The win for Houston over the Oakland Raiders on Wild Card weekend sent the Texans to Foxborough to face the New England Patriots in the Divisional Round.
As opposed to the easy task of taking down a rookie on Saturday, playing against quarterback Tom Brady will present an entirely different challenge for Houston’s defense.
That said, Brady is not taking his matchup against the league’s No. 1-ranked defense lightly.
“They have a damn good defense,” Brady said, per WEEI’s “Kirk and Callahan” show (h/t Mike Reiss of ESPN).”
This is indeed an accurate statement. Both defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and linebacker Whitney Mercilus absolutely destroyed Oakland’s offense and rookie Connor Cook in the Wild Card round.
The Patriots’ offense will prove much more challenging to pick apart. It was not long ago in Week 3, while Brady sat sidelined serving his suspension, that Houston lost 27-0 against New England. It was quite the lopsided matchup, to say the least.
Keeping this in mind, Brady is still not counting his upcoming game as one already in the bag.
“I don’t think you take anything for granted,” he said. “I don’t think you mail in your preparation. I think we go about it the exact same way we’ve gone about it all year — we put everything into it this week, we empty the tank in our practices, which we always do, and then you come out the end of the week with confidence and ready to go out there and show everyone that we’re prepared and we can play.”
Nevertheless, we’ll see what mayhem will unfold this weekend when a heavily favored Patriots host Houston in a must-see Saturday evening playoff game.