Two days after Sunday's 28-23 loss to the Oakland Raiders, Ben Tate clarified his post-game comments about "wishy-washy" fans. Tate was referring to a number of fans at Reliant Stadium who expressed their displeasure over the change at quarterback late in the game.
"Do we try to go out and win every week? Yeah, but booing is not going to help us win especially when you're in our house and we are in our own place," Tate said on the Verizon Players show on Texans Radio. "It's so loud. We can't hear the cadence. We've got guys jumping offsides in the red zone because some of the reasons why are that they can't hear the cadence."
In the fourth quarter, the fan reaction was loud enough to force the Texans' offense to switch to a silent count. The noise level may have been the reason for two false start penalties by Brandon Brooks inside the red zone.
"I'm not saying it's the fan's fault that we lost the game at all," Tate said. "We still have got to play the game. We lost because we didn't get the job done."
Tate maintains that his comments were not directed at the entire fan base. On Tuesday, he and Greg Jones made a guest appearance at the Verizon store to do a radio appearance. Tate and Jones posed for pictures and signed autographs during breaks and after the show.
"I'm happy to see that fans are still supporting us," Tate said. "I wasn't talking about all the fans. The ones that took offense to it are probably the ones that are that way."
Tate, who is currently playing with four cracked ribs, leads the team in rushing with 543 yards in 122 carries and one touchdown this season. Against Oakland, Tate had a season-high 117 yards from scrimmage and averaged 4.6 yards per carry.
