Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 5, 2018 - Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: October 5, 2018

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Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield in the big chair after the New England Patriots improve to 3-2 in the young season here taking care of business on Thursday night, dispatching the Indianapolis Colts by a final score of 38-24 in a game which went from laugher to a sudden little bit of a nail-biter and back to a laugher again. We're going to have the great, the good, and the bad, the game balls, the take of the game, all that good stuff for you. But before we do, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield.

Check out the work at places like inside the pylon.com pro football weekly the score matt waldman's rookie scouting portfolio big blue view friends if there's a site that's writing about football or talking about football or analyzing football chances are i'm doing some work for them and let's dive into this game here um a lot to talk about, a lot to cover. We're going to start, of course, with the great, the good, and the bad. But as for the overall feel of this game, like I said, it went from a laugher, a game that you thought New England was going to really just sort of win going away. It was a game that was 24-3 at halftime.

You thought, wow, this is going to be easy. But then the Colts, and full credit to them, they turned this into a one-score game. They get it to a 24-17 game. New England's turning the ball over. They can't finish drives when they had opportunities to really sort of deliver that knockout blow. And that team kept battling. They were undermanned.

They were losing guys left and right. Really tough being a road team on a Thursday night game. We could go down that road if we want, and the NFL might need to fix scheduling these games. But this was the situation. New England Patriots then sort of finally stepped back on the gas pedal, put some drives together in the fourth quarter to sort of take care of business here, and they do manage to come away with the victory. Let's start with the great. We'll start with

sort of the big picture great stuff before highlighting some individual plays and things like that. The running back room, I think you can finally see it come together. James White as sort of the versatile pass-catching back. They can give you some stuff on the ground. Sonny Michel being the more ball-carrier, finisher type of back. And we saw that in full form tonight. I mean, you look at James White. He led the team with you

know 10 receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown um touchdown on a beautiful texas route or you know h post as tory acheman called it and then you look at sonia michelle yeah 98 yards rushing on 18 carries and a touchdown a 34 yard run showed you between the great block and the home run hitter ability that the Patriots drafted him for and it's the reason why they got him you know he can give you that ability to you know cut and go and you know we'll talk about some individual plays in a little bit but he seems to be adapting to life as an NFL running back I talked about it last week you know getting small through holes tonight we saw him add something else to that, and that's the ability to finish runs,

finishing lower in that shoulder. One might have been, the timeline was kind of talking about, one where he knocked the Gieters out of the game. Why aren't running backs getting flagged for dropping the helmet like that? It wasn't called. If it's not going to be called, you keep kind of doing it. You know, as a runner, it seems like offensive players might get away with that

a little bit more than defensive players especially. But Sonny showed the ability to finish runs. And then, of course, you know, the touchdown run where there was great blocking, but the ability to sort of hit that home run type play, get around the cornerback, you know, get to the edge, get upfield, show that burst. That's why you draft him. And so the running back room, I thought, was very impressive tonight. Tom Brady, the stat line's going to show two interceptions.

Those weren't on him. Those were two well-thrown passes, good reads that got deflected or, in one case, knocked out of Gronkowski's hands with a big hit and turned into interceptions. But 34-44 for 341, three touchdowns. He started the game 9-9 on their opening drive for 78 yards and a touchdown on that smoke route to Patterson. Just a fantastic night from Brady. Obviously, the big hit was the touchdown number 500 to Josh Gordon,

which was fantastic to see. We'll talk about that in a bit. You know, his 500th touchdown pass to 71 different receivers, a new NFL record. Fantastic to see. Fantastic moment for Gordon, who was kind of struggling in that game, but they got him involved on that last drive, which I think was really good to see.

You know, he had sort of like that in-cut to him. And then, you know, Brady looking for him in a spot. That touchdown drew a lot of comparisons to Randy Moss and one of his first touchdowns as a Patriot against the Miami Dolphins where it was just, we're going to throw it deep and you're not going to be able to stop it. It had that feel to it.

That was fantastic to see. Offensive line. I think the offensive line had a very solid night. Brady wasn't sacked. He got hit a couple of times. Yeah, there was that rough in the passer, which I know technically it's a hit to the head of a quarterback, but I mean,

this is me, a quarterback, saying that was probably a little rough. I thought the offensive line, though, was very good. The pockets were clean um he had a lot of time uh brady did to make throws that gordon touchdown pass he had all day back there he could have made himself a sandwich back there um that was the kind of pockets that he was facing um throughout the night you know there was a drive in the second quarter i believe when they sort of went three and out when they were backed up, that they looked basically off-sync the entire drive.

