Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 4, 2017 - Talking Tampa with Tampa Bay Tre

Episode Date: October 4, 2017

Mark Schofield is joined by Trevor Sikkema, from the Pewter Report and Locked On Draft, to break down Thursday night's match-up between the Patriots and the Bucs. They talk about Trevor's O.J. Howard prediction, Adam Humphries, who will cover Gronkowski, and the atmosphere and mood down in Tampa right now. Also, don't forget to visit our partners over at XBET, and use promo code "XBET" when you sign up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. Hey, everybody. Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. I just wanted to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by our great friends at xbet.ag. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome everybody to Locked On Patriots for Wednesday, October 4th. Mark Schofield in the big chair.

And as I've been saying this week, we are on to Tampa Bay because that performance against Carolina just isn't even worth talking about anymore. I don't want to think about it. I just want to move on. We're going to try to get into the mindset of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers right now. And there's nobody better to do that with than our guest today. He writes for the pewter report he is also the co-host of a locked on draft he hosts it with some guy who uh frankly

frankly our guest carries that show he's probably tired right now i know he just recorded an episode of that he is tampa bay trey on twitter at tampa bay trey trevor sik. Trevor, my man, how are you? It's good to hear from you, Mark. Thanks for having me on, and thank you for the appropriate and the true intro that I was just giving there. That was good. No, it's true. I listen to you guys, and it's just like you're just carrying

ledger to the goal line every episode, man. How do you do it? He vultures the TD, so what are you going to do? I get all the way down there, and he vultures the td so what are you gonna do you know i get all the way down there and he vultures the tds it's fine let's hope people that have trevor on their podcast and fantasy teams are in the equivalent of a ppr type of league because trevor is getting all the touches man trevor is getting all this and also listen i to start right here with your call on Twitter Sunday morning. You woke up.

I did. Had your breakfast. I did. Went to the Twitter machine and fired off the tweet, which was, OG Howard will score his first touchdown today. Eight hours later, the victory tweet. Man, take a bow for that one. Yeah, man.

Just went to sleep Saturday night. Had a vision straight from god um prophetic and he said trevor uh oj howard's gonna get his first touchdown in parallel with oj simpson being freed on that very same day and uh you know i had to let the good people at twitter.com know of the prophetic vision and guess what came to fruition so it was that was funny man that was really funny because uh jenna lane she reports for espn the bucks the second that oj howard caught it and was running into the end zone she just literally was like where's trevor and i just like poked my head up in the press box we were having yeah i yeah i heard you tell that story i'd locked

on draft that's just tremendous and not just the call but that's just a great tweet to bring in the oj reference i mean that's just a fantastic tweet if you're not following trevor on twitter do it he does twitter right it's amazing and trevor let's dive into this game and let's we could start there with the tight end position at tampa bay because you know i've been telling people this week on locked on patriots yeah Oji Howard looks great had the big touchdown but Cameron Brate is also a guy you have to be worried about Tampa Bay has weapons all over the offensive side of the ball which is you know giving me some heartburn this week but you've been clearly on the camp which is yeah Howard's great but Cameron Brate is the guy and you know what have you seen from Brate why do you still think that look no matter what we're

seeing from Howard Cameron Brate's the guy that they're going to go to at the tight end spot? Yeah, so, I mean, you know, last year, he tied for the league lead of touchdowns with a tight end. And, you know, just because they drafted O.J. Howard, I mean, O.J. Howard at 19 was a gift for them. It was like they couldn't not pick O.J. Howard at that point. And so, you know, that's why they took O.J. Howard. And a lot of people think, oh, you know, they took Howard in the draft because they're going

to eventually, you know, phase Bray out, which I understand if you are not around the team, that's what the normal thought is when you draft a stud like that. But this is very much an offense that is going to continue to involve two tight ends and two very good tight ends, the ones that they trusted. So you're going to see some of those explosive plays from O.J. Howard in splash instances during his rookie season. But Cam Brayton's still going to get most of the targets. He's still going to get the red zone work. And, I mean, he's shown why.

