Whenever the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans go up against each other, the circumstances are slightly tougher than a normal regular season game. Not only have they met up in the playoffs three times in the last 25 years, but between September and December, these two teams always come out fighting to make sure that their playoff window does not slam shut. In the 2024 season, the Patriots and Titans will take on one another in Nashville on November 3, which is a critical period for any football team. Time will tell to see what each of their records will be, but if there is any light at the end of the tunnel for either New England or Tennessee, then this will be an extremely important game to win. Let’s take a look at five of some of the toughest clashes between the Patriots and Titans and observe just how pivotal those matchups turned out to be, both at the time of the game and in hindsight many years later.
#1: 2002, Week 15
In the early 2000s, Bill Belichick and Jeff Fisher were considered to be the best defensive head coaches in the NFL, and their first matchup against one another just happened to take place at a time when both the Patriots and Titans were doing everything in their power to win so that each of them could make it back to the playoffs. New England had a lot of pressure entering the 2002 season as they were coming off a Super Bowl victory in which they upset the fourteen-point favorite St. Louis Rams thanks to a stifling defense, a game-winning drive pulled off by Tom Brady, and the go-ahead field goal from Adam Vinatieri that gave the team its first Lombardi Trophy. Heading into Week 15, the Patriots were certainly not as dominant as they were the year before, but they were still near the top of the AFC East at 8-5 and only a collapse would prevent them from playing an extra month of football. Riding on a three-game winning streak, the Patriots were about to face a really tough stretch against legitimate competition, starting with the AFC South-leading Tennessee Titans.
Playing in a division with both Peyton Manning and Mark Brunell as the two starting quarterbacks, the Titans were tied with Indianapolis for the AFC South lead, and their window of playoff contention was starting to close quickly. Their offense still had a majority of its core including Steve McNair, Eddie George, and Derrick Mason who posted respectable numbers year after year. The defense, even with Jevon Kearse missing a majority of the season with a foot injury, still played at a respectable level and had plenty of players step up in his absence such as Kevin Carter, Lance Schulters, Keith Bulluck, and Carlos Hall. Funny enough, the guy calling the shots was Jim Schwartz, who worked with Bill Belichick as a personnel scout for the Cleveland Browns. On Monday Night Football against the defending Super Bowl champions, the Titans headed into this game as a two-and-a-half point favorite to beat New England at its own game: play outstanding defense and do just enough on offense to win.
After a boring first quarter, Tennessee put its foot on the gas and got into a rhythm on both sides of the ball, and the Patriots were essentially forced to play keep-up for the entire night. Even though Steve McNair completed less than 50% of his passes and only threw for 136 yards, the Titans accumulated an extra 186 thanks to the running back tandem of Eddie George and Robert Holcombe, which was easy to do against the second-worst run defense in the league that season. They lead 14-0 at halftime, and even though Tom Brady made it a one-score game with a 10-yard rushing touchdown, the Titans essentially put the dagger in with a Rich Coady pick-six on the first play of the next drive when the Patriots could have easily tied the game. From that point on, Tennessee shut down that offense and never let them make it to midfield. Brady threw for just 134 yards, their two running backs Kevin Faulk and Antowain Smith ran for less than 50 yards, and nobody else besides Troy Brown caught more than two passes. The Titans blew the Patriots out on their home field 24-7, and while there was nothing to clinch at the time, both teams headed in different directions for the rest of the season.
Tennessee won out the rest of their regular season games and won the AFC South with an 11-5 record. Not only that, but they also clinched the second seed in the AFC playoff race, which meant they had a first-round bye and a home playoff game in the Divisional Round. They held on to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-31 in overtime thanks to a somewhat controversial offsides call on a game-winning field goal attempt by Joe Nedney, but they, unfortunately, could not finish the job in the AFC Championship against the Oakland Raiders, where they got blown out 41-24. Their story ended a lot better than the Patriots because even though they finished that 2002 season 9-7, they were eliminated from the playoffs via a tiebreaker. At the time, many thought that this team was just going to be another one-year wonder, but nobody could have anticipated what was next to come.
#2: 2003 Divisional Round
One year after Tennessee all but ended their playoff hopes, the Patriots were waiting to get even in more grueling circumstances. Just think about it: a divisional game in Gillette Stadium with gusting winds in four-degree weather and the Tennessee Titans were going to experience just how miserable the day would become. In the 2003 regular season, these two teams played against each other in Week 5, which ended up being a back-and-forth shootout in Foxboro. The Patriots held on to win the game 38-30, but heading into this playoff game, everybody knew that the script was going to be the exact opposite.
Heading into this playoff game, the Patriots and Titans had two like-minded coaches but their teams were somewhat different. New England’s offense was respectable, but they had the best defense in football that not only won twelve straight games but humiliated plenty of teams in the process. The Patriots went 14-2 and outright ripped the number one seed away from teams standing in their way, and it looked like nobody had enough to beat them in Gillette Stadium. However, even Bill Belichick knew that this Titans offense was quite possibly better than the one they faced in 2002. Even though Tennessee had the best rushing defense in the league, the best player on this team was quarterback Steve McNair, who won the first and only MVP of his successful NFL career. He led the league in passer rating, threw twenty-four touchdowns and just seven interceptions, and was largely responsible for the Titans having the fifth-highest-scoring offense in the league. Tennessee was just as dangerous of a team at 12-4, barely finishing second to the Indianapolis Colts in their division, but they were coming off a very ugly playoff victory against the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card. On a day where McNair threw three interceptions, the team heavily relied on their 149 rushing yard performance between Eddie George and Chris Brown, a defense that held the best running back in football Jamal Lewis to just 35 rushing yards, and a game-winning field goal from Gary Anderson to advance to the next round. The Patriots headed into this playoff matchup as six-point favorites, but this turned out to be even more challenging than their Week 5 victory at home.
When these two teams saw each other in the regular season, neither offense could be stopped. Three months later, both defenses let out their frustrations from that day. Neither team could score more than twenty points, Brady and McNair threw for just over 200 yards, and it took a late field goal from Adam Vinatieri for New England to take a critical lead. Both offenses threw a few jabs that kept their teams in the game for the longest time, but the biggest reason why the Patriots won was simply because they made the fewest mistakes. Even though tight end Daniel Graham lost a fumble in the third quarter, Tennessee couldn’t get any points off of that turnover. Adam Vinatieri missed a field goal on New England’s second drive of the game, but one play later, McNair threw a bone-headed interception to Rodney Harrison that set up a go-ahead touchdown run from Antowain Smith. Even with a chance to at least tie the game and send it into overtime, on fourth and 12 at the opposing 42-yard line, Drew Bennett let the ball fall out of his hands and the Patriots took over on downs to run out the clock. New England got their comeuppance with a 17-14 victory, yet it was certainly far from easy. One week later, they picked off co-MVP winner Peyton Manning four times in the AFC Championship to advance to their second Super Bowl in three years, where they played in one of the best Super Bowls in NFL History. Going up against the Carolina Panthers, it was a back-and-forth offensive showdown that nobody wanted to see end, but a kickoff that went out of bounds allowed Tom Brady to pull off yet another winning drive to set up the go-ahead field goal from Vinatieri in the fourth quarter. New England earned its second Super Bowl with a 32-29 victory, and the dynasty was cemented one year later.
#3: 2006, Week 17
By the time New England and Tennessee met each other once again, both teams were on two totally different tiers. The Patriots had won three Super Bowl championships thanks to the best quarterback and head coaching duo in the league, and while they suffered their first playoff defeat in 2005, they were still the team that everyone had to go through if they were to have any chance of going far in the playoffs. For the Tennessee Titans, they were nowhere close to that between 2004 and 2005, where they only won nine games and let go a majority of its star players. They drafted quarterback Vince Young with the third overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft, so there was some hope that the defending National Champion at Texas would bring back a lot of swagger and mojo, but it was going to take a long time for Tennessee to reach its potential. Through the first ten games, the Titans were quite horrible at 2-7 including a 27-26 defeat to the Baltimore Ravens, who had both Steve McNair and Derrick Mason on the roster at the time. But all of a sudden, Tennessee flipped a switch after that loss and rattled off six straight victories, five of which were won by one score. Whether it was a 21-0 comeback against the Giants, a 60-yard game-winning field goal against the Colts, or an overtime-winning touchdown from Vince Young against the Texans, the Titans refused to let their season end on another down note and headed into Week 17 with an actual shot of making the playoffs. Were there flaws? Absolutely. But there was a reason why Young won the Rookie of the Year that season, and it was because their relentless energy and pursuit allowed them to play with more fire and intensity, which they hoped was about to pay off against the New England Patriots at home. Unfortunately, that was when all the optimism was crushed away into bits and pieces.
Tennessee might have been three-point favorites, but New England had already clinched their division with little to nothing to play for, so that was why Tennessee got the slight edge. Before the two-minute warning of the first half, the Patriots had a comfortable 19-3 lead and it looked like they were going to give yet another fanbase plenty of heartbreak. However, an 81-yard punt return touchdown from PacMan Jones made it a nine-point game by halftime, and the Titans entered that second half with a lot more momentum than they were expecting. At the start of the fourth quarter, they were only down by three points and all they had to do was just keep getting stops on defense and more points on the board, or else they were not going to have another chance. Well, the defense did whatever it could, but the offense could not. On the first two drives of the period, Young threw a costly interception to Asante Samuel and then took a bad sack from Ty Warren, both of them taking place in third-down situations. All of the momentum shifted thanks to first-round rookie Laurence Maroney, who took a 31-yard run all the way to the one-yard line and put the Patriots ahead by two scores with a punch-in touchdown. The Titans stalled out on their next drive, and sure enough, New England put it away with another score that gave them a 40-23 victory to close out the season.
