Texans season ends with 28-16 loss to Patriots

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

The Texans' offense could not seem to get out of its own way in a 28-16 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC divisional round. C.J. Stroud threw four interceptions in the first half alone. There was also a fumble by Woody Marks. They were 1-for-4 in the red zone and 7-for-17 on third down.   Sean Pendergast and Clint Stoerner open the postgame show by illustrating how this is the most heartbreaking divisional round loss in franchise history, given the opportunity and how Houston blew the game.

Transcript

00:00Of all the divisional round losses, they piled up seven of them now.

00:04This one is the most disappointing.

00:06This was the best chance this team is going to probably have, maybe for a while, if this

00:13is how the play is going to look on offense, to make a deep run in the playoffs, up to

00:18and including the team hosting next week, having their backup quarterback in an AFC

00:24title game.

00:25Things unfolded about as well as they could for the Texans this year after a three and

00:29five strikeout.

00:30Start both from the league and an opportunity absolutely squandered today.

00:35Absolutely squandered.

00:36This defense should be on its way to Denver next week, but this offense and this quarterback

00:41failed this team today.

00:43And there's a lot to dig into, not just for the next two and a half hours, but for the

00:48next several months, because this team's got a lot of soul searching to do on the offensive

00:52side of the ball.

00:53And there are a ton of questions that need to be answered.

00:56And we want to dig into it with you tonight.

00:58The season is over a lot of good in this season, but it ends with a massive thud in New England

01:04today, 28 to 16.

01:05The final score, it was bad in the beginning.

01:08It was bad in the middle.

01:09It was bad at the end.

01:10And we'll talk about it with you tonight.

01:12Seven, one, three, five, seven, two, four, six, 10.

01:15I'm Sean Pendergast.

01:16He is Clint Sterner.

01:17Good evening, my friend.

01:19How are we doing?

01:20I'm doing terribly, as you can probably tell.

01:22Sounds like it.

01:23Sounds like it.

01:23I'm with you, man.

01:24Look, this loss was not just a frustrating loss, an aggravating loss, a disappointing loss.

01:32You get in the playoffs, and boy, you lose a hard-fought game down the stretch, and maybe

01:37even you make some mistakes because you have to get aggressive.

01:40Those kind of things are frustrating and aggravating.

01:42I mean, this was one of those demoralizing losses.

01:45This was one of those losses where, as an organization, you realize and you got to question, like,

01:50man, are we as close to a Super Bowl-caliber team as we thought we were?

01:56You got to look at it this way, guys.

01:58Since D'Amico's gotten here, the defense has exceeded expectations in how good they are

02:03to the point of, in year three, they were the best defense in football.

02:07Some people are talking about a generational defense, and mention them in the same as the

02:11greatest defenses that have ever played in the NFL, which I think is fair.

02:15But what you really got to look at is, you know, we've seen a first-year play caller in

02:19Bobby Slowick come in here, and last year, in his second year, with this, we got all

02:25these weapons, and we got this aggressive approach to offense, and we're going to stretch

02:29the field, you watch pressure be a problem, and that was the excuse.

02:34Let's go change Bobby Slowick.

02:36Then you bring in a system that's uber conservative.

02:39We're just not going to turn the ball over.

02:40We're going to run it and guard it with our lives and play great defense, and you go out

02:45there, and once again, it was pressure last year, and the offense was just completely inept

02:49in the second round, and now you're trying to minimize risk, and you're trying to play

02:55a conservative brand of ball.

02:56You're trying not to lose the game, and your offense still finds a way to lose the game,

03:02and that's the tough part here.

03:05It's not just about this season in a vacuum, Sean, but at some point, you know,

03:10it's less about the play caller and more about the guys that are doing it, and today

03:15was not a good day, once again, for C.J. Stroud in that department, so there's a lot

03:19of hard conversations that need to be had.

03:22A lot of decisions are going to have to be made by D'Amico Rines.

03:25Again, it's one thing to lose if you're a coach and go, hey, man, we got to, all right,

03:28man, we're there.

03:29We're getting better.

03:31Let's go back to the drawing board.

03:31It's another thing to lose in this fashion, because now you're questioning what I would

03:37say is the two most important positions, other than yourself, if you're D'Amico Rines, the

03:40quarterback and the offensive play caller.

03:42Well, the talk all year has been, let's get to new heights.

