On paper, both the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans entered the NFL season in enviable positions: They each have talented quarterbacks (the Chargers’ Justin Herbert, the Texans’ C.J. Stroud), head coaches with a track record of success (Jim Harbaugh and DeMeco Ryans), and started the season with two home games. After two weeks, however, both Los Angeles and Houston will face an uphill climb to simply make the playoffs, let alone make a postseason breakthrough.
The Texans fell to 0-2 on Sunday after a 20-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, with the Chargers joining them after a 26-14 defeat at the hands of the Las Vegas Raiders.
For Houston, Week 2 saw the script flip from its Week 1 loss against the Buffalo Bills. Against the Bills, the Texans’ defense crumbled against Josh Allen. Against the Bengals, Houston’s defense played relatively well against the high-powered trio of Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, sacking Burrow five times and holding Cincy to only 20 points.
But this week, the offense was inefficient. Stroud completed only 30 of a whopping 55 passes for 353 yards. He was sacked four times and did not throw a touchdown pass. The ground game wasn’t much better, as the Texans’ running backs ran the ball 14 times for 18 yards. (Stroud and receiver Jaylin Noel combined for 42 yards on four other carries.)
“The one key to this victory was controlling the front and from an offensive perspective we did not control their front,” Houston head coach Ryans said postgame. “We got outplayed up front. We couldn’t run the ball well and that forced us into a lot of passing situations.”
The concern will now continue to surround Stroud. A week after he fumbled on a potential game-winning drive, the fourth-year quarterback couldn’t keep up with Burrow, who completed a higher rate of his passes with more yards per attempt.
Speaking of disappointing quarterback play...the Chargers didn’t inspire much confidence in their second-straight loss. Los Angeles has now scored only 14 points in back-to-back weeks, and has dropped games against teams who owned the first (Raiders) and third (Arizona Cardinals) overall picks in the most recent NFL draft.
Herbert is still looking for success under new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. After throwing for 209 yards, one touchdown and one interception with a 63% completion percentage in Week 1, Herbert was worse in Week 2, finishing with only 192 yards passing, one touchdown, two interceptions and a 56% completion percentage against Las Vegas.
Though he struggled, Herbert was far from the Chargers’ only problem. The offense was also plagued by drops, penalties, fumbles and poor offensive line play.
“We’re losing in the margins, that’s what we have to get fixed,” Los Angeles coach Harbaugh said postgame, adding several times that his team will need to get “back to work.”
“We just have to better, that’s not good enough,” Herbert said after the loss. When asked about the team’s sloppiness, Herbert said the mistakes can ultimately be corrected by better execution.
Both the Chargers and the Texans now face long odds to make the playoffs. Since 2020, when the NFL postseason expanded to 14 teams, only 16% of teams that have started 0-2 have made the playoffs. And for good measure, in NFL history, only three teams have started 0-2 and won a Super Bowl.
That was certainly a preseason goal for the Chargers and Houston, who have high expectations based on the quarterbacks alone.
The Texans, at least, have some experience in this situation. Houston started last season 0-3 before making the playoffs.
“Sadly, we’ve been here before, but I think we just have to hold each other accountable,” Stroud said postgame. “We have to get better. There are a lot of things that we need to be doing better if we’re going to win.”
Harbaugh, meanwhile, is now 0-2 to start a season for the first time in his career.
“I’m not deterred, no one in that locker room is deterred,” Harbaugh said. “I like the way we fought. And that’s what it’s going to take, we have to fight our way out of this.”