Here is what makes this loss even more painful for the Titans. Heading into this Week 17 game, they needed a lot of things to happen besides a win against New England. The Bengals and Broncos had to lose their games against the Steelers and 49ers, and the Titans needed the Chiefs to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars. Let’s see what happened, shall we? Pittsburgh eliminated Cincinnati from the playoffs with a 26-20 victory in overtime, the 49ers somehow beat the Broncos at Mile High 26-23, and the Chiefs held on to beat the Jaguars on the road 35-30. All the Titans had to do was just hold it together for one last quarter, and they would have made the playoffs. Even though Kansas City predictably lost to Peyton Manning and the Colts in the next round, Tennessee would have pulled off one of the greatest in-season turnarounds in NFL History. Going from 2-7 with little to no life only to win seven straight to make the playoffs would have been fascinating, but of course, the Patriots had to ruin everything. Three weeks later, New England was in their fourth AFC Championship in the last six years and had a 21-3 lead against the same Colts in Indianapolis, but lost control of the game in the fourth quarter and fell short in heartbreaking fashion with a 38-34 score. To rub even more salt on the wound for Titans fans, Indianapolis won the Super Bowl that season against Rex Grossman and the Chicago Bears.
#4: 2017 Divisional Round
Over eleven years have passed, and while the Patriots have still been near the top of the league in winning, the Titans have still never lived up to any expectations that were given to them year after year. They made postseason appearances in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, which included a number one seed in the latter year at 13-3 but failed to make it past the second round. As a result, Jeff Fisher was let go after the 2010 season and a hard rebuild began. For the next seven to eight years, the team was mediocre at best and completely garbage at worst. In 2017, they were the definition of average and somehow backed into the playoffs. Their quarterback was the second overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft named Marcus Mariota, but he was very inconsistent and often injured. There were plenty of games where he showed flashes of his potential, but a lot more where mistakes just kept popping up. He might have had DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry in his backfield, along with a solid defense that had a legitimate pass rush and the league interception leader in Kevin Byard, but nobody thought that the Titans were getting anywhere past the first round against the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium. Down 21-3 at halftime, nobody had any faith in Tennessee to pull off the unthinkable, and the general consensus was that the Chiefs would play either the Patriots or Steelers in the next round. However, on Tennessee’s opening drive of the second half, everything began to change. They marched down the length of the field in close to nine minutes and not only scored a touchdown, but Mariota literally caught his own pass off a deflection to start the comeback. The Titans rattled off nineteen unanswered points, stifled the Chiefs offense in the second half, and shocked the world with a 22-21 come-from-behind victory. Now they were on to the Divisional Round against the New England Patriots, and some were hoping that the Titans could pull off another surprise in the playoffs, but the rest knew that the inevitable was going to arrive.
After the 2006 season, New England was the envy of the league. They made four more Super Bowl appearances and won two of them, Brady won the first two MVP awards of his career, and Belichick was awarded Coach of the Year twice. In 2017, the Patriots were once again the number one seed in the AFC with a 13-3 record, and they were still as dominant as ever. Tom Brady won his third MVP, they had the second-highest-scoring offense in the league, and their defense gave up the fifth-fewest points. The only way that New England was going to lose its first playoff game of the year was if Tennesssee either forced Brady to have his worst performance ever or Marcus Mariota was going to have to look invincible for sixty minutes straight. At the end of the first quarter, the Titans got off to a great start and even had a lead thanks to a one-handed touchdown catch from rookie Corey Davis… but it only lasted for five minutes. From that point on, the Patriots scored thirty-five unanswered points and blew Tennessee out 35-14. Brady threw for over 335 yards and three touchdowns, Mariota got sacked eight times, and the Titans ran for just 28 yards. This matchup between these two teams is the least intriguing out of any of the other ones that are mentioned, but a playoff game is a playoff game. After beating the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Championship game, the Patriots were on to yet another Super Bowl and were hoping to bring a sixth back to Foxboro, but fell short against the Philadelphia Eagles 41-33.
