DeMeco Ryans made it abundantly clear: he was not yelling at anyone on the Houston Texans when cameras caught him getting animated in the fourth quarter Sunday.
The Texans coach went over what he was arguing with officials about during the second half of their 17-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that dropped Houston to 0-3.
Ryans and the Texans have won the AFC South in consecutive seasons. But this year they have dropped three games by 13 points and are three games behind the first-place and still-unbeaten Indianapolis Colts.
Houston will host the AFC South-rival Tennessee Titans, who also are 0-3, on Sunday at NRG Stadium.
DeMeco Ryans Was Talking Animatedly To Officials
Trailing by a touchdown with less than two minutes to go in the fourth, Houston was driving and trying to tie the game when cameras caught Ryans appear to get animated while trying to get the offense to go faster.
Yet, when asked whether he getting on one of the Texans receivers, or an offensive lineman, Ryans admitted he was frustrated with the officials. He said he was trying to push the Texans offense to go faster, but officials weren’t letting them — because the referees mistakenly thought the they were substituting.
“If you guys saw me animated on the field … we got on the ball, and we went [fast] tempo,” Ryans said, “and the refs held our offense … and said we were substituting.”
According to NFL rules, if the offense substitutes, referees will hold the play for a reasonable amount of time for the defense to switch personnel too. But if the offense does not change players, that unit can go as quickly as it is able to.
According to Ryans, the officials made a mistake by limiting the Texans from going faster and taking advantage of the winded Jaguars defense.
“We were not substituting. No one on our sideline got off our sideline or moved,” Ryans said. “They didn’t allow us to run our tempo offense. They held the huddle. I was talking to the official to make sure we could run our offense the proper way.”
When asked again to clarify, Ryans spelled out who he was speaking to specfically.
“I was not yelling at anybody on our sideline, any coaches, any players,” Ryans said. “I’m too cool for that.”
DeMeco Ryans Talks To The League and Officials About These Issues
Ryans was sure to point out that he and the NFL are in constant conversation to ensure issues don’t continue to come up.
“Really, it’s about talking to the officials for the next game,” Ryans said. “Things we want to do offensively, if we wanted to [go fast] just so [the officials can] have an awareness.”
The Texans-Titans officiating crew has not been revealed yet, but it is unlikely to again be the Alex Kemp-led seven-person crew they had in Jacksonville on Sunday.
Still, Ryans was sure to note that if the Texans continue to have problems with the officials, and the NFL offices in New York are only a phone call away.
“If we have any issues that arise from how the game is managed, we’ll go through it with the league office,” Ryans said.
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