4 Texans to blame after an ugly Thursday night loss to the Jets

We thought that the Houston Texans might take a step back after losing Stefon Diggs to a season-ending torn ACL. But even allowing for the fact that the team was down its top two targets in Diggs and Nico Collins, the way it played in a Thursday night loss to the New York Jets was inexcusable.

The Jets couldn't get out of their own way for much of the night; at one point it got so bad that "sell the team" chants broke out at MetLife Stadium. But the Texans couldn't parlay that incompetence into much of a cushion, leading just 7-0 at halftime. And in the second half, things unraveled: CJ Stroud was running for his life behind a porous offensive line and Houston's secondary suddenly started springing leaks all over the place, as Aaron Rodgers and Co. came to life late in a 21-10 win.

The Texans are still in decent shape in the AFC South, 1.5 games up on an Indianapolis Colts team that just benched its starting quarterback. But it's tough to feel good about the trajectory of this team right now, on either side of the ball. Losing Diggs and Collins hurt, but that's far from the only problem facing DeMeco Ryans right now. Here are four players who should come in for the most blame for Thursday night's debacle.

4. K Ka'imi Fairbairn

Let's get this one out of the way off the bat. Houston's offense couldn't do much of anything in the second half, but it didn't help that two of its drives ended in Fairbairn misses — including one from just 27 yards out that would've cut New York's lead to 14-13 in the fourth quarter. The Jets iced the game with a touchdown on their next drive, whereas Houston still would've been within one possession had Fairbairn taken care of business. It was an uncharacteristically off night for a kicker who'd had a rock-solid season so far.

3. G Kenyon Green

Really, swap in any member of the offensive line not named Laremy Tunsil here and I wouldn't argue. Even without the team's top two wideouts, it felt like there were plays to be made in the passing game. There was just one problem: Stroud was consistently running for his life, taking seven sacks and narrowly escaping several more.

To be sure, some of that was on the QB, who held the ball for an eternity at times and occasionally. ran himself into pressure. For the most part, though, it's because the Jets were able to cave the pocket in at will. Green was abysmal yet again before leaving with an injury, but even after he departed, the situation hardly improved. Center Juice Scruggs and guard Shaq Mason are far from blameless here either; stats like this are a sign of a total system failure, one that has short-circuited this offense.

2. OC Bobby Slowik

Speaking of total system failures: It may be time to have a conversation about Slowik. Yes, Diggs and Collins are out. And yes, it's hard to gameplan around a line you don't trust. But that's still no excuse for how predictable Slowik has gotten in his playcalling, consistently lighting first and second downs on fire and asking Stroud to bail him out in obvious passing situations.

There were no wrinkles, no quick game to take the heat off a beleaguered quarterback, nothing to get Stroud on the move. Instead, it seemed like Slowik was trying to make his QB's life more difficult: At one point in the fourth quarter, the Texans ran a trick play in which a hobbled Stroud — who briefly left the game in the first half with a leg injury — had to try and haul in a contested fade in the corner of the end zone. Slowik built up a lot of good will last season, but it increasingly feels like he was carried by the brilliance of his young signal-caller.

1. S Jalen Pitre

This may not be entirely fair. Pitre is a very good player when he's coming downhill and sticking his nose in the box, taking on and winning against bigger guys. It's not his fault that his coaches put him in positions where his lack of coverage skills would be consistently exposed. And yet that's exactly what happened on Thursday night, especially down the stretch.

It's no coincidence that this was Davante Adams' best game as a Jet: Adams put up 91 yards on seven catches, most of which came from the slot — including the game-winning score in which he burnt Pitre to a crisp in one-on-one coverage. Pitre is a useful player, but he's also a limited one, and those limitations cost the Texans on Thursday.