The Houston Texans laundry-list of injuries is continuing to grow after their week nine loss to the Denver Broncos. This time, the injury came to Houston’s most important player, quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Stroud escaped the pocket on a 3rd and eight and slid down about two yards short of the line to gain. As he was sliding, he got crushed by Denver CB Kris Abrams-Draine, causing his head to pinball off the ground. Stroud exited the game with a concussion.
Surprisingly, no flag was thrown on the play, despite a slew of evidence across the NFL proving that any hit to a quarterback as he’s sliding is virtually always ruled an unnecessary roughness penalty.
Texans defensive end Will Anderson gave his thoughts on the non-call on the play.
“It was very unfortunate… I think it was a BS [non-] call,” Anderson said. “We talk about protecting quarterbacks, [Stroud] is a big name in this league and he’s a quarterback that a lot of people love and watch and we love him in here. I hope we can get him back whenever we do. We’re just going to keep fighting for him.”
DeMeco Ryans Upset With Non-Call On Stroud Injury
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans wasn’t pleased with the officials for keeping the flags in their pockets on the play to forced his star quarterback out of the game.
âHe hit the quarterback when heâs sliding and giving himself up,â Ryans said. âIf Iâm incorrect on the rule, Iâve seen that happen multiple times with our guys, and we get the penalty. But for some reason, it just didnât happen there.â
Ryans has a point. That type of play is consistently called for unnecessary roughness across the NFL, even on plays where defenders make marginally weaker contact with the scrambling QB. We see it called most often when a QB is running out of bounds and a defender gives an extra shove a little bit too late, so one would think that on a more egregious hit like the one on Stroud, Houston would earn the silver lining of grabbing the extra yardage.
Texans’ Backs Now Against The Wall At 3-5
Stroud exited the game just over a minute into the second quarter and was replaced by Houston’s backup, Davis Mills. Mills gave a valiant effort for the remainder of the game, but the Texans were ultimately held out of the end zone entirely, scoring solely off of field goals in the 18-15 loss.
Houston’s offense has been very mediocre for most of the season even with Stroud healthy. Now with Stroud in concussion protocol, it is very likely that he will miss at least a game or two, leaving Houston’s offensive hopes in the hands of Davis Mills.
At 3-5, the Texans are in a spot where they’ll need to go at least 6-3 for the remainder of the season to have a shot at making the playoffs. That’s not an impossible task by any means, considering how strong Houston’s defense is, but the offense is going to have to find ways to score touchdowns. If Mills can get the Texans to even 20 points, that is enough for the defense to give them a chance most weeks.
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