Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 28, 2017 - Breaking Down Film with Ollie Connolly

Episode Date: September 28, 2017

Cox Media Football Analyst Ollie Connolly joins Mark Schofield to break down three weeks of Patriots' tape. Also, check out our friends over at MyBookie.Ag. http://record.webpartners.co/_DK_3VE4-6vsWqcfzuvZcQGNd7ZgqdRLk/1/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. Hey, everybody. Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. And I just wanted to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by our great friends at mybookie.ag. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome everybody to Locked On Patriots for Thursday, September 28th. This is usually the reader, listener, mailbag show, but I got you guys something a little

better. Obviously, Mark Schofield here, the big chair, but I brought in my friend, Ollie Conley. Ollie wrote a tremendous piece. I would highly recommend it. It is on Medium. It is also on his site, The Read Optional. I will tweet it out after this goes up. Breaking down his film notes for the Patriots through the first three weeks, and it's impressive work. Ollie is a dear friend, a great writer

in this business. So as soon as this came up, I DM'd him within seconds, being like, man, I got to get you on to talk about this. So we'll get to Ollie right here. And if you aren't following Ollie's's work you're doing twitter all wrong you gotta check him out you know you can follow him on twitter he's at ollie conley check out all his work i'll let him sort of run through the places he writes for in a second man but ollie thanks so much for coming on man appreciate it thanks for having me it's fun so listen i you've got like more titles than people on Game of Thrones. So where are you writing right now? Where can the people find you?

I'm like Khaleesi. I have my friends in front of me and then like deliver titles, titles, titles. Titles, titles, yeah. I work at Cox Media. I'm the football analyst over there. And so they have verticals for every college football site. So I just kind of go between all the different verticals sec country land of 10 diehards which i like to promote as kind of a

bruce willis fan site unfortunately it's about the big 12 and other conferences um so yeah i i always tell people just go through the hub of twitter because there's so many different you know websites yeah it's uh it, I get confused. You confuse me, my man. But you're not even writing NFL columns this year, but you felt compelled to write something on the patch. Is that right? Well, I have a sickness. It's a disease.

It is a disease, isn't it? Yeah. I say they took me. It was a negotiation. I left doing the NFL stuff because covering two sports at once in the depth that I, you know, aspired to do it in, it's really tough to know every play and every scheme inside and out. And I went from doing just the SEC and kind of putting my foot into the Big Ten to doing every Power Five conference. So it's just kind of unsustainable to keep doing the teams in kind of

the depth I would want to. And then I find myself on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays watching every coach's copy of the NFL anyway anyway because I'm an odd person. And so, yeah, I had to write some stuff about what I've seen from the Pats, which has been intriguing to say the least. It started with that. You lead off the piece talking about how positional designations mean nothing. And most Pats fans, they understand that Belichick likes football players and he likes people that are versatile. But you dive into it a little more ed you know at least on the defensive side of the ball like what did you see when you went through the tape it to me it's just fascinating

it's the way the whole sport is going is you're going to have boundary corners forever those guys are going to exist you're going to have an interior guy forever and you'll probably have one designated edge rusher who's you know you're out and out guy now they do it a little bit differently because they play bigger bodied guys outside than most teams but the middle of the field now it's just give me skill sets give me body types let me match up against other people against the chiefs they consistently around what on the depth chart would be four safeties yeah patrick chung has played slot corner and dime linebacker for the past three years um and then jordan richards who

was the guy who was you know borderline bus territory dare we say with her he just was never on the field now he's just a linebacker essentially with where they line him up and they've gone to the big nickel stuff that's come around the league where you play three safeties you just kind of move everyone around a satellite where you want and i think given some of their deficiencies in coverage last year and what Harmon provides them with freeing up McCourty, they're just now going to this thing of just give us football players. If we're playing two tight ends, we'll put different skill sets on the field.

We'll put more linebackers. If we're playing spread teams, we'll put more safeties on the field. And you see with the linebackers, we saw it with Collins and Hightower forever. They'll line up as edge rushers. They'll line up inside. They'll line up in the eight gap. And Van Nooy, he was drafted as a pure right rusher. Now he's their down-in, down-out, middle-of-the-field linebacker.

