Connect with us

Houston, Texas Local News

NFL Week 6: Texans-Patriots — Four Winners, Four Losers

[ad_1]

In the franchise’s twenty-plus season history, prior to Sunday, the Houston Texans had visited Gillette Stadium in New England sevens times, and seven times the home-standing New England Patriots defeated the Houston Texans, oftentimes soundly and rudely. In fact, the average margin of loss for the Texans in those seven game was an astounding 18 points per game.

So let me be very clear about this — I don’t give a rotting sack of monkey poop that the Houston Texans finally got a win on Sunday in New England, final score of 41-21, but it came against a dilapidated, wretched version of the Patriots, sans Tom Brady or Bill Belichick. I do not care. It was nice to make hundreds of thousands of Boston area sports fans miserable on a Sunday, or more miserable than they already are.

The Texans’ win over the Patriots ran their record to an impressive 5-1 this season, and on Sunday, we had winners and losers. Let’s recognize them now:

WINNERS

4. Will Anderson
Anderson’s line in the box score on Sunday looked like this — 8 tackles, 3 sacks, 4 tackles for loss, 3 QB hits, and 1 pass defended (which turned into an interception by Eric Murray). If that line score looks familiar it’s because it’s what J.J. Watt used to do to every crappy team the Texans played from 2012 through 2015. Just a slew of crooked numbers. Anderson’s performance on Sunday was the best game of his career, as DeMeco Ryans confirmed after the game, and he did things no other player in the league has done this season:

3. Stefon Diggs
The Texans were operating on Sunday, for the first time this season, for a full game, without star wide receiver Nico Collins, who will miss at least four games with a hamstring injury. The Texans and QB C.J. Stroud needed Diggs and Tank Dell to pick up the slack, and the two did a fine job. They weren’t as explosive as Collins has been this season, but both found the end zone, and kept the chains moving at specific times throughout the game. Diggs’ touchdown early in the second quarter, following Danielle Hunter’s strip sack of Drake Maye, was the most crucial score of the game, in my opinion.

2. Dameon Pierce
The Texans got some good things going with the running game, mostly with Joe Mixon (more on him in a second), but I was just flat out happy to see Pierce get into the end zone, after a long two season struggle to acclimate to Bobby Slowik’s offensive system. Let’s relive the magic of a good dude getting a put-away-the-game score:

1. Joe Mixon
While it was fun to see Pierce get into the end zone, it was crucial getting starting RB Joe Mixon back in the lineup. Mixon had made it back to practice on Thursday and Friday this week, but there was some question as to whether this would be the week he returned to action. Well, return to action he did! In a big, big way! 13 carries, 102 yards, and two touchdowns, one on the ground and one through the air. Most importantly, he was able to give the offense a true threat on the ground, and that enough to open things up for Stroud to have a decent day through the air. The running game just looks different with Mixon in there.

LOSERS

4. Tommy Townsend’s consistency
It’s hard to find anything to get super agitated with in a 41-21 win at a place your team has never won before. One thing that still makes me a little bit nervous is Townsend’s inconsistency. Throughout training camp, it looked like the Texans may have actually upgraded over former punter Cam Johnston. It’s only six games, but Townsend’s been inconsistent this season, and against better teams, field position may matter. As an example, he boomed a 65-yard punt in the second quarter to pin the Patriots deep in their territory. Then, early in the fourth quarter, he shanked a 35-yard punt that put the Patriots at their own 22 yard line. I’m confident Townsend can regain some consistency, but the trust level currently with Townsend is not high.

3. Dalton Schultz
If there is one Texans player catching heat from fans right now, it’s Schultz, who’s been underwhelming in the first year of this three-year, $36 million contract extension. On Sunday, he had four catches for 29 yards, and was largely utilized as a check down safety valve. He had a crucial drop on a key third down at the beginning of the fourth quarter. (Coincidentally, Townsend shanked his punt on the next play.) Unfortunately, Schultz doesn’t offset a lack of production with great blocking. Schultz also started slow in 2023, before taking off in the second half of the season, but there wasn’t supposed to be a “burn in” period in this, his second season as a Texan.

2. Weekly Deshaun Watson check
Let’s check in on our old friend Deshaun Watson, who once again, engineered zero touchdowns for the Browns in a 23-16 loss to the Eagles, dropping the Browns to 1-5 this season:


Yep, he hates life. he is miserable. Wealthy as all get out, but miserable.

1. Robert Kraft’s quest for relevance
Word on the street has always been that Patriots owner Robert Kraft has harbored extreme jealousy, though the years, over the fact that his team’s six Super Bowl rings were never enough to wrest the spotlight from the Super Bowl-less-in-the-2000’s Cowboys and the aura of Jones. Well, if the Patriots were having trouble with relevance when they were winning, it’s quite certain that this 2024 version of the Patriots  is about to fall of the NFL’s relevance globe. Hell, as someone who grew up in New England, I can tell you that one thing New Englanders REALLY don’t care about is BAD Patriots football. When the Red Sox or Celtics are bad, people up there care, to the point where they are mad. When the Pats are bad? Crickets. Kraft is going to spend his twilight years watching his team go 4-13 every season, which is A-okay by me!

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.

[ad_2]

Sean Pendergast

Source link

Related Topics: