Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 12, 2018 - Crossover Extravaganza

Episode Date: September 12, 2018

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Hello everybody and welcome to a very special Locked Over NFL Network crossover event. Look, Wednesdays on the Locked Over NFL channels, it's always the crossover stuff and there's going to be some great shows going on. But there's only one show that's going to be previewing perhaps the game of the week, perhaps the game of the year in the AFC. And that's the game, the AFC Championship rematch between the New England Patriots traveling to Jacksonville to what I anticipate will be an out-of-its-mind Duval. So here with you, Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots and Christopher Thornton from Locked On Jaguars to help get you Patriots, Jaguars, NFL fans ready for this game.

Christopher, welcome on into the show. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing fantastic. Can't complain. Got to see a sloppy but a victorious Jaguars in New York this past week. And then like you said, at AFC championship rematch this Sunday, which like you said,

Duvall will be rocking. Yeah. And I want to get to that in a second and we can get to the on the field stuff as well. And obviously people are wanting to hear that stuff, but we were talking before we started recording about that AFC championship game and most specifically the John Malkovich teaser that they did for CBS and just how fantastic that was and whether they could possibly top that or if CBS would even try I mean

wasn't that just like the greatest like three minutes to get you ready for a football game that you've seen in a long time it was perfection I mean especially from the Jaguars perspective because I guess in that commercial the Patriots are kind of painted as the bad guys the the Goliaths but uh the Jacksonville fan base absolutely loved that commercial because it was fantastic just really just I mean for both sides just kind of really just energized you got you ready for that game and I just felt like I feel like most Jags fans after they watched that video were able to just kind of run through a brick wall in anticipation for that game. Yeah, I more

than understand that. Before we dive into the matchup, let's remind everybody where you can find us and our work. Mark Schofield here. Best way to find me is on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Big Blue View Nation, part of the SB Nation Network.

You can follow Christopher on Twitter. He is at MistoChristopho, M-I-S-T-O-C-H-R-I-S-T-O-P-H-O, as well as LockedOnJaguars.com. He and his usual running mate, Zach Goodall, do a tremendous, tremendous job over at Locked On Jaguars. You should definitely check out the work they do. If you're a Jaguars fan, if you're a Patriots fan, if you're just a football fan, check out the work they do. So, Chris, let's dive into it.

And I guess we can kind of start, again, away from the field for a second because you mentioned Duvall. And I have to imagine that Jaguars fans, people close to the team, people on this team have had this date circled on the calendar for a while. Yeah, I mean, when the schedule came out and we saw that our home opener was going to be against the Patriots, you could imagine the feeling that Jags fans saw. Because I mean, let's be honest, Jags fans were left with that sour taste in their mouths so close, seven minutes from the Super Bowl, and then they kind of just let it out of their grasp and then of course a whole off season of miles jack wasn't down uh miles jack eventually embracing it the team running with it so that'll definitely be a definitely you will see a lot of that leading up to this game for the rest of the week but uh yeah especially with it

we're kind of blessed because here in september in jacksonville it's hot uh so this this matchup being at 4 30 is gonna it's gonna help in the stands definitely but more certainly it's just gonna be a whole day of anticipation uh for that game it's gonna be it's gonna be rocking uh tia bank field or known as the bank uh is gonna be electric uh probably be the most electric since the bills playoff game since it was thes' first playoff game in 10 years. So definitely looking forward to that. And, you know, you mentioned the Miles Jack wasn't down. And I think, you know, in the summer, you know, you're hosting,

you guys are hosting Locked on Jags. I'm hosting Locked on Pats. There's often not a lot to talk about. You can see a thin pop-up on Twitter or something that's really interesting. And then as you get closer to the season, it's kind of the same way, but you get more storylines. When I saw a grocery store down in Jacksonville, and I don't know what grocery store chain it was,

but they had one of those soda displays where they set up all the cases of soda and it spells out Miles Jack wasn't down. I think that's when it really got through my thick skull. But, man, you guys are not going to let that one go, are you? Yeah. I like to say that this is our equivalent of De didn't catch it or des caught it uh but definitely that's probably the closest thing that we have uh jaguars i mean when you lose you gotta cling to something or you always want to pin it on something and that was definitely the most prominent for jags fans i think we