You know, he had a big touchdown against the Vikings. He's had another touchdown this year, which was very clutch. The chemistry that Brayton and Winston have is so good. And that's why O.J. Howard's going to get plenty involved when they want him to as kind of the surprise element. But the steady Eddie is going to be Cameron Braid. The Patriots linebackers, when I look at their depth chart, not ideal for covering tight ends.

I mean, is that right? Am I right in that thinking? Yeah, I mean, they've struggled covering everybody. I mean mean let's be honest here but you know definitely the linebacker i mean look you had you know marsh had to get pressed into action when hightower went down week one he struggled van noyes okay i mean hightower covering guys isn't his forte he's more of your like middle linebacker thumper type so yeah i mean right and you know i'm thinking you know we'm thinking you know we're going to see a lot of 12 personnel table bait loves doing that running both those guys

out there and you know i'd expect to see a lot of both brayton howard on thursday night again don't you yeah no absolutely um it depends i mean it depends how they're playing it certainly they're going to do what they can with their personnel to obviously get Doug Martin as involved as they possibly can because it's going to be his back yeah I don't even want to watch this game man yeah it is because yeah this is his first game back and you know the coaches have talked they're like you know he hasn't he hadn't played a game he hadn't he hadn't been hit in five weeks and so you got to kind of ease him back and what's the easiest way to to get him back is well you start using heavy sets you use tight ends a lot and so they're gonna they're gonna do that not only in the passing game but to aid the running game too um now i will say

there hasn't been i'm surprised at how little trickery the bucks have been with like using tight ends and play action out of like what would you what you would think would be run run plays like it's set up like it's obviously going to be a run play you've got extra blockers in there and i've been surprised you know the oj howard with the 58 yard touchdown that was really one of the first few times i've seen some serious trickeration from them so i know it's coming at some point but we haven't seen them utilize that a ton more than just kind of the vanilla hey there's big bodies in here we're going to use them as blockers and maybe mismatch people but not a ton of uh trickery there yeah but you guys again might not need it this week because

again this this Patriots defense struggle and stop in the run struggle and stop in the past struggle and stop in gerbils from getting into the end zone. I mean, it's just bad right now. Which is bad because Doug Martin is a muscle hamster, so what you're saying is bad. Yeah, I mean, it's just scary. And I cued you up there for that one, man. Good job knocking that one out of the park. Jameis Winston had a bit of a slow start.

Great game against the Giants. Had the three touchdowns. What have you seen so far from the quarterback here? Do you think that now he's knocked a little bit of the rust off maybe, and this offense is really sort of getting into form at the quarterback position in Jameis Winston? I would say that yes, his game versus the Giants was his best game thus far, but I wouldn't use it to dismiss the hot and cold Jameis Winston that kind of people are still used to.

He still had his hot and cold moments in that game. Obviously, the stats turned out to be great for him, especially him not turning the ball over, which is key. But there's still – he's still not connecting with Deshaun Jackson. And some of his – a lot of his yards was after contact that game, so it was a lot of his wide receivers, especially Adam Humphreys, kind of out of nowhere, O.J. Howard, obviously his long touchdown, guys that were giving him a lot of yards after the catch.

I think the stats were a little bit inflated from that day, not to say he had a bad day, but there is still that hot and cold element, that high variance, the risk and the reward of Jameis Winston. That still exists so a short week will be really interesting because winston works best when he doesn't have to think a ton when he's just sitting back there playing backyard football and i don't know how a short week is going to go for him but if it's him you know not thinking as much being less stressed whatever then we we could see a really good Jameis Winston, a more hot than cold Jameis Winston on Thursday.

And seeing as how many points the Pats put up, I think he might need it. Yeah. And Trevor, you mentioned Deshaun Jackson. And if there's been sort of one, I don't want to say bad aspect or poor example of what's going on down in Tampa Bay, seems like he's a little bit frustrated right now. Head coach Dirk Etter is a little frustrated as well. How much do people really read into that?

And do you think it's just a case where there's a lot of weapons on this offense? Guys might struggle at times to get opportunities and touches, but it's all going to sort itself out in the end. Here's the thing. I do think that it's going to sort itself out to a point, but even the coaches, the fans, whoever you want to say, you know, it's only three games in. I get that. I totally get that.

But, you know, it's not even the fact that Deshaun is open and the ball is going to other targets because, you know, there is only one ball that you can throw. It's the fact that Deshaun has been open and Winston can't hit him. That's the thing. It's the accuracy thing that I think is maybe bugging Deshaun right now or just bugging that chemistry is that it's not even the fact that he's opening and he's not getting looks. It's that he's open. He is getting some looks. Like in that Bears game, man, they had Deshaun open at least four times

beyond 20 yards, and they hit one of them um so it's just you know that's it that's kind of a james it's more of a james thing than it is uh oh you know time will tell this or that you know you want to see james get better at his accuracy sure but i think that's the main problem in some of the frustration and then the then the whole like oh you gotta you gotta spread the ball around this or that it it's i don't even know if it's about that. I think it's just about even when the ball is going his way, it's not accurate at this point. So, yeah, we'll have to see.

We're going to have more with Travis Sikaba talking a little Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New England Patriots for Thursday night, getting you ready for that Thursday night game. But just, again, want to remind all the good folks out there about the great opportunity we have for you over at XBET. Hey, everybody. Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. And I want to let you know about another great opportunity we have for all of the listeners to the Locked On Podcast Network, xbet.ag.

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Get yourself signed up over there. Use promo code xbet when you do. Trevor, you mentioned Adam Humphries, and he was a guy that I got a chance to study last year over at Bleacher Report, doing some wide receiver and tight end work. And he kind of impressed me. Slow game to start the year against Chicago. But over the past two weeks, he's seen 17 targets.

That's a pretty big number. Should we expect another high-volume game from him on Thursday night? Or do you think script might change a little bit with Doug Martin coming back that might do some things differently? I think it really just – it's a game-to-game thing with Adam Humphreys because he is he is truly the security blanket for this team you know a lot of a lot of teams use tight ends more as a security blanket than say like a slot receiver but the Bucs have the option to do it both you know that's why Braid is a reliable target and he's a guy that Jameis goes to when the when the clock's going off in his head he's got to get rid of the ball Braid's a guy like that and then Humphreys is another so I think it really just depends on

the game flow Humphreys is always going to be an option if he needs to you know dump off these short passes you know get more completions these quick hit kind of things yeah you could see some you could see a lot of work from Humphreys in this game but it really just it depends to go in game to game now I have a question for you if Adam humphries is on the patriots would he be a bona fide hall of famer like because i i think i feel like he would be i mean i think he would easily first of all i'm surprised adam humphrey is isn't a patriot right now the whole time i was doing the film review i was like man if humphries is on the patriots the bucks would literally be in trouble. When is his contract up? I don't know. Because you know Belichick would just back the Brinks truck up to Humphreys' house and be like,

all right, you are a New England Patriot now. Like, that's just how this is going to work, right? Yeah, basically. I mean, it's— Yeah, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. Yeah, it stuns me that he's not a Patriot. But, you know, prediction right here on this episode of Locked on Patriots,

Adam Humphreys will be a Patriot before his career is over in the National Football League. It just makes too much sense. It does. It really does. Let's look at that Tampa Bay defense, Trev, for a bit. And, you know, this summer, casual football fans got exposed to two aspects of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization. First, your man bun.

Second, defensive lineman Gerald McCoy. And I'll let you, you can address the man bun if you want, but how good is Gerald McCoy and how afraid of him should Patriots offensive linemen, running backs and fans be for Thursday night? Well, I mean, the man bun and the hair speaks for itself. You can head over to twitter.com at Tampa Bay Trey if you'd like to see the AV in all its glory there.

But, man, Jerome McCoy, he is so good. And he had three tackles for loss in that Giants game within the first 10 minutes of the game. And they weren't even – they weren't these like, oh, the D-line's doing a couple things here and there and he's getting open and he's just recording the tackle for loss no no they were three straight up i'm a man yeah i'm not 40 kind of kind of like tackles for loss in the backfield man he he is he is a monster but here's the thing man they don't have anybody

outside of him a lot of people love to you know talk about no expense and will golston got the contract and robert ayers is still on the team blah blah blah they ain't doing anything the bucks have one sack one count it one sack on the season and that's just that that doesn't cut it and when you have games where jerry mccoy is dominant, getting these tackles for losses, you know he's doing the things that he needs to do. Your question has to be immediately after that, where is everybody else? I just need somebody, like one person, somebody, please step up here.

