C.J. Stroud made perhaps the biggest play of the game in the Texans' 32-12 wild-card win over the Los Angeles Chargers. The Drive's Clint Stoerner and Ron Hughley grade his performance.
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00:00When a couple of big plays from CJ got it going, the run that led to the field goal, and then
00:07when all hell was looking down, I feel like Tyler was headed to multiple, multiple
00:14whiskeys and diets. No lives detected. Ball through the hands, bounces up to him,
00:22slows Joey Bosa down just a tick, runs to the outside and goes across his body
00:28to Xavier Hutchinson, who was standing all by himself. That jumpstarted the thing.
00:33All right. I see some people coming in with their grades. I see some on text line and
00:37on YouTube and Twitch. As I said, what, what was CJ Stroud's grade? And again, if you missed it,
00:4522 of 33, 282, one touchdown, one pick, six rushes, 42 yards. What was CJ's grade? I see
00:54some people texting, texting in. CJ's grade, a B plus. Stroud gets a B plus for me, started slowly,
01:02but not only is he strong, he might've unlocked a new level going forward with his willingness to
01:09run. B plus, if he, if he can keep those feet moving when he, when he sees a lane to run,
01:17that can be big for him. Those of you on YouTube and Twitch,
01:23I see some, I see a B, I see a C plus from Guy Jean. He did just enough for you. Clint,
01:31what was, what was his grade in this game? I'm going to go with just a solid B, Ron,
01:36because if we're honest, a lot of the mistakes, I mean, that, that were made, the two,
01:41the interception and the snap issue that turned into a 40 yard gain. I mean, those are,
01:46that was a good snap that went right through his hands, took his eye off the ball to look at the
01:51defense, happens in football, but that could have been a major disaster. It turned out being a big
01:57time plus. So I, through that lens, I look at those and I, and the interception is just inexcusable.
02:02And there was one other one that was damn near an interception. So I'm not real sure what was
02:05going on there, but he, somehow in typical CJ fashion, he'll come out and then he'll play,
02:14he'll have a, he'll have a great two or three throws. It's, it's really impressive.
02:18So he was able to write the ship to a certain degree to where I can get him in that. All right,
02:24now we can climb out of the, out of the basement of that interception and some of the poor decisions
02:29and I can get you to a C. And then I watched CJ Stroud go out there and again, miss the,
02:37miss the snap on him, not Jared Patterson, miss the snap, pick it up, go make a throw across his
02:44body. Right? Okay. Now, now we're creeping up back on that B and then Ron, the handful of
02:53scrambles, three or four scrambles to me, took him to a B, a solid B for me, but really
03:02like gave me a lot of hope for next week. Like that, that is like, that's a CJ Stroud that I
03:08feel like is confidently making decisions, which is, I don't know that it's real natural for him
03:13to consciously make the decision of like, I got to go run and get this first down, but he's,
03:17he's breaking the pocket, whether by design or not, he's breaking the pocket and he's not
03:23floating around back there trying to find an open receiver. He is making that you can literally see
03:29it in his action. He's making the decision. He's getting downhill. He, he is, he is determined
03:35for his legs to impact that game in a big way. And to me, that's a sign of CJ Stroud,
03:42trusting his instincts, going out there and playing with his instincts. And I'll argue that
03:48that's the one thing that we haven't seen. Oh, he's a natural pastor of the football. He's going
03:52to have, whether he's playing great football and winning football on the pitch, he's going to have
03:56playing great football and winning football in the position. Greater. He's going through a game.
04:01He's going to be like, damn, that was a good throw. Wow. That was out on time. Damn. He hit
04:04that guy right in stride. He is a natural elite passer of the football where you can tell when
04:10CJ flips a switch, if you will, is most of the time with his legs. And it was obvious at one
04:18point in that game, second quarter that dammit, he wasn't going to sit around and wait for him.
04:24He was going to get downhill with his legs and change the game and make, get first downs,
04:27keep drives alive. And he did that. And that, that to me, that's the biggest takeaway CJ takeaway
04:34in this game was how committed he was to in that moment of using his legs and going and
04:43getting it done. That, that was, that gives me hope for next week. You think this is something
04:48that, you know, maybe the chiefs are talking about now or in, in any way adjusting, like
04:57no, no, we're not, we're not doing it. We're not, I'm not saying Lamar, but I'm just saying,
05:02is there any point of like, Hey, let's talk about this. He did, he did leak out for, for big runs.
05:08Yeah, no, I don't, I don't. Yeah, no, I don't think not, not any more than,
05:12than you typically would. Like we're not doing any Texans aren't doing any, any, you know,
05:17quarterback plus one run game or, or, or read game or anything like I've heard some of those
05:21conversations being, being tossed around. Like that's, that's not going to happen. He doesn't
05:26have, he doesn't have that in him. Um, that would be plum ass silly if we're being honest, but just
05:32it's more about the conviction. You know what I mean? It's more about the make a damn decision
05:39confidently and live with the results. It seems like for a good part of this season,
05:45CJ Stroud has been almost timidly tiptoeing and, and not wanting to make a mistake,
05:51whether it's in the past game or the run game. Like it's, it's been kind of timid
05:55or that that was, it wasn't a great performance because he missed some stuff and it wasn't
05:59consistent. They started out sloppy as hell through the interception. But when, when you're,
06:06the thing about it is when you, when your quarterback can go out and impact the game,
06:12when he's not seeing everything clearly, when thing, everything's not in rhythm,
06:15it's an absolute game changer. And it was, it was, I think that's the biggest,
06:19most important takeaway from this football game was in terms of like how this team could make,
06:24could potentially beat the chiefs, how this team could go put their best foot forward
06:28against the chiefs. It's going to take that, that kind of conviction and that kind of commitment
06:34out of, out of CJ Stroud. Yeah. I'm a C his, his numbers to me look a lot better than actually
06:45watching the game and what happened. He had the, he had listened to the point you made, man,
06:54he dropped the ball, but then turn that into the play that kind of changed things for the team.
07:01But Clint Hill, he tried to throw, he tried to throw multiple other interceptions,
07:06like, you know, just some of the decision-making right. Like the interception that he did throw
07:12was so poor, was so poor. And if you look at the, the throw before it he just, he just throws a deep
07:20route to Nico that is just, just never there, never there back to back throws, throws the pick,
07:25but then he does have that, that, that point in a half where he kind of brings it back up,
07:30used his legs that really did help as you just spoke up and many people have spoken up.
07:34But again, in the second half, he tried to have another game where, Hey, I sent you all the video.
07:41That's the first time it felt like, to me, it looked like he was, he was, it didn't look like
07:47a, I said to Tyler when I came in, Bobby didn't look like he had a, Hey man, you got this CJ
07:54conversation. It looked like a quick, Hey man, what the hell's going on? Pick it up. Like, which
07:59hell maybe Bobby needed to do a little bit ago. Right. But the, the, the, the, the, the one,
08:04two, like the decision on first and 15, you know, up 10, six with, with, with, with all the momentum,
08:13their offense, not being able to do nothing in the game, coming off the last possession,
08:17you turn it over with mixing in field goal range, the thought, even in the second half 10, six to go
08:24first and 15 clip jump ball, Derwin James Dalton show like that, like that, just, you know, and so
08:31that's continuing in the second half. Right. And then after that, you know, I, I guess, you know,
08:37he didn't make any, any other poor decisions, but there was like the second drive, the second drive
08:43of the game, they get the strip from the Betsy. And then he rolls out towards the sideline and
08:49almost throws another pick, you know, would have been back to back turnovers in there.
08:53I just thought his decision-making first half third quarter at times wasn't there. So to me,
09:00he did, he did fight through adversity and made plays when he needed to, but overall, I I'd say
09:07a C I'd say a C I think his numbers look a lot better. Cause I think there, there were realistically
09:13two other turnovers that really could have been in there. Yeah. It was ugly early. And so that's
09:19why I said he started, he started at a C. I mean, that was the starting point after the,
09:24after offense performing, it was sloppy. It was ugly. It was uninspired. It was as if they
09:30hadn't played football in two weeks. It looked like it looked more early and look closer to
09:34the Baltimore. Yeah. And I just, I just, and I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know. I'll
09:40get the all 22 tonight. I don't know that I'm real impressed with the game overall.
09:46I, we said, I'm telling you the, the, the, the way I'm grading, I give, I give him a solid B
09:52and the reason for that is like, it was a huge turning of the corner for me with CJ Stroud and
10:00how he impacted the game with his legs. And it ultimately, it did change the game in a major,
10:07major way. So I got to give credit where credit's due in a sense of like those actions, no matter
10:12how sloppy it was before those actions, turn the momentum in this game in a monster monster way.
