(on Sunday's loss to the Titans) "After reviewing the tape, we simply got beat by a team that played better. They executed better than we did yesterday. I felt our effort was good. That's something you always look for when you get in a game like yesterday."
**(on the early portions of Sunday's game)** "We went
out. They took the ball the first two series. They went down.
The score was 14-0 before we knew it. I think they had run six
plays the first series and five plays (the second series) and
scored two touchdowns. We were three-and-out, three-and-out.
It's easy for a game like that to get out of control."
**(on the Texans' early second-half resilience)** "We
hung in there. We found a way to kick a field goal at the end
of the first half when the score was 21-3. And then we came out in the second half and I challenged the team to go out. We had to find a way to battle back. They went three-and-out in the first series. We took the ball at the two-yard line (and) we scored a touchdown on two plays."
**(on his hope of a coming back in the second half)**
"And really, through the third quarter I felt like we had a
chance to get back in the football game until right at the end
of the third quarter. Then a couple of things happened and they
scored again and then opened up a (lead) that we couldn't
overcome."
**(on how to respond to the defeat)** "There are always
two ways you can approach things when you go out and you lose
a game like yesterday. It happens every week in this league. It's going to happen to every team. You close your eyes and you hope it goes away, and you don't accomplish anything by doing that. Or you come back and you roll up your sleeves and you go back to work."
**(on correcting Sunday's mistakes)** "It's never a
pleasant thing to come in and look at a game when you have to
be critical of yourself. The good news is I think a lot of the problems we had yesterday are solvable. We've got to come back in on Wednesday and be determined and show the mental toughness it takes to bounce back and be ready to play a good game against the Jets this next week."
**(on the positive aspects of the Texans' special teams play)**
"Looking at the three areas of our team, I thought that the
positive things on special teams were Chad
Stanley punted very well (and) I thought our coverage units
did a good job, especially our enforcers. They downed the ball
on the one and the four-yard line to gain field position."
**(on the Texans' field-goal protection)** "This was a
team that had given us problems in terms of our field goal and
extra-point protection a year ago. They blocked one in here
against us. We spent some time on that. I thought they did a
good job with that."
**(on responding to the Titans' pop-up kicks)** "We
didn't do as good a job as we hoped in their pop-up kicks. They
are a team that has experimented a little bit because of their
kicker being hurt so they popped the ball up. We thought we
could gain advantage there. We didn't.
**(on Texans' special teams penalties)**"We had a
couple penalties. One of them was not critical when we were
punting from midfield. But the other one was on the kickoff
return."
**(on his feelings about the Texans offense after the loss)**
"Offensively, I think we continue to show signs of progress
on offense. I'm encouraged by what our offense can be."
**(on the Texans' first-down production)** "As you break
it down and look at it, on first down we had our best day of the
season in terms of first down. We consider a win (a gain) of
four yards or more. We were 68 percent, 21 of 31, on first down.
We averaged 5.7 (yards) a rush and 8.5 (yards) a pass."
**(on the Texans' pass protection)** "We still only gave
up one sack in 45 attempts against a team I think is probably
as talented up front as any team we'll play against. They got good push. They got good pressure on us, but I think David (Carr) did a very good job of getting rid of the football at times when they did have pressure."
**(on his overall thoughts about the offensive production on
Sunday)** "We didn't fumble the ball. We had the most big
plays that we've had all year. We had three runs, three passes,
three runs of over 15 yards, three passes of over 25 yards. So,
I think that we are making progress in some areas. I think you
can really see that."
**(on how the interceptions have hurt the Texans)** "The
negative (is) we threw three interceptions. It's hard to win a
football game if you throw three interceptions--one of them for
the touchdown. In our three losses we've thrown interceptions
for touchdowns. So we've got to get that rectified. The other
(interception) we threw, we'd taken the ball all the way down
on the eight-yard line there the last series and we're sitting there in good shape to possibly score another touchdown, but we didn't."
**(on the Texans' lack of third-down production)**
"Third down is the area that we've got to work on the most.
We were only two-of-nine. So as you look at the different phases
of our team, I thought we were over 50 percent in our first and
second-down run. We were over 60 percent on our first and
second-down pass. Third down is an area where we were only
two-of-nine, 22 percent.
**(on the Texans' offensive penalties)** "We had four
penalties on offense. One of those penalties was very critical
because it was early in the game. We just made a play for 16
yards. David (Carr) made really a good play to Domanick
Davis and we get called for a leg whip. If that doesn't
happen, we're going to be first-and-goal on the 10-yard line.
Instead, the ball is moved back to the 41. We end up having to
punt the ball. It was a time where I believe the score was 14-0.
Had we been able to get even three points out of that, it
could've influenced the game."
**(on the Texans' defensive output on Sunday)** "On
defense, it was one of those days. We really had a hard time
getting much going. I mentioned after the game that if you can't
pressure the quarterback and you don't cover very well and you
don't tackle very well, you're going to have a tough day. That
was the case. That's always accentuated when you're playing
against a quarterback like Steve McNair."
**(on Titans quarterback Steve McNair's play on Sunday)**
"I think (McNair) is playing as good as he has played. All
the deep balls that he threw yesterday were right on the money.
The receivers didn't have to break stride.
**(on preventing big plays on defense)** "The biggest
thing we have to do on defense is we have to go back to work and
we can't give up as many big plays. That's an obvious statement
I believe. We had too many big plays in the game against a good
football team. They were a good offensive team. They did a good
job of executing. They really out-executed us in that
area."
**(on getting over the loss and preparing for the next game)**
"What we have to do is the guys have come in we've taken a
look at (the game) as always. You evaluate what you have to do
to move forward next week against the Jets and we'll do that.
Everybody has to accept their responsibility. We just didn't
play well enough to beat a good football team. Tennessee is a
good football team playing in their home stadium. It's
disappointing to me because I had hoped and anticipated that we
would play better. But we didn't and that's the way these game
go."
**(on the upcoming week and this Sunday's contest against the
Jets)** "We'll come back in on Wednesday. We'll go back
to work to get ready to play our best game against the Jets
coming in here. You don't get to play any of these games over,
so you have to make sure that you approach everything with a
sense of urgency. I think our players will do that. I think
they'll come back in and go back to work. I anticipate and
expect us to play a lot better this week."