Yeah, and when you saw Richards, that was sort of a point of contention, the amount of snap time, the amount of plays that he saw in week one, obviously the Patriots lose to the Chiefs. But when you saw Richards how they used him on the field were you like many who thought maybe he shouldn't be in these roles or did you come away thinking look this guy could do the things they're asking him to do I think it was because the Chiefs have over the last three years more than anyone which has gone under the radar because Chip Kelly was in the league and Andy Reid's Andy Reid and people kind of think of

Andy Reid as stuck in his ways Andy Andy Reid, when he's frankly not. He's one of the most malleable coaches in the league. They've adopted more spread option tactics than anyone in football. And so I think it was part of who is the best at diagnosing this stuff and can we get more speed on the field. It's all about just adding speed on the field, really. I think Richards just being a smaller guy than some of the linebackers available, like Alandon Roberts, that's why they were with Richards there,

the guy who can diagnose and find stuff. I didn't think he played well, and I think most of it was communication-based. They struggled to line up a lot during that game. And I think part of it was just he hasn't really had many snaps then. It takes time. Is it time to sort of give a little tip to the cap? I don't want to spend too much time on it, but to Andy Reid and what he's done with that offense and those weapons so far

because when I break down the chiefs i'm just the options that alex smith has and the way that reed scheme stuff open for him it's blowing my mind right now so fun i wrote a piece about this two years ago when did smith get there three years ago three years ago i think because i was speaking to someone at ohio state back back then and they said said, Andy Reid, as soon as he created for Alex Smith, he went through the tape from Utah to early 49ers to Harbaugh 49ers. And he was like, Alex Smith did his best at Utah.

So he called Urban Meyer and asked him for the playbook. And they gave him the playbook, and he built in a bunch of those concepts. This is something that drives me mad with the NFL, by the way. This is a whole other conversation, but you're a quarterbacks guy.

I think we've had this conversation before elsewhere of how they look at these young quarterbacks and don't say, hey, here's a concept you did really well in college. Let's just build it in with us and we'll get the other 10 guys to figure it out rather than just you. And kind of these guys halfway, Smith did that with Andy Reid, Andy Reid did that with Smith, sorry. And then he got a bunch of guys where these are the skill types you're seeing at a place like Oregon or any of these true spread option teams. These Tyree Kill, that's the body type you see down in college there, running those spread option systems.

Yeah. Ollie, you and I could probably go on for hours about this, and as much as I'd love to, we've got to stick this back to a Patriots show here. Kyle Van Nooy, you mentioned him in a little bit. You also talk about Stephon Gilmore. You devoted some inches in this column to a Patriots show here. Kyle Van Nooy, you mentioned him in a little bit. You also talk about Stephon Gilmore. You devoted some inches in this column to them. Van Nooy has kind of become the middle linebacker right now,

especially with Hightower being out. Gilmore had the interception against Deshaun Watson. From the first three weeks, what are your takeaways from watching those guys? The thing that I took away from Van Nooy was just Belichick loves him. You don't have to hear him say anything to know it. A, he gave him a contract.

That's, you know, kind of evidence of that. He's the only guy to have played every single snap. And the way they use him is exactly the same way they used Jamie Collins in the past. Now, he's not the same player Jamie Collins is. He isn't quite as fast off the boards and as agile and springy as Jamie Collins is. But he's really good. And it's tough to to explain sometimes over podcast but just within the defensive construct the do your job type

mentality are you a spill you're a flow guy outside shoulder inside shoulder run fits he just kind of does it you know what I mean he gets by now he's a great player no but for the money compared to what Collins got on the open market he's value uh and clearly Belichick likes him yeah and with Gilmore I think you know we saw the interception of Watson this past week where what Collins got on the open market, he's valued. And clearly, Belichick likes him. Yeah, and with Gilmore, I think, you know, we saw the interception of Watson this past week where he was kind of able to bait Watson. Ollie, that's something you and I talked about during the draft process was, you know,

