Landry Locker grades the Texans' performance. Here are the grades for the loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Follow Landry on YouTube.
This was a painful one to watch and, unfortunately, looked a lot like the season's opening week.
The defense didn’t do their part in a must-win game against the Dallas Cowboys. For the second straight week, the opposing head coach was better than the one on the Texans’ sideline.
Nick Caley’s offense has outperformed the defense of DeMeco Ryans.
Let that sink in.
Are we heading towards a world where the defense being the weakest link is the norm? Maybe not. Sadly, this team has displayed the ability to lose games in multiple ways. It’s as week-to-week as Nick Caley’s Patriots offensive game plans.
Here are the week four Land Lock grades…
Quarterback: A
C.J. Stroud is playing at a high level despite a poor run game and facing heavy pressure.
For the second straight week, Stroud gave the defense a lead and an opportunity to close the game out. For the second time, the defense failed.
Running Backs: D
Statistically, David Montgomery is worse than Nick Chubb was last season. There’s clearly more upside with Woody Marks despite the usage by the coaching staff not showing it.
Wide Receivers: A
Nico Collins was awesome. As Cody Stoots has pointed out, the Texans are a top-five offense statistically with him in the lineup.
Jaylin Noel is a bigger part of the game plan when Collins plays.
Kayshon Boutte made the most of his limited opportunities. Xavier Hutchinson made some plays.
The Collins impact was clear. The WR room had a solid day.
Tight Ends: Incomplete
It was an unimpactful day for the tight ends, which you can live with if the receivers play as well as the Texans did. The problem is that there was a lot invested in the position. Not making a major impact is a further reflection of a poor offseason by the front office.
Marlin Klein was inactive for Brevin Jordan’s one-catch return.
Offensive Line: D
The expectations for the offensive line are so low that if it’s not completely horrible, then it seems alright. The problems appear to be a mixture of personnel and coaching.
This is one of the worst run-blocking lines in Texans history, which is saying a lot. The pass-blocking is up and down, with the quarterback masking a lot of the mistakes by avoiding sacks and extending plays.
Trent Brown is on the back end of his career and doesn’t have it anymore. Braden Smith could relieve him soon. Evan Brown does not look like a significant upgrade over Jake Andrews. The rest of the guys on the offensive line, including rookie Keylan Rutledge, are up and down with way too many downs.
Defensive Line: A
Will Anderson Jr. was his usual awesome self. After the game, Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said Anderson prevented even more big plays by the Cowboys offense.
The defensive line continues to do a good job against the run. There’s a clear next level when Clowney is available.
Linebackers and Safeties: F
Whoever has been in charge of strong safety evaluation in free agency needs to either:
Stop only looking in Philadelphia or
Not be allowed to do it anymore.
Reed Blankenship is just not good, and he needs to be demoted, at the bare minimum. Blankenship, at the very most, should be an overpriced situational player.
M.J. Stewart should be back this week. Rookie Kamari Ramsey made a big play on third-down late in the game. Both should see the field more than Blankenship. It cannot be worse.
Jalen Pitre got dissected like a science project by Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. While Lamb won’t be on the opposing team every week, it’s obvious (and smart) that opposing offenses are now sniffing Pitre out in coverage. The only thing he avoided more than Lamb on Sunday was the media, which the team captain dodged after the game.
It feels like Calen Bullock is having to babysit the poor-performing defensive backs around him. It’s holding him back from doing what he does best. Ramsey actually credited Bullock for telling him what the play was going to be on the play he made.
The linebackers weren’t great, but not much was expected. The most disappointing thing about the short-handed linebacker group is how much of a non-factor Wade Woodaz is even when the top of the depth chart is depleted.
Cornerbacks: F
Derek Stingley Jr. wasn’t bad, but Kamari Lassiter was so bad during and after the game that this group earned their grade.
Per Next Gen Stats, Lassiter allowed eight receptions for 136 yards on 50 snaps with three penalties. There’s likely some nuance to this, and what the defensive back is asked to do isn’t always clear in these types of stats, which Lassiter mentioned during his media availability Monday.
Side Note: Lassiter met with the media Monday because he refused to after the game despite being approached and always talking when things were going well. In fact, the entire defensive back room left Stingley by himself to answer the questions.
It has been an extremely surprising and disappointing start to the season for Lassiter. There’s a lot of season left. It will be interesting to see how he holds up.
Special Teams: C
A solid return by Jaylin Noel and a field goal block by Anderson were the highlights of the day. It was enough to give the special teams a passing grade for the first time in a long time.
Coaching: D
The defense seems incapable or too stubborn to make adjustments.
It was confusing this week when Ryans and Matt Burke appeared to disagree with the notion that the middle of the defense was vulnerable against the pass, but it made perfect sense once you saw them call the game.
I wasn’t as disappointed in the in-game management as some. However, I didn’t quite understand the timeout usage at the end of the game and also didn’t think the timeouts used at the end of the first half were as brilliant as the television broadcast did, despite it leading to points after Dallas’s decision to kick a long field goal rather than punt.
Caley called a good game, including an absolute gem of a go-ahead drive late in the fourth quarter. There are still issues, but four games into the season, Caley has been better at his job than the defensive play-callers have been at theirs.
To answer the question :
Whoever has been in charge of strong safety evaluation in free agency needs to either:
1)Stop only looking in Philadelphia or
2)Not be allowed to do it anymore.
ILL TAKE #2 PLEASE, with extra fries ,
and whatever Fruit-juicy thing Cody’s
drinkin’.
How can a defense that was considered “Super Bowl caliber” coming into this season go this far off the rails through the first four weeks? The defense was supposed to be the foundation and cornerstone of this team, while C.J. Stroud was one of the biggest question marks heading into the season.
And I'll admit it—many of us, myself included, were critical of Stroud during the offseason, but so far, he’s been making the best of a pretty lousy situation. Meanwhile, the offensive line continues to be patchwork, with a mix of young up-and-comers and guys who are past their prime.
It's just bizarre that the guy who was supposed to be one of the question marks is showing signs of answering some of those questions, while the defense that was supposed to be our foundation has completely fallen off the rails!