Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 19, 2018 - Crossover With Locked On Lions

Episode Date: September 19, 2018

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All right, let's play it, everybody, on a Wednesday, September 19th, and a Thursday, September 20th. It is Lockdown Lions, Lockdown Patriots crossover edition on a Wednesday, brought to you by our friends at MyBookie, Matt Derry with you in Detroit, Mark Schofield, host of Locked On Patriots up in Boston. What's up, Mark? What's going on, Matt? How are you doing, my friend? Oh, it doesn't get any better than 0-2 with the Patriots.

0-2 with the Patriots coming to town, huh? What do you think? I mean, I guess, like, both teams, though, are in a bit of an interesting spot because New England, we're coming off a loss down in Jacksonville, that AFC Championship game rematch. And now we've got yet another sort of Brady story out there, another Belichick book coming out. And there's still that sense, Matt, of just general unease.

People just, there's angst, there's uncertainty, there's fear that the Brady window is closing sooner than we expected. Now, it's not an 0-2 start, but there's just still some uncertainty up here in New England. So wait, give me the latest on this book. How big of a distraction is this going to be this week? You know, Matt, it's a great question. I don't think it's going to be that much of a distraction. There's excerpts out right now. There's reporting that Brady was seeking something of a divorce, basically around Tom Brady but some of the stuff that he's done himself you know that Tom versus time documentary that has been shooting and you saw him this offseason in the clips that were shown and the segment that was recorded after the Super

Bowl loss that he was sort of wrestling with the idea that maybe it's time to walk away maybe it's time to sort of hand him up do I have it in me to come back to this? Because if you're not fully invested in playing the game the right way, then you're not going to be successful. And, you know, he made the decision to come back, obviously, but it does bring up that old Bill Parcells phrase that, you know, if a player is thinking about leaving and he's got one foot out the door, he's done. He's not going to be able to come back. And so you do wonder, yeah, you know, they won their opener,

and Brady played well at times against Jacksonville. That's going to sort of be this cloud over this organization right now. Is Brady fully invested? Has he fully bought in? Now, he was saying do all the right things right now, but it does make you wonder. Man, oh man. Obviously, we have issues here, too, with the Lions and 0-2 start. Your guy from New England for many years, Matt Patricia, taking over. And just so your listeners know, Mark, it's been an unmitigated disaster. It really has.

It's been awful. The preseason was awful. August was a struggle. Training camp was bad. And now the first two games, you know, you get dominated at home on Monday night football in front of everybody against the Jets. And then week two, a very disappointing start. You're down 30 to 13 to a very average to below average Niners team. Make a little comeback. Don't quit last Sunday afternoon in Frisco, but lose by three. The defense can't stop anybody. The run game

continues to struggle, albeit their yards per carry is better. But again, that 70 game, and it keeps going on now at 70, that game by game by game of not having a 100-yard rusher, that streak continues, and Matthew Stafford isn't playing good football either. So not a great recipe heading into Sunday night. You know, Matt, one of the things that I did want to sort of ask you about, obviously Patriots fans do have some interest in Matt Patricia and how he's sort of acclimated to life as a head coach.

And it seems to me from how you described preseason and training camp and now using the phrase unmitigated disaster, something nobody wants to hear about their team, seems to me like it hasn't gotten off to the best start. I know Walked On Patriots listeners, they were talking about it on the Slack channel today, they want to know, is there any danger that the ownership gives up on Patricia early or do you think they'll have patience with them well I don't think it's a it's a necessarily an ownership thing uh the Ford family

that's on this team and of course Mr. Ford has passed away now Martha Firestone Ford running the team they've always been very very loyal and very very patient and not the types to overreact. Now, when Martha took over the team, one of the first things she did do once her husband passed away was fired Martin Mayhew and Tom LeWand, which was unheard of at the time to fire somebody like Tom, who was a team president and a higher up of the Lions for nearly 20 years. This instance, I think she trusts Bob Quinn, her general manager, of course another patriot wearer, as I like to say. And look, this is Bob's guy. Bob fired Jim Caldwell and said 9-7 is not good enough. We need to be better.

Then he brings in his buddy. His buddy's off to a terrible start. So I don't see Patricia going anywhere yet, but it does appear only two games in. Mark, he looks in over his head a little bit and he has to make some changes here because some veteran players, there's been some grumblings, don't like what he does, doesn't like how he treats some of his guys. This past Monday, they elected to stay in San Francisco and not fly back after the game, which is kind of unheard of.

