The Patriots closed out their three game road stint with yet another victory, this time over the hapless Tennessee Titans, and now sit as the two seed in the AFC, just behind the Daniel Jones-led Indianapolis Colts.
In case you were still holding out hope for anything at all making sense in the NFL this year, that above sentence should take care of any lst linerging semblance of your sanity.
- You know that this game mattered to Mike Vrabel; it had to. He did a very good job downplaying it as just the next game on the schedule, and to be honest I (amazingly) didn’t think the revenge game narrative was shoved down our throats as hard as narratives past, but there’s no way a coach who got fired doesn’t want to show his old team what they lost out on. And it was great to see New England deliver for him.
- It’s wonderful to once again be in a position where I get the bad stuff out of the way early so I can spend the rest of the Fan Notes focusing on the positives. The last few seasons have been more more of a “try and find one or two positives amid all this doody” kind of thing, and I don’t have to tell you how much more fun it is to write these articles on the heels of a win.
- Hell, they’re even fun to write after losses when the team showed fight and made some positive strides forward. I would have given anything for even a few of those last year.
- In terms of those aforementioned negatives, there really aren’t too many. The Titans are a bad team, and good teams beat bad teams comfortably. That’s exactly what happened here. But I will say that I wish it didn’t take this defense a full NFL quarter to settle. The only team this season that hasn’t scored on their opening drive against the Patriots this season are the Dolphins, who scored on their second possession. The offense has been able to compensate, but I’d very much like to see the D come out of the gate the way they tend to finish games.
- I’d also like to see a little more consistency out of the pass rush. Five sacks are five sacks at the end of the day, but being able to generate pressure without bringing extra rushers would be good to see.
- To that end, remember when we were all hyped up on what Keion White was going to bring to this team? Yeah that was fun.
- But if there is anything else to complain about after yesterday’s game, it has forever been lost at the bottom of the tankards of Troegs All Day IPA that kept me company yesterday, because I don’t remember it. The Patriots are the winners of back-to-back-to-back regular season road games for the first time in team history, Drake Maye [set his own franchise...
Pats Pulpit
