Week 13 @ Houston

Another tough game for the Patriots today in Houston. Going into the 1pm game the Texans opponents were only averaging 172 yds per game. Tom Brady threw for 365 yards that game with 2 TD's to Vereen and Gronk. Once again Edelman had a phenomenal game catching 9 passes for 101 yards. Our offense came together when it needed to. Brady threw to 8 different receivers this game with Vereen and Blount carrying the running load. It wasn't the greatest performance we've seen but it was enough. That's two games in a row where Edelman has been a major contributor to our offense. I remember Tom E. Curran said something along the lines of " Edelman to see reduced role in second half ." Good one Mr. Curran. In fact he's been one of our top producers on offense.

There were only two penalties the whole game. Both of them were against the Texans. Probably a conspiracy...

Stevan Ridley enjoyed the game watching from the sidelines as he was a healthy inactive. I for one agree with this to an extent. I think Ridley is our best back right now, and this was kind of a scary play by Bill. Last time Ridley was inactive we lost to a tough Bengal defense. Today looked like it was heading in that direction. I know Kevin Faulk is going to work with him on the fumbling and that's surely someone I know who can help in his effort to step up. There are 5 games in the regular season left (Browns, Fins, Ravens, and Bills) and we need to win all of them if we want to a first round bye in the playoffs. We can't have Ridley fumbling in the postseason. 

Another thing we can't have in the post season is this defense. I mean come on! We let up less yards than the Texans did today but it was almost like we didn't even try. I know once Dennard and Gregory come back, we'll be a bit more stable in the secondary. They're practicing right now, but they were ruled out for today's game. One of our biggest issues is stopping the run. We NEED to stop the run. We're letting backs run all over us. As I said before, that can't happen in the playoffs.

As far as injuries go with the rest of the team I'm hoping Thompkins is okay after hurting his hip. I'm hoping Dobson comes back because he was really starting to make an impact for our team. Gregory and Dennard should be back sometime soon. Hoping it's by the Baltimore game because that games going to be huge for us. Flacco's had a hay day in his career against our secondary, and I'd like to see that go away.