Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans: Full Report Card Grades for Houston
What an impressive and dominant defensive performance by the Houston Texans today in their win over the Baltimore Ravens.
For the second week in a row, the Texans defense has shut down a pretty good offense. Last week, the Texans held the Indianapolis Colts to their lowest points—14 under their average at the time—and offensive yards marks of the season.
This week, they embarrassed Joe Flacco, who coming into this game was having a very good season. Flacco finished the game completing 21 of 50 attempts for 195 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Flacco's three interceptions, 41.7 QB rating and sub-50 percent completion rating were all season worsts for the veteran quarterback.
The 13 points and 211 total yards were also season lows for the Ravens as a team.
"joe flacco 'we got our ass kicked'
— Aaron Wilson (@RavensInsider) December 21, 2014"
With the win the Texans kept their slim playoff odds alive and will go into next week's season finale against Jacksonville with at least a chance.
Along with the Texans obviously needing to win, they'll also need the San Diego Chargers to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs and Ravens to lose to the Cleveland Browns next week along with the Buffalo Bills losing one of their two remaining games—this was written before the conclusion of the Bills' Week 16 game.
The Texans defeating Jacksonville, the Chiefs defeating the Chargers at home and the Patriots defeating the Bills at home next week all seem pretty probable. What doesn't seem probable is a Browns victory in Baltimore over the Ravens.
Still, though, the Texans have a chance. Keep hope alive!
Quarterback
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This was not a great game for Case Keenum, and he certainly wasn't efficient, but I think we have to say Keenum exceeded expectations and performed well given the circumstances.
"Keenum compared relearning Texans' offense to taking a couple years of Spanish
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) December 21, 2014"
He just rejoined the team this week and was facing a pretty good defense, so I have to grade on a curve a little bit and be somewhat forgiving in regards to the stats.
To the stats: Keenum completed 20 of 42 pass attempts for 185 yards—a poor 4.4 per attempt—no touchdowns, one interception and a 50.2 quarterback rating. I'm not trying to nitpick here, but his stats were undeniably ugly and ones we would kill other quarterbacks for posting.
One problem with Keenum is his tendency to predetermine where he wants to go with the ball before the snap, it seems, and lock on to receivers instead of scanning the entire field.
He missed wide-open receivers on a couple occasions while locked on to a target and his interception was also due to that as he led the safety to the football while staring down a receiver before eventually throwing into traffic.
"Case Missed Ryan Griffin WIDE OPEN in the end zone. #Texans
— PDS (@PatDStat) December 21, 2014"
I will say this in his favor: While he continued to struggle with locking on to receivers, Keenum did seem to make quicker decisions under pressure today than he did last year. At least in that area Keenum has grown up from last year.
Regardless of the stats, it was a great moment for a fan favorite who deserved to have something go his way.
"Keenum said if this isn't his best football moment in #Houston it's definitely close. Has teared up several times at podium. #Texans
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) December 21, 2014"
Grade: B-
Running Back
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Arian Foster, the other backs and the running game in general had a difficult task today. Facing a tough rush defense and the potential for it to load the box with a new quarterback playing, Foster and company still found a way to produce on the ground.
For the first time this season, the Texans mixed in some Wildcat formation looks, which worked early on; nice wrinkle to the offense from the coaching staff. They also used both Foster and Alfred Blue on the field at the same time, which is something they've done a few times this year, though not very often.
This was a good job by the coaching staff to get creative in a tough situation.
Foster finished the game with 25 carries for 96 yards, one reception for 23 yards and a five-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Fiedorowicz.
"O'Brien said Arian Foster can actually throw the ball. Had several throws in Wildcat he held off on.
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) December 21, 2014 "
"Arian Foster said he'd been waiting to throw that TD pass his whole life. "I feel like I have a good arm."
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) December 21, 2014"
Somewhere, Chris Brown was smiling when watching that play. I found it to be appropriate that the Texans finally used the play in front of the coach who last called a halfback pass for Houston with a much different result.
Grade: A
Wide Receiver
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The Texans had a ton of pass attempts, but not many of them were down the field. Case Keenum averaged just 4.4 yards per pass attempt, so not surprisingly the receivers' stat lines aren't that impressive.
That however doesn't mean they didn't play well, they just weren't asked to make plays over the top that would result in eye-popping stats.
The stats for Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins were a little down from what you might expect with 42 pass attempts, but that was partly due to Keenum spreading the ball around to the slot receiver and tight ends more than previous Texans quarterbacks had this season.
