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Practice report: Taking out the trash?

By Drew Dougherty
November 20, 2009 Comments (0) | Avg. Rating
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Because of rain showers on Friday, the Texans practiced inside at the Methodist Training Center. The team will have another light practice Saturday morning.

Trash talk: The Titans come to town for Monday Night Football, and a few Tennessee players had some choice words for the Texans. Linebacker Keith Bulluck was quoted as saying, "I know they have playoff aspirations and everything, so we're really looking forward to coming down to Houston and destroying all playoff hopes and aspirations they have."

Bulluck elaborated further.

"We're talking about a team that has never even sniffed the playoffs before, so I guess when they beat us or other teams in the (AFC South), I guess to them it's like a playoff game," he said. "Last game, it was only the second game of the season, but I thought it was for the AFC championship."

The reactions from the Texans varied on Friday. Right tackle Eric Winston said things will get settled on the field.

"That's why we play the games," Winston said. "All that talking and stuff—it's good for the locker room, it's good to get the game hyped up and everything like that, but after that first play, after you get hit one time, that stuff goes out the window and you got to start playing. So I'm not worried about it. I know he plays hard, I think he knows we play hard and we'll see after the game."

Linebacker DeMeco Ryans concurred.

"It's all bulletin board talk," Ryans said. "It really doesn't matter to me what they have to say. Everything will be settled on the field. You can talk all you want to, but we let our helmets and shoulder pads do the talking."

"Everything will be settled on the field. You can talk all you want to, but we let our helmets and shoulder pads do the talking."

LB DeMeco Ryans
Wide receiver Andre Johnson also took the high road in the war of words.

"I don't really worry about all that," he said. "They can say what they want to say. It really doesn't matter; you've got to play football. All we can control is what happens on Monday night, so we'll be there Monday night."

Strong safety Bernard Pollard didn't play in the Week 2 rumble that the Texans won 34-31. He, too, wants the focus to be on the field and not on the chatter.

"At the end of the day, it's not about one player, it's not about two players, it's about 11 guys on offense, defense and special teams to show up and prove that we want it," he said. "And we know we want it. We understand that we have seven games left. We understand where we want to go and we're not going to let one person or a couple of mouths stop us."

Head coach Gary Kubiak avoided the back-and-forth by responding to repeated questions about trash talk with a smile and the response of "I'm just trying to get my team ready to play."

Jones-watch: Like yesterday, wide receiver Jacoby Jones did not participate in the full practice. He did, however, do a little more work during the special teams period before practice, so Kubiak was encouraged.

"I would say he got better today," Kubiak said. "We'll see. We'll push him tomorrow and see what he can do."

Kubiak said Jones' ability to play in Monday night's game isn't necessarily contingent upon the amount of work he puts in Saturday or during the week prior.

"Jacoby can play without practicing," Kubiak said. "There's no doubt about that. Also, I've got to make sure that he can go and help us win because he is a big part of what we do, not only as a receiver but as a returner."

Kubiak also added that Glenn Martinez would be called upon if Jones is doubtful.

"If there is any question at all, I've got a lot of confidence in Glenn, so we'll see," Kubiak said.

In other injury news, rookie linebacker Brian Cushing returned to practice. He sat out on Thursday to rest his injured foot.

Injury report: For the official injury report, click here.

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