Patriots all wrong
Epic fail in laugher vs. Titans
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — On a late third down yesterday, Josh McDaniels, desperately searching for any offensive spark, dialed up a reverse pass to Tom Brady.
It was the same call the Patriots used in Super Bowl LII, except this time Brady caught it. He brought the ball in over his shoulder, turned upfield, and promptly stumbled forward, awkwardly crashing to the ground just shy of a first down.
A fourth-and-short morphed into a fourth-and-6 after a Marcus Cannon false start, one of countless Pats miscues. Brady couldn’t connect with Julian Edelman, and the Pats handed the ball back to Tennessee.
On the first play of Titans drive, they ran an identical reverse play.
If the game wasn’t locked up already, it was when Titans receiver Darius Jennings hit quarterback Marcus Mariota for a 22-yard gain with 10:48 remaining in a 34-10 rout of the Pats .
“I wanted to see if it looked any better than theirs,” Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel said with a smirk.
That’s how ugly it got in Nashville. The perennially mediocre Titans were mocking the defending AFC champs. And the Pats could do nothing about it.
Thousands of Patriots fans made the trip to Nashville to see their team continue its path of AFC destruction, only to leave quietly.
“I’m sorry we disappointed so many fans that were here for us,” Edelman said.
The Pats failed in all areas. Cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who had blanketed stud receivers like Davante Adams, Allen Robinson and Sammy Watkins, was routinely torched by Corey Davis (125 yards, touchdown).
And they seemed like they were down a man on the offensive line. Brady was constantly under attack, frequently chucking the ball away or diving to the ground to avoid a big hit. He barely completed 50 percent of his passes. The offense was so disjointed that McDaniels resorted to calling a throw to Brady on a pivotal play, a third-and-7 from the Tennessee 43 at the start of the fourth quarter.
“When we were playing third-and-long and secondand-long, it was floodgates,” center David Andrews said.
The Titans overwhelmed the Patriots up front, creating pressure with interior blitzes. After one play, left tackle Trent Brown and tight end Dwayne Allen were both writhing on the ground in pain. Brown tried to play through a back injury but eventually exited. Ditto for Allen and his knee injury. Marcus Cannon briefly left in the second half but returned.
To make matters worse, Edelman limped off with an ankle injury late in the fourth quarter. Even if he could have kept playing, there was no use rolling him back out there. Not after running back Derrick Henry glided untouched through a defeated defense for a 10yard touchdown that gave Tennessee a 34-10 lead with 7:13 left.
Brady’s day was done after that play, too, replaced by Brian Hoyer.
The quick recap for the passing game: Brady forced far too many throws to Josh Gordon, who beat double coverage for 44 yards on the opening series but was inconsistent. Gordon dropped a few catchable balls, and Edelman was the only reliable threat. Chris Hogan threw up a goose egg despite playing the majority of snaps.
Brady wasn’t necessarily sharp himself. He floated a handful of ugly throws to the perimeter. Most of the time, he looked out of sorts.
“You’ve got to make Tom blink,” Vrabel said. “If you make him blink and have to go to a second read, you have a chance.”
There were major issues at all levels of offense. Sony Michel returned, but the running game mustered 40 yards on 19 attempts.
For the first time since 2005, a Brady-led Patriots team has lost three games by double digits. This one was a mess from the beginning, as Jennings ripped off a 58-yard kick return to start the afternoon.
“We kind of just got beat on throughout the whole game,” safety Duron Harmon said. “Any time you do that, it doesn’t leave a good taste in your mouth. I mean, some points of the game didn’t even look like it was competitive.”
As the Titans celebrated their biggest regular-season win in years, Harmon made sure to visit with former teammates Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan, and Dion Lewis. This was a get-right game for Butler, who had struggled mightily with his new team. It was certainly a revenge game for Lewis, who continued roasting the Pats on social media in the hours after the win.
“I still talked to them, said hello,” Harmon said. “It’s bigger than football. The relationships you have will go way past football. So you still talk to them. But somebody had to lose today. Somebody had to win.”