Critical matchups necessary for Texans to pull off Christmas Day miracle over Ravens
TEXANS ON TAP
24 December 2024
The Texans host the Ravens on Christmas Day. Composite Getty Image.
For a second straight season, the Houston Texans will be without Tank Dell to end the regular season and for the playoffs after the dynamic receiver suffered another major injury.
“It’s tough to see guys get injured, the work that guys put in, how much they put their bodies on the line to play this game,” Ryans said. “It’s deeper than football. We are talking about real people who have real emotions and real feelings who are going through a tough time right now. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in that situation.”
The AFC South champion Texans will have to regroup quickly with a visit from the Ravens coming on Christmas Day. Dell’s injury is another blow to a team that was already missing Stefon Diggs after the four-time Pro Bowl receiver sustained a season-ending knee injury in Week 8.
Dell ranks second on the team with 51 receptions for 667 yards and three touchdowns behind Nico Collins, who has 909 yards receiving and six scores.
Tight end Dalton Schultz has 482 yards receiving and two touchdowns and running back Joe Mixon 291 yards receiving and a touchdown grab. But with Dell and Diggs out, the Texans are thin at receiver.
John Metchie, who has just 182 yards receiving this season, could fill in for Diggs this week, but his status is uncertain after he missed Saturday’s game with a shoulder injury.
“There is a chance John could be back,” Ryans said. “I think he’s progressing, so we’ll see where he ends up on Wednesday.”
Other options at the position are veteran Robert Woods, who has just 143 yards receiving this season, and Xavier Hutchinson, who nine catches. Houston claimed former Ravens receiver Diontae Johnson off waivers on Monday, so he could factor in at some point.
Quarterback C.J. Stroud, one of Dell’s closest friends, was distraught after Dell’s injury and remained upset after the game. He said it will be difficult for the team to bounce back after losing Dell to a serious injury again.
“The easy answer is to tell you something to make everybody feel nice, but it’s not the truth right now,” he said after the game. “The truth is that it’s not easy seeing your brother go down like that. (Sunday) we’ll have to get recovery, get ready for Wednesday because it’s another big-time opponent. The Ravens are a great team. It’ll be a playoff atmosphere on Christmas Day.”
Don't miss the video above as the crew from Texans on Tap previews the Texans' Christmas Day matchup with the Ravens!
What's working
Stroud distributed the ball well Saturday, completing passes to six different players. Dell led the way with six receptions for 98 yards and Collins had seven receptions for 60 yards while being double-teamed often.
With teams likely to place even more emphasis on stopping Collins with Dell out, Stroud will need to continue to spread the ball around against the Ravens.
What needs help
The Texans continue to struggle in the red zone and converted just 1 of 3 opportunities Saturday. This comes after they were also 1 of 3 in a win over the Jaguars in Week 13 and converted just 2 of 4 chances in a loss to the Titans in Week 12.
“We had our opportunities, and it just comes down to as simple as guys being in the right spot,” Ryans said. “We just have to make the plays. We have to finish and that’s all it comes down to.”
Stock up
LB Christian Harris had seventh tackles and a sack against the Chiefs in his second game of the season after missing the first 13 with a calf injury. His sack was Houston’s 46th of the season, which ties a franchise record that was set last season.
Stock down
K Ka’imi Fairbairn missed an extra point Saturday. He’s been excellent from long range this season, making 13 field goals longer than 50 yards. But has struggled on shorter kicks, missing two from less than 30 yards before Saturday’s PAT miss.
Injuries
S Jimmie Ward injured his foot Saturday and could miss the rest of the season. … G Shaq Mason injured his knee against the Chiefs and will likely miss Wednesday’s game.
Key number
10 — Dell’s touchdown Saturday was the 10th of his career, tying Hall of Famer Andre Johnson for most TD catches by a Texans through their first two seasons.
Next steps
The Texans look for their first win over Baltimore since 2014 after five consecutive wins by the Ravens, including a 34-10 victory in the divisional round of the playoffs last season.
Texans linebacker sounds off after suspension for hit on Lawrence
Jan 3, 2025, 11:53 am
Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair said he was in a “really dark place” and wondered if he’d ever play football again in the days after he was suspended for three games for his hit on Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence that left the quarterback with a concussion.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday for the first time since the suspension, Al-Shaair discussed his state of mind during his absence.
“The things that you can think when somebody says they’re in a dark place, as dark as you can go is where I was truthfully,” he said.
Al-Shaair added that “it was hard for me to see myself playing football again” before he met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and league executives Troy Vincent and Jon Runyan.
Lawrence clenched both fists after the hit — movements consistent with what’s referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury. He was on the ground for several minutes as teammates came to his defense and mobbed Al-Shaair in what escalated into a brawl.
As Al-Shaair was leaving the field after being ejected, fans started screaming at him. Jaguars veteran guard Brandon Scherff joined in, prompting another altercation with Al-Shaair. Texans teammate Will Anderson grabbed Al-Shaair and was escorting him off the field when a fan threw a water bottle and hit Anderson in the helmet.
Al-Shaair said that he understood the suspension, but disagreed with how he was characterized by Runyan in the letter informing him of the punishment. It included Runyan telling Al-Shaair: “Your lack of sportsmanship and respect for the game of football and all those who play, coach, and enjoy watching it, is troubling and does not reflect the core values of the NFL.”
He said he needed to talk to Runyan and other NFL executives to understand how they viewed him as a player before he could return to the field.
“I really had a moment of, there’s no way I can go out and play football again if this is how people that I work with view me,” Al-Shaair said.
He said Runyan told him that he was watching the play and the ensuing melee when he wrote the letter and that he was only referring to those moments and not his entire career in his comments about his sportsmanship.
“But the way he typed it, he said got obviously taken out of context,” Al-Shaair said. “I clearly made a mistake (and) the reason why he typed something which ended up being taken out of context as a mistake is because I did something that was obviously not right, me taking my helmet off and me starting another brawl ... wasn’t right.
“But everything prior to that I stand on the fact that I never tried to hurt him,” he continued.
Al-Shaair said he sat in a room not doing anything for about five days after his suspension.
“It’s like a blur,” he said. “I didn’t eat nothing. I didn’t go anywhere.”
By Friday of that week, some children at a foster care organization in Tennessee that he had met last year when he played for the Titans sent him messages of encouragement.
“I got so many different messages like that and I remember just sitting in my bed and I was like: ‘Man, like I can just keep sitting here sad and sulking and just feeling like I’m being misjudged or I can just do what I always do, which is just try to be positive and spread positivity, do the best that I can,’” he said.
He booked a plane ticket to Nashville and got there in time to attend the same event at the foster care organization that he’d attended the previous year.
“I had so many people saying so many negative things and to see people that were happy to see me and were happy about my presence I think that’s what kind of like snapped me back,” Al-Shaair said. “Like regardless of what’s being said, you know who you are and just lean into that and ... from there just crawling myself out of this place.”
When the AFC South champion Texans (9-7) face the Titans on Sunday, he'll return for the first time since the hit on Lawrence, and coach DeMeco Ryans is thrilled to have him back. The Texans have been hit hard by injuries and are limping into the playoffs after two straight losses.
“We’ve missed him over these past three weeks, just missed his presence, his leadership, missed his playmaking ability on the field,” Ryans said. “So, we’re excited to get him back out there and let him knock some of the rust off.”
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