5 Things: How do the Patriots take care of business in Mike Vrabel’s return to Tennessee

After beating the Buffalo Bills and New Orleans Saints, the New England Patriots have a chance to sweep their rare three-game road trip this week. All it will take is a win over the 1-5 Tennessee Titans.

There's much more to this game than that tough. It's two organizations heading in opposite directions - both around the same individual in Mike Vrabel.

Vrabel was the coach of the from 2018 until he was fired following the 2023 season. After spending last year as a consultant for the Cleveland Browns (who the Patriots play next week), Vrabel was hired by the Patriots this winter and has the team in first place six weeks into the season.

While it's still early in the season, it's fair to say Vrabel's post-Tennessee tenure has been a success to this point. Meanwhile, the Titans haven't been doing as well since the breakup. We'll start there in this week's '5 Things'...

While Vrabel was let go by the Titans just over a year ago, he won't even get a chance to face his replacement. Ahead of Vrabel's return this week, the Titans fired head coach Brian Callahan.

Callahan, who was previously the offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals, went 4-19 during his tenure with the Titans. While Callahan stayed on initially despite a three-win season last year, the team had changed GMs replacing Ran Carthon (whose tenure overlapped for a year with Vrabel) with Mike Borgonzi. Despite having the first overall pick this past spring, Callahan was the next one to go after a slow start.

With Callahan gone, former then-San Diego Chargers head coach Mike McCoy will be the interim. McCoy was hired this past offseason as a senior offensive assistant.

"We'll have to be prepared for everything," Vrabel said this week on getting ready for McCoy. "There's a lot of fakes in the history with the coordinator. May go for it more on whatever situation. I just think we'll have to be prepared for whatever that may be. Whatever wrinkles, the things that Mike liked or didn't like, that's going to be his prerogative, and we'll have to be prepared for whatever it is, try to execute the keys and try to – all the things that we feel like are important each and every week. So, there's no way to know. You can watch the tape, understand some of the players, the play style and however they call the game, they'll call the game."

Will the Patriots have to worry about an 'interim bump' with the Titans. In recent seasons teams that fired their coach during the year have at times played with a bit of a boost following the coaching change, but that's mainly resulted in closer games and not outright wins.

The run game remains a major focus for the Patriots. For the first five games of the season the unit wasn't necessarily bad, but it certainly wasn't adding much. The Patriots had among the fewest negative run plays in the league, but also among the fewest explosive plays.

Despite it seeming like creating more of those plays was a point of emphasis last week, the Patriots run game actually took a step back. The explosive plays didn't come, but the negative plays did. In total the Patriots ran for a season low 2.4 yards per carry.

Now the Patriots are back trying to once again establish the run. They'll face a Titans team that has struggled to do so for the most part this year, ranking 21st i n the NFL allowing 4.5 yards per carry. However something may have clicked for the unit last week, as they held the Raiders to just 2.1 yards per carry on 32 carries.

As for who will be getting the ball for the Patriots on the ground, last week Rhamondre Stevenson played a season-high 71.9% of the offensive snaps last week, while TreVeyon Henderson played a season-low 29.7%. Despite that their usage was close to balanced - Henderson had 13 carries while Henderson had nine.

It looked like Henderson was running with a bit more patience in that game. While he still has a ways to go, will that open up more carries for him? That will be something to watch for on Sunday.

In both the run and pass game, the Patriots will have to deal with Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. Simmons has been arguably the best three-down interior defensive player in the NFL this season - he leads all defensive tackles with 4.5 sacks and 27 pressures, and is tied for second in the NFL with 12 run stuffs.

"He's playing really well, playing at a high level. He plays hard. He's got great play demeanor. Plays a lot of snaps, but he doesn't – the ones that he's in there for, which is a lot, it's not like he picks and chooses when he's going to play hard," Vrabel said this week. Vrabel was the coach of the Titans when they drafted Simmons in the first round in 2019. "It’ll be a huge challenge here this week for us to be able to block him, to neutralize him and try to gain some yards."

The interior of the Patriots offensive line will have its hands full in this game. In particular it wouldn't be surprising if the Titans use Simmons to test rookie Jared Wilson. Wilson allowed three pressures last week, and struggled in the run game.

On the other side of the ball the Patriots will get to see the top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft in quarterback Cam Ward. It's the second time in as many years, and the third time in five years. They've won each of the last two games, beating Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears last year and Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars late in the 2021 season.

In fact the Patriots have won their last five meetings against rookie No. 1 overall picks, going back to a loss to Jake Long and the Miami Dolphins in 2008. They haven't lost to a rookie No. 1 pick quarterback since Jeff George and the Indianapolis Colts beat them in 1990, with eight such wins in a row.

What do the Patriots need to do to avoid Ward ending those streaks? Vrabel highlighted some of his strengths to start the week.

"Quick delivery to be able to get it out of his hand when he decides," Vrabel noted. "I thought that there was some really good accuracy, some ball placement that allows for good run after catch. I think there's a willingness to stand in there. He's got contact courage. I don't see him staring at the rush a lot. Has the ability to scramble when need be and scramble for first downs. Doesn't look like he's very rattled. I think that his composure is very good and his demeanor."

Ward has yet to have his first true breakout game in the NFL. Through six weeks he's completing 55% of his passes for 183.5 yards per game, with three touchdowns and four interceptions. He has no multi-touchdown games, and his highest yardage total is 265, in the chaotic win over the Cardinals two weeks ago.

Where the Patriots need to be careful about not letting him get going is extending plays. There were a few instances last week against Spencer Rattler where they got aggressive in the rush, got too far past Rattler, and let him step up and deliver throws. Ward showed a knack for doing so in college at Miami.

However, the Titans may be shorthanded in terms of the Ward's targets. In particular the team could be without veteran wide receiver Calvin Ridley, who missed practice both Wednesday and Thursday. That would leave the team leaning heavily on rookies Elic Ayomanor and Chimere Dike.

This is now three weeks in a row we're highlighting the referee crew in '5 Things.' Unfortunately, that ended up being relevant with the officials being part of the story in both games. Will that be the case again this week? For Sunday's matchup the Patriots and Titans have the crew led Craig Wrolstad, who has been an NFL official for 23 years and a head referee for 12.

The good news? Overall, this crew hasn't thrown as many flags as others that have worked Patriots games this year. They currently rank ninth in the NFL averaging 13.3 flags per game - five of the first six games this year were officiated by crews in the top six in that catagory.

The bad news? Part of the reason that number is so low is because of the game last week. Wrolstad's crew found itself in the headlines for their performance on Sunday Night Football, when the Kansas City Chiefs were called for no accepted penalties, and the only flag on them was a declined defensive offsides with two and a half minutes to go in the game. It was the first time since 2023 a team had gone a full game without a penalty.

There was also the matter of a controversial reversal of a Lions trick-play touchdown. Wrosltad had to answer questions from a pool reporter after the game about the matter, but the handling of the situation has remained a story into this week.

It would be great if officiating and referees didn't need to be a weekly talking point around the Patriots. However, this week it's something fans should be aware of again heading into the game.