Leading OFF
Blueprint for beating Patriots, Tom Brady revealed vs. Titans
Mike Vrabel made it sound so simple.
“You’ve got to make Tom blink,” the Titans head coach said Nov. 11 when asked about the key to neutralizing Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, as he and his squad did in a 34-10 thumping of New England in Nashville, Tennessee.
“If you make him blink and go to a second read, you’ve got a chance,” Vrabel expanded. “If you let him rip it to the first guy he looks at, it’s going to be a long day.”
Obviously, Vrabel knew what he was talking about. The Titans’ first-year head coach learned quite a bit about Brady during eight seasons (and three Super Bowl-winning campaigns) in New England from 2001 to 2008.
Vrabel knows that making Brady blink is easier said than done. The quarterback has seen it all during a 19-season career chocked full of passing records and accolades. He has outsmarted some of the best defensive coaches and players of his era, and his coach Bill Belichick is a master of preparation. It’s a rare occasion that an opponent can consistently surprise the Patriots.
Vrabel and Co., however, found a way.
Working side-by-side with defensive coordinator Dean Pees (who held the same position in New England from 2006 to 2009 after two seasons as Bill Belichick’s linebackers coach), Vrabel cooked up a recipe for success.
It included an array of exotic blitzes, delays, stunts and counters to catch Brady and his linemen off guard. And in the secondary, the Titans disguised their coverages and switched assignments at the last second to avoid tipping him off to their intentions.
The frequent shifts caused Brady to hold onto the ball a beat or two longer, and that enabled the pass rushers to harass the quarterback. The Titans sacked him three times and hit him another six times. Brady completed a season-low 51 percent of his passes while throwing for just 245 yards and no touchdowns with a 70.6 passer rating. The 10 points mustered by the Patriots tied a season low. And the Patriots’ 3-for-20 showing on third downs fell well below their average success rate of 42.3 percent.
“We didn’t do much of anything well today, so everything was a problem,” Belichick said. “They were better than we were in that area (third downs), along with a lot of other ones . ... The Titans were clearly the better team and deserved to win. They did, soundly.”
It wasn’t entirely surprising to see the Patriots struggle early against the Titans. Tennessee does boast the top defense in the league, limiting opponents to just more than 17 points per game. But the extent of New England’s struggles did raise eyebrows. Typically, teams attack New England and make the Patriots wobble. But Belichick, Brady and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels normally do such a good job of adjusting to what foes throw at them that original game plans are rendered useless.
The Titans managed to remain a step ahead all game long, however.
On defense, Vrabel and Pees followed a similar blueprint to success that former Patriots defensive coordinator-turned-Lions coach Matt Patricia used this season while handing the Patriots their second loss of the season. Outside of the two Belichick disciples, only Jacksonville’s Doug Marone has managed to beat the Patriots this season. His defense also pressured Brady often.
But few offenses have used the amount of creativity as did Titans play-caller Matt LaFleur, who executed an offensive game plan that featured a variety of looks and wrinkles. Tennessee threw everything at the Patriots from jet sweeps to read-option plays and Wildcat formations.
In Tennessee’s diverse attack, outside of wide receiver Corey Davis and his seven catches for 125 yards and a touchdown, no Titans player put up gaudy numbers. Two backs rushed for just less than 60 yards apiece, and none of the other six pass catchers recorded more than 45 receiving yards.
Vrabel downplayed the significance of beating his former team.
But with the game nearly in hand, Vrabel and his coaches had a little fun with the Patriots.
Looking for a spark in the fourth quarter, McDaniels called for a double-reverse wide receiver pass to Brady. The quarterback made the catch but stumbled and fell short of the first down. A short time later, when needing a first down of their own, the Titans called the same play. Quarterback Marcus Mariota caught Darius Jennings’ pass and picked up 21 yards.
Asked about the ultimate troll move, Vrabel managed to keep a straight face. He explained that every team has gadget plays in their back pocket. But then he added, “I wanted to see if it looked any better than theirs.”
Six games remain for New England (7-3), but if the playoffs ended today, Bill Belichick and Co. would hold the third seed in the AFC. That would mean no first-round bye and, more important, no home-field advantage in the division or conference championship rounds.
Having the top seed has always mattered greatly to the Patriots. The paths to each of their last five Super Bowl appearances have featured home victories in the AFC Championship Games. Meanwhile, they have lost in the last three conference title games that they played on the road.
Catching up to the AFC’s top contenders could be extremely difficult.
Leading the pack is Kansas City (9-1). The Patriots edged the Chiefs in Foxborough, so they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. But they still trail by two games. New England’s final stretch features two meetings with the hapless Jets and a game apiece against the Dolphins and Bills. But potentially challenging matchups with the Vikings and Steelers also await New England.
But given New England struggled against the strong pass-rushing attacks of Tennessee, Detroit and Jacksonville, the Steelers don’t represent the most favorable matchup for the Patriots. They have the No. 8 defense in the league and the fourth-best offense. They present a physical rushing attack with James Conner and a big-play passing attack thanks to Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
That sounds like the kind of squad that could give the Patriots all sorts of problems and threaten their chances of reaching the Super Bowl for a third consecutive year.
As the Titans proved, New England can be vulnerable.