Houston Texans are one hungry team this season. Even though they are firmly in control of their division with one foot into the playoffs, DeMeco Ryans is looking for perfection. The Texans’ defense, despite their eight-sack performances in the home defeat to the Titans, failed to impress the HC who thought they “didn’t do enough.”

The Texans were up by 27-23, thanks to a 54-field goal by their kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn. That’s when things started to go against them. Chig Okonkwo grabbed onto a short pass from their QB Will Levis and converted it for a mammoth 70-yard TD. But it wouldn’t have been possible if safety Eric Murray got his tackle right to stop him downfield. So Okonkwo’s TD brought the Titans back into the game with a 3-point lead. They went on to hold that lead while closing the game out 27-32.

After the game, Ryans was critical of how the defense performed in crucial moments and now sophomore QB CJ Stroud has asked his teammates to not dwell on one bad play and stay focused to close out games. “Just focus every play in and out. And just not hang your head down after one bad play. Learning to just move on from it and continue to just trust in yourself, trust in everybody around you. I think that’s what we can do to have four quarters of good offense.”

CJ Stroud, who threw 2 interceptions alongside 2 TDs, also spoke about how the changes in play and mindset won’t happen quickly but believed it was right to set the expectations. “Not everything is going to happen overnight. This is my second year in the NFL, and this is not an excuse. But it’s a promising factor that I do have these expectations already.” After winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year title last year, the sky was the limit for Stroud in his second year in the NFL and he wants to leave no stone unturned to achieve success this season.

Though the Texans’ next opponents, the Jaguars are arguably one of the worst in the NFL this season, the QB is not ready to take them for granted. “I don’t think the record speaks to the team they are. It’s another great challenge, defensively, for us. They’ve played against a lot of good teams and held them to a lot less points. So, we’ve got to come with our A-game knowing that every game takes every single play from the start to the finish to get a W,” Stroud said.

On the other hand, his outputs this season aren’t where they were supposed to be. Over the last 12 games, Stroud has scored just 14 TDs with an abysmal interception record that stands at 9 already. However, his defense also comes under scrutiny, as the QB has been sacked a whopping 39 times until week 12.

Hence, despite being at the top of the AFC South, their head coach isn’t satisfied with how things are going.

DeMeco Ryans calls out the Texans’ defense after failing to deliver results

On the day when the Texans’ offense scored two TDs and two field goals, not to forget the huge 65-yard interception TD return from Jimmie Ward in the third quarter, it still wasn’t enough to get the better of the Titans, who are seemingly out of the playoff picture. The Titans simply outmuscled them in a defensive battle. Putting up 369 total yards compared to 260 of the Texans, the Titans kept on hurting their total yardage. Just look at Joe Mixon; he only finished with 22 yards on 14 carries.

Tony Pollard got 119 yards on 24 carries and one TD at the beginning of the second quarter. This got Ryans shifting the blame on their defense, which needs an urgent improvement, “The concern for me is we need to play complementary football, right? We play complementary football, we win game. We don’t, we’re not relying on one side to carry the entire time. So whatever happens, like our offense gave us enough points to win the game so that starts with the defense.

Didn’t do enough to stop them. We didn’t stop the run, and we didn’t run the ball well, and we gave up way too many points on defense. Our offense did plenty. They gave us enough points. On defense, we have to be able to stop them,” Ryans said.

As a former linebacker, Ryans will be quite strict when it comes to the defensive side of things and will have high standards for them. It is now up to the Texans’ defense to deliver on the expectations and for the team to improve as a whole if they don’t want their season to fizzle out.

Coming off a bye week, the Jaguars would be trying to turn things around starting against the Texans and will target their defense. Will they manage to surprise everyone and put yet another dent in the Texans’ road to the playoffs this season? Guess we will find out in Jacksonville tomorrow.