Patriots vs. Houston starts and sits
AI: How are we already in Week 5? This season feels like it’s flying by. This week is huge for the Patriots. At 1-3 — a win on Sunday is crucial.
Regardless of the outcome on Sunday — MAC JONES and the Patriots came out on top in more ways than one. They outplayed and out-executed TOM BRADY and his reigning Super Bowl champ squad — proving that sometimes moral wins are better than the physical W in the column. So heading into Week 5 New England is coming off a high, but the same cannot be said for their opponent. The Houston Texans are at rock bottom after an embarrassing, franchise-worst shutout 40-0 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Now the Texans are also 1-3, but there’s levels to their record, and right now, the odds are heavily favoring the Patriots. So with that being said, we thought it would be fitting to do starts and sits specifically for this Sunday’s matchup:
Here are mine:
START:
Patriots RB Damien Harris: Similar to the Patriots defensive woes, the Texans D got run over by Buffalo. 106 of the Bills 199 rushing yards happened after contact. To put it in overall perspective — Houston allows more rush yards than the Patriots do on average. This is good news for New England’s backfield — who rushed for negative 1 yards Week 4. So based on the stats — we should see Harris grounding and pounding this week.
Texans RB Mark Ingram: The Texans best course of action is to run the ball. The Patriots had a tough time stopping Leonard Fournette this past Sunday, so Houston’s back Mark Ingram should see a heavy workload this week.
SIT:
Texans WR Brandin Cooks: If the Patriots secondary can contain and almost defeat Brady and his weapons — they’ll have no issue with Mills and Brandin Cooks — who don’t get me wrong is a top target, but with Mills at QB, not even close to as big a threat.
Patriots WR Nelson Agholor: The Texans defense is underrated against the pass. They’ve given up the ninth-fewest PPR points to opposing WRs this season, which isn’t good news for Agholor’s opportunities — especially with Jakobi Meyers taking a lot of the spotlight as of late.
BC:
The Patriots offense is starting to look a lot like it did a year ago. There’s just not a lot of big-play activity with this group, which is a little shocking given how much ROBERT KRAFT and BILL BELICHICK spent in the offseason. One other thing that’s been running through my head lately: Where’s CAM NEWTON? Nary a team has taken a flyer on him. As QBs get hurt, he might have a shot, but only if he got his vaccine shot.
Also, shout out to me last week for recommending HUNTER HENRY. Go Hogs! I’m thinking we gotta open this thing back up next week because there just isn’t enough oomph in the Pats offense to try and find serviceable weapons there. But let’s give it a shot ...
START:
I actually like Cooks as a prospect, because he’s a game-breaker. But he doesn’t have anyone who can reliably get him the ball. As much as Brady was contained last week, only a couple of penalties kept Antonio Brown from a bigger day. Being humiliated is something pros do not like, so I expect the Texans to look better than they did last week. Considering the Patriots are a low-scoring team — only six TDs in four games — they’ve shown little to expect a big outburst is imminent. If you’ve got the Texans D/ST, give them a play.
And because the Pats have struggled punching it in, I’m gonna go with Mr. Reliable, Nick Folk, kicking indoors. But if you’re in a tough place at TE, Henry or Jonnu Smith have a favorable matchup and could be worth a shot.
SIT:
If you’re in a very deep league, you might have Texans QB Davis Mills on your team. But there’s no reason to even risk it. Houston has a RBby-committee approach with Mark Ingram, David Johnson and Phillip Lindsay. Three years ago all of them would merit a start. In 2021 none of them do. I just don’t love the Pats passing game right now; Karen Guregian said a few days ago that Bill and Josh McDaniels have to get Jones to step it up a bit. It could happen this weekend but until I see something less pedestrian, Jones and that crew of wideouts don’t deserve time in your lineup.