Colvin: Did Watt’s injury or Patriots scheme slow him down?

It seemed as though Bill Belichick, the defensive guru, had lost his touch.

Back-to-back post-Thanksgiving losses, fallen stars and, gasp, a brief taste of life as the third seed in the AFC, but the Patriots emerged from NRG Stadium last night as the lead dogs in the conference yet again after easily disposing of the Houston Texans, 27-6. He had three tackles, one for a loss, and no sacks….

One week ago the New England Patriots and their fans were waking up from a debacle of a loss in Foxborough.

A normal person would take some time off work after breaking a hand, but Houston Texans defensive end J.J.

His quarterback wasn’t exactly gushing after the game, but Brady’s performance and the outcome said as much as anything. “They move him around quite a bit, get him in some off-the-line positions, playing some outside linebacker…”

“Give them a lot of credit”.

“An all time great player”.

They padded that lead with Gostkowski’s 49-yard field goal that made it 20-6. Which Patriots’ players stepped up and made the biggest impact on against the Texans on Sunday night? We played a solid game toight in all three fazes of the game. “He’s tough, he’s tough”.

“Oh, man, that fourth-down stop was good”, said cornerback Leonard Johnson, who was signed last week and broke up the fourth-down bid for Griffin. “It’s not bad. I mean, I wish I had a hand but I don’t, so you make do with what you got”.

-DL Jabaal Sheard had his second two-sack game of the season and the fourth of his career. “Especially like last night and the week before”. “It just felt good overall to get back in the action”. They executed very well. Authorities said they received five more similar calls from witnesses alarmed by what they saw.

And lately, it has been Ryan who has assumed primary coverage duties against two of the league’s best receivers in recent weeks – Denver’s Demaryius Thomas and Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins. The Patriots finished the game with two healthy running backs: Brandon Bolden and James White.

“These guys did a good job, they really did”, Belichick said. “How quick the game is, how quick a move is, how quick a tackle is, sometimes you don’t know how you got tackled. He’s kind of always open because of his size, his length and his catching radius”.

Yates is expected to be prepared as the Houston Texans ‘ starting quarterback this week, since Hoyer’s latest concussion marked his second in the past month. Hoyer backed Brady up for three years in New England.

Gronkowski, who on Sunday became the first tight end in history with five seasons with at least 10 touchdown catches and also eclipsed 1,000 yards for the third time, said the only number that mattered was the one in the win column. Brady, sacked three times, completed 22 of 30 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns without an interception.