The New England Patriots’ defense once again showed out, this time on an ever bigger stage in a 28-16 win against the Houston Texans, in an all-around turnover fest.
Last week, the Patriots’ defense excelled in a 16-3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers while the offense was stalling against another incredible defense.
New England forced five turnovers in a game where their star quarterback, Drake Maye, struggled with his ball security, and his fumble problem reared its ugly head.
The Patriots have been able to combat Maye’s 6 fumbles in his first two playoff games with a dominant showing from their defense. Luckily, only three of those fumbles were recovered by the defense, including two on Sunday.
This was a heavy defensive game, which was expected from Houston, but not so much from New England. The Patriots had a good but not great defense, but so far this postseason, they’ve been outstanding. So much so that both teams possessed the ball and punted in the first two minutes of the game.
CJ Stroud looked like he was seeing ghosts out there against the Patriots as they rattled him, especially in the first half of the game. New England intercepted Stroud four times before the second half rolled around and constantly forced him into tough decisions under pressure as well.
Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. were wreaking havoc all day against New England as they combined for five sacks and two forced fumbles. Anderson himself had three sacks and two forced fumbles; he’s easily one of the best players in the league, and should be paid as such.
It felt like an absolute avalanche from the Patriots’ defense; they would get the ball back, and instantly strike fear into Stroud.
Marcus Jones shined with a 25-yard pick-six after previously giving up a touchdown to Christian Kirk.
Craig Woodson was outstanding as he got his first career interception, recovered a fumble, and had three pass deflections. Carlton Davis intercepted Stroud twice, could’ve gotten another one, but he also did have all three flags against New England, including two pass interference calls.
Christian Gonzalez allowed seven receptions on a league-leading 16 targets for 57 yards, according to Next Gen Stats, but he still had a good performance. Gonzalez forced a fumble on Woody Marks, led the team with nine tackles, broke up a pass in the fourth quarter, and it felt as if Houston wasn’t testing him in the first half.
K’Lavon Chaisson was excellent as he continued his career season with one sack and seven pressures against Houston, showing once again why he deserves to be handsomely paid this offseason. Chaisson also caused the pressure that led to Jones’ pick-six on Stroud. It’s absolutely unreal how much of a godsend he’s been for the Patriots’ defense this season on a one-year, $5 million contract.
Defensive Coordinator Zak Kuhr has also saved his best for the playoffs after they wrecked the Chargers last week, and were unreal on Sunday against the Texans. Kuhr did a good job at dialing up man-to-man coverages and knowing when to blitz Stroud. Kuhr’s a whole new man in the playoffs as he’s gone away from playing a ton of zone coverage.
The Patriots’ run defense has also been stout this season when healthy, as they had a 50-yard rushing yards or less streak for starting running backs going until a couple of injuries started piling up. The defense is basically fully healthy now, and the run defense has been phenomenal in the last two playoff games, including holding Woody Marks to 17 rushing yards on 14 carries.
Marks rushed for a career high 112 yards against the Pittsburgh Steelers the game prior in his 19 carries, which helped Houston advance. Overall, the Patriots generated five turnovers as they intercepted Stroud four times in the first half and forced a fumble on Marks.
It genuinely felt like the Texans’ offense couldn’t score unless their defense put them in an advantageous field position. Which they did, and New England was extremely fortunate to recover a Maye fumble that would’ve given Houston a goal-line opportunity. New England’s red zone defense has been outstanding so far, as they held Houston to 0/3 in the red zone on Sunday. Coming into the game, the Patriots were allowing the highest red zone touchdown percentage in the league, as their goal-to-go percentage was at a staggering 95%.
Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels had an extremely conservative game scripted up on Sunday, as it was a ton of screens and run plays. It seemed as if McDaniels didn’t have much confidence in Maye early on, and then the fumbles ensued. The fumbles are a legit concern for Maye as he struggled with nine fumbles in his rookie season, of which six were recovered by the defense.
This season, Maye has a league-leading 14 fumbles including six of them being recovered by the defense. It was also a snowy game in New England, and rain was coming down, so maybe a little bit of that went into it as well. Every blue moon, the training wheels were off, and Maye was unleashed and threw the ball downfield.
Fourth overall pick Will Campbell struggled on the offensive line on Sunday against Anderson, and Morgan Moses had a couple of plays he wanted back as well. Kyle Williams had a brutal drop when he had a slight step over Kamari Lassiter. It seems as if the rookie’s connection with Maye is so off, which is brutal since Williams is a big-play threat. The Patriots would get a stop, potentially get a turnover, and then a conservative play call happened.
Maye was allowed to let it fly as he connected with Pop Douglas on a touchdown in the first quarter on 4th down, great adjustment by both, and good yards after contact.
The biggest play of the game was made by Kayshon Boutte, who was taking a bit of a game earlier in the week about his game. Boutte caught an unreal 32-yard touchdown that ended up being the dagger on former LSU teammate and All-Pro, Derek Stingley Jr.
Boutte did the same thing to Stingley last year in Maye’s NFL debut, and he doubled up in the biggest game of his life. After this touchdown, it felt like the dagger with how great New England’s defense was looking and how rattled it seemed Stroud was.
Stefon Diggs caught a strike from Maye, absorbed a big hit, and was able to hold on for a beautiful touchdown to put New England up 21-10 at the end of the first half.
Rhamondre Stevenson was excellent down the stretch as well, milking the clock, and then a huge catch on 3rd down by Stefon Diggs allowed them to keep giving him the ball.
Hats off to Mike Vrabel and Eliot Wolf for turning around a 3-14 team last year, being 16-3 this season, and one win away from the big game.
Let’s see what Maye’s made of. This is another big-time test for him against an upper-echelon Denver Broncos defense in the AFC Championship at Mile High.
Unfortunately, the Broncos don’t have their starting quarterback in Bo Nix; former Patriot Jarrett Stidham is next in line, and in the way of the New England advancing to the Super Bowl. The Patriots are genuinely going through a defensive gauntlet.
The Chargers have a top-ten defense, the Texans have the best defense in the league, and the Broncos have either the second or third best defense in the sport.Defense wins championships at the end of the day, let’s see if Kuhr and the defense keep humming for them. More importantly, let’s see if Maye can stop fumbling the ball, and the offensive line can give him enough time, and limit the turnover-worthy plays.
Sure you just played arguably the best defense in the NFL in Houston, but the Broncos easily lead the NFL in sacks, and they also aren’t to be played with whatsoever.
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