C.J. Stroud takes blame for historic Texans loss on 'SNF' to Lions: 'I gotta be better'

The Houston Texans held a 16-point halftime lead in their Week 10 loss to the Detroit Lions. The lead slowly evaporated in the second half and ultimately disappeared thanks to a couple of late Jake Bates field goals that gave the Lions a 26-20 victory.

After the game, Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud couldn't help but feel that he had let his team down.

"I feel like this game is on me," Stroud told reporters during a postgame news conference.

The Texans offense failed to score in the second half after dropping 23 points on the Lions before halftime. Houston generated just 82 yards in the second half, while Stroud completed just 39% of his passes for 68 yards with two interceptions.

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Stroud shouldered the blame for Houston's second-half offensive struggles. Specifically, he seemed bothered by an interception he threw while targeting Tank Dell in the end-zone.

"Gotta make plays. Gotta make throws. I can't turn the ball over when we're in scoring position," Stroud said. "I blame this on me. I gotta be better in those moments. We gotta go down and score in the red zone."

Stroud also lamented that the Texans couldn't turn Jared Goff's career-high five interceptions into more points.

"Defense is getting the turnovers. We've gotta be able to reward them with points," Stroud said. "That's something we didn't do. I feel like I'm the one to blame when it comes to that."

The Texans became just the second NFL team since 1933 to lose a game during which they logged five interceptions and held a lead of at least 15 points, per ESPN. The other was the 1970 Baltimore Colts, who earned a 21-20 victory over the Chicago Bears despite Johnny Unitas' five interceptions.

As such, it's easy to understand why Stroud believed the Texans "definitely should have won this game."

Instead, Houston lost for the third time in four games to drop to 6-4 on the season. While they are still in control of the AFC South, Stroud knows that the team has to improve to take down top NFL teams like the Lions.

"We just took one of the best NFL teams to the wire, but we really should have put them away after the first half," Stroud said. "It's really on the offense. We gotta be better. I gotta be better."

Houston will be on the road next week on "Monday Night Football" against the Dallas Cowboys.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: C.J. Stroud shoulders blame for historic Texans loss to Lions on 'SNF'