After the Texans' 28-21 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, members of the team spoke to the media.
Texans head coach Gary Kubiak
(on turnovers hurting the team) "We turned the ball over twice inside the 10-yard line. I think, you're right. Three in total. When you go on the road and play a fine football team like that, those things are going to bite you."
(on taking QB Matt Schaub out of the game) "I didn't think he could protect himself. I watched him limp through the last five or six minutes of the first half. He came in and saw the doctors and couple of them said he would have a hard time out there protecting himself. And (I) asked, "Could he be an emergency guy?" They said, "Sure." He wanted to go. He wanted to go back in, but I felt Sage (Rosenfels) gave us the best chance to win."
(on QB Matt Schaub's injury) "They diagnosed it right now as a sprained knee. We'll know more tomorrow. We'll see."
{QUOTE}(on when QB Matt Schaub injured his knee) "I think it might have been the second. I'm not positive, but I think it might have been the second."
(on being frustrated by losing a winnable game) "We have been playing some good football. We knew we would have to come in here and play clean. We talked last night about winning the turnover battle – that's something if our team does, we are pretty hard to beat. We didn't do that today. Our defense kept us in the game in the second half. We moved the ball. (They're) a very good football team."
(on not calling a timeout before QB Sage Rosenfels threw an interception) "What happened was that the communication was that we had a first down on the play before. So, (I) thought we had a first down. Then all of a sudden, I look up and the official says, "No, it's third-and-short." And the clock's under 15 seconds when you can't talk to your quarterback. Sage made a call, which we instruct him to do. You know, we give him things to go through. Hindsight is 20-20. I wish I had burned a timeout. We had already burned one, but I sure as heck wish I had burned another one right there."
(on having to use timeouts early) "We burned one with Sage on one situation earlier in the second half. And then we had the play called that we were trying to check out of, and we got out of the huddle and we didn't think we would have time to do that. You're right, it's just playing with poise in tough situations, in a tough environment and not having to do that."
(on the Texans' effort) "Our effort was tremendous. Our guys played hard. They were ready to play; played for 60 minutes across the board. But eventually they got dinged by a couple of mistakes and turnovers, which has hurt this football team before"
(on how the Vikings took WR Andre Johnson out of the game) "They played him a ton of two-deep, a very aggressive Cover 2. Again at the line of scrimmage, we did a little bit of everything, but give them credit. They did a good job and rushed the passer incredibly well."
(on tight end Owen Daniels making 11 receptions) "That's what happens. When they play two-deep, the tight end should make some plays. I think Owen caught 11 balls today, so he did his part. He did a good job of doing that, and give him credit. We did move the football, but obviously not enough."
(on the offensive line's performance) "We put them in a tough situation, me as a coach. We threw the heck out of the ball. We threw it a lot, and in that environment – we played in noise – it makes it very difficult. You are going to come out of the game with five sacks. But in all honestly, two of them were the last two plays of the game. But that's tough. It's tough for them, and it's just something that you've got to be able to do to try to find a way to win late."
(on when he decided to take out QB Matt Schaub) "He was convinced he could stay. I watched as he worked through that second quarter, he still made a couple of plays. But when he came in at halftime, the knee had swelled. It had obviously stiffened up when I watched him come out in the second half and try to drop back. After what the doctors had told me and what I saw, it made no sense. I thought Sage gave us the best chance."
(on defending RB Adrian Peterson) "We couldn't stop him all day. We knew that. It was a matter of containing him and hoping he doesn't get out for any big runs. We gave up a couple of big runs in the 20- to 30-yard range, but, for the most part, I thought our defense held him in check and gave us a chance to get the job done. But we didn't get it done."
(on QB Sage Rosenfels' biggest mistake) "I have to go back and look at it. But obviously, it's third down-and-inches right there. You don't have to make that play. It's still early in the third quarter. I think there might have been about three minutes left in the third quarter. We are only down a touchdown, if I'm right. If you don't have a play there, we just throw it away there. We'll kick the field goal and keep playing."
(on QB Sage Rosenfels being ready to play) "He's always ready to play. He always does some good things. I expect that of him. He never disappoints you. He makes good plays."
(on if QB Matt Schaub's knee caused him to turn the ball over) "I don't know. I'd have to go see. The throw to Vonta (Leach) - Vonta's in the back of the end zone – it just looks like he under threw the ball to me. The other one was just the sack, and you've just got to get your hands on the ball and protect the ball. But he was obviously playing not at full strength at that point."
(on what he can to stop the quarterbacks from turning the ball over) "Obviously, I've got to do something else. I've got to find a way to get them to quit turning the ball over."
(on how he will change his approach with the quarterbacks) "I don't know. I'll keep searching until I can figure it out."
Texans TE Owen Daniels
(on how the team moves on after the game) "Whether win or lose, we have to go back to work. We are at home next week against another tough team. We've got to come out and play hard again. We've got to eliminate the mistakes. It seems like whenever we are losing, we're turning the ball over in crucial situations and really just killing ourselves. If we can learn to stop doing that, we'll be alright."
Texans WR Andre Johnson
(on losing a winnable game) "We felt like we could go out and beat that team. They were a very good football team, a very good defense. We were up to the test, but we just turned the ball over at certain times."
Texans QB Sage Rosenfels
(on going into the game on short notice) "As a back up for years, it's something that I've sort of gotten accustomed to, but you never want to see a teammate go down. We came close to the end, but it wasn't enough."
