While the result itself for the Patriots on Sunday doesn't bother me much, the process of how they ultimately got there was very much infuriating. An early missed field goal by Joey Slye didn't help things out, but I thought this was comfortably offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt's worst game at the helm of this team. Whether or not it was his call to kick Mike Onwenu out to tackle just to kick him back inside to help with Jeffery Simmons is unclear, but his handprints were all over this loss.
Beyond that, it was nice to see Drake Maye have the two-minute drive-to-end regulation that he did, but this wasn't his cleanest outing by any means with three turnovers. Then, on the other side of the ball, that opening drive score allowed by the Patriots, primarily due to bad containment by Deatrich Wise, was the worst way to open things up defensively. Even with just one other touchdown drive on the day allowed, plus a clutch endzone INT by Jahlani Tavai, you must bury teams like the Titans immediately. Unfortunately, that was anything but the case here.
Alex Van Pelt Breakdown
A day later, I'm even more upset over the two-minute drill to close out the first half. The start was good because they got some excellent outside quick hitters to Kendrick Bourne to pick up a quick 23 yards. Then AVP decided to zag when the Titans thought the Patriots would zig. Spoiler: that did not work out. Runs on 2nd and 3rd&1 went for a net negative one yard, and on a day where your run game was Drake Maye and only Drake Maye, that's beyond inexcusable on the part of Van Pelt.
Execution certainly wasn't great on either play (especially Michael Jordan on the second-down run stuff), but I HATE the process here from Van Pelt. You just gained 20-plus on two straight pass plays, and the Titans had no answers for those curls from Bourne, and you decide to give them a get-out-of-jail-free card for no reason. It is unfathomable to me that designed runs are on the table with less than two minutes to go in the half when you're on your own 38-yard line. Give your young quarterback a chance to get you some points going into the break. Even a field goal there hypothetically wins you the game.
Not that you can't abandon the run game in its entirety (especially when that would mean you're putting 60 throws per game expectations on a 22-year-old), but there were so many poorly timed runs called for a team that has been awful at running the ball since Week 6. Nine designed first-down runs yesterday went for a combined 18 yards, and three combined runs on second down for four yards and a touchdown. This is not an offense that can afford to get behind schedule as inexplicably as they are, and at least from my view, this is the first week where I think Alex Van Pelt should be on the hot seat.
Teams Continue to Kick to Marcus Jones for...Reasons
There isn't a single punt returner hotter right now than Marcus Jones, who's tied the NFL lead in returns of 20-plus and 40-plus yards in 14 days of work. The big reason why Jones got his two returns off was simply that Ryan Stonehouse outkicked his coverage twice, and he's lucky that these returns were only for 44 and 25 yards a pop.
The 44-yarder ultimately led to nothing due to the Maye pick being a bit rough, but Jones has been a very good multi-phase player for this team this year (even if he took some competitive losses to Garrett Wilson in Week 8). It was not a picture-perfect game, as you can see below, but there was definitely more good than bad this week.
Drake Maye is (Literally) The Patriots Offense
You never want to be in a position where your quarterback is your leading rusher, but we're now at the point where Drake Maye accounted for over 95 percent of the Patriots' offensive yards in just his fourth career start. While it's great to know Maye can put this team on his back, that's not sustainable football and speaks to AVP's shortcomings in this one. Granted, Maye wasn't exactly blameless in this one. I'd put his first pick solely on him and then partial credit on his strip sack where Vederian Lowe got beat clean around the outside by Arden Key. Here's the first pick, though, where Maye simply gets baited hard on a robber look by Amani Hooker.
The key thing here is that the Titans do a great job with sending five and dropping one, which meant Maye was either throwing this pick or getting dumped. He wouldn't have had time to get to his check-down to the right, but his job here is not to make a bad play worse. Luckily, the Patriots' defense bailed him out with an endzone pick of their own, but certainly a clear instance of Maye needing to see things better. Now for the play you're here for.
I mean...this is top 1% improvisation skills by NFL standards. Maybe four or five other guys in the NFL can make this exact play, and Maye did it 10v11. Watch Hunter Henry (near side of the screen at the start), realize he steps out of bounds, and takes himself out of the play knowing that he stepped out. That's elite situational awareness in that spot, and not to be left out here; Rhamondre Stevenson does an unreal job staying active this entire play to give Maye a chance and then does a great job working to the ball. Now, I would've gone for two here with zero hesitation, but that wasn't as big a deal to me as some of the disastrous outcomes that led to this play not being for the win.
The only "good news" about this loss is that the Patriots are in the driver's seat for the No. 1 pick for next year, which I'm trading 1000% to a team looking for a quarterback. Regardless, execution on both sides of the ball regressed big time after what appeared to be a season-defining win for Jerod Mayo in his rookie season. It was certainly a disappointing afternoon in Music City.
Final Score: Tennessee Titans 20, New England Patriots 17 (OT)
Gaffney's Three Stars from Patriots-Titans
3rd Star - Hunter Henry (7 Catches on 8 Targets for 56 Yards)
2nd Star - Keion White (5 Pressures on 24 Pass Rush Snaps, 3 Run Stops, 4 Tackles)
1st Star - Marcus Jones (2 Punt Returns for 69 Yards, 2 Tackles, 1 Catch Allowed for 8 Yards on 2 Targets)
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