The Quest for 7: Titans prep and other news, links for Saturday's Patriots vs. Titans Showdown 01.02.20

Morning! Welcome to The Quest for 7, where volunteer writer, Steven Viner, scours the net for seven Patriots related articles from other sites offering different points of view on the six-time champs. Paid subscribers not only get to read all seven, but they also get to check out his always fiery "Steve's Soapbox" at the end.

1. Happy New Year’s, all! We start with the big boss man of Boston Sports Journal, Greg Bedard's: State of the Patriots heading into Saturday night showdown with Tennessee. Turncoat Bedard basically gives the enemy Titans amazing insight on the strengths and weaknesses of the Patriots, betraying the home team. Also don’t miss Benedict Bedard Arnold’s Breakdown: Sink or swim, Patrick Chung a key factor for Patriots down the stretch. The veteran safety has been a key to past success, but also a factor in the defense’s recent struggles. Get your pencils out for some fascinating film reviews!

2. BSJ’s independent friend, Paul Kuharsky, who covers the Titans, gives us three views from Tennessee. First, is a counter to Bedard’s piece, where Kuharsky slips us ten dirty little secrets about this year’s Tennessee team in 10 things Patriots fan need to know about the Titans. Second, Kuharsky debunks anyone theorizing that former Patriots legend, Mike Vrabel, is trying to turn Tennessee into a cheap knock-off version of New England in, Titans' opportunity - Show they use a Two-Tone Blueprint, not the Patriot Way. Third is an inspiring piece detailing Two years after tearing ACL at Gillette Stadium, Jack Conklin set for return. Good stuff from our friend down south, (until game-time of course, when it’s prison rules time!)

3. Want to know what each AFC playoff representative strives in and quite frankly, sucks at? Cynthia Frelund of NFL.com reports on the NFL playoffs: One strength, area of concern for each AFC team. We know the NFL is sacrificing virgins and performing voodoo to have their Lamar Jackson versus Patrick Mahomes AFC Championship game — essentially guaranteeing one will make the Super Bowl — but the info Cynthia gives says not-so-fast.

4. In my Salty Tears Take of the day, Dan Barry of The New York Times writes about what us Bostonians basically already know … New York is a bunch of losers. His Antithesis-Boston piece on The lost decade in New York sports is a priceless look at our little brothers west on the Pike. With the Knicks moving to the Boys Club league, and their twenty teams in each of the other leagues failing miserably this decade, it’s sure to send you into a Papelbon jig dance.

5. Michael Gallagher of the Nashville Post throws some serious Titans info at us in his piece, Tennessee playoff push fueled by milestone seasons. It’s easy for Patriots fans to look at Ryan Tannehill as Mark Sanchez 2.0, but the numbers don’t lie, and it’s time to take him seriously.

6. Matt Dolloff of 98.5 The Sports Hub backs up the hype coming from Titan’s Town, confirming the Patriots are in for a scrap in his article It’s not just the running game, Patriots have to stop Ryan Tannehill while he’s playing the best football of his career. As impressive as the former Dolphins QB has been, could he really come into Brady’s house — in possibly TB12’s last game in a Patriots uniform — and take down the G.O.A.T.?

7. When you’re used to Boston sports radio, listening in on out of state shows can be … brow-raising. Erik Bacharach and Tommy Deas of the Tennessean are pretty cocky in their Titans podcast: Tennessee has a good chance vs. Patriots. These adorable little go-getters don’t think too highly of the Patriots and are such homers they'd make Tommy Heinsohn blush.

STEVE'S SOAPBOX

The place where Steve gets to give his take of the day from the perspective of a Patriots fan.

Please allow me to piggyback off my SOAPBOX segment from yesterday, where I demanded to know what the hell happened to the old offensive scheme Brady once used to make defensive coordinators awake in sweat with soiled sheets. The Patriots’ offense is limited. So I ask: why not try something new?

This will sound ridiculous to football purists, but for the next four games, (at least, hopefully) what’s stopping Josh McDaniels from really emptying out the trick playbook, and adding a few more? I’m not talking 1 or 2 a game. I’m talking like, 10. Hear me out. Julian Edelman and Mohamed Sanu have great track records throwing the ball. Against the Chiefs, even James White had a nice little sweep play where he just lobbed an easy 5-yard pass to Jakobi Meyers for a huge gain. Give me all the double-pass screens, flea-flicking bombs, jet-sweep tosses, triple-lindy-backflips you have Josh!

Most will say you lose the element of surprise. Actually, when the other team knows you’re pulling out all the stops with trickery, safeties and linebackers can’t cheat when the Patriots start a play with a handoff or a quick backward pass to the flat. Defenders will have to stay with their receiver or become hesitant to leave their zone, possibly opening up sweeps, wide receiver screens, and even runs up the middle, (if the defense is sweating a second flea-flicker.) Edelman, Sanu, and White have high football I.Q.’s. Can they not be trusted to just run the ball if the pass isn’t there?

Some would debate that the risk of a turnover is high. Is it? I feel like when we see these dipsy-doodle plays from around the league, the worst-case scenario is an incomplete pass. In fact, way more fumbles come out of Pistol-option handoffs gone wrong.

The 2008 Dolphins busted out the Wildcat for a bunch of plays, catching New England’s defense completely off guard and destroying them 38-13 at home. With arguably their toughest road ever for a Super Bowl ahead, what do the Patriots have to lose? If you go out, go out with a razzle-dazzle fight, instead of a ho-hum whimper. Not to mention, if New England were to pull off another Super Bowl Championship, and the lead story was they did it behind an unheard of amount of trick plays, think of the Haters head’s spontaneously combusting, prescribing us fans more gloating pills.

Be on the lookout for more The Quest for 7 features, leading into what is hopefully another epic Patriots' Super Bowl run.