Texans' playoff heartbreak continues with another divisional round loss

HOUSTON (AP) — In their third straight season in the divisional round of the playoffs, coach DeMeco Ryans and the Houston Texans vowed this year would be different than the previous two.

Instead, it ended the same, with another lopsided loss to keep them as the only NFL team to have never reached a conference championship game.

C.J. Stroud had a dreadful performance, throwing four first-half interceptions in the 28-16 defeat at New England on Sunday that dropped the Texans to 0-7 in the divisional round. This loss comes after a 23-14 defeat at the Chiefs in this round last season and a 34-10 rout by the Ravens in the 2023 season.

Ryans was asked what this team must do to get over the hump and into the conference title game.

“We’ve got to protect the ball. We’ve got to play better football when we get in this moment," Ryans said. "For the past three years we have not played well, haven’t protected the ball well, and we have not executed well in this moment. So, it’s not a magical elixir that’s going to happen to get past the divisional round. It’s still football, and you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to execute football really well in these moments, and we have not done that.”

The Texans rode their top-ranked defense to the playoffs, ending the regular season with a nine-game winning streak to become the fifth team since 1992 to open a season 0-3 and reach the playoffs. Stroud fumbled five times, losing two of them and threw an interception against the Steelers in the wild-card round. But the defense scored two touchdowns to allow Houston to overcome his miscues to win a road playoff game for the first time in franchise history.

Houston’s players and coaches spent all week talking about how they’d have to protect the ball better to beat the Patriots.

But instead of doing that they had an even more turnover-filed performance, with Woody Marks adding a fumble in the red zone when it was a one-score game in the third quarter.

The Texans led 10-7 in the second when Marcus Jones returned Stroud’s interception 26 yards for a touchdown that put the Patriots on top for good.

Stroud’s struggles came on a day Houston was without star receiver Nico Collins, who sustained a concussion last week. The unit was further hampered when second-leading receiver tight end Dalton Schultz injured his calf in the first quarter and didn’t return.

Despite this, Stroud, the 2023 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, took responsibility for his mistakes and the loss.

“I'm crushed,” he said Monday. “And I don’t want to be emotional, but it’s like how hopeful we were to go farther and for it to be on my plate and for me not to step up, it really hurts me. I wish it didn’t go that way.”

His performance did nothing to diminish the confidence Ryans has in his young quarterback.

“I’m not going to let the bad plays there in that game … dictate to me who C.J. is,” Ryans said. “I know who C.J. is, I know what he’s capable of doing. So, we just keep looking to get better. No one feels worse about the situation than C.J. does.”

While there should be plenty of concern about Houston’s offense after Stroud’s struggles in the postseason, the Texans should be encouraged by the dominance of their defense.

“It’s inspirational to see how they played,” Ryans said. “You’re always in it with those guys and they always give you a chance because it’s a special group.”

The Texans led the NFL in yards allowed in the regular season and were second to the Seahawks in points. The defensive end duo of Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter combined for 27 sacks in the regular season and added 6 ½ in the playoffs.

The unit forced Drake Maye to fumble four times, losing two of them. Anderson had three sacks, two tackles for loss and forced two fumbles Sunday to become the fourth player in NFL history to have at least three sacks and two forced fumbles in a playoff game. Hunter added two sacks and forced a fumble against New England.

Anderson was selected first-team AP All-Pro and Hunter received second-team honors. The Texans placed three defensive players on the team with cornerback Derek Stingley receiving a first-team nod for a second straight season.

Seventh-year linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair led the team with 103 tackles in the regular season to make the Pro Bowl for the first time. He had nine tackles Sunday and recovered both fumbles for Houston to become the first player since the 2015 season to have at least two fumble recoveries in the playoff game.

The Texans played all season without running Joe Mixon and receiver Tank Dell as they recovered from injuries.

Houston’s offense took a major hit with Mixon out with a foot injury he sustained away from the facility in the offseason. It came after he ran for 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns in his first season in Houston in 2024. He has one year remaining on a three-year, $27 million contract extension he signed after joining the Texans.

Ryans was asked if he sees a future with Mixon in Houston.

“As of right now I don’t know that answer,” Ryans said Monday.

Dell didn’t play this season after dislocating a knee and tearing an ACL in December 2024. He has one year remaining on his rookie contract. His injury came after he combined for 1,376 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns in his first two NFL seasons.

Ryans said Dell’s recovery is going well and that he’s looking forward to his return next season.

