It’s always good to beat the Jets. Last week’s win was the 75th over the Patriots New York and AFC East rival. It is their second most win over any opponent with Buffalo atop that list at 78. The win also snapped an eight-game losing streak at Gillette Stadium and a six-game losing streak this season. To say the win provided a reprieve from a sea of negativity is an understatement even if it’s temporary.
Winning is obviously important, but coming off a loss to Jacksonville in which the head coach Jerod Mayo, more or less, questioned his team’s will to compete against the Jags, that Jets win was a sign that, in the face of criticism, the team wanted to respond for its coach.
Now they go back on the road to take on another struggling football team – the 1-6 Tennessee Titans who are in the midst of a three-game losing streak including blowout losses to Detroit (52-14) and Buffalo (34-10). They return home after those two road losses, but they are also 0-3 at home.
The series with the Titans/Oilers dates back to 1960 when both were members of the American Football League and the Patriots lead the all-time series, 26-18-1. New England ended a two-game losing streak when it won the last meeting back during Mac Jones’ rookie year, 2021, as it handed Tennessee a 36-13 loss at Gillette Stadium.
That second of two losses to Tennessee was a 2019 playoff loss in Tom Brady’s last game as a Patriot. The last visit to Nashville also ended in an ugly loss, 34-10, back on Nov. 11, 2018. Perhaps the most memorable regular season matchup in somewhat recent history was New England’s 59-0 win on a snowy Oct. 18 back in 2009 at Gillette Stadium.
That winning margin is the largest in team history. New England jumped out to a 10-0 first quarter lead courtesy of Laurence Maroney’s 45-yard touchdown run and Stephen Gostkowski’s 33-yard field goal. Then Brady’s snow fireworks began.
He connected with Randy Moss for touchdowns of 40 and 28 yards before the second quarter’s halfway point to make it 24-0. Brady then hit Kevin Faulk for a 38-yard touchdown strike before completing the quarter with 30- and 5-yard touchdown passes to Wes Welker for a record five-touchdown-pass quarter and a 45-0 halftime lead.
His sixth TD pass of the afternoon – a 9-yarder to Moss in the third quarter was the cherry on top as Brady then gave way to backup Brian Hoyer.
Looking back at the series historically, the Patriots were 10-9 against the Oilers in the 1960s and 2-3 in the 1970s. But since then, the Patriots have held an edge in every decade. New England was 4-2 vs. Houston in the 1980s and 2-1 in the 1990s (with the second of those wins coming after Houston’s move to Tennessee). New England was then 4-1 in the 2000s and 3-1 in the 2010s. The team’s have split two meetings in this decade.
The fact remains, however, that the 2024 version of both these teams are desperate to find wins and with New England at 2-6 and the Titans at 1-6, both will see this week’s game as an opportunity. It will also mark the first in three road games in four weeks for the Patriots.
The series:
- The Patriots lead the all-time series, 26-18-1
- The Patriots longest winning streak against the Titans is seven games (2003-2018)
- The Titans longest winning streak against New England is four games (1975-1980)
- The Patriots are 19-8-1 at home, and 7-10 on the road in the series
- The teams have never played an overtime game
- The series dates to Nov. 25, 1960 (a 24-10 Oilers win in Boston)
- The Titans largest margin of victory is 28 (45-17 home win on Dec. 15, 1968)
- The Patriots largest margin of victory is 59 (59-0 home win on Nov. 18, 2009)
