Texans vs. Titans: Houston Grades, Notes and Quotes

The Houston Texans took a big step towards securing the AFC South division title and a playoff berth with their fourth win in a row over Houston's former NFL franchise, the Tennessee Titans.

Stifling defense led the Texans on a four-game winning streak to get them back into the playoff chase after a 2-5 start, and it made the trip to Nashville to lead the way to victory this week.

The overmatched Titans offense, featuring helpless quarterback Zach Mettenberger, managed only six points and 257 total yards, most of which came during garbage time with the Texans already holding a 34-0 advantage.

In fact, after Texans quarterback Brandon Weeden threw a touchdown pass to wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins with 11:33 left in the third quarter, Hopkins actually had more yards to his credit than the entire offense of the Titans.

Tennessee has reason to be optimistic with the potential of quarterback Marcus Mariota, but it looked like an FCS squad against a Texans team playing its fourth and fifth quarterbacks of the season, which had to be embarrassing for its fans.

Unfortunately for the Texans, the Indianapolis Colts also won their Week 16 game, but despite that, they could still clinch the division this week.

After wins by the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets, Houston can clinch the tiebreaker necessary to win the AFC South if the Cincinnati Bengals defeat the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football.

"

Attn Texans fans... Updated Wk 16 clinching scenarios for AFC South pic.twitter.com/c5pA9XkphF

— Jon Zimmer (@NFLhistory) December 22, 2015"

If Denver wins, then the Texans will have to wait until Week 17 to earn a playoff spot.

In that scenario, Houston would need either a win or tie against the Jacksonville Jaguars, a loss or tie by Indianapolis against Tennessee or a little help to win the strength of victory tiebreaker to win the division.

That last part shouldn't take much, as the Texans held a solid lead in that tiebreaker before the week started and already got help from the Jets' victory over the New England Patriots.

It's not over, but it's getting damn close.

Position Grades for the Texans

Weston Kenney/Associated Press

Quarterback: B+

The Titans defense is awful, but Weeden played well when compared to what any reasonable expectation for him was before the game.

Even without grading on a curve, finishing the game with two touchdowns, no interceptions and a 116.7 quarterback rating deserves some praise. 

"

Brandon Weeden's last win as a starter was Dec. 9, 2012 with the browns, a 30-7 win over the Chiefs, when he was a rookie first-round pick

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) December 27, 2015"

A few early passes missed their mark on what seemed like miscommunications on option routes, but something like that should get cleared up as Weeden gets more reps and more experience in the offense.

Running Back: C+

The backs were nothing special Sunday, but they did a decent enough job.

Their per-carry average of just 3.0 looks ugly, but that number was brought down by lots of second-half carries when the defense knew exactly what was coming because of the time and score.

As a group they rushed for 128 yards, helped bleed the clock and picked up five first downs on the ground, so overall it was a positive day for the position. 

Wide Receiver: B+

The beast-mode version of DeAndre Hopkins returned this week, as the wideout torched the Titans secondary.

His most impressive stretch came on the first touchdown drive of the third quarter, when Hopkins caught three passes for 45 yards and a touchdown to help increase the lead to 24-0.

The Texans defense had control of the game, but that score made the game feel like it was definitely over.

That stretch of plays also displayed the strength of Hopkins' game, which is outworking his defender while nearly always getting in the right position and being able to high-point the football with very soft hands.

Nate Washington also did his best Hopkins impression, as he pulled down a rare jump ball to score another third-quarter touchdown.

Tight End: C-

The position didn't produce much in the passing game this week—which comes as no surprise—with just two receptions for 19 yards.

Those two receptions were the only two times either Ryan Griffin or C.J. Fiedorowicz was targeted against Tennessee, so at least they didn't drop passes like each player was guilty of many times earlier in the season.

Both are decent blockers, but the team needs more playmaking ability out of the position. The Texans have started six different quarterbacks over the last two seasons, so blaming the low production on the guys throwing the ball would be unfair.

