Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 25, 2018 - Crossover Edition

Episode Date: October 25, 2018

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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello everybody and welcome into a special Locked Over NFL Network crossover event. This is Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots, joined by Kevin Massario of Locked On Bills. Today we are going to do everything we can to get you guys and girls out there ready for this Monday night tilt between two division rivals, the New England Patriots at the Buffalo Bills. Before we dive in, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. And Kevin, let the good people know where they can find you. As always, at Kevin Massari, M-A-S-S-A-R-E. All right, Kevin.
Starting point is 00:00:41 And let's dive into it. We're going to kind of do it off edge defense defense and then some sort of big-picture thoughts at the end. And why don't we start, since I'm very curious as to how it's going up there in Buffalo, why don't we start with the Bills and their offense? Obviously, Josh Allen hurt, Derek Anderson in. What is the state of the Bills' offense sort of big picture right now? You know what's funny about the Bills' offense? It's historically bad.
Starting point is 00:01:03 There's enough DVOA stats and enough advanced analytics, if that's your kind of thing, to go and check some of those out. They're floating around the internet. But Derek Anderson, we'll start there at the top. Derek Anderson came in for Josh Allen, who I believe, in my opinion, took a pretty dirty shot from Whitney Merciless. A shot that, I mean, that's exact play they're trying to prevent. I think a more marquee quarterback gets that call. it's not like 15 yards would have done anything in this
Starting point is 00:01:28 case mark um it was already a big play down to kelvin benjamin that he completed um i don't really care about the 15 yards i wanted a fine and or more didn't happen i don't know what else they're looking for as he took a helmet to the to the elbow i mean just could have been worse could have been and a lot of people are predicting it maybe could be worse um where he toward the end of the year if they're you know looking rocky they might just shut him down lucky doesn't even need tommy john it was talked about at one point um but they they injected derrick anderson into the offense an unlimited playbook and i actually thought he looked okay uh it's funny to say you look at the stat line you show shows a couple of picks um he's forcing it late in the game. That led to two of those interceptions.
Starting point is 00:02:05 On top of a Charles Clay fumble when the Bills were really actually still in the game in the red zone. Just a brutal time for that. And Derek Anderson then tried to compensate later in the game. I actually thought he was making throws. He's better than Nathan Peterman. Nathan Peterman was probably getting cut until Josh Allen's injury. They probably would have felt enough to activate Derek Anderson as quarterback, too, for Josh Allen. Say he was healthy.
Starting point is 00:02:28 Nathan Peterman, their ultimate goal is to put him on the practice squad. He's had one of the worst stretches in starting quarterback history, even in Buffalo, who we don't have a great stretch of quarterbacks. And, you know, LaShawn McCoy went out with a concussion. I'm not really sure where his status is, but the offense running game was fine behind Chris Ivory, a guy I've really liked as running back, too, up here in Buffalo. And Kelvin Benjamin, Derek Anderson, played with him since Carolina. Completed a lot of good passes, got him active in the offense. I actually thought, I mean, the game, and then on the other side of the ball,
Starting point is 00:02:59 you know, Andrew Luck and their team looked very good for a 1-5 team. They schemed perfectly and out-coached good for a one in five team um they schemed perfectly and got you know out coached sean mcdermott and the bills that led to some of that that lopsided score where bills will play one way or the other and they have all year they've beaten the vikings which was phenomenal uh they played a really good game against tennessee should have beaten houston uh that just there's no stretch about that it took a pick six by nathan peterman to lose that so bills in my opinion have way better than a two and five defense i mean you're talking about with a normal offense, it's a 4-2 football team that's playing with an 0-6 offense. What are your sort of expectations for this offense as we sort of
Starting point is 00:03:33 look ahead to Sunday, I mean, to Monday night? I mean, the Patriots, they have had some troubles this year defensively. Do you think that this Bills offense has enough to sort of put some points on the board against this group? It's tough because it's kind of a similar matchup to Indianapolis, but more in steroids to where that's kind of the same thing we were thinking. As long as we put up some points, their defense has some struggles. Not the case. Andrew Luck came back, looked as good as he has since his shoulder injury. I personally don't think that they can put up enough points derrick anderson is in in the offense another week that'll help more plays um i think it might be sneakily just in buffalo monday night it might be sneaky closer than people think i might they might cover um
Starting point is 00:04:15 but i don't see them putting up enough points to to to stop uh new england or to even stop new england but score enough points i mean one thing indy put on tape on tape were some run fits that caused the Bills some problems last week when the Bills are actually really good at run stop the rest of the season. You know, Kevin, one of the concerns that I think people had coming into this year about the Bills was sort of that offensive line up front looked to be some question marks. How has this offensive line looked so far? You know what? It's been okay. If someone's going to tell you that the Bills' problems are their offensive line looked so far you know what it's been okay if if someone's going to tell you that the bills problems are their offensive line they just haven't watched enough or they
Starting point is 00:04:49 want to kind of blame um something that's not there i think the offensive line's been fine it's been even a little bit better than i thought the past blocking scores out pretty well based on pff and my own eyes depending on which way you want to go with it run blocking has been a little bit disappointing um i thought i think they can can run, have a little bit better ability in the run game, but they're pass numbers if you pull up PFF and run there for seven weeks. They're actually pretty solid. They've been getting some pretty solid play since the switch from Ryan Gray to Russell Bodine.
