The Houston Texans benched QB Brock Osweiler for poor performance, but an injury to back-up QB Tom Savage thrust Osweiler back into the lineup. The Texans won their wild card game against the Oakland Raiders, so we spoke with Brett Kollmann of BattleRedBlog.com to see if and how Osweiler has improved.
He hasn’t.
“Other than miraculously not throwing any interceptions in his last two games, Osweiler has not changed much if at all,” Kollman writes. “He still has major problems with short and intermediate ball placement, he still holds on to the ball too long, and he still forces inadvisable passes into DeAndre Hopkins at every possible opportunity. This offense is still the Lamar Miller show, just as it has been all season long. If you can stop the run and force Osweiler to be in constant passing situations, you pretty much have the formula for taking away Houston's ability to score.”
If the Patriots can eliminate the big play for Osweiler, and then limit the production from RB Lamar Miller, then the Texans offense will struggle to put together consistent drives.
The Patriots have one of the best run defenses in the league and should be able to limit Miller, while the Patriots safeties and cornerbacks should succeed at removing the big play to speedster WR Will Fuller or Larry Fitzgerald-like WR DeAndre Hopkins.