A cart wheeled behind Welker, and the trainers loaded him on. The cart drove into the tunnel on the other corner of Reliant Stadium. Welker had left a football field for the final time this season.
Not even 20 real-time minutes after kickoff, the Patriots’ worst nightmare came true. Welker most likely tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee, according a league source. Welker will undergo further tests today, but the final outcome appears grim.
Welker’s injury, sustained in the first quarter of a game with minor ramifications for New England’s postseason plans, is the same that Brady suffered in last season’s opener. And like Brady’s, it struck a potentially devastating blow to the team’s Super Bowl aspirations.
Welker had been on the field because coach Bill Belichick decided to play most of his starters, including Brady, who left the game in the second quarter and reentered after halftime. The Texans still defeated the Patriots, 34-27, after the Patriots blew a 14-point lead by surrendering 21 points in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots, who finished the season 10-6 and just 1-6 in games played at their opponent’s stadium, will begin the playoffs at Gillette Sunday at 1 p.m. against the Ravens, whom they beat, 27-21, in Week 4. The Patriots finished as the third seed after the Jets defeated the Bengals last night.
Even if the Patriots had won yesterday, it would have been Pyrrhic victory. After one of the greatest seasons an NFL wide receiver ever has had, Welker may have had it end in the cruelest way.
“We’re sick,’’ Leland Welker said shortly after the fourth quarter began. “We’re absolutely sick. We take all those hits and stuff all season long. And then just one fluke cut, and he just blows it out.’’
Leland Welker had not yet learned of the extent or nature of Welker’s injury, but he knew, like anyone who watched the play, that it was bad. Brady hit Welker on a pass over the middle, as he had done so many times this season, on the first drive of the game. The catch was Welker’s 123d of the year, giving him the second-highest season total in NFL history even though he had missed two games.
