20 thoughts on the Patriots’ 20-13 loss to Titans
Is this the end of the dynasty? Is this it for Tom Brady in New England?
■ 1. So many questions remain unanswered about the Patriots at this crucial point in their history, a moment in time when their unprecedented dynasty is — with sadness and some denial from New Englanders and with great glee for the rest of the football-loving country — revealing an expiration date. Those answers, all of the confirmations and truths, will come bit by bit in the months ahead. You know the questions — they were a loud part of the conversation even before this season ended Saturday night with a 20-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans. Will Tom Brady play in the NFL again? Will he be a Patriot again? Or did we just witness the final performance of the greatest player ever to put on a helmet? Will there be a coaching and personnel exodus? What does the future hold for Devin McCourty, and Joe Thuney, and Kyle Van Noy, and on and on. The Patriots season ended Saturday night. Perhaps a dynasty ended, though I’ll forever take my chances with a Bill Belichick-coached team. But there are still so many revelations to come that will shape this franchise’s future.
■ 2. What we did learn Saturday night is this: Putting faith in the past, trusting that old form could be rediscovered under the tensest circumstances and that all of the helpful old ghosts would arrive just in time to do their haunting, was the kind of hope you cling to when reality isn’t on your side. As it turns out, the Patriots were the fundamentally flawed team they consistently told us they were for most of the season, even in the midst of an 8-0 start. There were frustrating microcosms of the season all over the field Saturday. There wasn’t nearly enough useful weaponry on offense. (“He is not done,’’ said Tony Romo, practically pleading on Brady’s behalf late in CBS’s broadcast, ‘’he needs help around him.’’) The defense was very good, but not an all-timer as the early weeks suggested, as Derrick Henry and his 182 ferocious rushing yards proved. The 2019 Patriots weren’t the 2018 Patriots, capable of changing form and style just in time for the postseason. They weren’t any Patriots team of the past, though they did look an awful lot like the flawed 2006 squad in certain light. You know what they were? They were exactly who we worried they would be.
■ 3. Even the ghosts worked against them. There was noble, battered Julian Edelman, dropping a crucial late pass that brought flashbacks of Wes Welker’s in Super Bowl XLVI. There was Titans coach Mike Vrabel, a quintessential Patriot of the early dynasty years, using savviness and gamesmanship to kill 1 minute and 55 seconds off the clock late in the fourth quarter by exploiting a rules quirk that had worked to the Patriots benefit early in the season; he may not have out-Belichicked Belichick, but he beat him at his own game. And there was the final scene: Brady, needing to go 99 yards in 15 seconds to save the season, being asked to execute one more miracle, getting intercepted for a touchdown by ex-Patriot Logan Ryan after his pass deflected away from a receiver that wasn’t quite open. If that’s the final scene of Brady’s Patriots career, what a bummer that would be. But it was not an inappropriate end to this season.
■ 4. There was much to like about the Patriots’ offense in the first half, which is something we haven’t said often lately. The line protected Brady well. James White was utilized early. Sony Michel made plays in the running and passing games. Ben Watson had a couple of important catches. The Patriots were creative and unpredictable. It almost made you think Josh McDaniels should be a head coaching candidate somewhere. The best of that creativity came when Edelman scored the Patriots’ first touchdown, putting them up 10-7 three seconds into the second quarter. Edelman took a handoff from Brady and jogged in from the 5-yard-line, a play that came with a thespian turn by Brady, who yelled at Edelman to go in motion, as if he were lined up in the wrong spot. That one left Vrabel muttering into his head set.
■ 5. But that would be their only touchdown, and so many familiar flaws kept revealing themselves as the game went along. The Patriots struggled all year in the red zone, converting just half of their trips inside the 20 into touchdowns. Saturday, two promising drives faltered and became field goals, including one in which they had first and goal at the Titans 1. A touchdown there would have put them up 17-7. Instead, it’s one more lament to lug into the offseason.
■ 6. It was apparent after the game that Belichick had some fondness for this team, as flawed and frustrating as it was at times. This was not a rehash of the 2009 team that got clobbered by the Ravens in the wild-card round, the last time the Patriots had to work during that round until this year. This team had its issues, and there are 15 Patriots teams from the last 20 years that we’ll remember more fondly, but effort, or a lack of it, was never one of this Patriots team flaws.
■ 7. The Titans got a huge performance from one expected star in Henry, the league’s top rusher this season, who hammered his way to those 182 yards on 34 carries along with a touchdown. He accounted for all 75 of the Titans’ yards on a go-ahead drive that put them up 14-13 before halftime, and finished with 106 rushing yards in the first half. The Patriots did a better job on him in the second half, but he was everything a bell cow running back is supposed to be.
