Houston Texans vs. Indianapolis Colts Review | PFF Grade Release Show

Houston Texans vs. Indianapolis Colts Review | PFF Grade Release Show

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But if it weren’t for Miles Garrett, I think the two players that you and I suggested as defensive player of the year candidates, I said Will Anderson, you said Derek Singley Jr., like I think both of those guys would absolutely be up there for the award. And Anderson at the top of this list for the Texans, 91.6 overall grade. Safety Jaylen Petri behind him with an 83.2. Then it’s wide receiver Nico Collins with an 82.6. Offensive guard Ed Ingram with an 80.3. Offensive guard Titus Howard rounded things out at number five with a 75.1. And then CJ Stout and his return to action from his concussion. Great to see him back on the field. A 66.5 overall grade. On Indie side of things, wide receiver Alec Pierce pending free agent this upcoming uh free agency period. 83.7. Young man’s about to get paid. Offensive guard Quint Nelson behind him with a 78.0. Uh wide receiver Josh with a 72.2. Edge rusher Quiddy Pay with a 72.0. 0. And then at number five, uh, offensive guard Matt Gon Cavs with a 71.2. Daniel Jones in this one. An 84.2. Good grade, but not enough to get it done on the scoreboard. Uh, South told the story, D. So, I’m starting to look at this team offensively the same way I I have talked about the Detroit Lions, and you’re seeing now that there have been five games where the Colts are under a 100 rushing yards, including this one. They only had 86 rushing yards in this game. They have lost four of those five games and the only win came against the Las Vegas Raiders. So, um I this is a real problem. And Daniel Jones, I believe that’s his highest graded game of the season and he made some terrific throws in this game. But I think the Texans did a good job of just coming into this game and going, “No, you’re going to beat us left-handed.” And if Daniel Jones comes out here and beats us and puts up, you know, that sort of grade and he’s he’s the best player on the field and he makes all these throws that win him a ball game in a drop back situation against our defense, then so be it. because Josh Allen couldn’t do it last week and there’s a lot of guys right now who would not be able to do it against this Houston Texans defense. And look, Jones played really well all things considered. But to me, you take that chance because you look at Jonathan Taylor, 21 carries, 85 yards, four explosive runs out of those 21 accounted for 46 of the 85 yards. Only two missed tackles forced. Only six runs for the Colts that get bounced off tackle. The Texans did a really good job, especially on the defensive line. Staying wide, make sure we can funnel things inside so he can’t break out and get into our secondary and not a single run on the day longer than 12 yards for the Colts. You’re just not seeing the explosiveness against these teams with better front sevens, better defensive lines. And it’s not, you know, it’s not anything against a Colts offensive line, but sometimes the battle you get evenly matched. Think about Pittsburgh, think about the Rams, think about the Texans. And these are some of the best defensive lines in football. And when the Colts don’t have the run game dominating to the tune of 150 plus yards, they’re asking Daniel Jones to do everything. He’s not capable of doing that, right? He’s played his best football this year as a complimentary piece to a balanced offense and an offense where the running game was dominating first and foremost. Yeah, there has to be a serious question asked about the Colts and their ability for Dan. Look, it doesn’t get any easier at Jacksonville, at Seattle, San Fran, Jacksonville again, at Houston to finish the season. They got to find a way to get the balance back in this offense because this is really the limitation now. And listen, I was I I was the biggest Daniel Jones optimist there was. He could come into this offense and play functional football, but beyond that, you’re not going to get it. And they’re going to have to find at least two more wins out of these last five games if they want to make the playoffs. They’re not even through tiebreers. They’re not even in first place anymore. Yeah. And this Houston team is one game behind them, right? So they and and this is the hard part about this game is Daniel Jones actually played really well, but because they didn’t have the balance, they’re not the same offense. And that’s why they only scored 16 points and got dragged in the Texans style of game. The Texans did a great job with the game plan. They dominated up front again. Will Anderson once again best player on the field. The linebackers, Aziz Alshshire and those guys were really good. I think EJ Speed has really brought a different element to their linebacking core. They can get into base defense and stop a team like this with a base defense if they want to. But the Colts really need to figure this out offensively right now. How to get the balance back in this offense because three of the last four games and they’ve lost those three games. They have not been able to run the football at the elite clip they were earlier in the season. Yeah. And I think that running on early downs is really what I would focus on because when you specifically look at how they have been on third downs as of late, it’s not good. They were three for 10 on third down in this game. 30% obviously 28.57% on third down in their last three games. That’s 30th in the NFL. Three of their 10 third down attempts in this game came with less than seven yards to go. So that means that seven out of their 10 third down attempts, you’re looking at third and seven plus. That’s third and long. You’re not setting yourself up. We had this conversation early in the season, like four or five weeks into the year where we went, things are pretty easy for Daniel Jones right now because you’re running the ball really well on first and second down. And when they have third downs, it’s third and short. You have the whole playbook open to you. And we we talked about this and I don’t remember what it was, week four, week