2024 Week 9: Titans 20, Patriots 17
The Titans should have won by multiple scores, they outplayed the Pats by a lot. This has been the tale of many of the Titans games this year, but then some dumb/unlucky play happens and they lose. Finally, the Titans eke out a win to improve to (2-6).
New England (2-7) is about as good as their record. This team is just not good.
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QB Report:
- Drake Maye (29/41 for 206 yards, 1 TD/ 2 INT; 8 rushes for 95 yards) has looked good in his limited starts so far. He plays the game well and is a perfect QB for the NFL right now. He’s a game manager who throws mostly check-downs and takes what the defense gives him whether it’s through the air or on the ground. It works in this era of offense but if offenses get more reliant on passing than rushing I fear for him. Luckily for him and the Patriots, the pendulum is swinging towards the run game.
- Mason Rudolph (20/33 for 240 yards, 2 TD/ 1 INT) is not a good quarterback. Will Levis is going to return this weekend and I still think he’s a great QB but the NFL and media don’t believe in him… I don’t know if Levis believes in himself right now. The next 7 games of Titans football determine his career until he's 30 and finds himself in a Baker Mayfield/Geno Smith arc.
RB Report:
- Tony Pollard (28-128-0; 3 catches for 26 yards) looked great despite being a game-time decision – a common theme this season. The Patriots run defense is the 26th in the NFL but Pollard still looked good, I just wish he was more involved in the passing game. I’m getting too greedy with Tony P.
WR Report:
- Calvin Ridley (5-73-0/8) drank from the same fountain of youth as all of the old QBs a few weeks ago. Ridley was outplaying Christian Gonzalez (3 tackles, 2 PD) consistently which is a tough task. I’m looking forward to seeing this version of Calvin Ridley with Levis. Why couldn’t we have gotten this all year? At the same time as the Ridley explosion, we also have Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (5-50-1/6) who has scored in 4 straight games. He’s not doing anything special but he just keeps on scoring. Like a worse version of 2023 Demarcus Robinson.
D/ST Report:
- The Titans defense is really good, the numbers on them aren’t fake, like Miami. They’ve held 3 of their last 5 opponents to under 20 points, and the teams that went over had Jared Goff and Josh Allen at QB. This is a classic good defense that gets no help from the offense.
Tennessee traded Ernest Jones a few weeks ago and Jack Gibbens (14 tackles, 0.5 sack, 2 TFLs) has played out of his mind in those two games. He’s averaging 11 tackles per game.