■ 8. As the Patriots have proven through the years, you often need unexpected heroes in these kinds of victories, and the Titans had one in former Harvard star Anthony Firkser. He caught a Ryan Tannehill dart for a 12-yard TD on the Titans’ first possession, putting them up, 7-3. Then in the game’s final minutes he caught a third-and-8 pass for a huge first down as the Titans milked the clock.
■ 9. Firkser’s touchdown came on a play immediately after Patrick Chung left with an ankle injury. Terrence Brooks replaced him in the lineup and was immediately beaten by Firkser, who had just 14 catches and a single touchdown in the regular season. Brooks has done a fine job filling in for Chung at various times this year, but the Titans took advantage of him there, and on third-and-10, no less. He was also in coverage on the late catch.
■ 10. The Patriots scored 10 points on their first two possessions, but couldn’t sustain much in the middle quarters and managed just 3 points the rest of the way. The third quarter was especially frustrating. On one drive, a Watson 38-yard-catch was wiped out by a Shaq Mason penalty. On another, a beautiful Brady-to-Edelman connection for 20 yards was a momentary highlight, rather than a sign they were about to mount a drive. That drive, like so many before it, ended before it could be something memorable.
■ 11. Patriots fans had seen the offense stall enough in recent weeks to share a collective thought at that point: The defense needs to make a play. And it did, with Duron Harmon picking off a Tannehill floater at the Patriots 41, the first turnover of the game for either team. But the offense could do nothing with it. Maybe we should have been more specific: The defense needs to score some points here. Preferably 14. Maybe 21.
■ 12. The Patriots’ opening possession was one of those “could have been better, could have been worse’’ scenarios. They traveled 57 yards on 8 plays, including a 21-yard completion to Ben Watson on third-and-long, and took a 3-0 lead on Nick Folk’s 36-yard field goal tucked inside the left upright.
■ 13. Still, the Patriots had a first down at the Titans’ 25-yard line after White’s 29-yard catch and run. A flea-flicker on first down got nothing, and the Patriots didn’t run until Michel picked up 7 yards on second down from the 25. It felt like they should have had more.
■ 14. Brady went 2 for 6 on the first drive, and nearly made a huge mistake, throwing a short up-for-grabs pop-up while being hauled down on the second play from scrimmage. He was fortunate it wasn’t picked off. It was the kind of thing you expected from Josh Allen in the early game, but not from prime-time Brady.
■ 15. There was one curious decision amid the creativity. Facing a third-and-1 at midfield with 10 minutes left in the second quarter, Brady handed off to linebacker-moonlighting-at-fullback Elandon Roberts, who ran like he’d much rather be hitting ball carriers than carrying the ball himself. He was stuffed for no gain, and a promising drive stalled. There’s such a thing as getting too clever, and that was it.
■ 16. But it became obvious early — and was reinforced often — that both teams were determined to be unpredictable, to give the other looks they hadn’t seen on film. The Titans’ final scoring drive of the first half — one that put them up 14-13 at the break — was jump-started when Henry caught a screen pass and rumbled 22 yards. Henry had 18 catches all season, and just 2 in his last three games.
■ 17. Both teams headed into the break with laments, though the Titans were probably less frustrated considering they had the lead. Ryan — who had pretty darned good hands with the Patriots — dropped an easy interception with seconds remaining in the half. Had he caught it, he could have moonwalked to the end zone, and Tennessee would have been up 8 at the break and had the ball in the second half. Of course, he got his pick-6 at the end.
■ 18. Only the loser has laments at the end, and the biggest one has to be the failure to get a touchdown after having first and goal at the 1 in the first half. Two going-nowhere carries by Michel and one by Burkhead later, and Folk had to come out and salvage the thing with a 21-yard field goal. The Patriots could have gone up, 17-7. Instead, the Titans had a moral victory, a momentum swing, and soon, the lead.
■ 19. The Titans made for a compelling foil Saturday night, but once the frustration of the loss wanes, I imagine Patriots fans will be rooting for them the rest of the way. Should be, anyway. Vrabel was a wonderful player here. Ryan came through in big moments as a Patriot. Dion Lewis was a blast to watch for a time in Foxborough. And of course, there’s ol’ Malcolm Butler, who is on injured reserve but forever a part of Patriots lore. They’d be pretty likable if they didn’t just beat you.
■ 20. Brady said after the game that retirement is “pretty unlikely.’’ Let’s end on this: I hope whatever needs to be resolved between him, Belichick and Robert Kraft can be resolved, and he’s back in 2020 for one more shot at a seventh Lombardi Trophy. Get him some weapons, give him a shot at vengeance, and make all of those declaring the dynasty dead worry about the Patriots one more time. It doesn’t end — it can’t end — on a pick-6.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com