AFC Divisional Playoffs: Patriots Take 17-13 Lead Over Texans Into Halftime
By Josh Hill
The game started out nice for Houston, as they returned the opening kickoff of the game 94 yards down to the Patriots 12 yard line. But from there things started to decay quickly for the Texans from there as after the massive kick return by Danieal Manning resulted in just a field goal for the Texans.
As for the Patriots, Tom Brady was his usual self, but even New England experienced a few kinks along the way in the first half. Right away on the first offensive snap of the game the Patriots lost running back Danny Woodhead to a thumb injury and later they lost tight end Rob Gronkowski. Neither Woodhead or Gronkowski have returned to the game but New England has hardly missed them.
After losing two big pieces of their offense, Aaron Hernandez and Shane Vereen filled in nicely, working together to help get the Patriots the lead back on New England’s third drive of the game. Vereen has actually scored both of the Patriots touchdowns so far, and became part of the group of players to both catch and run for a touchdown.
Houston trailed 17-3 before they saw the endzone right thanks to Arian Foster.
Already at halftime Wes Welker has 120 yards receiving, which is something that has kept the Patriots ahead of the Texans. As for Houston, the numbers are average across the board but still, Houston is hanging in there.
It’s just a seven point game, which is a lot closer than many people might have expected it to be. So far this hasn’t been the blowout from December but when you’re talking about the Patriots in the postseason, it doesn’t take much to set them off and when they do, you’d better be somewhere else. But Houston deserves massive credit for staying in the game as much as they have thus far. In the last 75 seconds of the second quarter, Houston put up 10 points to pull within four of the Patriots.
One thing seems to be certain: we’re in line for another great second half of football today.