Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 6, 2017 - Glorious Victory Friday

Episode Date: October 6, 2017

Survive and advance. The New England Patriots do just that on Thursday night, getting out of Tampa Bay with a hard-fought 19-14 victory. Mark Schofield has your Great, Good and Ugly from the game, some special teams game balls, and teases Jets Week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots. Part of the Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield with you in the big chair. It is now Friday morning, October 6th, and you can exhale now. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't the way we would have liked it, but the Patriots get out of Tampa with a victory. 1914 New England Patriots victorious on the road down in Tampa Bay. And like I said, this wasn't the most stylistic victory. It's not one that you're going to point to and say, this is what we'd like to see every Sunday, every outing.

But a win is a win. And I'm reminded of what people say come March, come NCAA tournament time. The phrase you often hear is, survive in advance. Just get the next win, get on to the next game. And you can apply that phrase, I think, to the National Football League because it's an 8-16 game season. You just got to get a win every time you can. Survive in advance.

And that's what the Patriots did down in Tampa on Thursday night. Now, you get a little bit of a mini bye. You get a couple of extra days to rest up to get guys healed up. Particularly Rob Gronkowski who is out tonight and kind of making me look a little bit ridiculous when I was spending a lot of time with you this week saying that he was primed for a big game on Thursday night. But he was out and Patriots overcame that. Now you get a chance to get guys like him healed up because we're on to Jets week. Jets week is something we're going to do up big here at Locked on Patriots because that's

what you do for Jets week. Game highlights, some things that stand out before we do some great, good, and ugly because there was something ugly here that I want to talk about. First off, I hope you listened to me in the pregame show, in the game day edition when I said, take Tampa Bay, take the points, take the under because those all hit. 1914, low scoring game, not the shootout that Vegas expected, not the high scoring contest that a lot of people expected

given what we've seen from these two defenses so far this year. Not a lot of points scored in this one. Tampa Bay gets back into it at the end. Game comes down to the final play. Jameis Winston's attempt in the direction of Cameron Breda, a guy we spent a lot of time talking about this week, both myself and with Trevor Sikama from Pewter Report, that pass falls incomplete.

Patriots survive with the win. So again, Tampa Bay covers, like I said, might happen. And we hit the under as well. Hope you visited our good friends either at mybookie.ag or xbet.ag to get your bets placed. Tom Brady, a good outing, I'd say. 30 of 40, 303 yards, one touchdown, did have one interception, did lose a fumble as well. We'll talk about that a little bit. But another solid outing from him. You know, guys like Deion Lewis, Mike Gillisley, they stepped up in the run game.

Lewis had a couple of nice runs there earlier in the game. He had a 31-yard run. From the receiving standpoint, we're going to talk about this guy in a bit, but Danny Amendola had a fantastic night. Great outing from him. And we're going to get to that defense. But let's start with the ugly

because there was an area of this game that the Patriots have to get cleaned up because it came back to bite them last week and it reared its ugly head again this week. And that's penalties. They were flagged 12 times for 108 yards, including a mind-blowing pair of back-to-back rough in the passer penalties right before halftime. Now, let's just kind of go through this for a second here because Patriots get a field goal,

one of Gostowski's four field goals on the night with 40 seconds left in the first half. Winston hits a pass out to Tampa Bay's 27 yard line. He then attempts a short pass to Sims. It goes for five yards, but Dietrich Wise gets flagged for roughing the passer. That gets the ball out to Tampa Bay's 47-yard line. The very next play, there's only two seconds left in the half here, people, but the very next play, all they have time for is a Hail Mary.

It's a low percentage play. You don't really need to get a shot on the quarterback on this one. You don't really need to get a shot on the quarterback on this one. You don't really need to pressure him too much because it's not like it's not like this play has a high measure of success going in. It's a Hail Mary for a reason. That's why you call it a Hail Mary. It's a prayer.

Winston rolls to his right to buy a little bit of time. As he lets go of the pass, credit to Kyle Van Nooy because he has a shot at him. He pulls up. Marsh, however, does not. He hits Winston from behind. A second rough in the passer penalty. That gives the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the ball at the Patriots' 38-yard line. So just run this through your head one more time.

You have a 5-yard completion, another 5-yard completion. Tampa Bay started on their own 22-yard line with only 40 seconds left. They only complete two passes for 10 yards, but they get into field goal range thanks to those two penalties. Now how did Tampa Bay figure out the kicker position prior to tonight's game? That might have cost them three points. And that might have changed the complexion of the game down the stretch. Fortunately for New England, Nick Folk struggled isn't even the word for it.

