Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 25, 2018 - Crossover Wednesday

Episode Date: September 26, 2018

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Hello everybody, welcome to Lockdown Patriots for Wednesday, September 26, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for our Lockdown Loaded Wednesday installment of your favorite daily Patriots podcast. We're going to do some crossover action. Travis Winfield, the host of Locked on Dolphins, he's going to be joining me a little bit later to chat about offense Miami. But before we get into that, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's

Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation. Friends, if they're writing about football, chances are I'm covering it for them in some capacity. And what we're going to do here today at the outset, usually I do news and notes and things like that, but I don't want to do that today. Why? Because it's my show and I don't want to. I want to give a shout out first before we dive into what I'm really going to talk about. Jack Duffin.

Jack is one of the longtime loyal listeners to the Locked On Patriots podcast, big friend of the show. He was kind enough to have me on his podcast, the Browns UK podcast. He is on Twitter, at Jack, J-A-C-K-D-U-F-F-I-M. Please give him a follow.

Check out their show. Also, his co-host. I want you to give his co-host a follow as well. He is Paul Brown. He is at Paul, P-A-U-L, B-R-O-W-N underscore UK. Give them a follow. They do the Browns in the UK podcast. Two Browns fans over on the other side of the pond. They're really excited right now. Like I said, I got a chance to chat with them about the Cleveland Browns. And you could just sense the excitement in their voices. You could see it on their faces how excited they are about Cleveland. So do show them some love as well. I'll be tweeting out the link to the show once it hits.

But what I want to start with today, I'm going to do a little tangentially Patriots related stuff here at the outset. I want to talk about the quarterback rules, specifically the emphasis this season on driving your weight, putting your full weight into the quarterbacks. And I wrote a piece for it over at the score. You can up at the score. You can check it out. And long time listener to the show, no. For those of you that are new, welcome. Thank you. Tell your friends, tell your loved ones. But those of you that are new to the show might not know that I was a quarterback to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. My old college programs were signed off on

by coaches, offensive coordinators, and even sports information directors. I was as quarterback as one could be. There is no doubt that I was a quarterback. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. With apologies to Charles Dickens, my favorite all-time work, A Christmas Carol, it's true. I was a quarterback. And here's the thing. Even as a quarterback, even as somebody who played the position for over a decade, and while not at the highest levels of college and certainly not in the National Football League, given that there's no room for a sub-six-foot quarterback with baby hands and a weak arm. I know what it's like to get hit after the whistle. I know what it's like to take a blind

side shot from a defender when you're least expecting one. I know what it's like to get hit in the face. You know, have somebody's hand come through the face mask and poke you in the eye and scratch your retina and, you know, break your nose. I've lived that. Football is a violent game. Football is a collision sport. And it's one where you assume a certain amount of risk when you're playing it. Again, I was a lawyer too, so I know a little bit about assumption of the risk. And one of the things that makes you great as a quarterback is standing in the pocket, knowing that there are four, five, six, seven guys on the opposite side of the field that want to physically do you harm, that want to physically separate you from the football. And still put yourself on the line and standing in the pocket and knowing when you're

going to take that hit to the face and deliver a throw for your team. Because football is a physical, emotional game. And when you do things to deny that, when you do things to reduce that, it changes the game a bit. And I understand why owners, for example, want to take steps to protect the quarterback. You spent so much money signing a quarterback. Look at Minnesota right now. You guarantee millions upon millions of dollars to a Kirk Cousins. And look at what happens when a team loses its starting quarterback. Seasons can be lost

as a result of one freak hit. And so there's an impetus to protect these guys. But this new rule, this emphasis on not putting your full weight on a quarterback, it needs to be re-evaluated and re-evaluated quickly. Because think of what they're now asking defensive players to do. You have defenders, a defensive end, for example, he's going to try to get past an offensive lineman

as quickly as possible to get to the quarterback before the quarterback can pull the trigger. So he does all of this as fast as he humanly can. But in that final split second of impact, he needs to somehow slow or reduce his momentum, all of which got him to that point to begin with. So he doesn't carry with his full weight into the quarterback and drive him into the ground. Now there are examples, like in the

piece over at the score, which I wrote, you can see a hit from Jamie Collins on Case Keenum from last year, which if you go to the NFL's video rulebook, it is literally in there as an example of what not to do because you can see him lift up and then drive into the ground, Case Keenum. Sure, lifting and planting, bad. But Clay Matthews and his hit on Kirk Cousins, you can literally see Clay Matthews start to lift, then take his left hand off of him and use it to sort of stop, or at least try to stop their fall.

