Offensive Coordinator Rick Dennison
Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips
TE 
ILB
Offensive Coordinator Rick Dennison
(on QB
(on what he’d like to see QB Matt Schaub do better) “Just continue to improve, it’s kind of hard for me to ask him to do more because he puts in his time and he works hard. Just continue to work on, his accuracy has been great but he could always be better, just keep working on that.”
(on the Texans’ wide receivers) “I think (WR) Andre (Johnson) played very well yesterday. He went through just a little bit of a slump I guess, somebody called it a slump, but he’s working his tail off every day. (WR) Kevin (Walter) played very well yesterday. I think Kevin always will do what you ask him to do. It doesn’t matter. He’ll do the dirty work. He’ll do the glamour touchdown, big play on a takeoff yesterday. Kevin’s going to battle every minute of the day. Our young guys have progressed. We’re still teaching them some stuff with (WR) Lestar (Jean) being out for a while. We asked (WR) DeVier (Posey) to step up and do something and he’s progressing. Now Lestar is back in. We’ll just keep rotating him in. I think the young guys going in and out it just keeps everybody fresh, and I think the added things that we ask for (WR) Keshawn (Martin) with the return game. I think that’s important for him to touch the ball as many times as we can get him the ball.”
(on the Texans’ tight ends) “Well (TE Owen Daniels) OD, obviously, he’s had a tremendous year catching the ball. It’s hard for people to cover underneath and we know that especially with having (WR) Andre (Johnson) outside and them having to work their coverage around him. Owen has done a great job and we’re working him down the field. He does a great job in the seams. Obviously, (TE) Garrett (Graham) had a great catch yesterday. He’s really coming up with plays. He does a great job on the line of scrimmage. (FB) James (Casey), when he’s fullback and he’s slash tight end, he moves around. He puts a lot of pressure on people. Those guys as far as giving (QB) Matt (Schaub) somebody to distribute the ball between the tight ends and the wide outs and obviously when we ask (RB) Arian (Foster) to catch the ball out of the backfield and James out of the backfield, it really has presented a tough thing for the defense.”
(on if WR
(on if they’ll continue to rotate at guard and tackle) “Yeah, we’re going to take a look at this. This is the bye week so we’re going to look at a lot of film and see how it goes. See if we can decipher the difference between each one, tackle-guard. If we like the way it’s going, we’ll continue it. If we see a clear difference then we’ll make that decision. That’ll be on this week. I couldn’t tell you right this second.”
(on if he has any inkling to the guard and tackle situation) “No, no. We’re interested in moving the ball every minute. Up to this week, we’ve liked the way things have been going, but we’re going to spend some time and really study that the next couple days.”
(on things QB Matt Schaub is doing better now ) “I really think that coming off the injury last year when he got hurt he was playing at a very high level. Coming off the injury, you could tell there was a little rust early on. Every time we went through a different situation like the first two minute of training camp there was a little bit of rust. He got better at it. I think he’s really starting to work into that midseason form that he was in when he got hurt last year, which is about the right time. I think he just keeps getting better. We had some adjustments this week. We changed up some routes, trying to do some different things just because we saw what Baltimore did and we thought they presented themselves with some change in our routes and some of our progressions to help us out with that and he did a great job handling that.”
(on C/G
(on what WR
(on what part of RB
(on RB Arian Foster’s low average per carry) “I think you can’t put that all on (RB) Arian (Foster). That’s on us, us as a group. Coaches, players, we as the Houston Texans may be a little bit low in general, but we’re getting better. Yesterday was a prime example. We were much better than we were the week before. We’re all learning in a process, and that’s having different guys up front. It’s not (G) Mike Brisiel and (T) Eric Winston over on the right side. It’s different guys. We’re coaching them. They’re working at it and I think we’re progressing. We’re getting to where we want to be.”
(on the key in the running game on Sunday against Baltimore) “I think everybody was focused. I know they gave us some changeups, some things that were different than what we saw on tape. We were focused and really worked together. I think you could see that. Guys were working hard on the technique, front side, back side because they’re all important in the run game. I think really everybody stepped together and stayed together and worked hard at it.”
(on overcoming slow starts offensively) “If we could bottle that up that’d be great because usually we are a fast starting team. I don’t know if we were trying to do too much too fast or what, but I know we’ll get better at it. I think we just showed them on tape, look we had a chance to convert both third downs and we should have and we will, just seeing that on tape. It’s a matter of converting the thirds if we don’t make enough on first and second or getting more on first and second. You can’t always put third downs all on the third downs if you’re not productive on the first and second downs to give yourself a better third down. If it’s a short yards, and we can run it and we can make it, that’s great we’ll stay on the field longer.”
