Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 8, 2018 - Monday Morning Recap

Episode Date: October 8, 2018

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Hey there everybody, welcome into Locked On Patriots for Monday, October 8th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Hope you all had a lovely NFL Sunday. It's always great for fans of a team that isn't playing on Sunday, whether due to a bye or playing on Thursday night, that you just get to enjoy football. And for you Pats fans out there who are listening to the show,

I hope you took advantage of it and just got a chance to watch some football without having to worry about crossing routes, for example. For you non-Pats fans out there who are fans of another team, I hope your team was successful. And today's a glorious Victory Monday for example. For you non-Pats fans out there who are fans of another team, I hope your team was successful and today's a glorious victory Monday for you. What we're going to do today, we're going to recap the AFC action, we're going to recap the NFC action, and then a little bit later in the show we're going to take a particular look at that Chiefs-Jags game because after all, this is a Kansas City Chiefs team that is coming to town for next Sunday night to face the New England Patriots. Before all that

though, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites. If an outlet is covering football, chances are I'm doing something for them to cover the game we all love. Let's start in the AFC. There were a couple of very intriguing matchups that I was curious to see in the AFC. And I want to start with the Miami Dolphins and the Cincinnati Bengals because this was a matchup of two 3-1 teams. And I felt like we were going to learn which team was the true 3-1, which team was legit,

and which team was perhaps a little bit of mirage, a little bit of smoke and mirrors. And for the first half, maybe two-thirds of this game, it looked like the Miami Dolphins were the team that was pretty legit. They have a 14-0 lead at halftime. They have a 17-0 lead late into the third quarter. And it looks like, okay, this is going to be an impressive road win for Adam Gase, Ryan Tannehill and company but then of all units it's the Bengals defense

that steps up they get two defensive touchdowns in the fourth quarter to come from behind and pull out this game 27-17 and what was fascinating about it they both came due to pressure and when you think about the Cincinnati Bengals pressure isn't something that we think about a ton but the first interception which goes for a deflected pick six situation you get pressure on Ryan Tannehill his pass is deflected tipped around intercepted and his return for a touchdown that put him in position to tie the game they would then force the Dolphins to punt on Miami's next possession. Then they go down, kick a field goal. They take a 20-17 lead to this point in the fourth quarter. And then they get Miami to a third and 17 situation. They use both alignment and a linebacker

blitz to sort of get Carlos Dunlap isolated on an island with the right tackle. What they do is they put Dunlap wide in that wide nine alignment. They blitz a linebacker. They twist the defensive tackle inside. They're really sort of what they're doing is that guard has to go inside. Running back has to step up and fill that gap that's being attacked by the blitz and linebacker. That really isolates the right tackle. Dunlap works his way around him, gets to Tannehill, gets to the ball. The ball pops out. Sam Hubbard, a guy we talked about a lot on this show, falls into his lap, scoop and score type situation.

And in a blink of an eye, it goes from a 17-0 game to a 27-17 lead for the Bengals, and that would be the eventual final score. Impressive win for them. Defense getting it done. Not what you usually associate with the Bengals. Speaking of associating, when's the last time we associated a 2-2-1 record with the Cleveland Browns?

The Browns go into overtime yet again. And they pull it out in OT. 12-9 over the Baltimore Ravens. Baker Mayfield, 25-43, 3-42, and a touchdown. We've got a kicker problem in the NFL, though. I mean, Cleveland, among other teams. I mean, I don't know how we'll get to it when we talk about the NFC, but obviously, you know, kickers have a tough day on Sunday

in the National Football League. When you look at Cleveland, you know, their kicker, Greg Joseph, two or three on field goals. He missed one that could have given them the lead. He missed an extra point as well, but he did, as ugly as it looked, hit the game winner in overtime to get Cleveland to 2-2-1. Baker Mayfield getting it done. And, you know, he had a great sort of scramble drill type throw in that overtime

to Derek Willis on a catch and run play for about 39 yards. It really sort of put Cleveland in a position to ice that game. I know that there's a lot of discussion about Hugh Jackson at the end of that overtime. The kick was made with two seconds left. He's holding up two fingers. People are saying, does he really not know it's sudden death at that point? I think he was talking about the two wins. Either way, it's a fun question to debate right now if you're a

