Anatomy of a fail as Texans’ C.J. Stroud under constant heat: ‘Embarrassing .. Not good enough .. Same thing every week’

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – C.J. Stroud was trapped in his own personal horror movie on Halloween, and there was no escape from the demons and villains invading the Texans’ unsafe backfield.

The Texans’ Pro Bowl quarterback was relentlessly harassed, hit and hounded by the New York Jets’ aggressive, speedy defense as they dominated his overmatched offensive line.

Stroud was sacked a career-high eight times, and hit 11 times overall as the heat kept coming during the Jets’ 21-13 victory at MetLife Stadium. If only this film was a rerun. It’s not

Five keys to 6-3 Texans’ ugly 21-13 road loss to New York Jets

Already this season, Stroud has been sacked 30 times and he’s on pace to be sacked a career-high 56 times. Fortunately for the Texans and Stroud, he’s a tough guy who does a good job of eluding pressure and absorbing hard hits.

How much longer can he endure this kind of heat? At least Stroud didn’t get hurt. He got kicked in the shin and briefly was limping around, but finished the game.

“Of course, it’s embarrassing,” said Stroud, who completed a career-low percentage of throws as he went 11 for 31 for 191 yards and no touchdowns for a 59.2 passer rating. “To come out here on a primetime game and get embarrassed like that is never fun. I believe we have to be better in a lot of areas and that starts with me. I think there’s plays I got to make, throws I got to make. At times I have to sit in the pocket and just trust my guys.

“I really point the finger at me and realize I got to be better as a football player. If we want to win, this is not the recipe for it. We have to learn how to dominate and stop learning how to go with the flow and play in the fourth quarter like we should be able to play good in the first half and then roll into the second. I think we have to have a better mindset as a whole. This is definitely a great wake-up call for us to tighten up the ship.”

Only Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil didn’t allow a sack against the Jets.

And the grades are in from this debacle. Before he left the game with a dislocated left shoulder that could end his season as he heads to injured reserve, struggling left guard Kenyon Green allowed one sack and three pressures for a 9.2 pass blocking grade on a scale of 0 to 100, according to Pro Football Focus analytics. His replacement, Kendrick Green, was admittedly rusty and he looked that way as he allowed five pressures and one sack for a 0.4 pass blocking grade. Right guard Shaq Mason had a 22.0 pass blocking grade, allowing a pair of sacks and four pressures.

Why can’t the Texans block it better?

Is it alignment, assignment, technique or talent? All of the above?

‘It’s the same thing that happens every week,” Tunsil told KPRC 2. “Overload, twist game, blitzing, same thing we see every week. I think we just got to be better. You don’t want to give up eight sacks. That’s not the type of game we want. It’s a long season, lot of football left.”

Texans at crossroads with pass protection crisis: ‘Can’t let one game define you, utmost respect and trust in my line’

That’s true, but nonetheless the Texans are struggling mightily and now they have to replace Green in the starting lineup. They have options. They could install Kendrick Green as the new starter. They could go back to Jarrett Patterson when he’s cleared under the NFL concussion protocol. To get their five most talented linemen on the field, perhaps they could shift right tackle Tytus Howard back to left guard and insert rookie second-round pick Blake Fisher at right tackle.

“We didn’t do good enough,” Howard said. “We got to take what we’re doing at practice and apply it to the field. We’re not doing it right now. We started off early in the game letting the quarterback get too much. It trickled down and made it start slow for us. That’s been our problem. We got to fix it.

“You’ve got to move on when something happens. You can’t let that trickle down and happen throughout the game. My mentality, if something bad happens, is don’t let it affect the rest of my game. As a group, we have to be better. We haven’t played to the standard. We’ve got to be able to throw the ball to win. The quarterback is getting hit too much.”

Kendrick Green hasn’t started a game since last season before he tore his meniscus. Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik utilized the 6-foot-4, 315-pound former Pittsburgh Steelers third-round draft pick as a lead blocking fullback against the New England Patriots.

He didn’t look ready for game speed against the Jets’ fast defense.

“I didn’t play well enough, clearly,” Green said. “The score shows that, too. There’s definitely some plays that I left out there. I feel like I needed to get the rust off, but you got to be ready when my number is called. I tried to do the best I could, but it wasn’t good enough.

“It’s the same things we’ve been struggling with all year so far. It’s fixable, but nobody is going to fix it for us. We’ve got to get back in the lab and fix it. You don’t want to see that. He’s getting off the ground too many times.”

There were no immediate obvious answers for the Texans’ offensive line.

If drastic action such as a trade, -- Jacksonville Jaguars veteran guard and former Pro Bowl selection Brandon Scherff and Chicago Bears guard Nate Davis are available, per league sources -- is coming, it’s unclear if that’s going to happen heading into a Tuesday NFL trade deadline. A line shuffle could be one option the Texans could pursue. There’s been no indication that the Texans would fire offensive line coach Chris Strausser in the middle of the season or that such a change would fix anything.

Stroud was pressured on 46.7 percent of his dropbacks. He ranks second in the NFL in sacks behind injured Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was sacked 33 times before tearing his Achilles tendon.

“I’m not sure what’s happening upfront,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “We’ll watch the film and see what is, but obviously we give up eight sacks, and every dropback or pass situation, it looks like we’re in scramble mode. So, it’s just not good enough and we can’t operate on time and we got to get that fixed. Any time you get sacked that many times it’s not good enough, right?

“Don’t want a quarterback getting hit, as many hits as we took. It’s not good enough and we got to make things adjust. We’ve got to adjust. We’ve got to change things moving forward.”

Stroud was pressured within an average of 2.87 seconds against the Jets, according to Next Gen Stats analytics.

“One thing I can do is just get the ball out faster,” Stroud said. “When something’s open, I got to be able to hit it, because there’s times where I sit back there and I’m thinking too much. I got to be able to get it out, get it to No. 1 if No. 1 is there, No. 2 if No. 2 is there, get through my progressions. So, it’s not just on them. It’s on me as well.”

Stroud suggested that the Texans have to accept coaching better and be even more accountable.

“We just got to honestly play football better, execute better, stop pointing fingers and realize that at the end of the day this is not winning football,” said Stroud, who was named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year last season. “We can’t keep squeezing our way by every game. We are a really good football team, we have a lot of really good players. Once we buy into the systems and what is being coached, and also we have to have leadership to take over.

“I believe this isn’t the end, but it’s definitely a great wakeup call for us to tighten up the ship. This is now playoff football, it’s November-December, this is the chunk of our schedule. A lot of great teams we are playing on primetime and we got to be able to find ways to win. It’s not the time to hang our heads down and feel sorry for ourselves, it’s time to answer the call and we have guys in that locker room that I believe in and trust in and I think we’ll be able to be a really good football team. It doesn’t define us but definitely was a great wakeup call.”

Read more on the Texans:

• ‘I believe in Tank, I have all the faith in Tank,’ Texans want to get Tank Dell more involved after zero-catch game
• How ‘everything is on the table’ for Texans after pass protection meltdown, Laremy Tunsil emphasizes bigger picture
• ‘It’s not good enough,’ Texans’ banged-up defense played well, but can’t get one final stop in loss to Packers
• ‘I’m never the bigger person,’ tempers flare between Texans’ Stefon Diggs and Packers, Jaire Alexander
• Best in class: Texans’ C.J. Stroud, Packers’ Jordan Love meet for first time in battle of talented quarterbacks, friends
• ‘I’m ready for the ball,’ Texans corner D’Angelo Ross reflects on first NFL start, ‘challenge’ of Packers’ Jordan Love

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.