being able to bait Deshaun Watson on the boundaries. I mean, you and I talked about this even before the national championship game. But, you know, as you pointed out, Gilmore struggled in week one, but, you know, you felt similar to the Richards conversation. was a communications issue right I mean Devin McCourty gave voice to after the game and took ownership of there was multiple and I saw an SB Nation column today killing him I don't want to call anyone out by name but they were like Gilmore was terrible

and isn't worth the money and uh you know and all this stuff I'm like Devin McCourty came out and said hey there was three plays where we were playing cover three, he was playing cover two because we messed up the communication. So that's happened. And when you get a new guy in a system that they are running, they've been bland so far, but I'm sure in the background they're working on more of their complex stuff, which is the pattern matching, which is the cone coverages

and just kind of morphing on the fly. It takes time to learn to pass someone off, to do all that stuff with a group of guys who are not new. Harman, McCourty, Butler, Chung, these guys have been here for years. I feel like people, and maybe you'd agree with me, given what you just said, Oli, I feel like people are looking at this Patriots defense right now and they think, look, it's the worst defense in football right now.

They've given up a ton of yardage in three straight weeks. But Belichick has always been of the mindset that, look, it's the worst defense in football right now. They've given up a ton of yardage in three straight weeks. But Belichick has always been of the mindset that, look, the defense rounds into form. I don't care what the defense looks like after week four. I care what it looks like after week eight or week 12. And it seems like you would agree with that, that this Patriots defense is going to get better. I do.

I think the problem is that their biggest issue, which we've been banging on about now for two years is that they're not overly athletic up front to create instant pressure um and you can't change that in in season unless you know you go to mexico and get some fun supplements like they like some deer antler spray yeah you can't get faster in the middle of the year now can they do some scheme stuff yes um and i think they will get more complex in the back end i actually think part of the reason for signing Gilmore is to become less complex.

How about we just have another good press corner so we can play Butler and Gilmore on one side of the field each and go back to being a single high team because last year they were smoked so bad on the second side when Eric Rowe played out there when they rotated guys in. They had to go too deep and Belichick does not

want to play too deep for large periods of the game. I think that was part of the Gilmore signing, and hey, let's just play single high safety, rotate someone down more and more rather than having to do some of the cone stuff and some of the more intricate stuff. So that may be why they've been so bland, that that's what they always wanted to be. I think that they will—the back end just has so much talent that I think they'll be fine. It's interesting all day here you talk about the Cone stuff

because previewed week one, I was on here saying that, look, I'd expect to see some Cone stuff against Kelsey, against Hill. As you noted, they did some of that in week one and you expect to see more of it? I think so. It takes time, again, for people listening. It's kind of a morphing double team based on where the guy you're targeting goes.

They usually do it against elite players. DeAndre Hopkins, they do it to every time. And I haven't seen the all 22 of the Texans game yet, so I'm interested to see how much they did it or whether they were like, this is why we brought in Gilmore, to just play head up one-on-one, you know, wherever anyone goes.

So, yeah, I think that it takes time. It just takes time to be on the same wavelength. The three of you lying back at safety corner all have to read the same thing together almost in an instant, and that's just going to take time. Because let's not forget, the front has changed a fair amount. The roles in there, particularly with Hightower out, it's all well and good having the experience on the back end, but what they do requires so much of everyone up front to also read the same stuff.

We're chatting here with Oli Conley. He does tremendous work all over the internet. Definitely give him a follow. He is at Oli Conley on Twitter. We're going to have more with him in a second, but first I want to remind everybody of the great opportunity they have to check out mybookie.ag.

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Remember, head over to MyBookie.ag. Use promo code LOCKEDON. They would give you a 100% deposit matchup to your first $1,000. So definitely get in on that. Back now with Oli Conley. Going to dive in more into some Patriots film. And, you know, Oli, you mentioned the pass rush. And Dietrich Wise, rookie out of Arkansas, has given them a bit of a boost up front. Had some pressures on Drew Brees in Week 2, which forced the Saints to get off the field

and some third downs. Obviously, they struggled a little bit with Watson, mostly because Watson is incredibly tough to get to the turf. But is the pass rush going to remain a concern? Do you think they can scheme some stuff up? Or do you think as this season goes forward, they can just rely on what they can get out of Wise and then hopefully shore up the back end?

