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Head Coach Gary Kubiak**
(on the decision to waive the three rookies) "Well, I won't discuss team rules and those types of things. I'll make decisions based on a body of work in everything I do. I've got five months of work invested in those three young men and made a decision today to move forward. We've got some things we need to address as a football team, at the inside linebacker position, our special teams. So we've got some moves to make. We'll take those roster spots and try to make those moves."
(on if he's ever waived anybody because of rules violations since he's been in Houston) "I don't know. I don't know. I've been here a long time. I don't know."
(on ILB Brian Cushing's status) "Obviously, he has a significant knee injury. He's going to have surgery at some point this week. I know they're scheduling it as we speak. There may be some word out there already on when that's going to take place. I just know as I walked in that it can happen in the next 48 hours, so they're trying to get it scheduled."
(on if he's had a chance to talk to ILB Brian Cushing more since the game) "I talked to him on the bus a little bit. Because of his situation, he rode up there with us. You can imagine. After what he's been through and to make his way back and play the way he was playing. I think he was playing at a defensive player of the year type of level. That's the type of year he was having as a player. Here he goes again; he's got to go through this. I know it's very difficult for him. He was very positive and Dr. (Walt) Lowe was very positive (about) the recovery and all of those things. I know Cush will do everything he can to get back, but you hate to see anybody go through that, especially twice now. We'll just hope for the best."
(on any other injuries) "The biggest thing we've got going on is Duane Brown's got a sore ankle. He's doing pretty good today. Arian (Foster's) got a hamstring issue that'll be day-to-day. Ben Tate's got some sore ribs. Other than that, I think those are the three major ones."
(on if QB Matt Schaub will return to being the starter after the bye week if he is healthy) "I've got to sit down and look at our situation and what's going on right now. Obviously, Matt's our starting quarterback. Case (Keenum) play this week because Matt wasn't healthy. Case went in and played extremely well. I'm going to sit down, we're on a bye week, I'm going to evaluate where we're at as a team and move forward form there. So I'm going to do that everywhere, not just at the quarterback position, I'll do that at every place."
(on QB Case Keenum not making many mistakes yesterday and if he looks at it like he wants to see more) "Well, I was impressed with what he did. I would say that. To go into Kansas City in that environment, that noise, and to handle the football team the way he handled it, I thought was impressive. We had no huddle issues. We had no problems getting in and out and getting our game plan run. I think we had one false start the whole game, which I was very impressed with, with the environment that we were in. He did a lot of really good things. He did a lot of things that he's got to go improve upon for us to be successful. So we've got to go fix those things. I think, for a first time out and the position he was in, I thought he handled the team very well."
(on if the team violations were a one-time thing or if there had been re-occurring issues) "I said I don't discuss team rules."
(on needing to find another running back now and if there's anyone on the practice squad that might fill that role) "Yeah, we've got a young man who we've been very impressed with. Ray Graham's been practicing really well for us. Now, we've got some things we've got to address. I mentioned two things; inside linebacker is something we've got to address as a team right now. (Justin) Tuggle's going to make a move and go over to the Sam linebacker position behind Brooks (Reed) and work outside. So we've got some rebuilding to do inside, with some issues. And we have some special teams issues. The moves we make have got to be special teams oriented to help Joe (Marciano). So that's some things we've got to address here in the next few days."
(on if practice squad RB Ray Graham is not guaranteed a spot on the roster) I don't think anything's guaranteed. We're looking at a couple of things."
(on why the move with LB Justin Tuggle with the need at inside linebacker) "I don't know. With Willie (Jefferson), we've got another need for an outside guy. So *Bryan) Braman plays the will and Tuggle becomes the backup Sam. So that gives us our four guys there to work with and obviously (Darryl) Sharpton and Joe (Mays) will work inside. We've got (Mike) Mohamed. We activated Mohamed for this game. He played very well for us on special teams. Now, we've got a need to get some more inside help. So that's what we'll do."
(on if special teams can be fixed during the bye week break) "Yeah, they have to be. Actually, we improved in a lot of areas yesterday. I thought Elbert Mack came in and gave us a lift and played extremely well for us. (Mike) Mohamed gave us a lift. Eddie (Pleasant) played good. The special teams are a little bit like the offense and defense in my opinion. We're playing a pretty good football game and we give up our two biggest returns when we needed to cover most in a 17-16 game, in both situations, both kickoff and punt. But that was the same thing offensive and defensively. I could say the same things. But any time you have injuries on your team, it filters down to the special teams, so we've got to find a way to help Joe (Marciano) and Lig (Bob Ligashesky) with some of that."
(on if he's OK with WR Keshawn Martin returning) "I'm a little concerned about him. He did not practice the last two weeks. He took a shot to play in the game, so he toughed it up for his football team. It's been difficult. I don't think he's totally been himself. Some of the moves we may make here in the next couple of days could include us finding somebody who can return kicks too, but I think Keshawn will be better. He's got two weeks now. He had a very beat up shoulder coming out of the game two weeks. I think he's giving up for his team."
