Battle Red Blog
Most seasons end in a loss. There are only two ways for that not to happen. Either you win the Super Bowl or you miss the playoffs and win a meaningless game in week 18. Those are your two options. Every other team sees their season end in disappointment and it is the same for the Texans. This one is harder than most, so we will try to stick to the facts and logic, but emotions are what they are.
It was a disastrous game on the offensive end, but we will get to that soon enough. We look at the numbers because the numbers usually tell the story. If you brought these numbers to a visiting alien or someone from another continent that knows nothing about American football, they can probably tell you who won the game. Believe it or not, that is the case more often than not.
The numbers tell the entire story and the story they tell is a rough one. The Texans were either even or ahead of the Patriots IN ALMOST EVERY SINGLE CATEGORY. Take away the turnovers and this was probably either a narrow defeat or a Texans victory. Of course, we will get to those turnovers in a minute, but for those into cliches, this game was right on cue. The team that does the best job of taking care of the football usually wins.
When you consider that seven of the points came via pick six, the defense comes out looking in a much better light. They held Drake Maye in check as he did have two touchdown passes and one of them was brilliantly defended by Derek Stingley. It was just a better play by the Patriots. Those things happen in playoff football games. Great players make great plays.
The rest of the numbers say that the Texans sacked five times with a couple of those resulting in strip sacks. They turned the Pats over three times in the game which for most of the 2025-2026 season would be good enough to win. They made the Pats punt a ridiculous eight times. It was not the best performance ever, but it was more than good enough to win the football game.
In particular, Will Anderson was a beast and definitely put his stamp on his contract extension hype video. Daniele Hunter earned his paycheck as well. Kamari Lassiter and Derek Stingley also played their normal games and made it difficult for wide receivers. Henry To’o’To’o and Azeez Al-Shaair also showed up with open field tackles and fumble recoveries (two for Shaair). All of...
