Texans Head Coach David Culley (9.19.21)
On Texans QB Tyrod Taylor’s status:
“He has a hamstring [injury]. We’re not sure how severe it is. He does have a hamstring, and it’s severe enough that he couldn’t play in the second half.”
On who the backup quarterback will be if Taylor cannot play Thursday:
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
On when Taylor hurt his hamstring:
“It was actually right before halftime. He came off to the sideline and was running to the left, and he kind of pulled up and knew something was wrong. He thought he was okay, but once we got him in, we realized it was something.”
On whether the hamstring was injured before the touchdown:
“Yes, he actually hurt it before [the touchdown].”
On the chances of Taylor playing on Thursday night:
“Not sure yet.”
On why Houston declined the penalty on fourth down:
“We felt like at that point we could have a chance to get better field position by holding them out, but we didn’t make it.”
On whether they could have gone for another third down and then punted:
“We could have done that. Looking at it again, I just have to look at the situation and see next time.”
On Texans QB Davis Mills performance:
“I thought he did very well. Obviously, he got us a touchdown. He had very few reps with the first unit. I thought he did well, and I expected him to do well. He’s been that way all through training camp, even in preseason games when he’s been in there. He had the pick early and came back and did what Davis normally does: go to the next play and go from there.”
On how the Texans offense changed after losing several players:
“I don’t think the injuries were the big thing with our offense. The big thing with our offense was our penalties. We had too many penalties. We had a couple of errors there. We weren’t able to run the ball as consistently as we wanted to run it. I think that had more to do with us not being consistent on offense than the injuries.”
On whether Texans WR Chris Conley became the tight end in how he was used:
“We used him because he is a pretty big fella, and we used him inside some to do that because of the guys that had gotten injured. Basically, we tried to do some of the same things, just with a different guy.”
On the Texans defense:
“Well, let me go to the first half first. I thought in the first half they played excellent, especially with us getting a turnover there early and them getting 14 points. I thought they played great. Then in the second half, I just think we got worn down a little bit. We’ve just got to get better. There were times where we probably weren’t in our gaps and we needed to be in our gaps. They ended up getting some big plays on us. Another thing was the missed tackles. We had a chance to make some plays for some losses. Their backs are pretty good players, and they made some plays.”
On whether Texans DB Justin Reid was evaluated as a precaution:
“It was just precautionary. They really weren’t sure what the injury was at that time. He’s okay.”
On why Texans LB Zach Cunningham didn’t play in the first quarter:
“It was a disciplinary reason.”
On what the disciplinary issue was with Cunningham:
“That’s internal.”
On the team’s overall performance, given the injuries and still being able to stay in the game:
“That’s what this team is all about. This team has been that way from training camp all the way through preseason, even in the last preseason game we had when we played Tampa Bay and we fought in the end. We expected that. We just have to play better. We have to play better. We didn’t play Texan football today. We turned it over twice. We had one in the kicking game, which got us behind early, but we overcame that. We just have to become more consistent and play the kind of football we know we have to play. We did not play complementary football today – offensively, defensively or special teams.”
On Texans PR Andre Roberts dropped return in the first quarter and the overall performance of special teams:
“Well, the thing about that is that Andre has been very dependable throughout his whole career. That is so unlike him that that happened to him. It happens. We’ve just got to be better than that. I expect him to be better than that.”
On Texans K Joey Slye’s missed field goal in the fourth quarter:
“Those things happen. They happen.”
On how the injuries and the short week will change the game plan:
“This game right here will be flushed quickly. We have a Thursday night game. Right now, when we get back to Houston, we’re going straight to the Carolina Panthers to get ready for them.”
On how confident he will be in Mills if he starts on Thursday:
“Very confident. Very confident with him. Our players, when he went in there, I’m talking about they didn’t bat an eye. On our sideline, it was as if Tyrod was in there when he was in there. It was no different. We didn’t really do anything different.”
On Mills’ confidence level rising throughout the game:
“That’s Davis. That’s the kind of quarterback he’s going to be. Today was a good lesson for him and a good experience for him to get, especially in this kind of ball game because if we would have made some plays out there, we would have a chance to be in a position to win the football game. Part of that was because of him.”
On whether there is a chance Texans QB Deshaun Watson could play Thursday if QB Tyrod Taylor is injured:
“We’ll have to see.”
On whether the officials gave an explanation about Texans TE Antony Auclair’s eye injury:
“I didn’t get an explanation.”
On whether the officials gave an explanation about the penalty on Texans TE Jordan Akins for spinning the ball:
“They called it taunting. They said it was taunting. No more explanation than that it was taunting. Taunting is a big emphasis this year and it has been, and obviously, we found out today how big it is.”
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