It was a particularly tough day at the office for Ryan Fitzpatrick. The quarterback was picked off three times and sacked twice in the 30-17 loss to the Giants. But according to his head coach, Fitzpatrick shared in the blame with his 52 teammates and the coaching staff.
"We've got to coach better," Bill O'Brien said. "We've got to play better around him. He's got to make better decisions. He knows that. It was a team loss."
Fitzpatrick and the offense faced third down nine times in the first three quarters. They were unable to convert a single one. That was a frustrating aspect of the game for Fitzpatrick, and despite what O'Brien said, he still was hard on himself after the loss.
"We're not going to win any games if we play like that," Fitzpatrick said. "Especially with the turnovers. Sometimes interceptions happen, but it was poor play by me."
Fitzpatrick completed 20-of-34 pass attempts for 289 yards. He said he plans on going back to work Monday morning in Houston and correcting some mistakes.
"Tomorrow when we get in, I'm going to be there early," Fitzpatrick said. "I'm going to be there trying to get better, trying to learn from it. We'll move on to the next game, and I want to be the guy that those guys look to."
One of his favorite targets in wide receiver Andre Johnson quickly dismissed the idea that the defeat was Fitzpatrick's fault.
"It's not just him," Johnson said. "It's everybody. One thing about football: one guy can't go out and hit three home runs and go out and score 80 points."
At 2-1, the Texans return home to NRG Stadium for a Week 4 matchup with the 2-1 Bills.
"It's one game," Johnson said. "We'll fix it. We got 13 more to play. We'll come in tomorrow, look at what's going on, get it fixed, work on it in practice and get ready for Buffalo."
Johnson finished with four catches for 24 yards against the Giants.
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