Tom Brady got ‘rattled’ vs. the Texans, and the Patriots look a little less intimidating

The New England Patriots were one of the biggest favorites in postseason history against the Houston Texans and still managed to cover the spread in a 34-16 win. But expectations were so high that the team’s comfortable victory still didn’t feel satisfactory for the Patriots.

Houston had its opportunities but couldn’t take advantage. The Patriots had three turnovers — an unusual number for a team that has finished with the fewest turnovers in each of the last three seasons. But the Texans scored just one touchdown, and Brock Osweiler threw three interceptions.

The next opponent for the Patriots might not be so forgiving:

But New England’s next opponent won’t boast the No. 1 defense in the NFL. Led by Jadeveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus, the Houston pass rush gave Tom Brady plenty of trouble, hitting the 12-time Pro Bowler eight times and sacking him twice.

“He was rattled,” Clowney said, via the Boston Globe. “I think we did good. Hit him when we wanted to, we were messing him up, disguising, moving around. When you’re playing that good, you expect to win games. We just didn’t get the outcome we wanted.”

With the win, Brady is now 23-9 in the playoffs — well ahead of Joe Montana’s 16 postseason wins for the most all-time.

He’s faced top defenses before, he’s been hit before, and yet Clowney’s claim that Brady was rattled seems to hold water — especially after the quarterback threw a tantrum that included elbows to Clowney when he thought he was hit late:

Despite finishing the game with 287 passing yards and two touchdowns, his pair of interceptions and offensive struggles throughout the game left him frustrated.

“They have some good rushers, they have good guys in coverage, and they had a pretty good scheme,” Brady said. “It was a lot of things and when you add our poor execution on top of that and you add our turnovers on top of that, it doesn’t feel great because we worked pretty hard to play a lot better than we played.

“We’ll never turn the ball over as much as we did and think it was a great game.”

Now headed to a sixth consecutive AFC Championship, the Patriots with Brady under center and Bill Belichick on the sideline have been a dynasty that few teams have been able to topple. In New England’s nine postseason defeats since 2000, defenses have typically found success rushing Brady, forcing turnovers, and winning the time of possession battle.

While the Texans accomplished all three, the Osweiler-led offense didn’t make New England pay. Pittsburgh or Kansas City will be champing at the bit to take a shot against the suddenly much-less-intimidating Patriots next week.