Texans' C.J. Stroud shares what offense needs after loss to Buccaneers

The Houston Texans fell to 0-2 on the season as their offense once again left much to be desired in a 20-19 home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night. 

Following the defeat, Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud spoke about remaining positive despite all that went wrong for his club over its first two games of the campaign.

What are the Texans missing on offense?

"You can make a bunch of excuses, but we’re just not getting it done, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters," Stroud said during his postgame media availability, per Kristie Rieken of The Associated Press. "Everybody’s going to talk crazy and say we suck and we’re this and that. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to stay together and...be honest and have hard conversations. But I think right now we need more confidence as an offense, just confidently playing better together. I think that’s a big thing."

The Texans parted ways with offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik in January and replaced him with former Los Angeles Rams tight ends coach and pass game coordinator Nick Caley in an attempt to get more out of Stroud's abilities. After Houston suffered a 14-9 Week 1 loss at the Rams, Stroud said that "we didn’t deserve to win that game because we didn’t do the right things." 

On Monday night, Stroud and his teammates heard boos from the home crowd when the Houston offense failed to score a touchdown on three occasions from the Tampa Bay one-yard line early in the fourth quarter. 

DeMeco Ryans makes frustrations known

"We didn’t have any space," head coach DeMeco Ryans said about the Texans not scoring in that situation. "We didn’t move anybody off the line of scrimmage, which is what I saw. So, [Stroud was] getting hit in the backfield and went to try to throw the ball, thought we had some matchups. I thought we had the opportunity to hit [wide receiver Nico Collins] in the corner there, but the ball was out of bounds."

Per Pro Football Reference, Stroud ended Week 2 of the season ranked 31st in the NFL among qualified players with a 34.8 adjusted QBR and 25th with an 85.0 passer rating. Over Houston's two losses, he tallied just one touchdown pass and one interception. 

As of Tuesday morning, ESPN Bet had the Texans as 1.5-point road favorites for this coming Sunday's game at the 1-1 Jacksonville Jaguars. Houston's hopes of returning to the playoffs could dwindle further if Stroud fails to impress for a third straight game.