Looking for that right now. Can't seem to put my fingers on it. Maybe I'm thinking of another situation, but they were backed up. Brady was hit a couple of times on that drive. Well, that three and out. But I thought for the most part offensive line did great Trent Brown I think has really sort of grown into a left tackle that the Patriots can be

extremely confident in that Tom Brady can be extremely confident in Shaq Mason he had a very solid night get to the second level on some blocks that pull that he had and the finish that he had on Sonny Michelle's touchdown run was a thing of beauty very excited to see that.

Other great stuff, big picture stuff, Guy Fieri. Guy Fieri, a little Flavortown action on the sideline before pregame while Tom Brady was warming up. Had a fantastic tweet sent my way. I actually

had called out for somebody to gift that for me because I thought obviously it was hilarious. I'm looking for the tweet. Somebody took advantage of it for me. They screen capped it for me. Here it is. Brandman at BrandmanCanJam on Twitter. He just screen capped it.

Locks Tom in trunk. We're going to Flavortown. I thought that was a pretty funny tweet. I retweeted that out. Guy Fieri just on the sideline. That was pretty funny. What else from the great? That open and drive.

The open and two drives of the game from an offensive and defensive perspectives were fantastic. I mean, the open and drive, the first play, you motion to empty. Edelman for a hitch out for nine yards. Boom, he's back in the game. Great to see that. You go under center. You run white to the left edge. No gain.

You come back third and one. Michelle, 22 personnel. I formation Brady under center. Two-yard run, first down. You get a smoke route to Patterson. Come back next play, Haas. You hit Dorsett on the hitch. Then they start going tempo. They go empty, Haas again for another first down. You get a smoke route to Patterson. Come back next play Haas. You hit Dorsett on the hitch. Then they start going tempo.

They go empty Haas again for another first down. Play action then under center Gronk on a band-aid post route. They're switching up the tempo, the personnel. You get a Texas route to White on a first and ten. They replace the blitz with the ball. Perfect read by Brady. Screen to White. Love seeing that. First and goal

they run White to the edge. No gain. Then they come back to back smoke routes. First to Edelman to get it down close and then Patterson for the touchdown. I thought that drive was just fantastic. The personnel usage was diverse. The plays were diverse. The formation was diverse. The tempo was diverse. I mean, they

went huddle. They went up tempo. They went huddle. They changed it up. It was an absolute thing of beauty. I seem to be using that phrase a lot, but it was fantastic. In the defense, they go 3-0. They go 3-0. You get a run on first down, Hines for 4, 2nd and 6. Luck doesn't even have a chance.

It's sort of a jailbreak-type situation where Churn and Flowers get in immediately. Jones is there as well. It's a sack for minus nine. And then third to 15, Ebron with a drop. Edelman returns the punt to the 50-yard line. And you're thinking, man, this game is just rolling. You can't start it better than that. And so the opening to this game from both the offense and defense was great.

Some individual specific stuff that we'll talk about that was great. James White. We mentioned him already. He had a catch and run on a second and five on New England's third drive of the game right at the end of the first quarter where he made people move. Andy Likens in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel

was just raving about that play and with good reason. First play of the second quarter, the very next play was dual screens. You fake a screen left to white, you throw a screen to Sonny Michel to the other side. I want to see that on the All-22 and Shaq Mason did a great job getting in front of that. And

this was the drive that ended with Brady going airborne for the sneak, but we also saw Sonny Michel on the play where he ran over Gieters. Gronkowski on YWAM. Fantastic block from Gronk there. Stephon Gilmore, fantastic hands tonight. He had a play on a first and ten on Indianapolis' third drive of the game,

punching the ball out. Great to see that. White again on check down. New England's fifth drive of the game. It was 14-3. Second and five play. 21 offensive personnel. Sonny Michel with another great cut. Another great finish on a power with James Devlin

leading the way for him. The Chun interception. This was a fantastic play sort of from snap to finish. And this was a great drive too from the Patriots defense because you get the 21-3 lead.

