Houston Texans: By the numbers in Week 1 loss to Patriots

A lot happened for the Houston Texans in their Week 1 loss against the New England Patriots when taking a closer look at the final stats.

The Houston Texans lost their Week 1 season opener to the New England Patriots by a 27-20 score at Gillette Stadium. Entering the game, OddsShark had the Texans as six-point underdogs according the the Vegas betting odds, so it wasn’t a complete surprise the Texans lost the game by the touchdown and extra point.

Following the loss at New England, the Texans have now lost three of their past five season openers, including two in a row as last year they lost 29-7 to the Jacksonville Jaguars. In two of those losses in the the past five season openers, the Texans lost by scores of 27-20 with the other loss by that score coming in 2015 to the Kansas City Chiefs.

A fun fact in comparing both the 2018 and 2015 losses by the aforementioned 27-20 scores, the Texans held both the Patriots in ’18 and the Chiefs in ’15 without a touchdown in the second half in those games.

Now taking a closer look at the Week 1 loss, here are some numbers that you might have missed on the final stat sheet.

• Quarterback Deshaun Watson in both of his season openers to start his career has thrown an interception and a touchdown pass. On Sunday, Watson was 17-of-34 for 176 yards with the one touchdown and one interception. In 2017, Watson was 12-of-23 for 102 yards with one interception and one touchdown.

• The Texans are averaging 17.4 points per game in their past five season openers. The Texans have allowed an average of 20.6 ppg in those same games.

• Sunday was the second-most receptions in a season opener for DeAndre Hopkins in his career. He totaled eight receptions for 78 yards and no touchdowns to start this season. Hopkins had his best season opener in 2015 with a day of nine receptions for 98 yards and two touchdowns against the Kansas City Chiefs.

• In his six career season openers, Hopkins is averaging 6.3 receptions, 73.3 yards and one touchdown per game.

• Tom Brady‘s 277 passing yards on Sunday with three touchdowns and one interception was the second time in five seasons the Texans defense allowed three touchdown passes in a season opener. The other time in that five-year period was in 2015 to Alex Smith, where he threw for 243 yards and three touchdowns while with the Kansas City Chiefs.

• Kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn was responsible for eight of the Texans’ 20 points. He was 2-for-2 in extra-point attempts while also going 2-for-2 in field goals with kicks of 42 yards in the first quarter and 36 yards in the second quarter.

• The Texans were just 2-for-11 for an 18-percent third down conversion average. They were also 0-for-1 on fourth down.

• Here is a big difference of the game: Watson averaged 4.3 yards per passing play, while Brady and the Patriots averaged 6.5 yards per passing play.

• Houston was 2-for-5 in Red Zone efficiency for 40-percent and the Patriots were 3-for-4 for 75-percent.

• Lamar Miller had the longest play of the game with a 31-yard run in the first quarter. New England’s longest play was 30 yards off a Brady pass to Rob Gronkowski.

Now for the Texans, things need to improve in Week 2 when they travel to face the Tennessee Titans. As for the Week 1 loss, the Texans had good and bad points, but overall the numbers show they need to work on a few things to become more consistent for the rest of the regular season.