The Texans' 25-9 defeat at Baltimore should provide a valuable learning experience for the coaches and players who suffered and excelled in DeMeco Ryans' debut as their head coach.
In analyzing the opening loss at M&T Bank Stadium, where the Texans have never won, let's start with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, who struggled early but recovered in the second quarter to engineer two field goal drives to leave them behind 7-6 at halftime.
Unfortunately for Stroud, he spent most of the game dodging pass rushers who confused and overpowered an offensive line with three backups in the starting lineup.
The Ravens' pass rushers hit him 10 times, including five sacks, but it didn't discourage his resolve. One thing Stroud has to learn is to throw the ball away rather than risk sacks that can be avoided.
"It was a tough place to play (and) a tough opponent," Ryans said. "A lot of things were stacked up against him, but I thought C.J. handled himself well. Just overall offensively, we have to have a clean operation. It wasn't clean enough on offense. We wanted to have a clean procedure. It wasn't, so we have things to fix and a lot to learn from this game."
Like Carolina's Bryce Young and Indianapolis' Anthony Richardson -- the quarterbacks selected ahead and behind him -- Stroud lost his debut by double digits but made a positive impression on an offense that generated only 268 yards.
Stroud completed 28-of-40 for 228 yards. He didn't have a touchdown pass or an interception. He lost a fumble on a strip sack he couldn't get away from.
Stroud's poise under a lot of pressure should have been a confidence builder for him and his coaches, especially offensive coordinator and play-caller Bobby Slowik. He and Stroud should grow and improve together. One thing they already knew, he's going to have to throw on the run a lot because of protection issues.
When the Texans managed to put together drives that got them in position to score touchdowns, they couldn't finish and had to settle for Ka'imi Fairbairn's field goals of 35, 38 and 39 yards.
The most impressive thing from the defensive side was the significant improvement against the run. Ryans and coordinator Matt Burke took over a defense that was the worst in the NFL last season, a predicament that's existed for the last four years.
The Texans limited the Ravens to 110 yards rushing. They kept quarterback Lamar Jackson from burning them with his elusiveness. He ran six times for 38 yards.
The rest of the Ravens accumulated only 72 yards, including 2.7 a carry. It was a terrific effort by the defense even though the Ravens did score three touchdowns and a two-point conversion on running plays.
With the run defense improving, the Texans applied good pressure on Jackson, the most frequent by ends Jonathan Greenard and Will Anderson Jr. Greenard had a sack and two tackles for loss.
Anderson's pass rush forced Jackson to throw an interception to cornerback Steven Nelson. Later, he recorded the first of what should be many sacks in his career.
"The defense, it was a good start for us but not good enough," Ryans said. "We have to get stops in the red zone. It's all about points, and we gave up too many points."
While the front seven was harassing Jackson and frustrating the Ravens' usually potent running game, the defensive backs contributed despite issues at safety. Jimmie Ward (hip) didn't play. Jalen Pitre left in the second quarter with a bruised lung and didn't return. He's remaining in Baltimore overnight as a precaution.
Veterans Eric Murray and M.J. Stewart did an impressive job in their place. Stewart recovered a fumble forced by nickelback Tavierre Thomas.
Now, let's look at what the Texans didn't do well. They failed to run the ball with any efficiency and consistency. They gained 72 yards and averaged 3.1 a carry. Dameon Pierce got only 11 carries for 38 yards. Much of that problem can be attributed to the offensive line, but Slowik needs to make sure the offense works hard to establish the run.
Two times Ryans elected to go for a first down on fourth-and-1 in the Texans' end of the field. The first time in the first quarter was at their 47. Stroud was sacked for an 11-yard loss.
Fortunately for the Texans, Baltimore couldn't capitalize because of Nelson's diving interception.
The second time was at their 42 in the third quarter. Pierce was stuffed for no gain. The Ravens responded with Justice Hill's 2-yard touchdown and a 22-6 lead.
"On fourth-and-one, we want to be aggressive," Ryans said. "We knew coming in this place, you've got to score to win here. It's an aggressive mindset. That's how we operate. We're going to be aggressive and try to win games.
"When we come out in the second half, we have to be able to move the ball, and that's where we started to stutter. We hurt ourselves a lot. We can't hurt ourselves versus a good team. We can't help a good team, and that's what we did, and you're not going to win games like that."
With an offensive line struggling against a good defense, failing to convert a pair of fourth-and-1 situations wasn't surprising.
The trouble the Texans experienced up front was exacerbated when right tackle George Fant was injured and forced out of the game. Fant was replacing the injured Tytus Howard. Michael Deiter, who's not a tackle, gave up a strip sack on his first play. Then he was moved to left guard, where he got a lot of playing time in camp and preseason. Josh Jones, playing left guard for the first time in his career, was moved to right tackle, his natural position.
"We moved those guys around a lot," Ryans said. "There have been a lot of moving pieces up front. Multiple guys have had to play multiple positions, so that's been our way of handling it up front. We'll continue to shuffle and see what's the best group we have. We'll put the best group out that we have available."
The Texans had penalty issues, nine for 88 yards. The Ravens were flagged 13 times for 106 yards. Penalties have to be cleaned up by the time the Texans play the Colts at NRG Stadium.
The coaches would like to improve on third down (7-of-18, 38.9 percent), fourth down (1-of-4, 25 percent) and in the red zone (0-for-2). That might be a more difficult assignment with a rookie quarterback trying to convert behind this offensive line while running for his life.
John McClain can be heard Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday on SportsRadio 610 and Monday, Thursday and Sunday on Texans Radio, also on SportsRadio 610. He writes five columns a week and does three Houtopia Football Podcasts for SportsRadio610.com.
