Patriots lose Kyle Dugger's replacement to injury in second quarter vs. Titans

The Patriots are in the midst of playing the Titans and are already struggling, as the second quarter has just started. They haven't had the start many were hoping for, especially against a 1-6 team like the Titans, who have been blown out by their opponents over the last two weeks.

From a poorly thrown Drake Maye interception to the defense allowing an underwhelming and one of the worst-performing offenses to trot down the field and score in less than four minutes, the Patriots are not doing their job so far in Memphis.

To make matters worse, they have just announced that one of their starting safeties, Marte Mapu, is now questionable to return due to a neck injury at the start of the second quarter.

The severity of the injury is unclear, but given that it's Mapu's neck, it's possible it won't be long until he is declared out for the rest of the game.

Hopefully, that's not the inevitable future, but we'll have to wait and see.

It's a worrisome development with Kyle Dugger not playing this week, which puts Mapu as the next man up in his absence. While the safeties performed well last week without Dugger and the continued absence of Jabrill Peppers, that was with Mapu in the lineup, so seeing him off the field is not promising, even more so since the defense is already struggling as it is.

In his place, the Patriots have made Christian Elliss the communication guy on defense. The linebacker has been moved from predominately playing on special teams to holding a spot on the defensive line in recent weeks, fortunately performing far better than he had earlier in the year.

UPDATE

The injury to Mapu doesn't appear to be as serious as initially believed, as he has now returned with just under four minutes remaining until halftime.

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