Injury report: "Alright, injuries. People that will not practice today are (WR) Riley Cooper, with the knee hyperextension, (DE Juqua Parker) will his hip flexor strain – both guys are getting better, but aren't ready to go today and we'll just see about game time. (CB) Asante (Samuel) went through the walkthrough and we'll see what he can do this afternoon here. Today will be like a Friday practice once we hit the practice field with a couple little things added to it, but we'll cover all the different categories and go from there."
Opening remarks: "We look forward to the challenge of playing the Texans. We know what kind of football team they are; very explosive. They have blue chip players on their football team, skill positions and on the defensive side of the ball. They can score points and they can rush the passer and stop the run. It's a good football team coming off of a huge win against the Titans where they shut them out and scored 20 points on them. Our guys have a couple good days here of preparation. It's fast and furious. Obviously you move on from the last game and you've got to erase it out of your mind and ready to go. As I've said in the 10/10/10 yesterday, I thought that's what was taking place. As I see them today, I feel the same way."
On how Samuel has been feeling: "He came in this morning and felt pretty good. He went through the walkthrough. It's hard to tell right there, but he did feel better than he did yesterday."
On where Houston's defense came from after shutting out the Titans on Sunday, 20-0: "Well, the one thing they do is they give you a bunch of different looks. They gave the Titans a bunch of different looks; tough ones, tough looks. We have to be on our 'A' game. They had guys coming free and hitting the quarterback and running back. They're not afraid to play man coverage, they're not afraid to blitz. You just have to make sure that you're sharp with your pickups and if they show you something you haven't seen and you don't pick it up, then you have to make sure that you have it answered quick and get ready to come back and deal with it."
On whether it's harder mentally or physically on the players during a short week: "Well, it probably goes hand-in-hand. I will tell you that their bodies are sore from both teams. I can't tell you that's not the case. It's no different for them than it is for us. On the other side of that, you have to do the mind over matter thing and get yourself in the right frame of mind to play the football game."
On what he learned two years ago from playing the Cardinals on a Thursday night: "I say this all the time but, every situation is different. We got back in yesterday and tried to hit it running. We have our focus on the Texans. Some of the assistants have done all the breakdowns and computer printouts and tendencies for the Texans, so when the coaches, on the way back, they had all the information. Once they got here, they were ready to go. I do know from having a couple of these that you're going to put in – particularly as a coach – you're going to put in a couple long days and then you're going to ask the players today to incorporate a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all in one. It's a lot to digest, but to get through today, they've got the package and we'll do our mock game tomorrow and roll."
On whether it's helpful that some of the players have been through a short week like this before: "Yeah, I think so. I think that helps. I don't know exactly how many went through it before, but I think it's important that you keep it organized as a coach and that we didn't kill them yesterday. As coaches, you get them out there and pull off a little bit and just kind of do assignment football. You have to be sensitive to that; likewise today. Let them get there and get their legs back and so on, so they can function in the game."
On whether he has to be careful not to give the team too much too quickly: "I think that's accurate. You can't overload them. There's just not enough time. There's not enough time to digest everything, so you either use the things that you didn't use last week or things that they're familiar with. It doesn't mean that it looks any simpler to the offense or defense that you're playing, but it's things that the guys can recall quickly and be able to digest in that short period of time between the call and the snap."
On whether it's more difficult to play a team like the Texans who give a lot of different looks compared to a team that plays a base defense: "Well, I guess I look at it this way, I say, yes, you've got to make sure you take care of business on our side. On the other side, we have a tendency offensively and defensively to show a lot of different looks to the opponent. In your own way, you say, 'hey, here it is' and then it's our responsibility as players and coaches to make sure we take care of business with what they present. At the same time, they have to handle what we present, too. It's a two-way street there."
On whether Sunday was a reminder that this is still a young team: "Listen, you're going to win some and you're going to lose some. We lost the game. It's history and we move on. It's important that we learn from it. We lost a couple games when I had veteran teams. As a matter of fact, we lost a couple games every year that I've been here. Very few teams win them all. You get over them and you move on. This one here, you have to get over it now. Right when the game ends, it's 'boom' and you're into this thing here. It has to be quick."
On whether he needs to put more of an emphasis on getting the ball to DeSean Jackson in future games: "Well, listen, we try to get the ball to all the players, obviously. DeSean is one of the elite wide receivers in the National Football League. He's a tremendous football player who loves to play the game. We have plays for DeSean and we're lucky enough to have (WR) Jeremy Maclin on the other side who's also a very good wide receiver and one of the top receivers in the league. That's a pretty good combination and then you've got (TE Brent) Celek who's good at what he does and (RB) LeSean (McCoy) and so on. So you have a bunch of different things and then you put in that 'X' factor which is (WR) Jason Avant who has his own package. They all have their grouping of plays. One of the things with DeSean is that, listen, people know how good he is. This is no secret. He's a good football player. Teams, obviously, calculate for that and scheme for that and with that, I thought (QB) Michael (Vick) did a good job of, if he's doubled, then either going to LeSean or to Celek or back out to Jeremy; it's one of those deals. Some games there are going to be more catches."
On preserving Vick and Jackson: "Listen, you just mentioned two of the most competitive guys on our team. Both of those guys love to play the game, so you don't want to take away. There's a time and place. (DeSean's) 168 pounds. There might not be an 165-pound male in this room. So, it's one of those deals. Everybody is either 20 pounds or greater than he is. So, there's a time when he has to be smart. (Jokingly) I know you took Physics, so it's the Law of Physics, here."
On whether Jackson understands that he's surrounded by a lot of playmakers on offense: "Listen, man, I love that he loves the ball. That's what I love. Man, he wants it and he wants it now and he wants it in crunch time. There are a lot of guys that would climb under this table in crunch time. He wants the ball. I like that, it's a beautiful thing. I'll take care of everything else, man, I love that part."
On whether teams focus on Jackson more in the second half and what he needs to do to get past that: "Well, listen, I've said this. Right here in this room (we've kind of turned it) into a one man thing. The beautiful thing is that we have a team of other players that can catch the football and do things with the football. So that's okay to focus on one guy. But these other guys are also making tremendous plays. So somewhere though teams figure that out and then it opens back up and good things happen."
On whether Texans DE Mario Williams is considered an elite pass rusher in the league with the likes of Bears DE Julius Peppers: "Well, I'll tell you what, he's a special player, yeah. He's very, very gifted and he plays very similar to Julius. So I would put them in that elite defensive end category, blue chip player. I'd put him in that category."
