...what with perhaps the most talented front seven in the game, a group of speedy sack artists and run-plugging brutes combined with an up-and-coming secondary, there is no reason to doubt that they will give the New England Patriots' offense all they can handle this coming Sunday, so it will be how the Patriots counter that aggressiveness that will be the difference between victory and defeat.
The last time these teams met when the games meant something, the Patriots beat Houston in Foxborough on a chilly January evening in the divisional round of the 2016 playoffs - but it wasn't easy, and many believe that if the Texans would have had any semblance of an efficient offense at all, it would have been Houston advancing to the AFC title game.
But all they could muster was a touchdown and a handful of field goals, never able to take advantage of the Patriots offense practically handing the Texans' defense the ball in a much-closer-than-the-score-indicates 34-16 win that ended the Texans' season and finished quarterback Brock Osweiler in Houston.
The Texans' defense, despite being down several impact players, gave up only 27 of those points, as New England got a nifty 69-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from Dion Lewis and took advantage of three Osweiler interceptions - forever to be known as the "Rutgers Trifecta", as former college teammates Devin McCourty, Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon picked off three Osweiler offerings...
...turning them into two field goals and a short touchdown drive to turn what was tight game into a Patriots win going away, as New England produced just two sustained drives on the evening - one extended by a long pass interference penalty - mostly due to the Texans' aggression on defense that pulled Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady off his mark several times and harassed him all night long.
All of that, mind you, without All World defensive end JJ Watt as the Texans employed a deception-heavy scheme that had the offensive line and Brady with their heads on a swivel, wondering where the pass rush was going to come from time after time.
But this time, Watt is healthy and ready to lead the most talented squad of pass rushing greyhounds in the league against a Patriots' offense whose receiving corps has been ravaged by injury and whose offensive line has featured a pair of matadors on the edges, forcing Brady to climb the pocket to be able to step into throws - sometimes letting them go off his back foot as the pocket collapses around him.
Not all is lost for the Patriots, though, as the backfield has performed as expected and the interior offensive line has held fast.
Injuries have piled up for New England, however, as pass catchers Chris Hogan, Philip Dorsett and Rob Gronkowski, right tackle Marcus Cannon and runner Rex Burkhead all suffered lower-body injuries last Sunday against the New Orleans Saints - but while Cannon and Burkhead appear to be destined for the shelf this Sunday, Hogan, Dorsett and most importantly Gronkowski all figure to participate in some capacity.
New England should also be welcoming back receiver Danny Amendola, who should provide a boost to Brady's arsenal, provided Brady stays on his feet long enough to get the ball to him.
Houston defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel moves his front seven around in a sort of chaotic jumble, at times bringing defensive ends and linebackers straight up the middle in three or four man rush packages while dropping them into coverage on others. There is no way to predict where the rush is coming from, but there is a way to mitigate their impact.
It's called using your running backs.
In James White and Dion Lewis, the Patriots have dual mismatch threats that, if used in tandem, should be able to dictate to the Texans how they approach their pass rushing scheme. Both are excellent receivers and fine runners, but it is their skill in picking up rogue linebackers on the blitz that up their value to New England, particularly against the heavy pressure that Houston can bring.
Both give up half a foot in height and seventy pounds in weight, on average, to the Texans' pass rushers, but are equal to them in size of heart, willingly putting their bodies between Brady and those human flying projectiles to achieve the greater good - which against Houston means giving Brady an extra half-second to go through his progression...
...which is going to be important given that right tackle Cannon is most likely a no-go and the powerful yet far-from-limber Cam Fleming is his understudy - which is bad in and of itself, but it becomes a waking nightmare when facing Watt on the edge.
Things don't get much better on the other side with Nate Solder's lateral agility in question after revolving door performances in the first two contests, leaving the interior of the Patriots line as the strength of the unit - center David Andrews and guards Shaq Mason and Joe Thuney forming a tupperware-like seal up the middle that has allowed just two pressures and one sack, combined.
They have not faced pass-rushing talent like Houston's this season, but the memory of being abused by them in the playoffs last January is probably still thick in their minds.
Of course, while the offense starts with the offensive line, they are just one piece of the whole puzzle that last January saw the Patriots lean heavily on now-injured and unavailable wide receiver Julian Edelman, who accounted for 13 of the 22 Brady targets to receivers, and half of the team's receiving yards.
But New England shouldn't be looking to repeat that performance from eight months ago, as without timely penalties on the Texans' defense and ineptitude displayed by their offense, that would have been a losing effort. The Patriots played the "Take what they give us" game then, and the same mindset in this game could have disastrous results.
The key with the Texans' defense is to force the issue to get them out of their game, to dictate to them what formations they can run, what personnel can play and to wear them down to take advantage of them late in the game.
The most fundamental of these tasks is to use their aggressiveness against them in establishing a running game while maintaining their ability to spread the field horizontally - and the best way to do that, particularly in light of the injury issues among the pass catchers, is to use dual backs in White and Lewis, moving them around in a pre-snap cadence to identify who's rushing and who's covering and to adjust accordingly.
Of course, the best way to get that moving is through the no-huddle offense - not a two-minute, hurry up, but with a four-minute clock-killing approach that keeps the defense in their stances for a protracted amount of time while Brady scans the field to identify mismatches.
The purpose of this approach is two-fold. With that much time at the line of scrimmage - and all the while Brady barking out cadence - the Texans are likely to tip their hand in coverages, especially if they are worn down by the Patriots' no-huddle tactics, which includes the energy-sapping ploy of holding the pass rushers in their stances.
After the effects of this course of action take hold, Brady can start mixing up both the cadence and the timing to gain even more advantage.
Look, all of this is basic, fundamental football. The Patriots' offense is predicated on misdirection along the offensive line to give the appearance that the play call is a run when in fact it is a pass and vice-versa. New England uses their guards - in particular right guard Mason - as a pulling lead blocker in the running game, but also will pull him to draw the defense to the strong side, catching them light on the weak side...
...where a back or one of Brady's speedy little pass catchers will be waiting in the flat or up the sidelines on a wheel route, or even going over the top if the safeties bite hard and crash down to provide run support.
A defense really takes their chances on the play action against New England, as the Patriots do this as well as anyone, and with the ability of their backs to run between the tackles, pick up the blitz and catch the ball out of the backfield, they are the most versatile players on the turf and will be keyed on by defenses to sniff out plays. But just because the Patriots would be in a two-back set doesn't mean that their playbook is limited, because both White and Lewis are capable of lining up anywhere in the formation.
Which means, of course, that in a concerted effort with Hogan, Gronkowski, Amendola, Cooks and perhaps Dorsett, the Patriots can still spread the Texans' thin both horizontally and vertically.
It's called dictating to the defense, not just taking what the defense gives you. It's the Patriot way.
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