wouldn't have really had that bigger problem if it hadn't happened several times in the season before. There was a few occasions where guys were just ruled down early where it could have been touchdowns. Like one was to Sean Gibson in the Los Angeles Chargers game where he got a fumble recovery return for a touchdown, but the refs blew it early. So I think that was one thing that kind of led to all this me personally i've been i was definitely a miles jack wasn't down guy early on

but then as it got on i was like all right uh we can kind of let this thing die and i know it's not going to die until after this week so uh but definitely something to kind of just give jaguars fans i guess just keep themselves motivated, kind of that fuel for revenge. Well, I mean, you know, coming from a Patriots perspective, believe me, they don't go away. I mean, we still hear Raiders fans and the tuck rule. And so probably, you know, regardless of how Jacksonville fares from here on out, you guys might be burning that up, you know, as, you know, the years roll by. But let's get into the matchup.

I kind of want to start when Jacksonville has the football. And I'm sure you do a lot of shows and a lot of podcasts and radio hits with other people. And I'm sure the question you get asked most is, where do Jacksonville fans stand on Blake Bortles? How do they feel about Blake Bortles? We had some moments last week against the Giants, a game you attended in person. So where do Jaguar fans stand on Blake Bortles right now? I, for me personally on Twitter, a lot. It's almost, I want to say 75-25 in support.

Blake gets a lot more love here in the home market than he definitely does on the national media. I can dive into that a little bit. But Blake, I feel like if you haven't lived in Jacksonville, there's kind of just a really unique dynamic of Jacksonville. And Blake kind of fits all the boxes of being Duval, per se. He just kind of represents himself in the city. And just everybody wants Blake to be the guy because they like the guy, Blake, so much.

Things that he does in the community, just kind of how laid back and stuff he is. But for his play, I think people are kind of still skeptical. But last December, I think, really kind of showed people that he could be the guy. Starting that December month off against the Seahawks and the Colts and just having those really strong performances showing, hey, I can do it. Then this pass off season gets his wrist surgery, kind of finally fixes that thing up that he's had a problem with for two years. But for the most part, I would say Jaguars fans are supportive of Blake Bortles. Obviously, when things get tough, people are going to want a point for change. But all in all, I would say that Blake probably has a decent support

from fans here in Jacksonville compared to kind of the view of the national media from the outside. You know, speaking of support, you kind of look at this Jacksonville offense, you look at some of the additions and then some of the guys that aren't there. I mean, Marquise Lee was, I thought, a guy that was going to be a big target for Blake Bortles. Obviously, he has the season-ending injury. So you look at, you know, Keelan Cole, Dante Moncrief, DJ Chark.

You know, how is this offense built to win games? Is it the run game and the defense? Or have they put weapons around Blake Bortles where they can make some plays in the passing game so they don't have to win like they did, say, last year or before that? I think the core philosophy is still going to be playing nasty on defense and just kind of running the ball as much as you can. But they did give Blake a lot of weapons. They definitely bolstered that offense. And honestly, I don't think a lot of Jags fans here know how the offense is going to go because last week I don't think last week was kind of a proper showing of what the offense could

do because the conditions were bad it's raining uh most quarterbacks are going to have somewhat struggle on the football if it's wet so uh last week kind of I don't think was a real showing I think this week is going to be a much better test to show kind of if the Jaguars offense has taken the next step because it's supposed to be clear skies. It's supposed to be nice and hot in Jacksonville. And I think that's going to be a big thing. But I think they kind of went with the mentality of not necessarily having a number one receiver, but instead having a lot of good twos to where you're not going to have that one guy. Maybe that one guy will emerge because that's kind of what they're hoping for in TJ Chark. But as of right now, you have a bunch of really good guys across the field

to where, hey, maybe you can't double-team this receiver. Everybody's going to kind of have to get the same attention, and then you can just go from there. So it'll be interesting to see as the season goes on because the emergence of Keelan Cole last year was surprising nonetheless. He was an undrafted free agent, flashed in camp, made the roster, and then kind of was below the line for most of the season and then really emerged towards the end. So I think running the ball is definitely going to be their number one thing.

