning tailgate show, I'm still going to try to do it, but this weekend, a little bit different for me. Got the wedding anniversary celebration, Saturday night. It's Saturday during the day, believe it or not, believe it or not, believe it or not. I'm in my first powerlifting meet. That's right. My first ever powerlifting meet is this Saturday. So it's going to be a little bit of a different day for me. If you'd like to, uh, you know, follow along, I do do some stuff on the IG on the gram,

as the kids call it. If you want it to, you could follow me on Instagram, M A S C H O three, nine one six. That's where I'm probably doing updates on that. If you want to see how my first ever power lifted meat goes, you can check it out. What can I say? Maybe it's a midlife crisis kind of thing, but I'm giving something new a shot. We'll see how it goes. So the Sunday morning tailgate show, it's going to happen. I'm not going to flake on you guys, but it might get posted a little bit later or maybe a little bit earlier. Maybe it'll be like a Saturday evening tailgate show

because I want to get it done before I get out the door. My Saturday schedule is up in the air. That's what I'm trying to say. But be that as it may, that's kind of what the lay of the land is going to look like for the week ahead. But for now, Patriots with another win. They get the 5-2.

And depending on how this game turns out tonight, although right now Kansas City is up at the half 24-7, so it doesn't look like Kansas City is going to take care of business. But Patriots still looking like one of the better teams in the division and in the conference, which is pretty good.

I mean, look. They got through these first seven games. They're 5-2. You know, only the Kansas City Chiefs have a better record and the Patriots have a game in hand on them

thanks to that win last week. And so, all in all, they did pretty good. I will be back tomorrow. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Spilfer

and Locked on Patriots.