Titans vs. Patriots: Highlights, game tracker from Divisional Round

The Tennessee Titans faced the New England Patriots on Jan. 13 in the Divisional Round of the 2018 NFL Playoffs. Here are the highlights from the game.

When it comes to the New England Patriots, their familiarity with the NFL Playoffs is that of old friends. It’s frankly strange to see them not in the postseason than in it. And like the 2018 postseason, they are often the No. 1 seed. After taking Wild Card Weekend off with a bye, though, they retook their seat/throne at Gillette Stadium to take on the Tennessee Titans.

In the cold of Foxborough early on, it appeared that the Titans might be up to the task of standing up to the mighty Patriots. Not only did their defense step up to make plays when the home team took the ball first, but their offense showed early life. Marcus Mariota found rookie Corey Davis on a back-shoulder throw in the end zone that was hauled in with a beautiful grab to go up 7-0.

Unfortunately, that’s where the pleasantries for the evening stopped as they ended the first quarter with that lead. Tom Brady and the Patriots offense began just dissecting the Tennessee defense. Whether it was Danny Amendola, Rob Gronkowski, or one of their litany of running backs, they were just dicing up the defense. Brady led them to three second-quarter touchdowns to take a commanding 21-7 lead into the locker room.

Any Titans fans hoping for momentum in the second half as they got the ball first was sorely mistaken. Mariota couldn’t get into a rhythm as an early injury to right tackle Jack Conklin loomed large. Similarly, Derrick Henry wasn’t able to get much of anything going either. Even worse, the defense continued to look helpless against the great Brady as he again seemed to move the ball at will.

The Patriots added a touchdown in each of the final two quarters, including a beautiful throw-and-catch to Gronk to really put the game on ice. Even as the Titans tried to add a garbage time touchdown and ultimately Davis hauled in his second score, it didn’t matter. This was a dominant performance from New England at home to advance to the AFC Championship Game against the winner of Sunday’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Highlights

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/952356650525995008

Next: 2018 NFL Mock Draft: Divisional Round edition

With Brady and the Patriots, you know what to expect. However, the same could not be said for the young Titans. Thus, this game had plenty of intrigue right from the start.