Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 9, 2018 - Tape Tuesday
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Hello and welcome on into a tape Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots.
Mark Schofield sitting here in the big chair on this tape Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots,
your favorite daily Patriots podcast.
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.
If there's an outlet covering football, chances are, friends, they've got me doing some work
covering the game for them.
Loaded show for you today on this Tape Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots.
A little bit later, we're going to talk Sam Darnold, Josh Allen.
Got a chance to study their games here last night going through the tape
and get some thoughts on them.
Two quarterbacks that the Patriots are probably going to be seeing
as we get a little bit later into the season.
But first, as promised, on this tape Tuesday installment,
I'm going to try to focus on the guys up front, the guys in the trenches.
When we talk defense, I'll get to the second level a little bit as well.
But so much of my work studying quarterbacks, talking about the passing game,
tends to focus on those positions, quarterbacks, wide receivers, defensive backs.
I thought it would be good to take a look at the guys up front,
focusing on last week's game against Indianapolis,
as well as perhaps a window into what Bill Belichick is thinking about
how to handle the new NFL offenses.
We'll start on the offensive side of the ball, though.
This is going to be more of an ode to Shaq Mason.
Long-time listeners and friends of the show know that I have a soft spot for the Patriots
right guard.
Big fan of his.
Really loved what we saw from him on tape last year.
And so with some time over the weekend, I got a chance to look back at what he did against
the Indianapolis Colts and what really sort of stood out to me. And this gives us a
chance to talk about Bill Belichick, the talent evaluator here. Is Mason's athleticism in space
up to the second level? Now let's remember about Shaq Mason's background. He's coming from an offensive system at Georgia Tech,
a flex bone, Paul Johnson, triple option,
where he's asked a lot to move, to pull, to get out into space,
to get in front of plays and things like that.
And I think we get to see that on almost a drive-to-drive,
almost a play-to-play basis with Mason.
And he does some great jobs in pass protection.
He's very good on the interior.
A lot of times on Thursday night,
he didn't have somebody lined up across from him in pass pro.
He had a shaded nose tackle to his inside,
usually on the right shoulder of center David Andrews.
But he was very good at helping initially on him
while he was waiting for somebody to flow back to his way. But let's focus on the run shoulder of center David Andrews, but he was very good at helping initially on him while he was waiting for somebody to flow back to his way.
But let's focus on the run game stuff.
We can talk about a couple of plays specifically
to highlight sort of his athleticism in space.
And a play where I want to start,
early in the second quarter,
it's a first and 10 situation,
14-03 mark of the first quarter.
This is that Sonny Michel run where he just unloads on
Clayton Gaither's safety for the Indianapolis Colts. And this is a prime example of Mason
sort of getting to the second level and showing that athleticism in space because
he has, again, that inside defensive nose tackle inside of him to the right shoulder of David Andrews.
He doesn't have to help on him at all. He's sort of got the bubble in front of him. There's a
defensive end well outside of right tackle Shaq Mason. So he's got a linebacker, number 52.
That's about four or five yards off the ball. And that's who he's responsible. And on this play, we see Mason come off the ball very quick with his ability to get
to that second level. And what was good about what he does here is even though he knows he's got to
get to the second level, that's his guy. He's got to get up there. His first step is still not
straight ahead, but it's still to the right. It's in unison with Sonny Michelle's footwork. And that's so he can protect that inside gap,
that gap to his right between him and Marcus Cannon, the right tackle.
So he takes that step for a reason.
If they get some sort of twist, if there's a slant, if there's something,
and he doesn't take that step, this play is going to get stopped in the backfield.
So he takes that step first and then gets up to the second level
and does such a great job of sort of mirroring this linebacker. A linebacker doesn't
have a chance. You would expect this linebacker to be able to beat Shaq Mason one-on-one,
sort of in space. No, sir. No, no, ma'am. He gets right onto him, gets into his half body.
