Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 24, 2017 - Glorious Victory Monday Number 2

Episode Date: September 25, 2017

Mark Schofield fires off Glorious Victory #2 of the season as the Patriots survive a stiff test from the Texans. Thoughts on Brady, Watson, and the final winning drive. Don't forget to check out our sponsors over at MyBookie.AG as well: http://record.webpartners.co/_DK_3VE4-6vsWqcfzuvZcQGNd7ZgqdRLk/1/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, it's Jamie, Progressive number one, number two employee. Leave a message at the... Hey Jamie, it's me, Jamie. This is your daily pep talk. I know it's been rough going ever since people found out about your acapella group, Mad Harmony, but you will bounce back. I mean, you're the guy always helping people find coverage options with the Name Your Price tool. It should be you giving me the pep talk.

Now get out there, hit that high note, and take Mad Harmony all the way to nationals this year! Sorry, it's pitchy. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Hi, everybody. Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. I'm here to let you know that today's episode is brought to you in part by our great friends at mybookie.ag. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Lockdown

Podcast Network, your team every day. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome into the second glorious victory Monday of the 2017 season. Mark Schofield here in the big chair with you for Locked On Patriots. We're calling it glorious victory Monday, but I'm too excited after that game, so I'm recording this early here on Sunday night. Going to get it out to you because I'm sure you guys are probably still riding the wave and sitting on cloud nine after that impressive yet somewhat heart-stopping 36-33 victory by the New England Patriots over a very game Houston Texans team that full credit to them came in to Sean Watson. We're going to talk about him a little bit in the show because I think you kind of have to given the performance he put out there.

But Watson comes into Foxborough. We talked a lot this past week about how rookie quarterbacks usually don't fare well against Bill Belichick-coached teams. Watson, for all intents and purposes, looks like he's going to be something special. And it looked like until the last moments there, he was going to pull out that win. Watson comes in, throws, completes 22 of 33 for 301 yards, two touchdowns.

Does have two interceptions that go in the books, but the second comes on a Hail Mary. That kind of dings his numbers there for a little bit. But Watson looked very good. Obviously, full credit to him and what the Houston Texans did on both sides of the ball. But in the end, to use the immortal words of Scott Zolak, unicorns show ponies. Where's the beef? That's your quarterback. Because in the closing seconds there,

Tom Brady throws touchdown number five of the day on a strike to Brandon Cooks on a great throw and an even better job by the receiver in the end zone to get both feet down. I'm going to go through that entire last drive because some really incredible things happened there. But again, tremendous, tremendous win for the Patriots. The Texans came in and gave them everything they had,

but the Patriots showed that they have the ability to close out and pull out games like this. That's going to be a win that you can build on if you're Bill Belichick and the coaching staff. Shout out to our friends over at mybookie.ag. Like I said at the open, they're good friends and sponsors and partners. And I hope you at least listened to me when I said to hit that over. Didn't cover, New England didn't cover this week, but I hope you went to mybookie.ag,

used promo code LOCKEDON and hit that over because they almost hit that over by halftime. So that looked good. So let's get into this a little bit. And I want to talk kind of at the outset about what we saw from New England and what our thoughts and concerns were going into this game. And when the Patriots had the ball, our big concern was can they get plays blocked up? Can they get Tom Brady the time to make the throws that he needs to? And Brady was sacked five times in this game and did give up sort of a strip sack, fumble type

situation that was returned for a touchdown by Jadavion Clowney. They got to Brady and part of the reason was, look, Marcus Cannon, we had worried about this last week. He does end up missing this game. Patriots played with some different guys up front. Nate Solder, bit of a question mark around game time in the pregame warm-ups. Didn't see him on the field. He does start. He gave up a couple of sacks in this game. There was a sack on a drive in the first quarter

near the end of the first quarter. It was actually the final play of the first quarter on a second and seven situation. Clowney beats Solder off the edge. Brady tries to slide Rose to his right a little bit and doesn't really see Clowney coming. Luckily for the Patriots and Brady, Brady somehow holds on to the ball when Clowney hits him from behind with the blindside hit.

They don't turn it over there, but they do turn it over later in the game, midway through that second quarter. It's a secondnd-7 situation. New England's own 28-yard line. And they've got a one-point lead. And this is, again, shoulder gets beat by an athletic guy. This time it's Whitney McCurley. It's a guy we talked about a lot last week.

He comes off the edge. It's another one of those sort of speed rush packages. We talked about these. We'll talk about them a little bit more. But they slide Watt inside the defensive tackle. They bring Whitney McCurley off the edge. Solder gets beat there. Brady's hit as he's sort of throwing the ball.

Pops out of his hands right into Clowney's hands. He runs it in for a touchdown. And after that, though, they did a fairly good job protecting Brady. There was another strip sack situation. This came in the third quarter on a second-and-nine play. There was about maybe two minutes or so left in the third quarter where they actually come out with 13 offensive personnel. So they have one running back, three tight ends.

They run motion out of the backfield, so they motion to empty on a second-and-long situation with three tight ends on the field. It's a bit of a curious package. They try to use a little play action here. They get caught because what happens is that nut stunt that we talked about last week and how the Patriots used that against Drew Brees

where you have the nose tackle come first and then the defensive tackle loop behind. Well, Houston runs that against Drew Brees where you have the nose tackle come first and then the defensive tackle loop behind well Houston runs that against New England and they get nose tackle crashing down and Covington comes around gets to Brady gets another strip sack situation that's a big play in that game at that spot New England recovers it but they get pushed into a third and lawn situation third and 21 the next play is that incredible vision from Tom Brady where he's getting sacked. He's falling down. He somehow sees Gronk who they kept in to help against J.J. Watt on the edge.

Brady somehow flips it to Gronkowski who picks up eight yards. But because of that strip sack situation on second down, they're still pushed out of field goal range. And that's when it was a 28-27 game. New England had a 28-27 lead at that point in the game. Houston then goes and gets a field goal on their next drive. And so that was a big play. We talked about Houston's pressure coming into this game.

Yes, there were some – Marcus Cannon was out, and so there were some different guys up front. But there were enough strip sack or turnover-type plays, the five sacks overall against Brady, where if this game had gone a different way, if they don't come back and win this game, you'd point to these sacks we're talking about. You'd point to the strip sack, turnover, touchdown by Clowney.

You'd point to this sack here where you get pushed out of field goal range and you don't even come away with three. You have to punt and give Houston the football back, and Houston then goes down the field and scores three points at least. Defense does a job, you know, forcing them off the field. But still, you'd point to plays like this where you'd say, these are the reasons why New England couldn't get it done today. Thankfully, they did.

But, again, protection is something to look for going forward. Another thing that came out of this game, and this sort of dates us back to week one, a concern we had about New England after week one was, what are they going to do in third and one and fourth and one? Because we saw against the Kansas City Chiefs in two different situations they had third and short or fourth and short, and they get stopped. We're seeing it happen again.

They get stopped on two third-and-one situations in the fourth quarter when they were down by two and needed to extend drives. The first one, this was an interesting design where they run Mike Gillislee in a power blocking scheme out of a shotgun formation. And they've used Gillislee as their short yardage guy. They used him as their short yardage guy in week one.

They get stopped here. Some sort of interior pressure off the bat. They can't get it blocked up. Gillis Lee is cut down behind the line of scrimmage, and they're forced to punt. Next drive, another third-and-one situation again. They put Brady in the shotgun this time, and they actually try to throw.

They have a little two-man flood concept with the runner back in the flat and Brady tries to hit Gronkowski on a deep comeback route, throws a little bit inside and allows the defender, Gilchrist, to jump on the ball. He doesn't intercept it or anything,

but he gets enough on it, gets enough of a hand on it to break it up. And so the question going forward is, what is this team going to do? What are we going to see from this offense on third and one, on fourth and one? That's something to watch because in the years past, look, we know what New England loves to do in those situations. Get Tom Brady under center and just sneak it. Brady has always been so effective in those situations. We haven't seen

that this year. And when everybody points to, oh, is Tom Brady losing a step? No. I mean, I think if you think Tom Brady's losing a step, look at these past two weeks, and I think you can say, okay, maybe not yet. But are they hesitant to use Brady in those sneak situations? Are they hesitant to use Tom Brady, who used to be basically their short yardage back? Are they not going to sneak the ball with him going forward? And I'd recommend to you a piece written by my colleague, Joe Ferriola, over on InsideThePylon.com where he examined those first down, those short yardage plays from week one and saw that, you know, maybe New England's going to do some

different things. And they get stopped in two situations here in the fourth quarter. So one little area of concern to sort of come out of this game with is, you know, these short yardage situations and what they're going to do in those situations. But we're going to talk a little bit about the Sean Watts and the Texans because I think it's worth getting into them. And then we're going to get into that final drive breakdown, how it went down, how New England was able to pull this out when it looked like they really weren't

going to be able to come out of this game with a win. But before we do, I mentioned at the outset our good friends and partners over at mybookie.ag. And so we dropped to 5-6 on the big predictions this week. One for two on the weekend here. We hit the over. I told you on Friday to pound the over, but New England did not cover. There were 13-point favorites coming in.

They did not cover with a three-point win. But those are the kind of questions that I've been asked ever since I took over this show, as well as breaking the plan over at Inside the Pylon, is, you know, who am I going to bet on this week? Should I bet on the Pats? Should I take the Texans and the points? What about Chicago?

You know, home game against Pittsburgh. What do I do there? And, you know, I've been rolling out the advice, or, you know, five for six on the year so far. But in addition to the advice I give on who to bet on, I want to remind you that where you're betting is just as important as who you're picking. So let me give you some more advice. I always tell friends, go to mybookie.ag. Use promo code LOCKEDON for up to a 100% deposit bonus up to $1,000. They will match it dollar for dollar.

There are tons of online sports books out there. I know that. But mybookie.ag is the only one that gets my stamp of approval. And again, it's not the only show I'm partnered with them on. I also work with them over at Breaking the Plane. And that's because I believe in them and I trust them. And I go to their website. I see how it's designed. I see how interactive it is, how you have live in-game betting as well. And it's the one that I use as well. They've been in this business for years. And mybookie.ag and their reputation is rock solid. They do, again, 100% cash bonuses. Off the bat, you're making money for doing nothing. And it's no different than being in a nice glitzy Vegas casino. And if, like me, you hate to fly, you don't have to get on a plane to go there. And that's a great bonus too.

So again, go to mybookie.ag to place your bets and tell them I sent you by using promo code LOCKEDON. Get over there, get the best odds anywhere. mybookie.ag, you play, you win, you get paid. Let's shift gears a bit and talk a little bit about Deshaun Watson and the Houston Texans because coming into this game, there was a lot of talk about how Watson, the rookie quarterback, would fare in only his second start against the Bill Belichick defense. On Friday's show, I talked a lot about how you can bait Watson into making mistakes, particularly on the boundary. I also talked a lot about his eyes. Sometimes he would lead defenders to the football with his eyes. He would lock on to guys like

DeAndre Hopkins with his eyes. And we saw that on his first turnover, that interception by Stephon Gilmore. That was a run pass option type design. And Watson stared it down the entire way and never, I don't know if he ever saw Gilmore simply sitting under the route. Now, there might have been a little bit of a route miscommunication there. It looks like Watson was expected to come back. Hopkins stayed vertical. So perhaps that had something to do with that. But again, that's the theme there.

Making mistakes on the boundary. Watson has done that. He did that at Clemson. He had those 17 interceptions that I talked about. And he made a mistake there. The issue was there were times when the Patriots had chances to get him to the ground, and they didn't do it. We saw sort of the magic of Deshaun Watson

throughout that entire game on Sunday. I mean, you see him roll into his left and then stop and somehow find Ryan Griffin on the other side of the field and drop in that pass in that scramble to a situation. And for those of you that may have questioned Watson's arm strength, look at that play. I don't think you can really question his arm strength after a play like that. The throw that he had on that quick out route to form it in the flat, talking about Watson in his eyes, that was a play where he opened to his right, has a running back in the flat.

He opens to his right, comes to it late, gets the ball out with velocity. Kyle Van Nooy thinks he can undercut it, but he doesn't, and play goes for a pretty good gain. You had some other plays. There was a play on a third and 10 situation in the second quarter at the 752 mark where Dietrich Wise has a chance to get him. He has him in his grasp. There's coverage downfield, but somehow Watson stays upright, doesn't go down, gets it out to the running back in the flat.

This could have been a sack to get them out of field goal range, but he stays upright, somehow makes something out of nothing, and they go on and score points on that drive and so you know those are the types of things that where you know i was saying this last week you if you've got shots at deshaun watson you've got to get him to the ground because if he extends those plays if he turns potential sacks into long gains like those are the kinds of plays that could beat you as a defense. I mean, a play even before that, a play before the wise plays I just talked about, there was a first-to-10 situation in New England's 26-yard line,

and he ends up rolling back to about his 40, somehow turns what could have been a 20-yard loss and pushing the monofilgrim range again into another game where he finds somebody in the scramble drill. It's ruled, I believe, an incompletion. But still, you've got a chance to get him to the ground. He somehow buys time, avoids the sack, turns what could have been a second and 20 into a second and 30 or even worse into, again,

