3 ups and 2 downs in the Houston Texans pre-season opener

C.J. Stroud struggled in his preseason debut

For starters, let’s not overreact to C.J. Stroud’s performance in his preseason debut but still, hopefully, we’ll see improvement next week.  The one bone I will throw for Stroud is the offensive line did not do him any favors.  He was constantly under pressure and that will affect any quarterback’s play.

Stroud completed only two of four passes, with 13 yards and one interception.  An abysmal stat line and I would expect to see more from him in Week Two of the preseason.  I do feel they should have kept him longer, at least given him one more drive, call some screens or quick slants, something to give him some high percentage throws and easy completions.

For whatever reason, they pulled him after only two drives and maybe they were protecting him from the pressure he was seeing because the offensive line certainly wasn’t protecting him.  Or maybe that was the team’s plan from the beginning, which makes little sense given he’s in the middle of a quarterback battle with Davis Mills who played the rest of the first half.

C.J. Stroud will go back to the drawing board and learn from his mistakes and his interception was definitely a mistake.  The coaching staff will use this game to teach and further develop him.  I think we’ll see a different Stroud next week and hopefully, the coaching staff will give him a few more snaps.