You know, that sort of right shoulder of the linebacker drives him
down the line of scrimmage a bit. Linebacker never has a chance. He's the only player that's
got a shot here at getting to Sonny Michel because the Patriots go, why wham here? This is that play
where Gronk, he's the guy that comes down and actually blocks that nose tackle that aligns
inside of Mason. The only player that gets put literally in the hole is that linebacker and Mason just erases him. Another thing that I
really liked in this game, a couple of times they had some runs down near the goal line following
up this play and Marcus Cannon and Shaq Mason did a tremendous job in tandem on their combo blocks
right at the point of attack. The first run, it's a first and goal situation down at the two. The run's more to the inside,
almost to the other side of the formation, but they just fold Cannon and Mason, that defensive
tackle in half. It's the same thing on second down. This is more of a reach block from Cannon
where it has to work to the outside because of how the Colts stagger their
defense here and the play that's called is an outside sort of zone run to the right and Cannon
and Mason work terrifically in tandem where Cannon sort of gets into the guy first Mason then is
allowed a step to get into him as well another critical block double team at the point of attack
let's talk about his second level athleticism.
A little bit later in the second quarter, Mason had a different linebacker aligned across from him.
Earlier it was number 52, Najee Good, who seemed to be a little bit more passive.
A little bit later in the game, at least in the second quarter, he had Zaire Franklin,
a rookie seventh rounder out of Syracuse, who seemed more aggressive, more willing to attack downhill.
Mason was able to
react to that and handle it. And a perfect example of that comes on a second and five play at the
302 mark of the second quarter. This is a Sonny Michel run up the middle, down to the Indianapolis
16, a gain of 15. And again, we sort of see once more where Mason is sort of that bubble offensive lineman. He has a defensive
tackle, that nose tackle inside of him. The defensive end to his side of the formation is
well outside the right tackle. So he's got that linebacker across from him. This time it's Zaire
Franklin. Once more, it's sort of an inside run. And instead of waiting, instead of being passive,
Franklin comes. Now, I don't know if it's a blitz or what, but he attacks downhill immediately.
Mason comes out of his stance, and he expects to be able to sort of work his way up there.
But seeing him attack, it's a split-second reaction where he just lunges into him, nudges him out of the way, and gets him to the ground.
What that does is it allows James Devlin,
who's the lead blocker on this play, he doesn't have to worry about this guy. He gets back to
that weak side linebacker who's trying to scrape over. He erases him. This time it's Good, you know,
Najee Good, who Devlin erases, gets him to the turf. That leaves Michel already into the third
level of defenders, already into the secondary.
That's a perfect example of Mason, sort of his athleticism,
his ability to sort of pick that up, read that on the fly, see Franklin coming and doing just enough to get him to the turf
to allow Devlin to make his block
and the Patriots to sort of get another big gain.
Finally, the touchdown from Sonny Michel,
just a tremendous pull from him.
This is that fourth quarter run at the 715 mark.
Mason comes out of his stance.
Quick little feet chopped down the line of scrimmage.
He gets the linebacker trying to fill his run fit.
It's Najee Good, number 52, who's probably going to have nightmares
about Shaq Mason and number 69 coming towards him.
Mason just erases him in the hole.
The touchdown.
So I thought it was just
a fantastic game all around from Shaq Mason, giving me a chance to sort of wax poetically
about him for a few minutes here. Up next, we're going to talk about the defensive side of the
ball and the trenches a little bit. I'm going to focus on the number three. Listeners to this show
know that I spent the preseason sort of talking about the number four. Well, I'm going to change
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Up next, we're going to talk about the Patriots on defense, specifically the number three,
a little Sesame Street action.
That's ahead on this Tape Tuesday installment of Locked on Patriots.
Mark Schofield back with you now on this Tape Tuesday installment of Locked on Patriots.
And I was going to talk about a lot in this show.
At least my plan was when I was going to talk about the Patriots on defense was to focus on things like run fits and things like that.
If you want an example of a run fit, take a look at
Indianapolis' first play on Thursday night. It's a first and 10 at the 8.58 mark. It's Naheem Ryan's
run up the middle for four yards, but you want to talk about a player sort of fit in that hole as a
defender, Dante Hightower. You know, it's a huge contrast between him on this play and some of the plays we
were just talking about with Najee Good because he's the guy in the bubble now. He's aligned
off the ball, but in that B gap between the right guard and the right tackle, he's got a defender
outside of him. He's got a defensive tackle on the inside. And as the play begins, what does he see?
