Patriots back in AFC saddle after bounce-back win over Texans
Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski runs around Texans strong safety Andre Hall.
COMMENTARY
Never mind.
After what ended up being a wasted six days of feigned fretting, the New England Patriots are back on top in the AFC, leading the drive for home-field advantage in next month’s NFL postseason with only three games remaining in the regular season.
The Patriots officially clinched a ticket to the playoffs with their 27-6 win over the Houston Texans Sunday night, but it was earlier in the day when things started falling into place for Bill Belichick’s crew. The top-seeded Cincinnati Bengals fell to the surging Pittsburgh Steelers, 33-20, while the No. 2-seeded Denver Broncos fell apart against the Oakland Raiders, 15-12.
The day’s results thrust the Patriots back into the No. 1 seed in the conference, just a week after they were relegated to the third spot and faced the distant possibility of having to host a wild card game at Gillette Stadium.
Like that was ever going to happen.
The 11-2 Patriots have the hapless Tennessee Titans, the playoff-worthy New York Jets, and the perennially underachieving Miami Dolphins to close things out. The Bengals have the San Francisco 49ers, Broncos, and Baltimore Ravens. Cincinnati will face that trio of teams without injured starting quarterback Andy Dalton, who broke his thumb trying to make a tackle in his team’s loss to Pittsburgh. In addition to the Bengals, the Broncos have the Steelers and San Diego Chargers to deal with.
Either the Bengals or Broncos, both 10-3, is being dealt at least one more loss this season thanks to the head-to-head matchup that looms on Dec. 28. Which means the Patriots would have to lose two of their final three games to not secure at least a first-round bye.
Right.
It was a good day for the New England Patriots. They’re headed back to the postseason for the seventh-consecutive season. All-world tight end Rob Gronkowski made his return after missing a week with the bone bruise he suffered a fortnight ago in Denver, and scored his 10th touchdown of the season. Bolstered by the scrap heap addition of cornerback Leonard Johnson’s celebratory hip gyrations, New England’s defense played arguably its most complete game of the year, albeit against a Houston offense that isn’t exactly the second-coming of the Greatest Show on Turf.
“It was a good team win,’’ Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (a pair of touchdown passes) said. “There were a lot of guys that contributed. We fought hard. I thought the defense played incredible. Offensively, we did enough. I thought we took advantage of some scoring opportunities and didn’t make really a big mistake, which is pretty important, and got the ball in the end zone when we had the chance. Just keep plugging along.’’
It also may have been a day much like every other Sunday that has infiltrated this Patriots season. Gronkowski was back, but linebacker Dont’a Hightower was still out on Sunday in Houston, where safety Devin McCourty left the game with an ankle injury. Running back LeGarette Blount, who was actually effective and bruising against the Texans’ defensive line, left in the first half with a hip injury, leaving Brandon Bolden and James White as the top options out of the backfield. It went well. Bolden had 51 yards on 16 carries. White scored a second-half touchdown, and Brady ended up targeting the running back more (six times) than he did Gronkowski (four).
“That’s what we need for a team, everybody needs to contributive,’’ Belichick said.
The injury tally has gotten ridiculous. But for all the personnel the team has lost — Dion Lewis, Julian Edelman, Nate Solder — New England has just the one head-scratching loss that made its fans topsy-turvy with doubt and uncertainty, last weekend to the Philadelphia Eagles. Head coach Chip Kelly’s group appears to be a different team than the one that looked so apathetic during their Thanksgiving charade in Detroit. Reinforcements helped the Patriots look more like themselves against the Texans. Here’s Jamie Collins back, and Danny Amendola too. There’s Gronk, and maybe Hightower and Edelman soon.
“It just felt good to be back out on the field,’’ Gronkowski said. “It’s always good to make the play and get a touchdown. The icing on the cake is that win.’’
If not exactly a Christmas miracle, the fact that Gronkowski was back on the field only two weeks after it seemed he might be gone for the season, still had Belichick all aflutter with emotions.
“It’s good to have every player back,’’ he said. “We want all the players.’’
The coach got even more in depth when asked about how big of a win this was in order to regain the top seed in the conference.
“We had four games left. This was one of four. Now we have three.’’
Whoa.
Maybe we can boil down Sunday with a little more emphasis on how things broke for the Patriots.
Dalton is out. Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler’s pumpkin has splattered. The whistle-blowing Baltimore Ravens were eliminated on Sunday, the same afternoon that their partners in whine, the Indianapolis Colts were throttled by the Jacksonville Jaguars, 51-16. Now here come the Titans, tied with the Cleveland Browns and Chargers for the fewest wins in the AFC with three.
New England can clinch the AFC East Sunday at Gillette Stadium. More importantly, they arrived in Houston in bronze position, but leave Texas back in the saddle.
Yee-ha.
Yippy-ki-yay.
“I’m just satisfied to come out here and get that win,’’ Gronkowski said. “That’s all we’re focusing on is our opponent next week.’’
Gronk is back on the field. The Pats are back in the win column.
Like there was ever anything to ever really worry about?
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur and Facebook www.facebook.com/GlobeEricWilbur
Photos from the Patriots’ win in Houston
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