The Texans have two ares of their team that most other franchises would kill for—a franchise quarterback on his rookie contract and a championship-caliber defense.

Instead of capitalizing on these elements of their team, Houston is blowing the opportunity, primarily because of their underwhelming offense and offensive line.

The Texans offense came back to earth on Monday during their 27–19 loss to the Seahawks. After misleading performances against the 1–6 Titans and weakened Ravens, Houston's offensive woes were out of the spotlight in recent weeks. Not anymore.

Facing a strong Seattle defense, the Texans mustered just 254 yards of offense and only 56 rushing yards. They converted two of their 15 third downs, couldn't punch the ball into the end zone on three tries from the one-yard line and Stroud was consistently under duress yet again. The performance could have been worse too, had officials ruled early in the game that Stroud was tackled in the end zone for a safety or a fumble by Stroud didn't turn into a touchback for Houston.

Even with the defense forcing four turnovers and consistently setting up short fields for the offense, the Texans couldn't capitalize on that side of the ball. The defense leads the NFL in points allowed per game at just14.7, but Houston is the first team in NFL history to have a losing record through seven weeks with the No. 1 scoring defense, per Opta Stats.

Though the offense continues to struggle, head coach DeMeco Ryans noted that they will be "pressing forward" with offensive coordinator Nick Caley at this point.

"We let the defense down, we let the team down,” tackle Tytus Howard said after the game. “We was complacent today, we didn’t come out with enough energy to start the game. We just didn’t do a good job in really no phase of the game. We gotta step it up, man, for the rest of the season if we want to do anything."

Stroud didn't necessarily agree that they were complacent, but he did say after the game, "I don't know about complacent, but the type of offense we're running is, like I told you all, death by a thousand cuts. sometimes when you live by a sword it's hard because you're not taking a bunch of deep down the field shots, but you're asked to be really good on first, second down time and time again. Something that we've got to get better at. It's still new to a lot of us, but I definitely think we can be better at that and it will help."

Stroud also put some of the blame on himself, noting he missed multiple throws and must work through pressure better.

'C.J. has to do a better job of running the offense," Ryans said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC in Houston. "Not about one person, it's everybody collectively. He falls under that category as well.'

The Texans' offensive issues have been bubbling since the middle of last season, but were easier to overlook as the team won the AFC South and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs. With their division looking much stronger, Houston playing a tougher schedule and the pressure seeming to affect Stroud's efficiency more and more, there's no hiding the great issues plaguing this unit.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as C.J. Stroud, Texans Get Brutally Honest on Offensive Woes After Ugly Loss to Seahawks.