Browns fan. It's a lot better than wondering what could be if they were 0-5 right now. So hats off to the Cleveland Browns. Let's go west a little bit. If you listened to the Sunday morning tailgate show yesterday, you heard me talk for a few minutes about the Oakland Raiders and about how that offense might be one or two plays away from perhaps having a breakout performance. While Jordy Nelson was my sort of, you know, value pick at the wide receiver position

for a DFS play, and he did have a touchdown catch, but it was not anywhere close to enough. Phillip Rivers and company taking care of business, 26-10, over the Oakland Raiders, getting to 3-2 in that AFC West. Obviously, they're looking up at Kansas City right now, who did improve to 5-0, as we're going to talk about a little bit later.

But Rivers, 22-27 for 3-39 and two touchdowns. You've got to talk about Carr for a minute. When they were talking about the Marshawn Lynch situation and Derek Carr is saying, if we have Marshawn Lynch in the backfield with the ball and the one-yard line, we're going to hand it to him. Well, guess what? They didn't, and guess what happened?

Carr threw an interception. Guys, I know that there are people out there who are in the sort of the never-run-the-ball contention, and I get that. There are people who look at the NFL right now and say there's no point in running the football given all the penalties that can be called, the way the game is being called, how the rules favor the passing game. But on the one-yard line, you might want to try Marshawn Lynch just once or twice.

Other games around the AFC to touch on quickly. The Jets getting it done. Isaiah Crowell, 15 carries, 219 yards and a touchdown. He had a 77-yard touchdown run. He had an impressive 54-yard touchdown run on a duo play, which is power without pulling. It's sort of a combination of two double teams up front, giving more of a power type look, like I said, without a pulling guard or pulling tackle. But you also get a zone element to it because the running back is sort of reading the blocks and how they set up up front it's a player broke down over at the score for today so the Jets getting it done on the ground impressive performance from them the Broncos they're struggling right now and I think seeing John

away sort of in a cast and a slant on the sideline kind of tells you about the status of that organization right now it just doesn't look good. Finally, last game, we'll talk about Titans-Bills. I don't know what to make of this Titans team. They're 3-2. They have the impressive win last week. They come back, and they lose in the closing seconds to the Buffalo Bills. Stephen Hauschka kicks a 46-yard game-winning field goal,

sort of at the buzzers type situation here. And this was a strange performance from the Bills because they really sort of relied on defense and effective runs. Josh Allen was almost a, he had a touchdown run, sure, but in the passing game, non-factor. 10 of 19 for 82 yards and an interception. Quarterback rated him 42. QBR of 35.5. This was a defense and run game type of game.

And for those of you that heard me around draft time when the Bills selected Josh Allen, I said, look, they can try to follow the Jacksonville model for a bit. Focus on the run. Get that defense young, athletic, they can try to follow the Jacksonville model for a bit. Focus on the run, get that defense, young, athletic, talented. They draft Edmonds, a very young player, but he might be the heart and soul of that defense, the middle of that defense for the next 10 years, given how young he is.

And so that's the model they're going to try to follow. And they followed it to a tee on Sunday, pulling out a victory over the Tennessee Titans. Again, a team I just can't make heads or tails of the Tennessee Titans. But that's a look at some of the AFC stuff. Again, we're going to get to that Chiefs-Jags game in a minute. But before we do, I want to let everybody know, remember, we've got some great stuff going on around the Locked On Podcast Network.

We've got NBA cranking back up. We've got some college stuff going. And, of course, it is football season. And I show you, you should definitely be checking out his Locked On NFL with Matt Williamson. It's Locked On NFL Network. He has Locked On NFL Network, Locked On NFL Experts. Excuse me.

He's got guys like Mike Sando, Mike Renner, Sage Rosenfeld. He's got some really smart guys coming on each week. Each Monday, he's going to have Locked On Local Experts with some of the other hosts from around the Locked On NFL network. I was on last week talking about the Patriots and their win over Miami. So definitely check that out. Also, check out our great friends over at VividSeeds.com. And look, we all love a night out.

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when Kansas City comes to town. That's ahead on Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Monday installment of Locked On Patriots. And let's shift gears to the NFC. And there are a ton of different ways we could go right now. Taking a look at what happened in the NFC on Sunday. We could go with the Seattle-LA route. That was a fantastic game.

We could go Vikings-Eagles. NFC Championship game rematch. Also a very interesting game. But I want to start with the situation in New York. Giants making a road trip down to Carolina to take on the Panthers Panthers entering this game and two and one Giants coming in at one and three trying to sort things out and as I mentioned at the outset look I do some work over Big Blue View I've been studying a ton of Giants tape right now and

obviously the big question on many people's mind is this. Can they throw it deep? Can they push the ball downfield? Can they try to get things done in the passing game, in the vertical passing game? There's a lot of question mark about, you know, Odell and what he's doing. Can they work the vertical passing game? And they tried to do some deep stuff.

They even had Odell throw a touchdown pass. But when push comes to shove, you know know they're down 11 in the fourth quarter they still get back into the game they take the lead 31 30 with just over a minute left and they can't get it done cam newton company work downfield you get a play to dj moore get Christian McCaffrey on that little Texas route to set up Graham Gano for a 63-yarder. Basically, just before time expires to pull out the win. And in this game, you know, Manny made two mistakes. You know, he had two interceptions, you know, both in the second half, one late in the third quarter.

They were on the 25, sort of on the cusp of the red zone. You know, he gets sort of deked out a little bit by Mike Adams. The safety, he drops down on the box pre-snap. Madden thinks it's a blitz. It's an RPO type look where he fakes the handoff. They got some run blocking up front. But he's really looking to hit that slant route. And Adams just drops off the line of scrimmage.

Gets into the throwing lane and picks it off. And then a little bit later in that game in the fourth quarter, early in the fourth quarter, Adams gets him again. And this is more of a vertical route. You know, they've got a route in the flat. They've got a route sort of on the corner, trying to get the ball deep a little bit. And Madden leaves it inside, and it's intercepted. And so a lot of question marks about the Giants right now, obviously.

And Schumer had some comments pregame and postgame. Odell's had some comments. If you want to check out Locked on Giants, they've got some audio from Schumer and Beckham and others that I was thinking about even playing for you guys because it's some interesting stuff, let's put it that way. But check out Locked on Giants for that. Some other games to get to.

Obviously, that Vikings-Eagles rematch. Minnesota comes out on top in this rematch uh 23 21 interesting decision by doug peterson to go for it down 14 in the fourth quarter that game he goes for two excuse me and they get it a lot of people were sort of scratching their heads at that one but there is analysis out there that says if you're down 14 you go for two you know that might be the smart play when you look at all the probabilities of how that will turn out. So that's what they do.

It works for them, but it isn't enough. You get some defensive turnovers and a defensive touchdown for the Vikings. Kirk Cousins had a pretty decent day throwing the ball. He had a fantastic throw in the red zone on the corner route to Adam Thielen. If you get a chance, check this out. It's a tremendous sort of anticipation throw. Puts just enough touch on it to get zone on the corner route to Adam Thielen. If you get a chance, check this out. It's a tremendous sort of anticipation throw. Puts just enough touch on it to get it over the corner, but drops it in before the sideline and the end line.

Cousins finishes the day 30 of 37 for 301. That one touchdown, no interceptions. Quarterback rating of 109.6. Carson Wentz, you know, give him credit. 24 of 35 for 311. Two touchdowns, no interceptions. Quarterback rating of 115.3. You know, the big thing that sort of stood out to me was

neither team could really run the ball. Neither team managed even, you know, 85 yards rushing. You know, Minnesota only had 77, Philadelphia only had 81. They really struggled sort of running the ball. Both of these teams did. Very curious now to see where the Eagles go. You know, I obviously know a lot of Eagles fans. Probably hear me talk about my buddy Michael Kistler now and again. And you do wonder, this is a team now sitting at two

and three. You know, maybe they're having a little bit of a Super Bowl handover. It's possible. It's certainly possible. Other NFC scores that I want to hit to briefly here before we really sort of start to turn ahead to next week. I'm looking around the NFC scoreboard. I was impressed with the Lions. I was impressed with the Lions getting their second one of the year at home against the Green Bay Packers.

Always tough to win that sort of divisional game. Aaron Rodgers puts up another Aaron Rodgers-type day, 32 of 52 for 442 and three touchdowns. But I want to talk about young Kenny Galladay. He had four receptions, four. I've got to double-check my numbers here. I think it was 98 yards. Yeah, four for 98 and a touchdown.

You know, the play everybody's going to remember is that 60-yard catch and run he had where he gave Clinton, you know, ha-ha Clinton Dix sort of a stiff arm into next week. But the play that I loved, I actually wrote about it for the score, was his touchdown, a five-yard touchdown pass, you know, down near the goal line. It was one of those follow a trail concepts where you get a three-receiver bunch. You got one receiver going over immediately on the slant, shallow. He comes on a deeper slant.

Golden takes the inside receiver in the bunch. He breaks to the outside first and then follows those two guys. The play is designed to go to him. The first two guys are going to clear out bodies and clear out defenders and open up space. But they get man coverage. And Galladay just beats his guy Stafford with another high velocity, high precision and accuracy throw. And it's a touchdown. So I thought that was an impressive game from Galladet and the Lions to get the two and three. But really, the two main games were that Giants-Panthers game, which was fascinating.

And then you get that NFC Championship game rematch. Also fascinating to see how that one played out. And of course, look, Seattle gave the Rams everything they had. But that Rams team, they get to 5-0 on the year. Another team going above 30 points in the 33-31 game. Jared Goff, 23 of 32 for 321. A touchdown, two interceptions, one of which sort of came on a Hail Mary type situation. But impressive win from the Rams. And I do wonder about, you know, the Seahawks right now. They've got some questions at the wide receiver spot.

Doug Baldwin's banged up. Tyler Lockett's playing well. But after that, you know, some Seahawks right now, they've got some questions at the wide receiver spot. Doug Baldwin's banged up. Tyler Lockett's playing well. But after that, you know, some question marks there. So, you know, that's a quick look, quick spin around the NFC up next. I'm going to talk about the Jags and the Chiefs. But first, a reminder, look, for some teams, it's already draft season. And that's why you probably want to check out and subscribe to Locked On NFL Draft. Travis Sikama, John Ledyard, they do such great work covering the draft year-round.

Those guys are part of the draft network as well. Guys like Kyle Krabs and Joe Morito and Benjamin Solak. They do some great work over there, so check out those guys as well as Locked On NFL Draft. Also, don't forget, we're so proud to have on board such great sponsors such as Vivid Seed, such as MyBookie, and of course, our great friends over at Low-KI. I'm so excited about Low-KI and what they do, the profits that they, you know, what they do with some of their profits in terms of, you know, charity work and charity donations. And it's always nice to get a little extra swag for game day.

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as we start to look ahead to the Kansas City Chiefs coming to town. That's ahead on this Monday edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Monday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Monday installment of Locked On Patriots. And we're going to talk a little Blake Bortles. We're going to talk a little Patrick Mahomes. We're going to talk a little Kansas City Chiefs as they take care of business in a soggy, wet, rainy day out in Kansas City. The Dispatch, the Jacksonville Jaguars, 30-14.

