After spending six years as head coach of the Titans (1-5), Mike Vrabel was unceremoniously fired in January of 2024 after consecutive losing seasons.
Despite a 2019 AFC Championship Game appearance as well as earning the No. 1 seed in the conference in 2021 (which won him NFL Coach of the Year), it wasn’t enough equity to weather that two-year storm in the eyes of Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk.
Vrabel was out of a job, and it might’ve been the best thing that ever happened to him.
A little over a year after his firing in Tennessee, Vrabel was hired as the 16th head coach in New England Patriots (5-2) franchise history. And nine months later, he gave Strunk a firsthand example as to why that was such a huge mistake for her franchise.
The Patriots went into Tennessee and beat the Titans 31-13, handing interim head coach Mike McCoy a loss in his first game as the temporary lead man in Nashville after former head coach Brian Callahan’s firing on Monday.
Sunday’s win makes it four in a row for New England - the longest win streak the Patriots have had since winning seven in a row during the 2021 season.
Here are your Ups & Downs column for Week 7:
Ups:
- Drake Maye: It took until their third drive, but Drake Maye eventually broke out and showed why he’s been a part of the MVP conversation throughout the first six weeks of the season.
On that drive alone, Maye was a perfect 5 for 5 as a passer, accounting for 51 yards and the inevitable touchdown (more on that score in a bit). He also rushed for 23 yards on 2 carries on that same drive. And because it wasn’t the touchdown throw, an impressive 22-yard pass from Maye to Mack Hollins up the right sideline on 2nd and 8 to set the Patriots up for a 1st and goal from the Titans 9 will be forgotten.
One drive later, Maye made the play of the day.
On a 1st and 10 from the Titans 39 yard line with 49 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Maye found third-year receiver Kayshon Boutte breaking free up the left seam for a Madden-esque finger-tip touchdown grab. An extra point later, and the Patriots were up 17-13 just before halftime.
After a first quarter that saw the Titans look like a team that might be able to hang with the upstart Patriots, you could feel the oxygen get sucked out of Nissan Stadium through the television screen after this pass. The fans knew that the best player on the field was No. 10 for New England, and their defense didn’t have an answer for the 23-year-old. Those types of moments are the ones MVP-caliber players have on a regular basis. We saw it for two decades with No. 12 at the helm.
Maye ended the day 21 for 23 for 222 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added 62 rushing yards on 8 carries, good for an average of 7.8 yards per carry.
He’s accurate. He’s confident. He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Full stop.
- Rhamondre Stevenson: Entering Sunday’s game, Tennessee was ranked 25th in the NFL in rushing defense, allowing 133.7 yards per game.
Vrabel and Josh McDaniels were clearly well-aware of this deficiency for the Titans, and they reminded them early and often about this hole in their game.
The early beneficiary of this game plan was the five-year veteran out of Oklahoma, rushing for 42 yards on 5 carries on the first drive of the game. On the back of Stevenson, the Patriots were able to put up 3 points on their opening possession.
That opening drive production set the tone for the day for Stevenson, as he ran for 88 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, good for an average of 4.9 yards per carry.
- Stefon Diggs: With the 31-year-old dealing with a chest injury all week that had him listed as questionable until 90 minutes before kickoff, the former All-Pro looked completely healthy on Sunday.
Diggs had 7 grabs for 69 receiving yards, good for an average of 9.9 yards per catch.
He’s been a menace underneath the defense all season long, and that’s how he made his bread on Sunday in Nashville.
His best catch of the day came in the fourth quarter, when Maye found Diggs up the left sideline on a play reminiscent of Manning-to-Manningham in Super Bowl XLVI.
Yes, I know. Slightly different stakes. I’m just trying to paint a picture for you.
The point is, Diggs continues to live up to his alpha-impact reputation as his first season in New England rolls on.
- Kayshon Boutte: The LSU-product followed up his massive Week 6 performance in New Orleans with another impactful day in Week 7, coming down with that aforementioned back-breaking touchdown grab at the end of the second quarter. When you have a catch like that, it’s going to land you in “Ups.”
In addition to his touchdown, Boutte accounted for 2 catches for 55 receiving yards overall. The other grab was a first down catch in the first half.
Through the entire seven-game sample size of the 2025 Patriots offense, Stefon Diggs is the clear No. 1 receiver. But make no mistake about it - Boutte is this team’s No. 2.
- Austin Hooper: Wow!
The 30-year-old came down with one of the most impressive catches of the Patriots’ season so far with 5:34 to go in the second quarter.
On 3rd and goal from the Titans 3 yard line, Maye threw a jump ball to the back-left corner of the end zone. The ball was short-ish, forcing Hooper to make what CBS color analyst Jason McCourty called a “head-topper” of a catch.
In all likelihood, “he got Moss’d” was said in unison in living rooms across New England, and the Maye-to-Hooper connection tied the game at 10-10.
The journeyman tight end has been nothing but reliable as the TE2 next to Hunter Henry in his two years here in New England. Having two sure-handed tight ends for Maye to work with on a down-in, down-out basis is an absolute luxury for any quarterback, let alone a second-year man under center.
And if we’re going to give Vrabel his flowers for getting the win against his former team, we should do the same for Hooper. He spent one season in Tennessee back in 2022 as one of the five teams he’s played for in his career.
- K’Lavon Chaisson: On a 1st and 10 for Tennessee with 7:20 to go in the third quarter, rookie quarterback Cam Ward attempted a screen pass to his left out of play action while falling backwards to his right.
Ward ended up losing his fifth fumble of the year, and K’Lavon Chaisson scooped and scored from 23 yards out to give the Patriots a 31-13 lead.
A defensive touchdown and 2 sacks on the day is going to get you in the “Ups” section of this column each and every time.
As an unheralded free agent pickup this offseason, Chaisson has been an impact player for New England’s defense through seven games. He’ll enter free agency again after this season, and he’ll be getting a massive payday from someone. If I’m executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf, I’m making sure I’m at the front of that line to try and get the 26-year-old back for 2026 and beyond.
- Harold Landry III: Speaking of revenge games - after missing most of the week of practice as he worked through a foot injury, Landry was in the lineup on Sunday for a reunion of his own. The eight-year veteran spent the first seven years of his career in Tennessee, earning himself a Pro Bowl nod in 2021.
In addition to recording a sack of his own in the fourth quarter, it was his pressure early in the second quarter that led to Chaisson recording a drive-ending sack, leading to the Titans’ first punt of the day.
He had just 3 tackles on the day (2 solo), but I wanted to give a tip of the cap to the Boston College-product for joining Vrabel and Hooper in the homecoming winners’ circle.
- Marcus Jones: The do-it-all corner for the Patriots made an impact again on Sunday, catching the game-sealing deflection interception at the end of the fourth quarter to truly put an end to New England’s blowout win in Nashville.
This guy is having a fantastic season.
Downs:
- Drake Maye’s Inability to Slide: On a 19-yard gain in the second quarter and a 6-yard gain in the third quarter, Maye took hard hits on runs where he very clearly should have gone into a slide.
The hit he took on that 6-yard gain resulted in the back of Maye’s helmet slamming into the turf. Maye shook his head and headed back to the huddle, but the refs got the call from the independent spotter from up above to have him examined for a possible concussion.
He only missed three plays, and the Patriots scored a touchdown four plays after Maye re-entered the game.
A crisis averted, for sure. But it was a not-so-gentle reminder that Maye is still a young QB with more to learn. We’ve seen him do a much better job this year with keeping himself out of precarious situations, but Sunday showed that he’s still got more than a little bit of that backyard football mentality left in him.
- TreVeyon Henderson: For whatever reason, this guy cannot get himself to be a factor within the Patriots’ offense.
With Antonio Gibson out for the season with a torn ACL, the Patriots have no one else on the roster to turn to for a change-of-pace back.
Henderson needs to start showing that explosive ability we saw in the preseason for this offense to hit an even higher gear moving forward.
As of publishing, the Patriots are a 7-point favorite in Week 8 as they host the Browns (2-5). You can get them at -225 on the moneyline, and the total sits at 40.5.
Cleveland comes to Gillette Stadium after a blowout victory at Hard Rock Stadium against the Dolphins, beating Miami 31-6.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.