Fresh off their third win in a row, the New England Patriots will travel to Tennessee to take on their head coach’s former team. Mike Vrabel meeting the Titans for the first time since his departure during
the 2024 offseason is one of the big stories of the week. So is his ex-club firing his successor just earlier this week.
So, what can be expected of the Titans now? In order to answer that and other questions about the team, we reached out to Jimmy Morris of Pats Pulpit’s sister site Music City Miracles, the SB Nation community for all things Titans.
Here is what he told us about the upcoming game and what to expect from New England’s Week 7 opponent.
1. Did Brian Callahan deserve to be fired this early into the season? How do you expect Mike McCoy to change things up as interim head coach?
Yeah, he did. It’s been that bad. Not only did he have numerous in-game gaffes, but the offense has been one of the worst units I’ve ever seen. Callahan was brought in because of his ability to coach offense. They are 31st or 32nd in pretty much every offensive category you can think of. Plus, there is the fact that Cam Ward has regressed over the last few weeks outside of a really good fourth quarter against the Arizona Cardinals. The team was bad and getting worse.
That’s a good question. Our hope is that they will play with more tempo on offense. That is where Ward is at his best. Callahan talked about doing more of it after the Cardinals game, but then they came out and only went no huddle three times before the game was over in the fourth quarter last week.
2. The numbers aren’t great, but how has Cam Ward performed on an individual level thus far? How much is he raising the offense’s ceiling?
He was good in the first two games despite having bad numbers. Things haven’t gone as well since, except for, like I said earlier, the fourth quarter against the Cardinals. Now, there are some pretty obvious reasons he is struggling. One is that they have no playmakers on offense — especially with Calvin Ridley out. There is also the fact that the offensive line has been bad. Ward has already been sacked 25 times this season. He has gotten into the bad habit of drifiting in the pocket, even when it is clean. It’s hard to blame him with how much he has been hit, but he has to get that fixed if he is going to have success. He also has some issues with his footwork, but again, some of that stems from running for his life on most plays.
He hasn’t really raised the offensive sealing yet, but there is a really good quarterback in there. It’s going to take some time and players around him, but I am still confident that the Titans have their guy going forward.
3. How have rookies Elic Ayomanor and Gunnar Helm looked through six weeks? Who will be Tennessee’s top target with Calvin Ridley out?
Ayomanor has been solid. He’s not ever going to be a No. 1 receiver, but he runs good routes and can make contested catches. He should be a solid player for this team as they build out the offense. They haven’t used Helm as much as most people would like. He’s a really good pass catcher, but still needs some work as a blocker. That has limited his playing time to this point. Hopefully, they will try to get him more involved now, especially with Ridley most likely being out for a few weeks.
The problem is that there won’t be a top target with Ridley out. Ward is going to have to spread the ball around for the Titans to move the ball effectively.
4. Jeffery Simmons is an established game-wrecker, but who are some other defenders Patriots fans should know?
Inside linebacker Cedric Gray has really come on over the last couple of weeks. He has 41 tackles in the last three games. I sound like a bit of a broken record here, but there really isn’t much else to talk about as far as people that you should know. This team lacks playmakers all over the field. The edge group is bad, and now the guys who have been playing for them are all hurt. Second-round pick Femi Oladejo went on IR. Arden Key and Dre’Mont Jones have both missed two days of practice this week. If they are out [Key is out, Jones is questionable -TK], the Patriots can probably just assign three guys to block Simmons. Drake Maye is going to have ALL DAY to throw.
5. What boxes must the Patriots check to secure a win? How can the Titans pull off the upset at home?
Look, I think if this game is played 100 times, the Patriots probably win 98 of them. I’d love to find some edge the Titans have here that they can take advantage of, but I just don’t see it. Maybe the Titans get that interim coach bump that people have been talking about around here? Add in the fact that Mike Vrabel was fired by the Titans, and you know he has had this game circled since before he even got the job in New England, it’s hard for me to see a scenario where the Titans keep it within two touchdowns.