It's a miracle, a minor one, but a miracle at that, that Matthews doesn't shatter his forearm by doing that. We're now asking defensive players to adjust themselves at that moment to do things that are unnatural movements in order to avoid a penalty. And while Matthews was lucky enough to avoid injury, well, you know, William Hayes, he wasn't. William Hayes, in a sack of Derek Carr

for the Miami Dolphins against the Oakland Raiders, tears an ACL. And Adam Gase said it in an interview with the Miami Sun-Sentinel. He was trying to not put body weight on the quarterback. His right foot got caught in the ground. And you can see it happen. You can see Hayes, as he hits Carr, put that right foot in the ground to try to slow the momentum.

And he ends up tearing his ACL. I understand the impetus to protect quarterbacks. I was one. But we can't protect quarterbacks at the expense of other guys on the field. And that's what the NFL is now doing with these guys. Matthews was lucky to avoid being injured. Hayes wasn't as lucky. Now I know that Mark Maskey and others

are reporting that the competition committee seems to be upset about how this is being called. They want to sort of streamline it, fix it. And we've seen this before with the NFL when handling new rules. There's an iron and out process. But it didn't happen quickly enough for William Hayes. And it hasn't happened quickly enough for the Packers who can make the argument that they tied a game that they should have won as a result of this rule. And so while it might get me kicked out of the quarterback union, I'm here to say that as a quarterback, it needs to get fixed and it needs to get fixed fast. Up ahead, my conversation with Travis Winfield, host of Locked On Dolphins, about what he's seen from the Miami Dolphins this season.

But first, remember, friends, that look, this season has been filled with questions that I've gotten wrong. You know, I thought they were going to beat Detroit. I thought they were going to beat Jacksonville. I thought they'd be able to run the ball against Detroit. I've been wrong about a lot, which is why if people ask me, you know, who they should bet on,

probably not the guy to listen to when it comes to who you're betting on. But who you're betting with, that's when you should listen to me. And I always tell people to bet with MyBookie. Trust me, guys, they're your best bet this season. They've been in business for years. They've got great reviews online. Their mobile site is so easy to use. You know I would only recommend a service to my listeners that's treated me right. And that's why I'm here to tell you about my bookie. You win, they pay. They have in-game live betting over-unders on fantasy points scored

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match your deposit dollar for dollar, 100% up to $1,000. Either way, you're getting hooked up. It's just if you can be a little patient, you'll get hooked up a little bit more. Either way, my bookie, you play, you win, you get paid. Up next, my conversation with Travis Winfield of Locked On Dolphins. That's next with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Welcome everybody back into this crossover Wednesday installment of Locked On Patriots. And as we talked about at the beginning, look, little unease going into this game.

Unease has been sort of the catchphrase of this entire Patriots offseason. You guys are probably sick of me saying that word. But unfortunately, we're going to keep saying it until this team starts to right the ship at least. But unfortunately, we're bringing in a guest from the Locked On Dolphins right now from a team that is riding high. The Miami Dolphins have a chance to take a three-game lead over the New England Patriots.

Not something we all imagined going into this season. But I happen to be joined now by my buddy Travis Winfield. He's at Winfield, W-I-N-G-F-I-E-L-D-N-F-L. He is the host of Locked On Dolphins. does tremendous work at LockedOnDolphins.com, breaking stuff down. He is definitely somebody you should be following. You will learn something from the stuff he does on Twitter. Travis, my friend, how are you, buddy?

