Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 30, 2017 - Glorious Victory Chargers Edition

Episode Date: October 30, 2017

Mark Schofield has his Great, Good and Bad from New England's 21-13 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. Topics include: Situational football, closing out games, Tom Brady's pocket movement, the silly idea of trading for a kicker and the glorious fingertips of Trey Flowers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Good evening, everybody. Welcome into a glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield here, recorded on Sunday night. Patriots, we've used this phrase before, survive in advance. Well, they did it again today. Conditions weren't great.

Got a little bit close, came down to the final play. We'll talk about why in a few minutes. But Patriots survived with a victory over the Los Angeles Chargers 21-13. Again, it wasn't pretty. It wasn't a game where you're going to give out style points or anything like that. But a win is a win. And that's the bottom line. Because Stone Cold Steve Austin says so.

We're going to do some great, good, and bad from this game. Some stuff in all the categories. Again, the win is what matters, but there's definitely things to improve on. Let's start with some of the bad stuff. More than anything, missed opportunities and missed chances to really sort of put this game away. You know, that's something that I want to focus on here at the start because, you know, it's a 15-7 game at halftime. Patriots receive the second half kickoff.

They get a huge kick return after an offsides penalty, which we'll talk about in a second. But they get a huge kick return from Deion Lewis. So now they've got the ball. They've got an eight-point lead. You know, it's a chance to really sort of, really sort of take it to

the Chargers at this point. You've got first and 10 at the 25-yard line. They go incompletion, incompletion, incompletion, missed field goal. You know, so that's a missed opportunity there. I just got done writing something for Bleacher Report for the NFL 1000 project on Jameis Winston.

I just got done typing that up on how missed opportunities, missed plays, turnovers, those are the things that can be a death knell for a team over the course of a season even just over the course of a game. Now it didn't hurt the Patriots today but they missed

some opportunities. You know that was a big chance there for New England to sort of put this game away. You know you get up to a 22-7 lead at that point you basically make

San Diego a truly one dimensional team. But you miss the opportunity, you miss a field goal. You know, later in the game, Chargers get a touchdown. They cut it to 18-13. New England has a chance now.

Okay, respond with a drive of their own. Answer with a drive of their own. Answer with a drive of their own. They go four plays and a punt. And so those are the types of things that you want to make sure you stress. If I'm Bill Belichick, if I'm their head coach, I make sure I stress this.

Look, you've got to finish games in this league. When you get chances to put games away, that's what you've got to do. In terms of missed opportunities, there was a throw that Brady had on a first down to Rex Burkhead in the left flat on a swing route. Play was open. Brady misses that throw again. Missed opportunities. You're not going to get lots of

second chances in the NFL. To another point, Steven Gostelski, look, he misses two field goals. Two 43-yard field goals. The conditions were tough. It was windy. It was rainy. So it's not the best environment.

You typically don't want to see your field goal kicker missing kicks like that. But just let's pause for a second. I saw a story. NBC Sports Boston talked tonight about should the Patriots make a trade for Adam Vinatieri? And look, people, I get it. Adam Vinatieri, Patriots legend, should never pay for a drink in the New England area again for the rest of his life. When he goes into Canton, I hope...

You know, I hope that it's a situation where the Patriots are recognized to a strong degree on his plaque in Canton. But let's calm down a second here, people. We talked about trades in the game day show. We talked about whether the Patriots can make a move. Trading for Adam Vinatieri right now is a ludicrous idea. Okay?

I'm not usually strong with the takes like that, but it's a ludicrous idea. You have one of the better kickers in the game. Did he miss two kicks today? Yeah. Were the conditions bad for kicking? Yes, they were. So stop it.

Just stop with that. That is a ludicrous idea and the fact that it was even mentioned is almost embarrassing. Let's get to some more bad stuff because I need to move away from this. Cassius Marsh on the edge. Look,

we talked about Hightower on Friday. We talked from this. Cassius Marsh on the edge. Look. We talked about Hightower on Friday. We talked about how his usage has been on the edge. Melvin Gordon's long touchdown run is to Marsh's side of the field. He gets swallowed up. Doesn't set the edge. There was another run later in the game. He doesn't set the edge.

You know, Stuff like that needs to be better there. You need to be better on the edge. You can't let a guy like Melvin Gordon get to the outside because he's going to outrun people and that's exactly what happened. Penalties. Penalties again. I feel like we've been talking about penalties

pretty much every recap show this season. You know, penalties, another factor again today. You know, there were, for example, Jonathan Jones blocking the back on a Danny Amendola punt return.

