Texans head coach Gary Kubiak discussed the Jets game during his weekly press conference on Monday afternoon. Quarterback Matt Schaub also spoke to the media in the Texans' locker room.
Head coach Gary Kubiak(on CB Dunta Robinson's message on his shoes and what he thought about it) "I found out after the game. I obviously didn't know anything about it. I'm disappointed, but it's been dealt with as a football team and it's been dealt with as an organization, so we'll move on from there."
(on if there was a fine or anything that follows with it) "No, it's been dealt with between me and (general manager) Rick (Smith) and Dunta and we're moving on."
(on what else you have to do to beat teams that are tougher physically) "We got outplayed, you're right, in all phases by that football team. I don't have an excuse for you. You've got to give them credit. We were in a good football game in the first half in which we turned the ball over on the 15 and had busted one coverage, so we're down 10-0. It doesn't mean you can't win that football game, that you can't play good in the second half and win, but we didn't do that. I thought we played hard defensively. I thought we played real hard. We gave up a lot of yardage, but a lot of that fault lies on the other side of the ball. We didn't help them at all. I've got no excuse for us. They outplayed us; they beat us."
(on what message not getting fined or suspended Dunta sends to fans) "I don't know what message it sends. Like I said, I'm disappointed. It has been dealt with and we're moving on. We've got football to worry about and football to get corrected."
(on if he was concerned with WR André Davis effort on the dropped ball) "Yeah, he was fixing to get hit pretty good and he got a high ball. He's got to make that play. Those are the tough plays you've got to make in this league to stay on the field. I think it was a third-and-six and would've kept us on the field."
(on developing the winning mentality) "That's confidence. To me, it's all about confidence. Like I said, I'll go back and tell you that if you watch a game and throw everything else out, and you look at the football game midway through the second quarter, it's a good football game. Obviously, in the second half, we didn't do nothing to change the football game. In this league, you are going to be, hopefully, in three-point and seven-point games every week. That's this league. Are you mentally and physically tough enough to hang in there for four quarters and make the play? That's the difference. You want to talk about Baltimore last year, we're in a 19-13 ballgame late in the third quarter. It's a lot of the same. They made the plays down the stretch and we did not."
(on what surprised him when watching the game on film) "The biggest thing that surprised me was how poor we played on offense. I told y'all yesterday, I take the fault for that. I just think the position we had our offensive football team in was not a position where it had a chance to succeed, and that starts with me. I've got to have from a plan standpoint and preparation standpoint, get them in position to make plays and succeed on the field. When I go back and look at it, I don't feel fair about what we're asking them to do and the position that we had them in. That's very disappointing to me as a coach. You want to come out of a game and say, 'God, we should've made this play, should've made that play,' and it's a difference. But I look at it, and some of the things that we were asking them to do, some of the confusion we had on the field, and I'm just very disappointed on my part."
(on if QB Matt Schaub has full authority to check out of things at the line) "We don't check a whole lot. We adjust. That's part of our scheme. We can check, but we're not some team that sits there and checks in and out of plays every down. We don't do that."
(on if not checking is an offensive philosophy of his) "Yeah, I think our offense is built that we have the the ability to adjust to just about anything. That's what I believe. Do you have to check out of some things at times? Yeah, and we do our share. We've got to be able to get our guys in a fair enough scheme where they have a chance to make a play regardless. I think we're playing real slow right now on offense. Sometimes, I think you get slow when you're thinking too much and doing too much. We need to settle down and do what we do best and play fast."
(on how much of it was Schaub being limited in what he could do because of his ankle) "No, he could do enough for us to win. He was obviously not 100 percent but he was close; he could play the position. I wouldn't put him out there if I didn't think he could do the things that we had to do to win. I think the question was posed to me, how come we didn't bootleg and stuff. Someone asked that yesterday. My point was, I don't think we were ever offensively functioning to where that was going to be a factor. Once we got down, we weren't running the ball. We're throwing the ball. You're not going to bootleg people if you're not consistent in the run game."
(on if he is seeing the kind of toughness from the linemen that he wants to make the running game successful) "I don't see anybody not playing hard, but I see some confusion that we should not have. Those five guys have played more together than anybody on our team. To me, when there is confusion going on with those guys, then to me that's telling you something as a coach. It's telling you that you're doing something wrong. So we've got to take our look at ourselves as coaches and make sure we don't have these players confused. I'm seeing some mistakes from those guys that I haven't seen in the past."
(on if CB Jacques Reeves will start next week in Tennessee) "I think he's got a great chance of playing. We'll see. I think (after) his work today, he's got a good chance of playing."
(on the use of DE Connor Barwin and how well LB Brian Cushing played considering he hasn't taken a snap in a game) "Yeah, we had a package for him and we probably had more guys free to the quarterback than we've had in awhile, but we didn't even get there. The young player, (Jets QB Mark) Sanchez, made a lot of great plays. It did get some guys free to the quarterback. Cushing was a bright spot. For a guy who hasn't played, he played pretty darn good. Very physical; pretty clean assignment-wise. Some technique issues, but you would expect that from a guy who hasn't played, but he was a bright spot."
