Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 26, 2017 - Tape Tuesday

Episode Date: September 26, 2017

Mark Schofield breaks down how the Patriots have used Brandin Cooks the past two weeks, and dives into Christian McCaffrey and the Texas Route. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash get more. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Good morning and welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Tuesday, September 26th. Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair as I am five days a week, bringing you all the Patriots news, analysis, schemes, breakdowns, all the stuff I can do to get you caught up on the events of the weekend past and ready for the upcoming game. And today, tape Tuesday, as we do each week, I'm going to start diving into some All-22,

both with respect to the New England Patriots as well as the Carolina Panthers. First, I'm going to look at Brandon Cooks and how the Patriots have used him the past two weeks. Part of the reason I'm doing that is because Cooks had a huge game for New England this past Sunday against the Houston Texans with two touchdown receptions. Another reason I'm doing it, I had a request from a good friend over on Twitter to take a look at Cooks. And so as I keep telling everybody, I take care of my friends. Somebody asked me, so I'm going to take a look and I'm going to put them under the microscope for all of you. Then we're going to look at Panthers rookie running back Christian McCaffrey. Obviously, it was a big splashy type

move when the Panthers made him the eighth overall selection in the past rookie draft, drafting the running back out of Stanford University. I want to look at two route concepts. Yeah, we're going to do some nerdy football stuff today, but I'm going to look at two route concepts where I think not only have the Panthers had success with McCaffrey so far, but they might have some success against New England this Sunday. Also, like I said, I like to take care of my friends. I like to take care of my listeners.

I know you guys have a ton of options, ton of places you can go to to get Pat's info. I love the fact that you come to me. I love the fact you listen to me every day. It means the world to me. So I want to take care of you guys. Go to the Locked On Patriots page on iTunes. Leave a review.

Leave your Twitter handle in there. You will get entered for a PFF Edge subscription. I can't recommend this enough, everybody. It's a tremendous resource. It's a $39.99 value. You'll get it free. Just leave a review. It doesn't even have to be a good review. If you just hate listening to the show, that hurts me personally, but at least you might be able to get something out of it by leaving a review over on iTunes. Get yourself taken care of there. Get yourself a PFF Edge subscription. We're also going to take a look at some next-gen stats as we go through this.

I want to give a shout-out to my good friend, Ethan Young, over at NFL.com. He is at NFLDrafter on Twitter. You should be following Ethan. He's part of their next-gen stats team. He's doing great work for them over there. But let's dive into Brandon Cooks right now. We're going to do some, again, nerdy football stuff. We're going to talk a little Yankee concept in a second.

But shout out to my man, Captain Huggyface on Twitter, at Captain, C-A-P-N, Huggy, H-U-G-G-Y, Face, F-A-C-E. My good buddy who put in a little request for Brandon Cooks. He's sort of been bugging me about, when are you going to talk about Brandon Cooks? When are you going to talk about Brandon Cooks? Well, Captain, today is your day. We're going to dive into Brandon Cooks. And part of the reason, again, he had the big game against the Texans on this past Sunday with the two touchdown catches. He's got 10 receptions on 18 targets this year for 256 yards and those two TDs. And I wanted to get a flavor of how the Patriots were using them,

both formation-wise, split-wise, route concept-wise, to get a sense of, okay, now we're three games in. We've got a sense of what this offense is starting to really look like. How are they using them? One or two specific route concepts. They've given them the full route tree. What about Brady's level of trust in him? I think that last question got answered on their final offensive play against the Texans. Digging into his next-gen stats, something interesting sort of popped up.

And for years, we've heard the Brady can't throw the deep ball. They don't throw the deep ball. Over at next-gen stats, over at NFL.com, average targeted air yards, that's the way they sort of measure what they call the depth, the average passing air yards per target for receiver by measuring the yards downfield at the time of all passing attempts where that receiver is the target. Well, you look at that. The leader so far through three weeks in the NFL is Martavius Bryant from Pittsburgh.

The average targeted air yards is 22.1 yards. So every time they throw in his direction, he's usually 22 yards downfield. Deshaun Jackson is number two, 21.4. Brandon Cooks is number three at 20.8. And that's a big number. And it shouldn't really surprise you just generally. But then when you look at how they have used in particularly the past two weeks, it makes

a ton of sense. And over the past two weeks, it isn't so much that we've seen an uptick in the amount of targets that have been thrown his way. He saw seven targets in week one, four targets in week two, and then seven more in week three. But they've started to really sort of rely on him in a number of ways. And when you look at the New Orleans game, something that stands out is he was targeted four times in that game. Three of those four times, he was lined up on the left side of the formation. They like to line him up on the left side of the formation. On only one time was he lined up on the right side.

He was lined up as a flanker to the right, tight towards the formation. That was that post route on a vertical concept where Brady sort of underthrew him, but Cooks came back to the ball at the goal line. The other three times he was targeted, he was aligned wide to the left. The first time was on a slant route, which was an incompletion. The second time he ran the underneath or shallow route on what we call the Yankee concept. And I'm going to break that down for you in a second. The third time was that time he was on the right side and ran that post route on the vertical concept. And the fourth time, this was another reception of his.

He ran a slant route from the left, caught a reception on a slant route there, which was a nice little catch-and-run play from him. So that's sort of what we saw in the New Orleans game. And what was interesting about that catchy hat on the vertical route concept is the ability to get defenders out of position this was something we talked about with the Kansas City Chiefs and what they were able to do New England on opening night well we saw a little bit of that on this play as well

because it's the same sort of design where the Patriots come out and they have a receiver, Gronkowski, in a slot to the right. Cooks is to the outside. They bring Gronkowski in motion to the other side of the formation. And what that does, it forces the strong safety, who is down in the box over Gronkowski, to rotate to a free safety spot. So now you've got a strong safety play in free safety. They run this vertical concept. Brady opens to the left.

He's got two receivers running deep. The strong safety, who's now in a free safety role, he rotates to that side of the field, and that opens up the middle of the field for Cooks on his post route. So similar to what we saw with the Kansas City Chiefs, getting a guy sort of in an unfamiliar position back there, we saw that from the New England Patriots, using Brandon Cooks running that post route from the right. But then on Sunday, again,

a lot of targets from the left side of the formation. On the seven targets that he saw, six of those we saw him aligned as a receiver to the left we saw a lot of similar routes so on those seven targets two go routes a deep post two comebacks one quick out route and one shallow or dig route again on that sort of Yankee concept type design. And I want to talk a little Yankee concept right now because it's nerdy football stuff. And if you're listening to this, you probably like nerdy football stuff. And so what the Yankee concept is, it's typically a two receiver max protection kind of play. I mentioned that they used it with Cooks against New Orleans.

They hit the first touchdown to Cooks was on a Yankee concept type of play. This play comes early in the third quarter. New England has a one-point lead. They've got first and 10 on the Saints' 42-yard line. And it looks like run all the way. Again, this is typically a max protection play that comes off of play action. Brady aligns under center. They have 12 offensive personnel on the field,

so they have two tight ends in the game. Two tight ends aligned in a wing to the left. They have Chris Hogan outside of that, and Cooks is alone on the right side of the formation this time. And they show run, and Brady comes. They show a zone run to the left, but Brady comes out and looking to throw. Only Hogan and Cooks go into pass patterns here. Again, what we mean by max protection is two receivers, everybody else is blocking. Bronkowski, who aligns in a win to the left, comes across the formation like it would be a split zone run and play, but he's

responsible to seal that backside defensive end to make sure brady has a clean pocket the only two routes you get are a deep post that's going to be from hogan and sort of a deeper crossing route which is going to be from cooks the post goes deeper so you have the post over the top and that crossing route that comes underneath it. And what this does is it stresses the defense, particularly that free safety in the middle of the field, because it high-lows him, and he's usually forced to make a choice. But this time they get this defense here, the Texans, in sort of a cover-forward look, where they treat it almost like man coverage.

And so the cornerback on Hogan's side runs with that, and Cooks, that enables Cooks to use his speed and simply run away from the corner on his side of the field. And so that's your Yankee concept. It's a two-receiver, max protection passing concept. Brady had a completely clean pocket to throw from where you're running it out of a run formation and use in play action. You can usually sell the defense on the run concept, the run look, and they take advantage there.

