Julian Edelman is no stranger to coming up big in the postseason and against the Texans Saturday night, the veteran put together yet another strong outing.
Edelman went out and caught 8 passes for 137 yards and played well and was a key component of New England’s offense, especially on third down. Brady completed 5-of-8 on third down for 145 yards against Houston, with Edelman accounting for two of those completions for 74 yards, both of which moved the chains.
Edelman reached a couple of milestones early on as he tied and broke the franchise record for playoff receptions after catching his 69th career postseason pass on the Patriots’ first play from scrimmage, which tied Wes Welker’s franchise record as well as tied him with NFL great Art Monk for 11th all-time.
He later broke it when he caught his 70th with 3:08 to go in the half on a 48-yard bomb on third down.
In the second half, it was all Edelman, with the veteran catching six of Brady’s 10 completions for 83 yards and helped them during a key third quarter stretch where they finally pulled away from the Texans, with Brady hitting the receiver on 5-of-7 attempts during a third quarter where he completed just 8-of-18 throwing the football.
Overall it was Edelman’s 3rd career postseason 100-yard game and he now has 76 career postseason receptions, tying him for 7th all-time with Thurman Thomas. It’s pretty remarkable how a former 7th round pick could put himself among some impressive company, but his ability to be a reliable target for Brady has been a key component in the Patriots’ success and Saturday night was just another example of how important he is to the offense.
“Jules did a great job,” said Brady after the game of Edelman. “He always does. He’s a huge playmaker for us and his ability to create separation and make plays down the field; he did a bunch of that tonight, so he did a great job.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