Starting point is 00:05:16 It's not the issue. It's not perfect. It's a run-of-the-mill offensive line that took a lot of heat early on. I quite frankly think they can upgrade a couple spots for sure. I don't think it's that poor. Obviously the big name acquisition this past draft season was Josh Allen, and he now is out with the injury, as you said. But looking at sort of his arc in those first couple of games,
Starting point is 00:05:40 you do have the win against Minnesota where I thought he looked very good in what he was asked to do. Has there been sort of an understanding in sort of Bill's mafia that, You know, you do have the win against Minnesota where I thought he looked very good in what he was asked to do. Has there been sort of an understanding in sort of Bill's mafia that, look, yeah, you know, there were some people that questioned him when he was drafted. But look, this kid's going to be fine in the end. Yeah, there was a stretch after that game where the Bill's fans were pretty high on Josh Allen after generally, for the most part, an average being really really low especially post-draft you know they wanted the other Josh he came in spring did set everything did everything right progress a little bit better had a really good preseason and showed enough but then we don't know what's going on offensively if he's getting neutered if it's just such a limit talent on the offensive side of the ball. But he looked good against Minnesota, showed a lot of things that you're looking for out
Starting point is 00:06:27 of a potential franchise quarterback and got people really excited. Then something happened. We don't really know. In the Tennessee-Houston exchange, they did win one of those, probably could have won both of them due to the defense. And he just went under 100 yards. I mean, it just looked like they had Tyra Taylor again at quarterback, a guy that's sneaky athletic, way more athletic than Bills fans thought,
Starting point is 00:06:51 can make a lot of plays with his legs, and started relying on him. So it was almost like a reincarnation of a player that we just had traded away. Kevin, a name that sort of Patriots fans are somewhat familiar with is obviously Brian Dable, who spent some time with the Patriots before going back to Alabama, now the offensive coordinator in Buffalo how has he been so far are people okay with the play calling the structure of the flow of games or is there still sort of a question mark about what he's doing from an offensive design standpoint I think there's still a question mark just because he was part of the hand-picked process of why Josh Allen over maybe some of the others I don't think that Bills had a legitimate shot at the other two quarterbacks in Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold.
Starting point is 00:07:29 I think it was between the two Joshes, and this Josh fit better. It was said that Arizona liked Josh Allen a little bit more too. Whether that's true or not, we don't know. I don't know that I've loved the scheme that he's come up with for Josh Allen. Look, I think that their lack of talent on talent they're they're just a lack of talent on the offensive side of ball just pretty much I still think it's an average offensive line I don't have a major major issue with it I think they'll upgrade it a little bit but Brian Dable has a historically bad offense and I don't know that it's that bad to be one of the bottom three
Starting point is 00:08:00 offenses ever recorded since they've recorded some of the advanced statistics. I think he's got to take some of the heat. I mean, just even if it's somewhat not his fault, the Bulls coaching staff needs to kind of say, hey, we got to have to blame this on somebody. They let go Rick Dennison after a playoff season. It wasn't great. They did do enough offensively to win to make the playoffs. If they're going to let cut bait with Rick Dennison after a year, there's nothing here that they went backwards.
