Grading the Best Win of the Season for the Houston Texans
They beat the 49ers but what stood out in the grades?
Landry Locker will post his grades for the Texans each week. Here are the grades for week eight. Follow Landry on YouTube.
The Texans earned their biggest win of the season and created a familiar opportunity that they had not so long ago.
Yes, the win was against a significantly depleted San Francisco 49ers team playing with a backup quarterback, but it was a dominant performance that shouldn’t be minimized, very similar to the Baltimore victory.
Following the Baltimore win, the Texans, with a chance to get to .500, laid an egg against a good Seattle Seahawks team on national TV. This time around, they’ll have another opportunity to get to .500 against a good Denver Broncos team.
Before Denver, here are this week’s Land Lock grades.
Quarterback: A
Can’t ask for much more from C.J. Stroud.
He spread the ball out to his receivers, threw some beautiful deep balls, and got the ball out of his hands quickly. He even used his legs when needed.
The only mistake was an interception at the end of the second quarter, but the strange decision to be aggressive was a confusing one, and there ended up being no harm done with the interception.
Running Backs: A
The Texans had the ball for 40+ minutes, and the backs were a big part of that.
Woody Marks had a 50-yard reception and some impressive runs that we haven’t seen since Joe Mixon was on the field. It feels like there’s even more opportunity to get him involved.
Nick Chubb ran hard and was constantly moving the pile. It was the most complete showing from the Chubb-Woody Duo.
Speaking of Mixon, he was spotted at NRG Stadium by Brandon Scott of SportsRadio 610. The thought of him and Marks down the stretch…Never mind, I won’t tease you.
Wide Receivers: A
Stroud and Jaylin Noel have strong chemistry on the deep ball, and the rookie wide receiver has the potential to be a really, really good player really soon.
The other two Iowa State wide receivers, Jayden Higgins and Xavier Hutchinson, both had touchdowns.
Braxton Berrios moved the chains multiple times and brought some juice on offense, providing Stroud with an easy target out of the slot.
Nico Collins’s return and the upside of this group of receivers make the position group intriguing and exciting. It will also be interesting to see how Christian Kirk fits into all this.
Tight Ends aka D.A.G.: B
Dalton Schultz had a massive third-down, chain-moving play that led to a touchdown, and he is clearly playing banged up.
He’s having a really good season.
Offensive Line: A
They didn’t allow a sack, and the run game was alive. Things will get more difficult against Denver, but this was as good as you could expect.
Defensive Line: B+
Kyle Shanahan only ran the ball with Christian McCaffrey eight times, which is a combination of Houston’s time of possession and respect for the defense.
The defensive line did everything they needed to do.
The only negative: Will Anderson had a good game, but had two more penalties, and it probably should’ve been four.
Linebackers: B
The backers were part of the team effort to keep the remaining 49ers star players in check. George Kittle had a touchdown, but was kept in check for the most part. McCaffrey had one explosive play.
E.J. Speed and Henry To’oTo’o both played over half the defensive snaps, while Azeez Al-Shaair played every single one.
Safeties: B+
Outside of one third and long play that M.J. Stewart failed to make, the safeties were solid.
Jalen Pitre continues to have a great season and wasn’t exposed in coverage vs Kittle. Calen Bullock was disciplined and didn’t allow any big plays.
It’s clear that CJ Gardner-Johnson was an addition by subtraction.
Cornerbacks: A
Kamari Lassiter had the game-ending interception, and neither he nor Derek Stingley Jr. allowed any big plays.
Right before the Lassiter interception, Stingley had what appeared to be a savvy play where he dropped to a knee during an uptempo 49ers drive where they had a little momentum going. He was back on the field next play. Maybe it was a quick recovery, but regardless, it was effective.
Special Teams: C-
Ka’imi Fairbairn was perfect on field goal attempts, but continues to have lapses on kickoffs. Tommy Townsend’s only punt was perfect.
The long San Francisco kick return at the end of the second quarter and the 15-yard penalty led to a Kittle touchdown and made the game within reach heading into the half.
Frank Ross’s special teams haven’t been awful, but they’re not up to the standard he has set.
Coaching: A
Nick Caley brought back the quarterback sneak, and Houston’s perfect streak continued with the play, moving the chains twice in the first quarter.
Caley also committed to protecting Stroud by going with Blake Fisher as an extra offensive lineman 26 times! John Harris of Texans Radio has been begging for this all season.
On defense, the two star players on the opposing team were kept in check.
It was a solid effort against a really good San Francisco staff.
Seth Payne made the observation that this performance was mostly due to favorable matchups on the o-line and is unlikely to be replicated against "better" teams. We'll see against Denver, but to me this win is fool's gold.
Funny.....and nice to see the offensive grades better than the defensive grades for a change!!!!????
John Harris wasn't the only one who had been wanting to see the 6th O-Lineman set.....I've been wanting to see the "Heavy Set" ever since losing Stover and the game one loss. If you remember I was asking if Cam Robinson could catch before we traded him....LOL....Now I have that same question about Blake Fisher. If not, maybe one of the other Tackles can??? It would be fun to see one of our Red Zone visits turn into a Big Boy TD reception from CJ........It could be schemed up as Fisher being a lead blocker for a CJ sweep....Fisher "misses" his block and CJ just tosses it over the defenders head to Fisher for the score!!!!......It would be ALL OVER the National Media's highlight reels at halftime or post game on the tube!!!!
Overall I am still not impressed with our offensive production. It is inconsistently good at best and absolutely terrible at worst. My favorite parts are CJ eating the clock and successfully targeting everyone in his passing attack and seeing the running backs finding the lanes opened by the O-Line.......My NOT so favorite parts are when CJ is running for his life backwards into a 10+ yard sack or when a DT meets Chubb or Woody in the backfield for a 3 yard loss.
We seem to move the ball well down the field and into the Red Zone....but once we get there we, more often than not, stall and end up settling for 3 points instead of earning the 7.
Realistically, as a long time football player and lifetime football fan, I know I can't expect the Texans to always exicute my favorite parts of this offense to perfection.....but I do expect them to do it more often than they do at this point of the season.
If we are completely fair in our evaluation.....we have a QB with a radar controlled cannon for an arm and fairly decent legs when needed....we have a room overflowing with young and talented skill players with some older talent tossed into the mix.....and our O-Line has some big, fast and talented pieces who have shown flashes of excellence. Against the Ravens and the 49ers they looked like the best recievers, running backs and O-Line in the NFL!!!! ONE GAME of "sackless" football and finally whipping up on the wingless Ravens was fun to watch...but the $1,000,000 question is.... can they repeat it against a defense that isn't missing most of it's teeth???
The 49ers game could be the turning point for this Texans team????
I want to see if they can repeat their clock eating offensive dominance against a good Broncos team on Sunday. If they can do that and let the defense rest and get amped up and hungry watching the offense eat the Broncos will be in a world of DEEP trouble!!!
We have a chance for this Texans team to kick in the door of the second half of this season and make a realistic run to the playoffs......It starts on Sunday!!!!
Finally, I'd like to see Tommy T get a paid day off and Fairbairn be limited to just punching in extra points and giving our kickoff team the chance to pin the Broncos deep or even allow them to get a strip fumble and recovery.
Am I asking for too much????.......We will know by 4PM on Sunday what Texans offense shows up to play.
I'M CLIMBING BACK UP THAT FAITH WALL!!
GO COWS.....UHH???.....TEXANS!!!!