{"id":460331,"date":"2026-10-08T18:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T18:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/460331\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T18:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T18:04:15","slug":"houston-texans-on-demeco-ryans-c-j-stroud-and-0-4-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/460331\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Texans: On DeMeco Ryans, C.J. Stroud and 0-4 starts"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the Houston Texans<\/a> lost their fourth game in a row to start the season on the first Sunday of October, DeMeco Ryans<\/a> said he couldn\u2019t believe his team had lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in shock,\u201d Ryans said after the loss. \u201cI still can\u2019t believe what happened. It\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texans fans might have been uttering those same sentiments in homes from Corpus Christi to Cypress after Sunday\u2019s 34-30 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.<\/a> But those words didn\u2019t come out of Ryans\u2019 mouth a few days ago.<\/p>\n

The quote is from 18 years ago, after the Indianapolis Colts came back from a 17-point deficit<\/a> in the final five minutes to send the Texans to 0-4 on Oct. 5, 2008.<\/p>\n

That 31-27 loss was the first time Ryans lost four games in a row during his NFL career. Sunday\u2019s defeat to the Cowboys marked the latest time it has happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the standpoint of shock, it\u2019s where we are,\u201d Ryans said Monday. \u201cAs I told the guys yesterday, we haven\u2019t done the things necessary to earn a win. When you do those things, you play team football, you play together, that\u2019s when you\u2019ll win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of seven teams Ryans has played on or coached that had a losing streak of at least four games, only one made the playoffs: the 2021 San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers lost four straight from Week 3 to Week 7, with a bye mixed in, to fall to 2-4. They then won eight of their next 11 games to earn a wild-card spot. San Francisco won two playoff games before losing to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just part of the history that isn\u2019t on the Texans\u2019 side as Houston hopes to work its way back into the playoff hunt.<\/p>\n

Since the playoff format expanded to seven teams in each conference in 2020, about 12% of teams that made the playoffs had experienced a losing streak of at least four games. The odds are even longer for teams that start 0-4. Only one, the 1992 San Diego Chargers<\/a>, has ever made the playoffs after dropping their first four games.<\/p>\n

Yet Ryans isn\u2019t thinking about what the past says about the team\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not concerned about it right now,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cI\u2019m concerned about finding a way to play better, coach better and go beat the Tennessee Titans.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ryans might have experience battling back from losing four straight, some players on the team haven\u2019t dealt with a month of losing in the NFL or college.<\/p>\n

Will Anderson Jr., who has lived up to his preseason billing as a Defensive Player of the Year favorite despite the team\u2019s disappointing start, said he has never lost four games in a row to start a season.<\/p>\n

Not in his first three years as a pro with the Texans. Not during his three years at Alabama. Not as a varsity high school player at Dutchtown High in Georgia. Not even as a youth player.<\/p>\n

Anderson said that while this is a new experience for him, it has brought the kind of adversity that reveals who is a dog and who is not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to give up,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve built yourself a type of way, when you\u2019re around people who are built just like you, you overcome that adversity because you\u2019re around the same people who have the same mindset as you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone who has dealt with an 0-4 start and withstood it is quarterback C.J. Stroud<\/a>, albeit in a very different situation. During his junior year of high school in California, Stroud lost the first four games of the season. Then Rancho Cucamonga High rattled off seven straight wins, including a playoff victory.<\/p>\n

Stroud doesn\u2019t think there\u2019s much to take from that experience \u2014 it was high school football, after all \u2014 but he said there\u2019s one thing the Texans can do that the 2016 Rancho Cucamonga Cougars did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the main thing is block out the noise,\u201d Stroud said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we did when I was 17 years old, and we\u2019ll do it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The noise likely isn\u2019t going away, no matter what happens this weekend in Nashville. But a loss to the Titans, also 0-4, <\/a>would turn the volume up to death metal concert levels.<\/p>\n

Even without the noise, it\u2019s a game the Texans must win. As long as the odds are now, someone before them has at least fought back from similar odds.<\/p>\n

No 0-5 team has ever made the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the only glimpses of hope is that every game that we\u2019ve lost, we could have won,\u201d cornerback Kamari Lassiter said. \u201cWe could easily be 4-0. That\u2019s just the frustrating part about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Houston Texans lost their fourth game in a row to start the season on the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-460331","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\/460331","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=460331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}