Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks: Battle of the O-Lines, Jacoby Brissett, Geno Smith

Starting point is 00:00:00 Can the New England Patriots neutralize the Seattle Seahawks' aggressive defense by stretching the field with the passing game? Stick around, you're about to be locked in to this crossover Thursday episode of the Locked On Patriots Podcast. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. New England Patriots fans, Seattle Seahawks fans, it is week two of the 2024 NFL season,

Starting point is 00:00:34 and that means it's time for the Patriots to host the Seahawks this Sunday, September 15th, Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, 1 p.m. Eastern kickoff. And here today across the Locked On Podcast Network, it is Crossover Thursday. And that means yours truly, Mike DeBate, host of Lockdown Patriots, and Corbin K. Smith, host of Lockdown Seahawks, are here to cross the streams and get you ready for Sunday's kickoff. Crossover Thursday is presented by prize picks go to prizepicks.com slash locked on nfl and use all lowercase locked on nfl to win 50 instantly when you play five dollars and corbin

Starting point is 00:01:15 both teams enter this contest at one and oh and they'd undoubtedly love to stay that way no question about it they're also looking to find their way after parting ways with legendary head coaches, but surprisingly, these teams are playing at a high level right now, and that arguably may not even be the top storyline in either of our universes right now, among the 12s and among Patriots Nation. So from a Seahawks perspective, as the visiting team this week, what are the biggest storylines coming out of the Emerald City? Well, let's start on the offensive side of the football. And as always, always look forward to working with you, Mike. You do a great job with Locked On Patriots. Thank you. You as well. This game on Sunday against the

Starting point is 00:01:58 Denver Broncos, you had a rookie quarterback in Bo Nix. It was making his NFL debut. The Seahawks were busting out Mike McDonald's defense for the first time. And really the biggest storyline coming out of that game for me going into week two, will the real offense stand up? And what is the real offense for the Seattle Seahawks? Because the first half was an absolute nightmare. Literally two plays into the game, Geno Smith getting his legs taken out from under him. He intercepted by Alex Singleton they had two safeties in the second quarter they could not get out of their own way and then in the second half Ryan Grubb the new offensive coordinator formerly of the University of Washington Jalen Polk one of his former star

Starting point is 00:02:40 players now played for New England puts together some masterful adjustments at halftime, particularly the run game, and suddenly three scoring drives. They had two touchdowns in the third quarter, added a field goal as well. Suddenly, the Seahawks had a double-digit point lead. Now, they ended up fending off a late rally by the Broncos in one by six, but they come back from the halftime deficit in the second half, ran for almost 100 yards. Geno Smith completing almost 80% of his passes. The offense looked like the group we expect to see. The biggest issue was the offensive line in that first half. Anthony Bradford had a holding penalty that led to one of the safeties by NFL rules. He also got beat on the other safety and allowed Zach Charbonnet to get hit behind the goal line.

Starting point is 00:03:25 He couldn't get the football past the goal line. So two safeties in like a 10-minute span. They allowed two quick sacks on Geno Smith, a 47% pressure rate. Second half, it went down to 23%, and they didn't give up a single sack. So really, the offensive line was the big difference between those two halves and how the scheme was able to get those guys playing at a higher level. Is that going to carry over into this week or are we going to see the Patriots really come after this offensive line and then suddenly they can't get out of their own way again? That to me is the most fascinating thing. Once you get out of the first game of the season, how teams adjust moving forward with what they saw in that first game. Seattle clearly had some concerns in the

Starting point is 00:04:09 offensive line. They were able to address some in the second half, but what is that group going to play like and how does that manifest itself with this entire offense? Will the real offense stand up for the Seattle Seahawks? Yeah, I think there's a lot of similarities between what the Patriots and the Seahawks are going through right now when it comes to offensive line woes and really kind of identifying what type of offense you're going to run. With New England, Alex Van Pelt is trying to incorporate more of an outside zone scheme. The Patriots are trying to turn the corner and maybe come up with a little bit more of a modern era offense. But Ramondre lobbied several times last week and successfully by the way to incorporate more downhill runs so now it's going to be interesting

Starting point is 00:04:50 to see if the new england patriots are going to follow that blueprint against seattle's defense but when it comes to new england's defense and trying to contain what seattle does best i know seattle is going to probably want to try to establish the run a little bit, considering that Kenneth Walker is someone that has a very similar type running style to Ramondre Stevenson. Now, I know he's a little bit banged up right now. Corbin, from that standpoint, if in fact Kenneth Walker is going to be compromised in any way, or dare I say, does not suit up on Sunday, does that affect the Seattle Seahawks' ability to run the football

Starting point is 00:05:25 and run the type of offense they'd like to run against New England's defense? It would obviously be a significant hit, but this team does like Zach Charbonnet, Kenny McIntosh, their third string running back, had a really good preseason. They've got an undrafted rookie, a George Helani, on their practice squad, who quite frankly I thought should have made this roster, but he didn't. They re-signed him on the practice squad. So they've got other capable runners. Ken Walker, the third though, just has that extra juice that none of these other players bring to the table. One of the most explosive backs in the entire NFL. So if he's out, that does change things a

Starting point is 00:05:58 little bit. Maybe it alters the type of run game that the Seahawks are going to be able to deploy. I would think more gap schemes. If Zach Charbonnet is playing more of a downhill punishing style runner. Kenny McIntosh can do that as well, even though he's not a big back. I would think that would be more where the Seahawks are leaning, especially with the personnel that they have on their offensive line. But you mentioned Ramondre Stevenson, and that leads me to the other storyline worth discussing here with the Seattle Seahawks. This is a team the last couple of years. I think this is one of the big reasons Pete Carroll is not coaching here anymore. They finished 30th and 31st in rushing defense the last two years. They just could not stop the run. Last week, they held the Broncos under 100 rushing yards. Aside from a couple

Starting point is 00:06:38 big carries by Bo Nix late in the game, they really did a great job of shutting down Denver's rushing attack. The defense just looked different. It looked like guys were in a better position. The tackling was night and day from what we've seen the last couple of years. And Mike McDonald has re-implemented that physicality, that toughness. Now the question for me, though, is what does the encore look like, especially when you don't have the 12 screaming behind you? You are playing on the road.

Starting point is 00:07:03 How does that influence your communications that you have on defense how do the New England Patriots adjust to what they have now seen on film from Mike McDonald's defense I don't think McDonald has come anywhere close to throwing the kitchen sink at anybody he's got a lot left to use but that's really the exciting thing what is that encore going to look like? And can you handle a running back that is really tearing it up here early in the season in Ramondre Stevenson and try to limit New England's ability to have that balanced offense and put more pressure on the veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett? I just want to see what that encore looks like, especially when you

Starting point is 00:07:40 now have another team that's got some film that they can evaluate from a regular season game to prepare for the Seahawks defense. Yeah, that's a great point, Corbin. And you now have another team that's got some film that they can evaluate from a regular season game to prepare for the Seahawks defense. Yeah, that's a great point, Corbin. And you have to think from a Patriots perspective, they would want to try to be able to establish the run and make sure that Ramondre can get the type of traction that he got against Cincinnati. If you're Seattle, you want to try to limit that. You want to keep him on the shelf as much as possible. You want Jacoby Brissett to throw the ball because he did not get a chance to do it all that much against

Starting point is 00:08:09 Cincinnati have him test downfield because you've got two amazing corners right now and that secondary that Seattle has when you talk about 34 yards allowed one interception two forced incompletions and a 14.6 passer rating allowed. That is amazing when it comes to what Devin Witherspoon and Reek Willen were able to do. They're going to want to replicate or at least get close to what they did last week. And if that's the case, it might be a long day for the New England Patriots passing game, which is going to be forced, I believe, to pass a little bit more than they did against the Cincinnati Bengals. Folks, it is always fun and always great when we cross the streams here on the Locked On Podcast Network.

Starting point is 00:08:51 And I always love talking ball with my good friend and colleague, Corbin Smith. In just a moment, Corbin's going to flip the script and put me on the hot seat. We're going to talk about what the Patriots' biggest storylines are and what they may do to try to marginally disrupt a hot Seattle team coming in to Foxborough on Sunday. All this and more when this episode of the Lockdown Patriots and Lockdown Seahawks podcast continues. Proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Lockdown listeners, football is finally back, which means it's time to order your favorite game day food,

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Starting point is 00:12:12 Podcast Network Crossover Thursday. I'm Corbin Smith of Locked On Seahawks and glad to be crashing here in week two with my friend Mike DeBate of Locked On Patriots. And we're going to switch gears now. We were just talking about storylines with the Seahawks. There's a lot of excitement in the Pacific Northwest.

Starting point is 00:12:28 Mike McDonald replacing a legend in Pete Carroll. And meanwhile, in New England, Gerard Mayo having the same success as Mike McDonald. He's getting a victory, an unexpected one, over the Cincinnati Bengals last weekend and getting a victory in his first game, replacing the legendary Bill Belichick. When you talked about Stevenson in the first segment of the run game, how New England was able to run the football effectively, but when you look at this Patriots offense going into this matchup against a Seahawks defense that's feeling pretty good coming out of their win over the Denver Broncos this past weekend at Lumen Field, New England, and going to be playing at home.

Starting point is 00:13:06 An opportunity to maybe just maybe put that Seattle defense back in their heels just a little bit. When you go into this game, though, you know the run game was effective last week. What's the key storyline for you with this Patriots offense in terms of how they're going to be able to combat a Seahawks defense that may have more weaponry than what the Cincinnati Bengals, at least last week, brought defensively that they're going to have to deal with and that Alex Van Pelt's going to have to game plan for. Yeah, without question, Corbin, I think it's going to be whether the Patriots passing game can come alive and show a little bit of growth and show their ability to be able to be a

Starting point is 00:13:43 complimentary piece to what has been a very good running game through one game so far. Ramondre Stevenson is here to stay. He is definitely their lead back and everything the Patriots do offensively will still continue to funnel through him. But one thing that the Patriots did not do a whole lot of last week is utilize the run to set up play action. Only five drop backs, only five passes was what the Patriots managed out of play action. They're going to have to do a little bit more than that to get this passing game going.

Starting point is 00:14:12 And they're going to want to try to stretch the field a little bit. That's a very daunting task in what Reek and Devin Witherspoon had a chance to do last week. That is a very good lockdown unit. So the Patriots are going to face a tall task in doing so, but in order for them to establish any type of continuity on offense, they're going to have to get the passing game involved. It's going to be a little bit more than short routes. They're going to have to stretch the legs of this wide receivers group and show them a little bit more than what

Starting point is 00:14:39 they saw last Sunday against the Bengals. And Denver, I'll say this, Denver did not try to really stretch the ball downfield at all. And the couple of times that they did, the Seahawks made them absolutely pay. And you've mentioned Devin Witherspoon and Rick Wolin, but I'm going to throw a couple other names out there for you. Julian Love right now, I know it's been one game, but Julian Love looks like a first team all pro. The guy is everywhere. 11 tackles and interception, a forced fumble last week. You've got him, you've got Ray Sean Jenkins, who's looking like a really nice free agent addition that maybe Jacksonville shouldn't have let go of. He has been a really nice addition. And Kayvon Wallace is giving them some good snaps as a third safety in Mike

Starting point is 00:15:19 McDonald's defense. Bo Nix posted a 3.5 yards per attempt last week on 11 attempts throwing against Seattle safeties with a passer rating of 43.6. So even though the corners are getting a lot of the storylines, let's face it, Devin Withers and Rick Woolen are phenomenal players. Seattle safeties are also really good and they have a lot of depth at that position. Those guys can move all over the place the way that Mike McDonald demands his safeties do in his scheme. So they're going to be hoping that New England tries to test them a little bit more downfield because I think the corners and safeties are saying, hey, Denver tried it a couple times last week, and look what happened. We are going to be fired up if New England wants to take those shots down the field.

Starting point is 00:16:04 Now, on the flip side, New England held Cincinnati to 10 points last week. Now, the Bengals didn't have Tee Higgins. Jamar Chase was definitely not the normal Jamar Chase that we usually see because he'd been doing that hold in for the last month and change. And Joe Burrow didn't look like the traditional Joe Burrow. But some of that had to do with the aggressiveness the New England Patriots brought to the table. Their pass rush was effective. They did really well communicating in coverage.

