Inferior Texans Lose to Patriots, Ending Dream of an All-Texas Super Bowl

HOUSTON, TX — No one expected the Texans to win, of course, not even the woman in Trader Joe's wearing the glittery pink jersey emblazoned with the Houston team's logo. She was shopping on Saturday afternoon for a viewing party, her cart full of cheese and beer and chips.

And alas, win they did not, falling 34-16 to a predictably, routinely good New England Patriots performance. Good, because it was actually a somewhat sloppy performance from the Pats.

Still, a good Patriots team is not a bad thing to have, and the Texans, with their offensive foibles in full display, were never going to win. Dion Lewis scored three times for the Pats, and the rest is history.

"Well, it was good to win this game and be able to move on. You've got to give these guys a lot of credit that we didn't play particularly well, but we hung in there," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said at the press conference following the game. "We ended up making enough plays to win. You've got to give Billy [O'Brien] and the Texans a lot of credit. They played well. They did a great job defensively. They knocked the ball off of us. We fumbled, they intercepted us, we had too many balls out, and we're lucky we didn't lose more than we did."

His counterpart, Texans coach Bill O'Brien, returned the compliment:

"Yeah, I think I thought our guys battled hard, give the Patriots credit. You know, they are a great team and you know, when you turn it over, you give up a kickoff return, a 98-yard kickoff return, you turn it over, you're not going to beat the Patriots," he said. "You know, we talked about that all week. Give our guys credit, they fought. They fought hard and just didn't do enough."

The Texan finished 9-7 in regular-season play, and now have some decisions to make, especially when it comes to the QB position. Brock Osweiler had a lackluster season, to say the least, and many consider his $72 million contract a huge mistake.

There are also the rumors of O'Brien's departure, talk that the coach dismissed during the press conference.

"I'll back next season, I'll be the Texans head coach. I'll be back next season, like I said, I have a five-year contract," he said. "This was year three, and like I've also said, I need to do a better job. You know, I think we have a good football team. And overall, we need to do a better job, especially on offense. So, I am going to work hard to try to get that improved this off season.

The Dallas Cowboys face the Green Bay Packers today in what could be an enthralling playoff matchup.

— Image courtesy Creative Commons/BenJones88