Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Streak-No-More: Patriots Fall to Colts 27-17 in Week Fifteen - 12/21/21

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

On a night in which a usually fundamentally-sound team made too many uncharacteristic mistakes, New England was unable to overcome an early 20-0 deficit. Quarterback Mac Jones completed 26 of 45 passes, throwing for 299 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions. However, MVP candidate Jonathan Taylor ran for 170 yards and scored on a 67-yard fourth-quarter run with 2:01 left to help the Indianapolis Colts secure a 27-17 victory over the Patriots on Saturday night. Joining host Mike D’Abate is fan-favorite Thomas ‘Murph’ Murphy as the duo break down Saturday night’s loss.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.StatHeroStatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/LOCKEDON and use promo code LOCKEDON for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful. You are now locked into the Lockdown Patriots podcast. It is Monday, December 20th, 2021. And although it isn't Victory Monday, it is still. Hashtag Lockdown Murph Monday right here on your daily home for news, notes, and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots.

And Lockdown listeners, thank you all so much for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen every day. Remember, Lockdown Patriots is free and available on all platforms, so wherever you get your podcast, make sure that you're staying locked into Lockdown Patriots. My name is Mike DeBate and I cover your New England Patriots for Patriot Maven of Sports Illustrated. I am also your host of the Locked On Patriots podcast

which of course is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And folks, that phrase, your team every day, means that your questions, your comments, your feedback are always welcomed, very much appreciated. So share that feedback.

Send it to the internet by reaching out to me and following me on Twitter at MDABATENFL. While you're out there doing some Monday meddling through the Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Locked On Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. Patriots fans, your beloved New England Patriots entered Week 15 of the 2021 season having won seven straight games.

Not too bad of a streak for a team that started the season 2-4, and most were gleefully writing their epitaph. But Patriots used an old familiar formula to return to prominence. Smart, complimentary football on both sides of the ball, taking care of the football, and, of course course exemplary coaching. That led them to the top spot in the AFC East and entering Saturday night's game just one notch in the win column below the conference-leading Kansas City Chiefs. All signs look to be pointing toward a postseason surge in the waning days of the regular

season for the Patriots. And while the Pats still find themselves in a pretty good spot to qualify for the playoffs, that momentum that had been building and building over the last few weeks may have taken just a little bit of a hit. Patriots are a team that is usually fundamentally sound, but on this night in Indianapolis, miscues, penalties, and just too many uncharacteristic mistakes, New England was unable to overcome an early 20 to nothing deficit at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts quarterback Mac Jones completing

26 of 45 passes throwing for 299 yards two touchdowns the two ugly interceptions along with it MVP candidate Jonathan Taylor for the Indianapolis Colts, rushing for 170 yards, scoring a 67-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run. That was with only two minutes and one second left on the clock. That sealed it away for the Colts, who walk away with a 27-17 victory over the New England Patriots on Saturday night. And now that it's been more than 24 hours for us to be able to absorb the loss to the Colts, we look back at the miscues, the penalties, a couple of controversial coaching decisions, and just the night in which the Patriots did not look prepared for what was going to be

one of their biggest games of the season. At 9-5, the Patriots are hardly out of the playoff race, folks. As a matter of fact, they sit right now in the second seed because, as I said just a moment ago, the Kansas City Chiefs currently seated first in the AFC. That's following their Thursday night victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. With the Pats lost to the Colts, the Tennessee Titans on Sunday had a chance to grab the second spot in the conference. However, Titans didn't quite do that. Thanks to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Amazing that the Patriots are banking

the Steelers right now, but they should be. 19-16 victory for Pittsburgh over Tennessee on Sunday. That dropped Tennessee to the third slot. As a result, the Patriots are holding on to the number two seed in the AFC with three games to play. Wondering how they're doing in the division? Well, the division is getting interesting, folks. AFC East has actually become a three-team race, technically. In addition to the Patriots' loss to the Colts, the fate of the division was altered by a pair of victories by two teams that still remain on the Patriots' regular season schedule. The Buffalo Bills, who the Pats will host this Sunday for a post-Christmas matchup that might end up deciding the division. Buffalo Bills defeated Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers 31-14 on Sunday,

