DeMeco Ryans and the Texans are headed into another postseason under Ryans' leadership, set to face the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road next Monday, embracing the challenge of January football away from home. Ryans spoke on Monday about the challenge of preparing for playoff football on the road and the focus needed to keep Houston’s late-season momentum rolling.
DeMeco Ryans talks about playing playoff football away from home
Ryans outlined the differences between home and road playoff games, saying he would always prefer the energy of a “rowdy and loud” home crowd but framing this trip as playing “against everybody else in their stadium” and praising how Houston has handled itself away from NRG Stadium this season.
“When you're in the playoffs, to me, you always would love to be in front of your home crowd. That's why they call it home field advantage. When your home crowd can be rowdy and loud on those significant plays, third down, red zone, you can have that crowd noise really cranking and really disrupting the flow of the opponent's communication. That's important when you're at home. We don't have the luxury of having that this year."
But you go on the road in the playoffs, what's different? It's you against everybody else in their stadium. We went on the road this year. I feel like our guys have handled ourselves. Our team has handled themselves pretty well on the road this year, understanding that, again, it goes back to us being in the moment, executing, playing together. We won't have that crowd support, but that's okay. You still have to find a way to figure it out, find a way to win football games. We've done that on the road. Big challenge. Big challenge on Monday night versus the [Pittsburgh] Steelers. We're excited about it versus a really tough crowd who we know they're going to be loud. It's going to be a really great environment, cool environment for our guys. We haven't seen that before. It's going to be a really great environment for them to witness.
The Texans play the Steelers on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in a wild-card game at Acrisure Stadium, with kickoff set for 7:15 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET) on ESPN and ABC.
More NFL news:
- Malik Willis' free agency has everyone digging in
- A priest played a part in the Steelers' miraculous win over the Ravens
- Harrison Smith nearly played QB before his retirement decision
- Myles Garrett's Browns teammate high-fived the ref after record
- Falcons would've gone to the playoffs if not for the New York Jets
- The Colts ran a fake punt on first down