HOUSTON – It was over before the end of the third quarter. The team no one thought could make noise this season had every Houston Texans fan standing in NRG Stadium, screaming and waving their phones as flashlights.
And with about 10 minutes left in the game, rookie phenom CJ Stroud's day was already over. Sixteen of 21 for 274 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 157.2 in Houston's 45-14 win over the Cleveland Browns in the wild-card round. And he actually only needed the first half, when he passed for 236 yards against the league's No. 1 defense, the most yards the Browns allowed in the first two quarters of the entire season.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” third-year tight end Brevin Jordan said.
Stroud made Cleveland's supporting cast look like fictional characters. He was never sacked and the only time he was actually hit was Stroud completing a 38-yard pass to Nico Collins.
“That was No. 3 or No. 4 in development, depending on how you look at it,” backup quarterback Davis Mills said. “(Stroud) is doing a really good job of really taking advantage of what the defense is giving us and it doesn't matter if 1 isn't open or 2 isn't open, he's going to continue to push his progress and we trusting our offensive line to hold up the protection and find a man in space.”
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Stroud and Browns quarterback Joe Flacco went back and forth for most of the first half. Last week in Indianapolis – in a game the Texans had to win to have a shot at the playoffs – Stroud impressed in his first prime-time game, catching a 75-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the game. He had another single-play touchdown drive on Saturday, this time against Jordan, who threw a short pass in the shallow 76 yards to the end zone early in the second quarter in the Texans' longest game this season. Houston took a 24-14 lead when tight end Dalton Schultz broke through with a 37-yard post route late in the half.
In the second half, DeMeco Ryans' defense dominated, scoring the team's first two pick-sixes of the season on consecutive plays from cornerback Steven Nelson and linebacker Christian Harris, giving the team a 38-14 lead. Houston's defense, bolstered by pass rushers Will Anderson Jr. and Jonathan Greenard, who were limited in recent games due to injuries, repeatedly pressured Flacco and made him uncomfortable in the pocket. The run defense, meanwhile, held the Browns to just 56 rushing yards as Cleveland was shut out in the second half.
Stroud became the youngest quarterback in NFL history to win a playoff game on Saturday, but his teammates see even bigger things in his future.
“I think he’s going to be the best ever,” said third-string quarterback Case Keenum, an 11-year NFL veteran. “He really has the ability to be like that. … I know it's very early to say something like that. But man, he does some things that are just out of this world.”
Part of Keenum's job is to be the starting hype man. He knows and acknowledges this. But he is serious. “On a good day there are maybe two or three (throws) I want back, and on a bad day there are 10,” Keenum said. “On the one hand, I can probably count the things he missed all year.”
Keenum said Wednesday that he has a new favorite throw from the rookie every two minutes. Last week it was the unlikely scramble that looked like a throw before Collins dove and caught the ball; A few minutes later, it was Stroud's 23-yard shot to Collins that put the Texans in scoring position.
“This is a guy who’s locked up,” Collins said. “He's calm and collected, he's willing to give up everything for his brother. Seven is special.”
Jordan said Stroud stopped feeling like a rookie during training camp.
“I wish you guys could be in the group and around him,” Jordan said. “The guy is incredible, the way he moves, the way he talks, everything, you can tell in training camp he's been captain and QB1 since day two. You could see the way he moved, walking around the locker room and talking to guys. When you have a humble, confident man who loves to work, the sky is the limit.”
“What CJ has done on the field is bring the city to life, man, it's great to be a part of it,” running back Dameon Pierce said.
When Ryans emerged as a head coaching candidate for the Texans last January, former Texans defensive tackle and current Houston radio host Seth Payne had trouble finding the right words to describe Ryans Payne's radio audience.
“It really frustrated me trying to explain what a unique individual he is,” Payne said. “Because you hear this crap from people all the time, like in PR campaigns about what great guys they are. … So I really had to stand on my feet to tell everyone, ‘No, I’m really serious.’ He’s different than other people.”
Payne was a “grumpy old-school veteran” when the Texans took the Ryans in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft. And he was upset that a rookie linebacker was allowed to start early in training camp.
“Within a few days I realized what an idiot I was for having that opinion,” he said. “The guy just exudes leadership and maturity. Now it's noticeable, but only really when a child is 22 years old. And then you just realize that someone is an old soul.”
Payne tells a story about the first time Ryans called plays in the huddle when the rookie was having a hard time getting the play call through and Payne snapped at him. “He looked at me and it was like he was the Beastmaster,” Payne said. “I didn’t even know what happened, I was immediately calmed down, like he might as well have shot me with a tranquilizer dart.”
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The years of unrest in Houston began under the fiery Bill O'Brien and the mysterious Jack Easterby. After O'Brien was ousted, franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson requested a trade. And then the scandal. Watson sat out the 2021 season, then was traded to Cleveland and Houston went through two one-time coaches in 2021 and 2022.
Ryans, who won two Pro Bowls as a six-year starter in Houston, emerged as one of the most sought-after head coaching candidates on the market last offseason after a standout performance as a defensive assistant in San Francisco. He was a hit for his former team. Or maybe a tranquilizer dart rental.
Stroud led the offensive turnaround while Ryans put his stamp on the defense, relying on young standard-bearers like Anderson, whom Houston selected in a trade for Stroud. The result? Ten wins and the team's first league title since 2019. And now, after Saturday's fireworks, the change happened so quickly that it still doesn't feel real to the players who were here last year and the year before.
“My last two years here haven’t been ideal,” Collins said. “For us to get 10 wins, now 11 wins and playoffs – that’s a big turnaround. It's hard to explain the feeling. “
“Uh, 3-13 to a playoff, second round?” Pierce said. “Everyone doubted us, but rightly so. We didn’t give them any reason to believe in us last year.”
Payne has heard that the type of calls he takes have changed drastically compared to a year, two or three years ago.
“The conversation now is much more about real football than soap opera dramas,” he said. “There were so many problems and so much drama — and, frankly, dysfunction — for a while that you started to forget that you could be a football team focused primarily on playing football games.”
Carlos Lopez, a 28-year-old Texans fan who has been going to games most of his life, wore a Stroud No. 7 jersey in his seat on the second level of NRG Stadium on Saturday. Before the game began, he said he had realized that the Texans' cap was much higher than he ever thought.
“When Deshaun was here, I thought it was the best we could get. We are so lucky to have Deshaun,” Lopez said. “But now when I look back…where we are now is way better than what Deshaun ever did for us.
“This is the new expectation that we will be here again and again. That is the expectation that Stroud has placed on himself and this team. Just what he did the first year.”
(Photo: Michael Owens/Getty Images)