Battle Red Balls: Week Three (Texans-Patriots)

Welcome back for the second installment to the oldest tradition started in the last week here at Battle Red Blog®. That’s right, this is the place where we hand out our preliminary strike games balls to the Texans we have predicted will do the best in this week's matchup.

For those who missed out on this long-standing tradition, take a look at whose balls were the best last week.

Tomorrow night, the Houston Texans are off to face the original Boston Tea Partiers, the New England Patriots. Since one of New England’s Dynamic Duo (Belichick and Brady) is out for tampering with his own balls, the Texans’ defense has a decided edge over Boston boys. But the game ain’t over till it’s over, ya know?

Since it hasn’t even been played yet, now is the perfect time to hand out our Battle Red Balls for the week.

Mike:

Offense: Brock Osweiler finally has things gel and slow down for him in the rather improbable situation of being the most experienced quarterback in the stadium. He takes advantage of New England's bottom ten defense and throws for over 300 yards with three touchdowns.

Defense: Whitney Mercilus racks up three sacks and two forced fumbles against rookie signal-caller Jacoby Brisset and emergency quarterback Julian Edelman.

Tim:

Offense: Stephen Anderson. The middle of the field will be open as the Patriots focus on stopping DeAndre Hopkins, Will Fuller, and the Texans' running game. Anderson finds the end zone.

Defense: Johnathan Joseph. He'll notch his first pick of the season courtesy of Jacoby Brissett.

Battle Red Coat:

Offense: Lamar Miller gets the ball and, after waiting two games for a TD, he gets two and 130 yards

Defense: John Simon adds two to his sack total and increases his lead at the top of the Texans’ sack list.

Luke:

Offense: Brock Osweiler throws two TD's and doesn't have any turnovers in a wonderfully competent, Matt Schaub-esque performance.

Defense: John Simon, human hoover, adds another sack and a fumble recovery.

Diehard Chris:

Offense - Will Fuller continues his run of early success with his third consecutive 100+yard game and also breaks his streak of dropping at least one TD pass per game.

Defense - Whitney Mercilus makes a timely play late in the game with a strip/sack/fumble.

Brett:

Offense - Will Fuller. He will likely get the toughest matchup of the week because the Patriots like to isolate Malcolm Butler (their top corner) on their opponent's number two receiver while the number one gets double-covered, which means Fuller will need to have his best game yet if he wants to keep up his impressive production.

Defense - Benardrick McKinney. The Patriots’ offense is going to focus on the run game now that they are down to their third-string quarterback. McKinney's play will be the key to keeping that in check.

Now we’ve tossed out our balls, who gets yours?

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