John's Well-Educated Guesses: Patriots at Titans - Recap
 |
| Awesome Jelly |
This was not one of those games. This was an everything goes wrong game. It was a disaster from the opening kick off. Literally. I remember watching them bust that thing across midfield and nervously laughing like, at least that will be their only good play all day...
Tangent: where has our kick coverage been all year?? Special Teams is usually where we low key always have an advantage. Stevie G can drop balls on the 1 yard line in his sleep. So if Bill wants a touchback, he gets one. If he wants them to start inside their own 25 because he isn't scared of their return guy, Stevie obliges. The only problem is you have to actually, ya know, tackle the guy after he catches the ball.
Anyway, as I said I'm not upset about the swing and miss this week because I feel like a member of the team. Everyone took a shit on the field last Sunday, and while my shit might have been in my office bathroom while trying to follow the gamecast on my phone, it doesn't mean it stunk any less.
You hate to see games like this from the Pats, especially this late in the year. That's really the only thing that has bothered me. Not just a loss but an absolutely clunker where it looks like we are still in "figuring it out" mode. That's what September is for boys. Not post Halloween. But as Bill has said a million times, the season doesn't start until after Thanksgiving. Lets get healthy over the bye and come out rolling. I will still take 13-3 even if it means the 2 seed. I feel like our November/December record is the best in the league in the Brady era. I could look this up but I wont. My point is, I kinda feel like we always get so hot right now, and then have to battle in the yoffs. Maybe this year we could save our peak for late January? I can hear the Super Bowl DVD commentary right now. They show the Titans highlights, and then the NFL Films guy says "They wouldn't lose again..."
Time to pay the piper:
Prediction: Trouble in the red zone – The Titans are one of the best in the business at in the red area. I think we will have to settle for a FG several times…think the Bills game from a few weeks ago. Let’s say 3 FG attempts in the red area.
Result: I got this one wrong like 8 different ways. We had a 100% red area efficiency on the day. But that's because we only got there one time. Pathetic! And even though we got in, it took a full back dive to do it, which didn't do much to instill more confidence in me when we get the ball inside their 20. We only attempted 2 FGs on the night, and Stevie missed one of them. I want to hit him with the Polish Puddle tag, but it was deep. I just hate that end of half miss. We KNEAD a horseshoe there Stevie. Read the room.
Prediction: Stop the run – I think we can plug them up on the ground. We will hold them to less than 100 rushing yards.
Result: Well they rushed for 150 yards. DIDI and Henry both had over 50. Henry had 2 tuddies. Mariota rushed for 21. It was not a good day for the defense anywhere on the field, but outside of Corey Davis this was the most frustrating part. After guys like Clayborn played most of the game against the Packers in passing sets, we sat him on the bench for all but 8 snaps, opting instead to go with the run stuffers. Malcom Brown and Danny Shelton two gaped liked the were allergic to it, and no one wanted to tackle DIDI like they were scared they might break him. Woof.
Prediction: Pats win 31-17 – I just don’t see the Titans stopping us consistently, and their offense isn’t good enough to keep up. Let’s put these chumps in the rear-view and get into the bye. Time get healthy and go apple picking.
Result: The Titans stopped us more consistently than anyone has in a long, long time. Worse than the Jags, the Lions, all of em. Their offense made us a look like a college squad. And I don't even mean an SEC squad or something like that. I mean like a middle of the road ACC team who has a good record but you know they actually suck because they wont send a single guy to then NFL. 34-10 Titans is a stunning finish, but that's the thing about the Pats. If we lose its because we play like dog shit. Rarely do you see a good, close game loss because if we play even remotely well we find a way to win. So the losses, while few and far behind, are U-G-L-Y we aint got no alibi.
