Does two in a row count as a winning streak? The Patriots have a real chance on Sunday against the Titans.
This could be the last time this season that the 2-6 Patriots will enter a game with more wins than its opponent.
Welcome to Season 13, Episode 9 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup . . .
Enjoy this scenario as much as you can, Patriots fans. Because Sunday’s road matchup with the Titans could be the last time this season that Jerod Mayo’s crew will enter a game with more wins than its opponent.
The Titans have a rookie head coach themselves in Brian Callahan, the former Bengals offensive coordinator who was hired to replace an excellent coach in Mike Vrabel, and things are not going well. The Titans have one win — a 31-12 victory over Tyler Huntley and the Dolphins in Week 4 — and have lost their other six games, with a pair of three-game losing streaks already.
Their active three-game losing streak includes a 20-17 loss to the Colts, a 34-10 loss to the Bills, and last week’s 52-14 clobbering by the Lions, who scored 38 unanswered points after the score was tied, 14-14, early in the second quarter.
Like the two-win Patriots — who are coming off of a 25-22 victory over the hapless Jets, which ended their six-game losing streak — the Titans have some uncertainty at quarterback. Backup Mason Rudolph has started the past two weeks while Will Levis has been sidelined with a shoulder injury.
Rudolph put up adequate numbers in the loss to the Lions (22 of 38, 266 yards, 1 passing touchdown, 1 rushing TD, 2 interceptions). He has just 133 fewer passing yards than the mistake-prone Levis on the season despite starting three fewer games. But Levis, who has five touchdown passes and seven interceptions, is expected to start Sunday, if healthy.
The Titans have the 31st-ranked passing offense in the NFL (161.9 yards per game). The only one worse? Like you don’t know. The Patriots are last by a good distance (149.9 passing yards per game). Their QB situation was unsettled for much of the week as well, with rookie Drake Maye working through the stages of concussion protocol after being knocked out of the Jets game with a hit to the head early in the second quarter.
Jacoby Brissett provided solid work as the relief pitcher last Sunday, throwing for just 132 yards but leading the Patriots on a winning touchdown drive. One thing is certain, no matter who plays for either team Sunday: Maye gives the Patriots a much better long-term outlook at quarterback than the Titans have with Levis.
Both teams should be able to run the ball, though the ground-game prognosis looks better for the Titans. Tony Pollard (494 yards, 4.3 average, 3 touchdowns) ran for 94 of the Titans’ 158 yards against the Lions. The Patriots’ run defense had been a mess in Weeks 5-7, allowing every opposing team in that stretch to run for at least 173 yards. But they held the Jets to 112 yards on 28 carries, which counts as either progress or an indictment of New York’s coaching staff.
The Titans feature a fairly sturdy run defense, ranking 12th in the league at 113.9 yards per game, but it is trending the wrong way after allowing 164 yards to the Lions. Could this be the week that Rhamondre Stevenson breaks out? He had two touchdowns — including the winner — but just 48 yards on 20 carries against the Jets. He has four games this season of 48 or fewer yards and just one, the opening win over the Bengals, with more than 100. He’s overdue for a breakout.
Kick it off, Slye, and let’s get this thing started . . .
Three players worth watching other than the quarterbacks
Calvin Ridley: By all accounts, the Patriots were serious suitors for the productive former Falcons and Jaguars receiver when he hit free agency in the offseason. It even seemed for a while like they were going to get him.
Amid reports that Ridley would come to Foxborough or return to Jacksonville, the Titans swooped in and landed him with a massive four-year, $92 million deal, which included $50 million in guarantees.
Losing out on Ridley felt like a disappointment at the time. (The Patriots reportedly offered $22 million per year, with owner Robert Kraft saying after the fact that Ridley’s girlfriend did not favor New England.)
But it might end up being the best thing for them.
Oh, Ridley is a very good player, and he’s coming off his best game as a Titan, with 10 catches on 15 targets for 143 yards last week.
But Ridley hasn’t been consistent, in large part because of a messy quarterback situation in Tennessee that is worse than the Patriots’ now, and will be far worse as Maye develops. Through his first six games as a Titan, Ridley had just 12 catches for 183 yards and a touchdown.
