The Houston Texans went into their Thursday Night Football matchup against the New York Jets with an opportunity to improve to 7-2 despite a myriad of injuries. Instead, Houston collapsed in the second half of a 21-13 loss that raised significant questions regarding this club’s chances of contention.
Houston has a lot of injury issues right now. Entering Week 9, wide receiver Stefon Diggs (torn ACL) was placed on injured reserve and fellow wide receiver Nico Collins (hamstring) missed his fourth consecutive game on IR. Meanwhile, the Texans defense played without linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair and defensive back Jimmie Ward.
Related: NFL power rankings
- C.J. Stroud stats (ESPN): 56.3 ESPN QBR (14th), 2,139 pass yards, 11-4 TD-INT, 63.5% completion rate, 7.2 yards per attempt, 91.9 QB rating, 30 sacks taken
C.J. Stroud, playing without his two best pass-catchers, struggled. He completed just 36.7 percent of his 30 pass attempts, the second time in three games he’s finished with a completion rate under 48 percent. Over his last three games, Stroud has just a 76.0 QB rating with a 52.3 percent completion rate with a 1-0 TD-INT line.
Following Thursday’s ugly loss to the Jets, Stroud took plenty of responsibility for the outcome. However, he also highlighted some internal issues within the Texans locker room.
“I would say we just got to honestly play football better, execute better, stop pointing fingers and realize that at the end of the day this is not winning football.”
Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud following the Thursday Night Football loss (H/T Pro Football Talk)
Related: NFL defense rankings 2024, see where the Houston Texans land
While Stroud believes the Texans are a very good team, he recognizes there are a lot of internal issues right now Among them the Texans quarterback cited some within the building needing to tighten things up and use this loss as a “wakeup call” to start buying into the system more.
“Once we buy into the systems and what is being coached, and also we have to have leadership to take over. I believe this isn’t the end, but it’s definitely a great wakeup call for us to tighten up the ship. This is now playoff football, it’s November-December, this is the chunk of our schedule, a lot of great teams we are playing on prime time and we got to be able to find ways to win.”
Houston Texzans QB C.J. Stroud following the Week 9 loss
There is some good news for Houston. It will welcome Collins back ahead of a Week 10 matchup against the Detroit Lions. However, both the Lions and Dallas Cowboys (Monday Night Football) pose real threats to the Texans’ record.
With the NFL trade deadline on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 4:00 PM EDT, there’s still plenty of time for the Texans front office to address needs at wide receiver and along the offensive line. However, Stroud also recognizes there are internal issues that the Texans coaching staff and locker room must address before Week 10.
