DeMeco Ryans Texans Week 9 Media Availability | Full Postgame Press Conference vs. Broncos

DeMeco Ryans Texans Week 9 Media Availability | Full Postgame Press Conference vs. Broncos

[Music] All right. Good afternoon, coach. You all had six plays inside the two yard line and didn’t score. How do you that to start for us? It wasn’t good enough. We were in the red zone multiple times as an offense there at the one yard line. Had multiple opportunities to get it in. That’s just about, you know, it’s sheer willpower to me. It’s at the one yard line. We got to find a way to, you know, displace guys at the line of scrimmage and punch the football in, right? And that that’s what it takes in that situation. We didn’t get it done. Multiple other opportunities in the red zone. We came up short, right? We made it in the red zone three times. Like to see us convert and get in the end zone versus a really good Denver team. You know, credit to those guys. They did a outstanding job defensively. They did a good job of uh getting stops and they needed to get stops. We didn’t play well in the red zone. We didn’t play well on third down. So, if you don’t win in those situational critical moments of the game, it’s going to be hard to win it. How disappointing was it that your defense was able to get three straight stops there before their last drive and you guys weren’t able to get anything going on offense? It’s disappointing as a team. We didn’t have a we didn’t finish the game, right? The defense, they did a good job of getting stops multiple times. Uh we just sputtered there offensively. We didn’t we lacked just some just lacked some being able to move the ball. We lacked just being able to sustain drives there in the second half. It just wasn’t wasn’t good enough. We kind of sputtered along. Had quick three and outs um when it was it’s not good enough. We need to be able to move the ball there. From your vantage point, just take us through that TJ play where he got injured. just what were you kind of seeing things that nature? Yeah, CJ scrambled of course he tried to he he slid and the guy you know came up and hit him as I see his unnecessary roughness and he hit the quarterback when he’s sliding and giving himself up. If I’m incorrect on the rule I’ve seen that happen multiple times and with our guys and we get the penalty but for some reason it it just didn’t didn’t happen there. So, we’ll look at the film and see, you know, what actually happened there. Uh, at the end of the day, we lost our we lost our starting quarterback. All right. Because of the play, uh, and you know, anytime you lose your starting quarterback, it’s always tough. You know, thought Davis battled, tried to do a good job there. He battled. Uh, but we just didn’t do well offensively once we lost CJ. Hey D, I know you always talk about next man up and you guys are always ready, but talk about just the challenge of losing not just CJ but Titus and Christian and you had a lot of guys go down today. Yeah, a lot of guys went down Kim and that’s it’s easy to stand up here and make excuses about like at the end of the day I truly believe like that happens all across the league all the time and you don’t make excuses about who’s in the game or who’s not in the game, right? We still had an opportunity there to close the game out and win it, right? It’s just a matter of, man, are you remaining disciplined in the moment? Are you playing the way you’re supposed to play, doing the things you need to do to win the game? Everybody has to pull their weight no matter who you are when you get your opportunity, right, to play in that game. If you suit up, you have to be ready to go out and execute and play good football. Coach, on that last offensive possession that you all had, was there any thought to maybe running the clock down just a little bit more, especially with the Broncos having two timeouts left? Yeah, the thought there we wanted to get quick passes to get us get us moving. We’re trying to drive down and of course, you know, try to get in field goal range to but to have a couple quick incompletions is it was not the plan at all for us. Was there something that they adjusted or changed? Davis came out was moving the ball okay and then it felt like Denver kind of adjusted to him a little bit. Was there something that you saw that they they changed or did to kind of get to him? I thought Vance did what he always does. He mixed up his coverages a lot. uh some drop eight coverages that you know he’s shown on tape. So he did a good job of mixing it up. Uh we just have to again we have to be able to make the plays we need to make. We got to run the ball better. All right. And we just got to be able to finish drives. It’s it’s third down for me. You go three of 17 on third down. That’s that’s not winning football. Could you right before the half, I think it was Xavier Hutcherson, the the play right there by about the 35 yard line went out and he wasn’t tackled. He was he his momentum kept him out of bounds, but they kept the clock running. What was the what did the official tell you? Because he was not tackled in bound. Yeah, he said that his knee was down. A couple more. Demo, how do you weigh um not having your starting quarterback for much of the game versus the continued inefficiency of the offense? Yeah, for me again, I go back to if you’re in, it’s all about just doing your job. Whatever your job entails, it really to me, yeah, you want your best players in all the time. Yeah. If I could draw it up that way, I would make sure CJ didn’t get hurt. the guy didn’t hit CJ like that and we were in a good spot to continue to press forward and drive the football, but we don’t control that. So, what do you control? Whoever steps in, are you doing your job? Are you doing what you’re supposed to do to help the team win the game? Can you just talk about that play of Bonix being able to take off running for the 25 yard scram at the very end of the game? Was it just a broken coverage play or a bad pursuit? Yeah, I mean, Bo made a great play there. I think we held him in check for most of the game and in a critical moment, there it is. Their guy stepped up and he made a play. That’s what the NFL is about. He made a play, he scrambled, got out on us. We knew that was the case, but our game plan this week was about remaining disciplined for four quarters, right? That’s how we rush the quarterback, how we operate in coverage, being where we’re supposed to be. And in the fourth quarter, right, we had a lack of discipline there and some other times throughout the game, lack of discipline allowed them to get in scoring position and also score a couple times on us. You mentioned in the second half you guys kind of sputtered. Um, obviously CG wasn’t wasn’t out there. How much do you feel like the offense kind of missed having that starting quarterback? Every offense is going to miss their starting quarterback. I mean, yeah, we want our starting quarterback in the game at any given time. We want him in the game. That’s why he’s a starting quarterback. But it’s no excuses. A lot of teams have won games with backup quarterbacks before. And we had our opportunity. We had our chance. The Broncos did a great job. Coach Peyton did a great job. Those guys made play. Vance did a great job defensively. There’s a well coached team. Those guys did a great job. Their young quarterback stepped up, made a play when he needed to make a play. We had our opportunities there in the fourth quarter. We didn’t make the play. That’s that’s NFL football right there. We got to be on the other side of that. Make a play. Get the ball out. Get a drive going there to get us in field goal range. And we’re standing here looking a little different. Turned around with the offense. Yeah. For for us offensively, again, it all goes back to it’s in the red zone. We got to do a better job of finding a way to get in the end zone. Like if we can’t get in the end zone, score points, it’s going to be hard. All right. Thank you guys.

