Texans-23, Colts-19
Q. How are you feeling about your performance and everybody else's?
C.J. STROUD: I just want to give all and glory and praise to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was a good game. A lot of respect for those guys over there. To be my first season and make the playoffs, man, it's been a heck of a year.
I'm blessed enough to be in this position for this great organization, this great City of Houston. Man, I'm just blessed.
Words can't explain how proud I am of my teammates. Without them, there's no me or no winning, you know what I'm saying? It's just a blessing just to be able to be part of something special.
Q. Take me through that last drive.
C.J. STROUD: I told them before we went out there, I said, this is the most important drive of the year, and the look that I got back from my teammates, man, it was, like, let's ride, let's do this thing. There was nobody holding their hat down on a previous play or anything like that. It was just like, man, let's go win this game. Let's do it.
Every play, even we moved backwards, I think two or three times when we had two, three penalties, and we still persevered through that. I just think that's the testimony to the work we put in, the type of guys that we brought into the system, our coaching staff. They called a great game. Just a multitude of our organization just putting it together. I'm just blessed enough to be a part of it.
Q. Your first play of the game, is that kind of the plan all week long, or did you see something from the defense?
C.J. STROUD: We didn't think they were going to be in that coverage, but Slow is a dog, man. Slow is our guy. He had a feeling we could hit them up top. Nico did a great job creating separation. I tried to do my best to get it out there.
I remember watching Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson the first play of the game. I think it was 2010 or something like that. They just let it fly. When I knew the first play was going to be that, I just kept thinking about that.
Man, it's cool just to see Nico just ball out. That was a special first play, man. Special.
Q. Nico, you guys, everybody has to contribute to this thing. Nico steps up when you guys are way thin at wide receiver, and it's all night long no matter what they're trying to do. What kind of performance did he put together? What kind of lift did he give this football team to go out there with 195?
C.J. STROUD: I think he just stamped who he is. I told him our first time ever working out together, I said, you're a superstar. I never even snapped the ball in the league, but I just know good receivers. I played where we have tremendous receivers. You see what they did. I told him, My goal is to make you look as best as you can, to make you look like you.
I appreciate him just being just a consistent, great friend to me, somebody who I can just let my hair down with, and I think our chemistry shows on the field. Our friendship shows on the field. I'm super proud of that dude, man. It's just the beginning for him. Just the beginning.
I feel like our other receivers did a great job too when their numbers were called. I'm proud of those guys. Man, they stepped up big-time this week, especially in the run game, and even in the pass game.
Even being a team player and clearing it out or doing just small things that a lot of people don't want to do in this league, but that's what wins games, and I'm just proud of those guys too.
Q. Will you take a chance to relax tomorrow and watch the games?
C.J. STROUD: Yeah, I'm going to watch the games, just get some recovery in, and see what goes down. Just prepare to see what happens.
Q. How special is it to be a part of this moment?
C.J. STROUD: It's tremendously special. It's, like I said before, just a multitude of great people and a great organization putting together just time.
One thing that I think about all the time we spend together away from our families, away from our hometowns, away from people we love. It means something now.
It always has, but just the time that we put in together to see the fruits of that labor to come to be. It's a blessing, man. I'm just blessed to be a part of this.
Q. Your mom has always been the most important thing for you. She was here tonight. Just to be able to do that and not just for the City of Houston, but for her in the stands.
C.J. STROUD: I kept looking at her. More times than not I don't be finding her. She was so close I could hear her. She prays. Honestly, when I look up and I see her praying, it just gives me a sense of comfort, a sense of, like, my mama is praying for me. It's got to go good.
I love my mom to death. She's so supportive of me. She's been with me through thick and thin, and I love her to death. My sister as well, my brother, my other brother, Isaiah. I miss him. I love him.
Just really all my support staff. Not my support staff. Excuse me. My supportive family, Caleb, my best friends back home, the city of I.E. A multitude of people have poured into me as a kid to see me do what I'm doing now. It's a tremendous blessing.
Q. Do you feel like all the grit you guys have had this season will help you in a playoff game?
C.J. STROUD: 100%. We definitely know what it takes to win, and I always tell them boys, It don't got to be close. Hopefully we start putting four quarters together.
In these type of games, that's kind of how it goes. It's an uphill battle. It's up and down. All you want is the W. We're proud of that.
Q. How does it feel to give the franchise this moment tonight?
C.J. STROUD: The conversation I had on the phone with Mr. McNair when I got drafted, it was like, man, a God sent him to be a part of my life, and Ms. McNair has been amazing as well.
This is my first team, so I really don't know, but a lot of my teammates say a lot of other places aren't like that. I'm just blessed enough to be with them through this time, and DeMeco is a perfect guy for this job. He brings something out of his players that it's indescribable just like that mental stability, that toughness that he talks about.
I can't do nothing but be appreciative and just be thankful for where I was picked and the situation I'm in now. It's just been a blessing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports