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Head coach Gary Kubiak discussed the Texans-Chargers game during his weekly press conference on Monday, and several players spoke to the media in open locker room.

Head coach Gary Kubiak

(on the injury update from yesterday, especially QB Matt Schaub)  "Matt (Schaub), all his tests were fine.  He was back with the team today.  He was in meetings.  He's going to be day-to-day, so we'll have to wait and see.  He's not feeling great today, so we'll see and we'll take it day-by-day."

(on what grade of a concussion it was)  "No, they really didn't tell me that, just that he got dinged pretty good.  He's having some headaches.  I know he's having some headaches today.  Like I said, he's around the football team today, so we'll just take it day-to-day."

(on if the league has a rule that he has to be out for a period of time)  "No, all I know is there are a series of tests that we run on players when things happen.  They'll obviously do that with him."

(on if he's calling it a concussion)  "Am I?  I'm not calling it anything.  I'm just saying he got dinged and he's not feeling very good today, and we'll wait and see."

(on WR André Davis and C Mike Flanagan)  "André Davis is just beat up.  It's bruised ribs.  (Mike) Flanagan had some migraines yesterday before the game.  We've been through this before with him.  We got them under control.  He played.  On the exact same play that Matt (Schaub) took his shot on, Flanagan took a very severe shot, too, to the head.  Just took a blow and was dinged himself, so we played Chris (White) the rest of the way and Chris did a good job."

(on who made the hit on QB Matt Schaub)  "I'll be honest with you, I've only, throughout the morning and stuff, watched my copy which is a game film.  It is very, very hard to see his hit because the ball was away from him when it happens.  You come back and you see him laying here.  I haven't went back and watched the TV copy yet.  I will do that, so it will be hard for me to comment on that."

(on if he will talk to the league about the hit)  "Well, they know about it already.  Any time there is a personal foul called like that, it goes straight to the league then they'll make those decisions on whether there should be any fines in that situation.  It's not like as a coach you have to start screaming.  The call was already made, so they'll evaluate the hit."

(on the status of RB Ahman Green)  "I'm concerned.  His knee has been doing some swelling on him since he got it banged up early in the season.  We've been trying to kind of monitor him during the week, from week-to-week, and make sure we're doing the right thing with his reps.  Basically, that kind of meant Wednesdays he was off.  He did a little bit on Thursdays, he practiced Fridays and he played.  I think he's very capable of doing that.  Two weeks ago, he came out of the Tennessee game, as week ago I should say, he came out of the Tennessee game very good.  In the fourth quarter, he really looked like himself.  We thought we had made up a lot of ground.  He was feeling great.  Actually, he did not even require treatment Monday or Tuesday, he was doing so well.  We thought we had turned the corner.  He came back Wednesday, practiced a little bit.  The knee swelled up again, uncharacteristic from what was happening the previous weeks.  Thursday, he was unable to go.  He took a couple of reps Friday and basically told me, ‘Coach, I can't go.  My knee is bothering me, it's hurting me.  I need this week.'  That's where we're at right now and we'll see."

(on the positives he can pull out of this game and how they move forward)  "We'll keep moving forward.  That's not a problem.  We'll keep moving forward and keep battling.  The biggest thing with our football is to find a way to play some football for a while without turning the football over, I think is number one and I've said that for a couple of weeks.  Positives in the football game, on the defensive side of the ball, I'll start with Mario Williams.  He is playing exceptionally well.  Yesterday was no exception to the rule.  He's been doing that and played really well yesterday.  Dunta Robinson played really well.  On the offensive side of the ball, I thought our offensive line played well.  That's a heck of a group they went against.  We ran the ball as good as we've run it all year.  They pass protected extremely well against one of the best pass rushing groups in the league.  Those were some positives that were happening.  Guys we're playing hard, just not playing very good, not playing very clean."

