C.J. Stroud had himself a day.
The No. 2 overall pick tore the Buccaneers defense asunder in his eighth career start, tying a rookie record with five touchdown passes and setting one with 470 passing yards during a performance that included a climactic, game-winning drive to steal a 39-37 victory over Tampa Bay.
"It's a gutsy performance from him," head coach DeMeco Ryans said. "It wasn't all clean, but he gutted it out. He was tough in the pocket, made some plays, made some big-time throws for us. The receivers, they were reliable for him. They made those catches. They made tough catches, made big plays for us. So it's all of those guys working together. C.J., it was just a very gutsy performance by him."
Stroud was plenty gutsy, willing the Texans to a win in a game that saw six lead changes (including two in the final minute), but Ryans' descriptor might be underselling it.
The rookie was astounding, and his heroics were made more impressive by the contrasting ineffectiveness of Houston's lifeless running game. With Dameon Pierce missing due to an ankle injury, the Texans managed just 53 total rushing yards.
Stroud made up the difference through the air, and he didn't just dink and dunk. He went 6 of 8 for 199 yards and three touchdowns on passes of 20-plus air yards, per Next Gen Stats. He peppered everyone at his disposal with targets, allowing multiple receivers to put up huge numbers. Four different WRs caught a touchdown. Noah Brown (six catches for 154 yards), Dalton Schultz (10 for 130) and Tank Dell (6 for 114) all eclipsed 100 yards, marking the first time that three players have done so in franchise history.
The exclamation point on all of this came on Houston's 40-second, 75-yard drive to go ahead for good.
Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield had just worked some magic of his own to take a four-point lead, using over three minutes of clock to leave the Texans with 46 seconds after firing a touchdown pass to tight end Cade Otton.
That's when Stroud struck back once again.
"Honestly, I just try to stay cool, calm and collected," he said of his approach to the last-ditch drive. "It's one play at a time, and I told them boys up front, 'Man, if y'all give me just time, I'ma make them pay.'"
Stroud started the possession by hitting Schultz twice to pick up a combined 20 yards, then found Brown for 14 before a deep shot to Dell put Houston on Tampa Bay's 15-yard line.
From there, he went to Dell again, finding his fellow rookie between two defenders in the back of the end zone.
Delivering the dagger took just six plays, and all of them, aside from a spike to kill the clock, were completions.
It was on that drive that Stroud broke the single-game rookie passing record. He also became the only rookie in NFL history to throw for 400-plus yards, four TDs and no interceptions, per NFL Research.
"It's a blessing," Stroud said of his records. "The humble me, I mean, I'm going to try to celebrate it tonight. After that, I'm on to Cincinnati. But it's a blessing. I put in a lot of work throughout the week, and the guys know that. They see it."
Sunday's victory was the latest and greatest feat in Stroud's young career, one which likely puts him in the driver's seat for the 2023 Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year and has the 4-4 Texans in contention in the AFC South a year removed from going 3-13-1.
"I don't think we can be stopped when we're on our A-game," Stroud said. "It's a big-time win for us, and as you see, November and December is when you want to be playing your best ball. So now, we just want to upscale and uptrend and trailblaze into the playoffs and hopefully get a chance to win a division."
