Did the Texans play better in their first game without Bill O’Brien, or did they just face an easier opponent? The correct answer is both, and those factors combined for Houston’s first victory, a 30-14 win over the Jaguars.
On offense, the Texans’ passing attack finally hummed, but it happened against arguably the worst defense in the league. And though the Texans held Jacksonville scoreless on two drives that began in Houston territory, that was largely due to self-imposed errors by the Jaguars.
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Keep that in mind as we go position-by-position for this Week 5 Texans report card. All stats are from Sportradar unless otherwise noted.
Quarterback: B+
Though the Texans’ record doesn’t reflect it, Watson has been on a hot streak lately. Sunday’s win marked his third straight game with a quarterback rating over 100, the first time that’s happened since his rookie year. His adjusted yards per attempt average, which weighs touchdowns and sacks, has been over 9.4 in each of the past three games. (For context, his career average is 8.2.)
Watson was aggressive downfield in the win over the Jags. According to Next Gen Stats, his throws traveled 9.9 yards past the line of scrimmage on average, and he fit 22.9 percent of his throws into tight windows. But more importantly, Watson and the Texans’ offense appeared to have consistent answers against blitzes, which have caused Houston lots of problems this season. Per Pro Football Focus, Watson, who took just one sack, completed 10 of 15 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown when blitzed.
So why doesn’t Watson get an A? He threw two interceptions. And though neither was the result of poor decision-making — the ball was tipped on one, and a defender hit his arm as he threw the other — his interception rate (3.1 percent) is a bit concerning. It hasn’t been over 2.4 percent since his rookie year.
Running backs: C+
After running for 96 yards on 17 carries, David Johnson is now averaging a respectable 4.3 YPC. But his performance against the Jaguars wasn’t as impressive as those numbers indicate. Johnson’s stats were largely inflated by a 29-yard run on the Texans’ final possession, when the game was out of reach for Jacksonville, as well a first-down run in the third quarter for 12 yards.
The latter play was valuable for the Texans, who scored a touchdown on that drive, but Johnson wasn’t an efficient player. On 11 first-down carries, his first-down success rate — a measure of how often a player gains at least 40 percent of the yards needed to either move the chains or score in a goal-to-go situation — was just 45.5 percent.
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For context, Johnson’s 42.5 percent first-down success rate on the season ranks 18th out of 20 running backs with at least 60 carries. So although Johnson was better against the Jaguars, he still left a lot to be desired.
The grade here would’ve been better if Johnson caught his first touchdown as a member of the Texans, but Watson overthrew him when he was in the end zone. Johnson finished the game with two catches on four targets for seven yards.
Wide receivers: A
Though Watson did target eight different people on Sunday, O’Brien’s vision for “layers and layers of productive players” was never going to result in a perfectly balanced passing attack; it just meant a different receiver could break out each week. Against the Jaguars, that was Brandin Cooks, who finished with 161 yards and a game-sealing touchdown on eight catches. His 7.3 YAC/reception was the third-most among wide receivers with at least five catches on Sunday.
It’s only one game, but it could be an important step in Watson establishing trust in Cooks, who got off to a slow start after missing parts of training camp because of a quad injury that also landed him on the injury report for the first three weeks of this season.
“A lot of confidence building, just for myself to be able to rip it whenever he’s playing,” Watson said of what Cooks showed him against the Jaguars. “Whenever he’s got a guy on him or he’s running free open, I can just rip it, and he’s going to catch it and make something happen.”
Tight ends: B
Darren Fells has fallen below Jordan Akins on the depth chart, but with Akins (ankle/concussion) out for this game, the 34-year-old veteran stepped up. He caught two passes for 57 yards, including a 44-yard touchdown off of busted coverage.
“He made it to the end zone, but he almost got caught,” Watson said, ribbing the 6-foot-7, 270-pound Fells. “If he had another five, ten yards, I don’t know if he would have made it.”
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Coming off a career year, Fells entered this season looking like an obvious regression candidate. His raw stats should still end up being worse than a year ago, but thanks to the fun of small sample sizes, he in some ways looks to be performing better now than ever before. He’s averaging a career-high 15 yards per reception and just six targets per touchdown. Last season, when he caught seven scores, he averaged 6.9 targets per touchdown.
The Texans utilized two-tight end sets for nearly 28 percent of their snaps against the Jaguars, so Pharaoh Brown, who was elevated from the practice squad in Week 2, also saw a significant amount of playing time (41 percent of offensive snaps). He had one catch for four yards.
Offensive line: B
Given how poor the pass protection had been in the Texans’ first four games, allowing just four hits and one sack on Watson is no small feat. But the Jaguars don’t have an imposing pass rush. Their defense entered Week 5 ranked 29th in adjusted sack rate and tied for 25th in QB hits.