Texans Head Coach DeMeco Ryans meets with the media following Houston’s Week 9 matchup against the Denver Broncos.
Ryans discusses red zone struggles, C.J. Stroud’s injury, and how the team must respond heading into the next stretch.

🎙 Topics include:

Red zone execution and finishing drives

C.J. Stroud injury update and next-man-up mentality

Defensive discipline vs. Denver

Offensive rhythm and missed opportunities

Building forward from adversity

#WeAreTexans #DeMecoRyans #Texans #HoustonTexans #Broncos #NFL #PressConference #cjstroud

00:00 – Opening statement: “Not good enough in the red zone.”
00:19 – On missed goal-line chances and execution inside the one.
00:58 – Third-down struggles: “You can’t go 3-of-17 and expect to win.”
01:12 – On failing to finish drives and offensive rhythm.
01:35 – Breakdown of C.J. Stroud’s injury play and no penalty call.
02:28 – Losing Stroud and how the offense adjusted with Davis Mills.
02:40 – Losing multiple starters: “No excuses — if you suit up, you execute.”
03:35 – End-of-game offensive decisions and clock management.
04:03 – Denver’s defensive adjustments and Vance Joseph’s coverage disguises.
04:55 – Clarification on Hutchinson out-of-bounds ruling before halftime.
05:24 – Accountability mindset: “Control what you can control.”
05:39 – On Bo Nix’s key scramble and defensive discipline lapses.
06:20 – Reaction to playing without Stroud: “Every team misses its starter, but no excuses.”
06:53 – Praise for Denver’s coaching and execution.
07:17 – Closing message: “If we can’t score in the red zone, it’s going to be hard to win.”
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