The Houston Texans nearly pulled off a victory against the New England Patriots on the road. Houston held onto a 33-28 lead until Tom Brady threw his fifth and final touchdown of the day with 29 seconds remaining.
Obviously very frustrated," J.J. Watt said after the game. "Give them a lot of credit, obviously a very good football team and at the end of the day, they made the play to win the game and we didn't."
The Texans defense wanted to get pressure on Tom Brady early and they did. They wanted to make him uncomfortable and they did that too. The Texans defense recorded five sacks, eight quarterback hits, seven tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and one fumble recovery in Sunday's 36-33 loss.
Head coach Bill O'Brien, though, did not want the defense to shoulder the blame for the Patriots final scoring drive and comeback win.
"Any time you leave two minutes-plus on the clock and you only have a five-point lead or whatever it was, it's too much time," head coach Bill O'Brien said. " I thought our guys fought hard and I think, at the end of the day, it come down to me. We've got to do a better job in the red area. If we score touchdowns instead of however many field goals we kicked, it's a different ball game."
In the fourth quarter, Houston's defense forced a three-and-out on back-to-back Patriot possessions, until Brady's final drive of the game.
"You don't want to lose a game like that, especially with 50 some seconds left on the clock," Jadeveon Clowney said. 'You've got to play till the end, four quarters and we didn't finish. We played three-and-a-half quarters good. I think we had them on the ropes but didn't finish."
Brady orchestrated an eight-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a 25-yard touchdown pass to Cooks. The Patriots successfully converted a two-point conversion on a pass attempt to Cooks and took a 36-33 lead.
"It's two-minute drill," Christian Covington said. 'Obviously, we knew what was at stake. We knew it was going to be four-down territory, four-down game at this point. We just couldn't capitalize. Got to give credit to Patriots for making first downs and making unbelievable catches."
Clowney had two sacks, three quarterback hits, four TFLs and one fumble recovery. J.J. Watt had two quarterback hits and three TFLs. The Texans fall to 1-2 with the loss and return to NRG Stadium for the first of three home games. Houston will host the Tennessee Titans in Week 4.
The Texans faced the Patriots in Week 3 at Gillette Stadium.
