Good just not enough for Patriots defense in defeat

FOXBOROUGH – At some point in the year, the New England Patriots defense went from earth-shattering to average. And it sunk this ship beforre the three-game tour to Miami in February ever left the dock.

A Patriots defense that strolled through the opening eight games was rather pedestrian to the bitter end.

Good, with this version of the New England offense, simply was not going to be enough. It showed in the regular-season finale with the Dolphins and it reared its head again a week later.

A second-half shutout and holding Ryan Tannehill to just 71 net passing yards was not enough in the 20-13 season-ender in the AFC Wild Card round on Saturday night.

“We just went 50 percent on third down against the top defense in the game,” said an elated Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel after watching his front five shove the Patriots' front five backward from the first snap to the last.

In the end, Tannehill (one interception, one dropped snap) and the Titans did nothing to help the Patriots, and New England simply could not help itself. Tannehill probed where it hurt most, where the Patriots were most vulnerable. He made two significant throws and those were enough.

The first came one play after designated tight-end stopper Patrick Chung left the game with an ankle injury. The former Miami reject found a wide-open Anthony Firkser for a 12-yard TD. He badly scorched Chung's replacement Terrence Brooks.

Then late in the game, it was Firkser on Brooks again, third-and-4. Talk about a mismatch. The out route gained 11 and moved the chains, basically icing it with only 90 seconds or so left.

The rest of the night was about birthday boy Derrick Henry and the Titans imposing their will to the tune of 40 carries for 201 yards (as a team). Five yards a carry.

The Titans dominated the line of scrimmage.

"The eye in the sky sees it all," said a proud Tennessee road grader, tackle Taylor Lewan.

So much for history-making.

In the end, a loss is a loss.

Even for a veteran like Devin McCourty, who has 10 seasons and three Super Bowl rings on his resume but doesn't have a contract for 2020.

“This feeling is no different (than any other season-ending loss). It sucks,” the captain said.

Look, this Patriots defense is/was feared and admired, not just locally.

Lewan noted, “At one point in the year, somebody pointed out that they would have been 4-1, even if the offense didn't score a point.”

But that Patriots defense that allowed 7.3 points a game through the first eight games might never have recovered from the beating it absorbed at the hands of Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.

That game might as well have been Buster Douglas to the Patriots' Mike Tyson.

The Patriots had 25 takeaways in the first eight weeks. They finished with 36 total.

“We gave up 14 points in this game, and it was too much,” said Bill Belichick afterward. “(We) weren't able to get the ball back at the end. There were a lot of good things, but just not quite enough tonight and that was it.”

McCourty said it last week. He talked about being on the field with the lead and the opportunity to ice it with the defense on the field.

Instead, Ryan Fitzpatrick carved the Patriots up. Instead of a statement, it was yet another question on a unit that spent November and December in a sporadic state of doubt and spasm.

“I’ve come up here and said numerous times that’s what we want, a chance to play defense to end the game and we didn’t get it done,” McCourty said a week ago. We didn’t get any stops that we needed. When you don’t do that on the last drive of the game and you let the team drive the field and score, that’s what you get.”

You have to wonder if the defense, so proud early, had recovered, even from the Miami game.

Despite the offense sputtering, New England was in position for victory, down 1 at 14-13. The Titans took over at their own 17 with just over three minutes left. New England had all three timeouts. Henry hadn't done much in the second half to that point (14 for 54) in the second half. Strategically, the Patriots had made the proper adjustments to at least slow him down.

But Tennessee made it look easy with a pair of first downs to all but end it.

It was a frustrating end to a season that again had been bordering on historic defensively through the entire first half.

“We gave it all we had. They were the better team today,” said Stephon Gilmore.

With a turbulent offseason ahead, that's just not acceptable for this defense and the folks who believed in it.