New England Patriots: 3 Takeaways from loss to Titans in Wild Card Round

2. New England’s season comes to an end early

After a strong start to the regular-season schedule by kicking off the year winners in nine of its first 10 contests to begin the 2019 campaign, New England wrapped up the year struggling while being forced out of the postseason in the opening round.

In the final five weeks of the regular season, the Patriots fell in three of those games including losing two of those three contests at home in Foxborough. That featured a shocking Week 17 loss to Miami, which resulted in New England losing their first-round bye and playing on Saturday night.

New England hoped those struggles wouldn’t carry over into the postseason while hosting Tennessee in the AFC Wild Card Round on Saturday night. But unfortunately for the Patriots, those struggles did advance into their first-round playoff loss.

With the defeat at home at Gillette Stadium on Saturday, New England suffered its first home loss in the playoffs since the 2012 season, while being forced out of the postseason the earliest it has since the 2009 campaign.

It’s not very common that we see the Patriots struggle like they did towards the end of the year, and that resulted in the even more uncommon occurrence of them being sent home early in the playoffs.