He finished the night 11 of 19 for 103 yards, and ran eight times for 48 yards. It was the longest run by a Patriots quarterback since Steve Grogan had a 41-yard rushing score against the Jets in 1976.
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Six plays later, LeGarrette Blount took the ball on first and goal and powered into the end zone for a touchdown.
“Tremendous, tremendous”, Belichick said after the game of the kickoff unit. The Patriots won their third game of the season without suspended quarterback Tom Brady and the 226th for head coach Bill Belichick, tying him with Curly Lambeau for fourth all time.
Jacoby Brissett had a 27-yard touchdown run in his first National Football League start, LeGarrette Blount added scoring runs of 1 and 41 yards, and the Patriots beat the Houston Texans 27-0 on Thursday night. But the bottom line is that New England had a great game plan. With 1:54 to go in the first quarter the Patriots increased their lead to 10-o.
Thirteen seconds of madness from the Texans special teams.
Jamie Collins made 14 tackles, seven of them solo, but it was the significance of his plays that made him so important. Jerry Schuplinski with Jacoby [Brissett], just how hard they worked to prepare the team to get them ready, and then how committed the players were. One was coverage. Not only did the Patriots wrap up the returners inside the 25 every time Stephen Gostkowski kicked short (and since he boomed several deep into the end zone, one has to assume those short kicks were intentional), the coverage team induced two fumbles, both recovered by the Patriots.
The Patriots added a field goal on their first possession of the third quarter, and a fumble by the Texans on the ensuing kickoff allowed New England to seize a commanding 20-0 lead behind a one-yard touchdown run by Blount. Josh [McDaniels], Matt Patricia, Joe Judge – did a great job.
Come Week 5, when the Patriots take the field, Brady will be your quarterback unless he gets hurt in practice. They deserve all the credit.
The Texans struggled to get any consistent offence going, the Patriots secondary limiting DeAndre Hopkins to just three catches in the first half. Blount is on pace to be one of the league’s top rushers in the 2016 season; the return of offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia has been key in the veteran running back’s outburst to start the year. Just giving me confidence.
Blount rushed for 105 yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns in the game.
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If the Pats can improve to 4-0 before Brady returns, Belichick’s boys will have a golden opportunity to move to 5-0 with the Cleveland Browns on deck October 9 for No. 12’s first game back.
