Patriots Pregame Thread Pre-Game - Divisional Round Texans at Patriots

[PatsFanInVa]

Love this article (thanks @Ian)!

Patriots' Vrabel Shrugs Off Texans' Third Down Reputation, Confident in Maye | PatsFans.com

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel is confident in New England's third-down execution against the Texans, citing last week's success.

www.patsfans.com

Maye's quote at the end is great, because it serves as a mutually assured destruction notice to the Houston offense - he uses the language of respect, and says Houston's linebackers will hit you hard and punish you for having the football, and it's part of the game.

Sure, Houston's linebackers feel respected.

Now... how does Stroud feel reading that?

Pretty next-level f***ery for a second-year guy

 

[PP2]

He’s been hanging his hat on the AI even though nothing else is calling for snow.

Here’s the latest from weather.com:

 

[PScottman]

If you listen to Max Kellerman's interview with Bill Simmons where they discuss his time with SAS, he said something to the effect of "it was literally my job to have a contrarian take. Every day. Even if I didn't really feel passionate about it, which makes it very hard to argue. Because that's what that show determined would get viewers."

Today's media landscape and its viewership is insane lmao, **** does not make sense at all anymore.

There is NOTHING on television that isn't highly scripted anymore. Corporate shaped. Focus grouped and aligned. Advertiser influenced. Politically influenced. You name it and there's fingers in that pie.

It's why the majority of both Millenials AND Gen Z have abandoned broadcast media (even through their streaming content) for the most part and do internet streaming (YouTube, etc, not streaming services) because the thought process is 1) it's free and 2) it's the streamer's true "views" versus the corporations (surprise BTW, in many cases even there it's not -- most of them need $$$ backing them too for content production)

Here's the worst of that full media corporatization...all of these sport betting scandals coming out, now that we corporatized and embraced online betting? It's in the NFL too, they just haven't uncovered it yet -- I "bet" my next paycheck on it (yes, hypocritical end line there - I get it)

 

[BTTA]

There is NOTHING on television that isn't highly scripted anymore. Corporate shaped. Focus grouped and aligned. Advertiser influenced. Politically influenced. You name it and there's fingers in that pie.

It's why the majority of both Millenials AND Gen Z have abandoned broadcast media (even through their streaming content) for the most part and do internet streaming (YouTube, etc, not streaming services) because the thought process is 1) it's free and 2) it's the streamer's true "views" versus the corporations (surprise BTW, in many cases even there it's not -- most of them need $$$ backing them too for content production)

Here's the worst of that full media corporatization...all of these sport betting scandals coming out, now that we corporatized and embraced online betting? It's in the NFL too, they just haven't uncovered it yet -- I "bet" my next paycheck on it (yes, hypocritical end line there - I get it)

All of that, plus this
which has those generations by the short hairs.

 

[PScottman]

We need fat, broke, irresponsible, beer chuggers in Gillette

Is it all of the above or can we get by with at least two of the four?

 

[Uptown]

13:37 for Pats-Texans
53:00 for info on RB Woody Marks








47:44 for Pats-Texans

 

[moosekill]

They just saw the Patriots struggle with the Chargers while Houston beat up Pittsburgh. Where football is only played once a week, it's easy to think what you just saw will carry over into the next week. Prisoner of the moment.

Of course, the Chargers are a tougher opponent than Pittsburgh. It's easy to get to that statue Rodgers. Maye has the ability to run. That is a major difference in this game.

Tell us you didn’t watch the games without telling us.

 

[TheRazorsEdge]

I really hope the microphones around the field catch another Corey Durden post play smack talk tirade.

I've enjoyed the return of the "I'm going to punch you in the mouth and beat my chest" attitude to the team, namely the defense.

For sure a Vrabel stamp.

Durden has been a pretty good niche player too down the stretch!

LFG PATS!

 

[Triumph]

Enjoy!

I have been to around a dozen playoff games. The atmosphere is amazing... so much more intense than a regular season game.

I think I'm like 8-4 seeing them live, with two of those losses vs the Giants

I was at both Giants Super Bowls.

In Indy Shapiros Deli was my home.

 

[Sect140]

Sick of reading about old, fat, filthy rich members of this board going to the game to do nothing more than bring jazz enthusiast energy to the stands.

We need fat, broke, irresponsible, beer chuggers in Gillette on Sunday to make CJ Stroud’s ears ring so hard he throws an interception to Barmore.

Thats me. LOL! Actually I’m not fat and in 38 years I have never bought a beer inside. Last Sunday Gillette was alive, nothing like a playoff game and the parking lots opening 5 hours before the game.

 

[Rob0729]

They just saw the Patriots struggle with the Chargers while Houston beat up Pittsburgh. Where football is only played once a week, it's easy to think what you just saw will carry over into the next week. Prisoner of the moment.

