{"id":446152,"date":"2026-09-24T10:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/446152\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:54:09","slug":"houston-looks-for-complete-game-in-indianapolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/446152\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston looks for complete game in Indianapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston looks for complete game in Indianapolis<\/p>\n

Published 5:15 am Thursday, September 24, 2026<\/p>\n

The Houston Texans (0-2) are serving as a prime example of the ebbs and flows of the early stages of an NFL season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A 36-31 Week One loss against the Buffalo Bills suggested an improved offense and disappointing defense. Last Sunday\u2019s 20-6 home defeat revealed the inverse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defensively, while questions still linger around Houston\u2019s secondary, the Texans defensive front seven performed its job in bringing pressure against Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, with a sack a piece for defensive ends Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter, as well as eight tackles for loss as a team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem was an offense that eked out just six total points, clearly missing the services of wide receiver Nico Collins. Collins strained his hamstring in practice last Wednesday and could miss more time. Quarterback CJ Stroud threw for a respectable 353 yards but the Texans were 0-for-4 converting touchdowns in the red zone. Bengals wide receiver Jamar Chase posted 75 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Ryans says he could have used a few stars of his own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where we\u2019ve got to check ourselves,\u201d said Ryans. \u201cIf you call yourself a playmaker, like where are your plays? Are you making those plays to put the Texans into position to win football games?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just didn\u2019t convert as an offense,\u201d said Texans wide receiver Keshon Outer, who had three catches for 37 yards last week. \u201cCan\u2019t go down and just kick two field goals. Touchdowns matter and that was the difference in the ball game.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Up next for the Texans is the season\u2019s first road game at the Indianapolis Colts (0-2) Sunday at noon. Like Houston, the Colts are also looking for victory number one in 2026. The heartbeat of their offense is running back Johnathan Taylor, who signed a two-year contract extension in August. Taylor already has four touchdowns through the first two games of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Houston\u2019s running back tandem of David Montgomery and Woody Marks combined for just 18 rushing yards on 13 carries. The Texans were so poor in short\u00a0 yardage situations, Ryans opted for a 58-yard field goal instead of going for it on a fourth-and-1 with the Texans down 10-3 in the third quarter. The result was a miss by kicker Ka\u2019imi Fairbairn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got outplayed up front,\u201d said Ryans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After allowing Bengals defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to wreck havoc in the backfield, another front line disruptor presents a challenge to the Texans offensive line in the form of Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. Buckner had a strong game last week, with five total tackles, a sack and a deflected pass in a 33-30 loss at Kansas City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s winner grabs an early lead in the AFC South. Ryans says it\u2019s time to get the Texans clicking on both sides of the ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be connected. It\u2019s too many times where\u2026what we\u2019re expecting to happen isn\u2019t happening. I\u2019ve got to coach it better. If I coach it better, we\u2019re playing a little bit better,\u201d said Ryans.<\/p>\n

Lane Fobbs is a sports writer for the Victoria Advocate. Drop him a line on Twitter\/X @fobbstalkinball <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston looks for complete game in Indianapolis Published 5:15 am Thursday, September 24, 2026 The Houston Texans (0-2)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-446152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}