FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Tennessee Titans talked all week about how they wanted an opportunity to show they could hang with the AFC elite. On Saturday night, we learned they aren’t there yet.

The New England Patriots were the better team in every department — coaching, offense and defense — in their 35-14 win. Tennessee’s winning its first playoff game since the 2003 season was a good takeaway from the season, but there still remains a sizable gap between it and the AFC elite. The Titans might not be as close to being true contenders as they had hoped.

“Hopefully, people use this as motivation,” quarterback Marcus Mariota said. “Yeah, it’s nice to get in the playoffs, but you don’t play to just get in, especially coming in the divisional playoff and losing the way we did.”

New England shut down Tennessee after the Titans scored the first touchdown of the game. Tom Brady was vintage, picking apart the holes in the Titans’ defense. A front seven that needed to step up and make Brady uncomfortable was extremely disappointing, barely touching him and failing to register a sack.

On a day when several Titans needed to play their best football ever to pull an upset, none of them — outside of rookie Corey Davis, who scored his first two career touchdowns — played particularly well. The final result was a club that was outclassed by the Patriots.

It’s a bittersweet end to the season for the Titans. They made playoff progress, but there is an apparent need for change in offensive scheme if this team ever hopes to be a championship contender.

“As an offense, I’ll be the first one to say that we underachieved this year,” left tackle Taylor Lewan said. “To make it this far, that’s extremely promising, but we can’t do that again in the 2018 season. We have the firepower to do it. It’s just a matter of getting it done.”

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Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels outschemed Titans defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau by slowly chipping away at the Titans’ pass defense with a combination of Dion Lewis and James White on screens and sweeps, Rob Gronkowski rummaging through the middle and Danny Amendola taking advantage of open shallow zones.

PITTSBURGH — Bell crazy.

That was the response from Steelers backup running back Stevan Ridley when Le’Veon Bell recounted his summer, when he turned down a mega-deal from the Steelers to play on the franchise tag. Bell explained that his plan was in full motion.

“With what I can bring to the table and what I look forward to, I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than what I think I’m worth,” Bell told ESPN as part of an interview that revealed he’s considering sitting out 2018 or retiring if franchise tagged for the second consecutive year.

These words are jarring against the backdrop of the Steelers’ potential Super Bowl run, which begins in earnest against Jacksonville in Sunday’s AFC divisional round. But this is Bell’s reality: He’s an honest speaker who has grandiose ideas about his football career that he plans to crystallize with conviction.

The money will talk this summer — turning down a second franchise tag of $14-plus-million is hard to believe until it’s a reality — but Bell is a different dude.

He knows he’s the game’s most productive rusher and a viable No. 2 receiver, and he won’t be dissuaded from that point. He’s comfortable delivering his message now because, for one, he’s ready to catalyze a playoff push. He mentioned the words “Super Bowl” several times in the interview. “That’s the only thing (left) I wanted to do,” he said. He could touch the ball 30 or more times against the Jaguars.

Bell makes clear market precedent for running backs is more important to him than making a few extra million, which Todd Gurley and Ezekiel Elliott will love to hear.

And, well, Bell was asked about all this at his locker, so he gave insight about happiness and potentially leaving millions on the table. “It’s about leaving a legacy,” he told me.

Bell knew the Steelers wanted to see him play a full season. So, he upped his recovery regimen to ensure it. Fifteen games (one healthy scratch), 406 touches and 1,946 yards later, Bell is exercising whatever power he has on his future.

“I knew what to expect from myself, even if others didn’t expect it,” Bell said. “And I always try to keep a chip on my shoulder.”

This isn’t going away because Bell is open about his stance, and there’s no going back now. Steelers fans are sweating the timing of the comments, and although Bell had no intention of being a distraction, Steelers players shrug at the weekly chaos. This will have no bearing on the outcome of Sunday’s game. In fact, the spotlight might just fuel Bell even more.

As one veteran Steeler told me, when a player says something silly, his teammates just make fun of him behind the scenes.

Bell might laugh with teammates on that, but don’t laugh at his words. He might just sit.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Now that we know the Oakland Raiders will be giving up a home game this coming season to play host to the Seattle Seahawks in London on Oct. 14, a few suppositions can be made.

For one, the Raiders will likely have their bye week the following Sunday, which would be Week 7 of the NFL season.

For another, Oakland might ask the NFL schedule makers to give it a road game in the east on Oct. 7. That way the Raiders, to cut down on travel, could shoot down to Florida after that Eastern time zone game and train for the week at the IMG Academy in Bradenton before heading across the Atlantic Ocean for the game at new Tottenham Hotspur stadium. Three of the Raiders’ 2018 road opponents reside in the Eastern time zone — the Cincinnati Bengals, the Baltimore Ravens and the Miami Dolphins — though exact dates will not be announced until late April.

At least, that was the thought under former coach Jack Del Rio, who was fired after the regular-season finale on Dec. 31 and replaced by Jon Gruden on Tuesday.

The Raiders have spent a week at IMG the past two seasons in between games on the East Coast, against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2016 and the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins in 2017.

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The Los Angeles Chargers, who are playing in the soccer-specific StubHub Center in Carson before the stadium they will share with the Rams in Inglewood opens in 2020, are in a similar situation as they will lose a home game by playing host to the Tennessee Titans in London’s Wembley Stadium on either Oct. 21 or Oct. 28, while the Jacksonville Jaguars, mainstays of the London series with a fifth straight England game in 2018, will play the Philadelphia Eagles on the other date. The Rams, who are playing temporarily in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, are expected to be the home team in a yet-to-be-announced Mexico City game in 2018.

With Darrell Bevell no longer the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator, quarterback Russell Wilson will have a new voice in his ear for the first time in his NFL career.

Maybe that was the point.

Or maybe it was at least one of the Seahawks’ primary motivations for firing Bevell after seven seasons with the team. The Seahawks announced that move Wednesday while also firing offensive-line coach/assistant head coach Tom Cable. Moving on from Bevell wasn’t shocking nor was it necessarily a foregone conclusion, and in trying to make sense of the decision, a recent comment from coach Pete Carroll came to mind.

Carroll, speaking with KIRO-AM 710 ESPN Seattle, was asked at season’s end to evaluate how Wilson played in 2017.

“He had a fantastic year, really. He really did have a fantastic year in a lot of ways, and he can be better. Russ can be better,” Carroll said. “I know you guys got on me a little bit [earlier in the season], ‘Boy, he’s criticizing Russ.’ Russ wants to be criticized. Russ needs to be criticized. He wants to be great.”

Perhaps Wilson wasn’t getting enough of that tough love from the mild-mannered Bevell, the only coordinator he has had in his six seasons with the Seahawks.

To be sure, Seattle’s offense badly hit the skids this past December and struggled all season with inexplicably poor starts, but Bevell was much better than his harshest critics suggest. The Seahawks won one Super Bowl and nearly another during his run in Seattle, and though the goal-line interception that decided Super Bowl XLIX will forever be a black mark on Bevell’s résumé, the truth is that it wasn’t solely his decision to throw the ball instead of handing off to Marshawn Lynch.

When: April 26-28
Where: Arlington, Texas
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