Patriots' offense struggles in preseason loss to Texans
BOSTON -- The 2023 preseason officially began with a loss for the Patriots.
The Texans shook off a slow start and kept New England's offense stifled for the majority of the night en route to a 20-9 win on the road at Gillette Stadium.
Rookie C.J. Stroud struggled in his short amount of work at QB for Houston, but Davis Mills and Case Keenum each threw a touchdown in the win. Bailey Zappe was 12-for-14 for 79 yards as New England's starting quarterback. Rookie Malik Cunningham provided most of the offensive oomph for the Patriots, engineering a long scoring drive in the fourth quarter to give New England its only touchdown of the night.
The Patriots got the game started with a bang, with Jalen Mills picking off rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud on the sixth play from scrimmage. Three plays later, Nick Folk drilled home a 44-yard field goal to give New England a 3-0 lead.
The score held until the end of the first half, when Tank Dell made an impressive touchdown grab while spinning in the end zone after initially bobbling a pass from Davis Mills. The touchdown gave Houston a 7-3 lead at halftime.
Houston stretched that lead to 13-3 early in the second half, after stopping New England on a fourth-and-1 run attempt near midfield before embarking on a 55-yard touchdown drive. Former Patriot Dalton Keene took a handoff as a fullback on a third-and-goal from the 1-yard line to cap off the drive. The PAT was no good.
Hampered by poor offensive line play, New England couldn't do much of anything on offense for the majority of the game. But rookie QB Malik Cunningham -- who spent the spring and the start of the summer as a receiver -- provided a jolt of energy when he entered at quarterback in the fourth quarter. He completed three of four passes for 19 yards, with the lone incompletion being a drop in the end zone by Tre Nixon. And he ran five times for 34 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown run to give New England its first touchdown of the night. The two-point conversion was unsuccessful, making it a 20-9 Houston lead with under two minutes to play.
The Patriots finished the game with just 164 offensive yards.
The Patriots will head to Green Bay next week for some joint practices before taking on the Packers for preseason game No. 2 next Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET.
