HOUSTON – C.J. Stroud was under siege, surrounded by an aggressive, talented Seattle Seahawks defense.
Under heavy duress, a season-high 17 pressures, according to Next Gen Stats, with three sacks, the Texans’ quarterback couldn’t overcome his circumstances during a 27-19 road loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
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One of his top plays was an incompletion Stroud scrambled away from pursuit, eluding pressure in the pocket to deliver the football to star wide receiver Nico Collins. It was a microcosm of the rough outing, though, as Collins had an uncharacteristic dropped pass.
Between an ineffective run game, some predictable play-calling from offensive coordinator Nick Caley, the substandard pass protection against an elite defensive line headlined by defensive tackle Byron Murphy II and Stroud completing a season-low 46.9 percent of his throws, the offense looked doomed from the start. They managed to lose the game Monday night despite a 4 to 1 edge in turnover margin.
They mustered a season-low 254 yards of total offense despite 15 days to prepare after a bye and consecutive dominant wins against two bad teams in the Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans.
“I think Monday for me, of course, wasn’t my best outing,” Stroud said. “I don’t think I played well, but to me, it really starts with preparation. I thought I prepared as best as I could for that game and sometimes you go out there and lay an egg, but my confidence is high as ever.
“I have the most confidence not only in my team but in myself and I’m just going to continue to show up every game and I think as time goes on, you start clicking more and more and more. You can see when we were playing against Tennessee and Baltimore and then had the bye, came out, we had a really good week of practice, but sometimes that just happens. So, I think the focus for me is to stay confident in my process and my preparation and myself.”
Stroud completed just 23 of 49 passes for 229 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked 5.77 percent of the time. His 59.0 passer rating represents a season-low and his worst since last season.
The Texans didn’t score a touchdown until the final minutes of the fourth quarter, went 2 for 15 on third downs and averaged just 4.16 yards per attempt.
At times, Stroud didn’t have a chance to succeed because he was immediately pressured and boxed in with nowhere to turn. At times, he could have unloaded the football faster and sped up his process.
“C.J. has to do a better job of running the offense and getting the ball out when it’s supposed to be out,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “Everybody around him has to play better. He has to play better all-around. It’s not about just one person, it’s collectively. Everybody has to play better and he falls in that same category as well.”
Stroud acknowledged after the game a need for improvement in playing faster.
How did the Texans regress so much after a 44-10 win over the Ravens where Stroud completed 85.2 percent of his throws for four touchdowns and zero interceptions and was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week?
Well, the Ravens are depleted by injuries severely. The Seahawks are a 5-2 squad with a creative defense designed by coach Mike Macdonald and a defensive front led by Murphy, Tank Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu and Ernest Jones IV.
“We had the bye and came out, we had a really good week of practice,” Stroud said. “But sometimes, that just happens.”
Stroud didn’t criticize offensive coordinator Nick Caley, who has borne the brunt of a lot of negative comments during and after the Seahawks game.
Stroud has characterized the offensive strategy as “death by a thousand cuts,” meaning high-percentage at-bats intended to move the chains in smaller chunks to march methodically downfield. The Texans don’t take a lot of deep shots unlike former offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik’s game plans.
“The gameplan, I think for every team if you ask them, is to do well on first and second down,” Stroud said. “Then, that’s where I think some of the play-making abilities has to come out. That’s the thing in this offense, is every play just doing your job, even if it means gain of two [yards]. That’s what we’re being asked to do. That’s what we’re asked of, so that’s something I’m still getting used to.
“I think when that time comes, we got to find answers and that’s where, when the ball is getting out for two yards, that’s when I trust ‘Hutch’ (Xavier Hutchinson) or one of the guys on the outside to make somebody miss and get eight [yards]. So, that’s the type of offense we’re living in. I think it’s a good thing, but those types of situations kind of test those rules. But, the more you can stay on track is the better we have when we play on Sundays.”
The Texans rank 21st in scoring offense, 23rd in total offense, 23rd in passing offense and 18th in rushing offense.
What needs to change for the Texans to be more successful?
“I’m going to continue to get better in areas I need to get better in,” Stroud said. “But, there’s things schematically as well like footwork and different things that I can always get better in as well.
