Official Texans vs. Patriots Game Thread, 12/1/2013

[Arky]

Pass to Amendola gets 7.

Vereen for no gain. 3rd and 3 coming up.

Pass to Gronk goes all the way to the Texan 43. 1st down.

Blount for no gain. 4:34 left in the game.

Flag presnap.....no flag....timeout Texans......

On 2nd and 10, pass to Vereen gets 8. Under 4 minutes left in the game.

On 3rd and 2, Brady's short pass is broken up by Harris. Pats to try the FG.

Gostkowski's 53-yarder is good.

Patriots 34, Texans 31

3:12 left in the game.

[Arky]

The ensuing kickoff goes out of the endzone, touchback. Texan's ball at their 20.

-----------------------------

Pass to AJ gets 10 and a 1st down.

Keenum buys time and hits AJ for a gain of 15. 2:52 left in the game.

Tate caught in the backfield for loss of 3. 2nd and 13 coming up.

Pass to Hopkins is broken up, inc. 3rd and 13 coming up.

Keenum's 3rd down pass goes inc. Timeout Texans as they consider going for it on 4th and 13....

Keenum is sacked..... Patriots takeover on downs. 1:59 left in the game, Texans with 1 timeout left. Ball at the Texan 43.

[chuck]

Lickey back to form on the play calling.

[BigBull]

Well, at least they are still in the hunt for the 1st pick in the draft.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by BigBull

Well, at least they are still in the hunt for the 1st pick in the draft.

Jacksonville's about to win.

[Nconroe]

Originally Posted by chuck

Jacksonville's about to win.

Thursday night game for first pick in the draft.

Nice to see Keenum and Tate and AJ do good today for 31 points. Everybody played hard.

[chuck]

I don't really care who the next head coach is but I just want someone who knows how to control the clock and manage their time outs. Basically I want someone who's not a total mouthbreather. Maybe McNair can find one. But I doubt it.

[Arky]

Blount for 2. Texans use their last timeout.

Blount for 1. 3rd and 8 coming up. Under 1.5 minutes left in the game.

Blount for 2. Patriots use a timeout with 22 seconds left in the game. Patriots to punt.

Punt is downed at the Texan 5 with 7 seconds left.

Deep pass to Hopkins sails inc. 1 second left.

Deep pass at midfield is inc. Time runs out.

Final Score:

Patriots 34, Texans 31

---------------------------------

Defense's turn to blow chunks this game....

[Keith]

Oh sometimes the jokes can just write themselves. Here, some source material...

"Either teams are spying on us or scouting us," Smith told a group of reporters.

Smith said the Texans introduced new wrinkles into their defense this week. He said that even though the Texans had never done those things in prior games, which would mean they weren't on film, the Patriots knew they were coming before they happened.

"I'm very suspicious," Smith said. "I just think it will be a big coincidence if that just happened by chance. I don't know for sure, but I just know it was something that we practiced this week."

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10...gland-patriots

[chuck]

New wrinkle? Say, I have an idea. Why don't the Texans find a couple of guys who can rush the passer and put them at OLB? Maybe put some pressure on a QB from time to time. Just as an experiment. That would be a new wrinkle.

[BigBull]

Originally Posted by chuck

New wrinkle? Say, I have an idea. Why don't the Texans find a couple of guys who can rush the passer and put them at OLB? Maybe put some pressure on a QB from time to time. Just as an experiment. That would be a new wrinkle.

This to me is Smith's biggest failure as gm.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by BigBull

This to me is Smith's biggest failure as gm.

Or maybe his biggest failure as GM was letting his two best edge rushers walk in consecutive years (likely because he already had "his" guys as high draft picks on the roster).

This is my biggest problem with a GM change. Every new GM likes to usher out the old guard because he gets no credit for the team winning with the previous GM's players. So guys get pushed out for guys that the new GM drafted. You end up bleeding away talent and replacing positions that did not need to be replaced. And then when you don't hit on the draft picks used to replace those guys...

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by barrett

Or maybe his biggest failure as GM was letting his two best edge rushers walk in consecutive years (likely because he already had "his" guys as high draft picks on the roster).

There was no way they could afford to give Mario a new contract, plain and simple. And Barwin is hardly tearing it up in the sack department at Philly with only 4 at this point and the season now 75% completed.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

There was no way they could afford to give Mario a new contract, plain and simple. And Barwin is hardly tearing it up in the sack department at Philly with only 4 at this point and the season now 75% completed.

They could have not paid schaub or foster. They could have never signed Joseph or Manning. They knew Mario was coming due and prioritized elsewhere, counting on Wade's system and Smith's draft picks to create outside pass rush. But any NFL team can keep any individual player if they want to badly enough. We obviously didn't, for better or worse.

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

There was no way they could afford to give Mario a new contract, plain and simple. And Barwin is hardly tearing it up in the sack department at Philly with only 4 at this point and the season now 75% completed.

They didn't screw up the Mario situation when he became a free agent but 2 years before. As best I can recall, 2 years before the end of his deal, Harrison became the highest paid defender with a deal around 50 or 60 million. They should have went to Mario then, tore up his rookie deal and gave him a new deal for slightly more than Harrison. Now, I don't know he would have taken it, but generally players don't walk away from new deals that are given 2 years early and make them the highest paid players at their position.

They could have made this work.