Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots and Houston Texans were engaged in a slugfest on Sunday, with the home team ultimately emerging victoriously. Led by an opportunistic defense as well as an offense that made enough plays in the end, head coach Mike Vrabel and his team celebrated a 28-16 win to set up a meeting with the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game.
Here is a Patriots-centric view at some of the key moments of the game.
After both teams exchanged three-and-outs to open the game, the Patriots were able to find some offensive rhythm on their second drive. However, they still had to make a decision on 4th-and-1 from the Houston 28-yard line: keep the offense on the field against one of the best defenses in football or go for a long field goal attempt?
Mike Vrabel went with the first option, and his team proved him right.
Rarely using the blitz, the Texans opted to send an extra rusher Drake Maye’s way. The second-team All-Pro made them pay, hitting wideout DeMario Douglas on a slant in the vacated area. With nobody deep, Douglas was able to take the pass into the end zone for the game’s first points.
Carlton Davis entered the divisional round without having intercepted a pass this season. However, the offseason addition ended his pick-less streak in spectacular fashion in the late first quarter.
Managing to get his knee down just in bounds to complete the catch, Davis took advantage of what was a bad play on quarterback C.J. Stroud’s part. Unfortunately for the Patriots, they were not able to capitalize on the turnover and just two plays later gave the ball right back to their opponent.
On what looked more like a busted play than a designed run, Drake Maye decided to take off and run. However, the second-year QB got the ball punched out at the end — his second fumble in three plays — and Houston fell on it. Unlike the Patriots, they managed to turn the takeaway into points and scored a touchdown off the short field.
Marcus Jones is one of the top playmakers in the NFL, and he showed up big again in the early second quarter. With the Patriots trailing by three and Houston having built some momentum, he got his hands on an errant C.J. Stroud pass for New England’s second interception of the game — one that gave his team the lead again.
Jones was able to finish the play in style, returning the ball 26 yards for a touchdown. He is not the only player worthy of recognition: pass rusher K’Lavon Chaisson made the assist by putting the initial pressure on Stroud to force the bad pass in the first play.
C.J. Stroud was having a bad first half, and the aforementioned interceptions to Carlton Davis and Marcus Jones...
