Pats Overcome First Half Struggles, Blowout Texans
Quick. Name the only team that can struggle through the first half, commit three turnovers, make mental mistakes and never fully get their offense going the way they are accustomed to, yet still dominate their opponent and win in blowout fashion?
If you answered the New England Patriots, you'd be correct.
After stumbling and bumbling through an undisciplined first half of football, the Patriots turned on the after burners and blew past the outmatched Houston Texans, 34-16, Saturday night.
Here are some initial thoughts after the divisional round victory:
A Historic Victory- The win is a historic one for the Pats, as they will now head to their record sixth straight AFC Title game. Heading into the match up, the Pats had been tied with the Oakland Raiders of the mid-70's for the record with five consecutive title game trips.
Big Day For Rutgers- As Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said in his post game presser, it was, in fact, a big day for Rutgers. All three members of the New England secondary that attended the New Jersey University, Devin McCourty, Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon, picked off Osweiler.
Ryan Rolls- While Lewis was the star of the game offensively for the Pats, cornerback Logan Ryan was probably their best defensive player in the game. Ryan finished the game second on the team with seven total tackles, including a tackle for a loss and a sack. He also had the aforementioned interception, which included a 23 yard return, a quarterback hit and three passes defensed.
All in all, things weren't great for the Pats throughout the night. They never truly got it going offensively and had some mental and physical breakdowns. They did, however, still score 34 points and control the game defensively. They are now on their way to their sixth consecutive AFC Championship game and Belichick has plenty of things to harp on, as he gets his team ready to face whichever team wins Sunday night's Pittsburgh/Kansas City game. Again, not many teams can struggle through a game like that and still cruise to a victory in which they cover a spread of more than two scores.