Game 21: Titans 27, Patriots 24

Tennessee starts with the ball. Vince Young gets to play this week; Chris Henry starts at
TB. Titan passing game can't get it going early. On 3rd down, Vince slips on rain-slick turf
and is eventually sacked. Blatant blow to the head by Jarvis Green not called. 123-kick, Titans.

Donte Stallworth starting at WR for New England tonight. Brady at QB, of course. Wes Welker
also playing. Randy Moss and Laurence Maroney are out; I have no idea what's wrong with either.
Kevin Faulk is starting TB. Brady finds Stallworth for about 15 and a first down.

Well, here's a stupid throw you never saw coming. Kyle Vanden Bosch stunts and comes up the
middle at Brady untouched. The golden boy rushes his throw, and it's bad, well over his receiver's
head and right to Cortland Finnegan, who shoots up the sideline with it for a touchdowwwnnnn,
Titans! 7-0, Tennessee.

Well-designed screen to Kevin Faulk for 21 moves New England across midfield. On 3rd-and-11 a couple of plays later, Brady freezes the Titan DB in the end zone with a wicked pump fake and then tosses to wide-open Wes Welker to tie the game at 7 with a 28-yard TD.

Tennessee loses the ball exactly one play later as Young and Henry blow the exchange. Heath Evans finishes off a 6-rush, 23-yard TD drive with a nice cutback run from the 2. 14-7 New England.

Michael Griffin returns the kick out to the 40. Titans do nothing with the good field position. A holding penalty moves them backwards and they three-and-out. Griffin gets to the goal line ahead of Hentrich's punt and then absent-mindedly lets it roll past him for the touchback. He was actually
avoiding the ball, as if he forgot he was downing the punt vs. returning it.

Vanden Bosch gets a sack/fumble of Brady that is originally called a tuck rule play, of course. Jeff Fisher challenges and actually gets the call. New England recovered the fumble anyway. They three-and-out after a bad Welker drop on 3rd down. Randy Cross accidentally calls T Matt Light Todd Lyght. The Titans don't even get any field position advantage in the exchange because Danny Baugher hits a 78-yard punt-and-roll.

Titans come out mostly throwing. Young has one low ball caught, one not. Worthless piece of shit Rodney Harrison breaks up a well-thrown bomb for Eric Moulds. Tennessee tries to roll Vince out on 3rd down but the lineman can barely keep Mike Vrabel out of his face. The throw is off, and TOO SHORT ANYWAY. Titans punt.

Great field position exchange for the Patriots, who take over near midfield as the 1st quarter runs out.

Patriots catch Titans with too many men on the field for a 1st down. Then Logan Mankins gets called for a hold. Faulk gets nearly the whole amount back the next play on a screen. It's 2nd-and-3; Albert Haynesworth's hurt and being helped off the field.

NFL Network then cuts out about 2:00 worth of game time because of audio difficulties. We miss an
end zone DPI that puts NE on the 1, a goal line stand by Tennessee and a missed FG. So I guess
Tennessee's broadcast had technical difficulties, too? NFL-N could have spliced them in, or let
them do the first half and NE do the 2nd half. NFL-N really blew it here.

So anyway, it's now magically Tennessee's ball again, Titans trailing 14-7. Patriots blitz on
3rd-and-8, and Vince takes off for I believe the first time tonight, for a first down. Three
incompletions follow, though, and Vince is just 3-12-36 so far. Can't dismiss the rain tonight
as a factor, but he appears to be letting the pass pressure rush his throws.

Patriots go no-huddle but go 3-and-out. On 3rd-down, Antwan Odom BLASTS Brady in the pocket right as he passes. The pass is picked off by long-haired Lamont Thompson. Crowd just seems too relieved Brady got back up to care about the INT.

Not even halfway through the 2nd quarter, Tennessee has been charged with TEN penalties for
EIGHTY yards. Vince's night is going downhill rapidly. He's sacked by LeKevin Smith on 2nd down and
ABSOLUTELY BLASTED by piece-of-shit Harrison on 3rd with what looked like a massive forearm shot. Why didn't you dive at his knees, Rodney?

Pats get about 40 yards of screen passes to Faulk and sloppy tackling by Tennessee, down to the 10 yard line. They're still in the no-huddle. Both moves seem intended to take Tennessee's defensive
aggressiveness away. Pats actually get called for OPI in the end zone and end up settling for
a FG. Gostkowski hits this one to put the Pats up 17-7.

After another 123-kick, Young's now 3-14-36, including a terrible low fastball on a quick screen
and a 3rd-down pass under pressure nearly picked off by piece of shit Harrison. Norm Chow, you
gotta do something with Vince here. He has been chained to the pocket tonight, which is like
chaining him to the bow of the Titanic. Pats getting big nights defensively from Vrabel and
Jarvis Green.

