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.
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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)
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)
LOS LLANITOS, México (AP) — On a dirt field on Mexico’s Pacific coast, five cousins between the ages of 8 and 13 strip down and kick off their shoes. Nearby, adults help them fasten the pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” securing loincloths and leather belts that wrap around their hips.
The Osuna children grab the rubber ball, all 3.2 kilograms of it — around 7 pounds or seven times heavier than a soccer ball — and begin playing. Only the hips may touch it, forcing players to leap through the air or dive low when it skims the ground.
As Mexico prepares to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the nation is looking back 3,400 years to one of the oldest team sports: the ancient ballgame known as ulama, a ritual practice nearly erased during the Spanish conquest that survived only in the remote pockets of northwestern Mexico before its late 20th-century rebirth. Today, authorities and its modern players are leveraging the momentum of international soccer to shine a spotlight on the ancient sport once again.
While players acknowledge that tourism fueled the sport’s revival, many worry that projecting an “exotic” image undermines a tradition central to their identity.
“We must rid the game of the notion that it is a living fossil,” said Emilie Carreón, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, and director of a project aimed at studying and practicing the sport.
That's exactly what the Osuna family is trying to do. After ulama player Aurelio Osuna died, his widow, María Herrera, 53, continued his legacy, teaching the ballgame to their grandchildren in their small village in Sinaloa, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northwest of Mexico City.
“This seed will bear fruit someday,” she said.
According to the Popol Vuh, the sacred Mayan book, the world was created from a ballgame, where light and darkness clashed to balance life and death and set the universe in motion.
Long before the Maya, the Olmecs — the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization — practiced the sport; the recreation of this clash of opposing forces was common in various pre-Hispanic cultures. The evidence is in millennial rubber balls unearthed in Mexico and in nearly 2,000 ball courts found from Nicaragua to Arizona.
The game, depicted in codices, stone carvings and sculptures, had many variations and meanings, from fertility or war ceremonies, to political acts and even sacrifices.
While some players were beheaded — possibly the losers — Guatemalan archaeologist and anthropologist Carlos Navarrete explained this occurred only during specific periods and in certain regions. The physically demanding game was primarily a big social event, drawing crowds for fun and betting.
Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was impressed by the spectacle presented by the Aztec emperor Moctezuma but the Spanish ultimately banned ulama and ordered the destruction of its courts, likely viewing the tradition as a form of resistance to Christianity. For the Catholic Church “the ball was the living devil,” Carreón said.
The game — played by hitting the ball with the hip, the forearm or a mallet — survived only on the Mexican northern Pacific coast, where the colonial process led by Jesuit priests was less aggressive and ulama was accepted in Catholic festivities, said Manuel Aguilar Moreno, a professor of art history at California State University.
On the opening day of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, spectators watched as burly men contorted their bodies in unexpected ways to keep the rubber ball moving for as long as possible. The exhibition sparked studies about the ballgame and how to preserve it in the following decades.
Luis Aurelio Osuna, 30, Herrera’s eldest son, began playing hip ulama after school, just as his father did decades ago in Los Llanitos, a ranch next to the port city of Mazatlán. Now his three children also play.
Osuna and his mother teach the children how to hit the ball and guide them through the complicated rules, which include a scoring system with points that are won and lost.
They do it out of passion, but also out of pragmatism in a state where organized crime is pervasive.
“We need to find a way to keep them entertained with good things,” said Osuna.
Hip ulama teams have up to six players and the Osuna family sometimes participates in tournaments or exhibitions.
Decades ago, matches were big events tied to religious feasts, sometimes stretching on for an entire week. But those days are gone, as interest waned and rubber balls became hard to get.
In the 1980s, filmmaker Roberto Rochín documented the work of perhaps the last rubber ball-maker in the mountains of Sinaloa. The artisan made them similar to the Olmecs, who discovered that mixing hot rubber sap with a plant created a strong, elastic and durable material. This civilization made some of the oldest balls of the world.
During the 1990s, staff from a resort in the Mexican Caribbean traveled across the country in search of Sinaloan families who could represent the ballgame as a tourist attraction in the Riviera Maya, where no one played it anymore.
“It’s pure spectacle: they paint their faces and put on feathered costumes,” Herrera said. Yet, she acknowledges the value. “That’s where the revival began.”
The ballgame began to spread and to be known outside Mexico. Osuna, with the family team his father had formed, ended up playing hip ulama in a Roman amphitheater in Italy. It attracted so much attention that they were hired for a deodorant commercial, he said.
As the World Cup approaches, authorities and corporations are launching exhibitions in Mexico City and Guadalajara, and featuring ulama players in ad campaigns highlighting Mexican heritage — a move that has sparked mixed feelings.
“We’re not circus monkeys,” says Ángel Ortega, a 21-year-old ulama player from Mexico City who recently participated in a TV commercial alongside football players.
Ilse Sil, a player and member of the UNAM project led by Carreón, believes that institutional support will help to preserve ulama but officials need to promote the game in communities and schools to recruit more young players, as it remains a marginal sport with approximately 1,000 players mainly in México and Guatemala.
In Los Llanitos, Herrera’s grandchildren love playing. They don't care where — in the dirt field, in a court or even in the house corridor — but always with the precious inheritance: a handmade decades-old rubber ball from the mountains of Sinaloa. They say it cushions the blows better.
Eight-year-old Kiki is the most enthusiastic. He says he is determined to keep practicing until he fulfills the dream of leading a team of his own.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Juan Osuna plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
The Osuna family poses for a photo before a match of ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, that they organized in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Iker Salgueido plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Iker Salgueiro stands still as an adult fastens a pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” or leather belt, in preparation for ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Youth play ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
