Yes, this start to the season is troubling. No, it is not the end. We played two high-caliber teams; teams who won their division last year and were unanimously considered to have improved in the offseason; and kept both games close. We have not trailed by more than 4 in a game so far.

But we shouldn't get complacent either. This is absolutely the point in time where Demeco and company NEED to evaluate their team and take advantage of a weaker schedule from here on out to get this team some momentum.

I'll go over a few things that I feel have dominated the conversation recently and talk about if we (and/or the media) are overreacting.

The elephant in the room

This O-line fucking sucks. Tytus Howard is regressing. Jarrett Patterson is cromulent. Aireontae Ersery is struggling. Ed Ingram and Laken Tomlinson will not win you football games.

Jesus fucking Christ, Nick. You coulda had Will Fries for cheap. It's not like trading Tunsil was even a bad move, he's looked like s**t in Washington too (I think they're about to experience what we did) but you gotta reinvest somewhere else. Blake Fisher and Juice Scruggs already seem to be wastes.

This O-line is not giving Stroud enough time. He's gotten so used to being forced to play backyard football that he's seemingly forgotten how to play regular football. The magic that rookie Stroud has is not sustainable for an entire game. He still pulls it out every week, but he can't win games by himself.

CJ Stroud isn't the problem… at least not yet

You're gonna see a lot of people criticize his accuracy in the coming days.

Here's a fun fact; every quarterback is gonna make bad throws. Especially when the system you're trying to play in is continually disrupted. Every quarterback is gonna end dozens of drives with bad throws over the course of a year. And if they haven't done it yet, there's still 15 games left to play.

CJ is really good at putting the team on his back. He's been using his legs a lot more this year and that's a big improvement from last year. He's being more decisive with the ball. He's not missing as many layups anymore.

He's also just… prone to falling apart. There's nothing to take the pressure off of him. Outside of Stroud and the Chubb touchdown that was gifted to us, we had a YPC of 2.1.

2.1.

When your rushing game looks like that, when your O-line is bottom 3 at best, should we really expect CJ to not crumble under the pressure being placed on him? Would any QB succeed? When you've got a critical fourth and goal down by 4, is there anyone else you think can roll to his left with unblocked rushers in his face and throw a dime across his body to the corner of the end zone?

CJ isn't as good as the big 4. He shouldn't need to be. We shouldn't treat him like he can bail us out every single fucking time, because when you ask him to do it several times a game that magic will run dry.

He's getting Carr'd except even more painfully because we know he has so much potential. We have to rescue him.

This defense has a third down problem

And by defense I mean anyone not named Will Anderson.

Derek Stingley being mid in September is to be expected. He did have a clutch breakup in the second quarter and Mike Evans is never an easy matchup, but eventually he has to return to that dominance if we want to win games. I guess he's just one of those players that needs time to warm up.

But our linebackers and the rest of our secondary… good god, is this scheming or just s**t personnel? Why are we only sending 4 when the other 7 guys are still leaving someone with tons of space on every third down? Why can't our IDL defend the run? Demeco seemed to adjusted at the half, and we do have to tip our caps to Baker for being him, but… the lack of defenders in the middle of the field every single play is worrying.

Demeco is a poor time manager.

We saw it last year. We saw it here. He's not good with time management.

He should have used those timeouts because it was clear they were going to score. Either you let them score early or you give yourself as much time as possible. Instead he let them drain the clock as much as they could before scoring.

Your veteran player pulling a Gurley is one thing, but to not even rectify that and hope your defense pulls off the turnover is just mind boggling. It's like with Stroud; you can't expect your players to bail you out every single time.

Our special teams are very good

Jaylin Noel was an excellent pickup. Ka'imi Fairbairn is still that guy. Frank Ross has been insane.

Conclusion

We are not cooked. Not yet. Our next opponent is an… interesting Jags team and Trevor Lawrence is still as confusing as ever. Not pushovers, but definitely a step down from two legitimate contenders who we played more fiercely than their other opponents have. After that we play the Titans at home. Take nothing for granted, but this is still salvageable.

Obviously the third-year curse is looming large over our heads and starting 0-2 in consecutive heartbreaking losses is terrible. But I am begging you, we are not done yet. Demeco and Caserio may be feeling their seats heat up, but we do not fire them this early into the season. They're already the #2 coach and #2 GM in Texans history at worst, do we really wanna cut them loose and try our luck with the dregs again?

We just have to hope they will right the ship. But we are not out of the picture yet. Swarm.