(on if he expects the offensive line to keep improving) “We would hope. That’s what we’re progressing to. We’re not, obviously, going to change what we do. We’re going to get those guys to work hard at it and getter better at it. So I think we as a group are trying to make sure that we’re staying on the rise. We’re always getting better because if you ain’t getting better, you’re getting worse. That’s what we keep trying to tell them.”
(on C
(on the atmosphere in the locker room at 6-1) “I think we’re happy, obviously, where we are, but we know that they’re still some plays that could be had on the field. We’re certainly not resting. The season is not over. It’s seven games. We’ve got nine more to play, one at a time. We know the Bills will present themselves as a challenge again. We’re at home, if we have the kind of support that we had yesterday. The crowd was noisy yesterday after (OLB) Connor (Barwin) got that sack it was tremendous. We’ll just keep working at it and progress one at a time. We know we’re far from home.”
(on how QB Matt Schaub avoids pressure) “He does a great job of feeling it and understanding and working to get a throw lane. That’s what he has done well. (Quarterbacks Coach) Karl (Dorrell) keeps working with on a daily basis. He’s throwing stuff at him, and making him slide. That’s what he knows his strength is, to be able to slide and make plays, keep his eyes up field.”
Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips
(on this season’s team) ”This team, last year we had a lot of firsts and the old ‘never say never,’ that kind of thing. But it’s really nice to have a team that does things that have never been done before. It’s an accomplishment, it’s something that you strive for, records to be broken, that kind of thing. We’ve been able to do that this year, and that’s pretty impressive.”
(on what he’s most proud of) “I think all of that; that we’ve done things that have never been done with this team. It’s still a young franchise, but to take the steps we’ve taken and won the games we’ve won has been real special.”
(on CB
(on ILB
(on if he’s ever had no rushing touchdowns in seven games like he has this season) “Well, I think we didn’t have a couple in the last games of last season so I think we got nine or 10 games going with that. The first thing is, to play the run, stop the run, we do it a little bit different than some people. We do it on the way to the quarterback, we try to be aggressive with our run defense and sometimes they hit a little hole on us and people think ‘boy, we’re soft in the middle’ and all those things. But we’re actually not, we were in the top of the league last year in run defense and I think we’re up there again this year. Something we take pride in. But we do it a little bit different than some teams. Some teams play soft, bend don’t break. You can stop the run that way, but we’re a little more aggressive with it, and I think it pays off in our pass rush and things like that. I’ve been with some awfully good defenses. Somebody can look up all the stats but I’ve been with quote a few teams that were awfully good defensively. But this is a long time for not giving up a rushing touchdown that’s for sure.”
(on DE
(on how DE J.J. Watt has a skill for batting down passes) “Well, we didn’t invent it. In college he knocked down 12, I believe, in his senior year so he was the number one pass defender on Wisconsin’s team. That’s something we’ve done and team’s that I’ve been around have done quite a bit of is try to knock down passes and I’ve had some guys that were really good at it. (DE) J.J. (Watt) is the best that I’ve ever been around, but part of what we saw in him is a football player to draft him is ‘Hey he’s got a great knack for knocking the football down and rushing the passer and seeing the ball.’ He just carried that onto pro football.”
(on the team’s interceptions and pass defense) “We had seven in the game. He had seven incomplete passes in most cases, but in this case it was five incompletions and two interceptions so that changes the game. It certainly when you get in an interception for a touchdown which we have on a couple of them, I don’t know what the percentages are but they’re pretty high that if you intercept one for a touchdown during a game you’re usually going to win that game.”
(on how CB Johnathan Joseph played coming off a groin injury) “He looked pretty fast to me. I know that receiver couldn’t catch him. He needs to tuck that ball before he gets to the goal line, but I was glad to see him get to the goal line so fast. We rest him some during the game, but he came back strong and played well.”
(on the defense) “Well our front seven and our d-line overall is a real strong group as far as talent. I think we got guys that are real smart. They know their position. They know how to play it. Like I said, we get some of them more freedom than others. (DE)
(on how the defense bounced back this week) “You’re tested sometimes. You’re tested mentally and how strong you mentally sometimes. You get beat down sometimes. You get knocked down. I tell them it’s a 16 round fight and we knocked down the other guys the first five times, but they knocked us down. We got to get back up and fight so that’s what they did. That game was a tremendous accomplishment in my opinion. They were averaging 385 yards a game. They were one of the best offensive teams that we had seen this year. Stat-wise, they were better than Green Bay was going into the game. They may still be. I just thought they were awfully good on offense. To hold them to 176 yards, I thought our guys played lights-out.”
