Texans - 28, Giants - 10
Q. C.J., could you talk, please, about Metchie. You get really excited on the sideline when he makes a good play. Talk about his performance today, please.
C.J. STROUD: First and foremost, I just want to give all glory and praise to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Metchie has been working really hard. He's a great friend of mine, somebody who I have a lot of love for. It's just exciting to see him, him able to put all his talents and things on display. I'm really excited for him.
I think he's going to be a great addition to our team and to be able to have him fully healthy and feeling back in football shape. I'm very excited for him. It's only just beginning for him.
Q. Down the goal line, seven trips inside the red zone on that first drive getting down there, I do believe. Not necessarily schematically what would you have done different, but like the mindset coming out, would things have been executed differently regular season versus being a preseason game? How are you feeling about those seven trips and the money down and coming up empty, so to speak?
C.J. STROUD: It's preseason. We don't game plan that. We're just running our base stuff. Take care of the football. Sometimes they present themselves. Sometimes they don't.
Q. Could you talk about the reliability from Dalton Schultz and how he has helped this offense, got a lot of different weapons. Stefon caught a pass, Nico. John Metchie was out there. With John Schultz, how does his reliability help this offense kind of level everything out?
C.J. STROUD: Dalton is a vet's vet, you know. He's somebody that comes in and works hard every day. Not only just on the field is he a mismatch and somebody who can create separation and do a lot of great things, but also he's just a great leader. Leads a lot of those young guys, Brev, Cade, D.K., Troy, all them boys, along with backing stuff too.
That room is just willing to do anything for the team. Dalton is at the forefront of that.
Q. C.J., when you look at a guy like Cam Akers, who's been in the league and had injury issues that have kept him out, but being part of this offense, where have you seen him grow since the second he arrived here?
C.J. STROUD: He already kind of came nice. He's been playing at a high level since I can remember watching him in college. So it's nothing that he changed.
I think he's a little more focused now and just knows what he needs to do to get on the team. He's been working from there.
His foundational work, I think, has been great, and this offense, he's been in this type of style. He's going to continue to do great, and I'm really loving his game and how patient he is, but he hits the hole at the same time. He's a great back.
Q. I haven't had the opportunity to go back and look at the film yet, but do you think the fact that you all have so many weapons on the outside really could open up things for the tight ends a little bit more in this offense?
C.J. STROUD: Yeah, it opens it up for everybody. If you're open, you get the ball. That's kind of just how football is. It's up to my job to spread it and throw it to the guys who are open.
I think all five positions, skill positions, do a great job of that. Joe will be great at that and Dalton and Brev and all the receivers too.
Q. Kind of following up on talking about Cam Akers, could you just talk about just the running game and how you saw it today, and having so many young guys contributing, how it's going to help the offense overall whenever you guys settle on that room.
C.J. STROUD: Yeah, the run game is very important. We know that. We're working on it very hard every day.
It starts up front, and those guys are buying into that system. Then the backs are doing their job as well. I think Jawhar and British had two great games today, along with Cam and J.J. and D.P.
Once that room gets rolling and it's a good connection between them and the O-line and where to cut back and hit the hole, just all the little nuances, I think that's when we'll start rolling.
Q. Piggy-back off the offensive line. No Laramie Tunsil today, but Tytus Howard back out there, Shaq Mason back out there. What were you seeing from your offensive line to give you confidence going into the regular season?
C.J. STROUD: They did a really good job of just giving me time. I know that they got my back thick and thin. It's more than just a ball, it's just a trust factor that I have with those guys.
That's a great D-line over there with Dexter Lawrence and Brian Burns and Kayvon, all great players. So they have their hands full, but I think we didn't give up any sacks today, and we only played our starters in the first quarter.
So for our second guys to go in there and do well too, that just shows the work that they've been putting in.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports