Texans vs. Patriots: Highlights, game tracker and more

The Houston Texans faced the New England Patriots on Sunday, Sept. 24 in Week 3 of the 2017 NFL season. Here are the highlights from the game.

It was the Houston Texans and the New England Patriots, which meant one thing — an endless love fest between the staffs would ensue and then the Texans would do their best to keep up with the team they model themselves after.

There are ties between the two staffs like Houston head coach Bill O’Brien who was a long time assistant under Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Also an assistant with Belichick in New England was Romeo Crennel, who currently serves as assistant head coach for Houston and their defensive coordinator, Mike Vrabel, was a player there as well.

Oddly enough, this game looked nothing like what most people expected, and nothing similar to what you’d have expected with how things started. Houston started with the ball and came out flat. Then Tom Brady diced up the Texans secondary on a deep ball to Brandin Cooks, scoring subsequently to go up 7-0. However, Deshaun Watson and the visiting Texans answered.

Watson first spearheaded a six-play drive that resulted in a field goal on the ensuing drive. Their defense then came up big with two-straight stops. On the second of those, a Jadeveon Clowney sack pinned the Pats deep in their own territory. The ensuing punt gave Houston the ball in New England territory, and the rookie quarterback capitalized with a strike to Bruce Ellington to take the 10-7 lead.

He looked like a rookie on the next drive, though, getting picked off by Stephon Gilmore on a horrid throw. Brady needed just one play to score, giving the Patriots back the lead. But Houston was resilient, answering with a field goal to pull within one point. The Texans defense then came up huge as Whitney Mercilus sacked Brady again and forcing a fumble. Clowney scooped up the loose ball and took it to the house.

Brady kept calm and answered with his third touchdown pass of the half on the next drive, securing a 21-20 halftime lead. He added to that right out of the locker room, too, finding Cooks deep again for a 42-yard score and his fourth touchdown. Watson and Houston gutted up, though, and answered with a 10-play drive that ended with a 12-yard touchdown toss to Ryan Griffin.

After Houston stopped the Patriots from getting into field goal range on the next drive, Watson led another long drive for a field goal to go up, 30-28. That Texans defense remained big time with two three-and-outs on New England’s next two possessions. Following the latter, Houston again earned a field goal to get a five-point lead.

As great as their defense played, though, they couldn’t come up big when they needed to most. Brady diced them up to drive down the field. With 23 seconds remaining, he found Cooks for another score and then converted to Cooks on the two-point conversion. With little time, Watson felt the heat and threw a pick to seal the Patriots win in a game much closer than expected.

Highlights

Next: NFL Week 3: One burning question for each team

This one could go a long way towards helping Houston feel like a contender. If they get blown out then it would seem like this could be another season where they compete in the weak AFC South, but fail to make noise in the post season.