Texans' DeMeco Ryans drops surprising take on Kris Boyd pushing coach

While he didn't like the 15-yard penalty, DeMeco Ryans downplayed Kris Boyd shoving a coach in the Divisional round.

The Houston Texans hung around in their Divisional round matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, making it a closer contest than perhaps the back-to-back Super Bowl champs anticipated. Houston was within one point of KC entering the fourth quarter. But the Chiefs ultimately pulled away and Texans’ head coach DeMeco Ryans was left feeling discouraged after the 23-14 loss.

While Saturday’s matchup contained several controversial moments, the game’s very first play set the tone. After giving up a massive return on the opening kickoff to Nikko Remigio, Texans’ corner Kris Boyd made the tackle from behind and forced a fumble. Boyd immediately began celebrating his play, running toward his sideline, ripping his helmet off and shoving special teams coach Frank Ross.

Unfortunately for Boyd, the Chiefs recovered the loose ball. And to make matters worse, the sixth-year pro was hit with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that was tacked on to what had already been a 63 yard return. While Ryans chastised Boyd for the penalty, which did even more to set the Chiefs up with an opening drive field goal, it turns out Houston’s head coach wasn’t upset about his player shoving a coach.

“I don't think he was pushing Frank in a disrespectful manner… I think it was moreso he was fired up – overly fired up – and thought he made a play to help us. So that narrative that he's pushing a coach, that's incorrect,” Ryans said per ESPN.

The Texans lacked the necessary discipline to beat the Chiefs

Boyd had already spoken about the incident, explaining that he apologized to Ross but meant no disrespect. He was just too hyped up after creating a fumble. Even though that fumble was quickly covered up by the opposing team.

While Ryans didn’t have an issue with Boyd shoving his special teams coach, he did draw the line at committing a senseless penalty. “We can't lose our minds in that sense of taking our helmet off… We still have to remain poised, right. We cannot take a helmet off in a game, everyone knows and understands the rules,” Ryans said via ESPN’s report.

Boyd’s blunder was far from the reason the Texans lost the Divisional round matchup. There was plenty of blame to go around for Houston. And, as you would expect, Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes got multiple controversial unnecessary roughness calls to go his way. The refs did their best to explain the ticky-tack calls that favored the Chiefs. But the penalties add up against KC – and that’s never a formula for victory.

Ultimately the Texans were unable to score in the fourth quarter aside from a safety the Chiefs intentionally took rather than punt out of their own end zone. Now the Chiefs will advance to their seventh straight AFC Championship game as they take on the Buffalo Bills at home next Sunday.