And some of you people, man, you're just cold because after he missed, I forget which field goal he missed, but he missed countless field goals. I tweeted out that you have to feel bad for him at this point, and wasn't a lot of love out there for Nick Folk, because there are a lot of people tweeting back that, no, you really don't, but Folk on the night, 0 for 3. That's a rough night for a kicker.

Obviously, Tampa Bay, they need to figure out the kicker position right now. And there were some offensive penalties too. Danny Amendola had a couple of offensive pass interference penalties. One rubbed out what looked to be a fantastic throwing catch from Brady on sort of a touch throw over the underneath defender that Amendola made a one-handed catch on. But Amendola was judged to have pushed off, so that comes back. But penalties are, you know, this is two weeks in a row now where they racked up penalties in bad situations,

bad situational awareness, and for a Bill Belichick-coached team, that's surprising. I would not be surprised to hear Belichick come out tomorrow or early next week and stress this both in the media as well as behind closed doors with his men because that was just that situation at the end of the half. You can't have that. You can't give them a shot at three free points. Not in that situation. Not in a game like this on the road. It's going to be a close game anyway. If

Tampa Bay somehow made three points, if they somehow got three points out of that, that would have changed the entire course of this game. That was a big, big spot. So they've got to get that cleaned up. Let's talk about the good.

The New England offense, again, Brady had, I think, a good to great game, I'd say. He did some things really well. One of the plays I think nobody's probably going to really talk about, but I think it was one of his better plays of the entire game. It was a throw that he didn't make. It was right before halftime. It was right before that Gostowski kick that then set into motion the ridiculous double rough in the passer penalties. But on that third and goal right before Gostowski's kick with just about a minute to go left in the first half. He wants to hit Danny Amendola on a spot route, that little slant and stop route. And he's just about to pull the trigger, but he pulls it down because he sees linebacker Kendall Beckwith

kind of jump the route at the last second. Brady ends up sort of running for the goal line, but he gets maybe one or two yards before he basically slides down to the turf and gives up because he's about to get lit up. But that was a great no throw. And when you watch quarterbacks, when you watch the great ones, some of the best plays they make are the ones that they don't even attempt,

the ones that they pull down. It's a good no throw because Brady pulls the trigger there. There's a chance, I'd say more than 50% chance that pass gets intercepted. And then you walk away with nothing. And again, in a game like this, three points mattered.

Brady pulls it down, doesn't force the throw. They settle for the three. Great. Take what you can get. Don't force a throw in that situation. Brady pulls it down, doesn't force the throw. They settle for the three. Great. Take what you can get. Don't force a throw in that situation. Brady pulls it down, makes the right decision there, and they come away with the three points.

Two other guys that stood out offensively, I think. Deion Lewis, it was good to see him get some run. Good to see them work him into the running game. I think that's going to give this offense a nice little change of pace element. So that was good to see. Going into this game, I talked a lot about Rob Gronkowski,

and I said, look, they've got some injuries at the linebacker spot. Again, we heard that from Trevor. They're banged up there. Guys like Quan Alexander aren't going to go. T.J. Ward's not going to go. Levante David's not going to go. So there are going to be opportunities for Gronkowski

going up against those backups at the linebacker spot, at the safety spot. Well, Gronkowski can't go, so what do you do offensively? You use guys like Amendola, guys like James White, Deion Lewis. Get those guys matched up on linebackers. And the numbers bear it out. I mean, you look at the guys that were targeted in this game. White was targeted seven times.

Hogan was targeted eight times. Amendola was targeted seven times. Hogan was targeted eight times. Amendola was targeted eight times. It was basically the same game plan. It was just guys like White and Hogan and Amendola. Those were the guys attacking the backups.

Not Gronkowski. I mentioned that Y-cross concept in the game day show. It's insane how you might see that from the Patriots using Gronkowski on that cross and route. Well, they still ran it. It was just Hogan running it.

It was just Amendola running it. It was the same exact play. It's just now you've got a different guy running it. You've got a different guy stepping up and doing the job. And credit to Amendola for the game he had. Credit to Hogan for the game he had. Big touchdown catch from Hogan.

Something that Tony Romo pointed out. And again, just quick side note here. Tony Romo does do a great job. And one of the things that Romo was pointing out was Vernon Hargraves. Young defensive back for Tampa Bay. great job. And one of the things that Romo was pointing out was, you know, Vernon Hargraves, young defensive back for Tampa Bay, showed a lot of off coverage in this game.

And the Patriots took advantage of that at times. And the Hogan touchdown reception was certainly one of those times where Hogan just runs a simple curl route. Hargraves gives him a big, big cushion. He's five yards deep in the end zone.

