Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 23, 2018 - Sunday Morning Tailgate

Episode Date: September 23, 2018

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🎵 Good morning, everybody. It is Sunday. It is game day. It is time for your Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield sliding into the big chair this Sunday morning. Hope you've got your coffee. Hope you've got your breakfast ready because we've got a full NFL slate of games ready for you on this Sunday morning. Before we dive into a loaded show, we're going to talk some DFS stuff.

We're going to talk yesterday's college football action. Huge game in the Pac-12 last night that we're going to talk about. I want to remind everybody, you can follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com where I'm one of the lead writers. Pro Football Weekly, The Score NFL, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites. As I've said on this show, if they're covering football, chances are I'm covering it for them. As I said, we're going to talk some DFS stuff. We're going to talk some

college football stuff, but we start with Patriots news and notes and, well, some injury news and notes as well from around the league to get you ready for your Sunday slate of games. Let's look at New England first and foremost. Jacob Hollister did not make the trip. As we said, he was out with a chest injury. We learned a little bit more about Hollister's injury from Mike Reese, ESPN Boston. He tweeted out yesterday on Saturday that he had a hard fall in practice. And this might be a couple of weeks with Hollister. Now he had the hamstring injury. Now he's got this chest injury.

This is something we were talking about over at the Lockdown Patriots Slack channel. Again, if you'd like an invite for that, the conversation is flowing 24-7, but we always get into it during the games. Hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Send me a request via email. mark.schofield at

insidethepylon.com We've been wondering. Hollister, now we've got two injuries here with him in the early going, is it something to watch? Hollister out, chest injury might be a couple of weeks. Some good news on the injury front, Marcus Cannon dealing with that calf injury, we had Adrian Waddell last week, he made the trip, so did Nate Ebner, who's been dealing with a hip injury, as well as Keon Crossan, who's been dealing with an injury in, as well as Keon Crossan, who's been

dealing with an injury in the lower body. Josh Gordon, he's still listed as questionable 50-50, but didn't make the trip as well. So that's some good news. Some bad news on the injury front. Some guys downgraded to out. Patrick Chun, out with a concussion. Eric Rowe, out with a groin injury, which apparently he suffered during that game against jacksonville he's now downgraded to out trey flowers also as we expected he will be out for this game against the detroit lions on sunday night football which means with keon cross and making the trip we might see a lot of him we might see a lot of der. We might see a lot of Derek Rivers. I know Patriots fans have been clamoring for Derek Rivers,

getting some action from him. We might see Derek Rivers, the Youngstown State product, on the field in place of Trey Flowers. Let's sort of take a look back, zoom out, if we will, with the camera and take a more look around the league. And there's a lot of injuries now that people probably want to know about before they start making their DFS lineups and looking around the league for guys they might want to sit or start.

We're going to get into DFS stuff in a second. First, some news on Joey Bosa. He's not expected to return until next month, per Adam Schefter on Twitter. Bosa will get a cast removed from his foot today on Sunday. He's going to then wear a walk-in boot around. He's reportedly not expected back until sometime next month. Isaac Rochelle will continue to start a pause opposite Melvin Ingram until Bosa returns. Alshon Jeffrey, wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. They're excited to get Carson Wentz back. Alshon Jeffrey, wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. They're excited to get Carson Wentz back. Alshon Jeffrey, though, he is still out. He's not cleared for contact yet.

Blaine Gabbert, he is expected to get the start today against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Titans are hoping that Marcus Mariota can grip the football as soon as possible. That's a quote. That's a very vague timeline doesn't seem too good about marcus mariota right now gabbert getting the start today against jacksonville leshawn mccoy he made the trip to minnesota by the way buffalo front office you might want to have a sit-down chat with whoever runs your social media account. Because putting up a video saying the team made the trip to Minnesota,

but showing a little video clip where you only fly to Wisconsin, you got to know which flyover states you're going to. You got to be cleaner on the Twitters. Believe me, I know this one. But as for LeSean McCoy, he made the trip to Minnesota, but he is unlikely to play today against the

Vikings. He's going to test out those ribs pre-game before making a final decision. But the Bills have some thin pickings at the running backs box. Tywon Jones has a head injury. He's questionable.