Also, comeback routes. You know, we talked a little bit about that comeback passing concept back when the Patriots made the move and traded for Philip Dorsett. And we talked about terminology. Well, we saw comebacks being used by Cooks twice in this game. One was early in the – well, actually, excuse me, it was late in the second quarter with under a minute to go where Cooks ran a deep comeback route and Brady sort of underthrew it and missed him.

But they hit it on the final drive, which we talked about on Monday's show. And it's one of those routes where you can sell the defense on the vertical route. You sell that defender on the vertical route. He gets worried about getting beaten deep, so he bails, and then you just simply come back and look for the football. That was what we saw on Cooks' second-to-last reception of the game, where, again, you sell the defender on the vertical route. He's aligned split wide to the left, pushes vertically.

Kareem Jackson doesn't want to get beaten deep. So he bails. Cooks then comes back, looks for the football. And so those are two sort of ways that they've gotten Cooks involved. That Yankee concept, again, they didn't hit it against New Orleans. They did hit it against the Texans. It's a great little design, particularly if you're worried about protection schemes because, again, it's max protection.

You've got all but two guys blocking for the quarterback. So it's a nice little design, a way to get Brady protected and a way to hit a big throw down the field. Now we're going to take a look at Christian McCaffrey. As I said, it was a big, big deal when the Panthers drafted McCaffrey because this was a team that needed some offensive weapons. They needed to get Cam Newton some help. You would think they might go wide receiver, but they went with McCaffrey.

But as we're about to talk about about McCaffrey is a receiver first I think particularly right now in this offense he's their leader receiver right now 18 receptions on 23 targets 173 yards he doesn't have any touchdowns or anything like that but he's been sort of a dynamic threat for them not just out of the backfield and one of the ways that they like to use him is on what's called a Texas route. And that, if you can recall the days of Shane Vereen, when he was in New England, and it's that little route out of the backfield where as a running back, you start sort of diagonally up the field, and then you cut back diagonally towards the middle of the field.

It's almost like a post route, but if you can sort of picture a baseball field and you think about from home to first to second, that's kind of what it looks like. It looks like diagonal to the outside, diagonal to the inside. That's a Texas route. And what it does is it allows you to get isolated on a linebacker and underneath coverage. And anytime the Panthers can get McCaffrey isolated against a linebacker, they're going to take advantage of him. I mean, when you look at some of the plays that they've hit with McCaffrey

on tape this year, I mean, you go back two weeks when the Panthers were going up against Buffalo in that game that was just a contest of field goals. It wasn't really that exciting to watch. You know, if you're somebody like me, they had to go through and break down all of those plays. But, you know, they had a situation late in the first half where the Buffalo Bills were showing blitz, and they got McCaffrey on this little Texas route

isolated against a linebacker. It takes place around the 130 mark of the second quarter, and it just isn't a fair fight. McCaffrey releases against the linebacker. Linebacker just doesn't really have a chance to cover him. And when it's a one-on-one situation like that, where the linebacker has him in man coverage, McCaffrey shows a quick move to the outside, and he gets the linebacker to lean to that side of the field. And then he cuts back to the inside. Cam Newton hits him in stride with a well-placed throw and it's an easy game. And he's going up against Lorenzo Alexander there. McCaffrey is.

They used it again against the New Orleans Saints this past week. This is another play where they got McCaffrey isolated on a linebacker. It's a first and 10 situation early in the third quarter. Panthers trying to start a drive here in their own 25-yard line. This time they get McCaffrey isolated on a safety, Vaughn Bell. But again, it's a mismatch because McCaffrey is so shifty. He's such a good route runner.

Again, he starts in the backfield, angles to the right, and then cuts back to the inside. And they even create some traffic for him because they run this out of a compressed formation. And they have tight end Ed Dixon. He's the single receiver outside he runs a vertical route which creates just enough traffic as well which sort of creates havoc for von bell to get to mccaffrey newton then hits him in stride

and it's an easy game in nine yards on first down. And these are nice, simple, little easy throws. I mean, it's only like a two-yard pass downfield, but when you can get Christian McCaffrey isolated or a linebacker in space or even a safety in space, he can make people miss. He can pick up yards in chunks. And, you know, thinking about how the Patriots might defend Christian McCaffrey and this Panthers offense,

like that's something to definitely think about, this sort of Texas route concept. But the other danger is what we saw a few plays later in this game between the Panthers and the New Orleans Saints, and that was when they split McCaffrey outside. And when they drafted McCaffrey, when they drafted Curtis Samuel in the second round, there were a lot of people who kind of wondered, how are they going to get these guys the ball? How are they going to get them involved?

And a couple of plays later, the Panthers pace first and 10 on their own, 27-yard line, and they go empty. And it's interesting because it's a 21 offensive personnel package. We have James Stewart in the game. You have tight end Ed Dixon in the game. And you have McCaffrey as well. And that places the defense in sort of a tough spot. Do you go base? Do you go nickel?

What do you do? Because if you stay in base, you might see what the Panthers do here. They spread them out and they put McCaffrey in a slot on the left with an empty backfield. And they were McCaffrey on an out and up against Kenny Vaccaro, who's a safety by trade. But again, McCaffrey just gets wide open here. And Newton hits him for a big gain because as he breaks to the out, they catch Kenny

Vaccaro looking in the backfield for a second, just one split second. And then McCaffrey turns upfield and he has about three to four yards of separation on this throw. Has to make a little bit of a dive and catch, and he gets touched down, but it's still a huge gain, and it could have gone for more if he doesn't make the dive and catch and actually gets hit with a little bit of a better throw. But again, getting McCaffrey out in space, isolated against safeties, linebackers, that's going to be something that the Panthers are going to look to do with him as they look forward to this game in Foxborough because if they can get him isolated on some guys,

if we see Hightower coming back, Van Noy, we saw what Donta Formica did in the passing game this past week. I'm sure the Panthers are looking at that and wondering if they can duplicate some of that success that Houston had. And so Christian McCaffrey on Texas routes, maybe getting them wide on those outlooks and things like that. Definitely something to watch for as we start thinking about this game between the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots. So there you go. Some nerdy football stuff for you. Hope I didn't bore you too much. But again, the nerdy football stuff is good. It's what makes this game so much fun to think about

because we get a whole week to sort of ramp up to Sunday and start talking some X's and O's and break it down to potential matchups. It's always a ton of fun. Speaking of a ton of fun, we have some tremendous stuff planned for the rest of this week. Three guests, three different days. We're going to do some great stuff to get you ready for Sunday.

First, tomorrow, Wednesday, is our crossover show. Bill Rossetti, he's the host of Locked on Panthers. He also does stuff for Falcons Wire and Panthers Wire. He and I are going to chat about this upcoming game. He's going to give you all the information. He can give you the inside info, the scoop on the Carolina Panthers. And then later this week, Oli Conley. You probably know Oli if you listen to the show. He then later this week, Ollie Conley. You probably know Ollie

if you listen to the show. He writes for, gosh, everywhere. He has a tremendous piece out right now. Just some film notes that he has over on that he posted on Medium about watching the Patriots all 22 from their games this season and sort of his thoughts.

He was just kind of like a mind dump and it blew me away. It was just tremendous stuff. And so instantly reached out to ollie he and i are going to chat for thursday's show about some more x's and o's stuff just going deep into what this team has done on the field so far what his thoughts are get his perspective on how the patriots look on film and then for friday show pat's cap miguelzon. You know him as at Pat's Cap. He was arguably the first and the best salary cap expert for any team out there. He does tremendous work.

I consider him a great friend. He is going to be on Friday's show. He and I are going to break down the Pats from the contractual angle as well as some other stuff. Get some questions in. Shoot me some questions at Mark Schofield on Twitter for both those guys, for Ollie, for Miguel. They'd love to hear from you. Shoot those my way as well. Also, again, don't forget, PFF Edge subscription. Go to the Locked On Patriots page on iTunes. Leave a review with your Twitter handle in there. Get yourself a PFF Edge subscription. It is tremendous stuff. So I hope you do that. And I hope you come back tomorrow and the rest of the week.

Again, a great week of shows. Get you ready for this upcoming game between the Panthers and the Patriots. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, at Locked on Patriots. What you doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. Bye singing dog. Bye goal. Bye wedding ceremony.

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