Rout by Titans still stings
FOXBORO — Players have long memories. They don’t forget occasions when they’re embarrassed on a football field. Players also tend to tuck away what was said about them after such a humiliating loss. Those words also leave a mark.
Enter the Tennessee Titans, this week’s upcoming joint practice and preseason game opponent.
Last season, the Patriots were thrashed by Mike Vrabel’s team.. It was a 34-10 blowout in Nashville, and it wasn’t even that close. Former Patriots running back Dion Lewis took so much pleasure in the victory, he essentially told reporters Bill Belichick’s team was easy to beat because his former teammates were soft.
This was November. It was Week 10. In the big picture of a championship season, it actually proved a pivotal
week for the Patriots. Getting their butts whipped, and being called out by a player who won a ring in Foxboro, essentially woke them up.
In the remaining six regular season games, the defense allowed an average of 12.7 points per game. The offense, meanwhile, scored 26 per game. We all know what happened to the Chargers, Chiefs and Rams after that.
But even with another Lombardi trophy in the case, the sting of that week and the biting words of an exteammate, haven’t fully left the building.
“You try to learn from the situation, why we played that certain way, and learn from it. But you never forget,” said Patriots safety Duron Harmon. “You never forget the remarks after the game. You don’t forget how we played, what it felt like to lose that way. You remember that stuff.”
Obviously, there’s a lot of new faces on the Patriots, players fighting for jobs who had nothing to do with last year’s team or that loss.
But it still seems like the Pats are in a bit of payback mode. The Lions also beat them up pretty good last year in a road game Week 3, dumping them 26-10. There wasn’t much mercy shown by the Pats and their new cast in the 31-3 drubbing of Matt Patricia’s team Thursday night in the preseason opener. So the Titans are next up on the block.
“You never want that to be the last remembrance of playing a team, getting blown out. We know they’re going to be ready to go. Their group is going to be fired up,” Harmon said of the Titans. “They play good team defense. They have good players offensively and defensively and special teams. We know we’re going to have to match all that starting with the joint practices. We’re going to go out there and set the tempo, let them know what happened that other time is not the norm for this team.”
Not the norm, indeed. According to Devin McCourty, Belichick replayed the film of that Titans game to the players several times after Week 10. If that was going to be a blueprint of how to beat the Patriots, think again.
“The things we didn’t do well, we figured we might see that again, so we saw that film a couple times during the year,” said McCourty. “Other teams would try and do some of the things they did, and why wouldn’t you? It’s the same thing as last week. We went down to Detroit, and last year, they beat up on us pretty bad. So now, we get another opportunity again the Titans.”
It’s an opportunity to – over the course of the joint practices and preseason game – flex their muscles, so to speak. If Lewis didn’t get the message watching his former team after that game, he might this week.
To quote Lewis, he said: “These guys are beatable . ... I know those guys. I know that you be physical with them and let’ em have it and they’ll fold.
That certainly wasn’t the image down the stretch, or during the playoffs last season. The Patriots were the dominant physical team in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
“We know we’re a tough football team. We know what we do during the offseason, and during the season preparing. We know we’re tough,” said Harmon. “I wouldn’t say we have to go out there and show that, because teams know that. They know when they play us, we’re a tough, hardnosed football team. But sometimes, you just have to make other people remember.”
That means you, Tennessee.