FOXBOROUGH – So much was made about the powerful Houston Texans defense during the week, and rightfully so.
At some point, all these football experts are going to have to start saying similar things about the Patriots’ defense.
For much of the game, the Houston defense came off as advertised. The rushing tandem of Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter led a ferocious attack, which resulted in three Patriot turnovers (two Drake Maye fumbles and a Maye interception). The secondary, led by Derek Stingley Jr. was doing a good job of keeping the Patriot receivers on ice.
But very little mention was made regarding the performance of Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud and his rather substandard performance last week against Pittsburgh. The Patriots unleashed a Tasmanian Devil-ish pass rush on him, and the Texans committed five turnovers, one fumble and four interceptions by Stroud.
This job by the defense which rendered Stroud more of a liability than a strength, plus Maye making throws and plays when he had to, resulted in a 28-16 victory by the Patriots on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, sending the New Englanders to the AFC Championship Game next weekend, their first AFC title game since 2018. Yes, it’s in Denver, more on that later.
The eight combined turnovers in a postseason game typifies the rockfight atmosphere most everyone expected. It also might remind older folks of Super Bowl V, a championship game where the Colts and Cowboys combined for 11 turnovers. In the end, the Patriots’ defense outplayed the Texans, and it seems that the Patriots’ defense should start getting the same props that Houston’s gets. Much the same discussion will take place this week now that Denver is up next, and they may have the best defense of all, even though it did surrender 30 points to Josh Allen and the Bills on Saturday.
Towards the end of the first quarter, with the Patriots up 7-3, Houston took over on the Patriot 47 following a Maye fumble that Will Campbell recovered. Five plays later, Stroud tried to hit Christian Kirk with a deep ball along the left sideline, but Carlton Davis made the pick and fell down near the sideline keeping enough in bounds for the catch to stick.
Two plays later, Maye gave the ball right back on a designed run play for the quarterback. Tommy Togiai knocked the ball from Maye and Azeez Al-Shaair made the recovery. Kirk would later catch a 10-yard TD pass from Stroud to give the Texans their only lead at 10-7.
Houston would get the ball back at their own 25. On the first play, K’lavon Chaisson came barrelling at Stroud, and he released the ball as he fell backward. The ball was tipped in the air before falling into the arms of Marcus Jones, who returned it 26 yards for a pick-six.
On the ensuing drive, on the fourth play at the Houston 36, Stroud hit Xavier Hutchinson in the left flat, but the throw was a little high and glanced off his fingertips. The ball landed into the arms of Craig Woodson. But the Patriots followed with a three-and-out.
The Patriots got the ball back after Houston also went three-and-out. On first and goal at the seven, Maye drilled a laser to Stefon Diggs, who made a miracle catch in the end zone with Jaylen Reed draped all over him.
At the two-minute warning, Stroud again tried to hit Hutchinson in the left flat, but Davis came up with the errant throw. The half ended with the Patriots leading 21-10.
The second half saw the Texans manage only two field goals by Ka’imi Fairbairn. The Patriots began the second half with still another fumble by Maye, as Anderson strip-sacked Maye and Al-Shaair recovered. But the Texans gave it right back to the Patriots, as Woody Marks lost his shoe and then fumbled on the fifth play. Christian Gonzalez stripped the ball and Woodson made the recovery.
Going into the fourth quarter, Maye seemed to put the game on ice when he hit Kayshon Boutte with a terrific 32-yard scoring toss with Stingley in tight coverage.
After Houston went three-and-out, the Patriots went on a Corey Dillon-esque drive as Rhamondre Stevenson almost singlehandedly bled six minutes from the game clock Houston did get the ball back one last time, but eventually the Patriots did run the victory formation twice.
We missed a first quarter touchdown pass from Maye to Pop Douglas. On fourth and one at the Houston 28, instead of kicking in what figured to be a tight game where points were at a premium, Mike Vrabel decided to go for it. Josh McDaniels called for a right slant pass to Douglas. Pop caught the perfectly thrown ball, then ran away from Calen Bullock and into the end zone untouched for a 7-0 Patriot lead. This more or less told the Patriots “Hey, we can score on this team!”
Maye still needs to work on his playoff yips, but he still came through for the Patriots with an otherwise well played game. He finished 16 of 27 passing for 179 yards, three touchdowns, one pick and a rating of 100.7. The fact that Maye was still able to top a 100 rating despite all the turnovers (much like last week against the Chargers) was remarkable.
Stevenson finished with 70 yards rushing on 16 carries. Diggs and Stevenson led the team with four catches, where Boutte led the team with 75 receiving yards.
Meanwhile, Stroud finished with 20 of 47 passing for 212 yards, one touchdown, four interceptions, and a rating of 28.0. Again, members of the fourth estate, let’s start hearing some shoutouts for the Patriot defense, and let it begin with yours truly.
Now, enjoy this win for a day of two. We get to talk about the AFC title game again. But…
The Patriots have to go to Denver to try and make it to the Super Bowl once again. The Patriots are 0-3 all time in playoff games in the Colorado capital city. Bo Nix suffered a broken ankle late in the overtime win on Saturday against Buffalo, and is out of the playoffs.
And his replacement is…Jarrett Stidham. Yes, the same guy the Patriots drafted out of Auburn. He is a good quarterback, nothing more. He can’t do what Nix could do. Sean Payton swears he will be ready. The Patriots will prepare accordingly and take him seriously, but he is a quarterback the Patriots can deal with. For comparison, he’s a Danny Kanell or a Brock Osweiler rather than a Jake Plummer or a Peyton Manning.
So, again we ask you to party hardy (but smartly) tonight, especially if you have tomorrow off as a holiday. The Patriots are one win away from their twelfth Super Bowl bid. I’m sure Hall of Famer Joe Castiglione is sitting in his easy chair and exclaiming “Can you believe it??”
We invite you to catch Bob George’s Boston Sports Podcast, broadcast on YouTube. Go to YouTube handle thepic413 to view the podcasts. Please click on the Subscribe button so you don’t miss any of the podcasts. Also, please follow Bob on X at @bobgeorge413.
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Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139
