GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Houston Texans wide receiver Stefon Diggs said "I'm never the bigger person," regarding his heated pregame scuffle with Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander.
Roughly 20 minutes before the Packers and Texans kicked off, Diggs and Alexander had a heated exchange on the field by the Packers' sideline. Seconds later, a large group of Packers joined the verbal altercation as Diggs was the lone Texan, which turned into a little bit of pushing and shoving.
Diggs said he was walking to the locker room as the game was getting ready to kickoff before he heard "chirping" from Alexander.
"I don't give a f--- if I'm by myself or with a million. I'm never the bigger person. I ain't letting s--- go," Diggs said postgame. "They picked it up or whatever. But I ain't with the football tough guy s---."
The Packers went onto defeat the Texans 24-22 capped by a game winning kick from Brandon McManus as Diggs finished with a quiet day, totaling 23 yards on five catches.
Coach DeMeco Ryans would've preferred for Diggs to be the bigger person as Ryans wasn't thrilled with the pregame exchange and said, "we can't be about chirping."
"Things like that happen. Those guys have a history. They've been going at it before. We don't want to encourage that," Ryans said. "We just want to go play ball the right way and make sure it's settled on the field."
The Texans' passing offense wasn't able to turn Diggs' pregame fire into a respectable product. The unit had their worst passing performance in coach DeMeco Ryans' tenure as the passing offense had a net total of 55 yards.
Star quarterback C.J. Stroud threw for a career-low 86 yards with no touchdowns even though their defense and special teams unit forced three turnovers. The offensive rushing attack was effective too as running back Joe Mixon finished with 115 yards and two touchdowns.
But the passing still couldn't capitalize on it as Stroud went 2-for-7 on third downs for 13 yards while being sacked three times. The struggles started with pass protection as the Packers pressured Stroud on 48% of his drop backs, a season-high.
"We kept shooting ourselves in the foot once again," Stroud said. "That's just a recipe for disaster when you're playing against a great team. I think our defense did a great job today. Our special teams did amazing. So, we got to be better as an offense, this is on us, point blank period."
Due to poor pass protection, the Stroud-Diggs' connection wasn't able to get going. And for all the pregame fireworks, between Alexander and him, they only matched up against each other six times with no targets, according to Next Gen Stats.
Sunday wasn't the first time, Alexander and Diggs had a pregame scuffle. In Week 8 of 2022, the two had a chippy interaction when both players ran out of the tunnel at the same time for pregame warm-ups when Diggs was a Buffalo Bills.
The Bills won 27-17 and Diggs finished with 108 receiving yards and a touchdown. Post game, Alexander called Diggs a "little boy," but this time around, he wasn't available in the locker room to discuss this heated exchange. Safety Xavier McKinney defended the Pro Bowl cornerback and "I'm with [No.] 2-3 every time."
"They got they own little stuff," McKinney said. "I'm with my guys and we gone ride together and that's just what it is, so if he don't like him, then I don't like him. That's what it is."