Potential begins to show
With young players stepping up and team gelling, AFC South title can be had
Before the 2023 season began, most sportsbooks had the Texans finishing among the bottom three teams in the NFL.
New coach. Rookie quarterback. A defense that was the worst in the league at stopping the run in 2022.
How could they possibly turn things around so quickly?
But with the Texans having won two consecutive games against playoffcaliber teams — in Sunday’s case, 30-6 over the Pittsburgh Steelers — we might have to start rethinking how good this team can be.
“This is how we want to play football,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “We want to play winning football. If we keep playing the way we’re playing, the results will come.”
The Texans are now 2-2 and tied with the other three teams in the AFC South.
The last time the Texans won back-to-back games was in Week 15 and 16 of the 2021 regular season. That Week 16 game in 2021 also marked what had been their last home victory at NRG Stadium.
By that time, they were already eliminated from the playoffs under then-coach David Culley, and a win didn’t matter much.
But this has a different feel. What’s different about the Texans? They have one of the best defensive-minded head coaches in Ryans, who is showing why he was the hottest name on the coaching market last year.
And they finally have a quarterback in C.J. Stroud, who won NFL offensive rookie of the month in September and is off to a blazing start. He has thrown 151 pass attempts without an interception. The next highest total for a rookie was Oilers quarterback Warren Moon, who had 103.
Perhaps injured right tackle Tytus Howard said it best on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“C.J. Stroud is HIM,” he posted during the game. In other words, Stroud is one of the answers this franchise was looking for.
Stroud finished Sunday’s game 16-of-30 for 306 yards and two touchdowns. The Texans scored on their first drive when Stroud hit wide receiver Nico Collins for a 2-yard touchdown. This happened after they had two plays inside the 5, including a touchdown, called back for penalties. But the Texans kept finding answers. And the Steelers couldn’t stop them.
The Texans mixed in the pass well with the run. Dameon Pierce ran for a season-high 81 yards on 24 carries. He looked like the Pierce from 2022 when he was running like a man on a mission. It set the tone for the rest of the game, and Houston never looked back.
“When you’ve got a team that can play off each other — offense and defense, special teams — you’ve got a dangerous team,” said tight end Dalton Schultz, who finished with three catches for 42 yards and a touchdown from running back Devin Singletary.
Stroud, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft, has been huge for the Texans. The NFL’s frontrunner for rookie of the year has passed for 1,212 yards and six touchdowns and has a 100.6 passer rating through four games.
His 1,212 passing yards are the second most for a quarterback through his first four games in NFL history, trailing only Cam Newton, who had 1,386 in his first four with the Panthers.
“For me it’s a blessing,” Stroud said. “But I want to do more. I want to be really good at this game. I want to put the work in every week.
“But for me, it’s the guys around me. I can’t do anything without the guys around me.”
The Texans entered Sunday’s game with multiple injuries to the offensive line. And they were going against a Steelers team that led the NFL with 13 sacks, including six from AllPro edge rusher T.J. Watt. The Texans were down to their third-string left tackle, thirdstring left guard, third-string center and third-string right tackle.
Yet the offensive line didn’t allow a sack.
Watt was bottled up. So was Alex Highsmith. It was the second game in a row that the Texans offensive line didn’t allow a sack.
Right guard Shaq Mason, the only starter who hasn’t missed a game, said the offensive line’s confidence is building.
“It’s built in practice,” Mason said. “We practice hard, and we know whoever goes out there, they are putting that expectation on themselves to go out there and perform.
“We delivered these past two weeks, and we plan on continuing doing that.”
Stroud is also getting the ball out quicker and throwing it away when he is pressured. Half of Stroud’s throws in Sunday’s game came out in under 2.5 seconds, according to NFL’s Next Gen stats. In Week 2, only 35 percent of his throws came out in under 2.5 seconds.
“I haven’t seen a young guy play like this,” right tackle George Fant said of Stroud. “Even when he does improvise, it’s not at the cost of an offensive lineman giving up a sack.”
Stroud’s primary target was Collins, who finished with seven catches for a career-high 168 yards and two touchdowns.
The Texans still have some things to figure out in all three phases. Who will be their punt returner? Tank Dell muffed a punt but recovered it. They then went to Robert Woods.
What can they do to stop the run better in the second half ? Steelers running back Najee Harris ran for 71 yards on 14 carries, averaging 5.1 yards per rush.
And how will their offensive line look next week?
Multiple players remain out, and backup guard Kendrick Green, who has started the past two games at left guard, suffered what appeared to be a leg injury in the fourth quarter.
A couple of key offensive linemen are eligible to come back, including Howard at right tackle and rookie center/guard Juice Scruggs. Pro Bowl left Laremy Tunsil could also return. So perhaps this offensive line can continue to improve.
Regardless, this Texans team is better than we thought. An AFC South title is certainly possible. Two weeks ago after their loss to the Colts, few people could say that.
“We don’t want nobody to think we’re going to be good or bad,” Stroud said. “We don’t really care. We’re going to do what we do. Because we’re the man in the arena. … For us, we more so want to prove ourselves right rather than prove everyone else wrong.”