Houston Texans vs. Tennessee Titans: Full Report Card Grades for Houston

Much like the Houston Texans' Week 2 game against the Oakland Raiders, this game never felt like it was in doubt. The Texans dominated their helpless division rivals from beginning to end to even their record at 4-4 at the halfway point of the season.

The Texans gained 11 more first downs, held the ball for 11 more minutes and were plus-two in turnovers; hard to lose when you win each of those stat categories.

The game played out in a very predictable manner with both J.J. Watt and Arian Foster playing extremely well, while the Tennessee Titans' rookie quarterback—who made his first career start—looked overmatched for most of the game.

It seemed like the Texans defense relaxed a little bit after taking a three-score lead which resulted in some late points being scored by the Titans, but the points were meaningless, and the game wasn't as close as even the 16-point margin might indicate.

Have the Texans turned a corner or improved as a team after snapping their three-game losing streak? Hard to tell considering the strength of the competition; a big test awaits them at home next week against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Quarterback

Wade Payne/Associated Press

Another awful game from Ryan Fitzpatrick; I'm beyond frustrated by the coaching staff continuing to stick with him.

He struggled in numerous ways, but two things stood out Sunday in particular: terrible accuracy and poor awareness in the pocket.

The receivers got open quite a bit, but Fitzpatrick's throws were high, wide and behind all game long. Those inaccurate passes also led to balls being batted up in the air as the receiver tried to reach for it and ended up tipping it with his hand or fingers. The Texans were lucky not to have a few of them intercepted.

Fitzpatrick also took a couple of sacks on plays where he was able to avoid the initial rush, but he then held onto the ball for way too long instead of throwing the ball away.

Go back and watch the first-half sack from Michael Griffin again if you get a chance. Fitzpatrick avoided the initial rush, took a few steps away to his right and then for some inexplicable reason just stopped and held the ball.

Did he think that Griffin was completely out of the play; he was just a few steps away! Fitzpatrick has to either keep running or get rid of the ball in that situation.

Then later in the first half, Fitzpatrick committed an even bigger mistake in a similar scenario when on a 2nd-and-goal play from the 2-yard line, he again avoided a Titans blitzer, but he held onto the ball instead of throwing it away and took another bad sack.

You can certainly argue that the Texans should have run the ball instead of throwing it at the 2-yard line—and I would agree with you—but Fitzpatrick still has to throw the ball away in that situation; you can't take a sack and lose nine yards there.

That mistake was a big reason why the Texans came away with three points instead of four on the possession.

For the game Fitzpatrick finished 19-of-35 for 227 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Not a bad stat line but stats can be deceiving.

Grade: D

Running Back

Wade Payne/Associated Press

So much for Arian Foster having a down year of production because of his age and heavy usage over the last several years; the guy continues to play like a beast this season, as PDS noted:

"

Foster so dangerous in the second level. Breaking ankles. #Texans https://t.co/4m3T8Chdhc

— PDS (@PatDStat) October 26, 2014"

What separates Foster from other running backs and makes him special is his amazing vision to find cutback lanes and then of course the athleticism and acceleration to change direction and burst through the new hole for a big gain. Seth Payne of CBS SportsRadio 610 breaks down just how devastating Foster is to opposing teams:

"

Arian has developed knack for turning bad blocking into a positive. Gets everybody sucked up to the line, then blasts the void behind them.

— Seth Payne (@PayneNFL) October 26, 2014"

Many of Foster's big runs end up going in the opposite direction of where the play was designed. The run blocking has been inconsistent, but Foster has a great ability to recognize when the defense overly pursues and is usually able to exploit it really well. PDS shared a play showing Foster's quick thinking in overcoming a defensive scheme, allowing him to break to the outside:

"

Look at Foster set it up with that dip inside the hole to bounce it outside. #Texans https://t.co/tg013mUPo4

— PDS (@PatDStat) October 26, 2014"

For the game Foster finished with 151 yards on 7.6 yards per carry with two rushing touchdowns and another touchdown as a receiver. You could certainly make an argument—considering the help he's getting from his offensive line and quarterback—that Foster is the best back in the league right now.

Grade: A+

Wide Receiver

Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

There was nothing explosive or game-breaking from the Texans' wide receivers against the Titans, but overall the group had a pretty solid game.

Unfortunately we can't judge the production of the wide receivers by their numbers very fairly because the poor play of the quarterback throwing them the ball has had a negative impact on their stat line.

As I mentioned on a previous page, Fitzpatrick's passes were high, wide or behind the intended target on what felt like most of his pass attempts. You could put Calvin Johnson and Dez Bryant out there at receiver for Fitzpatrick, and their production wouldn't be much better.

Bottom line: You can't catch what doesn't come close to hitting your hands.

Overall for the game Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins were targeted a combined 23 times and came away with 12 receptions—shows you how many bad passes were thrown their way—for 150 receiving yards.

Grade: B

Tight End

Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

Put this group of players on a milk carton or put out a missing persons report because, for the majority of every game this year, they seems like they're not even on the field. The only time I even hear them being called is usually because a member just committed a penalty. PDS shared a telling stat for the tight ends:

"

#Texans Passing Targets WRs: 27 RBs: 7 Tight Ends: 1

— PDS (@PatDStat) October 26, 2014"

I find it hard to believe that Fitzpatrick would just ignore the group if they were getting open because short- or medium-length passes to them over the middle should be the easiest to complete, so I have to assume that they're just not separating from their defenders when running routes.

The Texans' trio of tight ends for the game had more penalties called on them than receptions made; very disappointing year so far for this position group.

Grade: D

Offensive Line

Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

It was not a great game from the offensive line, but through the brilliance of Foster, the team overall was able to overcome its poor play. In particular the offensive line really struggled in pass protection as Fitzpatrick had to avoid free-rushers nearly all game long.

For the second time in the last three games, the Texans' offensive line allowed Fitzpatrick to be sacked five times, and that number doesn't even tell the whole story as he was able to use his legs to avoid a few other potential sacks.

Some people will probably point to Foster's rushing total as a sign of solid play upfront, but his big-chunk gains and most of his yardage came off plays where the line failed to open up anything in the direction of where the play was designed.

If not for Foster's great vision to see holes opening up on the back side of the play, the Texans wouldn't have had much success on the ground.

Maybe I have too much faith in the players on this team, but with the exception of Derek Newton every starter on the offensive line was either a recent high draft pick or has had big success in this league. It doesn't make sense that the offensive line has struggled this much.

Perhaps it's time to start pointing the finger at offensive line coach Paul Dunn.

Grade: C-

Defensive Line

Wade Payne/Associated Press

J.J. Watt is a football-playing monster. PDS highlighted a couple of key moments for Watt:

"

Watt held, gets the sack and takes a selfie for Mett. #Texans https://t.co/yx2qhNNe4Q

— PDS (@PatDStat) October 26, 2014"

Overall, Watt finished with two sacks, two tackles for loss, which included one that saved points on the Titans' two-point conversion attempt, one pass defensed, two quarterback hits and a forced fumble. 

"

Watt blasts Mett. #Texans #Titans https://t.co/215SmaTLc6

— PDS (@PatDStat) October 26, 2014"

It wasn't just Watt, however, as the entire group combined to hold the Titans to just 36 rushing yards on 2.8 yards per carry for the game.

Grade: A+

Linebackers

Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

The play from the linebackers wasn't perfect Sunday, but it might have been their best performance this season.

Mike Mohamed led the team in tackles with 10, while Akeem Dent and John Simon combined for three of the team's five total hits on quarterback Zach Mettenberger. PDS shared one of Mohamed's significant hits:

"

Mike Mohamed hit stick. #Texans https://t.co/ZBgPI4sTqF

— PDS (@PatDStat) October 26, 2014"

The linebackers were physical with their hits, I didn't notice many broken tackles which had become common and they helped limit the Titans to just 36 yards rushing as mentioned on the previous page.

Grade: B+

Defensive Backs

Mark Zaleski/Associated Press

Hard to grade the defensive backs considering the competition. They didn't allow much through the air while the game was still semi-competitive, but they were going against a rookie quarterback making his first career start.

If you didn't watch the game, then the numbers from Mettenberger probably look pretty good, but both of his touchdowns and most of his yards came in the second half after the Titans trailed by three scores and the Texans defense started to let up a little bit.

We'll see if their play transfers to next week when they face a much better passing attack, but credit has to be given to them for making the plays that were available.

D.J. Swearinger, Kendrick Lewis and Kareem Jackson combined for five of the Texans' six pass breakups and came away with a turnover on an interception by Swearinger.

Grade: B

Special Teams

Wade Payne/Associated Press

Of course the special teams had their obligatory bad play of the game, but overall it was a solid job from the third phase of the game. The bad play came when the Texans allowed Dexter McCluster to return a punt 48 yards to set up the Titans' only score of the first half.

The Titans offense was a train wreck for most of the game, so gift-wrapping points for it was the only way it was going to stay in the game. Those three points after the great punt return didn't end up meaning anything, but plays like that could hurt this group against better teams.

As far as the guys who actually kicked the ball, Randy Bullock had another good game and continues to have a nice bounce-back season. Bullock made all three of his field-goal attempts—including one from 49 yards—and has now made 15 of 17 overall this season.

Shane Lechler had one poor punt during the first half, but he finished with a solid average of 44.8 and had four punts downed inside the 20-yard line.

Grade: B-

Coaching

Bob Levey/Getty Images

They won, so I won't be too critical, but there were a few decisions with Bill O'Brien's strategy that I didn't like.

The first one was more of the schizophrenic play-calling from possession to possession that I've noticed from Coach O'Brien all year. One possession after Foster had a 34-yard touchdown run from an under-center formation, O'Brien called three straight passes from out of the shotgun on the next possession.

Not surprisingly the Texans went three-and-out and had to punt after not picking up a single yard. He seems to have a tendency for getting away from what works best.

Later in the game an odd play call worked out in the Texans favor, but I still think questioning the strategy is justifiable. With the Texans up by three scores in the third quarter, O'Brien called for a pass with the Texans on their own 4-yard line on 3rd-and-8.

Fitzpatrick completed a pass for 19 yards to DeAndre Hopkins, and the Texans went on to score a touchdown on the possession, but being aggressive there was a questionable decision at best. With a three-score lead why take the risk of potentially giving the Titans easy points when their offense had struggled all game?

Fitzpatrick has thrown crippling interceptions twice in that same situation in previous games against the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants this season. Both of those plays in previous games were a part of huge momentum swings for the opponent, so why risk a turnover in a game that you control?

The risk just wasn't worth the potential reward. It's great that they ended up scoring, but I would argue that Fitzpatrick is more likely to commit a devastating turnover in that situation than a great play like he did to Hopkins.

The Titans offense was a train wreck for most of the game; the only thing that might have gotten it going would have been a free and easy score off a turnover. It worked out, but letting Fitzpatrick throw the ball in that situation over running it will fail more times than it will work over the long haul.

The last thing was his decision to keep key players in the game late into the fourth quarter when the game was essentially over. With a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter, there was no reason to keep Andre Johnson or Arian Foster in the game.

Throw it to Keshawn Martin or hand it off to Alfred Blue, why risk injury to older key players when the game is in hand? Along the same lines, I know Jadeveon Clowney needed work after missing six games, but why was he still in with under two minutes to go?

Is whatever Clowney would gain from several more plays during a blowout worth more than the rest of the season? Can't look at the short term over the long term with a guy like Clowney; don't risk the rest of his season for a few plays in a game that you control.

Grade: B

Overall

Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

Quarterback	D
Running Back	A+
Wide Receiver	B
Tight End	D
Offensive Line	C-
Defensive Line	A+
Linebackers	B+
Defensive Backs	B
Special Teams	B-
Coaching	B
Overall	B+

Follow me on Twitter for more Texans opinion and analysis: @sackedbybmac.