The Houston Texans are 0-4, and the record is doing plenty of damage on its own. But the bigger issue for DeMeco Ryans is what’s underneath it: a team that keeps handing games away, keeps piling up mistakes, and keeps looking like it should be better than this.
Sunday’s 34-30 loss to the Dallas Cowboys brought all of it back into focus. Houston had a lead, had a chance to finish, and still walked off the field with another defeat.
The Texans were up 30-27 with just over two minutes left, then watched Dallas go 74 yards for the winning touchdown with 40 seconds remaining. That was the second straight week Houston let an opponent seize control late after being in position to win.
The penalties only made the collapse uglier. Houston was flagged 13 times for 90 yards against Dallas, a self-inflicted mess that kept undercutting whatever momentum the Texans tried to build. For a team with little room for error, that kind of sloppiness is brutal.
And that’s where the heat starts to creep toward Ryans. It’s one thing to lose close games. It’s another to keep losing in the same ways, week after week, with a roster that has real talent on it.
C.J. Stroud just threw for 347 yards and two touchdowns against Dallas.
Nico Collins came back from injury and immediately produced seven catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns. Will Anderson Jr. is still one of the league’s premier young pass rushers.
Derek Stingley Jr. remains one of the league’s premier defensive backs. This is not a roster short on high-end pieces.
Yet the Texans can’t run the ball consistently. The defense can’t close games.
The penalties keep showing up and turning ordinary possessions into problems. At some point, those issues stop being isolated mistakes and start becoming a coaching problem.
That doesn’t mean Ryans is suddenly on the verge of being shown the door. It is still early, and Houston has shown enough flashes to believe it can win games. But the clock is ticking louder now.
The question isn’t whether the Texans have enough talent to compete. They do.
The question is whether Ryans can get that talent on the same page and disciplined enough to actually finish games. If he can’t, the pressure around this team is only going to keep building.
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C.J. Stroud has done enough to put the Texans in position, guiding late fourth-quarter leads in three of the first four games, and Nico Collins has been a difference-maker when available. Will Anderson Jr. has also played like one of the teams brightest pieces. The issue is what happens after all of that work, because Houston keeps finding ways to let games slip away at the finish, turning what looked like a defensive strength into part of the problem. [Read more 🡒]