C.J. Stroud: Loss to Jets 'a wake-up call' for reeling Texans
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- On a night when he was sacked a career-high eight times, quarterback C.J. Stroud called the Houston Texans' 21-13 loss to the New York Jets “embarrassing.”
Stroud had a Thursday night he'd rather forget, completing just 36 percent of his passes for a career-worst 191 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
“It's never fun to come out in a prime-time game and get embarrassed,” Stroud said. ”We have to be better in a lot of areas, and it starts with me. There are plays I need to make and shots I need to take. I can't point the finger at me and realize that I have to be better as a football player. If we want to win, it can't be this way. We have to learn to dominate.
“This is definitely a big wake-up call for us to tighten our belly.”
Stroud also had 11 quarterback hits and was pressured on 46.7 percent of his dropbacks, a trend that has continued throughout the season. Stroud was sacked 30 times this season, second in the NFL only to Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was sacked 33 times and suffered a season-ending Achilles tear in Week 7.
Texans coach De Meco Ryans has preached all season about the need to improve the Texans' pass protection, but the problems persist.
“We gave up eight sacks, and that's not good enough because we seem to be in scramble mode on every dropback and passing situation,” Ryan said. ”We can't execute on time, so we've got to fix that. It's not good enough to get sacked that much. You don't want your quarterback to take as many hits as he did, and we've got to adapt.”
Stroud admitted it wasn't “easy” to operate under pressure Thursday night, going 5-for-12 for 67 yards under pressure, but he said some of the hits were self-inflicted.
“The only thing I can do is get the ball out quicker,” Stroud said. ”When something is open, I have to be able to hit it, because sometimes I sit there and think too much, and if there's a first-and-1, go to a first-and-1, if there's a second-and-2, go to a second-and-2, I have to be able to follow my progressions, so it's not just the players, it's my responsibility.”
Stroud ran a 3.63-second 40 against the Jets, the fastest of his career. Pressure reached him in an average of 2.87 seconds Thursday night, according to Next Gen Stats, and he struggled to survive a couple of those plays.
The struggles helped the Jets, who hadn't scored a touchdown until early in the third quarter, put up 21 points in the second half to pull away. The two sacks the Texans allowed proved costly. One, in the first quarter, pinned the Texans at the Jets' 11-yard line, led to a Stroud fumble. Later in the second quarter, another sack at the Jets' 34-yard line pushed the Texans back four yards, forcing Kaimi Fairbairn to attempt a 56-yard field goal that failed.
“We've got to apply what we do in practice to the field,” right tackle Titus Howard said. ”We're not doing that right now. We gave the quarterback too much to do early in the game, and that slowed us down, and that's our problem. We've got to fix that.”
Texas' run blocking, on the other hand, was effective again. They rushed for 187 yards, including 106 yards from running back Joe Mixon, who recorded his fifth 100-yard rushing game. It's the third time this year that Texas has gone over 180 yards rushing.
The pass defense has been different this season.
The Texans hope to fix that next week when they host the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football. 토토사이트 모음
