The Land Lock Week 12 Grades for the Terrible Loss to the Titans

The Texans had plenty to be disappointed about in this one

Landry Locker will post his grades for the Texans after the game each week. Here are the grades for week 12. Follow Landry on YouTube.

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This one hurt.

The Texans didn’t need their A-game to beat Tennessee and couldn’t win. Sadly, despite being the season's low point, it was a very familiar sight.

Here are this week’s Land Lock grades…

Quarterback: F

C.J. Stroud’s interceptions were costly. He wasn’t as accurate as you’d expect him to be and got outplayed by Tennessee quarterback Will Levis.

His spirit also appears to be crushed; quite frankly, you cannot blame him. 

The offensive line is awful, the receiving weapons outside of Nico Collins are meh, and the offensive gameplan is missionary. He’s not playing up to the standard he has set.

Running Backs: D

Everyone knew the Texans weren’t going to be able to run the ball in this game and they couldn’t.

Joe Mixon had 14 carries for 22 yards and was the only running back to record a carry. 

Dameon Pierce has been awesome on kick returns. He set the Texans up for a quick touchdown with an 80-yard return to start the game. However, Dare Ogunbowale looked like a pee wee football player trying to catch kickoffs for the first time and provided some scary moments on a couple of returns. 

Mixon is the only guy who is a real week-to-week threat to make plays at the running back position. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this week, which was expected. 

It would be extremely nice if the front office added more backs that can contribute, perhaps with multiple skill sets.

Wide Receivers: C

Nico Collins had five catches for 92 yards and a touchdown and for the second straight week had a touchdown negated by a penalty. 

Tank Dell had three catches for 72 yards including a 39-yard reception and a huge third-down drop.

John Metchie had one catch for six yards and a miscommunication with Stroud that led to an interception at the end of the second quarter.

There’s a reason the front office traded for Stefon Diggs in the offseason when this receiving group (along with Noah Brown) was what was on the roster. It’s not an impressive group and outside of Collins there haven’t been significant strides made by other guys. 

Tight Ends: B

Cade Stover had his first career touchdown and maybe the best game of his career. 

Dalton Schultz had his typical 2024 game where the blocking looks uncomfortable, you don’t hear from him for most of the game and then he makes a big play that leaves you wondering why that doesn’t happen more often. 

The tight ends, for whatever reason, aren’t a big part of this offense and it’s likely a combination of many things from ability to scheme to limitations with one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL.

Offensive Line: Incomplete

They are so bad. That’s all I’ve got to say about them.

Defensive Line: A

The defense had a season-high eight sacks, seven from the defensive line, including three from Danielle Hunter, two from Will Anderson, one from Derek Barnett, and another from Tommy Togiai.

Tony Pollard did have 119 yards on 24 carries, but it wasn’t all on the defensive line and when you get eight sacks you get an A.

Linebackers: C

Azeez Al-Shaair had an up-and-down game with a sack and a team-high eight tackles, but a couple of costly penalties. 

Nobody else stood out and the group had a big hand in Pollard’s success on the ground and some of the success in the Titans intermediate passing game.

Defensive Backs: C-

Explosives were a problem for the secondary.

Eric Murray appears to be someone competent offensive coordinators will sniff out for the remainder of the season.

The bright spot was Jimmie Ward replacing Jalen Pitre at nickelback and scoring a touchdown off an interception. He added three tackles for a loss too. Ward was elite in that role in San Francisco, but strongly opposed to it when he came to Houston last year. Maybe that has changed because after the game he said he’s willing to do whatever DeMeco Ryans wants, which would be nice because he’s pretty good at it.

The secondary is still very talented and not an area of concern, but there are some holes, specifically Murray, that will be attacked for the remainder of the season.

Special Teams: C

Pierce was great in the return game, and Tommy Townsend had another good day punting the ball, but Fairbairn missing the 28-yard field goal to tie the game late was as bad as it gets.

The kicking of Fairbairn won games early in the season and may have masked a lot of flaws on this team. The confidence in him isn’t eliminated, but it’s very low.

Coaching: F

Ward said after the game the Titans had a better gameplan and he was correct. At this point, change for the sake of change on the offensive line should be entertained. 

The defense under Ryans is is ready to go every week, no matter what, but the offense is the complete opposite.

It’s hard to imagine them doing anything differently and the handling of the offense feels helpless. Ryans said after the game that he thought the offense played well enough to win.

This team needs a bye week badly. Can they beat Jacksonville before? Surely things aren’t that bad, right?

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