Opening act features notable encore
It may be Week 1 of long season, but urgency resides on one side
New England does not need this.
The Patriots collect real big things: trophies, banners, rings. This? This is just Week 1 of another long, challenging, often brutal NFL season.
Lose, and the Pats will be just fine.
Heck, they fell 42-27 at home to Kansas City to kick off last season. Kareem Hunt torched New England’s defense for 148 yards on the ground and 133 as a receiver. Alex Smith outplayed Tom Brady. And how did the whole crazy thing end up?
Andy Reid’s Chiefs blew another playoff game (this time to an AFC South opponent). Smith eventually replaced Kirk Cousins in Washington (and Cousins then replaced Case Keenum in Minnesota). Bill Belichick and Brady came a few minutes — and a trick play and a pregame benching — away from winning their sixth Super Bowl together.
Of course, New England wants
this one Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Start another year off right. Remind the football world that all the offseason drama falls away when reality returns.
But need? Nope. Not even close.
And now I’ll get to the NFL team I normally write about.
There was a general understanding Wednesday on Kirby Drive. Just one of 16 regular-season games. A year-long focus in a weekto-week league.
But downing the reigning AFC champs inside a stadium wehre the Texans have never won?
Firing into the 2018 campaign with a seasonopening statement?
Bill O’Brien beating his old mentor for the first time, during Deshaun Watson’s first Week 1 start and in the same contest when J.J. Watt returns to action? Road goes through Pats
Technically, the Texans don’t need it.
But yeah, they want it and would love to have it.
“When you have a team that’s been the perennial powerhouse of the conference for a long time, you can’t really take over until you take them,” Watt said when asked about his team’s recent tough defeats — including a painful, last-minute 36-33 road loss in Week 3 last season — in the proud land of B&B. “They’ve earned that spot; they are rightfully in that position. But every year’s a new year in this league. So I think you have to go out there and prove it on a week-to-week basis, and it’s Week 1. Nobody’s proven anything yet.
“So it’s our job to go out there and prove the type of team we want to be and who we want to be, and we’ve been working hard to do that. … The offseason and the preseason — none of it really means a lot until you go out there on the first game and prove what you got.” Prove What You Got. That could be the Texans’ 2018 team slogan. Other early candidates: We Know You’re Doubting Us.
Explosive Talent, Huge Question Marks.
Way Better Than Last Year (?). We Have a Quarterback. “Be me. That’s it,” Watson said Wednesday at NRG Stadium. “Just be me and follow what the coaches are saying. … Stay on course, stay in my own lane and focus on this team.”
That’s one of the best and most meaningful quotes from a Texans quarterback in years. Simple but true. Honest, confident and absolutely on point.
Watson also said this, reminding us yet again that the 22-year-old face of the franchise gets it:
“We had the opportunity to put the game away, and we didn’t. Left too much time for Tom Brady,” said the second-year QB, reflecting on his 301-yard, two-touchdown breakout game last September. “The interception I threw early on in the game — that was pretty much it. I was aiming for the win, even though the stats seem like it was pretty cool. But at the same time, I always want to win, regardless of the stats.” Another tough one
O’Brien’s Texans could really use this win.
Mike Vrabel and the Titans — the Marcus Mariota-led team that fought back to edge Kansas City in the playoffs last season — await in Week 2 at Nashville, Tenn.
Weeks 3-6 are winnable — New York Giants in the home opener at NRG, at Indianapolis, Dallas in Houston, Buffalo at NRG — and the schedule remains reasonable (on preseason paper) through December.
But you want to know that things are truly different in 2018. That Watson and Watt are really back, the offense is right, Romeo Crennel has fixed the defense, and O’Brien was the correct choice.
Winning up north, in the home of trophies, banners and rings, would mean more than just a Week 1 victory for a team that tied for the thirdworst record (4-12) in the league last year.
“It would help this season and put out a statement that this Houston Texans team is nothing to play with,” veteran running back Lamar Miller said.
No matter what happens to the Patriots on Sunday, Belichick will immediately have his team moving on to Jacksonville.
As Year 17 of the Texans begins, we’re still waiting on Houston’s second NFL franchise to take the next big step forward.
Winning at New England would be the best start this team has had in a long time. Week 1 is just one of 16? Not when you beat the Pats in the home of Belichick and Brady.