Offensive Line: B-

Right guard Brandon Brooks gave up a sack which resulted in a fumble by Weeden when he got confused by a stunt from the Titans. On the play, Brooks picked up the inside rusher, who center Ben Jones already had, while never laying a hand on the looping blitzer running free through his lane.

It was a well-designed blitz by Tennessee, but as a veteran Brooks should be able to pick that up.

Overall though, that was the only sack allowed by the offensive line, so it was a good enough job for the game. 

Defensive Line: A+

The Titans were forced to abandon the run in the second half because of the score, but the Texans still held them to just 30 rushing yards on only 2.7 yards per carry. Before this game, the previous low for rushing yards by a Houston opponent was 50 by the New Orleans Saints and the Colts.

Houston only got one sack on Mettenberger, but that stat doesn't tell the whole story. Looking at the number of plays in which he was "pressured" will be interesting when it gets calculated, because it seemed like Mettenberger was hit or hurried on nearly every dropback during the first three quarters.

Another positive sign came from the performance of J.J. Watt, who started to show flashes of his non-broken hand form with several examples of him blowing by a blocker to provide quick pressure.

Watt finished the game with one sack, one other tackle for a loss, one pass breakup and two hits on the quarterback.

Linebackers: B+

Benardrick McKinney looked fantastic, as he quickly diagnosed screen plays and short passes in front of him and took good, quick angles to make a few violent tackles. The rookie finished with two tackles for loss and recently has looked like the best inside linebacker on the team.

Before leaving the game, Jadeveon Clowney looked agile as he was able to chase down runners from behind and limit them to short gains. Other than the game against New England, he still hasn't shown much in terms of a dominant pass rush, but he's at least been producing quality play in nearly every game. 

Defensive Backs: A+

At times it seemed like the defensive backs had a copy of the Titans playbook in the huddle, because they were all over every short pass and screen play to help limit those calls to short gains.

They also played more physically than I've seen all year, as many of their hits produced a large cracking noise and celebratory "ooohs" from teammates near the play.

Kareem Jackson, Eddie Pleasant, Johnathan Joseph and Andre Hal all deflected passes during the game, while Pleasant came away with an interception and Hal nearly got another.

The play from the secondary was outstanding.

Special Teams: A

The Texans had one of their best special teams performances of the season against Tennessee.

Nick Novak made all of his kicks, Shane Lechler averaged over 52 yards per punt and punt returner Keith Mumphery actually averaged more yards per punt return than his counterpart on the other team.

It would be nice to see one of the return guys contribute a big runback to set up a struggling offense occasionally, but we should all be happy about their performance this week.

Coaching: B+

With the margin of victory what it was, it's hard to find much to complain about, but head coach Bill O'Brien continues to make baffling decisions in regards to managing the injury risk vs. reward of leaving key players in the game late during blowouts. 

"

Watt, Clowney, Wilfork, JJo, Hopkins and Cushing should all sit the entire 4th quarter. Open to more names being added to that list #Texans

— Brian McDonald (@sackedbybmac) December 27, 2015"

As I suggested during the third quarter, there was no reason why key players for the Texans should have been on the field during the fourth quarter with the 34-0 score.

This isn't decision making with the benefit of hindsight; deciding on whether to leave certain players in the game should have been pretty easy well before the injury to Clowney occurred.

Does the player have something to gain from extra reps and experience? Does the player have a current injury or history of being injury-prone? Is the current margin of score safe enough to put in backup players?

Answering those questions should have led to the removal of Watt, Clowney, Joseph, Brian Cushing, Hopkins and Vince Wilfork before the first play of the fourth quarter with no hesitation or second guessing.

I honestly have no idea what Coach O'Brien thought he was accomplishing by leaving those players in and risking injury during a blowout. Especially after watching what happened to running back Arian Foster earlier in the season during a blowout against the Miami Dolphins, not learning from that mistake is dumbfounding.

