(SportsRadio 610) - The Texans defense had just allowed a second consecutive scoring drive by the Falcons.
Once clinging to a 12-7 lead entering the fourth quarter, the Texans now trailed 18-12 after the Falcons capped another lengthy drive, converting on a 33-yard field goal.
The defense was worn down.
Time was fleeting. The Texans could no longer settle for just three-points, they needed a touchdown.
The moment that was eventually going to come, the moment that fans had wandered about for weeks was here.
C.J. Stroud had faced a different test seemingly every week since the regular season started and Sunday afternoon, with his team trailing by a touchdown after it had failed to score one all game, was just the latest.
How would the rookie quarterback handle it?
Hellbent on establishing the run game and desperately needing it to work to keep their defense, which had played nearly 16 consecutive game minutes off of the field after allowing 10-points and losing the lead, offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik dialed up seven runs in the Texans 11 play 75-yard touchdown drive.
In between Dameon Pierce gaining some hard fought yardage on that final drive, CJ Stroud was just waiting for the right moment to strike.
During the two-minute warning, Stroud told Slowik and his tight end Dalton Schultz that he wanted to try something that he thought would work based on a look he’d remembered from film study.
Not wanting to give away his ‘secrets,’ as Stroud puts it, he just said that he thought the situation called for it and he had his coaches full support to let it rip.
On the third-and-nine from the Falcons 18-yard line with 1:54 remaking on the clock, Schultz faked the 10-yard dig and stayed on the seam route. That caused Falcons safety Jesse Bates to crash down as Stroud fired a perfect strike into the veteran tight end for the go-ahead score.
“I talked on the sideline with him, I told him that I was thinking about doing it, and he was like, ‘Man, if you’re feeling it, then go ahead and make a play,’ so we made the play, and it is what it is,” Stroud said.
The trust that Stroud has built up with his coaches and teammates in such a short amount of time is incredible.
Though, it’s nothing new to the 22-year old rookie.
Stroud knows the look you get from teammates when they know that they’re looking at the leader of the team and don’t blink.
“Me personally, I think it’s a certain look you get in the huddle from vets and guys who have done it and been there before,” Stroud said.
Stroud recalled a 2021 game against Oregon. His Buckeye’s lost that day, 35-28 at home to fall to 1-1. Stroud, then just a redshirt sophomore, three for 484 yards that day, completing 35 of his 54 attempts, including three touchdowns and an interception.
He said he got ‘hate’ from that performance.
Imagine that.
But, he recalled guys rallying around him thereafter and that he just told himself, ‘Alright, man. This is my offense. I’ve got this.’
He’s starting to feel the same way in this offense just five weeks into his rookie campaign.
“Now, in this offense, when I get in the huddle and I’m saying the plays, guys look at me right in my eyes,” Stroud said. “Like, it feels like they trust me more than they did maybe in the preseason or like week one or week two.”
Sunday afternoon, in that huddle, Strouds teammates looked into his eyes and already believed that he had the talent and poise to lead them to a victory.
In fact, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said exactly that earlier this week.
“It was true poise from a young quarterback, and that’s what it takes to play the toughest position in sports. It takes poise, and he has it,” Ryans said.
As impressive as that drive was, the Texans lost at the end of the day. That probably bothers Stroud more, than throwing the go-ahead touchdown excites him.
That’s the competitor. That’s the perfectionist.
Ryans said the teams sees that. The team knows they’ve got a guy that’s unflappable and that quality invigorates others around him.
“They want to protect better, you want to play better on defense, you want to play better on special teams,” Ryans said. “You want to do everything you can do to do your job better because you see a young quarterback who can make plays, and that’s not the case for all NFL teams. It’s tough to play that position. But, you see a young man who can make plays and it makes guys play a little harder for him.”