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Head Coach Bill O'Brien**
LT Duane Brown
TE Garrett Graham
CB Darryl Morris
Head Coach Bill O'Brien
(on areas of improvement on offense after watching the game film) "Line of scrimmage penalties, false starts, can't happen. Protection has to be better. We've got to run the ball better. What I showed the team this morning was it's about 50-50, which isn't good enough right now. It's 50 percent where we do the right thing and we execute the plays properly and the plays look good. And then it's 50 percent where it's maybe a bad call, maybe it's not executed properly or whatever it is, but we're all in it together and it has to get better. It's never as bad as you think it is offensively, you know, relative to yesterday, and it's never as good as you think it is. So that goes for the defense. Everybody is going to pat the defense on the back, and they should. The defense played well, but there are so many things on both sides of the ball and on special teams that we need to improve upon."
(on what he is looking at in terms of offensive protection along the line) "It's all together. It starts with the quarterback getting us to the right person in protection. The way we do things, it starts there, which for the most part was good. Fitzy's (Ryan Fitzpatrick) ability to get us to the right people. And then it goes with the offensive line, obviously they've got to block better, more consistently. And then it's the running backs and the tight ends. Everybody is involved in protection in certain plays. Sometimes tight ends and running backs are involved in the protection. Maybe their involved in what we would call a hot throw, things like that. Everybody has to be better at that. And when it's good, we execute well. When it's not, it's not very good. We all have to be more consistent."
(on what are the keys to running ball better) "We have to look at our game plans and think about what our players do well and run those types of plays. Without getting to specific, we have to start there. Then the players, once we get that determined, the players need to go out there and execute that to the best of their ability. We've just got to be more consistent in how we run the football. Because like I said, just like everything else, when it's good, we run the football well. When it's not, it's just not good enough."
(on the special teams play of P Shane Lechler and K Randy Bullock) "Start with Shane. Shane Lechler is a great example for young players. Here's a guy that was basically banged up all week. Didn't do much during the week on the practice field, but was in there every day for extra treatment morning, noon and night. Paid attention in the gameplan meetings, did a great job in his players' special teams meeting that he has on Saturday morning, got the guys ready to go in that regard and then went out there and had some big kicks. Was able to pin Buffalo deep, flip the field a few times and that's what being a pro is all about. Shane is a very professional guy and great punter. Randy Bullock did an excellent job kicking. His kickoffs were good. Even when they weren't touchbacks, he was able to put in the corner and kind of limit the amount of field (C.J.) Spiller had to return. Especially the kickoff after the celebration penalty, that one where we had to kick off from the 20, which ended up being the 25 because Buffalo was penalized on the PAT there, he did a great job on that kickoff. Kicking it deep in the corner where the guys could cover it. And then obviously his field goals were impressive, so he did a real good job."
(on how much of a concern is the numbers RB DeMarco Murray is putting up) "Well, I think we played pretty good run defense yesterday. I think they were held to 96 yards rushing and those are two good backs and a really good offensive line. It definitely improved yesterday. We had better gap discipline, more guys to the ball, but we could do better. We could definitely do better. Dallas is an excellent football team that is hot right now. Very well coached; they have a great coaching staff. Really top notch players on both sides of the ball. Murray, (Tony) Romo, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, the offensive line, so it's a big challenge. It's a huge challenge for our football team. It's on the road. Playing on the road is very difficult. Our guys have to understand that challenge and be up to that challenge."
(on what he has been told about the Texans-Cowboys rivalry) "I know it means a lot. Start here in this organization. I know that this game means a lot to Mr. McNair and this Texans organization. I'll go to the city; I know it means a lot to this city, the city of Houston. Houston vs. Dallas; Texas is such a great football state and Houston and Dallas are fantastic football cities and it means a lot to the fans of Houston for us to be able to go out there, play well and win the game. We understand that. It's a big challenge like I said. Dallas has an excellent football team led by a really good head coach, Coach (Jason) Garrett, who I have a lot of respect for. It's a big challenge, but we realize how important it is to the fans and to us."
(on what G/T Xavier Su'a-Filo needs to do to be more of a contributor) "He just needs to go out there and practice better."
(on WR DeAndre Hopkins saying that he didn't know his celebration that drew a penalty was illegal) "Does this look answer your question? He knows now if he didn't know.
(on RB DeMarco Murray's season so far) "He's a dynamic player. He's a big back. He's a downhill runner. He's able to get it downhill and also bounce. He's just a really, really good football player. Just on the film that I've watch so far, which we have more to kind of grind through here, he's meant a lot to their football team and it's a big challenge, like I said."
(on how concerned he is about RB Arian Foster's health) "Again, I would say Arian and a number of other guys are in that day-to-day category. That's what we'll do. We'll talk to him every day and see how he feels. If he's able to go, he'll go."
(on if RB Arian Foster is a game time decision or week-to-week) "Day-to-day."
(on if he felt the two DE J.J. Watt roughing the passer penalties were penalties) "I appreciate the question, but it's not my job whether to agree with it or not. Those are the rules. That's what they called. Those are the rule we play under."
(on the no-huddle offense and the process of installing it and finding a rhythm) "I think that in the first year of this system, there are certain parts of this offensive system that are a process. There are other things that you can pick up right away because maybe there is a carryover, maybe certain plays that we run that these guys have run in the past. Certain modes of how we play the game are more difficult to pick up right away and that's one of them. We need to play faster and at a better rhythm. What I mean by faster, doesn't necessarily mean no huddle. It means we have to get into a better tempo, get in and out of the huddle faster, get to the line of scrimmage faster, just all those things. We just have to get a better tempo and I think that starts with me, with coaching. We've got to coach that better and figure out a better way to explain to these guys or show them this is what we're looking for."
(on the complexity of the offense and it taking time to learn as a reason for some of the struggles) "You could probably look at that and say that some of it is still getting adjusted to a new way of doing things, but that's not an excuse. We have to be more consistent in our coaching. We have to be more consistent in our playing. That's the bottom line. We've got good players, great guys—like I've said from day one—really hard working guys, hardworking coaching staff and we're all in this thing together. We're going to work extremely hard to get it better. It has to improve though. The consistency has to improve. We're going to work very hard this week to be a more consistent offense."
(on if he envisioned having so much trouble running the ball against Buffalo) "Running the ball in this league is very difficult week-to-week. It doesn't matter who you're playing. It's a very, very difficult thing to just be able to go out there and run the ball. When the running game isn't working, maybe it's for a variety of reasons. You've got to figure out a way to fix it. We really didn't do that yesterday and we have to do a better job of trying to fix that during the game."
(on the contributions from CB Darryl Morris) "He got a game ball. He played really well. He played tight coverage. He made plays on the ball. He did a good job in the running game. He was competitive. He's got good speed. He's got good playing strength, so he just needs to keep improving."
(on what attracted him to CB Darryl Morris, being that he was an undrafted guy) "Again, I don't think we're too concerned with where a guy was drafted. It's more about what has he done since he has been in the league. Whether it's a short time or a long time, it's where is this guy at? What's his history of production in the league? His injury history? All those things. When we watched, we knew that we saw a guy that was fast, that had good playing strength, had good ball skills. From everything that we had heard, we knew that he was a good guy and going to be a good teammate and a hard working guy. That's basically what he's brought to the table."
(on who else besides CB Darryl Morris received game balls) "Obviously J.J. Watt got a game ball. He played a whale of a football game. Brian Cushing got a game ball. Shane Lechler, Randy Bullock, got game balls. On offense, Garrett Graham and Jay Prosch got a game ball."
(on if he sees ILB Brian Cushing getting closer to where he was before his injury) "Yes, no doubt about it. I thought he played a heck of a game. I think he had nine tackles. He was downhill in the running game. He played a very physical game. He did a really good job in the passing game of being disciplined whether he was in zone coverage, being in the right spot, or being in match coverage staying with his man. I thought he played a really good, solid football game."
LT Duane Brown
(on if he watched the Cowboys game last night) "I didn't get a chance to. From what I hear, they played very well. Their defense played well. That's a very explosive Saints offense that they went against. Their offense played well. They've been running the ball great, passed the ball great last night. It's a big challenge for us."
(on going three-and-out after the defense forces a turnover) "It's very frustrating. I think everyone wants to get long drives going because it's not easy, it's not easy for them (the defense) to go out and continuously get off the field, get three-and-outs, get turnovers. So we want to do our best to get touchdowns, get points on the board, but if not just try to extend our drives to keep them off the field and get them some rest so that they can continue to perform at a high level. It's just something that we've got to put an emphasis on this week, as we do every week."
TE Garrett Graham
(on seeing an increase in looks in Sunday's game) "I think we had some good matchups yesterday that were favorable for us. Hopefully we can continue to keep that going. It was an OK day at the tight end position. I think we could have done a lot of things better. Just going to try to continue and improve and get better for next week."
(on what are the things he thought the tight ends could have done better) "Blocking the edge, controlling the edge; just getting open for Fitz (Ryan Fitzpatrick) as quickly as we can because they were bringing pressure all day."
(on if they knew the Bills would be bringing in a lot of pressure) "It's always important to beat man coverage and to try and get open as quickly as possible to relieve him (Ryan Fitzpatrick) from some of that stress, that blitz that is coming so quickly. In the NFL they can do that any down at any time. It's just something you have to be prepared for."
CB Darryl Morris
(on what was the key to his big game yesterday) "I think it really starts up front. The guys up front were getting great pressure all night (day). Even on the interception, J.J. (Watt) got a great hit, which actually forced an overthrow. He really made the play and I'm just the guy that kind of gets my name written down for it. The front seven is doing a great job. The safeties, the other corners that were playing did a great job. Just a team win. To play like that, it's all 11 guys that contribute to it."
(on if he expects to do more with his opportunity) "I just came in here trying to work as hard as I could, get with the older guys, get familiar with the playbook, stay after with the coaches and get familiarized with the system. Just things like that so in the event they wanted me to play, I'd be ready."
