Breakdown: Patriots offense vs. Texans

Note: We covered the defense here.

The Patriots’ offense went very vanilla against the Texans on Saturday night, probably due to the fact that both teams face off in Week 3 of the regular season.

The first-team offense (with both Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo) fared well despite the basic playbook, as it built a 16-10 lead early in the third quarter by scoring on four of five drives at one point (not counting the drive before halftime).

The execution was good for the most part to that point. After that? Yikes. The Patriots had just one drive longer than 21 yards following the field goal on the second drive of the second half (not counting when the Texans were in prevent at the end), and had a fumble and an interception.

Most worrisome was that the second-team offensive line was basically run over by the Texans’ front seven in the second half, which made life tough on the quarterbacks and running backs.

Let’s take a look at the unit performances:

Quarterback

Brady seemed to be under orders just to get the ball out, mostly to quick out patterns or to backs in the flat, as the Patriots didn’t try much down the field or in the middle of it. Brady’s near interception going to Chris Hogan was the only notable play, but Andre Hal couldn’t stay in bounds, giving the Patriots new life, which they converted into a touchdown. … Garoppolo’s stint was an adventure. For a while, it didn’t seem like any of his throws were where he wanted them, until he sidestepped a rusher and delivered a strike to Austin Carr near the sideline. Garoppolo continues to underthrow a lot of passes, including one to Brandon Bolden on a wheel route (didn’t give him a chance), Carr and TE James O’Shaughnessy. The sack/fumble wasn’t Garoppolo’s fault, but the interception was atrocious. That ball should be out of bounds. Good throw dropped by Malcolm Mitchell, and Garoppolo moved well against pressure … Jacoby Brissett was fine for the most part, but the later it gets into plays, the more trouble he has pulling the trigger.

Running backs

Overall the backs had a really good game out of the backfield. Rex Burkhead started the game with a nice blitz pickup, made a nice adjustment on a Brady pass purposely behind him, and then made a great move on the linebacker on the touchdown. … Dion Lewis continues to look like his old self with nice burst on a 14-yard run, and then Lewis made S Marcus Gilchrist grasp at air after a jumpstop in the backfield. … Brandon Bolden and D.J. Foster were solid. Foster had two nice catches (one for a touchdown) and broke a tackle on the final drive. Bolden didn’t follow FB Glen Gronkowski on a promising run, and dropped a screen. Foster may have had a part in Garoppolo’s strip/sack, but it’s difficult to tell.

Receivers/tight ends

On the Patriots’ first failed third down, Julian Edelman’s break at the top of his route was a little sloppy/slipped, which caused the incomplete pass. Pretty good pass by Brady. … Not a whole lot of high degree of difficulty in this group, but one thing we did learn was that TE James O’Shaughnessy has a really tough time blocking in the running game. Had him for five negative plays on running plays. Mitchell and Devin Lucien both had drops on tough chances. … TE Dwayne Allen had two terrific run blocks. He’s relentless about staying on blockers. … Jacob Hollister had a nice block on D.J. Foster’s touchdown reception.

Offensive line

Thanks mostly to the gameplan and the quick release of Brady, the starting offensive line allowed just four pressures against the tough Texans’ front, and three of those were by Cam Fleming. Fleming, who was very solid in this game overall, executed a great double team to the second level on Burkhead’s first carry. … Joe Thuney and David Andrews had clean sheets. Shaq Mason did as well, outside the tackle for a loss he allowed to J.J. Watt. ... The rest of the offensive linemen had issues in this game, starting with rookie RT Conor McDermott (4.5 total QB pressures) and guard Jamil Douglas (2.5). Both players had seven “negative” plays overall, some of which don’t show up in our line stats. …Cole Croston had the triple crown: sack allowed, stuff allowed and a holding penalty. … Ted Karras was solid in this game but his lack of foot quickness continues to be apparent in the run game. Might keep him from being a long-term starter.

Three up

RB Rex Burkhead: With Mike Gillislee still MIA, Burkhead used the opportunity to show how well he fits seamlessly into the Patriots’ offense, whether it’s running or receiving. Nice blitz pickup too.

LG Joe Thuney/C David Andrews: Clean sheets mean a job well done.

RB D.J. Foster: Showed more explosion out of the backfield. Not a whole lot of candidates here due to the lack of time for the starters, struggles of the offensive line.

Three down

RT Conor McDermott: Struggled to sustain blocks in the run game, and had some issues in pass protection.

RG Jamil Douglas: The interior of the Texans’ line largely whipped the Patriots and it started over Douglas’ spot.

QB Jimmy Garoppolo: His protection wasn’t that bad…certainly not enough for him to be errant on five throws, and that interception was not good at all.

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