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Pro Football Focus grades every game and every player. I dig their raw number totals and have other opinions on their ability to grade individual plays like this. You may feel differently. No matter how you feel, there’s always something to learn from the work they do. This is what PFF had to say about the Texans’ win on Sunday night against the Cowboys.
OFFENSE - Deshaun Watson produced better numbers against the Cowboys when using play action. Compared to standard dropbacks, Watson’s passer rating was 19.7 points higher when running play action. He also averaged 3.3 more yards per attempt and produced a 12.7 percent better completion percentage on such dropbacks. However, the Texans only used play action on 19.2 percent of their dropbacks, which ranked 23rd among teams in Week 5. For the season, they use play action on 18.8% of their dropbacks, which ranks 3rd. Running play action all the time is clearly not the answer, but incorporating more of it with good timing in regard to the flow of the game could make things easier on Watson.
- The offensive line turned in one of their better performances of the season. Moving Davenport back to left tackle, starting Lamm at right tackle and relegating Rankin to the bench was a wise move. Prior to this game, Rankin had 19 QB hurries (67th), 6 QB hits (T-66th) and 48.8 grade (63rd). Davenport turned in a strong performance in the run game (78.9) but a poor performance in the passing game (43.8). Fulton had a polar opposite game, posting a pass-blocking grade of 83.0 and a run-blocking grade of 42.6. Lamm came away with the highest overall grade of 64.9.
DEFENSE - J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney continue to dominate on the defensive front. The pair each had two hurries, one hit and one sack. Clowney’s three defensive stops was one more than Watt’s two. Clowney also posted a run-defense grade of 84.6, the second-highest of any defensive end in Week 5.
- Johnathan Joseph had his highest-graded game of the season against the Cowboys. He posted an 80.2 overall grade (8th among qualifying CBs), while allowing just one reception on five targets for 8 yards and registering two pass breakups. He also posted a coverage grade of 81.2, which ranked eighth among qualifying cornerbacks in Week 5. Prescott had just a 39.6 passer rating when targeting him.