The Land Lock Week 13 Grades for the Win Over the Jaguars

The Texans get a 23-20 win on the road but how did they grade out?

Landry Locker will post his grades for the Texans after the game each week. Here are the grades for week 13. Follow Landry on YouTube.

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The Texans needed a win and got it. It wasn’t pretty, but in the current state of this team style, pointing wins is a difficult task. Or maybe it’s easier, depending on how you look at it.

Here are this week’s Land Lock grades…

Quarterback: C

C.J. Stroud wasn’t overly sharp and missed some throws you’d expect him to make.

Stroud needs the bye week more than anyone.

The hope is that the rest allows him to recharge and perform at the elite level many hoped he’d perform at before the season began. That’s needed if this team is going to make a postseason run beyond Wild Card Weekend.

Running Backs: A+

The Texans lose this game without Joe Mixon, period.

He wouldn’t let them lose.

Wide Receivers: C+

This group is Nico Collins and everyone else.

Collins had eight receptions for 119 yards and every time he made a play the energy feels different. It’s very Mixon-like.

The rest of the receivers had a combined three catches for 39 yards. There’s reason to believe the non-Nico guys don’t get open consistently.

Tank Dell had one catch for 23 yards and his production has been disappointing, to say the least. There may be many reasons why, some beyond his control, but it’s been a very frustrating year two. In fairness, there was a play where he appeared to be wide-open for a long touchdown, but the ball was perhaps late, had a lot of air on it, and maybe pass interference on the play.

Tight Ends: B

Dalton Schultz had his first touchdown of the season and his most targets (7) in a game, tied his season-high receptions (5), and had his second-most receiving yards (61). He played well, but might not want to try to hurdle defenders anymore.

Cade Stover was there but had a drive-killing penalty that negated a long, chain-moving pass to Collins because he lined up offsides.

The blocking is still rough at times, but based on the expectations for this position group it was a solid day.

Offensive Line: Complete

Some of the best statistical pass protection of the season.

Defensive Line: B

The defense held the Jags to 97 yards rushing. It wasn’t their best performance, but it was fine.

Linebackers: D

Azeez Al-Shaair had a dirty hit on Trevor Lawrence and made a scene afterward by not leaving the field promptly. This was his first ejection of the season but easily could’ve been the second given he threw a punch on the sidelines against the Chicago Bears and was fortunate not to get tossed in that ballgame.

There should be no place for that and DeMeco Ryans made that clear in the post-game presser.

Neville Hewitt and To’o’To’o had eight tackles. They weren’t bad, but the Al-Shaair stunts overshadowed anything else.

This group will likely have to function without Al-Shaair after the bye, which they’ve done before.

Defensive Backs: C

Derek Stingley has been great and had one of his vintage over-the-shoulder interceptions.

Jalen Pitre was missed and there’s a snowball effect with Jimmie Ward being forced to fill his void at nickel.

Despite the one highlight play, there were some bad moments. Mac “Freakin” Jones had 235 yards and two touchdowns, enough said.

Special Teams: A

Ka’imi Fairbairn bounced back and made all his field goals.

Tommy Townsend punted well and should’ve had a punt downed inside the five if Kris Boyd hadn’t lost it in the sun.

Devin Duvernay was kept in check in the return game for Jacksonville and the Texans didn’t have a kick returned against them in the game.

One of the most exciting moments on special teams was Dell’s 14-yard return that wasn’t a lot, but was the longest return of the day and looked promising. Maybe punt return is a way to give Tank a chance to make more plays during the game that aren’t dependent on so many other factors.

Coaching: C

The offensive game plan was fine and the run wasn’t forced as much as in recent weeks.

The defensive game plan was fine.

The special teams were good.

However, when one of the head coaches hand-picked guys and a team captain does what Al-Shaair did that falls on the head coach.

Onto the much-needed bye week!

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