New England Patriots: Studs and duds vs. Texans in Week 13
Stud: James White
James White had a nice bounce-back performance following one of his season-worst performances in the Week 12 win over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 12, leading the way for New England in multiple aspects of the game. In the Week 13 loss to the Texans on Sunday Night Football, White did a little bit of everything in both the running game and passing attack for the Patriots.
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White led the way for Patriots running backs, finishing with a team-best 79 yards on the ground with 14 carries and an average of 5.6 yards per rush. In the passing game, White was even more explosive, finishing with 98 yards receiving and two touchdowns on eight receptions and 11 overall targets.
It was definitely a positive to see White step up and shine in the game for New England, even though it ended up falling in the game, especially after the running back took somewhat of a step back the week prior leading up into the Week 13 contest.
Dud: Offensive struggles
With the exception of basically the fourth quarter, it seemed like the Patriots offense had a tough time getting into a flow of things on the offensive end of the field for a bulk of the contest at NRG Stadium in Houston.
New England got off to a slow start in the first half, with the Houston defense basically taking Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman out of the game for a bulk of the first two quarters. New England was able to get things rolling in the second half and in the fourth quarter to make things interesting, but it wasn’t able to do enough to come out on top.
It will be interesting to see how the Patriots address those concerns moving forward for the remainder of the regular season and if they are able to figure things out on offense starting with the Week 14 matchup back at home against Kansas City.