Official Pats-Titans pregame thread

[Scotty]

wow !

 

[Gumby]

Some weeks BB‘s loose lips sink ships mentality may get validated. Particularly when other teams talk to the media. They may actually expose some of themir game planning.

Looking at this TN interview for example, most of it quoting Vrable is classic BB: “praise a lot and say nothing. “
but a couple of the players may be exposing a little:

What They're Saying: Tennessee Titans

i found it interesting to note that apparently the TN coaches & DL are still focused on the early season “ball control issues“ the Pats had. Meanwhile the secondary wants to take away Mac’s deepball and let him fink and dunk.

“We're going to have to be ready to stop the run this week."…..
“We have to get to the ball. We have to go and try to punch the ball out and create turnovers."
- Titans Defensive Lineman Jeffery Simmons

"As long as we keep the ball in front of us, he can dink and dunk it as much as he wants. If they do get in the redzone we'll be good. Like I said, he is playing at a high level, he's doing exactly what they're asking him to do. We'll try to take away some of those options and some of those deep balls from him so he can keep checking down to running backs and stuff like that."
- Titans Safety Kevin Byard

 

[Ivan]

Its a bit of a tired/BS narrative since its happening across the league plus Pats had a lot of their own injury bug . but..




Lets hope Pats can stay reasonably healthy to have some playoff fun..

Big loss, great player.

 

[oldrover]

As long as we keep the ball in front of us, he can dink and dunk it as much as he wants

 

[n6249c]

Some weeks BB‘s loose lips sink ships mentality may get validated. Particularly when other teams talk to the media. They may actually expose some of themir game planning.

Looking at this TN interview for example, most of it quoting Vrable is classic BB: “praise a lot and say nothing. “
but a couple of the players may be exposing a little:

What They're Saying: Tennessee Titans

i found it interesting to note that apparently the TN coaches & DL are still focused on the early season “ball control issues“ the Pats had. Meanwhile the secondary wants to take away Mac’s deepball and let him fink and dunk.

“We're going to have to be ready to stop the run this week."…..
“We have to get to the ball. We have to go and try to punch the ball out and create turnovers."
- Titans Defensive Lineman Jeffery Simmons

"As long as we keep the ball in front of us, he can dink and dunk it as much as he wants. If they do get in the redzone we'll be good. Like I said, he is playing at a high level, he's doing exactly what they're asking him to do. We'll try to take away some of those options and some of those deep balls from him so he can keep checking down to running backs and stuff like that."
- Titans Safety Kevin Byard

My first thought is misinformation.

My second thought is, dink and dunk it all the way into the red zone than power it in on the ground. Or power it all the way down the field and grind it out without passing at all.

 

[ashley]

Its a bit of a tired/BS narrative since its happening across the league plus Pats had a lot of their own injury bug . but..




Lets hope Pats can stay reasonably healthy to have some playoff fun..

Wow, big loss for the Bills. He's one of the better cb's in the league

 

[SlowGettingUp]

Its a bit of a tired/BS narrative since its happening across the league plus Pats had a lot of their own injury bug

See that graph I posted - Pats actually tied for second in the injury stakes, although it doesn't really feel that way. Small part of it may be Bill using the 3-week IR option cleverly.

 

[ausbacker]

No Henry or Brown meaning the game is contingent on Ryan Tannehill? I'm happy to run the ball every offensive play and trust our defense to pitch a shutout.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

See that graph I posted - Pats actually tied for second in the injury stakes, although it doesn't really feel that way. Small part of it may be Bill using the 3-week IR option cleverly.

Not all injuries are created equal, and that’s a big reason why. And you’ve identified part of the explanation. We‘ve lost a lot of players to injury, but exactly who are they? Gilmore…. but he essentially was never part of this team anyway. Brown, White, Jones…. good players, but Brown is back at the moment, and Bolden and Bryant have done a reasonable job trying to cover for the others’ production. Who else? Winovich. Uche. Cowart. Anderson. Those aren’t your core guys. Keene and Jennings might not have even made the roster if it weren’t for IR. The IR has been used more for roster management for those guys - bumps and bruises that guys may usually play through - than real injuries.

