Gary Kubiak and the Texans are ready to turn the page and focus on Sunday's matchup with Arizona
Texans coach Gary Kubiak reviewed the Texans' 29-6 victory over Oakland and looked ahead to the Arizona Cardinals during his weekly press conference at Reliant Stadium on Monday.
Savoring victory?: After both of the Texans' victories this season, Kubiak has talked about the need for improvement from his team. That prompted a question today from a reporter who wanted to know if Kubiak did indeed get any enjoyment from triumphs over Tennessee and Oakland.
"I enjoyed the victory," Kubiak said. "Believe me: You all get me wrong on that when I come in here after a game. It's just that the wheels start turning on the things that you got to continue to do to be successful in a 16-game season. You see things a little different the next day."
One of the aspects that Kubiak was especially pleased with from Sunday was the play of his defensive unit. The Texans did not allow a touchdown, limited the Raiders to just 45 yards rushing and forced three Oakland turnovers.
"Defensively… we did it all day long yesterday," Kubiak said. "That's what I was most impressed with: our defense. I liked our effort, from the first snap to the last one."
But Kubiak also said that he wanted to see the same consistency for two halves from his offense, which "impressed" him for the first 30 minutes but did not after halftime.
Running game thoughts: With a per-carry average of 5.1 yards in the first half, Kubiak liked what he saw from running backs Steve Slaton and Ryan Moats. Those two combined for 82 rushing yards before the intermission and led the Texans to a 20-6 advantage before the break.
The two split 20 carries in the second half and mustered just 39 yards. Kubiak explained what happened.
"It's just something that we obviously need to improve upon for us to be successful throughout the season," Kubiak said. "We're just off to a very slow start running the football, but we're committed to what we're doing and we need to do it better."
Kubiak also said his club needs to be able to run in late-game situations, when it's the absolute hardest to do so.
{QUOTE}"You better be able to run against an eight-man front in this league," Kubiak said. "You're going to get it. If you're in fourth-quarter situations and you've got a touchdown lead or 10-point lead, if you totally go away from the run because somebody is playing you an eight-man front, you're going to struggle. We've always prided ourselves on being able to line up, account for those hats or those bodies that are in there and finding a way to grind out some first downs. We're not going to change."
Bird watching: Next up for the Texans is a Sunday afternoon road game at Arizona. The Cardinals enter the game with a record of 1-2, losing their season opener to San Francisco, crushing the Jaguars in Week 2 and getting ousted by the Colts in Week 3. They were off Sunday for their bye week, and their first game back is against the Texans.
The 2008 NFC champs boast a pair of playmaking wide receivers in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.
"Obviously, Fitzgerald's a big guy," Kubiak said. "Those jump balls, those fades, those things make it very difficult for you defensively, the way he can go get the ball. The other guy (Boldin) just scares the heck out of you. He catches a lot of screens, and all of the sudden it turns into a tremendous run after the catch. They're just very explosive offensively. They're going to make some plays."
Through three games, Fitzgerald has 17 catches for 181 yards and two touchdowns. Boldin's numbers are similar, amounting to one catch, 10 yards and a touchdown less than his teammate. Quarterback Kurt Warner has tossed four touchdowns and four interceptions and been sacked seven times.
More on swine flu: The Texans began their weekly press conference with an appearance by Dr. James Muntz, the team's internist. Given Anthony Hill's case of the swine flu late last week, the club wanted to inform the public about how the team is dealing with it.
Muntz answered questions and said that Hill is the only confirmed case of H1N1 on the Texans, but that the rookie tight end text messaged him Monday morning to let Muntz know that he felt much better.
Muntz also explained that safety Eugene Wilson did not have the swine flu and was not suffering from a fever on Sunday. Wilson did not attend the game and took the prescription drug Tamiflu to treat his illness.
Running back Chris Brown didn't play Sunday, either, and Muntz described Brown's illness as a gastrointestinal case.