You know, they signed Chris Baker. They have Clinton McDonald. And I think these are all solid players. But for whatever reason, they cannot turn a good D-line into a sacking d-line or haven't been able to through the first three games and so mccoy is always going to be mccoy um you can't you can't game plan to stop him i would just say that you know when you when you get into those i'm one of the top three players in my position in the national football league often you you you you aren't even afforded the luxury of saying, okay, let's game plan

to neutralize him. You can't. So McCoy is one of those guys. They just got to get something from somebody else. You know, Truff, can I just tell you when I turned on that Giants Tampa Bay game this week to get ready to record a little Tampa Bay preview here, I was three plays in and I'm like, I guess I'm talking about McCoy. It was just crazy.

I think there was one run from Vereen where McCoy could have taken the handoff. He was in the backfield that fast. It was just insane. He's just that good. He is that good. He really is. Linebackers, Kendall Beckwith, Quan Alexander, Levante David. How good are they?

When they're all on the field, very good. But I'll tell you right now, two of them probably aren't going to play. Alexander is extremely doubtful. And Levante David, who we thought might have a chance to play, did not practice yesterday. Doubt he goes either. So that'll leave Beckwith, who is a rookie. He's going to be in the middle. He's going to be calling the plays.

He was doing that last week, and he did well. There are some PFF stats that I see around there that Bucs fans are talking about. Beckwith, he's ranked as the number four overall linebacker and all this stuff. And don't get me wrong, I think Beckwith's doing a good job, but there are still things that he struggles with just as a rookie, having that responsibility of having the headset on, being the quarterback of the defense, all that. It's a lot to ask of him.

So the other guy that they're going to have is Ardarius Glenn, who is a very high-effort guy, athletic guy, but sometimes loses control, sometimes gets a little reckless. And the Bucs are probably going to play, because of how thin they are at their linebacker spots, they're probably going to play nickel or in that three safety maybe look more than they would like to a three linebacker set. But that's the biggest loss for Tampa Bay's defense

because Quan Alexander and Levante David might be the best linebacker duo in the NFL when they're fully healthy. Or at least they're in the top five. They're very productive and they're very good together they have a good chemistry but doesn't look like either of those guys are going to go for him Trevor you use the word responsibility who in your mind is going to get the responsibility of trying to take care of Rob Gronkowski that seems to be always the focus of any defense going up against New England okay what do we do with Gronk who do you think is it going to bewith? Are they going to use maybe a Chris Conte?

How do you think Tampa Bay goes about covering Gronkowski Thursday night? So I'll tell you what I think is going to happen, and then I'll tell you what I would do. I think what's going to happen is you're going to see a lot of Beckwith and, like you just said right there, Chris Conte. I think they're going to be the two guys that we're going to see a lot of, Gronkowski and Buck fans that are listening to this podcast are groaning listening to me say that, that Conte is going to get matched up against Gronkowski a lot.

Because, I mean, it's going to be a big day. You know, I'm not the biggest Chris Conte hater in the world. He's certainly not the best safety in the NFL. But when you're talking about a guy like him going up against Gronkowski, it's a clear mismatch. Now, what I wish the Bucks would do, and I think it would be to their advantage if this is possible this is why you brought TJ Ward in man this is why you brought him in to be this tight end x-factor like half slot half strong safety kind of a guy that gets to play on Gronkowski and just do what he needs to do

