FOXBORO, Mass. — Sometimes, all the adversity of a season can be expressed in a single hit.
Eric Rowe, a former Spring Klein High School and current New England defensive back, used that hit to stop Tennessee during the second quarter on a play that kept the Titans from converting near midfield during the Patriots’ 35-14 NFC Divisional win on Saturday.
If you ask Bill Belichick it was a game-changer.
“Yeah, that was a big tackle. He had a couple of them – the one on the under route, the one out in the flat,” he said of Rowe to patriots.com. “I thought, overall, our tackling was decent, but those guys are hard to tackle. We had a little trouble getting [to Delanie] Walker on the ground on that seam pass. [Marcus] Mariota’s tough to tackle [too].”
That tackle, though, nearly didn’t happen after an early season groin injury and a re-aggravation of it less than a week later.
Rowe, who landed on the Patriots roster via a 2016 trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, sat watching his team play the Houston Texans in Week 3 with a groin injury. He returned seven days later for a matchup with the Carolina Panthers but suffered re-injury, left the game and didn’t return until a matchup with Buffalo in Week 12. He played 142 of 196 defensive snaps during the Patriots three-game run to a 13-3 regular season finish.
Eric Rowe during a 2017 regular season game. Photo courtesy USA TODAY
“To come back and even contribute and play for the defense was kind of like a big thing for me,” the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Rowe said to the Worchester-Telegram in early January. “At the time I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I can come back, get back up to game speed and all that stuff.’”
The hardship didn’t end with the injury.
His re-education included getting burned by JuJu Smith-Schuster on a 69-yard reception that nearly lost the Patriots the game. Rowe, however, proved to be a quick study, causing a deflection that led to a game-securing interception by Duron Harmon.
The tackle during the NFC Divisional Round — one of 58 in his career — on Titans’ rookie wide receiver Taywan Taylor didn’t only help halt a drive on third and 7, it forced a punt when a completion could have resulted in either and first down and touchdown or first down and field goal.
Tennessee was down 14-7 at the time and 21-7 after Tom Brady found Chris Hogan on a 4-yard pass on the Patriots’ next series.
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Marcus Matthews-Marion is the managing editor of TexasHSFootball, covering prep football throughout the Lone Star State and collegiate and professional football throughout the country. Follow him on Twitter, @TheMJMatthews, and read more of his content here.
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