Post Game Thread Texans @ Pats....Onto the AFC Championship Game

[Patriot Missile]

Now Imagine if the Texans had a competent QB...

Imagine if Pittsburgh or Dallas or Green bay or Atlanta had Houston's defense?

 

[slash83]

What a play


View attachment 15700

Dmac read that like a book, you barely see him making the play he was so quick to react.

 

[libra957]

It's good to win, but we'll never win a superbowl by playing this badly on offense. Brady needs to clean up his act, 47% completion and 2 int won't get it done when we play a better opponent. The offensive line was pretty bad too, Brady was having a hard time even executing a basic screen play.A lot of things needs to be corrected and it going to start with playing a turnover free game.

 

[Marqui]

What a play


View attachment 15700

Can't be, DMac doesn't make plays.

 

[shmessy]

I think we should be happy that BOB and Crennel showed us a few things they did not show us in the regular season game. Andrews was exposed one-on-one, when Hogan went out they took away Edelman, Amendola can be single covered, Floyd was not a factor, Bennet did not get separation. Maybe Mitchell would have been able to help? Our D was great - 3 turnovers and still held them to 16 points - have to be happy. Our D still looked like it was a bit disorganized a couple of times but not as bad as the mistakes against Miami. Overall the O-line learned a few things, the D looks like it is still improving and a lot of our receiving threats struggle to get open even covered one-on-one. Great lesson for the offense - great lesson on our weaknesses.

Exactly. The Patriots will face no other team with a coaching staff so intimately knowledgeable about the Patriots than the Texans. The Texans held up a mirror to the Pats to show each and every wart. This game was Self-Scouting. This game was the best thing to happen to the Patriots who have 8 days to work on their weaknesses. This was an MRI/CAT scan and the Patriots will be all the better off for it.

 

[long distance]

This team can not run the ball in the playoffs against non colts teams. It's been a consistent pattern for years now.

?
Consistent Pattern?
Maybe the fact that Blount was ill the whole week had something to do with it?

Or the fact that Crennel simply outsmarted Josh this time.
Or the fact that HOU front seven simply executed better and won the battle in the trenches.
They are allowed to prepare for the game and play, you know.
Talent evaluators would even tell you that their D is much more talented than Pats O (athletic ability, draft picks), especially the front 7.

Despite all that Pats managed 98 yards with at least one big run wiped out by ref. mistake (holding on Solder)

I bet you were thrilled by ATL and SEA running game as were all commentators.

Here are the rushing numbers for all 4 teams in div playoff games:
HOU .. 104
SEA .... 101
ATL .... 99
NE ...... 98

So please look at the numbers and context before writing about “consistent patterns“ etc.

And do take a good look at Pats running game next Sunday with healthy Blount . without “patterns“..

 

[RIpats88]

Right on cue the mediots are out for blood. Heard on 98.5 today someone call in and mention brady never has two poor games in a row....followed by the host saying watch the jets/miami games last year (ya know the one they ran sjax 16 straight times) and its time for one.

Give me a break. 90% of the time after a loss or a poor game the team comes out firing on all cylinders. I can guarantee bb and brady arent happy and will work even harder to correct the mistakes

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

It appeared (though this was only from a handful of wide overhead views) the Texans' D was playing the classic anti -Patriot tight man and crowd up front defense. Team's that can successfully do that slow down the Patriots (the Patriots bread and butter are quick strikes in that 7 to 11 yard range). Further, Texans' D was getting good pressure on Brady through much of the first half. They also were playing the run very well.

The solid pressure they put on Brady is a non starter. When an opposing team does that it will make the Patriots sustained drives much less frequent, our scoring potential drop tangibly and make the L a much m much more real possibility. But assuming the OL and coaching is good enough to adjust in order to provide Brady satisfactory protection(they did) -- the Patriots must make an opposition D pay for crowding up front. On this front give the Texans' D a lot of credit. In the beginning I saw Brady trying to make the Texan's pay by going to the inherent Dion Lewis vs slower/bigger defender mismatch. On the face of it it was a good place to throw but these Texans defenders often played Lewis stubbornly well. The Patriots tried some quick slants but that proved not fruitful enough. The Patriots also tried a page out of the Joe Flacco handbook of chuck it downfield a number of times (with some-ish moderate success).

