C.J. Stroud’s prove-it year is off to a nightmare start

C.J. Stroud will remember 30 specific minutes from the afternoon of January 18, 2026, for the rest of his life. Over the course of those 30 minutes of game time, in the first half of the most crucial game of his three-year NFL career, Stroud threw four interceptions. Four interceptions that doomed Stroud’s Houston Texans in their divisional round game against the New England Patriots. That’s the kind of performance that leaves not just bruises, but scars. The 2026 struggles of Stroud’s counterpart in that game, Drake Maye, have overshadowed the fact that Stroud and the Texans are once again…