Could Saturday be the end of the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era in New England?
By John Buhler
With a 42-year-old quarterback and no first-round bye, could Saturday be the end of the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era of the New England Patriots?
All dynasties eventually come to an end, but they never dissolve in the way you’d think. Oftentimes, you’re so sure they’ll return to greatness after a down year or a poor performance on a big stage. Yet, you’re never able to truly pinpoint where the beginning of the end was until it was too late. Could Saturday be the end of the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era in Foxborough?
For the first time since 2009, the New England Patriots will play on Wild Card Weekend. The No. 3 seed in the AFC may be the defending Super Bowl champions, but the honor is in name only; this year’s team doesn’t resemble anything close to the group that won a defensive struggle vs. the Los Angeles Rams in Atlanta last February. This team is good, but can’t masquerade as great.
For a while, we felt the Patriots had a historically great defense, allowing fewer points per game than Grits Blitz. However, we soon found out New England was only drubbing NFL cannon fodder during the first half. Once New England lost on the road to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football, we quickly realized what 2019 elite looked like. The Patriots were not that.
All the while, New England never established a solid running game, only getting good production out of Sony Michel late in the season, with sprinkles of Rex Burkhead throughout the campaign. Two years removed from winning NFL MVP at age-40, Brady looked more like 2015 Peyton Manning than TB12 would have ever thought possible.
Tom is losing the battle against time.
Fate would have it the greatest quarterback in NFL history will be hitting unrestricted free agency after this playoff run. Brady remains adamant about playing until he’s 45 years old, but he may not get those last three years in Foxborough. Belichick may want to move on from the best player he’s ever coached in favor of a 20-something who isn’t a limitation offensively at this time.
Whenever Brady does hang up the spikes, he will be a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee six years after the fact. Belichick will join him in Canton as soon as he’s nominated for enshrinement. Yet, we may very well see the end of an era on Saturday evening in Foxborough. New England is not Super Bowl-caliber this year and could lose to the Tennessee Titans at home.
Tennessee is built to win on the road. It’s not like Nashville yields a great home-field advantage for the Titans anyway, but they have the roster, the coaching and the mental toughness to compete with anybody on any given day.
Titans head coach Mike Vrabel won Super Bowls playing linebacker for Belichick at the beginning of this dynasty. It’s only year two for him leading the Titans, but there is clearly something different about him when compared to other Belichick disciples; his coaching style is working right away in Tennessee. Look for he and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to bring it on Saturday.
Defensively, Tennessee has two studs who present problems for a mediocre New England offense: Safety Kevin Byard and defensive tackle Jurrell Casey. Byard is one of the best safeties in football and Casey is one of the most underrated defensive linemen in the NFL over the last half-decade. They play with the poise and physicality best epitomizing Vrabel’s coaching acumen.
On offense, Smith has done about as good of a job as any first-year coordinator in 2019. Since giving former Miami Dolphins starter Ryan Tannehill the keys to this offense, Tennessee has become one of the most fun and exciting teams to watch this season. It helps that Tannehill can hand the ball off to running back Derrick Henry and throw it deep to wide receiver A.J. Brown.
No, it’s not just Tennessee having a strong team identity and playing with great confidence that makes the Titans such an intriguing upset candidate on Saturday. Though those two things will help them on their quest to get to Baltimore, it really comes down to is this edition of the Brady/Belichick Patriots not striking fear in the opposition as other teams had in past years.
Normally, teams would enter Gillette Stadium already down 10 points mentally before the opening kickoff. No team has done a better job of making its opponent play left-handed historically than New England. However, New England does not have the roster to take away its opponent’s greatest strength offensively every single time. Tennessee is a real problem for them.
Whether you want to admit it or not, Tannehill has played better football than Brady this season. New England doesn’t have an offensive All-Pro the caliber of Henry this year, nor do they have a promising offensive star like Tennessee does in Brown. The Patriots can’t draft wide receivers for the life of them, as they took N’Keal Harry over Brown in the 2019 NFL Draft. Let that sink in.
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Can Tennessee upset New England in Foxborough on Saturday night? Absolutely, but we’ll have to wait and see it. We’ve thought the Patriots dynasty has come to an end far too many times before. But if New England falls at home to the Titans on Wild Card Weekend, this could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back that continues to hold up the Brady/Belichick era in Foxborough.