03:44Let's get to the AFC title game, and then let's see where the chips fall after that,

03:47and the fact of the matter is, you have a quarterback.

03:51Is this going to be your guy moving forward?

03:53He did a lot of things these last two games to make the decision very easy about yes or no

03:58on a contract this offseason for sure, especially today, because he lost you the game today.

04:05But if this is going to be your guy, the fact of the matter is, he's been on the road in four

04:10playoff games, and he's been terrible in all four of those playoff games.

04:13He's not been good.

04:14Now, the Kansas City game last year, the offensive line just cratered in front of him,

04:18but today was inexcusable.

04:20Today, those four interceptions in the first half, this is a game you lost by 12, and seven

04:26of those points came on a pick six, and two of the turnovers were in or around field goal

04:31range.

04:32That's 13 points in a game you lost by 12.

04:34Yeah.

04:35And the timing of everything, and how it sends you into the locker room, and the nature of

04:40the throws.

04:40I mean, that pick six, Clint, when they got the ball up 10-7, their own 25-yard line, I

04:47said, this is, you know, despite the interception that CJ had thrown earlier in the game, you threw

04:52a turnover early in the game, you made some, even your first drive when you came out after

04:57stopping the Patriots three and out, you know, you drop a ball, Christian Kirk drops a ball

05:03on third down.

05:03There were a ton of mistakes made early in this game, including on the touchdown drive

05:07that put the Patriots up 7-0 to begin with.

05:11You find a way to get up 10-7 in this game and get the ball at your own 25.

05:14The crowd is out of the game.

05:16You seem to have figured some things out offensively.

05:19Your defense, you don't have to worry about it.

05:21They figured things out in training camp.

05:23Just don't go lose the game, and he throws one of the worst pick sixes I've ever seen.

05:28Tight end falls down, granted, and that's when they were up 14-10 after that pick six,

05:34I'm like, this is the bad version of CJ, and I don't think he's going away, and he

05:37showed up two more times in that half.

05:39Well, Sean, I mean, I listened to folks last week talk about, well, I just don't believe

05:44CJ Stroud's going to do again this week what he did against Pittsburgh.

05:47I was one of them.

05:48Right, right.

05:49No, there's a lot of people, but so many people, and I'm not speaking for you, but so

05:53many people were focused on the interception or the fumbles.

05:57Again, this week, it was bad if you just look at the box score and you say, hey, man, those

06:03turnovers can't happen.

06:05But again, to me, when you talk about the future of the Texans, right?

06:09Yep.

06:09When you talk about the future of the Texans, right now, you've got to question whether

06:14your guy can communicate effectively.

06:16You've got to question whether your guy can handle the adversity of throwing a couple

06:22of picks or two or three picks and come back and not just completely go into a shell.

06:27You've got to wonder if your guy is a guy that you can pay and should pay 50 to 60 million

06:34dollars.

06:35That's these playoffs in a nutshell are about CJ Stroud and the panic, the how easily they

06:46were overwhelmed and all that comes with it.

06:49I mean, at halftime of the game today, after what we've seen from CJ Stroud, at halftime

06:55of the game, Marcus Spears felt like D'Amico Ryan's need to go and take him in a locker room

06:59and have a conversation, which by the way, I agree wholeheartedly with.

07:02Yeah.

07:03I mean, that's, that's where we're at, Sean, the panic, the rattled, like you can't, if

07:08you're going to be, if you're going to be a franchise quarterback, franchise quarterback,

07:12if you're going to be a quarterback that lives in the playoffs and a quarterback that wins

07:15the big game, every playoff run for every team that ends up in the Superbowl or winning

07:21the Superbowl, there are, there are moments in a game that are outside.

07:25It's cold.

07:25It's loud.

07:26Everything's against you.

07:27And those are your biggest moments.

07:29And right now, I think you've got a question whether you got, whether CJ Stroud is that

07:33guy.

07:33This is a game where your defense forced three turnovers, held the opposition, who by the

07:39way, our quarterback guy, a guy who might win the MVP held him to three for 14 on third

07:44down, held him to 248 yards, 3.9 yards per play.

07:49And if you had told me that before the game, I would have said, yeah, the Texans will win

07:52that game.

07:53I mean, those are horrible, horrible numbers by the New England Patriots.

07:57And you lost by 12.

07:59And the only way you lose that game is if the quarterback, if your quarterback hands the

08:02game to them and he handed the game to them.

08:03Yeah.

08:04Yeah.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended