Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 13, 2018 - News, Jacksonville Film Review and Quick Takes

Episode Date: September 13, 2018

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello there everybody, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Thursday, September 13th, 2018. Mark Schofield sliding on back into the big chair for this Thursday installment of your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Big show for you today. Before we dive in, I want to remind everybody, follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like profootballweekly.com where I've already got up a Mitchell Trubisky piece

as well as a piece looking at how some teams used the tight end this week, including the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins. Also check out the work at The Score where so far this week I've put up a piece looking at my favorite offensive pass and play, my favorite offensive run play, my favorite pressure package, and my favorite coverage from last Sunday's games, as well as a piece revisiting the three questions I had in my week one preview. We'll have a week two preview coming your way in the next couple of days. Also the work at bigblueview.com, part of the SB Nation Network, Matt Waldman's Rookie

Scout and Portfolio. Basically, look, if they're writing about football, they might have me doing some work about the game for them. As I said, big show for you today. We're going to talk some AFC storylines, some stuff that has come out, some AFC takes that we're going to get into. I'm going to have my first Jacksonville Jaguars film review. Took another look. I've now gone through that Giants-Jacksonville game now three times, trying to get at it from every angle. Got some stuff from my various film reviews for you. But first, look, it's been a while since we've had a Patriots news and notes segment. And I think it's important that we start there because, look, some stuff has happened.

You know, yesterday's show was the crossover show. We did a lot on Jacksonville with Christopher Thornton from Locked On Jaguars. Tuesday was a tape review. I had some of my notes. Taylor Kyle's from Pat's Pulpit. He was on breaking down some of the stuff that he saw from that win over Houston. In that time, some things have happened.

Not like big things, but like things. So it's worth talking about those. Let's just start with a full-on transaction list since that Houston game. September 10th, Riley McCarron cut. I'm not sure people found that to be a surprise. You can make some mistakes, but muffing a punt that gets Houston back into the game, that's kind of a big one. So, Ryland McCarron, cut. Jeremy Hill, running back, torn right ACL placed on season-ending injured reserve. That one's a bit of a stainer because Jeremy Hill looked to be able to contribute in a number of

ways for this team, both as a ball carrier and even as a receiver out of the backfield. He had made a couple of nice receptions with yardage after the catch during New England's preseason slate of games. So losing him does stain a little bit. Chad Hansen, cut. Not sure people were expecting much from Chad Hansen, but the Patriots move on from him. September 11th, three players signed, given the three roster spots that were open.

Kenyon Bonner, running back, and most notably a punt returner. He's got some punt return experience. Patriots will obviously look to draw upon that. Last year as a member of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Look, he's a player that returned 27 punts. He averaged 8.9 yards per return. That was 11th best in the National Football League. And it was just the first year in the NFL that he returned punts.

He only returned just three punts from 2013 to 2016. And so there's that. You go back to when he was at Oregon. He returned 54 kicks with a 23-yard average. He returned 23 punts with an 11.7-yard return average and one touchdown. And so, fascinating

player to watch. He might serve a role. Last year, his best week as a punt returner came in Arizona. Week 5, he turned his first punt of the day 19 yards. His second return of the day went for 76 yards. He also had a 15-yard return later in the game, finishing with three turns for 110 yards.

So there's a chance he's going to contribute something until Julian Edelman gets back. They also signed Corey Coleman. They signed him to a one-year contract through the 2018 season. The thinner ball Coleman is, he's a Baylor wide receiver. And I know he was a former Fred Belitnikoff winner. I know he was a former first-round pick. This is his third team.

And I've said on this show before, look, I don't have sources, okay? I don't have sources. If? I don't have sources. If you're looking for somebody that's going to give you inside info, nine times out of 10, I'm not the person to go to. But strangely enough, two places that actually do have people on the ground and have ears on the ground are Cleveland and Buffalo. And what I've been told about Coleman, the guy didn't know where to line up. He still didn't know where to line up during this training camp.

Granted, it was a newer offense with Todd Haley coming in. Didn't know where to line up. He goes to Buffalo, couldn't figure out where to be on the field. And so I would just pump the brakes a bit on Coleman excitement. Now this might be redshirt season. Maybe he's

Philip Dorsett 2.0 and that you're not going to get much out of him this year, if anything. But next year, maybe. But again, pump the brakes just a bit. They also signed Benny Fowler to a wide deal, another wide receiver. On Wednesday, Kenneth Farrell, a running back, was added to the practice squad as Jace Billingsley, a wide receiver, was cut from the practice squad. So those are some new names in and around Foxborough. Also, injury report is extremely interesting. Wednesday's injury report had some additions to it. Limited participation Marcus Cannon, offensive tackle with a calf injury.

Nate Ebner, defensive back with a knee injury. Running back Sonny Michel also with his knee injury. And tight end Jacob Hollister with his hamstring. I know Patriots fans, myself included, are itchy to see Hollister go. He's been a focal point of discussion in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. Again, if you'd like an invite to be part of the daily 24-7 conversation we've got going about the New England Patriots, about fantasy stuff, whatever, shoot me a request for an invite at Mark Schofield on Twitter. Mark.Schofield at InsideThePylon.com.

The biggest name, though practice on the injury report excuse me running back rex burkhead with a concussion he did not have that coming out of the game against houston seems to have suffered it in practice he did not participate he is in the concussion protocol i think he's gonna be doubtfulful now that it's Wednesday into Thursday in the concussion protocol. I'd be surprised if he's a go. I think if you're a daily fantasy player, you might want to get your hands on some James White.

You might want to get your hands on some Sonny Michel. Remember, I was eyeing week two for Sonny Michel's return. It seems like that might be more in line with what we're going to see. Also, before, I do want to spend a couple of minutes about some press conference stuff. All eyes might be on Florence. Hurricane Florence,

currently a category anywhere from two to, I mean, it should be three to four type storm. We still don't know where this guy is going, where this hurricane is going and as somebody that's a bit of a weather nerd if that's the right phrase for it as somebody that actually spends you know some some spare time playing around on internet message boards and weather message boards and things like that. It's been strange to see the sort of turn with Florence. Latest update, I'm recording this on Thursday night.

Latest update kind of has it again, weakening just a bit and really making a turn. And the latest models, now we can get into sort of nerdy weather stuff here, but different countries have different weather forecasting models. There's like the American model, the European model, and there's some, you know, divergence between where the models have it going. But as of right now, they have Hurricane Florence sort of making landfall in the North Carolina area, just north of the North Carolina, South Carolina border, and then sort of stalling and turning south and into South Carolina, where it makes a sort of second landfall.

It kind of grazes North Carolina and then works into South Carolina before really coming ashore. And they've got it sort of inland, South Carolina, in the Sunday time frame. We're seeing this come more and more towards the Florida and Georgia border. That's something to watch here as we get closer to Sunday. That might have an impact on travel schedule. It might have an impact on game plan. And if we're seeing tropical storm-like conditions, that changes the complexion of this game between the Jaguars and the Patriots. So with all this stuff to wonder about,

let's dive into some thoughts from Bill Belichick, who gave a press conference on Wednesday. Obviously extremely highly complimentary of Jacksonville. This team has a lot of talent. They're very well coached. They're a tough physical team. This will be a big challenge for us down there on the road. Offensively, it's a very explosive group. They've got them in every position. The receivers,

the tight end, all of the backs, the quarterback. All of those guys have made big plays for them and are very dangerous players if they get any space. Good offensive line, a big physical group. Defensively, all of the numbers kind of speak for themselves. They pretty much led the league in every category last year. They're all back and and they're all good, and they have a lot of depth. When he was asked about any change from Jacksonville from last year to this, well, they've only played one game. There's a couple of new receivers, a couple of new players on offense. Most of the defense is back.

DJ Hayden replaced Aaron Colvin. There's not a lot to see. It's only been five games, and four of them were preseason. He was asked about Jalen Ramsey and his outspoken nature. Jalen Ramsey, somebody we talked about with Christopher Thornton in yesterday's crossover show. Well, look, we all know when the game starts and we'll be ready to go. I'm sure they will too. That's when we'll see what happens. Right now, we're focused on our preparation for the game. I have a lot of respect for Coach Doug Marone and their coaching staff, their players, their team.

Hopefully, we'll be ready to go. He was asked about Jalen Ramsey and A.J. their players, their team, hopefully will be ready to go. He was asked about Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye, whether they stick to one side of the defense or they trail. And Bill Belichick's response, most of the time Ramsey follows the other team's number one receiver, but not always. I'm going to talk about that a little bit when I have sort of my film thoughts on Jacksonville from watching their game against the Giants a couple of times.

Here's one thing where I do sort of want to end it. Klayas Campbell. He's another good player on a good defense. They've got a lot of them. There's six guys in the Pro Bowl on one side of the ball and a lot of the other guys are pretty good too. When we get matched up against each player, we'll have our matchups and we'll see how it goes.

Finally, does their offense change much when Leonard Fournette is on the field as opposed to TJ Yeldon, Belichick, or Corey Grant? They have a lot of good backs, so it doesn't really matter who's out there. They've all been productive. I'd say they've all been productive against us. They're different. They're all good. We can't control who's out there, but whichever one we have to defend, it will be a challenge for us. We have to be aware of which one's out there. They have good depth at that position. This is going to be a tough game. And I think Belichick's comments certainly reflect that. And he even had some praise for Blake Bortles. Is Bortles' mobility an underrated aspect of his game? He's good. Yeah, he runs well. He's a big, strong kid. He's hard to bring down. He can extend plays. So just runs well. He's a big, strong kid. He's hard to bring down.

He can extend plays. So just similar to the quarterbacks we've seen really the past three weeks, not counting the Giants game, but we've seen this three weeks in a row with players that have that type of skill, and yeah, he's definitely in that category. So Belichick right there, he's putting Bortles in the same category as Cam Newton, same category as Deshaun Watson. And this is something we've been talking about this entire offseason, preseason, into week one.

The Patriots face a ton of mobile quarterbacks this year. Although when they face Green Bay, Rodgers is probably going to be still a little gimpy with his knee injury. But they face a ton of mobile quarterbacks this year. And Bortles is just the next one they're facing. And so he's going to pose some challenges for them as well. What kind of challenges?

Well, we're going to get into that in the next segment, talking a little Jacksonville film review. But first, look, I get it. People asking me all the time, who's going to win Patriots-Jacksonville? Who's going to win on Monday night? You got two 0-1 teams looking to avoid that 0-2 hole that we talked about last year when both New Orleans and New England started 0-1 and they met in week two. It's rare that a team starts 0-2 hole that we talked about last year when both New Orleans and New England started 0-1 and they met in Week 2. It's rare that a team starts 0-2 and makes it to the playoffs. The Saints did start 0-2 and did make it to the playoffs, but we've got five games this week with 0-1 teams

looking to avoid that sort of mini-elimination situation by going 0-2. If I knew who was going to win all these games, I'd be sitting back on a beach earning 20%. A little hat tip to Hans Gruber there. I don't know the answers, but I do know this. Who you're betting on, it's important. But what's probably more important is who you're betting with.

That's why I always, always, always tell people to bet with my bookie. Trust me, guys, they are your best bet this season. They've been in business for years. They have great reviews online on their mobile site. It is so easy to use. So lay down some cash and win big today. And here's the thing. You guys know me. You know I'm all about helping each other. I would

only recommend a service to my listeners that's been good to me. And my bookie, they have been good to me. So that's why I'm urging you. Make your way to my bookie. You win. They pay. They have live in-game betting, the most rewarding player perks in the business. And for you fantasy guys and girls out there, you can even bet the over under on just how many fantasy points a player will score each game. That just sounds so much fun to play around with. So look,

join now and MyBookie will match your deposit dollar for dollar, 100% up to $1,000. Use promo code LOCKEDON to activate the offer. Visit MyBookie online today. That's M-Y-B-O-O-K-I-E. And don't forget to use the promo code LOCKEDON when creating your account to claim the offer. Visit MyBookie online today. That's M-Y-B-O-O-K-I-E and don't forget to use the promo code LOCKEDON when creating your account to claim the bonus. MyBookie. You play, you win, you get paid. Up next, Jaguars film review. That's ahead with me,

