7 takeaways as the Patriots close their road trip with a win over the Titans

Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans felt like a reversal for the New England Patriots. A sign of how much things have changed from last year to this year.

Last year, the Patriots were the team with a rookie quarterback and not much else, looking for flashes for the future. Those flashes would come early, but approaching halftime things would fall apart and the talent gap would become apparent.

That's how the game went in Nashville, but with the Patriots on the other side of things. After a bit of a slow start, the Patriots held on for a 31-13 win, improving to 5-2.

How did the Patriots turn things around to grab the sweep of their three-game 'road trip'? We'll start there in this week's takeaways...

Once again, the Patriots' defense came out flat to start a game. Sloppy play, soft coverage, and a missed tackle led to the Titans picking up extra yards. A misfire by Cam Ward on third down bailed them out and led to a field goal. The next drive wasn't any better, as the Titans hit back-to-back explosive plays to find the end zone.

This continues what's been a trend for the Patriots this year. They've now allowed points on five of their seven opening defensive drives this season (the Miami and Buffalo games were the lone exceptions). They've been able to recover so far, but it's something they need to clean up.

As has been the case the past few weeks the Patriots did turn the corner after their slow start. After the first quarter they made adjustments, which paid dividends.

On their first drive of the second quarter, the Patriots' offense found its rhythm. They marched 93 yards in 11 plays - their longest drive of the season. That was capped off by Austin Hooper 'mossing' a defender for a red zone touchdown.

After holding the Titans to a field goal, the Patriots got the ball back with 1:48 to go in the half, trailing 13-10. That's when they really took over, with a double-score opportunity.

What looked like it might be an almost full two-minute drill took just 59 seconds, with Drake Maye hitting Kayshon Boutte for a 39-yard touchdown pass deep over the middle. After killing less than a minute on defense the Patriots got the ball back to start the second half, and went 88 yards in 12 plays for Rhamondre Stevenson to cap things off with another score.

From there, the Patriots shut down the Titans offense, while managing to play clean when they had the ball. While they didn't produce any more points (their following touchdown was a defensive score), they didn't create any situations where the ball was at risk to open the door for the Titans.

Another week, another big-time performance from Maye. The biggest standout continues to be the efficiency in which he's throwing the ball downfield. On throws 10+ yards from the line of scrimmage, Maye was 7-of-8 for 149 yards.

Both of Maye's touchdowns came on such throws, including his deepest throw of the day on the touchdown to Boutte. Boutte entered the day among the most productive and efficient downfield receivers in the NFL and built on that, catching both of his targets for a total of 55 yards.

On multiple downfield throws, Maye showcased high level accuracy. One throw that continues to be a plus play for him is finding the hole in Cover 2 - he hit Mack Hollins on a deep ball on that look on the first touchdown drive of the second half.

Then of course, he took care of business on the short stuff. May didn't have one incompletion on a pass of less than 10 yards, going 14-of-14. In total he completed 91.3% of his passes, setting a new franchise single-game record for a quarterback with at least 20 attempts.

In total Maye went 21-of-23 for 222 yards with two touchdowns, and added eight carries for 62 yards on the ground. Despite all of that, Maye still sees room for improvement. “Left some out there,” he said after the game.

Perhaps the most concerning thing about Maye's game was how many hits he took. Those came both on scrambles and standing in the pocket.

When running, Maye extended a few plays to the point where he was tackled rather than sliding/giving himself up. One resulted in him hitting his head of the turf, which saw him get pulled off the field by the NFL's independent concussion specialist. Once he returned, it looked like he was making a more conscious effort to keep his head up when he was being tackled.

Late in the game Maye took a couple of hits in the pocket. Both were due to breakdowns on the left side. One was a miscommunication on a line game from the Titans, and on the other rookie left guard Jared Wilson was beat clean by T'Vondre Sweat. Wilson had three of the Patriots' seven pressures allowed, according to PFF's initial charting. Wilson's performance will be something to watch going forward, especially after Ben Brown's performance a few weeks ago when Wilson was out with an injury.

Where the offensive line - and the Patriots as a whole - really shined was the run game. After their worst rushing game of the year last week the Patriots had far and away their best rushing performance this week. Excluding end of game kneeldowns the Patriots ran for 5.2 yards per carry on 34 carries.

Early on in the game the Patriots fed the ball to Stevenson, who broke free against a defense with two star defensive tackles in Sweat and Jeffery Simmons (Simmons would later leave the game, but was on the field for this initial burst). The Patriots' first four plays of the game were runs by Stevenson going for eight, 14, eight, and eight yards.

Overall Stevenson looked more assertive hitting the line of scrimmage. He also had more holes to hit, averaging almost a yard and a half per carry before contact. He finished the game 18 carries for 88 yards and a touchdown.

With Stevenson getting going, the Patriots did not turn to TreVeyon Henderson often in this game. He carried the ball just two times for five yards. Interestingly enough, late in the game the Patriots went to third-string running back Terrell Jennings to close things out (and he had a strong showing, bowling over defenders to earn 17 yards on five carries). Henderson's development remains one of the more puzzling things about the Patriots right now.

One of the unsung heros of the Patriots' free agency class has been K'Lavon Chaisson. What started out as a strong training camp has continued into the regular season. Sunday was Chaisson's best game of the year, and included a couple of career firsts.

Chaisson had two of the Patriots' four sacks, marking a new career high. It's just his second multi-sack game of his career, after he had 1.5 in a game against the Chiefs last year.

On top of that, Chaisson scored his first career NFL touchdown. On the Titans' first offensive snap of the third quarter Chaisson pressured Ward, who ended up losing the football with Chaisson bearing down on him. That created a clear scoop-and-score for the final points of the game for either team.

With teams paying more attention to the Patriots' interior rushers, there will be opportunities for the Patriots' edge rushers to capitalize. Chaisson did that on Sunday.

In what has become a bit of a pattern, a receiver with straight-line speed gave the Patriots' secondary problems. This time is was rookie Chimere Dike, who had previously mainly been used as a kick returner and gadget player by the Titans.

Coming into the game Dike had just 26 receiving yards this year, but put up 70 on the Patriots on four catches. That included a 38-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Dike beat both Marcus Jones and Carlton Davis at times.

This came after reporting this week that the Patriots are looking to add at cornerback heading into the trade deadline. In particular, a cornerback who excels at running with faster receivers could be a valuable addition for a matchup-based role.