PFF grades from Texans win over Bengals

Houston Texans’ rookie linebacker Zach Cunningham had another strong game, according to Pro Football Focus.

Pro Football Focus have released their grades for the Houston Texans’ win over the Cincinnati Bengals this past Thursday.

The Texans’ players that received the best grades are defensive lineman J.J. Watt (88.8 overall grade), linebacker Zach Cunningham (83.4 overall grade), safety Eddie Pleasant (83.2 overall grade), center Nick Martin (82.4 overall grade), and defensive lineman D.J. Reader (80.4 overall grade)

It’s really encouraging to see Watt getting better each game after missing most of last season. Is anyone surprised that he’s playing so well?  No.

With Brian Cushing out for a large chunk of the season due to a PED suspension, Cunningham once again came up huge.

Last week Cunningham replaced Cushing after he went down with a concussion and played great. He showed up in a big way against the Bengals.

It might be safe to say that Cushing has lost his starting job.

Here’s what PFF wrote about Cunningham:

"Cunningham followed up a nice professional debut last week with an even better game this week, earning good grades in both run defense (83.9) and coverage (81.6). The second-round pick out of Vanderbilt tied for the team lead with five tackles and three of those were stops (a tackle that constitutes as a loss for the offense based on down and distance) and he was targeted just twice on the 27 snaps he dropped into coverage on."

Pleasant playing well at safety is a sigh of relief after losing Quintin Demps in free agency. He could be a difference maker alongside Andre Hal.

Texans’ starting quarterback Deshaun Watson ended up with an overall grade of 70.2. Here’s what PFF wrote about him:

"Thursday night was a far better performance than Watson’s Week 1 outing, but it was still a mixed bag overall. He had the long scramble for the game’s only touchdown, which was easily the play of the game. However, he also threw a pass in the first quarter that could have, and maybe should have, been intercepted by Darqueze Dennard with the potential for it to be returned for a touchdown, which would have made it a completely different game. Watson also completed just two passes that were targeted 10-plus yards downfield on six attempts."

Watson certainly wasn’t perfect, but Texans’ head coach Bill O’Brien played to his strengths. He made plays that Tom Savage can’t due to the fact that he can’t move around like Watson can.

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Comment below and give us your thoughts on the grades from the Texans’ win over the Bengals.