The Land Lock Week Nine Grades for the Texans Loss to the Jets

It was a not a pleasant trip on the short week

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

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Is this rock bottom for the offensive line? If not, this team is in serious trouble and has zero chance of taking the next step this season.

After weeks of DeMeco Ryans and Nick Caserio gaslighting fans and media about concerns on the line, have they accepted that something (or some things) needs to change about this offensive line?

Here are this week’s Land Lock grades.

Quarterback: C-

C.J. Stroud was sacked a career-high eight times, and pressured throughout the night, and this offensive line crushed his spirit. Can you blame him?

He did a good job using his legs and should’ve been sacked more. Yes, he could’ve been more accurate and missed some throws he usually makes, but at those points, he’s being graded on a massive curve.

As we have said over the last few weeks, the moderate success of this offense depends on how Stroud handled extreme, consistent pressure.

Running Backs: A

Joe Mixon is a badass. We already knew that.

J.J. Taylor looked like a potential running back to backup Mixon. We didn’t know that.

It will be interesting to see if Taylor gets the opportunity when Dameon Pierce is healthy. It probably should happen, but do you trust this offensive staff to make decisions proactively?

Wide Receivers: C-

Tank Dell was awesome. The rest of the receivers were non-existent.

John Metchie was open for a touchdown on a pass Stroud missed. That was pretty much the highlight package for the receivers not named Tank.

Were the guys getting open? Was the offensive line handcuffing them? Likely both.

The offensive line makes it hard to succeed with any receiving group, but there’s also a reason the Texans felt the need to make a huge trade for Stefon Diggs when these guys were still on the roster.

Tight Ends: C

Not a lot of opportunity for this group, which could be the case even when the offense succeeds.

Dalton Schultz breaking a few tackles and grabbing a few catches were the highlights, Cade Stover’s holding penalty that negated a long Mixon run was the low light.

Pretty blah night.

Offensive Line: F-

The offensive line put Stroud in jeopardy all night and made Ryans and Caserio’s gaslighting look silly. Stroud would’ve been safer going to the roughest Crip neighborhood in NYC wearing a battle red jersey.

It’s awful that Kenyon Green was lost for the season and you wish him the best, but I blame the coaching staff for that injury because he shouldn’t have even been on the field.

Kendrick Green wasn’t perfect, but he showed a lot of fight and did a decent job filling in. As much as you could expect. He also comes across as the only one out there ready to knuckle up. Scary thought, would he have even stepped on the field without the injury? 

There must be a change. Maybe Tytus Howard going back to guard isn’t the worst idea? Maybe they just swap the guard position? Something needs to change.

I strongly believe Ryans wouldn’t allow this disaster to happen, or go on as long as it has, on the defense he oversees. It might be time for him to trust Slowik less.

If this isn’t rock bottom and a change isn’t made then this could be a disaster.

Defensive Line: A

As disgusted as everyone is with the offensive line the defensive line is that good.

This is the strength of the team and Denico Autry has arrived at the party. His two sacks had a lot of Texans fans excited and should make an awesome group even better.

Will Anderson going down was a scary moment, but at least it only limited him rather than the Halloween nightmare occurring.

This unit is the complete opposite of the offensive line. They’re nasty, productive, well-coached winning pieces and a good return on investment for the front office. There’s no gaslighting needed to justify their play.

Linebackers: B

The linebacker depth on this team is solid. 

These guys weren’t flawless, but playing on a short week on that pathetic playing surface is a tough ask for anyone.

Especially guys like Neville Hewitt and Jake Hansen, who aren’t used to playing this much defense, and Devin White, who is trying to get into playing shape.

Henry To’o’To’o didn’t have his best game and missed a tackle, but he had some good moments as well.

These guys battle, whether they’re at the best or not.

Defensive Backs: D

This wasn’t the best night for the secondary, but this feels more like a bad game than something to be concerned about. 

These corners are good and the safeties have given you what you can expect. The rest will be good for this unit and Jimmie Ward should return against the Lions, that’s my guess, but I guess you never know.

Davante Adams left some extra work for the MetLife grounds crew, leaving Kamari Lassiter and Jalen Pitre’s jocks on the turf.

Garrett Wilson put Lassiter on his highlight tape with his second one-handed touchdown grab of the night.

I don’t hold the fourth down penalty on Derek Stingley against him because it was the worst call of the night and textbook fundamentals by him.

The secondary will only get better and this just wasn’t their night.

Special Teams: D

Ka’imi Fairbairn missed a chip shot and a long attempt. Tommy Townsend had a good day after getting banged up. Steven Sims was better than usual. Coverage was alright. However, the Jets won this battle.

Coaching: F

Ryans has his defense ready to fight every week and you can say the same about Frank Ross and his special teams. More times than not, when there are mistakes on those two units it’s not because the players are being put in the wrong position.

You can’t say the same about Bobby Slowik’s offense. This is starting to look a lot like Bill O’Brien and Deshaun Watson. He’s not functioning like a coach with any idea of how to work with the cards he’s dealt.

Slowik is the guy in the group project who causes every member of the group to fail the class. Dammit Bobby.

There was a lot of talk about Pitre ending up on Adams one-on-one. It’s definitely not ideal, but it’s unrealistic to expect Ryans to hide Pitre 100% of the time. At certain points, Pitre’s going to have to cover. Plus, opposing coordinators are going to sniff him out. It’s a challenge and one Ryans has handled well throughout the season.

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