Landry Locker grades the performance of the Texans. Here are the grades for the loss to the Buffalo Bills. Follow Landry on YouTube.
Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills was a unique one with something nobody expected.
It was the one time in the DeMeco Ryans Era where you can say the defense was the reason they lost a ballgame. Despite being bailed out by the offense and the special teams, the Texans defense refused to win.
In the offseason, Ryans’ defense got a lot of national love, including an appearance on the front of Sports Illustrated, while the offense was scrutinized, criticized, and questioned.
Did the defense buy their own hype? Were they high on rat poison?
Earlier in the week Ryans insisted the defense would be ready to go and called them the backbone of the team. He also said the offense needed to keep up and would determine if a strong start to the season was going to be accomplished.
The offense rose to the challenge; the defense didn’t do their part.
Here are this week’s very surprising Land Lock grades.
Quarterback: A-
C.J. Stroud started and ended the game with lost fumbles, but was good in between. The last fumble was more on the offensive line than on him, and quite frankly, the damage had already been done after the sack two plays prior.
Stroud spread the ball out and used his legs when needed, including on a third and 12 to extend a drive that eventually ended with a Texans touchdown.
It was a very good return to the field after the meltdown in New England. The Texans would take this type of play from Stroud every week.
Does it continue against the Bengals in week two?
Running Backs: A
The running back duo was solid, with David Montgomery having three touchdowns in his debut.
Woody Marks also made the most of his opportunities and actually had more yards per carry. There’s still a lot of opportunity to get Marks involved in the passing game, and we will see if that eventually happens.
It was a really good start that only added to the high optimism about the duo of Montgomery and Marks.
Wide Receivers: B
Nico Collins caught seven passes for 75 yards and a touchdown on 10 targets, doing what he typically does.
Jaylin Noel caught both of his targets for 53 yards, including a reception that put the Texans inside the 10-yard-line at the end of the game with an opportunity to win. It feels like he needs more opportunities, but that’s nothing new.
Xavier Hutchinson was ok, but nothing spectacular, and Kayshon Boutte had one catch for 21 yards.
The production wasn’t massive, but the wideouts took advantage of their opportunities for the most part.
Tight Ends: C
The tight ends combined for eight catches for 64 yards and blocked effectively at times.
After an early 16-yard catch, Marlin Klein didn’t have another target. He, like Noel, could probably use more opportunities.
The performance could have been better, but it also could have been, and in the recent past has been, a lot worse.
Offensive Line: B
Based on realistic expectations, the offensive line was solid.
Keylan Rutledge makes a massive difference on the interior, but Ed Ingram is very up and down, with the lowest point coming at the worst time when he allowed a Stroud sack late in the game with the Texans inside the Buffalo 10-yard-line.
Defensive Line: D-
Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter were moderate factors. It wasn’t as bad as the cornerback duo, but it was way lower than the standard they have set.
Jadeveon Clowney looked good in his debut and had an early sack. The biggest plays from the defensive line were third-down tipped passes by Hunter and Sheldon Rankins.
The defensive line can and likely will be better.
Linebackers: C
Azeez Al-Shaair had a team-high eight tackles, but there wasn’t anything spectacular from the backers. It was a meh performance overall.
Henry To’oTo’o was injured in the game and was seen wearing a shoulder sling afterwards. Jake Hansen came in for him and will likely share responsibilities with rookie Wade Woodaz next week.
Linebacker depth was a concern coming into the season, and the concern has intensified one game through the season.
Safeties: F-
Calen Bullock wasn’t bad. However, Reed Blankenship was so bad that Bullock could have played a perfect, All-Pro-caliber game and the safeties still would have gotten an F. He was that horrible.
It was the worst performance by a Texans safety in two seasons, and it isn’t even close. Every player who started at the position last season was never this bad, from C.J. Gardner-Johnson to M.J. Stewart to Jaylen Reed to even Myles Bryant.
Blankenship’s whiff on an attempted interception on DJ Moore’s 43-yard touchdown was the type of blooper you see on Thursday night during a junior varsity B-Team high school game, not on a Sunday as a representative of what’s supposed to be one of the NFL’s best defenses.
The low point of the game was when Blankenship flexed after a six-yard Buffalo gain on second down and got burned for 40 yards by Dalton Kincaid on the next play to set up a Buffalo go-ahead field goal. It was as bad as it gets for Blankenship in his Texans debut.
Jalen Pitre was also taken advantage of in coverage a couple of times and had much less of an impact than usual.
Cornerbacks: F
Kincaid got the best of both Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter for explosive plays. He showed off his athleticism by Mossing Stingley and strength by big-bodying Lassiter on the Bills’ game-winning drive.
Stingley wasn’t bad, but played WAY below the standard he has set as a back-to-back All-Pro the last two seasons.
Lassiter was awful; there’s no sugar-coating it, and he took the blame for the loss after the game.
Lassiter had a three-play stretch at the end of the game where he allowed Kincaid to catch a 35-yard pass, dropped what would have been the game-winning interception, and then allowed the game-winning touchdown to Joshua Palmer, who hadn’t scored a touchdown in two years.
The Texans have the best cornerback duo in football, but the duo was far from that in the season-opening loss.
Special Teams: B
The bad: The Bills completely dominated in the return game, and Fairbairn kicked a touchback that allowed the Bills to start a drive at the 35.
The good: Fairbairn kicked a 58-yarder with ease to give the Texans a late lead, and Kai Kroeger has been unbelievable since he won the starting punting job. It’s actually unreal how much better Kroeger has been since the team named him the starter. He downed two punts inside the five, which were efforts that were unfortunately wasted by awful efforts by the defense.
Coaching: C-
Offensive coordinator Nick Caley actually called an alright game with some nicely designed plays on third down. It feels like there’s a lot of opportunity to get guys like Noel, Klein, and Marks more involved in the pass game, but you’ve got to crawl before you walk.
The defense was really bad, but from a strategy perspective, there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with the defensive game plan; they just didn’t make plays.
There’s nothing specific to point to in regard to strategy. However, with Ryans now 1-3 in week one, there is a valid question as to whether he prepares his team well during camp, but that’s a deeper question. In the other two week-one losses, the Texans have lost in week two. On to Cincinnati, I guess.
Well, that was unexpected. We got to hope that was a one week blunder by the defense. I did really like what I saw from the offense. And if Lassiter had just caught that interception, I would feel pretty good right now.
Now let’s score 30 against Cincinnati and have our defense show up. That would get us back on the right track.
Great information Cody!! I have to agree with your assessment of the Texans Defense!