10:19And he did it with conviction. So I'm really like that's super valuable to me with CJ Stroud. And
10:26cause we haven't seen much of that. And it's, it was important in this game as well as again,
10:32the team moving forward. So I'm like, I'm leaning heavily into the way in which he used his legs and
10:38how convicted he was about it to get to a B. So I get, I'm not real sure that the second half was
10:45as impressive as some folks think it was. Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, it was good, but I'm not
10:52after the Derwin James one and Bobby kind of got in his ass. He kind of, he kind of pulled,
10:58he kind of pulled, pulled back a little bit from the text line, anything less than a B plus
11:03you're being a hater. I guess we're haters in your opinion. Yeah. Well, I mean, again, I think,
11:11I think a lot of times, and I don't know who texts that, but I mean, people need to realize
11:16that for me, and I think I can speak for you on this. When, when we're talking CJ Stroud in a grade
11:22or analyzing his play or what your expectations are or aren't for CJ Stroud, like, I don't know
11:28where y'all's are at. Mine is still, this guy's is a top five quarterback in the league. Like I'm
11:34not just because CJ hadn't played well this year and hell I saw a list of top 10 quarterbacks
11:39yesterday or a couple of days ago. And CJ wasn't mentioned. Like, I mean, CJ played like now we
11:45know what CJ could do. Like now that I know what CJ can do after the way he played last year,
11:51just cause a rough season happens or something changes a little bit. I'm not going to drop and
11:54start grading this guy on, on, uh, on, uh, again, on the Carson Wentz scale. I mean, I'm always,
12:00I'm always going to guard, like, well, I'm just telling you, like, that's just, that's just where
12:05I'm at. Like I'm going to, I'm going to grade CJ Stroud on the Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson path.
12:10Like if, if, if you want to, if you want an A out of me, you want an A plus out of me,
12:14you got to go out there and be lights out for four quarters, or you got to go out there and,
12:20and win a shootout. Like you did against Baker Mayfield though, for 400 yards, like you've got
12:24to do something either for four quarters consistently that made your team unbeatable,
12:28or you got to go out there and have monster moments within the game versus a great opponent.
12:32And you'd be the reason they won. If you're going to get an A plus, right? I mean, A even an A like,
12:38so the bar for CJ Stroud for me, it's a little, it's a S that's slightly higher than I have it.
12:45I view him in the same range of Herbert and Tua and how I, and how I grade, probably grade him or
12:53look at what he's doing. And I just thought he just made just, he just throughout the game,
12:58even into the third quarter, just made some, some really poor decisions, time and score,
13:05just like, just like Justin Herbert.
13:06This may be for a different segment. So you've come to the point where you're Justin Herbert
13:09Tua on CJ. It's no longer CJ and, and, and like being a top quarterback in the league.
13:15Well, I had never had him in that off the, off the year. My whole thing this year was
13:20he, to me was in the eight to 10 range and he could, he could make the jump up, up there. I
13:27never based off one season to me, like, to me, I think it's crazy talk that people are talking
13:33about with Jalen Daniels right now. Like, all right, that he looks really good. Like, just
13:38like CJ did, like, I, who was it? God, Bucky, Bucky Brooks said five elite quarterbacks in the
13:46league. Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrell, and Jaden, and Jaden Deck.
13:55And I'm like, same stuff was going on with CJ last year.
13:58And I'm like, yo, like, we gotta, we gotta wait. So I, I've not, I've never had him in that,
14:02in that range. So, so I just, I've just never graded him like that. But yeah, man,
14:07I'm just, listen, he did the things he needed to do, but he, he, he, he helped kind of potentially
14:16put his team in tough spots and he did put his team in a, in a tough spot. Now I, yeah,
14:22I certainly expect more than to win, but no, man, listen, he did. And like you said, like I was,
14:28that's what I was going to go with. What do you think the biggest thing that changed was?
14:32And it seems like maybe the legs and the threat, the threat to run.
14:36Yeah. For me again, it's the way in which he did is we've seen CJ impact the game with his legs in
14:42a scramble mode. But I don't know that I've ever seen CJ this year anyway, where he clearly is in
14:48scramble mode and the ball's not up by on his, on his pec. He's not looking to throw it. He's
14:53not floating. He's tucking the ball and going and getting it. And that's, that's, that is,
14:57that's who you gotta be. That's who you gotta be in these playoff games or, or it's, it's Bobby
15:02just can't, can't be right enough without it. So that's how he jumped to a B for me.
15:09Yeah. All right. As we see people rolling in their thoughts about CJ Stroud,
15:16he gets another week, he gets another week and he gets another shot
15:20against the chiefs, Patrick Mahomes and the chiefs coming up next week.