{"id":473996,"date":"2026-10-23T01:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T01:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473996\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T01:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T01:06:19","slug":"c-j-stroud-powers-houston-texans-vs-new-york-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473996\/","title":{"rendered":"C.J. Stroud powers Houston Texans vs New York Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 The New York Giants know better than to underestimate the Houston Texans entering Sunday\u2019s matchup even though they\u2019ve won just two games this season.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s especially true with the way C.J. Stroud is playing.<\/p>\n<p>Stroud was the AFC Offensive Player of the Week after throwing for 312 yards and a season-high three touchdowns in a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/texans-stroud-ryans-aef5af89dd41520a2304ff937753212e\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">34-31 win over the Jaguars<\/a> in London last week. He ranks second in the NFL with 1,714 yards passing this season and leads the league with 25 completions of at least 20 yards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have a quarterback like C.J. Stroud, that makes everything possible,\u201d New York defensive lineman Shelby Harris said. \u201cHe can make every throw &#8230; and so that Houston offense really, I think they are a budding offense and they\u2019re just waiting to explode and it\u2019s on us to really get them on the slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stroud and Houston\u2019s offense got a boost last week with the addition of receiver Marvin Harrison after the fourth overall pick in the 2024 draft was traded from Arizona. He had three receptions for 34 yards in limited action in his debut, but coach DeMeco Ryans said he expects him to be more involved in the offense this week.<\/p>\n<p>Stroud will also get one of his favorite playmakers back <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/houston-texans-tank-dell-50c44a27061b91157b3ac6afb818028c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with Tank Dell set to play in his first game<\/a> in almost two years after recovering from a gruesome knee injury.<\/p>\n<p>With Harrison and Dell in the mix, the Texans have a stacked receiver group led by star Nico Collins and that includes Jaylin Noel, who had a career-high 107 yards receiving last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll those guys have made plays for us in the wide receiver room,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cI see it as a strength, a true strength of ours and I see us really being able to press the tempo and really put defenses in a bind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Giants will have a new starting quarterback on Sunday after coach John Harbaugh <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ny-giants-jj-mccarthy-8232036dfee8c740e89841ed4b6b2583\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">benched Jameis Winston for J.J. McCarthy<\/a>. It will be his first start for the Giants and their third quarterback this season after the injured Jaxson Dart opened the season as their starter. It comes in the same stadium in which McCarthy won the national title with Michigan in January 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The move comes after the Giants tied the Commanders before <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/saints-giants-score-73969a68c8b7eb99501f5f2102522589\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">losing to the Saints<\/a> after opening the season 3-1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s got a heck of a skill set,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cHe can throw it. He\u2019s picked up the offense really quickly. He\u2019s an athletic guy, obviously and he\u2019s going to play some good football.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ryans said the QB switch doesn\u2019t change things for Houston\u2019s defense, which has played better since he took over play-calling duties two weeks ago but that still has work to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhoever\u2019s at quarterback doesn\u2019t really dictate what we\u2019re going to do defensively,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cIt\u2019s about us. We have to play better defensively because it wasn\u2019t good enough in our last outing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Need to know<\/p>\n<p>New York Giants (3-2-1) at Houston (2-4).<\/p>\n<p>When\/where to watch: Sunday, 1 p.m. EDT, FOX.<\/p>\n<p>Latest odds: Texans by 10 \u00bd<\/p>\n<p>Against the spread: Giants 4-2; Texans 2-4.<\/p>\n<p>Last week: Giants lost to Saints 34-27; Texans beat Jaguars 34-31.<\/p>\n<p>Last meeting: New York beat Houston 24-16 on Jan. 13, 2022, at MetLife Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Series record: New York leads 5-1.<\/p>\n<p>Matchup to watch<\/p>\n<p>Houston\u2019s pass rush vs. McCarthy. The Texans aim to get their pass rush going again this week after failing to get a sack against the Jaguars. They have 18 sacks this season, led by defensive end Will Anderson Jr., who leads the NFL with 7 \u00bd sacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll try to get J.J. down,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a good matchup for us. I think more than ever we have to rush together. He\u2019s a young quarterback, so we have to do a really good job of making sure that everybody is owning their box.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stats and stuff<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy threw for 243 yards in just over 11 minutes in relief of Winston in the loss to the Saints, who were up 24 points when he entered.<br \/>\nThe Texans beat the Giants 16-14 in their inaugural season in 2002, but have dropped all five meetings since then.<br \/>\nGiants receiver Malik Nabers has eclipsed 100 yards receiving in three consecutive games. He had 96 combined in his first three games this season in his return from a torn ACL in his right knee.<br \/>\nHouston defensive end Danielle Hunter ranks third in the NFL with 117 1\/2 sacks since 2015. He had seven tackles, two sacks and forced a fumble in his previous game against the Giants in 2022 with Minnesota.<br \/>\nCam Skattebo had zero carries and played just six plays against New Orleans. He is now one of just three running backs on the Giants\u2019 roster after Najee Harris was released this week.<br \/>\nBoth of Houston TE Foster Moreau\u2019s catches last week were for touchdowns. It was first career game with more than one touchdown.<br \/>\nNew York linebacker Arvell Reese, the fifth pick in the draft, ranks fourth among rookies with 47 tackles.<br \/>\nCollins had 74 yards receiving last week. He has had 13 straight games with at least 55 yards of offense. He&#8217;s had at least 75 yards receiving and a TD catch in three of his past four home games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 The New York Giants know better than to underestimate the Houston Texans entering Sunday\u2019s matchup&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[556,555,557,56,58,57,223,154,27],"class_list":["post-473996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-app-professional-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473996","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=473996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}