That's always what they're going to be known for, pounding the rock, playing physical defense. But it will be nice to see if the passing game can kind of complement that i was going to ask you about dj charke because he's a guy that you and i both saw up close down at mobile last year at the senior bowl who flashed at times down there jacksonville drafted him in the second round receiver out of lsu what have you guys seen from him maybe not you know in week one given the conditions but throughout training camp in the preseason slate of games. What have you guys seen from the rookie wide receiver?

Well, Chark has definitely been Zach's project for this offseason. Zach was charting almost all of his routes, almost everything that man was doing during camp. So if you really want to find that out, go to Zach's page. I'm sure you can name search Chark and find all this stuff. But Chark has really grown because in college he used to, Zach used the term alligator catch it a lot or alligator arms, where he would really just try to catch it with a cradle. Whereas now in camp, you can see him finally using that nice length that God gave him and able to go out and get balls. So he's definitely growing. Uh,

he's a young kid. He's definitely going to have to mature. And that's just what being a rookie is. But, uh, when he was drafted on draft night, there was a sound clip of Caldwell, I believe to wide receiver coach Keenan McCardell, who, if you don't know, was a phenomenal receiver for the Jaguars back in the glory days of Jacksonville. But Caldwell says to Keenan McCardell, we finally got your guy. So Keenan McCardell must have had Chark very high on his list. I think it came out that the Jags had a first round great on Chark. So they coveted him really highly. And when he fell to them in the second round, it was almost like a gift in their eyes.

So it's going to be really interesting to see how char can progress through the season because i think he only had like 17 offensive snaps last week so as the season goes on we'll probably see more of him but he's kind of almost a blank uh i can't think of the word blank canvas right now and we're just kind of waiting for it to see what shows up you know you you mentioned that chris you know that run of the ball is still probably the core element of what the jaguars do want to do on offense and obviously the conversation there has to start with leonard fornette who had a hamstring injury last week you know is he gonna go or is this going to be a tj yeldon game and and building off of that it seemed at least least, and I'm only, you know,

through a couple of watches, I haven't really chattered out all the run game stuff Jacksonville did last week, but it seemed like the run game did sort of take on a different feel and flavor when it was Yeldon versus Fournette. Yeah. Fournette, he said after the game that he'll be good to go this week, but Marone said this morning that they're definitely going to evaluate see how he is but i would say that there's a bigger chance than not that four net will play this week whether he's 100 i'm not entirely sure but it would really surprise me if he didn't uh if he wasn't active this week and then go into your second part with yeldon i mean yeldon was drafted in the second round and he was supposed to be kind of what the levion bells the david johnson's the alvin camaras of the league are now uh has it really panned out to that uh necessarily level of play but that's what they like to use him for they like to use him as that passing back uh screen passes stuff like that to kind of open

up the offense that way passing uh slash running, whereas Fournette is that hard nose between the tackles, downhill runner that we all know that encourages hits. But he got lighter this offseason, so he's a little more nimble, a little more agile, which is nice to see. But that's definitely the contrast in the two, Fournette being the power runner and Yeldon kind of being the pass catching back. Mark Schofield, Christopher Thornton doing a little crossover action here on the Locked On Podcast Network.

Little Jags, little Patriots, AFC rematch. It's going to be your national game on CBS this Sunday afternoon. And Chris, let's sort of switch gears now, talk about a little bit when the Patriots have the football and that matchup between Tom Brady and the New England offense against Jalen Ramsey, Miles Jack, and this Jacksonville defense. And I think the best place to start, obviously, is Jalen Ramsey, who has been such a fascinating player and talent and person to watch

over the course of his young career. And obviously, there's been a little bit of him talking about Rob Gronkowski. Talk a little bit about Jaylen ramsey both the player and the person and what he means to this jacksonville defense and perhaps this jacksonville team and even this jacksonville region oh yeah uh jaylen has said it before how cool it's been how when he was drafted uh i can't remember who he was talking to but he said let's change the culture of this team and let's change the culture of this city. And I think he really has done that.

Jacksonville fans absolutely love Jalen Ramsey. And Jalen Ramsey is that guy to where if you're not a Jaguars fan, you probably don't like Jalen Ramsey. We all know last week or the week before he came out with that GQ article basically listing off all the quarterbacks and what he thought about him and that's just who Jalen is some people think that he's a diva and maybe he's still a little bit but I think honestly if you compare him to Deion Sanders and almost every way that you can compare them to uh they're similar uh they're just that diva on the field off the field they dress the same same. Uh, but no, he is definitely probably, he's definitely the face of this franchise.

And it's so, uh, refreshing to have a guy like that on your team, uh, that the national media kind of, no matter what he does now, kind of points at him and kind of points it out, uh, to get that national media spotlight. Cause he is, he is putting Duval, I guess, on the map a little more. And that's just really nice to finally have a superstar again in Jacksonville. Can I just say for the record, Chris, and maybe you listen to this show, maybe you don't, maybe you listen to Locked on Pats, maybe you don't,

but when his GQ article came out, I came on this show and basically told listeners that I loved it but then it got me scared because it made me realize that as soon as he retires Jalen Ramsey's gonna take my job you know because my gig is evaluating quarterbacks and he like nailed it like I'm out there telling people now that next time I come out with quarterback tears I'm gonna just use Jalen's rankings because I think they were pretty accurate I mean I think yeah I saw I believe it was a bleacher report article where they're like evaluating the quarterback play from week one to Jalen Ramsey standards and he was almost spot on and almost all of them and the only one that

he kind of missed on was Flacco but are we ready to buy in on Joe Flacco? That was against the Buffalo. Yeah, I mean, Jalen has a point to saying that Flacco isn't that great because, I mean, we kind of saw what happened in London last year. That's exactly right. Okay, let's talk about this defense a little bit because, look, we all know what this defense is capable of. It was a historically good defense last year, a historically good pass defense last year. When you start up front, I think that's really where Jacksonville's talent

on the defensive side sort of flows from. We can talk about Jack and Ramsey, of course, but I think the guys up front, Campbell and Jackson and some of the other guys they get up front, they get after quarterbacks. We saw that last week against Eli Madden. You've got to think that's going to continue throughout the rest of the season, right? Yeah, I mean, Saxonville isn't going away.

Calais definitely was a force last week against Eric Flowers. I mean, the first play of the game, Flowers had to trip him to avoid a sack on Eli Manning. But one of the things people say is that that front four is loaded. You have, and it's not even that it's top heavy, it's deep now. Because you have Yannick Ngakwe on one end, you have Calais on the other, then you have Marcel Darius in the middle, Malik Jackson, who I think is probably one of the most underrated three techs in the in the league uh and then behind them you have rookie tave and brian who a lot of people love coming out real raw prospect uh you have avery jones you have dante fowler on one side you have

laurenti mccray on the other it's just a loaded defensive line that just uh the guys love it because they're constantly rotating out and when they get back on the field, they're fresh again. And I think that's just terrifying, probably from another team's perspective, especially if an O-line's not as strong. I know the Patriots lost Isaiah Wynn, which absolutely sucked because I was really looking forward to seeing Wynn play. But as a Patriots fan, I'm sure it's probably concerning hearing stuff like that that, oh, well, when Calais is on the field, who's going to be out there?

And then realize that you've got guys just behind him that are ready to go so uh yeah like you said i don't think that defensive line's going away anytime soon especially not this year yeah and what's amazing is looking at that jacksonville front seven into the depth chart you know you've got taven bryan and you've got dante fow, two guys that were first round picks and they're backups, you know, for this defensive line off the edge. And, you know, anytime you can have that sort of depth and the ability to rotate players in, like you said, Chris, where, you know, you're going to get, you know, unless the other teams go in, you know, tempo and you don't get a chance to substitute, you're going to have fresh guys coming off the edge and that's going to be a problem for a lot of teams. And, you know, you were there were there you know watching this defense up close last week you know against the Giants you

know did you see something where it was just Flowers and a technique breakdown or was this just these guys are just flat out better well there's there's the funny thing that came out this week where Eric Flowers said he misjudged Campbell and thought that Campbell was a speed guy not a power guy and I don't know how you misjudged that when Campbell's 6'8 to whatever 100 pounds uh and you think that he's a speed guy uh so that was the one funny thing I think Jags fans knew uh all offseason going into this that eric flowers is definitely going to be the target on that line but no i mean uh i've i've come out early and said that i think unique and gawkway is going to have a 17 plus sack year this year uh not didn't get any last week but he was able to get continual

pressures because the one thing that everybody knows unique for is that outside speed remove where he usually gets a force fumble i mean that's just what unique is known for but in this offseason he worked with von miller uh to kind of increase his pass rush repertoire and now has an inside move so now he's kind of evolving his game which i think is scary to think about because my closest comparison for unique and gawkway is daniel hunter Hunter out in Minnesota. Both drafted in almost similar areas, play the same style, almost same age, and I think they'll eventually get paid the same. But I think they just dominate whoever's in front of them because they're so stacked across the line.

