For a team with one of the league’s best cornerbacks in Derek Stingley Jr., that raises all sorts of alarms.
The Texans spoke to the media after the game and took accountability for the loss. See what they said below.
Stingley Jr.: “It sucks, because we know we’re the ones out there on the field … The coaches put us in the right position to win and we’ve got to do it. They can’t do it, we’ve got to do it. We’ve got great coaches, we’ve got great everybody. We’ve got to go out there and do our job. … It was a great gameplan, but we, me included, have to do what we’re told to do, better. … It’s frustrating, but it’s the NFL. We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror.”
Defensive lineman Will Anderson Jr.: “We’ve got to do a better job of everybody having each other’s back … We play [man-to-man coverage] and we can’t have him out there like that. We’ve got to have his back. Look at the the D line, we’ve got to keep rushing, keep trying to get home through all the [chip blocks] and everything like that.”
Quarterback C.J. Stroud: “We gotta finish. … We’ve shown that we can create explosives. We can have high-scoring games. We could get ahead when we need to. But I think the best thing that we need to do, or really the main thing we need to do, is finish. … I just wanted to get in front of them and just let them know how much I believe in them and trust in them … I know we’re not in a good spot, and it’s not where anybody wants to be. But I’ve seen other teams do it before. I know we’ve done it.”
Tight end Brevin Jordan: “[Stroud’s] message after the game was straight up like we can go 13-4 … Like why not? Who cares what people say. Who cares what people think. Whatever the situation is, let’s just show up to work tomorrow. Let’s get it fixed and let’s run the table.”
Head coach DeMeco Ryans: “A couple of plays there where you see CeeDee is just wide open, that’s definitely not our plan … We’ll have to look at it and see what happened, what were the communication miscues that happened, but that is not how we play coverage. … When the offense goes out and plays like they played to give us 30 points, defensively you’ve got to find a way to close that game out … It’s disappointing that we’ve been in three games that way. We’ve got to look at it all and see what changes we need to make and what we need to fix.”