HOUSTON (AP) — For a second straight season, the Houston Texans are winless through the first two weeks after Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Now they’re focused on trying to avoid a second straight 0-3 start.
“You’ve got to go back to work,” linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair said. “Obviously, you don’t want to be in this position at all. We’re better than to be in this position. But that’s the NFL.”
Ja’Marr Chase caught two touchdown passes from Joe Burrow to lead the Bengals to the 20-6 win.
Coach DeMeco Ryans said what happened last season doesn’t matter and that they must focus on the future.
“This team right now, the 2026 Texans have to dig deep, look deep within ourselves and see how can we find a way to play better football,” he said. “You win when you play good football. Right now, we haven’t played good football as a team collectively through the first two weeks of the season.”
C.J. Stroud was 30 of 55 for 353 yards passing on a day the Texans had trouble running the ball, with their backs finishing with just 18 yards rushing. They failed to score a touchdown while playing without star receiver Nico Collins after scoring 31 points in a loss to the Bills in the opener.
“The one key to this victory was controlling the front and from an offensive perspective we did not control their front,” Ryans said. “We got outplayed up front. We couldn’t run the ball well and that forced us into a lot of passing situations.”
While Stroud piled up yards, the Texans struggled to finish drives, going 0 for 4 in the red zone.
They failed to convert on fourth-and-inches from the Cincinnati 18 when Dexter Lawrence stuffed David Montgomery with seven minutes left in the first half when the game was scoreless.
“If we want to win any game here, we’ve got to get in the end zone, we’ve got to score points,” Ryans said. “We’ve got to find a way to fix this.”
Houston’s offensive line had a tough time protecting Stroud late, giving up four sacks in the fourth quarter alone. The Texans didn’t score on their final four drives, punting twice and turning it over on downs two more times.
Houston’s defense did a better job than it did in Week 1 when the unit allowed 36 points. But Ryans was disappointed that they didn’t force a turnover for a second straight game after ranking third in the NFL last season with 29 takeaways.
The good news for the Texans is they have experience in turning things around after bad starts. Last season, they became the first team in NFL history to make the playoffs twice after starting a season 0-3 after also doing so in 2018.
“Sadly, we’ve been here before, but I think we just have to hold each other accountable,” Stroud said. “We have to get better. There are a lot of things that we need to be doing better if we’re going to win. I think we’ll have some conversations this week about that and get some things fixed.”
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