Reaction To C.J. Stroud Press Conference Following Houston Texans Loss To Seattle Seahawks

Reaction To C.J. Stroud Press Conference Following Houston Texans Loss To Seattle Seahawks

CJ spoke last night after a blisteringly bad loss by the Houston Texans to the Seattle Seahawks. This is the game that uh we exactly the game that we wanted it to be a measuring stick. Uh and it’s just that we didn’t want the outcome to be uh just that the the Texans did not measure up to a team like the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night on the road. CJ only answered a few questions last night. Not because he was being a dick or anything. It was just that kind of night. It was late. Everybody wanted to get home. Um, so I left the questions in cuz you could actually hear them pretty well. Let’s start with this. This one just because I’m I’m trying not to play the telephone game here and get poed about something that somebody else said, but just listen to the question and CJ’s answer. Um, Titus uh mentioned that he felt like the offense was kind of complacent to start, couldn’t really pick up energy. Um, do you kind of agree with that statement? Um, and if so, why why do you guys kind of agree with that statement? Um, I don’t know what he meant by complacent, but uh, I think the type of offense we’re running is like, you know, like I told y’all, death by death by a thousand cuts. And sometimes you when you live by that sword, it’s hard cuz, you know, you’re not taking a bunch of deep downfield shots, but you’re asked to be, you know, really good on first, second down time and time and time again. And something that we just got to get better at. Um, it’s still new to a lot of us, but um, yeah, I definitely think, you know, we can be better at that and that’ll definitely help. Okay, so multiple things there that I’m trying not to get triggered by because I don’t know how Titus actually said that he felt like the offense might have gotten complacent. I know that there had been a tendency. Um, for people to really want to say that, hey man, the offensive line is really humming now. They’re awesome, aren’t they? Cuz they beat two bad defenses. Like, no, they made some progress. And I do think the offensive line has improved with their fundamentals in some respects, but they still have a long way to go obviously. And they certainly the offensive line was not not by a long shot the only issue on the offense last night. Um but so I if they did feel complacent, I don’t know what they were basing it on because they they had issues still in the Ravens game that they needed to clean up. CJ CJ didn’t wasn’t protected as much as he should have been in the Ravens game because of miscommunications by in in pass protection. Some of them the offensive line faults perhaps, some CJ, some Woody Marks, whatever. That’s the Ravens. Uh that was the JV version of an already bad defense with the Ravens. You go against the Seahawks and obviously you’re not going to be able to roll out your your JV attitude. Um the part about CJ, cuz he’s mentioned this a few times, is this offense being kind of death by a thousand paper cuts. I don’t and again just like I’m not sure exactly what Titus meant when he said the word complacent. maybe used it in a different context. But likewise with CJ as a younger man might not necessarily understand the uh the the the the connotations of death by a thousand paper cuts. It’s not it’s not something that suggests violent deficiency or anything like that. So whenever I hear death by a thousand paper cuts, I hear it as like him grudgingly running this offense or something that uh it’s a strategy that’s well proven over time that it does work. death by a thousand p paper cuts if you’re efficient, if you’re taking care of business on first and second down. And CJ owns up to the accountability for him and everybody else to be better on first and second down. Um, but some of the easy stuff eluded the Texans last night. And sometimes it was CJ, sometimes it was the wide receivers, sometimes it was the offensive line. Everybody shared in the blame, including Nick Kaye. Nick Kay’s choice of run plays when I mean, we can’t have it both ways. We can’t complain about CJ throwing the ball 49 times, but then also complain when Nick runs the ball. It’s that you’ve just got to be more effective when you do run the ball. And when you’re going up against a defensive line that’s clearly physically superior to your offensive lineman, let’s not run the same that let’s not to run the same leads up into the middle into the teeth of that defense all the time. And every now and then, can we have can we have a QB sneak? CJ spent all off seasonason squatting and working on his body and we’re not doing any of what like every other team in the NFL is doing right now, which is not just a sneak. And they’re not all doing it, but some version of the tush push. Uh so here, like I said, I’m not going to get agitated. Uh let me um let’s go to the red zone. Let’s go to the uh let’s see, we’ll stop them in the red zone on one of these series. the um you know as you all are are kind of getting closer the the drive before the one you all scored. Um what do you feel like um you know stopped you all there? Yeah, I mean it’s tough. We we got down there pretty good. Um our defense kept us in it the whole game. We got to help those guys out and score some points somehow someway. Um I try to throw it over the guy. He made a hell of a play. jump in and knocking it down. Um they zoned a lot of stuff off, so I was trying to just make plays, you know, with it’s hard to throw over guys in the red zone. So, um you know, I just it wasn’t easy down there, but we got to find some type of way to score score some points, however it looks. Yeah. All right. And um as far as the at times, especially when Nico and Daltton Schultz were out of the game, there just weren’t that many options. And they did. It felt like Kaye went to a desperation last ditch play calling mode in the fourth quarter of just sending four verts and just hey let’s spread it out and see whatever the hell happens. The the first field goal I I had heard red zone the first time and I didn’t know which one they were talking about but just and we talk about multiple things being wrong on an offense. This first field goal when they got down into the red zone there was a defensive penalty that got him down to the 20. This play right here is pass protection an issue? Not really. Like I like it was by the time there was time for him to step up and he did a good job. Credit him for that. And he doesn’t know exactly where that defensive lineman is behind him there. Um there were there were options downfield on first and 10 that he could have taken. I’ll say this wasn’t perfect pass protection. So all right, I I’ll I’ll back off on that. Um that was not great. That was not great by Arante Ursery. Um, but then I mean you make an imperfect throw to a running back who just it like it’s not like it was that imperfect. Catch the freaking football. Then quarterback falls down, trips over his center’s feet. We talked about this this morning. My inner meatthead wants to criticize CJ for not trying to get up immediately, but you look at he’s he’s got a defensive lineman bearing down on him. do the smart thing as a as a as a young maturing quarterback and then by then it’s it’s third and long and you’ve just I mean pass protection was there long enough he dumps it down and you end up settling for a field goal. So multiple things on three plays in a row going wrong there or just not quite right and that’s what you could say about the entire night. We’ll get into the uh importance of communication when picking up blitzes cuz uh I’ve got some things to say about this. Last one. How valuable is communication on just the plays where they’re kind of setting those disguises the disguise of bliss because there was a few especially a few times in the second half guys were coming at you free. How important and how prepared is communication in those situations everybody on the same page so you guys can pick up some of those free. So uh if you couldn’t hear that just talking asked how important is the communication and picking up some of these free blitzers? Uh we were in a lot of situations where, you know, it was they really didn’t show, you know, zero blitz on film on second and long when you’re kind of backed up. So that one kind of just caught us off guard, but um when it’s loud, it’s hard to, you know, sometimes get the protections right and you got to just sometimes throw hot, sometimes you can pick it up. Um so it’s a little bit in between, but it’s something definitely we got to look at and get better at cuz you know, we’ve gotten it a couple weeks in a row. So, um, yeah, I think if we can do that, we can, you know, hit some bigger plays. Yeah. Yeah. And, and honestly, this is what bothered me about that answer. And I’m not I’m not crushing CJ. It’s a good up and gave an open press conference, gave honest answers, but when it comes to Nick Kaye, Dico Ryan’s, CJ Stroud, yes, you’re facing a Seahawks team that doesn’t blitz all that much. They ended up blitzing about 19 times in this game. And uh the they blitzed a lot more because you know why? Because of what CJ just said. They saw it on film. They know that they know where the weaknesses are. Mike McDonald is a really smart football coach. And yeah, if you demonstrate that you can’t pick up the blitz, they’re going to blitz the piss out of you. This is going to keep happening. And it I’m just I’m wondering like what went on in two weeks of preparation where uh they just assumed that the Seahawks weren’t going to blitz them. And even if they knew in advance, even if they had even if they had ESPN and could know for sure that the Seahawks weren’t going to blitz them that much, this is fundamental stuff that you have to get good at doing because you know what the teams who blitz a lot also do? They change up their blitzes. They’re not showing the same damn thing every week. You got to be you’ve got to be prepared for the staples of their defense, but yeah, they’re going to throw some stuff at you. That annoys the It annoys me so much because I feel like it speaks to an institutional lack of awareness about what you need to prepare for, not just in any particular week, but through for an entire season. Yes, they watch film. Yes, Mike McDonald is probably one of the smartest defensive minds in the league. Yes, they’re going to freaking exploit that. Here are the blitzes. Uh, let’s see. Blitzes from today or from yesterday. I left the down and distance in there just for my own reference. I would say that early in the game, by and large, CJ did a good job of getting the ball out of his hands quickly when he recognized Blitz and there are times where there’s going to be free rushers that like the free the free Blitzers don’t always get picked up. was as accuracy as pristine as it normally is. Um, in situations like this, sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn’t. There’s times where, hey, like you know, Nico, oh boy, that one that that was beautiful. That was absolutely beautiful. Um, but there’s also times where even in a non-b blitz and this one, the interception, I mean, this is a let’s haven’t watched this one closely yet. So, uh, you