Through seven weeks, C.J. Stroud hasn’t enjoyed the same success he had as a rookie, with much of that due to Houston’s poor offensive line play.
The Texans simply aren’t protecting Stroud consistently enough to let him work his magic, and the entire offense is suffering for it.
“It has to get fixed,” Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said on Wednesday, via ESPN. “I know how we’re coaching it and what we’re asking to be done, and it’s just not showing up on the tape. It’s not just one person, it’s the entire thing. So it’s just the entire offense from top to the bottom. We have to get it cleaned up.”
To put it kindly, the protection has been messy. Stroud is almost constantly under duress, often being forced to navigate a crumbling pocket while desperately trying to find space to throw. The issues plagued them in a blowout loss to Minnesota in Week 3, and in their most recent defeat at Green Bay in Week 7, Stroud finished with just 10 completions for 86 passing yards on 21 attempts. The Packers pressured Stroud at a rate of nearly 50 percent despite blitzing on just 17.2 percent of Stroud’s dropbacks, per NFL Research.
These types of problems would significantly undercut any offense, and Houston is no different. Because Stroud is exceptional at making the best of bad situations, the Texans still rank 10th in passing yards per game. But it doesn’t take much to see how much the lack of reliable protection is limiting their offense.
The downside to this is fixing protection isn’t a simple task. Every offensive line functions as five or more parts aiming to work in unison, but as defenses throw stunts and blitzes at them, the task becomes more difficult. That was the story Sunday, according to Stroud, who accepted some blame for the Texans’ passing struggles.
“[The Packers] rush as one,” Stroud said on Wednesday. “They have a lot of twist game upfront so the more that they twist and turn we just have to settle a little bit and just try to level it off. But I thought they did a good job sitting in their stunts. We just have to be better in protection, and I have to be better at getting the ball out on time. It is a multitude of things.”
To his credit, Stroud isn’t taking all day to get the ball out. He’s still managing to find open targets as quickly as possible, though the job increased in difficulty after losing favorite target Nico Collins to a hamstring injury, that will sideline him at least two more games. Because the NFL stops for no one, the Texans will have to find a way to manage without Collins and it will start up front.
“We have a lot of things to clean up when it comes to our protection, and it’s everyone involved — O-line, tight ends, backs,” Ryans said. “It’s everybody working together, being on the same page and just getting it done. We’ve had multiple weeks where the same things have hurt us multiple times, so we have to get it fixed, starting with the coaches and down to the players on finishing and executing.”
Houston will aim to start correcting things this week before their rematch on Sunday with Indianapolis, a team that ranks near the bottom of the NFL in QB pressure rate at 28 percent, per Next Gen Stats.
Perhaps this is when it turns around. The Texans better hope so, because even at 5-2, they lead the Colts by just one game in the AFC South.
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