just a second down and 10 situation. And then he has that play that I just talked about with Wise. Wise has him in the grasp. You don't get him to the ground. second down and 10 situation and then he has that play that i just talked about with wise wise has him in the grasp don't you don't get him to the ground you know there was obviously the play later you know on their 11th drive of the game this comes with five minutes left in the fourth quarter this is where you know you've got to get off the field as a defense and it's a first and 20 situation on their own 23 yard yard line new england rushes four and all four defenders have a shot at getting watson to the turf flowers i think is the first

guy there no malcolm brown is first then flowers all four pass rushers have a shot at him they don't get him down. He eludes and buys time to his right, then just simply flips it out to Foreman, who then races upfield and gets the ball into New England territory. The Patriots do do a great job of getting off the field and holding Houston to three on this drive. You want to talk about short-yarded situations. We just talked about it with New England and our concerns there,

but same sort of situation here. It's a 31 at New England's 18. There's about, you know, two and a half minutes or so left in this game. This is a huge stop. You need to get them, you need to get your offense the ball back here because if Houston converts this, again, there's about 230 left in the game. New England has, I believe, two timeouts or maybe one timeout. I think it was just one timeout. If Houston converts this, they can bleed that clock down, and then Tom Brady is going to be out of timeouts and have maybe a minute to do something to get you down the field.

As it is, they stop them. Malcolm Brown gets a big push up front. They collapse the interior off the snap. They stop them. They force the field goal there before the two-. They collapse the interior off the snap. They stop them. They force the field goal there before the two-minute warning, allowing the Patriots to conserve the two-minute warning as well as the timeout. So that's a big reason as well that this stop is huge, and it sets up for the stage for the final drive.

And let's sort of go through that quickly because, you know, what happens here is just incredible in terms of how Brady was able to get this team downfield. The first play, it's an incompletion to Danny Amendola. Brady tries to throw an in-cut. Defender Hal, the safety, puts a big hit on Amendola, forces the incompletion. Goes to second and ten. Patriots think they've got a deep square in to Brandon Cooks to get the ball out near midfield. There's an offensive holding penalty and that backs New

England up. Now you've got second and 20 on your own 15-yard line. They go empty and Gronkowski is in the wind to the right of three receivers. He's the inside guy. And all they really do here, and this is a really smart play. And of all the big plays that they made, of all the big plays that they had to Gronkowski, who had a huge day, caught a touchdown earlier, this might have been the biggest because it's second and 20, and they don't do anything special here. Houston's playing really, really, really soft. Gronkowski is basically uncovered. He's got J.J. Watt lined up well outside of him, but all the defenders are back. There are no linebackers in the middle of the field, and Brady sees this pre-snap. So does Gronkowski. All he

does is simply flip a quick little hot route. It's nothing more. I mean, Gronkowski is maybe three yards past the line of scrimmage here, and Brady lets go of this pass. But it's a big play in that it picks them up eight yards. It gets them into a much more manageable sort of third and 12 situation.

If you try to go downfield there, you force a throw maybe into coverage. They're playing that sort of soft zone. You try to force something deeper there. Then you might to throw maybe into coverage. They're playing that sort of soft zone. You try to force something deeper there. Then you might be facing third and 20. And the playbook's really small. You know, that third and 20 section of the playbook, there's not a lot

there to dial up. You get back into third and 12, you at least have some more options. And on this third and 12 play, again, it's the same formation. They go empty. They go to what they've been going to all game long, the Y cross concept. What that is, a tight end crossing route. They get Gronkowski matched up on a rookie linebacker, Zach Cunningham. And that's a big ask for a rookie linebacker in Zach Cunningham,

who was a player that I really liked coming out of Vanderbilt. I thought he was a talented defender, a talented linebacker in Zach Cunningham, who was a player that I really liked coming out of Vanderbilt. I thought he was a talented defender, a talented linebacker, but that's a big ask to ask a rookie to make a play in that situation. Brady sees it. Gronkowski just crossing over the middle of the field, puts the throw right on him. Now you get first and 10 again. Next play was a big boundary throw to Brandon Cooks. It's a deep, deep route, deep comeback route, and Cooks may have gotten away with a little bit of a push off here at the

top of his route against Kareem Jackson. It's not called. Jackson has to respect the vertical route. So as Cooks breaks vertically, Jackson has to go deep with it. That's when Cooks breaks back to the sideline. Great throw from Brady there. That gets the ball into Houston territory. Next play is another near disaster.

We get that speed package again from the Texans. We've got Whitney Mercurius as well as Jadeveon Clowney on the inside in two-point stances. And it's actually Gilchrist who blitzes off the edge. So you get a speed rush as well as a defensive back blitz, gets to Brady, tips the ball in the air. And I said David Andrews might be the most important player on the field for the Patriots in this game.