You can't stop a car route from there. You know, Patriots were able to take advantage. Another play that really stood out to me, and again, this gets to the different ways that New England can stress a defense and how effective they are at finding matchups to exploit and then exploiting them. And that was a play in the first half where Brady hits White on a wheel route out of the backfield along the sideline.

And White makes the catch. He kind of bobbles it a bit, but then secures it as he's going to the turf. You probably remember that play. He was matched up on a defensive end. So they're pulling a guy off the defensive line to cover James White downfield on a vertical route. And that's because Tampa Bay blitzed.

Brady saw it, didn't panic, and exploited that kind of matchup. That's what you have to do to be one of the great ones in this league. You know, and people ask me all the time about blitzes, about blitzing quarterbacks. Do you blitz the young guys? And I've often said that, you know, I'm of the mindset that if you're a quarterback, it should insult you to be blitzed because that just makes your job easier. That gives you matchups to exploit. That gives you hot routes to throw. That gives you one-on-one matchups to throw. You don't really have to do a lot of thinking. You don't have to really read the coverage because they're making it easier for you.

And if a defense is going to blitz you as a quarterback, you've got to make them pay for that. And that was one example where Brady made them pay. Similarly, Jameis Winston, on that throw to Deshaun Jackson, that slant route that picked up, I think, 41. That was a big play at that point in the game. And something else we talked about with Trevor

was the relationship with Jackson and Winston. Those guys were struggling to get on the same page. We saw that early in the game. Winston had Jackson open on a vertical route, missed him. Had him open on some other routes, missed him. But they hit that one, and again, a similar type thing. Patriots blitzed Winston. Quarterback caught him there, made a good throw in a big spot.

Finally, something to touch on from the Patriots' offensive perspective is, again, McCoy. Gerald McCoy. We talked a lot about making sure that they got him blocked up. And it's almost, if you think about it, it's almost similar to when you talk about how Bill Belichick, Matt Patricia approach coming up with a defensive scheme. People talk about how Belichick wants to take away your best offensive threat. I almost look at how the Patriots played offensively tonight and how they handled McCoy. He had four tackles.

He had one sack. But the sack wasn't a situation of scheme. It was kind of a situation where he got to Brady late in the play. But I think they did a pretty good job handling McCoy. They doubled him at times. He wasn't disrupting stuff in the backfield. You know, they handled him pretty well. He did have one tipped pass,

but that was a situation, again, where they had him doubled. He couldn't really get past the line of scrimmage, but he did a good job of mirroring Brady's eyes, reading the quarterback, and then making a play late. But I think they handled him pretty well. Two other good things I do want to mention here

before we get to the great aspect from tonight. Again, doing a little great, good, and ugly. Two special teams plays of note. Obviously, the first one, Gostowski. Tremendous night from him. Anytime you go 4-4, it's a big night. Anytime you go 4-4 on the road, it's a big night anytime you go 4-4 on the road it's a big night anytime you drill

a 48 yarder late to extend the lead to make it a touchdown only situation for the opposing team in the final minutes you're doing a good job so game ball tip of the hat whatever you want to call it to Steven Gustowski.

Nate Ebner. Little hands team love here for Nate Ebner because he recovers the onside kick. Now, granted, New England, they have a chance to sort of run up the clock, just get one first down. They don't do it. But Ebner recovering that onside kick was another big play in a big spot. So two sort of special teams, game balls to those guys coming up big and doing the little things, doing their job to help New England seal the win. Let's get to the great. And let's eat some crow, myself included. Because after what we saw against Carolina, all anybody talked about with respect to the New England Patriots was this defense.

You know, I was at the gym the other day. Yes, I still exercise now and again. And I looked up and I saw Damian Woody I saw Herm Edwards I saw Trey Wingo and they were doing a segment called Damian's Dumpster Fires and one of their dumpster fires

was the New England Patriots defense and with good reason we went through it what we saw from them against Carolina didn't take a schematic genius to realize that they were doing some things poorly. And the expectation was coming in tonight that there's not enough time to sort it out.

