On Sunday, the Houston Texans dropped their third straight game in a 17-10 slugfest against the Jaguars. It was a brutal outing, one that saw every hopeful drive turn into a dead end, a series of fumbled chances and missed opportunities…the stench of it followed the team and head coach, DeMeco Ryans, right into the post-game press conference.

An intrepid interviewer, perhaps still processing the absurdity of it all, asked head coach DeMeco Ryans about CJ Stroud’s tipped interception. “What did you kind of see on that last interception?” was the question. Ryans responded with a defensive shield, placing the blame not on the arm of his rookie QB, but on the defense in front of him. “The last interception we got beat off the edge right, and the defender hit CJ’s arm, ball went up in the air, and they made a play on the football. The guy made a good catch there.”

A perfect way to dodge the question – praise the defensive line against you! However, the reality is, the ball was tipped, sure, but the throw itself was a wobbler, a final, gut-wrenching moment of futility. The truth, of course, was far more specific: it was Jags defensive end Josh Hines-Allen who got the tip, a fingertip away from a sack, and safety Antonio Johnson who made the diving, game-sealing pick. Ryans’s insistence on this specific, almost mechanical failure felt like a man building a wall around his young QB, shielding him from the reality of the moment. But here’s the rub:

That wasn’t even Stroud’s worst pick of the day. Earlier in the fourth quarter, with the Texans looking for a much-needed drive, he threw a pick right to Jaguars cornerback Jourdan Lewis in the red zone. The thing is, it wasn’t tipped. It wasn’t hit. It was just a flat-out bad throw.

Stroud finished the day with 204 yards and a TD, but his two INTs loom large over the box score. And while Ryans might have focused on the tipped pass, Stroud himself was processing the narrow miss. “I thought C-Kirk was open,” he said, referencing receiver Christian Kirk. “And I think we might have scored… but my arm got tipped, so unfortunate there.” He was so, so close, just a “two-inch margin” from a different reality.

And while Ryans might have focused on the tipped pass, the broader conversation he had revealed the real, far more troubling issues.

DeMeco Ryans relays the problems with the team

After the game, Ryans wasn’t shy about what’s actually cooking with the team post the 5-figure punishment for a player. He was brutally honest, in fact. “We just got to find a way to play cleaner football, right?” he told the media. “When you have the penalties that we had to kind of knock us back a lot offensively, defensively, penalty in the end zone, you turn the ball over three times, that’s man, that’s tough to win in this league.” 

The Texans racked up seven penalties for 66 yards against the Jags, pushing their season total to 28 flags. That’s a whopping 191 yards given up through just three games, a staggering number that shows this team is still finding ways to beat itself.  They are close, but every time they get close, they create a new obstacle for themselves. Nico Collins’ fumble in plus territory, the one that came right after he caught a perfect 50-yd TD pass from Stroud to tie the game? 

Look, this isn’t a one-game problem, either. Texans’ loss was a heartbreaker, a late-game collapse that saw them lose by just a point, 20-19. They had opportunities. They felt the rhythm. But the pattern of self-inflicted wounds is getting old. Ryans knows it. “It’s tough enough to win,” he said, “but when you put yourself in a position where you’re helping the opponent, like that’s just not a good recipe for winning football.”

While Stroud has had some bright spots, like his 104 yards to Collins, the overall offensive production and the team’s abysmal 0-3 start tell a story of a team still learning how to win, even when the pieces are in place.

The last time the Texans started a season with 3 straight losses was in 2020. They went 4-12 that year. The hope of a postseason run is already slipping away, and Ryans knows it. “We’re close,” he repeated on the loss (what did they say the last week), “but close isn’t good enough.” They have titans coming up next to play against.