Nashville has a new official holiday: Ex-Patriots’ Day.
We won’t call them spies, but there were plenty of Titans with a unique level of intelligence on how Bill Belichick and Tom Brady like to do business on Sunday.
Everywhere they looked, there were former pupils and teammates. On the sideline, Mike Vrabel, the former linebacker who won three Super Bowls in New England, coached the Titans. In the secondary, Malcolm Butler, the cornerback who won one Super Bowl with the Patriots and was benched in another, was in on four tackles. Logan Ryan, another former Patriot, collected six more tackles and broke up a pass. Dion Lewis, three years a Patriot, rushed for 58 yards and added 11 yards as a receiver. He made it known he was motivated by the Patriots’ decision to let him walk as a free agent in the offseason.
“Hell yeah it’s personal,” Lewis said. “When you go cheap, you get your ass kicked.”
Belichick accepted his whupping afterward.
“We didn’t do much of anything well today,” Belichick said. “Everything was a problem.”
A thousand miles southwest of Foxborough, the Titans were thorough in their thrashing. They looked like they knew something, beating the Patriots, 34-10, to improve to 5-4. The Pats, now 7-3, head into the bye week knowing this year’s team does not have much margin for error.
“You go on the road in the NFL and you don’t play your best football,” said Brady, who was limited to 21-of-41 passing for 254 yards and no touchdowns. “You don’t put any pressure on the other team, you don’t score early, you don’t stay on the field on third down, it’s unlikely you’re going to win. It was just a bad day.”
It was the second time a former Patriot coach beat Belichick this season. In Week 3, Matt Patricia welcomed the Patriots to Detroit with a 26-10 drubbing.
The ex-Pats got the Patriots once more in Tennessee. Now it is time for the team’s annual bye and subsequent rebound where we talk about what a blip the Nashville loss was after the Pats reach the Super Bowl.
“I thought the Titans were clearly the better team, and that they deserved to win,” Belichick said. “And they did, soundly.”
Call it The Leap at the Linc.
Ezekiel Elliott cleared Eagles defensive back Tre Sullivan en route to a 32-yard gain and a 27-20 victory over the defending Super Bowl champions.
The Cowboys’ win meant the rivals are now both 4-5. For Dallas, that counted as progress after back-to-back losses. For the Eagles, it marked the latest stumble in a steep fall from last season’s title.
Elliott was the difference. He finished with 151 rushing yards and a touchdown. His hurdle came on a non-scoring play as he stumbled upon landing and was brought down at the eight-yard line.
Elliott proved to be the perfect complement for quarterback Dak Prescott, who was 26-of-36 passing for 270 yards. Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz was 32-of-44 for 360 yards, but he did not have a go-to ground game like Dallas. Prescott found Elliott for a seven-yard passing touchdown in the fourth quarter to give Dallas a 20-13 lead. The Eagles knotted it again at 20-20, but Elliott finished them off with a one-yard score.
Nothing about the NFC East is pretty at this point. Both teams are still in the race. It is Dallas that has the best hurdler in the NFL, though.
Charging up
Philip Rivers continued to flow toward the playoffs and a possible MVP candidacy in the Chargers’ 20-6 win over the Raiders.
Now 36, Rivers is still slinging it, throwing two touchdowns and one pick in completing 18-of-26 passes for 223 yards. The Bolts have now won six straight games after a 1-2 start.
He is getting plenty of help. Tailback Melvin Gordon III may help extend Rivers’ career as he rushed for 93 yards and added another 72 yards as a receiver. Rivers connected with Gordon for a 66-yard scoring play in the third quarter to go up 17-3. Rivers only had to throw the ball 5 yards before watching Gordon burst past every defender.
If those two can continue to connect like that, Rivers may find himself advancing toward uncharted territory come January.
Play of the Day:
It was in the third quarter, on second down, following an incomplete pass.
Backed up on their 8-yard line, the Browns, already up 21-10 on the visiting Falcons, went to the run. Tailback Nick Chubb took a handoff, headed right, cut back, eluded a defensive back’s tackle attempt, followed a blocker, made his way to the left side of the field and outlasted all chasers before reaching the end zone.