They might only have Chris Ivory in running back. Marcus Murphy, a third down back available. So look, if you... Let me say it this way. If you thought about playing a Buffalo running back against this Minnesota defense, I'd have some questions for you anyway. But now, stay with me. I saw somebody on Twitter say, here's my advice for this week.

Fade every Buffalo player. I think that's good advice. Leonard Fournette, running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars, did not play last week against the Patriots. He's expected to play today against the Tennessee Titans. So he might go. TJ Yeld he has a yankle. He's questionable, uncertain about him. So Fournette seems like he's going to go. Here's some other news, which I thought was pretty interesting in the wake of the Thursday night loss to the

Cleveland Browns. Apparently, according to SNY, Ralph Focaccio reports that the feeling around the Jets is that Todd Bowles' job is not safe. He signed a two-year extension this offseason, but that was to avoid one of those lame duck situations where you're a head coach wondering if you're going to get a new deal. There's chatter that the Jets might want to move on from Todd Bowles. That's something to watch given sort of the wonder about Sam Donald and how that was going to go. Obviously, the New England Patriots, they're going to play the Jets twice. Now there are some questions about their head coach. A little bit of a hot seat type of situation. Dalvin Cook for the Minnesota Vikings. He is out, but he says his hamstring will be

definitely ready for week four against the Los Angeles Rams. That's going to be a fascinating game to watch. A Thursday nighter between the Rams and the Vikings. No matter what happens this week, that's going to be a fun game to watch. Finally, Ryan Fitzpatrick. He was on the injury report. I did not know this until today, but he's now off of it. He was listed by Tampa Bay with a knee injury earlier in the week, but he practiced fully.

He's ready to go today for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That will do it for sort of our news and notes. We're going to get into some DFS stuff here in a second. But first, my friends, look. I know. It's Sunday. It's game day. And I know what you're thinking.

You just listened to the first segment of your Locked On Patriots Sunday Morning Tailgate Edition, and you think you know all the answers. I get it. I do. I get people asking me all the time, look, do you have the answers, Mark? And sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But here's an answer I do have.

Who you're betting on, it's important. Where you're betting with, that's more important. That's why I always tell people to bet with my bookie. Trust me, guys, girls, they're your best bet this season. They've been in business for years. They have great reviews online and their mobile site. It is so easy to use. I would only recommend a service to my listeners that's been good to me. And that's why I'm urging you right now to make your way to my bookie. You win, they pay. They have live in-game betting. They have over-unders on fantasy points, which we're about to talk about. And they have the

most rewarding player perks in the business. Here's the thing. Success breeds difficulty. Because look, my bookie, they're slammed with new batters right now But they still want to give you the best service possible if you're willing to wait if you can hold off until after 7 p.m. Eastern time they'll give you an additional $25 free play on deposits over $100 so here's what you got to do if you can't wait I get I get it You've got a hunch about the early slate over $100 so here's what you got to do if you can't wait I get it I get it you've got a hunch about the early slate go to my bookie calm use promo code locked on to activate the offer they will match your initial deposit dollar

for dollar 100% up to $1,000 if you can't wait if you're willing to hold out until after 7 p.m. you get an extra $25 free by using promo code locked on 25 It's up to you guys I'd wait until after dinner and take the extra money But if you've got a hunch on those early state of games if you've been listening in this week And you've got a good feeling then use a locked on if you can wait locked on 25 either way My bookie is taking care of you my book bookie. You play, you win, you get paid. Up next, I want to talk some fantasy stuff.

Again, you can go to my bookie. You can do those over-unders on fantasy points, and you can get paid too. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked On Patriots. And we're going to talk some daily fantasy stuff right now, something we're going to be doing on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked On Patriots. And we're going to talk some daily fantasy stuff right now, something we're going to be doing on each Sunday morning tailgate show. My recommendations from a scheme and tape-based analysis of what I've seen over the past couple of games on each of these players.

Remember how we do this. We're going to have your blue chip pick as well as a value play at each position. And remember, as you just heard, mybookie.ag, mybookie.com, you can bet on over-unders for fantasy players. And so this is also some interesting stuff to keep in mind. You might want to listen to these recommendations with an ear towards perhaps playing, winning, and getting paid. Let's get into it right now. We'll start with, of course, the quarterback position, a blue chip pick, as well as a value play. And the blue chip pick is this.

It's Tom Brady going up against the Detroit Lions. He's going off for $8,500 over at FanDuel. And I was on with Andy Likens at Boston Sports on his podcast just the other night. And the thing that I'm getting, the vibe that I'm getting right now is I'm getting a very we're on to Cincinnati vibe about this week. We've heard some reports that Tom Brady was very frustrated with the level of execution against Jacksonville. He's been really sort of focused and dialed in this week in practice.

I'm getting that sort of vibe that, look, they're going to come out, national game, televised, you know, on NBC. They're going to come out and have a big game. And so I think you're going up against a defense that can't stop the run. Ziggy Ansah, questionable. Darius Slay might not go because of the concussion. I think the Patriots are going to put up points. So I think Tom Brady makes some sense.

If you want to go value a quarterback, Andy Dalton, 7,200 over at FanDuel. They're at Carolina. And part of the reason I'm making this is from sort of a scheme standpoint, as I'm going to talk about in a minute with A.J. Green. The Carolina Panthers, they're a zone-heavy team. They're a cover three team. And if you've been watching Cincinnati and studying them so far to this point, they've got a lot of answers with Tyler Boyd and A.J. Green

sort of against zone coverage. They've got some designs that they've been running, a great vertical and pivot out route combination that is a cover three beater. I look for them to be running that against Carolina. It's a play that's been used against Carolina already this season. The Bengals have that in the bag. We're going to learn a lot about Cincinnati today, where they are as a team, obviously, given their start, 2-0 start.

But it's a questionable 2-0. You do wonder, wins against Indy and wins against Baltimore, okay, that's nice. Now you get a road game against Carolina, a team that's coming off a playoff season last year. A stout defense up front, obviously some questions in the secondary. But Andy Dalton might make a good play for you if you're going value at the quarterback position. Let's go running back. Your blue chip pick, Alvin Kamara, coming back to him again. You know, it's hard to overlook what Alvin Kamara can do from an offensive profile, from a scheme profile, and then you look at him going up against Atlanta. Atlanta banged up on the defensive side

of the football. They've already got Keanu Neal and Deion Jones on injured reserve right now. Those are two guys that you would expect being asked to cover on Alvin Kamara in the passing game. So because of injuries, I think Kamara makes a ton of sense. Now, if you want to go value at the running back spot, let's stay with the New England Patriots and go Sonny Michel. Sonny Michel Sonny Michelle where Kamara's going off I didn't mention that 8,700 Sonny Michelle 5,600 over on FanDuel for that game against the Detroit Lions and Michelle played more of a role than I expected in that week two game against Jacksonville so I'm really excited about seeing him get going perhaps against

the Detroit Lions you know defense that can't stop the run. And obviously they've used Michel in the past game as well. He had a couple of receptions, you know, against the Jaguars. And so I think we're going to see him become more and more a part of this offense as the seasons tick off here. And so Sonny Michel I think makes a ton of sense if you want to go value under your daily fantasy slate at the running back position. Going wide receivers now.

Your blue chip pick is A.J. Green for a lot of the same stuff I was talking about with Andy Dalton. Look, you're getting some cover three stuff. He's a great, great receiver against cover three because of the stuff he can do on those comeback routes, those dig routes, those curls in front of that cover three corner, as well as some of the designs that Bill Lazor and Cincinnati have already dialed up against cover three teams. You know, they did some stuff against Baltimore, that great cover beater concepts, you know, cover three beater concepts, cover four beater concepts. This is a zone heavy team. The Bengals have done a great job attacking zone coverage this year.

Andy Dalton's been successful. AJ Green has been successful. And so I'll go with AJ Green as your blue chip pick at the wide receiver spot. If you're going cheap, though, if you're going value, $6,500, that's Allen Robinson against Arizona for the Chicago Bears. And part of the work that I do over at Pro Football Weekly is studying and writing about Mitch Trubisky, Mitchell Trubisky, the Trubisky. Every single game, charting all of his plays, all of his snaps, all of his reads, his throws, and decisions. And one of the things that Trubisky has been doing to this point is locking on to his primary target, locking on to his first read. And usually, that's Allen Robinson.

