Philadelphia Eagles vs. Houston Texans: Full Report Card Grades for Houston
The Houston Texans' 2014 season is dead; may it rest in peace.
It's not technically dead, of course, because they have seven games remaining, but I would be shocked by their suddenly turning the corner and playing with the consistency it would take to make the playoffs.
They have a few games left against the division where they should be favored to win, but those three games would only get them to seven wins. And I have no faith in the Texans' ability to beat teams with equal or greater talent.
All the problems we've seen from the Texans this season that have led to a losing record going into their bye week were a factor today.
There were busts in coverage from the secondary, the offensive line played poorly, the team committed too many penalties, the return game offered nothing and the tight ends as a group were invisible. Ryan Fitzpatrick's accuracy was off as well, and he took too many avoidable sacks.
Other than that the Texans played really well.
The Philadelphia Eagles are likely the better team even when both squads are 100 percent healthy, but this was a very winnable game—like many of the Texans' other losses this season. And the injuries shouldn't be an excuse because the Eagles lost just as many starters during the game.
The Texans lost because their defense had difficulty stopping an offense led by Mark Sanchez, who maintained his perfect record at NRG Stadium, and because the offense looked lost even while Arian Foster was still in the game.
"485 total yards for the Eagles with 30 first downs. 300 total yards for the #Texans with 15 first downs.
— PDS (@PatDStat) November 2, 2014"
So much for the trend of the Texans beating the opponents with worse quarterbacks and losing to the teams with better quarterbacks. They lost to Mark Sanchez! Or maybe Sanchez is actually better than Fitzpatrick as well, which is sad but definitely possible.
"Mark Sanchez: 15-22, 202 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 89.6 Ryan Fitzpatrick: 13-27, 203, 2 TD, INT, 82.8 #Texans #Eagles
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) November 2, 2014"
Bottom line: It's a quarterback league, and the Texans' starting quarterback is arguably the worst in the NFL. Going just off that thought maybe they've actually overachieved with their 4-5 record.
Quarterback
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When you start a bad quarterback, you should expect to get bad quarterback play. For whatever reason the coaching staff hasn't realized this yet, and it continues to play Ryan Fitzpatrick.
I'm not saying that Ryan Mallett would solve all Houston's woes, but Fitzpatrick is just a train wreck out there. He constantly holds on to the ball too long—seemingly missing open receivers and taking unnecessary sacks. When he does let the ball go his passes are often wide and out of range of the intended receiver.
"Fitzpatrick is not cutting it today. Line isn't helping. But he's holding on to ball too long again and is missing more than he's hitting.
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) November 2, 2014"
What has Fitzpatrick done recently to earn the starting role? What positive attribute or skill does he bring to the table that the other quarterbacks do not?
"#Texans offense scored 14 points today, all off TOs. Fitzpatrick = 4 sacks, INT, sub-50% passing. Two weeks until next game. #FreeMallett
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) November 2, 2014"
Mallett is definitely less athletic and may suffer from inconsistent accuracy. But Fitzpatrick takes a ton of avoidable sacks and misses wide-open receivers all the time, so I don't see why there should be any fear of a dramatic drop-off going from the starter to the backup.
The weaknesses of both quarterbacks are pretty similar, but at least with Mallett he has a strong enough arm to open up more of the playbook and possibly back the defense off a bit. That could help out the running game.
Not to mention there's his free-agent status at the end of the season, so it would be beneficial to take a look at him before a contract decision has to be made.
If Mallett plays terribly—a real possibility that he will because of his inexperience and the poor offensive line play—then you can always go back to Fitzpatrick. Then at least you've given the change a chance and know going into the offseason that you should draft your future quarterback.
For the game Fitzpatrick went 13-of-27 for 203 yards with two touchdowns, one interception and a 82.8 quarterback rating.
Grade: D
Running Back
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It was a good but not great game from Arian Foster against the Eagles, but with the injury and poor offensive line play most of that isn't on him.
"This just in: @ArianFoster is really good. And has been for a while now. #Texans pic.twitter.com/j1J2cvXADM
— Chris Spisak (@ChrisSpisak) November 2, 2014 "
"Arian Foster has more TDs in his first 66 games than Earl Campbell had, w/ same ypc average. Foster has 10 TD catches. Earl never had one.
— Jerome Solomon (@JeromeSolomon) November 2, 2014"
For the game Sunday, Foster had 119 total yards and one touchdown.
