New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel explained ahead of training camp that he was looking at his team’s performances in three distinct categories. There is the good, the bad, and, as he called it, the s—t that gets you beat.
The Patriots’ 28-16 win over the Houston Texans in Sunday’s divisional round playoff game featured a mix off all three. So, if the coach wants to look at his team through those categories, who are we to disagree? Let’s break down the game in exactly that manner.
The good: Defensive opportunism
The Texans defense was one of the main talking points entering Sunday’s game, and it repeatedly showed why on Sunday. However, when all was said and done, it was their Patriots counterpart that came away victoriously.
Limiting Houston’s offense to only 16 points and 3.3 yards per play, the unit led by acting defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr was outstanding yet again. Just like the previous week against the Los Angeles Chargers, it put the opposing quarterback in a blender and did not let up.
The biggest area of success, however, might have been the unit’s ability to capitalize on mistakes. C.J. Stroud threw errant passes all day, and four of those ended up in the arms of Patriots defenders. Carlton Davis hauled in two, bookmarking picks by Marcus Jones — who returned his 26 yards for a touchdown — and Craig Woodson. The latter also added a fumble recovery in the third quarter.
“They’re playing well together,” Vrabel said about his team’s ability to generate takeaways. “I feel like they’re complementing each other, and our turnovers are created by more than one guy. There’s some great efforts. But it’s somebody tipping a pass or it’s somebody that’s putting pressure that’s usually helping — or Zak’s dialing something up that kind of changes the look. We’re taking advantage of our opportunities. And that’s what it’s going to take in the playoffs: you’ve got to take care of the ball and turn it over.”
Through two playoff games so far, the Patriots have taken the ball away six times while also forcing three turnovers on downs. It’s a winning recipe.
The bad: Early-down performance
Heading into the divisional round, we mentioned winning on early downs as one of the Patriots’ offensive keys to the game: failure to perform in those situations would allow the Texans’ vaunted pass rush to pin its ears back and attack an offensive line that has had its problems in protection the previous week versus the Chargers. Indeed, those early downs proved to be one of the stories of the day for New England.
It just didn’t go the way they would have hoped.
Not counting a kneel-down to end the game, the Patriots had 29 first down plays against the Texans. They averaged 3.4 yards on those with a success rate of 37.9% as well as eight plays resulting in no gain or a loss of yards (27.6%).
To their credit, the Patriots were on point on first down on the time-consuming, run-heavy drive after Kayshon Boutte had scored a 32-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Overall, however, their issues on first down repeatedly put the team behind the sticks and created unfavorable situations for the offense for much of the day.
The s—t that gets you beat: Pass protection
The Patriots knew that the Houston defensive line had the potential to be a problem, and indeed it was. Led by the outstanding edge duo of Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter, the Texans harassed quarterback Drake Maye all day long.
When all was said and done, the face of the Patriots franchise had been sacked five times, and hit on seven total occasions. He also fumbled four times, with two of those loose balls ending up with the offense and the other two going to the defense as turnovers.
It was rough out there, both for Maye and his offensive line. Rookie Will Campbell in particular had a difficult time handling Anderson, and the first-team All-Pro finished with three sacks and two forced fumbles. Hunter had the other pair of sacks and forced a fumble himself.
For Mike Vrabel, the blueprint for improvement is therefore obvious.
“Take care of the ball. Don’t let the quarterback get hit,” he said on Monday.
How the Patriots can achieve this will be seen, particularly with a disruptive Denver Broncos defense on the dock. One method, though, might be increasing the number of packages featuring a sixth offensive lineman. Against Houston, the Patriots used those on 15 occasions, but only twice over the first three quarters.
