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)*Julin 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 Youth James White Jersey , 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, 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 www.newenglandpatriotsteamonline.com , 1 QB hit, 2 sacksDeatrich Wise: 4 total pressures - 2 hurries, 2 sacksKeionta Davis: 3 total pressures - 2 hurries, 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 New England Patriots T-Shirt , 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. Kacy Rodgers missed being around the players and coaches the most while not knowing when he'd feel well enough to be back.A health scare sidelined the New York Jets defensive coordinator for two games — a tense few weeks for Rodgers, who was medically cleared and returned to work this week on a full-time basis."Walking in the locker room (Sunday) and seeing the guys, it's just good to be back, it really is," Rodgers said Thursday while speaking to reporters for the first time since coming back to work.Bowles announced on Oct. 5 that Rodgers was dealing with something "serious" after visiting the doctor the previous day. The 49-year-old Rodgers underwent tests and then had what he called "a procedure" and was able to do some office work at the team's facility last week."It was kind of bothering me, and it was something that we had to get checked out," Rodgers said. "So I had a procedure last Monday, and then I got the results back this Monday. Everything came back good, so we're good to go."Rodgers declined to provide details about the exact nature of his illness, saying he preferred to keep it private."I really don't want to say that right now," he said. "I feel a lot better. I really do. It's good to be back and getting back in the swing of things. We knew the procedure and we felt confident going in that it would be taken care of and we would know the results."He surprised the players by attending the Jets' victory over Indianapolis last Sunday and broke down the team's postgame huddle in the locker room."Sometimes you take for granted what it is to be around the guys and be with them every day," Rodgers said, "and the family unit it becomes."Rodgers has been out on the field during practice this week, but it's uncertain if he will call the defensive plays in his usual role Sunday against Minnesota."Him getting back into it was easy," Bowles said. "He was in the building last week doing tedious things, but getting back into it is pretty good. He's back at game-planning normally. We are all in meetings and we will decide that probably tomorrow or Saturday who is going to call it."After Bowles knew Rodgers wouldn't be able to coach against Denver two weeks ago, he announced the bad news to the team.Several of the players reached out to their coach, and he thought it was "truly touching" to hear from so many well-wishers."I got a lot of texts from all the guys," he said before smiling. "What's kind of ironic is New England Patriots Hats , I coach the defense, but I had just as many offensive guys reaching out."But then came the tough part: watching the Jets beat the Broncos 34-16 from his couch at home."That's kind of a hard, hard feeling," Rodgers said.To a man, the defensive players said they dedicated their play — and the victory — to Rodgers that day.He felt well enough to attend the game last Sunday at MetLife Stadium and was able to mingle with the players before kickoff. Rodgers then sat in the coaches' booth while wearing the radio headset, but was only what Bowles described as "a casual observer.""You never want to be a distraction to the team," Rodgers said. "Everybody else was having to pick up (the slack) with me away from the coaching staff. Todd had to do more and the rest of the assistants had to do more. For the players to know they've got a job to do, I feel like I'm hindering them."It was what Rodgers called a "weird" experience and added he didn't want to be "a detriment" to the team.After the game, several players such as Morris Claiborne, Darron Lee and Jamal Adams said seeing Rogers really lifted them up emotionally."That's priceless," Rodgers said. "To know they were thinking about me while they were trying to do their jobs really means a lot."Rodgers was also able to joke about the success Bowles had running the defense in his absence — both victories."Dang," Rodgers said with a big laugh, "I need to stay away more often."NOTES: CBs Buster Skrine (concussion) and Trumaine Johnson (quadriceps), WRs Terrelle Pryor (groin) and Quincy Enunwa (sprained ankle), RB Isaiah Crowell (foot) and S Marcus Maye (broken thumb) didn't practice. Only Enunwa and Maye have already been ruled out against Minnesota. ... LB Kevin Pierre-Louis (foot) was limited after sitting out Wednesday. ... WR Robby Anderson (hamstring) and Leon Williams (back) were full after not practicing Wednesday, and C Spencer Long (knee/finger) was also full after being limited. ... RB De'Angelo Henderson was re-signed to the practice squad and LB Harvey Langi was played on practice squad injured reserve.
