TEXANS HEAD COACH BILL O'BRIENLEFT TACKLE DUANE BROWNQUARTERBACK RYAN FITZPATRICKWIDE RECEIVER DEANDRE HOPKINSSAFETY D.J. SWEARINGER
TEXANS HEAD COACH BILL O'BRIEN
On the game in general.
We lost.
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On why he didn't go back to Foster in OT after he had two good runs.
I don't know. I have no idea.
The way the offense played early in the game, are you surprised you had a chance to win late in the game?
Our defense played a good game. For the most part, our defense did a good job of holding us in there and we just didn't do enough offensively.
On the play of Arian Foster.
He had a good game.
Was it him, the blocking or a combination of both?
I thought the blocking was good for him and he made some really good runs. He's a good football player and he had a good game.
On how much this game stings.
No loss feels good. Like I said, we have a quick turnaround, here. We play right away on Thursday night. Like I just told the guys, we have to fix the things that we can fix. These games come down to five, six, seven plays, and if you continue to make the same mistakes, you're not going to win when the other team doesn't make those mistakes. It's coaching and it's playing and we've got to get better, and we've got to get better fast because we haven't played a division game yet and we have a very big division game coming up on Thursday night in front of our home fans. Nobody's happy about this but, you know, we've got to turn the page quickly, here.
On the team digging out of holes in the last couple of games.
The one thing I do like about this team, though, is that they never give up. They fight until the bitter end. They're a good bunch of guys but we have to stop making mistakes. We have to. We can't jump offsides. We can't throw interceptions. We've got to call better plays. We've got to put our players in better position. We're all in it together and we have to fix it. It's a long season. We've got a lot of football left. A lot of football. It's only five games. We've got eleven games left. Take it one game at a time. We haven't even played a division game yet. We've got our first division game on Thursday night and that's what we have to do. We have to go get ready to play Indianapolis.
After a loss like this that does sting, is it better to get back on the field in a short period of time?
I don't know. I have no idea.
What bothers you the most? The mistakes you keep talking about?
The loss. The loss bothers me the most.
#76 Duane Brown (T)
On halftime corrections: "I think more than anything we kind of hurt ourselves in the first half. Penalties. Turnovers. They did a good job, but we had plays that were there. We just kind of shot ourselves in the foot on some drives. We just tried to make it a point of emphasis in the second half to play clean. We got our running game going pretty well. They just made more plays than we did at the end of the day."
On his reflections about the loss: "It hurts a lot. On the offensive side of the ball -- just knowing how bad we played in the first half, to even be in the game the way we were and be able take it to overtime -- you know you just left some plays out there. Coach told us it always comes down to five or six plays to be the deciding factor. We just have to get to the point where we are playing our best football for four quarters. We haven't done that yet."
Ryan Fitzpatrick, Quarterback
"Every loss hurts, but to be able to come back, tie the game, win the coin toss in overtime and have the ball, we feel like the momentum was in our favor. Then, not being able to convert that third down to stay on the field, that definitely hurts."
On the offensive struggles: "I don't know, we just know we have to get better. There were some good things that came out of this game in terms of some of the stuff in the second half, the way Arian ran the ball and some of the runs we opened up in the second half. But we just have to look at it and get better."
"Every game plan is different. Every situation is different in terms first and second down versus third down determining the thought process of what we're trying to do. But I've got to do a better job of getting it to our play makers and letting them make plays."
"It's frustrating, the way we were getting the turn overs, you've got to be able to capitalize on those. This game is so much about momentum. Getting those big plays and coming up empty, it's one thing to start it out three and out but to have such momentum shift with a turnover and then not do anything with it, that's a really disappointing part of what we had today."
"I'm not playing well enough to win… I've just got to continue to get better and continue to grow as a player."
On the interception: "It was a miscommunication of something that is 100% on me in terms of being able to get it communicated."
On OT 3rd and 2: "They played man coverage and did a decent job in terms of walling off all of our guys. Arian ended wheeling up the sideline and I just tried to get it to him. They did a good job. Give them credit for the coverage on that one."
On the short week: "The easiest way to get over something like this is to go out there and play again. So in that regard, Thursday Night Football is a good thing when you're coming off a loss and you want to get out there and play better. The health of the guys, it's a tough turnaround, not just for us but for the Colts too. Everybody has a tough time turning around in a few days, but it's a huge game and everyone understands the implications of it."
"We're always touching on consistency. It's something that we just have to continue to work at. Because when we get into a flow and put together good drives, I feel like it's hard to stop us. But sometimes, whether it's a penalty here or an incompletion or a missed throw, whatever it is…we're not in those third-and-manageables and not converting on third down. Then we're off the field and it's tough to get in a rhythm. We just have to find a way to become more efficient."
On Arian Foster: "Arian's a very special player. In every game he's been out there, when he's been healthy and playing, we've seen that…It's about playmakers. The NFL is all about getting your playmakers the ball."
#10 DeAndre Hopkins (WR)
On the ebb and flow of the game: "It just seemed like offensively we couldn't get a rhythm going. Things were up and down. We had a lot of chances in the first half to capitalize off of mistakes they had, but we just couldn't."
On keeping a level head: "You have to keep a level head out there. It is a long game. You can't let your frustrations show. Whether things are going your way or not, you have to keep a level head. I have [WR] Andre [Johnson] on the other side of me. I have the perfect example of a guy who doesn't get frustrated."
On the offense: "I think it can be corrected. We have a lot of great guys on this offense. It is three or four or five plays that are holding us back [from winning the game]."
On momentum in the second half: "We had great momentum, especially when the [Dallas] kicker missed a field goal. The whole game we felt like we were going to win. That just kind of helped a little bit."
On whether the offense left plays on the field: "Obviously we lost. So we left more than a few."
On the turnaround to get ready for Thursday: "It is put behind us now, once we leave this stadium. I doubt we are going to watch this film because it is a quick turnaround to play Thursday. Indianapolis is a great team so we have to put this behind us."
#24 Jonathan Joseph (CB)
On the big Dez Bryant catch: "Third down. Man to man coverage. It was kind of a stutter and go. He had great position. He made a tough catch."
On whether he was surprised that Dez Bryant made the catch: Without a doubt. I don't think I could have any better coverage than what I had on the play. It is the NFL; those guys get paid to make the catch there."
On the big plays by Romo: "They made a couple plays. But I think we made our fair share, enough to win the ballgame. That is the way a football game works sometimes. There are a few plays that decide the outcome sometimes, and today they just made a couple more than us."
On how to proceed from here: "No moral victories or anything like that. We don't want to go into it saying, well, we held them to less than what they normally do. We just have to take it as a loss, go watch the film, and learn from it."
On whether the loss stings: "I guess it shows what type of team we have. A lot of teams would check out, think the game was already over. We fought to the end and came back, pushed it into overtime. Unfortunately enough, we didn't make enough plays to win the game. I think we can hang our hat on we got a team that can go out there and compete with any team in this league."
#36 D.J. Swearinger (S)
On the momentum: Yes, I think we had the momentum. The offense didn't do a great job getting onto their defense. It is our job to pick our offense up whenever they are struggling. And we didn't do that in that game."
On being a stingy defense: "It is something we pride ourselves on. It is something we do every week. It is our identity. To force turnovers when we definitely need them. We did that today. We just couldn't capitalize on them. We just have to keep going and doing what we have to do."
On how to cope with the loss: "This game is over with. We have to get to Indy right now. It is 0-0 and we have to get on to Indy. … It is very painful. We have to have a short memory. As soon as we get back, we have to get onto Indy film and get ready for Indy."
