Houston Texans Quarterback CJ Stroud leaves Thursday’s 21-13 loss to the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.
He won’t forget the lesson learned during one of his worst outings as a Texans enter the second half of the season.
“It’s definitely a good wake-up call for us to tighten the ship,” Stroud said Thursday night.
The Texans may have been 6-3, but they looked like a 3-6 slate for most of Thursday’s outing against Aaron Rogers and the Jets. Stroud said he was “embarrassed” by the performance, blaming himself for failing to meet expectations.
Stroud wasn’t the solution, but neither was it the only problem on a night where things went from mediocre to unwatchable on the final drive. He completed a career-worst 37% of his passes for 191 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
“Coming here during a prime-time game and being embarrassed, it’s never fun,” Stroud said. “We need to be better in many areas, and that starts with me.”
He was also sacked a career-high eight times and converted just once in four trips to the red zone.
“We allow eight sacks, and every dropback and pass situation makes it look like we’re in scrimmage mode, so it’s just not enough,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “We can’t operate on time, and we have to fix that. Anytime you get sacked that many times, it’s not enough. I don’t want a quarterback getting hit as many hits as he received some.
“We have to adapt.”
The passing game was putrid but also limited. With Nico Collins (hamstring) and Stefon Diggs (ACL tear) 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 two passes for 44 yards, including a 32-yard catch to set up a Ka’imi Fairbairn field goal.
Six other receivers were targets but didn’t record a catch, although Stroud took credit for taking too long to track his progress.
“I have to be able to take him out, get him to No. 1 if No. 1 is there, No. 2 if No. 2 is there, track my progress,” Stroud said. “So it’s not just their fault. It’s my fault too.”
The receiving game was timid, but the pass protection seemed pedestrian. Stroud had 11 total QB hits and pressured 46.7% of his dropbacks. Since Week 7, the second-year passer has been pressured on 42.5 percent of dropbacks and has sacked a total of 17 times.
Houston still had a chance to win after taking a 7-0 halftime lead behind a 4-yard Joe Mixon touchdown run. Rodgers found a connection with Garrett Wilson for a pair of consecutive touchdowns to start the third quarter.
Fairbairn also missed a pair of kicks that shifted the 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.
“It’s playoff football now, we’re in November-December, this is the part of our schedule, we’re playing a lot of big teams in prime time and we have to be able to find ways to win” , Stroud said.
The Texans hope to iron out their issues with this long weekend before facing the Detroit Lions at NRG Stadium on “Sunday Night Football.”
This article was originally published on Texans Wire: Texans QB CJ Stroud hopes Jets loss is ‘wake-up call’ for second half
