There’s a quote from Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, in the movie _Goodfellas_, when the walls are completely, figuratively caving in on the mobster Hill, where the FBI is closing in on him, and he’s faced with a bunch of really terrible choices just to try to stay alive. In that moment, he says “This is the bad time.”
Well, when the clock hit 0:00 at the end of the Houston Texans’ 34-30 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, we officially reached the “bad time” for the Texans. The Texans are now 0-4. One team in NFL history, the 1992 San Diego Chargers, has made the playoffs after an 0-4 start. The defense, which was being discussed as a generational defense before the season, is, aside from Will Anderson, broken. The special teams stink.
Ironically, the one bright spot for the team has been the one guy that everybody was telling to just stay out of the way and don’t screw things up so this juggernaut of a defense can carry Houston to Super Bowl glory — quarterback C.J. Stroud. He’s been fabulous.
Above all else, falling to 0-4 is bad enough. Falling to 0-4, at home, to the Cowboys, just stings. In all likelihood, the Texans won’t host the Cowboys gain for eight more years. If you’re a Texans fan, and you’re depressed, know that you’re not alone.
**WINNERS**
**4\. Nico Collins**
The Texans got a quick reminder early in this game as to how much they missed having Collins on the field. The sixth year wide receiver caught a slant route in the first quarter and took it 45 yards to swing field position for the Texans, who were backed up at their own 15 yard line, due to a special teams penalty. Collins would go on to catch seven balls for 118 yards and two touchdowns. Most importantly, he got out of the game healthy. I can report this with certainty, as he told me that directly when we asked him about it on the team’s postgame show. Collins, Stroud and Will Anderson — that’s the list of bright spots on this team right now.
**3\. C.J. Stroud**
I realize I mentioned Stroud in the opening to this article, but I’ll list him again, since we are acknowledging winners. Stroud was great all afternoon, and it seemed, at times, the only thing slowing him down was OC Nick Caley’s addiction to calling two-yard running plays up the middle. When Stroud was asked to cook, he was Bobby Freaking Flay, attacking all levels of the field, and generating the explosive plays that he was begging for after last week’s loss to the Colts. For the third time in four games, Stroud gave his team a lead late in the fourth quarter. The defense couldn’t finish.
**2\. DeAndre Hopkins**
It’s a shame that the Texans lost on this particular Sunday, as the team spent halftime honoring some of the all-time Texan greats, celebrating 25 years of Texans football. One of the all-time Texans recognized during the ceremony was Hopkins, who was unceremoniously traded away in March 2020 by Bill O’Brien. It’s always felt like that never should have happened, and Hopkins confirmed as much in his speech, saying he feels like he never left Houston. Hopkins still makes his home here. The ceremony felt like closure for one of the all-time great and most popular Houston Texans.
**1\. Ceedee Lamb fantasy owners**
Okay, thanks DeAndre Hopkins, for distracting me for one paragraph. Now, it’s back to the debacle that was the Texans’ defense on Sunday. Ceedee Lamb is an outstanding football player. We all know this. On Sunday, he had 17 catches for 189 yards. Let me repeat — SEVENTEEN CATCHES FOR ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY NINE YARDS. You’d think after like the twelfth catch, the Texans might send Derek Stingley over to Lamb’s side of the field to follow him around. Somehow, though, Lamb wound up in man coverage against Jalen Pitre on the game winning touchdown. It was an easy pitch and catch, and a big middle finger to Ryans and the Texans defense to close the game.
**LOSERS**
**4\. Frank Ross**
**3\. Matt Burke**
The Texans are veering dangerously into territory where DeMeco Ryans is going to be forced to make substantive changes. I don’t mean benching an interior lineman, or going for it on fourth down more often. I’m taking about demotion or termination. The easiest changes to make that might shake this team in some fashion would be for Ryans to (a) fire special teams coach Ross, or (b) take back play calling duties on defense from Burke. Ross’ kick return and coverage units have cost the Texans what feels like miles of field position this season. On Sunday, it was poor coverage and numerous penalties that killed the Texans in the kicking game. For Burke, it’s unfortunately almost too easy for Ryans to take back the decision making play to play on game day. Ironically, the one coordinator that everybody seemingly wants gone, Caley, is off the hook this week, because the offense actually generated 30 points.
**2\. Kamari Lassiter**
Lassiter came into the season as a rising star, in the conversation to be recognized as one of the top dozen or so corners in all of football. He’s been anything but that this season. On Sunday, for the second time this season, Lassiter had a sequence of plays that ultimately proved to be the turning point in the game. Of course, back in Week 1 versus Buffalo, Lassiter had a 48-yard pass interference penalty, a dropped interception, and he allowed the game wining touchdown. On Sunday, within a ten play sequence, Lassiter allowed a 53-yard catch by George Pickens, committed a pass interference in the end zone on 3rd down, and in the subsequent set of downs, committed a holding penalty in the end zone on 4th down. The Texans were up 23-13 at the time, and would have gotten the ball back, up 10 points. This was the biggest turning point in the game, and Lassiter’s poor play was at the center of all of it.
**1\. DeMeco Ryans**
A week after essentially killing his team’s chances at a comeback win in the final seconds, because of poor clock management, Ryans followed up this week by overseeing a team that committed 13 penalties. No facet of the team escaped the penalty bug, which means the entire enterprise was sloppy. Ryans is responsible for the entire enterprise. At 0-4, the record says enough, but the fact of the matter is Ryans has become a tangible reason the team is losing games, which I never thought would be the case, when he took the league by storm, and came within one vote of Coach of the Year in 2023. Bill O’Brien was the last Texans coach to start the season 0-4. He was fired the next day. Ryans is in virtually no danger of getting fired, but he is certainly in the inferno now when it comes to making hard decisions about how his operation is run.