Other teams have lost actual core guys. I suppose some of this is BB roster-building — more middle class players so the team won’t be relying on fringe talent for replacements when stars get injured. But that’s not all it. We can all identify players on this team whose loss would sink this ship. I will not speak any further for fear of jinxing anything, just to say that other teams’ injuries have cut more to the bone this year than ours have to this point.

 

[SlowGettingUp]

I suppose some of this is BB roster-building — more middle class players so the team won’t be relying on fringe talent for replacements when stars get injured.

That's a lot of it. Makes the team way more resilient. Winowich goes down, Uche steps up. Now Uche goes down and it's Winowich up.

At this point the only player still on IR that's a clear upgrade on the current roster is Collins. I doubt if McGrone plays this year - he's just having 3 weeks of practice time before he's back on IR. Is there room for all of Collins, Uche and Winowich?

 

[PatsWSB47]

Let's stay out of the bathroom and keep this to football please.

Says the guy named "dingleberry"

 

[Ivan]

Heard an interesting report on the NFL Bret work this afternoon, apparently the numbers for Harris and Stevenson this season were basically the same as Henry’s. They included the games played/missed in the calculations.

 

[holyredeemer]

Titans have really been plagued by injuries - but surprised to see the Pats also so high up this chart:

Damn. The Lions can’t win nuttin’!!!

 

[Tony2046]

No team is at full strength by the time the SB rolls around. I am glad you enjoyed the game.

Not my point but ok.

 

[Tony2046]

I’ll take what I can get. No one feels sorry for us when we get injured.

That's because you lack gonads. It's a competitive thing.

You'd arm wrestle your grandma for a cheap win.

 

[moosekill]

That's because you lack gonads. It's a competitive thing.

You'd arm wrestle your grandma for a cheap win.

Injuries in the nfl happen and you have to build your team knowing that. The Patriots built a team with 3 very good running backs and lost White. The Titans dumped a lot of money into one great running back, and he got hurt. That’s the game, you only play the team on the field.

 

[Tony2046]

Injuries in the nfl happen and you have to build your team knowing that. The Patriots built a team with 3 very good running backs and lost White. The Titans dumped a lot of money into one great running back, and he got hurt. That’s the game, you only play the team on the field.

I agree and nothing I said disagrees with your post.

I simply said that I enjoy the Pats playing against the other team's best. Because I think they'd win and I'd enjoy that win more than if they beat a team laden with injuries. Pretty simple.

 

[moosekill]

I agree and nothing I said disagrees with your post.

I simply said that I enjoy the Pats playing against the other team's best. Because I think they'd win and I'd enjoy that win more than if they beat a team laden with injuries. Pretty simple.

I get it but no one remembers why a team loses or wins, just the results.

 

[jimnance]

I agree and nothing I said disagrees with your post.

I simply said that I enjoy the Pats playing against the other team's best. Because I think they'd win and I'd enjoy that win more than if they beat a team laden with injuries. Pretty simple.

Exactly. You want to beat other teams when theyre full-strength. Then they have no excuses. Theres more satisfaction in the victory.
This is how athletes think. Whether individual or team sport you want to be the undisputed champion. No asterisks.

 

[moosekill]

Exactly. You want to beat other teams when theyre full-strength. Then they have no excuses. Theres more satisfaction in the victory.
This is how athletes think. Whether individual or team sport you want to be the undisputed champion. No asterisks.

So Brady doesn’t count all those Super Bowl wins because the other teams had injured players? Injuries are part of the game, often the team that wins the super bowl is the team that got lucky with injuries and or built their team to be able to absorb injuries and still be competitive. That doesn’t mean the patriots want to play cupcakes. It means every Sunday they play with their healthy players against the other teams healthy players and may the best team win: