The Houston Texans landed their second win in a row over the weekend as they took down their division rival Jacksonville Jaguars in a 34-31 victory over the pond at Wembley Stadium.
And for a lot of areas on the Texans' roster, it was a pretty positive day of production. Especially offensively, Houston finally saw things click in multiple facets compared to how things have looked earlier this season, and thus led to a winning effort against one of the AFC's toughest opponents.
But the Texans still weren't exactly perfect on both sides of the ball. There's still some notable room for improvement within a select few position groups based on what we saw in their Week 6 matchup in London, and will be key in keeping their momentum moving forward after a strong past two games.
With that in mind, let's sort through a batch of new position group grades for the Texans, sorting through which areas of Houston's roster shined, and who didn't in Week 6 against the Jaguars:
Offensive Grades
QB: A
This was about as good a performance for C.J. Stroud as we've seen this season. Sure, it did come with a critical interception in the fourth quarter that nearly gave the Jaguars a chance at a last-minute victory, but everything felt pretty seamless outside of that one gaff.
He completed a whopping 70% of his passes from start to finish, got virtually all of his pass-catchers involved in one way or another, operated effectively in the red zone, and led the Texans to a season-high 34 points because of it. Without that pick, this is a clear A+, but an A is an overwhelming success nonetheless.
RB: B
The Texans can actually run the ball? At least in this game, it certainly felt like that was the case––and it was all done without David Montgomery on the field as he was out of the mix due to a groin injury.
Instead, it was Woody Marks and Jawhar Jordan leading the way. Marks averaged 3.7 yards per carry paired with over 80 all-purpose yards on an extremely stout Jaguars run defense, and Jordan took in his first touchdown of the season from an explosive run in the second half. A massive win for the Texans' ground game.
WR: A-
The Texans' receiving core deserves some praise here simply because of how each pass-catcher contributed for some type of impact across the day. All five of Houston's receivers landed multiple catches their way, led by none other than Jaylin Noel's three receptions for 107 yards and a touchdown.
Even Marvin Harrison Jr. got involved pretty nicely in his debut. He saw four targets, converted those into three catches, and snagged 34 receiving yards in total.
TE: A
Dalton Schultz's impact in this game was about as you'd expect with three catches for 33 yards, but the real highlight in the Texans' tight end room was actually Foster Moreau, who only saw two total targets, both in the first half, but turned both of those into touchdown receptions.
It was another game in which the Texans made their second-round tight end Marlin Klein a healthy scratch on gameday, which will continue to be a head-scratching decision. But even without him on the field, this tight end group did what they needed to.
OL: A-
How about the Texans' offensive line? Not only were they finally able to help facilitate a positive and efficient run game for the first time this season, but C.J. Stroud saw zero sacks against a Jaguars defense that's no slouch.
If such a trend can continue for the Texans and their offensive front moving forward this season, it might not be the last time we see Houston finish with over 30 points on the scoreboard.
Defensive Grades
DL: D+
This was far from the best performance we've seen out of the Texans' defensive line, who not only allowed the Jaguars to rush for nearly four yards per carry, but also logged zero sacks on the day; a rare occurrence for a group led by two star talents off the edge in Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter.
Maybe it was the Wembley Stadium field. Maybe it was the slight drizzle of rain before the game that made the grass too slick for edge rushers to really bend outside as they typically would. Perhaps it was some leftover jet lag from the week's transatlantic flight. But whatever the reason was, this Texans' defensive line wasn't to the standard most fans know it to be every single week.
LB: D+
Not too stellar of a day from the Texans' linebacker room, who did see Henry To'oTo'o return for his first game back from injured reserve, but also wound up running a good chunk of 4-3 looks on their front seven over the course of the day without Jalen Pitre in their back end.
That 4-3 setup certainly wasn't as effective as the Texans would've hoped, leading to a 300-yard, four-touchdown performance from Trevor Lawrence, and a ton of opportunities in the middle of the field for the Jaguars offense.
CB: C-
The Texans' cornerbacks have seen better days–– and some even worse days–– compared to how they performed in London. But they certainly weren't the lockdown-level talents that they were all throughout last year.
Jacksonville's receiving corps saw a bundle of solid performances with Jakobi Meyers, Parker Washington, and even Travis Hunter, that wouldn't have been as possible if this Texans' secondary had reverted back to last year's production.
S: B-
This is an interesting grade to hand out. On one hand, Calen Bullock probably had his best game of the season so far; snagging five total tackles, two passes defended, and an interception in the first quarter.
On another, Reed Blankenship continued to show struggles of meshing with this Texans defensive scheme, had a key missed tackle in the second quarter, and would leave in the middle of the game with a concussion. So we'll balance those two performances out with a B-.
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