I threw it out there on Twitter on Sunday. I'm like, that ought to rile up some of the veterans who want to come home after a game. So Patricia's doing things his way. The Lions are used to, at least the players are used to, sitting down with Jim Caldwell. They had a leadership council with Caldwell that sometimes overruled the coach or went to the coach with issues.

And it was that type of relationship. And this is a complete 180. Yeah, Matt, I'm glad you brought up that tweet you put out there because I did see that when you put that out there, when Patricia made that decision to keep the team in San Francisco so they get an extra night of sleep. And as you said, probably didn't sit well with some of the vets who've got families that they want to get back to

and see their wives and their kids. Is there a sense that until this team starts winning, we might not get that buy-in from leaders, from veterans, given the fact that Patricia's doing things so differently, like staying an extra night in San Francisco? I don't know. I think that there is a partial buy-in by some vets, and some of the vets that are bought in are guys that were brought in by Quinn and Patricia, Ricky Jean-Francois being one. There's some other ex-Patriots that are on this roster that might not have that much of an impact.

The biggest issue right now is they're just not playing very good football, and they're getting killed up front. If I'm New England, I'm spreading it out, and I'm running the football, because right now the Lions' defensive front just can't stop anybody. They're giving up over 170 yards a game, tops in the NFL, 32nd in the league, last in run defense. And so whether there's a buy-in, whether guys are upset, they still have to go out and play.

And that aside, in the fourth quarter the other day, when they made the comeback to cut it to three and had a chance to win the game at the end, or at least tie it and couldn't do it, it wasn't like they were thinking about spending an extra night I I do think that has a a handle or a hand in some of this stuff and some of this unease that's going on in Allen Park but um it just has not been a good scene here Patriots Mark last week losing to Jacksonville what was the biggest issue that came out of that game where you said uh-oh I hope Detroit doesn't see that particular thing on the

film you know Matt it's a great question, and honestly, if I had the answer to that, I'd probably be a much richer or at least happier man because it's been something I've been struggling with, and it points to some of the stuff we saw from this Patriots defense back into the AFC Championship game last year, into the Super Bowl, and now we're seeing it again this year, and they have such a problem getting off the field on third down and defending those shallow-type crossing routes that we saw the Eagles run, those mesh-concept-type plays. And Jacksonville was doing it in the AFC Championship game,

and they were doing it again on Sunday. And it starts, Matt, at least from where I'm sitting, with an inability to get pressure with four. They still haven't figured out a group of guys, a rotation of guys up front, from a pass-rush perspective, to get pressure with four. They still haven't figured out a group of guys, a rotation of guys up front from a pass rush perspective to get pressure with four, which means sometimes they have to blitz if they want to generate pressure. They send five, they send six. And when you do that, you're in man coverage behind it. And if they don't have the type of athletes that can run with those crossers, that can stay on those receivers, you're going to give up plays. And Jacksonville, I think,

was 10 of 14 on third downs on Sunday. When you give up 10 third down conversions as a defense you can't get off the field you can't get the ball back to Tom Brady you're gonna lose games and that it's like just like snowballing problem that they have defensively where they don't have guys that can generate pass rush when one-on-one situations now some of that of that might have been guys like Trey Flowers and Dietrich Wise, who were two of their top pass rushing type guys. They were knocked out of this game early. So that might have been a part of it. But it's still a theme that we've seen from this defense

from back to the AFC Championship game and into the Super Bowl. And that's kind of what I'm looking at. Matt, as a quarterback guy, I was wondering, Stafford's a guy that I'm very high on. You know, I look at him, I see the traits, I see his ability to throw the ball, I see the steps that he's made as a quarterback, and I was very high on him coming into the season. Had the rocky start on Monday night,

bounced back at least statistically on Sunday against the Giants. But what have you seen from Stafford? Is the cause for concern there, or was it just one bad night and he's back to the Matthew Stafford that people know and love? No, I have not seen that. I mentioned yesterday on my show that I think the loss of quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan, whom they fired because George Godsey got promoted up, Godsey, another Patriot guy, and Jim Bob Cooter staying as offensive coordinator,

even though that was almost Stafford's call, and he put in a good word for him. I think the loss of Brian Callahan, they're very young and solid the last two years, quarterback's coach. I think Stafford and him worked well together. For some odd reason, he's missing on a lot of deep balls, just three for 11 on deep throws so far this year. If he would have connected on just one of the four that he missed on in San Francisco, there were a couple to Kenny Galladay, a couple to Marvin Jones.

I really believe that this would have been a different story and a different outcome the other day because, for some odd reason, he's just not hitting on the deep throws. Is it a cause for concern? I mean, like you said, they did a lot of dinking and dunking, a lot of checkdowns last week. If the checkdowns last week. If the checkdowns are what's hurting New England and a Theo Riddick can come out of the backfield or a Golden Tate out of the slot can run a crossing route,

that may be where the Lions have some success on Sunday. And being at home, maybe that gets Stafford going. I think he'll be fine. There's no cause for concern. There shouldn't be any talk about the Lions finishing 2-14 and then drafting a quarterback for the future, please. but over the first two games no he has not been sharp with the fact that you brought that up it has that been maybe not a groundswell type opinion but are there people sort of in the fan base that are wondering about Matthew Stafford because it's

interesting you would say that oh you know this is a team that goes 2-14 and drafts their next quarterback. I was surprised to hear you say that. Oh, well, here in Detroit, there's always going to be Stafford haters that will say, and it's a narrative that's out there, and part of it I don't 100% disagree with is he's never won a really big, big game. When they've been on the biggest of stages, at New Orleans for the playoffs, at Seattle for the playoffs, at Dallas for the playoffs, and I say at because, again,

they weren't good enough to boost those games. Yes, he finally beat the Packers at Lambeau, and it was like a big deal here, but Aaron Rodgers didn't play. So what's the big signature win in his career? He's had some great comebacks, a lot of them at home. But, like, if he were to somehow win Sunday night and out-duel Tom Brady, that would be the top. I mean, he needs one of those types of wins, because when there's been the big game, even last year Thanksgiving Day, Minnesota comes in ready to win the division, and the Lions were at home, and Case Keenum

outplayed Stafford. He missed on some throws that were wide open. So, no, I'm not saying trade him. No, I'm not saying draft your next quarterback. But I think after this week, that groundswell, like you said, will get louder if he does not perform and if he's not sharp. You mentioned before about the Patriot defense. In order for Stafford, obviously, to have some success against New England, obviously the Lions defense has to come up big. What's been the issue offensively for Stafford, obviously, to have some success against New England, obviously the Lions defense has to come up big. What's been the issue offensively for New England, or is there none right now?

And what about this Josh Gordon addition? Right. And obviously Patriots fans are pretty excited about the Josh Gordon addition there. And I have, as I said on my show a couple of times this week, tried to temper expectations somewhat because, first and foremost, we are dealing with somebody who has his struggles away from the field. Obviously, his history with substance abuse and addiction is well documented. They had a plan in place, it seems, this year to sort of get him back on the field and handle things from a medical perspective. But there still was this situation that finally became the final straw for Cleveland.

So in New England, that's going to be the first issue to sort of get solidified. And perhaps New England is the type of organization with strong leadership, strong veteran presence, continuity between ownership, quarterback, head coach for the past decade and a half to two decades, that that might be the type of environment. But even if that all works out, New England's offense is notoriously complex for new receivers to come in to digest, understand, and learn. And look at last year with Philip Dorsett. They acquired him right before the season started. Only had about 12 catches last year.

Really failed to materialize as an option in the passing game. Now this year that he's had a full year in the system seems to be more of a threat when it comes to the passing game. So there's going to be two big curves for Gordon to get, you know, to become part of this team as a focal point or even just a factor. You know, first there's the off the field and then there's the playbook side. Now, from the offensive perspective, Matt, you know, week one, they were doing the things they like to do. You know, they were working Rob Gronkowski up the seams. They were doing some stuff to the other guys.

They were getting running backs involved in the pass game. Jacksonville's defense is just a different animal. And Jacksonville's defense is the kind of defense that is talented enough to have answers for anything you might try to do as an offense. You almost have to be perfect to beat them. And the Patriots weren't. I mentioned third down conversions from the Jacksonville side. New England, I think, only converted four of 14 third down opportunities. And part of that stemmed from pressure. the Jacksonville side. New England, I think, only converted four of 14 third down opportunities, and part of that stemmed from pressure. That Jacksonville pass rush, they can get after the quarterback,

whether it's Tom Brady or somebody else. They can win those one-on-one matchups. They were forcing Brady into a lot of quick throws or throws under duress, which sometimes you don't have the best ball placement on. And so that was it. If they can protect Brady, which is job one they'll be okay but if they can't well then they start to struggle so i mean that's that's kind of the situation with the pats offense mark and we're talking to mark scofield locked on patriots matt dairy locked on lions it is the

crossover edition brought to you by our friends at at my bookie mark's going to tell you about my bookie in a second let me just say this about the pass rush. A lot of people are dancing a jig today or this week. Oh, the Lions had six sacks last week. Let me tell you something. Garoppolo, and I know you know him well, held the football for a very long time on Sunday in a lot of instances, and I thought those were coverage sacks. I do think Devon Kennard off the edge has been decent as a linebacker,

