‘Nobody’s happy that we’re struggling in pass protection,’ Texans’ pass blocking crisis addressed by Chris Strausser

HOUSTON – C.J. Stroud is one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, provided that he has enough time to throw and a clean pocket to operate from.

Unfortunately for the Texans’ Pro Bowl passer, that hasn’t been his working environment nine games into the season.

Stroud was knocked to the ground multiple times by an aggressive New York Jets defense last week.. He was sacked a career-high eight times and hit 11 times overall.

It’s gotten so bad that the fundamentally sound Stroud is anticipating the hits and the pass protection crisis has affected his timing. There have been some uncharacteristic throws off his back foot when he normally steps into each accurate spiral and some open reads he has missed because he’s been under such heavy duress.

The obvious and stated goal: protect Stroud. The 23-year-old former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year has already been sacked 30 times, the second-most in the NFL behind injured Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who has been sacked 33 times. Stroud is on pace to be sacked 56 times this season. For such a valuable young talent to be in imminent danger so often, it’s an ongoing failure for the defending AFC South champions to not do a better job of keeping him standing upright and comfortable in the backfield.

The precious commodity of time to do his thing hasn’t been there for Stroud the majority of the time this season.

“We’ve got the best guy in the NFL and our guys love playing for that guy, just the tremendous plays that guys makes really for us is hugely important,” Texans offensive line coach Chris Strausser said. “I mean, nobody’s happy with the fact that we’re struggling in pass protection right now. Everybody across the board wants to do better, starting with myself. Like you said, it is a prideful group of those guys who care tremendously about taking care of of our quarterback,”

This has been an untenable pass protection issue the Texans have been unable to solve so far.

What the Texans have been doing so far has been substandard, especially in the interior offensive line where the majority of the sacks and pressures are coming from on a variety of stunts, blitzes and bull rushes that aren’t being accounted for properly.

As a rookie, Stroud was only sacked 38 times. With eight games remaining in the season, he’s already been sacked eight times less than last season’s total when he passed for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions. This season, Stroud has passed for 2,139 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions.

He completed just 11 of 31 passes, a career-low completion percentage in the loss to the Jets.

“I think we’ve just got to do a better job,” Strausser said. “Me, specifically, of just coaching some of the details of what we’re doing technique-wise. The technique has shown up more than anything else. So, we’ve got to do a better job of emphasizing it during the week and making sure when we show up on game day, everybody and the unit has complete confidence in what we’re doing up front.”

Stroud passed for a career-low 86 yards in a loss to the Green Bay Packers and was pressured on 48.3 percent of his dropbacks, according to Next Gen Stats.

Stroud has been under constant siege.

Stroud got kicked in the shin against the Jets and walked it off. Of course, there’s always an increased risk of injury when a quarterback is hit this often.

The Texans lead the NFL with 151 pressures allowed.

To not protect Stroud better is holding the entire team back.

Whatever the Texans have attempted to do, it isn’t working despite the heavy investments general manager Nick Caserio has made in the offensive line that includes a $75 million contract for Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil, a $56 million deal for Howard, a $36 million contract for right guard Shaq Mason, who has allowed a league-high 7 1/2 sacks among guards, a first-round draft pick in Green and a second-round selection for center Juice Scruggs. Scruggs has allowed five sacks.

Tunsil is the highest-graded lineman on the team with an 87.0 pass blocking grade to rank fourth among all offensive tackles. He has allowed just two sacks.

Before he got hurt, Green allowed six sacks this season for the second-most in the NFL among guards. He has a 39.4 overall blocking grade, ranking him last among 77 offensive guards, according to Pro Football Focus analytics.

Only Tunsil didn’t allow a sack against the Jets.

Before he left the game with a left shoulder injury that has him sidelined indefinitely, Kenyon Green had a 9.2 pass blocking grade on a scale of 0 to 100, according to Pro Football Focus analytics. Kendrick Green had a 0.4 pass blocking grade. Mason had a 22.0 pass blocking grade, allowing a pair of sacks and four pressures.

It wasn’t this bad last year despite fielding multiple different starting alignments due to injuries as Scruggs missed the majority of the season with a hamstring injury and centers Scott Quessenberry and Patterson were both placed on injured reserve along with Kendrick Green.

“Every year is a different year, for whatever reason,” Strausser said. “For us, as a unit, that’s our major challenge: finding a way to get better. I think last year, different guys being in there, you hate to have to switch guys around like that. I really don’t know compared to last year.”

The Texans have tried throwing a lot at the issue, but nothing has clicked so far. There’s all kinds of line combinations the Texans can try to throw at the problem. The bottom line is, whomever’s in the game, has to perform better.

