Texans coach DeMeco Ryans reflects on what’s ahead: ‘My role is to take this to new heights, get to AFC championship’

HOUSTON – As the Texans reflect on their season and how it ended in another AFC divisional round playoff game loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, they feel confident in their future.

Texans coach DeMeco Ryans wants to take the AFC South champions to another level.

“It will take that sense of urgency consistently from everyone to get to where we want to get to,” Ryans said. “I mentioned to our guys today that my position and my role is to take this organization to new heights. New heights for us is finding a way to get to the AFC championship, somewhere we haven’t been as an organization. To do that we need everybody on board, like Will Anderson. A guy who is flag bearer for S.W.A.R.M mentality and everything that we need from our entire team.”

RECAP: Texans fall short against Chiefs as season ends in playoff loss: ‘We have to be better. We were not good enough’

In the first two seasons of coach DeMeco Ryans’ leadership, the Texans have won two consecutive AFC South division titles and he was named the Pro Football Writers of America NFL Coach of the Year after his first season and finished second in the Associated Press balloting.

After losing 23-14 to the Chiefs, the sixth time in franchise history as the lone AFC South team to never advance to the AFC championship game, the Texans are studying what went awry and how to improve in the offseason.

Because of tackling and coverage breakdowns, an extremely rough day for kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn with two missed field goals, including one blocked along with a flubbed extra point wide right, far too many penalties, including a few questionable roughing-the-passer penalties assessed to the defense for hits on Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and a slow start, the Texans’ season ended Saturday night at freezing-cold Arrowhead Stadium. The Texans finished the season 11-8 overall for the second year in a row with a loss in the AFC South divisional round on the road, one year after losing to the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs.

“Where we stand right now, we have to be better,” Ryans said after the Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium. “We were not good enough to beat a really good football team. When we can do the things we need to do consistently all the time, that is when we are going to be able to come here and be in this spot and win a football game. Unfortunately, we still have things we need to clean up of our own.”

RELATED: How Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud ‘grew tremendously’ even in one of those ‘tough years’

One week after intercepting Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert four times, the Texans had no interceptions against an efficient, careful veteran quarterback in Mahomes. The former NFL and Super Bowl Most Valuable Player completed 16 of 25 passes for a modest 177 yards and was sacked three times. However, Mahomes made the plays he needed to advance his team to the AFC title game. He had a 98.2 passer rating.

Between a missed 55-yard field goal by Fairbairn and a missed extra point and eight penalties for 82 yards, the Texans hurt their own cause several times.

MORE: Special teams meltdown: Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn misses three kicks, kick coverage shoddy in loss: ‘It hurts’

How Mahomes, who improved to 7-0 in the divisional round with 17 career touchdowns and no interceptions, orchestrated a game-deciding drive put the game away and answered the Texans’ impressive march to start the second half.

It was Mahomes who marched the Chiefs 81 yards on 18 plays, capping the drive with his falling-down dart to veteran tight end Travis Kelce, who delivered his NFL playoff record ninth 100-yard performance to surpass Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice. That touchdown boosted the Chiefs’ lead to 20-12.

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The Texans served notice again that they’re a legitimate playoff contender even as they head into the offseason with multiple questions swirling around an offensive line that allowed Stroud to be sacked 52 times during the regular season.

The Texans need to bolster the receiver position to go with Collins with wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell heading into the offseason rehabbing major knee injuries. Diggs is a free agent and Joe Mixon wants him back.

What isn’t in question, though, is the Texans’ competitiveness, talent that dots the entire roster and a strong camaraderie that defines their locker room.

To win games like this in the future, they’ll need to upgrade their roster and play mistake-free football.

Until they do, there will remain a gap between the Texans and elite teams like the Chiefs.

RELATED: ‘We knew it was going to be us against the refs,’ Texans upset with officiating in painful playoff loss to Chiefs

The Texans are close to being the kind of football team they want to be as long as they continue to build the personnel on both sides of the football and address the offensive line and wide receiver positions undoubtedly in free agency and the NFL draft.

“I don’t feel like we are that far away,” Ryans said. “These teams are not in a whole different tier than us. It is a matter of doing what we are supposed to do and we will be just fine.”

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Texans All-Pro corner Derek Stingley Jr. is eligible for a lucrative contract extension after intercepting seven passes this season.

“I want to be here forever,” Stingley said during the locker room cleanout day.

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Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com