Brady tempers excitement in wake of big win

FOXBORO -- Tom Brady did his best in the aftermath of New England's 42-14 win to remind people that Houston is a good team.
"It was a big game because they were 11-1, leading the AFC and we had to see where were at, see where we match up against the better teams in the league. We lost to Baltimore, whos winning their division; we beat Denver, whos leading their division; and we beat the Texans, who are leading their division.
"It's always good to win these games, certainly Monday nightweve played in a lot of big games herebut Monday night in December is an important one for us and we came out ready to go."
Brady completed 21-of-35 passes for 296 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. Not bad against the NFL's No. 6 defense.
Coming into this week Houston's 'D' allowed the lowest third-down conversion percentage at 28.4. The Patriots went 6-for-12 on third down Monday night.
As Monday night rolled over into early Tuesday morning, the Texans hardly resembled the AFC's top team.
Houston averages 29.3 points per game (one spot behind New England's best 35.8), so finding the end zone just twice was disconcerting. Even the team's lowest output of the year, a 13 point effort in Chicago, came in a win.
Arian Foster certainly didn't help much. One of the league's best backs, Foster was held to just 46 yards on 15 carries.
Brady appreciated it.
"Our defense is playing with a lot of confidence and offensively, we feel like we can move the ball. We feel like we can put points on the board. Weve done that consistently throughout the season. Our defense has shown us they can really get the ball to us and play some complementary football and I thought we did that for the most part tonight."
Four quarters of complimentary football.
Or, in the words of Texans receiver Andre Johnson, "It was a good butt-whipping and that is pretty much it."
And this being New England's toughest test to date. Excellent timing.
"It needs to come together now," Brady said flatly. "This is the perfect time for it. We cant wait any longer than this. Weve got three games to playthe three most important games of the year."
Ah, true. Overturning the Texans is swell and all, but there's still more football to play. And the Patriots have one of the NFC's fiercest teams waiting on the other end of this short week.
Perhaps that's why Brady tempered his excitement Monday night.
"It was just a good win. I dont want to make more of it than it really is. It was a very good opponent, we played them at home on Monday night, had an extra day to prepare, I thought we took advantage of it and we played a pretty good football game.
"I think there are still things we can do better and hopefully we do do them better because we're going to need to play almost a perfect game next week."