For C.J. Stroud, the only true loss is missing the teachable moment.
“Everything is a learned lesson,” the Houston Texans rookie quarterback told reporters Oct. 8 after a Week 5 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. “I don’t really believe in taking L’s. I think you only take an L when you don’t learn from it, but our record would say as such.”
The Falcons snapped the Texans’ two-game winning streak 21-19 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Although the Texans had fewer penalties than the Falcons — 5-25 to 7-55 — and even won the turnover battle 2-0, Houston’s 1-3 rate in the red zone along with a 4-13 rate on third down were part of the recipe that cooked up their third loss of the season.
“I think this game will teach us that we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot and expect to win close games,” Stroud said. “We had plenty of times to score points and it’s on me to execute our offense at a higher level. So, we’ve got to get back to the drawing board, but I definitely think we can learn from this.”
Stroud went 20-35 for 249 yards and a touchdown along with rushing once for two yards. The No. 2 overall pick extended his streak of pass attempts without an interception to start a career to 186 and has not taken a sack since Week 2.