Following are quotes from members of the Texans after the team's 28-22 loss to the Tennessee Titans Sunday at LP Field.
Head coach Gary Kubiak
(on his feelings after the Texans' performance)"I don't feel very good at all. I preach to this football team that the steps
we take as a football team is that we have to be able to go on the road and protect
the football and play a solid football game and see what results we will get.
We have yet to do that. We have had too many bad things happen to us on the road
and until we clean those up it's going to be hard for us to go out there and win
on the road."
(on if it was hard benching David Carr)"It was extremely hard. It's extremely hard to do that to any football player in that situation. I just felt like we were not protecting the ball and I don't think it was all David's fault. I want you all to understand that. We could have protected him better but ultimately when you are the guy under the center, you have got to protect the football. I demand that who ever plays that position protect the ball and that's what I just told David. David is our quarterback. He will be right back next week but he's going to protect the ball next week. That's part of our job. That's all that was about. David will be the quarterback next week for the Texans."
(on if Carr lobbied to return to the game)"He was very pissed and should have been. I'm proud of him and he is a tough kid. That's a tough pill to swallow. I talked to him about some other guys that I have been through this with. To be great in this league you have got to pay a tremendous price. You've got to go through a lot. He's going through a tough day today. It's just as tough on our football team but I expect him to bounce back and pay he tail off next week."
(on how much can it help Carr to sit out the final half)"When you play quarterback, you don't ever want to be in the position where you want to step back and take a look at this. That's very very hard. I just want him to understand why we were doing it because he turned the ball over and that was the only reason. I think Sage (Rosenfels) came in and played extremely well. Like I said, we will move forward. David is going to come back and play next week."
(on Carr being under a lot of pressure)"This is not all about David. He was under pressure and did get hit. When I coach a quarterback, even if you are getting hit, you have got to protect the ball. That's just part of it. We have got that better. Should we have protected better? You can find a lot of guys in that room that are going to take that blame for not protecting. I can guarantee you that. I just want him to understand his responsibility for protecting the football. Our defense was playing very well. If we don't turn the ball over in the first half, you know? To be in the football game in the NFL having five turnovers is unbelievable anyway."
(on if the special teams had a breakdown)"We did not play well. Actually we were trying to kick the ball towards the sideline and pin this kid. He is the best in the business and we didn't do a good job of that and he got out and had a big play on us. With (Edell) Shepherd I don't know. It's obvious he lost his confidence a little bit in the game and that is on us as coaches if that happens to a player. We have got to give someone else an opportunity. I believe in the kid. He had been doing a good job. It was a little bit of a breeze out there, not much, but looks like he lost his confidence just fielding the ball a few times."
(on the number of penalties)"We were on the field a long time on offense. I know we moved the ball well in the game. We were on the field and a lot of that was no huddle. Looks like we jumped off sides in some situations and even struggled a few times but I think the guys were battling their butts off."
(on the deciding factor to bench Carr)"To be honest, at halftime I told our team we struggle in the third quarter guys. Today, for us to have a have a chance we are going to have to play the best third quarter we've played all year. Our football team was very upbeat at halftime. I told David, 'We have got to protect the ball. I don't care what happens, we protect the ball in the second half or I am going to have to give Sage a chance. I told him. I know he got hit. We didn't protect well right there. The ball comes out. That's what I told him I was going to do and I'm a man of my word."
Wide receiver Andre Johnson
(reaction to midgame QB switch)"I wasn't really surprised. Sometimes coaches make decisions and that's something that none of us players control. They made the move that they felt was best for the team."
(on how David Carr will bounce back from the game)"I think he can bounce back from it. Sometimes things happen. He might be right back out there next Sunday. That's really out of my control."
(on pass intercepted by Pacman Jones)"I turned around and the ball snuck up on me. Sage made a hell of a throw. I just didn't make a play on it. I let the ball get into my body and when it hit me, it bounced up and bounced right into Pacman's hands. I think that was a big turning point in the game because they got points off that turnover. I was real frustrated when that happened."
** Defensive end Antwan Peek
(on Vince Young's performance) **"He played pretty poised. He played a good game. You can tell that they kept things pretty simple for him to make sure that he could take care of all his assignments, and he did that. We did a good job stopping the run and he did a good job of putting the ball in the air."
Tackle Zach Wiegert
(on the team's poor offensive performance)"It's always on the whole offense. It's a team game. Everyone that's on that field on offense is to blame when things aren't going well. It's not just one guy. There's a bunch of plays in the game that I wish I could take back. We made a lot of mistakes in the first half – guys were dropping balls and we were missing blocks and not pass protecting well. There were a million things. Sage came in and did a good job in the second half. I think we played better overall as an offense in the second half."
(on Kyle Vanden Bosch's performance)"We started throwing the ball a bunch and he's a good pass rusher. He got me a few times around the corner. We've got to play better. Putting David in a bad situation when he's going to have to step up in the pocket."
**Quarterback David Carr
(on being named the starting quarterback for next week) **"It means a lot to me. Obviously, I had a chance to think about a lot of things
on the sideline today and I realize he is tough on me, for a reason though. Obviously
I'm not dead in the casket, it is going to make me stronger as a person. Obviously
standing on the sideline there, I reflected on a lot of things. It was tough for
me. I just want to apologize to my teammates, the guys who came down here and
Mr. McNair and the coaching staff. It just wasn't my best effort."
(on his reaction to being benched)"My initial reaction was competitiveness came out of me and I got a little upset. I apologized to Gary for that. I wanted to go back in, obviously. At the same time, he felt it was time to make a move. That is totally his decision. I'm just a player; I've got to stand by it. That is what I do."
(on this being a tough moment in his career)"This is by far the hardest. I felt good going into the game. I felt like we had a good plan, as we do every week. I felt like we moved the ball. It is just, you have got to hang on to the ball. I have got to find a way to hang on to the ball and that is definitely going to change."
(on his thoughts on the sideline)"You can probably guess, me standing there. Just watching my team. It was a different vantage point for me. It was something I haven't done since… it is something I haven't done. I haven't watched too many times my offense on the field without me out there. I felt bad because I kind of let them down today. That was the thing that hurts the most. I don't feel bad for myself, I feel bad for my teammates and my coaching staff. They count on me every week to come out here and rely on me to carry the football and make some plays for them. I didn't do that today."
(on the message the coaching staff sent by his benching)"It was obviously a situation where we can't turn the football over. You put Sage (Rosenfels) in there and he did a great job. It is almost as simple as that. For me, it has got to be something that I really seriously look at and make sure it doesn't happen again.
