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Head Coach Gary Kubiak**
(on the status of WR Andre Johnson and T Duane Brown) "Andre is doing better today. He has a shin bruise. As a matter of a fact, I just walked by him in there. He's going to be day-to-day, but he did come out OK. All the X-rays are fine. It's just a matter of working him back through it, probably a day-to-day process. Duane did go on the field today with the trainers. He is better, but I still think it's going to be a day-to-day process as we work to the weekend."
(on how concerned he is about QB Matt Schaub making decisions that are so costly) "Well, I'm concerned about a lot of things. We turned the ball over obviously and that's something that we're not doing very well right now or we're doing a poor job of protecting the ball, and we're not getting turnovers either. Those two go hand-in-hand. As a football team, we're losing that battle, which we were very good at last year and we're off to a very slow start this year. That has to change. But it's not just the quarterback. Everybody's involved in what we're doing and we can do a better job up front, a better job running routes. He's got to make good reads, all of those things. Those things go together."
(on the defense) "Obviously, we were exceptional in the first half. We controlled the ball offensively. Defensively, we held them to what 60 yards in the first half. So we're in control of the football game obviously, but we don't have the points that you want to have. We've got six instead of 14, so it had an effect on the game. The second half, we played poorly as a team, defensively, offensively. Way too many penalties. I think we had 11 penalties defensively in the game and had five or something like that offensively. I'm disappointed in that, but I thought we could have stayed there all day and played the way we played in the first half, and that's what we're capable of doing. One good half, one bad half."
(on the team's penalties on the defensive line and on offense) "Yeah, there probably wasn't a guy on the front that didn't jump offsides. Offensively, we've got a lot of work to do with our hands. We had some holding calls in the game. Probably could have had a couple of more, so we've got to do some things in practice to correct that. Snap count wise, they got us four or five times. All we can do is continue to work on that. Hard count our players in practice. We had a taunting call, which we can't have on a third-down stop. We had a couple of PI (pass interference) calls. We set a franchise record for penalties right? When you do that and turn the ball over, you're not going to win, especially on the road against a real good football team. It's obviously a very disappointing situation. Something that we addressed today and we've got to go get corrected this week. That just can't happen."
(on the fourth-and-two screen play to RB Arian Foster in the fourth quarter) "Yeah, we were trying to catch a blitz trying to run what we call a 'Jail-Break' screen. We had the coverage we wanted and had the blitz we wanted. We just didn't do a very good job with it. Just a poor call."
(on QB Matt Schaub being under duress a lot yesterday and what to do to fix that) "Well, the first thing we can do is stay on schedule. That's the most important thing. Going into the game, we knew that was a priority. I think of 12 third downs, six of our 12 were 10 yards or more. Five of those six were 15 yards or more. If you're doing that, there are only two things that can be happening. You've got to be having negative plays. You've got to be having penalties. It's hard to protect the quarterback in those situations and, against that football team, it makes it even tougher. We had issues with some pressure outside and inside. It wasn't like it was coming from one spot. Obviously, we've got to protect the quarterback and he's got to play better too. A lot of things go with that and it's not just one."
(on balancing between running the ball and trying to get QB Matt Schaub into a rhythm) "I think he can get into a rhythm if he throws it 20-25 times. The rhythm has got to be offensively, not just for him. We were slow in and out of the huddle yesterday. That kind of bothered us. We struggled getting some calls in and the communications system went down for a period of time. We've got to work through that. But just tempo in what we're doing. Like I said, I liked what we were doing for a quarter-and-a-half and we make one mistake and all heck broke loose. You've got to stay compose and we responded to some adversity the first two weeks. We did not respond to adversity yesterday."
(on struggles with the play action) "Yeah, it's a big effect. We had a chance to make a big play early in the game and we don't protect very well. Matt (Schaub) has got to get rid of the ball and throw it out of bounds. We've got a big play to Andre (Johnson). Our play-pass is something we've been pretty good at around here. It goes with us running the ball. It hasn't been good early in the season because of some of the types of games we've been in. We've been in a little bit of a different mode, but it's got to improve. There are too many negative plays coming from it. I think we had three or four of our sacks this year have come from play-pass and if anything, that's where you ought to be protecting pretty good. It's an area of concern, some things we've got to fix."
(on how Ts Ryan Harris and Derek Newton did in the game) "Well they battled. They battled some good players out there. We can help them and we were helping them early in the game, I thought, by some of the things we were doing. Then we got in a big throw mode, especially there midway through the third quarter. It made it difficult on them. I think Ryan came in and battled his tail off. He can play better. I know Newton can play better. We have too many penalties between them. I think there were four or five penalties between them. Everybody else has got to help them too. They can't be out there on an island down-in and down-out. We've got to get better, better as a group. They played hard; we just didn't play very good."