I don't know where he is with the playbook I don't know how much they trust him in this or I don't know how much they trust to play a three safety look with him in there being that Gronkowski shadow player but the Bucs don't do a lot of that they don't do a lot of okay we're going to stick one guy on one guy and because of that I don't really see the Bucs putting TJ Ward on Gronkowski for the whole game like I think that they maybe should and that they might have a good advantage for. So instead, I think you're going to see a lot of those young linebackers, Glanton and Kendall Beck with being on them,

and then probably some mismatched safety work too. So it could be a big day for Gronkowski coming up. Patriots fans obviously groaning when they hear the thought of potentially T.J. Ward covering Rob Gronkowski, a little bit of history there. Trevor, let me tee this one up for you. You're going to be in the press box Thursday night, right? I am, I am. What would sort of have to take place, say, in the first quarter

or so for you to start looking around at everybody and giving that little no and nod that like, yeah, yeah, this is Tampa Bay's night. Would it have to be, you know, getting a couple of sacks like you said they've struggled to do? Would it have to be putting up some points early? Like, what would you be looking for to see Tampa Bay do to sort of make you think this is going to be our night? If they can get themselves a turnover at some point in the first quarter now i know that's not very that's not very likely of a patriots team but if they can get themselves a turnover at some point in the first quarter and if they can turn a turnover into points you know preferably a touchdown then you know we might be thinking you know first

quarter there's the momentum there's the fire that's something james winston gets to ride we might be thinking hey uh the bucks might do this thing so you know not a lot of turnovers early on in the year and i think a big reason for that is not a lot of production with the sacks either so yeah i think it all goes hand in hand and that's something that they know has to get better and if that kind of kind of clicks early on thursday night um then we could see the offense get into a rhythm early on. Some of the Bucs could probably do. Trevor, I'm going to let you go a little big picture here as we get you out of here. You're down there in Tampa Bay.

You're in the locker room. You're in the press box. Thursday night, primetime against the defending Super Bowl champs. What's sort of the atmosphere like down there? Is everybody sort of looking at this like, man, this is a chance for us to make a huge statement are guys really up for this is there just kind of being treated like another week like what's the mood no it's it is totally it is totally not just another week um and you know normally normally you can even hear the coaches and players be like oh you know you know we're just on to this opponent and they're just you know the next opponent of the week no no no we asked everybody questions about the Patriots.

Jameis Winston talked about how Tom Brady is his idol. Kiro McCoy talked about the quote-unquote the show coming into town with the Patriots coming into town. Cutter was talking about going up against Belichick, all this kind of stuff. So, no, this is absolutely not just another game for them. And I will say this too. There's more hype around this Tampa Bay Buccaneers team than any Buccaneer team that I can truly remember. Because I was so young when they were doing their thing in the Super Bowl era when they were running their thing.

And so this is, you know, seeing the hype that they have. You know, last week it was a sold-out crowd in Raymond James, but there were a lot of Giants fans. It's a sold-out crowd here this week too. But guess what? There's going to be a lot of Patriots fans. If the Bucs can do this thing on Thursday night and upset the Patriots here, that means that they have now won seven games in a row at home, and this might really be a turning point that catapults his team

into the playoffs and maybe onto something special over the next three years. So who knows? We might look back at this game and think that it's a major turning point for the current era of the franchise. Who knows? It has that magnitude. But to answer your question, I think the players and the coaches know that it has that kind of magnitude.

He is Trevor Sikama. Follow him on Twitter at Tampa Bay Trey. You would get great tweets over there like the O.J. Howard, O.J. Simpson prediction from Sunday. He is a fantastic follower on Twitter. Also, the main man behind the Locked On Draft podcast. Seriously, he just carries that show each and every day, just does tremendous work over there. Trevor, man, thank you so much for coming on, buddy. Always a pleasure to talk to you.

Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Hey, check's in the mail for you saying that I'm carrying that Locked On podcast. That's why I'm here, my friend. Also, again, check out our friends over at XBet. Use that promo code XBet when you sign up. I will be back tomorrow with your game day edition of Locked On Patriots getting ready for Thursday night. And I can hear it in Tampa Bay Trey's voice, man. I'm a little worried about Thursday night.

But until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on this question in the fall edition of The Catalyst, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute. Surveys show Americans place less trust in institutions like the media and business. Others contend America has faced far more challenging periods and emerged strong. Leading policymakers, Bush Institute experts, and respected journalists take on this debate. Read about it at bushcenter.org slash catalyst.