New England went on the road and crushed the Texans, 27-6, while AFC rivals Cincinnati and Denver both lost.
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Without Gronkowski the offense struggled last week. After traveling on Saturday, the team ruled linebacker Dont’a Hightower (knee) and guard Josh Kline (shoulder) out as well.
The New England Patriots (10-2) are coming from a 35-28 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
The move ended up working out for O’Brien.
And when the inactive list was released an hour before the game and Gronkowski’s name wasn’t on it, well that was the best news Patriots fans could get. On Sunday night, O’Brien will face his mentor for the first time when the Texans host the Patriots.
“I don’t think we should abandon what the process is, because I think we’ve done a good job preparing”. “He’s right up there with all those guys”. You can’t beat the Patriots dinking and dunking, you gotta go big or go home.
Then again, New England excels at putting points on the board right before the half and then following it up with another score right after.
He scoffed at that notion. “It’s probably more common that that is the case than it isn’t”. The Patriots announced at the start of the third quarter that LeGarrette Blount - who suffered a hip injury midway through the second quarter - was downgraded to out. He has 4.5 sacks on the season. To get an idea of just how amazingly consistent the Patriots have been in a league filled with parity, there have been 22 losing streaks of three or more games in the NFL during the 2015 season.
WATT’S HAND: Watt played despite breaking his left hand in practice on Wednesday.
“It’s something we know”, J.J. Watt said. When you’re missing players like these, that could make it hard for a team to stay on top. “So that’s what I plan to do”.
But they could be even better. Brady had been hit only 42 times in the first nine games.
Gronkowski returned to practice Thursday for the first time since injuring the knee on November 29 against the Denver Broncos. You want to be out there playing football making plays.
The Pats defense came up huge against Houston, never allowing Texans starter Brian Hoyer to get comfortable. They can clinch their seventh straight AFC East title next week with a win over the Titans.
“With experience in different systems and…”
He added, “I don’t dislike him; I don’t have nothing against him”, which, wild guess, might not be entirely true. The total has gone OVER in the last six games of this matchup. The Patriots play three games, but one stands out.
After many thought the sky was falling for the Patriots, the team is now back in the number one spot in the AFC playoff picture. A first round bye is also still up in the air for them.
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Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
