FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – As has been his habit through the years, New
England Patriots great Tom Brady punctuated a particularly satisfying
play by punching his fist in the air. This bit of gesticulation came on
the final play of the third quarter Monday night against the big, burly
Houston Texans, a team that had cut a swath through the AFC to this
point.
Brady, who last week welcomed the birth of his third child, was more
like Juan Manuel Marquez landing the perfect punch on Manny Pacquiao on
Saturday night. In fact, the Patriots (10-3) landed punch after punch
against Houston as they
walked away with a 42-14 win.
This is the kind of game that makes you wonder if
Houston will be able to pick itself off the canvas. As impressive as
Houston had generally been in piling up what is now an 11-2 record and
control of the No. 1 seed in the AFC, there is an issue plaguing the
Texans that's as open and obvious as Pacquiao's unguarded face at the
moment Marquez struck.
The Texans can't defend the pass, especially when the passer is of
Brady's ilk. In three games against Brady, Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay
(another team that put up 42 on Houston) and Denver's Peyton Manning,
the Texans have gotten lit up like a Christmas tree. They have allowed
12 touchdown passes and gotten zero interceptions in those three
contests, two resulting in losses. In this game, Brady finished 21 of 35
for 296 yards and four TDs. Earlier this season, Rodgers was 24-of-37
for 338 yards and six TDs in a 42-24 win.
Even more, Detroit's Matthew Stafford and Jacksonville's Chad Henne
threw a combined six TDs and no interceptions against Houston in
back-to-back overtime games last month. Those numbers are going to
radiate like a scarlet letter for the Texans until they can prove
otherwise.
"No question, we're going to get asked that question," Houston safety
Danieal Manning said. "We're going to get that about how they were able
to tear through our defense until we do something about it. We all know
that."
Linebacker
Connor Barwin tried to downplay the issue, saying the Texans wouldn't "blow this one out of proportion."
The problem is, the media will.
"That's a good point and that's a fair question until we beat those guys," Barwin said.
Defensive tackle J.J. Watt summed it up best when he politely told a
group of reporters in the hallway under Gillette Stadium, "Not now" as
he didn't even break stride on the way to the team bus.
At this rate, the Texans will be lucky to avoid a one-and-done playoff
appearance if they don't make fixes in a hurry. One silver lining is
that they might not have to face New England or Denver again until the
AFC championship game if Baltimore continues to fade and ends up with
the No. 4 seed.
But what happened to the Texans on Monday night goes
way beyond playoff seeding and strategy. It's the kind of game that can
gnaw at the confidence of the most proud team. By the early part of the
second quarter, the Texans stood on the sidelines with the lifeless look
of a team that didn't quite get what was happening.
Sure, the Texans created some of these problems with a rash of
mistakes. From their opening play – a 5-yard penalty for illegal
formation that negated a good run by Arian Foster – Houston played like a
team out of sync.
"The first play of the game and you mess that up after practicing all
week?" Houston head coach Gary Kubiak asked, rhetorically.
In a word, that's disconcerting. The Texans made it worse later on when
they failed to recover a fumble on New England's first touchdown drive.
Those early errors started a landslide that had the Texans down 21-0 by
early in the second quarter.
"They make you look really bad … if you're not on top of your stuff," Kubiak said.
Barwin again tried to minimize the disastrous outing, saying, "We just
weren't opportunistic." Yeah, as if a couple of plays might have changed
everything. The reality was put better later on when Barwin was pushed
about what the team could do differently.
"Well, we know we can … " Barwin stopped in mid-sentence, not exactly
sure how to fill in the rest of that statement. Finally, he said simply,
"We didn't play our best."
The deeper question with three weeks to play is whether Houston's best is good enough.
