The 'P' word was at the forefront of a lot of Texans' minds after they fell to the Ravens, 30-19.
"Penalties," cornerback Johnathan Joseph said, when asked about the second half. "Some warranted, some unwarranted."
The Texans were flagged 14 times for 113 yards in Sunday's road loss. Head coach Gary Kubiak didn't like the mental lapses, and said so in the postgame press conference.
"I'm very disappointed," Kubiak said. "The biggest disappointment is in discipline. That's my responsibility."
The Texans committed seven penalties in each half. The Ravens weren't clean on the whole either, as they were flagged 10 times. But they drew yellow flags just twice after the intermission.
"You can't make the mistakes that we made," safety Ed Reed said. "You've got to be a disciplined and smart football team. You can't jump off-sides. You can't turn the ball over, especially on the road. But it's something we can grow from."
Kubiak blamed many of the miscues on the road environment at M&T Bank Stadium, as well as "playing a great team." Defensively, the Texans were repeatedly hit with offside, encroachment, and neutral zone infraction calls.
"In the second half we must have jumped offsides four or five times," Kubiak said. "Regardless to whom it was, it's a team thing, and there's no way you're going to win on the road with 14 or 15 penalties."
Defensive end J.J. Watt was asked if Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco's hard count and cadence were to blame for the Texans' miscues, but he dismissed that notion.
"We weren't fooled by Joe Flacco's cadence," Watt said. "Guys were just trying to make plays, but we cannot have that many penalties."
Reed agreed, and said that the Texans ultimately needed to just keep their collective eyes on the ball.
"At the end of the day, you watch that ball snap," Reed said. "You can't move until that ball is snapped. So it's about being disciplined, and we've got to make some corrections, but we'll grow from this."