(on the linebacker situation with ILB Brian Cushing out the rest of the season) "Joe (Mays) and (Darryl) Sharpton will start inside. That's where we'll go from there. (Mike) Mohamed is also an inside player. (Tim) Dobbins is trying to get healthy, so like I said, we have some things we need to address. Obviously, we're missing some pieces there right now, not only from a depth standpoint, but from a special teams standpoint."
(on if he is happy with the play of FS Ed Reed) "I think we can all play better, I think across the board, offensively, defensively, special teams. I think Ed would tell you the same thing. I think he's improved coming off his hip injury. He's played a little bit more for us each week. We try to rest him in certain situations. Shiloh (Keo) played a bunch yesterday, so we just need to keep improving across the board as a team."
(on who would be the three-down inside linebacker between Joe Mays and Darryl Sharpton in place of Brian Cushing) "They can both do it, so they could very well split that too. We'll just have to see how it goes. The thing about Sharpton is Sharpton hasn't practiced in two weeks. He's played in both games, but he has not practiced. He's been bothered by a foot, so we have to continue to work to get him healthy."
(on the enthusiasm QB Case Keenum brought to the team and their response) "I thought they responded well to him. When you go in an environment like that, in a game like that, it's a very big game for us. You have a bunch of veteran players walking out there with a rookie first-time quarterback. I thought they were very confident with him. I think the confidence came from the week of practice. He handled it very well. We put him in a tough environment in practice throughout the course of the week and he handled it. He was very upbeat and like I said, he can do a lot of things better. For the guys, I can't speak for them, but I think they were impressed with how he handled himself in that environment."
(on if how the team responded to QB Case Keenum will factor into the decision of who to start after the bye week) "It will all go into it. I've got to look at everything."
(on what he would say to QB Case Keenum if he put him back on the bench after a performance like he had on Sunday) "What would I tell him? I don't know. We have to see what we're going to do."
(on Bud Adams impact on the NFL) "I didn't really know Mr. Adams, but I know that obviously he was one of the early founders or early owners of the National Football League. I was asking today how many years has he been an owner in this league, is it 40? 54, wow, that's amazing. He's had a big impact on the National Football League. I only met him one time, but obviously it's been a couple of rough days, losing a few guys. It's been difficult."
(on how difficult it will be to reach a decision on who to start at quarterback after the bye week) "That's a difficult call, either way, from that standpoint. I'm going to look at it. Matt (Schaub) is back moving around a little bit today. We've got a bye week here. We have a couple of days to evaluate ourselves, evaluate our football team and see where we're at and then I will do what I think is best for the team."
(on what happened at the end of the first half) "I was trying not to put him in too poor of a situation and then our run was a good run, so we tried to get aggressive. I felt like we were playing good as a football team and knew we had the ball coming out to start the third quarter, so I didn't want to put ourselves in a bad situation, but we did get ourselves in position to get the ball to the end zone. He did a hell of a job and we almost came down with it."
(on K Randy Bullock connecting on all three field goal attempts) "Yeah, he's kicked well. He kicked off pretty good. He mishit one, but I thought he and Shane (Lechler)—Shane kept them pinned pretty good field position wise. We had them pinned a few times but we let them out. That was a big factor in the game. We need to keep them back there; we had them pinned at the two, had them inside the 20 four times in the game."
(on what would be the one thing he felt QB Case Keenum did best in his play yesterday) "I would just think just the idea of how he ran the group out there because I know how difficult the environment was, how tough it was just to hear and get plays in. He went against one hell of a defensive football team and he had his team in position all day long. Just the handling of the football team was most important."
(on if the Texans will be a shotgun team moving forward) "He went under center some. The first and goal at the one, we got under center. Didn't work though, did it?"
(on how disappointing it was to come away with a field goal after they had first and goal at the one yard line) "It was very disappointing because we had just lost Ben (Tate). We sent goal line on the field. I didn't have Ben. I didn't know that. We actually could have got caught with 12 guys out there because we were in such a stage of confusion there for a few minutes, realizing what we had. We were able to get a timeout. I think Greg (Jones) went in and did a hell of a job, did the best he could in the situation that we were in. Obviously, that was a big sequence because we don't score and I think Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) makes that play nine times out 10 times. It could have been a big lead for us there. I think that would've put us up, what, 17-14 or something like that? 20-14, so it could've been big points for us."
(on QB Matt Schaub being on the sideline despite being ruled out before they traveled to the game and if that's unusual to travel players that are out ahead of time) "I take quarterbacks all the time, whether they are practice squad or, I take them all the time. The only reason a guy wouldn't travel is if somehow air travel would affect his injury somehow. That's the only reason we would leave a guy behind."
(on QB Matt Schaub helping QB Case Keenum prepare for his NFL debut) "He did a good job. He really helped him a lot throughout the course of the week. He really helped prepare him to play. I know when I walked into meetings Saturday night and I always quiz the quarterback the night before the game. Case was extremely impressive and I think Matt and T.J. (Yates) did a good job with him, helping him prepare last week."