I'm in the crowd that this was actually a helpful game as it played out. The Patriots just got a high level training session on what happens when the classic anti-Patriot defense is deployed. In the next two games the Patriots can't come out and say "we were caught off guard and didn't know how to adjust".
On this front I think we saw that Floyd's newness showed through and Mitchell's absence was felt (Gronkowski out was REALLY felt but that's a different ball of wax). But first and foremost our O starts and ends with satisfactory pass protection. As long as that happens we can grind out enough points to make the W reachable.

Side note on the D and Brock O. Yes Brock O is not a good QB, however, (A) give him some credit for dropping a few passes right on the money. but more importantly (B) Brock had the look that many better QBs have had against us too: Everyone is covered and the Patriots' pass rush is coming. Again this is just based on the handful of sucky CBS overhead views but Brock O was looking at everyone covered. And this is a reality that the Patriots D has been putting on opposing offenses for some weeks now.

 

[WHPats]

My thoughts on this game.

1. Patriots had their struggles on offense, but a lot of that is to do with the Texans defense. That is a very good unit (#1 in yards allowed so they must have done something right). If that's a horrible game from the offense and we still win by 18, we're a pretty darn good football team. I think a lot of it was rust too, that bye week can take you out of your rhythm. I'm confident we'll be much sharper next week regardless of opponent.

2. Our defense is good. I don't care if it was Brock Osweiler or Joe Montana in his prime playing against us. The opposing QB is the opposing QB for that given day. Every QB has a certain set of skills and you prepare accordingly. Everyone's acting like Osweiler is just a complete joke as a QB, now he was probably the poorest QB left in the playoffs, but he's still an NFL QB and although he made some ill-advised throws, our defense, especially our secondary, covers very well and some of those may have been forced.

3. Anyone who says you can't get away with that type of game vs. (insert team here), I agree...you never want to play that sloppily. But at the end of the game, all that matters is that you come out on the right end of the score.

4. Who would I rather play, Pit or KC? They each present challenges, but the only teams to ever beat the Pats in the Brady/Belichick era in Foxboro were the Jets in 2010 and the Ravens in 2009 and 2012. Those teams had real good, tough defenses and our defense wasn't nearly as good back then as it is now. The Steelers are pretty much all offense, if they want to get into a shootout, bring it on. That's a tougher challenge for our defense but Brady has always done very well against Pittsburgh and the Steelers are extremely inconsistent on the road. The Chiefs have a stingy D, but I'm not sure about Alex Smith...KC might actually be slightly tougher but it's a pick your poison kind of thing. Regardless, we are the team to beat in either conference...I still firmly believe that and one rusty game that so many are calling horrendous(where we still hung 34 points on the #1 defense in yards allowed) doesn't change a thing. The SB is ours to lose and someone must come in here and beat this team. Not sure about you guys but I'm quite confident in this group.

Go Pats!

 

[slash83]

I don't know if the pats will face a better defense. afc or nfc.

 

[BobDigital]

Lets look at the negatives. The Pats need to improve or try to shield a few weekness and it is clear now.

#1 Andrews - He has been the weakness of the OL all year. However It took a guy like Clowney to expose it. Clearly the way to beat this OL (cause the OTs have been so good) is to isolate him 1v1 with your top guy. However you need to have a very good player to do it. KC and ATL have that singularly talented pass rusher. Pitt, GB and Dal do not. It will be interesting to see if we play either of those 2 teams if they try to do what Houston did.

#2 Clogging inside 10 - This is still an issue though this game made me feel good about it a bit in their ability to go down field. However I don't see this as a bit issue long term. The Pats are known for taking away the thing you do best. Houston put that shoe on the other foot. They said you can beat us but it has to be over the top. The Pats managed to do it well enough but clearly they were not playing to the strongest part of their game. The issue with this is it takes very good defensive execution from everyone in the box. IDK if anyone else besides KC has the personnel to even attempt it to try it. However KC is a team without good true LBs so I am not worried about them being able to do it as well as Houston did. Still something to watch.