got a free rusher off the edge. Let’s see. Arante Ursery over there to the left. His His guy is number zero, and he’s getting some help from the tight end, but you get a cover zero blitz there. Yep, it’s This is the one I think CJ was talking about. And he steps up, throws off balance. H, so the blitz worked out on that one. Um, but he handled the blitz better in going back and watching that I had felt during the game. There are going to be like this is this is this might be the one that there’s going to be free rushers at times like they don’t have enough guys. Look at you’ve they’ve got uh D oh wait, what’s the right guard do? I should have stopped it earlier. You’ve got the mic accounted for and he’s picked up free rusher. whoever he was hoping to be the hot wasn’t there or CJ didn’t anticipate the blitz. Um balls coming out just couldn’t connect. That was one that I think CJ was probably talking about. Oh, he’s got to put it on Higgins better. I mean, that’s a this that one that last one right there. And yeah, I don’t expect him to be perfect under pressure, but this one was picked up really well. plenty of time and just I mean possible pick to um I thought Earl Thomas for a second. So like I’m not putting all of this on CJ whatsoever, everybody has to be better. How do you pick up for Nico if he’s out? Tom, if if Nico can play like um what do you all have to do to pick pick that up? Uh I thought, you know, I thought he’d play really well. I got to just find find a way to get him to touch the ball. like I got to throw him a better ball. That’s just bottom line. Um yeah, it’s going to be tough. You know, he’s our best player on offense. You know, he’s one of the best players in the league time and time again. We got and we also got to find ways to get him the ball, you know, in better situations. So, that starts with me, you know, trying to get us in the right looks. Um, but yeah, I just it it would suck, but hopefully, you know, he’ll be okay and, you know, we have a short week, but if not, we got to just step up in other ways and, you know, put more, you know, on my plate hopefully to try to, you know, help us out. Yeah. put um man, I I’m gonna be honest with you. I wish I had a more clarity on exactly what I’m upset about and how to fix it right this moment. But there’s so many things and you saw it in just such large print last night that I don’t I don’t like, as I said earlier this morning, I had to delete it because I had all kinds of issues with my live stream this morning. Um this is from the top down. This is Cacerio. This is Demo Ryan’s. This is Nick Kaye for certain. Um, and then this is individual players in the offense that you’re just I don’t I don’t care the excuse of it being a new offense, the excuse of it have being new players. Um, the the fixation with Braxton Berios, even though I don’t know what Bra whatever Braxen Barios did to pass his physical, I don’t think it I I hope it didn’t look like what he looked like out there. And meanwhile, Jaylen Null continues to show up. Woody Marks continues to show up. Uh, I’ll give Nico a pass on on that drop on a on a really great play that CJ made early in that game. Um, and then as I as I said this morning, I’m not giving the defense a pass the way it seems like every article I read or anytime I was listening to the broadcast last night, people saying that the defense played well enough for them to win. No, no, they did not. They didn’t. They didn’t. The defense is 100 times better than the offense right now. You can’t allow a 70 plus yard touchdown drive and an 80 plus yard touchdown drive on the second and third possessions of the game when this is the offense that you’re playing opposite of. You can’t be pulling in Aziz Elshshire and driving the quarterback into the turf in the very thick part of the side the thick white part of the sideline. Um like this is stuff that it’s it’s unacceptable. You can’t have the swarm run a mock. Christian Harris who had one play on defense throwing Jackson Smith and Jigma into into the bench and that I there’s no part of that that I even think is like badass or anything. You took a man you outweigh by 50 pounds and threw him into a bench and didn’t get flagged for it. But what the I mean just what the hell? And and this goes back to Demo and Cacerio hiring Nick Kaye um showing a lack of discipline in very critical moments. one of those lacks of discipline by a guy in Aziz Elshshire who they love and will not stop talking about what a great leader he is. And yet when it comes to trying to lead by example and knowing knowing where to draw the line in your physical play is just he’s he’s he’s flat out lost. He just can’t do it. Um so what are they going to do with Nick Haley and how are they going to fix him? That’s that’s going to have to be at some point a hard conversation about changing mid-stream in the middle of a season if they don’t start looking better than this because that film’s out there now. There’s like they’ve they’ve shown zero good they’ve shown they’ve had zero good games as an offense against good opponents. They had one and a half quarter of good play versus the Titans and then they had four quarters of good offensive play versus a really bad football team and not even a not even an actual football team because half the guys were rookies and backups on that team. Other than that, I feel great. Uh other other than that, it was a it was a fantastic experience last night as I stayed up way too late watching that stupid football game.

Former Houston Texans player Seth Payne gives his reaction to Houston QB C.J. Stroud’s press conference following Texans vs. Seahawks on MNF.