HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610) -- This was a tough loss for the Texans. Unlike last week's blowout against the Buffalo Bills, this seemed like a game the Texans could win.
Houston led New England 15-6 and 22-9 at various points of the game, but the Patriots scored 16 unanswered to win the game on a late field goal.
Let's get into some takeaways from the game.
1. Danny Amendola being inactive days after the team released Anthony Miller because of Amendola’s presence, at least according to them, is another layer to the weirdness of a move that didn’t seem to make sense.
2. Charles Omenihu being a healthy scratch despite being tied for most quarterback hits on the team is the latest sign that maybe Omenihu isn’t the type of guy they want here. Omenihu has shown his potential frustration multiple times on social media. It’s definitely not about production.
3. There are substantive clues that Lonnie Johnson Jr. and Zach Cunningham are also frustrated and it wouldn’t surprise me to see any, if not all of these players moved before the trade deadline.
Guys who were here before last season likely have a hard time buying into this current process and I can’t blame them. I understand both perspectives: the player point-of-view and the organization’s. But given the current state of things and the disaster of the Bill O’Brien and Jack Easterby Era, the buy-in has to be difficult, especially with Easterby still around.
4. The Texans’ first drive that ended in an Antony Auclair TD reception from Davis Mills was 18 plays, 79 yards and took 10:06.
You couldn’t have drawn that one up better unless you ran even more clock and Ka’imi Fairbairn made the extra point.
5. Fairbairn missed an extra point and kicked the ball out of bounds on consecutive plays, two of the most frustrating things a kicker can do.
This football team has too low of a margin of error to give away points and field position.
6. Going for it on 4th-and-1 from your own 41 and a six-point lead takes balls.
Throwing a slant to Brandin Cooks with Davis Mills at QB and that 4th-and-1 takes BALLS.
7. Right as I typed the previous thought, the Texans did it again and converted a 4th down on a long pass from Mills to Chris Conley for 40 yards.
Props to David Culley and Tim Kelly. BALLS.
8. Lonnie Johnson has flaws as a safety, but he makes plays on the ball, which is more than can be said about a lot of bad safeties in Texans past.
9. Tim Kelly called another awesome game. There hasn’t been a moment this season where at any point did I think this offense was poorly coached.
10. Today was a first. I’ve never seen a punter punt the ball off the personal protector’s ass.
Cam Johnston kicking the buttocks of Terrence Brooks was a monumental milestone in my football watching career.
11. The ass punt was the final result of a play in which the Texans, up 22-9, ran a fake fake punt in which Johnston ran toward the line of scrimmage as if he was faking the punt before kicking it.
You deserve for goofy stuff to happen when you do goofy stuff like that.
12. The Texans defense deserves credit for holding the Patriots to a 52-yard field goal after that blooper. Again, Lovie Smith’s defense held up nicely given what he has to work with.
13. In the 4th quarter the Texans attempted a 56-yard field goal with Fairbairn, who had missed two extra points and kicked the ball out of bounds. Interesting decision by David Culley and you knew it wasn’t going to end well before the attempt.
14. Jonathan Greenard had a good game. Lovie Is getting the most of the second-year player and a couple of plays he made behind the line of scrimmage generated the loudest crowd reactions.
15. Maliek Collins has a troubling pattern of boneheaded plays.
16. Culley killed a timeout to make the suspect decision to attempt the 56-yard field goal. The only thing worse than a bad coaching decision is using a timeout to make it.
17. I picked the Texans to win this game, the only person at the station to do so, I was wrong.
They had a chance to get the W, but bad teams find ways to lose games.
18. When the Patriots scored with over 1:50 remaining in the game, but were called for an illegal shift. Culley should’ve declined the penalty. That isn’t hindsight.
That’s the exact in unison, expressed thought myself and Sean Pendergast had in the press box. Culley has struggled with in-game decision making early on.
19. Davis Mills looked good today. That’s a good thing.
20. The Texans played a team that hasn’t been able to run the ball minus four of their five starters on the offensive line and ….
Listen to Landry Locker on In The Loop weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on SportsRadio 610 and Audacy.