He sees the guard block down. He sees the tackle block outside. That means the hole is going to be right in front of his face. He's not passive.
He doesn't wait. He attacks it downhill. There's a pulling guard coming over. Actually, it's a
pulling tackle this time. The tackle pulls over. He doesn't wait. He doesn't wait to let the tackle
take him on. He goes and takes him on, meets him right in the hole at the line of scrimmage,
stacks him up in the hole, then sheds off of him as well.
Trey Flowers and Patrick Chun, they're the guys that flow to the ball,
but he has to do his job there, and he does it with a particularly well-executed run fit.
I was going to talk about Kyle Van Noy.
I thought Kyle Van Noy did some great stuff sort of scraping off the edge.
There were times when they were executing
some hinge blocks on him
where the tackle sort of tries to wheel him to the outside,
but Van Nooy did a fantastic, fantastic job
sort of getting around him
and sort of knifing down the line of scrimmage.
But the more I studied this Patriots defense
from Thursday night,
the more something started to click in my head.
And we talk about it so often as Patriots fans,
as people that talk about the Patriots in the media or write about the Patriots,
about how Bill Belichick wants to start having his teams play better football
into November, December, and January, and hopefully into February.
And what you see at the start is not what you're going to end up with when you're looking
at the New England Patriots, particularly on defense.
And I think we're seeing another example of that play out before our very eyes because
I mentioned this in the post-game show.
We talked about it in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel.
Again, if you want an invite to that, hit me up at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield
at insidethepylon.com.
The number three, particularly meeting three, two, six.
Three down linemen, two linebackers, six defensive backs.
We saw a lot of that on Thursday night.
And the more I rewatched and rewatched and broke down that game from Thursday night, the more I realized that
this is sort of Belichick's answer to what we're going to be seeing from offenses coming up,
including the Kansas City Chiefs. You know, all these question marks about getting athletic at
the second level. Well, there's one way you could do it. You could draft linebackers who are
athletic. Well, there's another way you could do it. You could take a safety type who can play linebacker and drop him down.
And that's what we're seeing more and more of from Patrick Chun. And there's a tremendous
example of this late in the first quarter. It's the 152 mark. It's a first and 10 situation. And the Patriots come out sort of with their 3-2-6
defense. They've got three down linemen. They put Kyle Van Noy on one edge. They put Dante
Hightower at the other edge. And they've got Patrick Chun basically aligned as a middle linebacker.
And it's not like the Colts are in sort of a four wide, five wide type package.
They're an 11 personnel. They've got Eric Ebron in the game as a wing tight end.
But what is good about this play, as we see in a second, is that Chun basically plays
the game like a linebacker, plays this play like a linebacker because it's an inside run and he's
able to just scrape off the double team attempt that we're going to see here. The center and the
right guard, they're trying to work a double team on the nose tackle and then up to the second level
middle linebacker. The problem is the right guard, he has to be extremely fast to get off this double
and to get to Patrick Chun because he's used to going and getting to say a Dante Hightower.
Chun's much faster, much quicker than a Dante Hightower. And so by the time the right guard,
number 68, looks to wheel to that second level, Chun is already past him and Chun works down
two gaps. So he starts to play head up over the center.
He works down towards his left across the A gap, then across the B gap and into the B gap,
tracking Naheem's down and he chops him down for a gain of just one yard.
And let's think about what we just basically saw. You've got five offensive linemen and a tight end. So you've got six, six big body types
working against six. And it's not four defensive tackles and two linebackers.
It's three down linemen, two linebackers, and a safety. But the quickness and the recognition
from Chun allowed him to sort of scrape down and make this play and chop it down for a one-yard
gain. And I think if you're Bill Belichick, when you get your team, your defense into second and
nine situations, that's sort of ideal. Short of a no gain or getting a loss on the play,
you'll take that, especially when you can take it with a 3-2-6 defense. And what's dawned on me, and maybe I'm just slow on the uptake here,
is that rather than going with a 3-3-5 package when you get Brandon,
Landon Roberts, which they do do a lot of, okay,
but now you've got flexibility.
We know Belichick.
We know how much he values versatility.