(on his state of mind)  "I'm disappointed.  I'm disappointed in all the mistakes that we're making.  Puzzled, yes I'm puzzled, too, because as a coach, when you're making mistakes, you have to go find the reason that you're making them.  Yesterday, when you look at the football game, we had mental errors, which they're haven't been a lot with our football team.  We had errors with the football turning the ball over.  That has been a reoccurrence.  Then we had some special teams problem the last two weeks which we had not had.  You just keep digging and you take a look at everything you're doing.  From what guys are eating the night before the game to how you're meeting, how you're practicing, you're searching all the time.  That's part of this game.  We're struggling right now.  We're going through a very tough period, but nothing's going to get us out of it other then continuing to battle and continuing to look for answers."

(on the upcoming game and the importance of it)  "They're all important.  None of them are more important or less important then the other.  Of course, like I said, I wish we could go right back and play right away.  When you're struggling, you want to get out there and find something positive and get to feeling better about what you're doing.  It's been a big struggle.  We've had some very tough meetings today as a football team, really addressing some things, being honest and forward with each other.  Every week in this league is an opportunity.  We get a chance to go down and play in Oakland and find a way to work ourselves out of this.  Is it important that we do that going into the bye?  I think it would be important whether there would be a bye or not.  It just happens to be that we'll get a break the week after."

(on if he is considering a permanent change in the secondary) "No, we'll just keep working. Fred (Bennett)'s playing; he played a lot yesterday. Petey (DeMarcus Faggins)'s been working inside at the star. (Jamar) Fletcher played some yesterday. We'll keep rotating those guys and keep playing. We had some mistakes back there yesterday, some communication mistakes as a group that we've got to get corrected, but we'll need all those guys and we'll keep working them all."

(on the biggest change from the beginning of the season to now) "Well, turnovers is number one. That'd be the biggest thing that I would say, that and the fact that we ran the ball better in those first two football games. But I think that's the biggest thing. If you look at going into the game yesterday, one of the things we preached to our team was San Diego was 2-2 over the course of the last month and the two games they lost was because they lost the turnover battle. Of course, we were 1-3 and we lost the turnover battle in every one of those games. So we preached that that would probably be a big factor in the game, and when you're five (turnovers) to zero, you're not going to win. And you're not going to win against anybody in this league, but you're definitely not going to beat the San Diego Chargers. It can get out of hand real quick, so I think that'd be number one."

(on RB Adimchinobi Echemandu) "First off, I liked what I saw. The kid ran well. I told y'all he tweaked his hamstring a little bit, which kept him from finishing the game the way we'd like to see him finish, with a lot more carries. You never know with those kids until you give them a chance, and we took a chance by letting Samkon (Gado) go and giving this kid a chance and he stepped up and played well in a tough environment. He protected the passer very well, too, which was something we were concerned about, so I think it's a big step forward for him and then hopefully he's healthy enough that we can continue this process. Hopefully he's not going to take some time here; I don't know. He's being evaluated today. He's having an MRI as we speak."

(on if he can do anything in practice to work on the turnover situation) "Yes, we do it all the time. We have particular periods for it and we stress it all the time. As I told you, sometimes you just keep your mouth shut and maybe that changes. You just keep digging, keep trying, but I think the biggest thing is just responsibility as players and that usually starts with the quarterbacks. They're the ones touching the ball every snap, but we've got 23 (turnovers) at the halfway mark. That's way out of whack, and we talked about that as a team. So it's just something that somehow, it's going to get fixed because players fix it. It's not going to get fixed because we go jump on a fumble in practice; it's going to get fixed because we find a way to take care of the football during the game."

(on fans questioning QB Matt Schaub's durability) "I think the kid's very durable. I mean, he's held up well. He's taken his shots. If you look at the hit chart that the league puts out, as far as quarterback hits, he really hasn't taken a lot, even though I know the last few weeks I think we probably caught up. But I think the one that he took yesterday, that's going to cause anybody a problem. And that's why the league put that rule in – after a turnover, the quarterback's basically off-limits unless he is somehow trying to make the tackle, so you can't just turn and go after him. So they're just trying to protect him, but that was a pretty severe shot. But I don't question his durability at all, I really don't."

(on what he said to P Matt Turk after the botched snap and on the injury to TE Owen Daniels) "I'll start with O.D. (TE Owen Daniels). O.D.'s got a high ankle sprain. He had it in college, doesn't feel like it's as severe as he had in college. We're doing an MRI on him this afternoon, but he will be day-to-day. It is definitely a concern as we go on to this week, so that's the best I can answer that.

"Matt Turk, Matt Turk's been playing a long, long time. I'll tell y'all like I told him, there's only one thing he does in that situation and that's turn and run after the ball and kick it out of the end zone or fall on it, but you make sure you give them two (points), you don't give them seven. And that play hurt our football team. That's a bad snap and then a poor decision on his part not to get on the football. That's about the best way to address it, and hopefully it doesn't happen again."

(on what he said to the players in meetings today) "We're just honest with each other. We sit in here and watch the game together. One of the things that goes on in football, a lot of people separate – the special teams go here, defense goes here, offense goes there – and it's easy to go worry about your own problems. My perspective and the way I look at things, and it may be a little different, but I think our problems are team problems. So when we sit in here and watch film, we watch it together – offense watch the defense, defense watch the offense. I think it's important that players know what's going on amongst both groups. It's not just, ‘Hey our room's getting this done, your room's getting that done.' We're just trying to address our problems as a team and make sure that we stay as a team as we move forward and try to fix these problems."

(on if the team is leaving for Oakland on Friday) "You know, it's something we discussed, but there's nothing etched in stone at this point. It's just something that we had discussed. It actually came up because of what we thought we may be going through with the Monday night game in San Diego and getting the players out there early and just getting them an extra day of rest. And after that game was not moved, we just continued to have the discussion. We'll see."
 
(on how he would assess the team at the midway point of the season) "Well, it's not very good right now. The last month has been poor, and it's been poor because we've made it poor. We haven't played good football or solid football or clean football where we can sit here and say we're giving ourself an honest chance to win week in and week out. Where do we go from here? I'm looking forward to every one of them. We've got eight more (games) to go. I'd just like to see what the heck would happen if we quit turning the ball over and clean up some of our football, but I'm excited about this group. Nothing has changed. I believe in this group. Everybody's working extremely hard, coaches, players. It's not a lack of effort on anybody's part, but we've got a lot of football to clean up to be good and competitive on the back end of the season."

RB Adimchinobi Echemandu

(on how it felt to get some carries yesterday)  "It felt good to get some carries, but the bottom line is it's a team game and we're trying to win some games and we didn't put forth a very good effort in all phases of the game."

(on if he felt he launched his career as an NFL running back yesterday)  "No, no. For that to happen, you have to consistent week in and week out.  There are guys that have been doing that like Ron Dayne and Ahman Green."

(on getting an opportunity)  "Anytime you get an opportunity to make some plays, you have to take advantage of them.  That's how guys stay around in this league."

DE N.D. Kalu

(on the state of the Houston Texans)  "We've finally looked at the film."

(on if it was better or worse then expected)  "As bad.  They always say it's never as bad, it's never as good, but it was as bad as we thought.  It was bad.  We're giving up too many big plays or too many mistakes.  I could sit here and tell you all the things that you all saw when you watched the game, we just have to limit those.  Turnovers, missed assignments, not getting pressure all the time, it's just everything.  Everything that we were doing good early in the season and in the preseason, we're not doing."

(on turning the ball over and not forcing turnovers)  "That's why the defense can't point to the offense, because we're not getting any turnovers. And the offense can't point to us, obviously.  It's a team event.  That's why you can never separate and say it's the offense getting turnovers or it's the defense not getting them.  We're playing bad as a team.  The one good thing is we're consistent as a team, so hopefully we'll turn it around and be positive together."

