Lopsided series the trend
Houston has become more competitive, but New England has won 10 of past 11
The navy-blue letterman jackets featured leather sleeves, were emblazoned with a large Texans logo and even included the personalized details of jersey numbers and positions.
It was a throwback look for an NFL team, one that sparked memories of high school football days.
The idea from Texans defensive lineman Shaun Cody and outside linebacker Connor Barwin was well-intentioned, inspired by rich feelings of camaraderie. They wanted to eventually add sewn-in patches to commemorate team and individual accomplishments.
Seven years ago, inspired by an 11-1 record heading into a high-profile Monday night game against the New England Patriots, the letterman jackets were commissioned for the entire team with the hope the fashion statement would launch a successful new tradition for the Texans.
Instead, the jackets live in infamy as an embarrassing footnote in franchise history. The Texans were blown out by the Patriots, absorbing an embarrassing 42-14 defeat before losing three of their final four regular-season games and falling short again to New England in an AFC divisional round playoff game. The jackets, sharp as they looked, were ridiculed nationwide.
“If we would have won that ball game, I promise you the letterman jackets would have been the next wave,” said retired offensive lineman Wade Smith, who played in that lopsided loss to the Patriots. “The jackets were high-quality. They looked good. It was functional, but we went out there and laid an egg on the field and people pointed to the letterman jackets.
“That didn’t have anything to do with why we lost. We just didn’t execute, we didn’t play well and we got beat. The jackets could have been a very cool thing, but it didn’t work out that way. The Patriots have a way of doing things like that to you.”
The episode is emblematic of the lopsided nature of the TexansPatriots series.
Broken record
Heading into a Sunday night game against the Patriots at NRG Stadium, the Texans are 1-10 against the six-time Super Bowl champions and have lost the past eight games to them.
Under coach Bill O’Brien, including the playoffs, the Texans are 0-5 against his former boss: Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
The lone Texans victory over New England was on Jan. 3, 2010, the final game of the regular season when the Patriots had already clinched a division title before kickoff.
The Texans are 7-4 and are in first place in the AFC South. They’ve been an annual playoff contender under O’Brien, a former Patriots offensive coordinator.
Under the leadership of Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, the defending Super Bowl champions are 10-1 and have the best record in the AFC with their only loss coming against the Baltimore Ravens.
“Obviously, we’ve struggled against the Patriots in past years, but this is a different year,” O’Brien said. “Every year’s different. Our team’s different. Their team’s a little bit different, and we just have to go out there on Sunday night and we’ve got to play a clean game. We’ve got to play hard, we’ve got to be competitive for 60 minutes and see what happens.”
Where the Patriots, even with an offense that isn’t as explosive as previous years following the retirement of tight end Rob Gronkowski and cutting wide receiver Antonio Brown, have traditionally excelled by playing flawless fundamentals. They’re a team built in Belichick’s precise vision, steeped in exploiting opponents’ mistakes and capitalizing on their ability to use strategy and skill to overcome any lack of overpowering personnel.
“They watch a lot of film, they do a lot of studying,” said Texans veteran cornerback Johnathan Joseph, who played in the December 2012 letterman jacket game. “They look for plays that previously worked against you and get you from a schematic standpoint.”
Unlike many Belichick proteges, including Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels when he coached the Denver Broncos, O’Brien has been successful since leaving New England. He’s won three AFC South division titles. He has never beaten his mentor, though.
“When I was there, I was appreciative of the opportunity to be there,” O’Brien said. “I was very appreciative of the opportunity to learn in the team meetings or in the staff meetings, or to coach the players that I was able to coach or to work with the coaches I was able to work with.
“So, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about game-planning and personnel and strategy. That was a very important time for me in my coaching career. It was probably a place where I learned the most.”
Unlike many Belichick disciples, O’Brien hasn’t tried to copy the Patriots’ blueprint.
The former Patriots assistant has put his individual imprint on the Texans, on and off the field.
