Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 17, 2018 - Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness

Episode Date: September 17, 2018

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Hey there boys and girls and welcome on in to a melancholy and the infinite sadness edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield in the big chair trying to piece it all together after the New England Patriots fall in an AFC Championship game rematch to the Jacksonville Jaguars down in Jacksonville, 31-20. And some of you that are in my age demographic, so to speak, might recognize the title reference, might hopefully recognize the music there. That's right, Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness. That is the title of a 1995

two-disc, 28-track album from the Smashing Pumpkins. And the title track to that album, that's the instrumental you heard there, Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness. An album, like I said, came out in October of 1995. That is the fall of my freshman year in college. You want to talk about an album, a list, a set of tracks that were like formative for me, a freshman away from home for the real first time in his life, playing college football, finding himself as a backup quarterback when he expected to just be like a fifth string dude, trying to piece everything together with a long distance relationship. And where were we? Oh. Look, as much as I'd love to sit here and talk Smashing Pumpkins for the next 20 minutes,

talk 1979 for the next 20 minutes, talk tonight tonight for the next 20 minutes, unfortunately, there is some business to tend to. Now, it could be worse. We could be members of the New England Patriots and their coaching staff getting on a plane in the next couple of minutes here to fly back to New England trying to piece it all together from their perspective. Thankfully, we're just on the outside looking in. But let's face it, that was a tough one to watch. That was a tough one to swallow. And I'm sure there's going to be a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of restless flyers on that plane back to Logan. But as I said at the outset, Patriots drop one down in Jacksonville,

31-20 to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Before we dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly, of which there was lots, I put this out there in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel during the game. We had another great conversation in there. You guys and girls, you should want to be a part of it because it's sometimes, especially during a game like this, it's sometimes a little bit comforting to know that you're not alone

in your melancholiness. Is that a word? In your infinite sadness. You're not alone. So it's great to be a part of something like that, that ongoing conversation. And as I mentioned in there, I take handwritten notes of every single play

as they unfold so I can come on and do a show as shortly, as close to the end of the game as I can. And I highlight them with different colors, you know, green, good, blue, bad, and usually orange or yellow is ugly as I can start to sort things out and then I'll weed things out and finalize it depending on if it's a win or a loss. But as I said in the Locked on Patriots Slack, there was a lot of orange on my notes.

But before we get into that, just remember, follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com where I'm one of the head writers for Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldron's RSP, Big Blue View. You know where to find me. Let's get into it, okay? And let's talk some big themes before we get into the nitty-gritty of it. And these are some things that I was also jotting down on a separate pad, big picture type stuff. Slow start. Very similar to the AFC Championship game. It seemed like Jacksonville had a fantastic game plan. Crossing routes. Shocker. Did anybody see that one coming?

Similar to the AFC Championship game. Very slow start. Hopeful that they make the halftime adjustments. They did on one play. We'll get to that, but not enough. Brady losing his mind. McDaniels losing his mind. I'd never seen Josh McDaniels that heated. Just lighting up the offense at one point. It didn't work. Maybe it worked in spots, but

didn't work overall. Brady, uncomfortable. You saw a lot of back foot throws from Tom Brady today. And pressure definitely got there. The strip sack, which we're going to talk about, that got to him a lot. On the flip side, blitzes for New England, they just were not getting home. First half, second half, third quarter, fourth quarter, in the parking lot, on the flight. Brian Flores could blitz whoever he wanted to. They weren't getting there. They just weren't. Maybe you saw Bortles get flushed a couple of times. Maybe. But there's a compound problem and a compound element to that, which we're going to talk about. Bortles, active participant in this game. That was one of the questions. Would he be an active participant in the run game? Yeah. Well, he answered that one and he delivered

through the air too. So yeah. Dante Hightower. Okay. I wonder right now. I'll just say that. I wonder, okay? We'll talk about him some more. They had chances. They got the momentum into this game. There was a stretch there. Late third quarter, you thought, okay, things are on their side. You get the turnover.

