Texans head coach Gary Kubiak answered questions from the media in a Monday press conference at Reliant Stadium. The following is a transcript of his interview.
Head Coach Gary Kubiak(on all of the injuries) "Mario (Williams) will go on IR. Mario's got to have a pec repair and that will probably take place in the next week, so he's done for the season. James Casey is day-to-day as we move forward. He has a pec strain. Brice McCain should be fine. He got a little dinged in the game. Then our quarterback got a sore shoulder and a thigh bruise, so he'll be day-to-day as we start the week off."
(on G Mike Brisiel's injury) "Oh yeah, I forgot Mike. Mike kind of got an ankle and a knee kind of got rolled up in a pile. Everything seems more positive today, so we'll see where we're at come Wednesday."
(on if there has been anything wrong with QB Matt Schaub mechanically) "No, like I said yesterday, any time you get beat, everybody can do something better, me, players, everybody. Matt (Schaub) made a lot of heck of plays yesterday, a lot of good plays, made some that he would like to have back. They were very aggressive in what they were doing defensively and so when you're being played that way, you're going to have some ugly plays. They key is do you make some big plays to burn some of the blitzes and stuff that we got? We did have a lot of big plays, had nine plays over 20 yards, but just didn't make enough big ones to win the game. I don't see that. I see room for improvement with everybody, not just Matt. I don't see some flaw or something if that's what you're asking me."
(on if WR Andre Johnson is out against the Ravens) "I don't know. We'll see where he's at each and every week. As of right now, the soreness has went away, his rehab has picked up, so we'll see where he's at each day."
(on losing OLB Mario Williams for the season and OLB Brooks Reed taking his place) "I feel so bad for Mario (Williams) because he's been such a heck of a player and what we're doing to me is really going to blossom his career from now on. I think he'd really taken to the position he's playing. He was improving every day at practice, improving in every game and really enjoying. I've never seen him so upbeat about what was going on and then to lose him on a freak play, it doesn't look like much at all. I'm disappointed for Mario. Obviously it's tough on the team. We're missing a great player. Brooks (Reed) did come in, played 50-something plays and played special teams and played very well. We played good defense all day yesterday. We really did. They gave us a great opportunity to win the game and Brooks was a big part of that. So now, it's a great opportunity for him in his young career to step up and be a starter. That's why we drafted him, very capable of doing it and he'll get his opportunity here."
(on what he said to FB Lawrence Vickers after the game) "Like I always say to you guys, we win and lose as a team. There's always going to be plays that our big plays in games and everybody wants to make those plays. Everybody wants to do their part, so to speak, and he had a chance to make a big play there. It didn't happen and he'll get a great chance to come back this week if James (Casey) is unable to go and play as a starter. He'll get his opportunities to help this football team. He played hard, but like I said, we could all do things a little better."
(on how he feels about FB Lawrence Vickers starting) "Well, he's started in this League, has a lot of starts at fullback and got a lot of starts against this team at fullback playing in Cleveland. That's why we brought him in here. He'll get a lot of work now and he's been working with James (Casey). He's a little bit different player than James from that standpoint, but I got a lot of confidence in him. When somebody goes down, the next guy's got to step up and you got to keep going. He'll get an opportunity to do that. Brooks (Reed) will get an opportunity to do that, so we just got to stay positive and get those guys in there and help them any way we can."
(on what he expects from OLB Bryan Braman) "Well, he moves up the depth chart basically. Bryan can rush the passer, so he's going to get some defensive reps, which he hasn't been getting. He's been playing a lot of special teams. He's done some good stuff, but once again, here's another young player who's fixing to get thrown in the fire, so to speak and we're going to have to expect him to grow up and do some good things real quick."
(on if there is a chance of moving OLB Jesse Nading the active roster) "Yeah, there's a thought of that. We think a lot of Jesse. Jesse can help this team special teams-wise. We got a lot of things to look at right now. We got some challenges from a management standpoint, me and (Executive Vice President/General Manager) Rick (Smith) and (Founder, Chairman and CEO) Bob (McNair) and us as we sit here and have to juggle some things as we move forward with some of these injuries and some of the things going on. That's another challenge as we go into the week, but anybody that's on the practice squad is a possibility."
(on the play where there was a face mask penalty against Houston and a 12 men on the field penalty against Oakland) "I'm waiting on it too, so I'll let you know."
(on how much he takes into account what a player is telling him when deciding on challenging a play) "I try to listen to him. You talking about Joel's (Dreessen) deal? Joel was adamant that he had caught the ball. I'm listening to him, but they gave me plenty of time for us to look at it. What we felt upstairs is that we didn't think we ever saw the ball hit the ground, but with the two views they were showing on the scoreboard, the one thing that was hard to say, will they overturn this? I thought it was a big play in the game. It's a first down. Hopefully they got another view that's better than ours and he did catch a ball, but it didn't work out that way."
(on how much more WR Jacoby Jones has to step up) "He's got to step up big. He played a lot of plays yesterday, 70-plus plays him and Kevin (Walter). As I said, we got pressured a lot so a lot of things we were doing, we were having to protect and let he and Kevin go one-on-one with their secondary. He had some winds where we didn't protect as well or didn't get him the ball as well and sometimes we protected well and we didn't get the wind. He's just part of the group and the group wasn't good enough as a whole, but he's going to have to step up and make some big plays for us to continue forward. With the ball movement we had yesterday, there should've been some more points on the board. There wasn't."