#3 Goal line - The Pats I noticed are not a particularly strong goal line team. When they get inside the 3 they don't seem to have a ton of confidence in what to do if they can't just run the ball in. When forced to pass it in without Gronk it seems they have issues. I have seen a few drives die at the 1 this year and it is concerning to me. They don't seem to really trust their big guys Bennett/Floyd to just high point it nor does it seem the smaller guys can get open enough for Brady's liking. So they toss it to Develin at the 1 with a LB on him hoping he can power through? To me that should not be your answer. They should be better than that. I remember in the 14' run this offense was near unstoppable once inside the 10. I don't feel that from this team.

Just some things i noticed on offense.

On Defense I have concerns but they are more mild. I don't know how this D would do vs a high powered O yet. We haven't seen one healthy. I think they could slow them down pretty well though and I like our Ds ability to really stop anyone's running attack. If any running game averages more than 4 YPC on us I will be very surprised. This run D is just too good. I don't think anyone will be able to beat this team running and that is a good thing seeing 4 of the other 5 teams left are accomplished running teams.

I wonder though if the LBs can be taken advantage of when isolated with RBs in the passing game. We have seen it before and I think that will be the answer and it concerns me. That is my biggest defensive concern.

 

[Wordsmyth]

It's good to win, but we'll never win a superbowl by playing this badly on offense. Brady needs to clean up his act, 47% completion and 2 int won't get it done when we play a better opponent. The offensive line was pretty bad too, Brady was having a hard time even executing a basic screen play.A lot of things needs to be corrected and it going to start with playing a turnover free game.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

 

[A man named Brady]

?
Consistent Pattern?
Maybe the fact that Blount was ill the whole week had something to do with it?

Or the fact that Crennel simply outsmarted Josh this time.
Or the fact that HOU front seven simply executed better and won the battle in the trenches.
They are allowed to prepare for the game and play, you know.
Talent evaluators would even tell you that their D is much more talented than Pats O (athletic ability, draft picks), especially the front 7.

Despite all that Pats managed 98 yards with at least one big run wiped out by ref. mistake (holding on Solder)

I bet you were thrilled by ATL and SEA running game as were all commentators.

Here are the rushing numbers for all 4 teams in div playoff games:
HOU .. 104
SEA .... 101
ATL .... 99
NE ...... 98

So please look at the numbers and context before writing about “consistent patterns“ etc.

And do take a good look at Pats running game next Sunday with healthy Blount . without “patterns“..

The patriots have sucked running the ball in the playoffs against teams that aren't the colts the last several years. 3.4 YPC last night

Against the Broncos last year 2.6 YPC
1.1 YPC against the Ravens in 2014
2.7 YPC against the Chiefs last year
3.9 YPC against the Ravens in 2012
2.7 YPC against Seattle in the Super Bowl

It's Brady's arm or bust.

 

[jumbo77]

Boy are we F in spoiled. The Pats win a playoff game by 18 and all people do is cry and complain all day.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Still all Brady had to do was move the ball a foot.

Right. Thing is he has to move a yard to the left or right not to be running into Wilfork. Mind you, we run sneaks against other ginormous guys... but Wilfork is that dude that looks double-wide compared with them.

It's just like in "The Walking Dead," it just takes one shot to take out Negan... somehow it never gets done...

 

[PatsFanInVa]

It's good to win, but we'll never win a superbowl by playing this badly on offense. Brady needs to clean up his act, 47% completion and 2 int won't get it done when we play a better opponent. The offensive line was pretty bad too, Brady was having a hard time even executing a basic screen play.A lot of things needs to be corrected and it going to start with playing a turnover free game.

As noted by others, the Texans were trying to deprive him of the short and intermediary routes and force longer Brady attempts, which are lower percentage passes (for anybody, for obvious reasons).

Crap first half, but they paid on enough occasions that we won the game. If you dare Brady to beat you on the deep ball, eventually he will.

I agree that there were mistakes in the damn game, and it counts as winning ugly. But this wasn't one where he was on his back all game, and truthfully, for many playoff caliber QBs, this game - a stinker for Brady - would actually be a good performance for them (other than completion percentage). 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 287 yards... against the "best defense in the league."

So no I don't think he or anybody else on the offense should be drinking champagne and celebrating how much of a shoe-in they are, and I'm pretty sure they're not.

