Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots - September 30, 2019: Patriots Move to 4-0 in Buffalo

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

With a gritty victory over the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field on Sunday. the New England Patriots remain unbeaten at 4-0. Join host Mike D’Abate as he recaps the action from This defensive slugfest in Orchard Park, New York.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello to all you Foxborough faithful, and welcome to your post-game day Monday edition of Locked On Patriots, your daily home for news, notes, analysis, and the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. Locked On Patriots, as always, is a part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Today's show is brought to you in part by Blinkist, and with Blinkist, you'll get unlimited access to read or listen to a massive library of condensed nonfiction books. All the books you want, and all for one low price. Right now, for a limited time, Blinkist has a special offer just for our audience. Go to Blinkist.com slash locked on, try it for free for seven days days and save 25% off of your new subscription. I am your host, Mike DeBate, and I cover the Patriots for FullPressCoverage.com,

which is where you can always find my written work. And you can also reach out to me on Twitter at M-D-A-B-A-T-E-F-P-C. And be sure to follow LockedOnPatriots on Twitter as well at L-O underscore Patriots. I hope everybody had a great weekend. And once again, the New England Patriots remain perfect on the season after an imperfect 16-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field. Now, defense was the main storyline for both clubs in this game, folks. Each unit was able to really slow down the opposing offense.

Tom Brady did not have his best game, and the running game didn't exactly experience the resurrection that Pats fans had hoped for, but the Patriots' defense is legit, and they won this game for this team without question. And I will recap the action from Orchard Park for you, and in the process, I will also reveal the reasons why I believe the Patriots won this game and remain unbeaten on the season.

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played this year, Patriots fans should feel good about watching their team grind out a hard-fought victory against a team in the Buffalo Bills, but these games are always close. It's a divisional rival. There's a lot of emotion when the Patriots play the Bills, so these are always tough and hard fought games, and the Patriots did so in a hostile environment. They came away with the victory and as a result remain unbeaten on the season so far in 2019 with a record of 4-0. Now it wasn't a pretty victory, especially from an offensive standpoint. A 16-10 grinded out is certainly not aesthetically pleasing. But the Patriots' defense really, I think, embodied a quote that I had read from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar one time. And that quote was, I try to do the right thing at the right time.

They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing. And I actually began my game recap with that quote last night. And especially from a defensive standpoint, I think it was really appropriate, especially on the last play of the game when the Patriots were able to seal the victory with a Jamie Collins interception and were able to keep themselves unbeaten and also score a major victory over a pretty formidable divisional rival. So all in all, a win is a win, folks, and the Patriots score another one in the win column. They move to 4-0, and now they move on to Washington this weekend. But let's get to the action from yesterday's game, and there was certainly plenty of it. Offensively, the Patriots

struggled to find a rhythm for most of the day. Brandon Bolden scored the first touchdown of the game after Josh Allen threw his first interception. Allen was picked by Devin McCourty after forcing a pass deep over the middle into double coverage. There was no question that Allen definitely showed his inexperience, made a mistake, but really credit to Devin McCourty here. McCourty read it all the way. If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend going back, taking a look at the replay on this brilliant interception by Devin McCourty and really set the tone for the entire game. And after that, the Patriots were able to extend their lead to 13-0 when J.C. Jackson went untouched coming off of the right side to block a punt by Buffalo's Corey Boracquez,

who actually was in Patriots camp last year and challenged Josh Allen for the job. Corey was cut and then picked up by the Buffalo Bills. He had his punt blocked. The ball bounced into the hands of good old reliable Matthew Slater, who ran in untouched for an 11-yard score and a great celebration. And anybody that knows the team knows Matthew Slater is one of the great guys on this team in this franchise's history. So to see him find the end zone yesterday was definitely a heartwarming moment.

There weren't a whole lot of those folks yesterday, but that was definitely one of them, and we were happy to see Slater get that touchdown. But Jackson overall had a pretty stellar game, made a couple of rookie mistakes in coverage, which we'll get to in a moment. But he also finished the game with two interceptions and the punt block. So a good game for J.C. Jackson yesterday, looking formidable in what is a very, very stout Patriots secondary. They looked awesome yesterday. But the Pats looked poised to take a commanding 20-0 lead after that.

They were facing a third and goal from the two-yard line with under five minutes left in the second quarter. However, the ensuing pass by Tom Brady, intended for Julian Edelman, was intercepted by Bills safety Micah Hyde in the end zone. Now Hyde made a great read, and I don't want to take anything away from him on this, but it certainly wasn't one of Brady's best throws by far. And it was a bit of a surprise.

You're not used to seeing Tom Brady throw interceptions in the end zone, and we're really not used to seeing him throw interceptions at all. This is his first pick of 2019 so far this season, and really I think it set the table for the fact that the Bills defense just continued to make him uncomfortable for the remainder of the game. Buffalo limited him to 9 of 22 for 90 yards in the first half. That was Tom's lowest first half completion percentage since he went 7 for 19 in a 27-26 win over the Cleveland Browns on December 8th in 2013. That's a real eye-opening example as to how much Brady and the Patriots struggled on offense in this game

and still to come away with the victory just shows you how impressive the defense was in this one folks. But as for Tom Brady's stat line he finished the game going 18 of 39 throwing 150 yards and an interception so not the greatest game in the world for Tom. He's definitely seen better days. But the one thing about Tom Brady is he is his own toughest critic, and he will definitely be working hard in practice this week to improve and make sure that he puts out a much better effort against Washington coming up this weekend. But even though there are some valid concerns over the team's offensive struggles on Sunday, ultimately this game proved to be a defensive slugfest, and at times, both the Bills and the Patriots

resembled prize fighters, each one delivering their finest attempts to vanquish the other, trying to deliver that knockout blow, and in the end, it was the Patriots that remained standing. The Patriots' pass rush was stout again. They regularly got pressure on Josh Allen and on Matt Barkley, and yes, Matt Barkley was in this game. I'll get to that in just a moment, but the Patriots' pass rush collected five sacks on this game. Kyle Van Noy led the way with two. Jamie Collins, John Simon, Chase Winovich each collected one, and they held the Buffalo quarterbacks in check. Josh Allen finished 13-28 for 153 yards, three interceptions for Josh. Matt Barkley came in 9-16 for 127 yards and an interception.

And for those of you that didn't see the game yesterday and are wondering why Matt Barkley was in the game, it's because he relieved Josh Allen early in the fourth quarter after Allen was brought down by what was described as a helmet-to-helmet hit by Patriot safety Jonathan Jones. Allen was briefly evaluated on the sideline, and then he was escorted into the locker room. He was ruled out for the remainder of the game with a head injury. Now, you're going to hear a lot of controversy regarding this hit, and ultimately, I know Bills fans are describing this hit as dirty and reprehensible,

but a dirty hit by definition is a hit where a player had another option but chose the one that would do the most physical damage. That's not exactly what happened here, and if you take a look at the replay and watch Jonathan Jones, you'll see that there definitely was not an intent to inflict harm. Both helmets were lowered. Helmet-to-helmet contact is not illegal, and that's something that a lot of people don't realize. Lowering your head with your helmet is illegal. Jonathan Jones did not lower his helmet. From the replay, it appears that he was trying to

establish shoulder contact. He didn't lower his helmet. He didn't launch into Allen, and it should be noted here that Allen is running forward with his helmet down. And when a player does that, contact really becomes inevitable at that point. And look, the bottom line here, no one is condoning any type of helmet-to-helmet hitting. We certainly, with Josh Allen the best in his recovery, hope he's going to be just fine as quickly as possible. However, I would urge strong caution to those that are labeling this hit as being reprehensible or dirty or even worthy of ejection because after all the officials reviewed this and did determine that it did not meet the ejection standards. Now those standards are as follows. One, the player must lower his helmet to establish a linear body posture prior to initiating and making contact with the helmet.

Second, the player delivering the blow must have had an unobstructed path to his opponent. And third, contact was clearly avoidable. The player delivering the blow must have had other options. And in this ejection standard, Al Riveron, who was the head of officiating for the NFL, was asked this question by Vic Carucci, who's covered the Bills for a number of years, a very well-respected journalist in the business, as to why Jonathan Jones wasn't disqualified for his hit on Josh Allen. And I'm quoting Riveron's quote directly here.

Quote, Well, we looked at it, and in this situation, we didn't feel that the contact rose to the level of an ejection. The player actually turns. Obviously, there is helmet contact, but we have standards for an ejection, and this did not rise to that standard. Therefore, we did not eject him. This was a foul called, and obviously the penalty stood, but we did not feel this contact rose to that level, unquote. And the key takeaway here is when Riveron mentions that the player turns, what that indicates is that Jones was not

trying to lower his head or lunge into Josh Allen. So before people start to label or categorize this hit, two things that it should not be considered. One, definitely not illegal. And two, it was not a dirty hit, folks. Jonathan Jones definitely showed contrition afterwards, said there was no intent to injure him, and he will be reaching out to Allen to offer his thoughts on exactly what happened there. And again, we all wish Josh Allen the best in his recovery. We wish him a speedy recovery.

And no one is making light of what happened to him in any way, shape, or form. Any type of head trauma or any type of violent hit like the one that he absorbed is very, very serious. But at the same time, also try to be fair in your assessment when you look at the hit and realize that it wasn't illegal and it really wasn't dirty either. But after that, there was still a game to be played, and despite making a handful of impressive completions, the Pats continued to stop Barkley and the Bills' offense when it was most needed, and with Buffalo facing a fourth and goal from the two, Barkley threw

a very high pass that just grazed the hands of receiver Zay Jones that was originally thought to be intercepted by safety Patrick Chung from the deflection the pass ended up was ruled incomplete and that was a correct call Chung did not have possession and the Pats offense took over on down so they stopped the bills when they needed to on that drive and And then in the game's deciding play, linebacker Kyle Van Noy, once again, who had a great game, folks, pressured Barkley's right side. And the Bills were looking to convert that on a third and nine at the New England 39. Van Noy got a hand on Barkley's chest.

It affected his follow through and the ball popped up into the air. And when he did that, Jamie Collins easily secured it and secured the Patriots' win in this game. And with the win, they improved to 4-0 and remain unbeaten thus far in 2019. And once again, it was the little things that the Patriots did that meant the difference between winning and losing. And there was plenty to digest in this one, and I will break down some of the key points of action in a moment.

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Blue Chew is the better, cheaper, faster choice, and we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. With their win over the Bills on Sunday, the Patriots have earned their first 4-0 start since 2015. It's also the fifth time that the team has been 4-0 during Bill Belichick's 20 seasons as head coach. That's pretty impressive. But at the same time, the Patriots also did have some concerns in this game. For the first time this year, the Patriots struggled offensively to put points on the board and even to move the ball. The wide receiving core looked a little bit out of sorts.

Tom Brady did not have his best game, and the running game continues to be an issue for the New England Patriots. So moving forward, they will have to make adjustments. Now that being said, folks, Tom Brady is one of the best in the business at making those adjustments. So is Josh McDaniels. These guys have worked together for a long time. They will do what they need to pressure on Tom Brady, making him uncomfortable, and not only forcing him out of the pocket, but also forcing him to make throws that he's not comfortable making. So a lot of this goes to the Buffalo Bills. Credit them and their defense. Josh McDaniels, Tom Brady, definitely going back to the drawing board this week, will come out with a much more solid offensive game plan, I believe, for the Washington game. Look for them to re-establish getting out and play action, using the short passing game

to create opportunities, and perhaps that could free up guys like Phillip Dorsett and Josh Gordon to get going and get big plays down the field, and that just did not happen yesterday. So even though the offense did not look its best on Sunday, don't panic, folks. Credit this more to the Buffalo Bills having its best on Sunday. Don't panic, folks. Credit this more to the Buffalo Bills having a great game plan. Patriots starters just came in having a little bit of a rough day. They will rebound. They'll be okay. Not really a cause for concern or definitely not a cause for panic right now. If it continues down the line, obviously it's something that needs to

