Stephen A. Smith Says the Giants Loss 'Ruined' the Texans' Season as the National Spotlight Turns on 2-5 Houston
On ESPN's First Take, Smith defended DeMeco Ryans' job while declaring Houston's season effectively over at 2-5 - and asked what the Texans did all offseason to start September so slowly for a second straight year.
The Houston Texans have gone from the national media's favorite dark-horse pick to what Texans Wire calls the NFL's most underwhelming team in 2026, and the verdict segment arrived Monday morning. On ESPN's "First Take," Stephen A. Smith passed over the New York Giants' hot start under first-year coach John Harbaugh - the team that had just beaten Houston 27-21 on a walk-off - to spend the segment on the failures of the 2-5 Texans, Texans Wire reported Wednesday.
"DeMeco Ryans is a damn good coach. And the reality is that, you know what, he's not going to get fired or anything, nor does he deserve it, but I think Houston losing that game yesterday, I think it ruined their season," Smith said. "I think in order for them to make the playoffs, they had to go like four or five games without losing a game starting off 0-4." Houston opened with four straight losses, steadied itself with back-to-back wins over Tennessee and Jacksonville, and then lost in overtime Sunday to a Giants team starting J.J. McCarthy for the first time - a quarterback who, in Texans Wire's account, looked like a Pro Bowler carving up Houston's secondary.
Smith's sharpest question was about September, not Sunday. "What the hell are you doing in the offseason and in training camp and in the preseason to get your boys ready? Why aren't they ready to play football in September?" he said. "This is what is going to cost the Houston Texans. I believe in order for Houston to make a run, they couldn't lose another game for the next four to five weeks. They had to at least get back to .500. To win two straight, and then to go and lose to J.J. McCarthy and the New York Giants?" He closed the thought plainly: "I don't know how good the Houston Texans are right now."
The slow start is becoming a pattern the numbers support: last season Houston opened 0-3 before winning nine straight to finish 12-5, and this season's 0-4 start again left the Texans spending October digging out. Even with C.J. Stroud's promising play, Texans Wire noted, the defense could not get a stop on the final possession Sunday, with former Texan Devin Singletary delivering the walk-off. Houston returns from its bye week to face the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium - currently, per Texans Wire, the only winless team in the NFL for 2026, which makes it exactly the kind of game a 2-5 team with no margin left cannot afford to make interesting.