But I'm also pretty sure that the guys on the other side of the ball are getting paid too. It was a football game, for Christ's sake. No, we did not dismantle Houston with surgeon-like precision. Yes, we beat them (and Vegas). It was an 18-point win that felt like a 7-point win, but around here 7-point wins feel like losses.

It's fun to say that an extremely good team, and the greatest QB of all time, should clean up their act, and of course, it's true, they should. I definitely want them playing better rather than worse next Sunday, and if it takes every sandlot player in Christendom saying Brady **** the bed, fine.

I dunno how he gets those 2 TDs (I know, the horror, the horror,) or completes those long passes in the drive after halftime (going by memory here), or racks up 287 yards (the horror, it's less than 300,) if he can't even execute a simple screen pass. Looked to me like we're used to an outstanding game, and he had a "meh" game. But this was not a 90-yard outing.

Yeah they need to get better. I want Brady to get back to 0 interceptions evah. That would be cool.

But messy stuff will happen in football games... I hope we're back here after next week, with guys saying "OMG we only beat the Steelers by 18, how will we ever compete in the Super Bowl?"

Okay, homer core-dump completed. I didn't see a crap team, like the chicken littles love to paint it. I saw the GOAT have a 68 QB rating against a D that was billed as capable of containing him... and still doing enough damage to win.

 

[Pats2000]

It appeared (though this was only from a handful of wide overhead views) the Texans' D was playing the classic anti -Patriot tight man and crowd up front defense. Team's that can successfully do that slow down the Patriots (the Patriots bread and butter are quick strikes in that 7 to 11 yard range). Further, Texans' D was getting good pressure on Brady through much of the first half. They also were playing the run very well.

The solid pressure they put on Brady is a non starter. When an opposing team does that it will make the Patriots sustained drives much less frequent, our scoring potential drop tangibly and make the L a much m much more real possibility. But assuming the OL and coaching is good enough to adjust in order to provide Brady satisfactory protection(they did) -- the Patriots must make an opposition D pay for crowding up front. On this front give the Texans' D a lot of credit. In the beginning I saw Brady trying to make the Texan's pay by going to the inherent Dion Lewis vs slower/bigger defender mismatch. On the face of it it was a good place to throw but these Texans defenders often played Lewis stubbornly well. The Patriots tried some quick slants but that proved not fruitful enough. The Patriots also tried a page out of the Joe Flacco handbook of chuck it downfield a number of times (with some-ish moderate success).

I'm in the crowd that this was actually a helpful game as it played out. The Patriots just got a high level training session on what happens when the classic anti-Patriot defense is deployed. In the next two games the Patriots can't come out and say "we were caught off guard and didn't know how to adjust".
On this front I think we saw that Floyd's newness showed through and Mitchell's absence was felt (Gronkowski out was REALLY felt but that's a different ball of wax). But first and foremost our O starts and ends with satisfactory pass protection. As long as that happens we can grind out enough points to make the W reachable.

Side note on the D and Brock O. Yes Brock O is not a good QB, however, (A) give him some credit for dropping a few passes right on the money. but more importantly (B) Brock had the look that many better QBs have had against us too: Everyone is covered and the Patriots' pass rush is coming. Again this is just based on the handful of sucky CBS overhead views but Brock O was looking at everyone covered. And this is a reality that the Patriots D has been putting on opposing offenses for some weeks now.

I wouldn't call 6 or more plays of 20+ yards moderate success. Along with 34 points. The Pats played their C game and still ruined the Texans

 

[Joker]

Breaking news!...after consulting with members of the Houstom Texans and fans of the NY Jets/Giants, Roger Goodell has declared the Texans the winner of yesterday's game on the basis of "IF".

The Pats will be fined 19 points and stripped of all draft picks the next five years. Sounds reasonable....

 

[Ivan]

They got their stink game out of their system and still won handily, that's a good thing. I expect a strong performance next week no matter who they play.

Brady's 11th AFCCG, frigging unbelievable. And there's no end in sight. What a great time to be a Patriots fan.

 

[70Dart]

Given the short fields the offense kept leaving them to deal with, that was a tremendous defensive performance.

Whoever we face next week. If the Offense plays like it did yesterday, I would expect a much offense out of the Steelers or Chiefs to put way more points. Next week we can't afford the mistakes of yesterday. If that happens, we could lose and lose big. The Offense has to help the defense.