***SWAMPY DIVISIONAL ROUND - AFC GM 1 - TEN @ NE***
***TENNESSEE TITANS @ NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS***
The second game of the Saturday double header to kick off the Divisional playoffs has the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots hosting the dangerous Tennessee Titans. The Titans were able to pull off the unthinkable last weekend in Kansas City. As significant underdogs, they overcame a 21-3 halftime deficit to upset the Chiefs on the road! QB Marcus Mariota impressed as he and fellow former Heisman winner RB Derrick Henry put the team on their backs and got the job done. The Titans defense also hung tough to hold off KC in the second half and especially during the waining moments of the game when the Chiefs were trying to get in FG range to attempt a game winning kick. Well, congratulations Titans - you now get to test your medal against the Champs! This task will be far more difficult as the Pats are no KC and will not be giving up any sort of lead. If Tenn wants to actually win this game and pull off an even more unlikely upset, they will have to play a near PERFECT game. I have been down on this Tennessee squad all year long. Last week when taking the points in KC, it was the first time I picked them all season, and by no means did I see them winning outright. They are coming along nicely though, and showed some real mental toughness as well as growth in that big time win last week. They are maturing and taking the necessary steps to become a contender in the near future. However, I think their experience lessons end tonight as they run into a buzzsaw in a pissed off Patriots team. Yes, the Pats have once again managed to find a way to motivate themselves by this mysterious story that has now surfaced claiming that their is a rift between Owner Robert Kraft, Head Coach Bill Belichick, and QB Tom Brady. It remains to be seen if there is any truth to it all although it does seem that there certainly might be, but as far as a distraction for this particular game tonight- I just don't see it. The Pats are far superior to the Titans in my opinion in every aspect and I believe they will prove to be just too much for Tennessee to handle tonight.
Brady is something like 9-0 all time against Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau's defenses and I fully expect a motivated Tom Terrific to light them up tonight. Apparently a major cause of the 'rift' was the whole Jimmy G situation and how it was handled. Brady wants to play until he's 45 years old while Belichick I believe had a different vision with backup QB, Kraft forced him to make the trade and Bill is pissed about it. Although, Bill always seems pissed. Nonetheless Brady and Bill are professionals and with a week to prep and at home I believe they will easily score at will tonight through the air and I think the X factor will be the RBs catching passes out of the backfield. When the Titans send more defenders to try and stifle Brady he will dump it over their heads and those RBs are YAC monsters. I also expect WR Brandin Cooks to have himself a game with all the Titans secondary primary focus most likely centering around TE Gronkowski. Last week Chief's WR Tyreek Hill dropped some passes that if he had caught we are probably seeing the Chiefs in this spot here tonight. My point is, the Pats won't drop these passes and Brady won't miss his targets running open, the Pats will pick apart this defense all night. On the other side of the coin, I believe Mariota and Henry will have success but once the Pats go up on the scoreboard two scores and the Titans are forced to keep up, they won't be able to simply because they aren't built like that. The Titan WRs will have to really step up and that is where I love the Pats defense because their CBs can and will stick to the WRs Decker and Matthews. I look for Rookie Corey Davis in a potential sleeper spot for a breakout game as his team will need it but I don't believe he is ready just yet but we will see. Either way, Pats pull away in the second half here in my opinion as they use it as a fine tuning to gear up for the real game that will be next week in a rematch against Pitt or potentially the pesky Jaguars. The Titans will benefit from the beatdown as a learning experience and take that next step toward contention for next season, but for now it's all about New England tonight. PATRIOTS-13.5
