Grading the Houston Texans After Their Loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars
Landry Locker grades the performance of the Texans
Landry Locker will post his grades for the Texans the day after the game each week. Here are the grades for week three. Follow Landry on YouTube.
Is this as bad as it gets for DeMeco Ryans and company? Could it get even worse?
For the first time in the Ryans Era, the Texans lost a road AFC South matchup, and for the first time in the era, there is much more than moderate noise questioning him as a head coach.
There’s a clear blind spot on the offensive side of the ball. This team has resembled a one-dimensional, defensive-minded ball club for an extended period of time now.
The most frustrating part about it is that even with an average offense, this team wouldn’t be winless and could perhaps even be unbeaten. The attention paid to the offensive side of the ball in the offseason has created a worse product.
Will it get better? Who knows? There’s not much reason for optimism, but in the meantime, here are the week three grades.
Quarterback: D
C.J. Stroud showed some glimpses of the playmaking he displayed early in his tenure as Texans QB, but had some extremely costly mistakes and missed throws that really good quarterbacks don’t miss.
Sadly, this might have been Stroud’s best game of the season.
Running Backs: C
It was good to see Woody Marks get more time on the field, even though that should have been the case immediately.
The duo of Marks and Nick Chubb averaged 4.6 yards per carry, but only had 15 combined carries.
It wasn’t an awful performance.
Wide Receivers: C
Stroud missed a few throws to the wide receivers, and it was nice to see Nico Collins get it going late in the game, but the rare fumble gutted all of the momentum the Texans had built and maybe even cost them the game.
It’s still a mystery as to why the rookies cannot get on the field, but maybe it shouldn’t be because Caley appears to be a Bill O’Brien New England spinoff offensive coordinator, and we know how O’Brien felt about rookies.
There is also a really weird desire by Caley to only use the quick game on third down or give up plays rather than earlier. I didn’t coach for Bill Belichick like Caley, but I don’t get that.
You notice every offensive skill position ties back to misuse by Caley?
Tight Ends: B
Also known as DAG: Dalton and Guys. Dalton Schultz made the most of the opportunities he got. When he was given a catchable ball and an opportunity to make a play, he did, and he made some big plays in the game. You will take the effort Schultz put out most weeks. He was solid. The rest of the guys at the position are just there, which is expected given all of the injuries and what was expected from them.
Offensive Line: D-
Guard Laken Tomlinson, the worst-performing lineman on one of the league’s worst offensive lines, rotated at left guard with Juice Scruggs.
Aireontae Ersery had a bad game, which was awful even with consideration that young tackles are expected to endure struggles. Also, a case can be made that, wait for it…Caley didn’t do him any favors.
There was improvement late in the game before Ersery allowed Stroud’s arm to be hit on the game-ending interception.
Sunday’s effort was about what you’d expect from this offensive line unit.
Defensive Line: B+
Why was Tommy Togiai, whom Ryans called the most consistent player on the team, inactive in the first two games? He played well, immediately made plays, and likely won’t be inactive for many more games moving forward.
Tim Settle had his best game of the season and had a huge stop on fourth down. Will Anderson fought through pain and had another sack, and the Jacksonville run game was kept in check for the most part.
The bar is high for this defensive line, and they could be even better, but the effort was solid.
Linebackers: C
Tackling remains an issue for Henry To’oTo’o, although he did have a nice play in coverage and is still a solid ballplayer.
Azeez Al-Shaair had a solid game and was the physical force of the defense. E.J. Speed had five tackles, but a big missed tackle on a huge third-down conversion by a running Travor Lawrence late in the game. Christian Harris has been a virtual non-factor and far from what we saw from him in DeMeco’s defense at the end of the 2023 season. Maybe he is finding his way back?
There was nothing special from the backers.
Cornerbacks: B-
Tremon Smith did a solid job filling in for a banged-up Derek Stingley, who left the game early after a pass interference in the end zone.
Kamari Lassiter was in coverage on Brian Thomas Jr. on his long reception that set up the game-winning Jags touchdown, which was the one big play the Jags receivers made.
The cornerbacks held up decently with Stingley out, but it should be mentioned that the Jacksonville receivers helped out a lot by dropping a lot of passes.
Safeties: B+
Jalen Pitre had a game-changing interception that gave the Texans a pulse, momentum, and a chance to win the game. It was immediately followed by a Collins touchdown. Plays aren’t much bigger than the one that he made in that situation, and you could feel the momentum swing.
There are still a few lapses by Calen Bullock as he tries to use his eyes better, but the effort by the safeties was a winning one that you’d take every Sunday.
Special Teams: D
After an elite special teams effort six days before the game in Jacksonville, Frank Ross’s special teams were mid.
The game started with a Tommy Townsend punt at the one, but then, somehow, he forgot how to punt for an extended stretch of the game.
Sprinkle in Ka’imi Fairbairn’s first missed field goal of the season, no impact in the return game, including Jaylin Noel failing to catch a punt at the 15, and it was a bad effort by a unit with very high expectations.
Coaching: F
The offensive game plan was stale, and the complaints were well-documented above. Caley has developed a reputation for a downgrade from former offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik early in his career as a play-caller.
There’s nothing they do well on offense, and there was a point in the game where you could see Ryans appearing to be pissed at Caley during a lag in tempo.
Ryans also called a bizarre timeout at the end of the game on the other side of the two-minute warning after the Jaguars gained seven yards on first down. You can make a case that if the Texans had that extra timeout at the end of the game, the Stroud interception could have been attacked differently. That decision made little sense.
Outside of the defense, it was just an altogether dud.
Looks like Slowik was not so bad.
Draft did not allow for a number one offensive guard . Rick did what he could and did do a good job on WR and Left tackle considering nobody would allow us to move down.
Working against us also - New coach and need the young guys to gell.- 5 games
As I have said before Texans might be 1 and 4 thru first 5 games
That said, I think they win 7 games this year (if we are lucky).
Where does that put us in 2026 draft Cody- 10 to 12 th pick?
Too much of "the same old Texans" has reared its ugly head yet again. What is it going to take for the powers that be to right the ship and take this team to never before seen heights?