New England Patriots linebacker Matthew Judon stood at the podium in the bowels of Gillette Stadium on Sunday, looking flashy with glitter.

In other words, you would’ve never known he had just played in a National Football League game.

But you know what, that’s the way things are looking for the New England Patriots these days: Looking good on and off the field.

Judon was asked if the team’s 36-13 win over the Tennessee Titans was a statement game.

“The statement is,” Judon said, “we want to come away with a win every game. The statement from us is it’s on to the next week.

The Patriots statement should really be: We want the football, we’re going to take it from you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

They beat a good Tennessee team that figured even without Derrick Henry they were going to run the ball. Problem is they fumbled the ball away three times and QB Ryan Tannehill threw an interception. All that negated the 270 yards rushing that Tennessee had, the fact they had hung in there down just 16-13 at the half, etc. The Patriots are winning games because, as other teams have discovered before Tennessee, they are ripping the ball away from you and turning it into points, and preventing you from doing the same.

“Can’t go on the road, especially against a good team, and do those types of things,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said, knowing that all too well after having that drilled into his and his former Patriots teammates heads some 20 years ago. “Yeah, we got all three backs fumble today. So we got to take care of the football.”

Which Tennessee hasn’t, as they suffered through nine turnovers in the last two weeks, obviously both losses. But right now, if you go back to what the Patriots’ real statement is, it should have been expected, because of the way this defense is playing.

“They are always getting takeaways,” Patriots quarterback Mac Jones said. “It’s just a matter of time. Once that happens, it changes the momentum of the game and they have done that all year.

“The goal is to not turn the ball over on offense and (for the defense) do what they did today and get the four takeaways … We have to capitalize on that and make points for them and not turn the ball over as well. It’s kind of an ebb and flow type thing.”

One quarterback’s joy is another’s misery.

“The fumbles hurt us, obviously,” Tannehill said. “We ran the ball etremely well the whole game. Had the turnovers and then didn’t convert when we were down in there tight ther in the early fourth quarter. So you put all those things together, and you put yourself in a difficult situation.”

This is how the Patriots are winning games. You can dissect Jones’ game right and left, and he’s not perfect. But the Patriots are taking the pressure off him a bit with the way their defense is playing. They couldn’t run the ball well yesterday thanks to the Tennessee wall up front, but there were other ways to win the game – and they found them. Stripping the ball, etc. Those Titan fumbles didn’t happen by accident.

Judon talked about how in practice the defense is always going at the ball, punching it, etc. “The backs hate it,” he said. And that’s on his own team.

“Sometimes it comes out,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, “And sometimes it doesn’t. But if you don’t punch at it, it’s not going to come out as much.

“Players really worked hard on that starting back in October, really, started putting a bigger emphasis on it for us and to help our offense just going the other way for us there, too. And it’s nice to see that start to come out on the other side here, so hopefully we can keep doing that.”

Practice, cornerback and ball hawk J.C. Jackson said, turns into “game reality.”

The reality is the Titans came into this game banged up, but in true Vrabel fashion, battled hard. But the Patriots were licking their chops, they knew this would work in their favor, because their tenacious defense, though not perfect, would get that ball one way or another.

That’s why when Mr. Glitter left the podium and the player postgame session was done, we should’ve all checked our wallets.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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