Surprisingly, the New England Patriots — who began the season 2-4 — are near the top of the AFC and could have a chance to sit at the No. 1 seed, depending on how things play out over this next couple of weeks.
The Buffalo Bills got steamrolled by Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts this week, putting the Patriots atop the AFC East. The Tennessee Titans lost to the Houston Texans, breaking their win streak and bringing them closer to the competition in the AFC conference.
With a win against the Titans and a Baltimore Ravens loss next week, the Patriots would catapult to the top seed.
But first, the Patriots will have to handle Mike Vrabel and the Titans. Bill Belichick knows it will be a huge challenge and he discussed the matchup against Vrabel on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.”
“Mike has done a great job at Tennessee,” he said. “I’ve always had a lot of respect for Mike, and certainly have a ton of respect for him when he was a position coach and as a head coach, for sure. It will be a big challenge and Tennessee is obviously is a good football team, one of the best teams in the league. We’ll do our best to get ready and be ready to go on Sunday. Mike does a great job and other than when we play him I’m rooting for him, but not this week.”
Ryan Tannehill overcame injuries to Derrick Henry and Julio Jones this season and his top playmaker in A.J. Brown is in and out of the lineup with a slew of injuries. Belichick discusses Tannehill’s poise and the problems he will create.
“Ryan has always played well against us,” he said. “He’s a very smart player. He handles things at the line of scrimmage, audibles, checking plays, getting the team into good plays — or out of bad ones, however you want to look at it. He’s very athletic. He’s fast. He can make yardage with his legs out of the pocket, but also get out and scramble and find more time to throw.
“Again, he’s very mobile and smart in making good decisions for his team. I’ve always had a lot of respect — I was happy to see him leave Miami, but not so happy to play against him at Tennessee. He’s done a good job.”
This Patriots defense is pretty good and they’ll likely have their way with an offense that struggled to put up points on the Texans.
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