Patriots fail to execute their 5 keys to victory vs the Texans

I expected the To lose and it to be close. 27-20 was still a close game. I gave a list of things the Patriots had to do to win.

Watson ran it 6 times for 36 yards with a long of 11. They failed to contain him. However, they held the backs to under 2 yards a carry, when they should've been focused on stopping the pass instead of the run. We've seen the Patriots let teams run wild and keep them out of the endzone. I don't get their strategy today.

Watson put up 344 yards and 2 touchdowns on this defensive unit. He completed 75% of his passes on what is supposed to be one of the better pass defending units, not their fault. The game plan was apparently to stop the run. 

The Patriots needed to run a balanced offense, they ran a 65-35 pass heavy split. They had to be able to run the football. Newton ran it 3 times averagi6 2 ypc. Harris and White ran it a total of 16 times, averaging 3.8-3.9 ypc. Burkhead averaged 1.4 yards on 4 carries before getting hurt. 

The Patriots made a grave mistake not playing Sony Michel. The Texans are a team that the Patriots should've ran around 150 yards. This proves to me that Harris should not have a lock on the number 1 spot. When Sony played the Raiders, a Team he should destroy, he did. Expect a competition going forward.

The Patriots didn't turn the ball over but they had 7 penalties for 55 yards and their special team outside of Bailey was poor today. I always expect at least an average performance from that unit. Bethel and Gunner need to be better.

The Patriots went 7 of 13 on third downs, while that's over 50%, they needed to be better today. The Patriots are not clutch on third downs. The Patriots made it into the red zone only twice. That's horrible, 50% from the redzone is again not where they needed to be but considering they only got there once, that efficiency gets a pass.

The Patriots didn't do anything I said they needed to do to win today. The Final score ends with them trailing. Newton failing to be able to throw the ball 60 yards on the final play with a with plenty of time, also hurt the team. The ball should've been near the goal line and not the 10 yard line. Newton's arm strength is gonna come into question. Newton's 31, Bledsoe at 35 could still throw 70 yards bombs.

One last thing, since the Patriots play man, if the guy the defender is covering stays in to block, his mirror has to blitz by default.

There was one bright spot. Down by seven on the final drive, During clutch time, the Patriots went to Izzo twice. Once for 9 yards and Izzo got out of bounds. The next play was a 50+ yard hail mary to Izzo. That should put the Issue of Newton liked Olsen, so there has to be something wrong with Izzo to bed. When he needed a to win, Izzo was his man but again, the ball was 10 yards shorter than it should've been so the debate is sure to continue.