Divisional Round

[Amy]

Playoff time!

Houston comes to Foxboro again and the stakes are high. The Pats are the better team. We should win, and we should win big. Of course, anything can happen.

The weather will be in the high 20s with a slight chance of snow.

Notable inactives for us are Malcolm Mitchell.

Notable inactives for them are Quintin Demps.


Go Pats!

[Amy]

First Quarter

The Pats won the toss and we deferred.

The Texans start at the 25 after a touchback. Three and out. Nink with a sack on 3rd down!

The Pats start at the 39 with 13:01 left. Three and out. Clowney and Vince stuffed Lewis on 3rd and 1.

Both defenses with nice third down plays on the opening drives.

The Texans start at the 19 with 11:05 left. Three and out. Logan Ryan with a nice pass defended on 3rd and 8.

The Pats start at the 35 with 10:10 left. Three plays! DPI on Boye for 30 (Hogan was the target). Brady went back to Hogan for 17 on play action to Blount. Brady finished it off with a screen to Lewis for a 13 yard TD.

7-0 Pats. 9:27 left in the quarter.

Marty was shaken up on a hit by Cushing on the TD but got up ok.

The Texans start at the 23. It should have been three and out. They were derailed by OPI on Hopkins on first down and a sack by Logan Ryan on second down. But, on 3rd down, Rowe was called for a personal foul and gave the Texans a first down.

After the free first down, the Texans find some rhythym. The go to Miller on four plays in a row (3 runs and a pass) for 19 yards. Brock goes to Grimes for 5 and CJ for 9. Grimes runs for 6. Brock then misses CJ in the endzone. Miller goes outside for 4. Hunt gets 1 on a screen and Novak comes in and makes a 33 yard FG.

7-3 Pats. 1:15 left.

Mistakes hurt in the playoffs. Rowe made a huge one. He bailed out Hopkins' big mistake and helped the Texans stay in the game. For now.

And then...

DION LEWIS. 98 yard kickoff return for the TD!!

14-3 Pats! 1:00 left.

The Texans start at the 27. They run a play action to Fuller for 2 then Brock finds Mumphrey for 7. They'll start the second quarter with a 3rd and 1 on the 36.

[Amy]

Second Quarter:

The Texans fail to get a yard. They play action screen to Miller for no gain. They punt.

The Pats start at the 20 with 14:32 left. Brady's pass to Floyd goes off his hands. Picked by Boye.

The Texans start at the Pats 27 with 14:24 left. However they do not truly take advantage. They settle for another field goal.

14-6 Pats. 11:36 left.

C'mon offense. We need a nice long drive to rest the defense. We've had a three and out, a 3 play scoring drive (with 2 plays being official) and a pick. The defense need some rest time. One of those first quarter drives from the Falcons/Seahawks would be wonderful here.

Dion Lewis fumbles the kickoff. Houston recovers.

The Texans start at the Pats 12. They take advantage. A second down play action to CJ gets them a 10 yard TD.

14-13 Pats. 10:49 left.

Mistakes kill. If we keep making them, we'll be watching from home next week.

The Pats start at the 17. Three and out. Cushing and Mercilus with a 3rd down sack.

The Texans start at the Pats 49 with 8:43 left. Three and out. Ryan with another PD on 3rd down.

The Pats start at the 18 with 7:48 left. 6 plays and a punt. Hogan had a 45 yard catch and Mercilus had a sack.

The Texans start at the 4 with 5:30 left. Three and out. Nink with a 3rd down PD.

The Pats start at the 33 with 3:54 left. The drive starts off iffy. Lewis for 1 up the middle and a throw away screen. On 3rd and 9, we protect well, and Brady finds Jules deep. 48 yard pickup. Lewis goes up the middle for 2 and we let the clock tick down to the warning.

After the warning we toss to Lewis for 6. Brady gets the first with a pass to Hogan that gets us to the 3. In first and goal, Brady ends up having to scramble to the 1. On second down, Brady throws to Develin. He gets stopped a foot out, and did not extend the ball. Blount gets stopped on 3rd.

We kick the FG.

17-13 Pats. 7 seconds left. Mistake #4. Develin has to extend the ball over the endzone line.

This was a lousy quarter. We made 4 major mistakes:

#1: Lowe's dumb personal foul.
#2: Floyd letting a pass go off his hands for the pick.
#3 Lewis' kickoff fumble.
#4 Develin not extending the ball ala Antonio Brown.

They have made 2 major mistakes:

#1: OPI on Hopkins (Lowe's penalty negated this)
#2: Lewis' TD return (Lewis negated this in a way).

We are winning, but they controlled the second quarter. If we keep making mistakes, we wil lose. But, we get the ball first in the third and if we can go down and get a TD, we can start to take control again.

This is not the right time of the year to have a sloppy game.

Go Pats!

[Amy]

Third Quarter

The Pats start at the 25 after a touchback. Three and out.

The Texans start at the 36 with 14:07 left. 4 plays and a punt.

The Pats start at the 10 with 12:30 left. There we go! Offense! We start with back to back deep throws to Jules that get us to 50. Blount rips off a 16 yard run, but it comes back on holding on Solder. It's frustrating, but Brady finds Hogan for 21 and a first. Then we go to Jules for 7, and Lewis run for 4 and the first. Play action finds Jules for 7 more. On second and 3, a pass goes off Develin's hands. But, on 3rd and 3, James White makes his first catch of the night, a 19 yard TD.

Pats 24-13. 9:09 left. That helps a lot. 5 minute drive and a two score game.

The Texans start at the 25 after a touchback. Three plays and then Devin picked Brock! 7:19 left.

The Pats start at the 44. Ugly drive. 7 passes. One completion, one OPI (by Floyd), and a punt. We waste a chance to extend the lead.

The Texans start at the 2 thanks to Slater! Great special teams play. 5:56 left. They start with a drop by CJ then Brock finds Hopkins for 19. The next two plays go to Miller (one run, one pass) for 5. Houston call timeout #1 on 3rd and 5 as the playclock was down to 1 second. On that 3rd and 5, Brock scrambles for 18. Miller goes up the middle for 3, but Branch is called for hands to the face and the Texans take that. Miller gets 2. On the next play, Brock is hit as he throws. The ball is out, there is no whistle, Chung picks it up and takes it back for a TD. On review it was changed to an incomplete pass. It think that was a good call. I do not think it was a fumble. On third, they go deep to Fuller in the endzone - and he drops it! Punt!

Hogan is injured, thigh injury.

The Pats start at the 10 with 2:03 left. Four plays. On the 4th, the ball is tipped and picked.

The Texans start at the Pats 34 with :41 left. The third ends with a 2 yard run for Blue and a 3 yard catch by Hopkins.


We win this quarter, but not by enough. We should have had more points. We have to hold them here and put them away.

[Amy]

Fourth Quarter.

Somone's season ends soon. Hopefully the Texans.

They start with a 3rd and 5. It's a throw away. They bring out Novak for a 46 yard fg that he makes.

24-16 Pats. 14:51 left.

The Pats start at the 25 after a touchback. 5 plays and a punt. Jules with a drop on 3rd down.

The Texans start at the 11 with 13:00 left. Logan Ryan picks Brock! It goes off Hopkins hands!

The Pats start at the Texans 6 with 12:44 left. Two runs by Lewis gets us in! TD!

31-16 Pats! 12:16 left. I am feeling much less nervous, but it's not over yet.

The Texans start at the 25 after a touchback. Three and out! Brown with a sack on second down.

The Pats start at the 33 with 10:22 left. We take it to the ground. Blount runs for 4. Jules has the next carry as an end around for 13. We go deep to Jules, off play action, but it's incomplete. On the next play we run a reverse and Danny gets 15. The next two runs go to Lewis and he gets 11.

However, Marty Bennett goes down during the second Lewis run. After the injury stoppage, we have two incomplete passes and a Lewis run. Boye stripped Lewis, but Thuney recovers for us. We go for a 43 yard FG try. The try is good.

34-16 Pats. 6:37 left.

The Texans start at the 25 after a touchback. The Texans run the slowest 2 minute offense ever. They start well with an 11 yard catch by Grimes. A miss to Mumphrey, then a 5 yard run by Grimes made it 3rd down. Brock finds CJ for 17, then Grimes for 10. Brock runs for 3 but it comes back on holding on Clark. They set up a screen and get 15 thanks to Grimes. On the next play...

PICK! Harmon! At the 2!

The Pats start at the 34 with 3:08 left. Blount runs twice for 19 to get the game to the two minute warning.

After the warning, we go into the victory formation. Houston chooses to not call timeouts.


This was a hard game. We will need to play better to win next week. But, I have to say that the....

#1 Yardage Defense allowed 34 points and the #1 Scoring Defense allowed 16!

6 AFC Championships in the row. The Jets had two before us, so 2008 was the last time an AFC East team was not in the Championship Game.

We had an iffy game and a terrible 3rd quarter. We have to play better to win next week, but we are one game away from the teams's 9th and Brady's 7th Superbowl.

GO PATS!