“I said this when I was at Penn State, I’ve said this here for the last six years: You have to be yourself,” O’Brien said. “You have to take the things that you learn there and you have to try to go into whatever situation it was, whether I was at Penn State or here in Houston and you have to be yourself.
“You take some of the core beliefs. You take some of those things and then you go to your own spot and you try to do as best as you can to be yourself.”
Remarkably, the Patriots have won at least 10 games for 17 consecutive seasons. How does that happen?
“Because of the head coach,” O’Brien said. “I think he just does a great job because of his work ethic. He’s able to keep up with all the trends.”
Belichick is the only head coach in NFL history to win six Super Bowl titles. He’s 302-135 all-time, including the postseason where he has a 31-11 all-time mark.
“Obviously, taking nothing away from Paul Brown, Vince Lombardi, all of them, Don Shula, Tom Landry, Bill Parcells, they’re all great, they’re all incredible, but I think what Bill has done in his 20 years with the Patriots, has been able to stay up with the trends of the league,” O’Brien said. “He’s had different teams, different types of teams. He’s had the same quarterback, great player, but, at the end of the day, he’s had a lot of different players within the system and he’s created a culture there that everybody has a lot of belief in and they go out every game and they try to carry out the game plan.”
The Texans have evolved over the years and have become more competitive against the Patriots, losing their last two games to them by a combined 10 points.
When quarterback Deshaun Watson was a rookie in 2017, the Texans lost, 36-33, at Gillette Stadium.
Brady engineered a comeback win he capped with a late touchdown pass to wide receiver Brandin Cooks.
‘Every year is different’
The Texans opened last season with a 27-20 loss at New England as Brady threw three touchdown passes.
“Every year is different, every game is different,” Watson said. “We can’t look in the past, we can’t look in the future. We’ve got to focus on this moment now. If we can do that, we’ll be just fine.”
The Texans have upgraded their roster significantly over the past year, especially their offensive line with the trade for left tackle Laremy Tunsil and drafting rookie linemen Tytus Howard and Max Scharping.
They’ve also added wide receiver Kenny Stills, tight end Darren Fells, safety Tashaun Gipson and cornerbacks Bradley Roby, Lonnie Johnson Jr., Gareon Conley and Vernon Hargreaves.
“I think every year we’ve evolved, we’ve had different players,” O’Brien said. “We’re just a different team. I think every year is different. I think that relative to what we do this year relative to what we’ve done in the past, I think there’s some carryover, there’s some things that we do that we just really believe in, and then there’s other things that are new.
“I think both teams are very different than the last time we played them, but I still think you have to
look at those games, you have to study those games because there’s a lot of the same players that have played in those games, but the teams are different.”
The Texans have a potent wide receiver tandem in DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller, one of the top young quarterbacks in Watson and a strong running game led by running back Carlos Hyde.
The Texans’ defense is vulnerable, though, especially due to a languishing pass rush since the loss of defensive end J.J. Watt to a season-ending torn pectoral and trading away outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney.
The Texans rank 20th in the NFL in total defense and are 25th in passing defense. They’re 28th in sacks per passing attempt.
“We’ve got to be clutch in really tight moments,” outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus said. “We’ve got to play consistent. It’s not about them, it’s about us.”
The Patriots have the secondranked defense in the NFL, a stingy outfit led by star cornerback Stephon Gilmore. They’re allowing just 10.6 points per game, the lowest average in the league.
The Patriots lead the NFL with 20 interceptions, but the Texans counter with Watson and a dangerous offense.
“The Texans have enough talent to beat the Patriots,” Smith said. “I feel like they should beat the Patriots. To do that, they have to do everything right. I remember before we played the Patriots in that jacket game talking to guys and saying, ‘Listen, this game is about two things: You have to hit them in the mouth and be on point mentally.’ It’s the same thing now because every mistake you make, they make you pay for it. It’s like they’re a machine.
“The Texans should be able to beat them, but they haven’t shown that they will play consistently enough to beat the Patriots. We had our shot back then. Until you do it, until you win that big one, it’s one of those things where it’s hard to believe it’s going to happen.”