ProFootballFocus, ReFocused -- Tennessee@Houston

[Playoffs]

ReFo: Titans @ Texans, Week 4
Gordon McGuinness | 2012/10/01

excerpts

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For Houston, the victory put an exclamation point on a dominant first quarter of the season and featured another big performance from the best defender in the league through four games. Still, it wasn’t the only big effort the Texans got on Sunday, so with that in mind let’s take a look at the key performances from this AFC South contest.
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Houston — Three Performances of Note

Your Weekly J.J. Watt Update

While Leroy Harris (+0.2) may be right in his claim that he shut J.J. Watt (+5.3) down with the exception of the two sacks he allowed – itself a bizarre claim to hang your hat on – that doesn’t mean the Texans’ defensive end had a quiet game. As a pass rusher he added a hurry against left guard Steve Hutchinson (-2.5) to those two sacks picked up against Harris. Against the run, he added two defensive stops on his two solo tackles to give him a Run Stop Percentage of 11.8% on his 17 plays against the run. He’s been almost unblockable for opposing offensive linemen so far this season, with his lowest graded game coming last week in a game where he recorded three sacks. It won’t be easy to maintain this level throughout the year, but if he can it has the makings of a truly remarkable season.

Kareem Jackson

He might still have a long way to go to be the most famous sportsman with the first name Kareem, but Texans cornerback Kareem Jackson (+2.0) continued his solid start to the season with another fine display against the Titans. Allowing just three receptions for 33 yards on the seven passes thrown into his coverage, he was able to get his hands on two of the other four, with one pass breakup and an interception returned for a touchdown. The interception will get most of the attention, and it’s well deserved, but his deflection of a deep pass to Wright on 2nd-and-6 with 1:43 left in the third quarter was also impressive. Matching the rookie stride for stride down the field, Jackson swatted the ball away before Wright had the chance to catch, or drop, it.

Almost Perfect from the Offensive Line

Making life as easy as they could for quarterback Matt Schaub (+2.8), the Texans’ offensive line was nearly flawless in pass protection. Only right guard Ben Jones (-5.4) finished the game with a negative grade and he was also the only Houston lineman to allow any pressure (one hit and two hurries). We already pointed out Brown’s dominance over Wimbley and the team got a nice performance out of the man next to him, as left guard Wade Smith (+2.6) added to his perfect day as a pass blocker with some nice blocking in the run game. The unit has had its struggles this season, particularly on the right side where they continue to rotate both guard and tackle, but they more than held their own on Sunday.

Game Notes
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- Six Houston offensive linemen finished the game with a Pass Blocking Efficiency Rating of 100.0

PFF Game Ball

Despite a great performance from left tackle Duane Brown, J.J. Watt was just too hard to ignore yet again. Collecting PFF Game Ball’s almost as often as he’s generating pressure, he’s been the league’s best player so far this season.

read more: https://www.profootballfocus.com/blo...texans-week-4/

[HOU-TEX]

I must admit, that long pass to Wright that KJ blocked had my butt puckered. I was just thinking 'dude, you've got to turn around or you'll get nailed again'. Sure enough, he turns his head around at the last split second while raising his hand....and boom..pass defensed. I must say, I was proud and very happy for him. I think it was his man that Locker had keyed on (missing the hot read on the right) before getting slobber-knocked too. The pick 6 was just icing on the cake.

I'm not sure I've ragged on KJ on this board, but I have ragged on him. This game, he was light years better. Congrats KJ!

*Disclaimer: It's my right to rag on you again in the future if your performance deems it necessary*

[infantrycak]

You know your LT is good when he is invisible except when you notice him run blocking 10 yards down field.

Oh how times have changed.