keep an eye on, but I still think there's a lot of talent on this offense, and I still don't think they've reached even close to being what they can be as the season progresses. But one thing that does have people concerned, and this could be something that could raise an eyebrow here in Patriots Nation, and that is kicker Steven Gostowski. Gostowski made a 23-yard field goal attempt, and that certainly wasn't his problem today. The problem was he went wide right on his first of two extra point attempts. Kostowski has now missed four extra point attempts in 2019, and this could end up becoming a problem, folks. Right now, it hasn't come back to bite them because the Patriots have had comfortable leads in most of the games that they've played. Today was a little bit more of a nail-biter. I found myself wondering if that point would come back to bite them like it has in the past. Look, Gostowski is

still a true pro. There's no question about it. He's still able to kick. He's still one of their best options, if not the best option they have out there right now. There's simply not a whole lot of guys available on the kicking waiver wire that'll be able to come in and write the ship on the kicking game. Gostowski right now is probably dealing with a little bit of a mental block, and that's probably from some of the misses. He's probably got it in his head. He needs to clear that, and he needs to work on that without question.

It's still unclear as to whether or not there's a synergy issue with Jake Bailey, who is his new holder, who is looking very impressive in punts so far. But it will be interesting to see if there is any work that's done this week. I thought it was very interesting that right after the missed extra point, Patriots special team coach Joe Judge went right over, talked to Gostowski right away. So you know they're going to be working on these. You know they worked hard on it last week. They will continue to do so.

Right now, I wouldn't say there's a high alert on this but definitely keep a sharp eye on Gostowski in the coming weeks because Bill Belichick is not afraid to address an issue if he feels it's in the best interest of his football team so keep a sharp eye out we'll see what happens with Gostowski but right now I would say he'll work his way through it I just think he's too talented for him not to do so. But we'll end today on a high note, and ultimately, as I stated when I opened the show, New England was able to secure this win on Sunday thanks in large part to their defense and even their special teams unit that came up with the big punt block. But with Tom and the offense not having their best game, it was up to the defense to keep Buffalo out of the end zone, and they did

that brilliantly. There was one exception. When Josh Allen came out right after the third quarter, opening drive, let his team down, got a touchdown, and you could almost expect that. They had the ball to begin the second half. They were at home. They wanted to come out and establish their game plan, and they did that. But look, the Patriots' defense overall was stout, folks. They created four turnovers as a team.

They were particularly strong on third down. They only allowed Buffalo to convert on two of their 13 attempts. And as for the special teams unit, the block punt that turned into the touchdown, that was the key moment in the game for the Patriots. They established the lead at that point. And with the Bills' defensive front giving New England's offense fits, the special teams' touchdown scored by Matthew Slater really proved to be the difference. So ultimately, the defense, highest grades.

Special teams definitely up there with the exception of Gostowski's little sputterings here and there. They played very strong. Offense needs to pick up the slack, but ultimately, I think they will. So overall, a gritty win for the Patriots. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't glamorous. But in the final analysis, it was a win. And it keeps your New England Patriots undefeated thus far in 2019. And before I wrap up today, I just wanted to take a brief moment to congratulate

Buffalo Bills running back Frank Gore, who led his team with 109 yards rushing. But that's not why I'm congratulating him. In doing so, the 36-year-old became the fourth player in NFL history to top 15,000 yards rushing. He had entered the game needing just 88 yards to reach the mark, so he did so against the Patriots. Definitely have to tip your cap to Frank Gore. A great career so far, and congratulations to him on that milestone. And I will be back here on Locked On Patriots tomorrow to bring you the latest Pats news. And as the week progresses, the Patriots will travel to our nation's capital

to face Washington this Sunday at FedEx Field at 1 o'clock p.m. It should be a great week leading up to this one, and I will be joined by some special guests along the way, so stay tuned for that. As always, make sure to join me each and every day on the Locked On Patriots podcast, and subscribe to Locked On Patriots via your favorite podcast provider. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate. I thank you so much for listening today.

Have a great day and a great week, everybody.