They are going to have to blitz. The Texans just don't have enough good pass rushers to get to Brady without blitzing. If they don't bring extra guys they stand no chance.
TOP is the most useless stat in the world. It's even more so against a (a) quick strike team, an (b) up-tempo team, or (c) a pass-heavy team. The Patriots are all three. As an example, in the last Texans/Patriots matchup, the two teams were basically tied in both plays (65 vs 70) and TOP (29:11 vs 30:49). In their slaughter of Indy, the Patriots ran 15 fewer plays and lost the TOP by 6 minutes - and won by 35.
That's why dominating the TOP is important for the Texans. The longer they can keep the defense off the field and rested helps with b and c. And with regards to a, having your offense on the field longer than the other team limits the number of quick-strikes the other team could possibly have. That's one of the reasons our defense was able to play so well on Saturday. They weren't on the field after multiple 3 and outs in a row like they were against Minnesota.
A 2 big keys to this game are: ANTONIO SMITH AND CONNER BARWIN If these two step up big .. . I think the Texans DOMINATE Rocket River
LOL @ all these other threads about the same thing... that can be all discussed in the game thread. :grin: [SwoLy's Thread] How I think the Special Teams should play Patriots: They should kick it long and hard that's what she said, and not let them run it back for a score! Come on, now. Discuss these things in the game thread.
But if a team runs hurry-up, your players are getting exhausted quicker even though TOP is less because they aren't resting between plays. And incomplete passes take up less TOP than a complete pass, despite the fact that your players did the exact same amount of work - so a pass-heavy team like the Patriots will show less TOP than a run-heavy team. I'm not saying that keeping the offense on the field is not important for the Texans. Just that TOP is a terrible way to measure it. Plays run is probably a better measure - especially plays run in the 1st half - but even that has some issues.
