NFL Week 9: Jets 21, Texans 13 — Four Winners, Four Losers

The vibes around an NFL franchise rebuild can be fascinating. Last season, the first season of the DeMeco Ryans Era in Houston, in Week 9, the Texans pulled off a last second comeback over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home, to even their record at 4-4. C.J. Stroud threw for 470 yards that cay, and the future could not have been brighter, even though 4-4 is a fairly pedestrian overall record.

Fast forward to Thursday night in New Jersey, where the Texans suffered an embarrassing 21-13 loss to the New York Jets, in yet another game where Stroud was being chased all game long by a fierce Jets pass rush, that was aided by the five man sieve that is the Texans’ offensive line. The Texans record after the game was still a robust 6-3, which last I checked is better than 4-4, and incredibly (yet understandably) the sky now seems to be falling.

Expectations can be the heaviest weight. DeMeco Ryans is finding that out the hard way. The Texans’ offensive line continues to pull him in front of the bus that is an angry mob of fans and a befuddled media corps. The Texans now have ten days to prepare for the Detroit Lions, who might be the best team in football and come here for Sunday Night Football next week/

For now, let’s lay out the winners and losers from a miserable Halloween night in North Jersey:

WINNERS

4. Tank Dell
With Stefon Diggs now out for the year with an ACL tear and Nico Collins still out with a hamstring injury, Dell ascended to the “number one receiver” role, and he showed up well. It had been a slow season for Dell, the forgotten man in the galaxy of Texans offensive skill players, but on Thursday night Dell had six catches for 126 yards, including a deep shot for 50 yards. He looked like the Dell of last season, and he will need to be, if the Texans are going to right this ship.

3. Kendrick Green
Kenyon Green (not to be confused with Kendrick Green, whom we are about to discuss) has been literally the worst left guard in football this season, ranked 77th out of 77 yards on Pro Football Focus. For some reason, DeMeco Ryans seems to think that playing Kenyon Green is a good solution on one of the worst pass protecting offensive lines inf football. On Thursday, it took a shoulder injury to bump Kenyon to the sidelines, opening the door for Kendrick, who wasn’t a whole lot better, but at least fought. Like last week, when Jarrett Patterson replaced Kenyon, the Texans’ best drive came with Kenyon’s replacement on the field. This time it was a 98 yard drive in the second quarter for the Texans’ only touchdown.

2. Joe Mixon
That touchdown mentioned above was scored by Mixon, who’s done the majority of the scoring for the Texans’ offense since returning from his ankle injury in Week 6. Mixon now has five games with the Texans that he has started and finished, and he’s rushed for over 100 yards in all of those games. Mixon is the best thing the Texans have going offensively, and it’s not even close. He is this team’s offensive MVP, until Nico Collins returns to say otherwise.

1. The Colts
The Texans walked out of their win over the Colts last Sunday with a two game lead in the standings over Indy, and the head to head tie breaker secured. The chances of winning the division were well over 90 percent. Now, with this disgraceful loss to the Jets, the Texans sit at 6-3, and the Colts, with Joe Flacco now installed at quarterback, have a chance to build on their 4-4 record, with the Texans an underdog to the Lions next weekend, and staring 6-4 in the face. In other words, this division race might turn quickly, because the Texans’ offensive line is trash right now.

LOSERS 

4. Kenyon Green
I think we outlined this under the Kendrick Green bullet point above. Kenyon Green is a disaster right now, and the farther away from the field he is, the better for the Houston Texans and the better for C.J. Stroud’s well being. End of subject.

3. Ka’imi Fairbairn
I hate seeing Fairbairn’s name in the loser category, but here we are. The kicking game was actually one of my focus items for this game, with the Texans having what I thought was a major advantage. Fairbairn has been the best kicker in football, and the Jets put their starting kicker, Greg Zuerlein, who’s been awful, on injured reserve. They signed Riley Patterson off the street. AS it turns out, for one night, Patterson was better than Fairbairn, who missed two field goals, including chip shot in the fourth quarter.

2. Tytus Howard
Not only is Howard a fixture on this janky offensive line (and an overweight fixture, at that), but he’s got awful postgame takes:

#Texans right tackle Tytus Howard said he believes they’re the better than #Jets but didn’t play better tonight and came up short as eight sacks allowed @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/hKPqLnepSc

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) November 1, 2024

So let me get this straight, Tytus — the “better team” got outscored 21-6 in the second half. Got it. Idiotic take.

1. Bobby Slowik
For a guy who was a hot head coaching candidate a year ago, Slowik is MUCH closer to losing his job right now than he is getting a promotion somewhere else. That the Texans have scored just six touchdowns in the second half of their nine games this season, including three straight games with no second half touchdowns, is a major indictment of his coaching. Slowik had one of the dumbest play calls of the season, with a half back pass at the Jets’ ten yard line, down four points with nine minutes left in the game. Stroud was the target, which made it even dumber. Needless to say, it fell incomplete, much like Slowik’s leadership in 2024.

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