Houston Texans vs. Jacksonville Jaguars: Full Report Card Grades for Houston
The Houston Texans took care of business and did what you're supposed to do against bad teams: beat them soundly. They started off the game pretty sluggish but rebounded with a dominant second-half performance to win comfortably.
"#Texans held the Jaguars to TWO yards of rushing and 73 total yards of offense in the second half.
— PDS (@PatDStat) December 7, 2014"
The usual suspects stepped up with Arian Foster and J.J. Watt both having monster games to lead the way to victory. With the win the Texans are now back above the .500 mark—first time since Week 5—with a 7-6 record and a huge game at Indianapolis coming up.
"Defense giving up 13.5 points a game since coming out of the bye week. Offense averaging 24 a game. #Texans
— PDS (@PatDStat) December 7, 2014"
Unfortunately the Cleveland Browns did Browns-type stuff this week and blew a game against Indianapolis, so the Colts will only need one more win to clinch the division. Division title or no division title, the Texans will need a win either way next Sunday, as they need to have at least 10 wins to make the postseason.
Their odds are long no doubt, but before the season started if you offered me a winning record and a plausible chance of making the postseason going into Week 15, I'd take it no questions asked and be happy to do so.
Keep hope alive, Texans fans!
Quarterback
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Ryan Fitzpatrick couldn't play like "Superman" every week obviously, so we probably all expected some sort of return to the mean for him against Jacksonville.
Fitzpatrick was awful in the first half with a stat total that I wasn't aware was possible with only 27 yards on 5-of-9 passing. He turned it around a little in the second half with a couple key completions to help aid two scoring drives, but his stat line still looked anemic at the end of the game.
His final line was 13-of-19 passing for 135 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. At least he didn't turn the ball over I guess, but you'd have to set the bar pretty damn low to consider his performance a plus Sunday.
Grade: C-
Running Back
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Like he has been in many games over his career, Arian Foster was the lone bright spot for the Texans offense in the first half with 88 yards on only 10 carries.
Foster's 51-yard run in the first quarter resulted in the team's first points of the game as Randy Bullock eventually made a 44-yard field goal. The Texans gained a total of three yards on the three plays after the big Foster run.
For the game Foster had 127 yards on over five yards per carry plus 21 yards receiving and a key touchdown that clinched the victory.
Foster's total was enough to put him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season...
"Arian Foster: 4th career 1,000-yd rushing season. All other RB in Texans history have 3 such seasons combined
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 7, 2014"
Depending on how the rest of the games go this week, Foster will be in the top six of the league and top three in the AFC for rushing yards despite missing three games. He's also averaging career bests in yards per carry and yards per game—incredible effort from the veteran back this season.
Grade: A+
Wide Receiver
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It's hard to put up huge numbers as a wide receiver when your quarterback doesn't play well, as was the case with Fitzpatrick against the Jaguars. It's also hard to put up numbers when a linebacker knocks you out from an illegal hit, which is what happened to Andre Johnson.
DeAndre Hopkins was left to pick up the slack and finished with four catches on six targets for 49 yards—a bit of a drop-off from his 200-plus-yard performance last week.
If you didn't think Andre Johnson would be back next year in 2015 before today, I think you got a glimpse as to why he will be: Neither Keshawn Martin nor Damaris Johnson can get the job done as Houston's No. 2 receiver.
The duo of Martin and Damaris Johnson combined to catch two passes for 23 yards against Jacksonville. The Texans might have to rework Andre Johnson's contract a little, but the greatest player in franchise history will be back.
Grade: C
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Tight End
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Zero catches and zero impact from the tight ends in the first half against Jacksonville: Stop me if you've heard that before this season.
Ryan Griffin caught the position group's only pass of the game with a 25-yard catch that set up the Texans near the goal line before Alfred Blue punched it in for a touchdown.
Overall for the entire season the tight end trio on the roster has combined for a total of 24 receptions for 260 yards, which works out to 1.8 receptions for 20 yards combined per game—zero production.
Grade: D
Offensive Line
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On the ground the Texans rushed for a total of 173 yards on 4.1 yards per carry. It was a pretty good performance against a solid defensive line.
The line struggled some in pass protection, as it allowed Ryan Fitzpatrick to be sacked twice and hurried or rushed several more times in addition to the sacks.
I thought center Chris Myers had a great game, as he was able to get up to the second level on Jacksonville linebackers to open up huge holes on multiple big runs, including the 51-yard gallop from Arian Foster.
Grade: B
Defensive Line
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More J.J. Watt doing J.J. Watt kind of things: Matching him up against the Jaguars offensive line was just not fair and a little cruel.
