I DVR'd the NFL Channel replay to look for a couple of things such as Gronk prior to the injury play, coverage competitiveness, SV blitz pickup, anything that stood out (first three quarters only).
On Gronk, watching the plays prior to his re-injury play, his blocking was just not going to be good enough. He was largely blocking with one arm (a Rid sweep left, Gronk blocked his man with one arm, the defender disengaged it easy and made the tackle). His walking around in between plays he was carrying the injured arm mostly like dead weight. Even his push off on the coverage defender on passing plays was being done with one arm. This was not 'Gronk - the best or one of the best TEs in the NFL' ...it wasn't even going to be close.
SV subbing for Woody? Damn, he hits the hole like a bullet on those '3 step drop then a quick handoff'. Some real explosion.
Also, didn't see any blitz pickup mistakes. Had two plays where if TFB sees him and throws to him, likely something good is coming (not a knock on TFB). If SV can repeat this performance (not even counting the deep pass TD) including the blitz pickup? SV has
got to be on the field more.
When the Texans had the ball on their side of the field, the Patriot coverage was relatively slack -- receivers had some space -- some completions were there for the making. Once the ball progressed toward the middle or just past the middle of the field, passes were very contested - the coverage was good. Texans scored their only TD before the fourth quarter
entirely based on running. The pass coverage didn't allow the Texans even a whiff of the endzone. Also, didn't see any instance of a receiver that got behind the secondary for a long pass.
In general the underneath coverage by the Patriot LBs was pretty good (not perfect). Even receptions often had competitive coverage.
Excellent Patriot tackling. Not mentioned much but it is worth noting. The Texans went for some short of the yard marker third down receptions but the Patriot coverage didn't blow many tackles and stopped that critical YAC or came up and made every third down stretch require huge effort just to barely get it.
Texans fell really hard for several of the sweep-play action plays in game 1. They obviously watched their game film because they were much better on it this time.
The STs coverage that killed the Patriots was a clear result of poor lane coverage. Some video stops showed the first runback have so many Patriots bunched on too little of the field - wow. Seems like that one should be an easy fix though.
SHUT OUT to Arrington. If McCourty doesn't make the TD saving tackle on the kickoff return, Arrington had also caught up and was going to make the tackle too.
3rd down with 30 seconds to go in the 2nd quarter. TFB gets hit just before he threw the pass, incompletion. The Patriots punted - Texans got a FG out of it before halftime. The Texans rushed only 3 guys on that third down yet got to TFB almost instantly. Good game for the OL, they were effective almost every play I watched -- but epic fail on that one. A;so, the Texans had a DE single cover SV out of the backfield on that play -- that could have been something good waiting to happen if 5 Patriot OL can block 3 Texan rushers
