Texans-Patriots: 3 Quick Things to look for

Photo by: Getty Images via: Nashvillepost.com

Thanks to a first place schedule the Texans are poised to face the dominant New England Patriots once again. There’s no reason to believe the Texans are going to come out of this game with a victory, but there are some things we should be looking for when the game kicks off on Sunday.

1. Covering running backs out of the backfield and split out wide. Pats RBs James White and Dion Lewis will have an opportunity to rip the Texans defense a part once again. Brady will be looking to get the ball out of his hands quickly and dumping off the ball to running backs is a great way to accomplish that goal. With rookie LB Zach Cunningham filling in for Brian Cushing, the Texans should be a little better in pass coverage, in theory. Brady typically exposes this weakness in the Texans’ defense later in the game, but I’m curious to see if he comes out early with dump passes and screens to RBs. The wheel route has also killed the Texans consistently. Either way, Cunningham will learn a lot from this early season matchup against the G.O.A.T., Tom Brady.

2. The Texans’ secondary is going to miss A.J. Bouye, especially with the injuries to Kevin Johnson and Johnathan Joseph. Joseph is expected to play, but he’ll have his hands full with the speedy Bradin Cooks, and I wonder if Joseph will travel with Cooks all over the field. Kareem Jackson doesn’t have the deep speed to stay with Cooks, and the Patriots may look to take advantage of that matchup. The loss of A.J. Bouye could be felt the most if Rob Gronkowski has a breakout game. Bouye did an excellent job covering elite tight ends last year, especially against the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce who he held to 35 yards receiving with no touchdowns in the second game of the season.

3. Finally, the Texans’ offense is going to struggle to score points and we know we can’t count on the Texans’ special teams doing anything to help the cause. Deshaun Watson had trouble keeping his eyes up and looking down the field last week, and I expect for him to take off and run at the first sign of trouble. The Patriots do have issues rushing the passer, but I expect Belichick to drop his defenders in coverage and force Watson to throw the ball. Watson made a lot of quick passes in college that didn’t require him to go through his progressions, and I expect the Patriots to take those quick reads away. If the Texans’ offense scores more than 17 points in this game, it would be surprising and the Patriots don’t even have a strong defense this season, especially if Dont’a Hightower’s injury keeps him from playing. He’s been limited in practice this week, so we’ll see if he’s able to go. When the Texans do get the ball in New England territory, I expect another ‘field goal factory of sadness’ to take place. Drew Brees encountered the same problem last week in the Superdome, having to settle for a field goal attempt three times, so I don’t expect Watson to punch it in the end zone more than twice in Gillette Stadium.

Hopefully the Texans are competitive in the game, and we’re not reaching for the remote before half time.