I think they can scheme some stuff. I don't think they want to be a heavy blitz team. Although having said that, it's part of why you're bringing Gilmore against. You can just play Matt on the backside and bring someone further down. I think a lot of that scheme depends on Hightower. That's the guy they would trust.

Either it's the guy dropping out, you know, if they do those two-way gap looks that they do, or slide him over to an edge. Or the strike front, which is one they've used more and more, but the five guys and two on-ball linebacks with a head-up nose, they need Hightower for that stuff, in my opinion. I don't trust Roberts

to execute any of those roles at a high level. Wise has been interesting and better than I thought he would be, quite frankly. As far as a pass rusher, he was always going to be a good multi-gap player in the same way Trey Flowers was. That's just what he had to do in college and did it at a good level. But the word I've used is slippery. He just kind of slips and slides through crevices and suddenly he's in the backfield. And there's Dietrich Weiss in your lap.

So, yeah, he's been impressive. My thing throughout the whole offseason, as I wrote in the preseason, was they just aren't super fast up front. They don't have a natural dip-and-go guy, you know, the Von Millers being the elite example, where they win off the first step and they're in the backfield. They beat a line into his pass set. And there's just no defense that you can't recover.

And the guy who would have maybe done that in a sub package is Derek Rivers and obviously they lost him for the season speaking of beating somebody off the edge and ability to recover recover when you get that speed rusher on the outside Nate Solder has been bad those were the words that you put in the article and you know to this point Ollie I would definitely agree with that and I think he struggled at times. But what have you seen? What led you to that conclusion? Yeah, the athleticism is troubling.

I've made this point in the past with him. He's never been like, not in the recent years, being like a supreme athlete. He gets by on being smart and excellent technique and understanding things. And you're always going to struggle against Justin Houston, Dee Ford and Jadeveon Clowney. That's a tough start. Yeah, that's like four of the 15 best pass rushers walking on earth. So that's always going to be tough and I take that. But the Saints game was troubling. Everything

looks a bit slow. His hands look slow to get up. He's not setting deep enough. Now I've heard whispers that there's an injury. He didn't warm up before the game on Sunday and was, I'm told, getting treatment before the game. So maybe that's part of it, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that. But it looks really rough. And when you lose your starting right tackle as well, it's tough to send help to him.

And you don't want to send help to him. That's not what he's there for. So it's been bad to me. And the big thing is the athleticism is troubling, and you can explain that away from injury, but the hand usage and the stuff he's always excelled at is perhaps even worse. Sticking with that offensive line, though, outside zone coaching tape,

what we saw from New England at least in Week 1 going forward, it looks like at least that aspect of the run game, they've got that in lockstep up front and you know when I watch it I think it's a thing of beauty you described it incredibly well what have you seen in the run game from New England well I love those three young inside guys and this is what they want to do right they want to get on all three of them all guys who want to get on the front foot up front front foot and run the ball that's what they excel at. That's what they do best, and Solder clearly is happy going that way at this stage

because he can't sink into a set, naturally. It's about as good as it gets, and it's who they want to be as the outside zone game. I do think for this coming game, that's an interesting kind of little nuance in the middle of the game, is that no one is better set up to shut down the outside zone than Carolina. Just the quickness of Shaw, the way Keekly reads things makes it really tough.

The linebacker is reading the same three reads as the running back on an outside zone play. No one does it better than Keekly. So that, to me, is a fascinating little matchup there. But, yeah, back to the point, those three interior guys really make it roll. And I've just been so impressed by those three young guys in both pass protection. Maybe not in overall terms of technique in pass protection. They don't excel at it necessarily, though Mason's come along a long way. Effort's great there.

But those run blockers and rumbling downhill, particularly on that stretch stuff, because of their quick-footedness, then, yeah, it's just, as I said in in the piece pure teaching tape yeah and and speaking of teaching tape you know you mentioned those three guys andrews thuny and mason on the inside and in pass protection and you you write and this is so brilliant pass protection is not passive and i think people when they assume when they pitch your pass protection they think you know you get back you kind of wait to engage. That's not how it should be done, right? Right, and not just fans, by the way. Players in college, draft picks coming out when they're being evaluated. Some guys do believe that when you're sinking backwards, let the fight come to me.

