Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Recap: Patriots-Colts Results in Tie, 13-13 | Ben Brown: Critical Injury?

Starting point is 00:00:00 A sneaky important Patriot leaves early on Thursday night, and a big concern could end up being even bigger. This is Locked-on Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. It's happening. I am your host, Nick Cattels. On today's show, my most intriguing player going into the game, finished with an up-and-down night. And the second segment, a young wide receiver saw his stock go up. But first, an injury that could have bigger ramifications than some may think.

Starting point is 00:00:43 The starting offensive line on Thursday night in this first preseason game was Marcus Bryant at left tackle, not right tackle, left tackle. Andrew Rupcich was your left guard. Ben Brown was your center. Your right guard was James Hudson. And then you had rookie Caleb Lomu on the right side playing right tackle. And one of the guys, one of the guys that you could not afford to see go down in this game actually went down and went down early. Starting center, Ben Brown, he goes to the medical tent, he ends up leaving the medical tent and goes to the locker room, never to be seen again. And if you've been watching the episodes we've put out, if you've been listening to the episodes that we have released, you know,

Starting point is 00:01:33 No, I've been talking about this for months. The interior offensive line and the depth of the interior of that offensive line being a big question. Talked about it in the preview. Could we see some of these interior offensive linemen do something, do anything to give us more confidence? Because throughout camp, the backup interior offensive line has not been good. That depth has not been good, including Ben Bray. when he was trying to move to guard and do some other things, he hasn't been great.

Starting point is 00:02:08 So the last thing you wanted to see, if you are, you know, looking at the offensive line, and I know it might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but I'm always looking at the offensive line. One of the things that you did not want to see tonight was Ben Brown go down. And that's precisely what happened. Jacob Rizzi, undrafted free agent,

Starting point is 00:02:31 had to come in to replace Brown. That was your second center. That was your backup center in the first preseason game. Jared Wilson was not going to play in the game on Thursday night. It wasn't going to happen. So right now, your depth chart is Jared Wilson and Jacob Rizzy. Wilson has an injury history. Wilson had a concussion last year.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Wilson also had a high ankle sprain last season, cost him three or four games. So you're looking at a center who's not the biggest center in the world starting for you, who has an injury history. Now your backup center, we don't know if this is a significant injury or not. We hope it's not because if it is, now you've got Wilson and Rizzi as you're one, two at center. Obviously critical to the operation. And, you know, maybe a little less critical within the Josh McDaniels offense because a lot goes on the quarterback.

Starting point is 00:03:29 but still this was one of those guys. You're not playing your starters for the most part during the game. This was an injury that you did not need to see. I mean, you don't ever want to see an injury, but Ben Brown was one of the most important patriots on the field, given what's going on through training camp so far, and you did not want to see him get injured. He was also, of course, an emergency guard option for you.

Starting point is 00:03:57 So if you're going to lose Ben Brown, for a significant amount of time. You're not only losing your backup center. You're losing that break glass in case of an emergency option at left guard or even maybe right guard. Your backup interior O line right now is Andrew Rupsich at left guard, who by the way, later in the game, he got dinged up. I mean, there is a scenario here where you might have lost both Brown and Rupcich

Starting point is 00:04:29 in the first preseason game. What do you have left? You've got Rizzie. You've got James Hudson, who of course is a tackle by nature. He was signed as a tackle. He wasn't working out great as a tackle, so he was moved inside to guard.

Starting point is 00:04:48 He played a little tackle on Thursday night, so maybe they want to use him as the Swiss Army knife. They had envisioned Caleb Lomu maybe playing that role, but Lomu being up and down, probably impacted that decision making. So what do you have right now? Oh, and by the way, your starting left guard is one of the most injury prone offensive linemen in the NFL the past half decade.

Starting point is 00:05:11 So you've got Elijah Barrett Tucker and Michael Wen, who's starting, Jared Wilson with the injury history, not the biggest center in the world. And if both Ben Brown and Andrew Rupstitch are going to be out for any kind of extended period of time, you don't have much of anything behind those guys. A shaky situation at the interior offensive line got much shakier on Thursday night if both those guys missed time. Let's jump to Caleb Lomu. I thought Caleb Lomu had an up and down debut on Thursday night.

