Tag: Texans coach

5 statistical takeaways from Texans’ Week 18 victory

Here are five reasons why the Houston Texans took down the Indianapolis Colts to secure a playoff spot Saturday.

The Houston Texans secured their spot in the playoffs in a pivotal victory Saturday night 23-19 over the Indianapolis Colts. Later, they won the AFC South when the Jacksonville Jaguars fell on the road to the division rival Tennessee Titans.

As such, it’s created one of the best stories in the NFL. After winning just seven games the past two seasons combined, head coach DeMeco Ryans has won 10 games and gifted the city where he once played their first playoff game (and home playoff game) since 2019. They’ll get a rematch with the Cleveland Browns, who easily dismantled Houston without C.J. Stroud in Week 16.

Even as the team turns its focus towards the playoffs, there are still some important takeaways from the team’s gutsy performance over the Colts in what was essentially a playoff game. Here are five takeaways looking at the advanced metrics from Saturday’s huge victory.

Texans evaluating Jaguars as fresh, new opponent

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans says the team may have beaten the Jacksonville Jaguars previously, but they are maintaining a humble approach.

DeMeco Ryans may have larger goals, but he won’t share them with the general public.

Do the Houston Texans have a goal of winning the AFC South?

“Our vision is winning the day and winning against whoever our opponent is that week,” Ryans told reporters Nov. 20.

The Texans will have an inside track to winning the division Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time from NRG Stadium as the reigning Jacksonville Jaguars visit. The Texans already beat Jacksonville in Week 3, and a win would deliver a series sweep. The Texans would improve to 7-4, drop the Jaguars to 7-4, but maintain a tiebreaker that would keep Houston ahead should they finish with the same record.

Houston’s 37-17 victory at EverBank Field was Ryans’ first career win. As sweet as it was, Ryans won’t overlook the Jaguars.

“Each game is different,” Ryans said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in our first game versus Jacksonville — it really doesn’t matter. They’ve grown, they’ve changed over the past few weeks, and we have as well, so each game I take it as it’s a new game, it’s a new approach each and every time we play an opponent.”

Last year the Jaguars dusted the Texans 31-3 en route to claiming the AFC South in a Week 18 tilt with the Tennessee Titans.

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DeMeco Ryans says Texans must ‘stay humble’ and ‘stay hungry’

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans says the team still needs to find ways to “stay humble” and “stay hungry” despite their newfound success.

The Houston Texans are a hot topic, and it happened quickly. Within the span of two weeks, the Texans posted a winning record and beat one of the standard bearers in the AFC. Throw in C.J. Stroud and Devin Singletary earning back-to-back offensive player of the week honors, and there is excitement teeming on Kirby Drive.

However, coach DeMeco Ryans is trying to get his team to still stay levelheaded.

“The conversation that comes about success and how you handle it is don’t get the big head,” Ryans told reporters Nov. 15. “We stay humble and we stay hungry — that’s what it’s all about. You stay humble and that’s the only way I know how to approach it. Just as much as people talk great about you, if something goes wrong, they’ll be talking bad about you the next day.”

Ryans’ approach countermeasures the emotional upswings of a season. If a team successfully prepares each week, the results should achieve high performance.

Said Ryans: “We don’t ride the ups and the downs of the season. We prepare the same way each and every week and we go out and play our best football on Sunday. That’s all that matters. We can’t get caught up in the headlines because headlines don’t win you games. You got to go execute, you got to go play good football to win games and that’s the only thing that matters to us.”

The Texans get back in action Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals with a 12:00 p.m. Central Time kickoff at NRG Stadium.

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WATCH: DeMeco Ryans gives Texans ‘Victory Monday’ following win over Bengals

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans gave his team “Victory Monday” following their 30-27 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

The only thing that could be better than beating a conference behemoth would be a day off.

That is precisely what coach DeMeco Ryans granted the Houston Texans following their 30-27 win over the Cincinnati Bengals Nov. 12 during Week 10 at Paycor Stadium.

What more could Ryans ask of his defense after they limited the Bengals to 380 total yards and 20 first downs? What more could Ryans ask of his offense, which posted 544 yards and had his rookie quarterback throw for 356 yards?

The Texans’ first practice of the week is Wednesday as they gear up for the Arizona Cardinals in Week 11 at NRG Stadium.

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Texans’ DeMeco Ryans to handle ‘coaching piece’ of trade deadline

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans knows his role as the NFL trade deadline approaches.

The NFL trade deadline is 3:00 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday, Oct. 31.

The Houston Texans may not be among the teams looking to swap tricks for treats as the needs across the roster are relatively filled, or too precious to actually address. Don’t look for any franchise to trade their interior offensive linemen.

Nevertheless the Texans are still open to offers and have their feelers throughout the other 31 front offices.

DeMeco Ryans is going through his first trade deadline as coach, and outlined just what type of role he has as the deadline passes.

“When it comes to the trade deadline, [general manager] Nick and his scouting staff have done a really good job of looking at guys all throughout the year,” Ryans told reporters Oct. 30. “So, they handle that, we handle the coaching piece of it. If there are opportunities to make our team better, we always look at all opportunities.”

The opportunities for Ryans and his team may come in actual game experiences. Houston looks to prevent their second losing streak of the season as they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time at NRG Stadium.

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DeMeco Ryans emphasized to Texans the importance of starting bye week with win

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans underscored the importance of starting the bye week off with a victory.

DeMeco Ryans understands how importance the bye week is.

As a former player, the week off represents a chance to heal the body. As a coach, the open date offers a chance to renew the mind.

There would be no better accelerator for the Houston Texans than to get a win going into their Week 7 bye, which is what Ryans emphasized all week leading up to their encounter with the New Orleans Saints Sunday at NRG Stadium.

“It’s something we talked about all week is just finishing, finishing this week 3-3,” Ryans said. “We know our team is continuing to improve, continuing to get better, but it was very important for us to finish with a win this week before heading into our bye week.”

The Texans can fly the mission accomplished banner as they vanquished the Saints 20-13 thanks to C.J. Stroud’s two touchdown passes and an impressive 0-3 red zone denial rate from Houston’s defense. The Saints had to settle for four Blake Grupe field goals, two of which he missed.

Houston hasn’t been at least .500 since 2019. The last time the club was technically 3-3 was in 2018. The only players still on the roster from the 2018 team are long snapper Jon Weeks and kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn.

The rest of the roster didn’t have to suffer as long as they did, even the first six weeks of the 2023 campaign was enough. With Houston straddling the fence going into their bye week, the mood is eligible to shift on Kirby Drive.

“You can enjoy your bye week a little bit better off of a win,” said Ryans. “Definitely still things to clean up and we understand that. On all three phases there are a lot of things we can clean up. But it’s a lot easier to clean things up with a win.”

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DeMeco Ryans explains taking the field goal on Texans’ first drive

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans outlined why the team chose to kick a field goal rather than go for it on the offense’s opening drive.

The Houston Texans got on the scoreboard first against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 5, but it was in a rather meek manner.

After a six-play, 28-yard drive that carved 2:56 out of the first quarter, the Texans settled for a 38-yard field goal from kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn to take a 3-0 lead.

The Texans weren’t facing a fourth-and-long situation. Instead the Texans were a yard away from converting a first down at the 18-yard line. Coach DeMeco Ryans sent out Fairbairn to give Houston early points.

“I felt good about going for a field goal there,” Ryans said after the 21-19 loss. “It was a successful drive, and I just wanted to finish coming away with points.”

The Texans got their points. Houston never attempted to go for it on fourth down against the Falcons and were 4-13 (31%) on third down conversions for the afternoon.

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DeMeco Ryans says Texans failed to make play on final drive

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans says the defense did not come up with a play on the final drive against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 5.

The Houston Texans had Week 5 seemingly won. All they had to do was protect their 19-18 lead and not allow the Atlanta Falcons to kick a game-winning field goal over the course of the final 1:54.

The defense wasn’t able to keep up its end of the bargain as Falcons kicker Youghoe Koo nailed a 37-yard field goal as time expired Oct. 8 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Houston’s two-game winning streak was snapped, and the Texans left Atlanta 2-3.

“They made a couple plays there at the end of the game,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said after the 21-19 loss. “We didn’t, so credit to those guys for stepping up and making a play when they had to.”

The shame of Houston’s loss was it had the makings for rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud’s first career fourth quarter comeback and game-winning drive. The No. 2 overall pick capped off an 11-play, 75-yard drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dalton Schultz the drive prior.

“The momentum started to roll there late,” said Ryans. “I was proud of our offense for the way they drove down at the end of the game to give us an opportunity to go out and finish and win this game, but we came up short.”

Coaching may have come up short for the Texans on the final drive. After Atlanta picked up its initial first down with 1:26 to go in the game, Houston did not use its timeouts. Instead the Falcons advanced to the Texans’ 26-yard line with 55 seconds left before Houston called its first of the second half. Ultimately, the Falcons whittled their way to the Texans’ 19-yard line, compelling Houston to call its remaining two along the way, and setup Koo for the game-winner.

Said Ryans: “When you are in those positions, those two-minute drives, you have to close it out by putting pressure on the quarterback. You have to close it out by making a play when the ball is in the air. We didn’t do either one of those. You’re not going to win games if you play that way.”

The Texans return to NRG Stadium to host the New Orleans Saints Oct. 15.

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Texans coach DeMeco Ryans would go for it again on fourth downs against the Ravens

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans says he would still go for it on fourth down against the Baltimore Ravens following their 25-9 loss.

The Houston Texans made a statement in the first quarter against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 1.

After the Ravens committed a running into the kicker penalty against Ty Zentner to move Houston into a fourth-and-1 from their own 47-yard line with 10:59 to go in the first quarter, coach DeMeco Ryans sent the offense back onto the field at M&T Bank Stadium.

Rather than punt and play an early game of field position, Ryans went with his rookie quarterback and decided to push his chips to the center of the table.

Ryans’ gamble didn’t pay off as quarterback C.J. Stroud was sacked for an 11-yard loss, resulting in a turnover on downs. The Ravens took over at the Texans’ 36-yard line with a favorable pathway to score first.

With 7:40 to go in the third quarter, the Texans went for it again as running back Dameon Pierce took a handoff for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Houston 42-yard line. The Texans were down 15-6 and the resulting possession led to a Ravens touchdown.

Despite Houston coming up short on both fourth down attempts, Ryans told reporters Monday after the 25-9 loss that he would have still had the same course of action.

“I was being aggressive with our team on fourth down, and both decisions, I’ll do it again,” said Ryans.

The Texans were 1-4 on fourth downs throughout the afternoon. While the success rate may be below the median, Ryans’ decisions to go for it are part of an overarching belief in the offense that they hope pays off down the road.

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What makes Texans coach DeMeco Ryans anxious about Week 1

DeMeco Ryans will lead the Houston Texans in his first career game as coach. What is making him anxious about Week 1 against the Baltimore Ravens?

DeMeco Ryans has plenty of reasons to be anxious about Week 1.

The Houston Texans are taking on the Baltimore Ravens, the ever contending AFC North juggernauts led by quarterback Lamar Jackson. The matchup is a challenging way for the Texans to kick off the 2023 campaign.

Ryans is also making his debut as an NFL coach, as the man in charge on the sidelines. No longer will the 39-year-old be a part of the decisions, but Ryans will be making the calls.

Incidentally if there were an aspect of the impending bout that is making Ryans lose sleep, it is out of his control.

“I think one thing that would keep me up, and it shouldn’t, but it’s just making sure our guys go out and operate with precision,” Ryans told reporters Sept. 4. “Making sure our guys play as one — it’s one thing that I’ve been preaching all offseason is just us — like team-first, being a team.”

Ryans wants his players to not worry about who gets the credit, but rather how the team can, “be successful when everyone plays together as one single unit.”

Said Ryans: “I just want to see us go out and play complimentary football, all three phases in sync, being where we are supposed to be, being accountable, being trustworthy to each other, and playing with that enthusiasm and fire that I truly believe in that ignites a team.”

The inevitable kickoff begins Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time at M&T Bank Stadium.

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