(on the punt returned for a touchdown and if it was a breakdown in coverage) "Actually, our coverage was the exact same coverage that we had the punt before. We just tackled the time before. We didn't tackle that time. We had four guys free and we had three missed tackles on the play, so it's inexcusable. We have to get him down right there."
(on WR Andre Johnson not being available for the second half comeback attempt and how that affects WR DeAndre Hopkins) "You want Andre out there all the time, but we struggled yesterday to get the ball downfield regardless of who would've been in the football game because we were struggling with their pass rush. He's (Hopkins) playing well. He's doing a lot of good things. He's making a lot of mistakes too. He's a rookie. We're trying to get him cleaned up from that standpoint, but he's obviously a big contributor to what we're doing right now. He should only get better with the more he plays. Really, we're just trying to get his game more consistent from an assignment standpoint in what he's doing."
(on going up against the top-ranked Seattle defense this week) "I don't know. We've got to go up there and figure it out. We've got to find a way to make some bigger plays than we're making. Like I said yesterday, it was a big struggle to get the ball down the field. Y'all asked me about play-pass, that's something that helps us do that. Staying out of a football game where we're down a couple scores in the third quarter would probably help. Somehow we have to get some consistency and get rid of those mistakes and play the type of football game that we want to play."
(on if it bothers him that they haven't played a complete offensive game since last season) "Yeah, I don't think we've played a good team game from start to finish this year. Is that what you're asking me about? We've been inconsistent. We've turned the ball over. We've shown signs of some great things. Going into the game this past weekend, we're averaging 450 yards a game. That's unheard of in this league. Then we go down there this weekend and we struggle to move the ball. It's about consistency in this league and finding a way to make plays. Like I said, biggest thing in looking at it, if we're going to put ourselves in those situations on third down, we're going to struggle so we have to find a way to fix that somehow."
(on ) "No, we've got the same guys. We've got a few new faces with DeAndre (Hopkins) in there. Obviously, we've got a couple of backs that are playing consistent for us. We just have to keep battling here and go figure it out up there and figure out a way to get a ball in a guy's hands down the field a little better and find a way to make some more plays. Find some consistency."
(on the key to bouncing back after Green Bay last year to play their best game against Baltimore) "The thing I remember about that last year is we made some big plays in that game against Baltimore. We had a safety. We had a pick-six, if I'm right. If you look at this game yesterday, they were the ones that made the big plays: the interception for a touchdown, their punt return. It's a new week and obviously there's a great opponent coming in here. I think they're first in defense and eighth or ninth in offense right now as a football team, so we understand what we're facing. Right now, we're trying to figure out ourselves, trying to fix our problems before we move on to Wednesday and get started on those guys."
on the penalties and mistakes not coming from a lack of hard work) "We always work hard but you've got to work well, too. That's the biggest thing. Penalties, to me, is just discipline as a football team and we've been pretty good. It's something that we've haven't had a lot of problem with. But yesterday was a problem and especially a problem in the second half. It looked like we got frustrated to me. We start jumping offsides, doing those type of things, there's frustration going on. So it's just something we've got to address and work at. We're not going to get away with that against anybody. It's just disappointing but that's my job to make sure it doesn't happen."
(on people saying the team wasn't "up" for the Baltimore) "I really think we were really ready to play. I thought we played extremely well. Had control of the football game in the first quarter, halfway through the second quarter, doing the things we want to do. The thing that was disappointing, we didn't have 14 points. We had six. But the minute we made a mistake, we did not play very well from there on. Like I said, I think we responded to adversity better the first two weeks than we did yesterday. Got to find a way to play four quarters of football. Did not do that yesterday."
(on how FS Ed Reed is feeling) "He's feeling good. He worked out with the team. He ran good today. I think he played, I want to say like 40 plays, somewhere in that neighborhood. Moved around pretty good, did not come out sore or anything, so I think we took a step in the right direction. Obviously, he starts to play more, starts to feel better with what we're doing as a defense."
(on if Ed Reed is the starter at free safety) "Yeah. He started yesterday. I think he played 40, 41, 42 plays. Something like that."
(on if he planned to play FS Ed Reed that much against Baltimore) "Yeah, we were talking somewhere between 30 and 40, depending on how many snaps there were in the game and how he felt. I think there was a period there in the fourth quarter where we shut him down and Shiloh (Keo) took the rest of the game with what we were doing."
(on how FS Ed Reed moved against Baltimore) "He moved around good. Like I said, for him, that's his first time back since when? Last year, the Super Bowl. I think just the fact he was able to play some and he came out of the game feeling good. There was a turf issue. Talk about him playing on turf. We came out okay, worked out the team today so I think we're heading in the right direction."
