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Head Coach Bill O'Brien**
(on giving the players the day off today) "I think that's a lot about rest and I also think that these guys have put a lot of work into this thing all the way back to training camp. We get a lot done on Wednesdays. The other thing too is what's interesting about our football team is all of these guys have been in here either today—a lot of these guys are in here, I just saw (J.J.) Watt working out, (Brian) Cushing—all of them will be in here tomorrow getting treatment, working out and watching tape. It's good at this time of the season, in my opinion, just solely my opinion, is kind of have a separation there between the coaches and the players for a couple days. We can game plan, get a lot of things done and then they are ready to ramp it up on Wednesday."
(on never winning at Indianapolis) "We're well aware that we have not won there. We're aware of that. I think you guys know that from yesterday after the game, but at the same time this is a totally different team than any of those teams in the past. This is the 2014 version of the Texans and that's the 2014 version of the Indianapolis Colts. They're a very, very good team. They have a great quarterback, great coaching staff. It's a big challenge for us. Our guys know that they're going to have to put a lot into this week in order to go up there and meet that challenge, but our guys are excited about it. They're very excited about it. We'll get it going on like I said, on Wednesday."
(on if he talks about with the team that it has never won at Indianapolis or do they avoid that conversation) "I don't think you can hide from it. It's out there. Everybody knows that. A lot of guys have been here. Andre (Johnson), he's been here for a lot of those. I think it's not anything that we—but again, it is in the past like (reporter) said. It is in the past. This is a different team. We feel like we're playing pretty well right now and we're really looking for to the challenge, and we know it's a big challenge."
(on where things stand with Andre Johnson and the concussion protocol) "That's exactly where it stands though. He has to pass the concussion test to be able to be cleared. I would say that's definitely a day-to-day thing."
(on if anything stood out to him after watching the film) "I wouldn't say anything stood out. You know what I really liked about yesterday's game? I didn't think as a team we came out and played a very good first half. I thought that we went in at halftime and really regrouped. I thought the coaches did a really good job of making some adjustments and then the players, most importantly the players, went out there and performed those adjustments and did a really good job of playing a good second half of football. This is a resilient team. This is a team that really competes hard to the final whistle, and that's what I enjoy about this team. I like the fact that they were able to turn it around in the second half and win the football game."
(on what he felt about S D.J. Swearinger's play) "I thought he had a good game yesterday. He did a good job in the game. I thought defensively, in the secondary, I thought all those guys had a good football game. Everybody competed out there. D.J. had a nice interception that was a big play in the game. I think that he had a good game and they all did. They all did."
(on if CB Kareem Jackson returning helped the secondary's play) "That helps, definitely. Any time you get Kareem Jackson back in there, that certainly helped our unit yesterday, no doubt about it.
(on what makes Colts QB Andrew Luck tough to play against) "I have a lot of respect for this guy. Just watching him play, he is a very confident quarterback right now. He's a great competitor and he's a big strong guy who has a great arm and a very accurate passer. He never thinks that the play is over. He competes until the last second. I mean, he is going after it. He's scrambling around trying to make plays for his team. He's a very smart quarterback. He's able to get them into the right plays, you can tell. He does a great job with his cadence. He does a great job with the tempo. Pep Hamilton does a great job with calling plays for him. Like I said, they have a very strong coaching staff and we have a lot of respect for Andrew Luck and that offense."
(on the veteran leadership of T Duane Brown and others from yesterday at halftime) "I think we have a good veteran group. We've got guys that have played a lot of football. Duane Brown stands up, that's like they used to say about E.F. Hutton, when Duane Brown stands up and when he wants to say something, people want to listen. That's for sure. I could say that about any of those veterans: Johnathan Joseph, obviously (J.J.) Watt, Andre Johnson, Shane Lechler, Brian Cushing. Those guys stand up—Arian Foster—they say something, people listen. They've been successful in a lot of games in this league, so we have had some good leadership this year and it needs to continue. We need good leadership this week to have a good week of practice to be able to go up there and try to play our best football game."
(on the development of DE Jeoffrey Pagan) "I think he has improved. I really do. I think that he is a guy that has worked really hard. You know, he is out there in pre-practice working a lot with Bill Kollar. He works a lot with J.J. (Watt) and I think we have played him more and more over the last two or three games and he's definitely an improved player and I think he's got a good future in this league."
(on preparing for Colts WR T.Y. Hilton) "He's a really, really good player. He is one of the best receivers in the league. He is fast. He's got good hands. He's a great route runner. He's going to get his production. I mean, it's going to be really hard to, anytime you have a guy like that, it's very, very difficult to just say you're going to just stop this guy. I mean, that's just not the way it's going to be. But we have to make sure that we know where he is on every single play and we have a lot of respect for him as a receiver. He is one of the best receivers we have played against this year."
(on if he talks to the team about playoff scenarios) "Well, this is a playoff game. This game, right here, is a playoff game. As far as that's concerned, as far as our team, this is a big game. A big game. It's a division game. They are the number one team in our division right now. They have a two game lead on us. They are 9-4. We are 7-6. It's a big game. It is what it is. We've got to go out there, have fun, practice, practice hard, and fly around. We have to be ready to go up there and play our best football game because if we don't play our best football game we are not going to win. We have to go up there and play our best football game and let the chips fall where they may."
(on WR Damaris Johnson's role with the offense) "It really does just depend. I think the guy has made some big catches for us. He's had some big plays for us throughout the season. He has played on special teams; he has returned punts and he returned kickoffs yesterday. I mean, the guy does a little bit of everything for us. That slot position is a very important position for us. We certainly want it to be more involved probably than it has been this year. It's not D.J.'s fault. He has really worked hard on it and I thought yesterday he came up with some really big plays for us which were really important in the game."
(on if WR DeVier Posey will be active if WR Andre Johnson can't play) "Yeah, certainly. I think if Andre were not, if he was not able to go, then Posey would definitely be a candidate to be on the 46 roster on game day."
(on handling Colts QB Andrew Luck on third-and-long) "You have to be very, very disciplined. Not anymore than usual. You always have to play disciplined defense. We had to play disciplined yesterday vs. (Blake) Bortles because of his escapability and his athletic ability. This guy, Luck, is a great pocket passer. He is great on the move. He just has all facets of a quarterback, of what you're looking for. His athletic ability is really excellent. You have to do a great job of teaching the guys about their rush lane integrity, making sure that they rush to the level of the quarterback and don't let him run out of there. Understand that he may run up inside if you open up a rush lane inside, so yeah it's a big game as far as our discipline goes and as far as our rush lanes go."
(on the team learning how to recover from tough loses since the last time they played the Colts) "I think it's a good point. I think that these guys, it's kind of what I was saying just upstairs to one of the guys upstairs, one of the things I liked about yesterday was we didn't play a great first half of football. Give Jacksonville a lot of credit for that. They played better than us. They coached better than us in the first half. I thought our guys came in at halftime and really had a resolve about them that they were going to go out and win the game and that they were going to play better over the last half of the game. I think that has improved over the year. The thing that happened in the last Indianapolis game cannot happen. I mean, if it does, we have no chance. We cannot allow a surprise onside. We cannot turn the ball over. We can't get down like that to a really good football team and expect to win, especially on the road. I did think in that game that our guys fought back and we were close in the fourth quarter, but, you know, like I always say, close isn't good enough. This game we have to limit the mistakes and we have to play a much better football game than we did in the first game."
