Head coach Gary Kubiak will be in evaluation mode during the team's bye week. With Matt Schaub's foot injury improving and Case Keenum's "impressive" debut, Kubiak is at a crossroads in the quarterback starting decision.
"I've got to sit down and look at our situation and what's going on right now," Kubiak said Monday. "Obviously, Matt's our starting quarterback. Case (Keenum) play this week because Matt wasn't healthy. Case went in and played extremely well. I'm going to sit down, we're on a bye week, I'm going to evaluate where we're at as a team and move forward form there. So I'm going to do that everywhere, not just at the quarterback position, I'll do that at every place."
Keenum passed for 271 yards and one touchdown in Sunday's 17-16 loss to the Chiefs. He was sacked five times by Kansas City's top-ranked defense. Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali's final sack on Keenum forced him to fumble in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, Houston's only turnover of the game.
"Well, I was impressed with what he did," Kubiak said. "To go into Kansas City in that environment, that noise, and to handle the football team the way he handled it, I thought was impressive. We had no huddle issues. We had no problems getting in and out and getting our game plan run. I think we had one false start the whole game, which I was very impressed with, with the environment that we were in. He did a lot of really good things. He did a lot of things that he's got to go improve upon for us to be successful. So we've got to go fix those things. I think, for a first time out and the position he was in, I thought he handled the team very well."
Kubiak said he was most impressed with Keenum's ability to run the offense and call plays despite the noise at Arrowhead Stadium. With Schaub getting closer to returning, Kubiak says he has a tough decision on which quarterback will start against Indianapolis on November 3.
"That's a difficult call, either way, from that standpoint," Kubiak said. "I'm going to look at it. Matt is back moving around a little bit today. We've got a bye week here. We have a couple of days to evaluate ourselves, evaluate our football team and see where we're at and then I will do what I think is best for the team."
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