• An offensive masterclass: The Houston Texans put on a masterclass, crushing the Cleveland Browns 45-14 in the wild-card round.
• C.J. Stroud is the real deal: The rookie quarterback earned a 77.8 PFF grade in the win, throwing for 274 yards and three touchdowns.
• A dig into the stats: Stroud dominated the game in four key areas: under pressure, from a clean pocket, play-action and on deep passing attempts.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
By now, it’s clear that the Houston Texans have something special in C.J. Stroud. The No. 2 overall pick has been lights out in his rookie season, earning an 82.8 PFF grade and completing 63.9% of his passes for 4,108 passing yards and 23 touchdowns. Stroud helped lead the Texans to a 10-7 record and their first postseason berth since 2019. And in Stroud’s first playoff start, his legacy grew a little more.
The Texans ran out 45-14 winners against the Cleveland Browns in the wild-card round on Sunday with Stroud, aided by the playcalling of Texans’ offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, putting on a masterclass. It was the culmination of everything that’s worked for the offense this season and, considering the circumstances, it might have been their best offensive display of the season.
The offense totaled 346 yards and averaged 0.162 EPA per play while Stroud completed 76.2% of his passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns as the Texans averaged 0.484 EPA per passing play. It was a dominant performance from Stroud and the perfect gameplan from Slowik as the Browns defense — arguably the top defense in the NFL — was being pulled all over the field. To top it off, Stroud had a perfect passer rating and a 77.8 PFF grade
FROM A CLEAN POCKET
Stroud was straight dealing from clean pockets on Saturday, completing 76.9% of his passes for 164 yards, and all three of his touchdown passes came from clean pockets. He was able to keep his eyes downfield consistently thanks to the protection and that resulted in some big plays. Stroud averaged 12.6 yards per attempt on 13 pass attempts.
UNDER PRESSURE
The Browns defense was able to pressure Stroud on 38.1% of his dropbacks on Saturday, making things pretty uncomfortable for the rookie quarterback at times. However, Stroud responded with a steely performance unbeknownst to rookies on this sort of stage, completing six-of-eight passes for 110 yards, averaging an excellent 13.8 yards per attempt.
Stroud has shown throughout the season that he handles pressure well. He had the lowest interception rate in the regular season among starting quarterbacks, and despite the pressure, the Browns failed to sack him, earning him a 91.5 PFF grade.
PLAY-ACTION
This is where the Texans and Stroud were really able to dominate the Browns. Stroud completed five-of-seven pass attempts from play-action for 146 yards and three touchdowns. Slowik’s continued use of bunch formations made sure that the Texans' receivers constantly had free releases, and the use of play-action sucked the defense in before Stroud crushed them over the top on deeper passing concepts.
The Texans benefitted from a few miscommunications in the secondary, but Stroud still had to get the ball to his receivers, and those moments weren’t an accident. On top of that, Stroud earned an 89.1 grade in play-action.
DEEP PASSING
Slowik dialed up deeper concepts as often as he could, taking advantage of Stroud’s innate ability to stretch the field with his arm. His 98.6 PFF deep ball passing grade was the second-highest in the NFL in the regular season, and he followed it up with a 91.5 grade against the Browns. Stroud completed three-of-four passes of over 20 yards for 102 yards and a touchdown, registering two big-time throws in the process.
A LOOK AHEAD TO THE DIVISIONAL ROUND
The stakes will be a little higher and the competition will be a little tougher as the Texans take on the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round on the road. The Ravens' defense, like most, will have a hard time slowing down Stroud, but they’ve beaten up some of the best offenses in the league over the course of the season.
Their 39.4% pressure rate is one of the highest in the NFL, and no defense had more sacks in the regular season than the Ravens. They’ll try to keep the pocket as muddy as often to slow Stroud down, but he’s shown that he’s capable of just about anything.
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