You score. You get the three and out. Now you're thinking, all right, maybe they get a chance. They didn't make the plays maybe they get a chance. It's just, they didn't make the plays when they had the opportunity. So the momentum swung their way ever so briefly. And then it's one right back to Jacksonville. Jacksonville's team speed. I was watching this game and my parents, Alan Carroll were over having dinner, made the old lasagna, meatball, sausage, nice little Sunday Italian dinner for the family. And my dad pointed it out. He's like, look, Jacksonville's team speed, they're just faster.

They just looked faster today. Corey Grant, chief among them, making guys miss in the open field. They were able to beat you to the edge. They were able to make guys miss in space. They just were faster today. Now, remember, Bill Belichick always takes that three-quarter pull, half pull, quarter pull look at things. He doesn't want you to be playing your best football in Week 2.

He wants you to be playing your best football in Week 16, 17, and into the playoffs. So hopefully that's the approach that we're going to see here. But right now, Jacksonville just looked faster. They look like the more athletic team today. And injuries. Teacher Wise, Patrick Chun, Trey Flowers. To add insult to injury, this team got kind of banged up today. So that's some big picture stuff.

Let's do some of the good. And as I said, you can hear me rustle in the papers here. I take notes every single play, chronological order. And let me get to the first green highlight here. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Still turning pages.

Lots of orange. Oh, finally. Here we go. Here we go. Okay. First good play. Ryan Allen with a very nice directional punt at the end of New England's second drive. Seriously, that was the first good play I noticed. It was a very good punt. Angled it towards the left boundary. Very good punt. Minimal return. Covered well. Fantastic. Golf clap for a job well done. That was just spot on, guys. Great. Fantastic.

Okay, here we go. Start of New England's third drive of the game. Sonny Michelle's side in. You know, he first carry on this drive. You know, good feet through the hole towards the left side for a gain of three. But then the next play, he drops a pass. Now, I couldn't tell if that one was on Brady. I think watching it, it was one of those choice routes. Brady expected the break toward the boundary. He sort of squatted on a curl. Brady's pass was leading him towards the boundary. I think it was a miscommunication,

which from where I sit, I would put on the rookie running back as opposed to the veteran goat-type quarterback, but again, on the outside looking in, that's where I sit, I would put on the rookie running back as opposed to the veteran goat-type quarterback. But again, on the outside looking in, that's where I'd put it. Third and seven, James White on an in-cut, great placement, stab concept, Gronk on the slot fade. He breaks to the inside. Great throw. Brady put that in a perfect spot.

I love the placement on that throw. Flippin', flippin', flippin'. Okay, Patriots down 14-0. Their fourth drive of the game. They, you know, I like the drive there. They ended up settling for three. But they needed to get points in that drive. And they rattled off a very nice drive there.

You know, Brady looked uncomfortable to start that drive. He had that jump past the door set to start it. Then I thought, this was a really good plan. I want to see more of it. They motioned Cordell Patterson into the backfield as a running back and just handed the ball on the inside. I've talked about Patterson. He might be more of a running back. We saw that on that play, so I liked that. Also on that drive, we saw Haas concept. We were all chatting around about the Haas concept in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. We saw that on a second and eight.

They empty the formation. They got White on the boundary against Ramsey. They catch him in sort of a zone cover three. Just throw the hitch to him. If Jalen Ramsey is going to play off coverage over James White, take the hitch for nine yards on a second and eight. Like, do that all game long. Now, the drive ended.

You know, you get Cordell Patterson on a comeback in the end zone, throws high and out of bounds. So that was a tough way to end the drive, but I thought it was good that they got three points. They needed the three points in that spot. They needed to get on the board and just stem their momentum somewhat, and they did that. Get into the second half. Stephon Gilmore forcing the fumble on DJ Chark. That was a huge play. I mean, it's 21-3, you know. It's 24-3 at that time because Jacksonville scores a touchdown, a field goal in their opening drive of the second half.

Patriots, they're forced to turn it over. Jacksonville, you think they could put this game away here. Gilmore with a huge play, gives the offense an opportunity, and the offense capitalizes. They get into a third-and-six situation. Brady scrambles for 10 and finishes the run headfirst. He's not sliding there. It's a 10-yard run, which to that point was New England's longest of the day.

You get a play-action half roll where he's throwing to Jacob Hollister for a gain of nine. I thought Hollister had a pretty decent game. Third and goal situation, make a wide iso backside, or I guess frontside, a band-aid post route to Chris Hogan for the touchdown. So you get it to 24-10. That was good. We can all agree.

That was was good. We can all agree. That was pretty good. And the defense, very next drive, huge, huge, huge defensive stand for them. First and 10, you get an inside run. Lawrence Guy holds it to a minimal gain. Second and 9, we finally see some pressure. We force a backfoot

throw that's dropped by Moncrief and Dante Moncrief limps off. 39, throw vertical route along the right sideline, too far for Chark. Again, goes out of bounds and we get a short punt. So now you think, look, 24-10, you get short field, you started on your own 41-yard line, good field position. They start that drive beautifully, beautifully with a well-designed motion, you know, fake the run screen play to White, which gets him into Jacksonville territory. You know, hitch again.

You get White on the hitch route. Nance is saying, look, momentum. There's a momentum change in the air. You get a second-and-four slot fade to Gronk, but that's overthrown. And then you get that third-and-four, you know, bubble that they tried to throw to Patterson, where you've got Hogan in the slot block, and you've got somebody on the outside block,

and it was there. It was there. Dave Archibald, at Dave Archie on Twitter, pointed out that that play could have gone, at least for the first down. Patterson falls down, and that sort of killed that momentum. Defense responds again.

You get the pick, and that was a fantastic play because those crossers were beating the Patriots so many times. But they finally got a rob on this one that worked. Safety crashes down from the other side to take away the crosser that Bortles wants to throw. So Lenny forces a throw to Austin Safarian-Jakins. It gets tipped and picked by Kyle Vannoy. Very athletic pick. That was huge in that moment. That sequence right there, those couple of drives right there, that was the true momentum swing when you thought, they're going to pull this out somehow.

It's 24-13. They're going to go down and score. It's going to be a four-point game before you know it, and then we're going to see Bortles do what we expect. It didn't happen that way. Last good thing I'll note, the crosser to Hogan for the touchdown late, it was that same bubbled pipe design where they show that little bubble to Patterson and Hogan's in the slot. He looks like he's going to block, comes across the formation for the touchdown throw. I thought that

was a beautifully, beautifully, beautifully designed play. And the last good thing I get to talk about. Up next, the bad and then the ugly. And of course, while we don't have game balls, I will have to count them two takes of the game from the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, the discussion we had going on there. That's all ahead on this melancholy and the infinite sadness edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back on this melancholy

and the infinite sadness edition of Locked On Patriots. And let's do the bad stuff. We've got to get through it here. And I think the big theme, big picture type stuff, we're going to go just the pocket, the protection, Brady's feet, the back foot stuff, the happy feet, the unsettledness in the pocket we saw today. That's going to be something to watch going forward. Now, Adrian Waddle was in there, so that's going to be something to watch going forward. Now, Adrian Waddle was in there, so that's going to be part of the problem. But let's also remember, this is a very, very good established Jacksonville defense, Jacksonville pass rush. That is what they are built upon. This is Saxonville, after all. And they get after quarterbacks, they get after Brady.

And so that's kind of to be expected. We can start with crossers. Jacksonville's first possession. They got a third and seven situation. First third down of the game. A crosser to Austin Saveria and Jenkins goes for 11. And on that play, look, Flores blitzes Juwan Bentley. He puts him in the hole.

I had to censor what I had in my notes here. He has a free shot at Bortles, and he misses. He just whiffs. And Bortles climbs and makes the throw. You've got to hit the quarterback there. I mean, I try not to get on people for physical mistakes. That's when it's hard not to. I mean, you've got to hit them there.

That drive gets capped off with a fade for a touchdown to Moncrief versus Gilmore. Gilmore doesn't win at the catch point. It's a good throw, to be sure. got to hit him there. That drive gets capped off with a fade for a touchdown to Moncrief versus Gilmore. Gilmore doesn't win at the catch point. It's a good throw to be sure. It's a great adjustment by Moncrief, but he tries to rake. He doesn't get it done, and it's a touchdown. And so that's a tough start. Next bad stuff, because let's see, flipping through some ugly stuff here. Jacksonville's second drive. Another third and six situation. You know, trying to get off the field on third down. You've got to do it if you're going to win games. And the Patriots, they struggled today to get off the field on third down. I mean, sometimes it's just as simple as one number can tell the story of the

game. And third down conversions. New England, four of 12. Jacksonville, 10 of 14. I could stop the show right now and you know all you need to know about this game. But Jacksonville second drive 3rd and 6. Man coverage. What happens in man coverage? I told the story this week. A quarterback sees the backs of the defenders

he takes off with the ball. Or maybe I told it last week. But I told the story about Joe Montana in Super Bowl XVI, and that's what happens there. Bortles sees the back. He sees Chun's 23 in his nameplate. He takes off, scramble for eight, first down. Later on that drive, running back motion,

swing pass, catch behind the line of scrimmage. You get Jonathan Jones and Dante Hightower, both with a chance to get him to the ground. They both miss tackles. We'll talk Dante Hightower, both with a chance to get him to the ground. They both miss tackles. We'll talk about Hightower when we get to the ugly part of the show. More bad stuff. Garbage drive from the defense. I guess we'll talk about that later.

Oh, the field goal drive that Jacksonville had to start the second half. Third and 11 situation, no pressure. Just absolutely no pressure. They go cover one. They get nothing up front. R and 11 situation, no pressure. Just absolutely no pressure. They go cover one. They get nothing up front. Rowe gets beaten on and out. Easy throw, easy catch, ugh, my notes right there. Verbatim.

So there's that. Jacksonville has a first and 10 to start their ninth drive of the game. This is after the strip sack, which we'll get to in the next segment of the show. Designed spin route to Corey Grant. Behind the line of scrimmage, Devin McCourty just deked out of his cleats. Again, I don't want to ding people. I don't want to crush guys for missing physical plays.

But sometimes you've got to make tackles in the open field. You've got to hit the quarterback when a blitz puts you right in the bleeping hole. Like you get a free shot on a quarterback, you've got to hit him. You've got to at least get something on him. A toe. You can't even get a toe. The rest of this stuff is ugly. I mean, look, we know this is one of those games where

you just take the tape and you bury it, you blow it up, you never speak of it again. I'm already dreading doing a Tape Tuesday show. I might just call in sick. We'll get to the ugly next here on this Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you on this Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness edition of Locked On Patriots.

And ugly, the start. Okay? We're going to do, we've done the good, we've done the bad. It's time for the ugly. And just the start to that game, it was just ugly. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. You know, you go down 14-0 on the road in that environment, and I don't know what you expect to happen. But that's the hand they basically dealt themselves.

Steven Gostowski, 54-yard field goal try. Never had a chance. That looked like me putting from 10 feet. I mean, just never had a chance. And I know it's a long field goal try. I do wonder, it's one of those moments, do you think about going for it in that situation? You know, it's a long field goal try.

You're going to give them great field position if you miss it, which is what happens. Do you consider going for it? I know it's fourth and seven on the previous play. Look, they, you know, they get pressure in Brady's feet, and so maybe they don't feel comfortable at that point. But that was just an ugly kick. 31 on New England's second drive of the game when it's 7-0 Jacksonville.

David Andrews, Joe Thorny just get blown up, just get blown up. Push up front, and those guys just wasn't there in that play. Nowhere to go. Forced to punt it. Need to be better there. They weren't. Lower man wins in that situation. They didn't get low enough.

Eric Rowe. I mean, just boom, roasted. Okay? Just a boom, roasted edition of Eric Rowe here over at Locked On Patriots. He got roasted on that nine ball for Jacksonville's second touchdown of the game. Speaking of boom-roasted, Dante Hightower. I mean, pretty much a focal point of discussion in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel was where are we with Dante Hightower right now?

Because it just didn't seem like he had it. I don't know if it was the conditions, the heat, the humidity. What? Jacksonville had a first and ten play with a show orbit motion and just a simple inside handoff and Hightower just got washed out of the play. He was chasing guys around

over the field to play later where he's in the flat and he just Jacksonville's fourth drive of the game. First and ten. Quick easy throw to the flat. Hightower's running like he's got a piano on his back out there, like he's wearing cement cleats. It just wasn't there.

And that's where we can jump off for Jacksonville's fourth drive of the game. The one where they go up 21-3, just a garbage drive from the defense, from start to finish. You know, second and six, Hightower has a pass broken up, one that he probably could have picked. Third and seven, they blitz. They don't get home. No know. Second and six. Hightower has a pass broken up. One that he probably could have picked. Third and seven. They blitz. They don't get home.

No pressure. Nothing. It's just. Bortles back there playing pitch and catch with Austin Safarian-Jakins. Who beats Devin McCourty on an out route. Yeah. Listen to that sentence again. Austin Safarian-Jakins beating Devin McCourty on an out route. Okay.

Sure. Now I've seen everything. Second and 10, zone coverage, easy throw. Absolutely no pressure. Next second and 10 situation, I must have missed the first and 10 play probably because I was trying to, I don't know, shove my head inside of a door,

the refrigerated door repeatedly so I could door myself a couple of times and forget this was happening. Jason McCourty on a crosser, just 15 steps behind him. I mean, I'm exaggerating, but just could not run with the receiver on that play. I've got to look up who that was because, well, I just feel like giving myself some more pain right now. Couldn't run with Keenan Cole.

Couldn't run with Keenan Cole on a crosser to save his life on that play. Second and 10. Oh, here's another note. Crossers are there all bleepin' day. Again, I edited that part out. Third and three. Chun toasted by Austin Safarian-Jagans for a touchdown.

I mean, just a garbage, garbage drive. And I wish I had an answer. Right now, I don't. Other ugly stuff in this game, the strip sack. Adrian Waddell just roasted off the edge. And Brady tries to climb. He had nowhere to climb to. The interior of the pocket was collapsing as well.

There was nowhere he could go. Strip sack. Stunt me if you heard that one before. The offsides. Okay. So they overturn the spot on the third and sixth throw to James White. So the Patriots now are fourth and inches. And you're thinking maybe they go for it.

Maybe they line up, try to jump off, get them to jump offside, something. I know you're in your own territory, but you need something. They line up. They try to draw the defense offsides. They draw the defense offsides, and everybody looks to the ref to make the call instead of doing what you're supposed your own territory, but you need something. They line up. They try to draw the defense off sides. They draw the defense off sides and everybody looks to the ref to make the call instead of doing what you're supposed to do and touching the guy that jumped off sides. That's what you're supposed to do. Okay. And I don't care if, you know, they're supposed to call it in that situation. It doesn't matter. Touch the dude. Touch the dude.

Touch the dude. Brandon King. Belichick, that's who he was yelling about. I don't care who you are. I don't care. Ryan Allen, jump over there and touch him yourself if you have to. You've got the first down. You forced him to jump off signs.

Complete the play. You've got to be smarter in that situation. And then what happens on the very next offensive play for Jacksonville? Catch and run touchdown pass. Juju Smith shoots her 2.0. And on that play, it looks like man, because there's somebody in motion pre-snap. Somebody's running with him. By alignment, I'll have to go

back to the tape on this as much as it pains me to even think about doing that. And it looks like it's supposed to be Dante Hightower running with that guy. Now, maybe they were supposed to switch it. Tape won't lie to me. But, that's what it looked like. When Skyza brings this entire conversation full circle.

