The Houston Texans’ season came to an end on Sunday after falling to the New England Patriots 28-16 in the snow at Gillette Stadium in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
Houston got another strong performance from its defense, which forced three turnovers. However, the Texans had five turnovers, including four interceptions by quarterback C.J. Stroud.
The third-year quarterback completed only 20-of-47 passes for 212 yards, atouchdown, and four interceptions.
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said at no time did he think about pulling Stroud after four first-half interceptions.
“No, C.J. is our guy,” Ryan said. “I believed that he could come back out in the second half and flip it. I believed that he could play better, and he did that in the second half. He did play better. We had some positive drives there in the second half. I believed that he would do that, and he did that. As I always tell our guys at halftime, it really doesn’t matter what happened in the first half. You have to flush it, remove it, and you just have to go out and finish the right way. We’ve been there before. We’ve been in situations much more dire than this, and we were able to bounce back. In my mind, there was no doubt in my mind that we would be able to overcome that.”
Despite the turnovers and struggles, Stroud said he never lost confidence.
“I think I’m a pretty self-confident person,” Stroud said. “I think when they started to pile up, I tried my best just to stay locked in in the spirit and realizing I’ve just got to be there for my teammates, and they encouraged me a lot through it. I’m really appreciative of this team and them doing that because they didn’t have to. But yeah, it was not easy. It’s something that I’m going to learn from. I’m just grateful my teammates were picking me up.”
For the third straight season, the 24-year-old Stroud led the Texans to the Divisional Round, and after a strong rookie season, which saw Stroud win the 2023 Rookie-of-the-Year, the last two seasons have been up and down.
Going forward, Stroud knows he has to clean things up.
“I look back, and I just feel like I let people down, and I’m not happy with that,” Stroud said. “It hurts, and I’m not naïve to it. I didn’t play my best this year, but I’m going to respond. I’m going to keep my chest up, my chin up high, and I’m going to just keep battling forward. If God is for me, who can be against me. I’m just going to rely on that. I think even today, just our team doing great, our defense getting stops, and just being careless with the football, I’ve got to get that fixed, and it’s something that I know I can fix. So, I’m going to get that done.”
Stroud did not look like an NFL starting quarterback on Sunday, and maybe the weather contributed to his poor performance, but he has to be better. Houston had a championship-caliber defense, but Stroud and their offense let them down.
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