The Houston Texans have spent enough time teasing their fan base to make anyone cautious. One week they look like a team ready to take off, the next they’re back on the runway. That’s why Sunday’s matchup with the Cleveland Browns feels like another test of which Texans group actually shows up.
There’s no mystery about the biggest reason for optimism right now: C.J. Stroud just put together a monster performance against the Los Angeles Chargers.
He went 21-for-35 for 384 yards, a 125.5 passer rating, five touchdowns and one interception, and the effort earned him his second AFC Player of the Week honor. He’s the only player in the league to win it twice this season.
So if anyone spent the offseason calling Stroud trash, wanted him gone, or insisted he was the worst quarterback on earth, the numbers say otherwise. After last weekend, one thing is clear: Stroud is not the issue.
That matters because the Browns are coming in at 5-4, with the 29th-ranked offense and the 17th-ranked defense after a 23-22 loss to the New Orleans Saints. On paper, it looks like a game that should stay tight. But the Texans have a front seven that can wreck that script in a hurry.
Will Anderson Jr. is leading the NFL with 9.5 sacks, and Cleveland’s protection has been shaky enough to give Houston a real edge. Browns left tackle Spencer Fano has allowed 8.5 sacks, while former Texans tackle Tytus Howard is currently ranked right behind him as one of the two worst tackles in the league. That sets up a rough afternoon for Deshaun Watson if he ends up holding the ball too long.
Watson knows what that looks like. He was sacked 62 times in his 2018 season with the Texans, and while plenty of that came from poor blocking and bad scheming, some of it was on him too. If Anderson Jr. is coming off one edge and Danielle Hunter, Sheldon Rankins and/or Jadeveon Clowney are working the other side, Watson could be in for a long day.
The Texans defense may even have a chance to top last week’s eight-sack outburst, which tied a team record. That kind of pressure could turn this into one of those games that gets ugly fast for the Browns’ offensive line.
Still, there are reasons Houston can’t just assume this one takes care of itself. The run game remains a problem, with Woody Marks the only real answer at tailback. The Texans let the trade deadline pass without landing a starting-level running back, and that leaves them leaning heavily on Stroud again if the ground game doesn’t show up.
There’s also the question of whether the defense’s tackling has actually turned a corner. Under Coach Ryans, the group looked sharper against the Chargers, holding them to nine points through three quarters.
Los Angeles finished with just 14 first downs and converted only five third downs into firsts. That was against a Chargers team that entered the game with the 32nd-ranked offense and 20th-ranked defense, which is only marginally worse than what the Browns bring into this week.
So the real question is simple: will the Texans keep building, or will they slip back into the same old pattern? If Stroud keeps playing like this and the defense keeps hunting, Houston has a path to another win. If the run game disappears and the tackling regresses, Sunday gets a lot messier.
For now, the signs point upward. The Texans look like a team climbing. The only thing left is finding out whether they stay there.
In Other News...
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Texans Face A Bigger Week 10 Stakes Test Than The Watson Reunion
The Week 10 trip to Cleveland brings the Texans back into a familiar conversation, but the bigger issue is the one on the field. Houston and the Browns are both fighting to stay in the AFC wild-card picture, which gives this matchup far more weight than the storyline attached to the opposing quarterback.
Deshaun Watson will start for Cleveland against the team that drafted him, and both sides have already downplayed the emotional angle. Watson said the reunion is no longer a major personal event, while C.J. Stroud has taken the same approach, keeping the focus on the standings and the stakes that come with this time of year. [Read more 🡒]