They improved to 5-0. Jacksonville falling to 3-2 on the dispatch. The Jacksonville Jaguars, 30-14. They improved to 5-0. Jacksonville falling to 3-2 on the season. And this was the game that I think many were looking towards to see how KC would respond. This was sort of that game that had the potential to give them a couple pops in the mouth early, so to speak. You know, just a colloquialism here. You know, to test them a little bit, to test Mahomes,

test that offense. And an offense in Jacksonville is on their own that could, against this Kansas City defense, which has been getting lit up by teams, put up enough points to possibly go in and steal this one. And obviously a lot of pregame talk to you. And then Ramsey, Tyreek Hill, all that stuff. Well, what do we see? Well,

Mahomes throws an interception. And you're thinking, okayreek Hill, all that stuff. Well, what do we see? Well, Mahomes throws an interception. And you're thinking, okay, well, here we go. And the Chiefs get it right back, getting a turnover of their own. That defense that people were ripping, the people were saying was it going to be good enough, they pick off Bortles four times, sack him five. Chris Jones takes one of those interceptions back for a touchdown. And that defense, I think, is the main storyline to come out of this game. throws four times, sack him five. Chris Jones takes one of those interceptions back for a touchdown.

And that defense, I think, is the main storyline to come out of this game. Because this is more of a complete team than we saw over weeks one through four. Mahomes finishes with 313 yards passed, and he runs for a touchdown. So he did some stuff. Kareem Hunt ran for 87 yards at a touchdown. Kelsey had five catches for 100 yards. So they still moved the ball on this Jacksonville defense, which is something the Patriots struggled to do.

And if you want a sense of how good this Kansas City offense is, Tayshaun Gibson, safety for the Jacksonville Jaguars. That play call was something I've never seen before. Tip your hat to them, obviously. Offensive personnel they've got. They came out here and they beat us. Some guys got ejected. Jones himself was ejected in the second half after he dropped an elbow on a Jaguars lineman while both were on the ground after a PAT. Dee Ford joined him in the locker room when he was whistled for a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. So there was some frustration on that side of the ball but this was a complete performance from Kansas City and it's

something that I think should give the rest of the league pause because as teams have been looking for sort of a weakness in this Kansas City team people would point to oh you know when we get into November they're not going to be able to sling it all over the place when we start seeing games in elements teams are going to get some film on Mahomes. They're going to start giving them different looks. And maybe we've seen a little bit of that. The offense hasn't put up prodigious-style numbers as they were the first couple of weeks. But they're still scoring enough points.

Then this focus sort of turned to, okay, well, say we can only hold them to like 30 points. That's still probably not going to be enough given how bad their defense is we can outscore them now and we're just going to slow them down just the tiniest bit well maybe not so fast my friends because maybe this defense is actually opportunistic in that sense maybe they're going to be good enough to get some takeaways get you off the field if you give my homes and company a bunch of short fields or even one or two in a game, you're not going to hold them to just 30 points or so. And so this is one of those games. It's an ugly day, ugly set of conditions, but it might be the most impressive win

that the Kansas City Chiefs have had to date. And that's something sort of scary to think about. We've got all week to start really diving into Kansas City and what they do on tape. You know, ahead this week, tomorrow, like I said, I promised you guys tape Tuesday in the trenches. We're going to look back at that Thursday night when I'm really focusing on the guys up front on both sides of the ball, see

what they do. Wednesday, going to do some crossover action with our boys over at Locked on Chiefs. Ryan and Chris, excited to talk to them. You know, Friday will be your game day. Thursday, still playing around with some different things we might do, but it's going to be a loaded week to get you ready for that Sunday night tilt. Until next time,

everybody, have a fantastic Monday. Keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots. Thank you.