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Sep 21, 2025; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans watches the replay of an interception in the 4th quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Travis Register-Imagn Images Travis Register-Imagn Images

Texans' DeMeco Ryans Downplays Offensive Woes vs. Jaguars

Originally posted on Houston Texans on SI
By Keith Cummings | Last updated Sep 22, 2025 12:45 PM ET

There's really no way of sugar coating things for the 0-3 Houston Texans, who, by only averaging a mere 12.7 points on offense this season, are currently in the process of undoubtedly painting head coach DeMeco Ryans and his coaching staff into a corner.

Those critical of the Texans might claim that Ryans is in self-preservation mode already, but all he can really do is hold a high line for now.

"Of course, we want to play better offensively, right? We just got it; we’re all sticking together. We got to find a way to make sure we figure it out, and we will, because I know we have the right people." Ryans insisted after the Texans lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars 17-10.

“We got the right staff, we got the right players, we just got to figure it all out, and we got to show it. It's not me saying that; we just got to go show it, and that's when we'll see improvement again."

Reading fairly simplistically between the lines, it's abundantly clear that Ryans is deep in the choppy waters, trying to rescue his offensive coordinator, Nick Caley, who's been sinking like a stone thus far in 2025.

Despite a second-half touchdown being conjured by the frequently flustered and harassed C.J. Stroud; this offensive performance, in general terms, looked like it belonged back in the preseason.

Stroud is hurting the most behind an ever-changing offensive line, a fractured unit that continues to be hampered by the constant reshuffles it has been forced into making on the fly.

Consequently, Stroud is under pressure and is seeing his accuracy going to hell in a basket, especially as he consequently fails to get his feet set properly underneath him.

Long gone is the swagger that accompanied Stroud during his phenomenal rookie year, and Ryans somehow appears more comfortable skirting around the subject of his own signal callers' continued levels of regression, rather than face it head-on.

At least number-one wide receiver Nico Collins got back into Caley's play-calling sheet to the tune of 8 catches for just over 100 yards, but his late fumble and a pair of Stroud interceptions did pretty terminal damage.

Just when it looked like Collins was rounding back into shape, the hammer blow of him costing his ball club the game arrived, and Ryans knows how much it's going to hurt his key playmaker.

"For sure, we're going down to score, and we give the ball to one of our best players. Nico, we trust him with the football," Ryans lamented about the late fumble.

"He knows it, he hates it more than anyone else to have the ball taken away from him there. So, that was tough. We felt the momentum shift there when we hit the big touchdown, and we're driving down and were in a position to drive and score again, and you give the ball away. Right in the plus territory - in the red zone; that's hard."

Without those costly turnovers, it could be deemed both encouraging and hugely frustrating in equal measure that Ryans is doubling down on what he feels they still have enough explosive plays to pull out a much-needed road victory.

"Yeah, we hit an explosive today there to Nico for a touchdown, right," Ryans declared postgame. "We had another on an over route that we just missed the throw and catch just a little bit. So, the explosives are there. We got the guys to get the explosives. We haven't connected on as many. I understand that, but we hit one today as well."

Truth is, until the vital core execution catches up with the optimism of their head coach, the Texans are going to find it extremely hard to climb out of their current winless hole.

After all, the trip to face Jacksonville had been framed as an ideal opportunity to get things right, but it’s now only provided more questions than answers.

Perhaps at the very top of that list is how to get Stroud going again, and that's enough to give Ryans plenty of sleepless nights moving forward.