No one is giving the Houston Texans much chance to win in Foxborough this week.
Despite the perception that the New England Patriots will once again blow out Brock Osweiler and the Texans, Tom Brady knows he won't have a cakewalk against Romeo Crennel's top-ranked defense.
"They have a damn good defense," Brady said Monday morning on WEEI, via ESPN.com's Mike Reiss. "There is nothing easy about this game for our offense. We're going to have to go grind it out. We have to go get our mind right and we will. We had a good week of practice last week and we need to carry it over into today and all the way through Saturday night."
In Week 3, the Brady-less Patriots shut out the Texans 27-0. Despite one of the worst performances of the NFL season from Osweiler, the Texans out-gained the Jacoby Brissett operation 284 yards to 282 yards.
With Brady at the helm this time, most are predicting another butt whipping.
Brady started the week attempting to dash any feelings of overconfidence in the Pats' locker room.
"I don't think you take anything for granted," he said. "I don't think you mail in your preparation. I think we go about it the exact same way we've gone about it all year -- we put everything into it this week, we empty the tank in our practices, which we always do, and then you come out the end of the week with confidence and ready to go out there and show everyone that we're prepared and we can play."
If the Patriots are prepared to play -- and history tells us Brady and Bill Belichick won't lay an egg -- Saturday night's tilt will quickly turn into another playoff blowout.