Two things Tim Williams Jersey , among many, have been consistent for the Patriots the past decade: Tom Brady at quarterback and New England in the AFC championship game.
Brady will try to lead his team to its seventh straight conference title game Saturday when it hosts the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round.
It has been a challenging week off the field for the Patriots following reports of turmoil involving Brady, coach Bill Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft. But Brady says he’s never doubted his team’s ability to compartmentalize potential distractions.
”I think we have a job to do and we know what our job is and that’s to go out and play football at a high level and play well,” he said. ”Nothing really should get in the way of that.”
Tennessee hasn’t been to a conference championship game since the 2002 season, but has been invigorated coming off its first playoff win in 14 years.
The Titans enter as 13-point underdog, but linebacker Derrick Morgan said it’s a role they happily embrace .
”Nobody respects us. Nobody really expects a lot from us. That’s fine,” he said. ”We haven’t been a very successful team in the last 10 years. So it’s easy for people to overlook us. So we’ve got to take care of business and start winning games like this to get the respect that we desire.”
To get it, they’ll have to stop a quarterback that has been nearly unbeatable in this round of the postseason.
Brady is 11-2 in 13 divisional-round games since 2002 , passing for 3,700 yards and 28 touchdowns.
He also has a 6-1 career record against the Titans with 13 touchdowns and just one interception.
Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota was mostly unflappable in leading his team back from an 18-point halftime deficit to beat Kansas City – the largest comeback on road in Super Bowl era.
But since 2001, quarterbacks making their first or second career playoff start are 0-7 against New England.
”When it comes down to it, it’s all about us,” Mariota said. ”I think that’s kind of been the mindset through this entire season. Ups and downs come and go, you just want to try and make the most of this opportunity.”
Some things to watch on Saturday:
MOVING ON UP: It will be Bill Belichick’s 37th career playoff game as a head coach, breaking a tie with Tom Landry and Don Shula for the most in NFL history.
HEISMAN BROTHERS: Mariota Jermon Bushrod Jersey , the 2014 Heisman winner, and Derrick Henry, the 2015 Heisman winner, combined to turn in the best rushing performance in franchise history in the wild-card round. Henry ran for a career-high 156 yards, and Mariota added 46 yards. Henry will be starting his third straight game with DeMarco Murray already out (right knee).
PRESSURE: The Titans ranked fifth in the league with 43 sacks during the season and added four more against the Chiefs last week. Three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jurrell Casey had six from his interior spot, while Morgan led the Titans with 7 + sacks. Linebackers Brian Orakpo (seven) and Wesley Woodyard (five) give the Titans a variety of options to attack Brady, not counting backup linebacker Erik Walden (four).
EXPERIENCE GAP: New England has 41 players with postseason experience, most of 2017 playoff teams. Fourteen Patriots players have played at least 10 playoff games. That’s more such players than 11 other playoff teams combined (13). Before the start of this postseason, the Titans had 18 players who had appeared in a playoff game.
BELICHICK and LEBEAU: There aren’t too many current NFL coaches that have been around the game longer than Belichick and Titans defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau .
LeBeau has an NFL-record 45 consecutive seasons as a coach, with Belichick at 43. Yet, with Belichick as head coach, he and LeBeau have faced off in the playoffs only once: the 2004 AFC championship game that New England won in Pittsburgh 41-27.
The respect between the two is mutual.
”Not very many coaches have the record coach Belichick’s gotten. In fact he’s probably closing in on the best ever,” LeBeau said.
Said Belichick: ”Coach LeBeau is as good as there is, as good a defensive coach as there is.”
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AP Football Writer Teresa Walker in Nashville contributed to this report.
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Jacob deGrom’s season is close to incomprehensible: He leads the major leagues with a 1.71 ERA and his record is 5-5.
Making his last home start before the July 31 deadline for trades without waivers, the All-Star saw his winless streak reach five games Monday night. The New York Mets made a pair of pivotal errors behind him in a 3-2 loss to the San Diego Padres Kai Forbath Jersey , a matchup of teams with the worst records in the National League.
”You want to win baseball games, but the goal is for the team to win,” deGrom said. ”I would like the team to have more wins.”
DeGrom allowed three runs – two earned – and five hits in eight innings, striking out 10 and walking two as his ERA rose from 1.68. He has given up three runs or fewer in 17 consecutive appearances and became the first pitcher to win fewer than seven games in his first 20 starts with an ERA below 2.00 since earned runs started being compiled in 1912, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Manuel Margot hit a go-ahead triple in a two-run fifth inning after right fielder Jose Bautista dropped Christian Villanueva’s fly ball . The Padres made it 3-1 in the sixth when Wil Myers doubled and scored when charging shortstop Amed Rosario let Eric Hosmer’s chopper get under his glove and bounce into the outfield .
”I’m sure those things pop into your head when you’re pitching, but he definitely didn’t let it affect him and he didn’t show it,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said of deGrom. ”We just keep on talking to him about the things he can control. He knows that and when we talk to him about it, he’s kind of, `Yeah, I can’t do anything about it. I can just go out there and do my best.”’
Just 40-57 despite an 11-1 start, New York dealt closer Jeurys Familia last weekend, is likely to trade infielder Asdrubal Cabrera and is considering trading deGrom, eligible for free agency after the 2020 season. DeGrom’s agent said during the All-Star break he would prefer either a long-term contract or a trade.
”We love him. We know what we have,” Mets assistant general manager John Ricco said. ”He’s one of the top pitchers in the game, and in order to move him in a trade it would take an awful lot.”
DeGrom maintains he isn’t concerned.
”That’s out of my control. I don’t think it will be tough at all Drew Brees Jersey ,” he said. ”That’s not my decision.”
San Diego (42-61) had lost seven of eight and 23 of 30 coming in and also is retooling, dealing All-Star closer Brad Hand last week. The matchup drew 21,731, the Mets’ smallest home crowd since April 4.
Rookie left-hander Joey Lucchesi (5-5), brought back from the minor leagues, baffled the Mets for the much of the evening with his churve, a combination curveball-changeup at about 80 mph.
Lucchesi has a herky-jerky windup in which the 25-year-old left-hander brings his hands high overhead, lowers them to his chest, pauses and only then rocks and throws.
”I pitch a little odd, but I’ve pitched like that for five years now. I added the hands down motion right before I pitch my junior year of college and it just felt right for me,” he said. ”It’s like a stretch in between. It helps me hide the ball. Like I said, I can’t tip pitches that way.”
He made the crowd restless in the fourth, when he threw 10 pickoffs to first with Michael Conforto on base. Lucchesi ended the inning with a fine glove flip to first baseman Eric Hosmer to retire Jose Reyes on a slow roller.
Lucchesi allowed two runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings, struck out six and walked none. Kirby Yates pitched the ninth for his third save .
Wilmer Flores‘ RBI single put New York ahead in the third, and deGrom had thrown 37 pitches through the fourth. After reaching on Bautista’s error with one out in the fifth Latavius Murray Jersey , Villanueva stole second and scored on Freddy Galvis‘ single .
New York closed to 3-2 in the sixth. Brandon Nimmo loaded the bases when Craig Stammen hit him with a pitch on the right knee and left ankle, the 16th time Nimmo has been plunked this season and third in two games. Reyes followed with a slow bouncer off the end of his bat to third for a run-scoring infield hit . DeGrom, who had thrown 80 pitches, grounded out to shortstop.
”Probably nobody else gets to hit in that case,” Callaway said. ”He deserved to get two more innings pitched.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: RHP Colten Brewer was put on the 10-day DL, a day after straining his left oblique while pitching in the ninth inning of a doubleheader opener at Philadelphia.
Mets: OF Yoenis Cespedes had an MRI and was examined by a specialist in an effort to determine whether he needs surgery on both feet that would sideline him for 8-to-10 months. … RHP Noah Syndergaard was placed on the 10-day DL, retroactive to Saturday, with hand-foot-and-mouth disease. The team recalled RHP Corey Oswalt from Triple-A Las Vegas, and he will start Wednesday against his hometown Padres.
UP NEXT
Eric Lauer (5-6, 4.87 ERA) is on the mound Tuesday night, the second of three left-handers the Padres planned to start in the series. RHP Zack Wheeler (3-6, 4.44) goes for the Mets, pushed back a day because of Sunday’s rainout at Yankee Stadium.
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