With the New England Patriots seeing their season end in the AFC Wild Card Round, here are three takeaways from the loss to Tennessee.
The New England Patriots took part in the Wild Card Round of the 2020 NFL Playoffs for the first time in a while on Saturday night at home in Foxborough. The No. 3-seeded Patriots surprisingly missed out on a bye in the first round of postseason action, resulting in taking on the sixth-seeded Tennessee Titans in the second of two Wild Card games on Saturday.
By the end of the night, New England ended up seeing their season come to an end at home, falling to Tennessee, 20-13, while suffering its first home playoff loss since 2012 and exiting the playoffs the earliest it has since the 2009 season.
In the game, the Patriots did all they could to climb out to a lead early on in the contest but ultimately weren’t able to hold off a late surge by the Titans that put things out of reach in the opening round playoff matchup.
Tennessee got out to a 7-3 advantage after the first quarter, while going into halftime on the road leading New England 14-13 on its home field. In the second half, both teams went scoreless in the third quarter and the Titans added six more points in the fourth quarter to come away with a seven-point victory to advance in the postseason.
In the loss, the Patriots saw their season end early in the playoffs after completing the regular season schedule with a record of 12-4 overall. A year after winning the Super Bowl, New England will now watch the rest of the postseason from home while a new NFL Champion will be crowned this year.
Now with the Patriots and Titans AFC Wild Card Game officially in the books with the Divisional Round next on the schedule, here are three takeaways from the game on Saturday night from New England’s perspective.
3. Patriots defense was strong — unlike the offense
On defense, New England was pretty solid while holding a strong offense on the side of Tennessee in check for most of the contest in Foxborough. The Patriots defensive unit limited the Titans offense to just 76 yards receiving on a total of nine receptions in the contest while holding Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill to 72 yards passing and one interception.
More from NFL Spin Zone
- Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
- Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
- Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
- Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
- Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens
New England’s defense did allow Derrick Henry and the Titans running game to go off on the ground, as the running back finished with 34 carries for 182 yards and one touchdown to pace a running back unit that ended up with 201 total yards out of the backfield in the win.
On offense, the Patriots weren’t as strong and didn’t really step up to overmatch the opposition like we have seen from them many times in the playoffs in years past. Tom Brady finished with just 209 yards passing through the air, failing to throw a touchdown pass while throwing one interception in the loss. The quarterback completed 20 of his total 37 pass attempts in the game.
A big key coming into the game was how would Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman perform in the contest to help lead the passing attack for New England. He ultimately struggled in the passing game, finishing with just three catches for 30 yards on a total of five targets.
On the ground, the Patriots managed to rush for less than 100 yards while running for one touchdown. New England, led by Sony Michel‘s 61 yards rushing on 14 carries, ended the game with 22 rush attempts for 98 yards.
In regards to the defense, the Patriots were pretty stellar once again on Saturday night, as has been the trend for most of the season this year in New England. On offense, however, the Patriots weren’t as impressive or stellar — which has unfortunately also been a trend in New England throughout the regular season.
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.
1. This could be it for Brady, Patriots
Saturday night could possibly be the final time that Tom Brady suits up in a Patriots uniform. Following the loss to the Titans on Saturday night, Brady was flooded with questions surrounding his future in both the NFL and in New England, a league and franchise he has played within for 20 seasons.
Entering the offseason as a free agent for the first time in his career, the veteran quarterback and future Hall-of-Famer didn’t necessarily address the question of whether or not he would be back in New England for a 21st season, adding that he doesn’t plan on retiring after the first-round exit in the postseason this year.
"“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m not going to predict it. No one needs to make choices at this point,” Brady told the media after the game, per ESPN.com. “I love playing football. I love playing for this team. I’ve loved playing for this team for two decades and winning a lot of games. I don’t know what it looks like moving forward, so we’ll just take it day to day.”"
The good news for fans who have enjoyed watching Brady take the field over the course of 20 seasons is that he likely will return for yet another season next year.
Now, whether or not that will actually come in New England and with the Patriots, that is yet to be determined. Although it is really hard to picture Brady suiting up in another uniform.