The Houston Texans suffered an "embarrassing" loss to the New York Jets on Thursday night, according to quarterback C.J. Stroud, falling 21-13 on the road in a mistake-filled contest.
"To come out here on a prime-time game and get embarrassed like that is never fun," Stroud said. "I believe we have to be better in a lot of areas and that starts with me. I think there's plays I got to make, throws I got to make. At times I have to sit in the pocket and just trust my guys. I really point the finger at me and realize I got to be better as a football player. If we want to win, this is not the recipe for it. We have to learn how to dominate."
Both sides stubbed their toe repeatedly in the contest, but the Texans never settled in on offense and couldn't get stops on defense late. Houston gave up three consecutive scoring drives to close the contest, and outside of one 98-yard drive in the second quarter, couldn't find the end zone.
The loss to a Jets club on a five-game losing skid highlighted the worst of the Texans' issues.
"I think we'll be able to be a really good football team," Stroud said. "It doesn't define us but definitely was a great wake-up call."
Behind an offensive line that has gotten him battered, Stroud is beginning to show cracks. The second-year quarterback fumbled in the first quarter in scoring position, missed a host of throws he usually makes -- including one that should have gone for an easy touchdown late -- and took a whopping eight sacks. In addition to the eight sacks, Stroud was pressured on 46.7% of his pass attempts, per Next Gen Stats.
"I'm not sure what's happening up front," coach DeMeco Ryans said. "We'll watch the film and see what it is, but obviously you give up eight sacks, and every dropback or pass situation looks like we're in scramble mode, so it's just not good enough when we can't operate on time, and we've got to get that fixed. Any time you get sacked that many times, it's not good enough. We don't want our quarterback getting hit, as many hits as he took. It's not good enough. We've got to adjust. We've got to change things moving forward."
Stroud finished 11-of-30 passing (36.7%) for 191 yards and a 59.2 passer rating.
Taking hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after hit after hit, has finally got to Stroud. It's been building over the weeks -- you could see signs of it Sunday against Houston. But without Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs to win on the outside, Thursday was a perfect storm of bad. It's to the point that the quarterback expects to get hit every time he drops back. That's no way to play quarterback.
As bad as Thursday's loss was, holding a multi-game division lead provides Houston (6-3) time to steer back on course. But the road gets no easier with a trip to face the high-powered Detroit Lions in Week 10.
"It's not time to hang our head down and feel sorry for ourselves," Stroud said. "It's time to answer the call. We got guys in that locker room that I believe in and I trust in."
