The Film Room: How LeGarrette Blount and the Patriots “powered” over Texans

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LeGarrette Blount and the Patriots ran for 105 yards and two touchdowns on Thursday night in defeating the Houston Texans. It was a one-sided affair capped off by a 41-yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter. In the first half, the Texans actually did a good job of containing Blount by holding him to 11 yards on seven rushing attempts. In the second half, however, Blount gained 94 of his 105 rushing yards.

In this video breakdown, I discuss how the New England Patriots’ executed power running plays with LeGarrette Blount in the backfield.

While the power running game wasn't successful in the first half, the Patriots stuck to their game plan. This combined with sweeps and naked bootlegs completely wore out the Texans defensive line and removed the Texans' greatest defensive strength J.J. Watt from affecting the game.

This is what makes Bill Belichick so good. He game plans to remove your team's greatest strength and makes you rely on your other players to make plays. After J.J. Watt was game planned out of the game, the Patriots out-muscled the rest of the Texans’ line and played stout defense keeping Osweiler and the Texans' offense in check.