Brady: No issue with fiery Lewis
Dion Lewis had a lot to say after his Titans pounded his former team, the Patriots, in a 34-10 victory Sunday.
PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK
“Hell yeah, it’s personal,” Lewis told the NFL Network. “That’s what happens when you go cheap. You get your ass kicked.”
On his weekly radio appearance with WEEI yesterday morning, Tom Brady didn’t offer much of a response to Lewis. He said the running back was entitled to talk after the beatdown Tennessee put on the Patriots.
“I give them credit, they beat us. When you win, you can say a lot of things,” Brady said. “That is the reality of winning. We’ll just take our lumps and try and learn from them.”
Lewis’ “cheap” comment was a reference to the Patriots letting him walk in free agency without showing too much interest in bringing him back, and that wasn’t all he had to say.
“I didn’t have to prove anything. I know I can play,” Lewis said. “I just had to let our team know that these guys are beatable . ... I know those guys. I know that (if) you be physical with them and let ’em have it and they’ll fold.”
In his typically diplomatic manner, Brady noted Lewis’ comments hardly represent a unique sentiment among players and their former teams throughout the league.
“It’s an emotional thing. I think people have different emotional feelings,” Brady said. “Dion had a great career here. It’s hard to see great players go and I know it’s not the first time it’s happened, it has happened to a lot of guys. I am sure when they go to different places they want to beat us, absolutely.
“I can understand that emotion. We’ve had guys come from other teams and they have wanted to beat that team. It’s just part of the sport.”
Dawson looms
The Patriots are at a critical juncture with rookie cornerback Duke Dawson.
The second-round pick out of Florida was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury at the beginning of the regular season. He returned to practice Oct. 24, indicating the Patriots had selected him as one of two players eligible to return after being placed on IR.
Once a player with the IR/ return designation returns to practice, his team has 21 days to activate him to their 53-man roster. For Dawson and the Patriots, that deadline is today.
To nobody’s surprise, Bill
Belichick didn’t offer any hints as to what course the Pats would take.
“Well, we have to make a call on it one way or the other, so yeah,” Belichick said. “We’ll do that in the required period that we have to. Yeah, we’ll see how it goes.”
Dawson will revert to IR and become ineligible to play the rest of the regular season if the Patriots don’t activate him.
The other IR/return player for the Patriots is running back Rex Burkhead, who was placed on IR with a neck injury in September. He returned to practice last Thursday, so the Pats have some time to make a decision with him.
Edelman good news
Julian Edelman left Sunday’s loss in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury and did not return, but the team reportedly got good news on his status yesterday.
Edelman’s injury isn’t considered serious, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, and the wide receiver isn’t expected to miss much time, if any.
Edelman has started to hit his stride the last few weeks after returning from a torn ACL and a four-game PED suspension. He’s gone over 100 receiving yards in two of the last three games and has earned double-digit targets from Brady in all of those games as well.
Passing slump
The Patriots’ red-hot offense ground to a halt Sunday. Its 10 points tied the team’s lowest output of the season, and Brady in particular had a rough afternoon. He completed just 21-of-41 pass attempts, never found the end zone and registered a lowly passer rating of 70.6.
One reason for the struggles in the passing game was a lack of production from depth players at skill positions. While Edelman, Josh
Gordon and James White combined for 32 targets, all other pass-catchers combined for just six.
“I think the reality is I am just trying to find the open guy,” Brady told WEEI. “I am trying to throw the ball to the guy I think is going to be most open based on the play, and what we’re running, and what the defense has called.”
The open guy rarely was a player like Phillip Dorsett,
Chris Hogan, Dwayne Allen or Jacob Hollister. All struggled to gain separation in the secondary, allowing the Titans to allocate more resources toward taking out Brady’s top targets.
“I am not thinking much about who is where,” Brady said. “A lot of those things are game plan and we are putting guys in certain positions based on situations. I am just letting coverage dictate where it goes.”