I'm doing fantastic. That introduction alone, I got to pinch myself because even though I had the Dolphins at 3-0, it's still kind of hard to believe, especially when you consider the Patriots. Kind of stuck in reverse right now, but we'll see come Sunday. Travis, I mean, I'm sure you did some shows where you sat down this summer, this offseason, went through the schedule. Did you ever in your wildest dreams imagine that not only would you guys be 3-0 coming into this game, but New England would be 1-2? That was the part of the equation that I had. I just had no – I don't think you can possibly predict that with the Patriots

just because the team they've been. And even though they've had the September swoons in recent years, everyone knows that they kind of like to pick the Patriots apart right now. They write all those books talking about how the dynasty is falling. You still don't believe it until you see it. And that's why we talked on my podcast, Locked on Dolphins, about this. But I just – I'm not going to buy into the hype until the Dolphins actually go into Foxborough and get the win. Because it has been 10 years, the 10-year anniversary of the Wildcat game, believe it or not, coming up here in a few days, actually.

Well, I got to say, I remember that game. I was at a restaurant in the Pennsylvania area. We had gone away for the weekend, my wife and I, as well as my parents. We were going to be driving back to my parents to the Boston area, myself and my wife down to the DC area. We were like, okay, we're going to watch this Pat's Dolphins game at a, I think it was a Buffalo Wild Wings or something. And I just remember the look on my dad's face when that Wildcat game happened. And it was a man who had looked like he had eaten, you know, 10 pounds of like raw turned shrimp, just looked ill.. I just remember

that day just thinking, how is this happening? But we're not going to dwell on that. We're going to at least talk about how this season has started off for the Miami Dolphins. I mean, look, 3-0 in three strange games because you get that weird sort of delay type game against Tennessee. You get a chance to go up against Sam

Darnold and he's riding high in Week 2. You win that game. Then a close game, and we were talking you know before about you know xavian howard and some of the stuff he did against the raiders tell me how this team got you know travis to three you know you know i don't want to sound too homer but i also want to say that they really haven't put together a complete game yet you talked about that delay game in tennessee they were starting to click on offense putting together long drives and then the delays came about and kind of lost their rhythm, although they did find a way with the explosive play in the fourth quarter to win that game. Then the Jets game, they get out to that 20-point lead, and they just sat on that thing. They sat on the 20-point lead. They knew

that their defense was good enough to hold that lead, and it worked out in the end. Then you get to the Raiders game, and they come out just sluggish, flat-footed. They're missing Rashad Jones in the secondary. They can't get off the field on defense. The offense is kind of stuck in the mud a little bit, but this team has been based around the big play this year, Mark. They're averaging, they had like 9.6 yards per play in that Oakland game. They ran 44 plays and still achieved over 350 yards of offense. So, I mean, it's been the big play, kind of the same formula from 2016. The big play, play well enough on defense, get your takeaways, and get out of the game with a win for the most part.

Yo, Travis, one of the things I really like about you, buddy, is that you do such a great job talking about Ryan Tannehill. I know you're a huge fan of his and a proponent of his ability to play the quarterback position. We're talking about a quarterback now that's obviously been dealing with some injuries, but right now, one of the top quarterbacks in this league, I mean, you go by adjusted net yards per attempt he's putting up 8.43 and if it weren't for the just silly video game numbers from patrick mahomes and ryan

fitzpatrick i mean he'd be right there amongst the you know leaders in the league i mean he's still coming in six he's got the seven touchdowns against just two interceptions you know what have you seen from tannahill a guy that's now completing 73% of his passes, one of the highest completion percentages in the league right now? What have you seen from Tannehill? Yeah, he's all over that leaderboard, the top five, and just about every efficiency metric you can imagine. And he's doing the same things that I kind of was bullish on the season for, when they built this offense around him with these guys that can get open pretty quickly within the route,

a good pass-protecting offensive line. Jawan James and Laramie Tunzel are killing it on the outside, giving him solid pockets, and he's getting that protection. He's doing a good job of kind of navigating the pocket and finding open passing lanes. It's still not his strength, but he's better at it. But the eye discipline, Mark, is where I've really noticed the biggest improvement from him, moving safeties out of the way, creating passing lanes up the boundary to the field side of the formation.

Whatever he's doing with his mental approach to the game, we talked about it on the Lockdown Dolphins podcast, everything just kind of seems to be coming together for him as he finds this comfort level in year three of the offense. I think this is the first time he actually has an offense that benefits his strengths, going back to like Bill Lazor, Mike Sherman, Joe Philbin, whoever it was. Now you have Adam Gaze running a scheme that's quarterback friendly and Tannehill's taking advantage of it.

