Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud is leaving Thursday’s 21-13 loss against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.
He won’t forget the lesson learned amid one of his worst outings as the Texans enter the season’s second-half push.
“This is definitely a great wake-up call for us to tighten up the ship,” Stroud said late Thursday evening.
The Texans might sit at 6-3, but they looked like a 3-6 roster for most of Thursday’s outing against Aaron Rogers and the Jets. Stroud said he was “embarrassed” by the performance, calling himself out for failing to meet expectations.
Stroud wasn’t the solution, but also wasn’t the only problem on a night where things from mediocre to unwatchable by the final drive. He completed a career-worst 37% of his passes for 191 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
“To come out here on a prime-time game and get embarrassed, that is never fun,” Stroud said. “We have to be better in a lot of areas, and it starts with me.”
He was also sacked a career-high eight times and only converted once in four red zone trips.
“We give up eight sacks, and every dropback and pass situation looks like we’re in scramble mode, so it’s just not good enough,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “We can’t operate on time, and we got to get that fixed. Anytime you get sacked that many times, it’s not good enough. Don’t want a quarterback getting hit as many hits as he took.
“We got to adjust.”
The passing game was putrid but also limited. With Nico Collins (hamstring) and Stefon Diggs (torn ACL) sidelined, Houston turned to a trio of Robert Woods, John Metchie III, and Xavier Hutchison as secondary options behind Tank Dell.
Dell delivered, hauling in a season-high six passes for 126 yards. Woods caught a pair of passes for 44 yards, including a 32-yard pickup to set up a Ka’imi Fairbairn field goal.
Six other receivers were targets but didn’t record a catch, though Stroud took credit for taking too long to go through his progression.
“I got to be able to get it out, get it to No. 1 if No. 1 is there, No. 2 if No. 2 is there, get through my progressions,” Stroud said. “So it’s not just on them. It’s on me as well.”
The receiving game was timid, but the pass protection felt pedestrian. Stroud took 11 total QB hits and pressured on 46.7% of his dropbacks. Since Week 7, the second-year passer has been pressured on 42.5% of dropbacks and sacked a combined 17 times.
Houston still had a chance to win after taking a 7-0 lead at halftime behind a Joe Mixon 4-yard touchdown run. Rodgers found a connection with Garrett Wilson for a pair of touchdowns on back-to-back drives to begin the third quarter.
Fairbairn also missed a pair of kicks that shifted momentum and left Houston struggling to find points. By the time Rodgers connected with Davante Adams in the fourth quarter for his first touchdown in a Jets uniform, the Texans were out of luck.
“This is now playoff football, it’s November-December, this is the chunk of our schedule, a lot of great teams we are playing on primetime and we got to be able to find ways to win,” Stroud said.
The Texans hope to fix their woes with the elongated weekend before facing off against the Detroit Lions at NRG Stadium on “Sunday Night Football.”