It's just like watching Minnesota play. There's just so many playmakers on that defense. The corners are so good that wide receivers aren't getting open quarterbacks have to hold the ball. And then eventually just the pocket collapses. So, uh, I think it's technique, but I also think it's just all around skill. These guys are just the best in the business at what they do. You know, Chris, if you were to try to answer the question, if there's, you know, a weakness on this Jacksonville defense, what is it? What would you, would you were to try to answer the question, if there's a weakness on this Jacksonville defense, what is it? Would you point to the safeties?

Would you look at maybe a Leon Jacobs, who's a rookie seventh-rounder who's slotted in as your starting strong side backer, but you're obviously playing a lot of nickel and stuff, so he doesn't see the field a ton. Could you answer that question, or is it just, look, this is from top to bottom, as good a defense as you're going to find in the NFL? If I had to say, I would say probably the safety position. And that's not even saying that it's a bad group.

It's just that the other positions are so good that there has to be a weakness somewhere. And even then, they're not that bad. They're really good safeties. If I had to pick a part of the field that i think is the weakest i think shallow middle of the field i think that's where teams uh if they can game plan well enough can really pick apart the jaguars we saw kyle shanahan kyle shanahan and the 49ers do it last year we saw tom brady and the patriots do it last year where uh you just right before the first down marker that's where there seems to be the biggest hole and I hope the Jaguars are starting to

realize this and can kind of game plan for it but I if I had to say a weakness if you if I had to put my money on where you're going to find success as an opposing quarterback against this Jaguars defense it would definitely be kind of eight yards from the line of scrimmage towards the middle of the field right near the first down marker. You know, Chris, you know, you mentioned that and we saw that last year in this AFC Championship game when New England was able to finally in that second half have some success, you know, attacking sort of the shallow to intermediate area of the field over the middle. We saw some Amendola stuff.

We saw some Gronkowski stuff. Do you think that you might see a different approach from Jacksonville in this game than, say, last year? Because, you know, in this AFC Champions game, they played a lot of, you know, there was a lot of man. There was maybe some cover three and cover one stuff at times. You know, I feel like last week against New York, they did a lot more with two high safety looks. Obviously, you're worried about Odell.

Nobody on New England's roster gives you that kind of fear, except maybe Gronkowski, but you don't have to go cover two for him. Do you think Jacksonville changes things up, or do we think they're going to run what they run, what they like to run, more man-covered stuff, and they're just going to hope to be better than they were in the second half of that game last year?

Well, the one thing that was really frustrating in that AFC Championship game was that the defense was having a lot of success against the Patriots offense in the first half. And that's because they were playing man. They were saying, our guys can match up with your guys, and we're going to make you fight for what you've got to get. Second half, the coaching staff got really conservative and started playing zone. And I think that's really what the demise of that second half for the jags was they they took their foot off the gas in essence and defense and was like all right we

can we'll start giving you cushions that way we don't we are reducing the risk of a big play but instead we're going to let you nickel and dime the defense and i think that was the biggest problem i hope that the jaguars stick to doing man because they have the personnel to be able to do it make Tom Brady beat you make these receivers beat you if you want to get yards on this defense don't give them anything and I think if the Jags can do that then I think they could probably replicate success that they had in the first half of the AFC championship game and maybe if they do that in the second half maybe Maybe this entire podcast is different. Maybe we're talking about the Super Bowl champion Jaguars or their first Super Bowl. But if it were me, I would say play more man

and kind of stay away from zone. Mark Schofield, Christopher Thornton doing a little locked-on network Patriots-Jags crossover. And it's time to get to the nitty-gritty, my friend, and since you guys have home field advantage, I guess I will go first, and it's prediction time. And so, you know, when I look at this game, you know, when I sat down at the start of the season and sort of looked at the Patriots schedule and start coming up with a potential record and a win-loss record, I look at this game, and this is one of those games where I look at from New England's perspective and think,

