NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — For the third straight game, Mason Rudolph will start at quarterback for the Tennessee Titans while Will Levis recovers from an AC joint injury in his throwing shoulder.
The Titans elevated Trevor Siemian from the practice squad Saturday indicating to everyone that Levis was still not quite ready to play despite practicing all week.
Tennessee (1-6) desperately needs a win and is favored (-3.5) to beat the Patriots (2-6).
New England also answered its quarterback situation Saturday revealing rookie Drake Maye had cleared concussion protocol and would start for the Patriots over veteran Jacoby Brisset, who came off the bench last week to lead the Pats over the New York Jets.
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The Titans enter the weekend 0-3 at Nissan Stadium this year, and one of five teams in the NFL without a victory at home. Head Coach Brian Callahan is looking forward to bringing that statistic to an end.
“We had to go play two really tough environments and truthfully, they’re great places to play if you’re not the visiting team. But I also felt like it was a glimpse of what I think that our place is capable of being. Now we’ve got to be in the spot that those two teams are in, and we’ve got to win games to make it that way. But just the vision of what that’s going to look like when we get going and having a real home-field advantage like those places do. And I’m excited to get back in front of our fans and give them something to be excited about again,” Callahan said.
This is a battle of two of the worst offenses in the NFL this season. Both teams have struggled mightily to move the ball with any kind of consistency and put points on the board.
NFL Offense Rankings
32. New England – 261 Yards Per Game
31. Cleveland – 272 Yards Per Game
30. Tennessee – 281 Yards Per Game
Reports say the Titans will have veteran running back Tony Pollard (foot) and veteran receiver Tyler Boyd (shoulder) despite neither practicing this week because of nagging injuries.
It looks to be a busy day for Pollard against a New England defense giving up over 130 yards per game on the ground. He has been the Titans’ most consistent weapon this season with 494 yards while averaging 4.3 yards per carry.
The Titans will also look to see if they can build on Calvin Ridley’s breakout 10-catch performance last week in Detroit.
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Defensively the Titans still rank number one in the NFL despite giving up 52 points in Detroit last week. Tennessee only gave up 85 yards passing in that game, as turnovers and poor special teams play handed the Lions extraordinary field position all game long.
Fixing special teams has been a major topic of conversation in Nashville this week, especially after Callahan decided to stick with Colt Anderson as his special teams coordinator.
“He’s (Anderson) got the experience and the wherewithal to understand where the special teams issues are. And then you got Anthony Levine (Sr.) in there with him, who also has seen a lot and played a lot under John Harbaugh in Baltimore. So those guys got great special teams experience. They understand what they’re looking at and what there is and we have to do a better job all the way around,” Callahan said.
Last week in Detroit the Titans surrendered two punt returns and one kickoff return of at least 60 yards that led directly to 21 points.
Callahan has stressed the Titans have to stop beating themselves before they can start winning football games and a huge aspect of that is turnovers where they are tied for last with the Las Vegas Raiders.
NFL Turnover Margin
32. Tennessee (-13)
32. Las Vegas (-13)
30. Dallas (-8)
19. New England (-1)
Not only have the Titans taken poor care of the ball, they have not been able to take it away either. They have had just one interception the entire season and two fumble recoveries on balls that were dropped by their opponents. Despite being a rookie Maye has taken decent care of the ball, throwing only two interceptions in his 2+starts and five touchdown passes.
The Patriots come in averaging only 15.5 points per game, and the Titans only 17.1. If either team can get to 20, they will probably walk off the field with an elusive victory to this point.