FOXBOROUGH — In sports, sometimes the final score is misleading.
It can flat-out lie. It can be a cover-up. Sometimes it just stretches the truth.
The Patriots' eventual 36-13 victory over the Nashville Sounds, I mean, Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Gillette Stadium should be put into the latter category.
There were some definite good things to be taken and applied going forward.
Chief among them was the Titans are a tough-nosed team with the persona of their head coach, Mike Vrabel, that kept exchanging blows with the red-hot, better-rested and fully healthy Patriots until deep into the third quarter.
That was a playoff-type game, in front of a playoff-like Gillette crowd, in playoff-like weather, and for many important players on this team, that was the first time they had experienced that as a member of the Patriots. There was definitely something that they earned there, and no scoreboard or stat can measure that. That was exactly the type of game this team needed, a nice little gut check, right before they walk arm in arm into the table-crushing hell that is Orchard Park, N.Y. on a Monday night in December with the division lead on the line.
And the Patriots' special teams completely dominated the Titans, from Nick Folk — Mr. Automatic from 52-and-under — to two-way Gunner Olszewski, who added a nice 38-yard kickoff return to his repertoire, and Cody Davis, Calvin Munson and Kyle Dugger. The tighter these games get — and by now we should know this Patriots team has a smaller-than-normal (for them) margin for error — the more important a role special teams will play when you have an offense that goes through fits and starts.
Those two factors, and they are not insignificant, are ready to travel anywhere, anytime in the final months of this campaign.
The rest of this team? Your guess is as good as mine. This 23-point victory didn't shed much light on some crucial areas. Save your Tweets and your angry comments below. I know exactly how that sounds. And I don't really care.
You and I thought the 2010 Patriots were going somewhere at 14-2 and vanquishing all challengers ... until they didn't.
We thought the 2019 Patriots were destined for another Super Bowl to keep Tom Brady here ... until they weren't and he couldn't leave town fast enough.
Not many thought the 2018 Patriots were going anywhere after they lost, gasp, back-to-back games in December — what about all that post-Thanksgiving stuff? ... until they did and were world champions.
The lesson here is we — fans and media who follow the crowd — don't know anything until we know, and most of that is hashed out in the postseason.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
Sorry, not sorry that I still have questions about the Patriots after this victory. We thought this four-game stretch would begin to deliver answers, but Sunday did not. We thought we would get a representative Titans team but they're an injured mess. Tennessee was missing its top two running backs, top three receivers and best three linebackers, among others.
Answer me this: Do you think Vrabel and the Titans sat on that flight home more or less fearful of the Patriots, should the two teams meet again in the postseason in any location?
You know the answer to that. And that should tell you exactly what this game meant in the big picture. Hell, the Patriots' 45-3 victory over the Jets was night and day domination compared to this game ... and we know that that game meant in the rematch.
But it doesn't really matter what I think because the referendum on this team — they're a contender in a wide-open AFC, so I guess we're waiting to see in this one if they should be considered the favorite — is coming on Monday night in Buffalo. The Bills have been off since Thanksgiving — actually, that was basically an off week against a Saints that was in worse physical shape than Tennessee (were you impressed with that 25-point victory? I was not. Hmmmm. Uh-oh, pretzel-twisting time). Buffalo has no excuses, not even losing stellar cornerback Tre'Davious White to an ACL injury. They've had 10 days to prepare to play with him. Dems the breaks.
If the Patriots go up there and beat the Bills, I'm all in. I will have no more unanswered questions. Because to do that, in that place, at this time of year, the Patriots will have to play a complete team victory.
Sorry, they did not do that against the Titans.
What do we normally say, especially about this and other versions of the Patriots come December and January? Got to win in the trenches in the biggest games.
Well, the Patriots got the snot knocked out of them by the Titans on both sides of the line.
New England's seemingly much-improved run defense was completely shredded by the Titans to the tune of 270 yards and a 6.9 average. Hell, take out Dontrell Hilliard's embarrassing 68-yard touchdown run — virtually untouched! — and the Titans, when the Patriots didn't have to worry about A.J. Brown, Julio Jones or three other receivers you have hard of, still averaged 5.3 yards per carry.
The Patriots were only bailed out by terrible ball security from two running backs that were *checks notes* both on the practice squad Nov. 21st. And when Ryan Tannehill did what he has done in each and every one of his visits to Gillette since entering the league with the Dolphins in 2012 — throw an interception to the Patriots.
What about the other side of the ball?
Through three quarters, the Patriots' two damn good running backs, Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson, rushed 13 times for 26 yards.
That is the definition of getting your butt kicked on that side of the line.
What about Mac Jones? Nobody likes when you don't say nice thing about Mac, so here goes nothing ...
I don't care that he threw for 300-plus yards for the second time, and I don't care that his completion rate was 70.3 percent (expected completion percentage was 67 percent, per NFL NextGen Stats) and he can probably thank Jakobi Meyers for the difference on that ridiculous catch under Kevin Byard that could have been intercepted). Jones missed some crucial plays and was more inaccurate on the routine balls than we're used to seeing. Sunday will only cause the cold weather questions to linger at least until, you guessed it, Monday night in Buffalo.
If you go 1 and 5 in the red zone to start this game, that would have been on the tombstone of this game had the Titans not run out of gas and managed to hang around until the end. And in this game, a lot of that was on Jones. Yes, I have the receipts for you skeptics and clickbait callers:
- The first field-goal drive ended with Jones, under no pressure, not even giving Hunter Henry a chance to catch the ball in man coverage.
- Second field goal came after Jones didn't didn't see Byard coming on a blitz on first down and threw into traffic. On third down, with little pressure, he threw quickly short of the sticks.
- Third field goal came after Jones, with all day, threw it away over triple coverage of Meyers, and then he missed a WIDE OPEN Henry for a touchdown,
- The fourth-straight field goal came after Jones nearly threw a lateral into the ground to Bourne, nearly threw a pick-six that was dropped by the linebacker on the next pass, and then he scrambled and signaled for a first down when he was 2 yards short.
- The next drive was five plays for 4 yards and ended when Jones was sacked when he didn't see Byard coming again.
- The drought ended on the next drive when Bourne took a 5-yard checkdown and turned it into a 41-yard score.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
Does that sound like good quarterbacking to you? I'm sorry that I expect better out of Jones in Week 12 without much pressure (PFF initially had it at as less than 25 percent), but I do. That will not win you playoff games. He knows he needs to be better. Belichick didn't mention Jones or quarterback once in his post-game press conference.
"We missed some opportunities in the game but again, we're going up against a good team. It's going to happen," Belichick said. "But in the end we were able to not turn the ball over and take the ball away, made big fourth down – two big fourth-down stops there on the goal line, one six minutes to go in the game. I thought our special teams came through for us again and good coverage, and you know, competitive yard in the return game. Gunner really helped us out at the end of the half and had a couple sparks there and thought we covered well and Nick banged them through like he usually does. Good all-around effort. Again, left some plays out there. Certainly some things we could have done better. But you know, we'll take it and move on, finish this game up tomorrow and get ready for Buffalo."
That was an accurate assessment of the game (the coverage against the skill players the Titans put out there was excellent), and it didn't involve Jones or much of the offense. Don't take my word for it:
ProFootballFocus.com
I will say, did think all the receivers — including the backs and tight ends — were really good on Sunday taking advantage of their opportunities and, on occasion, giving Jones some help to the tune of 54 percent (167) of his yards.
"It's up to us to support him and lift him up when he gives us a chance," Meyers said. "It's all about helping him out because we know he will give us a chance to make plays."
This is not an indictment of Jones or any other unit on the Patriots, just simply pointing out facts, that some meaningful areas of this team — the defensive line, offensive line and quarterback — left a lot to be desired for a team that has, and should, have grand aspirations after a 2-4 start to the season.
Not saying any of those areas can't do it. I know they can, we've seen them do it. Each of them on different occasions.
They just didn't prove it on Sunday.
That's OK.
Monday night in Buffalo is coming. We'll get all the answers we need then.