Grading the Houston Texans in Their Loss to the Los Angeles Rams
Plenty to criticize in this one
Landry Locker will post his grades for the Texans the day after the game each week. Here are the grades for week one. Follow Landry on YouTube.
Sunday’s loss to the Rams was a frustrating one, but one that shouldn’t surprise anyone with a grasp of what this team has been and what they currently are: one-dimensional.
More often than not, the defense must do the heavy-lifting to win games, and unfortunately, against good teams, even elite defensive efforts won’t always be enough to win.
The offensive line problems are still around. There’s a lack of discipline, an under-discussed theme of the DeMeco Ryans Era, despite being around consistently.
Here are this week’s grades.
Quarterback: C
C.J. Stroud wasn’t bad, but he also wasn’t good.
Did he play good enough to win? Maybe. If Dare Ogunbowale doesn’t fumble, then who knows how much the outlook could have changed.
Stroud did run into one of the three sacks, and the pocket presence is something many question, which is a bad combination with this offensive line.
He did a good job of using his legs in the first half. He should do that more consistently.
His surroundings weren’t good: The interception was the fault of rookie wide receiver Jayden Higgins, who had to put out a solid enough effort for the pass to be incomplete at least. The offensive line still stinks. Despite the 15-yard reception before the fumble, Ogunbowale shouldn’t be in the game during must-score drives.
It wasn’t awful. It wasn’t great. It was familiar.
Running Backs: D
Nick Chubb was good and set the tone, especially on the final drive of the game, where he had 20 yards rushing to set up an opportunity to win the ballgame. He was the only running back who played well.
Dameon Pierce was awful, and outside of a couple of long runs last season in mop-up duty, he hasn’t been good in years. He had a drop and three carries for five yards.
Woody Marks, for whatever reason, wasn’t targeted in the passing game despite being BY FAR the best receiving back in camp and one of the best receiving backs in college football the last few years. He had three carries for three yards.
Ogunbowale caused Frank Ross to cry happy tears at his press conference during the week, and on the weekend, he caused the entire Texans team and their fanbase to cry sad tears.
Ogunbowale has maximized every ounce of talent he has and deserves credit for doing so, but this organization’s failure to have a back, or two, or three that they trust more than him in clutch offensive situations is one of the most fascinatingly frustrating things during this era of Texans football.
Marks didn’t have a target, Chubb was cooking, and they really decided to go with Ogonbowale with 41 yards to win the game, a fresh set of downs, and all three timeouts with 1:57 remaining in the game.
Wide Receivers: F
Where was Nico Collins? Were the Rams doing something to take him out of the game? Could this be a new way teams play the Texans? It should be, but we will look closer into that as the week goes on.
Higgins had a 23-yard reception early, but ended with only two catches for 32 yards, which was sadly the most receiving yardage on the team. He also had the previously mentioned inability to come down with the ball that led to Stroud’s interception.
Xavier Hutchinson had a couple of moments. Justin Watson had a couple of nice catches and played well based on expectations. Braxton Berrios and Christian Kirk were inactive, Jaylin Noel played, but was pretty much inactive, too.
The Texans had a combined 10 catches for 121 yards from their wide receivers. Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua had 10 catches for 130 yards.
Tight Ends: B
Dalton Schultz and Cade Stover showed some life, combining for seven catches for 50 yards and not being consistently exposed in blocking. Improvement from last year and something to build on.
Offensive Line: F-
They are handcuffed when they shuffle because they have two second-round picks that they don’t want to step on the football field in Juice Scruggs and Blake Fisher. Fisher entered the game briefly and was able to pick up a 15-yard penalty.
It was the same as last year, awful.
Defensive Line: A
The defensive line held the Rams to 72 yards on the ground, had two sacks, and bailed out the offense numerous times. Danielle Hunter didn’t stick out, which is the only negative, but as a unit, they were solid.
Linebackers: B
Azeez Al-Shaair’s forced fumble was as big a play as you’ll see and gave the offense a chance to win the game.
