As I’m sure many of you know by now, the Houston Texans went up to Indianapolis and laid another atrocious egg on offense and special teams on Sunday, and were stewarded by a head coach who’s started to make a terrifying, infuriating habit out of making game management decisions that negatively affect his team’s ability to win games. The Texans lost 19-17, on a field goal with 16 seconds left in the game, in a game where they won the turnover battle by a +3 margin.
Teams that win the turnover battle by a margin of three typically win games over 90 percent of the time. Since Week 7 of the 2024 season, the Texans have been +3 in the turnover battle nine times, including yesterday. They are 5-4 in those games. In other words, DeMeco Ryans’ teams have a disturbing way of finding ways to lose games they shouldn’t lose.
For the second straight season, the Texans have started 0-3. Last season, they went on to go 12-2 in their final 14 games. You’re going to hear a lot of “we’ve been here before” rhetoric from coaches and players this week. It’s already started in Ryans’ and C.J. Stroud’s press conferences after Sunday’s loss. Do not buy into it. This is a crisis. This team is noticeably worse than last season’s team in every phase of the game. To be fair to the defense, instead of being great, they are merely “really good,” largely because Will Anderson is a cyborg.
In fact, let’s do winners and losers from yesterday, and start there, with Anderson:
**WINNERS**
**4\. Will Anderson, Jr.**
Anderson is honestly the only Texans player that I can say, with a straight face, belongs in the “winner” category from this game. Maybe, I can squeeze Reed Blankenship in here, too, since he secured the team’s first interception of the season, and played much better on Sunday than in his previous two games. Anderson, though, was a one man wrecking crew, with a J.J. Watt-like box score, full of crooked numbers — 2.5 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, 3 QB hits. Anderson was sensational, just a few days after calling a players-only meeting for the defense. Maybe he can call a meeting for the offense and somehow, through osmosis, make them play better.
**3\. Josh Downs**
The Colts were without big play wide receiver Alec Pierce on Sunday, as he was nursing a heel injury. Pierce has killed the Texans in recent seasons, averaging nearly 29 yards per catch in the last four meetings between the two teams. Downs took up the slack, in a big way, and was the best receiver for either team on Sunday, with five catches for 77 yards, all of which felt significant. With Pierce possibly down for a while with this heel injury recurrence, Downs is a guy to look for in fantasy leagues as a waiver pickup, if he isn’t already on some savvy owner’s roster.
**2\. Deshaun Watson**
As if the start to this season couldn’t be worse for Houston Texan fans, just based purely on the performance of their favorite team, don’t look now, but Deshaun Watson has the Cleveland Browns off to a 2-1 start, after a 21-18 win over the Carolina Panthers, in Watson’s first home game since 2024. Just a month or so ago, Watson was waging verbal war with the Browns’ fan base, and for now, he’s the toast of the town. While his numbers are from eye-popping, Cleveland is just happy to win games any way they can. Could Watson’s time in Cleveland, where he’s in the last year of his bloated $230 million contract, actually have a happy ending? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
**1\. Jacksonville Jaguars**
The AFC South, as a division, is pretty much the dumpster fire that it’s been for many seasons. Other than the Jaguars, who are 2-1 after a 35-6 blowout of the New England Patriots on Sunday, the other three teams (Texans, Colts, Titans) are 1-8, and that one win was the Colts’ win over the Texans. Three games into the season, the Jags look ready to defend their 13-4 record from 2025 and their AFC South crown. Liam Coen, their head coach, has unlocked the good side of Trevor Lawrence, and it seems more sustainable than the last time Lawrence tantalized Jags fans with good QB play, at the end of 2022 and early 2023.
**LOSERS**
**4\. C.J. Stroud**
While Stroud had his worst statistical game of the season thus far on Sunday (15-27, 167 yards, 1 TD, 0 interceptions), he is still way down the list of issues with this team. The reason I have him in this category is because, right now, I don’t know that he’s made any traction toward getting the big contract he is seeking at the end of this season. He’s played fine, his numbers are decent, but in the first two games, he didn’t do anything that screamed “Give this man $70 million per year!” In this game, he actually engineered a go ahead touchdown drive with under two minutes remaining in regulation, but the defense couldn’t hold the lead. I think Stroud has shown great maturity through this start to the season, but eventually he needs to start winning some games.
**3\. Nick Caserio**
**2\. Nick Caley**
**1\. DeMeco Ryans**
Here we go, now comes the part of the article where the main culprits in this 0-3 start get their medicine. For Caserio, who is rising rapidly up the board of people Texans fans are angry with, it’s the inability (so far, at least) to assemble an offensive line that can protect Stroud and open up lanes in the run game. The version we’ve seen the last two weeks is as bad, or worse, than anything this team has trotted out there in the Ryans Era. For Caley, it’s the continued conservative approach (which Stroud himself seemed to quietly rail against in his postgame press conference), and the janky play calling. Caley seems in over his head.
And now we get to Ryans, who himself told us all to “look at \[him\]” if we are blaming someone for this mess. Okay, DeMeco! Your wish is my command. After a Week 2 loss in which Ryans committed malpractice on multiple game management decisions, he decided the best way to start off this game would be, if they won the coin toss, to put his offense on the field first, and let the Colts get the ball to start the second half. Strike one. Later in the first quarter, the Texans had a chance to turn a Will Anderson strip sack and fumble into three points, but Ryans chose to go for it on 4th and 1. I didn’t have a huge problem with them going for it, but they ran the EXACT SAME PLAY that got stuffed on 4th and 1 a week ago. It got stuffed again., Strike two. The most egregious error came with the Texans leading 17-16 and the Colts with the ball. On 1st and 10, Jonathan Taylor gained five yards to get the ball to the Texans’ 40 yard line, with clock running and 1:05 to go in the game. For some reason, Ryans, who had all three timeouts at his disposal, waited THIRTY SIX SECONDS to use one, and by the time the Colts kicked the go-ahead field goal, the Texans had just 16 seconds left. They ended up having to throw a Hail Mary on the final play. 36 extra seconds could have been valuable to move into field goal range. This was David Culley level malpractice, which has sadly become a regular thing with Ryans this season.