Julian Edelman joins Colin Cowherd ahead of an exciting Week 11, a week that includes C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans taking on the Arizona Cardinals.
Stroud has performed amazingly for the past few weeks, defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Cincinnati Bengals… and now Edelman feels he owes the rookie QB an apology.
C.J. Stroud, Texans climbing ladder as Cardinals hit Houston…
With back-to-back last-second victories pushing the Houston Texans above-.500 in November for the first time since 2019, there’s an unrecognizable element in the air around the franchise: playoff talk. The emergence of rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud has the Texans squarely in the postseason conversation with eight games to play. When the Texans (5-4) host the Arizona Cardinals (2-8), Houston’s challenge includes avoiding looking beyond Sunday and down the road ahead. Up next is a critical fight with the division-leading Jacksonville Jaguars (6-3) on Nov. 26 on the Texans’ home turf.
Stroud leads the NFL with 291.8 passing yards per game and is sixth with a 101.0 rating. He is the linchpin of an offense scoring 24.1 points per game — 10th in the league — and averaging 372.5 yards per game, good enough for sixth. “The thing that impresses me the most is how he’s won the locker room and the guys play for him,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said of Stroud. “Guys truly believe in C.J. He exudes confidence, and our entire team is confident because of what C.J. has done.”
The Texans will face a Cardinals’ pass defense ranked 31st in opponent quarterback rating (101.0) and 29th with an opponent completion percentage of 69.1. The statistics point to Stroud rolling again, especially if his offensive line continues to sweep a pristine pocket clear of obstacles. Houston allowed one sack over 41 dropbacks in a 30-27 road victory over the Cincinnati Bengals last week. Of importance in that mission, left tackle Laremy Tunsil (knee) did not practice on Wednesday.
The opportunity is present for the Texans to further entrench themselves as playoff hopefuls. Their foremost weekly challenge is maintaining their elevated play. “The conversation that comes about success and how you handle it is don’t get the big head,” Ryans said. “Stay humble. That’s what it’s all about.” The Cardinals have a surprising bounce in their step for an eight-loss team. That’s because they welcomed back franchise quarterback Kyler Murray from a knee injury. He started for the first time since a torn ACL last December and, right on cue, snapped a six-game skid with a 25-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 10.
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