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 to in the New England Patriots' opener.The reigning NFL MVP completed passes to eight players in a 27-20 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday Kyle Van Noy Jersey , connecting with Rob Gronkowski and Phillip Dorsett for seven receptions and a touchdown apiece."We try to spread it around quite a bit," said Brady, who was 26 of 39 for 277 yards and three scores. "If you're out there, I trust you, the coaches trust you, the team trusts you. That's why we're putting you out there."After losing Danny Amendola to free agency and Julian Edelman to a four-game suspension, the Patriots were expected to be hobbled by a lack of targets for the three-time NFL MVP. This year's corps was being compared to the one in 2006, when Reche Caldwell led the team with 63 receptions (and caught only 15 more the rest of his career).Brady hit Gronkowski for 123 yards, including a 21-yard touchdown three plays after Deshaun Watson fumbled a handoff at the Texans 19 on Houston's first offensive play . They also connected on a 28-yard pass during a 2-minute drill that left the Patriots with a 21-6 halftime lead."It's very important that they came out and played the way they did. They're our leaders," said Dorsett, who had 66 receiving yards, including a 4-yard score. "When they play well, they give an adrenaline boost to the rest of the team."It was Gronkowski's 31st career regular-season or playoff game of 100 yards or more, tying Tony Gonzalez's NFL record."We've been playing together for a long time," Brady said. "I know his body language. I know his ability to run and what routes. He can do it. He can do really all the routes. It's just a matter of giving him a chance, and it came with a big touchdown today."The 41-year-old quarterback also found James White for a touchdown; he also had an interception on a pass that was tipped at the line of scrimmage. Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, who missed the final nine games last season with a torn right ACL, completed 17 of 35 passes for 176 yards, one score and one interception.Watson struggled to move the team in the first 40 minutes, managing just a pair of field-goal drives before Alfred Blue ran it in from 1 yard to make it 24-13 in the last two minutes of the third period. Lamar Miller ran 20 times for 98 yards for Houston.A muffed punt by New England's Riley McCarron with under five minutes left set up Watson's 5-yard TD pass to Bruce Ellington and cut the deficit to 27-20. But after getting the ball back at their 1 with 43 seconds left http://www.patriotscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-trent-brown-jersey , the Texans failed to reach midfield.BACK FROM INJURIESWatson, defensive lineman J.J. Watt and linebacker Whitney Mercilus returned after finishing 2017 on injured reserve. Watt had two quarterback hurries, but D.J. Reader had the only two sacks of Brady, both late."It's good to play a full game to know it lasts, to know it holds up," said Watt, a three-time defensive player of the year. "I didn't think about it once. So, that's all you can ask for."UNDER PRESSUREWatson, who threw for 301 yards in a 36-33 loss to New England last year in his second NFL start, botched a handoff with Miller in the first quarter, setting up the Patriots for their first touchdown. In the second quarter, Watson inexplicably chucked the ball into the end zone for a double-covered Vyncint Smith on a second-and-3 from the New England 42.Stephon Gilmore brought it down for the interception."I think it was terrible, on my part," Watson said. "I just feel like you can put the 'L' on me."INJURIESTexans: DE Christian Covington injured his thigh in the first quarter. T Seantrel Henderson left after getting his left ankle rolled a few plays later. Kevin Johnson left with what the team said was a concussion and did not return.Patriots: RB Jeremy Hill left with a right knee injury on the Gronkowski fumble in the third quarter.LATE SERIESAfter the Texans forced New England to punt in the final minute, Ryan Allen landed the ball inside the 5-yard line and Jonathan Jones downed it at the 1. Houston advanced to the 16 on a penalty for leading with the helmet and Watson found DeAndre Hopkins for 14 yards before scrambling for 13 more.From his 43 with 5 seconds left, Watson chucked the ball as far as the 10, but it was knocked away.The Patriots pass rush appears to be much improved Let’s just get this out of the way before the BAMA AIN’T PLAYED NOBODY crowd jumps in:Here is the current