It's a short week. Tampa Bay has too many weapons. All things that I said, along with a lot of other people. Well, this defense stepped up tonight in a big way. And at the outset, look, open and drive of the game for New England,

Tom Brady throws an interception. Defense comes out, forces a three and out. Later in the game, Tom Brady gets blitzed off the edge. They run a little play-action play. It's not blocked. He gets hit from behind, doesn't see it coming

because he's protecting himself from the hit that's coming his way. Quick aside, Brady's getting hit a lot. They've already surpassed last year's total for sacks and we're through five games now so that's something to keep an eye on but back to the defense again for a second because

brady gets strip sacked loses a fumble defense doesn't give up any points you anytime you can go on the road turn the ball over but your defense doesn't give up any points. Anytime you can go on the road, turn the ball over, but your defense doesn't give up points in those situations, that's huge. The miscommunication issues that we saw, they weren't there tonight. And part of the reason was

they played a lot more zone. Jim Nance and Tony Romo talked about this in the booth. You figure short week, maybe we don't have time to sort this out. We'll sort it out for next week. Right now, we'll just go zone. We'll just play zone. We'll go man-to-man sometimes, but we'll play majority of zone

so we don't have communication problems like we did last week. Guys like Cameron Bray, who we talked about, he's sure. Yeah, he got a lot of targets thrown his way, nine targets thrown his way, five receptions. He did have the touchdown late, but even on that play, he was bracketed. He had Chun underneath and McCourty, I believe, over the top. I'm seeing this now. I want to go back for a second and correct some numbers.

I was talking about targets. James White had nine targets. Chris Hogan had 11. Danny Amendola had eight. So those are how the targets were spread out for New England. I was just reading the wrong column there. I wanted to make sure I corrected that. But yeah, this Patriots defense,

they got it figured out the best way they could on this short week. You know, and some plays that stand out, you know, Chun had two pass breakups on Brate, which were big at the time. You know, there was a play on, it was near the end of the third, right at the start of the fourth. It was a second and two. Now on this drive, Brait finally got going. They finally got a third down conversion. New England was doing a really good job

getting off the field on third downs. Tampa Bay finally got a conversion on one where they hit Brait on a slant route when Chun was in coverage. So a few plays later, it's a second and two situation. And Brait comes in motion and I notice that they've got McCourty following him across the formation.

I don't know if it was because Brait had just beaten Chun a few plays prior on that third down or what, but for some reason now we've got McCourty following Brait across the formation in motion. They run a little toss play to Brait's side of the field, and the other tight end, to break side of the field. And the other tight end, Howard, sort of blocks out. And it creates that natural hole.

And McCourty does an incredible job of filling that right at the line of scrimmage. And he cuts down Jaquiz Rogers for no gain. That sets up a third and one. They stop Tampa Bay on third and one to start the fourth quarter. They settle for the field goal attempt. And Folk misses it. And those were two big plays at that point in time. And to see McCourty, I mean, this is a free safety. Come down, fill that hole, make that tackle, hold them to no gain,

to set up a third and two. And then they stopped Doug Martin on third down, forced the field goal try. That was a big play in that spot. And again, it talks to this defense stepping up the way they did tonight. It certainly helps to have the opposition kicker miss three field goals. It certainly does help. But again, you've got to make plays to get them to fourth down,

and the defense did that. You know, Jameis Winston, he throws for 334 yards, but they don't, they get the two touchdowns, but it's not enough for them. I think, you know,

on the short week, given what Tampa Bay has offensively, this was a great effort from this defense. So full credit to them, to Bill Belichick, to Matt Patricia for putting that together. So they get out of Tampa Bay with a win.

Which, given what we were thinking coming in, given what we saw on Sunday, we'll take it. A win is a win is a win. Survive and advance. And that's what they did tonight. Now they get to rest up a bit because it is Jets week time, people. Bill Belichick has a chance to set some personal records, I believe, against the Jets.

All-time wins. I think that's on the line. Tom Brady, I believe, can become the all-time winningest quarterback with a victory against the Jets. So this was a great win. It's great when you win, but now it's time to start thinking Jets, and this game suddenly matters. The Jets aren't playing badly right now.

We'll see how they fare against Cleveland on Sunday, but this has the makings of a big divisional game, and it's now a game that matters. All divisional games matter. We weren't expecting these teams to have two and two records coming into week five, but here we are.

They get 10 days now to sort out some of the stuff on the communications end of the defense so they can be a little bit more exotic. They get 10 days to get Rob Gronkowski healthy and back, to get Rex Burkhead healthy and back, to get Eric Rowe healthy and back. And we're going to help you here at Locked on Patriots to get ready for it because we're going to do Jets Week upright.

So as my high school coaches used to tell me, enjoy it, don't do anything crazy, but we're back to work sooner than you expect it I'll be back Monday looking at some of the stuff that we see this weekend with an eye on the Jets

and start getting you ready for that we're gonna like I said we're gonna do Jets week upright so enjoy it it's a glorious victory Friday you gotta enjoy it it's always good when your team gets a W.

But we're on to the Jets. And you know what that means. Until we chat again, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. What you doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. Bye singing dog. Bye goal.

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