Grading the Houston Texans' defense in week one

The Texans came to Baltimore with the opportunity to give the Ravens their first loss of the season with the Ravens without top performer Mark Andrews and a hunger to prove haters wrong. Sadly for the Texans that did not happen as the Texans lost 25-6. The offense struggled to score as the run game wasn't able to help C.J. Stroud out even though he still played in his regular-season debut

The Texans flashed the potential to shock teams as Stroud threw for 242 passing yards with no interceptions. The real killer for the offense was converting on 3rd and 4th down as they were 7/18 on third down and 1/4 on fourth down. Dameon Pierce struggled as he had 11 carries for 38 yards. There was some good that came from the game as we take a look at the defense.

The Texans had a great day on defense even though they gave up 25 points. As they gave up 265 total yards of offense against the Ravens which was the fifth-lowest they've had in an opener since 1999. The Texans gave Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense fits as they forced an interception and two fumbles (1 recovered).

Lamar had a terrible game against the Texans as he had two fumbles and threw one interception while having a passer rating of 79.5 and a QBR of 13.6. He was also sacked four times with an average sack percentage of 15.4. The defense also came up with eight QB pressures and one QB hurry on Jackson.

That interception made that the third straight opening day for the Texan to force an interception. The two turnovers forced was the seventh straight game extending back to week 13 of last season. The Texans had three sacks against the Ravens. The Ravens had three rushing touchdowns but an average of 3.4 yards per carry. The Texans struggled to make tackles in the open as they allowed rookie Zay Flowers to make multiple big plays setting the Ravens up in a great position to swing momentum or score.

It's still early in the season and the defense will only get stronger as they establish more chemistry with each other and the development of young stars such as Henry To'oto'o, Will Anderson Jr., Jalen Pitre, and Derek Stingley Jr. If the defense keeps playing like this I could see them ranking inside the top ten in least rushing and passing yards given up.

Texans Defensive Grade: B

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