while the Miami Dolphins, remember them? Yeah, starting at 1-7, that one lone win in the first part of the season was against the New England Patriots. They've been surging, luckily, winners of six straight, and they pulled out a victory over the JETS, JETS, JETS, 31 to 24. As a result, the teams at the top of the division, the three top teams are now separated by just two games in the race for the division title. A wild ride here in the AFC East, and it's only going to get wilder as the Pats and the Bills get set to hook up for the second of two meetings in the regular season.

And again, this one has the potential of being the deciding factor in the race for the division title. If New England wants to clinch the division title, they need to do so with a victory over the Buffalo Bills. And the Miami Dolphins would have to lose to the New Orleans Saints, who incidentally beat Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. If Miami defeats New Orleans, Patriots can still clinch the division. They need to beat the Buffalo Bills. That's a given. But they would also be able to do so simply by defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, January 2nd.

So, as of right now, the Patriots control their own playoff fate. They beat the Bills. They beat the Jaguars. They win the division. They're in the playoffs. But easier said than done. Maybe the Jaguars might be a little vulnerable, but the Buffalo Bills are playing solid football. For the last game and a half, the Buffalo Bills have looked every bit the formidable opponent that most people thought they would be.

A lot of people thought the loss to the Patriots had broken the Bills a little bit. As evidenced by the second half against Tampa Bay last week and also their game against Carolina yesterday, this team is back and they're ready to roll. Sunday's matchup is going to be a fun one. But before we move on to the Bills, we're going to continue to dissect the Patriots' 27-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

And because it's Monday, that's right, folks. Your favorite and mine, my benefactor in this business, the legendary Thomas Murphy joins me for his hashtag LockedOnMurphMonday appearance. And you know Murph is going to have plenty to say. We're going to be talking about this game from a Patriots perspective, from a Colts perspective. We'll discuss some of those uncharacteristic miscues.

And also, we'll be talking about whether or not some of the problems we saw on Saturday night might end up being potential problems for the Patriots down the line. Folks, an action-packed agenda, tons to get to on the pod today, so without further ado, join me in welcoming my good friend, the monster master of disaster, the green king of sting, the Count of Murphy Fisto himself, the legendary Thomas Murphy joins me here on Locked On Patriots when we return in just a moment. Locked On listeners, you listen to podcasts for the power of the inside track,

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when you switch to one of America's largest 5G networks. More power to save. Boost Mobile. Free phone limited to new customers and one per line. Additional restrictions apply. Offers and coverage not available everywhere or for all phones or networks. See BoostMobile.com for details. Locked On listeners, Super Bowl 56 at SoFi Stadium is less than 100 days away. And on location, the official hospitality partner

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the football gods got together over the weekend and decided that's just too much good fortune for your New England Patriots. The Pats still licking their wounds from a 27 to 17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. And here today to help break it all down and make sense of the mayhem is the man that provides the green wisdom and counsel that we all know love and crave each and every week that's right folks he is here he is ready to roll your favorite in mine my benefactor in this business the only guest on this pod past present or future with his very own branded hashtag, the Count of Murphy Fisto himself, the legendary Thomas Murphy is back for his weekly appearance here on Locked On Patriots.

Thank you for coming to me in friendship today. Thank you for joining me, Don Murphy. Oh, it's always a pleasure to be here, Michael. Always a pleasure to be here. Wouldn't be Monday without it. It only took a seven-game win streak to turn every past game back into their opponent's Super Bowl. Absolutely. It's always the Super Bowl when you play the New England Patriots. And bottom line, yeah, there were a lot of people out there that were happy to see the