You know, Adam, Lucas Gaynor, one of the Locked On Patriots listeners, when I told people on our Locked On Patriots Slack channel that I was going to be chatting with you tonight, I solicited some questions from listeners. And Lucas, you know, I'm kind of feeding into what you were just talking about. Lucas wanted to know, you know, what's the difference with Tannehill this year as opposed to years previous? And you might've just answered it there. Is it the scheme? Is it the offense that's more quarterback friendly from him?

Or have we also seen some development from Tannehill or is it a combination of the two? I think it's getting into the right play, the line of scrimmage. And Mark, you know, as well as anybody, it's not necessarily about getting into the right pass play, but a lot of times getting into the right running play. And they have, they are so multiple in their running formations, whether it's the jet sweep misdirection, the play action boot, the fake toss sweep stuff, you know, split zone, inside zone,

outside zone. They ran some traps. They've ran some whams. It's been everything and more. They just throw in the kitchen sink at teams and Tannehill's consistently going to the line of scrimmage in that, in that, uh, hurry uh hurry up you know no huddle tempo offense he's getting him into the right plays and really just you know there there are some drives where it's three and out and quick but they have some drives where it looks unstoppable i think that's a lot to do with ryan tannahill and his comfort level in this offense in year three you know tannahill obviously while a big part he's still just one part of this offense and this is an offense that has seen production from a number of different players i mean you're talking're talking about guys like Kenyon Drake and Frank Gore and Albert Wilson and

Hakeem Grant, you know, even Danny Amendola, who I'll ask you about in a bit. What about the guys around Tannehill? What have you seen from the rest of this offense that has made it such an effective unit so far in 2018? I think if you're a Patriots fan, you hope they keep on doing what they've been doing in regards to the snap count distribution because Danny Amendola and Devontae Parker got three times the snaps. It was 30-10 in favor of Jakeem Grant and Albert Wilson. And Jakeem Grant and Albert Wilson are number one and number two in pro football focuses yards per route run. These guys are efficient monsters, and they just make big play after big play.

They break tackles. They're elusive in the open field. And they do a lot of stuff with those two on the field together in a 12 personnel package. And because of those matchup problems those guys can create, because you can obviously run the ball from 12, but you also get them in single coverage on the outside. And they're just too much to deal with for a lot of teams. And right now the offense is clicking and running through them because when they're on the field together, it's been only 19 snaps, but it's brought back 185 yards and three

touchdowns. So you're looking at like seven yards per play and a touchdown every, you know, five or six plays when those guys are on the field together. You know, Travis, obviously with Danny Amendola joining Miami from the New England Patriots, there's a lot of interest in his endeavors so far down in Miami and Ricky Keeler in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel wanted to know what kind of impact has Amendola had on the Dolphins? Numbers aren't great because of all their options and weapons,

but maybe it's also helped in the locker room and off the field. And is there any truth to that? Has Amendola been both a presence on the field and off for this Dolphins team? You know, I would say probably more off, just because we heard stories about him in training camp, you know, kind of elevating the tempo of practice and the expectation of practice. That was cool to hear.

As far as on-field production, he's really just making catches on that over route where he gets in behind the linebacker, clears the linebacker, sits down in the zone and makes a tough contested catch. He's gotten popped twice on those in the last two weeks and he hangs onto the ball both times. So that's really appreciated. But I think that he kind of gets lost in the shuffle because, you know, he doesn't have the speed of this rest of this Miami Dolphins receiving core, but he definitely does have a place in the offense it's kind of that possession guy the over route the

slot receiver that can kind of convert third downs for you you know travis one of the guys that i really liked in this tight end class and it was a very very interesting tight end class was mike joseki the kid from penn state i was really impressed with him down at the senior bowl in mobile since he was kind of one of my draft bankies i wanted to know how's he looked so far you know he's he's coming along slowly they're really trying to make him more of an effective blocker in both pass protection and the running game he's not there yet he's got a ways to go but they actually got him involved in the passing game really for the first time on sunday he had three catches for 31 yards but adam gaze talked about in the preseason and people were kind of coming at him saying you know your offense is vanilla what's up with these play calls and he was like well I'm not going to show you my