Joe Thodia holding on a second and one. Illegal blocking the back brings back a Rex Burkhead catch and run. Instead of a first and ten situation, it's a spot foul. Now it's second and seven. Another clipping penalty on Thune late in the game that was in a big spot. And so penalties happen. I get it. But again, something you need to clean up going forward.

Pass protection in the second half. And look, we talked a lot about the Chargers pass rush last week. We talked about how those guys up front, Bosa, Ingram, Palapoy, McCain, are going to get after people. And for the most part, pass protection was pretty good. But in the second half, particularly on two cornerback blitzes from the right side, those two plays, but on other plays as well. Brady was really pressured in the second half. Had to do a lot of movement in the pocket in the second half. And so pass protection, again, something to clean up going forward. Travis Benjamin touchdown.

Looks like Malcolm Butler might have got caught peeking in the backfield at the snap. Fouts during the show, during the broadcast, during the game, actually said Butler might not even have been ready at the snap. Fouts, during the show, during the broadcast, during the game, actually said, Butler might not even have been ready for the snap. And so that's kind of how that TD came together. Don't like seeing that. But that was some of the bad stuff that we saw. Now let's pause for a second,

catch our breath and then we'll come back here and look at some of the good stuff from Sunday some of the stuff I liked from Sunday that touchdown pass to Gronk good route there even better job on the play fake from Mike Gilleslie and Tom Brady

that play fake was a size and ask you know for you younger kids out there that might be listening to the show pull up the youtube on your google machine type in a little search for boomer size and play action fakes he was a genius at it oh pause i'm just seeing something right now we're gonna go back to the bad tom brady's post-game press coffins camouflage jacket let to go back to the bad. Tom Brady's post-game press coffin's camouflage jacket. Let's put that in the

bad category, folks. Okay? Tom, you're better than that. That's a bad look. Now, granted, if I put that on, it would be absolutely hideous. I mean, Brady can almost pull it off, but still, I think that's a bad look. Okay. Enough fashion stuff. Back to the touchdown

pass. Brady, great job. Great patience the touchdown pass. Brady, great job. Great patience in the pocket, too, to sort of let that play come together. Johnson Batamosi, and look, he got beat a couple of times. Looked like he was matched up with Keenan Allen a lot there in this game. Allen and Rivers, if you watch this game, I hope you came away with a little bit of an appreciation for the relationship between a wide receiver and his quarterback,

the relationship that can be built between those two players, particularly on time and rhythm throws, back shoulder throws. You know, a lot of those routes were back shoulder type stuff, comeback type stuff, where if the route is run well

and the ball comes out on time with anticipation It's almost impossible to defend But I feel like johnson batamosi had a pretty good game against those two Against that pitcher catcher sort of relationship and so credit to him landon roberts Look, he had two big plays in this game that really stuck out. There was a short third and two wildcat situation Where he made a tackle that forced a punt,

forced a fourth down, had a run blitz on San Diego's first drive, chopped Gordon down for a loss of five. That was really good to see. James Devlin. There was a fourth-and-one play. Great lead block from James Devlin. Met the linebacker right in the hole.

What was really interesting about that play, too, was a fourth-and-one situation. It was one of those when New England's sort of on the cusp of field goal territory. And I thought it was interesting interesting Matthew Slater came into the game now he doesn't usually see a lot of offensive snaps but he was in wide receiver spot for that game and I thought for a split second you know maybe they do that maybe they bring Slater on to make the defense think just for a moment did they pooch punt this here because obviously that's what

Slater does best. Punt coverage, stuff like that. But on that play, James Devlin with an incredible lead block. David Harris. He made some big plays in this game too. We talked about Harris on Friday about replacing Hightower.

He was the guy that blitzed on that Rivers fumble. The loss of 22. It was Harris who blitzed on that Rivers fumble, the loss of 22. It was Harris who blitzed through the A-gap, forced Rivers to retreat. Then Rivers burps the baby, pats the football on the backfield, slips out of his hands. He recovers it, but it's a loss of 22. That was a big play at that moment in the game. A little bit later, it was a second and three play in the third quarter.

Harris sort of blows up a running back screen, covers it well, prevents the play from getting off the ground. So a couple of big plays from David Harris. Jonathan Jones, he had a nice play. There was a third and 13 situation. Rivers made a perfect throw. He was a third and 13 situation. Rivers made a perfect throw. He was pressured off his back foot. Tyrell Williams on a corner route.

Now Rivers is pressured by Trey Flowers. We'll talk about Trey Flowers in a second. Rivers is pressured. Back foot throw from him. Drops it in there perfectly. Williams has his hands on it. But then Jones with a great recovery rakes the arms forces the ball to come

falling complete. That was a big play at that point in the game too. Those were some of the good things I saw. Pause to catch our breath again. We'll come right back. We'll talk about the great stuff that we saw from the New England Patriots this Sunday as they survive

once more with a victory over the Los Angeles Charters. Okay, everybody, let's talk about the great stuff. And at the outset, I want to talk a little bit about sort of situational football from both coaches, players, even stuff that's decided on in the offseason. Because I thought there were some moments in this game that really stood out from that point of view. And let's start on San Diego's open and drive. They have a third down play.

The runner gets tackled right near the first down marker. It looks to be short by the naked eye. It looks to be short just watching it live. The Chargers start running to the line of scrimmage. They're going to run another play. They're going for this on fourth and one. And then the chains come up. And Dan Fouts up in the booth, he's the one that says, look, Patriots, they have the prerogative to request a measurement. And they do. And they slow down that sort of effort there, that effort by Phillip Rivers and the Chargers

to get to the line of scrimmage, to snap the ball. So they press the pause button on that. They do the measurement. It's about fourth and a foot, fourth and half a yard or something. And they decide to try for a field goal. I thought that was a really smart, smart little thing to do.

You know, first drive of the game. But something like that, a little thing like that, requesting a measurement, you know, changes the mindset, changes the flow of the game. Smart move there. The safety. You know, let's take a step back here. Ryan Allen, left-footed punter.

Belichick swears by this because the ball comes off the foot differently. It spins differently. Most teams have a right-footed punter. So Belichick likes left-footed punters because it's an adjustment that the punt returner has to make. And if you've ever settled under a punt, you know, at the college level, let's say, catching punts can be tough,

especially when the wind's swirling and the ball's moving and it's maybe rainy a little bit. Add into the fact that you've got a left-footed punter doing it. The ball's spinning a little bit differently. It's even tougher. And Travis Benjamin isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a bad punt return. Look, he was AFC special teams player the week last year for doing this. Last week for doing this.

So he's one of the good ones. But the little decision to have a left-footed punter to approach it that way because of the way the ball spins, we see it come up here. Benjamin can't field the punt cleanly, retreats, scoops up a loose ball, tries to reverse the field. Suddenly, he's in the end zone, and before you know it, it's a safety. And I kid you not, watching this game with my family,

a few minutes before that play happened, my son Owen tries to tell my wife and I that, look, a football team can't score five points. And we tell him, Owen, look, they can. They can't do it on one play by itself, but a field goal and then something called a safety. And Owen is telling us, no, a safety can never happen. It doesn't happen. And then the punt happens

and Benjamin gets tackled and I'm jumping up and down and saying, Owen, look, there's a safety. It just happened. And then Owen starts yelling at me because I raised my voice and yelled at him. I just thought it was a pretty incredible sequence of events

that he brings up something and it just instantly happens. It's not like he said, oh, you know, a touchdown never happens in the NFL. That's a pretty common thing. Safety isn't that common, but it just happened like that.

It was crazy. Crazy. Anyway, situational football. Let's get back to that. The offsides on the opening kickoff of the second half.

Lewis had a pretty decent return on that. Got it out to the 25. You accept the penalty and now it's at the 30. Belichick Patriots say, no, no, no, re-kick it. It's sometimes why you see coaches force a punter to re-punt it because maybe the leg's not

quite as ready for the second kick. And this was a kicker that sometimes the kickoffs are a little bit shorter, so they decide, look, let's make him re-kick it. Sets up Lewis and a huge 71-yard return. Again, a little coaching decision, a little situational football

helps set the stage for a big play from the Patriots. They don't capitalize, which we talked about, but again, another smart little decision there. Last one I want to talk about. Third and sixth late, Patriots have the football. football again they're looking to sort of ice this game away actually there's two more I want to talk about but third and six late they're looking to ice this game away they use the hard count and they get Joey Bosa to jump off sides and while Bosa was viewed by many as look top, top edge type talent, some people that

scouted him, some people that evaluated him, looked at him and said, look, yeah, he's talented, don't get me wrong. Likes to jump the snap sometimes, leading to some offsides penalties. I think there was one game while at Ohio State, he had three or four in one game. You know, he had five last year. Knowing something like that, knowing in a situation we might need to draw somebody off sides, that's, again, situational football. Finally, the last one that I'll mention here,

