If not for

A retelling of C.J. Stroud's Week 10 primetime second half against the Lions.

There was a lot of emotion coursing through the ol’ veins on Sunday. The Texans couldn’t get off the losing streak, and worse, they had the audacity to actually make some tangible steps instead of getting swept off the field like I anticipated they might.

NFL quarterback is generally not a position that you can withstand the phrase “if not for” a lot when describing. You are likely familiar, as an NFL fan that probably watched a primetime game, familiar with the fact that Dan Campbell asked for turnovers in the sideline interview and immediately got one. He then got another on the throw that is the cover image of this piece — one that C.J. Stroud immediately knew that he put too much loft on while trying to get it over a defender.

If not for those two throws, I think we’d be praising a lot of the first half work, because it was a fairly impressive turnaround by both the offense and the offensive play caller up until that point.

The Metchie touchdown, of course, has been widely-praised as an incredible throw. Look at these two throws to get the Texans in scoring position on the last drive of the half. They could not be placed any better. I preface with this because I’m going to be talking about a lot of the pieces of this game where I thought about the words “if not for” a lot.

If not for … the red zone playcalling

The Texans had two trips to the red zone in the first half — a first-and-10 from the Detroit 11, and a first-and-goal from the Detroit 3, that yielded a combined six points. The first-and-goal was quickly rewound to the 13 on a Juice Scruggs holding call. After a Joe Mixon run went nowhere (please check out Sam Warren’s piece about the running game problems if you want that in your life), the Texans ran these two plays back-to-back: