Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 10, 2018 - Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: September 9, 2018

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Hello there everybody and welcome into a glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield easing back into the big chair after the New England Patriots opened their 2018 season with a hard fought victory over the Houston Texans coming out with a final score of 27 to 20 and this game ended up being a one-score game like I thought it was going to be came down to the last play like I thought it might like Erica Poehler a great friend and listener from the great white north up in Canada at Erica Holmes for you on Twitter she thought it might come down to the final play as well probably should enough well As we're going to talk about, some ugliness to that game,

some turnover, some mistakes that probably made this game closer than I think it should have been, given how these teams were playing. But fantastic to start the season off with a win. It's tough to win them all when you don't win the first one, and the New England Patriots accomplished that goal today. We'll have time to talk about Jacksonville as the week rolls on, but for now we're going to focus on the great stuff that we saw from the New England Patriots in their

2018 opener. As we do for all the glorious victory installments of Locked On Patriots, we're going to talk the great, the good, and the bad. I'm going to give out some game balls at the end, and as well, something else we're going to be doing new here this year. I'm going to have the take of the game. As I've mentioned before, we've got the Locked On Patriots

Slack channel. Had a great conversation going on there throughout the game, some highs, some lows. Nobody really liked that third and 14 end around to Cordell Patterson in the red zone. Nobody really liked that play call. But I'm going to highlight a take from somebody discussing the game that I thought was a very good comment, very good insight, astute piece of punditry, as it were. So we'll have that for you as well. Before we dive in, just remember, follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like

InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldron's RSP, and a host of other places. Let's get into it. And before I start talking about plays that I loved, it's just some overall big picture type of stuff. I was very impressed with this defense. I know, look, they gave up 20. Part of that was they were put in some short field type situations. You know, the run defense had some ups and downs to it. You know, Houston had a drive, or I think

two drives really, where they really sort of gashed the Patriots open on the ground. But I think overall, given some of the situations they were put in, given the tough task of obviously defending Deshaun Watson, who might not be back to a 100%, and it looked like he got hurt on that final play of the game, the Hail Mary throw.

He was stretching out his right leg a bit. But given all of that, I think this Patriots defense fared extremely well. They held themselves well in some short field type situations. So I thought the defense did very well. I think the offense did an extremely capable job, let's put it that way, of getting points when they needed. They had some impressive drives that they strung together at some critical moments in this game, too, which we're going to talk about.

And even with two turnovers, look, he put up 27 points. You're doing something good as an offense. Tom Brady, pocket movement, still there, still on point. He did miss some throws. He had a vertical route on a stutter and go by Rex Berka that he overthrew. Had some other opportunities. A couple of throws to James White in that left flat that he missed a couple of times. But overall, fairly solid workmanlike performance.

And the interception, which we'll talk about, that was a tipped pass. Wasn't really a bad throw or anything like that. Special teams, however, we're going to be talking about special teams. The ugly. Well, actually, the great, the good, and the bad. So the bad section. We're going to be talking about special teams, that kickoff coverage unit. They're going to have a rough film review.

Rylan McCarron, don't get too comfortable in your locker at Gillette because you might be headed down to the practice squad again after muffing that punt, which we're going to get to. But some other great stuff that stood out. Look, Patriots' second offensive drive. They take over after that fumble. Houston's first offensive play of the season. They cough it up. Watson and the

running back misread, miscommunicated at the mesh point. Patriots, they don't really do anything. That's when Brady missed that double move on Burkhead on the first down play. Patterson on the jet sweep for plus three. You get a false start from Joe Tooney. You don't like that.

So now instead of third and seven, you're third and 12. At the plus 21, you were in the red zone. Now you're out of it. But then we get that back shoulder to Rob Gronkowski from Tom Brady against that cover two man coverage with safety help over the top. But Brady puts it in the exact right spot towards the outside, towards the boundary, where only Gronkowski can really make a play on it. That was a perfect throw, great execution.

The Patriots, as we've so often seen from them, they flex Gronkowski out to the boundary a lot, pays off there. 88th touchdown between Gronk and Brady, third most in wide receiver quarterback combination history. And look, this was great because when they flexed him out, a perfect example of why you do this. You got Zach Cunningham, a linebacker, matched up against him.

Brady knows it's two man, two high safeties with man coverage underneath, and they take advantage of it. Again, helping your quarterback identify stuff pre-snap. I thought that was a really great play. As we roll through this, Houston's fourth drive of the game Patriots have

a seven nothing lead we saw some great work up front Lawrence guy Trey Flowers stopping on an inside run swallowing it up for no gain on the very next play they flexed the running back out to the wide out to the boundary moving Juwan Bentley out to the outside but they get a sack Flowers has great pressure they get a sack on Watson they bracket which they did a lot DeAndre Hopkins he's isolated

to one side of the formation in a 3x1 formation they bracket him with Harmon and Stephon Gilmore we're going to talk about Gilmore a bit more he had a fantastic day I think but that was a great play right there, getting the sack, getting that bracket coverage. On those sort of third down situations, you know Watson likes to look to Hopkins, so you just take it away. Watson's going to be a good quarterback, but right now he's a little slow with making up his mind, making his reads and decisions. That was a big play in a big spot. Another big play that Dietrich Wise getting in a sack,

beating number 75 in a one-on-one matchup, just beating him with quickness. I think it was a swim move, but he wins that one-on-one matchup. Something we were talking about. Patriots got a lot of pressure today with just four, sometimes with five, and that was a great example of Dietrich Wise getting in a sack right there. Houston's sixth drive of the game. We get a fantastic, fantastic interception by Stephon Gilmore.

This is something we were talking about in that Locked On Patriots Slack channel. Looked to be a cut call, and what that really means is Gilmore is the backside cornerback covering a crossing route. They make that cut call, which means that free safety. He's in the middle of the field. He breaks down on the crossing route so the corner doesn't have to chase him, but that corner then has to fill and occupy the middle of the field, taking the safety spot. They did that, executed that perfectly. Watson tries a deep shot. Gilmore then rotates all the way over basically from the

cornerback spot to the other side of the field to make the interception. I think that was a great example of a cut call, something we've seen secondaries a lot. When you've got those crossing routes, guys have to make that call so the safety can work downhill, cover in that route, and then that corner has to go back to the middle field and fill and occupy that zone. Great execution there from the Patriots on that cut call, leading to the Stephon Gilmore interception. Get into the second half. Defense, fantastic, fantastic open and drive by the defense. You've got the lead at the half. You don't

want to give Houston a chance to get right back in the game. They go 3-0. With the first play, end around to Hopkins. Great read. Great job staying home by Kyle Vannoy. He chops it down for just a loss of seven yards. Great way to start that drive.

Bentley on the next play, 2nd and 17. He's in underneath coverage against a slot receiver, Ellington. He gets beat on a similar type play a little bit later, but here he's in great underneath zone coverage, makes a sure tackle, holds it to a gain of 5. 3rd and 12. Watson's forced to check it down,

stopped just short. Houston Texans have to punt on their first drive of the second half. I thought that was fantastic. Getting a little bit later into the game here. Houston, they score a touchdown and make it a 24-13 game. I thought the New England Patriots, their response drive was great. They did a lot of 22 personnel stuff to start it out. Burkhead for a run for about 13 to the left side on a powers type play.

You get James Devlin, who had a number of receptions in this game, in the flat for a gain of three. You get checked down to white for a first down. Brady, great pocket movement on a second and seven play. You get, you know, another check down to white. You get Burkhead for a couple of runs. They finally get later into this drive. You get another check down to White. You get Burkett for a couple of runs. They finally get later into this drive.

They get into that situation where you have the end around later in this drive that kind of ends it. I didn't like that play call. I know some people, Dave Archibald at Dave Archie on Twitter, he was talking about in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel how look, third and 14, you don't have a lot of good plays for third and 14. But that's what they went with. It was a good drive, though. I thought that it was a good drive to get more points on the board.

You know, yeah, it still kept it as a two-score game. You would have liked to come away with seven there, but, you know, there was a sack, which we're going to talk about in the bad section of the show, you know, that really put them into a third and 14, third and long situation in the red zone, and you hate to see that. And soon, Houston possession, though. Get another sack, this time from Trey Flowers. It helps kill that drive.