“Practicing better, having hard conversations, being better by each individual, doing our job and making sure we’re all on the same page. I think the effort’s there, but now execution needs to pick up.”
What’s the identity? That question comes up a lot about the Texans. Are they a well-balanced offense? What’s the strategy.
“There’s a lot of different ways you can say your identity is,” Stroud said. “I would say as a mindset thing, it’s more physical. Point A to point B, going as fast as you can, relentless swarm, everything coach (Ryans) talks about schematically.
“I think we’re finding our area there where we’re leaning somewhat on the run game being RPOs [run pass options] where, then we can go big personnel. So, it’s a little bit of everything, but I think we’re still finding that as time goes on and I think it could always adjust. But, I think we’re finding it as weeks go on.”
For veteran offensive tackle Tytus Howard, the signs were there right from the start of a 27-19 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Especially the lopsided contributions from an offense that didn’t score a touchdown until late in the fourth quarter and squandered four turnovers created by the top-ranked scoring defense in the league.
“We gotta play better, bro, we let the defense down, we let the team down,” Howard said. “We was complacent today, we didn’t come out with enough energy to start the game. We just didn’t do a good enjoy job in really no phase of the game. We gotta step it up, man, for the rest of the season if we want to do anything. If we score, we can’t win.
“We’re giving teams short fields. Of course, they’re gonna score some points. Our defense had four turnovers. We should win that game."
An offense that went 1 for 4 on fourth down and 1 for 3 in the red zone. An offensive line with one near safety when he ill-advisedly retreated too far while pressured by Uchenna Nwosu.
This season, Stroud has completed 64.8 percent of his throws for 1,305 yards and nine touchdowns with four interceptions.
He’s on pace for 3,698 yards, 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
As for Howard’s raw, honest and unvarnished assessment of the offense, Stroud referenced how the Texans want to play the game is difficult to achieve. The Texans need a lot of things to go right to score points. It’s a hard watch right now.
“I don’t know what he meant by complacent, but I think the type of offense we’re running is like I told ya’ll, death by a thousand cuts,” Stroud said. “Sometimes when you live by a sword it’s hard because you’re not taking a bunch of deep downfield shots, but you’re asked to be really good on first, second down, time and time again.
“So, something we just got to get better at. It’s still new to a lot of us, but, yeah, I definitely think we can be better at that and that will definitely help.”
After combining for 70 points in wins over the Ravens and Tennessee Titans, the offense clearly regressed against the Seahawks.
Texans running backs Nick Chubb and Woody Marks combined for 31 rushing yards on 15 carries.
The most successful option was throwing to tight end Dalton Schultz. He caught a season-high nine passes for 98 yards on 10 targets.
Arguably, the worst sequence for the Texans was being stuffed on predictable consecutive running plays for Marks for no gain and a loss of two yards. That set the stage for the second of Zach Charbonett’s touchdown runs.
And the Texans also failed to score when they couldn’t create any push at the Seahawks’ one-yard line as they failed on both red-zone opportunities.
“We got knocked back,” Ryans said. “That all starts upfront. We didn’t displace the line of scrimmage. Therefore, we weren’t successful at gaining a yard.
“The main goal in this game was to control the front; we did not do that. Their front controlled us and it wasn’t good enough for us. We have to find a way to get better there. Got to score points, right? So got to find a way to get in the end zone. Had multiple opportunities; just didn’t capitalize on those.
The Texans rushed for only 56 yards, a season-low.
“The penalties and us getting in our own way, we had chances at the goal line that we weren’t able to get in and a lot of three-and-outs, it’s on us to get sustained drives and get things rolling,” Nick Chubb said. “All the games that we have lost are on the offense, us not making plays and getting stopped.”
The Texans are 3 1/2 games behind the Colts in the division and rank 10th overall in the AFC playoff standings.
Barring a dramatic turnaround, the Texans look like anything but playoff bound.
“We didn’t play good at all today on offense,” Howard said. “It’s gotta be better. Us leaders on offense, we gotta step it up another notch and we gotta hold each other accountable first and everybody else, too.
“I feel bad right now. When you lose games like that, man, it feels terrible, man. I feel like we lost every game we lost this season. It’s something that’s been common for us this season so far that we gotta break through.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com