Less than 24 hours after a devastating 30-23 loss at Pittsburgh, head coach Bill O'Brien still had confidence in his team, one that he firmly believes is still mentally tough. Heading into a Week 8 matchup with AFC South rival Tennessee Titans, the Texans have corrections that need to be made in order to get back to winning.
"Probably, I would say that the two areas that we have to do a better job at—we cannot turn the ball over," O'Brien said Wednesday. "We've got to stop turning the ball over, and I think probably the big thing, to me, is we've got to eliminate the line of scrimmage penalties."
The Texans currently lead the league with 15 takeaways, but have managed a turnover differential of only plus-2 with the increasing number of giveaways. In Monday's night's 30-23 loss, the Texans committed three turnovers. The Steelers capitalized on all three, scoring two touchdowns and a field goal.
Penalties also continued to plague the Texans. With four penalties for 20 yards, Houston committed fewer penalties than the Steelers (6 for 38 yards), but the timing of each was critical.
"The too many men on the field, the offsides, we had one false start on offense," O'Brien said. "We had defensive offsides. Those types of things, we can control so we have to make sure that we're correcting that, showing that on tape. 'Hey guys, we have to have better focus here,' whatever it is we have to do to correct it, we're going to do that, but those two areas are areas—we have to stop turning the ball over and correct the penalties."
Houston had several costly flags in the fourth quarter that extended drives for Pittsburgh, including one for too many men on the field on third down for the Steelers.
"We're trying to put our team in the best position to win," O'Brien said. "They're doing all that they can to make the play, but we've just got to eliminate these mistakes and I think if we do, we'll see a team that can really compete and win."
The Texans travel to Tennessee to take on the Titans on Sunday, October 26. Kickoff is scheduled for noon on FOX KRIV-26 and SportsRadio 610.
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