hand in the preseason and we've seen that in the regular season now with the jet sweep stuff you know obviously the the trick play on Sunday and I think there's a package in there for Mike Kosticki somewhere I just don't know when we're going to see it I hope it's this week because I think that he would be a good matchup problem for the Patriots but he's kind of been hiding in the weeds so far Mark Schofield Travis Winfield here doing a little crossover action on this Wednesday that he would be a good matchup problem for the Patriots, but he's kind of been hiding in the weeds so far. Mark Schofield, Travis Winfield here doing a little crossover action on this Wednesday installment of Locked on Patriots. And Travis, I want to switch gears now and look to this Dolphins defense because Patriots fans are a little unsettled right now

about the state of their offense. Sotie Michelle, some predictability of the run game. Tom Brady, receivers not getting separation. Just give me a big picture look at this dolphins defense right now before we drill down onto a couple of these guys you know it seems a little bit homeristic to go this route and that's kind of my buzzword of the podcast but they really wanted to recreate what the philadelphia eagles were able to do last year with an eight-man defensive line rotation and that kind of took a hit on sunday because

uh akeem spence got ejected from the game. William Hayes and Andre Branch both got hurt. They all missed the game on Sunday. And then they have just aggressive ball hawks in that back end. Rashad Jones, Minka Fitzpatrick. We talked about Zavian Howard and Bobby McCain as well. So they're trying to create pressure on the quarterback as quickly as they can. And they've been able to do it with Robert Quinn and Cameron Wake, who are just as good as advertised so far this year.

And then on the back end, those cover corners have been really, really good. And they've just done a good job of getting teams into situations where they have to pass the football and they're creating turnovers they have i think eight turnovers or eight takeaways at this point which i think is tied for second in the league so a takeaway heavy offense or defense the run defense has been really good devon godshaw and vincent taylor inside have been beasting the linebackers are where you can feast especially in the passing game you know let's talk about xavian howard, you know, I watched that Raiders and Dolphins game to sort of get a feel for both teams and where they were. And, you know, he had, you know, two interceptions in that game. I love that sort of end zone interception he had on the fade route

against Bryant. What have you seen from him? Because it seems like he's a player. He's 25. He's already got three interceptions on this season, four passes defensed. Is he sort of the next great corner in the National Football League? I think he is. He's got seven picks in his last eight games going back to last year. I think his passer rating allowed is like 32 points this year. And you go back to last season, it's the same number. So since about that Patriots game last year when he came on and had two interceptions against Tom Brady, he's continued that into this season. He's so mechanically sound, that inside hand jam, the feet, the hips, it's all working in order for him. He actually traveled on Amari Cooper last week and pretty much blanked him.

I think he had two catches on Xavier Howard, which equals how many catches Xavier Howard had in that game too. So he, I mean, whether it's traveling, whether it's playing zone, any coverage, any type of defense you want him to play, he's been coming up aces. I wanted to ask you about this linebacker group because Kiko Alonso, Jerome Baker, and a player that obviously Miami lost early last year that I know a lot of people like Raekwon McMillan. You've got a 22-year-old linebacker, a 23-year-old linebacker, then sort of the veteran in Kiko

Alonso. It seems like this group has kind of gelled into the way the Dolphins defensive staff probably was hoping for. Am I right? For the most part, I think Kiko Alonso, you really have to have him in a specific role. He has to be able to attack downhill and stay clean. Once he gets a block on him, he's completely useless. He can't shed. He can't really cover.

He can't really work backwards. He doesn't work laterally very well. So pick your poison there. When he gets in his right trigger and kind of shoots gaps, that's his best play. As far as Raekwon McMillan goes, it's a learning process for him. He's not been great so far. He's had some snaps here and there, but he is an absolute liability in coverage. And then you have Jerome Baker, the rookie this season, who I think has looked pretty impressive. He does a good job of shooting to the flats and kind of cutting down those flat routes and those little screen plays.

A lot of teams like to run. So, you know, like I said, that's the part of the team you can really attack on this defense. Minka Fitzpatrick, you know, obviously it was, I think it was a fantastic opportunity when he fell to Miami.