“We’re always talking personnel, good or bad,” Strausser said. “We’ve had some good weeks and we’re still talking personnel because we’re always trying to figure out what the best five is, what the best mix is, not try and move guys too much because it’s a challenge at this point in the season to have to move guys from one spot to another. Really, everybody that’s on our roster is in play.”

Stroud was trapped in his own personal horror movie on Halloween, and there was no escape from the demons and villains invading the Texans’ unsafe backfield.

Stroud was relentlessly harassed, hit and hounded by the Jets’ aggressive, speedy defense as they dominated his overmatched offensive line.

“Of course, it’s embarrassing,” said Stroud, who completed a career-low percentage of throws as he went 11 for 31 for 191 yards and no touchdowns for a 59.2 passer rating. “To come out here on a primetime game and get embarrassed like that is never fun. I believe we have to be better in a lot of areas and that starts with me. I think there’s plays I got to make, throws I got to make. At times I have to sit in the pocket and just trust my guys.

“I really point the finger at me and realize I got to be better as a football player. If we want to win, this is not the recipe for it. We have to learn how to dominate and stop learning how to go with the flow and play in the fourth quarter like we should be able to play good in the first half and then roll into the second. I think we have to have a better mindset as a whole. This is definitely a great wake-up call for us to tighten up the ship.”

Now, the Texans have to replace Green after he dislocated his left shoulder and was replaced by Kendrick Green. Kenyon Green, a struggling former first-round draft pick from Texas A&M, leads all NFL guards with 36 pressures allowed and was nearly benched before his injury only to get another shot before having a rough game against Quinnen Williams and then getting hurt.

“By no means is it one guy,” Strausser said when asked about Green, a former 15th overall pick of the draft and consensus All-American at Texas A&M who was a blue-chip recruit at Atascosita High School. “To me, that’s an easy out in our unit. We know there’s a lot of guys involved. Kenyon, I really think of this as being his rookie season.

“That first year he was here, played some, got hurt. Last year, didn’t play at all.  This year, coming back off an injury and really getting back into the mix. Also, this is his first time in our offense. But, by no means, is Kenyon the only guy.”

Texans at crossroads with pass protection crisis: ‘Can’t let one game define you, utmost respect and trust in my line’

The offensive line needs to find its rhythm.

“That’s the one group where all five guys got to be on the same page at all times,” Howard said. “So, one guy messes up, we’re always one unit. I watched the movie, ‘Drumline,’ last night. I know it sounds funny, but one band, one sound. That actually kind of stuck out to me because that’s how it is as an offensive line. We all got to stick together, and we’ve all got to be on the same page all the time.”

Why can’t the Texans block it better?

Is it alignment, assignment, technique or talent? All of the above?

‘It’s the same thing that happens every week,” Tunsil told KPRC 2. “Overload, twist game, blitzing, same thing we see every week. I think we just got to be better. You don’t want to give up eight sacks. That’s not the type of game we want. It’s a long season, lot of football left.”

Stroud was pressured within an average of 2.87 seconds against the Jets, according to Next Gen Stats analytics.

Stroud was pressured on a career-high 57.5% of his dropbacks against the Indianapolis Colts in a narrow victory.

“Yeah, we just have to be better at every level,” offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik said. “Upfront there are technique and fundamental stuff and just execution of what we are doing, but it goes beyond upfront. It is every position in the pass game right now. We didn’t play good on Thursday.

“That is what we are talking about right now. We are fired up for the challenge this week and we are ready to go full-speed ahead in the regular season and address the things that have come up. The reality is that for us, as we look back at the game, we didn’t play very good. “

For the Texans, the job doesn’t get any easier. The red-hot, 7-1 Detroit Lions come to town for a Sunday night primetime game on NBC and KPRC 2 at NRG Stadium. Although they’ve lost Aidan Hutchinson to a broken leg, they traded for pass rusher Za’Darius Smith, who has five sacks this season.

The Texans’ offensive line is aware of what people are saying about them and the heat they’re under that has extended to Strausser with calls for him to be replaced on social media and sports talk radio. There’s been no indication that the Texans would fire Strausser in the middle of the season or that such a change would fix anything.

Their job is to protect Stroud. They haven’t been up to the task so far. There’s a lot at stake here.

“Man, you’ve got to take it to heart,” Howard said. “When you’ve got a quarterback like C.J., we’ve got to be at our best at all times. We see where everybody’s talking. We’ve just got to be better. Because, at the end of the day, we do our job, they won’t be talking about us no more.

“That’s the crazy thing about O-line is you just do your job, they don’t talk about you. You don’t do your job, you get here. We got to step up to the challenge. Everybody has a reason to say something right now. We’ve got to see what we can do as a group to fix it.”

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Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.