Following are quotes from Texans coach Gary Kubiak following practice on Monday.
Coach Gary Kubiak(on players not available for practice today) "(DE) Mario (Williams) didn't practice. (T) Eric Winston didn't practice. (G Mike) Brisiel didn't practice. (WR) Andre Johnson didn't practice. (TE) Owen Daniels is back on the field today. (LB Xavier) Adibi was back on the field today. That's where we're at."
(on the players that didn't practice today, was it for precautionary reasons) "(WR) Andre (Johnson) just re-tweaked his ankle. So we left him inside to get his treatment. It's probably nothing different from what we've been dealing with. So we'll see as time goes. He won't touch the field until Thursday either way. As far as (T) Eric (Winston) and (G Mike) Brisiel, they will be out probably till Thursday to just to nurse shoulders. They're beat up."
(on if QB Matt Schaub was okay to practice) "He's fine. (DE) Mario (Williams) probably won't practice until Thursday, too, but other than that, we've got a couple of guys back. We'll practice again tomorrow morning. We'll probably be out there about 9:30. They'll be off Wednesday and we'll start our routine on Thursday."
(on if DE Mario Williams has received any further exams) "No, it's the same thing. He's been dealing with it all year long. He's been playing with it. We have our routine on how we get him to each Sunday. I think just a Sunday-Thursday quick turnaround was very difficult on him last week. Coming out of the game, it was bothering quite a bit, but now that we've got a good stretch before we play again I don't see any problem with him returning to his routine."
(on if TE Owen Daniels will start this weekend) "I got to see if he's ready to play first. I'm just hoping that he's available to play and we go from there, but right now it's a day-to-day, 'Is he going to be ready to play.'"
(on if there is extra emphasis on keeping QB Matt Schaub protected this weekend) "No doubt, you guys watched the game last night. You didn't have to watch that game. You could just watch the first 11 the played. They are a great defensive football team. They're led by, really, three hall-of-famers. In the back end there is (S) Ed Reed. Then there is (LB) Ray Lewis and they got the big guy on the edge. It's a great defensive football team that gives you a lot of problems. Mentally, we need this big long week to prepare for them. It's a big, big challenge for us as an offense, but as a team, too."
(on Ravens DT Haloti Ngata) "They are playing him everywhere. Last night, they played him at end and put him over the tight end. He's a huge man and very powerful. Their scheme defensively hasn't changed through the years. They've had coordinator changes, but they keep playing great defense, I've known (Ravens defensive coordinator) Gregg (Mattison) for a long time and he's done a good job with him. They'll present a lot of problems to you somehow, someway."
(on being in the playoff race in the AFC South despite of 5-7 record) "I thought that it was going to be this way just because you look at the schedule and how we all play each other. Everybody kind of has their problems, so to speak. Jacksonville got a big win yesterday and we play them. All of us play each other, but our problem right now is that we got to beat Baltimore. We got a big game Monday night and we'll have to play excellent to beat them. We got to stay focused on that."
(on what was the key for the team to finish strong in the last two seasons) "I don't know. Hopefully we'll find it again. We don't do anything different. We just play a little better at the end. We've been doing some things, but we got to do it for four quarters. Hopefully, we'll head in that same direction."
(on if QB Matt Schaub has done any concussion tests) "Our doctors tested him at halftime. They put him through a series of things and he was fine."
(on why the defense is not playing well this time of the year) "We got to expect them to play a lot better, number one. We are not going to say that this is the way we're going to play and let's do something to offset it. They've got to play better over the course of next month. Offensively, a lot of good things happened the other night, but we still could've scored another 10 or 14 points. So we go to take that upon ourselves. Special teams-wise, we got to get some of return stuff fixed because we're losing the field position battle and the other night was really big at how we lost it. We've all got our problems as a team. We're going to win if we play better as a team."
(on CB Jason Allen) "Because of our situation, he's gotten a lot of time very, very quickly. He's been with us for two or three games and has fit in very well trying to adapt to what we're doing. He's played a lot of football, so it's not too big for him and he stepped in a made some plays the other night and made a big play."
(on if he encourages the fact that they are still in playoff contention to motivate the players) "No, I don't have to tell them that. They know that, they see that. The encouraging or concerning part is, where do you want to go? The concerning part is watching the film today and turning the film on at 24-20 with a quarter to play and then watching the way we played the rest of the way. That's concerning. They're concerned about that and yours truly is too. We got to worry about that and fix that before the other stuff has a chance to happen for us. That's the immediate problem. Hopefully we can get this thing turned around and win some football games down the stretch. If we do that, we'll have our chance. It's pretty obvious, but we better find out a way to win Monday."
(on if the players are encouraged that they can finish the season strong this year like previous years) "As far as motivation, I think they've been very motivated. They went to New York and played a great football game. We didn't finish a minute. There wasn't a lack of motivation there. We went to Philly and we're in a dog fight in the fourth quarter playing very hard and pretty good as a football team. I don't see that as a problem. Those things are in front of us. They know what's going on. They know what's there for our football team, but we got to play good enough to take care of it too."