You know, what have you seen from the rookie safety? You know, he played safety last game when Rashad Jones was out and he actually had a pretty bad day. His angles were poor. He was kind of lost in coverage at times, but he was playing slot before that. And he was absolutely fantastic. Mark, the Jets tried him a bunch of times with Quincy and noon one. He was just in the hip pocket, you know, pretty much shutting him down all game. He was terrific in that first game, had a tackle at the line of scrimmage on a fourth and goal play when the Titans tried to, you know, punch one in there at the beginning of the game.

And so he's just been really flying around, making all kinds of plays. But I'd rather see him get back into that slot position because that's where he's really excelled so far this year. Travis, you may have answered this already, but if there was perhaps one weakness on this defense that the Patriots might look to exploit, is it that second level? Is it that linebacker group? Or do you think there's another area that New England might try to attack in sort of matchups on Sunday? Yeah, you got to pass the ball against these linebacker group, or do you think there's another area that New England might try to attack in sort of matchups on Sunday? Yeah, you've got to pass the ball against these linebackers to the running backs. It's the best way to do it.

And you guys, you know, the reason I've always been so scared of the Patriots, at least in recent years, is those running backs you can throw at them. Whether it's James White, now you've got Sonny Michel in there. And just those, you create those man opportunities where you can kind of get that angle route or that arrow route, whatever you call it, over the middle of the field. Those have been just killing the Dolphins so far this year. So running backs on linebackers, and I guess you can throw tight ends in there as well, because obviously we know what Rob Gronkowski can do. And speaking of Mr. Gronkowski, obviously, you know, trying to figure out a way to get Gronkowski involved is always a priority for the New England Patriots. It might be more of a priority for the Patriots, given the struggles

and separation we're seeing from other guys. Given that, how do you think the Dolphins look to cover Gronkowski? Do you think we see some bracketing? Do you think they try to put somebody on him and just stick on him? What do you think they're going to do with Gronk? I tend to lean towards them bracketing him because I just don't think that, even though I've been appreciative of what Matt Burke has done this year, I don't think he's the kind of coordinator that would go outside of the box and do like a Xavier and Howard on him. So I think he'll probably get a bracket with a linebacker and a safety or something like that. I just, you know, you mentioned that he's, he's really the kind of the cog that drives that offense. And if we can get man up on the corners and the receivers

on the outside, if you just bracket Rob Gronkowski and do what the lines did, I like their chances to kind of, you know, slow the Patriots offense, at least. Speaking of chances, Travis, it's probably time to figure out where you stand on this game. When I was talking with you, I said I think it's going to be close. I think you think it's going to be close as well. What do you see sort of for a prediction for Sunday's tilt? I like the matchups in the favor of the Dolphins, but I've got to see it before I make the prediction. So I'm not going to go with a Dolphins win just yet.

Maybe it's the battered Dolphins fan syndrome in me, but I think that when things come down to it, if it's a close game, the Patriots at home, you'd be foolish to pick against them. He is Travis Winfield. You can follow him on Twitter at WinfieldNFL, W-I-N-G-F-I-E-L-D-N-F-L. You can check out at LockedOnFins,

P-H-I-N-S for the Locked On Dolphins podcast. Also check out Locked On Dolphins. You'll see great stuff from Travis on his Twitter timeline, but Locked On Dolphins, he does check out Locked On Dolphins. You know, you'll see great stuff from Travis on his Twitter timeline, but Locked On Dolphins, he does great work over there at the little dot com over there. Travis, if there's anything I missed, man, let the people know where they can find you.

That's it, man. Locked On Dolphins is my home and where you can find pretty much everything that I do. Fantastic, Travis. Thank you so much, my friend, for coming on. Fantastic, fantastic stuff as always and best of luck this week. Hey, man, thanks a lot. I'll talk to you soon.

All right, friends, that will do it for today's Crossover Wednesday installment of Locked On Patriots. I will be back tomorrow to enlist your questions. Remember to get those in at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com via the email machine, or if you want the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, it is

up, it is running, the conversation is going on 24 7. If you'd like an invite, hit me up at Mark Schofield on Twitter or via the email machine. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.