ctpatsfan77

Texans More Dangerous Than They Were During Last Visit to Foxboro, Which Could Spell Trouble for Patriots | New England Patriots | NESN.com

Blah blah blah. Where's the mention of GRONK et al. coming back for NE?

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"Momentum was quickly snatched away by New England, who once again proved that any Patriot, at any moment, can make a play." —Inside the NFL, Packers v. Patriots

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longhornsk57

Probably because your team is already close to perfect and the Texans were so outclassed last time that it makes a better story. EVERYONE in the country is calling this another by-week for you guys, isn't that enough?

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dales804

Is Brooks Reed going to cover Woodhead coming out of the backfield now? I am sure this matchup will be closer than the previous one but HOU just doesn't have enough to stop the Patriots, especially, as you said, with Gronk now back. If the Patriots take care of the football, they should win by a TD, at least.

PATSNUTme

"EVERYONE in the country who knows nothing about playoff football is calling this another by-week for you guys"

I fixed your post for you.

hambone1818

Media spin to make this as intriguing a matchup as possible. I do agree that Houston should provide a tougher matchup this time around, if only because they're not as bad a team as we saw a month ago. But you're right, adding Gronk trumps anything Houston may have done to improve since their last visit to Foxboro. Belichick and the team certainly won't be looking beyond Houston but I honestly don't expect a different outcome than last time, maybe a bit closer but the Patriots match up real well with the Texans.

TommyBrady12

How are the texans more dangerous if they could only score 19 points against a bad team like cincy?

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"He’s the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. He goes from being a rookie that nobody is expecting anything from, to taking over with people saying he can’t do it, to winning three Super Bowls....It should already be obvious he’s the greatest quarterback to ever have played. "

- Steelers S Troy Polamalu on Tom Brady

patchick

Yep, it's absolutely about the storyline. "The Patriots won a laugher and should be even stronger this time" doesn't sell the game at all.

IMO a better storyline for the game is: the Texans are loaded with talent, but can they show the flexibility and resilience to change an approach that didn't work? It's a clash of philosophies -- the ultimate chameleon game-planning team vs. the ultimate "we do what we do best" team.

patsfan13

Reed is am excellent pass rusher, Joseph looks better than he did a month ago coming off his injury and Graham give them more flexibility to run the ball.

Schaub is still the weakness IMO, but this will be a much tougher game. IMO the Spread is too high I am hoping for a 7 pt win, if the Texans make good adjustments in how they play the Pats.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

Rob0729

The Texans are healthier, but are they better? They barely beat a team that did almost everything possible to lose on Saturday. They lost to a team in the last week of the season playing for nothing when the Texans had everything on the line in terms of HFA and a first round bye. They got blown out by one dimensional offense the week before. Matt Schaub has thrown only one TD pass in 23 quarters.

The media are going to spin this game to make it a closer match up than it is, but the Texans are not playing good football and haven't for a while.

DaBronxPats14

Actually Pats did, when Talib & Dennard are 100% Defense isn't a punch line anymore but a punch in opposing OC planning. Opening up man-man coverages, blitz schemes multiple pkgs BB can put in with confidence now.