EARLY LEAD- The best thing the Patriots can do today is give it their all to take an early lead. For this season they are 9-1 when they score first, 10-0 when they lead at the half, and 11-0 when they lead after 3. Should the Patriots win the coin toss they need to elect to take the ball. In years' past the team was masterful at the double score surrounding halftime. Those days are gone and we are more likely to get a double score to start the game.
Earlier this week I took a deep dive into seeing what happens on New England's first possession coming out of the half. It isn't good, we punt 50% of the time and half of those are 3 and outs. Here's a quick look at what has happened this year on specific possessions.
Patriots-
First Possession of Game-
- 5 TD
- 1 FG
- 1 Fumble
- 1 turnover on downs
- 8 punts
- 1 TD
- 4 FG
- 1 missed FG
- 1 blocked FG
- 4 punts
- 5 accomplished nothing either due to time or questionable calls
- 5 TD
- 1 FG
- 1 missed FG
- 1 fumble returned for a TD
- 8 punts
First Possession of the Game-
- 2 TD
- 2 FG
- 3 INT
- 8 punts
- 1 turnover on downs
- 3 TD
- 3 FG
- 5 INT
- 5 punts
SPECIAL TEAMS- Our special teams played horrible on that piece of crap, grub infested, injury inducing, thing called Nissan Fieldlast year. The Titans are 8 for 18 on field goal attempts. Their current kicker hasn't attempted a field goal this season as he was just signed to the team a few weeks ago when Succop went on IR. In his 2 games Greg Joseph is 9 for 9 in PATs. Last season Joseph made 80% of his field goal attempts while playing for the Browns. He has made 6 of 8 attempts on the road in his career.
When it comes to punters, Brett Kern and Jake Bailey are almost duplicates of each other. Kern is slightly better when it comes to keeping opponents inside the 20 while players returning Bailey's punts have had less success.
The Patriots lead the league in blocked punts while the Titans lead the league in blocked field goals.
OFFENSE- Besides scoring first, what we do need to see today is some better ball security. 10-1 when we win the turnover battle and 2-3 when we don't. The Titans have scored 20 points off turnovers this season and not given up any. The Patriots have scored 32 while their opponents have scored 35. Instead of trying to get everyone going, it would be nice to see the Patriots go with what is working and making the Titans stop them. The offensive line is finally playing like we need them to and we need to ride them to Miami. Run the ball with a healthy dose of Michel, Bolden and Burkhead and use play action to get the ball to Harry, Myers and dare I say maybe a deep ball to Slater?