A Look Back: Patriots-Texans Rivalry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4G9vij_cHo

While the Patriots-Texans rivalry hasn’t been much of a rivalry on the field, their games have actually featured some really significant developments that have had major impacts. Though the Patriots haven’t lost to the Texans since 2010’s season finale and own a 8-1 overall record, the Texans have exacted more than a pound of flesh in some of those victories.

The most notable is of course losing Wes Welker to a torn ACL in that only loss, which set the stage for the Pats to get embarrassed at home in the wild card round the next week against the Ravens. The Welker injury was everything the Pats could not afford to have happen, losing their third down engine in a meaningless game a week before the playoffs started. This thrust Julian Edelman into the spotlight against the Ravens, where he came through with six catches for 44 yards and two touchdowns, but it would be four more seasons before Edelman truly took over that role from Welker.

No Patriots-Texans game was more hyped than their regular season matchup in 2012, featuring the 9-3 Pats welcoming the 11-1 Texans. The Texans busted out the varsity jackets for the game but were blown out like a junior varsity team. The Pats raced out to a 28-0 lead in the third quarter, before finishing off the Texans 42-14.

This came without Rob Gronkowski, who was recovering from a broken bone in his forearm, as the Pats leaned heavily on Aaron Hernandez (11 targets) and Brandon Lloyd (nine targets). Wes Welker, wrapping up his time in New England had just three catches on nine targets. This was one those games where we believed the Patriots were reminding everyone that even without Gronk, they were still AFC Super Bowl contenders. Of course, that was faulty thinking but we didn’t realize it at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckRvh5fyX0

The two teams would meet again in the 2012 divisional round and while this one was a bit closer, the real news was the return and then re-exit of R

ob Gronkowski. Like the Welker injury, losing Gronk again as he re-broke his arm, was a critical blow that would cost them dearly against the Ravens the following week. It followed a scary similar script to 2009. Gronkowski would end up having multiple surgeries on the arm and forever have to wear a giant brace on his arm from that point out.

Still, the Pats rolled 41-28 despite the game being close at halftime by a score of 17-13. This game was the coming our party for Shane Vereen, who had 124 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. Still the 2012 Patriots were a flawed team who were beaten into submission by the Ravens in the AFC Championship, as Baltimore was en route to a Super Bowl title.

The Patriots had a harder than expected win over the Case Keenum-led Texans in Houston in 2013, and again this game revealed how flawed the 2013 team was despite the victory. The 2015 Pats had a similar quietly efficient win in Houston in December, but the 2015 team would face the same fate as the 2013 team, a disappointing playoff loss in Denver.

The 2016 Pats would again face the Texans twice, but the first featured a unique storyline — rookie Jacoby Brissett getting the first start of his career after Tom Brady was suspended and Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt in Week 2. It was classic Patriots, orchestrating a shutout win on Thursday night in one of the greatest coaching tests of Belichick’s career.

Finally came the 2016 divisional round, where the Texans gave Brady all he could handle, holding him to just 18-of-38 through the air. Still, it wasn’t enough to keep the Pats under 30 as they rolled to the AFC Championship 34-16. The story of that game was Dion Lewis‘ three touchdowns, one rushing, one receiving and one on a kick return.

The Patriots have dominated this matchup, but the smaller storylines were almost always interesting. Devastating injuries and breakout performances were some of the hallmarks of them. Let’s hope Sunday’s matchup features more of the latter and none of the former.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bmtop51Gfc