(on evaluating his play) "I made a couple of mistakes and obviously the big glaring mistake was the interception. Kevin Walter had a step on his guy and I just under threw him by a couple of feet, and the corner made a heck of a play."
(on if he should have called a timeout before the interception) "Yes, I should have definitely, but I didn't. We burned one earlier in the half. I think we burned one earlier in the half and I didn't want to lose too many timeouts. I thought we had a good play and in hindsight you're right – to know exactly what the head coach wanted, but we didn't. Our play is about execution, though. And we think we have answers for all coverages, really no matter what play we have on. It's all about execution."
(on how the Vikings took WR Andre Johnson out of the game) "You know, number 23 (Cedric Griffin) he really played really physical with him. They played a guy over the top the entire game. They never in the entire game, unless it was third-and-one, had true man-to-man coverage. That helps because we didn't run the ball quite as good as we liked to and they played a lot of Cover 2. And if you play Cover 2, you can double guys."
(on his mindset after throwing a touchdown to make the score 21-28) "We've got a chance. That was my mindset. We've got a chance, and it's never over until there is no time left on the clock and you're out of timeouts. I still thought we had a good chance there on fourth down. They played better than us. They played mistake-free football for the most part. We made too many mistakes."
(on if there was irony that he played against a team that thought about signing him in the offseason) "No, not really. I had a lot of people here. It is a short drive from where I grew up. But I really didn't think about that. It was just all about trying to win the football game. I'm not sure about Matt's injury, but hopefully he'll be back as soon as possible because he's a good player. He's a very good player for this football team."
(on feeling the pass rush) "You can't not feel the pass rush. Jared Allen is one of the best players in this league. He's worth every dime of what they pay him, and the inside guys are no joke either. They can pass rush and bull rush and do all the things. It's hard to step up in the pocket with those big guys and Allen coming around the end. Their front four is as good as there is in this league."
(on if he's frustrated with the turnovers) "The frustrating part is that we know that when we execute how good we are and how good we can be. We throw up well over 300, 350, 400 yards every week. If can just eliminate those mistakes, we're as good as any offense, any team in this league. Yeah, it definitely is bothersome, but it's not because guys aren't trying to make plays. Every mistake we make gets magnified and it usually ends up being a turnover."
(on if the team is frustrating with losing a winnable game) "Yeah, we thought we were pretty equal with this team. We thought we're a good team, they're a good team. If you want to get to where we want to go, you've got to be able to beat the teams that are the same as you and worse than you and a couple that are a little bit better than you. We thought this was a team that we could play four quarters of football with. We did that, but they made the plays and we made the mistakes."
(on his interception) "There was nothing called. I couldn't hear Kubiak in my headset in my ear. I called the in play. In hindsight, I should have just called a timeout, but I thought we might have something. I thought we would get man-to-man coverage and have a couple crossing routes. And I had Kevin Walter on that play, I just under threw it."
(on the situation before the interception) "I don't remember exactly. I know it was third-and-short, obviously. But that's what happens, your mind runs about 10 plays as fast as possible on what formation you're going to get in – and you're not going to have enough time and what play is the best play for that situation. And at that time, I thought that was the best play for that situation. As I said, we had a guy open. I just didn't execute."
(on playing for the first time since the loss against the Colts) "We'll it was hard after the Colts game to sit back for four weeks and contemplate the mistakes I made in that game. But it was nice to be out there and just execute and be with the guys and make things happen. We moved the ball up and down the field in the fourth quarter. We just didn't make the plays we needed to make."
Texans QB Matt Schaub
(on the status of his knee injury) "Preliminary, (there are) some ideas, but we'll see tomorrow when we get a picture of it and see what's really going on. As of right now, we'll just kind of see what happens tomorrow."
(on how much the injury affected him) "It was tough to move around a little bit. I was hobbling around and I trying to move around the best I could. But it was tough. The good thing was that it was my left leg and not my right, so it wasn't my back leg on my drop. It was my front one. That allowed me to be able to do what I was able to do after it happened."
(on if the injury hurt his play) "It hindered as far I'm not a fleeted-foot guy to begin with, and it was hindering me a little bit."
(on when he got hurt) "The first play of the game there was one time when I got rolled in. And in the second quarter, when I hit Owen Daniels over the middle - that was when the next one happened."
(on if the injury caused him to throw an interception) "Of course, I'm not going to say, 'No, it didn't.' I had Vonta (Leach) open down the field and just didn't put enough on the ball and the corner was able to sink underneath. So, it was a terrible throw but the right play in my opinion. I just didn't throw the ball out there to him."
(on when he got hurt) "There were two occasions when my knee kind of rolled – the first play and then later on in the beginning of the second quarter when I hit Owen after I audibled down the middle of the field. That was the second one."
(on how hard it was to come out of the game) "It's very hard. You're seeing your guys out there battling. You're not able to be out there doing it. I was trying tooth and nail to get out there and stay loose so I could go out there and play, and it just wasn't in the cards today."
(on fumbling the ball on the sack) "I came off a fake and someone was in my face, and I've just got to hold on to that ball. The guy was able to knock it out of there, but I know when I get sacked I've just got to cover the ball and protect it so we can live for another down."
(on how much turnovers hurt the team) "They definitely did. It was the same thing that happened to us before the end of the season. The turnovers killed us. We had two in a red zone, and you're not going to win football games doing that."
(on how long he will be out) "I'm not sure at this point. We'll find out tomorrow. We'll get a look at it and get the docs to look at the pictures and see what happens."
