FOXBOROUGH — Everything you need to know from the Patriots’ season-ending loss to the Titans in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:
HEADLINES
Brady ends season with a loss, says he's not retiring: Tom Brady, one of the greatest winners in professional sports history with six Super Bowl titles and three league MVP awards during a 20-year career, threw a pick-six on his final pass as the Patriots fell, 20-13, to the Tennessee Titans in an AFC wild-card game at Gillette Stadium. For the first time in his career, Brady will be a free agent and could have played his last game for the Patriots.
“I love the Patriots, it’s the greatest organization and playing for Mr. (Robert) Kraft all these years and for Coach (Bill) Belichick, there’s nobody who has had a better career, I would say, than me, just being with them,” Brady said. “I’m blessed, I don’t know what the future looks like; I’m not going to predict it. Wish we would have won tonight and wish we did a lot of things better over the course of the season, but we just didn’t get the job done.”
Brady, who finished 20 of 37 for 209 yards and didn’t throw a touchdown, indicated that retirement at age 42 is not something that’s on his mind.
“I would say it’s pretty unlikely … I’d say it’s unlikely,” Brady said.
Offense fizzles after fast start: Things started about as good as they could as the Patriots had 10 points on their first two possessions. The problem was, they put up three points the rest of the way. Julian Edelman had just three catches for 30 yards on five targets, and N'Keal Harry, Mohamed Sanu and Phillip Dorsett combined for four catches for 38 yards on 16 targets. That's not a typo. And that pretty much tells the tale. How much of that is on Brady and how much of that is on the receivers not getting separation or coming up with contested catches, we'll have to check the film.
Defense can't get the stops when it counts: Titans had two big drives in the fourth quarter and while they didn't produce points, they did a lot of damage by totaling 17 plays, 77 yards and, most importantly, taking up a combined 10 minutes and 56 seconds. The Titans converted key third downs in the fourth quarter on a Ryan Tannehill 8-yard pass to Dion Lewis, a Tannehill 3-yard run and, the final dagger, being an 11-yard pass to tight end Anthony Firkser on 3rd and 8 with 2:54 left that basically ended the game.
"It was a great call by Art [offensive coordinator Arthur Smith]," Tannehill said. "I brought Firk across, had man coverage on him and he was able to get leverage on his guy and break out there and I was able to hit him. It was a big play for us and Firk came up big a couple times for us – first time down in the red zone with the touchdown and then that huge play there on third down."
TURNING POINT
The Patriots had a chance to take a commanding lead and get the game on their terms before halftime when they got to the Tennessee 1-yard line with under five minutes remaining. A score would have put them up 17-7 and perhaps would have put more of the game in Ryan Tannehill's hands.
Instead, the Patriots went:
Sony Michel for minus-1
Timeout
Rex Burkhead for 1 yard
Timeout
Michel for minus-2 yards
Field goal
With just a field goal, the Titans were still a touchdown away from taking the lead. They never had to change how they played. That sequence — without a Tom Brady pass — completely changed how the game was played.
SECOND GUESS
Well, when you lose like this, there are a bunch.
For this game:
Not having a better plan against Derrick Henry;
Fullback dive to Elandon Roberts at the New England 47 for no gain and then not going for it on fourth down;
That sequence from the 1-yard line;
Not going for 4th and 3 from the Tennessee 47 with 12:52 in the fourth quarter;
Not foiling Mike Vrabel wasting nearly two minutes off the clock midway through the fourth quarter.
For the season:
Not getting another big body on the defensive line;
Not getting more weapons for Brady to work with all the way back to camp.
THREE UP
Dont'a Hightower: Was a complete beast in the second half and basically slowed up Henry by himself with eight solo tackles.
Duron Harmon: Got the turnover the Patriots needed to change the game but they did nothing with it.
James White: White was effective in the passing game, reeling in five catches for 62 yards.
THREE DOWN
Deatrich Wise: Got completely run over in the run game in the first half.
Julian Edelman: Had a big drop with the season on the line and wasn't productive enough, even though we know he was seriously compromised. We expect a lot, I know.
Mohamed Sanu: One catch for 11 yards on five targets for a second-round pick.
INJURIES
SS Patrick Chung (ankle): Went out at the end of the first drive and was questionable to return. Did not return.
CB Stephon Gilmore (head): Returned to the game.
LB/FB Elandon Roberts (unknown): Returned to the game.
TWO TAKES BEDARD WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
Belichick pushed all his chips in on defense and it blew up in his face: We talked about it at cutdowns and several times over the course of the season — Belichick brought everyone back on defense, and skimped on the offense. If it worked, he was brilliant again. If it didn't, this was going to be on him. This was on him. Nobody's perfect.
Tom Brady will be back, but will Bill Belichick?: It can't end like this. No way. I'm probably just being naive and emotional — I was the same way after Dan Marino lost 62-7 and I was wrong then — but I can't see Tom Brady leaving the Patriots like this. I think Robert Kraft and Brady will get together and figure something out — sooner rather than later.
But will Bill Belichick? There have been increasing NFL rumors that perhaps Belichick is not as wedded to Foxborough as many of us, certainly me, thought. Is Belichick setting up a final test on whether he has complete control of the football operations? I think Belichick would be OK with Brady being back, but not at the expense of the rest of the team. There are four openings out there and they won't last forever. If Belichick is contemplating a move, it would have to come soon. There's no solid intel, but some rumblings I hadn't heard before. So I don't rule anything out.
For the record, my money is still on Bill and Tom being back together again for Year 21.