Patriots Defeat Houston 28-16, Move On To Denver, Observations
Patriots Defense Shines in 28-16 Playoff Win Over Texans, Set for AFC Championship in Denver
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Posted Under: 2025 NFL Playoffs
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The New England Patriots are moving on to the AFC Championship Game in Denver next weekend after a hard-fought 28-16 win over the Houston Texans.
The team is now one win away from going to Santa Clara and the Super Bowl. How crazy would that have sounded just a year ago after Mike Vrabel was hired as the head coach? But yet, here they are.
As far as style points go, this one won’t win any beauty contests. It was a rock fight, with both defenses playing excellent football and combining for eight turnovers. But as I predicted on our “Patriots No Huddle” podcast last week, despite Houston’s defense getting all of the laurels (deservedly) for how good they are, after this game, we’d be talking about the Patriots’ defense.
Vrabel spoke after the game about how the defense set the tone and kept Houston off balance all game.
“It wasn’t pretty. Defense kept us in there. When we needed it, our offense was able to come through late in the game, there in the second half with a touchdown, giving us a two-score lead. I felt like that drive, backed up there from the 3-yard line, where we ran the ball and took a lot of clock, was pretty classy,” Vrabel said. “I’m always excited for our organization, excited for the players. I am appreciative of their work and their efforts.”
The Patriots’ defense allowed just 16 points, and the lone touchdown was a drive of just 27 yards after a Drake Maye fumble. They sacked Texans, QB CJ Stroud three times, but intercepted him four times and nearly had a couple more.
One of them, from Marcus Jones, was returned for a 26-yard pick-six. The play perfectly encapsulated how excellent the defense was throughout the game. Milton Williams was driving the guard backward, the tight end pulled, to block K’Lavon Chaisson, but in trying to avoid Williams and the guard, tripped. Chaisson got in Stroud’s face, and the QB sent up an ill-advised wounded duck, which Jones picked off and returned it to the house.
The Patriots opened the scoring on their second drive after both teams went three-and-out to start the game. Drake Maye led them to the Texans’ 28-yard line, where they faced a 4th-and-1. Houston sent a blitz, leaving the middle of the field open. Maye hit Pop Douglas on a slant, and he took it all the way to the end zone for the touchdown.
Houston responded with a long 65-yard drive and kicked a 35-yard field goal to narrow the lead to 7-3. Two drives later, Maye fumbled, and Houston recovered at the New England 27-yard line. Stroud hit Christian Kirk for a 10-yard touchdown pass six plays later, and the Texans led 10-7.
After a Patriots’ punt, Stroud threw his second interception of the day, on the interception by Jones to put New England up for good, 14-10. Four plays later, Stroud threw his third interception of the half, with rookie safety Craig Woodson picking it off.
The teams traded three-and-outs before Maye led the Patriots on another scoring drive. It started off with a 25-yard slant to Kayshon Boutte. The drive ended with Maye completing a 7-yard touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs, who made a fantastic catch, displaying strong hands to hold on in the end zone. That made it 21-10.
Stroud then threw his fourth interception of the half, Carlton Davis made his second pick along the sideline, both plays highlighting his ability to snag the ball and stay in bounds. The half ended with Maye attempting a Hail Mary in the end zone that was intercepted.
Stroud led Houston to a second-half opening drive field goal, cutting the lead to 21-13. Another strip sack forced Maye into his fourth fumble of the game (second lost) with Houston taking over at the New England 33-yard line. Christian Gonzalez, however, ripped the ball away from Woody Marks and the Patriots took over.
Houston’s defense was in the midst of six consecutive drives without allowing the Patriots a first down, and they punted, where Houston took over and drove into Patriots’ territory, where Ka’imi Fairbairn nailed a 51-yard field goal to make it 21-16.
That’s when the offense woke up. Maye rolled to his right and hit Austin Hooper for a 14-yard gain on first down, their first after six straight drives without one. A sack and a two-yard pass left the team with a 3rd-and-10 from the New England 45-yard line. There, Boutte and the Patriots finally got a DPI against the Texans’ secondary, a 17-yard penalty on Derek Stingley Jr.
On 3rd-and-4 from the Houston 32, Maye uncorked a beautiful deep pass where Boutte made an even better one-handed catch for the touchdown. This one will be shown around the facility for a long time. That made the score 28-16 and snuffed out any lingering hopes for a Houston comeback.
The offense went on a clock-killing six-minute drive after a Houston three-and-out. A 69-yard punt and a tremendous play by Tremon Smith and Ja’Marcus Ingram downed the ball at the Patriots’ 4-yard line. But the offensive line began teeing off, and the running game took the team to midfield before being forced to punt, but not before they drained 6:09 off the clock.
Other observations included:
-Maye finished with four fumbles, two lost, but his ability to generate explosive plays against the Houston defense was the difference. Despite being sacked five times, Maye completed 16-27 for 179 yards with three TDs and a pick for a passer rating of 100.7.
-Maye is the only QB all season to throw three TDs against the Texans’ defense.
-Stroud finished 20-47 for 212 yards with a TD and four INTs for a passer rating of 28.0. He averaged just 4.5 yards per pass. He looked completely lost for much of the game under the pressure from the Patriots’ defense.
-Zak Kuhr dialed up the pressure against Stroud with the Patriots blitzing him on 46.2 percent of his dropbacks. Against the blitz, Stroud was 8-23 for 89 yards and two interceptions.
-After Houston gashed Pittsburgh for 164 yards rushing last Monday, the Patriots held them to just 48 yards on 22 attempts (2.2-yard average). It was a dominant showing and made the Texans one-dimensional.
-Rhamondre Stevenson rushed for 70 yards on 16 carries, a good, strong game against the tough Houston defense.
So, the Patriots are moving on to Denver for the AFC Championship Game. With Bo Nix out the team will be facing former Patriot backup QB Jarrett Stidham. While he doesn’t have the running ability of Nix, a word of caution for any getting too carried away with this matchup.
Tom Brady’s first playoff loss occurred in Denver against Jake Plummer. And in 2015, Brady lost an OT game in Denver against Brock Osweiler. We’ll have more of this matchup later this week.
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The Pats D has been really good. However, some of their success in the playoffs has been fueled by mediocre offensive lines for both the Chargers and HOU. Hou’s o-line isn’t bad, but when Trent Brown went inactive, HOU moved their LG to RT and so two positions were impacted. And then the guy that moved to RT (Howard) went down for a bit, and HOU was subsequently mess in that game for awhile. And the Pats capitalized via blitzing as they should have. The Pats will face a little better o-line next Sunday in Denver (2 all pros and… Read more »