"This is one way to slow Watt. #Texans https://t.co/AB1LwwJaab
— PDS (@PatDStat) December 7, 2014"
Watt stuffed the stat sheet once again with three sacks, four tackles for loss, one pass breakup and five hits on the quarterback, per ESPN.com. If he doesn't win the MVP award this year—don't think he will—then it will be difficult to ever make a case for a defensive player again.
Watt now has 14.5 sacks for the season and is at or near the top of every other stat in regard to disruptive defensive plays.
Ryan Pickett and Jared Crick also got involved with two pass breakups and one hit on the quarterback between them.
Grade: A
Linebackers
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The linebackers helped hold the Jaguars to 74 rushing yards on 3.4 yards per carry in a solid performance.
The position group also had the Texans' top three tacklers, with Mike Mohamed, Brooks Reed and Akeem Dent leading the way.
Reed—my pick as their X-factor for this game—stuffed the stat sheet with one sack, one tackle for loss, one hit on the quarterback and one pass breakup, per ESPN.com. It was maybe his best game of the season. Brian Cushing also put some pressure on Blake Bortles with two hits on the quarterback as well.
One area of poor play, though, was their coverage, as it is nearly every week. The Jaguars didn't make many big plays, but the ones they did make were largely on short passes against the linebackers in space.
Grade: B+
Defensive Backs
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The numbers look good on paper, and the defensive backs forced a turnover. But they also faced a terrible quarterback, so I guess we have to grade with a curve here.
For the game Blake Bortles completed 20 of 39 passes for 205 yards, one touchdown, one interception and a 64.6 quarterback rating.
The secondary nearly had a second interception in addition to the one from D.J. Swearinger, but it dropped a couple easy ones late in the fourth quarter. Johnathan Joseph, Kendrick Lewis and Swearinger also had a pass breakup during the game.
"Swearinger gets his 2nd interception of the season. Gives the #Texans 16 on the season. Had 7 all of 2013.
— PDS (@PatDStat) December 7, 2014"
Houston gave up a couple big plays in the passing game, but they were all on quick passes within five yards of the line of scrimmage; the Jaguars didn't challenge the Texans down the field at all. Credit goes to the defensive backs for tight coverage, but Jacksonville's passing offense with Bortles is also very limited.
Grade: A-
Special Teams
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You know the special teams had a good day when a return man actually made a contribution!
Punt returner Keshawn Martin only returned one punt but gained 21 yards on the return, which helped set up the Texans' first touchdown of the game.
Randy Bullock had a strong day in rainy conditions by making all of his kicks, including a pair of 44-yard field goals. It was a nice bounce-back game from Bullock, who had missed a field-goal attempt in three of his last four games.
Shane Lechler had a strong day other than an early punt into the wind that didn't travel very far. Overall Lechler averaged 47.6 yards per punt with a long of 58 yards and one downed inside the 20-yard line.
Grade: A
Coaching
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It was a pretty good game from the coaching staff, but head coach Bill O'Brien still had a few rookie coach moments during the game.
The two moments that stood out the most to me both came in the fourth quarter with the Texans driving and trying to go up by two scores.
On 3rd-and-goal at the Jacksonville 1-yard line O'Brien called for a quarterback sweep with Ryan Fitzpatrick carrying the ball. I know it worked earlier in the game, but the Texans only needed one yard—just give the damn ball to your Pro Bowl running back.
Fitzpatrick advanced the ball a little but didn't score, setting up 4th-and-goal with just inches to go. The easy and obvious decision there is to go for it with a handoff to your stud running back, but O'Brien sent out kicker Randy Bullock before eventually calling a timeout as he thought the decision over.
What was there to think about?
They were inches away with a worst-case scenario of giving it back to a struggling Jaguars offense on its own goal line. There was a decent chance of getting a safety in that situation. Plus a field goal wouldn't have increased the lead from one possession to two, so kicking in that situation would be pointless.
O'Brien does many things very well as a head coach, but he seems to struggle with deciding on when to be aggressive and when to play it more conservatively. The Texans only needed an inch and would have gained almost nothing from a field goal; wasting a timeout there was inexcusable.
It didn't end up mattering because the Jaguars offense with Blake Bortles is a train wreck, but the coaching staff can't get into a habit of wasting timeouts when the decision should be obvious.
Grade: B
Overall
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| Quarterback | C- |
| Running Back | A+ |
| Wide Receiver | C |
| Tight End | D |
| Offensive Line | B |
| Defensive Line | A |
| Linebackers | B+ |
| Defensive Backs | A- |
| Special Teams | A |
| Coaching | B |
| Overall | B+ |
Follow me on Twitter for more opinion and live tweeting during Texans games: @sackedbybmac.
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