INDIANAPOLIS – When the Texans brought hard-hitting former Pro Bowl linebacker DeMeco Ryans home by hiring him as their head coach, they had a vision and hope that he would lift a downtrodden franchise to new heights.
No one thought it would happen quite this fast, though. The Texans defeated the Colts 23-19 Saturday.
The Texans, behind Ryans’ leadership, the stellar play of rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, a leading NFL Offensive Rookie of the year candidate, are heading to the NFL playoffs.
The Texans earned at least an AFC wild-card berth Saturday night by defeating the AFC South division rival Indianapolis Colts, 23-17, at Lucas Oil Stadium. This marks the Texans’ first appearance in the playoffs since the 2019 season. This is also their largest victory improvement since going from four wins in 2017, Deshaun Watson’s rookie season, to finishing with 11 wins in 2018.
C.J. Stroud completed 20 of 26 passes for 264 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He completed nine of his throws for 195 yards and one touchdown, a 75-yard strike, to Nico Collins on nine targets.
The Texans won despite Colts running back Jonathan Taylor running for 188 yards on 30 carries, including a 49-yard touchdown run.
After a 3-13-1 season under former coach Lovie Smith and going a combined 11-38-1 in the previous three seasons, the resurgent Texans finished the regular season 10-7 overall. Should the Jacksonville Jaguars lose to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, the Texans would win the AFC South division title and be the fourth seed in the playoff hierarchy and they will host the Cleveland Browns.
If the Jaguars beat the Titans and the Miami Dolphins defeat the Buffalo Bills, the Texans would become the sixth seed and travel to play the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs as the third seed.
See the video below to what DeMeco Ryans said about the win on Saturday.
If the Jaguars win and the Bills defeat the Dolphins, the Texans would become the seventh seed and travel to face second-seed Buffalo on the road.
Most predictions had the Texans winning no more than six or seven games with a lot of projections of three or four wins. Those predictions underestimated the Texans. In an improvement league, the Texans kept getting better. Their growth is evident.
“For our season, it’s just been a growth process throughout the entire season,” Ryans said this week. “Our team has continued to grow each and every game, each and every week we’ve grown as a team. That’s been the goal. When I first started, that’s the goal, for me is, ‘Can we just improve one day at a time? One week at a time? One game at a time? Can we continue to improve? If we continue to improve, we’ll be in a good spot, and that’s where we are now. Our team has improved, and they’ve earned the right to be in this position.”
The turnaround was built behind an improved passing game, which continued to thrive even after the season-ending broken fibula suffered by former University of Houston star wide receiver Tank Dell. The running game got off to a slow start behind former Pro Bowl alternate runner Dameon Pierce, but improved once Devin ‘Motor’ Singletary became the featured back.
Stroud was superb throughout the season. His return from a concussion sustained against the New York Jets was pivotal to the Texans’ outlook.
“The time is now,” Stroud said. “It’s not next year. It’s not the year after that. It’s right now.”
Watch the video below to hear C.J. Stroud talk about how he felt after the Texans won.
With Ryans, a two-time Pro Bowl linebacker and a former architect of the San Francisco 49ers’ top-ranked defense as the NFL Assistant Coach of the Year before being hired by the Texans, the organization has renewed hope and a brighter future.
“We’re still working,” Ryans said. “We’ll see where we are. We are very thankful and appreciative of our fans because we wanted to provide our fans with some bragging rights. As Texans fans, it’s been a long time coming, so we’re happy to provide that for them.
“We’re happy to see the energy, see the excitement from our fans because as a team, we feed off of the energy from our fans and we’ve felt that the entire year from training camp all the way through our season.”
For Stroud, it was all about instilling a winning mentality.
A two-time Heisman Trophy finalist at Ohio State, Stroud is accustomed to winning a lot of football games. Drafted second overall by the Texans, he had no intentions of being part of a losing situation.
“Yeah, I feel like the group of guys that we put together had a winning mindset from the beginning,” Stroud said. “I really feel like it wasn’t ever in my mind. I was like, ‘Man, I’m going out there to lose.’ Or not to lose, but to try to win. No, we’re going out to win. That’s the mindset I think everybody in our locker room has, so it really was early on – probably even in rookie minicamp being with the rookies – that’s when my confidence started to build up.
“It’s been good because we’ve actually been able to win games, and it’s never about what everybody else says about what we put on the field. We’re the ones in control, everybody else just watches. But, it is what it is, and I think we’ve built something special, but we’ve got to just finish.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.
