Why Texans Are Now Fully Ready for DeMeco Ryans' Inaugural Season
The Houston Texans have now seen it all.
Under their first-year coach DeMeco Ryans, the team has experienced roster cuts, and roster additions — both young and experienced — a training camp complete with a completely different energy, injuries, winning a game and now losing one, too.
Saturday's 28-3 loss wasn't pretty by any means. Houston only had one drive of 50 yards or more and never found the endzone, but in a way, that was expected. Ryans entered a struggling franchise looking to turn things around, and while he's certainly done just that, he's not perfect. He was bound to lose, and lose he did.
But that's actually a good thing.
By not coming out victorious against Miami, the Texans were essentially heat-checked. Up until Saturday, everything seemed to be going right for Houston, minus a few big injuries that will need to be worked around this season. More importantly, than checking the Texans' ego, however, was the experience that it came with:
The Texans now know what DeMeco Ryans looks like after a loss.
"It all starts with me," Ryans said to the media following the game. "When you put a performance out there like that, it all starts with me, and it wasn't good enough."
Without a doubt, Ryans' statement is true. Houston was simply not good enough to pull off a victory against a Dolphins squad that's also on the rise under coach Mike McDaniel. But that doesn't mean they will always be "not good enough," and that's something that Ryans is also well aware of.
"I wasn't good enough today for our team," he continued. "So [I'll] go back to the drawing board and look for [ways for] myself to improve and get better to make sure I lead this team, that we put out a much better outing, especially in front of our home crowd."
Added Ryans: "It's not representative of what I want for the Texans, and we'll get it corrected."
For a coach never having been in the top position on the sideline, Ryans sounds like he's been with the Texans for years. He sounds poised and speaks with the mark of a true leader. That's what Houston has been wanting from a coach for the last three seasons. It's the reason it hired Ryans in the first place, and why it hopes to have him for the long haul.
He already wasn't going anywhere just yet, but Saturday's messages only reinforced that idea. From team practices on his birthday to messages to players' mothers on Mother's Day, the Texans have operated as a family since his hiring, and the players have certainly noticed.
The Texans have won together, and now they've lost together, but still have their sights set on being the best they can be moving forward, so when Ryans acknowledges his failures as a leader, his team will be there to back him up and continue to grind for him and for each other. They are a family, after all.
And now, that family is ready to take on the regular season behind Ryans.
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