Patriots v.s. Titans Preview
The Pats are headed to the music city for a matchup with the Titans and some familiar faces this weekend. From the front office, to the coach, to the players. Jon Robinson, Mike Vrabel, Logan Ryan, Josh Kline, Dion Lewis, and of course Malcolm Butler are all former Patriots that are on the Titans. The Pats already had some struggles against a former coach in Matt Patricia, so it will be interesting if all of this inside Intel will help the Titans this week against the Patriots.
I can’t imagine Tom Brady having too much difficulty with this defense. He handled them with ease in the divisional playoff round last year, and the addition of Malcolm Butler does not seem to have made them much better. In fact, Butler has been rated as one of the worst corners in the league this season and has given up a lot of big plays. If Josh Gordon gets matched up on him at any point he will feast. I assume that Vrabel isn’t dumb enough to leave James White open all day like other coaches have, so other guys will have to step up. Whether that means Sony Michel comes back, another game of Patterson carrying the ball, or maybe some combo of Hogan, Dorsett, and Kenjon Barner. Dorsett started to come back in the last game, and Hogan has been asleep almost all season. Barner just has not been used much yet, so maybe this will be his game to breakout. This all depends on how the health of both Sony Michel and Rob Gronkowski is this week. Either way, Brady will find a way to carve these guys up.
The Titans offense has been very inconsistent this season. They looked good against Dallas last week, but Dallas makes a lot of teams look good. Dion Lewis could be a guy that really hurts the Pats both in the passing and running game. He used to kill defenses when he was with the Pats and he will probably do the same against them. Derrick Henry has been a huge disappointment, and shouldn’t do too much against the Pats D. Corey Davis has also been an off and on target for Mariota. The guy is a freak talent, but some of the best receivers have been shut down by Stephon Gilmore this year, and things probably won’t change for Davis. The Pats defensive backs should match up fine with these receivers, and the only way the Titans might stand a chance are some trick plays and Marcus Mariota’s running ability.
The Pats will increase their win streak to 7 this week with relative ease. The Titans are a good team but have underachieved this season. 36-17 Pats.
-Jake Kobierski (@TheRealKobe83)
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