Week 13 – Houston Texans vs. New England Patriots: Preview & Predictions

Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Welp.  I was looking forward to this game 11 weeks ago.  Not so much anymore.  In fact I’m downright dreading it.  And apparently so was the NFL as they flexed the game from a 3:25 p.m. CST start time to 12:00 p.m. CST.  The Houston Texans are set to be massacr… errr… play against the New England Patriots for their regularly scheduled weekly nose-dive.

I keep trying to placate my negative attitude regarding the Texans with the thought that we might end up with the number one overall pick in the draft, but it doesn’t always work, so you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little more negative and pissy this week. After all, we did just lose triumphantly to the worst team in the league, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and are now facing down arguably the best team in the AFC who’s coming off of an incredibly impressive come-from-behind win against arguably the 2nd best team in the AFC.

The Patriots started off the season looking pretty lack-luster.  Tom Brady was having to make do without the usual arsenal of offensive weapons that he has at his disposal.  They lost Wes Welker to the Denver Broncos, Rob Gronkowski was out for 6 weeks with the injury to his forearm, Danny Amendola was constantly battling injuries and missing games for several weeks, and Aaron Hernandez… well, you know.  And that’s just their passing game.  Stevan Ridley was looking like the no-gain, fumble-machine of old.  But these are the Patriots and they’re still coached by Bill Belichick.  They found ways to win despite all of their offensive setbacks.  Now they’re firing on all cylinders.  Tom Brady is Tom Brady,  Gronkowski is back, Amendola is back, new-found weapon Julian Edelman has stepped up and the Patriots’ running backs are doing what they need to do to get the job done.

Unless the Texans can get something going offensively, they’re doomed to crash and burn.  We’re talking Hindenburg levels of fail, people.  Our defense could easily give Brady & Co. some trouble.  J. J. Watt has 9.5 sacks and is very familiar with putting hits on the Patriots’ prized quarterback.  The issue being if our offense can’t stay on the field long enough to give them their much needed rest, the fast paced offense of the Patriots will be way too much for us to handle.  Case Keenum will need to spread the ball around to his other receivers like Garrett Graham and DeVier Posey as Andre Johnson is going to be covered by the shutdown corner of Aqib Talib.  Keenum won’t be able to rely solely on the receiving prowess of Johnson if the Texans expect to move the ball successfully down the field against this Patriots defense.

All in all, I think if the Texans can get out of this without looking like a total abomination, then it’s a win for the organization.  Problem is, we couldn’t even do that last year when we were “good.”  The four-letter network and other national media outlets are calling this a trap game for the Patriots.  That’s a load of garbage meant to drudge up URL clicks and readers.  This might as well be a bye week for the Patriots.  You should never look past a team in the NFL, but what have the Texans shown us in the last 5 weeks that would tell you we have any chance of winning this game?

I was offended last year when the Boston media called us “fraudulent.”  Now I’m just glad they’re not saying, “I told you so.”  Get ready, Texans fans.  You bring the chick flicks and I’ll bring the Blue Bell.

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