After watching the Texans' defense dismantle the Steelers on Monday night, it's clear the Patriots are in for a challenge when they host Houston in the divisional round. They just went against another formidable defensive opponent in the Chargers, but this is a different breed Drake Maye hasn't faced in his young career.
It is already being projected to be the best defensive group the Patriots will face this season, and fortunately, they have some experience in that area during the 10-game win streak.
But seeing how the Texans are on a win streak of their own, coming off a dominant performance against a future Hall of Fame quarterback, and that confidence is going to be apparent on Sunday.
It certainly doesn't help that they are already advertising themselves as such, creating even more concern amongst Patriots fans for how the team will fare in the biggest game of their season to date.
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Coming off the excitement of eliminating the Steelers in brutal fashion, safety Calen Bullock, who had the final touchdown of the game, courtesy of a pick-six, was oozing with confidence about the Texans' defense.
Although he didn't say anything we didn't already know, the challenge the Patriots are about to face, with a defense shouting that they're the best in the league, doesn't provide much optimism for New England fans looking forward to the game.
“Shoot, I think everybody knows we are the best defense. The whole world knows that. Every time we go out there we show it and we went out there and showed it today. I don’t even think they scored a touchdown.”
He was right about the Steelers not scoring a touchdown, as they only hit two field goals the entire night.
On top of that, the Texans' defense recovered a fumble and took Aaron Rodgers down with four sacks for a loss of 36 yards, all while shutting down their backfield by allowing just 63 yards on the ground all night.
That's a disastrous scenario for the Patriots to follow up on, but hopefully, they have the better roster to get the job done than what the Steelers put out on Monday night. Drake Maye is certainly better at this stage in the game than Rodgers, and their running back duo has been nearly unstoppable over the past month, so that should (hopefully) continue in this upcoming game.
They will have to account for a more athletic and powerful defense, though, and Josh McDaniels might have to pull out all the tricks to throw the Texans off their game, though.