Johnson and Hopkins combined to catch 11 passes for 103 yards. Damaris Johnson caught four passes for 27 yards; the four receptions were his second-highest single-game mark of the season.
Andre Johnson passed another milestone by reaching the 1,000-reception mark—only the 10th receiver ever to do so. Johnson's six receptions against Baltimore give him 1,002 over his career, and he passes Hines Ward on the all-time list to move into ninth place.
"1000. #HallOfFamer pic.twitter.com/ptNB0s4IU2
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) December 21, 2014"
He'll be in the Hall of Fame some day; he seems like a lock to me.
Grade: B
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Tight End
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Death, taxes and the Texans tight ends not producing anything statistically: things we can all count as guarantees. Well, that's what I would usually say before the tight ends came out of nowhere to perform pretty well against the Ravens.
The New England Patriots offense in 2011 under Bill O'Brien featured and fed its tight ends, so their season spent in the witness protection program this year had been puzzling. Hopefully, this game was the beginning of the end for that issue.
The duo of Ryan Griffin and C.J. Fiedorowicz combined for five catches, 37 yards and a touchdown.
Coming into this game, the combination of Griffin and Fiedorowicz had only 10 catches combined for the entire season. I would like to see even more production from the group, but still it was nice to see them get involved in the offense for the first time all season.
Grade: B
Offensive Line
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Coming into this game, the Baltimore Ravens were ranked third in the league in rushing yards allowed.
The Ravens had only allowed three teams in their 14 previous games to rush for over 100 yards, with a season-high of 127. Houston ran for 123, with the Ravens gearing up to stop it due to who was at quarterback.
Their per-carry average was not great, but they were able to run it well enough to keep ahead of the chains for most of the game and convert short-yardage situations in key moments.
Guard Ben Jones struggled some and picked up a big holding penalty that possibly cost them four points on the opening possession of the game, but other than that, there isn't much to complain about with this group.
In pass protection Keenum was hit six times, but the offensive line didn't allow a single sack during the game.
This was a good effort from the offensive line against a great Ravens front seven.
Grade: B+
Defensive Line
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What's left to say about J.J. Watt?
The MVP candidate led the team against the Ravens with eight tackles to go along with one sack, three tackles for loss and four hits on the quarterback.
"J.J. Watt with franchise record 54th sack. #Texans
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) December 21, 2014"
Flacco's struggles looked in large part like they were due to the pressure he felt from the Texans group up front. Watt causing a good quarterback who was having a great season coming into the game to post one of the worst stat lines I've ever seen should boost his chances of winning MVP.
Most likely, though, the award will still go to Aaron Rodgers.
It wasn't just Watt applying the pressure, however, as Jared Crick had one of his best games as a pro with five tackles—tied for second most on the team—one sack, two tackles for loss, one pass defensed, which caused an interception, and two hits on the quarterback.
"Jared Crick has been in monster mode now gets a sack. Ravens watching Watt coming on the twist underneath. #Texans
— PDS (@PatDStat) December 21, 2014"
Erase the names, and that stat line from Crick could easily be passed off as a performance from Watt. This was an impressive effort from him.
Grade: A+
Linebackers
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The Texans dominated the Ravens in the running game today.
Houston held Baltimore to just 33 yards on the ground—their previous season low was 63—on only 2.1 yards per carry. Former Texan Justin Forsett was held under two yards per carry with just 19 yards on 10 attempts. Forsett was averaging 5.4 per attempt coming into this game.
The linebackers' performance was a big reason why the Texans were so successful stopping the run against Baltimore.
"Cushing and Dent playing downhill all day. Impressive to see how fast they are playing today. #Texans
— PDS (@PatDStat) December 21, 2014"
It was a total group effort from the linebackers.
Brian Cushing and Akeem Dent had two hits on the quarterback each from the inside linebacker position.
On the outside, Brooks Reed set the edge really well and made a great play in coverage by reading a pass to the flat and coming up to make a tackle for loss, while Whitney Mercilus caused a fumble early in the game.
I'll take this type of performance every week from the linebackers, please.
Grade: A
Defensive Backs
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Joe Flacco's stat line tells the story of the how well Houston's defensive backs performed against Baltimore.
As I mentioned on a previous page, Flacco had his worst game of the season in terms of completion percentage, interceptions thrown and quarterback rating. Flacco was having a really good season before today.
