Coach Gary Kubiak made it clear on Monday that there are no moral victories in the NFL. The Texans excelled in it passing game but ultimately lost 30-27 at Jacksonville. Kubiak said the game came down to a few plays, which the defense was unable to make.
Offensive adjustments pay off: Ideally, the Texans would like to balance their attack through the air and on the ground. Conditions weren't ideal in Jacksonville.
The Jags ran a lot of corner fires and the secondary hounded receiver Andre Johnson, so quarterback Matt Schaub had to work the field and look for any opening he could get.
"Offensively, we got double-corner fired a bunch," Kubiak said. "We had to adjust, and adjusting meant throwing the ball more and trying to get them out of that so that we could find some running lanes. And I thought offensively, (offensive coordinator) Kyle (Shanahan) and the staff did a great job of adjusting."
{QUOTE}Schaub threw for 307 passing yards and three touchdowns and he spread the wealth. Three players recorded more than 75 receiving yards: Steve Slaton (eight for 83 yards), Kevin Walter (eight for 76) and tight end Owen Daniels (seven for 87).
"I thought our other guys stepped up and played really well," Kubiak said. "Owen Daniels played extremely well. Kevin Walter was exceptional. We're trying to get Andre more involved with what we're doing. That's when we're at our best in my opinion, when we're balanced. They did pay a lot of attention to Andre, which a lot of teams do."
The offensive line also did a much better job of protecting Schaub. The quarterback wasn't sacked and he was able to make plays with his feet and check the ball down field.
"I just thought he played solid, but the biggest thing is we played better around him," Kubiak said. "We protected him much better than we had the first two weeks and guys made plays after they caught the ball. Those things make a quarterback's life a lot easier."
Kubiak said he should have called a timeout: Direct snaps to ball carriers appear to be a fad in the league. After the formation helped the Miami Dolphins score four touchdowns against the New England Patriots, the Jags ran a similar play against the Texans.
On fourth down at the Texans' 41, Jacksonville lined up as if it was going to punt, but punter Adam Podlesh wasn't on the field. Instead, reserve fullback Montell Owens lined up behind center, took a direct snap and scored on a 41-yard run to make it 7-0.
"They started to run the punt team on and run the offense off, and somewhere in the middle they brought back eleven guys is the way I should explain it," Kubiak said. "If we had executed the call we made, we should have stopped the play. Obviously, we had a problem executing the call, so with the confusion we should have gotten a timeout."
The Texans special team unit found itself completely out of place, and neither special teams leader Kevin Bentley nor Kubiak called a timeout before the play.
"I trust Kevin out there on the field," Kubiak said. "He's kind of the leader of the group out there, but we made the call. We just didn't align correctly, and actually I can always call a timeout on the sideline. So I put that on me."
Brown out for the season: Safety C.C. Brown fractured his forearm in the fourth quarter of Sunday's game and underwent surgery on Monday. Team physicians estimate a 10- to 12- week recovery period for the starter, so Brown will spend the rest of the season on injured reserve.
Brown has started 57 games over the past four seasons, including all 16 in 2007. He registered his 200th tackle against the Jags.
Kubiak plans to rotate Nick Ferguson, Brandon Harrison and rookie Dominique Barber at the position. Barber filled in for Brown on Sunday but has seen most of his action on special teams.
"Evaluating how he played, I think he played about 10 to 15 plays, somewhere in that neighborhood," Kubiak said of Barber. "Like I said, with this situation you could see us start to rotate some players, but he is naturally getting more involved."
Defensive stop needed: All the Texans needed was a defensive stop in the fourth quarter and they could have won the game. Houston was ahead 24-20 and had the JAgs at fourth-and-eight, but Garrard converted with a 9-yard run to the Texans' 9.
"The thing that we did in the first half was we got off the field on some third-down plays, and in the second half we didn't," Kubiak said. "I think we got off the field on one third down. They did miss one other third down, but they made it up on fourth down. So we just couldn't make the play to get off the field. I think that was the biggest difference."
