Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

Final Score
Texans 7
Patriots 40

Teddy’s Take: Nice to get a preseason game in the middle of November, isn’t it? It’s even better when you get to keep the credit in the “W� column.

Not much suspense here. Houston was awful from the opening kickoff. What a truly horrific franchise. No…Reggie Bush or Vince Young wouldn’t help. Not at all. (Drip, drip goes the sarcasm)

To the Patriots credit, they put the Texans down early and never took the foot off their throats. This wasn’t going to be a repeat of the Lions game where the Pats let an inferior opponent stick around and think it could win. It’s exactly what a good team should do. Put it away early and coast home.

The final two weeks shape up as much tougher matchups. Jacksonville laid an egg today, but the Jaguars are a monster at home. And the Titans are really playing good football. Thankfully, there’s a good chance the Pats will lock up a playoff spot even if they lose both games. However, with the stinker in Miami fresh in their minds, it would be nice to go on the road and beat some quality foes.

Shining Stars: The entire defense earns high honors, battering David Carr into submission early and often. However, two players in particular stood out and get an extra star on the forehead. Ellis Hobbs’ kick return TD took away any momentum the Texans might have thought about gaining. Throw in a pick, and you have a nice comeback game for the guy who got benched a week ago. Tully Banta-Cain also had a strong game with a pair of sacks. More efforts like this will be needed to help a thin and banged up linebacking corps.

On the other side of the ball, Kevin Faulk really got the offense rolling early with a TD run and catch on a screen pass. Corey Dillon didn’t light up the stat sheet (20 carries for 61-yards), but he carried the load with Laurence Maroney out. Add in 5-receptions, and you have a very productive day for Mr. Dillon. Let’s also give props to the offensive line for doing a good job protecting the quarterback a week after he was beaten up pretty well.

Quality Quote: “Coach talked about in the locker room after the game that we won this game on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You have to put the work in. You have to be able to go out there and work had over the course of three days to understand what we are trying to do, understand our opponent—especially a team that we haven’t faced in a while—and ultimately on Sunday try to go out and execute and try to have some fun. There are probably more smiles today than there have been around here in a while. I thought it was very enthusiastic before the game and I think we showed that in the way we played.�—Tom Brady alluding to his comments earlier in the week about listening to the coaching staff

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That’s my take…what’s yours? Was this anything more than a glorified exhibition game? How do you see the next two weeks playing out?