Of course, the Chargers are a tougher opponent than Pittsburgh. It's easy to get to that statue Rodgers. Maye has the ability to run. That is a major difference in this game.

I pointed out with video earlier in this thread that the Steelers had big plays to be had against the Texans on Monday night and they blew it. A wide open DK Metcalf drops the ball right in his hands and no one between him and the end zone twenty yards down the field. Rodgers underthrew a wide open Calvin Austin sprinting towards the end zone which forced Austin to slow down and get tangled up with the CB. Rodgers gets sacked with a lane for him to step up and avoid the rush with DK Metcalf wide open down field (Rodgers is strip sacked and changes the possession allowing the Texans to score).

Any of those plays are converted and it is a different ball game. Any one of those plays could have resulted in a Steelers TD. The last one would have been a 14 point difference in the final score since the Texans scored off the turnover.

People are turning the Texans defense into the Legion of Boom or the 2000 Ravens or the 85 Bears based on recency bias. They are arguably the best defense in the NFL this year, but don't look at it as a special all time defense as they are being talked up this week. They are middle of the pack in terms of allowing big passing plays this year. There are other teams including the Browns, Bills, and Chargers (the Pats played them and are 3-1 against) who have given up less passing years. The Seahawks have given up less points and the Pats only gave up like one point a game more than them.

The Texans defense has weaknesses. And Maye and the Patriots' offense is built to exploit them. As I stated, they are middle of the pack in giving big plays. They are susceptible to a scrambling QB. They play primarily zone defense where Maye feasts and McDaniels loves to design plays to exploit the points where defenders hand off receivers from one zone to the next.

One of the reasons why the Pats struggled against the Chargers last week early is because the Chargers (a primarily zone defense team) switched it up to playing a lot of man coverage. They were good at it, at least for a while. I don't know if the Texans are built for that strategy. They have success in man coverage on limited basis, but they their success because they do play zone and play cover 3 or cover 4 allowing their DBs and LBs to cover shorter areas which allows them to be more aggressive to the ball.

And I don't know if on a short week they can revise their defense to be more man like the Chargers did. Don't forget that the Chargers basically had two weeks to prepare for the Pats. They knew they were going to be the seven seed and them resting their starters against the Broncos almost guaranteed they would be facing the Patriots in the Wild Card round.

 

[Sect140]

Weather update: no snow during the game.

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/4bfaea25583a1e38852500216edbe1d26681ac492c8ac872d90d1b6f2d6bafd8

I watched channel 4 & 5 weather this morning, the weather guessers predicted scattered snow showers in the afternoon and then around 6:00pm it would start snowing and last a few hours, they mentioned the ride home. NOAA as of now agrees with them, 2 to 4 Sunday night, I hope it starts snowing earlier.

 

[Rob0729]

This weather geek has been predicting significant snow for days now:

I am not sure snow favors the Patriots. Maye is still untested in snow. He did struggle with rain in the past. And Stroud played at OSU. So he is used to playing in snow.

We should be careful what we ask for on this.

 

[Triumph]

Makes sense. All pairings have decent fanbases at the least except the Texans. So you could say they haven't fronted their half of viewership in the ticket pricing, so-to-speak

Edit: Actually, to be honest, that's me guessing because I don't really know how big or small their market is. It seems the smallest of the bunch, though

SF is a 12 hour drive to Seattle, so it could be done in a day. Seattle fans spend money like its burning a hole in their pocket.

East coast is the opposite of the West coast in more ways than one. At both NY vs NE Superbowls fans without tickets waited for prices to drop before pulling the trigger on tixs. New Englanders want a bargain and NYers are a hard sell.

Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the country. Bears fans are on cloud 9 to be in this position. I cant imagine that many would sell their tickets unless it was for big coin.

Denver has an equally rabid fanbase. My guess is that the cost of living has risen there with so many West coasters moving in.

 

[neuronet]

Crowd sounded amazing last week. Hats off to everyone.

 

[Triumph]

Physicists are generally in agreement that this is the least likely reality.

Most Theologians believe in afterlife or eternal life.

The question - Do they have NFL football there ?

 

[Triumph]

Having lived in Houston weather like this shuts the whole city down.

This looks like weather that doesnt bode well for Texas.

 

[JonBonesJones84]

The Bills could have a tough time. Denver HFA, Denver's defense bullying Josh Allen into making mistakes/playing hero ball.

Sam Darnold could also turn back into a pumpkin in his first playoff game just like he did in 2024 lol.

Everyone keeps overrating that Denver defense as if it’s the same one with Elvis Dumervil, Derek Wolfe,, Aaron Donald, Von Miller, and Demarcus Ware

 

[Triumph]

I'd rather he throw the INT to Marcus Jones.

Barmore would probably advance 5 yards before he gets taken down.

Its time for another Marcus Jones KO return to the house.

 

[Uptown]