Titans find bulletin board material to fuel upset of Patriots: 'Revenge tour ended early'

For the better part of two decades, there's arguably been no better home field advantage than when the Patriots kick off in Foxborough. Not only is New England's play often pristine, its opponents usually cave in on themselves more than once in a given contest. With that in mind, you have to give the Tennessee Titans credit: They were unafraid heading into Gillette Stadium on Saturday night and it showed. 

Former Patriots linebacker turned Titans head coach Mike Vrabel took his club into the lion's den and bounced out the defending Super Bowl champions, sending them into what has the potential of being a franchise-altering offseason. 

On top of solid execution on defense, clutch throws by Ryan Tannehill, and running Derrick Henry being the unstoppable force he often is, Tennessee walked into Foxborough with a bravado that clearly oozes off their head coach in Vrabel. As a player, the old linebacker, who helped New England win three Super Bowl titles, wasn't afraid to express his confident demeanor. 

That held true on Saturday night as he seemingly used Tom Brady's hype video as a motivating tool to get his club in the proper mindset to take on the Pats. Earlier in the day, Brady took to social media to release a video gearing up his followers (and teammates) for what they hoped would be yet another deep playoff run. The narrator in the video talked about a lion, who is being laughed at by hyenas and jackals "until one day, that lions gets up and tears the [expletive] out of everybody." 

Clearly the Patriots were being made out to be the counted out, but still ferocious lion in this story and it certainly caught Vrabel's attention. 

"They want the hyenas?" Vrabel reportedly said in the locker room following the 20-13 win over New England, according to Ben Volin of The Boston Globe. "They got the [expletive] hyenas!" 

The Titans toppled the mighty Patriots and there's a lot to go over. Will Brinson is joined by the Pick Six Podcast Superfriends to break down all the playoff action from Saturday; listen below and be sure to subscribe for daily NFL goodness.

Not only was that video a piece of bulletin board material for Tennessee, but recent comments made by New England linebacker Kyle Van Noy also made their way into the Titans locker room. Van Noy told reporters earlier in the week that the team was about to start a "revenge tour" after the Titans beat them down in Nashville a year ago. Corner Logan Ryan, formerly of the Patriots, took exception to that comment.   

"I won two championships with [the Patriots], but I'm here now and I'm trying to win a championship here," Ryan, who notched a pick-six in Saturday's win, told reporters in the locker room postgame. "That organization has so much class ... my guy Kyle Van Noy called it a revenge tour. 

He continued: "I understand that he's going to ride the wave of the Patriots, but Tom Brady doesn't do that. Julian Edelman doesn't do that. Devin McCourty, [Stephon Gilmore] don't do that and Kyle Van Noy is running his mouth, giving up bulletin board material about his revenge tour. His revenge tour ended early. I'm sure I'll hear something in the group chat from my guys about it, but Dev, Duron, JMac, I'm sorry. I had to say it. My man Van Noy has been tripping and so his revenge tour ended early. I hope he enjoys it."

With Vrabel at the helm, the Titans were already going to have plenty of confidence heading into this matchup, but these pieces of bulletin board material certainly didn't help New England's chances to advance beyond Wild Card Weekend. Now, their revenge tour ends early and they are looking into an extremely uncertain offseason.