“Ignore the noise” has taken on new meaning this week for the New England Patriots.

The commentary surrounding Sunday’s Week 7 road game against the Tennessee Titans has taken on a life of its own. No one seems to be questioning the Patriots’ chances of winning this game handily; it’s more like, how many points will Mike Vrabel run up on the franchise that fired him two years ago?

If we’re being honest, the anticipated Vrabel revenge game has lost some luster over these first six weeks of 2025. The Patriots have found their footing and are surging, with young quarterback Drake Maye blossoming into superstardom right in front of our eyes.

The Titans, meanwhile, look like a rudderless ship. They’ll host the Patriots Sunday with an interim head coach in Mike McCoy. Rookie quarterback Cam Ward is down to Elic Ayomanor as his No. 1 wide receiver. Aside from their one point win over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 5 — a game that featured some laughably bad football from the Cardinals — the Titans have been outscored by a league-high 79 points this season.

Absolutely no one is giving the Titans much of a chance of winning this one — aside from one Nashville-based radio host who views a fatal flaw in Vrabel’s game.

Mike Vrabel’s Tennessee Titans had a knack for losing games they were expected to win

Podcaster and Mad Dog Sports Radio host Jared Stillman joined the Felger and Massarotti show on 98.5 the Sports Hub on Thursday afternoon, and his commentary was enough to rile up Patriots fans listening in real time.

Stillman laid out what he calls the “Vrabel Special” — how Vrabel’s Titans teams always seemed to rise up and win as big underdogs, like the Patriots’ Week 5 triumph over Buffalo this year, only to turn around and lose to a team well below their weight class soon after.

Stillman hates the Titans’ chances against the Patriots this week on paper, but he predicts a Tennessee win with the entire NFL world seemingly on New England’s side.

“They beat the Eagles — this was Mike Vrabel’s fourth game — they beat the Eagles, the defending Super Bowl Champions… and then they lost to a rookie Josh Allen in Buffalo,” Stillman said of Vrabel’s first year in Tennessee, in 2018. “That is the Mike Vrabel Special: What goes up, must come down. And when (the Patriots) won the game against Buffalo two weeks ago, I said, ‘He’s going to lose one of the next two games. New Orleans sticks. Tennessee stinks. He’s going to lose one of those two.’ So I think the Titans are going to win on Sunday.

“For some reason, Vrabel can motivate his guys unlike any coach in the league in a game nobody expects him to win, and he always seems to lose this kind of game to Tyrod Taylor. So I am taking Tennessee to win on Sunday for what we call around here, the Vrabel Special.”

First off, Stillman is a certified Mike Vrabel hater, and he’d be the first to admit that. He does bring up a fair point, though. The Patriots aren’t good enough yet to play terrible football and win a game on the road. If they don’t bring the same energy and efficiency that’s led them to three straight wins, Sunday’s game will be a lot closer than fans want; the Titans will be just as motivated to not get embarrassed at home by their former coach.

You could argue, though, that the Patriots passed Stillman’s test last week in New Orleans. The Saints were a one-win football team. New England was coming off an emotional win in Buffalo. The Vrabel revenge game in Tennessee was on deck. If the “Vrabel Special” was going to happen, Week 6 at Caesars Superdome was the spot.

With the Patriots’ tomato can schedule this season, it’s a good bet that they’ll drop a game or two they’re expected to win. Sunday just doesn’t feel like the spot. These are two teams heading in opposite directions, and if there’s a game on the schedule Vrabel’s group will be emotionally up for, his return to Nissan Stadium is it.