That was a great play right there in that spot. And so the final great thing I want to talk about, Ryan Allen, Jonathan Jones. Fantastic, fantastic punt there at the end of the game. Pitting them down at the 1, forcing Houston into a situation where, look, they gotta go 99 yards and get a touchdown with 43 seconds left on the clock

and no timeouts left you can't do it better than that so that was the great stuff that I saw going through this game live we'll be back in a few minutes here talking about the good and then a little bit later, we're gonna talk bad, we're gonna talk game balls and we're gonna hand out the take of the game

from the conversation we had going in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. Going to run through some of the good stuff that we saw from this game. You know, we already talked about the great stuff.

We'll get to the bad in a minute, but here's some of the good stuff I saw. Trey Flowers set on the edge on Houston's first actual drive of the game. Remember, they fumbled on their first app. First play, it was a run to the left. Trey Flowers did a great job setting the edge there. Turned that run back into the inside.

We're going to talk a lot this season about rush lane integrity and defensive gap integrity. Great job right there. We saw a number of smoke routes to Cordell Patterson, and I love that. And if you were listening to the broadcast, you heard Tony Romo talk about something I've talked about on this show and how the Patriots view things from a what-can-he-do approach. Romo was talking about that after this play, saying other teams got so focused on what he couldn't do, but the Patriots, as they do with so many other guys, so many other

free agents, they focus on what he can't do. And end-to-rounds, smoke routes, quick screens, that's Patterson's game. You don't need him to run digs. You don't need him to run comeback routes. Let him do what he does best, and that's getting the ball in his hands quickly and in space. So I thought that was a good example of it,

Tony Romo making the point that I've been making here on this show. Houston's third drive of the game. We had some good plays there from this defense. They had a mush rush where they got pressure with Brown up front. Just five men rushing the quarterback on that play. Brown gets some pressure on Deshaun Watson. They had a first and ten later in that drive. Yankee concept with all that eye candy stuff I've been talking about early in the week

where you fake this fly sweep, you fake the inside run, but all it is is Yankee. It's a play that Houston loved last year. Patriots were clearly ready for it. And then on a third and seven, they go empty. Then they bring the running back back in. Watson tries to hit Ellington on a crossing route. Jonathan Jones, it's an okay throw, but he's in step-for-step coverage on that crossing route. This is something we saw last year from Jones. Very good at covering these crossers. Had a great job in coverage on this play. Thought that was a very good play. Jonathan Jones looking to be stepping up here into that slot corner role,

something the Patriots definitely, definitely need. Some other good stuff that I saw, you know, not working through my notes here. Jeremy Hill, until he got hurt, he had some really good runs in this game and had some moves in space too. Hopefully it looked bad. It looked bad, that knee injury. Hopefully the Patriots somehow get some good news out of that, but it didn't look good live.

So you hate to see that. Patriots defense. After Houston was forced to go for it on a fourth and five on a throw that, look, Watson missed. He had Ryan Griffin open. He had inside leverage on the defender. Watson just missed it. That was a chance for Houston to get that to a 21-13, 21-14 type game and really could have changed the flow of it.

But Houston doesn't come away with any points there. And to that point, Houston had made three trips into the Patriots' red zone and come away with just six points. Two field goals and then a failed conversion on a fourth and five. That was great to see from this defense. Again, this defense got put into some bad spots after the McCarron muff, after the tip pass interception. But they hunt tough in a number of situations, so I thought that was great.

New England's 11th drive. This is the one that ends on the third and 14 end around. Another smoke route to Patterson versus off coverage. Again, I love seeing that. I love seeing that. They also had that little bubble to James White where Romo did a great job of how advanced that was and how mind-blown it was that the Patriots do something like that when you see off coverage over a slot receiver or over any receiver really well. That stuff we were doing at West Lanes. I don't know how advanced that is,

but you don't see a lot of bubbles versus off coverage or no coverage when you've got an uncovered receiver, even whether it's James White, a running back out there. But I love seeing stuff like that. Remember, it's one of the things I always talk about. Make the game easy. Help your quarterback. Help your offense. You get in a situation like that where you've got a defender giving you eight yards of cushion, just throw the guy the ball. Maybe he gets tackled and he picks up four yards. Okay, maybe the guy makes a play or miss, and that simple, quick little throw turns into something

