Titans @ Pats: First Half Thoughts

As the New England Patriots head to the locker room with a 24-3 lead over the Tennessee Titans in their final regular season home game, here are some first half thoughts.

Hot Start For Brady- Patriot quarterback Tom Brady started off the game on fire, completing his first eight pass attempts for 79 yards and a score on the team's 11-play, scoring opening offensive drive. Brady finished the first half by completing 14 of 19 pass attempts for 146 yards and two touchdowns.

First Touch- Rookie back Joey Iosefa, who was just added to the active roster yesterday from the practice squad, made his league debut today. The fullback/running back got his first touch in the first quarter, as he rumbled forward for 5 yards and a first down. He finished up the first half with four carries for 21 yards and one heck of a truck stick move, as he absolutely ran over Tennessee cornerback Coty Sensabaugh on one carry.

White Hot- The Patriots' top passing back James White joined the scoring party with a 30-yard touchdown  on a screen catch. White did a good job of allowing his blockers to get out in front of him and clear space. A couple nice moves later and the Patriot lead began to swell. He is currently leading all Pats receivers with seven catches for 71 yards through the first half. Seems like he's slid into that top passing back role quite nicely, as of late.

Everyone Gets A Touch- While Brady has completed half of his passes in this game to White, he has spread the ball around to a number of players like he usually does. In the first two quarters, Brady hit six different receivers for at least one connection, including Rob Gronkowski, who has two catches for 18 yards and a score so far.

New Look Backfield Looks Good- With a new look backfield led by Brandon Bolden and James White, many people were questioning how the Pats rush attack would look today. So far it's been good, as the two combined with newly signed Iosefa have combined for 54 yards on 10 carries. New England doesn't need a lot of it's rushing game so outputs like that for a half are good signs for the Patriots.

Defensive Scoring- With the Titans pinned deep in their own territory, early on in the second quarter, New England defensive end Chandler Jones went to work. Battling one-on-one with the Tennessee left tackle, Jones bull rushed forward, extended his arms and found a way to get to Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota. Just as Mariota was preparing to unleash a deep ball down the sideline, Jones got his big paw on the ball, creating a strip sack that was scooped up by defensive tackle Akiem Hicks for the easy scoop-and-score recovery.

First Half Sack Party- Not only were the Pats scoring at will in the first half, but they were sacking Mariota at will as well. Jones, who had the strip sack, Hicks, how recovered the strip sack for a score, and Jamie Collins all sacked the second overall pick in the first half. Collins' sack also forced the Oregon product from the game with an apparent knee injury.

Look for key players to see less action in the second half of this game, as it's turned into an absolute blowout as many expected. There should be a Jimmy Garoppolo sighting at some point today and Gronk should be limited for the rest of the day. It's time to keep everyone healthy.