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.
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2 – Number of fumbles on kickoff returns for the Texans.
The Patriots rolled out a Cover-2 defense, erasing the deep ball and daring the Texans to run the ball and shorten Osweiler’s throws.
With tonight being his first prime time game with Houston, I’m excited to see how Brock will perform on the road against a team as good as the Patriots.
“It’s the third game of the year”, O’Brien said in summary, “so look, you guys have a job to do and I have a job to do”.
CHALLENGE: The Patriots’ first touchdown was set up by a successful coach’s challenge by Bill Belichick.
But of course it would take a fearless man to write off this Patriots team, as even with Brissett, they have strength and depth on both sides of the ball, and they no doubt will be going all out to claim a third win from three games to start their season.
Brissett finished 11 of 19 for 103 yards with another 48 rushing yards while Osweiler was 24 of 41 for 196 yards and an interception. That’s as much a credit to the coaching staff as it is the players.
Fortunately for the third-string quarterback, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski will be active. Three-time Defensive Player of the Year J.J.
The Texans were supposed to be the team in Thursday night’s game with a dominant defense and solid quarterback play. The two fumble recoveries led to the Patriots’ two touchdowns in the contest. Watt assisted on just two tackles in the game, and the Texans were only able to sack Brissett once in the game, for a loss of 6 yards. The special teams’ miscues were momentum-shifting disasters. Duron Harmon recovered for the Patriots, but James ruled down on the field.
Butler covered rookie Will Fuller, who began his career with two 100-yard games, and shut him down.
LeGarrette Blount and Jacoby Brissett were the primary ball-carriers for the Patriots in the game, but Julian Edelman was a frequent threat on jet sweeps, and even 275-pound Martellus Bennett picked up a carry. He’s scored a touchdown in all three games this season. The big plays on the 10-play, 74-yard drive were a 13-yard run by Brissett and a 27-yard pass from Brissett to fellow rookie Malcolm Mitchell, who slipped away from Texans cornerback Johnathan Joseph.
BLOUNT FORCE: Blount ran 24 times for 105 yards and two touchdowns, including the 41-yarder in the fourth quarter to give New England a 27-0 lead.
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Up next is Tom Landry (270), with George Halas (324) and Don Shula (347) atop the list.