Kareem Jackson and A.J. Bouye in particular had great games, with three interceptions and five passes defensed combined. Put aside the stats for a moment, though, and just watch those guys play; it's been night and day recently with how tightly they've covered their assigned receivers.
Some of their earlier struggles were on the scheme, which had them playing over five yards off the line of scrimmage too often, but Flacco and Andrew Luck struggled the last two weeks because the coverage was tight and the defensive backs made plays on balls in the air.
This wasn't the secondary playing E.J. Manuel and Derek Carr like earlier in the season, they dominated Luck and Flacco. Make all the jokes about Flacco you want, but he had been playing well this year.
Coming into their last game against Houston over the last two weeks, Luck and Flacco had combined to throw 59 touchdowns to 23 interceptions. The Texans held them to 39-of-84 passing, and both guys finished with fewer than 200 yards passing.
"Kareem Jackson said last two games have been best secondary has been since he's been on team. #Texans
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) December 21, 2014"
This upcoming offseason could bring a lot of changes to the defensive backs on this roster due to contracts, which is a shame because the unit as a whole has started to play really well.
Grade: A+
Special Teams
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How did the special teams perform? Is breaking a team record for field goals made good enough for you?
"Randy Bullock has set a franchise record for field goals in a game with 6. #Texans
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) December 21, 2014"
With his 6-of-6 performance, Bullock brought his season total for made field goals to 30, which sets a new season high in his short career so far. His field-goal percentage of 86 percent is also a massive improvement from the 74 percent mark he finished with last season.
Punter Shane Lechler also had a great game with three of his eight punts downed inside the 20-yard line. He could have easily had two more downed inside the 20, but the guys on punt coverage weren't able to make a play before the ball bounced into the end zone.
I would have given this group an "A+," but once again the returners for this team contributed nothing.
Grade: A
Coaching
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Great job by Bill O'Brien, Romeo Crennel and the entire coaching staff today; probably their best performance of the season.
I continue to be impressed with how willing O'Brien has been to adjust his offense to fit the strengths of his players and the results he's gotten out of doing so; guess the Gary Kubiak era had conditioned me into thinking that game plans would never change.
Case Keenum is not a traditional dropback pocket quarterback, so using him in the same way you would Ryan Mallett would be silly. That was part of why I suggested on the live blog for the game that they should come out passing early instead of predictably leaning heavily on the running game.
The Ravens gave the Texans good looks in the passing game with how aggressively they were playing the threat of the run from Arian Foster, so why not take advantage of that by letting your quarterback throw the ball?
Keenum didn't put up great numbers, but being aggressive with him kept the defense guessing more than if Houston had been run-heavy early. It took guts to let a guy signed a week ago, who hadn't won an NFL game, throw the ball 42 times against a tough Ravens defense. All credit to O'Brien.
In the running game, I also liked the new wrinkles O'Brien showed by mixing in both the Wildcat formation and some two-back sets with both Foster and Alfred Blue in the game at the same time.
If the Texans had lined up and run all traditional plays, their offense might not have put up enough points to win; glad they were creative.
One small critique of O'Brien today came from his time and score decision-making in regards to when to be aggressive or conservative. O'Brien has done many things very well this season, and his team has exceeded expectations, but executing sound time and score decision-making hasn't been a strength.
What I'm referring to in the game against Baltimore was when the Texans scored their first touchdown in the second quarter and decided to kick an extra point to go up by 16. They should have elected to be aggressive and go for two in that situation instead.
If they get the extra point or fail to convert the two-point try, either way they would have been up by more than 14, meaning the Ravens would have to try for their own two-point conversion at some point to tie the game, so there wasn't much to lose by being aggressive.
However, there was a lot to gain, as converting the two-point attempt would have put the Texans up by three possessions with a 17-point lead. The Texans defense was dominating so much that it didn't matter, but there was more to gain than there was to lose by going for a two-point conversion.
This was a missed opportunity by O'Brien, but he did a fantastic job overall against Baltimore.
Grade: A
Overall
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| Quarterback | B- |
| Running Backs | A |
| Wide Receivers | B |
| Tight Ends | B |
| Offensive Line | B+ |
| Defensive Line | A+ |
| Linebackers | A |
| Defensive Backs | A+ |
| Special Teams | A |
| Coaching | A |
| Overall | A |
Follow me on Twitter for more analysis on the Texans and live tweets during games: @sackedbybmac
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