I’ll preface everything I’m about to type over these next several hundred words by acknowledging DeMeco Ryans’ place in this city’s tapestry and his employer’s lore. Ryans was a Defensive Rookie of the Year and a multi-season captain at a time when the Texans finally rose to playoff stature. Ryans happily took the head coaching job here in 2023, when the Texans were a laughingstock best known for firing two one-and-done head coaches the previous two seasons. African-American coaches, no less.
On top of all that, Ryans is a good person, good husband, and good father. Thus, I acknowledge that, in many ways, we should be thankful for and aspire to be like one DeMeco Ryans. Now that we’ve got the pleasantries out of the way, we must also acknowledge that Ryans is failing miserably as the head coach of the Houston Texans, to the point where he is no longer PREVENTING their win probabilities from dropping within games — he is the REASON they’re dropping within games.
After the Week 2 loss to Cincinnati, I railed about Ryans’ choosing to attempt a 58-yard field goal, instead of trying to convert a 4th and inches. Ka’imi Fairbairn missed the field goal badly, coming up short of the crossbar, the Bengals took their favorable field position, and scored a dagger touchdown to go up 17-3. They’d go on to win, 20-6. That was Ryans failing in a game management decision.
Now, before we get to yesterday, understand that for all of Ryans’ positives, and there are many, one of his glitches is he does not like his game management being questioned, to the point where he will, at best, give dismissive short answers about the topic, and at worst, ignore the question altogether. That happened after the loss to the Bengals. Ryans was queried about that 58-yard field goal attempt, and gave an answer that had nothing to do with the decision.
Fast forward to yesterday’s loss in Indy. By my count, there were four decisions made in-game (one actually just before kickoff) that fall into “game management discussion territory.” Here we go:
**Winning the coin toss, and choosing to take the football to start the game**
This was a decision that had me hot even before the opening kickoff. Generally, the proper decision in winning the toss is to defer your choice to the second half, which is football lingo for “choosing to get the ball at the start of the third quarter. There are small percentages that support this strategy, because you can possibly end the first half with the ball, and start the second half with the ball, essentially stealing an extra possession. The main reason a team would not do this is because they have a superior offense and they want to grab an early lead and dictate the momentum. The Texans do not have a good offense (81 yards through three quarters Sunday), did not gain the lead, and don’t dictate anything with their offense except by predictably running the same ten plays all the time. Horrible choice by Ryans.
**Choosing to go for it on 4th and 1 in the first quarter at the Indy 34-yard line**
This was the Texans’ possession after the first Will Anderson strip sack of Daniel Jones. The Texans were still stuck in mud offensively, but took over the possession already in decent field position. They arrived at a 4th and 1 on the Indy 34 yard line. The choices here were (a) kick a 51 yard field goal and take a 3-0 lead, or (b) go for the first down. Honestly, I had no problem with Ryans’ choice to go for the first down. At least he was being consistent in his mindset, albeit with his misplaced aggression to take the ball after the coin toss. My issue was the Texans ran the EXACT SAME PLAY that got stuffed on 4th and inches last week versus the Bengals! Predictable, thy name is Nick Caley!
**Watching 30-plus seconds bleed off the clock in the waning moments before using a timeout**
This might have been Ryans’ worst moment as the head coach of the Houston Texans. With a 17-16 lead, and the Colts in Texans’ territory with under 90 seconds remaining in the game, the Colts ran Jonathan Taylor for five yards to the Texans’ 40 yard line. It was 2nd and 5 at the 40 yard line, with a little over a minute remaining, and the clock running. The Colts were in field goal range, so the Texans needed to start thinking about getting the ball back, in case the Colts took a lead. The Texans had all three of their timeouts left. DeMeco Ryans sat there like a deer in the headlights and let the clock bleed down to 29 seconds before calling a timeout. This was malpractice to the nth degree! He unnecessarily allowed 36 extra seconds to bleed off the clock, and by the time the Colts took the lead, there was practically no time for C.J. Stroud to engineer a drive. The game ended with a Hail Mary from the Texans 48-yard line. An extra 25 to 30 seconds would have easily been enough to maneuver into Ka’imi Fairbairn’s field goal range. This was David Culley level mismanagement.
**Choosing a Hail Mary on the final play over a 69 yard field goal attempt**
Speaking of the final play, the Hail Mary attempt that landed five yards out of bounds, there were many Texans fans wondering why the Texans didn’t try a 69 yard field goal from Fairbairn. A Hail Mary has a roughly 8 percent percent chance of working (which is higher than I thought before looking it up). Fairbairn’s career long field goal is 61 yards, and last week he fell short on a 58 yarder. Put simply, 69 yards, which would have been a record setting field goal, was not happening. Of course, had we known Stroud was going to toss the ball into the camera well, maybe they should have tried the field goal. Bottom line, I had no issue with this decision by Ryans, but many Texans fans did.