(on how the Raiders were able to win the point of attack at the line of scrimmage) "I'm going to give them credit. They're very good, especially inside. Their two guys inside are very good players, so I got to give them their credit. They played well. I also did not think we played as well as we've been playing up front, but at times we did a good job and we didn't run as well. It was a little bit of everything. It just seemed like as a group, we kind of pitched in on making our mistakes or not taking advantage of situations that we had in the football game. We got to all look at it as a group. It's not the offensive linemen; it's everybody involved."
(on playing one of the best teams in the NFL next week) "Yeah, they are. They're exceptional. I've had a chance to get a head start on their defense and I think they're second or third in the League right now and getting a ton of turnovers and we got to go play there. We understand what we're facing there. We have played in two very physical football games back-to-back with Pittsburgh and yesterday against Oakland. I got to get my guys fresh and get them ready to go and we got to get these nicked guys on the field, get them back out there helping us."
(on WR Jacoby Jones running rounded off routes and why he didn't run to the corner on the last play of the game) "Well I think he did run some good routes. Like I said, if you look at the big picture, there were times where he ran some good routes and we didn't protect or didn't get the ball to him. There were times that we did protect and do what we needed to do and we didn't win. I think we're all involved in getting better from that standpoint and I expect him to get better, so it's not just him. The last play of the game, you got to move and make a play. Matt's (Schaub) trying to do that. Actually we had the play set up to go strong. We had what we wanted, but we got flushed left, so once you get flushed, you're trying to adlib and make a play. You ask guys to move around and give him a throw, but give them credit. They made the play, we didn't. I don't think it's that easy. I think this game is hard and I think you go out there and play hard and sometimes you make the plays and sometimes you don't. That's not an excuse. We didn't make the play, the Raiders did. That's not Jacoby's (Jones) fault."
(on why CB Jason Allen was taking a deep cushion in the second quarter) "Right before the half? Well he gave up a few out routes right before the half, which I think was a smart thing to do because we're just trying to get the half over with and keep them from scoring, so you are going to have some softness from that standpoint. We did miss a tackle. We blitzed in, too. We brought our pressure. It's like I tell you guys, when people do pressure you, whether it's you offensively or you as a defensive football team, they key is turning little plays into big plays and they did that. They threw a 5-yard pitch, made a guy miss and turned it into a 40-something yard touchdown, so that's the key to beating the blitz."
(on running and passing less effectively than normal and what happened on the last play) "You're right. We did not run the ball well. Why did we not run the ball well? Like I said, I think it's a combination of things. Throwing, we're under 50 percent. We got a lot of pressure yesterday and as I said, I think when you face what we faced yesterday, it's okay sometimes to sit there and throw 50, 55 percent as long as you're making big plays against blitz and pressure. The key to beating the blitz is when you got a bad play call, you don't want it to get worse. When you call the right play, you got the right protection on, then you got to make them pay. Like I said, we had some big plays in the game throwing the ball. We had 400 and something yards throwing the ball, so there were some big plays, but not enough. I look back, I think we had a 14-6 lead and we ran what we call a slammer screen to Kevin (Walter). We caught the perfect blitz. We had a chance to go to the house with it. Guy makes a shoe string tackle. That's the type of game we were in and we needed to make a couple of those plays and we didn't. The last play again? Like I said, we're working the right side of the field. We got a play going on over there, which was exactly what we wanted. The rush flushing left came across his face and when he went left, I think the first thing Matt thought of was, 'I'm going to try to score right here.' He started downhill and here comes a safety. He's got to make a decision. Do I think he could've scored when I go back and look at the film? Probably not. I mean, you got to make that decision. He's a guy out there. He's a quarterback and he's the guy having to make those decisions. Once he knew he couldn't do it, he's got to do something with the ball and the game's over. It didn't work out."
(on how WR Kevin Walter and TE Joel Dreessen's played yesterday) "Well there were some guys that made some big plays. Kevin (Walter) played really well in the game, 70-plus football plays. Not a lot of guys give them a break out there and play very well. Joel Dreessen played very well, made big plays. OD (Owen Daniels) made big plays, Arian (Foster) made big plays in the pass game. Like I said, we had a lot of big offensive football plays, a lot of ball movement, but we needed some more points. We needed seven to 10 more points. When you get beat, guys do some good stuff. Those guys did some good things, but as a group, you got to say it's not good enough and be hard on yourself and move to the next week."
(on if OLB Connor Barwin will play in OLB Mario Williams spot) "Connor's played a big role all the time. He's playing very well. He played very well in the game. That's an option we have. Those guys are kind of interchangeable. We'll have to sit down as a staff and make that decision, but they're both outside linebackers, stand up guys. Of course we play one strong and one weak, but they kind of have to know both sides. We'll make that decision as we move forward. It's kind of like offensively, you got to replace Andre (Johnson) with the group. We got to replace Mario with a good group of linebackers, not just one guy."
(on if WR Jacoby Jones is supposed to catch a punt going backwards at the 5-yard line) "If it's that guy (Oakland P Shane Lechler) punting, it's okay. This guy hit some 60-yard punts and stuff. If he hits a bomb like that and coverage is not there, I don't mind him trying to make a play. I want him to stay aggressive. If they're punting from the 50, which that team doesn't do because that kicker's pretty darn good, then it's a different story, so it all depends on the situation."