Brady catching the Chargers with a 12-minute on the field penalty. And Fouts even said it in the booth. Might be nobody better in the NFL at doing that than Tom Brady because they get to the line of scrimmage, you force a late substitution, you see guys running off the field, and if they're taking their time to get off the field,

you just snap the ball. And it seems like a silly penalty if a guy's like one foot on the field, but the rules are the rules, and so the Patriots take advantage of them. Running backs in this game. Talked a little bit about how the game plan might be getting the ball to the running backs quick in the quick passing game.

Burkhead, big game from him. He played a big role for the Patriots in the victory over the Chargers. Saw a lot of snaps in this game. He only had four carries for 15 yards, but a team high seven receptions on seven targets for 68 yards.

In New England's sort of top two receivers in terms of yardage at least were James White, five catches for 85 yards, Rex Burkhead, seven catches for 68 yards. So a big game from those guys.

Trey Flowers and his fingertips. We mentioned earlier the field goal that was missed. Flowers may have gotten his fingertips. We mentioned earlier the field goal that was missed. Flowers may have gotten his fingertips on that one. Flowers had a good game. Seemed like he was

in the backfield on almost every other play. It was a third and eight late in the game. Chargers had the ball. Flowers again gets his fingertips on it near the line of scrimmage.

Pass falls incomplete. So the fingertips of Trey Flowers. Finally, great thing today, Brady's pocket movement. I've been saying this a lot this year. I feel like I come to it as one of the greats every victory, but again, just a great job.

More than anything else, there was that one play where Nate's shoulder sort of rides Joey Bosa around the pocket and Brady's moving around and he just, for a split second, I don't know if you noticed this, he sort of peeks to his right to know where Bosa is and then slides a little bit more before getting the ball out of his hand. He was pressured a lot in this game, but Brady, his pocket movement, it's just so great to watch. It's just somebody that studies quarterbacks, that studies this game and writes about all these guys and grades these guys each week.

His pocket movement. There might be some people that are more athletic. There might be some guys in this league that are just better runners. You know, but just the pure pocket movement, in and around the pocket. I don't know if there's anybody really better than Brady right now doing it. And it's just incredible to watch week in and week out. So there you have it.

You're great, you're good, and you're bad from another Patriots victory. 21-13 over the Chargers. And look, again, I started with this. I want to end with it quickly. You know, you don't always want to let teams hand in there. Let teams hand around. And the Patriots, yeah, they let the Chargers hand around. And it comes down to the final play.

They had chances to sort of put this one away. Sort of you know, deliver that knockout shot. And they didn't quite do it. But now they get the bye week. They get a chance to sort of recharge. They get a tough stretch coming up when they come out of the bye.

You know, they go at Denver. Raiders down to Mexico City. Then you have three straight AFC East games. Dolphins at home, at Buffalo, at Miami, then at Pittsburgh, and then Buffalo at home. I mean, that's sort of a tough stretch. Four road games out of your next six games, one neutral site game,

and a home game against Miami. And sort of the stories coming out of Foxborough tonight are Patriots aren't pleased. Well, now they get a whole bye week to sort of chew on this, stew on this, and get ready for this big upcoming stretch. We get a bye week, too, here at Locked on Patriots, but just because the Pats aren't playing

doesn't mean the podcast will stop coming. Doing something a little bit different for the bye week. Some narrative looks back at the five Super Bowl wins. It starts tomorrow with a look at Super Bowl 51. Two great guests that I got a chance to sit down and talk with. Rich Hill, the

managing editor of Pat's Pulpit. As well as Aaron Freeman. You heard him a couple weeks ago. He's the host of Lockdown Falcons. Got the chance to talk with both of those guys about Super Bowl 51. Their memories, what they were thinking at each

moment. Really enjoy how it came out. I think you will enjoy it as well. So until next time everybody, savor the glorious victory and keep it locked right here to me Mark Schofield. And Locked on Patriots.