That's not the way it's supposed to go. You're still an offensive lineman. The mentality should be I'm going to beat the heck out of someone, right? That's your job on this team. And i have a great example in that piece i think it's a great example is the at the same time the two guards who seal outside rushes to help their tackles out both without even noticing one another go and slam into the interior lineman who andrews is having some trouble with against the saints you have to go and find works offensive lineman, and you have to be willing to be aggressive even in pass protection. And to me, that speaks to their mentality as players,

probably why the coaches like them, why they start. And then coaching, because it is an aggressive room there in New England. They coach aggressively. This is what they want. It's why they're willing to not always spend high draft picks on linemen, because the stuff they're looking for is mentality and stuff that's technique and teachable. You mentioned coaching, Oli,

and it's hard to overlook what Dante Skarniecki means to this unit because obviously he had the year off. The team struggled a little bit up front in protection. Then he comes back, and it just seems like they're just that much better of a team when Dante's in the room. For sure. And a lot of it is just tiny little things that they don't do an awful lot differently than everyone else because of the Patriots.

People think, oh, they're smarter than everyone else. They must be doing something radically different. The teaching steps he uses are, you know, the stuff everyone wants to do really. He's just really good at teaching it. And you just, the thing he always says is, show me on film the drills we're doing in practice. And if you're ever lucky enough to see the coaching sessions he's done

or there's a YouTube thing out there, I believe, where he was at Notre Dame when the year he was retired, revealing some of the secrets. And you can see the drills they do is just everything. What you see in games, the same tempo, it's the same blocking mechanisms. Again, the stuff they do to straight line blocking, everything being a straight line, that's different from some teams.

Some will want the hip and the flip. He's always head up straight line. But, yeah, he just excels at seeing a flaw in a guy's technique and helping him improve it. You know, Oli, something you saw was the use of heavy play action, and that's show and run formation, show and run heavy personnel, and then using sort of max protection play action concepts. That's something we saw on the first touchdown to Brandon Cooks

where they went max protection. I think they came out and used either 12 or 13 personnel and then used a little Yankee concept with just two receivers. I mean, I like the use of that. You like the use of that too. Why is that effective generally, and why do you think it's been effective for New England so far? I like it because it gives the receivers time to uncover. I don't think Cooks and Hogan excel at getting off press.

So if there is a press, that's going to help you buy more time. If it's off, everything the Patriots do is you know they can change on the fly they don't have to send a hand signal that's not really what they do pre-snap it's based on the coverage concept post-snap receiver reads it and then changes his route so it gives them time to do that and I've always just preferred giving the quarterback more time to set reset and then be given help with max protection if you're going to use play action this is just my belief you should be looking for a shot downfield um and i think that on sunday you know we mentioned the outside zone stuff and how carolina is well set up to stop that stuff um be interesting to see if in the first drive they come out and show heavy outside zone right and then boot off it and take their

shot early and give cooks a chance against zone to get downfield again I think we could see that by the way Gronkowski in that game they did a bunch of heavy play action stuff you mean he's just unbelievable yeah I mean I think people even still in a way almost underestimate what Gronkowski can do because you know we we see the catches the cross and route they were looking to him on wide cross I think on every other offensive pass and play but the way they use him as a blocker i mean and that cook's touchdown was a great example they show basically a split zone type look where he comes across the formation he's responsible for the defensive end on the other side and just lays him out i mean it's incredible and they do this i mean they run the split zone again again leave the backside on block let the titan come across and seal him off. And I think people just think, let's be

frank, people think he's dumb because he's Robert Gronkowski, right? And yet the complexity of these blocking mechanisms, he's as good as he gets, and I think that he does pick up the intelligence. I don't think he's just in the way of people because he's a polar bear. He gets it. And on those play-action things,

not only, I mean, he's reading the play like you would a read option. He has decisions to make, whether he's releasing to the flat, reading defenders, and particularly on Sunday, they chipped him a lot to help out Waddle, and he took Watt one-on-one a few times. I mean, he's just on a whole other level. Everyone thinks

of him as a receiver, but I mean, he's just the best blocking tight end by distance, I would say, in the league. I gotta sort of, as we come to a close here, I got to bring the issue up of Brady. I mean, there's, you know, for years now, it seems like one of the easiest columns to write in the summer is, look, we're going to see the end of Brady now.

You know, you could point to, oh, you know, maybe the arm strength isn't there or you know whatever you want to point to but it seems to me at least and i'm here hosting locked on patriots so you know maybe there's a bit of rose colored glasses but it seems to be like look this guy can still play at an elite level we can hold off the downfall columns for another year but that's my opinion give me an outsider's look at what you've seen from Tom Brady. I think he's getting better. I don't know how it's possible. Well, at least from four or five years ago and then three years ago when those things –

I mean, was it PFF who wrote the piece that he's done basically? Yeah. And he rattled off some of the best seasons he's ever had. Now, is it the Moss year? No, it's not. But he's going deep. I mean, if you remember a few years ago, now part of it was the receiving call was horrific. He had like a three-year stretch

where it was just embarrassing when you go back and look at who he had at post kind of the Hernandez stuff. But now he's just going deep more often than usual. And I think it's trusting receivers. I think he trusts in himself. And he just seems to have gained arm strength. It doesn't make any sense.

It makes absolutely no sense. And, you know, I've told people this before, before ollie i'm like six months older than brady is and i am in agony most days i'm sitting here right now all i do is like sit and watch film and yeah i try to work out but my back ollie as we're talking is killing me i don't know how he's doing it i'm just i mean maybe i should buy that cookbook maybe i should buy that likebook. Maybe I should buy that like $200 cookbook, right? Should I do that? Yeah, he brought out the book. More investigation should be put into that book like by scientists. This guy is defying logic in a way we've never seen.

And we're all like, oh, it's just because he's Tom Brady. He's written a book telling us that you only eat avocado ice cream or whatever it is. And he only does resistance band work. He's all pliable and all this stuff. And he goes to bed at like 8 at night. Maybe we're just doing it all wrong. He's a crazy man. He's crazy because he's so obsessed with football.

Yeah. Well, maybe that's the way to live your life, man. All right. You closed out your piece saying some things you were looking forward to watching when the All-22 of the Texans is released and moving forward. I know you probably haven't had a chance to look at that yet, but what are some of the core things you're watching from New England as the weeks roll on here, Ali? The one that's fun to me is, A, are they going to change

and adapt some of those defensive principles? You mentioned they've been kind of bland. What did they do with Hopkins, and then what will they do moving forward? And will they expand some of the concepts they've run so far? And the big one, I've just thoroughly enjoyed watching Brandon Cooks and how they've used him. I think it's like an release of lights for Josh McDaniels. He can't believe how fun it is to have this weapon there.

And they've run some of the stuff that they did run with Julian Edelman in terms of jet sweeps and all that stuff. But the clear-out concept, it's so evident. They're only targeting him 15 yards downfield at a time. They just don't care about the shorter stuff, really. And him taking people deep, drawing a double team down the field to open up space underneath if you are i mean you can't cover gronkowski anyway but then if you're covering and giving him space i mean it's going to be impossible to stop them he is ollie conley definitely definitely follow him check out his work he is the senior football analyst over at cox media does some he's all over the place like as he said at the outset sc sub country land of 10

a lot of fun stories in the big 10 this year ollie i wish we had more time to talk about that but ollie man thank you so much for coming on man really appreciate it thank you sir anytime again follow ollie conley you can find him on twitter at Oli Conley. Again, check out our friends over at mybookie.ag. Use that promo code LOCKEDON. Get yourself taken care of over there. Also, if you want a PFF Edge subscription, and trust me, you do, go to the Locked On Patriots page on iTunes. Leave a review from the show.

Make sure your Twitter handle is in there. It doesn't even have to be a five-star review. Although, after listening to this episode, you might want to leave a five-star review because Oli crushed it as he always does. But go ahead, do that, get yourself set up. I will be back tomorrow. More Locked on Patriots. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark

Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on this question in the fall edition of The Catalyst, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute. Surveys show Americans place less trust in institutions like the media and business. Thank you.