The name of the game for the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon was to defeat the Las Vegas Raiders and move one step closer toward completing a tremendous in-season turnaround that results in a trip to the postseason despite an 0-3 start to the year. There were no bonuses for style points or margin of victory, but still, coming out of a narrow 23-21 victory against what may be the worst team in the National Football League, it felt like the surging Texans left plenty on the table.
“It’s hard to win this league,” Will Anderson Jr. told reporters after the game. “With saying that, though, we have a standard in this building to where we want to play at and when we don’t feel like we play to that standard, everybody feels it. Sometimes it feels like, man we didn’t even win the game.”
Fortunately the Texans did win, and now their magic number to clinch a postseason berth is just 1. Houston can lock up their third straight Playoff appearance by the end of Week 16 assuming the San Francisco 49ers take care of business against the Indianapolis Colts and Philip 'Old Man' Rivers in a high-stakes Monday Night Football showdown.
The Texans aren't going to be content with playing the waiting game. This is a team with legitimate Super Bowl ambitions, and they can't afford to play a C+ game against any teams they'll see in the postseason. Sure, winning ugly when it's 'Win or Go Home' is fine, but Houston likely won't have that luxury once January rolls around.
“It was ugly, but the way you want to win in December is winning, whatever it looks like, however it looks,” Stroud said. “I’m proud of guys for finishing strong. We started off bad in the first quarter and then from there kind of rolled."
One person who, at least based on the postgame quotes alone, who didn't seem overly concern with 'how' the Texans won on Sunday afternoon was head coach DeMeco Ryans. Having nearly two decades of experience in the National Football League as both a player and a coach, Ryans knows that wins are hard to come by, especially at this time of the year.
“Our team has always believed, no matter how it looked at the beginning of the season, they’ve always believed. Showed if you play the right way, if you play with proper effort, you do the things necessary, it’s all about getting the win," Ryans said after securing his third straight 10-win season as the Texans head coach. "It really it doesn’t matter how it looks. It’s beautiful to get the win and I’m proud of our team for continuing to find ways to win.”
CJ Stroud knows he needs to be better for Texans to reach promised land
If the Houston Texans hope to make a deeper run in the postseason than they have each of the last two years, it may come down to what version of CJ Stroud shows up. Theoretically, Houston's defense should travel no matter where they need to play, but there's been enough volatility throughout the year in Stroud's performance that it feels like the 2023 Rookie of the Year is one of the league's most prominent X-factors heading into the Playoffs.
“Our defense is amazing. They’re great. Our special teams is great. I want one day for us to say our offense is great, as well. I think it’s all about the team and all about winning," Stroud added. “At the end of the day, we look at ourselves and the things that we were doing wrong are on us. I maybe just rushed my timing. I’m a confident person. I think I can put it anywhere. Sometimes I should progress, shouldn’t force the ball. But any throw that I make, I think I can make the throw. I just missed a couple and that’s part of the game.”
Thus far this season, Stroud's performance has been up and down, showing flashes of superstardom that we saw during most of his rookie year, mixed with some of the inconsistencies and bad habits he displayed for large chunks of year two.
In 12 games, Stroud is 7-5 as Houston's starter and he's thrown for 2,628 yards, 16 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.