Starting point is 00:08:26 I think they lost a little bit of talent offensively, but not incredible. Maybe losing Richie Incognito, but he's not making a difference right now. He wouldn't make a difference if he was in this lineup, in my opinion, even as good as he can be at times. So, look, I think that he should be let go. I don't think you can lead a 32nd-ranked offense and be historically poor as they are everywhere across the board. Just regression everywhere and not lose his job.
Starting point is 00:08:51 Listeners, with the calendar turning into late October, it's always time to sort of take stock of where things are with respect to the NFL draft. It is now a year-long process. To do so, great bet is our friends Trevor Sikama, John Ledyard over at Locked On NFL Draft. They are out there five days a week covering the NFL Draft year-round. Check out their
Starting point is 00:09:10 show as part of the Locked On Network. And in addition, friends, guys, girls out there, let's talk about sex. Good sex. Now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence in bed. How? BlueChew.com. That's blue like the color blue. BlueChew.com. That's blue like the color
Starting point is 00:09:25 blue. BlueChew.com brings you the first chewable with the same FDA-approved active ingredients as Viagra and Cialis so you know they work. You can take them anytime, day or night, even on a full stomach. And since they're chewable, they work up to twice as fast as a pill so you can be ready whenever an opportunity arises. BlueChew is prescribed online and shipped straight to your door in a discreet package, so no in-person doctor visits, no waiting in the pharmacy, and best of all, no more awkwardness. They're made right here in the USA, and since Blue Chew prepares and ships direct, they're cheaper than a pharmacy. Right now, they've got a special deal for our listeners. Visit bluechew.com and get your first shipment free when you use the special promo code LOCKEDON.
Starting point is 00:10:07 You just pay $5 shipping. Again, that's bluechew.com, promo code LOCKEDON to try it free. Blue Chew is the better, cheaper, faster choice, and we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. Mark Schofield, Kevin Masseri back with you now doing a little crossover action here locked on Bills, locked on Patriots getting you ready for this Monday night tilt
Starting point is 00:10:29 up in Buffalo Kevin, let's flip gears now I think one of the strengths of this Buffalo team right now is that defense now they get a task Monday night with Tom Brady how has this defense looked so far? I mean, if you take it's tough, if you take week one and last week out of it for the
Starting point is 00:10:48 middle, I mean four games, what is that, four games I believe, they're awesome. They've been an awesome defense, an awesome unit, one that's been better than their playoff team that got into the playoffs last year. Last week they got a little bit hung up in the linebacking court. Matt Milano and Tremaine Edmonds really did not play very good games. And then just from that, their linebacking court. Matt Milano and Tremaine Edmonds really did not play very good games. And then just from that, their linebackers are really important in this scheme. The team went backwards defensively. But beside that, they were on a stretch where they were the third best defense. Their DVOA stats were great. Don't have many holes across this team. Actually, the one hole that
Starting point is 00:11:21 people would say would be cornerback two, and they play philip gains they're actually scored out as good as anyone on the defense last week so maybe that may be a bad thing um so in my opinion it's a defense they spent a lot of money and assets in including the 16th overall pick tremaine edmonds um they continue to give extensions they continue to keep players kyle williams get big money to start latula pay a lot for trent murphy continue jerry hughes on his contract they love their safety playing micah hyde and jordan poyer there's always going to be games this season the bills are going to come away with six seven wins five to seven we'll say and it's going to be solely because of this unit you know how has edmunds
Starting point is 00:11:57 looked because i got a chance to watch some of your games you know earlier in the year and it looked like yes athletic but still sort of trying to figure things out particularly in underneath his own coverage and things like that how has he looked though have you seen some of those signs of him learning the game getting up to speed getting faster more decisive with his reads and stuff like that well you're gonna hear me and i'm actually you're gonna hear a different take from me on right here on locked on uh like on our podcast network i actually think he's been poor um I took a lot of heat for it. And just in within Bill's nation, there's a lot of analytical guys here that would try to prove me wrong in a lot of my ways. I like to use my own eyes and then I don't have a huge scouting
Starting point is 00:12:37 background. And then I like to use PFF to kind of say, hey, am I on the right track or not? What do they think? There's a lot of unbiased opinions there. A lot of people don't like that style for how I kind of analyze. They like me to do my own scouting. But I don't think he's been very good, Mark. He's struggled. He's over-pursuing. He's lost in coverage.