He values flexibility, the ability to sort of do multiple things as a defense or even
just as a player. And here we're seeing that both in the micro with Chun himself and in the macro
with this defense. In the micro, Chun, versatile player. He can do safety stuff for you. He can do
boat things for you. That's an inside joke. Don't worry about that. He can do safety stuff for you.
He can do linebacker things for you. You can drop him down. And then sort of on the macro,
taking it out a bit here, you can have a defense that can be 3-2-6 or 3-3-5 without substituting
anybody. And with sort of lighter boxes, you might expect them to give up stuff in the run game.
Well, Chun showed you on this play and on others
an ability to sort of play like a linebacker.
And, you know, offensive linemen are going to be looking to work
to the second level, as we just talked about with Shaq Mason.
They might not be able to sort of read and react
as well as Mason does.
So when you get somebody who's quick in short areas like Chun,
as we see on this play, right guard isn't prepared for it.
Chun scrapes down, makes the play.
Now look, some other guys did some great stuff where, you know,
Dennis Shelton with a four-man front did a great job on the first offensive play
of the Colts' first possession in the second half.
You know, he had a great play there.
But a lot of their best stuff came with three-man fronts,
whether it's 3-3-5 or even 3-2-6 like we've been talking about.
And I think 3-2-6 is the wave.
But Chun's interception, it came on a 3-3-5. And what we have there is Adrian Claiborne uses that sort of wide nine alignment.
He's well outside the left tackle.
Adam Butler is aligned in that B gap between the left guard and the left tackle.
He comes upfield, occupies both.
We get that tackle, end exchange, stunt.
It's Claiborne that comes around, loops into that now vacated A gap,
got a free shot at Luck.
Luck pressured, forces a throw.
Chun's there for the interception.
Now, if you remember when this season started, I said, look,
the number four is going to be pivotal for the New England Patriots. Can they
stop the run with four? Can they get pressure with four?
I might have been wrong on that. Maybe what's more pivotal for this Patriots
defense is the number three. With these 3-2-6 and 3-3-5
looks. Can they continue to stop the run with them? Because if they can't, if you could stop
the run with a 3-2-6 package on a consistent basis, relying on Patrick Chung, then when the
defense is forced into a situation where they have to defend the pass, you're still in your
dime-type package with six defensive backs on the field.
So maybe we just went about it all wrong. Maybe Belichick's vision all along was,
I need to get some consistent contributors at linebacker, but my third linebacker,
my extra linebacker, isn't going to be a linebacker. It's going to be Patrick John.
Or maybe I'm just completely wrong. Maybe Belichick comes out and he plays a 1-1-9 package against Patrick Mahomes.
You might need that to beat him.
But still, the number three, that might be the more pivotal number for the New England Patriots
as we head into this big matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Up next, I'm going to have some thoughts Sam Donald to Josh Allen.
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Locked On Patriots podcast.
Up next, Sam Donald, Josh Allen, what I saw from them on their wins this Sunday.
That's ahead on this Tape Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots.
Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Tape Tuesday installment of Locked
On Patriots with just some quick thoughts on two rookie quarterbacks
two of the four rookies
who won starts
in the National Football League this week
Josh Rosen, Blake Bortles
Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen
Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield
they all notch wins
I'm going to start with Sam Darnold
10 of 22 for
198, Three touchdowns
and one interception.
Numbers are a little bit wonky.
Only completing
45% of his passes or so.
What stood out watching Donald
were a couple of things.
When you look at him,
you still see the
windup. And I think
it might be becoming an issue for him.
And I'll tell you why.
Remember, I've long said mechanics, they're not a problem until they become a problem.
What I mean by that is if the ball is getting where it needs to be, on time, in rhythm, well placed,
I don't care how the quarterback gets it there.
I don't care what it looks like.
Style points don't matter.
But if the ball is not getting where it's supposed to be, if it's not getting where it's supposed to be,
if it's not getting where it's supposed to be on time,
if the placement is off because of mechanics,
then it's an issue, then it's a problem.
Mechanics aren't a problem until they are.
With Donald, we saw an interception.
It came on a tipped pass.
The third of the game tipped at the line of scrimmage.
I wonder, and it's hard to tell if it's starting to play a role, but with
that dip and loop to his throw in motion, if defenders are now getting an extra half split
second on timing their jumps up front. Because look, you know when as a defensive lineman,
when they go quick game, three-step drop under center or one-step drop from the gun,
you engage and get
your arms up. That's what you're taught to do because you're not going to get home unless
there's a blown protection up front. So you get the arms up, try to disrupt the pass, get into
the throwing lane, tip the ball, et cetera, et cetera. I wonder if defensive players are now
getting an extra sort of step towards him or an extra sort of step to get their hands up because
they can see him start that
throw in motion. Three tipped passes in one game is a lot. One that results in an interception is
a bad thing. Some good things though. After that tipped interception, you know, I wrote down on my
notes, Gunn designed throw to flat, tipped at line of scrimmage pick this is becoming an issue the next play is next pass an attempt after that
gun best throw of day what a bleeping response velocity out route with man coverage right
hash mark minus five so his own five yard line to the left sideline the 27 yard line 22 yard out
route on paper obviously you're going from the right hash mark to the left sideline it's a lot
longer throw with velocity and placement deep in your own territory, very, very nice. I thought it
was a tremendous response from Sam Donald to come back after throwing that interception to bounce
right back, get back on that horse, and make probably his best throw of the day. Best throw
of the day. Mark, you threw two deep balls for touchdowns. Yes, he did. Two bucket throws,
two to Robbie Anderson, which I thought were incredible.
Well-placed balls in the vertical game.
He also had a great read on a blitz situation.
Midway through the second quarter, third and seven,
they go empty with him in the shotgun.
He gets blitz.
He makes the right read to throw middle of the field route.
Gets his receiver working on a linebacker.
He places the blitz with the ball.
He's pressured so it's more of a back foot throw,
and the defender just gets a tip on it.
I loved the read, loved it.
You just need a slightly bit better throw.
But for the most part, I thought Donald showed some good things.
Another guy that showed some good, some bad,
a little bit of up and down, what you expect with a rookie, is Josh Allen.
And Allen, he leads the sort of game-winning drive as time expires. He goes 10 of 19 for 82 yards, 82 yards, one interception. The interception was not on him.
That was a play where he, you know, takes a stab. He goes, you know, left middle of the field,
then comes to the curl route on the right. Good throw with velocity. It gets basically hits Andre
Holmes in the face mask, gets deflected into the air and intercepted.
I would not put that on him now.
The arm is as advertised.
His best throw of the day was probably a 3rd and 10 situation in the 4th quarter.
Subtle slide and move in the pocket.
He finds Zay Jones, who he seems to be developing a little bit of a relationship with between receiver and quarterback.
As I wrote, Kidd certainly has a cannon, and he can't deny the arm strength.
The thing with him is everything is still the fastball.
You know, he had a couple of throws.
He had an in-cut to Kelvin Benjamin.
Reed is great.
He just throws it, you know, 800 miles an hour to his ankles.
He tries a time and an anticipation throw to Kelvin Benjamin on a sort of hitch route.
Everything happens at 8 million miles an hour.
I still want to see him sort of get that feel that I've been asking for,
that I've been waiting for to see from Josh Allen.
The field goal drive, a designed swing route to Shady McCoy, and a tunnel screen.
Those were his two passing attempts.
So what we're seeing from Josh Allen is, yes, some development.
What we're seeing from the Bills and how they're handling him,
they're going the Jacksonville route like I expected them to. Win with defense, win with
the run game, minimize what he has to do. But I think Allen is still making some strides as a
quarterback in the National Football League. Speaking of making strides, I'm going to be
striding to the refrigerator because I'm done. My mouth is a little dry. I need another sparkling seltzer.
Haven't had so many of those over the past couple of weeks of the Patriots,
you know, getting some wins and getting back into the win column here.
But who knows?
Might need a couple on Sunday night.
Hopefully not.
But speaking of Sunday night,
I will be back tomorrow with a crossover show with Riot and Chris from Locked on Chiefs.
Love those guys.
I've been on with them a ton.
Excited to talk to them about this huge matchup we've got coming our way.
Patriots and Chiefs on Sunday night.
Until then, keep it locked right
here to me, Mark Scofield, and Locked
on Patriots.