Patriots beat Titans, clinch first-round playoff bye

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FOXBORO -- It wasn't perfect. Perfection would have been a day devoid of injury, and -- with Danny Amendola and Dont'a Hightower suffering what appear to be recurrences of problems that had them sidelined not so long ago, and Patrick Chung going down in a further thinning of the safety position -- the Patriots didn't get that Sunday against the Titans.

What they got was the next best thing: A victory . . . and a first-round bye.

The Pats scored on their first possession and never looked back as they coasted to a 33-16 victory over Tennessee at Gillette Stadium, a victory that increased their record to 12-2. Nearly four hours later, they won again when the Steelers came from behind and beat the Broncos, enabling the Patriots to clinch no worse than the second seed in the AFC playoffs.

And that assures them of a first-round bye. Their first postseason game won't be played until the AFC semifinals on the weekend of Jan. 16-17 . . . time they can use to heal their walking wounded. The Patriots lead Cincinnati (11-3) by one game and Denver (10-4) by two in the AFC standings. If the Broncos beat the Bengals next Monday night in Denver and the Patriots win in New York, the Pats will clinch the No. 1 overall seed, as well.

On Sunday, they were able to prevail with a cast of supporting characters. Like James White, who caught 7 passes for 71 yards . . . one of which was a 30-yard touchdown. And Keshawn Martin, who set up that score with a 75-yard kickoff return. 

"[We] had a lot of guys step up and play and fill roles today that maybe they hadn't done as much of, or maybe hadn't done any of, in the past," said coach Bill Belichick. "[That's] what you need from your team. It's a long season and we need a lot of different guys to contribute."

"Whenever a guy comes in, they just come in and play hard," said Rob Gronkowski, who caught 5 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown. "Everyone works hard at practice, no matter who it is, so that when they get called into the game they're ready to play, they know the situation, and they're ready to play hard."

Gronk put the Patriots ahead to stay in the first quarter, catching a five-yard pass from Tom Brady and making it 7-0. The Pats increased the lead to 14-0 in the second quarter when Chandler Jones strip-sacked Marcus Mariota at the Tennessee 17 and Akiem Hicks fell on the loose ball in the end zone for a touchdown.

"We were dying laughing," fellow defensive lineman Alan Branch said of Hicks's clumsy efforts to corral the ball as it squirted toward the end zone. 

But just when New England seemed to have the Titans in a death hold -- Tennessee was forced to punt on its next possession -- the Pats' special-teams gremlins struck again. Amendola fumbled the punt and the Titans took over at the New England 26. But the defense held and Tennessee had to settle for a 49-yard field goal from Ryan Succop that cut the lead to 14-3.

Which was soon increased to 21-3 on a 30-yard throw-and-catch between Brady and White, a score preceeded by Martin's long kickoff return.

"[From] what I saw, there wasn't much there," Brady said of the beginning of White's touchdown play, a screen pass to the left flat. "And then [White] was so patient to see things open up and then took advantage when the hole finally did open . . . [He] accelerated through there and got into the end zone." 

That would be the Patriots' last touchdown; their final 12 points came on Stephen Gostkowski field goals of  43, 38, 42 and 42 yards. (He also had a rare miss, from 48 at the end of the first half.) Tennessee would get a pair of touchdown passes from Zack Mettenberger --who replaced the injured Mariota after the rookie suffered a knee injury when he was sacked -- to Delanie Walker for its last two scores.

As soon as the game ended, workers began tearing down the goal posts and taking away the side walls in preparation for the NHL Winter Classic, which will pit the Bruins against the Canadiens here on New Year's Day. The football field will be put back in place soon afterwards for the Patriots' first-round playoff game.

But now those stadium workers -- and the Patriots -- have some extra time to play with.

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