Sometimes, when Bill Belichick speaks to the media, he's actually speaking to his players.
Wednesday seemed like one of those days.
Fresh off a rousing upset win over the Baltimore Ravens, Belichick spent his virtual morning presser raving about the 2-7 Houston Texans, whom the Patriots are scheduled to visit this Sunday.
"I think we all know this is a very good and talented football team," Belichick said. "Their record doesn’t really mean anything to me. What means something is the way they play, the way that they’re coached and the talent that they have on the field. They’re very good at everything."
The Texans, who fired head coach/general manager Bill O'Brien last month, do have a young star at quarterback in Deshaun Watson and one of the NFL's deeper receiving corps (Will Fuller, ex-Patriot Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb, Kenny Stills). They're tied for seventh in pass plays of 20-plus yards (33) this season and tied for 11th in pass plays of 40-plus yards (five).
But Houston also is one of the league's worst rushing teams (31st in rushing yards per game, 26th in yards per carry, 32nd in rush offense DVOA), boasts a suspect offensive line (25th in sacks per pass attempt) and is averaging just 22.2 points per game, eighth-worst in the NFL.
Defensively, the Texans rank 26th in scoring defense, 29th in total defense, tied for 27th in first downs allowed per game, 27th in third-down conversion percentage and 28th in defensive DVOA. They're also dead last in the NFL against the run (32nd in yards allowed per game, yards allowed per carry and run defense DVOA), which does not bode well against a Patriots team that's run the ball very effectively this season.
Belichick chose to accentuate the positives here.
"Offensively, this is probably as explosive or more explosive than any other group in the league, certainly anyone that we’ve seen," said Belichick, whose team faced the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks earlier this season. "The tight ends are good, the backs are good, the quarterback’s good and they have great depth and quality at receiver, from Cooks, Fuller, Stills, Cobb. It’s a very explosive team. They move the ball. They don’t turn the ball over. ...
"Defensively, as always, (interim head coach Romeo Crennel's) teams are sound, well-disciplined, good fundamentally. And, this is a very good coverage team in the kicking game. They’re fast, they’re hard to block, they create a lot of problems with their speed and explosiveness and covering kicks. Overall, it’s a very experienced team."
Both of the Texans' victories this season have come against the 1-8 Jacksonville Jaguars. They surrendered 28 or more points in each of their first six defeats, then managed just one touchdown Sunday in a 10-7 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
"They’ve been in a lot of close games over the last few years and had a couple tough losses this year," Belichick said, "but their record could look a lot different with just two or three plays, if those two or three plays had turned out differently in some of those games. This is a very explosive team, and again, a team that really doesn’t beat themselves."
The 4-5 Patriots will look to avoid to avoid a letdown this week and continue their climb back toward playoff contention following back-to-back wins over the New York Jets and Ravens.