Mark Schofield, and LockedOnPatriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. Going to talk a little Jaguars film review here. We'll start when Jacksonville has the football. And really, things haven't changed. Belichick was kind of right in that respect. Things have not changed all that much

between who Jacksonville was in the AFC Championship game last year and who they are right now. There might be a bit of a change dependent on our friend Leonard Fournette. As of right now, Fournette is still in the injury report. That is going to be something to watch. He had a hamstring injury which knocked him out of their season opener.

And he will apparently test that hamstring out on Friday. That's according to a report out of Roto World. And so that's a situation to watch because you go back and you watch this game between the Giants and the Jaguars and there is a definite difference to how they handle things offensively, at least from a run scheme perspective, between when it's Fournette in the game and when it's Yeldon in the game. And I'll talk about that here in a sec. You know, the rest of this offensive roster is fairly the same. You know, you've got Cam Robinson, Andrew Norwell, who they signed over from Carolina

at left guard. Cam Robinson's their left tackle. You've got Brandon Linder at center. A.J. Kahn at right guard. Jeremy Parnell over at right tackle. You're looking at the receiving group. Some new names there. You've got Dante Moncrief, Keelan Cole, DJ Chark,

who we talked about, D.D. Westbrook. We're going to talk about him in a bit. Player they're kind of missing there. Player they expected, Marquise Lee, to carry a big role for them this year. He was out with a season-ending knee injury. Austin Safarian Jenkins, James O'Shaughnessy, some interesting names at the tight end spot.

But really, look, this is an offense that goes through Leonard Fournette. Yeldon and Grant are some interesting pieces for them. They do use fullback Tony Bohannon on the offensive side of the ball. They do a lot of stuff with two running back sets. When you study them from an offensive perspective, O'Hannon on the offensive side of the ball. They do a lot of stuff with two running back sets. When you study them from an offensive perspective, one thing you do have to be aware of, they love the screen game. They love the running back screen game, even when it's four net. People think of four net as this big bodied back, bruiser type of a back. They love using him as a wide receiver. He wasn't used that way in a ton coming out of LSU, but they love doing stuff with him in the screen game.

Your traditional running back screens, some slip screen type stuff. So with Fournette in the game, you still have to be cognizant of that stuff. Yeldon's more of a receiving type threat that you'd expect, but they love doing this stuff with Fournette. So that's something to watch. They love crossers. They love crossing routes, particularly to D.D. Westbrook. They were hitting some intermediate to deep type crossers against the Giants that really sort of jumped

out on film. There was one play sort of late in the second quarter. Blake Bortles does a great job of dropping, climbing, and throwing in the pocket. They run a little Yankee type concept, you know, with that deep post route. They got Westbrook on that dig route, intermediate to deep dig route that's still coming under the post route, but they also have a third thing in there, a boundary vertical route. So it's still, it's not a two receiver progression. It's more of a three receiver progression because Bortles will peak that go route, then work high to low from the post to the dig. And he loves throwing that dig route to D.D. Westbrook. Same thing, next pass and attempt, another deep crosser again to D.D. Westbrook. So they're going to work that intermediate area of the field. What they're going to try to do is

get you on play action, get people to get sucked up to play action fakes, then run some stuff over the top to occupy safeties. And with linebackers coming down, safeties going deep, it frees up that intermediate area of the field. So eye discipline is going to matter for the linebackers. Hopefully they can get under those routes, start to constrict those throwing lanes. So that's going to be something to watch. The difference between Fournette and Yeldon, I think comes out this way. This is a team that when Fournette is in the game, they have no qualms about running zone scheme stuff or power and gap scheme stuff. They trust Fournette in both of

those situations. When you look at their ground game against Jacksonville, they'll go lead zone with the fullback. They'll go two back run game stuff with deep swing routes. That's something to do sort of extended handoff type things. They'll go stretch zone. They'll go inside zone with Fournette. They'll go gap in power with Fournette. They had a good power scheme on a run to start the second quarter with a nice double at the point of attack, a nice double team block. The left tackle then climbs to the second level. The right guard pulls. Very effective. But when Yeldon goes into the game,

it's more zone stuff. They'll do lead zone with him as a deep back in the eye. They'll go inside zone with him as a single back. But they don't do a ton of power stuff. With Fournette, they'll do both. They'll even do outside zone with Fournette. There was a play, a second and six play, where Bortles saw an overload to one side of the formation. He checked the outside zone to the other side. The tight end that was in the game at that time that had to make that sort of block on the edge, Niles Paul, he missed it.

Fournette still has the footwork, the quickness, and the change of direction to get around a missed block like that and turn that, what could have been a loss, into a seven-yard gain or so. So the running scheme is more diverse when Yeldon is on the sideline and Fournette is in the game. I expect if Yeldon's a go, I expect to see a lot more zone overall. Bortles is Bortles. He's going to make some throws. He's going to take some shots deep. He is

athletic like Belichick talked about. But they do as much as they can to sort of minimize what he's asked to do. Defensively, this defense is what it is. It's good. These guys are athletic. They fly to the ball.

They make plays. They got after and harassed Eli Manning. If there's a weak spot, it's the safeties. And they did a lot more zone, cover two, cover four, to sort of get some stuff over the top to protect them against Odell Beckham. I expect to see this to be more of a cover one, cover three type game. That's what they really like to do. That's what they did against New England.

I expect them to play more man coverage. If there's plays to be made, I think it's against those safeties in the middle of the field. That's where I'd expect them to attack in the passing game. So Jacksonville, they were susceptible a couple of times to plays like post-wheel and things like that where New York was able to scheme some shots that Madden just didn't hit on.

As for Ramsey, look, as Belichick said during his press conference, he does tend to travel with the other team's number one receiver. But Patriots are a little bit different animal here because their number one receiver right now is probably Rob Gronkowski. And while we'd all probably like to see Jalen Ramsey against Rob Gronkowski because of the content that we could create as a result of it, if they want to do that, fine. If you want to take your best cover corner

and put them on Rob Gronkowski, fine. Because what does that mean? You're getting Hogan or Dorsett or maybe it's Patterson or somebody else matched up in a more advantageous matchup for them. And so if they want to do that, fine. But I'd be surprised if we see Jalen Ramsey traveling with people when this game kicks off on Sunday. Now, any last thoughts when I look at this team? Well, I think tempo is going to have to play a role. I think the Patriots are going to need to use some tempo stuff because of the depth of that defensive front. Because of the fact that they go too deep at the edge spots. You've got guys that are former first round draft picks, such as whether it's Dante Fowler on one side, Taven Bryan on the other, coming off the bench to give you a pass rush bolster to get fresh legs in there, coming off the edges. I think the Patriots need to do some tempo stuff.

I think they need to prevent substitutions. I think they need to keep whoever is, whoever the one or two guys that are on the sideline in the edge spot, when the drive starts, they need to finish the drive still on the sideline. I think you need to wear down that front as best as you can. It's a talented front. They can get pressure with four. The pick six they forced of Eli Manning,

they got pressure with four. They deked Eric Flowers, the right tackle, who's been under siege this week in the New York media. You know, it was a simple five-man protection. They released Saquon Barkley into the route. Talvin Smith, the linebacker, showed a blitz to the inside. As Eric Flowers starts to get into the kick slide, so he's sliding to the right. He sees that.

He takes a step inside, has to protect that gap. That's his responsibility. Defensive end gets by him. It was just a four-man pressure package. They deked him. Got to Eli Manning. So there's going to have to be discipline. There's going to have to be situations where Brady's going to have to get the

ball out quickly. But I think you've got to wear down that defensive front. So look, that's my sort of initial thought looking at Jacksonville. I'll have some more stuff in tomorrow's game day edition. Up next, I'm going to take a quick spin around three storylines in the AFC. We've kind of run long on the first two segments here. I don't want to take up your entire afternoon. Well, maybe I do.

But that's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, in Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you. I'm going to quickly close out the show looking at three sort of storylines in the AFC with some division rivals as well as one other team that's gotten off to a pretty bad start and it's getting worse from an injury perspective. Let's start with the Buffalo Bills. They're moving on from Nathan Peterman, making the switch to Josh Allen to be their

starting quarterback for this week. And well, my thoughts on Allen are well documented. My thoughts on what the Buffalo Bills should do have been documented. Let me just run through it quickly. Again, I understand why right now this might be the best decision for the Buffalo Bills, given that we've seen who Nathan Peterman is. And he probably doesn't give them the best decision for the Buffalo Bills given that we've seen who Nathan Peterman is. And he probably doesn't give them the best chance to win week in to week out right now. But what's best for the Buffalo Bills on a week-to-week perspective at the start of the 2018 season might not be what's best for Josh Allen, your long-term investment at the quarterback position. And you look at this Bill's roster right now, top to bottom, I'm not sure it's the best environment for a rookie quarterback.

I'm very wary of a David Carr 2.0 situation. I'm very wary of Allen getting beat up back there, making some mistakes, throwing some interceptions. Now people are saying, look, now that you've made the switch, you've got to ride or die with him. I'm wary of that because if he's getting beat up, you've got to protect him. And so this is a situation that scares me from a fan of quarterback's point of view. I wish the best for the kid. I don't want to see him get ruined. This seems like it's a bad situation he's walking into. Another rookie quarterback, however, gotten off to quite the start, that being Sam Darnold, that Monday night win on the road against the Detroit Lions. You want to see an example of competitive toughness, the quarterback position.

Throw a pick six to start off your career and then come back and have the game Sam Darnold did. Very impressed with how Darnold comported himself as we get into his second week of his NFL career. Remember, he was the youngest NFL quarterback to start a game, younger than Matthew Stafford and Drew Bledsoe, who were previously the two youngest quarterbacks to start games in the National Football League. So a very impressive performance and start from Sam Donald. Very curious to see how he continues here in his rookie season. Finally, look quickly. Tennessee, that is a bad situation right now that has the potential to get even worse. They lose their game, the delayed game, strange set of circumstances against Miami

in that game. You lose Delaney Walker for the season. Taylor LeJuan gets laid out, gets knocked out on a block during an interception change of possession situation. So he's dinged up. Mariota has an elbow injury, comes back, throws two picks, has to leave the game again. Now he's dealing with some tingling in the arm. That could be nerve damage. There could be a situation going on there where either he's going to have to sit

for a couple of weeks or he's just going to have to play with it. That's be a situation going on there where either he's going to have to sit for a couple of weeks or he's just going to have to play with it. That's a bad situation right now. And Tennessee was a team that many expected might take a nice leap this year. You add Deion Lewis. You get Matt LaFleur to come in, get your quarterback some friendly designs, better use of space. I was expecting another leap from Marcus Mariota this year after a down year last year. Doesn't seem like that's coming to fruition. Now they get to go up against Houston in one of

those two teams each with a loss type situations. Team that loses that game again with Jacksonville in this division, you might be looking at an 0-2 looking up at Jacksonville sitting there at 2-0. Depending on how things shake up between these two teams, we've been talking about that's going to be tough. And then you'd be also looking at a team above you that you've already lost to. And so that's going to be a fascinating game to watch. Going to be a ton of interesting games. We'll talk about some of that in tomorrow's game day edition.

And, of course, don't forget Sunday morning tailgate. I will be back Sunday as well. We'll do some pro stuff, some last minute news and notes, some college recap, some fantasy stuff. Going to be a fun, fun, fun NFL weekend, all leading you up to that game Sunday afternoon, the national game on CBS. Your New England Patriots down in Jacksonville

to take on the Jaguars. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow for your game day edition. Until then, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.