At his best, Ridley is a B+ as a receiver. For the kind of money he commanded, he needs to grade as an A and play like a genuine No. 1 . . . but that is not his ceiling anymore, and hasn’t been since 2020, when he had 90 catches for 1,374 yards and 9 touchdowns for the Falcons.
Oh, the Patriots could have used him, of course. He would have helped with their entertainment value and given Maye a proven target. But given the context of where this team is, missing out on Ridley should not be a disappointment that lingers.
Rather than paying huge money for a receiver in his age-30 season who will be departing his prime when the Patriots are contending again, what they really need to do is draft and develop their own cornerstones.
Kayshon Boutte: It might seem odd, at least to people unfamiliar with the Patriots’ receiving corps, to suggest that a player who had two egregious drops in their last game is actually trending in the right direction.
But it’s true when it comes to Boutte, the second-year receiver and former sixth-round pick. Despite not making his season debut until Week 3, he is now second among Patriots wide receivers in receptions (11) and yardage (185), trailing only DeMario Douglas (28 catches, 271 yards). And Boutte is one of four Patriots wideouts with a touchdown this season.
Sure, those numbers are modest, and many among us would be tempted to trade the entire receiver room for Randy Moss — not the 2007 version, either, but the current 47-year-old version. But there is little doubt that Boutte, bouts of stone-handedness aside, is making real progress.
Last Sunday, he had three catches for 46 yards, including a crucial 34-yarder to set up the winning touchdown. That continued a nice little run of games with periodic big plays, which included a 40-yard touchdown catch in Week 6 against the Texans and a 33-yard reception in Week 7 against the Jaguars.
The Titans’ defense ranks as the league’s best overall (265.4 yards per game) and in terms of pass yardage (just 151.6 per game), but they could be without top cornerback L’Jarius Sneed (quadriceps injury) for the third straight week.
The Jets game marked the third straight week that Boutte led Patriots receivers in snaps (this time with 55 of a possible 67), so he should get his opportunities against the stingy Titans.
All of this is genuine progress for a player who was no sure thing to stick coming out of training camp. This season is all about player development for the Patriots, and Boutte is beginning to look like a success story.
Jeffery Simmons: Not-so-fun fact: The Patriots didn’t have a single player included among the NFL’s top 100 entering 2024, per that time-filler programming NFL Network runs in July and August.
The Titans? They had one, their 27-year-old defensive tackle, who checked in at No. 73. This matchup is laden with elite talent, I tell ya.
The two-time Pro Bowl selection, whose 2023 season was cut short by an elbow injury, has not been as productive as usual this season — he has just 2 sacks, 2 quarterback hits, and 21 tackles. But he is coming off a strong game in the loss to the Lions, when he had 4 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and a sack.
Against a Patriots offensive line that has been slightly more cohesive lately but remains inconsistent, he could be in line for his best game of the season.
The flashback
The best running back I ever saw over a full career was Walter Payton. The best in a fleeting, Bosworth-trucking burst was Bo Jackson. But the best over a two- or three-year stretch? Earl Campbell. The erstwhile Oiler delivered a couple of superb games against the Patriots. But his best might have come on “Monday Night Football” on Nov. 10, 1980, when Campbell rambled, burst, and plowed his way to 130 yards and a pair of touchdowns in Tennessee’s 38-34 win.
Grievance of the week
This isn’t so much a grievance, but more of a bewilderment. It was always a mystery here why Bill Belichick spent a second-round pick, No. 60 overall, on Joshua Uche in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Uche had, and has, obvious talents as a pass rusher, and he was productive in that regard playing opposite Matthew Judon during the 2022 season, contributing 11.5 sacks. But Uche’s inability to contribute anything against the run made him a two-down player at best, and his skill set didn’t fit with the requirements of playing the edge in a Belichick defense.
A second-round pick for an undersized pass-rush specialist was an odd choice, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Uche — who was traded to the Chiefs this past week for a sixth-round pick — started just four games in his five seasons here.
He’ll help the Chiefs in his role. But he never made sense as a fit here, even if he did have his stretches of production.
Prediction, or Eddie George belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame . . .
Does two in a row count as a winning streak? When you’re in the condition the Patriots are in, it absolutely does. Marcus Jones goes the distance on a punt return, and that makes all the difference. Patriots 20, Titans 16.
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