Game Thread -- Texans @ Patriots (Keeping an Eye on the Playoff Competition)

[JohnBKistler]

Cameron should take notes oh wait they fired his ass thank god.

Yes, but there are others that also should be sharpening their pencils.

[Boulderraven]

Now we get to pull for Colts to beat Houston, could easily happen.

[Ravenboy2003]

Has there ever been a televised Pats game where they didn't show Bob Kraft at least 2-3 times?

[JohnBKistler]

I understand the logic, and probably the safe call, to remove your starters, but this is sending the wrong message to the team by letting the Patriots steam-roll them like this on national TV.

[kojo]

New England teed themselves up for the #1 seed again. I think they win out.. and I think Houston loses one more. The road to the SB is going to go through NE again.

and the sad thing is, out of all the teams in the AFC we have stacked up best against them. Neither the Broncos, Colts, or Texans could get it done in the regular season although we didnt have to go to foxboro this year. still, i dont think we'd get blown out like this...

[MD Boy]

Hate to be the pessimist but at this point, from what we've seen of our Ravens, I don't see them going into Foxborough and leaving with a, 'W' - if we played them in the playoffs.

[Boulderraven]

I understand the logic, and probably the safe call, to remove your starters, but this is sending the wrong message to the team by letting the Patriots steam-roll them like this on national TV.

A few years ago, in a meaningless game vs Houston Belicheat left his starters in and Woelker blew out his ACL for the playoffs.

[JohnBKistler]

A few years ago, in a meaningless game vs Houston Belicheat left his starters in and Woelker blew out his ACL for the playoffs.

And I honestly don't think he cares...that sends a message to the team as well.

[JohnBKistler]

By the way, I bet that "signature win" the Texans had agains the Ravens seems like about 18 years ago to Texans fans.

[kojo]

A few years ago, in a meaningless game vs Houston Belicheat left his starters in and Woelker blew out his ACL for the playoffs.

oooh yeah, i remember that game and he was trying to get away from Pollard right? same season rice went beast mode on them in the playoffs. anyway, I just noticed something...the Ravens are the ONLY AFC team that the patriots lost to this year. That is crazy!

[MD Boy]

A few years ago, in a meaningless game vs Houston Belicheat left his starters in and Woelker blew out his ACL for the playoffs.

A few weeks ago, Belicheat left his starters well into the 4th qtr, all the while up by 30+ points, and Gronkowski broke his forearm.

[Ravenboy2003]

I said about 100 posts back that this had 42-14 written all over it..

The Pats did their part.. But I don't think the Texans are getting past 7.

[Uli2001]

New England teed themselves up for the #1 seed again. I think they win out.. and I think Houston loses one more. The road to the SB is going to go through NE again.

Yes, and that stinks.

[JohnBKistler]

oooh yeah, i remember that game and he was trying to get away from Pollard right? same season rice went beast mode on them in the playoffs. anyway, I just noticed something...the Ravens are the ONLY AFC team that the patriots lost to this year. That is crazy!

Yep. And the Ravens beat them at their own game: up tempo offense.

That seems like a long time ago, too.

[lobachevsky]

The truly unnerving thing is that Indianapolis is now in control of its own destiny, with both its games vs Houston remaining (sandwiching a trip to KC). Win out & they take the AFC South--& the mighty Texans fall to the #5 seed & in all probability come to M&T on Wild Card Weekend.

[Boulderraven]

The truly unnerving thing is that Indianapolis is now in control of its own destiny, with both its games vs Houston remaining (sandwiching a trip to KC). Win out & they take the AFC South--& the mighty Texans fall to the #5 seed & in all probability come to M&T on Wild Card Weekend.

But if Ravens win out they are 2 seed.

[Haloti92]

The truly unnerving thing is that Indianapolis is now in control of its own destiny, with both its games vs Houston remaining (sandwiching a trip to KC). Win out & they take the AFC South--& the mighty Texans fall to the #5 seed & in all probability come to M&T on Wild Card Weekend.

Then again, if Flacco and the Ravens step up the game after their main excuse has been removed and beat Denver, I don't think us winning out is all that unlikely.

And if the Colts win out and we win out, we get the #2 seed at worst, and the #1 seed with one more Patriots loss. All of it is longish odds, us winning out, the Colts winning out and the Pats losing again. But that is the optimum, and as long as it is still possible, I'll be rooting for it.

The funny thing about that scenario you are worried about, where the Colts get the #3 seed, we get the #4 seed, is that if we assume Pittsburgh beats Cincy and gets the last WC spot, then the WC round is Houston at Baltimore rematch of last year's Divisional round playoff, and interim-HC Bruce Arians and the Colts vs the team that canned him, the Steelers.

Then if the Colts win and we win, then we get a rematch of last year's AFCCG at Foxborough while Luck and the Colts play their HoF former QB now-playing at Denver.

Depending on those results (admittedly, the two least likely, near-impossible results) we could then travel to Indy to play our former D-coordinator's team with him recovering from cancer in the skybox (or on the sideline) while their former HC is our OC.

Every game would have a storyline from last year. Every game.

[PerpetuallyBored74]

Cameron should take notes oh wait they fired his ass thank god


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Caldwell and Harbs still should pay close attention and learn what they can from what Bellicheck & the Pats did to Houston.

[saintmatthew]

Caldwell and Harbs still should pay close attention and learn what they can from what Bellicheck & the Pats did to Houston.

They showed that high powered offense is more important than high powered D. If we can get back to the blitzkrieg we saw glimpses of earlier this year we can take the Pats. We already did once. I think if the Ravens hadn't limped into Houston so beat up desperate for that bye that game would have come down to the final minutes.

[Ravenswintitle]

Pats looked like they could score at will. I know Houston got some stops but they were outmatched and outcoached. And I still can't get over how quickly Brady gets rid of the ball