Texans' C.J. Stroud explains what he learned from the playoff loss vs. Baltimore Ravens
The Cinderella season is now over; after the Houston Texans fell to the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs, they have wrapped up the season and are ready to move on to the next. When you factor in what happened this last season and how it really wasn't supposed to happen, I'd be ready to move […]
The Cinderella season is now over; after the Houston Texans fell to the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs, they have wrapped up the season and are ready to move on to the next. When you factor in what happened this last season and how it really wasn't supposed to happen, I'd be ready to move on to the next season, too, as the Texans will likely only get better.
The Texans weren't even supposed to be there. They won three games last season and had a rookie quarterback, a rookie head coach, and a rookie offensive coordinator. Yet, somehow, they were able to win a playoff game and speed up the rebuild far quicker than anyone could imagine.
But, they didn't get the job done, for at least what they had aspirations of. The national media and fans may not have thought this team was capable of winning a Super Bowl this season, but that was certainly the goal. The Texans felt like they could. When you are a playoff team and beat the Cleveland Browns as badly as you did, you will feel like you can win the Super Bowl.
The Texans still need to improve, though, and they likely will. The best part is that the Texans, specifically C.J. Stroud, are already learning from their mistakes.
"It was great learning for me, you know, going into Baltimore and playing a great defense like that," C.J. Stroud said on NFL Network. "Some of the things I learned are you just can't have those penalties like that, and you have to be good on first and second down and not rely on third down and things like that. I think that playoff loss is going to help us in the future and in the long run to win bigger games coming up in my career."
The Texans had 11 penalties for 70 yards, while the Ravens had three penalties for 15 yards. It's safe to say the Texans were not the more disciplined team. Quite a few of the penalties were pre-snap penalties, too, which are a recipe for disaster for any team.
The Texans had a tough time having success on first and second down when they were already behind the sticks because of pre-snap penalties, and then when they didn't have pre-snap penalties, their first play on that drive would be a negative play, like a loss of yards, an incomplete pass, or even a pass to the sticks that get tackled for a loss.
The fact that Stroud is already learning what needs to be better is great. With how DeMeco Ryans coached all year long, it's safe to say he will have these things fixed.
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