No legit excuse exists for this mistake by O'Brien. Even without seeing what happened to Foster, judging the risk and reward as described above isn't that difficult.

This may seem like an exaggeration to some, but this is coaching malpractice and O'Brien should apologize to his team for his inexcusable lack of awareness.

The injury to Clowney may turn out to be nothing serious, but it doesn't make the decision to leave him in any less stupid. Regardless of the severity of his injury, the potential small reward gained by leaving him in isn't worth the potential risk for a catastrophic injury.

"

Jadeveon Clowney has a boot on but says he's fine. Bill O'Brien says Clowney is fine. #Texans

— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) December 27, 2015"

Other than what was just described, O'Brien had a great day, but his grade has to be dropped a letter for the big mistake.

DeAndre Hopkins Surpasses 100 Receptions and 1,400 Yards

James Kenney/Associated Press

For the first time in over a month, DeAndre Hopkins topped the century mark for receiving yards as he continued his climb up the franchise record book.

Hopkins finished the game with seven receptions for 117 yards and one touchdown, his sixth 100-yard game of the season.

With that performance, the third-year wide receiver became only the second player in franchise history to reach the 100-reception and 1,400-receiving yard milestones. 

"

Andre Johnson the only other #Texans pass catcher w/100+ receptions in a season. Dre did it many times.

— Drew Dougherty (@DoughertyDrew) December 27, 2015"

Hopkins added to the franchise record he already held for receiving touchdowns, but he will have to have a monster game next week to break the single-season team records for receptions and receiving yards currently held by Johnson.

Current Johnson team records:

• 115 receptions
• 1,598 receiving yards

Hopkins' stats after Week 16

• 104 receptions
• 1,432 receiving yards

So to pass both of those statistical marks and hold all three major single-season team records, Hopkins will need 12 receptions and 167 receiving yards next week against Jacksonville.

His highs for both stats this season for any one game are 11 receptions and 169 yards, so it's not impossible, but he'll need a huge performance to break those two records.

Even if he doesn't break the two other records, putting up the numbers he already has considering the quarterbacks he's played with is amazing.

"

"They got me in the Pro Bowl."-Hopkins on the variety of QBs he's played with in 2015.

— Drew Dougherty (@DoughertyDrew) December 27, 2015"

Hopkins caught 10 passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns the last time he played the Jaguars this season.

Coming into Week 16, Jacksonville ranked 24th in passing yards allowed.

The Wildcat Lives on in Houston

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

The Texans' use of the Wildcat package has had its ups and downs since first being used in Week 11 against the New York Jets, but the team added a new wrinkle to it this week.

Recent addition B.J. Daniels ran a version of the wildcat against Tennessee, but it was really more of a traditional formation that featured a quarterback more likely to run than to pass, since Brandon Weeden was taken off the field on most of those plays.

The new wrinkle came from Daniels actually throwing the ball out of this gadget package of sorts, which the Texans didn't do earlier in the year when it was run by wide receiver Cecil Shorts and running back Jonathan Grimes.

As said before in these articles, the Wildcat packages should only see limited use, as they've been on film for over a month and are normally only effective if they catch the opponent by surprise.

However, it was a good idea by Coach O'Brien to not only get a look at Daniels to see what he can do, but also to put the new wrinkle on film so that hopefully the Texans' future opponents will have to use valuable practice time figuring out how they want to stop the gadget package, especially a potential playoff opponent.

If the Texans were facing a tougher opponent with a likely closer margin, then using the gadget formations wouldn't have been a good idea this week. But the Titans are awful and overmatched, so why not put something on tape to mess with Houston's future opponents' preparation?

Daniels might not see the field much if the Texans make playoffs, but how the coaching staff decided to use him against Tennessee was well done.

Follow me on Twitter for more news and opinion on the Texans: @sackedbybmac