Starting point is 00:16:31 In a lot of ways, Mike, it felt like the Patriots, even though they're not running Mike McDonald's defense necessarily, you saw a lot of similar traits in the way that they were running that attack and how effectively they ran it against the Cincinnati Bengals. Now the question is going to be, can they do that same thing against the Seattle Seahawks offense that is going to be full strength with all of their weapons on hand in Foxborough? Bottom line, it's going to be a tougher task this week. First of all, again, the sleeping giant has been woken. Now all of a sudden, teams are going to know that Keon White is coming in

Starting point is 00:17:04 with the ability to be a monster in the pass rush. That's going to be a challenge. Whether or not he's going to be able to be facilitated by Joshua Uche, the linebacker for the New England Patriots that helped facilitate a couple of the sacks that Keon was able to get after in his two and a half total last week, that's going to be key. Are the Patriots going to be able to shake him free from that Seattle front? So that's going to be, I think, a very big key for the Pats. Can they do the same thing?

Starting point is 00:17:30 Can they replicate the type of success they had against Cincinnati? It's not going to be easy to do that. The Patriots secondary is definitely a strength of this team. So they're going to look to lock down that field. They're going to have a much tougher time doing that against Seattle, which is going to be more at full strength when it comes to their pass catching weapons than Cincinnati was just a week ago. I look for Christian Gonzalez to once again be the lockdown guy, whether that means going

Starting point is 00:17:56 up against Tyler Lockett or whether that means going up against DK. You know it's going to be a situation where he's going to draw a very prominent member of that Seahawks offense. Christian will do that. Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones, it's going to be up to those guys to keep the football in front of them. Kyle Duggar and Jabril Peppers, if they're healthy and playing at 100%, Kyle is. Jabril was banged up a little last week.

Starting point is 00:18:21 He was a game-time decision. He ended up giving it a go. Can Seattle exploit maybe a less than 100% Jabril was banged up a little last week. He was a game-time decision. He ended up giving it a go. Can Seattle exploit maybe a less than 100% Jabril Peppers? If that's the case, it's going to put a lot of pressure on guys like Jalen Hawkins or possibly even the undrafted rookie Del Pettis, who can hit a lot but doesn't have a ton of experience. That's going to be something I'm looking for. If the Seahawks are going to try to take advantage of that, that could be an area where they could have some success.

Starting point is 00:18:47 And I know I've mentioned this earlier, the offensive line for the Seahawks, that's really at the end of the day going to be the big storyline. It is going to be whether or not they can protect Geno Smith well enough that he is able to take advantage of some potential advantageous matchups that the Seahawks have on the outside, because almost every week the Seahawks have a receiving core that is going to give defenses problems. Denver did a pretty good job last week, though, of bottling some of those guys up, in part because the pass rush was so good early that Geno Smith couldn't take advantage of that. The Patriots are going to be looking to replicate that in their own way, obviously,

Starting point is 00:19:22 different style defense than what the Denver Broncos bring, different overall personnel, but still very effective last week, holding the Bengals in line with just 10 points, which still is surprising to me. I know they had some injuries at the receiver position, but still, I thought Cincinnati would be able to put more points on the board than that, and that is a credit to New England, the game plan they had coming in, and the execution that they had to slow down Cincinnati's offense. When we come back here on this crossover Thursday edition of Locked on Seahawks and Locked on Patriots, it's time for some predictions. We're going to look at the most important things that each team needs to accomplish to get to 2-0 this week in week two.

Starting point is 00:20:01 And we're going to be discussing the spread and where the Seahawks and Patriots fit in predictions-wise. Will the Seahawks be able to cover as three-point favorites, or do the Patriots have something up their sleeve to make sure that doesn't happen? We'll be breaking that all down coming up next year on this latest Crossover Thursday offering. Black Dawn listeners, you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Well, we have something a little different for you.

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Starting point is 00:21:13 And of course, visit Fanduel.com and download America's number one sportsbook. Patriots fans and Seahawks fans, thank you for joining us here today on this Crossover Thursday episode, getting you ready for Sunday's Week 2 matchup, the New England Patriots hosting the Seattle Seahawks, and bringing you right up to kickoff is yours truly, Mike DeBate, host of Locked On Patriots, and of course, Corbin K. Smith, host of Locked On Seahawks. Crossover Thursday is presented by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com slash locked on NFL and use the code all lowercase locked on NFL to win $50 instantly when you pay $5.

Starting point is 00:21:55 And Corbin, as the late great Gorilla Monsoon would say, if this were WrestleMania, the time for the talk has just about ended. If the Seahawks are to come into New England and defeat the Patriots, right now they're favored. What are Seattle's three keys to victory for a win on Sunday? Well, the first one is pretty simple, Mike. They've got to be able to pass protect. And I'm not asking this offensive line to play like the 2005 group that had Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson up front.

Starting point is 00:22:26 They don't have that kind of talent, but at the same time, Connor Williams is a huge upgraded center. Lakin Tomlinson's an established veteran. You love your left tackle, Charles Cross, who actually was the one real bright spot from this offensive line last week, played really well against the Denver Broncos. Who's going to be starting at right tackle? Is it going to be George Fant? Is it going to be Stone Forsythe? Is it going to be rookie Mike Jarrell? We don't know who's going to be starting over there. So there's all kinds of questions with this offensive line that's trying to build some continuity, a lot of new pieces, but they have got to be able to keep Keon White and company away from Geno Smith enough that Geno Smith can make plays downfield. You don't have to give him five seconds in the pocket to do that.

Starting point is 00:23:08 Geno Smith can make, he can make million dollars out of a couple of pennies. If you just give him a little bit of time to throw the football, but last week early in the game, they weren't giving him that opportunity. And that was one of the reasons the offense floundered for two quarters. Once they were able to get their run game going a little bit in the pass protection got better as the game progressed in the second half, Geno completed almost 80% of his passes in the second half. If you allow Geno Smith to have

Starting point is 00:23:33 enough time that he can operate the offense and he can get the ball to his playmakers, maybe get a few more shots downfield with the talent they've got in that receiving core, as good as the secondary is for New England, if you are able to block things up well enough that Geno Smith can get the ball downfield, that is going to be a difficult task for even the Patriots secondary, especially with some of the safety injury concerns that you mentioned earlier. It provides an opportunity that the Seahawks can get the job done offensively. I think they're going to have to be better throwing the football than they were last

Starting point is 00:24:03 week to get a win on the road. For that to happen, the pass protection is key number one, two, and three for this football team. Absolutely agreed, and I think that is something that Seattle will definitely look to exploit against New England on Sunday. Look, if you're looking at it from a Patriots perspective, once again, the Patriots need to establish the run, and this is something, again, that we've talked about earlier on in this segment. And I've talked about ad nauseum on lockdown Patriots all week long. The way that Alex Van Pelt wants to run this offense comes through the running game and it comes through Andre Stevenson.

Starting point is 00:24:38 And he, once again, has to establish himself as someone that can be a key on the ground and get yardage and be able to facilitate what this Patriots team wants to do. Now, one thing that they have to do with establishing the run is utilize play action, take deep shots down the field, make sure that this passing game gets involved. To do that, they're going to need solid blocking from the offensive line. They got it from the right side last week, Corbin. They didn't get it from the left. Chuk Sikora for definitely looked like a fish out of water at left tackle. He struggled. He was pulled after only 10 snaps.

Starting point is 00:25:12 Veteran Vardarian Lowe came in and played a little bit better. They looked like they were a little more comfortable, but the Patriots left side is still a big problem. And right now, City So, their starting left guard, was also not at practice on Wednesday. It's going to look like he may end up missing this week as well, unless something drastically changes. So now you're looking at an offensive line of Darian Lowe at left tackle, Michael Jordan at left guard, David Andrews at center, Leighton Robinson playing right guard, and Michael Wenu playing the right tackle position. Again, the right side is going to be good, but you know Seattle is going to zero in and try to force Ramondre to run to the left. And they're also going to try to exploit that left side and get after the passer in Jacoby Brissett. So if they can't do that, they won't be able to establish what is my second key to victory,

