Patriots' 28-22 Loss to Texans Proves Tom Brady, Offense Can't Fight Through Continuing Issues
The 2019 New England Patriots have relied on their defense and special teams heavily through 11 weeks of the regular season. Doing such has boosted them to a 10-2 record, which is tied for best in the NFL.
New England has been able to do that thanks to some lackluster opposing offenses, which allows ample opportunities for the Patriots offense because of turnovers by the defense amongst other things. However, when the reigning Super Bowl champions have faced a top offense this season, that's when they have found their demise. That was seen in Week 9's loss to the Baltimore Ravens, and most recently in Week 13 to the Houston Texans.
During the Patriots' 28-22 loss to the Texans on Sunday Night Football, Tom Brady and the offense had arguably their worst half of football to-date this season. They managed to score just three points in the first 30 minutes of play, compared to 14 for Deshaun Watson and the Texans offense. After showing a strong run game on the first drive of the series, New England attempted to spread out Houston's defense, and did not have much success doing that. Despite having ample time in the pocket, Brady had to keep batting the ball as he waited for his receivers to get open downfield. Unfortunately, giving the receivers more time still didn't give Brady many good opportunities to throw the football, which led to the 42 year old throwing 23 incompletions in Week 13.
"We've just go to coach better, we've got to play better," head coach Bill Belichick said during his postgame press conference. "We've just got to do better than we did tonight. Just wasn't good enough in any area, and they were the better team. I think that pretty much sums it up."
Now, while the league's no. 1 defense giving up 28 points certainly didn't help the outcome of the game, there's something to be said about how game flow created a 28-9 deficit for New England in the second half. The Patriots could not find a rhythm on offense until the final 30 minutes of play, which is when they scored all three of their touchdowns. So having their defense constantly on the field against a Houston offense that thrives off of big plays, the Patriots were bound to give up a couple because of how often they found themselves defending instead of attacking.
"Just execution," Tom Brady said during his postgame press conference when asked what went wrong for the offense. "Just got to do a better job. And tough to get behind and come back and just put ourselves in a pretty deep hole and you can't do that on the road."
On a night when New England managed to rush for 145 yards as a team, it was puzzling to see the Patriots abandon the run game so early on in the game. Sony Michel had six rushes for 36 yards on the first offensive drive for the Patriots. Over the next three quarters he received only four carries. Even though Houston held the lead beginning late in the 1st quarter, the deficit for the Patriots was not enough to merit them running the ball just 26% of the time after their opening drive. So while execution by the offense did play a factor in the outcome of the game, the play calling during the Patriots' second loss of the season should be questioned as well.
If there is a time for the Patriots to fix their issues on offense, it is now. New England has to bounce back from their Week 13 loss to take on the Kansas City Chiefs, who, as you probably already know, have one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL. As mentioned before, New England has struggled mightily this season against the top offenses in the NFL. So if they don't fix their offensive woes in Week 14, they will likely be looking at another loss which will put their chances of a first-round bye in the playoffs in serious jeopardy.
