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The Patriots Should be Fine Against the Texans: Here’s Why

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Legarrette Blount

With Jimmy Garoppolo listed as doubtful, all signs point to rookie Jacoby Brisset making his first professional start for the Patriots tonight against the Houston Texans. While that isn’t ideal for Patriots fans it also presents an intriguing underdog situation for Bill Belichick and the Patriots, and I’m surprisingly confident that the Patriots will end the night 3-0. Here’s why:

The running game has been a highlight of the offense this year, and the Patriots have had a running back on the field almost every offensive snap this season. Through two games the Patriots have somewhat returned to form in the running game averaging 130+ rushing yards per game, and averaging almost 4 yards per carry. That’s good enough to get the job done in this league for most teams.

LeGarrette Blount has emerged as somewhat of a surprise star for the Patriots this season, having scored a touchdown in both games this year.  I’m confident that he’ll be able to continue that trend. In my opinion, the single greatest factor contributing to Blount’s success is the return of James Devlin to the lineup. That’s a lot of beef coming at you in an NFL where defenses are getting increasingly smaller as a response to increasingly pass-heavy offenses league-wide.

Dante Scarnecchia already seems to have the offensive line working much more in sync than in 2015, and running the ball also plays to the offensive line’s strength. Cannon, Flemming and Mason are all much better run blockers than they are pass protectors while Solder, Thuney and Andrews have all proved serviceable in both capacities. Keeping the game plan run first allows the Patriots to simplify what the Patriots ask perhaps their weakest position group to do.

The run game will set up play action for sure, but Brissett will need to make plays with his arm on passing downs in order to win the game, which he’s more than capable of doing. I’d like to see McDaniels keep the reads simple for Brissett. Maybe start with a couple of bootlegs, and use screens as an extension of the running game to keep the Texans from stacking the box and get Brissett some easy completions to get the juices flowing. Jacoby’s mobility also can’t go unmentioned here, and I would love it if the Patriots were able to utilize this with some designed QB runs as well.

From his first game, I saw a number of plays where Jacoby’s mobility could have made an impact. However, Brissett showed he needed to improve his touch on a couple of short throws. Hopefully a couple days of practice and the increased focus of an impending start is enough to shake out the kinks in the passing game for the young signal caller.

All this talk about the offense, and we’ve completely ignored the Patriots defensive and special teams units, which I think match up favorably against the Texans. The Texans have had their troubles passing the ball with new QB Brock Osweiller, averaging just 235 yards/game this year. And their rushing attack isn’t all that much more daunting. Bill Belichick is the king of short week preparation, so expect a solid game plan from these units. Osweiller has already thrown three picks this year and I think there are more in store for the young quarterback on the road given the short week of preparation.

Even if the shit really hits the fan and Brissett goes down I have full confidence that Julian Edelman can take the reigns for the Patriots and at least put together something that resembles an offense. And even if that fails, the Patriots still have AJ Derby on the roster as an additional emergency quarterback. There’s a QB controversy that we will hopefully never sees the light of day, but just for fun, has anyone thought about giving this guy a shot?

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