And to put a nice little damper on a statistic that I'm sure is going to get shoved in everybody's face in New England. At that point in the game, wide receiver receiving yardage, 246 for Jacksonville, 75 for New England. Yeah, do you think anybody's going to talk about, well, the Patriots need another wide receiver this week? Yeah, yeah. All right, so look, as you can tell, I'm pretty frustrated with this. Just, you know, to take a step back for a minute, we can remember

that when this season started, when the schedule was announced, people looked at this game and said, okay, if New England's a 12-4 team, this game's probably one they lose. But that being said, they had chances in this game to go into Jacksonville

and pull out a win. They had that momentum shift during that late third quarter time frame when you're thinking, look, they're going to get this thing to 24-17 or 24-20 at one point. And they just couldn't do it. They just couldn't do it. And it's easy to sit here right now and wonder about what could have been. You might wonder, does this team have an answer? Does this coaching staff have? Do they have answers for the stuff that's been beating them?

You think about their three most recent big games. AFC Championship Games, Super Bowl, and now this one. You think about the stuff that has been used to beat New England. And it's a lot of the same stuff. Crossing routes, misdirection, mesh concept.

You know, it's stuff we've seen. It's stuff this team has seen. It doesn't seem like they have an answer for it yet. You know, and I'm wondering, look, is it a personnel problem? Starting with the guys up front. One of the questions I had going into the season, can they get pressure or four? Because if they can't, then you've got to blitz more.

And if you're going to blitz, then you've got to play man. And if you're playing man and you don't have guys that can cover those crossers and stuff which are killing New England right now, you're going to struggle. So that's kind of the situation where we find this team. Wondering. Even though at 1-1, this is probably where most people thought they would be, it's still not a good feeling 1-1. It's just not.

The takes of the game there are two that I want to just quickly highlight. Dave Archibald at Dave Archie on Twitter. Always good to

have Dave's insight especially in game. He's great at you know seeing stuff on the defensive side of the ball that I miss all the time. You definitely need to be

following Dave on Twitter as I said at Dave Archie. And his take, there are two, one from Dave, one from somebody else. Dave's take, though, this team needs Brady hero mode to beat good teams.

And it certainly feels that way right now, right? It just feels like if he's not doing something heroic, this team doesn't have a chance to win. And that's how it feels. The other take of the game comes to us from Andrew Likens, who is at A-L-Y-K-I-N-S, 32. He writes for Boston Sports Extra. At least no one retired at halftime.

Silver lining and everything. And that is true. Vontae Davis retired at halftime. Okay. I mean, now I can say that I've seen that happen in the National Football League. But look, this team is 1-1. And it is where we kind of assumed they would be. You know, let's not forget.

You know, there was not forget, you know, there was a thought that this team could start 0-2. I mean, you play Deshaun Watson and Houston and a team that's given them a bit of trouble over the past couple of years, especially last year. And then obviously this Jacksonville game, there was a thought this team could start 0-2. But they beat Houston. And so, look, it doesn't feel good.

It never feels good to see your team lose. And it certainly doesn't feel good to see a team lose in a game where they had some opportunities to make plays. But now, look, they've got to get things together. I mean, they're going to go into Detroit and face a Detroit team that's obviously stumbling a bit right now. I mean, the Detroit Lions, that's a team that they are in some trouble too. You know, they're 0-2.

They're wondering about Matt Patricia. Obviously, that's a storyline we're going to hear. And so, you know, we get that. You know, then this team hosts Miami, hosts the Colts, hosts the Chiefs. I mean, we're going to know a lot more about this team once we get into that mid-October time frame. You know, where we're at right now, I'm sure that this isn't the outing

that people were hoping to see today, but they're one-on-one. It could be worse. Somebody could have retired at halftime. We could be the Lions. At least there's that. Anyway, that will do it for this melancholy and the infinite sadness edition of Locked on Patriots.

I will be back on Tuesday with a tape Tuesday edition of Locked on Patriots, putting that framework together for that episode right now. Enjoy Monday Night Football. Enjoy Sunday Night Football. And until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.