No one seems to think the Tennessee Titans even stand a puncher’s chance against the New England Patriots in Foxborough on Saturday night. In fact, Las Vegas pegged the Pats as a 13.5-point favorite. The Boston Globe ran an article this morning with a headline that literally read, “Forget the Titans. They have no chance vs. the Patriots.”
For the most part, I get it. The Titans limped into the playoffs after a losing streak that saw them shit the bed against middling teams like Arizona and San Francisco before getting demolished by Todd Gurley. You can look across their schedule, and you won’t find many true convincing, quality wins.
When their mettle was tested most, in a Thursday night primetime game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, they were outmanned and outclassed. So, yeah – I don’t anticipate the national talking heads are going to be singing the praises of the Titans at all this week.
But, come on. People should have learned by now that you just simply don’t deal in absolutions in the NFL. Of course the Titans have a chance in New England. I actually don’t think they have that bad of a chance at all.
First of all, this team is as confident as it’s been all season. There’s a lot of heart, and Grade A quality grit with this bunch. You can ask the New York Giants how those guts can help you beat the might Patriots.
But, you ask people in the NFL, or people who have beaten Tom Brady before, and they will tell you that the key to beating him is to hit him. It’s interior pressure – right up the gut. Do the Titans have the capability to do that? Of course! They have Jurrell Casey. They also have a corps of pass rushers who can hit him. It’s not impossible for the Titans to agitate Brady.
Another solution is to disguise coverages – make things look different when they’re the same and vice versa. Dick LeBeau’s defense is predicated on pressure, but if you don’t get to Brady, he’ll eat the blitz alive. That is going to be the hardest part of this game – trying to show Brady something he hasn’t seen before. Or, perhaps a better way of saying it, winning the cat and mouse game.
The prospects of Rob Gronkowski torching the Titans defense is frightening when you look at what Travis Kelce did before getting knocked into another dimension. Jayon Brown has the speed to hang with him, and I imagine Kevin Byard will be in Gronk’s vicinity a lot. But, Gronk can’t get going if the Titans are able to really rattle Brady.
The Patriots defense is one of the worst this dynasty has seen. They give up a ton of yardage, but teams don’t score a lot of points on them. Part of that is because the Pats play defense with their offense a bit. They score points, keep opposing offenses off the field, and leave their opponents chasing points. But, the Titans can nullify that with a strong day rushing the football. And, as far as straight man-to-man football goes, it’s not like this Patriots defense is overwhelmingly better than the Titans offense.
Belichick will undoubtedly have a plan to take away Delanie Walker and focus on stopping the run. That’s what he does – he finds away to eliminate your biggest strength and take advantage of your biggest weakness. So, it’s going to take someone like Corey Davis, even Jonnu Smith, to make a big play.
But, my main point here is that it’s possible. This isn’t really as bad a matchup for the Titans as it looks on paper. Just, please, let’s not let this be another instance of “59-0.”
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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