The Houston Texans face a challenge in the New England Patriots' “well-coached” defense

The Houston Texans are preparing to play the New England Patriots.

On paper, the Texans are 4-1 favorites against the Patriots, who have lost four games in a row. However, the Texans are not underestimating New England's defense, which received praise from offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik.

“They are extremely solid and very well coached,” Slowik said. “I immediately notice that they are well trained. And after just watching that side of the ball, I know that their defense, for the most part, has kept them in many games. That's how it feels when I watch the tape. They were on the field a lot. They have found a way to keep the opponents' score significantly low. And I think that's because of how well coached they are, how committed they are to what they play and the fact that they're very diverse. You could have the same personnel on the field and line them up five, six, seven different ways. And that creates problems for us in a lot of ways that we have to iron out over the course of the week so that everyone knows what's going on and we know what to do when we come into the game. It comes from a similar pedigree in Minnesota and (Vikings defensive coordinator Brian) Flores, as they call it, is obviously a little different, but they're technically very, very solid and they really have some good players at every level that can do a lot of everything very good.”

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The Texans have been tested on defense so far this season and have shown some chinks in their armor. It will be New England's job to exploit these weaknesses.

If the Texans can execute their game plan, they should be able to leave Gillette Stadium with another win.

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Stick with it TexansGameday for more coverage of the Houston Texans throughout the season.

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