BOX SCORE:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F | |
| New England | 7 | 14 | 7 | 8 | 36 |
| Houston | 10 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 33 |
Key Player: Tom Brady
After that epic comeback in the Super Bowl, a comeback in Week 3 must be child’s play. Even though the Texans’ pass rush harassed Brady all day, TB12 remained strong with eyes set on victory. Even though Tom was not perfect, he got the job done as always. After failing to move the ball downfield for the past few drives, it was do or die for Brady. Not letting the pressure get to his head, Brady lead the Patriots to his 50th career game-winning drive.
GAME RECAP AND ANALYSIS
Some major takeaways from this game:
- The Texans have a really good defense.
- The Patriots do not
- Tom Brady is still the GOAT
- Deshaun Watson is legit
The Texans defense started a tad bit slow, but soon enough were all over the Patriots. JJ Watt and the Texans’ pass rush was disruptive, even forcing a Brady fumble on a few occasions. One of those fumbles happened to hang in the air right in front of Jadeveon Clowney who took advantage and ran the fumble in for a touchdown. The Patriots offensive line struggled to protect Brady which led to a much closer game.
The Patriots defense, on the other hand, was mediocre. While it is easy to say that allowing 33 points to a rookie led team is bad (awful, horrendous, atrocious), New England’s defense had some good moments too. It seemed like Watson’s escapability and ability to extend plays was just too much for the Patriots. Multiple times would-be-sacks turned into big gains after Watson managed to evade multiple defenders. There is a point where you can no longer blame the Patriots defense and have to give props to another player. This is one of those times.
On the other hand, we have Tom Brady. With each game that passes, Brady’s poor performance from Week 1 seems more and more like an outlier. Brady started strong with 3 touchdowns in the first half before the Texans defense started to slow him down. After failing to move the chains for a few drives, Brady was in a do or die situation with the game on the line. With a little under 3 minutes left, Brady went to work and lead a game-winning comeback drive that ended with a beautiful pass to Brandin Cooks. Showing amazing awareness and body control, Cooks made the play of the game. To add his breakout game, Cooks caught the 2-point conversion that made it a 3 point game. Clearly, Brady has still got “it” at 40-years old.
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