HOUSTON \u2014 Houston coach DeMeco Ryans had high praise for C.J. Stroud after his performance in Sunday’s win over San Francisco.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of his best games ever,\u201d Ryans said.<\/p>\n
Stroud threw for a season-high 318 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Texans to the 26-15 victory. He bounced back after struggling to move the offense in a loss to Seattle last Monday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen C.J. is locked in (and) C.J. plays well and he\u2019s upbeat and everybody can see he\u2019s going to the right spot with the football, he\u2019s making great decisions, stepping up, escaping the pocket, converting some runs there, converting some third downs, you just see the entire energy, the vibe of our entire sideline just changes,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cEverybody is looking to the quarterback for that leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stroud\u2019s big day came despite missing star receiver Nico Collins, who sat out after sustaining a concussion against the Seahawks. With Collins out, Stroud out completed passes to nine different players on a day the offense had 475 yards. It was the most yards the team had gained since the Texans had 544 on Nov. 12, 2023, against the Bengals.<\/p>\n
The Texans (3-4) scored on each of their first four possessions Sunday after punting on their first four against Seattle.<\/p>\n
As for what Stroud believes led to his strong performance, he said it comes down to staying positive despite setbacks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud throws during the first half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Houston. Credit: AP\/Eric Christian Smith<\/p>\n
\u201cI wake up in the morning feeling like it\u2019s going to be my day,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t ever think the opposite. I think because my preparation is at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stroud was also effective scrambling Sunday to help keep the offense moving. He ran seven times for 30 yards with five of his runs going for first downs. He\u2019s been using his legs more this season and has 177 yards rushing after running for just 233 all last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can do it, cool \u2026 it\u2019s fun to me. I like doing it,” he said. “Learned how to slide this offseason. I thought I had a good slide today. I almost got my head taken off, but I got down clean. I like using my legs.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s working<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s offensive line had its best game of the season after having perhaps its worst performance of the season against Seattle. Stroud wasn\u2019t sacked for the first time all season on Sunday and he was hit just two times after being sacked three times and hit another seven by the Seahawks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Houston Texans wide receiver Jayden Higgins catches a touchdown pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Houston. Credit: AP\/Eric Gay<\/p>\n
\u201cI know our offensive line can do it,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cWhen we do it and we do it at a high level and we\u2019re focused, locked in, that\u2019s what it looks like. Hopefully they see that and it\u2019s something that continues to give them that confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
What needs help<\/p>\n
The offense was much improved on Sunday but there\u2019s still room to grow after the Texans converted just 1 of 5 red zone opportunities. The Texans lost a yard on third-and-1 from the 14 on their first drive and settled for a field goal. They couldn\u2019t get in the end zone on their second drive either and settled for another short field goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always things you can clean up,\u201d Stroud said.<\/p>\n
Stock up<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s young receivers stepped up Sunday to make up for the absence of Collins. Xavier Hutchinson, who is in his third season, and rookies Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins all finished with career highs in yards receiving. Hutchinson had 69 yards and a touchdown, Noel had 63 yards and Higgins added 34 yards and his second career touchdown.<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
TE Dalton Schultz had just two catches for 24 yards a week after he had nine receptions for 98 yards.<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
Collins could return Sunday after sitting out last week. \u2026 WR Braxton Berrios suffered a chest injury against the 49ers. \u2026 DE Dylan Horton injured his knee in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Key stat<\/p>\n
The Texans held Christian McCaffrey in check a week after he had 201 yards of offense and two scores. On Sunday he had just 25 yards rushing, which was his fewest since 2018 and his 8 yards of offense in the first half were his fewest before halftime in his career.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
The Texans will look to keep improving on offense when they play the second of three consecutive home games Sunday against the Denver Broncos, who have won five in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Houston coach DeMeco Ryans had high praise for C.J. Stroud after his performance in Sunday’s win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[6431,17180,752,101,103,102,104,106,105,3563],"class_list":{"0":"post-26073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-denver-broncos","9":"tag-houston-texans","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news","17":"tag-wires-bot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}