New England Patriots beat resurgent Tennessee Titans 40-23
The New England Patriots had a couple of bruising games against the Tennessee Titans in the first half of this decade, during New England’s Super Bowl era. Today’s game was reminiscent of those slugfests. It was physical,it was brutal, it went on all game long, and in the end the Patriots won.
New England’s 40-23 victory had a lot of memorable moments, none more so than runningback Corey Dillon’s first touchdown run. The Patriots ran an off-tackle right on a variation of the Power-I play they’ve used with great success this season. Instead of three tight-ends, they had a split end on the left-side, with tight-ends Daniel Graham and Dave Thomas manning the right side (Graham on the line of scrimmage, as per usual, and Thomas off it), and fullback Heath Evans in the backfield. The play was beautifully executed, the Patriots’ best blocked play of the year. It was a work of art and a thing of beauty. The players hit every block and no one came close to holding. Center Dan Koppen cut down the middle linebacker, left tackle Matt Light delivered a good shove on the right outside linebacker, keeping him from chasing down Dillon downfield. Left guard Logan Mankins sealed off the play’s backside in the backfield while right tackle Nick Kaczur bore down on the left defensive end. Right guard Stephen Neal pulled right and blocked the left outside linebacker out of the play. That left Graham and Thomas to seal off the inside while Evans cleared Dillon’s lane with two blocks downfield. The Titans were completely overwhelmed and swept aside at the point of attack and the hard charging Dillon rode the wave for 21 yards to the corner of the endzone for six points. It was just beautiful.
An earlier play that showcased the strengths of New England’s offensive line - technique and mobility - came on a screen-pass left that Dillon took across the field for 52 yards. Koppen, Mankins and Neal did a heck of a job engaging defenders on that play, too, while the tackles did their best to sell the play as a straight pocket pass.
Dillon ended up with 67 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns. His back up Laurence Maroney - who really is Dillon’s equal - gained 73 yards on 13 carries and scored a touchdown.
All three touchdown runs came out of the power-I right.
Tom Brady had another day of excellence, completing 15 of 24 passes for 225 yards, including a 62 yard bomb to Reche Caldwell. Caldwell had his best day as a Patriots and finished with four catches for 134 yards. What made the touchdown play noteworthy wasn’t just the distance it went for but also the way Caldwell got open, adjusted to the slightly underthrown pass and then then dotted the i by taking the ball the final 20 some yards to the endzone. That was a very good play by Caldwell. Brady completed passes to eight different players, including Chad Jackson. Jackson has mostly been a disappointment but today he showed some of the speed, strength and hands he was supposed to bring to the team.
The defense had another great game and mostly kept Titans rookie quarterback Vince Young in check, though it did surrender a 28 scramble for a touchdown to the former Longhorn. Cornerback Asante Samuel picked off the not overly accurate Young twice and brought his regular-season total to 10. Mike Wright once again did a solid job filling in for banged up nose tackle Vince Wilfork and back-up lineman Jarvis Green forced a fumble that outside linebacker Rosevelt Colvin opportunistically pounced on to set up New England’s second field goal.
While offense and defense had solid to great games, special teams were atrocious. It gave up long returns all day long, including an 81-yard punt return for a touchdown. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed a field-goal attempt and had an extra point attempt blocked.
During a press conference last week, head coach Bill Belichick gave a lengthy answer when asked if he ever regards extra points automatic. His short answer was no. He then responded to a follow-up question:
I’ve gone and watched high school teams, and ninth-grade teams, and eighth-grade teams, I’ve seen them kick extra points. I bring that up to our team. There are a lot of teams that can kick extra points, so I don’t think that we’re asking anything that would be that extraordinary. But at the same time, it doesn’t take much to [mess] one up. Why would you [mess] it up? It would just be a lack of concentration. That’s what it would be. It’s not that we can’t do it. It just kind of heightens the awareness of that play. Again, I don’t mean to magnify it into the most spectacular play in the game, but I think it’s obviously an important play because it’s a scoring play. I’ll be honest with you, I do watch those plays and I do think that there’s something to be said for those plays. Obviously, it affects the score. The only reason that field goal team ever goes on the field is to score points. That’s the only reason why they are out there. So if they come off the field and they don’t have points on the board, as a unit, they haven’t done their job and that’s not good. There’s no other reason to send them out there.
I imagine the PAT team will hear about their [mess] up this week.
An ugly play happened when a Titans receiver cut and injured safety Rodney Harrison who returned from a knee injury just last week. Early indications are that Harrison wasn’t hurt too bad and will be back for the next game.
Last season’s last game had a light-hearted moment when back-up quarterback Doug Flutie successfully drop-kicked an extra point, the first time that had happened in half a century or so in the NFL. This time we saw veteran quarterback Vinny Testaverde toss a six-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Troy Brown. That extended Testaverde’s streak of seasons in which he has tossed at least one touchdown pass to 20. Belichick certainly doesn’t mind having a hand in writing NFL history.
The win over Tennessee concluded New England’s regular season. Patriots finished with a 12-4 record. Next stop: The playoffs.
January 1 updates:
Titans didn’t take kindly to Testaverde’s garbage time touchdown pass, reports the Boston Globe:
“I think it was [expletive], and as long as I am here I will always remember that,” [Titans linebacker Keith] Bulluck said.
That’s terrific. I hope he thinks about it every day and dreams about it every night. In the meantime, the Patriots will be thinking about the playoffs