Starting point is 00:12:57 He has given the team a really good pass rush from the linebacking spot, and I've really appreciated that. You do see some development in his athleticism. The number one thing people will say is, hey, Kevin, he's 20. I know, but you spent the 16th overall pick on him. You know his age. Everyone at this point that knows a little bit about football, or at least the draft should know he was one of the youngest players to come out. He's not even 21. So I look, he can definitely develop. Mark, I'm worried. It's similar to Josh Allen.
Starting point is 00:13:29 They took a similar type of player. But at the linebacking spot, you might be willing to have that athleticism and let that develop. You might not be as willing on the quarterback, and that's why Josh Allen takes more heat for it. But they took the same player. You know, Kevin, you mentioned the safeties and how those two guys are really sort of great on the back end of that defense. And, you know, when you look back at, you know, at least last year, for example, you know, you got some interceptions against Brady.
Starting point is 00:13:52 You know, that, you know, week 15 game, excuse me, there was that interception earlier in the game. Jordan Poynter with the big six on that 19-yard interception return. Is that going to be sort of the strength of this secondary, along with, obviously, Tredavious White, those safeties on the back end of this defense? Do you think they could make some plays against Brady like they have in the past come Monday night? I do.
Starting point is 00:14:14 I think that that's where the team would be in this game, cover whatever you want to call it, be within a score, however you want to analyze it and say that was a decent Bills game. I do think their D-backs would be the reason why. They, you know, they have Trey White covering whoever's number one. He's played some good ones so far. Keenan Allen, he's gone against Devontae Adams. You know, he's played Will Fuller, DeAndre Hopkins. And he's come out pretty good in most of the games.
Starting point is 00:14:38 If anything, he'll get a little aggressive just because we'd rather him do that and risk a call than let up a pass. But look, he's a great cornerback one i he was a good pick takes a tiny tiny we'll say tiny bit of sting off of the bills trading back uh at 10 or 9 or 10 and leaving um patrick mahomes on the board one that a lot of people like to talk about i'll put it out there for your listeners my listeners the bills were in no position to take a quarterback last year when patrick mahomes was on the board for trey white's pick um that that should be they were firing their scouting staff there was no way they were taking their quarterback of the future in fact they were stockpiling picks uh with with a with a fire gm and a fired scouting staff you know when you look at the front for buffalo these are some guys as well that have given the patriots fits. Obviously, Kyle Williams, Jerry Hughes.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Those guys have done some stuff against this Patriots defense. How has this defensive front looked so far? It's been excellent once again up until last week. So that's something consistent. They were up there in sacks, top three. They've all been getting after it. You've seen great stuff even from backup Shaq Lawson this year. You've seen Trent Murphy get after it.
Starting point is 00:15:43 You've seen Kyle Williams still get after it. You've seen Lorenzo Alexander as a Russian linebacker get after it you've seen Jerry Hughes as good as ever still interesting development he's still developing which is crazy he's just such a slow developer that Indianapolis gave up on him he's been great he's been by far one of the best pass rushers on our team and in the league he scores out really well so I think hey beside the D-backs doing their job it's the only as the model to beat tom brady is rush four and get to them they both do have that ability so and has shown in times they've just they sacked uh deshaun watson for seven times i mean they they can get after it it's definitely a strength of this team you know kevin you know you've been mentioned in this indianapolis game a lot when it comes to this defense saying look this was a great defense but
Starting point is 00:16:28 then last week you know the colts kind of had their number what was it about indy last week that gave buffalo fits and is it something that is you think colts specific luck specific or something that new england might look to replicate come monday night i mean bill belichick's got to turn on that film and be like, someone put something out there I'm going to use. Not that maybe he probably would have come up with something himself, but they were good. I mean, they were showing a lot of different fronts. It was pretty, I mean, they run a Tampa too. I mean, they just run on a zone defense. Nothing crazy. It's not really something you like completely scheme against. It's the classic ways to be a cover
Starting point is 00:17:04 two over the middle, you know, slant routesant route stuff like that the linebacking play was bad i mean there's no other way around it it led him to bad situations the the offensive schemes were really good i mean there was some good pulling of the guards to block out our linebackers on top of it we were just missing defensive scheme and alignments um i don't know i can't tell if it's a one-off situation, but I'm going to imagine that New England's going to copy a lot of the offensive philosophies that Indianapolis use. It's pretty replicable on that front. And balancing it to you on New England's offense to face this defense, because that's easily the best matchup in this
Starting point is 00:17:42 game. It's going to be the most interesting. How new england kind of balanced rob gronkowski's injury you know compared to sunny michelle what do you see going forward here at this on the new england patriots offense yeah kevin it's it's a kind of big question you know looking ahead to the next couple of weeks for this team and you know we still don't know and i know we're going to talk big picture stuff in a little in a minute but you know we don't know if Gronkowski and or Michelle are going to be back or out or what the Patriots going to do with those injuries you know what they really did last week you know without those guys was they relied a lot on James White out of the backfield they did a lot of two running back sets at times with Kenyon Barner as well so those were the two guys who
Starting point is 00:18:20 were seen in the backfield they relied on White out of the backfield as a receiver. They would use him to sort of run the ball at the end of the game to work some clock. And then they are getting Josh Gordon more and more and more reps. And he's sort of quickly become a trusted member of Brady's inner circle. And everybody that's followed the Patriots for years or in any extended period of time knows that if you can't get on the same page with Brady, you're going to't get on the same page with Brady, you're going to find yourself on the outside looking in.
