Houston Texans News

Home

Quizzes

Watch

Newsletter

Sep 7, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans reacts during the second quarter at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Texans HC DeMeco Ryans Might Be Digging Into Dangerous Hole

Originally posted on Houston Texans on SI
By Keith Cummings | Last updated Oct 23, 2025 5:14 PM ET

Being stuck in a pretty dark 2-4 hole has rammed home some brutal truths to the Houston Texans.

That state of darkness has only been intensified because the division leading 6-1 Indianapolis Colts look as slick as can be, and in all departments.

All available logic tells us it's safe to say that Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans is past due coming up with some real solutions to the recurring offensive misfires, which doomed the team against the Seattle Seahawks.

The trouble is, Ryans is three years into his charge, but it sounds as if by pressing the gas pedal even harder, he's only coming up with less and less.

"I'm figuring out why things are happening," Ryans insisted. "Always baffling as a coach when you go through and practice a certain thing and work it a certain way and guys get in the game and do something completely different. That's being disjointed.”

Of course, it could be argued that the 15-day break for the bye week would have seen a far more mentally astute Texans team re-emerge, but the opposite was overtly true on MNF.

Over 100 yards in flags and the core inability of the reshuffled offensive line to keep quarterback C.J. Stroud out of harm's way, of course, all added up to a losing recipe.

Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

Former offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik paid the price for leading an offense that only averaged 21.9 points last season, but the "rewards" under Sean McVay disciple Nick Caley have only been diminishing.

Suddenly, the big road win over the seriously wounded Baltimore Ravens appears to be a mere mirage, and Caley is coming under perfectly understandable mounting pressure with every error and defeat.

If Slowik was made a scapegoat by Ryans previously, then you get the distinct feeling that the Texans’ boss simply has to stand by the coordinator he hand-picked for the job.

"It all starts with me. So, you guys want to point the finger at somebody, put it on me," Ryans declared. "That's my job, and ultimately, it's my job to get it fixed. So that's how it'll be, but we're rolling on what we have, and we got to just all do better. Got to coach you better. We got to play better. We got to execute better on game day."

"And look, as bad as it seems, I tell the guys at the end of the day, we're still one possession from getting that game."

Ryans carrying the weight is very noble to a certain degree, but things can get pretty darn delusional in a hurry, particularly when a coach has painted himself into a corner with his own hire.

Fact is, throwing yet another OC under the bus may only serve to roll the dice once again as it relates to the crucial ongoing development of Stroud, a process that's often looked stuck in deadly quicksand.

If the Colts hadn't leaped out to such a massive lead in the division already, it might well have given Ryans and Co. the precious time they feel they require to make the new systems work.

Facts are stubborn SOB's however, and the clock is now ticking on everyone involved, and all while it's attached to some sticks of dynamite.

This article first appeared on Houston Texans on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: