Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud was celebrated all last season, and rightfully so. He had one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time.
And the normal conclusion was that Stroud would be even better his second season. The NFL doesn’t always work that way.
Stroud has been good, but short of great in his follow-up to that rookie season. It hadn’t mattered much because he and the rest of the Texans had done enough to start the season 6-2. But against a 2-6 New York Jets team on Thursday night, Stroud needed to carry his team to a win, and he couldn’t.
The Jets won an ugly 21-13 game in which Aaron Rodgers finally came alive after a bad first half, throwing for three touchdowns after halftime. The Texans produced very little offense. Houston was without injured receivers Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs, and that’s a viable excuse. But still, it was the continuation of some regression for Stroud in his second season.
Jets struggle badly in the first half
Both teams struggled to start the game. The Texans came in dealing with a lot of injuries, which was a big reason they looked off. The Jets just aren’t a very good football team.
Neither team scored until deep into the second quarter. The Jets thought they scored, but rookie receiver Malachi Corley dropped the ball. Corley took an end-around, which was his second career touch, for an apparent 19-yard touchdown. But right before he scored, he let up, dropped the ball in celebration, and he hadn’t yet crossed the goal line. That massive mistake cost the Jets the touchdown and possession, as the ball rolled out of the end zone for a Texans touchback.
But the Texans didn’t take advantage of it. Joe Mixon scored a 3-yard touchdown, and that was the only score of the first half. Houston couldn’t extend the lead any further. Stroud didn’t produce enough big plays. But in the first half, the Jets were even worse and they trailed 7-0.
Aaron Rodgers had 32 yards passing in the first half. It was the fewest passing yards Rodgers has ever had in the first half of a game in his career, with a minimum of 10 attempts. By the the end of the half, an increasingly agitated Jets crowd started chanting “sell the team” in hopes that team owner Woody Johnson was listening.
The Jets needed a rally in the second half just to calm the crowd.
Jets take 4th quarter lead
The Jets finally did some good things in the second half.
The best came from Garrett Wilson. Wilson made a one-handed grab as he crossed the field in the third quarter and ran in for the score. In the fourth quarter, he made a more impressive one-handed grab in the end zone on third-and-19, catching it backhanded and somehow getting his shin down in bounds for the touchdown. The Jets led 14-10 after Wilson’s second touchdown.
The Jets caught a massive break after that. The Texans made a field goal, but the Jets got an unnecessary roughness penalty for hitting the snapper. But Houston couldn’t get a first down, and then Ka’imi Fairbairn somehow missed a 27-yard field goal, clanging it off the crossbar. However, Fairbairn doesn’t miss a field goal if Stroud had capitalized on that Jets penalty and taken his team to a touchdown. Rodgers’ third touchdown, on a nice play to Davante Adams, sealed the win.
The Texans (6-3) are still a good team, and likely on the way to an AFC South title. But Stroud hasn’t emerged as an MVP candidate, as some figured he would be. Last season, as a rookie, he had a 100.8 passer rating. This season, he was down to 95.6 before Thursday’s game and it will dip a bit again after he struggled to an 11-for-30, 191-yard passing night with no TDs.
He has had some poor games this season, like the Jets loss, an 86-yard game in a loss to the Packers and a two-interception day in a loss to the Vikings. He still is a good quarterback, he just has taken a small step back in his second season. There’s still plenty of time for him to rally, although he’ll have to do so without Diggs who is done for the season with a torn ACL.
Thursday night just wasn’t his night. Stroud set the bar very high during a historic rookie season and to this point, it has been hard to get over that bar.
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