Taylor (Lewan)-made Titans' gameplan simply steamrolled Patriots

FOXBOROUGH — Momentum matters. Or maybe it's just all about talent seeking its level.

Outspoken Tennessee offensive tackle Taylor Lewan was totally blunt in the postgame on Saturday, first talking about how fearsome the Patriots defense appeared in the initial eight games and later expressing his feelings about his own team's renaissance.

“At 2-4, we were ass,” said the six-year man out of Michigan. “(Momentum in the second half of the season) mattered in this game.”

Tennessee went 6-2 in their last eight games. And Derrick Henry averaged 6.2 yards a carry (173 carries, 1,078 yards) in that stretch.

Lewan talked about the dominant performance up front by the Titans.

“I don't even know what our stats were,” he said.

When told of the numbers (Henry had 182, the team 201), he added, “That's cool. That's pretty tight. Derrick is a stud. He's a complete stud. It's cool to block for him. As soon as you get into it more, it's a really confident feeling when you look in someone's eyes, and they know where the ball is going and basically can't stop it.”

If you focus on that statement, you understand how badly the Patriots got pushed around on Saturday night.

“They're a great defense, and we ran the ball well today. We capitalized,” said Lewan. “We got a lot of good movement.”

There was no secrecy and little trickery. It was shoved down New England's throat.

“The most important thing is the score column. Whoever scores more points, we don't give a (expletive) if we run the ball 50 times or pass the ball 50 times. As long as there's a W, that was awesome man.”

Signed to a 5-year, $80 million extension in 2018 ($50 million guaranteed), Lewan became the highest-paid lineman in the game.

Compare Tennessee's commitment at that hugely integral left tackle position to what the New England Patriots have done, allowing Super Bowl champs Nate Solder (4 years, $62 million with the Giants) and Trent Brown (4 years, $66 million with the Raiders) to walk away and choosing to go with Isaiah Wynn and Marshall Newhouse at the position.

New England's run game (3.8 yards per carry for the season) has been spotty at best and crumbled in the red zone all year long, including Saturday night's well-documented failure on first-and-goal from the 1.

As the Tennessee ownership group celebrated outside the visitors' locker room on Saturday night, it was clear to see this guy is worth every penny.

He and his linemates showed why.

“All we did is earn another week. This is awesome, but it wasn't our end goal in the world to win the Wild Card game,” said Lewan. “It's an unbelievable team in a hostile environment. You can't hear shit out there, dude. It's loud as shit. But at the end of the day, we didn't come here just to win a Wild Card game.”

LAMAR TALK

It didn't take long for the Tennessee media to turn thoughts to the Titans in the locker-room postgame.

The most awkward moment of the night? You could nominate when one Nashville TV man asked AJ Brown if he was a fan of Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson.

“Huh?” was Brown's incredulous remark.

Of course, that question was posed with man-child Derrick Henry snickering at it from just about four feet away at the next locker.

This is a Tennessee group with a chip on its collective shoulder.

One Titan who didn't mind speaking about the dynamic, lock NFL MVP Jackson was cornerback Adoree Jackson.

Who did he compare Lamar, too?

“Boobie Miles,” Jackson said of the hero from Odessa (Texas) Permian High School, who was highlighted so vividly in the movie, “Friday Night Lights.” “He could do it all. You know what he said, 'you want to win, put Boobie in.'”