Matt Cassel enters the game at QB much to the relief of Brady fantasy owners everywhere. It's an
inauspicious start. They lose two on a run. Ben Watson can't block Odom, which really isn't a surprise, for a 2nd down sack. Why court that matchup? Simple 4-man rush; why is the TE
blocking a DE instead of the tackle? Draw play to Morris well short on 3rd down at the 2:00 warning.
Huge first half for Odom.

Titans try to run the 2:00 offense. After a rare completion, Young takes another nasty hit, from
Junior Seau, another cheap shot artist, who piggybacks Young (cleanly) to the ground. On 2nd-and-17, Young is less than a second from being sacked again, but he dumps off at the last second to Bo Scaife, who has a lot of running room with the Pats blitzing, rumbling off for 52 down to the NE 3. Great play by Young and Scaife. On 1st-and-goal, Chris Henry trips short of the goal. Tenn tries to rush the 2nd down play but Vince can't push his way in. 3rd-and-goal pass is incomplete. Tenn goes on 4th down, and roll out Vince on a designed run, apparently determined to get him killed, but he's stopped short by Tedy Bruschi, Seau, and piece of shit, among others. What an awful half for Young. Nothing to show for tonight's effort other than bruises. 5-17-102, 4 sacks.

Patriots run out the clock to halftime.

Michael Griffin picks off Cassel on the third play of the half, outwrestling Reche Caldwell for
a ball thrown behind the receiver. Nice play. Tennessee takes over in NE territory with a backfield of
Kerry Collins and Chris Brown. Collins throws a nice ball to tightly-covered Roydell Williams for
a 15-yard TD. 17-14.

New England has almost completely abandoned the run. Cassel leads them across midfield, but Evans
gets stuffed on a screen and Ryan Fowler knocks down a pass downfield on 3rd down to force the punt. Cassel got his arm hooked on a throw by Sean Conover earlier in the drive and may have injured it.

17-yard completion from Collins to Casey Cramer puts Tennessee at the Patriot 20. But TE Ahmard Hall fails to get both feet in on a 2nd-and-3 catch and Tory James plays the fade route to Roydell well for a 3rd down incomplete. John Vaughn ties the game at 17 with a 31-yard FG.

Garrett Mills tips a ball that may or may not have been intended for him, and Griffin dives for
the deflection for his 2nd INT of the night. Tennessee takes over again near midfield. Brown
breaks off an 8-yard run and Tennessee is at the NE 25 as the 4th quarter begins.

Dontrelle Moore finishes off a workmanlike Titan drive with a 4-yard TD for a 24-17 lead. Unlike
New England, Tennessee's running well and balancing their game plan.

Matt Gutierrez is in at QB for NE. Nice 3rd-down pass to Bam Childress goes a long way when
Bam alertly realizes he was down at first without being touched, and he picks up a bunch of
extra yards on a 26 reception. Great pass to CJ Jones (who set this drive up by returning
the kickoff across the 40) to the 10. On 4th-and-goal, Gutierrez can't find anyone but
scrambles in from the 2. Annoyingly, Belichick lines up for the 2-point conversion, then calls
timeout and kicks the PAT to tie the game with 6:00 left.

New Titan QB is Tim Rattay. They dink their way to midfield, where Rattay then finds Justin Gage for 20. They get inside the 5 with 2:00 left and settle for a FG when Rattay can't find anyone on 3rd and goal. Vaughn puts the Titans up 27-24 with 1:45 left.

Pats have the ball at their 30 with 1:39 left. Titans force a 4-and-out to lock up the win. Gutierrez
throws a terrible screen pass on 2nd down, & Colin Allred defends a pass to Mills on 4th down. Titans run it out.

This game is why preseason games are such a big headache. Two of the game's biggest stars, Young and Brady, go out into meaningless games and get the crap knocked out of them. Tennessee got the kind of game out of Michael Griffin you love to see from your first round pick: 2 INTs. Lively game for Antwan Odom as well. Offensively, the passing game continues to be an abortion; let's assume Norm Chow has Vince Young under orders not to run out of the pocket until games count. Because he ain't going to get it done from the pocket.

New England's game was a little mystifying. Pass-run ration was about 60-40 because they only averaged 2.7 per rush. Four picks and three fumbles (none lost) are hardly befitting of a Belichick team. About the only bright spots were Mike Vrabel and Jarvis Green on defense. Then again, Tennessee was probably trying to make up for the Washington game, while New England's just trying to make it to September.

21 down, 44 to go. Next game: Falcons-Bills.