Patriots fall off the top of that wagon a little bit. But bottom line, the New England Patriots are actually still well-position positioned for a playoff spot. Might not even be in a bad spot when it comes to nearing the top spot in the conference, going after a division title. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But Murph, 27 to 17 in terms of a loss is not how the Patriots wanted to spend week 15 of the 2021 regular season. But alas, it was just miscues, penalties, problems galore for the New England Patriots. And I know we're going to get to those,

including a couple of controversial decisions, things that happened throughout the game that may have contributed to that loss, but just reactions, because now we're more than 24 hours removed from the loss that day that Sunday in the middle kind of helps us absorb it before we took to the microphone here on lockdown Patriots when you look at this game what are your takeaways and just what were your thoughts and reactions in general to the Patriots performance you know we got into the way back machine and started playing like it was week three again it was I not happy, Michael. I was not happy.

The final score is, of course, not indicative of the entire game. It's indicative of the first three quarters of the game where the Patriots just could not seem to get out of their own way, whether it was Isaiah Wynn tackling our own running backs or false starts, another whiffed punt block. The third of the year, the Patriots now lead the league in allowing block punts on the season with three. I've never seen special teams play this bad. It almost seemed like this team was believing its own press. They did not have a good week of workouts, and they came out flat. They got blown off the ball on both sides

of the line of scrimmage to start this game. And then in the middle of the third, beginning of the fourth quarter, things started to click and started to work. By that time, it had really gotten chippy out there on the field. It was a mess. It was a mess. I can't, me being this upset, I can't believe the ride home on an airplane with Bill Belichick because we know that he is riding home, unlike other NFL head coaches, after a loss with their team. Well, with all due respect, that head coach who will remain nameless is no longer an NFL head coach. So I can tell you something about why certain guys survive in this business and why certain guys don't.

But I'll leave it to my good friend, Tony Wiggins, over at Locked On Jaguars to give you all of the negativity surrounding Urban Meyer and that fiasco. But this is Locked On Patriots. But this is Lockdown Patriots. We're going to talk Patriots. And, look, bottom line, I agree with you. I mean, you know, the Patriots are very uncharacteristically – I guess the best way for me to put it is the Patriots are – it's uncharacteristic for the New England Patriots to lose a game

in the fashion that they lost it on Saturday, especially when it comes to the fourth quarter, you know, comeback attempt that almost was where they started to make the stops when they needed to. They started to be able to do things that they needed to. I understand the Taylor run that's for 67 yards to ice the game for Indianapolis was a huge run for him. Right. And nobody's going to deny the prowess of Jonathan Taylor. Everyone knew that if the Patriots provided him cutback lanes, which they did on that drive, he was going to be able to take it to the house. That's exactly what he did. You called it. It was

in your keys. We talked about it a little bit last week. Steve talked and I talked about it on the airwaves here last week. It was just it was a lot to be able to absorb and then be able to put back right, you know, onto the, the table. So that aside, the New England Patriots started to wake up a little bit in the latter part of that game, but the hole that they dug each, you know, each other on both sides of the ball was just too much for them to be able to, to come back from. And again, you know, penalties to me was just it was the Achilles heel of this game. Eight penalties. Michael Wayne who being whistled for, you know, the the penalty that brought fourth and two back to fourth and seven, which precipitated something we're going to talk about in probably just a couple of seconds.

But, you know, the the the holding, you know, for the holding call on Jacoby Myers that brought back a 20-plus yard run for Jonu Smith, who's really been – and Jonu's been so eager to get this thing going, and that run was really, I think, a catalyst to something that could have springboarded him to maybe a little bit more – just a lot of miscues for the New England Patriots. Right. There's that Janu's false start on second and one from the 13. The unwavering third and goal from the two. The Brandon King offsides gave the Colts the second shot at that missed field goal.

It was, you know, you mentioned the Jacoby Myers thing. But what a lot of people are talking about is the drops that happened in the first half. The Myers drop at the end of the first half was killer. Mack put the ball perfectly into a window. Honestly, few quarterbacks could do. You can go back and you can watch that a dozen times, and there are a handful of quarterbacks in the NFL that were able to do that, and Myers just couldn't couldn't haul it in couldn't get it done and the next play was the block punt

yeah absolutely and you're absolutely right you know drops at key times are definitely issues um you know Mack for all the flack that he's catching for the performance that he put out two ugly interceptions you can't deny that they were bad throws bad decisions but you know he finished the night 26 yeah exactly and it could have been three thank you tonight going 26 of 45 for 299 yards especially when you look at the stat lines that he's put up over the course of the last you know a few weeks the three pass attempts uh you know aside when it comes to two weeks ago against buffalo right you look at that and you'll probably say, well, Mack played probably about as average as you could imagine that he would. But all that being said, the Patriots still were within striking distance to make this one happen.

And a lot of people, Murph, are pointing toward Bill Belichick's call to kick a 25-yard field goal. Nick Fole, always reliable, always money. You know that's a guaranteed three points. You're, always money. You know that's a You're in a, you're in a fire way to be able to pu board. Bill's looking at the clock strategy. He's

be enough time to be able He explained that this mo are buying it. Some peopl you on this? Did Bill Bel callick make the right call by kicking the field goal on fourth and seven, knowing what we now know about the clock, his decision-making, and the fact that Nick Folk is pretty good at getting these points on the board? He made the absolute right call. I made the right call before Bill said, take the points. There was nine minutes left in the game when he made that call, and the Patriots' defense was clicking on all cylinders. They had made stop after stop in the

fourth quarter. They owned the ball. They had the momentum. It was definitely the right call to have. I believe that if the defense had made a stop there, they would have been able to go back down and score a touchdown. It just didn't work out that way. The Colts were able to run too much time off the clock. Yeah, absolutely. And Bill exactly said essentially what you just said this morning when he met with the media. He thought there was enough time, thought they'd have enough possessions to score 10 points. And look, for everyone that is acting shocked and bewildered or feigning to act shocked and bewildered i think is a better way to

put there you go this is bill belichick style this is exactly what he does it's not so much that he doesn't have any faith in mac jones yeah is there something to be said about the fact that mac is still a developing rookie absolutely you know You know, he has Tom Brady under center. Maybe he's not as hesitant to, you know, to go for it and not kick the field goal. But at the same time, Bill is going to make this call more often than he's not going to make it. And I think that maybe is what is not being pushed properly as a narrative

here, or is being ignored because it's some sort of narrative that no one wants to lend credence to. You know, a lot of people, they're going to take the light in pushing that narrative that, oh, this clearly shows that he has no trust in his quarterback. But when you look at what Bill Belichick does, he takes these actions more often than not because he has a lot of confidence, like you said, in the defense's ability to make key stops and create additional possessions. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out at this point, but just because it didn't work out doesn't mean it was the poor decision. And I think that's something that people need to,

to remember. He put the faith and his, and he put his faith in the ability of the defense to create those additional positions. And unfortunately it didn't work out this time around, but it almost worked. The strategy really almost worked. The Patriots got down, made the other score, made it 20-17. Taylor's run back obviously crushed any hope, but if the Patriots force a punt in that situation, or they force a three and out and they're able to get Indy pinned back and all of a sudden you're playing good field position,

Nick Folk making a 50-yarder at the end of the game, Bill brought this up too, is not necessarily an insurmountable hole. So for everyone who's lambasting Bill Belichick for this call, I understand it's not aesthetically pleasing. I understand it's not the strike first, strike hard, no mercy, you know, stuff that the fans want to see, but there is logic behind it. And I don't care what the analytics say. And you know, who else doesn't care what the analytics say? Bill Belichick. He's going to trust his gut. That gut has gotten him six Superbowl championships as head coach of the New

England Patriots, eight overall. So, you know, I'm going to trust that gut. I think that's a pretty good place to be. I just want to, I want to point out one thing that the teams that go for it, the most on fourth down in the NFL right now are the Lions, the Washington football team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Los Angeles Chargers. The teams that go for it the least on fourth down are the Seahawks, the Patriots, the Chiefs, and the Bucs. Go do the math, people. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is wins and losses. There's one outlier on each side of this equation,

and it's Seattle who's having a down year again. And on the other end, it's probably the Chargers who are having a better than decent year. But it comes down to wins and losses, and go see where those those teams all sit in their conference and uh and divisions yeah absolutely so well said and i'm glad that you mentioned that and look for all of the difficulties that seattle is having you got to give pete carroll his credit he's been to the puppet show he's seen the strings this guy's been around a long time

if there's anyone that's a aggressive type personality a type a personality that you would think would go for it all the time it would be pete running all around and getting excited and being you know house of fire but even pete understands the reason for temperance uh in a situation like that i have i have no issue i have no issue with the team that's sitting on their opponent's 40 yard line or 30 yard line even and going for it on fourth down and three or fourth down and one. It's when you give up points, when you give up sure points. It has burned team after team after team over the years, and you really have to step back from the math because this game is not played in a vacuum. Absolutely. It is not played in a vacuum and definitely something to remember.

And Murph, in a lot of ways, we brought up the penalties and the miscues earlier. We talked a little bit about that. I want to flush that out in just a little bit. But before we take a little bit of a break here on Locked on Patriots, I just wanted to get your take. You had mentioned about the blocked punt and the Patriots now lead the NFL with three blocked Jake Bailey punts. That's unfathomable to me. I just can't wrap my mind around that. When a team that is as dedicated to special teams excellence and special teams acumen and they're not able to get that done. It's just so uncharacteristic of what you usually see in New England. Maybe the most uncharacteristic thing that we saw from the Patriots all weekend long was that blocked punt.

That's the one that still bothers me. Just take us through what your thoughts were on that and where the breakdown seems to be happening. Is it blocking? Does Bill Belichick blame the blocking? Matthew Slater says we need to do everything better on special teams. Is this a matter of blocking? Is this a Jake Bailey issue? What's your take on the block?

Why the Patriots? Why it's happening? It's not a Jake Bailey issue. He's not holding a ball too long. He's not doing anything inappropriate back there or hesitating. It is definitely an upfront issue. It was an issue with Jakob Johnson the other night for the second time, I believe. And he was just frozen and got run past.

Nobody touched Junior. Nobody touched him at all. And he was right there, and it was the game changer. It was a game changer. The Patriots would have had the Colts pinned back. Instead, it turned into seven points. Yeah, and seven costly points. When you put your team in any type of a deficit and any type of a hole, especially after the, quote-unquote, Patriots special with Neheim Himes. Oh, come on. I agree with you on Jake Bailey. I'm glad that you mentioned that because I've looked at this from every possible angle and admittedly I'm not an expert on you know puncher mechanics or anything like that but everything that I've seen looks to be clean on his end it did not look like this was a little bit of a breakdown there in terms of coverage. Jelani Tavai was also in on the coverage or not in on the coverage, depending on your point of view.

Yeah, I thought it was Tavai's problem at first, but Steve straightened me out. He said that it was Jakob Johnson that missed the block. I thought it was Jihani. And that would have been the second time that he had let this happen during the year. But I'm going to defer to Steve. It's not many people I defer to on this planet, but he's one of them. Well, if you're going to defer to a football mind,

Steve Balistrieri is one of the better ones in this realm to defer to. Few, if any, have the knowledge that he possesses. So if you're willing to do that, I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that as well. And I happen to agree with him from what I've seen as well, but Steve's mind is a little bit more of a brilliant football mind and mine. And I'll, I'll certainly mine.

I don't know about that. You got the branded hashtag for a reason. That wisdom and counsel and those monster keys are always, always keys to victory. And folks, the keys weren't turned on Saturday. This is why we're not celebrating our eighth straight Victory Monday. But fear not, folks, because Murph and I are not quite done yet. In just a moment here on Locked On Patriots, we're going to talk about some of the penalties and the miscues that we just went over. In terms of the New England Patriots, was this just a bad day for the Pats on Saturday? Or are these potential problems that could come back to bite them, especially with three games left on the 2021 NFL schedule as they head toward the playoffs?

More Pats Colts talk when this hashtag Locked on Murph Monday episode of the Locked on Patriots podcast continues. Locked On listeners, this holiday season, grab the protein bar that tastes like a candy bar or even better than a candy bar. Built Bar, filled with so much holiday goodness, rich with decadent flavor, covered in chocolate. Sounds so good, doesn't it? It is that good, but amazingly low in calorie, which is true. It's even better than you think. Sugar, net carbs, fat, all very low when it comes to this delicious treat and very

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mental mistakes, blocking assignments, getting broken down. The Patriots just unfortunately ran into a lot of self-inflicted issues on Saturday night. And I'm not lessening the Indianapolis Colts effort. I thought they had a solid game plan. You've got to give them a little bit of credit for coming in and doing what they said they were going to do, which is shut down Ramondre Stevenson,

stop Brandon Bolin from being able to run, shut down the running game, force Mac Jones to be able to beat them. For two and a half quarters, it worked pretty well. And then Mac started to wake up a little bit, and that got a little bit dicey toward the end. But ultimately, you've got to give them credit. They were able to do it for a little bit and take the Patriots out of their game. But these penalties, these miscues, these difficulties that the Patriots had Murph were just, they inexplicably put the Patriots in an unwinnable position. And to me, that was the reason why this team was not able to come out on top. When you look at the difficulties that they had, you mentioned this a little bit earlier. So I'm going to ask you

to flesh this out a little bit more. You said that the Patriots are starting to believe their own hype, had a four-week practice, came in unprepared, and essentially got it handed to them because of that nature. But my question to you is, this late in the season, those types of mental breakdowns can be a concern, especially when there's not much time to rebound. Are you worried that these problems could potentially come back to haunt the Patriots, or do you think a solid week of practice and riding the ship against the Buffalo Bills this weekend is everything they need to keep pushing forward and still be one of the top teams in the conference? I think a solid week of practice and just, and a, and just, just pass on the giant cup of stupid is going to help the Patriots immensely

going into this, into this game with, with Buffalo, which, which is still a hat and t-shirt game folks. The Patriots committed eight penalties for 50 yards on Sunday. Seven of the eight were offensive penalties. The other one was, was on special teams. The defense played solid. They went with their game plan, and it worked. It did.

It worked until that 67-yard run at the end where the two people that you would expect never to whiff on anybody did whiff on a tackle. And they probably would have gotten the ball back and been able to put up some more points. But this was the most penalized game the Patriots have had since Tampa in week four. There have been a couple of games where there have been more penalty yards given because there were penalties on the defense, and the Patriots were able to overcome them because they were playing the Jets. But other than that, no, these are things that can be cleaned up. As long as they don't get too tight and start worrying about these things,

yeah, I'm convinced that we will get back down to week 12 with four penalties against Tennessee or four penalties against the Chargers. These are the games that the Patriots are looking their best is when they're playing smart, tight football and or smart, loose football, I should say, and not being tight on the offensive line. Yeah, without any question. Good point. And see, that's my take on this as well.

And that's exactly how I chose to view it, is that this was more of a hiccup than a potential outing of the Patriots being a pretender rather than a contender. I still believe this team is solidly in contention, maybe not the favorite for the top spot in the conference any longer, but they'll be in the hunt for it. And I do think that they're still right now in the driver's seat when it comes to the division and we'll get to the division in just a second but you look at this game and i think three of the egregious type penalties that we've talked about are things that can be shored up we talked about a wayne who's penalty on third and goal from the two yard line that sets them back that could have changed the complexity of the game if matt goes for third and two and doesn't complete it if you're on fourth and two all of a sudden that looks so much more appealing to go for

it maybe bill belichick goes for it in that case and the patriots punch in seven all of a sudden they come back down punch in another seven before that penalty ramon dray was going to run straight up the gut and and get to at least the one yard line that's the play that was called if you go back and you look at it and that was it and they weren't going to stop him he probably would have scored but he at least would have gotten to the two or the one and we would have been talking about something completely different i'm sorry i'm just oh no it does i'm ranting i'm ranting no you're not ranting because it changes the narrative that's exactly the point that i'm getting at we talked about meyer's penalty and the holding penalty that erases the 20 yard run by which was garbage that way by the way that was a garbage penalty it was a garbage call it had

nothing to do with the play whatsoever but this this crew is is so flag happy it's unreal um you would you will see that call made maybe three times in an entire season of the league and they decided to throw laundry on that i was pissed i was so pissed yeah i think a lot of people were and i was one of them as well uh you know the officiating uh you know bill belichick has said several times this week over the course of his post-game remarks whether it be saturday night or technically early sunday morning and then again this morning um ask the officials is something or ask the reps is something that Bill Belichick has repeatedly said, trying to bite his tongue. Because I think if he said any more than that, probably could have been a situation where he might be looking at getting fined.

And honestly, I wouldn't be able to blame him on this one. But no, I agree. Those types of you mentioned Brandon King's whistle for the offside. That would have been this 46 yard field goal. All of a sudden, Michael Badgley gets new life. He punches it in from 41. So all of these penalties just continuously and ultimately fatally derailed New England's comeback attempts. And when you play undisciplined football, it's very hard for you to be able to get it back and get the victory.

And that explains why the Patriots were where they were. Especially against a team like the colts that that are not penalized at all right you know this team is plays a very disciplined it was chippy the other night folks but but generally the colts do not get uh get flagged an awful lot all right yeah they do they do play a very disciplined game and you got to give credit to the coaching staff and credit to the players as well uh for being able to keep themselves in check and normally the patriots are right there in that mix but just an anomaly on saturday night and uh one of the problems that they had and unfortunately one of the reasons why uh they found themselves on the losing end of that it was

a perfect storm between the penalties the drops the injuries that happened and the ejection of Duggar. It was just a perfect storm and they were still able to stay in it or climb back into it in the fourth quarter and maybe could have won it with with one more break. Yeah, absolutely. They could have. And I think that they had the chance. And that to me is why they'll look to build on that this week. And that lends me quite nicely to my final question for you today, buddy. And that is the Patriots right now at nine and five, still hold a one game lead over the Buffalo bills. They were victorious on Sunday over Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers.

Unfortunately that wasn't to be thought. Maybe a couple of old friends could have helped us out. Gotten a little bit of an upset when that didn't happen. The Miami dolphins all of a sudden find themselves back in the mix, winners of six straight. And they're back in. You can't count on the Jets for a damn thing, can you? No, unfortunately not. When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way. And that's exactly what happened. So unfortunately, the Patriots, two of their final three games are against these teams that are playing very good football. And the Bills, it's surprising because you thought maybe that loss that they suffered

a couple of weeks ago to the Patriots to moralize them a little bit. It looks like it invigorated them, especially from the second half of that Buccaneers game and then yesterday against the Carolina Panthers. Murph, I'm not going to put you on the hot seat, ask you for any type of in-depth analysis, but as you look toward these final three games of the season what do you need to see from the Patriots to convince you that heading into the playoffs this team is going to be a very tough out well first we're going to uh need some health uh we need to get our our number one running back back in the fold we saw on Sunday that things just aren't as easy for our man without Damian without Damian Harris. And they're knocking some guys around and tiring some guys out and beating them up.

He's a huge part of this run game, and hopefully he comes back. I think they were probably on the fence as to whether or not he was going to play this week, last week, but they thought better off to be safe than sorry. They were pretty sure that they could have won that game. They ended up being wrong. But that's what I mean. Things are also going to have to, as I said, the offensive line is going to have to get back on the same page.

