** LANDOVER, Md. - Following are quotes from the Texans after the team's 30-27 overtime win over the Washington Redskins.
Coach Gary Kubiak
(on the game) "That's one of the greatest football games that I've ever been in. The thing that I told the team is there probably wasn't a guy on our team that didn't have a bonehead play in the game, but there probably wasn't a guy on our team who didn't make a great play in the game. Just learning to fight through stuff like that. What was it? 27-10. It didn't look good. Just the character of the group to respond to stuff like that and the adversity, I'm just very very proud."
(on why he didn't attempt the 52-yard field goal in overtime) "There was a little breeze coming that way on that end. If you miss that, they've got to go 20 yards and beat us. I just felt good – I thought our defense had made a few nice stops in the fourth quarter. I expected us to pin them. We didn't do it. It just worked out. It's one of those things, if it doesn't work out, it's not good. But it worked out."
(on if K Neil Rackers didn't feel comfortable kicking the field goal) "No, he said, 'Coach, I'm OK. I'm good.' But there's obviously a little breeze coming from that end…I just had to go with my gut. It worked out today."
(on K Neil Rackers) "He's fine. He's OK. He just told me after the game, 'You know I would've made that?' I said, 'Well, now you tell me. You didn't come tell me before.'"
(on calling a timeout to affect Redskins K Graham Gano in OT) "I was trying to make sure…I made him line up and do it again. It was a 53-, 54-yarder for them, so the bottom line is you miss one of those (and) the field position in the game just totally flips. But if you make it, you win the game."
(on 'Dre's 34-yard touchdown) "It's fourth-and-10 and we had put that play in for a desperation situation. The key to that play was protection and Matt giving himself time to just throw it up. Andre comes back from a pretty good sprained ankle and has 150 yards receiving, and Kevin Walter had a big (game). Our quarterback has a 500-yard day throwing the football. That doesn't happen in the National Football League very often."
(on allowing too many sacks) "We had some mistakes in our protection. We were moving our tight end around a bunch today, and they (the Redskins) confused us a couple times. I have to make sure I don't confuse us. But we did go down a few times, but we seemed to come back and make big plays. I could say it's one of those games where there's so many things to correct, but what a brilliant effort to be able to go back and correct them with a win."
(on this win compared to others he's had) "They're all big. It's the greatest league in the world. I tell you that all the time. And I think we'll be in a lot of games like that this year and we have to have the character to find a way to win them."
(on being 2-0) "In this league, you just try to find a way to win the next one. So it's a good start for our team, a big road win in a tough environment and we have a lot of guys we got to get healthy, and we have a top-notch team coming in next week."
(on coming back from a deficit) "The character of the team got tested today. There was no panic at halftime. There were a lot of mad football players and coaches, but there was no panic. It was just about doing the job and staying after it, and we did."
(on what he said to Redskins coach Mike Shanahan afterward) "I just told him I loved him, said it was a great game. I love you, good luck. I think the world of him."
(on WR Andre Johnson) "He's pretty beat up. He took some shots. He got his ankle tweaked a little bit, gutsy performance but I think we've kind of come to expect that from him."
(on Andre's shoulder) "He's fine there. I think it was more of his ankle."
(on if he was frustrated watching QB Donovan McNabb) "They've got big-play capability. The tight ends and wideouts make big plays. Just watching Donovan warm up, when I came in after warm-ups, I was sitting there talking to Frank (Bush) and David (Gibbs), and I (said), 'Boy, he's a good looking player. He can throw the ball around.' He's been doing that his whole career, so we're not the only one that's gotten it from him. And we got our share today, but we were able to step up and make some plays."
(on WR Andre Johnson) "He had a pretty good ankle (injury). And I think we were down by seven and they were fixing to kick a field goal at that time, so it didn't look good. We blocked the field goal and he had (the trainers) re-tape him and walked over to me and said, 'I'm playing.' If he tells me he's playing, he's playing."
(on WR Kevin Walter) "It's not like game plans are built around Kevin, but when he shows up on Sunday he tends to make as many plays as anybody. It tells you what he's all about, his character. He could play a bunch of spots. He's going to play every play. It's what you need in this league."
(on DE Mario Williams) "There are so many good things going on there at the end (of the game) that were keeping us alive and giving us a chance to win, but he was obviously exceptional, and he was exceptional at the end when it counted the most."
(on TE Joel Dreessen's catch) "That was a great play. We called the play three times and the first two times we didn't get the perfect coverage we wanted. We were a little lucky we got the perfect coverage, and Matt and Joel made the play."
Defensive end Mario Williams
(on the win) "Just a bunch of hard work and want-to. It was incredible. None of the guys gave up and we continued to work and get after it. We got them to overtime and we won the game."
(on how special the win is) "It's very special. A lot of people are saying that it was (going to be) a hangover from last week beating the Colts. We didn't take it that way. We came out a little sluggish, but everything we did that was wrong, was fixable. It was just little mistakes by single players and we got that fixed and went out and we played ball, we played hard and got a 'W.'"
(on how big this win is) "We really don't care. We get the win and then we focus on the next opponent. Like I said, we're not going to let this thing linger. We're not going to let a win get us all excited like we won the Super Bowl or something like that. It definitely feels good, but we can't let it stretch over into the next game."
(on his reaction to Andre Johnson's touchdown) "I wanted to go out there again and get another (sack). There's not a better feeling, and I definitely want to say, you know, I appreciate the help from the fans behind our bench. It really meant a lot, talking all that noise. It's great to have 92,000 (fans) shut up. It's just one of those things, you go out there and play ball."
(on what fans were telling him) "Eat a mushroom, and all that. They got their mushroom. They definitely got it. It's nothing but motivation, nothing but hard work and playing for each other on the field and, like I said, just getting that crowd quiet."
(on QB Donovan McNabb) "He's obviously a mobile quarterback, so like I said earlier, it's important to get to him and get that burst and get him down before he gets rolling. We were all hunting (for him). Everybody up front, the DBs, the linebackers, everyone was doing their job."
(on WR Andre Johnson's touchdown) "That catch, I mean, he's in the Pro Bowl right now. That was just a great catch. I cannot believe it. That whole crowd, they got quiet and we got crunk. It was definitely a change of momentum with Andre doing that."
(on the timeout to ice the kicker) "That was great. I wasn't even thinking about it. But I'm glad he did call it. I wasn't even thinking about it. It worked out."
(on the team's attitude at halftime) "Mad. Mad. Definitely, because like I said the things that were messing us up were just little mistakes. Guys were wide open, guys were uncovered…"
Quarterback Matt Schaub
(on switching to a passing attach after rushing so much in Week 1) "Our offense, after all the work we put in during the offseason, the way we won last week with running the ball well and efficiently, so we stuck with that today. We got behind, so we had to throw the ball and make some plays in the air. We had guys all over the field making plays. Our defense played tremendously well down the stretch and our offensive line was protecting against a lot of different looks and a lot of different pressures."
(on how special the win is) "On the road today in a very difficult environment against a very good football team, we got behind in a tough environment, but we battled. It just shows the resolve that this team has. The veteran players' experience – a lot of guys have played a lot of football, and we just kept battling and hung in there and made some plays."
(on what the win means to him) "It's especially big because we're 2-0 now. We came on the road, first one of the season, in a tough place against a very good football team, against a great defense, and we played well and were able to come out with a win. Anytime you can win in this business, especially on the road, it's big for you."
(on his passes to TE Joel Dreessen and WR Andre Johnson) "I'm just trying to give guys a chance to make a play. The one to Andre was fourth down. My offensive line hung in there for a long time for me so I could buy some time to get him down the field. He had two guys on him. I don't even know how he caught it. I know he caught it in the end zone. We'll see it tomorrow. But a heckuva play by a heckuva player. And the one to Joel, just giving a guy a chance one-on-one with a linebacker with his back turned to me, and Joel has been making that catch now while Owen's been out the second half of last season and the offseason. So I had confidence that he was going to make that play."
(on his 497 passing yards) "Not even important to me. At the end of the day, we got a 'W.'"
(on the second half aerial attack) "We were running our scheme. Obviously, we saw some things they were doing, but they run so many multiple different looks and different blitzes that a lot it was a chess match and you're just trying to catch the right things and being able to protect some of those exotic blitzes and just being able to beat their coverages – they have a heckuva secondary and their front seven is pretty tough."
(on the touchdown to Andre Johnson) "It's just another play. A third down play for us, but it was fourth down and it's just a way to give him an opportunity down the field. But we had four guys getting out on the route, and it was just about making a play."
(on running the same play to TE Joel Dreessen earlier) "We had some variations of that play with the routes and everything based on the coverage. And they didn't give us the coverage we were wanting for it, so it never showed itself. Then we got the coverage we wanted there at the end."
Wide receiver Andre Johnson
(on if he can think of a bigger catch in his career than his TD catch vs. Washington) "The only one I can probably think of is the one against the Dolphins on fourth down. That play was on fourth down. But I think that play was probably much bigger because it was a touchdown."
(on his touchdown) "I just knew that we needed a play to win. That's pretty much it. And I was given an opportunity, and I was able to make it."
(on his ability to catch the touchdown) "I did a good job of using my body. I had him walled off pretty good and I was able to get my hands on it and I was just trying to come down with it."
(on winning on the road) "We knew that it wasn't going to be easy. They have a great football team. Coach Shanahan, Kyle, he was with us for a couple of years, and he runs a great offense. So Coach Kubiak always says, 'If you have to go out and win a game 6-3 or if you have to go out and win it 31-30, just be prepared to go out and have a dogfight every game.' We came in here at halftime, we knew we weren't out of the game, and we were determined that we were going to win."
(on how special the win is) "It's big. My thoughts coming into this week were that I knew a lot of people were going to be questioning us, asking if we were for real. I think we showed a little something today."
(on his ankle injury and if he knew he'd return) "I was a little discouraged. I was running around on the sideline not feeling too good at first, but I came inside, came back out, it started feeling a little better."
(on if he thought he was done for the game) "I did. I actually did myself. I came in (to the locker room), like I said."
(on the trainers allowing him to return) "They were questioning me a lot of the sideline, but I was just determined. I was like, 'Man, I'm good. I'm going to go back out there.' I was just going to go out there and take a chance on it. I was just going to go out there and see if I could continue playing. When I went out there and ran the first play, it felt fine. So I just kept playing."
(on the team's no-quit attitude) "We have a lot of determination. No matter what happened during the game, we never got discouraged. If you look at times past when we played in years past, if something like this happened, we wouldn't have won this game. I think it just shows that we're making that turn for the right direction."
(on how he got injured) "My foot was turned one way and I got bent back. I felt it a little bit when I was under the pile, but I didn't think it was that bad. When I tried to run on it the next play, I felt the pain. So that's pretty much what happened."
(on treating his injury) "I have an MRI set for in the morning, so we're going to go over and look and see what we find. I don't think it's anything real bad because the ankle didn't swell up on me. I played on it, so I think I should be fine for next week."
(on QB Matt Schaub) "Like I said before about Matt, if he's healthy, he's very capable of being the top quarterback in this league. He went out and showed that today."