huge. The other thing is you keep doing that over and over and over again. What do you think is going to happen? Those defenders, they're going to start eliminating that cushion. They're going to want to get in your face more. They're going to want to play more press man. And then you're in a situation where you win at the line of scrimmage, you beat the press, you might be open downfield for a big shot, shot type play. And so I love it when offenses do that. I wish teams did more of it. It's a great way to get your quarterback in rhythm. It's a great way to get your guys the ball in space

with the ability to create after the catch. And so I loved, loved, loved seeing that and New England's willingness to do that. James Devlin, I thought he had a fantastic day. I just wanted to talk about him for a minute. Defensive guys up front, I thought they had a fantastic day as well. Look, James Devlin had a clutch catch for this team to convert a first down late in the game.

And we saw Brady spreading the ball around. I think something like eight different receivers caught passes today. And that's what they're going to do. Philip Dorsett had a fantastic game, I think. Had a nice touchdown. Fantastic out route that he ran, really sinking those hips, getting into that turn. Just a great job by him.

We're going to talk about him a little more. But those were some of the good things that I saw. Up next, we're going to talk about some bad stuff. There were some things that the Patriots will need to get cleaned up. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you to close out this installment, this glorious, glorious victory installment of Locked On Patriots. And we're going to talk some bad stuff.

Obviously, there were some things that New England probably shouldn't have done or some plays that shouldn't have been made. And look, the first one, the bad pick. You know, you hate to get an interception when you're already backed up in your own territory anyway. That gave Houston a really short field. Thankfully, the defense stepped up, held them to three, which was a huge, huge swing of events early in this game. It's just Shaq Mason in the middle of blocking his guy, doesn't really get his guy to the ground,

doesn't occupy him enough so the defensive lineman is able to get up, get a fingertip, get a paw, get something on the ball as it comes out of Brady's hand, and it just wobbles behind James White. And Tyron Matthew is right there for the interception. Tyron Matthew, excuse me, is right there for the interception. And you hate seeing turnovers right there. You hate seeing your defense put back against the wall type situation against an offense with weapons like the Texans have.

But the defense responded. But you don't like to see interceptions like that. Maybe a better block. Maybe Brady gets it out quicker. It's hard to really pinpoint a mistake that was made, but you don't like to see interceptions there. Some other bad stuff that I noticed, the Gronk fumble. That was a really bad change of events here because you're up 21-6.

You know, you get a chance. Your defense is just basically forced to 3-0 to start the second half. You've got a chance to really step on their throats now. You've got a 21-6 lead. You go down and score and make it a 28-6 game. You know, this one might sort of be over. You know, you've got a great chance, a great opportunity for the offense. You get a run for about four yards or so,

so you get a second and six situation. You know, you hit Gronk. You know, he's running. It looks to be a huge play, but then he gets stripped. Kareem Jackson does a great job working back, getting the ball out. You know, it's the first time Gronk lost a fumble at home. His first lost fumble since 2012.

So that's bad enough. Now Houston has the ball again. And then in the mix during the exchange and the change of possession, you get James Devlin getting blocked or hit into the right leg, the lower right leg of Jeremy Hill. And it looked really bad when that play happened. You see the knee buckle the way it did. And we'll hear more about Hill as we get into Monday or so. But that was just a really rough sequence. You know, one tough play for New England from the lost fumble and to potentially lose in one of your running backs for the season. I never like to see that. The other ugly thing

that I want to mention, and then we'll talk a little bit about Bill O'Brien for a minute, but the Ryland McCarron muff punt. You can't have that. I know I've said before, I've talked about one of my first baseball coaches who always used to tell me, look, I will forgive physical mistakes, errors, missed throws, things like that. I will forgive them. Mental mistakes, I can't forgive. Not knowing your assignment, not knowing what base to throw to, not throwing to the cutoff man, things like that, missing a sign,

you know, things like that. And football is a little different because, you know, again, you try not to get on guys for physical mistakes. But muffing a punt like that in that situation, that's one you've got to get on a guy for. And you put your defense in a bad situation. You let Houston come right back into that game and give them a chance at winning.

You just make that catch right there. New England's got a chance to run this game out, close it out with a nice launch, one of those four-minute type drives to really salt this game away. But McCarron doesn't get it covered. Kickoff team. I don't know if we need some new athletes out there or what, but the kickoff team is going to be giving up a lot, a lot, a lot of yardage on returns.

I'm sure Bill Belichick was not pleased to see that. You know, a team that prides itself on being good, being perfect, or as close as you can be to being perfect in all three phases, hard to see between the muff punt and the special teams, the kickoff coverage, hard to see that the coaches are really overjoyed about the special teams' performance. But that was some of the ugly stuff. There were other plays here and there. Brady missed some throws and things like that that you don't like to see.

But first game out, they won. They got the W. That's what matters. We're going to do some game balls. Phillip Dorsett, I thought, had a fantastic game for New England. Obviously, he had the touchdown reception. But remember, this is a guy that caught off 12 passes last year. 12 passes. That was it. Now, it's looking like he's going to be a focal part of this offense. What does he pull in today? Seven catches on seven targets for 66 yards and a touchdown.

Great game from him. I want to give a hat tip to James Devlin. Four receptions for 22 yards and that big 10-yard reception late in the game, which I think was a pretty big spot, pretty big play in a big moment. I wanted to highlight him. The defensive front. Game balls all around for all those guys up front.

Flowers, Malcolm Brown, Lawrence Guy, Adam Butler, Dietrich Weiss, Kyle Van Noy. A lot of these guys did some great, great things today. We talked so much this week here and everybody on every single show. Deshaun Watson, he torched New England last year. He should have won that game last year. How are they going to attain him? Well, this defensive front did a heck of a job containing Deshaun Watson. Yeah, I mean, he had some scrambles.

He had some scrambles late. Look, he ended up running eight times for 40 yards, you know, on a 13-yard gain, you know, on their sort of final drive. So, I mean, yeah, there was that. But look, this team also had three sacks you know you sack Sean Watson three times Trey Flowers one and a half sacks Dietrich Weiss with one and a half sacks they did good I was pleased with their performance Stephon Gilmore you were going to see him on other

teams number ones I thought he had a fantastic game he had the interception which we already talked about DeAndre Hopkins had 8 catches for 78 yards on 11 targets that's not bad he didn't let him into the end zone I think that's a pretty good day I think most Patriots fans would have said told before the game, look Hopkins

is going to get 8 catches on 11 targets and he's not going to get into the end zone, he's going to have just 78 yards receiving most Pats fans I think would have have taken that pregame, no questions asked. So definitely want to mention that. Game balls to Ryan Allen and Jonathan Jones. Big ups on that punt. That was a huge play at that moment,

pitting that Houston Texans offense back. So I thought that was huge. And finally, our first ever take of the game. Again, I'm going to be highlighting comments people were making in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel to talk about, you know, what they were seeing throughout the game. And this from Mr. Pink. This cornerback's hands, these cornerback's hands are so active.

And what he was talking about there was another one of those plays where Jonathan Jones was on a crossing route, and he was just having those active hands. It's a third and seven situation. Jonathan Jones again on a crossing route from Bruce Allenton. Pass is slightly behind the receiver but catchable. But Jones with just active hands as Mr. Pink points out there.

Raking at the catch point. Forcing the incompletion and forcing a punt. That was a fantastic play and a great comment from Mr. Pink. And if you'd like to hear your name and like to hear yourself with the take of the game, remember, hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Shoot me an email, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. I'll get you that invite to the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Maybe next week, your take could be the take of the game.

But folks, now it's time to kick back, to relax. We've got a little Bears. We've got a little Packers tonight. It's nice when you're done with a win and you can just enjoy the rest of the games. I will be back on Tuesday for a Tape Tuesday installment of Locked on Patriots. I'm going to have some stuff from revisiting the film. And I'm going to sit down, fingers crossed, with Taylor Kyles. He and I have missed a couple of times now.

He was supposed to be on last Friday. He lost power, so he couldn't hop on with me. Hopefully, we're going to be able to chat about what he saw from this game, have some thoughts on the tape and things like that. All in all, when you start 1-0, it's a lot better than starting 0-1. Would you like to be in Houston's fan base right now? Or the Chargers fan base right now? Or Arizona's fan base

right now? Nah. I think you're pretty happy where you are with your team 1-0. Again, that will do it for today. Hope you enjoyed the show. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, or happy Monday, whenever you're listening to this. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.