In all, it was a 92-yard touchdown run, the longest in team history.
“I remember running through and just seeing the safety left,” Chubb said. “After that it was wide open to the house.”
Chubb went through that hole in the team’s first win since head coach Hue Jackson was fired. Cleveland performed well under interim coach Gregg Williams, improving to 3-6-1 with the 28-16 victory.
Chubb finished with 176 yards and two touchdowns. When asked about entering the team’s annals, he expressed appreciation for those who came before him.
“It’s definitely very special just to be in this place with so much history,” he said. “To be a part of that and breaking records, it’s a great feeling.”
Post Patterns:
Pity the place-kicker. Chicago’s Cody Parkey missed a pair of extra points, as well as a pair of field goals Sunday. All of them hit the upright. The Bears won, 34-22, in spite of their kicker as fans cheered sarcastically when he converted an extra point late in the first half. They also roared when coach Matt Nagy elected to go for a 2-point conversion after a touchdown in the third quarter. “I don’t think I’ve hit the posts four times in my whole life, and I’ve been kicking for almost 15 years,” Parkey said. “So, it’s almost comical.” … Wideout Dez Bryant was supposed to return to the field as a Saint, but tailback Mark Ingram made sure his presence was still felt after Bryant suffered a torn Achilles late in the week. After Ingram scored a touchdown on a 28-yard screen pass, he crossed his arms to make an ‘X’, just as Bryant does to celebrate scores. “Dez, man, he came in right away and he was one of the guys. We was all excited about him being a part of our team. Great playmaker. Good dude. We all hated what happened on Friday.” … Cardinals wideout Larry Fitzgerald hauled in a 15-yard reception to pass Terrell Owens for the No. 2 position on the NFL’s all-time receiving yardage list. Fitzgerald has 15,952 yards in 15-year career, trailing only Hall of Famer Jerry Rice. … That was a Floyd Mayweather Jr. cameo appearance in Seattle’s loss to the Rams in Los Angeles. Late in the third quarter, Seahawks wideout Tyler Lockett caught a touchdown pass and handed the ball to Mayweather, who was sitting in the front row of the end zone. … The Bucs couldn’t translate a big offensive day into any points other than a field goal, as Tampa Bay outgained the Redskins 501 yards to 286 yards.
Quote of the Day:
“When I woke up this morning, I was feeling pretty dangerous. I just woke up feeling really dangerous.”
— Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield after he threw three touchdowns for the first time as a professional. He completed his first 13 passes and finished 17-of-20 for 216 yards.
Three stars:
Jared Goff
Hollywood’s leading man bounced back from his first defeat to throw for 318 yards and 2 TDs in a 36-31 win against the Seahawks.
Drew Brees:
Ho-hum. It was just another three-touchdown day for the head Saint. This time he completed 22-of-25 passes to earn his halo.
Aaron Jones
They do still run the ball in Green Bay, occasionally. Jones reminded the world of that as he rushed for 145 yards and 2 TDs in a 31-12 home win over the Dolphins.
Fantasy Insanity
- Ryan Fitzpatrick did what Ryan Fitzpatrick has a history of doing: Whatever you didn’t expect. Expect him to be bad, he is FitzMagic. Expect the magic, and his fantasy numbers disappear. He can still be a weekly streaming option, if he keeps his job, but never start him over reliable QBs like, say, Ben Roethlisberger. When you misfire, it hurts a lot. Trust us, we know.
- There was a Derrick Henry sighting in the Titans’ surprising thumping of the Patriots. He had 11 carries for 58 yards and two TDs. Consider it an anomaly. He has topped 11 carries just once since Week 3. It doesn’t happen often. Shop him now before your league’s trade deadline.
- Allen Robinson returned for the Bears after missing two games. He racked up six catches for 133 yards and two TDs on a team-leading eight targets. He now has four combined TDs in his past four games. Combined with the emergence of Anthony Miller (at least six targets the past four weeks), Taylor Gabriel is drop-able.
— Drew Loftis