The New York Giants are getting a lot of national love for going on the road and beating the Houston Texans in overtime on Sunday but Stephen A. Smith isn't ready to crown the leaders of the NFC East, and he took a shot at the Texans and their head coach DeMeco Ryans while explaining his reasoning.
The Giants were the focal point of a segment on ESPN's "First Take" on Monday morning with host Shae Cornette asking if the Giants getting their first road victory of the season to improve to 4-2-1 should be considered a "hallmark win."
"The reason I'm not going with the hallmark win is because of who they're going against," Smith said.
The Texans started last season 0-3, but rebounded to finish 12-5. After opening this season with a four-game losing streak, the Texans appeared ready for a repeat when they improved to 2-4 with last week's win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, who lead the AFC South. All that good will from the impressive victory in London is out the window after they got beat by J.J. McCarthy in the quarterback's first start in a Giants uniform.
"Listen, DeMeco Ryans is a damn good coach. And the reality is that, you know what, he's not going to get fired or anything, nor does he deserve it, but I think Houston losing that game yesterday, I think it ruined their season," Smith said. "I think in order for them to make the playoffs, they had to go like four or five games without losing a game starting off 0-4."
Smith has often called out Cincinnati Bengals' head coach Zac Taylor for his notoriously slow starts, including going 1-11 in the first two games of a season for his first six years as head coach. Now, Smith is wondering about Ryans having the same issue.
"What the hell are you doing in the offseason and in training camp and in the preseason to get your boys ready? Why aren't they ready to play football in September?" Smith said. "This is what is going to cost the Houston Texans. I believe in order for Houston to make a run, they couldn't lose another game for the next four to five weeks. They had to at least get back to .500. To win two straight, and then to go and lose to J.J. McCarthy and the New York Giants? I'm sorry. I give the Giants credit, they're better than what we expected, that's a testament to John Harbaugh, he deserves all the credit in the world and J.J. McCarthy, he looked damn good yesterday, but I would call it a hallmark if they were playing a better team. I don't know how good the Houston Texans are right now."
Dan Orlovsky, who often plays the foil to Smith on "First Take," did call it a hallmark win and shouted out the Giants for rushing for 188 yards, including a 42-yard run Cam Skattebo and 30-yard touchdown from Devin Singletary to finish out the game in overtime against what was supposed to be an elite Texans defense.
"They basically said, you won't tackle us," Orlovsky said. "To go win that game in overtime the way that they do, against that team? They gave the ball to Singletary, they gave the ball to Skattebo and said your secondary is not willing to tackle us."
It wasn't just Smith and ESPN taking shots at the Texans. On his Sunday night podcast at The Ringer, Bill Simmons called the overtime, in which the Texans went three-and-out, then allowed the Giants to score in just three plays, "an improbable, embarrassing rollover by the Texans."
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There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at ESPN's Stephen A. Smith calls out DeMeco Ryans for Houston Texans' abysmal start to season.