FOXBORO – How can't the Titans win this game? By extending New England drives via penalties.
Justin Trawick was called for a neutral-zone infraction on a fourth-down Patriots punt, handing a first down and new life to an offense that was just about to go three-and-out. Instead, New England drove 91 yards on 16 plays for a score that has put the Titans on the ropes just before the half.
Tom Brady is 19-of-28 for 192 yards.
Quick strike drive [...]
FOXBORO – How can't the Titans win this game? By extending New England drives via penalties.
Justin Trawick was called for a neutral-zone infraction on a fourth-down Patriots punt, handing a first down and new life to an offense that was just about to go three-and-out. Instead, New England drove 91 yards on 16 plays for a score that has put the Titans on the ropes just before the half.
Tom Brady is 19-of-28 for 192 yards.
Quick strike drive puts Pats ahead
The Titans want to control the clock; the Patriots want to go as fast as possible.
New England took just 116 seconds to go 48 yards in six plays, taking its first lead of the night on James White's five-yard touchdown run. The Patriots continue to take advantage of one of the Titans' main defensive weaknesses, using their backs in the passing game to pick up chunks of yardage. Dion Lewis caught a pass for 8 yards and White one for 7 to set up the score.
Tom Brady has completed eight straight passes. New England leads 14-7 despite losing the battle for time of possession thus far.
Patriots respond with tying touchdown
How could the Patriots beat the Titans? By being themselves, mainly.
New England responded to Tennessee's impressive touchdown drive with a quick-strike TD that made consistent use of its running backs in the passing game. Dion Lewis scampered 31 yards on a screen pass and James White five on a short touchdown toss from Tom Brady. Brady was 5-for-5 on the drive for 67 yards -- 55 of which went to running backs. That exploits one of the main weaknesses in the Tennessee defense.
Brady is 8-for-12 for 102 yards on the day.
Titans take early lead
How could the Titans beat the Patriots? Their touchdown drive to open the scoring looked like a pretty sound blueprint.
Tennessee marched 95 yards on 11 plays, capped by Marcus Mariota's 15-yard sprint fade to Corey Davis in the left corner of the end zone. It was the first career touchdown for the top-five pick.
In order to pull the major upset, the Titans have to run the ball, stay ahead of the chains, control the clock and get some big plays from their purported stars. Derrick Henry has 20 yards on seven carries, but Mariota has chipped in with a pair of 11-yard runs to help the ground game. The Titans were 2-for-2 on third down on that drive, converting medium-yardage situations. The drive lasted more than five minutes. And Mariota started the drive with a 36-yard strike to favorite target Delanie Walker and finished it by finding Tennessee's first-round pick in Davis.
Mariota is 4-for-6 for 70 yards through one quarter.
Cold starts for both offenses
In 24-degree weather at Gillette Stadium, the offenses started off a touch cold. Consecutive incompletions from Tom Brady stalled an opening drive that had just crossed midfield for New England, and Tennessee mustered one first down before its own punt back to the Pats.
For the Titans, the gameplan was clear early: Run the ball and stay ahead of the chains. Tennessee ran on three of its five plays on the first drive, a few times with jumbo formations.
Hogan back, Branch inactive
Chris Hogan is back.
The wide receiver is active for the Patriots playoff matchup with the Tennessee Titans. Hogan missed seven of the final eight games. He appeared in the team’s Week 14 loss to Miami, but caught only one pass for one yard. The Pats shut him down for the remainder of the season after that.
Through the first seven games, the 29-year-old was on pace for a career-year as he was among the league leaders in receiving touchdowns with five. (He still finished third on the team). Hogan, however, suffered a shoulder injury in Week 8 and then Tom Brady lost one of his favorite for most of the second half.
Although he didn’t play in the final three games, Hogan seemed to get better. He was named a Practice Player of the Week after Week 17. Hogan was removed from the injury report last Thursday – which was the first for him since suffering the injury on Oct. 29.
The Patriots are also getting James White back. White suffered an ankle injury last month and missed the final two games against Buffalo and the New York Jets.
The Patriots inactive list does has a few surprises. Alan Branch headlines the group that also includes Kenny Britt, Rex Burkhead, Mike Gillislee, Johnson Bademosi, David Harris and Cole Croston.
Branch suffered a knee injury in Week 14 against Miami and missed the final three games, but said he was feeling healthy this past week. He was limited in practice this past week. Burkhead and Gillislee make up the other injured inactive players.
Britt, Bademosi, Harris and Croston are all healthy scratches. Britt being inactive seems like it’s connected with Hogan returning.
Welcome to Gillette Stadium
Welcome to Gillette Stadium where the Patriots will take on the Tennessee Titans in their AFC Divisional matchup.
The playoffs are here and the Patriots enter January as the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The Pats are massive favorites over the No. 5 seeded Titans, who upset the Kansas City Chiefs to get here on Saturday night. The Patriots haven’t lost in the AFC divisional round since 2010 when they lost to the New York Jets.
The Pats are expected to get plenty of help today, but not all of their players will be available. The team didn’t activate Malcolm Mitchell on Friday so the receiver can’t play. The deadline to activate Mitchell is Wednesday at 4 p.m. If that doesn’t happen, the young receiver will stay on the injured reserve for the rest of the season.
According to ESPN, the Patriots also won’t have Rex Burkhead (knee) or Mike Gillislee (knee) against the Titans. Both running backs have been dealing with knee injuries. The team, however, will get James White back, who missed the last two games with an ankle injury.
On offense, Chris Hogan is expected to return. The receiver missed most of the second half of the season with a shoulder injury. Hogan was removed from the injury report on Thursday.
Kyle Van Noy was also removed from the injury report this week. The edge rusher is expected to be back in the defense after missing a handful of games with a calf injury. Alan Branch is also expected to be back after missing time with a knee injury.