if they're going to lose a game here in the first two weeks, it's going to be this one. You look at going down to Jacksonville, and as you've been talking about on this show, Chris, obviously Duvall is going to be hyped and ready to go. It's going to be basically a cello-type situation down there. You know that the organization has had this game circled on a calendar. Now, that being said, I am the host of Locked On Patriots,

so I will go on record and predict a 24-21 New England win, but I will say that if Jacksonville comes out and wins this game, it would not surprise me in the least, and that's because this is, as we've been talking about, an extremely talented defense,

a team that was seven, eight minutes from winning the AFC championship game, and a team that, if Miles Jack was indeed knocked down, maybe does win that AFC championship game. So I'll make the prediction from a Homer-based perspective, but it would not surprise me at all if New England goes into Jacksonville and comes out a one-on-one team when all is said and done. And I have to go the exact same route, but for my side, I mean, you're going against the greatest quarterback of all time,

maybe the greatest organization of all time. Just the Bilicek, the Brady, like the Malkovich commercial. You got two David or two Goliaths and one David. So I'm going to go to a similar kind of score prediction. I'm saying I'm going to go 21-17 in favor of the Jaguars. I think the defense is going to come out. I hope that the Jags win the toss and defer because I always love to see the defense come out first. They kind of really set the tone.

But the bank is going to be rocking. It's going to be a good time. Folks have been waiting for this game for months. I think if you can get maybe a turnover or something early and just keep the crowd into it, it will just keep fueling this team all day. But like I said, you're going against the greatest quarterback of all time. I won't say one of. He is the greatest quarterback of all time.

You can't discredit brady for anything you have to give it your all for all 60 minutes or however many minutes it takes i hope it's not a tie like the steelers and browns game but uh i'll go like you did a homer approach but it would not surprise me if this game goes either way because you are going against a dynasty of a franchise that never seems to want to give up at any moment he is Christopher Thornton the

co-host of Locked On Jaguars Chris I will turn the microphone over to you here at the end let the people know where they can find you where they can find you working I guess you know maybe you can be nice and plug your boy, Zach, who wasn't able to join us tonight. Yeah. So you can find myself, like we said at the beginning of the show, at Misto Christofo. And if you don't want to even try spelling that out, you can follow our Twitter page at LockedOnJaguars. And my username is in that description. So it's

the one that's not Zach underscore good all. Zach is the other host of this show, LockedOnJaguars, and my username is in that description. So it's the one that's not Zach underscore Goodall. Zach is the other host of this show, LockedOnJaguars. He couldn't make it tonight due to technical difficulties, which always seems to come up at the worst possible times. But you can find him and his work. He's constantly putting out stuff. He loves to do this stuff. Zach underscore Goodall.

We do all sorts of pieces at LockedOn. We just keep building our staff. We just like to keep pumping out content for you guys to read. Have a real good team coming out or in the works here at Locked On Jaguars. But make sure to follow us at LockedOnJaguars.com. We're on Facebook at Locked On Jaguars Twitter.

And of course, you guys can know where to find all the shows, Spotify, Google Spotify Google Play Stitcher Megaphone iTunes all that good stuff for over here at Lockdown Jaguars please do follow those guys they do tremendous work Zach Chris the team they're building over there just tremendous Jacksonville Jaguars coverage I don't think there are

people that can cover that team better than these guys do they do tremendous work if you're a Patriots fan I know there are fans of other teams that listen to Locked On Pats, definitely give them a follow. They do great stuff. As for me, Mark Schofield,

at Mark Schofield on Twitter, inside the pylon, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldron's Rookie Scout and Portfolio, Big Blue View, Steelers Depot. I just write everywhere.

It's probably easier to say where I don't write at this point. And I don't write at Locked On Jaguars, so we can put it that way. But for me, for Chris, for Zach, thank you so much for listening to this installment of the Locked on crossover extravaganza between Locked on Patriots and Locked on Jaguars

helping you get ready for this AFC Championship game rematch. Until next time, keep it locked to both Locked on Jaguars and Locked on Patriots.