Though there was very little doubt about it coming out of last Sunday's game, predictably, Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud was ruled out for this Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars too, leaving the game -- and potentially the season -- in the hands of backup QB Davis Mills. Mills has plenty of starts to his name, but not too many wins, but an even bigger problem for the Texans than Mills stepping in to start may be how many other players could end up missing Week 10 too.
In addition to Stroud, nearly a dozen other key contributors popped up on the Texans first injury report of the week, with big names such as Will Anderson Jr., Jalen Pitre, Ed Ingram, Tytus Howard and Dalton Schultz being among the most notable additions. But even beyond those five, the impact of missing guys such as Ka'imi Fairbairn, Denico Autry or Nick Chubb would be a huge hit to Houston's chances in what is practically a must-win contest against their division rival.
Anderson and Pitre, a pair of defensive stars who were named to PFF's Midseason All-Pro Teams, didn't participate at all during Wednesday's practice, Anderson with a quad and Pitre with a concussion. We knew that last Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos was going to be physical, but there was certainly no way to tell that three key starters -- Stroud, Pitre and Tytus Howard -- would all suffer concussions in the loss, putting their status for Week 10's game in serious doubt.
In total, there were eight starters and 14 players listed on the injury report, including Jakob Johnson, Harrison Bryant, Christian Harris, Dylan Horton and Braxton Berrios. It couldn't be a worse time for the Texans to be dealing with the injury bug. At 3-5, the Texans are running out of time to get back into the AFC Playoff race.
Over the next five weeks, Houston plays four teams ahead of them in the standings -- Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Buffalo and Kansas City -- so if you're looking at it from an optimist's point of view, the Texans have a chance to make up plenty of ground. However, worst case scenario is a battered Texans team drops a second game to Jacksonville and finds themselves out of the mix before they even have a chance to play themselves back into the thick of things.