Titans Dethrone Pats

The New England Patriots’ quest for a record seventh Super Bowl championship ended abruptly Saturday night at Gillette Stadium with a 20-13upset loss to the Tennessee Titans in the wild-card round of the N.F.L. playoffs. The defeat for the defending Super Bowl champions was a startling setback at home, where New England has won 20 out of 24 postseason games over the last two decades.

The defeat may signal the beginning of the end for the celebrated Patriots partnership between Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, a combination that has made the team America’s foremost sports dynasty of this century.

If it was Brady’s last game, the final play of his career will have been a pick-six from his own 1-yard line on a night that belonged to Tennessee’s Derrick Henry, who ran for 182 yards and one touchdown.

Their six Super Bowl titles together — which put the Patriots in a tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most ever — are two more than any other coach-quarterback tandem in N.F.L. history has won. But in mid-March, Brady will become a free agent for the first time in his career, unless he signs a new contract with the Patriots before then.

The simple answer to how the Titans won here is grit and determination. The Patriots owned time of possession, total yardage, third down conversion and several other key categories for much of — if not the entirety of — the game, but they simply could not pull away from the scrappy Titans.

New England had no answer whatsoever for running back Derrick Henry, the league leader in rushing racking up a monstrous 182 yards rushing and 204 total yards from scrimmage, to go along with a rushing touchdown in a game where points were at a premium. Henry owned the Patriots with no mortgage payment required, and might’ve singlehandedly ended that Patriots dynasty.