Starting point is 00:18:47 That was part of the issue with Chad Ochoa-Sanctuary, for example. You just could never get on the same page with him. Couldn't become a factor in the offense. But you look at this game against Chicago, for example. They had a pivotal fourth down play. What did they do? Back shoulder throw to Josh Gordon. And this was one of his first handful of games in this offense.
Starting point is 00:19:04 And they're, you know, getting more looks, getting him on the field on fourth downs, looking to him in those kinds of situations. And so, you know, having Gordon has been a huge help to this offense. He had a huge catch and run play
Starting point is 00:19:13 for about 54 yards. You know, the second half of that game, that was a pivotal play for them. And James White, you know, out of the backfield. And that's a matchup I would expect to see come Monday night. You know, James White on those linebackers, perhaps on Edms at times who might have the athleticism to stay with them but it's
Starting point is 00:19:28 the recognition that might be the issue give us a lot of bills fans are kind of stockholm syndrome you know you know i think there's nothing you know ever wrong with the patriots can you tell me maybe like one area that you could see exploited on the patriots offense especially against a fairly decent defense is there something you see that could hold them back this year? Well, I mean, I think that the book on Tom Brady is always the pressure situation. And you, Kevin, alluded to it yourself. You know, if you can get pressure on Brady, particularly quick interior pressure, you know, that's given him some trouble against this Buffalo Bills team in the past.
Starting point is 00:20:00 I mean, I remember a couple of games where, you know, Kyle Williams is beating Joe Thune off the snap, and that's going to flush Brady quickly, force him to make some quick throws, and this is a timing and rhythm-based offense that is predicated so much on the ball getting out when it has to get out, getting it quickly to the right guy so he can run after the catch, and if Brady can't do that because of quick interior pressure, it throws off everything this offense is trying to do, so that's obviously i think the first thing to do the other thing is look you've got to show him different looks you've got to show him something that maybe he hasn't seen and i know that sounds crazy you're talking about a guy that's
Starting point is 00:20:33 been in the leagues seemingly forever but teams have to try something different you can't just spot drop into cover three and you know hope to beat him because he'll pick you apart that way now don't do what the chicago bears did last week which was drop khalil mac into coverage 18 times the most he's ever done that in his career drop leonard floyd into coverage 16 times the most he's ever done that in his career i understand the urge to give brady some different looks but you still got to go out there and put your guys in a position to do what they do best and so i think for buffalo it means you'll you know send for maybe blitz you know here and there. Pick your spots because while historically Brady's been very good against the blitz,
Starting point is 00:21:09 if you go to NFL Matchup on Twitter, at NFL Matchup, they tweeted out the past couple of days his passer rating against the blitz, and right now it's bottom five in the league. Blitzes have kind of gotten to him a bit, so pick your spots, blitz him wisely, and I think if you get pressure on him, you can rattle this offense a bit. That's interesting because the Bills early on in the Colts game, they don't blitz them wisely and i think if you get pressure on them you can rattle this offense a bit that's that's interesting because the bills early early on in the colts game they don't blitz right they're not a blitzing team one of the lowest in the league blitzed andrew luck a lot andrew luck wasn't used to it and the bills had a couple of really early normal series where they shut them
Starting point is 00:21:38 down and three and outs and played well quickly andrew luck picked up on what the bills were doing and the bills continued to blitz for most of the first half and they got down by doing it so it's interesting to see that they kind of went on a blitz heavy and they might you might see it this week i'd like to put that out there where they said hey we're gonna come after you i mean we like our dbs enough to where they can hold up a little bit in coverage we're gonna come after you see what happens and try to try to shut the offense down because we're not going to sit back here and let you just throw all over us yeah i mean it's it's a fascinating thing to try to try to strike that balance between you know what you're going to do on the blitz packages or
Starting point is 00:22:12 not but you know like i've said typically blitz and brady isn't the way to go because it gives them some easy reads but now is probably the time i think to get after them given what we've seen kevin you know let's sort of shift gears here and go big picture. Let's sort of talk injuries and stuff like that. And what's sort of like the health status of the Bills as we look ahead to Monday night? They're fairly healthy with it not being an official practice today. They've been mum hush hush today. But what's interesting about them like last year, so there's one thing I'll give this coaching staff, strength and conditioning staff credit for is the bills are competitive when they're competitive is because they're they're fairly healthy uh obviously outside i say that and preface that with outside
Starting point is 00:22:51 of their um quarterback who took to me once again a cheap shot that hurt him it wasn't like a soft tissue something he's out like leonard for now with a hamstring that you never know when he's going to play um we all know what it is it's pretty much the team's only injury their backup special team or taiwanwon Jones, is out. So you're not going to have many injuries to report. I think LeSean McCoy generally plays off of most things as long as he's cleared by concussion protocol, which I would envision.
Starting point is 00:23:17 There's been nothing to say that he wouldn't be, but that could be something to watch. Yeah, and I mean, sort of, we alluded to some of the New England stuff with Sonny Michel and Rob Aronke. You know, it's not clear if they're going to be back or not. Patriots just getting back to practice. We're recording this here on Wednesday. You know, the other interesting name that's sort of out there is Duke Dawson, who was one of their, you know, draft picks, who was, you know, placed on injury reserve, but with a possibility to return. He's back at practice now, too. So that's going to be something interesting to watch. And if Gronkowski can't go, you know, Jacob Hollister, who's sort of their backup move-type tight end guy, he was out against Chicago.
Starting point is 00:23:52 Again, his status is sort of unclear. And the other big one is probably Marcus Cannon, their right tackle, who missed the game against the Bears with a concussion. I'd expect to see him back, but I'm not sure. And finally, Eric Rowe, their slot corner. He had been dealing with a grocussion. I'd expect to see him back, but I'm not sure. And finally, Eric Rowe, their slot corner. He had been dealing with a groin injury. He was questionable, gave it a go on Sunday against the Bears, but had to pull himself off the field a couple of times. You could see that groin seemed to be tightened up on him a couple of times in the second half,
Starting point is 00:24:17 and so that's also something to watch. Now, if you were to, let's just, so it's interesting, big picture, if in this specific game, Gronk and Michelle were unable to play, would that hamper the Patriots a little bit? Or what's kind of your opinion on what that might do to this game? I mean, I'm not so sure it would restrict what they're going to do. I mean, I just think that, again, it would be a lot like what we saw from them last Sunday, where it's going to be a focus on James White. You're going to have sort of a focus on Josh Gordon in the game plan, a lot of sort of quick type throws to get the ball out, you know, spread the field a bit. You know, it's going to be the same kind of look with the, you know, sort of replacement type thing being maybe Gordon is used up at the seam more than typically you've seen Rob Gronkowski. If they
Starting point is 00:25:01 had a couple of plays in that Bears game where they go play action with Brady under center and they love to hit that sort of seam route or that little quick over route to Gronkowski trying to work behind the linebackers. They did that a couple times with Gordon. They hit on it once for a pretty big play right before the Sonny Michel fumble injury play. And so that might be the sort of
Starting point is 00:25:20 switch. They use a lot of stuff to white the running back, but in terms of those play action stuff where you typically see Gronkowski working behind the linebackers they use that with Josh Gordon instead oh that's a scary thought that um I mean Josh Gordon could be getting going yeah he it does seem like he's getting going and again you know the fact that he seems to be working himself into a level of trust from Tom Brady you know that that's pivotal for this offense yeah in big picture you're you're the the quarterback hero I seen, you know, that that's pivotal for this offense. Yeah. And big picture, you're, you're the quarterback hero. I seen, you know, your scouting stuff all over. What is, if you could tell Bill's fans, what's kind of your prognosis of Josh Allen and his limited games and