You're nearing the end of the first half and they forced a turnover. And we're going to talk about this pick later when we get to the take of the game, but that play from snap to finish was fantastic because you have three guys just doing their job. Adrian Claiborne gets pressure, forces someone with a quick throw.

Trey Flowers, he just buries Ebron off the release. You know, they might have been looking to Ebron on this play, but Flowers just put him into the turf at Gillette Stadium. You know, didn't even let him get off the line. And then Luck is forced to try to check him down to his running back. He's making him throw under pressure. You know, you're getting pressure with a 3-2-6, which we're going to talk about in a little minute.

Throws off target, Chun with the interception. So that was a great play, sort of snap to finish. Devin McCourty, he had a bit of a rough night. He got beat on one touchdown pass. Got beat technically on what could have been a second touchdown pass, but it was ruled down short of the goal line. But ripping it away from Wilkins there, that was just an incredible, incredible, incredible individual effort play

from Devin McCourty. Tom Brady's pocket movement, again, we saw it on that throw to Gronkowski. Pressured, moving around, falling down, still delivers on the dig route. Just an incredible play. Sonny Michel's touchdown run to put it away. This is the kind of home run play they drafted him for, you know. Okay, great blocking up front. Shaq Mason on the pull. Turns the the burst acceleration fantastic and of course the Josh

Gordon touchdown which is just Josh Gordon doing what we hope Josh Gordon can do you know and you know I had Jeff Risen on talking about Gordon I said it myself you know you know maybe we don't get 2013 Gordon you know maybe we don't get that sort of you,600-yard receiving type of guy, but for what they're going to ask him to do in this offense with the talent that's going to be around him now and the quarterback that's going to be throwing the ball, he can still contribute. He can still do something for this team that they desperately need, and that's plays like that. And the fact that Brady looked for him in that moment, I think, speaks volumes, too, that he trusts him already. So fantastic to see. That was a lot of the great. We're going to get to the good, the bad, the game boss,

and the take of the game. But first, I want to remind everybody about our great friends over at Low-KI. I'm so excited about this partnership we have with them. If you need a little extra swag for game day or a victory Monday or Friday, whatever the situation, Low-KI has got your back with their brand new game day collection. The Loci bracelet comes in Patriots colors. It holds water from Mount Everest, the highest point on earth, and mud from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. It is a daily reminder to keep that balance in life between the highs and the lows.

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Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots, and I'm going to talk about some of the good stuff. We talked about a lot of the great stuff we saw on Thursday night. Let's get to some of the good stuff. We talked about a lot of the great stuff we saw on Thursday. Let's get to some of the good big picture-wise. 3-2-6.

3-2-6 was the defensive formation of the night. I checked with my boy Dave Archibald, at Dave Archie on Twitter, in the Lockdown Patriots Slack channel, talking about how much they were playing it. They were doing a lot of it with defensive back blitzes, three down linemen, two linebackers, six defensive backs on the field. And a fantastic account on Twitter that you might want to follow is Philip Chincola.

He's at P-C-H-I-C-O-L-A. He's a fan of the New England Patriots down in Guatemala, but really knows the game inside and out. And he tweeted to me late in the game that the Patriots were playing a 3-2 dime package with two different sort of concepts at work. One was a diamond one rat, where a linebacker sort of drops off either Hightower or Van Noy, or a diamond one robber, where you've got a safety dropping down from that third level of the defense dropping down, with usually Devin McCourty dropping down from that third level of defense dropping down

with usually Devin McCourty dropping down. So you might want to give that account a follow. Really, really knows their stuff. The 3-2-6, I think, did a very good job. A very good job for the most part. There were times when they got pressure. There were times when they obviously generated some turnovers. I think that that was sort of the flavor that they want to give a shot to, try it out a bit. I did like it at times. I thought other than one or two drives here or there, I thought they actually did pretty well against the run, even playing with a 3-2-5 package. Naeem Hines had 15 carries for 45 yards. Jordan Wilkins, 6 for 39.

They only ran it for 84 yards. Now this is a team that has struggled to run the ball, so that 3-2-6 might have just been a weak against the Colts type of game plan. It might go out the door, Kansas City coming to town in 10 days or so. So 3-2-6, I was very intrigued to see that. I think they did a pretty good job with that. Butler. I think Adam Butler had a fantastic game tonight,

and it won't really show up on the stat sheet. He had one solo tackle, one tackle for a loss. Actually, he had a pass defended too. But he made a number of plays that really sort of stood out to me, holding his ground, handling and managing some gaps up front. I was very impressed with him. Some of the turnovers, we talked about the Devin McCourty strip.

Jonathan Jones had a tipped interception. That was good to see. Stephon Gilmore's hands so active with his hands at the catch point. Had a number of plays tonight where he was influencing passes at the catch point. Creating tips, creating passes defensed. I thought that was fantastic to see.

Gronkowski doing Gronk things. Yeah, he had the bad interception, which we'll talk about, but six catches for 75 yards, averaging 12.5, a reception. I think that's pretty good for him. So that was some of the good ghosts out of field goal tacked out on as well. Julian Adam with a couple of catches getting him back into the flow. Devin McCourty

with 11 tackles. Kyle Van Noy I think was flying all over the place. So some good performances. We'll get into some specifics here. Julian Adam's first punt return. 15-yard return to get them to midfield. I thought that was fantastic.

Ryan Allen, the Patriots on that ensuing possession, they basically go three and out when Edelman had that drop. Ryan Allen, though, had a great sort of angled and hand-time punt to pin them down at the five on that ensuing position. Kyle Van Noy beats the right tackle, chops down Naeem Hines for no gain. Did that later in the drive. Again, coming off the right edge. He and Chun also teamed up on the right edge

on a run to hold it to no gain. And that was a drive that ended on Vinatieri's missed field goal off the upright. So, some good stuff there. The play where Malcolm Brown got hurt. Players were waving over quickly. It seemed like, you know, it looked like a bad injury at the time, but he was standing on the sidelines a little bit later just without his helmet.

So, you know, probably not a serious injury. Kyle Vannoy was fantastic at underneath coverage on that play because he dropped off the line sort of that diamond one rat. Well, he was the guy that was dropping off the throw underneath. He immediately collapses on the runner back, holds it to no yardage after the catch. Great play for him. I love how the Patriots are using jet motion. We're seeing them.

They start doing that stuff with Patterson with those sort of end arounds and things like that. And now they're using that as a play-action element. There were a lot of plays tonight where they went run-fake, jet-sweep fake to Patterson and then did something else. On their fifth drive of the game, they had one of those plays where they hit that deep curl to Hogan, and it was great to see. And like people were talking about on the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, now you've got Edelman back.

You've got Gordon. You've got Gronkowski. He's not seeing CB1 from teams now. And so he can get open against CB2, CB3 type guys. So we might see a little bit more from Hogan, drop interception aside. Some other good stuff as we work through this game. Dorsett had a fantastic sort of out slash comeback route on New England's sixth drive of the game. This was kind of right before halftime

where they got the field goal from Gostowski from 45 yards. And that was one of those flat seven smash type looks where you've got the route and the flat and then that sort of out slash type route. It's a cover two beater. So they used Dorsett on it. He ran just a fantastic, fantastic route there. So I made note of that.

Other good stuff as we flip through here. I guess I'm not seeing anything. Oh, a couple more things. Gilmore, that play where he nearly had the interception. It was very similar to Bobby McLean's interception last week, although it sort of took place on the boundary. He's covering the vertical route. He jumps off of it to collapse and sort of trap that out route to Ebron. He nearly had the interception. Fantastic head of play from him. Sonny Michel had a run of three yards on New England's 13th drive of the game after it was 38-17.

It'll go for, nobody will remember it, but he got hit behind the line of scrimmage, got stopped behind the line of scrimmage, somehow found a crease, just a tiny little sliver of a hole, kept the legs moving, and picked up three yards. And those are the kinds of things that don't go down in the stat sheet, but those types of runs extend drives. They extend scoring drives.

They turn field goals into touchdowns. That was a fantastic run to see, so I thought I'd definitely make note of that. Up next, we're going to talk. There was some bad stuff that we're going to talk there there was some bad stuff that we'll have to deal with we'll hand out some game balls the take of the game but first i want to let everybody remind everybody about our great friends over at swap.com isn't it crazy how much we pay for new brand name clothes and for those of you parents out there we're always buying new kids new clothes for kids you know not new kids new clothes for kids

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Plus, you can find new deals every day on Swap.com's homepage. Swap.com, the world's largest online consignment and thrift store. Use that promo code LOCKEDON to get 35% off your first order. Up next, the bad, the game balls, and the take of the game. From Thursday night's 38-17, excuse me, 38-24 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Mark Schofield back with you now

on this glorious victory edition of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And we're going to close it out now with the bad stuff. Pass rush. They had the one sack and that was pretty much it. They pressured Luck a couple

of times. And now, again, part of this might be by design. Part of it might be, look, you're going with that 3-2-5 diamond type package. You might not generate a ton of pressure. You might have to blitz a little bit. And they did some of that with the running backs. But pass rush is sort of just the, it's like the pebble in your shoe. It's something that's always there and it's the irritant that's always there. It seems like the pass rush is never where Patriots fans, myself included, would like it to be. And it continues to be an issue.

And looking ahead, with Patrick Mahomes coming to town in 10 days, you might need better pass rush to force him into some quicker decisions. So that's something they're going to have some time to think about and hopefully work on as we look ahead to that matchup. Turnovers, those two turnovers, Hogan and Gronk. Again, I don't want to ding guys for physical plays. Gronk at least took a shot, and it was more of a fluky type play.

Hogan just let it go through his hands. Those are the types of things you hate to see happen. You really don't want to see that happen. Offense in the second half. You know, they did have the two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, yes, to basically, you know, help put this game away. But other than that, they went punt, interception with Hogan, interception with Gronk to start the second half. And both of those came in tough, inopportune moments.

The Hogan one came on a second and eight at the plus 30. You're already in field goal range. And the Gronk one, you're at second and 20 and the Indianapolis 25. And the pass was down near the goal line. Good picked it off at the four. So you're already in field goal range in both of those situations. You're essentially taking points off the board with those plays. So that was bad as well.

The other bad thing I did have to take note of, I did sort of want to at least mention, the Colts. Not that they were bad. I give them sort of full credit for how they came into this game and, you know, on a short week with the injuries and stuff like that. But Sanchez, that onside kick attempt. What was that? I've never seen anybody do that. He just basically laid the ball down and kicked it and just spun and rolled. There was no bounce. There was going to be nothing to it.

I mean, was he just trying to confuse me? I've never seen something like that. So I had to mention that. That was bad. Also, you know what was was bad i don't know if everybody caught this that pre-game little rivalry skit that they did at the start you know with you know the construction worker in boston and like the farmer out in indy and you know the kid pumping up his tire saying that he might need to little let a little air out and all the deflate gate references i I was not a big fan of that. Those things usually get me going.

I usually like those things. Gets the people going. But, no, that was not good. Let's do some game balls here quickly before the take of the game. Game balls. I originally had Devin McCourty in because of that strip play, but you get beat on one touchdown and a near touchdown.

I got to drop you off there. But I'll keep Kyle Van Nooyen again. Very impressed with the game that he played. I think he's really developed into, you know, perhaps the Patriots' best second-level defender right now, depending on how you feel about Dante Hightower. Maybe that's not that hot of a take. Tom Brady, you know, TD pass 500 to 71 different receivers.

Should have been a clean game. Got dinged for two interceptions, which weren't his fault, but another very good performance from him. Sonny Michel and James White. I was very impressed with both of those guys for what they do, for what they bring to this team. We'll throw one Julian Edelman's way for coming back. Feisty.

He was getting into it with people. Shaq Mason, Trent Brown, and the rest of the offensive line. We're giving out more game balls than we probably need to, but I think they did a very good job. And Josh Gordon. Fantastic moment for him going with a little Gronk spike. We're just excited to see that for him. Our take of the game comes to us from Alex J. Armstrong

in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, who literally seconds before that drive started, Our take of the game comes to us from Alex J. Armstrong in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, who literally seconds before that drive started, where we had the Chun interception, he said he felt an interception coming. He said he felt an interception coming. He felt a pick coming, and sure enough, it came. He called it. And if you call your shot like that and it comes true,

you're going to win take of the game. So Alex, fantastic call on that one. That will do it for today's show. I will be back Sunday recapping some college football stuff, some DFS stuff, and some last-minute injury-type things in our Sunday morning tailgate show. And some of the college football I'll probably recap. We've got some big games, LSU, Florida, probably the game of the day. Are we going to find out is LSU for real?

Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, that's going to be an interesting one to watch as well. Notre Dame, are they for real? So there will be some interesting college football action to talk about. I will be back for Sunday morning tailgate. Until then, enjoy the weekend and keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.