Texans 23, Colts 20
Q. Can you walk us through your thought process as you guys went through the progression after losing Stefon Diggs and how important was the last play?
CJ STROUD: Yeah, you know, prayers go out to Stef. God doesn't make my mistakes so I hope he's okay. I don't know what's going on yet. I'm praying for him. Hoping that he starts to feel better.
Just want to give all the glory and praise to my Lord and savior Jesus Christ first and foremost. I forgot that part.
It's not easy seeing him go down like that. I hope he's okay. I though out Metch and Hutch did a great job trying to be better. Not be better, excuse me, step up to the plate and play really well just like Stef was.
Just really proud of those dudes. They got to step up big for us in a couple days here.
Q. You knew you had things to correct after the loss to the Packers. Obviously you guys did a great job today. This we knew was a huge game, because if you lost the game you're technically tied with the Colts. Now you have a - lead. How big is that?
CJ STROUD: Huge. They're always a tough opponent. Divisional games are some of your hardest games. When you can find a way to win -- we clean up some things, we got a lot of other things to clean up as well, but I definitely know that we're a heck of a football team and just got to keep putting it on film.
Once we figure out the little kinks and things we need to figure out I think we're going to be rolling.
Q. ... late in the game. You found Tank at the end of the second quarter for a touchdown. How big was it to get him rolling today after a tough week last week and getting his confidence up a little bit?
CJ STROUD: Yeah, I think he had a great mindset coming into the week, just getting better, owning his ops, and I thought he did a great job of that.
Ran a lot of good routes today. And I mean, me and him are really close. We just want to feed off one another. It was good to get the mojo going. Super proud of him, what he's been able to do, and he's going to have to step up really big for us.
Q. You mentioned the kinks. Got a short week; Jets on Thursday. What are some things you can take away from this game that you can build on, stack on, in order to not only get ready for the Jets on Thursday but just to close out the season?
CJ STROUD: Yeah, I would say just trust ourselves, you know, stay aggressive, and I think we can do a better job of getting 7 and not 3 and scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
I think that's the big thing. I thought our defense played really well, and I'm not the coach so I'm not going to sit here and -- I don't know everything; I didn't watch the film yet. Positive things I feel like we can keep running the ball really well. I think that's huge for us.
Our play-action passes were going really well. We can work on our drop-back pass and things like that. A lot of things to learn from to get better at.
So, yeah, we got to just get ready because we're playing a really tough New York Jets team on Thursday.
Q. Two-part question: First off, as you mentioned, only four days and you play again. Number one, how tough is that? And number two, the Jets are going to be really hungry because they got to beat by the Patriots today.
CJ STROUD: Yeah, I would say this is my first time playing on Thursday, so I'm leaning on leadership from older guys. Their biggest thing is recovery and mentally straining on the game plan.
So it's a short week but it's Primetime Football. Got to be ready to play at a high level. Jets are going to be highly motivated. They got a lot of the weapons over there, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play. Big fan of his.
Their defense, they have some really good corners. D-line is really good and I think CJ Moseley and Quincy Williams are two underrated defenders in this league. They're a great defense. We got to be able to withstand the surge early and just keep rolling.
Q. Obviously unfortunate that Stef went down today. How much do you think the trust that you and the other receivers have, how much do you think that's helped integrate Stef up to this point?
CJ STROUD: I think the -- just the camaraderie, the brotherhood in that room is kind of what I had in college with Garrett, Chris, Jackson, Marv, and even all the way to Joop, Sam, like our walk-ons. Everybody was close and you kind of look at this team like that.
You know, all the guys who are playing a lot, you know, look out for the guys who aren't really playing as muscle. They want to see those boys eat. It's really cool to see.
I think sad, but that's the worst part of our game is just injuries. Praying for Stef. I think he'll be okay, but no matter what, we got to be able to still win games and I know he wants that for us at the end of the day.
Q. You mentioned the defense. On what could have been a really big momentum shift with the pitch play, how big was it for your defense to go out there and have three and out and force another punt and give you guys the ball back at the end?
CJ STROUD: Huge. We got to be better as an offense. That can't happen. We can't turn the ball over down there. We got to find a way to just get on the ball or just not do that.
So, yeah, I'm fully aware that's a big mistake and it could have cost us the game, you know what I mean. We got to play complementary football. Got to help the defense just like we know when they help us you know what I mean?
Yeah. You guys have a good one.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports