Titans vs. Texans: Final Report Card, Player Grades for Tennessee

Well, the Tennessee Titans were in it for a while, but in the second half, the Houston Texans pulled away and never looked back, winning the game handily.

Jake Locker was injured very early on, putting the game in Matt Hasselbeck's hands for nearly the whole 60 minutes. He had a mixed outing, throwing two touchdowns, but also giving up a couple of pick sixes.

Chris Johnson will probably be the biggest story of the game. He finally had a good game, rushing for 141 yards on 25 carries.

That, however, wasn't enough, and the Texans showed why they should be among the favorites for the Super Bowl.

Quarterback—B

It was a mixed outing for Hasselbeck. He started out very well, but regressed as the game went on and the pressure generated by the defense increased. Keep in mind he had to pass without Kenny Britt in the lineup.

When Hasselbeck came in for Locker, he started out hot, marching the Titans downfield to score the first touchdown that the Texans have given up in the first half this season.

After that, it was all downhill, unfortunately. There were some punts and two pick sixes. The incompletes weren't really Hasselbeck's fault, as he was constantly under pressure by superhuman J.J. Watt.

However, both picks were completely on Hasselbeck, and those have to change.

Final Game Grade: B

Running Backs—B+

I don't know what changed that made Chris Johnson suddenly start playing well, but it certainly wasn't Houston's defense (they're pretty good).

If you ask me, it's the fact that he isn't stutter-stepping behind the line four or five times before finally going forward. When he hits the holes, he actually can get some yards.

Javon Ringer saw his first carries as well, and he did pretty well too, getting 14 yards on two carries.

Now that Ringer is finally healthy, I expect that he will get a lot of carries if Johnson struggles again.

Final Game Grade: B+

Wide Receivers—C

Kenny Britt was out for the game, which of course caused a problem from the get-go.

Kendall Wright was in a lot more, and he showed his quickness on a couple of his catches, but he also dropped more than one pass that he should have caught.

Nate Washington had one great catch and run for 25 yards, but the Texans secondary still kept him locked up for most of the game.

The rest of the receivers were pretty quiet this game, but a lot of that was due to the forced incompletes by Houston's front seven.

Final Game Grade: C

Tight Ends—B+

The only real knock I have on Jared Cook today was maybe not his fault. The blitz that injured Jake Locker came from a safety whom Cook should have blocked when he saw the blitz. However, it's possible that Cook was supposed to be the hot read and it was Locker who messed up looking to the wrong side.

Other than that, both Cook and Craig Stevens were great. Both averaged 12 yards per reception and Stevens scored a touchdown.

Cook has shown none of his signature inconsistency in the last few weeks. Against the Texans, he caught three of the four passes thrown his way.

Tayor Thompson tipped one of the passes that turned into a pick six, but you can't blame him for trying to catch a pass.

Final Game Grade: B+

Offensive Line—B

The offensive line did a much better job of run blocking this week, opening up huge holes for Chris Johnson. Like I said, though, I think the biggest difference in the run game was the fact that Johnson actually took the lanes they gave him, but that's a discussion for another day.

For a large portion of the game, the Titans line held the Texans defense in check. However, it didn't last.

Eventually, J.J. Watt moving all over the line caught up with the Titans, and he found his way into the backfield repeatedly. It's hard to put this too much on the Titans, though, since Watt is looking like the favorite to win defensive player of the year.

David Stewart had a rough game. He got into a few scuffles and cost the Titans 30 yards for personal fouls. I'll give him credit, though, since he often had both Watt and Brooks Reed bearing down on him, and he did a good job keeping them out of the backfield for most of the game.

Final Game Grade: B

Defensive Line—A-

There weren't any sacks, but don't let that fool you. The Titans defensive line played a great game.

They were putting pressure on Matt Schaub the entire game, and even though he was able to get rid of the ball every time, they forced a few incompletes and got a few hits on Schaub.

It's also important to remember that Houston's offensive line is probably the best in the NFL, so getting pressure on them is a good sign.

The defensive line was stellar against the run. Arian Foster had 86 yards on the ground, but a lot of those were on the edge, and his average was only 3.6 yards per carry.

And again, he's the best running back in the NFL, running behind the best offensive line in the NFL. Keeping him under 100 yards is an accomplishment all by itself. If that's not enough, Jurrell Casey had two tackles for a loss, and the line held Ben Tate to 11 yards.

Final Game Grade: A-

Linebackers—C

The linebackers suffered from poor tackling today. Will Witherspoon had a few missed tackles that resulted in first downs, or just more yards than should have been allowed.

Akeem Ayers did an alright job, but it was a down game compared to his great performance against Detroit the week before. He had eight total tackles and a deflected pass.

Zach Brown had six tackles, but his contribution was minimal in comparison to what I'd expect. He needs to be covering tight ends more, as they are killing the Titans defensively game in and game out.

The group really missed Colin McCarthy.

Final Game Grade: C

Defensive Backs—B+

The defensive backs had a mixed outing today. Andre Johnson torched the secondary early on, but was limited for the rest of the game and only had 56 total yards, most of which came on a 33-yard pass in the fourth quarter.

Putting Jordan Babineaux back in the starting lineup was a good move. He led the team in tackles.

However, the safeties (and all the defensive backs, really) had trouble in open-field tackling for a large part of the game.

Still, for limiting Andre Johnson and the other receivers to less than 100 yards, I'm giving the defensive backs a pretty good grade.

Final Game Grade: B+

Special Teams—C+

After the game against the Lions, the special teams play this week seemed kind of stale.

The kick returns were pretty pedestrian for the most part, but Reynaud did have one good one in the third quarter. Unfortunately, 10 yards of it were negated by an illegal block.

That is probably the biggest thing to take away from special teams play this week—it was undisciplined. There were multiple penalties called against the Titans on special teams in the game. Tommie Campbell drew two blocking penalties himself.

They have to be more disciplined in the coming weeks if they're going to help out the team.

Final Game Grade: C+

Coaching—B+

Considering that this was a road game against maybe the best team in the NFL, and the Titans had to go into it without their No.1 receiver, and lost their starting quarterback in the first quarter, they did alright.

Munchak kept the team together despite the adversity, and for a while, they were right there in the game. The Texans ran away with it in the end, but I don't fault the coaches for that.

The only thing that I thought was strange was reserving all the timeouts in the first half, then not using them to at least try to get in field goal range at the end of the first half.

Final Game Grade: B+