After the Texans wrapped up their morning practice at the Methodist Training Center on Friday, head coach Gary Kubiak answered questions from the media. The following is a transcript of his interview.
Head coach Gary Kubiak
(on where the team is mentally and where their confidence is at) "That's a tough question to answer. Any time you get beat, you don't feel good until you go play again and find a way to win a game. I would say that we're focused right now. That's how I would describe them. They know they've got a big challenge on their hands this weekend. We're going to have to find a way to make some more plays to get this thing over the top. I liked our focus. We practiced good, but we better be ready to play on Sunday."
(on if K Kris Brown is doing anything different this week) "Just extra work. We've actually done it for three weeks, as far as how much kicking we're doing, team kicking with him and stuff. He's done a lot of extra work on his own. Nobody knows this trade better than him, so he and (special teams coordinator) Joe (Marciano) are just getting a bunch of extra work. Like I said, we believe in him and expect him to come in and kick well on Sunday."
(on if he has talked with K Kris Brown) "Yeah, I've had a couple talks with him. I tried to talk with him at midnight on Monday but he didn't answer the phone. I talked to him a lot on Wednesday. Like I said, he's a great kid and he works hard at what he does. He obviously struggled the last few weeks. That's part of this league. Good players bounce back and get it done, so we're expecting him to do that."
(on the health of his team) "(LB) DeMeco (Ryans) practiced so it looks like everybody's in place to go. (DT) Amobi (Okoye) missed today. He is sick. He actually missed yesterday and none of you guys caught that. He's been sick for two days. I'm hoping he's okay. He's back home today. He had the flu. He got sick and came in yesterday so we sent him to the hospital yesterday and he's at home today."
(on what the defense did in the second half to shut down the Colts offense in Indianapolis) "The biggest thing we did for our defense was playing better offensively in the second half. We controlled the football and made a bunch of third downs. That's what you try to do against this team because you're keeping No. 18 (Colts QB Peyton Manning) off the field. Our defensive effort was pretty good all day long. It was excellent in the first half when they kept us in the game. Third quarter, we kept them off the field. It's a big challenge. You're trying to slow him down. I know it's repetitive every time we play them, but you're trying to slow him down and hopefully do a good job in the red zone and find a way to get a few turnovers before the day is done."
(on if RB Steve Slaton is starting) "I'm going to play him and (RB) Chris (Brown) just like I did last week. Who actually lines up the first play will probably be determined by what we're doing. They're going to both play; they're going to split time, so we'll see."
(on if RB Steve Slaton's shoulder is limiting him) "He's fine. It was a little sore coming out of the game and he missed practice on Wednesday, even though we didn't do a whole lot. He came out here Thursday and today and told me he's fine; he practiced fine. So he's ready to go."