five. What are the Colts and what is Daniel Jones going to be when you’re in a lot more third and long situations? Are you that guy to pick up third downs with your arms? And I think that he can occasionally, but I don’t think that it’s something that you can lean on too often. When you look at weeks one through eight, they had an almost 0.2000 EPA per play on those early downs on first and second down. That would I don’t know off the top of my head what it would what it was, but I’m sure that was top 10, if not top five in the NFL for an EPA per play number when it comes to how you were performing on first and second down. That was weeks one through eight. Weeks nine through 13. Now, for the Colts, they have a negative EPA per play on early downs. Much different story. You’re putting yourself way behind the sticks when it comes to getting first downs and the odds of of picking them up and really just how much of your playbook you have open to you because you’re basically putting Daniel Jones in situations where he not only has to throw the ball, he probably has to throw the ball past the sticks. There’s probably not a lot you can do on third and seven and third and eight, third and nine, whatever it is, because the defense is just going to play sticks coverage on you. They’re just going to play their their their coverage players right around where that first down mark is. And if you throw any sort of underneath route, they’re going to rally around it. So you you’re now demanding Daniel Jones to go get these first downs with his arm. And he just he’s he’s not really been that quarterback to consistently do that. So they have an early down problem. It it’s it’s running the ball as well. I think that you you were correct in saying that, but it’s just an early down problem for this team. I’m going to go to most impressive though for the Houston Texans offensive line. This unit stunk the beginning of the year. We were worried that this was going to be the kryptonite, the Achilles heel of this really talented Houston Texans team and five, sixish weeks into the season, they were they were a big reason why this team was struggling and they weren’t able to move the ball and they weren’t able to have consistent offense. Houston’s offensive line in this game, 77.1 overall blocking grade and a 78.8 pass blocking grade. The Houston Texans, 78.8 pass blocking grade, better watch out. This defense playing the way that they are right now, you combine that with CJ Stra getting back, hopefully nothing close to any more concussions for the rest of this season, rest of his career obviously, but now he’s got this offensive line. Sure, they don’t have as dynamic of a run game as they would like, but Woody Marks giving you splash plays here and there. Houston’s peing at the right time. They’re they’re a team that you should absolutely be afraid of. And at one point, it felt like there was no chance this team was going to make the playoffs, let alone contend for the division. And now, like you mentioned, they are right there on the heels of the Indianapolis Colts for taking that top spot. Oh, and they could not be playing a bigger game this coming week at Kansas City. I I mean for both of those teams and and you think about you think about that game as hot as the Texans are and have arguably the best defense in football and then you look at the Chiefs if the Chiefs lose that game and they then they lose just every tiebreaker with everybody in front of them except the Colts their season at that point might be over. I I don’t you could not I mean there’s some really high stakes games coming this week but this game for both of these teams and with Houston chasing both Jacksonville and Indianapolis and already have a win over Indianapolis now they have everything in front of them a and to your point about their offensive line I was looking at this okay since remember we always talk about creep back to average up front right since week five Texans are 18th in pass blocking grade I’ll take it that’s good enough considering we were darn near predicting them to be head last, right? If they’re 18th in pass blocking grade the rest of the way in these big games, they’re going to be fine. Yep. CJ Strad getting healthy. Nico Collins is the man. Jaden Higgins and those guys and the other receivers coming along as well. All the guys, all the Iowa State guys they have, the run game has been good enough. But I think that’s the lesson too for this offense is there’s certain parts of it you just need to be good enough. If this team any given week puts up 24 points, they’re going to win because this defense again has the argument as the best one in the NFL between Will Anderson and that defensive line, Derek Stingley in that secondary. And I’m telling you, this this linebacking core, Aziz Alshshire and those guys at the second level, they’ve been better this year than they have last year. Henry to was really good in this game as well in run defense. They’ve got a three-layer defense that’s a real problem and they get you into a fist fight every single week. But this offense is getting slowly better, especially up front like you mentioned. Uh, anything else on this one? Because Houston’s O line was my most impressive. So, you got anything before we move on to that? Stay stay in the trenches on the other side. Will Anderson freaking nature. Just nothing else to say really. 82.6 pass rush grade casual. 80 run 80 run defense grade casual. Three run stops as well. I He’s He’s one of the best players in football. I I It feels I don’t know how many weeks in a row we’ve done. One of us has done Will Anderson for this, but you mentioned it. It’s him. Miles Garrett’s looking like he’s gonna win defensive player of the year. He’s gonna win. But when you talk about that class of guys, that that class of edge rushers, Garrett, Parsons, Hutchinson’s in there. Obviously, Will Anderson’s in that class. He’s just an elite player is giving him elite play every week. I agree with you.

PFF’s Trevor Sikkema and Dalton Wasserman review the matchup between The Houston Texans and The Indianapolis Colts.

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