Starting point is 00:25:54 kind of what, what do you think could happen? I mean, he's gotten some good experience already and hopefully he's coming back and probably by the bye. So maybe in a couple of weeks and we'll get another five games in, we'll call it. What do you want to see from him and do you think he's shown at least a little bit to be like at least encouraged i think so and you know let me preface it by saying that though he was a guy that i was not high on and you know many people sort of looked at josh allen said look we're not so sure about this guy you know i wasn't that high on him but i i have seen over the course of his games whether it was Minnesota even in some of those throws against you know the Packers for example some development stuff and some strides to
Starting point is 00:26:30 him that has me sort of believing in the developmental path for him and you know what I've seen from him is some sound decision making whereas you know you look at that Minnesota game for example Brian Debo dialed up a couple of different shot plays whether it was off play action or fake screens and things like that, where they wanted to push the ball downfield and take some shots and try to hit some big plays against that defense. Josh Allen back in Wyoming might have forced throws in those moments. But this Josh Allen, at least against Minnesota, checked the ball down in those moments.
Starting point is 00:27:01 I thought that was a great sign for him because that was one of my issues with him. There would be times when he would sort of revert into hero mode and try to do too much with his arm. And with respect to his arm, Kevin, you and I kind of talked about it on Twitter after that Packers game. I put out a quick clip on him where, if the thought process speeds up just a step,
Starting point is 00:27:19 just a little bit, he's going to be deadly because right now the arm is still sort of bailing him out where if he doesn't make up his mind quickly enough, he doesn't make be deadly because right now the arm is still sort of bailing him out, where if he doesn't make up his mind quickly enough, he doesn't make up his reads fast enough, the arm can still sort of bail him out. But the window on so many throws in the NFL is so small that even if the arm is great, that extra, you know, that half second you lose when you're trying to make up your mind can be critical. And so that's what I still want to see from him, just speeding up the thought process. But the thing is, Kevin, you know, all rookie quarterbacks go through that kind of
Starting point is 00:27:47 transition. So I'm kind of okay with where he is. I mean, does there need to be improvement? Yeah, but he's ahead of where I sort of expected him to be. I think that's fair because he's ahead of where most people thought he would be. So I think on a fan end, even on an expert's end, some had to like pause and say, okay, Josh played a little bit better throughout a couple of games here. So I think that that at least is encouraging as maybe the next time we speak in our crossover when we're Josh Allen might be playing, we can kind of talk about it in a little bit different guise, wouldn't you say? I think so. And I'm looking forward to that already because I do want to see him, you know, I think that from what we've seen from him so far, from what we've seen sort of, you know, in the preseason as well, you know, he's made some strides already. And I think that, you know, he's gone to the point where you could say, look, he's maybe he hasn't fully justified the pick yet. But you can see where this kid's going, where it looks like he's going to.
Starting point is 00:28:44 Yeah. I mean, mean hey bill's patriots monday night football back to the some fun um there'll be a you know a pretty crazy crowd at they're doing what we should well around here they come up i've met a lot of people from boston um here in new era field now formerly ralph wilson so anything can happen on these games it's monday's a weird weird day um you know all we can hope for is a solid football game and one that i'm you know i'm predicting doing one to take uh probably 34 to 20 you know what that's exactly the number i was going to put on it so there you go how about that great minds right buddy that's right 34 20 and really looking forward to the next crossover that we'll be doing in
Starting point is 00:29:19 in a few weeks to maybe talk about a few different things sounds fantastic kevin before we go everybody reminder follow me on twitter, at Mark Schofield. Kevin, where is everybody can find you? That's, once again, at Kevin Messeri. Fantastic. Until next time, everybody, follow us both on Twitter. Check out the work both shows do in Locked on Bills, Locked on Patriots. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Starting point is 00:29:42 We'll be back tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here on Locked on Patriots and Locked on Bills.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.