NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Titans and Patriots are separated by over 1,000 miles and six Lombardi Trophies.
While Tennessee and everyone in the NFL would like to model New England’s success, and while the Titans have some Patriots DNA we’d think connects them, two of the Nashville guys with strong ties to New England will tell you those ties aren’t so strong anymore.
Logan Ryan’s been playing Nashville for three seasons, just a year less than he played for the Patriots. And Mike Vrabel may have suited up for the Pats for eight seasons and won three rings, but he was quick to point out his utter lack of sentiment for the franchise as soon as the Titans-Patriots playoff matchup was set.
“I haven’t had a paycheck with a Patriots logo on it since 2008,” Vrabel said. “So, no different than going and coaching against someone with the Texans or coaching against them last year. It’s a huge challenge to go up there and try to win.”
Anyone who knocks off the Patriots in the playoffs at Gillette Stadium is accomplishing something special.
With key leadership bred by New England, the Titans are less likely to get caught up in Patriot Way.
Perhaps being bred there actually prepares you not to regard winning there as any intensely different accomplishment than any other postseason road win. After all, the Patriots just go where they have to and do what they have to and Vrabel speaks frequently about how that’s all his team is trying to do.
Learn that there and live that when you leave there.
Vrabel, Ryan, Jon Robinson, Dean Pees and Dion Lewis could help lead the team to regard a Titans’ victory Saturday night as what they were supposed to do and what they expected to do and not some monumental No. 6 seed over No. 3 seed upset and breakthrough.
If it happens, Nashville fans are ready to call it the end of the Patriots' dynasty.
That would be completely premature. New England doesn’t win it all every year. Tom Brady is older and his future less certain than ever with real free agency actually pending. But If the Patriots lose this week, next week, in the AFC Championship or in the Super Bowl, it will hardly assure they are finished and won’t quickly re-emerge to win again.
The Titans wouldn’t say they were chasing the Colts or the Texans, teams they’ve had trouble vaulting in the AFC South. They focus inward, at least when facing microphones and cameras, speaking respectfully about all opponents and not doing much to differentiate them or make one bigger than another even when one -- the Colts -- certain qualified as such.
This week is bigger, duh, because it's a playoff game, not because it's a playoff game against the Patriots.
Vrabel has his team look at most games as opportunities.
"They are a great coached team, Tom Brady is the best football player of all time, their defense is unbelievable," Taylor Lewan said. "They are gap-sound, they play hard. Some guy called them no-names on a game sometime which is just ridiculous. Those guys are well-known throughout the league, well-respected throughout the league and it's definitely going to be a huge opportunity for us, a huge challenge.
They’ve got to plan and execute to make Tom Brady uncomfortable, to assure Julian Edelman doesn’t hurt them too much and other receivers don’t elevate too far against lesser corners called into action because of injuries.
Adoree’ Jackson could be back, at least in a limited role, but after missing a month with a foot injury, we can’t know at what level he will play. Tramaine Brock and/or Tye Smith still figure to be factors -- and targets.
The Patriots are 0-4 when allowing 20 or more points, and with Ryan Tannehill leading them, the Titans are averaging 30.4 a game.
Tannehill, Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown have delivered consistently. I hardly expect them to quiver in the face of the Patriots. They've not been as good recently, but the Titans will be facing a different brand of defense. The Chiefs rank seventh in scoring defense now, but has made dramatic improvements since Tennessee beat them. The next-best among the teams of the Tannehill stretch was the Saints.
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Nationally, some think the Jon Robinson Titans have tried to be the Patriots South.
Robinson’s propensity for former Patriots has been about familiarity. There is a danger in bringing in free agents you don’t know, and Tennessee has leaned hard on guys they do know, not just Ryan but Malcolm Butler, Lewis and waiver claim Josh Kline (who got a second contract he couldn’t make it through). There have been some danger in people they know, too.
That's extended beyond Patriots, to Adam Humphries and Kevin Pamphile who Robinson knew in Tampa Bay, to trade acquisition Kamalei Correa who Pees knew in Baltimore, to MyCole Pruitt who the Titans signed off of Houston's practice squad where Vrabel watched him work.
Tennessee's operation is hardly all about being Patriot-like. But, of course, there are elements of Bill Belichick’s operation they want to mimic. That's the case for the entire league.
Saturday is a big chance to show they employ the Two-Tone Blueprint, not the Patriot Way.
The Patriot Way? “Isn’t that the street the movie theater is on?" Vrabel said when asked what it meant to him and if he remembered when he first heard it. "I don’t know. I didn’t come up with it, so I don’t know. ..."
“I think everybody’s striving to be able to take advantage of whatever mistakes other teams would make, and I think that the Patriots have done that. They’ll feast on bad football.”
The Titans have to force some and do the same Saturday.