Ryans shifted the blame for the loss away from Stroud and towards himself.
“When things don’t go your way and you have a bad performance, it’s not the time to point the finger or say it’s on one person,” Ryans said. “If anybody, it all starts with me. For me, as the head coach of this team, we didn’t do well. Obviously, I didn’t have our guys, you know, ready to go at this moment. So it starts with me. We stick together.”
The Texans were fortunate to survive Stroud’s five fumbles (two lost) in the Wild Card game at Pittsburgh, as Houston’s defense took over in the fourth quarter. That gave Stroud a total of seven turnovers in two playoff games, with only Carson Palmer (eight in 2015) having more in a season since 2000, according to NFL Research.
After a stellar rookie campaign, Stroud hasn’t looked quite the same. He followed a disappointing second season with a mixed bag in 2025, missing three starts with a concussion. Mills took his place and the Texans went 3-0 while Stroud was out.
Stroud played quite well after his return and helped extend the Texans’ 10-game postseason streak. In his first four postseason games before this year’s playoffs, Stroud had thrown for 976 yards and four TDs, which is why his yips in the last two games were so surprising.
Stroud said he felt like he let all of Houston down, both Sunday and all season.
“I look back (at the season) and I just feel like I let people down,” Stroud said. “Not happy about it. It hurts and I’m not naive about it. I didn’t play my best this year.
“But I’m going to act. I’m going to keep my chest up, my chin up and I’m just going to fight for it.”