With a day to digest the Texans' loss at Oakland, coach Gary Kubiak talked to the media about why Andre Johnson had just catches in the game.
Head coach Gary Kubiak
(on WR Andre Johnson did not play in the last series of the game) "That was just me. I was trying to get (WR) Jacoby (Jones) some reps and get him in the game. He hasn't been in the game at wide receiver much. So, that was just me, my decision."
(on if WR Andre Johnson not playing in the last series had anything to do with his play or anything with him) "Absolutely not, strictly me."
(on injury issues) "The only issues we should have right now are (LB Xavier) Adibi, he's day to day and (S) Nick (Ferguson) came out of the game with a little swollen knee. The one that's been given him some problems, but we're hoping for the best. Hopefully, he's ready to go."
(on QB Matt Schaub being more emotional on and off the field in the game yesterday) "He's (QB Matt Schaub) a competitor, and things weren't going good yesterday. We weren't playing well. He's trying to rally his football team and make some plays and compete. That's why he's got a chance to be a great player. Most guys that are going to make it in this league are going to be that way, usually have that type of fire, and it's in him. And he was very disappointed yesterday, just like all of us."
{QUOTE}(on if it was good to see QB Matt Schaub with that kind of emotion) "You bet. You bet. I would hope to see that in all of our guys. I like it."
(on if there were other opportunities for WR Andre Johnson after he watched the film) "Naturally, there are calls made to try to get him (WR Andre Johnson) the ball, to get him the ball and to get him more involved. Coverages dictated that we go some other place with the ball. I'll say it like I said yesterday, obviously when Andre is making a lot of plays that's good for our football team. He's done a pretty good job this year and our coaches have done a great job of getting him the ball. I think he's had a pretty good year. Yesterday, he did not get any balls in the first half. Yet, we moved the ball very well in the first half. We just didn't have the points to show for it. They're a good pass defense football team, give them credit. They played extremely well and we did not play as well. Part of not playing well is: Andre's part of that, the o-line's part of that, the quarterback's (part of that), we're all part of that. So, naturally, he didn't touch the ball enough yesterday for us to win. So, it's disappointing for all of us."
(on if the Raiders defense did something different) "No, they actually didn't even match up with him (WR Andre Johnson). They didn't send 21 (CB Nnamdi Asomugha) with him in every situation like we thought they would. They did play us in a lot of man coverage. When you play the Raiders, you've got to beat man to be successful. So, you've got to go outside and do a good job as a receiver and beat man coverage. We've got to find a way to get him the ball, as far as making the throws and those types of things. But when they've got us down by two touchdowns, they did play a lot of zone coverage on us. They played more two deep and quarter-quarter half."
(on if the Raiders did anything differently offensively to surprise them) "No. No, they really didn't. If you look at the big picture, I think the biggest thing that shows up is we've been really good on third down the past month, and then yesterday we get beat on third down. They're almost 60 percent on third downs. That means their staying on the field. We were playing a lot of man coverages the past month or five weeks and we've done a pretty good job there. We played some more man coverage in this game. Give them credit, they made some plays against some of our man coverage. So, like I said, it wasn't anything different that we were doing. I think the Raiders just did a much better job than we did."
(on G Chester Pitts penalty) "Well, it's disappointing because you talk about poise as a football team and every week you talk to your players about having poise. You know when you play that football team in that environment that it's a very emotional environment, and it usually gets pretty physical out there. We talked the night before the game that our poise would be worth a couple of first downs to us in the game. And bottom line, it cost us a touchdown possibly right there. You can't do that. You hurt your football team. You lose your composure for a second and whether you got hit or not, it doesn't matter. You can't do that. (G) Chester (Pitts) knows that. Every player on this team knows that. So, he's got to keep his composure in that situation. It hurt us."
(on what he's looking for from the team this week) "I just want to see us play a lot better, and I want to see us bounce back and play a lot better than we played yesterday. Like I said, we got beat in all three phases of the game. We have no excuses. It's not like we went down there and gave them the game; they earned it. They beat us up across the board. They coached and played very, very well. So, we have to come back and hopefully do the same thing against a good Chicago team this week."
(on if he thinks it's going to be difficult to get the team up to play this week) "I expect our team to be up every week. That's the National Football League. You play a lot of games. It's very emotional week-to-week. You see they go around this league all the time. We're all professionals. We're paid to do a job and obviously we didn't do ours yesterday."
(on if he would do anything differently preparation-wise) "No, I'd prepare the same way. We prepare the same way for every game. We don't change our routine very much: How we put in game plans, how we go about our work. We practice the same way from the standpoint of how we've been doing things the last six or seven weeks from a fresh standpoint. So, I wouldn't do anything different. Naturally, as a coach, you'd like to have a lot of calls back and I'm sure as players you'd like to have a lot of plays back. But you don't make excuses."
(on having poor practices) "We've had poor practices before. We're not perfect every day. We've had poor practices and played good, and we've had good practices and played poorly. So, I mentioned after the game, Thursday we didn't practice as well as we had been practicing. We weren't as sharp as we had been, but we did come back and practice very well on Friday."
(on if he second guessed his decision when he had third-and-inches at the 5 "I'd still go for it and naturally I'd call a different play. When you're not successful you go back and do something else. Just the momentum of the football game and the way the day had went, we were looking for a spark for our football team. You know, I would go for it again in the situation that we were in. So, like I said, obviously we could have done something better."
(on if he wants to run more in the red zone) "We haven't been running well in the red zone. Should we be running more? Yeah, to be a good red zone team, you probably should. But we haven't been running well down there. You know, that opportunity that we missed on down there, we had second-and-two, we didn't execute. We had third-and-one, we didn't execute. Then fourth-and-one, I didn't give them a good enough play to execute. So, we have to get a lot better down there, we've been pretty poor the last month."
(on what he can take from the game into next season) "Well, there are highs and lows in this business all the time. I mean, you play a lot of football games; 16 games is a lot of games. And you know, the emotional factor week in and week out, I think you can see around this league, and not just our game, comes into play all the time. But the thing you have to do, like I said earlier, you have to be professional about your job and what you're doing. You know, yesterday to me, we just didn't do it at the level that I expect us to do it at or where we're expected to do it at. And when we don't do that, we're not going to be successful."
(on if the nature of the loss negates the last four weeks in any way) "It's a week-to-week business, and it's not good today. You know, it's been good the last four weeks, but it's not good today. And we have to go back to work and try to make it better this week."
(on if there are any players they want to give some reps to this week or if it is going to be business as usual) "I don't know. We talked about that a little bit upstairs a while ago. But we have a game to win so we'll do whatever we think is best to beat Chicago."
(on if there is any reason WR Andre Johnson wasn't a factor in the game) "No, he was fine. He was fine. He was fine. As far as I know, there's nothing wrong with him. Unless you know something I don't know. But we just didn't play as well as a group as we've been playing, and (WR) Andre (Johnson) is part of the group."
