DeMeco Ryans: Texans didn't play winning football in the second half

Texans coach DeMeco Ryans watched his team get outscored 19-0 after halftime in a 26-23 loss to the Lions on Sunday night, and afterward he acknowledged that he has to get his team playing better late in games.

"The second half was not good enough," he said. "We didn't play winning football, we stalled on a lot of drives, didn't score any points in the second half. To beat a good football team like that, we have to be able to sustain drives, we have to be able to score points, and we were going backwards way too much."

Ryans singled out C.J. Stroud's two interceptions, one on the first play of the second half and another in the end zone when the Texans were already in field goal range, as the kinds of plays the Texans can't make if they expect to beat good teams.

"It's not good enough turning the football over there, especially in the red zone," Ryans said. "We talk about getting started in the second half, and we talked about being better in the second half, but to turn the ball over on the first play of the second half, and to turn the ball over in the red zone, when we have points, it's not winning football."

It wasn't winning football, and after the Texans dominated the first half, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.