(on if he is seeing enough urgency and passion)  "Yes, even when you watch the film, we're down 35-10 and Dunta Robinson had two of the best tackles I've seen from a cornerback.  Mario (Williams) gets a lot of heat, but if you watch him the whole game, he had a pretty good game.  It's there, and nobody ever gave up.  We played bad football.  I'm not going to sit here and sugarcoat it for you."

(on the hit that was put on QB Matt Schaub)  "I heard about it, but I didn't see it."

(on how the defense looks at it when their quarterback was hit helmet-to-helmet in each of the last two weeks)  "That's the thing: Guys are coming after us, we need to come after them a little more.  It's almost like we're too nice out there."

DT Amobi Okoye

(on what they saw after watching film)  "Just a poor first half as far as the standpoint of everything.  It was just terrible.  Like I've said, we just have to correct things that we need to correct.  This organization is at a point where we're trying to do a lot of things.  In order to do that, each and every one of us has to step up to accomplish those goals.  Just from watching film, the first was nothing like us at all."

(on how important the next game is)  "Every game gets more and more important.  Obviously, this one is really, really important coming off of three losses in a row.  The goal is to go down there Friday and as soon as we touch down, the whole time is business, get it done and go back."

(on if he thinks it will help going early)  "Frankly, I really don't know.  Being it's my first year, it's the first I've really done that ever."

(on if he thinks there was enough urgency or passion)  "I think everybody's entitled to their opinion, but personally, I wouldn't say that."

(on how he would describe the team's mindset halfway through the season)  "The mindset is just turn it up; turn it up another notch.  We all know what our goals are and we just have to turn it up."

G Chester Pitts

(on the hit on QB Matt Schaub) "It obviously upsets you. It's a very hard-fought and physical game but cheapshots like that, there's no place in our game for that. The NFL will handle it and take care of it. There's nothing wrong with playing hard, nothing wrong with being physical, but cheapshots are just, they're not necessary."

(on fans being critical of QB Matt Schaub's durability) "Those are obviously people that have never played the game. To be critical of something like that, I mean, they were cheapshots. I don't care who it was. The toughest quarterback who's ever played the game, when you take cheapshots like that – he got up. That's a credit to him. (It's) not something that they should try to down talk or say, question his toughness. He's as tough as they come."

(on that type of hit being illegal) "There's a reason that people are getting fined for doing them, and there's a reason why they're penalties. Some people play, some people watch."

T Eric Winston

(on how much of a confidence hit they've taken after the first two games)  "It's not a confidence hit as much as it's just disappointing.  I think we've shown what we can do when we're clicking this year.  I think we've showed it through a lot of games, the Indianapolis game, the Carolina game, so on and so on, the fourth quarter of Tennessee.  We have to go do it on a consistent basis.  That's the thing that's just disappointing; we're just not doing it on a consistent basis.  We're letting teams get out in front of us.  We're giving teams points, and that's hard."

(on how hard it is to watch film where QB Matt Schaub takes two helmet-to-helmet hits in consecutive weeks)  "I guess that's this league.  Hopefully, the league will come down on him and punish him a little bit.  Especially that. The one Tennessee, I don't think he was really going for that.  I think he was just coming around and just swallowed him.  That was a blatant cheap shot and on Mike Flanagan, too.  There were two on one play, really, the same guy.  There's not a lot of room for that."

(on what's the reaction when you see guys go after the quarterback)  "A lot of the guys are upset, but what are you going to do?  We could be five-year old kids and go try to hit him back, or we just try to get it back on the field.  That's what we're going to try to do.  We're not going to quit.  There's not going to be any quit in this team.  We're going to keep swinging.  We're going to keep fighting.  We're going to keep playing hard, and you have to figure the laws of statistics are going to catch up with us at some point.  We just have to go out there and just get 100 percent effort, execute better, and hopefully the ball will start bouncing our way."