It seemed like they were all a little off. There was some miscommunications. Those things happen. You can't let that happen this week. And lastly, keep it more balanced this week. I think that, you know, the trip up to Orchard Park was what it was. And the Patriots were lucky enough to be able to come out of there with a win. And yeah, you know, off of three passes, what are you going to do? That's the way the game played out. This week they're going to have to be a little bit more balanced,

especially if they are going – I think that Bill will come out the same way that they came out in Orchard Park, try to get them to load up the box and then turn around and let McDaniels, McCorkle, cook a little bit. And I think he's going to have a really good bounce-back game right from the get-go. But no, it's going to have to be a balanced attack. It's going to have to be a penalty-free day. And this team is going to have to get a little hungry. Skip breakfast, people. Skip breakfast.

Exactly. Make them hungry. Make them leave the table full, but make sure that they're good and hungry when they get there. And I completely agree with you on that. Folks, the wisdom, the counsel that is lent like no other here at Locked On Patriots can only belong to one man. And that is my good friend on the other end of the microphone right now, the legendary Thomas Murphy. You should already be following this man on Twitter, but for the benefit of our new listeners that might not be, please follow my good friend, that count of Murphy, Fisto himself,

on Twitter at TeamMurph207. The content that this man puts out on a daily basis for E2GSports.com is always point, click, learn material, whether it be the phenomenal content he puts out on the New England Patriots, including the Monster Keys, which I say every week, click, learn material, whether it be the phenomenal content he puts out on the New England Patriots, including the monster keys, which I say every week, folks, you turn the keys, you go to the top. You don't turn the keys, you're never heard from again. Patriots didn't turn the keys on Saturday night,

and that's one of the big reasons why they were not successful. But when you turn the keys, it leads to a seven-game win streak. And for seven weeks, Murphph they caught on to the scheme they caught on they knew what they needed to do I don't know what happened on uh on Saturday in Indianapolis but uh we'll get to the bottom of it one way or another but bottom line please never miss the e2g sports.com material Murph is putting out some phenomenal content if you're a Boston Red Sox fan some of the best baseball coverage you'll find anywhere. And I truly mean that. Great, great stuff.

No matter when he puts pen to paper, it's always happening. And, of course, never miss an episode of One Patriot's Place with Murph, our great mutual friend Steve Balistrieri, and our Wednesday resident here now on Locked On Patriots, the new lady of Locked On, Ms. Claire Clasiclair Cooper. But what can I say? Thank you once again, my good man. on Locked On Patriots, the new lady of Locked On, Ms. Claire, Klaze, Claire Cooper. But what can I say? Thank you once again, my good man. Honored and humbled, as always, by your presence. But it is always great to be here. Always fantastic to kick off the week.

I'm sure you're going to have a blast with Steve. And, of course, Claire. Claire's always fun. You can break down the tight-ended stuff with her on Wednesday. Until next week, man, I'll just be biding my time, and I'm sitting over here. I got the file out. I'm going to have these keys ready, and hopefully this weekend they listen. Absolutely. And what better Christmas gift can you provide to Patriots Nation than the monster keys to victory?

That is always the case, folks. No matter what you're unwrapping on Christmas morning, unwrap those keys, take them out, turn them, take them for a spin because you'll be a better football fan and just a better person in general for reading Merce Monster Keys. Until next week, my friend, stay safe, stay well. A very Merry Christmas to you and yours. And thank you so much for joining me here today on Locked On Patriots. Buffalo nuts roasting on an open fire. I don't have a comeback for that. It's not a clean one.

It's not a clean comeback for that. We all know what Buffalo fans love to throw on the field, and I'm just going to leave it at that. Have a great one, folks. Thank you so much. Just like that, Patriots fans, one down, but still a ton of Pats coverage to come here on this week heading into the holiday. So to be sure that you do not miss a single second of the action, download, subscribe to, and follow the Locked On Patriots podcast on platforms such as Spotify, the Odyssey app, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Just make sure that you're staying locked into Locked On Patriots.

And once again, thank you for making Locked On Patriots your first listen every day. Once again, my name is Mike DeBate. I thank my good friend Thomas Murphy for his time, his insight, and his appearance on today's pod. But most of all, I thank you so much for listening and for continuing to make Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. Until tomorrow, Foxborough faithful, stay safe, stay well, be the change that you wish to see in the world.

Have a great day, everyone.