FOXBOROUGH — It couldn’t have been a more ominous beginning for the New England Patriots Sunday.
Right out of the gate, the Houston Texans returned the opening kickoff 94 yards when Danieal Manning ran it back deep in the end zone to the New England 12. Before anyone could get settled in their seats, it was 3-0, Houston, courtesy of a Shayne Graham field goal.
Then, on the Patriots’ first play, Danny Woodhead ran up the middle and injured his thumb, never to return. Then, with just over eight minutes to go in the first quarter, big tight end Rob Gronkowski landed awkwardly on an incompletion, re-breaking the arm he fractured in November (reports are Gronk will undergo surgery to fix it).
Needless to say, things didn’t look good. But the Patriots adjusted on the fly. Second-year back Shane Vereen stepped in and became Woodhead (they aren’t that much different in size), rushing for 41 yards and catching five passes for 83 yards. Michael Hoomanawanui stepped into the breach and minimized Gronk’s absence — at least as a blocker — allowing the Pats as a team to rush for 122 yards. And Wes Welker caught eight passes for 131 yards. And even though he didn’t score a point, he was every bit as valuable as anyone who did.
The result was a 41-28 win and a trip to the AFC championship next Sunday, at home, against the Baltimore Ravens.
Several important things contributed to the win. Devin McCourty ran down Manning on that opening kick and caught him, allowing for the defense to hold and minimize the damage to just a field goal.
“All I was thinking was to get him down and let our defense come in and try to stop them,” McCourty said.
“That was huge,” coach Bill Belichick said. “We didn’t get off to the start we wanted at all, but at least we kept the damage to a minimum.”
And from there, unlikely heroes stepped up, none more vital than Vereen, who rushed for one touchdown and caught two TD passes.
Vereen’s three touchdowns overall ties a team postseason mark.
“He had a great game,” quarterback Tom Brady said, “really a huge growing-up moment for him.”
Brady won his 17th career postseason game to improve to a 17-6 overall postseason record. His 17 career postseason victories are the most in NFL history.
Brady, who, like the rest of the Patriots, claims he was unaware of the extent of Gronkowski’s injury, nevertheless said it was disheartening to see him leave the game in obvious pain.
“We had a whole plan built for him and (Woodhead),” he said. “We run the first series of the game and all those plans change.
“It’s like, ‘what are we going to do now? How are we going to adjust’?”
But adjust they did.
“Obviously,” he said, “it’s a bummer to lose anyone, but someone of Rob’s importance, or Danny’s importance, we need guys to step in and fill the void.”
“All the running backs hold themselves accountable,” said Vereen, whose running mate (Stevan Ridley) ran for 82 yards and also scored a touchdown. “We want to be able to step up when someone goes down.”
“They all work very hard,” said defensive tackle Vince Wilfork. “We don’t want any soft running backs, and we don’t have any.”
After the disastrous beginning, Vereen scored from a yard out to make it 7-3. Stephen Gostkowski’s 37-yard field goal early in the second quarter made it 10-3 and when Vereen caught an eight-yard pass from Brady with 3:38 to go in the half, it looked as if another rout — like the one last month — was on.
But Houston didn’t fold this time. Manning again burned the Patriots with a long return (this one for 35 yards) and Arian Foster did the rest, capping it with a one-yard plunge. A Graham field goal just before the half brought Houston to within four (17-13).
The Patriots came out gunning, though, in the third quarter, scoring two touchdowns (Ridley’s eight-yard run and a five-yard Brady-to-Brandon Lloyd strike), and it was 31-13 after three.
Early in the fourth quarter, after the Patriots stopped the Texans on a fourth-and-1, Brady went up top and hit Vereen with a 33-yard TD pass to seal the deal.
The Texans got two fourth-quarter touchdowns, but it was too little, too late. Gostkowski hit his second field goal of the night with under two minutes to go, and that was that.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].
