PATS CRUISE IN UGLY ONE

Brady & Co. play down to woeful Texans in sloppy divisional win PATRIOTS 34 TEXANS 16

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There never should have been any doubt … until the Patriots delivered doubt.

Maybe the Patriots didn’t take the Texans seriously. Maybe they were rusty from the bye week. Maybe they were just bored and wanted to spice up their Saturday night by keeping things interesting.

Whatever the reason for the Patriots’ uncharacteristically sloppy performance in Saturday night’s 34-16 AFC divisional playoff win over the Texans at Gillette Stadium, order eventually was restored in their march to a remarkable sixth consecutive AFC Championship game and pursuit of a fifth Super Bowl title.

The Patriots’ uneven win over a Texans team that entered the night a 15½-point underdog hardly was a work of art, but they survived themselves and advanced to play host to the AFC title game next Sunday against the winner of Sunday night’s Steelers-Chiefs game.

“If we don’t improve, the next time we play will be the last time we play,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said.

“We’re super excited to get there, but Bill told us it’s not good enough to win next week,” Patriots safety Logan Ryan said.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady called ggetting to a sixth consecutive conference title game “cool,” and added, “If we win the AFC Championship, it’ll be even cooler.”

The Patriots (15-2) won the game despite handing the Texans (10-8) all 16 of their points with three turnovers and a dumb penalty.

“We know we can’t win like that moving forward,” said Patriots running back James White, who caught a 19-yard touchdown pass to give New England a 24-13 lead in the third quarter.

“If we want to keep winning and move on, we can’t play like that,” said Patriots receiver Julian Edelman, who caught eight passes for 137 yards.

“It doesn’t feel great because we worked hard pretty hard to play a lot better than we played,” said Brady, who completed 18 of 38 for 287 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. “It was just one of those nights where we never really got into a rhythm on offense. We’ll learn from it and hopefully be better next week.”

The Patriots won the game because running back Dion Lewis made history, becoming the first player in NFL history to score rushing, receiving and kickoff return touchdowns in a playoff game.

Lewis gave the Patriots a 7-0 lead on a 13-yard touchdown reception. He gave them a 14-3 lead on a 98-yard kickoff return touchdown. And he gave them a 31-16 lead on a one-yard touchdown run. The only way the Texans had a chance to stay with the superior Patriots was for the Patriots to keep them in it — and that’s exactly what the Patriots did.

First, a costly personal foul penalty on Patriots defensive back Eric Rowe injected life into the timid Texans. After the Patriots had Houston stopped on third-and-18, Rowe got too physical in a scrum at the end of the play, and his 15yard gift penalty gave the Texans a first down, kept the drive alive and allowed them to cut the New England lead to 7-3 on a 33-yard Nick Novak field goal.

On the ensuing kickoff, Lewis rambled 98 yards for a touchdown and a 14-3 New England lead. Incredibly, in the Patriots’ storied postseason history, it was their first kickoff return for a touchdown.

The euphoria at Gillette, however, was quickly interrupted by a Brady interception to Texans cornerback A.J. Bouye. Six plays later, the Texans cut the New England lead to 14-6 when Novak kicked a 27-yard field goal with 11:36 remaining in the half.

The locals grew even more uneasy moments later when Lewis, the kickoff return hero only moments earlier, fumbled the ensuing kickoff away. Houston’s Akeem Dent forced the fumble, and Eddie Pleasant recovered it at the New England 12-yard line.

The Texans cut the New England lead to 14-13 on a 10-yard touchdown from Brock Osweiler to tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz just 40 seconds after the Lewis fumbled kickoff.

After all the wrongs the Patriots committed in the first 30 minutes to give the underdog Texans hope, though, they still entered the locker room with a 17-13 lead they would not relinquish.

The Patriots took a 24-13 lead on the 19yard Brady touchdown pass to White with 9:09 remaining in the third quarter.

But the Patriots again opened the door for the Texans when Brady was picked off by Andre Hal with 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter, a turnover that led to a 45-yard Novak field goal that cut the deficit to 24-16.

But Osweiler, who had been benched late in the season for ineffectiveness despite having signed a $72 million freeagent contract in the offseason, effectively ended the Texans’ chances when he was picked off by Ryan on a high pass intended for DeAndre Hopkins with 12:44 remaining in the game.

Two plays and 26 seconds later, the Patriots made it 33-16 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Lewis to seal a game that should not have needed sealing in the fourth quarter.