If you listened to Case Keenum on Sunday, he took the blame for all that went wrong during Sunday's loss at Indianapolis.
But a day later, his head coach wasn't quite as harsh.
"He's a great kid," interim head coach Wade Phillips said. "I think he takes the blame for everything, certainly. But we've got to help him in all of that."
At quarterback during the 25-3 defeat to the Colts, Keenum was picked off twice, sacked four times and only able to muster a quarterback rating of 42.3. At the podium in Lucas Oil Stadium, nobody was harder on Keenum than himself.
"I was bad today," Keenum said. "My teammates deserve better and my coaches deserve better. There is stuff that they tell me during the week multiple times and something goes in the game and I just make the wrong decision."
Keenum completed 18-of-34 passes for 168 yards, and Phillips described how the second-year signal-caller dealt with pressure.
"He saw the blitzes when they were coming," Phillips said. "But seeing blitzes and getting rid of the football is different than just seeing them. That and reading coverages is not an easy process, especially for a young quarterback to know exactly where to go with even though he goes through it over and over and over in his meetings and so forth and we practice those things."
Phillips said the Texans need to "find the things that he really does well" and continue to implement that into the offense. The veteran coach also said that the adversity might be something Keenum can
grow from professionally.
"Sometimes a young quarterback, sometimes they have to hit rock bottom a little bit to bounce back up," Phillips said. "I've seen it happen"
Complicating things, however, is a right thumb injury for Keenum. Phillips revealed Monday that his quarterback sprained the thumb on his throwing hand and was awaiting results from a MRI.
"We'll just have to wait and see what he can do on Wednesday in practice," Phillips said.
The Texans are off as a team on Tuesday, and will return to work on Wednesday at the Houston Methodist Training Center for practice.
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