HOUSTON — After the Houston Texans‘ 31-20 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, the mood in the Texans’ locker room was bittersweet.
The Texans had just fallen to 0-2, but their rookie quarterback, C.J. Stroud, had just come off a historic day.
Stroud finished with 384 yards passing (going 30-of-47), the first two touchdown passes of his career and no interceptions — all coming behind a Texans’ offensive line that was missing four starters.
“Man, he’s special,” right guard Shaq Mason told ESPN.
Stroud’s 384 yards were second-most by a player age 21 or younger since the merger (1970), trailing only Matthew Stafford (422 yards) in 2009, according to ESPN Stats & Information, and it was the highest mark of any player in Week 2. Stroud also had the second-most passing yards by a Texans rookie in franchise history, behind only Deshaun Watson (402 yards) in 2017.
“There’s positives from C.J.’s game,” Mason said. “He has what it takes to take that leap and be a great QB in this league.”
Most of Stroud’s damage came in the fourth quarter. Houston scored the only points of the quarter, cutting the deficit from 31-10 behind Stroud’s 190 passing yards and his second touchdown throw on the day.
“C.J. is a competitor, and he shows that,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “He continues to fight no matter what odds are stacked against him. No matter who’s in front of him, it doesn’t matter, and now we need everybody around him to continue to have that winning mindset and go play winning football.”
Stroud was pressured on 47% of his dropbacks and sacked six times, but he was proud of how the Texans never game up.
“I feel like I did OK,” Stroud said. “Of course, you always want to do better. Got to not take sacks in the red zone and got to score in the red zone. That definitely was the main…
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