offensive line of the Houston Texans.Martinas Rankin (OT)*Juli茅n Davenport (OT)Nick Martin (C)Zach Fulton (G)Senio Kelemete (G)*replaced right tackle Sentreal Henderson in the second quarter after Henderson suffered a broken ankle and they shuffled some tackles around so eventually two tackles were playing tackle. Whatever. Some teams are into that.I swear that those are all real, live NFL offensive linemen and none of those names are from the Key and Peele college football sketches.That being said, if you were finally catching your second wind (or first wind, for that matter) after staying out too late on Saturday night right around game time on Sunday David Andrews Jersey , you may have thought to yourself at one point or another during the game when Texans QB Deshaun Watson was having an “Oh, FML” moment as he got swarmed by blue jerseys, “Man, it looks like the Patriots are getting pressure, like, every other time he goes back to pass!”Your day drinking self would be correct!Pass rush pressure, you say? It’s so...beautiful!Seeing that kind of pressure again as a Patriots fan must be what those people doing Whole 30 or whatever feel like when it’s finally over and someone puts a half pound burger and a plate full of fries in front of you. It’s just the way life was meant to be lived.Now, as our fearless leader Rich Hill pointed out yesterday, the run defense is...well, so far...not great. Part of that is the D-line personnel that the Patriots were putting on the field expecting the Texans to abandon the run after going down 18 points, and then the Texans kept pounding the rock for 7 of 10 snaps against a smaller New England line, so, all strategery aside, that’s going to happen when teams keep pounding the rock without more Pats run-stuffers in the game.Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the pass rush some more!What should make this a big F’ing deal for a Patriots pass rush that couldn’t buy a sack if they had an American Express Black Card in the Super Bowl is that it’s not like they were just beating up on one overmatched offensive lineman, like *some* people criticized Adrian Clayborn for in his six-sack game against Dallas last season. The Patriots were bringing the rush from all areas of the field and against all those Texans offensive linemen we mentioned earlier.(Side note re: Adrian Clayborn’s sack totals from last season being “inflated” because of that one Dallas game: beating up on bad offensive linemen is what you’re SUPPOSED to do)Check out where the heat was coming from, courtesy of CLNS’s Evan Lazar’s advanced stats:Trey Flowers: 7 total pressures - 4 hurries, 1 QB hit, 2 sacksDeatrich Wise: 4 total pressures - 2 hurries, 2 sacksKeionta Davis: 3 total pressures - 2 hurries Elandon Roberts Jersey , 1 QB hitAdrian Clayborn: 3 total pressures - 3 hurriesKyle Van Noy: 3 total pressures - 3 hurriesMalcom Brown - 3 total pressures - 2 hurries, 1 QB hitLawrence Guy - 2 total pressures - 1 hurry, 1 QB hitDanny Shelton, Dont’a Hightower, and Pat Chung also all chipped in with one quarterback pressure apiece. Not too bad for a defense that normally gets shredded at least once before most people are thinking about their Halloween costume!Everyone on defense joining the pressure party is one way to look at it, anyway. The optimist in every Pats fan will see that and say that at least most of the guys here can bring the heat in the right situations; since nobody in New England is an optimist for more than 5 minutes, though, the flipside is that outside of Trey Flowers, nobody really dominated their matchups here, at least not in a Khalil Mack playing tether-ball with the Packers kind of way.And that’s OK! After the Patriots did their usual “Is that your mock draft? That’s cute” and didn’t take a defensive player with either of their two first-round picks, or their second-round pick, and actually didn’t take a D-tackle or defensive end in the draft at all, saying this defensive line wasn’t scaring anybody over the summer would’ve been an understatement. Sure, there were some good flashes in the preseason, like Keionta Davis’s patience finally paying off with his first NFL sack, but that’s preseason, right? Wait till the real football starts, right?So far, real football is a whole lot more fun when your defense is the ones DOING the barbecuing and not getting barbeCUED by Alex Smith in week 1.Especially when Deatrich Wise is just making up his sack celebrations like going bowling as he goes along. Imagine what will be coming out of this man’s imagination after the bye week.