Tom Brady and the New England Patriots torched the Houston Texans in a 28 point blowout win at Gillette Stadium. With the Patriots wrapping up the AFC East last week they have now set their sights on the top spot in the conference with the win taking them to a 10-3 record and leaving the Texans at 11-2 following this defeat.In a game that was hyped up to be a potential preview of a future AFC Championship game only one side rose to the occasion and it was no surprise that it was the Patriots who got the win when you consider their recent record on Monday Night Football. Ahead of the game they were 10-1 in the team's last 11 games scoring 33.1 points per game and only giving up 16.2 points per games.
The Patriots also averaged 396.7 yards per game in their last 11 on Monday Night Football and last night they racked up plenty of yardage too; 419 yards in total. They were 50% on 3rd down completing 6 out of 12 attempts and had 17 first downs in the whole game; overall it's safe to say that the offense was efficient and definitely at its best last night.
Tom Brady himself put on another amazing performance as he continues to be a frontrunner for league MVP. Thanks to his four touchdown passes New England raced out of the blocks and destroyed Houston. He completed 21 out of 35 passing attempts for 296 yards including the four passing touchdowns.
Brady's 2012-2013 season continues to be out of this world. He has now thrown for 3833 passing yards in the team's 13 games. He has only turned the ball over 4 times and has thrown 32 touchdown passes leaving him with a Quarterback rating of 104.2. Finally a passing score in the team's next 3 games means Brady will overtake Johnny Unitas in second place for throwing a touchdown pass in consecutive games giving him a shot at Drew Brees' record next season.
With the win Brady and the Patriots continued their crazy second half of the season record which now stands at 21-0 since the 2010 season. The win over the Texans was their seventh straight victory meaning that they are now just a game behind Houston in the race for the first seed with them still having to play their divisional rivals the Colts twice in the next 3 games.
It has been mentioned many times before but the Patriots offense really is beautiful to watch even without the likes of Rob Gronkowski. They get it done whenever it matters and change it up game by game to combat against any type of defense. This week the no huddle offense and play action passing worked to perfection and on Brady's 37 yard touchdown pass to Bradon Lloyd late in the first quarter Tom Brady should win an Oscar for how well he faked the handoff to the running back.
That touchdown came around 6 and a half minutes after the early touchdown pass to Aaron Hernandez from 7 yards out meaning that the Patriots ended the first quarter 7-0 ahead. Brady hit Hernandez again, this time four minutes in to the second quarter, on a quick slant to his left with the tight end open giving him an easy passage in to the end zone.
At halftime the Patriots were in the lead by a score of 21-0 and any hopes of a Houston comeback were dashed when Brady connected on a spectacular 63 yard deep pass to Donte' Stallworth who announced his comeback to New England in style. Arian Foster got the Texans on the board from a yard out leaving the score at 28-7 going in to the final quarter.
Bradon Lloyd recovered a Danny Woodhead fumble in the end zone giving the Patriots another touchdown early in the fourth and Stevan Ridley ran 14 yards for a score mid-way through the quarter; he had another very productive day rushing for 72 yards from 18 carries and showed why he is one of best young running backs in the NFL.
The Texans got a consolation touchdown late on but it finished with New England winning in style. It was supposed to be close but the Patriots showed why they may be the best team in the league by declaring their dominance. The defense is looking great too with the secondary again putting in another impressive display with the likes of McCourty, Talib and Dennard all stepping up to the plate. Vince Wilfork seems to be everywhere up front and this defense can cause problems for anyone.
On offense they took one of the league's best defense's to town and swatted away the NFL's best pass rusher J.J. Watt despite his best efforts. Now New England will look ahead to another big home game when they take on the league's most talented defense in the form of the San Francisco 49ers. It will be a different type of test for the Patriots on both sides of the ball. On offense they'll have to either deal with Colin Kaepernick or Alex Smith at quarterback, on defense they will face a unit that can pretty much get anything done.
It will be very close and will be a tougher test than this week but with Tom Brady at Quarterback and this team on the roll expect New England to continue their run of form by asserting themselves on both sides of the ball. If they can knock off another heavyweight team ahead of the playoffs this Patriots team could really gather the serious momentum needed by anyone ahead of the post-season. Based on what this team is doing it is safe to say that New England really does have the talent to go on and get to the Super Bowl in New Orleans and dare I say it win Super Bowl 47.