The Texans’ relative success running the ball was arguably more impressive. Jacksonville came into this game ranked 11th in adjusted line yards, which measures defensive line play, but according to Next Gen Stats, Houston’s line — along with other situational factors — created opportunities for Johnson to average approximately 4.6 yards per carry.
Defensive line: B+
Though no defensive lineman sacked Gardner Minshew, J.J. Watt regularly pressured him. Defensive tackle P.J. Hall was around the quarterback, too, continuing to make splash plays that make him arguably the best value find of O’Brien’s tenure as GM.
And against the run, which had been a huge issue for this defense through the first four games, the Texans limited impressive rookie back James Robinson to 3.7 YPC, his worst average of the season. Houston managed this despite only loading the box for 7.7 percent of his carries.
Cornerback Lonnie Johnson and linebacker Tyrell Adams tackle Jaguars running back James Robinson. (Photo by Leslie Plaza Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Linebackers: A
This was the strongest part of the defense on Sunday, even though inside linebacker Benardrick McKinney was out. Zach Cunningham had two TFLs and a sack, and Tyrell Adams, who filled in for McKinney, was the defensive MVP.
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A fifth-year pro who is in his third season with the Texans, Adams finished with a team-high 13 tackles, including one of Houston’s four TFLs. He was the nearest defender to Robinson when the running back fumbled on that halfback pass play out of a wildcat formation, leading to the Texans’ first takeaway of the season. And Adams also landed on the ball after Whitney Mercilus recovered another fumble forced by Jacob Martin, only for it to pop free again.
The Texans will now hope Adams can keep this up. A source confirmed on Monday that McKinney will undergo shoulder surgery and miss the rest of the season, giving the team an extended opportunity evaluate its depth at the position before heading into an offseason in which McKinney’s contract makes him a candidate to be cut or have his deal restructured. Adams and fellow inside linebacker Dylan Cole, who didn’t play a defensive snap against Jacksonville, are both set to hit free agency at the end of this season.
“We tell them that all the time that they have to be ready when their number is called,” interim coach Romeo Crennel said Monday. “And yesterday, the guys whose numbers were called, they performed well.”
That fumble Adams recovered was a rare lowlight for Mercilus, who got off to a slow start in the first season of his four-year, $54 million contract but has played better recently. He’s recorded three TFLs and three sacks in the past two games. The Texans still need him to pressure QBs a bit more consistently though. He has no QB hits outside of those three sacks this season.
“He’s been in position earlier on in the season, but he’s been able to take advantage of some of the things that are happening on the field now,” interim head coach Romeo Crennel said Monday. “The coverage sometimes makes the quarterback hold the ball, and when that occurs the rushers have more of an opportunity to get to the quarterback. If they’re going to push the protection toward J.J. (Watt), which many times they do, that leaves Whitney one-on-one, and he took advantage of it yesterday.”
Cornerbacks: B-
Though Minshew threw for 301 yards, he required 49 passes to do so, giving him the lowest yards per attempt average (6.1) of any quarterback to face the Texans this season. Cornerback Bradley Roby limited the Jaguars’ best receiver, DJ Chark, to his worst game of the year: three catches for 16 yards on four targets.
Roby also committed a penalty on third down to push Jacksonville inside the red zone, though, and Phillip Gaines, who has struggled in a reserve role, gave up a touchdown to Keelan Cole in man coverage a few plays later.
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The Texans are the only team without an interception through five games.
Safeties: B-
Chris Conley got behind Eric Murray for a 51-yard catch that set up a fourth-quarter Jaguars touchdown, but besides that, the Texans only allowed two more explosive pass plays (16-plus yards). They gave up eight the week before against Minnesota.
Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver sent Murray and fellow safety Michael Thomas on more blitzes than they’d been part of in any prior game this season, but it didn’t result in either man hitting Minshew.
Though he didn’t make any splash plays, the most interesting thing about this position group in Week 5 was how much playing time Lonnie Johnson received. The second-year defensive back played 83 percent of defensive snaps, his most since Week 7 of his rookie season, and most of them came as a free safety.
When asked about Johnson and Thomas, who played 41 percent of defensive snaps, his most yet with the Texans, Crennel said he “can see them continuing to play.” Safety A.J. Moore must spend at least one more game on IR before he can return.
Special teams: A
The Texans’ field goal and extra point operation has been the 13th-best in the league when controlling for the situation, according to Football Outsiders. Ka’imi Fairbairn’s only miss came in Week 1, from more than 50 yards out. On Sunday, he was 3-for-3, including an important 46-yarder that put the Texans ahead by nine points midway through the fourth quarter.
(Photo of David Johnson by Leslie Plaza Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