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Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. (51) sacks and forces New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye to fumble, which the Texans recovered, during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans. middle, walks on the sideline during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Houston Texans defensive end Danielle Hunter (55) sacks and forces New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) to fumble, which the Patriots recovered, during the first half of an NFL divisional playoff football game, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) walks off the field after an NFL divisional playoff football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

VIENNA (AP) — In the wake of spiraling tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s violent crackdown on protests, analysts warn that the internal upheaval affecting the Iranian theocracy could carry nuclear proliferation risks.

While in recent days U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to have backed away from a military strike on Iran, he called Saturday for an end to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign in Iran. Trump’s comments came in response to Khamenei branding Trump a “criminal” for supporting protesters in Iran, and blamed demonstrators for causing thousands of deaths.

Meanwhile, a U.S. aircraft carrier, which days earlier had been in the South China Sea, passed Singapore overnight to enter the Strait of Malacca — putting it on a route that could bring it to the Middle East.

With those dangers, analysts warn Iran's nuclear material could be at risk as well.

David Albright, a former nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq and founder of the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said that in a scenario of internal chaos in Iran, the government could "lose the ability to protect its nuclear assets.”

He said that Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile “would be the most worrisome,” adding that there is a possibility that someone could steal some of this material.

There are historical precedents for such a scenario.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, highly enriched uranium and plutonium suitable for building nuclear bombs went missing due to eroded security and weakened protection of these assets.

So far, Iran has maintained control of its sites, even after the U.S. bombed them in the 12-day war in June that Israel launched against the Islamic Republic.

Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog.

The agency said in a report last November that it has not been able to verify the status and location of this highly enriched uranium stockpile since the war in June.

The agency said in November that therefore it had lost “continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of nuclear material in Iran” at facilities affected by the war.

A diplomat close to the IAEA confirmed Monday that the agency had still not received any information from Iran on the status or whereabouts of the highly enriched uranium stockpile. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity in line with diplomatic protocol.

Albright said that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium would fit in around 18 to 20 cylinders that are designed for transport, weighing around 50 kilograms (110 pounds) each when full. “Two people can easily carry it,” he said of each container.

Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said that there is a risk that the stockpile “could be diverted either to a covert program or stolen by a faction of the government or the military that wanted to retain the option of weaponization.”

She said that this risk increases as the Iranian government feels threatened or gets destabilized.

Some of the nuclear material could get smuggled out of Iran or sold to non-state actors in the event of internal chaos or potential government collapse, Davenport said.

“The risk is real but it is difficult to assess, given the unknowns regarding the status of the materials and the whereabouts,” she stressed.

Both Davenport and Albright pointed out that there is also a theoretical possibility of making nuclear bombs with Iran's 60% enriched uranium. Tehran has insisted for years its program is peaceful.

However, a weapon made directly from 60% enriched uranium rather than the usual 90% purity requires more nuclear material, which makes it “much bigger and bulkier and probably not well suited to delivery” on a missile, said Eric Brewer, a former U.S. intelligence analyst and now deputy vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

He added that such a device could still be “blown up in the desert,” for example.

Brewer said that the possibility that the current government in Iran goes down that road should not be “totally dismissed,” but he underlined that most information suggests that the highly enriched uranium “remains buried in a tunnel as a result of the U.S. strikes and is probably not easily accessible to the regime; at least not with some major risk of detection and another strike by the U.S. or Israel."

He added that recent events "have also shown that the Supreme Leader has a very high bar for any decision to weaponize.”

In the case of internal chaos, Iran’s nuclear power reactor in Bushehr — Iran’s only commercial nuclear power plant some 750 kilometers (465 miles) south of Tehran — could also get sabotaged or targeted with the aim of causing havoc or making a political point, Albright said. Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran.

So far, there has been no sign of Iran losing command and control of its security forces.

Albright pointed to the attack by the African National Congress’s armed wing on South Africa’s Koeberg Nuclear Power Station near Cape Town, as the country went through increased anti-apartheid resistance in 1982. The act of sabotage caused significant damage but resulted in no nuclear fallout.

“If the Bushehr reactor has a major accident, the winds would carry the fallout within 12 to 15 hours to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman,” Albright said.

Corrects that the cylinders weigh around 50 kilograms (110 pounds) each when full of highly enriched uranium, rather than 25 kilograms.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

FILE - An Iranian flag flutters in front of the reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran, Aug. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)