I wasn't expecting that it would be because he would be cognizant enough of a ball being knocked out of Brady's hands to snare it out of the air and keep possession with New England. But that's exactly what happened. The ball pops out of Brady's hand. Somehow Andrews is aware enough to grab it and fall down, saves possession. They lose eight yards there, but okay, fine. You need the ball.

Who cares about down and distance at this point? You need the ball. So now second 18 on their own 48-yard line. They take a deep shot to Cooks on the next play, and this is a throw that Brady gets away with. It's just a deep post route. He almost throws it up, 50-50 type ball. The defender gets his hands on it.

It could have been and should have been intercepted, but it wasn't. And that sets up the stage for the final heroics. They get those pressure schemes blocked up. Next play, we get a deep in-cut. Actually, excuse me, a deep out route from Danny Amendola. And this is, again, they get that speed package. They get it blocked up. Brady has time.

He can step up. Makes a deep throw to Amendola. Deep along the right numbers. Amendola does a great job of going up to get it. And then that sets up the stage for, look, the final touchdown, which is just a simple vertical route. But what happens here is you get Houston in a cover two look.

So they've got the two high safeties. Cooks just releases vertically. The corner does a great job of kind of sinking under the route. I've talked about this with a cornerback. He doesn't fully sink under it, but he constricts the thrown window. The safety does rotate over.

Brady puts it in the spot where the play can be made because he puts it along the boundary to the outside. That allows two things to happen. It allows Cooks to put his body between himself and the defender. And so if the defender wants to make a play on the ball, he has to go through Cooks,

which is going to draw a defensive pass interference penalty. But by putting it to the outside, it also gives Cooks the only chance to make a play on the football. So if this safety wants to get to the ball, he's going to have to go through Cooks to get it, which draws defensive pass interference. But by putting it to the outside, it's still in a place where Cooks can get it, and he does, and he gets both feet down. And this throw, again, comes under pressure because they have that speed package. It's blocked up just enough.

Clowney gets there, does put a shot on Brady, but Brady makes an incredible throw. And, again, unicorns, show ponies, where's the beef? That's your quarterback. Just a tremendous job there in the closing seconds from Tom Brady and the New England Patriots offense to come out of there with the victory. The touchdown gives them a 34-33 lead. They go for two.

They get it on a throw from Brady to Cooks, which was the smart move there to go for two. Extra point there does you no good. You know, go for two there. You at least make a field goal, turn it into a tie game situation. You don't lose on a field goal. The Patriots come out with a win. It was closer than we all expected. It was perhaps a little bit

uglier at times than we all expected. Again, complete credit and hats off to the Houston Texans for the job that they did. Just a tremendous effort from them and Deshaun Watson who, again, I think that kid's going to be special. But New England Patriots have a special quarterback on their own in Tom Brady.

And just another sort of incredible comeback performance from him. The stuff that we've been seeing for years now. We see another great performance from Tom Brady as the Patriots come out with this win. And we'll have a little bit more on this game. But then it's on to Carolina. In Carolina, look, they dropped one to the Saints. We'll start to talk about the Panthers going forward

and what we can expect from them. I'll be talking to my friend Bill Rossetti, the host of Locked On Panthers. We'll be doing our crossover show. We'll get into some of the tape from maybe a little bit more on All-22 stuff from this game, some All-22 stuff on what to expect from the panthers again get some questions in thursday show the mailbag show always love hearing from you i love hearing your thoughts tell me your thoughts

your questions that you have out of after this game any concerns that you might have maybe you're worried about the short yardage stuff as well um hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Again, anytime you can have a glorious victory Sunday or Monday, it's a good day. And the Patriots got out of this game

with a win. And these are the types of games that when it's third and short in November and you can, you know, maybe ice away a division, you draw back on what

you learned from these. And it's always good when you can get a win and the Patriots did just that. So enjoy it. Enjoy your glorious victory Sunday night, Monday morning. We'll be back tomorrow with more Locked On Patriots here with me, Mark Schofield.

Until then, enjoy the glorious victory. What you doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. Bye singing dog. Bye goal. Bye wedding ceremony. Stop. At MetroPCS, you get two free phones with twice as much memory. Really?

Don't say bye to your memories. Switch to MetroPCS and get two free LG K20 Plus phones with 32 gigs when you switch two lines. MetroPCS. Wireless. Figured out. Coverage not available in some areas. Sales tax not included in phone price. Excludes numbers on the T-Mobile network. See store for details and terms and conditions.