(on if RB Steve Slaton is missing holes or if he looks the same as last year) "I think that there's some yardage there that—I think there are some plays that he can get more out of. Yes, I do think that, but I also think that there are some times we're not being fair to him, that some of the things we're doing, I'm talking in scheme what we're doing, calling, coaching, whatever. It's not all Steve. It's not all the line. Everybody's involved, but we can all play better."
(on the status of WR André Davis) "He did not run with the team today, so he's not feeling very good today. So he'll be day-to-day. We'll see, and it looks like (WR) Kevin (Walter) should be back and ready to go."
(on if S Eugene Wilson will be day-to-day as well) "Yeah, but Eugene ran with the team today, so I'm encouraged, very encouraged with him and Jacques (Reeves). I'm encouraged with both of those guys."
(on if he is talking about simplifying things) "I don't know if it is just simplifying. In this league, I don't think that is the case. But there are some things going on mistake-wise that concern me. A few mistakes, hey, a player is not paying attention, maybe something is going on. But when you start making too many, as coaches, you've got to look in the mirror and say, 'OK, listen. If we're making that many mistakes, then obviously we're asking them to do something they can't.' So that's where I am at today as a coach. That's what I'm trying to figure off."
(on if offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is still calling the plays) "Oh, yeah. We're going to prepare together and call all the games together. The responsibility with the offense starts with this guy. Kyle is doing fine, OK? I didn't have us in good enough position with the plan. It's my fault."
(on if they were trying to new things) "I don't think so. We feel like, obviously, we've tried to move on in some areas and get better in some areas, do some things better, and maybe we've thrown too much at them. That defense presented some problems for you, but there's no reason for us to go out there and have as many mistakes as we had."
(on if he was pleased until the end with the run defense) "I thought our defense for three quarters had our football team in a position to win a game. I mean, they played good enough for us to win. We just didn't do anything offensively to help the team. We had four chances at turnovers that could've been a difference in the game. The ball didn't just bounce our way. It wasn't a lack of effort. I thought we worked hard in the running game. We gave up the one big play, but I think for the most part, we contained them. Statistically, what was it? 5.0 (yards per carry), that's not good, but we were on the field a long time, so everybody's got to do a part. Offensively, we didn't do our part."
(on running the ball effectively against the Titans) "If you're going to play this team, you better have a physical mentality because they're going to bring it every week. You saw them last week in a slugfest with the Steelers. We know what we go up against when we play this team. I think today, these next few days; we need to be concerned with the Texans and getting us on the right track, feeling good about what we're doing. I won't have to talk to our guys about who we're playing. They know who we're playing."
QB Matt Schaub
(on if it looked better or worse on video) "It was bad. It was a bad game all the way around. We've just got to deal with, we're moving on and we're going on to our second game. We're going on to Tennessee. So it's the only way we can look at it. We're 0-1; we can't change what happened yesterday but we can improve on it and learn from it and get better."
(on how he is physically) "I'm good. I'm fine."
(on where do you start with corrections) "We start from the top and just matriculate on down through everywhere. It starts with me and the whole O-line, the receivers, the backs, everybody. I mean, it's the whole team. The defense. We're just going to all improve and step our game up individually and collectively we're going to be better."
(on what he wants to step up individually and specifically) "When we're hot, we have to get rid of it. Get it to our guy and give him a chance to make a play. Not to throw it away so much. Trying to give him a chance and giving him a better ball to work with."
(on if he felt he held the ball too long or if it was the Jets defense) "They had good schemes. They did a good job, so we can't take anything away from the Jets. We can just move on to Tennessee. That game is over from yesterday and we're just moving on."
(on what they can do better to run the ball better) "Playing more consistently. We've got to be more precise and detail-specific and execute the little things in order to keep ourselves in manageable third downs."
(on the kinds of pressure from Tennessee is scheme or what kind of defense is it) "We know we're going to face a good defense. They've been a good defense and we've got to bring our A-game and be better prepared this week collectively as a team."
(on if they have a different look now that DT Albert Haynesworth is gone) "It's a different team. You remove one guy, but they're still a good group. They have for years now played multiple defensive linemen and so they have guys that have played and step in a do a good job."
(on if he watched the Pittsburgh-Tennessee game last week) "I did. It was a good game. It was a defensive battle. So they played well."
(on trying to get the ball to Andre Johnson when he is double-covered) "Yeah, when you have a guy like Andre, you want to get him the ball and get him going. Get a spark and teams try and take those things away from you, you know? Then you get down in the ballgame like we were, then you're trying to make plays to get a spark and get chunks of yards to get in scoring position quicker so you can get the ball back. You're forced to do things with the ball that in a normal situation you might not do because you're trying to make plays for your team to have a chance to win."
(on what you say to the offensive line after they've had a disappointing game) "There's only so many words can say. You've got to go out there and show by example. Everyone, individually, has to make up their mind that they're going to go out and do the things that they have to do. That is what we have to do as individuals and then as a group, things will come together."
(on if he saw the response he wanted from the group as things went downhill) "Obviously not, if we didn't get it done. We've got to all look in front of the mirror. We're going to have our whole card checked again this week. It's one game; it's a lot of build up to our season opener. With all the buildup, all offseason, you know, we didn't play up to our standards and the way we expect to play and we've got to pick that up and be better this week."
(on if CB Dunta Robinson's shoe message affects how he is perceived in the locker room) "Not at all. He's a good teammate. He's been a leader around here, and that's not going to change."
