Texans transform Chargers’ ‘bye’ into blowout via fortunate bounce, suffocating coverage

HOUSTON — They knew from the start this year would be different. The star quarterback acknowledged as much as far back as training camp, welcoming the bigger spotlight and all that came with it.

C.J. Stroud had never run from pressure before. He wasn’t about to start.

“That’s how you should want it,” the Texans’ second-year starter said then. “We have that big red target on our back. That’s something we didn’t have last year.”

Houston wasn’t going to sneak up on anyone in 2024, not after a surprise AFC South title and run to the divisional round of the playoffs last winter. The Texans’ aggressive offseason spoke to a team on the cusp: the trade for wideout Stefon Diggs, then the signings of defensive end Danielle Hunter and linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair. The moves made clear where Houston saw itself: ready to contend with Kansas City, Buffalo and Baltimore in a crowded AFC.

Plenty agreed. Only five teams entered Week 1 with better Super Bowl odds.

Then came the wall so many teams slam into, a humbling reminder that climbs in this league are rarely linear. Success one season doesn’t necessarily carry over to the next.

The Texans started 6-2 but stumbled home 4-5 with a less-than-convincing division title — who else was going to win the AFC South? — and a litany of doubts as the playoff opener neared. They went 1-6 against teams with winning records. The offensive line was, for stretches, a turnstile: Stroud was sacked a staggering 52 times. Injuries piled up. Diggs was lost for the year. So was wideout Tank Dell. The Ravens embarrassed them on their home field on Christmas Day. The QB regressed, and to no surprise, so did the rest of the offense.

It got so bad that ESPN analyst and former Jets and Bills coach Rex Ryan all but guaranteed the Texans’ first-round opponent, the Chargers, would breeze their way into the divisional round. “I never realized the Chargers got a bye,” Ryan boasted this week. “But they did because they’re playing Houston.”

Nothing like some embellished TV buffoonery to grab a team’s attention.

“Disrespectful,” offensive tackle Tytus Howard called Ryan’s words. “It caught my attention, yeah.”

“He’s a coach,” Al-Shaair added. “I cannot fathom to think that he’s interviewing for jobs as a head coach and that’s his mentality, where he thinks any week you have a bye.”

No, Ryan’s comments didn’t spur some us-against-the-world mentality that raised the Texans from their late-season slumber and led to Saturday’s 32-12 rout of the Chargers. Houston had been a sloppy team for months, unable to consistently move the ball on offense, and for a quarter and a half at NRG Stadium, nothing changed. Los Angeles was controlling this one. Stroud didn’t look comfortable. Boos rained down after two punts, a pick and a fumble to start.

Then, with 2:24 left in the first half, Stroud took his eyes off a shotgun snap, dropped the football and proceeded to change everything.

“I’m thinking, ‘Just please pick the ball up,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said.

Stroud did. It bounced right back into his hands. Then, avoiding the onslaught of the Chargers’ pass rush, Stroud scrambled to his right before finding wideout Xavier Hutchinson all alone in the middle of the field for a 34-yard gain. A play that could’ve ended in disaster — with a turnover, this one deep in their own territory — instead gave the Texans the juice they’d been searching for all afternoon. For months, really.

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Stroud — still livid at himself for the mental lapse — gazed over at the sideline.

“Everybody was turned up, and that turned me up,” he said.

“That’s the play that sparked not our offense … but our entire team,” Ryans added.

To that point the Texans had run 25 plays, the longest of which covered 14 yards. They’d turned it over twice. They’d punted twice. They were going nowhere.

“We trust in y’all,” edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. had told Stroud on the sideline in between series.

“We’re gonna hold up until you get rolling,” Al-Shaair added.

With Hutchinson’s catch, a lifeless offense found its footing. Five plays later Stroud hit wideout Nico Collins for a 13-yard touchdown. The Texans were on the board. A quick drive before the half, which included a 27-yard run from Stroud — who looked like he was facing Georgia in the Peach Bowl all over again — netted a field goal.

“They grabbed quite a bit of momentum,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh admitted. “And then it’s my job, our job, to get the momentum back.”

They never did, mainly because Ryans’ defense dominated the rest of the way. As much as Stroud’s play sparked a sleepy offense, this wild-card win was about the other side of the ball. Houston’s secondary painted a masterpiece, intercepting Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert more times Saturday (four) than the rest of the league picked him off in 17 regular-season starts (three). Herbert finished 14-for-32 for 242 yards and a dismal 40.9 passer rating, a testament to his own struggles, yes — forced throws, sailed throws, bobbled throws — but also to three hours of suffocating coverage from the Texans.

Houston was sticky and stifling, rarely letting a receiver run free. The linebackers wrapped up in the open field, swarming ballcarriers, and the pass rush was relentless. Facing a Chargers team that finished the regular season with the top-scoring defense in football, Houston’s unit outshined them in stunning fashion.

“The complimentary football we’ve been looking for, and we’ve been needing,” Ryans said.

Derek Stingley Jr. — recently named first-team All-Pro for the first time in his career — was the best player on the field, finishing with two picks, a forced fumble and five passes defended. He downplayed the effort postgame, crediting the rushers up front and his teammates in the secondary.

“Gotta get the ball to win,” Stingley said.

The goal, Stingley, is three takeaways per game, and Houston proved adept at baiting top-end quarterbacks into rough outings throughout the season. In Week 10, they picked off Jared Goff five times — the Lions QB finished with 12 all year. In Week 15, they picked off Tua Tagovailoa three times — the Dolphins QB finished with seven all year (after missing time early due to injury).

Add Herbert to the list after Saturday.

Safety Eric Murray had a pick-six that started the onslaught late in the third, and rookie second-round pick Kamari Lassiter added an interception of his own. Paired with Stingley on the outside, there might not be a better young duo in the league at the position.

“We knew what we had with that group way back in OTAs and training camp,” said Collins, who’s battled against the Texans’ defensive backs in practice for months. “Even the rookies. We knew how good they could be.”

Ryans had spent all week reminding his team they’d earned a clean slate — the playoffs meant everyone was now 0-0, and the trials of the last few months would either harden them or hurry their exit. This was an opportunity to rewrite how their season would be remembered.

Saturday’s dominant finish spoke to what the Texans have been chasing since August. Stroud wanted the pressure that came with being a contender, because, as he said, “there’s no real reward if there’s no pressure.”

They were rewarded Saturday. For slogging through a dismal finish to the season and for seizing a game that was there for the taking. Next up: either the top-seeded Chiefs or second-seeded Bills in the kind of measuring-stick matchup the Texans have wanted since August.

“We know it’s win or go home,” Howard added. “And we not ready to go home yet.”

“I really feel like this is just the start,” Stroud said.

Two years in, Ryans’ remake of the franchise he was drafted by remains staggering. A team that won a combined 11 games in the three years that preceded his arrival has won 22 since, including two straight division crowns and two home playoff games. Stroud, who said the lessons he learned during the Texans’ late-season slide made him a better quarterback and “a better human,” has joined the likes of Joe Flacco, Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson and Brock Purdy as quarterbacks to win playoff games in each of their first two seasons.

Before Stroud found his way to the postgame podium, and before he caught up with franchise great Andre Johnson for a few minutes in the hallway, there was some celebrating to do. Running back Joe Mixon, whose 106 yards wore the Chargers’ defense down as the Texans seized control late, had gifted the offensive linemen some victory cigars. They lit them, then Mixon turned on his phone and hit record.

As the smoke filled the locker room, Mixon couldn’t help but grin, the first-round bye having turned into a first-round whipping.

(Photo of Stroud: Thomas Shea / Imagn Images)