Foster played eight games last season and finished with 542 rushing yards and one total touchdown. Despite a slight down game today, through eight games this year he has 822 rushing yards and 10 total touchdowns.
Foster had an amazing 2010 season but is actually averaging career bests in rushing yards per attempt and rushing yards per game this season. Currently Foster is averaging 102.75 rushing yards per game, which works out to 1,644 rushing yards over a full 16-game season—an unbelievable year.
Of course Foster won't play a full 16-game season after already missing the New York Giants game in Week 3 and possibly missing another game after the bye with this new injury.
"O’Brien saying that Foster is dealing with a groin issue. #Texans
— PDS (@PatDStat) November 2, 2014"
His numbers weren't amazing. But the reasons for that weren't all his fault, so I don't think it would be right to kill him with a poor grade here.
Grade: B
Wide Receiver
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They're doing the best they can with the help they have around them.
Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins are catching nearly everything that hits their hands, but with poor play from their quarterback and poor pass protection from the offensive line, the Texans don't have the time or the skill to make big plays down the field in the passing game.
Both Johnson and Hopkins are on pace to go over 1,000 yards receiving, which is pretty crazy considering the poor quarterback and offensive line play I just mentioned. That being said, it's pretty obvious to me that the torch has been passed from Johnson to Hopkins as the best receiver on this team.
Johnson is still capable of making plays if he had a better quarterback throwing him the ball, but he looks like he's lost a step or two and isn't getting any separation on most routes.
The version of Johnson from three years ago and further back was able to make bad or average quarterbacks look good; this version doesn't seem to have that ability. Maybe it's because he missed the entire offseason, or maybe his age is just finally becoming a factor. But he doesn't look as dynamic as he once was.
His younger counterpart, Hopkins, finished the game with six receptions for 115 yards and one touchdown. This was Hopkins' third game this season with over 100 receiving yards; Johnson doesn't have one all year.
Whenever this team finally gets a real quarterback—who knows when that day will be—to take advantage of the talent at receiver, Hopkins appears to have the talent and skill set to become one of the best receivers in the league.
Grade: B
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Tight End
4 of 11
It feels like we should start passing out fliers and putting up posters around Houston to ask for help with finding the Texans' lost tight ends. You know, like you would for a family dog or cat.
Where has this position group been this season?
The Texans have played nine games so far, and the tight end group as a whole has combined for only 16 receptions for 152 yards and zero touchdowns. How's that even possible? Like many others I had high hopes for this group coming into the season and have been very disappointed with its production.
For this game specifically the tight end group had zero receptions against the Eagles.
Sure you could blame the poor quarterback play from Ryan Fitzpatrick, but Garrett Graham had a pretty good season last year while playing with Matt Schaub and Case Keenum, both of whom also played poorly for the majority of their starts.
Last year Graham averaged 50 receiving yards per game after taking over for the injured Owen Daniels—an 800-yard pace over a full 16-game schedule—but he's only averaging 15.25 yards per game this season. That is on pace for 244 yards for a full 16-game season.
Fitzpatrick is playing poorly, but he can't be the only reason for a drop-off that dramatic.
Grade: F
Offensive Line
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It was yet another bad game for the Texans' offensive line.
If you take out the 49 yards rushing from Ryan Fitzpatrick on scrambles—when he was running for his life due to poor pass protection—the Texans' running backs rushed for just 69 yards on 3.13 yards per carry.
The offensive line as a group was also flagged for what felt like a dozen penalties, including a pair of inexcusable false starts by Duane Brown and Derek Newton that killed the Texans' first drive of the game.
The line also allowed Fitzpatrick to get sacked four times, as noted by NJ.com's Matt Lombardo, the third time in the last four games he has been sacked at least that many times. Of course, some of the sacks are on Fitzpatrick for holding the ball too long, but he's also saved himself from several others by scrambling out of the pocket.
The consistent struggle of this group really is puzzling to me because it has talented players. Maybe a change with its position coach would help or at least shake things up.
Grade: D
Defensive Line
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J.J. Watt is an unstoppable force.
Watt pressured both Eagles quarterbacks all game and even knocked one of them out of the game with a big hit. The 2012 Defensive Player of the Year didn't score a touchdown against the Eagles but did create a defensive score with a hit on Nick Foles that caused a bad pass that ended as a pick-six by A.J. Bouye.
Once again Watt stuffed the stat sheet with seven tackles, 1.5 sacks, one tackle for loss and five quarterback hits. Watt did all that while seemingly being held on nearly every play. Next Houston Texans game focus on him for a couple series, and watch for how often he's held without a single flag being thrown; it's amazing what the refs let go.
Despite the brilliance of Watt the defensive line as a group got gashed by the running game of the Eagles as they ran for 190 yards on 4.8 yards per carry. Watt not surprisingly played at an "A" level, but the poor run defense as a unit has to drop the defensive line's grade here.
Grade: C+
Linebackers
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Where has this version of Whitney Mercilus been the last couple years? Maybe losing his job once Jadeveon Clowney was drafted woke him up, but whatever it was has made him a much more effective player this season.
"MONSTER fist half for Whitney Mercilus. He has 8 tackles, 5 solo. 2 sacks, 2 tackles for loss and 3 quarterback hits.
— Daniel Gotera (@DTGoteraKHOU) November 2, 2014"
Inside linebacker Mike Mohamed, however, had a poor game with some very sloppy tackling that allowed the Eagles to pick up extra yards and big first downs.
"Missed tackle by Mo again. Leads to another first down. #Texans
— PDS (@PatDStat) November 2, 2014"
Mohamed wasn't the only Texans linebacker to tackle poorly, but his missed plays stood out glaringly.
Much like with Watt, the effort and performance from Mercilus deserves an "A," but the production of the players around him brought down the grade for the group.
Grade: C+
Defensive Backs
8 of 11
Rookie Andre Hal wasn't ready to play, but when both starters got knocked out of the game the coaching staff didn't have a choice. Hal got torched a couple times for big plays by Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin and made matters worse by not capitalizing on a big play that he should have easily made.
"Hal hit in-between the numbers. Drops the INT. #Texans
— PDS (@PatDStat) November 2, 2014"
It was a bad job in coverage by Hal for sure, but you also have to ask the question of why the coaching staff didn't leave safety help over the top knowing it had an inexperienced rookie out on the field against a dangerous receiver.
The tackling from the secondary as a group was also poor, but when you have backups and D.J. Swearinger out there—who wants to shoulder-bump everybody—that is to be expected.
The defensive backs didn't play well as a group, but considering which players were on the field—the top three corners missed most of the game—and that the unit did come away with three interceptions, I'll be a little more generous with its grade.
Grade: C
Special Teams
9 of 11
This was a rare down game from the entire special teams unit. Not getting anything from the return game isn't a surprise, but getting a poor game from Randy Bullock was a bit of a shock.
Kick returner Danieal Manning returned two kicks for a total of 36 yards with a long of just 21 yards; the Texans have received nothing from this part of the game all year.
Bullock only had one field-goal attempt, but he missed the kick wide left. The Texans ended up losing by more than three, but late into the fourth quarter those three points were the difference between trailing and being tied.
Punter Shane Lechler had a solid game with an average of 48.2 yard per punt, a long punt of 60 yards and two punts downed inside the 20-yard line.
Grade: D
Coaching
10 of 11
Not much stood out to me in terms of coaching mistakes from Bill O'Brien.
I've liked his willingness to adapt his system to the strengths of his players on offense all year, most noticeably by the nearly exclusive use of a zone-blocking scheme with the running game.
Obviously the offensive line and Arian Foster are more comfortable with that style, and O'Brien hasn't been stubborn by trying to stick with his scheme that in the past used some zone but also a lot of power concepts.
One decision I did have issue with was O'Brien's challenging the spot of the ball on the Eagles' late fourth-quarter fourth-down conversion. Obviously given the situation challenging the call was tempting, but Houston had no chance of getting it overturned.
I actually thought the spot was pretty generous for the Texans, as it looked like the Eagles' running back may have gotten about a half yard more. But even if the spot was bad there wasn't a single camera angle available that would have changed the call with a review.
We're talking about a difference of inches; that's going to be hard to pinpoint and nail with great accuracy with even a great camera angle. You need conclusive evidence to overturn, and nothing from the camera angles gave you that evidence.
It didn't end up mattering, but the coaches wasted a timeout on a pointless challenge.
Grade: B
Overall
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| Quarterback | D |
| Running Back | B |
| Wide Receiver | B |
| Tight End | F |
| Offensive Line | D |
| Defensive Line | C+ |
| Linebackers | C+ |
| Defensive Backs | C |
| Special Teams | D |
| Coaching | B |
| Overall | C |
Follow me on Twitter for more opinion and analysis on the Texans: @sackedbybmac.
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