The Texans (4-1) travel to New England (1-4) for a Week 6 matchup. It's their first regular season trip to Foxborough since Week 1 of 2018. Here are five things to watch when the Texans and Patriots kick of at noon CT in Gillette Stadium.
1) Adjust without Nico – The Texans will be without Nico Collins for the next four games. The NFL's leading receiver injured his hamstring on the 67-yard touchdown reception in last week's win over the Bills, so the rest of the receiving corps must rise up in his absence.
"You can't replace that but at the same time, we've got a room full of guys that are hungry, that want to go in, that want to get their ops," Offensive Coordinator Bobby Slowik said.
Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell will likely get more targets, and second-year pass-catcher Xavier Hutchinson will also see his targets and snaps rise. Hutchinson, according to Slowik, did well in his increased playing time after Collins exited in the first half.
"Hutch did a great job in the game after Nico went out," Slowik said. "He took advantage of his ops, he showed up in the run game, he works every single day."
Diggs, meanwhile, has caught seven touchdown passes in eight games against New England since 2020. No other player in the NFL has more than four scoring grabs against the Patriots in that same span. Further, he's averaged 81.6 receiving yards per game in those eight contests.
"He knows his responsibility now with Nico out," quarterback C.J. Stroud said. "That is really with all of them, everybody has to step up, even myself included to pick up the slack where Nico isn't playing. We definitely just have to hold each other accountable and just be better at that. He is definitely going to be at the forefront of that."
2) Stroud should shine – Stroud has engineered game-winning drives in back-to-back games over the past two weeks. With 272.4 passing yards per game, he leads the NFL in that category. New England defensive lineman Deatrich Wise is mightily impressed by the second-year signal-caller.
"C.J. is a good quarterback. He's doing a great job moving the ball for this team the last two years. It's going to be very similar to how we play most quarterbacks: keeping him in the pocket and affecting his throwing abilities."
3) Run game infusion? – There's a chance both Joe Mixon and Dameon Pierce are back from injury. Both players practiced this week. Mixon was a limited participant, while Pierce became a full participant on Thursday. Mixon's been out since Week 3, while Pierce has missed every game but the opener at Indianapolis.
Stroud was encouraged by what he saw from Pierce this week on the fields at the Houston Methodist Training Center.
"He looks great at practice and hopefully he has a great game," Stroud said. "I know he will, he has been working really hard and he is really motivated so it is really big for us."
In their absence, Cam Akers and Dare Ogunbowale have picked up the slack. In the three Texans victories Akers played—Chicago, Jacksonville and Buffalo—he's averaged 4.4 yards per carry and had a run of 13 yards or more in each contest.
Ogunbowale, meanwhile, has been a weapon out of the backfield catching the ball. His receiving yardage totals have risen each week, culminating with a 6-catch, 57-yard performance last Sunday against Buffalo. They
"Dare has been huge," Stroud said. "As you guys can tell he is not only a great running back but also a good pass catcher, great pass catcher, does a lot of great things in pass protection as well. I think he is just getting started as well. He will have another great week I feel. He has been huge for us, definitely on third-down. I definitely feel like he will continue to do that for us."
4) Mess with Maye – For the second time this season, the Houston defense will face a rookie quarterback. Drake Maye will get his first NFL start on Sunday, and the Texans will look to harass and confuse the young signal-caller.
Because it's his first start, there isn't much regular season game tape to watch, as Maye has been on the field for 16 snaps in one game this year. He's completed four of the eight passes he's thrown, for 22 yards. Maye's been sacked twice. Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke described how the Texans will prepare for the rookie.
"Obviously, a lot of unknowns, but just sort of trying to triangulate between what we see him do well on college tape and what they've done in the season so far with the structure of their offense," Burke said. "As always at the end of the day, it's going to be about us executing what we want to execute, but you see the talent jump off tape for sure."
Texans defensive end Danielle Hunter leads the NFL with 29 quarterback pressures this season, and fellow defensive end Will Anderson, Jr. is tied for 7th at 23.
Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt acknowledged the challenge his squad will face in protecting Maye from that fearsome duo.
"They're very talented edge rushers," Van Pelt said. "We've got to make sure we handle those edges. It's almost like having two guys like Bosa on the edges, so you've got to make sure we're taking care of the edges."
5) Get back to even…or above water – The Texans were excellent last season in turnover differential. They took the ball away 10 more times than they turned it over, and that plus-10 mark was tied for 5th-best in the entire league.
This year, they're minus-3, which is in the lower third of the NFL. Over the past three games, they've been a minus-5.
The Patriots, meanwhile, are plus-2 this season, despite their 1-4 record.