#5: 2019 Wild Card
Two years after another miserable and heartbreaking defeat to the New England Patriots, the Tennessee Titans were completely fed up about being stuck in the pit of mediocrity. In 2018 with new head coach Mike Vrabel, the team went 9-7 for a third straight season but were eliminated from the playoffs via tiebreaker. One year later, nobody was expecting Tennessee to make a whole lot of noise because the type of team that they had was not going to be enough to go far in the playoffs. Their starting running back Derrick Henry was beginning to turn his career around, they had some solid pieces on their offense, and their defense had quality pieces. However, their biggest question mark was at quarterback, and Marcus Mariota was not the difference maker that many expected out of him. After a 2-4 start to the season, Vrabel knew that the writing was on the wall and that a quarterback change was needed to give this team an extra spark. Mariota was sent to the bench and in came backup Ryan Tannehill, a former first-round pick who was in almost the same situation. Drafted by the Miami Dolphins, he never really lived up to the hype and was soon traded after seven seasons with the team, so there were no expectations for Tennessee to get better with this move. However, everything completely turned around in the right direction. When Tannehill was drafted in 2012, his two best traits were that he was athletic and unafraid to take chances. With that attitude, the Titans’ offense was more efficient and successful, which took a lot of pressure off of its defense. They might have had a fourth straight 9-7 campaign but were 7-3 with Tannehill as the starter, where he threw twenty-two touchdowns and only six interceptions in just ten games played. Tennessee was also incredibly fortunate to have the league’s leading rusher in Derrick Henry, who earned the nickname “King” thanks to his dominant size and abilities that many opposing teams could not stop whenever he was on the field. They were able to back into the playoffs as the sixth seed in the AFC, and heading into their first Wild Card game, the Titans played like they had nothing to lose. However, any road playoff game against the New England Patriots is going to be a long night, even if things were starting to come to an end.
Heading into the 2019 season, the Patriots were coming off their sixth Super Bowl championship, where they beat the Los Angeles Rams in an ugly 13-3 contest. They still had a respectable 12-4 season with a dominant defense and still-productive offense, but there were so many signs that let everyone know that the dynasty was coming to an end. Not only did Rob Gronkowski retire in the offseason, but Tom Brady was heading into the final year of his contract, and there were many reports that said that this playoff game would be the last time he would suit up for the New England Patriots. They were still nearly five-point favorites at home, but while their fans were hoping that the ride could keep going, the Titans knew that they could beat this Patriots team with the team they assembled. Sure enough, what was supposed to be a memorable game in Gillette Stadium turned out to be the funeral of the greatest dynasty ever assembled.
New England might have held Tennessee’s offense to just thirteen points included a second-half shutout, but they had no answers for Derrick Henry the entire night. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith gave him the ball 34 times and he stomped all over Bill Belichick’s defense for 182 yards in a game where Ryan Tannehill only threw the ball fifteen times. But the Patriots were still doing everything they could to make sure their season didn’t end in the worst way possible. Unfortunately, their offense never got the message. In the regular season, Brady still threw for 4000 yards and twenty-four touchdowns, but the rest of the supporting cast was just abysmal. Their wide receivers hardly got open, their running game was bottled up on most nights, and the offensive line dealt with both inconsistency and injuries that they could never recover from. All of those flaws were exposed in that fateful Wild Card game. The best receiver for New England that day was James White, who caught five passes for sixty-two yards. Their two starting wide receivers Julian Edelman and N’Keal Harry had as many catches combined. Their starting running back Sony Michel had just sixty-one rushing yards, New England also failed to get any points on the board in the second half, but now it is time for the icing on the cake. On their final play of the game, with one last desperate chance to keep their season alive, Brady threw a simple hitch route to Mohamed Sanu on the right side of the field. Defender Tramaine Brock knocked it out of the receiver’s hands and the pass was intercepted by former Patriot Logan Ryan, which got returned all the way for a defensive touchdown. That’s right. The last throw of Tom Brady’s career as a New England Patriot was a pick-six.
Tennessee slammed the book shut with a 20-13 victory and King Henry reigned triumphant across Nashville. What made this story better was that the season did not end from there. One week later against the number one seed Baltimore Ravens, who had a unanimous MVP in Lamar Jackson, the Titans did it again! Henry took another thirty carries and fell five yards short of 200, while also throwing a touchdown pass of his own. It was also another playoff game where Tannehill threw the ball just fourteen times. Even though Lamar had over 500 total yards of offense, Baltimore could only score twelve points and they were completely one-dimensional throughout the rest of the night once the score got worse. Unfortunately, the magical season came to an end against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship. Although Tennessee led 17-7 in the middle of the second quarter, Patrick Mahomes helped his team go on a 28-7 run that sent his team to the Super Bowl. Henry was held in check for just 69 yards, and when Tannehill was called upon to save the day, he could not deliver.
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