Guard Chester Pitts had his right knee rolled up at Tennessee.
Coach Gary Kubiak spoke to the media Monday after reviewing the Texans' Week 2 win over the Tennessee Titans. He announced that starting left guard Chester Pitts will undergo arthroscopic knee surgey on Wednesday.
Head coach Gary Kubiak
(on how he feels after watching the film) "Like I said yesterday, it's always good to win in this league. It's hard to win, but like I said, we've got a lot of things that we're going to have to improve upon as a football team to give ourselves a chance to win week in and week out. So we can do some good things, but we've got a lot of problems that we've got to work on to give ourselves a fair chance week in and week out. We're just making some big mistakes."
(on if run defense is included in their mistakes) "Well, there's a lot of things. Offensively, obviously we're last in the league running the football. We're not running the ball well and I think it's a combination of things: scheme issues with us as coaches, running better, blocking better up front. I was excited—I thought we stayed more committed to the run yesterday. You get down 21-7 on the road, but we still came out of the game with 29 carries. You know, that's what I was talking about last week. That's just being committed to what you're doing regardless of the situation in the game. That's the way we have to play, I think, for our team to be successful. So I felt better about that. And then defensively, we're last in the league stopping the run right now. So those two things, historically in this league, say that you're not going to be successful if you don't stop the run and run the ball. So right now we're as poor as we can be in those two phases. And there's a long, long way to go. And a lot of work to do to get it corrected. But history in this league tells you those two things are a bad combination towards success."
(on if RB Steve Slaton is running the same as he did last year) "No, he can run better. He can definitely run better. But we can help him, too. My concern with him, as I told him today, he got three balls on the ground in, I think, 20-something carries in two games. I mean, that can't happen. That can't happen once. We're very fortunate: yesterday he gets two balls knocked out at some very important times in the game and (T) Duane (Brown) gets them both. He had one protection issue during the game but as far as how many yards are there, what we're getting, that's going to—those things are always going to be up and down. I think that's just part of the game but as far as putting the football on the ground and those types of things, you know that can't happen. So he's got a lot of improvement to make from that standpoint."
(on what he plans to do to stop the run) "Well, we can put some more guys up there. We've had our share of eight-man fronts. Yesterday we give up a couple of huge runs just in alignment, assignment issues. You know, the answers are on film. It's not like we're looking at the film saying we don't have the people to stop the run. The defense is there, the scheme is there, the assignments are there. We're not getting them done. So we've just got to get better at what we're doing, quit busting some assignments. You can obviously go to more eight-man fronts but that's—still, you're leaving people one on one outside. So there's a variety of issues but the bottom line: we've got to get better at everything we're doing."
(on the Texans not taking RB Cedric Benson in free agency last year) "We had our chance with Cedric in free agency. It just didn't work out. He was free for a while and we were a team that passed in that situation. We ran the ball pretty good last year. We had our chance at him in free agency in the offseason. We evaluated him and evaluated his fit with our football team and we made a decision to go in a different direction. We've got people to run the ball. But they have to run the ball better and we have to help them run the ball better. You know, hindsight is 20-20. We've got to play with the people we've got."
(on how long it will take RB Anthony Aldridge to fit in the system) "I think it's going to take some time. He's obviously a very talented, fast young man. He's practiced with us three days. It's going to take some time. Like I said, I've got confidence in (RB) Steve (Slaton). I've got confidence in (RB) Chris (Brown). We need to get (RB) Ryan Moats on the football field. He's making plays on special teams and we need to give him a chance to touch the ball and we will do that. But we've got the right people, we've just got to get it going better."
(on the results of Chester's MRI) "I'm not going to go too far into that. We're going to scope Chester on Wednesday. Right now, there's plans to get that done Wednesday and then I can answer your questions better. Obviously he's going to miss some time. How much time? How's he come out of the scope? I'm going to have an answer for you as we come out of practice hopefully Wednesday."
(on the play of G Kasey Studdard) "He went in and did good. He played just like he did through the preseason. Kasey plays the game on emotion and effort—a very hard player. He'll make some mistakes because he is so aggressive. He's going to have a few in there, but he fits with the group. There was no fear there when he went in there, as far as where we were going or how he was gonna do. Our guys expected him to do his job and he did. So I'm excited to see him play. He's earned the right to play through camp. He's a guy that's been working for his opportunity, and here we go, so we'll see how he does."
(on if he plans on making any lineup changes) "It's like I told these young guys, we gave up two-hundred and twenty-something yards on three plays yesterday and there were three young players that were very much involved in those. (SS Dominique) Barber had an alignment issue. We got screwed up there in the secondary. Of course, that's a big play. The young corner, Brice McCain, had an issue on one of the big touchdown runs on 3rd and long. (LB Brian) Cushing had a technique issue, when we were playing quarters one time. So those are young players, but like I told them in this meeting today, I said, 'Listen guys, we're going with you. We're playing with you. So let's go fix them.' We're not going to stop and change and put this guy in there and that guy in there. We as coaches have got to get these young guys up to speed. There is no growth period here—they're playing. We just got to get them doing it better. I think that they will do it better."
(on starting DE Tim Bulman over DE Antonio Smith) "Bulman started this week. That was strictly—there was a different issue there. Antonio had a couple of issues this week with responsibilities as far as the team, and so I started Tim. But Antonio did come back in the game and played extremely well."
(on what issues Antonio Smith had) "Being on time. Things like that. So, we've got to do what we've got to do. They all have to follow the team rules and know what's going on."
(on what he was happiest with on defense) "It was interesting because to me, they made plays when they had to. Of course, the first half, that first quarter was about as bad as it could be. Yet, we made a couple big plays on offense. They hunkered down and started playing good when the game really counted. When the game became a field position game in the 4th quarter, they were excellent. They had two big stops in those situations. They stepped up and made some plays. Our disappointment, like I said, is the run game—to have given up some 3rd and longs. It's a situation where you've got to get off the field. But yet, they stepped up and made some plays that made a difference in us winning and losing. Getting two big turnovers were the difference."
(on if WR Kevin Walter, WR André Davis and DT Shaun Cody are expected to be back) "I would say Cody has an excellent chance to be ready to go. I would say Davis and Kevin are day-to-day. It does look positive for both of them."
(on CB Jacques Reeves) "Jacques made a lot of progress last week. He probably practiced as much as any of them, but at the end of the week, we thought we saw some fatigue there from him coming back and didn't think it made a lot of sense to play him in that game. Had we suited him, we wouldn't have played him much anyway. He might've played a few plays as special teams. I think his chances of being a contributor this week are much greater."
(on if FS John Busing has a chance to start) "Yeah, well he played a great deal during the game. He came in and played somewhere around 25-30 snaps—almost had an excellent chance at an interception. He continues to do some good things for our team. (Defensive backs coach) David (Gibbs) is very comfortable (with him). I think you're going to see us use a rotation system back there on the back end. We're going to play those guys and see who can settle down and take a spot and not let it go. So I think we keep playing them all."
(on if Jacksonville coming in scares him any) "Yeah, you bet. I told the guys today, 'You've got a team coming in here that felt just like you felt all last week so you better get ready to go.' That's part of this league, when something good happens, you better let that go. When something bad happens, you better respond. You look around this league, week in and week out, there's things like that happening all the time. These guys, we're always having good games with these guys. They're presenting some new problems for us offensively. (Jaguars head coach) Jack (Del Rio) has changed his defense a little bit. We've got a big week ahead of us."
(on what Jacksonville RB Maurice Jones-Drew) "He's licking his chops. I would think he's probably pretty excited about the yards we've been giving up on the ground. He's as good a back as there is in the league. Like I told the guys today: it doesn't stop. The backs will keep coming, they'll keep trying to run the football on you until we stand up and get it stopped, so this week won't be any different."
(on how much QB Matt Schaub's health contributed to the win) "He was better. He's as close now to a hundred percent as he's been. I was very impressed with how he played yesterday. When you play against that team you better be a tough quarterback. You're going to get hit. He took some shots in the pocket, stayed in there and made some great plays. Had a great sense of getting rid of the ball. No sacks and no turnovers playing against Tennessee's defense gives you the best chance to win. I thought Matt played about as good as I've seen him play. He was very focused and hopefully he continues to get better and totally back to a hundred percent."
(on if the win can build momentum) "Yeah, it can. Obviously a lot of confidence when you go get something like that done but like I said yesterday, we're very realistic. You sit here and watch the film today and we understand our problems and the statistics don't lie. I think our guys are very humbled by what's going on and know the issues that we have, and understand that we can be pretty darn good or pretty darn average. It's about just staying focused on what we're doing."
(on WR Andre Johnson's first-quarter touchdown reception) "That's got to be one of the best I've ever seen. With my angle, I listen to what the guys up in the box say. I said, 'Well, he caught the ball but there's no way he was in.' They said, 'No. He was in.' It was incredible. We had worked on it all week. It was going to be one of our short yardage calls. I think him stepping up and making that play—he made many big plays in the game."
(on who called for the second-quarter touchdown pass to WR Jacoby Jones) "(Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks) Kyle's (Shanahan) is making some great calls. With Jacoby, we talked about it before the game, that the one thing we wanted to see was guys play with confidence. When you make a mistake, get up and get ready for the next play. So it's easy after that happens to talk about that situation but yeah the play before, he had an easy 20-yard gain, he drops the ball and instead of sitting there on the ground and sulking about it, he got up and got back in the huddle. Really the play is not totally designed to go to him. We just called a coverage that said post. It was just a great read by (QB) Matt (Schaub) and a good job by him hanging on to the football."
(on LB Brian Cushing's impact) "He's playing very good. He's a heck of a player. The more he plays, the better he's going to get. The bigger the situation got in the game he tends to play better. He plays very aggressive and talks a lot with his teammates for a rookie. He and (LB) DeMeco (Ryans) were our defensive players of the game, so that should tell you the impact he had."
(on who started the fourth quarter brawl on the Texans' sidelines) "I think the thing kind of got going when (WR) Andre (Johnson) and (Tennessee CB Cortland) Finnegan were going at it. They go at it every time we play. They go at it every snap. They're very competitive and they're both great players. Pro Bowl players. I think that's how things kind of got going. What do I tell my players? That they better keep their poise and you can't lose football games because you lose your poise. Whether it's your bench, their bench, the middle of the field. You want your guys to be aggressive and battle but you still got to keep your poise."
