Patriots 2016 Opponents, 5 First Impressions of the Texans

Bill O’Brien Upgraded the Offense of a Playoff Team

The Patriots return to Foxboro just four days after their home opening win over Miami. They’ll be taking on the 2-0 Houston Texans who have been impressive the first two weeks of the season. The two teams met a year ago with the Patriots rolling to an easy win but this Houston team is vastly different than the one that the Patriots had their way with.

The teams will meet on Thursday Night Football on the NFL Network at 8:30 p.m. With Jimmy Garoppolo being hurt in the Miami game, the Texns will face rookie QB Jacoby Brissett in his first NFL start.

Here are our Five First Impressions of the Texans:

Osweiler was an easy choice: When the Texans lost their playoff game to Kansas City 30-0 a year ago, it was obvious that some wholesale changes needed to be made with the offense and they started at the most pressing, at quarterback. Houston waved goodbye to former Patriots Brian Hoyer and signed free agent Brock Osweiler.

Osweiler had an extended cameo of his services when the Broncos sat down Peyton Manning during their Super Bowl run a year ago. When John Elway balked at giving the youngster a new contract this offseason when they tried to lure Manning back for a final season, Osweiler bolted for the Texans signing a 4-year, $72 million-dollar contract.

He has a ready-made excellent QB coach in Bill O’Brien who will be hard but fair with him. O’Brien will develop his talents to the utmost. So far, the big QB has played well. He’s had some hiccups with turnovers, he’s thrown three so far, including two against the Chiefs on Sunday, but O’Brien isn’t worried, as mistakes will happen while learning a new system. And the Texans is much like the Patriots, very different than what they ran in Denver with Gary Kubiak.

But Osweiler is a big upgrade at the position for Houston. They’ve added the pieces around him to make the offense much more difficult to stop in the coming weeks.

Miller Fuller Add Big Pieces to the Offense: The Texans made a couple of splashes in free agency, bringing Osweiller in and also bringing in running back Lamar Miller from the Miami Dolphins this spring. With Arian Foster on IR last year, the Texans were in need of an upgrade there. Foster ended up with the Dolphins, signing there this summer so the teams essentially traded backs.

Miller was a great pickup for Houston, he was very underused in Miami and is a good runner and pass receiver and at just 25 years old is an upgrade over Foster at this time of his career. He’s been the workhorse for Houston carrying the ball 53 times for 189 yards on the season adding six receptions for 26 yards. He was stopped for three quarters by the Chiefs but O’Brien stuck with the running game and Miller was able to grind out yards and kill the clock down the stretch.

The Texans drafted the speedster Will Fuller from Notre Dame in this year’s NFL Draft with the 21^st pick in the first round. It was obvious they needed a threat opposite DeAndre Hopkins and they let Nate Washington and Cecil Shorts go. Fuller, a 6’0, 175-pound wide receiver has excellent speed and thus far has proven to be a perfect complement to Hopkins.

Thru the first two games, Fuller has nine catches for 211 yards (23.4 yard average), and a touchdown. He’s the first rookie since DeSean Jackson in 2008 to have two 100 yard receiving games in his first two NFL games. He and Hopkins are a dynamic duo and facing a Patriots secondary that did not have a good game on Sunday.

Watt is Still the Driving Force in a Good Texans Defense: Houston’s J.J. Watt seems to be completely recovered from offseason back surgery and he’s the guy to watch for a Houston defense that hasn’t allowed a touchdown in six quarters.

Watt missed all of July and nearly all of August’s workouts and is admittedly still working his way back into football shape. He told the media on Sunday, that in the opener he knocked off some rust and that he just added to that this week.

“I don’t think I’m all the way there yet,” Watt said. “But, I definitely felt a little bit better today than I did last week and I think it’s going to continue that way.”

Watt’s “a little bit better” totals on Sunday? Five tackles, 1.5 sacks and a fumble recovery. Houston held Kansas City out of the end zone on Sunday and sack QB Alex Smith four times in the 19-12 victory.

Now on the short week, Watt and Co. will be facing the Patriots rookie QB in Jacoby Brissett on Thursday night.

If Texans Seem to be Familiar, They Are: There are a lot of Patriots connections with the Houston Texans and head coach Bill O’Brien is building himself a team on a solid foundation of New England talent.

O’Brien was the QB coach and the offensive coordinator with the Pats from 2007-2011. Defensive Coordinator Romeo Crenel started in New England as the DL coach in 1993 and became the DC here from 2001-2004, including the first three Super Bowl wins.Texans offensive coordinator

George Godsey was the Patriots tight ends coach and was here from 2011-2013. Linebacker coach Mike Vrabel is one of the hottest coaches in terms of getting top job offers. He was a standout member of the Patriots during the first three Super Bowl winning teams as a linebacker and goal line tight end. Special teams coordinator Larry Izzo was a standout STs player on the Patriots between 2001-2008.

And of course the biggest Texan of them all is Vince Wilfork. The big man spent 12 seasons with the Patriots. Wilfork played in 158 games and tallied 517 tackles, 16.0 sacks, three interceptions for 48 yards, 35 quarterback hits, 28 tackles for loss, 12 fumble returns, four forced fumbles and 26 passes defensed.

When looking at the organization that O’Brien is building around him in Texas, it is easy to see where the emphasis on creating a winning atmosphere is coming from.

Special Teams Coverage Units Still Have Questions: One of the other weaknesses on the Texans a year ago was on their Special Teams. In the playoff loss to Kansas City they gave up an opening kickoff return for a touchdown which set up a frustrating day for the Texans as they lost badly.

That prompted the hiring of Izzo as the STs coordinator. During the preseason, the Houston coverage units were pretty solid but against the Chiefs again, breakdowns in coverage again reared their ugly head.

KC’s electric returner, rookie Tyreek Hill gave the Texans fits on Sunday. He averaged 15.8 yards per punt return, 27.7 yards per kickoff return, and took a kick back for a TD that was brought back on a very questionable holding call.

Is this just an anomaly due to a rookie returner that the team didn’t have enough tape on? Or is this an area that could be possibly exploited on Thursday. This will be an area that will bear watching.

Check back with us later in the week as we’ll break down the key matchups for the game right here on PatsFans.com.

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About Steve Balestrieri

A former US Army Special Forces NCO and Officer, Steve has been following the Patriots since their days at Fenway Park. Steve has worked in the film industry and wrote as an Military Editor at SpecialOperations.com, 1945.com as a reporter for the Millbury Daily Voice, Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, and the Grafton News. He's also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA)

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