DeMeco Ryans shrugs off C.J. Stroud’s costly mistakes that can derail Texans’ Super Bowl run
Stroud’s errors have to stop or else the Texans won’t last much longer.
The Houston Texans play a fun brand of football on defense and it once again showed it’s a Super Bowl-caliber unit against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
I mean, preventing an NFL offense from scoring a touchdown while scoring two touchdowns is about as good as it gets on that side of the ball. That, on top of an unexpectedly effective ground game, has the Texans in pretty good shape heading into their divisional round matchup against the New England Patriots.
There was glaring issue in the win, however, and that was C.J. Stroud’s mistakes. Stroud fumbled the ball not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, but five times on the night and he lost two of them. He also threw a really bad interception the third quarter that cost the Texans crucial points.
Winning playoff games comes by the smallest of margins and six mistakes in a game can easily put a team out of its misery. That seemed a bit lost on DeMeco Ryans when he spoke with reporters after the game, however.
DeMeco Ryans doesn’t seem worried about C.J. Stroud’s mistakes
“Yeah, bad plays happen. Turnovers happen in a game. We bounced back and didn’t let that affect us the rest of game. [We] went out and finished,” said Ryans.
The desire to avoid a deep dive into Stroud’s mistakes in a public setting is understandable, as it can open a can of worms to a slew of questions that could potentially paint the quarterback in a bad light. At the same time, however, Ryans seemed way less concerned than he should be.
It’s ironic because of all the coaching cliches, “winning the turnover battle” is the No. 1 thing that comes out of a coach’s mouth on most occasions. To hear a coach chalk it up as “eh it happens” is a bit concerning and it’s honestly very surprising to hear a defensive-minded guy like Ryans take that stance.
Ryans noted how proud he was of Stroud for bouncing back after the mistakes, so that’s more than likely a big reason why he addressed the situation like this. While that makes a bit of sense, you still don’t want your team in those situations. Especially when adding in the context that came along with Monday night.
Stroud’s mistakes kept the game closer than it should’ve been
At least three of Stroud’s mistakes were on him and it’s not just they were his fault – it’s where and when the mistakes occurred that really sting.
He had two fumbles inside the Texans’ own 20, with a third coming at the 23. Fortunately, he was able to recover two of the three, but fumble recoveries are a game of luck, more than anything. There is zero guarantee he recovers those in a similar situation and if the opposition recovers, well, then they’re automatically in scoring range.
Then came the interception the third quarter up by just one point. The Steelers covered the Texans receivers really well and while Stroud had room to operate, Pittsburgh’s pass rush did a good job of muddying things up, but also keeping Stroud inside the pocket.
This forced Stroud to dance around and instead of throwing the ball away or taking a sack, he decided to make a terrible, off-platform throw that floated in the air and right into the arms of Brandin Echols.
The keys with these mistakes are simple: They’re mostly poor execution on Stroud’s part and they happened in key areas of the field. There is no telling how all this turns out if the Texans didn’t have the elite defense they have or if they played a better offense than the Steelers.
The Texans showed they have a Super Bowl formula on Monday night, but Stroud can’t do this again. It’s that simple. Because if he does, Houston can kiss its championship hopes goodbye. The Texans aren’t going to win two more playoff games under this kind of circumstance.
Stroud also had some really good moments
It wasn’t all bad with Stroud. Despite the above, he still finished Super Wild Card Weekend with the fourth-best passer rating (86.7) and the second-best completion percentage over expectation at 3.6%. He managed to pull that off even while facing the most pressure of any quarterback (48.6% of dropbacks) in the first round.
“These games, playoff games from my experience, they’re going to make plays, we’re going to make plays,” Stroud said after the game. “It’s all about moving forward and trying your best to flush it and keep going. You know, I thought when — every time we had to bounce back we made more plays, so I’m proud of our guys for having a little bit of resilience in those moments, and to finish the game like that was really dope.”
“[I] thought CJ stepped up and made some big plays,” said Ryans. “He found Christian Kirk a couple times for some explosive plays for us. For Christian to have the game he had, over eight catches four over 140 yards, that’s great protection, that’s the quarterback stepping up, making great throws. Those guys operated well, made the plays we needed to make.”
The Texans offense has certainly had to navigate its way through an up-and-down regular season and while it did a lot of good against the Steelers, the turnovers overshadow the overall performance and the reason why they are being talked about as much is well, because the Texans won.
That surely won’t be the case in a loss and one will quickly be served if Stroud doesn’t shake the turnover bug.
