Tom Brady Didn’t Snub JJ Watt On Postgame Handshake After All

The Pats host the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in their final regular season game at Gillette Stadium before closing the season on the road against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.

The Patriots look to avoid their first three-game skid since 2002 when they face Houston.

After consecutive losses in a top-heavy AFC in the past two weeks the Patriots were staring at the real possibility of playing on Wild Card Weekend prior to Sunday’s contest. New England was coming off their second straight loss, this one at the hands of the Eagles.

They clinched a playoff spot for the 12th time in the last 13 years and so the rest of the AFC is brutally familiar with what is expected to come next. However, the re-entry of the Gronk into the New England Patriots roster only served to strengthen an already incredibly aggressive football team.

“You want to be out there playing football and making plays and at the same time you just have to be smart about it, which we were”, he said.

This victory shouldn’t assuage all the concerns about the Patriots. Ball played 16 games as a rookie in 2013, rushing 120 times for 559 yards and four touchdowns. Gronkowski helped the Patriots to that touchdown and then he leaped for another later in the game. While that hasn’t phased Tom Brady in the past or any this season, it still benefits a Texans’ defense that has been at the top of its game over the last few weeks.

“He has been a valuable guy for us on all four downs”, Belichick said.

Danny Amendola, dealing with his own balky knee, jitterbugged through the defense. But he didn’t get anywhere near Brady last night. But the injuries continued to mount. And he certainly didn’t play every snap in his first game back from a knee injury. While not very flashy, this gameplan, which the NBC booth referred to as “horizontal” in the way the Patriots spread the ball around the field, both neutralized the pass rush as well as ensured Brady was not put into any high pressure situations where he would be susceptible to getting mauled by JJ Watt.

Quarterback Cam Newton threw three touchdown passes and his Carolina Panthers pummeled the Atlanta Falcons 38-0 Sunday to earn an National Football League playoff first-round bye.

“Give them a lot of credit”.

“Yeah, I mean he missed one game”, Belichick said when asked what Gronkowski’s return to the team meant Sunday night. “That was a big 10-point swing for us”. The display led some to think that maybe the whole thing was a ruse, a smokescreen to get inside Texans head coach Bill O’Brien’s head about the availability of the game-changing Gronkowski ahead of the Sunday night showdown. This is how it goes in the AFC at this time of year.

After all, win or lose against the Patriots, Houston was going to need to beat Indy for its best possible path into the post season.

On a few other 3rd and long plays, the gameplan was to ensure Brady got rid of the ball early, usually by dumping it off to RB James White. 500 and the Bengals and Broncos have to wonder about their quarterbacks, the Patriots heal and watch, cleaning up the details that had bedeviled them before. The Colts got the win during their first meeting this season, and if they get the win next week, it will be that much harder for the Texans to make playoffs.