49ers @ Texans: Week 8 Report Card
Yikes.
Big contracts to aging veterans, missed draft picks, and the worst athletic training staff in NFL history. This game very much felt like the bill has come due for the 49ers on several fronts. While they had been weathering the health storm, the levee burst in Houston. With five new injuries incurred, the lack of meaningful depth was all too evident. By the end of the game they were running out of bodies. Unfortunately the grades reflected it.
Offense
Quarterback: B-
This might seem a bit generous out of context. The stat line was nothing revolutionary, 19/32 for 193, two touchdowns and one interception. The poorly placed game sealing interception Mac Jones threw in the two minute drill was a back breaker. So why the B-? Jones was pressured on 50% of his drop backs, hit on six, and sacked twice. Matchups in the trenches do not get much worse than what the offense faced Sunday.
The Texans defense is immaculate. Top to bottom, sideline to sideline. Jones managed a two TD performance with a cobbled together receiving core. That game was very much winnable had the other side of the ball been able to bow up even slightly. Mac kept ‘em in it, throwing to a wounded Jauan Jennings and a regressing Kendrick Bourne. And Jake Tonges. A well earned B-.
Offensive Line: F
At the risk of being melodramatic, there are only two ways to interpret what we saw in this one. Either the offensive line has decided they hate Jones and McCaffrey and are deliberately hanging them out to dry, or they’re playing bad football. We’ll assume it’s the latter for now, but at some point you have to wonder. As stated above, a 50% pressure rate on drop backs is abysmal. Eight designed run plays yielded 25 yards with one of the best running backs who’s ever lived, in one of the best runs schemes known to man. It bears repeating, Trent Williams and Dominic Puni have both dealt with health issues this year, and starting center Jake Brendel missed. Still, I can’t unsee what we all saw. I hate to do it, but it’s yet another F for the big fellas.
Running Back: C
I do not want to entirely pan Christian McCaffrey due to the horrid blocking he was running behind, but this was his lowest rushing total since 2018. In the receiving department he snagged 50% of his targets for 3 grabs and 43 yards. Just a very meh performance all things considered. The man has been carrying the offense, he’s allowed to have a down game here and there. C ya in New York for what profiles as a much more friendly matchup CMC.
Wide Receivers and Tight Ends: C-
This is one of those group projects where the tight ends carried the receivers to a passing grade. But even then, just barely. On National Tight Ends day, George Kittle and Jake Tonges combined for five catches, 45 yards and a touchdown. Kittle made the play of the game for the Niners with his flashy contested catch in double coverage for his second TD of 2025. The bigger issues for the pass catchers as a whole were the lack of discernible separation and the drops that would follow when they did merit a target. Reinforcements cannot come soon enough, hopefully when they do we’ll C improvement here.
Defense
Rushing Defense: F
Was this performance a direct result of injuries? Of course. Am I supposed to grade on a curve? They don’t make curves big enough. A petite Woody Marks and the ghost of Nick Chubb combined for 118 yards, while C.J Stroud added 30 on top of it for good measure. These weren’t even achieved by way of busted plays or chunks. It was just a slow dog walking, primarily on inside runs. Yards after contact were aplenty. This current iteration of 49ers run defense is nowhere near NFL caliber. We miss you F-red.
Passing Defense: F
As Spongebob once said, “F is for friends who do stuff together.” In this case, the friends are the passing and rushing defense. What they did together on Sunday was play abhorrent football. Behind one of the worst offensive lines I have ever seen, Stroud dropped back and dissected the corpse of the 49ers defense (Happy Halloween!) Doing so to the tune of a 77% completion rate, 318 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Lenoir and Co. couldn’t stop a slant to save their lives, nor were they able to prevent two impactful chunk plays that would define the game. 10 of the Texans 26 points came from a 50-yard dump off to Woody Marks, and a 30-yard blown coverage TD to Xavier Hutchinson. There are a wide variety of F words one might use to describe this situation, but we’ll keep it family friendly. Fail, big ol’ fail.
Special Teams: A
With Eddie Pineiro only kicking one extra point, the rest of the special teams stepped up. The Texans average starting field position from eight punts and kickoffs was the 21.6 yard line. Thomas Morstead did a great job sticking them inside the 20 three times, the coverage was on point as well. No organization cedes a higher EPA per play on special teams over the last year, we’ll take that average starting field position all day. A rare special teams’ A for boys.
Special mention
Athletic Training and Medical Staff: Super Mega F
We all saw the viral graphic that ran during the game. 2300 49ers games missed since 2018 due to injury. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent for those 2300 games. The hopes and dreams of athletes and fans alike, obliterated. Year after year after year after year. The first and only super mega F this segment will ever give out. Those derelicts earned it.