Starting point is 00:05:51 I'll start with the good. There was a play. Efton Chisholm, chunk play down, field. where Lomu picked up the late blitzer. Very good awareness by the rookie. It could have ended badly for Tommy DeVito, could have ended badly for the Patriots offense. It did not because Lomu did a good job

Starting point is 00:06:12 picking up the late blitzer, providing the protection so DeVito could step into the throw and find Chisholm downfield. That's very good awareness from the rookie. I would also point to the fact that the Patriots ran not once but twice behind Lomu on fourth down. That shows some confidence in the rookie. Deciding to run the football on fourth down behind Lomu tells us that this coaching staff,

Starting point is 00:06:42 they're certainly not giving up on Caleb Lomu. And both runs on fourth down, the Patriots converted. So good job by Lomu on those two fourth down runs. So you saw some positive. but you also saw some negative from your rookie tackle. Lomu gave up a pressure on the play that was downfield and it was a completed pass. And it was a fantastic catch.

Starting point is 00:07:12 We'll get to him later. But Cameron Dorner made a great catch downfield. It was inevitably called back because James Hudson was called for being illegally downfield. On that play, Lomu gave up a. quick pressure. And DeVito, man, oh man, he got planted. He got planted on that play. You got to be better. Not only was James Hudson called for an illegal downfield penalty, but so was Lomu. Lomu was called a legal man downfield. Now, Greg Bedard on Twitter,

Starting point is 00:07:47 he posted he thought that was an iffy call. He thought that Lomu was engaged and the flag should not have been thrown, but the flag was thrown. And I also think, you know, if you go back and you watch this football game, there were times that Lomu, he looked almost mechanical at right tackle, which, by the way, should be expected to a point. He played exclusively on the left side in college. He's moving to the right side. So you're going to see some of that mechanical-like movement from a guy who's still kind of

Starting point is 00:08:21 trying to think through the position. and that's why he got a lot of reps on Thursday night. He played the whole first half. I mean, Caleb Lomo was out there to play a lot of football in preseason game number one. And that's just trying to get him reps, trying to get his feet wet, trying to get him comfortable, hoping that his confidence grows with every single snap as you get ready for next week's joint practices against the Philadelphia Eagles. So to me, the biggest storyline in the game on Thursday night had to do with the offensive line. It had to do with Ben Brown going down with an injury.

Starting point is 00:09:00 It had to do with Andrew Rupsich later in the game going down with an injury. And then your rookie first round pick offensive tackle having an up and down night. We wanted to see Kyle Williams step up. And on Thursday night, I thought he stepped up. We go stock up coming up next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together.

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Starting point is 00:10:59 I want your reaction to what played out on Thursday night. Of course, it ended up being a tie, a somewhat dramatic finish. You could say it was a bummer of a finish. We'll get to that a little bit later. But I want your comments on this game. The likes in the comments help us with the algorithm. And don't forget to subscribe. We are aiming.

Starting point is 00:11:19 We are aiming at 11,000 subscribers by week one. Wednesday night, September 9th in Seattle against the Seahawks. Let's do some stock up. During my preview of the first preseason game, I asked a question which depth-wide receiver would pop. Now, I don't consider Mack Hollins made a couple of plays. I don't consider him a depth receiver. You know, I think right now he's in your top three or four.

Starting point is 00:11:50 I was looking at, you know, Kishon Booty, Kyle Williams, and Efton Chisholm. And my pick from Thursday night is Kyle Williams. I think Kyle Williams' stock went up against the Colts. Early in this game, he draws a defensive pass interference on third down to move the chains. Then you saw his skill set. And with the touchdown catch he made, you saw. saw it. The line of scrimmage, the ridiculous release on the line of scrimmage left the cornerback in his dust. I mean, just absolutely took the heck out of that defensive back, beat him

Starting point is 00:12:40 cleanly off the line of scrimmage, easy, peasy, one, two, three, z for a touchdown. And we talk about Kyle Williams, we talk about the release package at the line of scrimmage. We talk about creating separation. We talk about getting down field with speed, somebody who can play the boundary with speed. That touchdown was a thing of beauty. Then end of the first half, you got a one minute drill. Tommy DeVito has the football. 59 seconds left.

Starting point is 00:13:10 Three timeouts to Kyle Williams, 25-yard catch with the yards after the catch included. A great route. stopped on a dime. Fantastic route stops on a dime, makes the catch, and then turns a 10 to 15 yard gain into a 25 yard gain with the yak. That's the explosivity. You remember the touchdown against Tampa last year when he took it to the house, that type of explosion. He followed that up by beating the corner again on a go route. Adam beat by a step and a half, bad throw by Tommy DeVito. Now, I understand Mike Vrable was not happy that Williams didn't stop and draw the defensive pass interference. I get it. You can dock Williams some points for not drawing that DPI.

Starting point is 00:14:03 However, he was open. He beat his man off the line. He had a step and a half. Tommy DeVito made a terrible throw. If DeVito makes a better throw, that could be a house call. So I'm not going to sit there and absolutely smoke Kyle Williams on that play. He ran the go route. He beat his man. He was open. Bad throw by the QB. Could have helped the QB.

Starting point is 00:14:28 Could have helped the team by adjusting and drawing the DPI. But that's more on DeVito for me than it was on Williams. A better throw and you've got a highlight play. Another stock up. You know, we talked about Khalil Jacobs being one of the most intriguing play heading into Thursday night. And I thought Khalil Jacobs was going to start at linebacker. He did it.

Starting point is 00:14:53 KJ. Britt started at linebacker. Khalil Jacobs ended up coming in later in the game. And I thought Khalil Jacobs made a couple of plays against the run. He flashed a little bit. But KJ. Britt, he made two fantastic plays. And when you are playing in a preseason game and you're a veteran and you're not going to get a ton of snaps, it's what you do with the snaps. It goes back to the idea of quality versus quantity.

Starting point is 00:15:20 And I thought KJ Britt, he showed the quality. He starts instead of Khalil Jacobs. He had a tackle for loss, screaming downhill, shedding the block. And we talk about Mike Vrable wanting violence, loves violence. How many times have we heard Mike Vrable and or his coaching staff say, we want to be violent? That TFL was violent. It's a great play by KJ Britt.

Starting point is 00:15:49 And then he follows that up with hustle and fundamentals by punching the ball out of Anthony Richardson's arms, creating a forced fumble. So two big time plays by KJ Britt, those are the types of plays that will keep him ahead of Khalil Jacobs on the depth chart. He needed to make some plays and he made them. Some other guys who I thought flashed,

Starting point is 00:16:16 and I would argue had their stock go up. Eli Rairden. Eli Rairden, we talked about him. What was he going to do? How much was he going to play? He played a decent chunk in the first half. He played a lot early. And I thought you saw with Eli Rairden, number one, the soft hands.

Starting point is 00:16:34 The soft hands, easily catching the football. You can see a smooth athlete, which we knew. And I thought Eli Rairden would have been talked about after this game, more if it wasn't for his teammates. Tommy DeVito missed them a couple of times. You know, DeVito had him on a play action rollout and he threw it at his feet. I know one of the McCordy brothers tried to say, well, there was a defensive back coming up. I don't think that's why DeVito threw it towards the turf. I just thought it was a bad throw by the quarterback on the play action rollout. You hit Raarden there. He could turn that into a lot. Trust me. Saw him at

Starting point is 00:17:13 Notre Dame enough. You get him, you get him running towards the sidelines. He can turn that thing up field and make it a big play. So I thought the quarterback hurt him once or twice. And then of course he had a big time chunk play that was called back, which we mentioned earlier. It was, you know, the Caleb Lomu, a legal man down field penalty that wiped away a Rairden explosive play. Those are not on Rairdon. So I thought he was there. He was in the right spot. He was in position to make place. The execution from his teammates wasn't good enough, but maybe the best play from Rairden on Thursday night was a block that he threw. We're talking about Rairden and whether or not he can be a consistent blocker at the NFL level in his rookie season. I think he's a better

Starting point is 00:18:02 blocker than others think. I thought he was a better blocker at Notre Dame than some thought. I don't think he's a great blocker, though. But the block he threw on Jam Miller's 10 plus yard run when Jam Miller bounced it to the outside. A really, really good downfield block by Reardon helped open that puppy up. So that might have been the most important play from Reardon all night. Let's give some love to the punter. Bryce Banger was absolutely terrific after a very good reportedly joint practice. I mean, this looked like the best of Bryce Banger. He was. He was was absolutely crushing the football. A fantastic night from your punters.

Starting point is 00:18:50 Some others of note to me that I would put in the stock up category. Jan Miller just brought him up. But I thought Miller, you know, he showed the ability to cut back. He showed his ability to run through some contact, you know, good contact balance from Miller. He had a fourth down run. He showed some strength on that run. as I just mentioned a minute ago,

Starting point is 00:19:13 he showed the ability to bounce a run outside to pick up 10 plus yards, got some good blocking ahead of him, not only Raired him, but Marcus Bryant and Tanner Arkin also threw good blocks on that play. But you saw, you saw some of that running ability from Miller. And that's a big deal,

Starting point is 00:19:31 because before Thursday night's game, we found out that Terrell Jennings, who had the inside track to that running back three spot on the depth chart, Terrell Jennings is done. He's done. Done for the year. To the IR, he goes.

Starting point is 00:19:45 So that running back three competition, it is wide open. You've got Miller, you've got Lan Larison. I thought Land Larison flashed as a receiver. And I know it's the easy go-to, but honestly, he did kind of remind you of Danny Woodhead, Rex Burkhead, that type of back. He's very similar to Rex Burkhead, very similar build, kind of running. style and you saw his versatility as a receiver. So we'll see what he does over the next, you know, seven to eight days and where he is

Starting point is 00:20:22 headed after that Philadelphia Eagles back-to-back days of joint practices. Cameron Dorner, two big plays. One unfortunately called back on that illegal man downfield penalty on James Hudson. That was a fantastic contested. catch downfield by Cameron Dorner, who has reportedly made plays at Camp when given the opportunity. He also had another play right after that downfield, which went for, I think, 15 to 20 yards. So I thought he had a good night. And shout out to the defense and their ability to turn the football over on the Colts.

Starting point is 00:21:01 I mean, they forced three turnovers in the first half, had another one in the second half. Kindle Vildor had a pick. That could have been caught, arguably, but a pick by. Kindle-Vildor. You had the goal line, quote, unquote, fumble. I thought that was a terrible call. But then you had the KJ Britt forced fumble. And, you know, if you're going to give up some yards,

Starting point is 00:21:21 you got to be able to get it back. And if you force those takeaways, it is so significant to the defensive operation. All right. Not everyone on the field, though, had good nights. Stock down. And we got a mixed bag for some people. That's coming up.

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Starting point is 00:22:39 Dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a homer. Play ball and swing for the fences on Fandul, an official partner of the MLB. Thanks for checking out the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Don't forget to help a brother out, like, comment, and subscribe. We appreciate every single one of you. Not everyone in this football game was stock up. Got some stock down, got some mixed reviews. Let's start with Gabe Accus.

Starting point is 00:23:08 He was my number one most intriguing. player to watch heading into this football game. He got the start, and I expected him to start. But I thought Accus was up and down. The beginning of this game, he showed. He showed. He pushed the right tackle into Anthony Richardson, which helped lead to the interception by Kindle Vildor.

Starting point is 00:23:32 That was a nice push, nice power push on the right tackle. Early in this game, he stuffed a run and was nice on the edge. against the run early. But then things kind of faded. He had a heck of a time trying to defend Anthony Richardson on those read options. It looked like he blew at least one, if not a couple of opportunities to try to slow Richardson down. He let the tight end release early for a chunk play in this game. And I thought, you know, there were a lot of chances for Gabe Accus to make some noise as a pass rush.

