Grading the Debacle in Seattle from the Houston Texans

Landry Locker is back with his red pen to grad the Texans

Landry Locker will post his grades for the Texans each week. Here are the grades for week seven. Follow Landry on YouTube.

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This was one of the worst losses the Texans have ever suffered on the national stage and perhaps the low point of the DeMeco Ryans Era. There’s no sugarcoating it. That’s not hyperbole.

When you factor in the opportunity this game presented to change the season, the fact that the Texans have a relatively talented team, bizarre personnel decisions, and the fact that the team was coming off a bye week, it makes the loss look even worse.

It ended up being a one-possession game, which Ryans mentioned during his cringeworthy Tuesday media availability. Still, anyone with eyes and a moderate sense of football knows the score shouldn’t have been that close.

The head coach often preaches the gray of football to the media and fans from his Ivory tower, but selectively ignores it when discussing how close scores are after losses.

This was a painful one to watch, but a relatively easy one to grade. Here are the Land Lock Week Seven grades.

Quarterback: F

We can talk about C.J. Stroud’s unfavorable surroundings until the sun comes down, but the bottom line is he’s not doing a good job of controlling what he can control.

There may be a blueprint laid out on how to defend Stroud with two high safeties, which he has often mentioned after offensive struggles dating back to last season.

There are way too many uncatchable balls. In fairness, the best play he made and the best ball he threw all night was dropped by Nico Collins.

Stroud also didn’t use his legs as often as it appeared he could have, which color analyst Dan Orlovsky mentioned multiple times on the broadcast.

The offensive line might not do him a ton of favors, but it appears he isn’t doing them too many either.

He’s fortunate the officials screwed up a call in which he ran 20 yards backwards into what should’ve been ruled a safety, and also had a backwards throw nearly result in a Seattle touchdown.

With good quarterback play against good teams, this team has more than two wins. Stroud has to be better. He knows that.

The frustration is very clear on the sidelines and something to monitor moving forward.

Running Backs: D

Woody Marks was the only moderately bright spot, scoring a touchdown and hustling to save one after a Seattle fumble recovery.

They couldn’t run the ball, and the opportunities were scarce. Outside of Marks, they didn’t capitalize when they had opportunities to make plays catching the ball, and for whatever reason, Dare Ogunbowale was back in the rotation.

Wide Receivers: C-

Collins had the previously mentioned drop and left the game with a concussion, with some good moments sprinkled between.

Jaylin Noel made the biggest plays of the game at the position, but for whatever reason, he played less than Braxton Berrios.

There were often uncatchable balls that gave receivers no chance, even when they won on routes.

Tight Ends (D.A.G): A

D.A.G stands for Dalton and Guys.

Dalton Schultz had arguably his best game as a Texan and was the best player on offense.

Offensive Line: F

The decision to go back to rotating Laken Tomlinson at guard was certainly a choice.

Other than that, not much more needs to be said.

Defensive Line: B-

Will Anderson Jr. made what could have been the play of the year on the strip sack touchdown.

Danielle Hunter didn’t jump out during the game, and it continues to feel like he and Anderson can’t dominate at the same time.

There were some good moments. They battled throughout the game. Appropriately, the late night was capped off by the low point of the 15-yard Tim Settle Jr. penalty to put the team outta their misery.

Linebackers: C

Azeez Al-Shaair had a penalty that led to a Seattle touchdown rather than a field goal attempt. He said he didn’t hear the whistle, but he’s too good to not to know where he is and the situation. Not surprisingly, Ryans agreed with the late whistles.

Outside of that, it was a moderate day for the backers. Nothing awesome, nothing too bad.

Safeties: B+

Calen Bullock had his first interception of the season. M.J. Stewart had a forced fumble that gave the Texans life, and outside of a few Jalen Pitre moments in coverage, they were very good.

Corners: C-

The matchup between Derek Stingley and Jaxon Smith-Njigba wasn’t as frequent as anticipated, and there’s confusion over what the actual game plan was, ignited by Ryans’s comments Tuesday.

It was an up-and-down battle for the corners, with Stingley getting an interception, but Smith-Njigba doing whatever he wanted all night.

Special Teams: F-

The lack of execution at the end of the game was unforgivable. Ryans insisted he told Fairbairn to kick the ball out of bounds, but regardless, the message didn’t get across.

The return men were slipping all night, including Berrios, who shouldn’t have been on the field instead of Noel.

This was a bad night for Frank Ross’s unit.

Coaching: Expelled, Worse Than F

The personnel decisions on offense were unfathomable. Most notably, returning to rotating Tomlinson at left guard after benching him the last two games in which the offense showed a pulse. There were also bizarre decisions to get Ogunbowale back into the running back rotation and play Berrios, who hadn’t been active all season, on offense more than promising rookie Jaylin Noel, and allow him to return punts instead of Noel.

Stopping Smith-Njigba was the clear top priority for the defense, but he had his way with the defense.

Nick Caley looked more like he did the first three weeks of the season than in weeks four and five, maybe worse.

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