The Land Lock Week Three Grades

The Texans had plenty that deserved criticism from the loss to Minnesota

Each week Landry Locker will post his grades for the Texans the day after the game. Here are the grades for week two. Follow Landry on YouTube.

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This was the worst performance of the DeMeco Ryans-C.J. Stroud era and there isn’t a close second. 

You can chalk it up to just a bad week in a long season, but it feels like some of the issues that were on display in Minnesota could be around for a while.

Here are the Land Lock week three grades.

Quarterback: C

This wasn’t CJ Stroud’s best performance, but he didn’t have much of a chance.

The offensive line didn’t block, they constantly negated big plays Stroud made, and the run game without Joe Mixon is non-existent. 

What exactly is Stroud supposed to do?

Penalties eliminated some of Stroud’s solid efforts: 

• Stroud’s interception to start the game was after his 16-yard completion to Nico Collins was eliminated by a Cade Stover holding penalty. 

• There was a third down completion to Xavier Hutchinson negated by a Laremy Tunsil penalty, which was followed by a possession where the offensive line had four straight penalties that took the Texans from third and four in field goal range to third and 19 out of field goal range.

• A long, chain-moving completion to Tank Dell was eliminated by another Tunsil penalty. 

I expect Stroud to be better, but I don’t expect him to be able to do much with these surroundings. His surroundings on Sunday were similar to what David Carr or early Deshaun Watson had to work with.

Running Backs: C

Running back depth behind Joe Mixon is a concern and has been a popular topic all offseason. The Texans insist they like their backs behind Mixon.

14 carries for 38 yards is what the backs had combined and the Texans had to abandon the run game early. However, in the pass game Akers scored the only Texans touchdown of the day and Dare Ogunbowale had a 15-yard reception to move the chains on a Bobby Slowik third down gadget play.

The performance wasn’t great, but I don’t expect much more. 

Wide Receivers: B

I can’t really think of too many things the wide receivers did wrong in this game and as previously mentioned, a lot of their efforts were eliminated by penalties.

They made plays when given the opportunity to do so.

Tight Ends: D-

Brevin Jordan was missed immediately. 

Stover had a holding penalty that eliminated a Stroud completion to Collins on the first play of the game. On the next drive, Stover got beat for a sack that pushed the Texans back and Ka’imi Fairbairn eventually missed a field goal. 

Dalton Schultz had a catch on fourth down, but outside of that he had a very sluggish vibe. There was a near fumble and a play across the middle on a Stroud deep pass that he usually catches, but was only able to get one hand on. Schultz always moves at a slower pace, but he also might be more hurt than we know.  

Offensive Line: F

This was one of the worst offensive line efforts you’ll ever see for a franchise that has seen plenty of bad performances in the trenches. 

There is a serious penalty problem that centers around Tunsil. Basic stunts led to sacks. The Vikings were winning the physical battle. Houston did nothing well on the offensive line.

It’s unrealistic to expect this offensive line to be great, but they can’t be this bad or things could get scary around here. If this isn’t the worst performance of the season, then this team could be doomed.

Defensive Line: C+

Let’s look at the numbers.

Tim Settle had two sacks, Will Anderson and Derek Barnett each had a sack. The Vikings had 118 yards on 28 carries on the ground. It wasn’t an elite effort, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the offensive line.

There were times where the defense did their part to build momentum or avoid disaster, but the offense failed to capitalize. 

Danielle Hunter had a 15-yard penalty for a low hit on Sam Darnold, but was pushed into him. The most frustrating part of the day was that Darnold was able to escape pressure like Anthony Richardson and Caleb Williams were in the first two weeks.

It definitely could have been better and they’ll say they need to finish more sacks, but it wasn’t all bad. If the offensive line performed like the defensive line then this wouldn’t have been a blowout.

Linebackers: C

Does Jalen Pitre count as a linebacker at this point? We will still count him as a defensive back, but he’s basically a third linebacker at this point.

There are only two traditional linebackers that play a lot of the snaps at this point. Azeez Al-Shaair, who had a team high 10 tackles and two tackles for a loss, and Henry To’o’To’o, who had five tackles. There were opportunities to take down Aaron Jones earlier and some plays they need to finish better.

Neither was great, but neither played that bad.

The whole defensive effort could have been rewarded more than it was, they stopped the bleeding a couple times, but they were functioning with a counterproductive offense. They eventually ran out of steam.

Defensive Backs: F

Vikings receivers took turns abusing the secondary. Justin Jefferson had his way with the defense early, Jalen Nailor had his way late. 

It was astonishing how little resistance Jefferson got at the line of scrimmage and a constant talking point on the broadcast, which could have as much to do with the gameplan. 

This was the first game where it appeared Pitre was sought out by the opposing offensive coordinator. He had a massive penalty on Minnesota’s first drive of the second half setting up their touchdown that made it 21-0. He was also beat on a third down where Jefferson and Darnold were unable to connect.

Beyond the box score, there were multiple plays where the Vikings had open receivers that were unable to catch the ball.

Stingley and Lassiter both had times where they struggled in coverage, Jimmie Ward got beat for a touchdown, and the tackling was inconsistent. 

Not a great effort and the scariest thing is that although you feel good about the corners, I wonder if this is just the beginning of Pitre being targeted by opposing offenses.

Special Teams: D-

DeMeco Ryans said the Texans wouldn’t have been 2-0 without Fairbairn heading into this game. However, Fairbairn got in the way of attempting to win in Minnesota.

Fairbairn missed his first field goal of the season after being the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week. It should have been a closer attempt, but Stroud was sacked by former Texans DE Jonathan Greenard, who physically dominated Stover to get to Stroud.

Momentum on Special Teams:

• Fairbairn killed the Texans momentum after they scored their first (and only touchdown) to cut the lead to 14 by kicking the ball out of bounds.

• The punt game could have swung momentum in the Texans favor in the second quarter after pinning Atlanta deep on a Tommy Townsend punt, but the Texans offense failed to capitalize. 

The coverage game was fine, but the missed field goal and kick out of bounds were significant. 

Steven Sims has just kinda been their in the return game and it feels like maybe it’s time to use Tank Dell on special teams. 

Coaching: D

It seemed like the defense made it too easy for Jefferson. Penalties were a factor for a second consecutive week, which Ryans says falls on him. I don’t completely agree with him on that, especially on the offensive line, but I will let him fall on the sword.

Kevin O’Connell seemed to have a better gameplan than Bobby Slowik, but it’s hard to completely evaluate Slowik’s play-calling and game planning when the offensive line performs the way they did, unless, you think Slowik is responsible for the offensive line, which some do.

Overall it was just a very uninspiring effort on both sides of the ball.

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