HOUSTON -- With 3:15 remaining, Houston kicker Kris Brown lined up a 31-yard field goal that would put his Texans ahead, 20-13.
At the same time, an elevator inside Reliant Stadium began descending to field level and a CBS representative was making clear that he needed both Houston cornerback Marcus Coleman and quarterback Tony Banks. They would speak to the NFL Today desk in New York when the game ended and explain to the country how they stunned the Patriots.
Nobody ever heard from Coleman or Banks.
The Patriots tied the game with 40 seconds left on a 4-yard, fourth-and-1 touchdown pass from Tom Brady to Daniel Graham, then survived 14 grueling minutes of overtime to beat Houston 23-20 and move to 9-2.
New England made enough bad plays -- two Brady interceptions and a fumble, two blocked kicks, a missed field goal and a misstep by Rodney Harrison that led to a touchdown -- to justify losing. They also made enough good ones that they don't feel they stole it. They were once again solid on defense, holding the Texans to 169 total yards and 11 first downs while harrassing Houston backup quarterback Banks enough that he only went 10 for 25 through the air.
But yesterday's triumph is down the list of exhilarating wins because the Patriots didn't play well.
"You're proud of the fight, but you're disappointed in the way things went down," said Harrison. "(If) you want to be good in November and December, you just can't (make mistakes), and we know we have a lot of work to do. This was different from the other victories because we knew we got away with one. These guys were tough. We're happy we won, disappointed with the way we played."
Harrison himself had an unforced error. With 6:55 left and the Texans driving after scooping up an egregious Brady fumble and bringing it to the Pats' 16, Banks threw to a wide-open Miller for a touchdown.
"I just fell," Harrison said. "As soon as I took a step, I just fell flat on my butt. I couldn't believe it. Never happened to me before in my life. When something like that happens, you understand you just have to come back and fight. I don't care what the situation is."
After the Miller touchdown, Ken Walter had his punt blocked at the Pats' 20 with 4:59 left. Four plays after that, Brown kicked his field goal.
At that point, the Patriots had held Houston to 63 yards on the ground, 93 through the air. It would have been a shame to lose when the defense was playing so remarkably, but that's the way it was going until Brady made one of his most athletic plays yet as New England quarterback. On third-and-10 from the Pats' 33, Brady twice eluded a fleet of rushers, wriggling from their grasp long enough to hit Graham with a 33-yard pass. From the time the ball was snapped until he released it, Brady held the ball for nearly eight seconds.
On the next play, Brady found Faulk on a pivot screen for 21 yards to the Houston 13. Two incompletions and an inside handoff to Faulk brought the ball to the 4 with 40 seconds left, setting the stage for Brady to hit a leaping Graham for the tying score.
The Patriots put up 472 yards of offense, quite a feat since both Troy Brown and David Givens were inactive and two of the receivers (J.J. Stokes and Dedric Ward) just came on board this week.
Much of it was thanks to Faulk, who carried 23 times for 80 yards and caught eight passes for 108. Not bad for a player who didn't figure to be big enough to carry the load for this team.
"When people believe I can't do something, I'll motivate myself to do it because people say I can't," Faulk said.
The Patriots looked ready to end the game quickly in overtime as linebacker Mike Vrabel made an athletic interception of a Banks pass on the first play of overtime, returning it to the Houston 23.
But the Texans' Ramon Walker blocked Vinatieri's 37-yard field-goal attempt and Houston took over. The Texans moved into Patriots territory, but corner Tyrone Poole broke up a pair of passes to force a punt.
After the Pats went three-and-out, Houston took over after a 31-yard punt by Ken Walter. But the Texans lost five yards and had to punt again. That sent New England on its game-winning, 76-yard drive. The key plays drive were a 14-yard completion to Bethel Johnson, a 13-yarder to Dedric Ward and an interception at the Houston 3 that was wiped out by a defensive holding penalty.
When Vinatieri's game-winner sailed through, offensive guard Joe Andruzzi went down on his hands and knees from exhaustion. Nearby, center Dan Koppen lay on his back for several seconds.
The offense had run 88 plays. A lot of those same players were also in on the 13 special teams plays.
"We've talked a lot about hanging in there and playing 60 minutes of football," said Belichick. "Today was what, 74? It just kept going and going."
"This was pretty tough," said Koppen. "I'll be surprised if I didn't lose a lot of weight. I didn't even see the kick go through. (Lineman Russ Hochstein) reached over to help me up and I said, 'Is it over yet?' He said, 'Yeah, it went through.' I was comfortable. I didn't want to get up."
