Titans Say Patriots Were Running up Score to Raise Their BCS Ranking
By Larry Brown October 18, 2009 - Posted in Football

The Patriots offense took off Sunday in a lopsided 59-0 win over the Titans in the snow at Gillette Stadium. For the first time all year, New England resembled its 2007 record-breaking offense by throwing for 432 yards (380 by Tom Brady) and six touchdowns. While I was plenty happy to see Brady go off (I have him and Wes Welker in one fantasy league and Randy Moss in the Yardbarker Coors Light League), I have to say I thought it was the wrong move to send Brady out their to start the second half despite already being up 45-0. The Titans had already cheap-shotted Brady with a helmet-to-helmet hit and Tom had already thrown for five touchdowns. What more was there to accomplish aside from injury? Jeff Fisher says he wasn’t bothered because the entire objective of an offense is to score points. That may be what he’s saying publicly but his thoughts have to be much different privately. Just listen to his Pro Bowl linebacker, Keith Bulluck:

“Ah man, it felt like they were trying to raise their rank in the BCS. But honestly and truthfully, I would expect in anything else. I definitely wouldn’t have expected anything else. It’s not their fault we weren’t matching up today. That’s sports.”

That might be the justification but when you look at it, there’s no reason to send Tom Brady out there and have him risk ANYTHING when the team already has a blowout going and Brady’s already racked up the stats. Makes you really wonder what Belichick was trying to accomplish. What we do know is that the 59 point margin is the largest since 1976. Couldn’t the Titans at least have gotten a few pity touchdowns at the end to save face? Guess not. The Titans will definitely be pissed when these teams meet again and they’ll be out for vengeance.

About Larry Brown:
Larry Brown has over nine years of professional sports media experience, working in online, radio, and TV capacities. He recently was a nationally syndicated sports radio host. Follow him on twitter @LBSports
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6 Comments
  • Evan

    I’m sorry but all this talk about running up the score is hogwash. The CONTEXT is Brady needs all the NFL-SPEED game time he can get! PERIOD. You send him out to continue building the refined skills he’s been lacking the first 5 weeks. END OF DISCUSSION. I’m sure Belichick and brass saw a perfect opportunity for Brady to help himself bobth physically AND MENTALLY for the next 10 weeks (exc. bye). I’m sorry but this is professional sports. Like Belichick said, someone has to play. They had plenty of bench out there on Sunday ANYHOW–BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Sam Aiken, Julian Edelman, Darius Butler, and Junior Seau among others. “Couldn’t the Titans at least have gotten a few pity touchdowns at the end to save face? Guess not.” Are you KIDDING ME? This is Pop Warner. And if you don’t recall, Brian Hoyer did play from midway of the third through the rest of the game…and still ran the offense. I’m sorry the Titans are so bad this year but they handed the W to the Pats this week.

  • Mastermind238

    Evan, this probably wouldn’t be an issue if it were any other coach in the NFL besides Belichick. Fact is, he has a reputation for doing this. And by “doing this” I mean sending out a second stringer with the score already 52-0 and letting him throw the ball. What was the replacement QB’s passing stats, 9 for 11? With a 3rd quarter score of 52-0, a decent sportsman would tell his second string offense to run the ball in any and every situation to bring the game to a merciful end. But a decent sportsman wouldn’t have started his #1 QB in the second half with the score already at 45-0. You can spout all this stuff about men playing a man’s game. There is nothing manly about trying – TRYING – to humiliate your opponent, which is exactly what Belichick is guilty of. Sad thing is that Brady now has a target on his back, thanks to Belichick’s misguided attempts to show up a fellow head coach. I’d be willing to bet ole dimplechin gets his bell rung (or worse) a few times in the remaining 10 games.

  • Daniel C.

    Rodney Harrison explained it best last night. Belichick teaches them to play for 60 minutes – period – no matter what the score. Playing soft in a blowout game teaches bad habits – the Patriot way is to be intense at all times. They’re not trying to humiliate anyone, but they’re just trying to execute their offense as best they can, on every down.

    There’s no reason Belichick would feel a need to “show up” an 0-5 coach who isn’t even a rival. If you run on every down, you’ll get stopped quickly and then you’ll have your defense on the field for too long. He’s just taking the game seriously. Too bad the Titans didn’t do the same.

  • Gene

    Mastermind, I would agree that a coach should not try and run up a score with passing if the opposing coach also calls all running plays and between them, they run the clock down so that both teams can get off the field. It has always appeared ludicrous to me that we expect one team to run three line plunges and punt and the other team, which is trailing, can start passing the ball all over the place in the obvious hope of making a comeback. For instance,
    UCLA’s notorious 72-0 win over Stanford in 1954 was more the result of return yardage off of Stanford turnovers than UCLA offensive yardage.

  • http://larrybrownsports.com Larry Brown

    I understand the Rodney Harrison comment and don’t have a problem with it. That still doesn’t change that there was no reason to send Brady out there to start the second half in my opinion. If the gap closed to 45-21 quickly or something like that, then throw Brady back out there like they did two years ago against Miami.

  • Evan

    Just reiterating what Dan C. said, you can’t just run the ball down after down. Look what happened to Fred Taylor…look what happened to Sammy Morris. Patriots can’t afford to stress their RBs that much and likewise you don’t want your defense out there for the majority. And Belichick DID stop the bleeding by the 10th minute of the 3rd quarter after it was obvious Jeff Fisher made no adjustments for the second half. This was the largest margin of victory since the merger and Belichick could’ve let it get to 60+ easily. Like Dan said, it’s a shame Tennessee didn’t try to counter the Patriots’ energy.