(SportsRadio 610) - Texans rookie C.J. Stroud was candid about his frustrations with the offense after Sunday's 15-13 road loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Stroud first admitted he is not playing up to standard after perhaps his worst game so far this season. His 140 passing yards mark a career-low, and it's the first time he did not record a passing touchdown since the season-opening loss at the Baltimore Ravens.
Stroud was asked after Sunday's game about the offense not consistently playing up to its potential.
"You can point the finger everywhere, but me personally, I point the thumb. I'm not saying that I'm playing terrible, but I'm not making the plays I want to make. Sometimes I have to take what's there. A lot of teams are being smart and playing back. Even when I do take the checkdown, this team was knocking it down. I thought we could have gotten some firsts from that.
It is what it is. I feel like the talent we have, we've got to use it, and we've got to be explosive like we want to be. That starts up front running the ball. I think those guys did a good job there.
"On top of that, we've got to take some shots. We've got to be more explosive and do some things down the field. We can't just let peop le dictate what we do just because we're not throwing the ball short. I mean, that's me getting more trust from the coaches and the guys getting their depth in the routes. It's a whole team thing.
"Man, I definitely think we have the talent to be explosive, and I think we've shown that we're, if not a top five offense, top ten offense, we've showed it, and we can do it. We've just got to go out there and call it and run it and execute. I feel like that's why we haven't been consistent. Too many taking the ball short and not having enough explosives. It's hard to play on third down too. I think Bobby's (Slowik) done a great job calling it, trying to be better with us and getting used to how we like calls and things like that. Hopefully we start being a little more explosive."