Starting point is 00:24:11 as the first half went on. A lot of opportunities, because there were a lot of scenarios where you could pin your ears back and try to get after the quarterback, and Acus really didn't show anything there. He just was not able to consistently impact this game in the backfield. So I thought it was a good start,

Starting point is 00:24:30 but as the game went on, Accus kind of faded. So up and down for him. Another mixed bag was two chains. Tommy DeVito. When Tommy DeVito was good, he was really good. When DeVito was bad, it was tough. I thought his accuracy was very, very spotty. He was streaky. I brought up the one minute drill with the three timeouts for

Starting point is 00:24:55 Kyle Williams earlier in this program. Well, during that stretch, you know, three straight incompletions. He misses Williams on the go ball. And then his next throw is behind a receiver in the middle of the field, which is always dangerous. And then the third down throw, I don't know what the heck happened. That thing looked like a Tim Tebow special. That was a dart right into the ground. Like right. It had to be, I'd say, two or three yards short of the intended receiver. So I just thought DeVito's accuracy, it was all over the place throughout the night. But there were other moments, right? Because you had those ugly moments, but there were other moments when he had a pocket that he looked really good in rhythm, accurate, good throws.

Starting point is 00:25:43 hit Mack Hollins for, you know, 20 plus yards that eventually led to a missed 56-yard field goal, but it was a nice throw. He had a nice throw to Efton Chisholm downfield. That was the play I mentioned earlier with Caleb Lomu when he picked up the late Blitzer, had the pocket, stepped into the throw, delivered it well, nice play, chunk play, move the chains. But you'd see those throws and then you would see the play action rollout to Eli Rairden, where he just throws it right into the ground. So I thought it was, it was an up and down night, mixed bag for Tommy DeVito.

Starting point is 00:26:18 You might say he had, you know, more good moments than bad moments, but it was pretty mixed, pretty mixed. Another thing, you know, we want to talk about stock down. I'll talk about stock down for the whole team, just sloppy, sloppy, you know, flags being thrown. And it wasn't like the Patriots had 15 penalties on Thursday night. But man, oh man, you want to talk about crippling. penalties on both sides of the ball in big moments. Two or three explosive plays on offense. DOA because of flags.

Starting point is 00:26:51 Two illegal men down field. You had defensively a fourth quarter hands to the face call, which was significant. Efton Chisholm, block in the back. Could have been a tough call. A little ticky tack. But the penalties, you know, the impact of those penalties, you can't have that happen. You've got to be disciplined. So I thought the team, with some of those penalties, just a lack of discipline, a lack of awareness.

Starting point is 00:27:19 We talked about the run defense. I thought the run defense was inconsistent. I thought Richardson gave them some fits. I thought there were some plays there where they got ripped up a little bit. I'll say the indie offensive line, even though it was the backups, they got some big dudes on that O line. But I thought the run defense, you know, they had moments here and there where, it looked pretty good, but they also gave up plays. And we talked about it going into the game.

Starting point is 00:27:49 They've got to be able to run the football, and they've got to be able to defend the run. And we just saw more inconsistency on both sides of the ball on the ground Thursday night. They have to try to continue to improve there. And let's get to the kicker. Andy Boragallis had a rough night. And Mike Vrable with the media in the post game, he was not happy. Boragalus finished two for five.

Starting point is 00:28:14 on Thursday night, including missing the 49-yard field goal that would have won the football game. You get downfield, you get a questionable call that helps you out, you're in position, you've got your kicker there, 49-yard field goal. Now, could the Patriots have been more aggressive? Yes, they could have been more aggressive with the clock. They could have been more aggressive in the passing game. it looked like they were perfectly content setting up Andy Boragalas from, you know, 45 to 50 yards. It backfired.

Starting point is 00:28:49 He missed the 49-yard field goal. He missed two field goals of 50-plus yards. Two for five from your kicker ain't going to do it. Now, I'm not going to panic because we know Andy Boragalus got off to a tough start early in his rookie season. And then he was mostly terrific for the remainder of the year. But he's down. Big time stock down on the first. Thursday night, two for five, not getting it done. You could have won this game. You failed.

Starting point is 00:29:19 The kicker failed. Let us team down. We ended a tie of all things. And by the way, Shane Steichen kicking a field goal down 1310. What are we doing, man? You're going to celebrate the tie? Like, what are we doing? That wraps up this edition of lockdown Patriots. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe on YouTube. The lock On NFL Top 100 is here. Voted on by the NFL hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Our top 100 was formed by experts that cover these teams and players every day. Find the full list on Locked On Sports Today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:29:58 Have a great weekend. We'll see you next time.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Recap: Patriots-Colts Results in Tie, 13-13 | Ben Brown: Critical Injury?

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