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Head Coach Bill O'Brien
How tough was it to lose Ryan Fitzpatrick?
"I felt for him. I felt for him because he knew right away that it was injured, his leg was injured, and I felt bad for him. He put a lot in for this week, but at the end of the day, I just told this team that I was very proud of them. I thought they fought. We had a good week of practice. We came in here and we fought and we competed and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game. In the last two minutes, we just didn't get it done. It starts with me but we're going to get back to work tomorrow and focus on Baltimore and get a good game plan together because we've got a big challenge with Baltimore coming in but I'm very proud of this team."
Did Ryan Fitzpatrick break his leg?
"I don't know yet. I'm not sure."
What did you think of Tom Savage?
"I think for a first-year player, for a rookie player put in that situation, I thought he did okay. You know I have to watch the film. There were things I'm sure he wishes he could have the play back. I wish I could have the play call back, all those things. We've got to do a better job in certain areas, but I thought the guy went in there and competed, made some decent throws, got us into the right plays a couple times. I was just pleased from the stuff I saw on the sideline."
What did you do at the half to settle Tom Savage down?
"I think what we did was come in here and George Godsey and I both talked to the guy about first of
all just calling plays he was comfortable and familiar with, plays that basically we had been calling in rookie minicamp, some of the first plays that we put in back when we drafted him. He was comfortable with that, and then we just talked with him about the progression. Get the play call straight in the huddle, get the formation straight at the line of scrimmage, do a good job of seeing the safeties in the front and how it all works together, and I thought he settled himself down and went in there and played better in the second half."
There were handoff issues with Tom Savage, but did you see more potential with his deep throws?
"Yeah, no question. He throws a nice deep ball and those guys went up, DeVier Posey and DeAndre Hopkins, and made some nice plays for him. We've got to work on the ball handling at practice more. We work on it every day, but he'll get better at that. It was the first time doing it in a regular season game but those are the types of things that we really need to clean up."
How was the defense?
"They played their tails off. They fought. Even when they gave up some drives, some yardage, they held on for a field goal there at the end. They kept fighting. They were out there a lot and I give a lot of credit to our defensive players. They really competed hard."
Safety Kendrick Lewis
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On the intensity they came out with today:
"I believe we just accepted coach's challenge. He wanted us to come out there and play relentless,
play physical, and play together. That's what we tried to do today. We just tried to play together, play within the scheme of the defense and make plays when they came to us."
On the pick six:
"We were in quarters coverage. I got a good read on him. He was eyeing down T.Y. (Hilton). He was trying to get him started and get him the ball. I was able to make a jump on it. From there, I just thought, 'Get into the end zone.'"
On the message they were trying to send going into this game:
"It was just about starting fast. Last time we played them in our stadium they got off with a jump. We spotted them 24 points. We didn't want to do that. We wanted to put our feet in the water and just hunt. That's what we did. We just came out and played relentless and just tried to make plays within the defense, all of us, all 11. Our front seven played phenomenal with applying pressure on (Andrew) Luck to give us a better opportunity to make plays on the back end.
Safety Danieal Manning
On Ryan Fitzpatrick leaving the game:
"My heart goes out to him. I hate that. That's one of our brothers. We hate to see anybody go down, especially in a game like this with all hands on deck. I think Tom (Savage) came in and did a good job with what he had to work with."
On the difference between today and last game:
"Who knows? Stakes were on the line. We knew what type of game this was. There is something about that survival skill that every human has. We came in and we knew what we had to do. We couldn't borrow anything."
Wide Receiver DeVier Posey
On the team's mindset going into the game:
"To beat Indy of course. We wanted to come up here and do what a Texans team had never done.
That's what we were focused to do all week and that's what we wanted to do."
On getting back onto the field:
"The most special part was just being back with my teammates in uniform. Nothing personal or anything like that. I was just happy to be a part of the group."
On how things changed when Tom Savage came onto the field:
"Just like any time we face any type of adversity, we always try to push and just close ranks. That's just what we have to do. That's what I felt like we did do. We wanted to support him and let him know, 'We got you. We're all stepping up our play for you.'"
Quarterback Tom Savage
Duane Brown said they had to ask you to speak up in the huddle.
"Yeah, absolutely. I was more thinking about the play, calling the play. I'm lucky to be around a couple of the older guys like that, who are willing to stick around with me, you know what I mean? Telling me to speak up."
How do you think you did given the circumstances?
"Well, we lost so…"
In terms of your play and knowing where to put people and that kind of thing.
"Just got a lot to work on and we lost and that's the only thing that matters right now."
Do you feel like you're going to be healthy enough to play next week?
"Yeah, I feel good."
Did things slow down in the second half? They talked about how you seemed more comfortable, felt calmer.
"Yeah, it definitely slowed down a little bit for me. Obviously, the first couple drives, some things happened, but I think that it slowed down. Like I said, we lost and that's the only thing and I think the defense did a really good job of keeping us in it and shoot, if we don't have that turnover, we're probably still in it."
Defensive End J.J. Watt
On quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
"Yeah, it's a tough business. We all know that things like that can happen and when they happen, it's awful. Everybody feels awful and everybody feels terrible. Just hope he has a speedy recovery."
What do you take away from this game?
"We lost. We needed to win and we didn't. I take that away from it."
In the fourth quarter late, they were able to get some runs on you, get a field goal. What was happening in that sequence?
"They did a good job of running the ball and we didn't do a good enough job stopping it, but when it came time to stop it, hold them to a field goal to give a chance, we did it. I think our defense did a good job going up there. At the end of the day, they scored more points than we did and you're not going to win football games, obviously, with that formula."
**Given all the adversity, you were still in this game. This team was not able to pull it out,
that losing streak here continues. Some thoughts about all that stuff.**
"Yeah, I mean, all of our guys, we fought hard. We got our third-string rookie quarterback in there getting thrown into the fire for the first time in a tough environment on the road. I think the way that everybody fought, the way that everybody pulled it together, I thought we did a good job of that. There are no moral victories in the NFL. It hurts regardless. It doesn't matter who the heck was out there. We just need to find a way to win a game and we didn't.
Can you talk about the tone that you guys wanted to set early on?
"I think everybody did a good job, especially early on in the game. Obviously that pick six early on sets the tone pretty well for us. That's what you are looking for out of your defense, if you can put points on the board. Obviously, I wish we could've put more points on the board because it would've given us a chance."