Henry To'oTo'o had six tackles and a sack.
That was pretty much it, but it was a solid effort despite not hearing much from Christian Harris.
Cornerbacks: D
This grade is based on the standards Derek Stingley has set. He shouldn’t be getting cooked by Davante Adams. He is too good a player, even after getting banged up early in the game.
Kamari Lassiter was physical and led the team in tackles. He may have been lost on the second Rams touchdown, but we will have to look closer at it this week.
Nacua dominated, but not all was on the corners.
Safeties: F
Jalen Pitre was sniffed out in coverage, and it’s hard not to imagine this not being something any offensive coordinator with a pulse does this season. I’m actually surprised he was on the field when the Rams iced the game with the third-down pass to Nacua and SHOCKED he was manned up on him.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson didn’t have a great game, and Calen Bullock got lost on the touchdown to start the second half and take control of the game.
It was a poor day for what is supposed to be one of the team’s strengths.
Special Teams: B+
Ka’imi Fairbairn accounted for all of the offense. A penalty negated the only big play the Rams made on special teams. Tommy Townsend punted well.
Coaching: C
The defensive effort and game plan should have been enough to win.
The biggest issue for DeMeco’s defense is the Pitre chess match and when Pitre should and shouldn’t be on the field. The coming weeks will tell if this is going to be a consistent theme this season.
The offensive line limits what offensive coordinator Nick Caley can do. More attention to Collins might make Caley’s job even more difficult. It would have been nice to involve him more in the quick game.
The most confusing thing from an offensive game plan point of view is that Woody Marks wasn’t targeted at all, and they prefer to play Ogunbowale.
I can already sense some viewers/readers cringing because the grade isn’t lower, but it’s hard for me to specifically say what was significantly wrong with Caley’s game plan besides the previously mentioned things.
If Ogunbowale doesn’t fumble, then Caley’s game plan, like DeMeco’s, could have been enough to win.
It will be interesting to see how Caley responds and adjusts, but the offensive line creates a grading curve.
I agree with everything said......with a few exceptions.....I think the Ogonbowale fumble would have happened with any RB we have...or for that matter to any RB in the NFL.....The punch on the ball was PERFECTLY exicuted. He hit the point of the ball and no matter how you cradle it....it was gonna quirt out the back. Just purely bad timing for us.
I understand the grading being low based on the loss but I'd be willing to bet they would be a grade or two higher if we pulled off the win at the end.
If CJ hhad ended this with a TD pass to any of our WRs he would end up with a solid B grade. Pocket presence is questionable at times but with the rotating door of O-Linemen I kinda give him some wiggle room there.
The WRs averaged about 7.5 yards per catch.......That to me is fair.......Overall if the ball got there they caught it.......with the exception of the Higgins wrestling match loss......I would have liked to have seen Nico utilized more but I think both CJ and Caley wanted to give their other targets a little bit of full speed game experience. We know what we have in Nico and even in Hutch....We needed to see how the rooks handled the "BIG SHOW"......My grade would be a low C for the newbies.
RBs....Chubb surprised me.....in a kinda good way......everyone else surprised me as well....but NOT in a good way........DP needs to just be a returner. He has no daylight vision.....Woody need more carries and passing opportunities....He should be Chubbs ONLY relief when he needs it. Ogonbowale should be used only as an emergency back. Minus the unfortunate fumble at the end....I'd give the RBs a hich C especially for how they ran in the second half.
O-Line????.......If we are going to play musical chairs with the line all year.....We are SCREWED
I have said this for months......We need to work Jamal Hill in at Nickel Back.....He has LB size and mentality and Safety ball skills and speed.....Pitre should be a CB or Safety......He has issues covering across the middle and EVERY OC and QB we will play knows it.
This was a game the Cardiac Cows should have won.......Too bad
HOLDING ON TO MY FAITH WITH MY PINKY FINGERS!!!!!
GO TEXANS!!!!
For nearly a month the O-Line was set and they practiced their positions daily. Then one man goes down and they shuffle the deck?