CJ Stroud hopes Jets loss ‘a wake-up call’ for Texans

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – On a night in which he was sacked a career-high eight times, quarterback CJ Stroud said he was “embarrassed” after the Houston Texans’ 21-13 loss to the New York Jets.

Stroud had a Thursday night he’d rather forget, completing a career-worst 36% of his passes for 191 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.

“Coming out here at a primetime game and getting embarrassed, that’s never fun,” Stroud said. “We have to be better in a lot of areas and it starts with me. There are plays I have to make, throws I have to make. I point the finger at myself and realize I have to get better as a football player. If we want to win, that’s not the recipe for it. We have to learn to dominate.

“This is definitely a good wake-up call for us to tighten the ship.”

Stroud also took 11 quarterback hits and was pressured on 46.7% of his dropbacks. It has been a season-long trend. Stroud has been sacked 30 times this season, second most in the NFL behind Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was sacked 33 times before suffering a season-ending Achilles tear in Week 7.

Texans coach DeMeco Ryans has preached all season that the Texans need to improve their pass protection, but problems have lingered.

“We give up eight sacks and every dropback and pass situation looks like we’re in scramble mode, so it’s just not good enough,” Ryans said. “We can’t operate on time, and we’ve got to fix that. Anytime you get sacked that many times, it’s not good enough. Don’t want a quarterback to get hit as many times as he did. . . We had to adjust.”

Stroud admitted it was “not easy” to operate under duress on Thursday night. He was 5-for-12 passing for 67 yards under pressure, but characterized some of that as self-inflicted wounds.

“One thing I can do is just get the ball out quicker,” Stroud said. “When something is open, I have to be able to hit it, because there are times when I sit back and think too much. I have to be able to get it out, get it to No. 1, if No. 1 is there , No. 2, if No. 2 is there, come through my progressions so it’s not just on them.

Stroud’s time to throw was 3.63 seconds against the Jets, which was the highest of his career. On average, pressure reached him in 2.87 seconds Thursday night, according to Next Gen Stats, and he converted on a couple of those plays to keep it alive.

The struggles allowed the Jets, who didn’t score a touchdown until early in the third quarter, to go up by 21 points in the second half. Two of the sacks the Texans gave up were costly. A sack in the first quarter, with the Texans on the Jets’ 11-yard line, caused a Stroud fumble. Another sack late in the second quarter, at the Jets’ 34-yard line, pushed the Texans back four yards and forced Ka’imi Fairbairn into a 56-yard field goal attempt, which he missed.

“We’ve got to take what we do in practice and apply it on the field,” right tackle Tytus Howard said. “We’re not doing that right now. We started early in the game and let the quarterback get too much. It trickled down and got us off to a slow start. That’s been our problem. We’ve got to fix it.”

By contrast, the Texans’ run blocking was effective again. The team rushed for 187 yards, including 106 yards from running back Joe Mixon, who posted his fifth 100-yard rushing game. It’s the third time this season the Texans have gone over 180 yards on the ground.

Pass protection has been a different story this season.

The Texans hope to resolve their issues by next week when they host the Detroit Lions on “Sunday Night Football.”