(on what he wants the team to improve on in the second half) “We want to win. The stats don’t make a whole lot of difference if you don’t win. You have to know how to win. I think our group knows that and not only that, but you have to know how to prepare to win. That’s the key. I think our preparation, especially this past week after we did lose a game, we came back stronger mentally and I thought our preparation was even better than it had been. We want to carry that on.”
(on what he said to OLB
(on what it means for the team to be on top of the AFC at this point) “I told our guys today, every game is important and you play everyone the same way. There are certain games that can get you over the top. This game got us over the top. There is no doubt about that. We have the best record, so we’re on top again. I told them too, that we were on top at 5-0, so we have to continue to be on top. This was a big, big game, a big win because it gave us an opportunity to be ahead of everyone else. Again, that’s not quite halfway through the season, we know all those things, but if you have those games and you win them, it can make or break a season for you.”
TE Owen Daniels
(on the significance of the win over Baltimore) “I think it was a really, really big win for us. If you look at the circumstances losing a week earlier and having a big game going into our bye week and playing against a really good team, to be able to get a win in the fashion that we did was huge for us going forward confidence-wise. It’s a great way to go into this bye week to get some rest. I can’t overemphasize the confidence of the situation.”
(on if they welcome the break given how well they’re currently playing) “I think we welcome the break. I don’t think we’ll have any problems getting back into sync once we get back to work next week. I think we just feel good about where we’re at and we’re going to take advantage of the time off and get refreshed mentally and physically. We’ll be ready to go back to work when we come back here.”
(on if this is the best that he’s felt since the 2008 season when he made the Pro Bowl) “Yeah, I think so. I guess since the beginning of the 2009 season where I felt pretty darn good. Yeah, I feel great physically. The coaches really took care of me during camp, giving me days off here and there. I think that is translating into feeling good now and hopefully it will later in the season too.”
(on if he thought the Texans were very well-rounded in the win over the Ravens) “No question. Everyone contributed, all across the board, all three phases. We were as balanced as we could be on offense, running the ball and throwing the football. We were pretty darn good on third downs and staying on the field. Our time of possession was huge, keeping their offense off the field. Obviously our defense made some huge plays and got things rolling for us. When they’re scoring point, it just makes it easier to win games. We had a good contribution on special teams, but obviously, it was a very well-rounded game for our team.”
(on the play of QB Matt Schaub) “I think he’s playing unbelievably well. Coming off the injury that he had and getting back on the horse and being as in sync as he is, you know he’s always going to be prepared. The way he’s playing and holding up physically, he just keeps getting better. It’s fun to watch.”
(on Coach Kubiak saying that he is playing as well as he was the year he made the Pro Bowl) “It’s hard to compare but I think I’ve improved as a player. I think I’m better in terms of holding up in pass protection and blocking in the run game then I was back then. I think I’m a little more physical now. You like to see that, the longer you’re in the league, to get a little better at that type of thing. I feel pretty good about running my routes and catching the ball. That’s more of the thing that has come naturally but being able to improve in the run game and having the coaches having the confidence to put me one-on-one in pass protection is a good improvement.”
(on his ability to overcome some injuries a couple years ago) “There are always bumps in the road and everyone has them. I’ve really put in a lot of work to get back to where I was and feeling the way I do physically. I think I’m more of a complete player then I was back then for sure.”
(on FB
(on TE Garrett Graham’s acrobatic catch against the Ravens) “It was so sick, man. Watching that thing on the TV copy in slow motion, it was like he was going up to dunk the ball, it was an amazing catch. He had amazing concentration. He never took his eyes off the ball. You could see it the whole way. It’s good to see flashes like that out of him when he’s getting a chance to make plays.”
(on his secret to scoring so many touchdowns this season) “I’ve been getting lucky, man. I don’t know. Just taking advantage of my opportunities I guess. I don’t always get looks down in the scoring zone, but when you do, you’ve got to make the most of it. I think that’s been the key.”
(on what is said in the huddle and on the sideline regarding the slow starts) “I think we just look at each other and not much needs to be said. Enough is said by going three-and-out. We’re pretty hard on each other as it is. We expect a lot out of what we’re doing. We just try to tell each other to lock-in a little better and get more focused. Sometimes defenses have a good scheme to start the game and you’ve got to give them credit sometimes for being able to stop us. I think that’s one thing we’re going to look at tomorrow as well. We’re going into the second half of the season looking to start fast. In our position to get points on the board right away, a lot of time we’re getting the ball to start the game and that’s what we like offensively. To put points on the board with the defense we have early in the game, the first drive if possible, it’s really important. We have to do a little bit better job of that.”
(on what the Texans are doing better offensively than they’ve ever done) “I just think we’re more balanced than we’ve ever been. I don’t think there is one guy that is carrying the ball all the time. In the past, Dre (WR Andre Johnson) has had 100 catches but now the ball is getting spread across the board between him, (WR) Kevin (Walter), myself, (TE) Garrett (Graham), (FB) James (Casey) and some young receivers. Then we’re running the ball really well behind that, this past week especially. Offensively, I think that’s what makes us successful. There are so many people to game plan for and prepare for week-to-week for opposing defenses. That makes it easier for us.”
ILB Bradie James
(on how he’s adjusted to playing more with ILB
(on if he has to have a different mindset playing that many plays) “The thing about being able to play with a player like Cush (ILB Brian Cushing), what makes our team and what makes the defense real good is everybody understands their role. Coming in, I wanted to make sure that not only did people understand their role, they had to take it to another level. No matter what your role is, it’s very important to the success of the team, defensively, offensively and special teams. I was fitting in, getting ready to enjoy my 30 plays and then football happened. We got an injury to one of our better players, one of our best players on the defensive side of the ball. I wanted to definitely have a better rapport, to have more time with him. But now you just pick up and try to pick up where he left off. The only way we can do that is by committee and I think we have enough players to really do that.”
(on if playing in Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips’ defense has been better than he expected after playing in it with Dallas) “Right before I signed, I got a chance to really see these guys on film. I didn’t know what was going on down here I should say. I got a chance to see guys like (OLB) Connor (Barwin) and (OLB) Brooks (Reed) and (DE) J.J. Watt. I saw J.J. on film and I said, ‘Hmm. This is different.’ This is why was (Defensive Coordinator) Wade (Phillips) tailors his defense to the players that he has. It’s not only by the high-motor guys we have on the team, it’s a tribute to the second year also. And then a couple guys coming in like myself and Dobbs (ILB
(on how important it is to the team’s success to come out of the bye week and pick up where the team left off) “The thing about the bye, especially when you have good seasons, is you’ve got to get away from the game and come back with an almost renewed commitment because you have to use that time off. That’s why it’s so important to win going into the bye, so you don’t have things lingering on while you’re supposedly off. You want to be playing some of your best ball going into the bye and then you can tail it down a little bit while you relax. And then you can come back just re-focused, fired up and ready to finish that second half because the first half is what it is. One thing about this team, you talk to (Head Coach Gary Kubiak) and the fabric of this team is just its work ethic. He always talks about just going 1-0. You don’t really try to bit the whole pie. You just take one piece at a time.”
(on how important it is that the team has the best record in the AFC at this point in the season) “It’s huge. It just lets you know that every game is very important and definitely when you’re winning and when you’re on top, people are always gunning for you. The week before we lost, it was very humbling because guys had to focus more, do a little bit more and then pay attention to the details and that’s why we were able to play as well as we were able to this last game. I think it’s really more about and how we feel, it’s really more about us instead of whoever we’re playing because it’s about how we prepare and how we approach each week. That’s another great thing about this team.”
(on DE J.J. Watt having 10 passes defensed this season) “It’s unreal. For me to be in my 10th year to have a player like that in front of me, I’m so thankful and so grateful because with me knowing the scheme, I just really play off him. Because sometimes he just does some things and you’re just like, ‘I don’t know how he does that.’ And to tip the ball consistently the way that he does, man, we’re watching something that never really happens. I’m sure he’s on pace to break whatever record it is, I don’t know, I know you guys keep up with that but I’m sure he’ll break that record. He’s an asset to this whole organization.”
(on how important it is to have had four people score on defense this season) “That’s another thing that doesn’t usually happen during the season. But we actually practice that in practice. You guys get a chance to see what we’re doing in practice in a game on Sundays, and really, that’s when it counts. It’s huge. It gives everybody a boost. I think OD (TE Owen Daniels) alluded to it earlier, talking about us scoring. I think the statistics are off the charts, at least 90 percent when a defense scores on the defensive side of the ball increasing the chances of winning. It’s huge, man, for everybody. I mean everybody feeds off of that, defensively, offensively on special teams. We’ve just got to keep grinding and get some more.”
(on his plans during the bye week) “Going back to Dallas with a smile on my face.”
