I think Texans will win this game. Stop Blount, you beat these guys. Coach OBrien needs to use Grimes and Hunt to put a hurting on their D line.
Lol. BoB has 2 plays and it doesn't get very complex. Run Run, Pass. Trust me he had all year to use Miller, Hunt, Grimes in passing plays. Coming up with more looks. I don't trust O'Briens scheme. The defense would need to score some points and give us good position for us to even come close to anything.
Blue didn't get even 1 carry last week after a lackluster game against the t***. Seems like it's a week to week thing for the backup rb's behind Miller. No matter who's carrying the ball, if we have somewhere north of 30 total carries, things are likely going well for the offense.
I admire and appreciate the effort here, but like someone else said...Brady and Gronk being back pretty much negates everything you said. If I'm wrong (and I really hope I am), I will happily eat crow every day of the week and twice on Sunday. But I still think we have no shot. I think the pats D will concentrate on stopping the run while double-teaming Hopkins, thereby forcing Brock to make plays (which he can't do). Maybe they put Ryan on Hop and let McCourty help out. Then put Butler on Fuller and our passing game will be non-existent. They'll force him to constantly check down to CJ and Miller which isn't sustainable for long scoring drives. Maybe we can actually get past the 50 yard line before the 3rd quarter this time, but even if we do, I don't see us scoring more than 17 points (if you include the inevitable garbage time TD). On offense, they will negate our pass rush by running the ball and quick-hitting pass plays to stay on schedule. Long scoring drives that slowly move the chains will be our undoing. Lots of 3rd and 3's will be converted and our defense will have trouble getting off the field. Think Chinese water torture instead of a nuclear bomb, but the end result will be the same. pats 34 Texans 13
Good news! You're wrong! Gronk isn't back lol! Anyway, don't confuse me offering up a rationalization that ended with me saying even if EVERYTHING goes right I STILL think they are going to lose as me saying they are going to win ha!
Lots of NE money being sucked up at -16 without a move up so far .......I'd expect before long we start to see this move down.
Soooo, if I understand you correctly, that loss was mostly due to things that we did (or didn't do). The Pats were just lucky that we were so inept during that game and that they didn't have to do much to score 27 points with their 3rd string QB making his 1st NFL start in order to get the win. But now, they (Texans) have (finally) found their testicles so that team with the 14-2 record had best beware because the Texans are coming for them. Riiiight! Hmmm, let's look at this a bit closer. Since that NE game the Texans have faced the following teams not in their division: 10/9: Texans 13 - Vikings 31 (Minny did not make the playoffs) 10/24: Texans 9 - Broncos 27 (Denver also did not make the playoffs) 10/30: Texans 20 - Lions 13 (Win over a playoff team) 11/21: Texans 20 - Raiders 27 (I know, they cheated with lasers) 11/27: Texans 13 - Chargers 21 (SD did not make the playoffs) 12/4: Texans 13 - Packers 21 (We "hung in there" with a playoff team) 12/24: Texans 12 - Bengals 10 (Cincy did not make the playoffs) The record shows the Texans with one win over a playoff team since that NE game and that was against the Lions. Add in the KC win in week 2 and the Texans managed to beat two playoff teams while losing to the Vikings, Broncos, Raiders, Chargers and Packers. But we did beat those hated Bengals! Sorry, but I'm just no feeling all of this "improvement". I find it fascinating that you would see the score of 27-0 as "not being as bad as the score indicates". Was it some sort of moral victory because they managed to hold NE to only 27 points? So what if Blount's YPC was less than 4.0 - were the Texans able to capitalize on it? And as for their offense not doing much - they sort of put 27 points on the board while Brock & Co laid a big fat goose egg. I'll take that kind of "not doing much" every day. My snarkiness aside, you are correct in that they have a chance to win this game but to me it's more akin to that theoretical puncher's chance. They will be facing an opponent who knows what they'll do, how they'll do it, when they'll do it and who has beaten them soundly without their best player (Brady). Said opponent is also taking this game very seriously so there's no chance of their coming into this game over-confident and careless. It won't matter if they (Texans) are competitive or not if they cannot play better than the Pats and history has shown that this is something the Texans simply cannot do. But it's a very nice rationalization and far better than others I've seen here.
You wasted a lot of time responding to every aspect of what I labeled as a "rationalization." I basically said that if we play perfect we are still a touchdown underdog, meaning we need to play perfect and we need New England to mess up to have a shot. My argument regarding the first game is that we played SO STUPID that we can't really take anything away from it. It was lolworthy. It's like a pitcher giving up 10 runs in the first because he was tipping pitches and then trying to figure out how much better the other team was. It's just bad data. I KNOW the Patriots are better than us but not because of that game. The Patriots didn't even need to show up to beat us that night because we basically gifted them 21 points.
Oh no, I wasn't attacking you per se but rather the rationalizations you put forth because I'm hearing them or some variation of them over and over. I just don't believe in rationalizations because they blind one to the realities of the situation. I do agree with your conclusion that they need to play error-free football AND (somehow) have NE mess up just to have a shot at winning. We'll have to disagree on the Texans performance in the 1st game being some sort of comedy of errors because I've seen them play like that in far too many games to dismiss it as an aberration.
I think our defense is better than it was in week 3, specifically run defense. Charles James & Tyler Ervin's kick return fumbles were huge. One slip up like that this week and we won't have a shot. Gotta score to have a shot to win too. Big difference between their 3rd stringer and the GOAT. I'd love nothing more than to see us pull off a win & I think there's a chance but if my life was depending on my prediction I'd say Pats 31-16
What I want from this game is like the movie 300. Except we're not elite soldiers more like the that troll thing that couldn't raise his shield up. We won't win but I hope we at least put up a good fight.
I dont see how we lose. There is absolutely no scenario involving the Patriots winning, that makes any sense, whatsoever. 21-17, the good guys, with a score that indicates the game was much closer than it actually was...mostly because Clowney will be tea bagging Brady for 58 minutes (The Texans will be in victory formation to end the game).
Even if all the players on the field have improved, I still can't imagine BOB coming up with a gameplan that beats Belichek. So it's basically back to watching Kubiak's teams in big matchups, where they're gonna do what they do best and if BB can outscheme it or the players can outplay it, there's nothing past that. Maybe a fake punt to be cheeky.
