The Tennessee Titans were victorious in their last meeting with the New England Patriots, recording a 34-10 victory in Nissan Stadium last year.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was just 21-of-41 passes on the day, and was sacked three times.
The meeting didn’t go nearly as well for Tennessee the first time safety Kevin Byard had the opportunity to go up against Tom Brady, though, as he recalls.
“That was my first time playing him, and they got him running out of the tunnel with the Jay-Z music, and it was like ‘Aw, man, this is real,’” Byard said on Bleacher Report’s “The Lefkoe Show” podcast. And it’s funny because our defensive coordinator back then, Dick LeBeau, I think it was maybe Tom Brady’s eighth or ninth time playing against him and I think he probably went back to some old film back when they were playing the Steelers back in the day.”
Brady was 35-of-53 passes for 337 yards and three touchdowns. The Patriots won the January contest, 35-14 on the New England home turf.
Byard remembers Brady always seeming to be one step ahead.
“It seems like he had our number every single time,” he said. “It was almost like he knew exactly what we was gonna run — switching the run this way, screen this way, dump it off here, touchdown. It’s just like, aw man, here we go again.”
The Titans and Patriots won’t face each other in the regular season in 2019, but will square off in the preseason.
Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. CT at Nissan Stadium on Aug. 17.
