C.J. Stroud Reacts to Houston Texans Loss, Calls on Coaching for More Explosive Plays

The Houston Texans fell short, especially offensively, against the Carolina Panthers. Quarterback C.J. Stroud detailed what went wrong and who was to blame.

There are few ways to describe the Houston Texans’ offensive performance in Week 8 without including words synonymous with disappointing.

Against one of the league’s worst defenses, rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud threw for a season-low 140 yards and no running back ran for more than four yards per attempt.

The Texans lost, 15-13, to the previously winless Carolina Panthers. Perhaps the bye week knocked them off course, or the early success had them on too high of a horse. But there were on-field reasons for why Houston struggled.

Stroud did his best to explain what went wrong on Sunday, starting with his own play.

Stroud attempts a pass against the Carolina Panthers / Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

“I’m not saying I’m playing terrible,” Stroud began. “But I’m not making the plays I want to make.”

It felt at times Carolina’s pass rush made life difficult, and while he only took two sacks, the offense operated in fear of edge rusher Brian Burns. As a result, Houston was conservative, perhaps to a fault, and cut its own legs out from beneath itself.

Sunday may have been the most disappointing of offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik’s tenure, if not from the results, then from the perspective of the game plan. The Texans didn’t play like the more talented team, but they didn’t call plays like they had a talent advantage, either.

“We’ve got to be explosive like we want to be,” Stroud continued. We got to take some shots and be more explosive and make some plays down the field. We can’t let them dictate to us.

“That’s me getting more trust from the coaches. We have the talent to be explosive. We’ve shown if not top-five offense, top-10 offense. We can do it, got to call it and run it.”

Stroud and his duo of young receivers, Nico Collins and Tank Dell, have certainly shown flashes of being a legitimate threat at every level of the field. Throw in the security that receiver Robert Woods and tight end Dalton Schultz provide and it gets easier to project this offense to be in the top half of the league.

Instead, they threw the ball just 24 times, and Stroud’s average depth of target was just 7.5 yards downfield—a fairly significant 0.8-yard decline from his season average entering the day.

“That’s why we haven’t been consistent,” Stroud said. “Bobby has done a great job calling it. Hopefully, we start being a little more explosive.”

As much as his words may seem like a criticism of his coaching, Stroud’s character has never come into question. A public plea for certain play calls isn’t the end of the world, especially when it’s phrased how it was. Stroud feels like the offensive is capable of more than it showed on Sunday and, frankly, he’s right.

Houston will have a chance to make the necessary adjustments ahead of its Week 9 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.