He seems to be wanting to throw to Robinson a lot. Really likes to throw to him. And so, if you want to go sort of value at the wide receiver position, Robinson makes a good deal of sense to me. Plus you're going up against an Arizona defense that has struggled so far this season. So I think Allen Robinson would make

a lot of sense. Let's close it out now. Tight ends. We're going to start blue chip. Travis Kelsey. 7,500 over on FanDuel against San Francisco and look it might be hard week to week to try to figure out you know just how the Chiefs are going to beat you but they're playing incredible offensive football right now and you look at what Kelsey did last year the ability I mean last week excuse me the ability to attack in the middle of the field

you know attack cover two cover four, cover four type of looks. You know, I think that Kansas City has now found a way to get him going in the passing game. You know, a lot of the fantasy world was wondering, you know, how Mahomes was going to handle Kelsey. Maybe Kelsey you might want to, you know, sell on or be hesitant about because he never really played with a tight end in the Texas Tech. Well, it seems like he's got it working based on what they did last week.

And so I think Travis Costa makes a lot of sense if you want to spend some money at the tight end spot. If you want to go cheap, Jared Cook, 5,600, Oakland at Miami. And Cook seems to be sort of, I don't want to say totally reborn just yet in this John Gruden sort of West Coast type offense. But Cook is off to a pretty good start. As a matter of fact, pro football focus, they have Jerry Cook number two overall at the tight end spot

in terms of his grading overall this season. And he had a 45-yard catch and run on the first offensive drive of the year, which set the table for a Marshawn Lynch touchdown. He had 180 yards on nine receptions against the Rams on open and night. He still caught four passes on four targets for 49 yards. You do want to see him get into the end zone, but you're going up against a team in Miami that the defense is okay. But I think Cook is in a good spot to have success against this defense because let's go back last year.

Last time the Dolphins faced him, Cook had eight catches for 126 yards. And he's got 13 catches for 229, averaging 17.6 yards per reception. Last year, Miami allowed 94 receptions to tight ends, which was the most in the league. They gave up over 1,000 yards to tight ends and 10 touchdowns, which were both next to last overall. So the Miami Dolphins have struggled against tight ends. Jared Cook might make a ton of sense for you as you fill

out your DFS lineups. That will do it. Up next, we're going to talk a little college action. Some interesting games on the slate yesterday. We're going to talk a little bit about some of the quarterbacks and of course the big tilt that went off last night. Oregon and Stanford. That's ahead on this

Sunday morning tailgated edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Sofio back with you. We're going to quickly close out this show, talk a little college football action. We're going to kick it off with UCF. That's right. You're quote-unquote defending national champions. UCF Knights taking on Florida Atlantic at home.

That was a Friday night game. Mackenzie Milton, 21 of 32 for 306 and three touchdowns. And I was very curious going into this season how Milton was going to look without Scott Frost on the sidelines with him. And so far, he hasn't lost a step. And I think last night he showed a lot of good process and speed type plays. He had a third level RPO read where it's in the red zone. You sort of read in that middle of the field safety what he's going to do. You show run fake at the mesh point when you're running back. You pull it. You throw it when you see that safety crash. Great decision there. Very impressed with him. Also, another Thursday nighter. Penn State,

Illinois. Penn State on the road taking on Illinois. Lovie Smith got the Santa beard going. And this was a game where Illinois was ahead. Illinois was up 24-21 with 10 minutes to go in the third quarter. Penn State then ripped off 42 unanswered. Miles Sanders running back for Penn State. 22 carries, 200 yards, three touchdowns. Trace McSorley, 12 of 19 for 106 and three touchdowns. And I get asked about Trace McSorley a lot on Twitter and elsewhere. What do I think about him as a pro prospect?

And I will say this, and I've probably told this story before, but when I went to the Big Ten media days two summers ago, I had a chance to talk to Tom Allen, Indiana's head coach, because they were opening the season against Ohio State. A lot of people were really excited about what he was going to be doing at Indiana. But I wanted to talk to him a bit about Penn State. And what he told me was this. He said, look, 26 is great.

88, they're great. Talking about Saquon Barkley and Mike Giusecchi, they're tight end. Excuse me. But what he said next really sort of caught my eye. He said, but 9's the guy that makes that offense go. 9's the straw that stirs the drink there. You know, McSorley's the guy that makes that offense what it is. I was very impressed by hearing that.

And when you go back and watch Trace McSorley, he's definitely a very, very good college quarterback. I'm not sure it gets past that. I think he's more great college quarterback than pro prospect. But I could be wrong there. Maybe I'm missing it. But I think he's more of a good college quarterback type of guy. Some other games. Will the Thrill Greer in his conference debut.

West Virginia host in Kansas State. Greer goes for 25 of 35 with 356 and five touchdowns. Had two picks in that game as well. Greer is somebody I'm really excited about. Going to be doing a video with my good friend Matt Waldman over at the Matt Waldman Rookie Scouting Portfolio a little bit later this week. He's a guy that if he learns to take care of the football, both as a runner and a passer, excuse me,

I think he could sneak himself into that sort of late day one, early day two type of discussion. Two more teams and two more quarterbacks that impressed me on Saturday afternoon, Slate. University of Buffalo going into Rutgers and taking care of business. Buffalo 42, Rutgers 13. And the guy there, Tyree Jackson, who I kid you not, he might be the quarterback that people thought Josh Allen was.

I know that might sound crazy, but he has the arm, he has the size, he has the athleticism. But on top of that, he has some of the other stuff that I thought Allen was lacking. Manipulation, touch, feel, all that kind of stuff that I was worried about with Josh Allen. Tyree Jackson kind of has that. He's very raw, but you watch his game against Rutgers, you see some of the pre-snap and post-snap reads and some of the throws he made. He had a throw and a Haas concept, which we've talked about a ton on this show. He's running it.

And so I was very impressed with his day. I was very impressed with Buffalo. In a similar vein, Urban Meyer back on the sidelines for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Dwayne Haskins, 21 of 24 for 305 and five touchdowns. In the first half. He didn't play in the second half. Ohio State blows out Tulane 49 to 6. Very impressed with Haskins.

Dropping down a level. FCS. Easton Stick. You know, North Dakota State, they had two fairly easy games to start their season, but now they're hosting Delaware. Much tougher sort of FCS opponent.

You know, they come out with a win, 38-10. Easton Stick, 17-26 for 280 and two touchdowns. Tacked on one Russian, I believe. Might have had two, I forget. Don't have that in front of me right now. But if you loved Logan Woodside, and I did, you're going to like Easton Stick.

And I do. Do I think he's a day two prospect? No, he's probably still a day three type guy. But we might be facing a future National Football League with two bison as Quarterbacks in the NFL. How about that? And of course the Saturday night tilt Stanford and Oregon

This was an almost surreal game because Oregon gets out to an early lead I mean, you know it I'm thinking this one's going to be over quickly. You know, they're up 21-7 at one point. They're up 20, I believe, 24-7, and they're driving, and it looks like a situation where they're going to put this thing away, but then there's a freak set of circumstances in this game which really sort of changed the course because Oregon's up 24-7. They're driving.

It looks like they get a touchdown, but it's reviewed and determined that the runner was out of bounds, didn't cross the pylon. And then there's a strange sequence where they bring in this jumbo formation. They've got all these big guys in the backfield, and there's a fumble on the exchange with Justin Herbert. And the running back, the ball gets kicked back towards midfield. And Herbert, in a situation which I'm sure Oregon coaches were freaked out about, dives in head first with his throwing arm extended.

They recover it. But then you get a bad snap over his head on third down and a scoop and score. And instead of it being 27-7 if they just settled for three, or 31-7 had that touchdown counted, now it's 24-14. And then the team's trade blows. It ends up going into overtime, and Stanford comes all the way back to win. Just a fascinating game. Justin Herbert, I think he balled out, but in overtime he was late on a throw,

which was odd because he was thrown with such great anticipation throughout this night. I think KG Costello showed some flashes. JJ Ortega-Whitesand, he was just incredible. They can do some fantastic stuff in the passing game. This was a fascinating, fascinating game to watch, and I think if you came in expecting to see justin herbert you justin herbert things he did that i think if you like jg artega white side you know four for 87 in the two touchdowns he's basically a basketball player

you know given his background playing wide receiver and he does it very well costello was 19 of 26 for 327 and three touchdowns i I mean, those aren't bad numbers on the road in a tough environment. Impressive win for the Cardinal. Stunning loss for the Ducks. Just a strange, strange set of circumstances out in Eugene at Austin Stadium. Stunning river game.

But that will do it for today's Sunday morning tailgate. I hope you enjoyed the college slate of games. I hope you enjoyed today's slate of games. I hope you enjoyed today's slate of games. I will be back later tonight to break down Sunday night football. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. you you