Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) warms up before an NFL divisional playoff football game at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, in Baltimore.
BALTIMORE — With history four quarters away, the Houston Texans could see the future.
It was bright. A win and they would be in the AFC Championship Game for the first time in team history.
Instead, they repeated the past.
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Aside from long snapper Jon Weeks, none of the players on the team were party to the previous failings at this point in the playoffs. They are attached to them now.
For the fifth time, the Texans lost in the divisional round of the playoffs, getting outscored 24-0 in the second half to fall to the Ravens 34-10 on Saturday.
ALEXANDER: Texans not able to get out of their own way.
The Ravens needed a special performance from star quarterback Lamar Jackson and he delivered.
The Texans needed the same from rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, but they didn’t get it.
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The brutal cold, 20 degrees by game’s end, was a problem. Jackson was a bigger one. He was the best player on the field, accounting for four touchdowns, rushing for 100 yards and passing for an efficient 152 more.
Stroud was fine (19-of-33 for 175 yards). He completed passes, dodged sacks, made plays and didn’t turn the ball over.
Fine is OK, but not against one of the best players in the league, who was having his way with DeMeco Ryans’ defense.
RAVENS 34, TEXANS 10: How the game was lost.
OK would often work, but not when facing the team with the NFL’s best record on the road.
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Stroud, the rookie, was charming in Charm City.
In his house, Jackson was electric. Especially in the second half.
Jackson completed 9 of 11 passes for 100 yards and rushed for five times for 50 yards as the Raven scored on every possession after intermission, starting with three straight touchdowns drives.
According to Next Gen Stats, the Texans blitzed Jackson at a higher rate than any team in his career. He torched those Texans’ blitzes, completing 13 of 18 passes for 120 yards and two TDs.
Jackson was a different player in the second half, getting rid of the ball “more than a second quicker” against the blitz than in the first half.
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He sped up, the Texans slowed down.
“Lamar just pretty much took over,” Ryans said. “He made some exceptional plays, and we just couldn’t get him down.
The Texans weren’t shocked — Jackson has dominated dozens of teams in his six-year career — but the Texans thought they had answers.
The 22-year-old Stroud had to lead the way without the help of a running game. Tailback Devin Singletary had nine carries, with two of them going for 23 yards and the other seven accounting minus-1.
Stroud has done it before, but couldn’t pull it off on this night.
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Nothing had been settled when “Jimmy Eat World,” a rock band from Arizona that showed up in Baltimore for reasons unknown, screamed out their songs at halftime.
The game was even on the scoreboard, 10-10, and the Texans should have been ahead.
Stroud had thrown for more yards than Jackson (131-45), Houston had more yards overall (145-118) and had scored on a Steven Sims’ 67-yard punt return.
Noise and nerves caused the Texans problems early on.
The sellout crowd of 70,018, who dealt with a wind-chill factor that dipped as low as 7 degrees in the fourth quarter, made it difficult for the Texans’ offensive line to hear the sign calls. The unit committed four false start penalties in the first half.
That is more penalties than the entire team was flagged for in last week’s playoff win over Cleveland.
That isn’t a recipe for an upset against the team with the NFL’s best record.
Neither was Ka’imi Fairbairn missing a 47-yard field goal wide right that could have given the Texans their first lead just before the half. Fairbairn had made 38 straight kicks from less than 50 yards.
The miss felt like a turnover.
The Texans had missed their opportunity.
The second half was all Baltimore, with the Ravens holding the Texans to just four first downs.
“It’s not a moral victory of just being here,” Ryans said. “It’s not what we set out to do.
“But I’m proud of this team.”
The Texans had advanced to this point in the playoffs on four prior occasions.
All four times were on the road, and all four times, the Texans were defeated.
Two previous coaches — Gary Kubiak and Bill O’Brien — each led a pair of teams past the Wild Card round, only to lose the divisional.
Ryans getting here in his first year is an accomplishment the other two don’t have on the resumes.
The Texans’ future is indeed bright.
Unfortunately for their long-suffering fans, they visited the dark past Saturday night.
They didn’t make history, they repeated it.
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