Starting point is 00:26:02 and that's control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.ots did a great job of doing that on both offense and on defense against cincinnati going to be much tougher to do that against seattle and then the last certainly not least same as last week the patriots are going to have to win the turnover battle and they're going to have to take advantage of miscues on the opposite side of the ball. Seattle is not a team that's prone to turn the ball over, but the Patriots need to at least force one or capitalize on a miscue, get good field position, put Seattle on its heels, and then they've got that puncher's chance to come away with the victory. And I'm glad that we're talking the run game because I think from Seattle's perspective,

Starting point is 00:26:40 if there's one thing that travels well consistently, if you can run the football, running the ball is something that can help your chances of winning when you go into a hostile road environment like Gillette Stadium and we don't know where Ken Walker III's health is at now he told reporters after Sunday's game that he was fine so if I had to make a prediction right now I expect that K-9 is going to be out there and he is going to be starting and he's going to get plenty of carries going to get his opportunities in the passing game but Seattle's got to have that balance they have got to be able not they need to go out and run for 150 yards in this game but they need to be effective running the ball because that was one of the ways they were able to take some of that pressure the Broncos were putting on Geno Smith off the quarterback in the second half and

Starting point is 00:27:20 give him a little bit more of an opportunity to throw the ball downfield and get the ball to his receivers. And the last key for me on the defensive side of the football, you've got to win early downs. And this plays into New England's ability to be able to throw the football because I think if the Seahawks can come out and they can shut down Ramondre Stevenson on first and second down on those early down runs and consistently put New England in third and six, third and seven or longer. If they can do that, if I'm the Seahawks

Starting point is 00:27:51 with Boye Mafe and the pass rushers that they've got, even without Uchenna Nwosu, who's not going to play this week, they've still got weapons that can get after the quarterback. If I'm consistently putting New England in third and medium and third and long situations, I'm excited about my ability to be able to get after Jacoby Brissett and force him into making some bad decisions with that secondary as opportunistic as Devin Witherspoon, Rick Woolen, Julian Love, and those guys are. If you are able to speed up that clock and you consistently have the Patriots in those third and medium, third and long situations, that's what plays into your turnovers and plays into your quick changes and gets the ball back into the office's hands. So I'm not even looking at the third down percentage. I'm looking at first and second down. Can you

Starting point is 00:28:33 consistently keep Ramondre Stevenson bottled up, that Patriots run game bottled up? Because if you can do that and limit the yardage in early downs, it plays into Seattle's strengths against a New England team that I don't necessarily know has the pieces to be able to consistently convert third and long opportunities with their passing game. Yeah, with that passing game, it's going to be very difficult. And again, you're dealing with an untested passing game and you're dealing with a lot of young receivers that right now ran a lot of short routes last week. If those routes are elongated the way the Patriots hope, it's right now a guessing game as to how that's going to go,

Starting point is 00:29:08 especially with a makeshift offensive line providing protection and Jacoby Brissett having to rid himself of the ball probably quicker than he'd like. Those two don't often go together on a football field. Going to be very interesting to see Seattle's game plan, and it's also going to be very interesting to see how the Patriots plan on countering that on their home turf in their home opener Sunday, 1 p.m. Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts. The Seattle Seahawks visit the New England Patriots in week two of the 2024 NFL season.

Starting point is 00:29:37 And as always, it was my honor, my privilege, and a whole lot of fun to cross the streams with my good friend, Corbin K. Smith, host of Locked On Seahawks. You can catch Corbin K. Smith, host of Locked On Seahawks. You can catch Corbin each and every day on the Locked On Seahawks podcast. He and Rob Rang do an amazing job. I'm an everydayer of theirs, and I will continue to be. And, of course, if you want to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, if you're a Seahawks fan, you can check me out on Locked On Patriots

Starting point is 00:30:02 each and every day as well. Both shows, as always, proud parts of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. On behalf of Corbin Smith, I'm Mike DeBate, reminding all of you to stay safe, stay well, and be the change you wish to see in the world.

Starting point is 00:30:17 Have a great day, everyone, and we'll see you back here on the network again on Friday on Locked On Seahawks and on Locked On Patriots across the Locked on Podcast Network.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks: Battle of the O-Lines, Jacoby Brissett, Geno Smith

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