Marcus Mariota threw for a touchdown to give the Tennessee Titans an early lead Yanni Gourde Jersey , and had another TD pass that was the final score of the game.
In between, he spent a lot of time trying to limp away from the New England Patriots rush.
One week after leading the Titans to victory in his first career playoff game, Mariota took his first postseason loss – and took it hard – absorbing eight sacks while the Patriots scored five touchdowns in a row on their way to a 35-14 victory in the AFC divisional round Saturday night.
”Man, embarrassed,” said Mariota, who sustained what coach Mike Mularkey said was a strained quadriceps muscle in the first quarter and went 44 minutes between scores.
”It felt like the momentum was on our side” after a 15-yard pass to Corey Davis gave the Titans a 7-0 lead, Mariota said. ”They’re a team that’s been here before, and they didn’t blink an eye. They just stuck to their game plan and it worked out for them.”
Just two seasons after going 3-13 when Mariota was a rookie, the Titans (10-8) reached the playoffs for the first time since 2008. Last week, they earned their first postseason victory in 14 years , rallying from a 21-3 halftime deficit to beat Kansas City in the wild-card round.
Against the defending Super Bowl champions, the two-touchdown underdogs jumped out to a surprising early lead but still trailed 21-7 at the half.
”We saw what happened last week in Kansas City, when Kansas City had a lead at the half similar to the one that we had,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. ”Our guys did a real good job of kind of keeping their foot on the gas and keep pressing it.”
Mularkey said Mariota’s leg prevented him from scrambling away from the New England rush. The Patriots sacked him four times in the third quarter – including back-to-back plays that left Tennessee with a third-and-31 from their own 2 – and three more in the fourth.
”They did a good job with the line game,” Mularkey said. ”Marcus was hampered. Tough to get away.”
Mariota completed 22 of 37 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns in the game, both of them to Davis. He also ran four times for 37 yards.
But Tom Brady was even better in leading New England to its seventh consecutive AFC championship game, completing 35 of 53 passes for 337 yards and three touchdowns. Danny Amendola caught 11 passes for 112 yards, Rob Gronkowski had six catches for 81 yards and a touchdown and James White scored twice, once running and one receiving.
The Patriots will host the AFC title game on Jan. 21 against the winner of Sunday’s game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It will be Brady’s 12th appearance in the conference championship.
”Obviously, this is the blueprint,” Mariota said. ”New England has been in the playoffs consistently. They’ve won a bunch of championships and we can learn a lot from this, and I think we will.”
The Titans also committed 10 penalties in the game after a season in which they had the second-fewest in the NFL. One of the calls was for an offside that allowed the Patriots to avoid punting from their own end zone; they went on to score and extend the lead to 21-7.
”You can’t make those mistakes against a really good team that’s waiting for you to do it,” said Mularkey Auston Matthews Jersey , whose job was reportedly in jeopardy even after reaching the playoffs.
”They didn’t make a lot of mistakes. That’s why they’ve been successful all these years. You can’t go and beat yourselves,” he said. ”I’d like to see us play a complete game. … We didn’t.”
—
The Washington Nationals‘ bats finally came alive Friday night. They hope that offense shows up again Saturday as the Nationals attempt to win two straight games for the first time in more than three weeks.
After a 17-7 rout on Friday night, the Nationals can pull even with the Philadelphia Phillies for second place in the National League East with a win Saturday at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
Washington hit seven home runs against the Phillies on Friday, including two by rookie Juan Soto and the 20th of the season from Bryce Harper. The team scored 17 runs on 18 hits in the win after combining for three runs on 12 hits in its previous three games.
The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Nationals, who are 9-15 in June and have not won consecutive games since June 5-6. Still, they are 42-38 on the season and one game behind the Phillies in the division.
Right-hander Vince Velasquez (5-8, 4.69 ERA) will try to keep the Phillies in second place on Saturday.
With one exception, Velasquez has been reliable for the Phillies over the last two months. The hard-throwing righty has allowed fewer than three earned runs in seven of his last 10 starts. He allowed 10 runs in 3 2/3 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 8 but has a 2.73 ERA in his other nine starts dating back to May 5.
Velasquez, who averages 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings, had seven strikeouts in six innings against the Yankees on Monday. He gave up two runs on three hits and four walks in the outing and took the loss as the Phillies’ offense struggled in the 4-2 defeat.
“I had a couple walks here and there, and I had to pitch around some guys,” Velasquez told reporters after the game. “It’s a tough lineup to face.”
Saturday’s start will be Velasquez’s sixth in his career against Washington. He is 2-2 with a 5.33 ERA and 1.333 WHIP in his first five starts. This season, Velasquez held the Nationals to one run on one hit and four walks over five innings in a May 5 start in which he got the win.
Jeremy Hellickson is expected to be activated off the disabled list and make the Saturday start for the Nationals. Hellickson (2-0, 2.28) strained his right hamstring in a June 3 start and has not pitched since.
He made a rehab start for Class A Potomac last Sunday and gave up 11 runs in 4 2/3 innings. But he said he felt healthy after the outing.
“Physically, I felt fine,” Hellickson told the Washington Post last week. “I mean, obviously not how I wanted it to go, but I felt fine. Felt my stuff was pretty good. Just command was a little shaky, but (my) hammy was 100 percent.”
Hellickson was solid before the injury. He posted a 1.30 ERA and .548 opponent OPS in five starts during May, and the Nationals won each of those outings.
Hellickson pitched for the Phillies in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In his only career start against Philadelphia, Hellickson did not allow an earned run in eight innings while with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2015 season.
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