Monday night the Houston Texans went to New England to face the Patriots. In what was billed as a game between possibly the two best teams in the AFC, ended in a 42-14 Patriot blowout. The Texans came in at 11-1, and leading the AFC South. They were also the only team in the NFL that was undefeated on the road this year. This game reminded me of the 42-24 beatdown the Green Bay Packers gave them, at home, when they were 5-0.
Just when you think they are one of the best teams around, they lay an egg, like Monday night. Many of the Texans said this was the biggest game ever for their franchise. Which is kind of weird in itself, because Houston had 2 playoff games last year. They beat Cincinnati Bengals 31-10 in the Wild Card round, before losing to the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional round 20-13.
The Texans do seem to be a really good team, both offensively and defensively. Matt Schaub is a solid quarterback, leading the offense to 28.1 points per game, which is 4th most in the NFL. Running back Arian Foster already has 1148 yards rushing, and 14 touchdowns, after 13 games. Andre Johnson adds 1209 yards receiving, to the powerful Houston offense. However, on Monday night, they gained a decent amount of yardage, 323 yards, but only scored 14 points, including a touchdown late in the game.
The Texans’ scoring defense is ranked 6th in the NFL, giving up 20-2 points per game. They are also 3rd in rushing defense, yielding only 90.2 yards per game. Their passing defense is a bit of a weakness, ranked 19th in the league now. It’s still difficult to understand why they performed so poorly when facing 2 of the top teams in the NFL. In both the Packers and the Patriots games, the pass defense was the severe weakness. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw for 6 touchdown passes against the Texans on October 14th, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw 4 touchdown passes on Monday night. The week after the loss to the Packers, the Texans clobbered the Baltimore Ravens 43-13. Let’s see if they respond similarly against the Indianapolis Colts this weekend. It appears the Texans struggle mightily only against elite quarterbacks.
Houston should still finish the regular season with the best record in the AFC, unless two games against the Colts, and one against the Minnesota Vikings meet with at least one defeat. The Patriots are now just a game behind the Texans, for best record in the AFC, and are currently the second seed, going into the playoffs. Even though the Texans won their first playoff game in franchise history last year, their only 2 losses this year, show they have problem winning big games. They will have to straighten out their pass defense the next 3 games, and going into the playoffs, or else a long run in the playoffs is highly unlikely. Remember last year, the Packers finished the regular season with a 15-1, and after a first round bye, were eliminated from the playoffs, by the eventual Super Bowl winning New York Giants. Especially the last 2 years have shown, that the hottest team going into the playoffs, is the team that wins it all. The Houston Texans have 3 more games to fix their problems before the postseason begins.
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