rush linebacker on the outside. But to sit here and say, oh, the Lions are going to get six sacks on Tom Brady. Don't hold your breath. Yeah, Brady's a lot better at getting the ball out of his hands quickly, but speaking of better, Matt and I want to make sure that you know how to better your odds this season, because Matt and I, we get asked all the time, look, who's going to win? Who's going to win Thursday night between the Browns or the Jets? Who's going to win this game we're talking about? Sunday night, Lions, Patriots, that Matt Patricia, Bill Belichick, sort of coming together again, coach, mentor type situation. We don't always have those types of answers, but what we can tell you is this. Who you're betting on, yeah, it's important,

but where you're placing your bets, it's probably even more important. And that's why we always tell people to bet with MyBookie. Trust us, guys. They are your best bet this season. They've been in business for years. They have great reviews online. Their mobile site is so easy to use. We would only recommend a service to our listeners that has been good to us, and MyBookie has been good to us. Plus, they have live in-game betting.

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And then maybe in a little bit later, we can get into some predictions here. All right, well, Mark, as far as the Lions go, first and foremost, they've got to rush the passer again. I know it looked good on paper the other day, but I still thought Garoppolo had way too much time to throw on occasion. Number two, stopping the run. And I love your thoughts on this. I don't know. The Patriots always seem to have four or five different running backs. And, you know, Sonny Michel's now in the mix, but the Lions just cannot stop the run right now.

The D tackles are not getting the job done. Ricky Jean-Francois is arguably their best D tackle, and he was on the street a week before training camp. Sylvester Williams hasn't played well. A'shaun Robinson, a former second-round pick, deactivated in week one. So those three guys have got to step up and clog that middle and stop the ground game because Matt Breida and Isaiah Crowell have looked like world beaters the first two weeks. So those two things on the defensive side, and really offensively, I think the Lions have got to commit to the ground game a little bit more and keep doing that.

I think the Lions are actually going to throw the football better and be doing that. I think the Lions are actually going to throw the football better and be successful there. For me, Sunday night, the Lions cannot settle for three. Every time they play on Sunday night football, they played on NBC. But the last two that I can recall is the Seattle playoff game two years ago and last year against Pittsburgh. They've settled for field goals and they have not been able to punch it in. You don't score touchdowns in the red zone against New England. I think you're in big trouble. What do you think? Yeah, Matt, that's a great point. I mean, so often, you know, covering the Patriots, watching the Patriots, you see opposing teams come in either to Gillette or play them at home and they settle for three. And that's not a

recipe to beat New England. It's not a recipe to beat Tom Brady. I think for any team, you know, particularly Detroit, for example, if you want to beat Tom Brady, you've got to finish drives. You can't settle for three. You've got to get seven. It might be a situation where, look, as you've been saying, Detroit's defense has struggled to stop the run. This might be a situation where they can get the ground game going and then do play-action stuff off of that, which they love to do. So they could put up some points. The Patriots, in the past couple of games that they've played,

dating back to last year, they've struggled at times defensively. So this could turn into a shootout type of game where you're seeing a final score with the teams in the 20s or the 30s. But you've got to win by getting into the end zone. And that's, you know, a critical thing that I think Detroit has to do. You know, and like you said, you mentioned stop of the run, getting after the passer. New England had some struggles at times trying to run the ball against Jacksonville. And part of it, yeah,

sure, it's a talent thing. Jacksonville is a very talented defensive front, but there was also some execution problems. There were also some problems with Trent Brown, their new left tackle to replace Nate Solder. There were times when he was coming out of his stance too high, coming out of his stance sort of top heavy. There was a third and one situation early in the game where they just tried a simple run to the left side with Sonny Michel, and he basically fell over and created a sort of a 52-card pileup situation that allowed Michel to get stopped behind the line of scrimmage that the Patriots had to punt. And so there are opportunities for this Detroit defense to sort of assert themselves in this game. And, you know, there's also the sort of Matt Patricia X factor.

I mean, this is a head coach now that has been coaching against this Patriots offense for the past couple of seasons. He knows what they'd like to do. He knows their tendencies. He knows how Josh McDaniels tries to sort of get matchups, get those one-on-one situations for Tom Brady with, say, Rob Gronkowski or Rex Burkhead. And so he should have answers for them from at least a schematic point of view it's just a matter of can they then go out and execute you mentioned

Gronk too Mark last weekend the Lions went up against a pretty good tight end and George Kittle from the Niners and I said that was going to be a key factor because the Lions have not been able to to cover tight ends in years and I thought Quandre Diggs did a pretty job. I know the holding call at the end of the game Sunday cost them because it was on Kittle, but the kid only caught two passes. Gronk's a different animal, man. And like you said, if they're able to run the ball and play action and there's Gronk over the middle, it'll be lights out for the Lions.

Yeah, I mean, Gronk is a different beast. But, you know, there's some solace in the fact that you look at Jacksonville last Sunday. Jacksonville in the AFC Championship game. Now, Gronk got knocked out of that game. He left early with a concussion. But Jacksonville did some things to sort of slow him down a bit. They were able to get decent coverage on him. They were able to do some bracket-type stuff with him.

Now, a lot of teams try stuff like that. Jacksonville was more successful with it. It might be just the talent thing, but there's at least a potential roadmap out there that Matt Patricia could use to sort of figure out a way to slow down Robert Gronkowski. And again, having seen him up close for the past couple of years, you know, he might have a chance to have some answers for him. And, you know, Matt, before we get to final predictions, I do want to ask Darius Slay, great defensive back. I know he had the concussion. Any word on his status for Sunday night?

Well, the Lions, just like you guys, and this is where they get it from, will not talk about injuries. And so I highly doubt until, you know, late afternoon Wednesday or even Thursday we'll have an update on Slay's condition. But if he does not play, that's a monster loss. And I know the Patriots really miss Julian Edelman and their wide receivers. It's Chris Hogan, and we'll see if Gordon plays. And you mentioned Dorsett. There's not a lot out there with Edelman out. But the Slay injury, they're not going to let us know. This will be something that maybe by the end of the week or even on Saturday, we'll know if he's going to be ruled out or not. T.J. Lang is another one, the right guard.

A pro bowler in the past has been bothered by a back injury and re-aggravated in week one, and he didn't play last week either, albeit Kenny Wiggins. The PFF guys loved the performance of Wiggins, the backup that day. But if you're talking about no Slay, no Lang, and we'll see about Ziggy Ansah too, those are three very high-impact guys. What about the health of the Patriots? Well, I mean, Patriots right now are kind of in an interesting spot from a health perspective.

You've got Dietrich Weiss who was injured. It turns out that it was just a dislocated finger. There was some concern that it was going to be a little bit more than that, but it seems like he's going to be okay. Rex Burkhead, he was somebody that had a concussion issue that he suffered actually during the week of practice last week, but he was at go for the game against Jacksonville. Sonny Michel was coming back from his knee injury,

which sort of sidelined him for the preseason as well as week one, but it seems like he's going to be able to go. You know, we're waiting for word on Trey Flowers. It doesn't seem he was knocked out of the game early against Jacksonville. Seems like that was a concussion. He's still sort of in the protocol, as is Patrick Chun. He was knocked out with a concussion. So we're waiting to hear on those guys.

And like you said, Matt, with the Lions, it might be a while. It might not be until Sunday until we get sort of definitive word on those guys. All right, as far as predictions go, Mark Schofield locked on Patriots, Matt Derry locked on Lions, the Wednesday crossover edition. I'm going to say this. Everybody here thinks the Lions are going to get absolutely polaxed on Sunday night. I happen to think the Lions are going to play a better football game. I'm not predicting them to win,

but I think it could end up being like a 31-28, 31-27 loss where the Lions look good, but again, shoot themselves in the foot, can't maybe make the stop when they need to at the end of the game. So I'll say New England by three or four, and actually the Lions cover that six and a half. What about you? You know, Matt, I'm right there with you. I mean, I see that six and a half what about you you know Matt I'm right there with you I mean I see that six and a half and I know that a lot of people are probably looking at this a team that's owing to Patriots coming back from a loss

looking to bounce back they sometimes play pretty well on those situations where they need a sort of bounce back type victory but I look at how this defense has struggled I look at what Detroit can do offensively against them I think New England wins, but I'm with you. I think Detroit covers, and I mean, the 31-27, 31-28, I think that makes some sense. You know, maybe even you get a little bit higher, maybe 34-28, 34-30 type game. But, yeah, I think it's going to be a close game.

I think it's going to be in that one-score type range. I think Detroit covers, but I do think New England wins. All right, Mark, that was fun, brother. All the best. Continue success with Locked On Patriots, and we'll do it again. Maybe when these two teams meet in the Super Bowl. That sounds fantastic to me, Matt. This was a blast.

Enjoy the games, and enjoy the game Sunday night. Thank you.