<\/p>\n
Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud walks off the field after an overtime loss to the New York Giants in an NFL football game in Houston, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Eric Smith\/AP Photo\/Eric Smith<\/p>\n
New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo (44) scores with Houston Texans safety Calen Bullock, front right, defending during the second half of an NFL football game in Houston, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Eric Smith\/AP Photo\/Eric Smith<\/p>\n
Houston Texans wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson (19) celebrates after scoring during the second half of an NFL football game against the New York Giants in Houston, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gerald Herbert\/AP Photo\/Gerald Herbert<\/p>\n
New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo (44) carries the ball with Houston Texans safety Calen Bullock (2) and cornerback Kamari Lassiter, center, defending during overtime in an NFL football game in Houston, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gerald Herbert\/AP Photo\/Gerald Herbert<\/p>\n
HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 A stagnant offense and scores of defensive miscues led to yet another loss by the Houston Texans on Sunday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Houston forced overtime against the New York Giants but couldn\u2019t do anything right after that in the 27-21 loss that dropped the team to 2-5.<\/p>\n
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Now they\u2019ll try and regroup to attempt to salvage a season that has not gone the way anyone on the team expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to get a bunch of people talking crazy and want us to do this, do that: \u2018he\u2019s terrible, he\u2019s bad, he should play like this, he should have done this,\u2019\u201d quarterback C.J. Stroud said. \u201cWe\u2019ll just block out the noise and understand, we got ourselves in this hole, we\u2019ve got to find a way to dig ourselves out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Texans tied it Sunday when Stroud connected with Xavier Hutchinson on a 3-yard scoring grab with just under a minute to go in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Houston got the ball first in overtime, but New York\u2019s defense forced a three-and-out with Kayvon Thibodeaux dropping a potential interception on second down.<\/p>\n
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J.J. McCarthy, who was making his first start this season, found Malik Nabers for a 9-yard completion on first down. Then Cam Skattebo dashed 42 yards on second down to cap a 124-yard rushing performance before Devin Singletary scored on a 30-yard run on the next play to end it.<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s last two plays came on a day Houston\u2019s defense allowed seven plays of at least 20 yards, including three for 40 yards or more.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knows what they\u2019re doing, where they should be and can put themselves in better positions to eliminate some explosives,\u201d coach DeMeco Ryans said. \u201cSo, I\u2019ll take a look at that and see how I can help get the explosives down because when the explosives show up, that starts with me. I\u2019ll see how I can fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the defense was bad overall on Sunday, giving up a season-high 420 yards, it was especially awful against the run, allowing a season-worst 188 yards.<\/p>\n
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Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair said that most of the problems in the run game come down to poor tackling and that they must find a way to fix that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one thing if it\u2019s a missed tackle then somebody else tackles it for a 1-yard gain,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s like some of ours have been missed tackles like you just see on the last drive: missed tackle, explosive, missed tackle, touchdown. So it\u2019s just tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s working<\/p>\n
Not much is working on this underperforming team that has problems in all three phases. But the one thing the Texans have done consistently well this season is take care of the ball. They are tied for second in the NFL with just three turnovers after not turning the ball over again Sunday.<\/p>\n
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What needs help<\/p>\n
There are plenty of things to choose from here, but since the poor tackling was addressed earlier perhaps the second biggest problem is the team\u2019s penalties.<\/p>\n
Houston had 10 for 80 yards on Sunday. The Texans rank second in the NFL this season with 58 penalties for 508 yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe penalties are ridiculous,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cThis keeps happening over and over again, so we got to find a way to fix it or get different people in, so we don\u2019t have the same mistakes over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Stock up<\/p>\n
WR Tank Dell played his first game in 673 days on Sunday after recovering from a gruesome knee injury. He had one catch for 43 yards and returned a punt for 14 yards in limited action. Ryans said he will get more snaps as the season progresses and Dell is eager to return to form after having 1,376 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns combined in his first two NFL seasons.<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
Stroud, who has played well this season, threw two touchdown passes on Sunday but had a season-low 153 yards passing as the Texans failed to move the ball for most of the second half. They punted on their first three possessions after halftime before Stroud\u2019s TD pass to Hutchinson that tied it.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have to address things, have hard conversations and I have to be better myself,\u201d Stroud said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of accountability that needs to be had and we\u2019ll be able to hopefully get those things fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key injuries<\/p>\n
WR Jaylin Noel suffered a turf toe injury on Sunday. … RB David Montgomery has missed the past two games with a groin injury. \u2026 S Jalen Pitre has a shoulder injury that has also kept him out the past two games. \u2026 S Reed Blankenship missed Sunday\u2019s game after sustaining a concussion in the previous game.<\/p>\n
Key number<\/p>\n
7 \u00bd — DE Will Anderson still leads the NFL with 7 \u00bd sacks despite having zero in the past two games.<\/p>\n
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Up next<\/p>\n
The Texans have a week to regroup during their bye this week before resuming play with a visit to the Chargers on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
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See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud walks off the field after an overtime loss to the New York Giants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1037964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[1028,746,597,3607,6649,7,519,221,1519,8322,289,755,4126,1917,56,2321,2469,6,83966,27878,27876,83964,116404,9716,532,134679,13122,18944],"class_list":["post-1037963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-giants","tag-c-j-stroud","tag-cam-skattebo","tag-david-montgomery","tag-demeco-ryans","tag-devin-singletary","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-houston","tag-j-j-mccarthy","tag-jalen-pitre","tag-jaylin-noel","tag-kayvon-thibodeaux","tag-malik-nabers","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkgiants","tag-nfl","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-33351-ap-online-analysis","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-reed-blankenship","tag-tank-dell","tag-texans-analysis-ryans-stroud","tag-will-anderson","tag-xavier-hutchinson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1037964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}