All this stress cannot be good for me.
Anyway game thoughts;
-Props to the Texans, especially Deshaun Watson, for a hell of a game. They played really well, and all things considered probably should have won.
-New England's coaching staff needs to take a real, hard look at what it's doing, especially on defense. Missed tackles, blown coverages, way too many defensive penalties. Offensively the gameplan seemed to be to just let the O-Line go up against the Texans' front four, and that turned out to be disastrous with the strip sack and fumble return for TD, caused by Mercilus absolutely blowing right by Nate Solder. Think we really should have kept a RB in on Brady's left side, if not always for blocking then at least to chip the blindside rusher on his way out of the backfield.
-The secondary looked absolutely terrible. I have no idea how New England's DBs have gotten worse given the offseason they had, but this is just terrible. There were some fantastic throws by Watson, especially a back shoulder throw to a TE in the end zone over Devin McCourty, but way too many instances of receivers being left open in the middle of the field. Not entirely sure if this is players or poor play calling.
-Defensive line continues to look miserable; incapable of providing any sort of serious pass rush with a straight rush and missing at least a handful of sack opportunities during blitzes that weren't picked up well. Watson's definitely a mobile QB, but there's just no excuse for how often they let him escape the rush after the 1st quarter.
-Offensive decision making was really questionable at points. Josh McDaniels still seems to think that New England is capable of picking up tough first downs by handing it off against the best D-Lines in the league (here's a hint; they can't). Brady's fourth quarter stat line looks a bit better than it should, as New England got very fortunate with some really long late conversions and Brady continued a worrying trend of throwing it to receivers who are well short of the first down during third down situations. The decision to punt the ball from the Houston 36 yard line on a 4th and 5 sticks out to me as a really strange call. Can't rag on the offense too much; 36 points and 375 yards through the air alone should not be a close game, but if the defense is going to continue being shit like it has then the offense is going to need to play basically flawlessly.
-I'm not sure whose soul Belichick sacrificed after that Kansas City game in 2014 to get all of these last second wins, but to whoever it was, your sacrifice was not in vain.
