Head Coach Todd Monken (11.11.26)

So, Todd (Monken), obviously we know by now that Deshaun (Watson) is starting this game. How did that process go, or how did you go about making that decision?

“Well, I mean, ultimately the full body of work, I mean, the previous eight games that we had played, Deshaun played pretty well. And that was my intention. I just wanted to make sure we’d run it by the staff before I said it publicly. I don’t even know why I have to say it publicly, because it’s really only our business in terms of who’s going to play and who’s not going to play. But I mean, he played well enough to earn to still be our starter.”

 

Deshaun said that, we asked him if he was going to be the starting quarterback going forward, he said that’s a decision for you and the front office. What kind of collaboration is there with the front office on these kinds of decisions?

“I mean, everything’s a collaborative effort, but ultimately, I have to make the decision who the starting quarterback is.”

 

Todd, do you treat it like a commitment to Deshaun long term, or are you taking this more week-by-week?

“I don’t look at it either way. I don’t look at it week-to-week, and I don’t look at his long term. I mean, we’re judged each week. I am. He is. Our team is. That isn’t surprising to anybody at where we’re at. I anticipate him being our starter. That’s what he’s been. He’s been our starter. But we all control that, right? How we scheme up, what we do offensively, how we play, how we play around him, how he plays. That’s a part of every player in the NFL, right? In terms of where you’re at. And like I said, I anticipate him being the starter, but that’s, again, we’re week-to-week. I had no intention of Deshaun not being our starter.”

 

What can be done, we ask you this every week, to have faster starts?

“Well, if we knew that, we’d be starting faster. So, we’re just going to continue to work at it. Continue to look at, you know, everything that we’re doing, try to drill down of how we start faster. Maybe we’re going to get calls from people that aren’t finishing fast and ask us how we’re finishing, what we’re doing to finish faster. Hell, I don’t know. We just got to work. Continue to look at what we’re doing.”

 

I asked Zion (Johnson) about penalties and ways that you can maybe clean those up. He said there are some things they can work through, obviously, but he thinks that being back home in front of the home crowd will be a benefit to help try to clean some of that stuff up too. Do you see it that way, or just being able to get back here can start to fix some of the things that you’re working on without the away crowd?

“Some of that’s true and some of that’s not true. And we’ve had games at home we haven’t taken care of business from a penalty standpoint. So ultimately, all you have to do is look at the number of penalties and the yards to understand where we’ve been undisciplined. To be 19th in yards and 32nd in penalties says they’ve been pre-snap penalties. That’s what they’ve been. And ultimately, it falls on me as the head coach and us collectively. But it starts with our guys up front, and that’s where we’re getting them the most, is up front on both sides of the ball. And obviously, we got three of them on special teams, which is unacceptable. So ultimately, it’s not sustainable to have lost yardage plays, to have sacks, to have penalties, to stack plays or to get stops on the other side of the field. So. And it’s crazy, because it’s everything that I’m against, and yet it’s everything that we are. So, you’re certainly going to fight like hell to get it fixed.”

 

Todd, in New Orleans, you talked about the goal line problems with that game. Do you think overall you have a short-yardage concern?

“I don’t see it as a short-yardage concern. I don’t see that. I see it as an execution concern. In the red zone the last couple of weeks we haven’t executed at a high level. On one of them we took a sack, or we could have gotten rid of the ball. The other one we didn’t execute from the one. At Pittsburgh, we certainly had opportunities at the end of the game. The week before, we were three for three. The two of them, we kicked a field goal and didn’t even have a choice. And in short yardage we’ve been fine. Beginning of the year we weren’t. We can go back to Baltimore. We’d have fourth-and-one on our own end and got it. We certainly can be better. Got to be better on fourth down. Got to be better in the red zone.”

 

Todd, going back to the quarterback, did you give real consideration to starting Shedeur (Sanders)? Was it a foregone conclusion that Deshaun would start?

“Everything, you’re considering, but ultimately Deshaun’s done a really good job for us. You know, 5-3 as a starter. He’s worked awfully hard to get back. I mean, there’s a high belief in that, and that’s nothing to take away from Shedeur, because I thought for 10 weeks of really not taking any reps, I thought he did a really good job. And there’s a lot of room for improvement with both of them. Everything we consider, anything that’s going to help us be better as a team, coaching wise, schematic wise, and then personnel wise, you’re always looking to upgrade your ability to move the ball, score points, stop the opponent, all of those things. But the intention was for Deshaun to start. It just, when you come in on that Monday, you haven’t really even met as a staff. You’ve just gone through the film; you’ve gone with ownership. And I just wanted to make sure we talked through as a staff, ‘hey, there’s the way we’re going forward.’ Great. That’s all it was, really was pretty simple.”

 

Todd, Ronnie (Hickman) is listed with a concussion. Was it something Monday? Today? That sort of developed or where he started showing symptoms?

“No, it happened after the game. I mean, he came in after the game, and he’s in concussion protocol. Yep.”

 

How do you become a better tackling team? Especially later in games.

“Well, as it gets later in games, the game becomes a space game. So, you’re exactly right. When it becomes more of a space game, that’s where tackling comes into play. And we’ve seen it from the other side when we’ve been on offense, and certainly angles will help. Obviously, being able to close space will help. And we’re just going to – we’re working it again today, working tackling today from what we can. We’re not going to take guys to the ground, just like we work ball security. And our guys, other than here or there, we’ve been really good at ball security. It’s been one of our – that’s helped us win games, and it gave us a chance on Sunday to not turn it over. If you have to punt, you have to punt. Just didn’t work out that way.”

 

Denzel Boston is listed with a toe, is that something of concern for Sunday?

“I wouldn’t say it’s a concern. Obviously, I anticipate him being out today. He’s got a little toe issue, but we anticipate him being back tomorrow.”

 

Texans defense, just the pressure they create. How is it maybe unique to some of the other ones you’ve seen? The personnel obviously, but I mean, schematically, is there something unique about what they do to create that pressure?

“Well, they’re unique in the fact that, first of all, I’m a big fan, because they do what they do and what they believe in, and they fight like hell to do it better than everybody else. And they’ve got really good coaches and really good players. What’s unique is they have two edge rushers, and then they had (Jadeveon) Clowney, you know, so they had the pressure that they can create and to the edge of their defense. They’ve got really good players at all three levels, you know, whether linebacker, nickel, safety, corner, and so they’re really tough to go against, and they’ve lost some close games, and that’s what’s put them in the position they’re in. Not that they’re certainly not capable, just like us, we won our fair share and lost a couple. So ultimately, I think they do a great job on defense. They’re similar to us. I mean, they’re attack style. So, we see it every day from our defense, and like I said, DeMeco (Ryans) does a great job and their staff does a great job.”

 

Couple of guys in the locker room after the game were joking about how good you guys are offensively when you’re in, like, a two-minute hurry-up offense and, you know, kind of saying, like, maybe we should do that more, like, thing. Obviously, you can’t do that all game, but how much can that be something that’s a tool or a resource for you especially with the slow starts?

“Well, it’s also when we’re throwing it, you know, so I’m not sure that if I thought that was the answer, then I, you know, that we’d throw it 50 times a game and sometimes get off the field in 38 seconds and turn the ball over more often. I’m not sure if you’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul. I mean, ultimately, we are trying to develop our team in a lot of ways at the beginning of this journey. And what is that? I mean, you can’t control the game, you can’t be the offense you want to be if you can’t run the football when you need to be able to run the football. And we’re going to keep fighting to be able to run the football. And I think it’s hard to put that much on the quarterback that often. I’m not against it, I like throwing it, but I’m not sure that’s the recipe long term, is to go down that road. And there’s been times earlier in games we have thrown it, and we still haven’t started fast. So again, there’s a lot to work on, starting with me as the head coach, and then as a staff, and as players will continue to grind at it.”

 

You can still run the ball in a hurry-up?

“You can still run in a hurry-up. We were talking about the success we’ve had later in games; the success we’ve had later in the games have been throwing it. We’ve run it some, but it’s still been – when we’ve had to make up and move the football to win games, it’s been throwing it. We have no huddle. You can run no huddle, run the ball, no huddle.”

 

With the Bye, do you feel more of a sense of urgency, you know, on the big difference AFC game, you know, whether you end up 6-4 or 5-5?

“Sure. No, I think you nailed it. That the AFC game, I think, is big, and everyone, I mean, we’ve been fighting for the last two weeks to get to six. That’s all you’re doing this week. We’re fighting to get to six, just like they’re fighting to get to four. Whatever that is. That’s all you’re doing, is fighting to play your best football, starting today with how you practice and then how you play on Sunday and continue to develop the players that you have and figure out what you can do on a play-to-play basis to give you the best chance to move the ball or stop the opponent. And that’s the game within the game, is during the week, and then a lot that allows your players to play fast on Sunday.”

 

There’s a clip circulating that it was A.J. Ross from CBS Sports that you talked to, I think before the game, and she said that you said that when you asked Shedeur what kind of plays he wanted to run or having an initial script, he threw out some plays to you and you were like, “no, those aren’t in our playbook.” So just, was that, like, what was that all about?

“It’s hilarious that it’s gone this far. ‘Shedeur, what do you like?’ ‘Well, I like this, this and this.’ ‘Yeah, I know, but how about we talk about, like, you know, what we run?’ You know what I’m saying? It was fun. It was him and I together. It might have been in the hallway. It wasn’t a sit down. It was a normal day-to-day…where it’s the same way with coaches. Coaches have ideas as we’re game planning. Players have ideas, right? We just talked about it after the game. What were the ideas after the game? ‘Well, maybe we ought to go fast. Maybe we ought to throw it every down.’ That’s just the nature of it. I get a big kick out of it, because it was really just a normal day-to-day of what a quarterback likes. It should be important what a quarterback likes and what he doesn’t like. And there’s some things we do that players don’t like, and they’d rather do something else. That’s normal. There’s coaches – that’s part. I didn’t see it as any big deal. It really isn’t a big deal.”

 

When Myles (Garrett) was here, we’d hear opposing coaches talk all the time about how much of their game plan centered around trying to stop him. How much does that sort of apply to you guys with Will Anderson Jr. and how he’s been, trying to make sure he doesn’t disrupt what you’re trying to do on offense?

“Yep. I think it’s any game wrecker, right? Every team I’ve ever been on, you put up the game wreckers, right? How do you not let them wreck the game?  A week ago, you know, there’s a number of guys, but you’re targeting whether it’s Chase Young, or it’s Will Anderson Jr., or (Danielle Hunter) on the ends, and, you know, (Jalen) Pitre is a blitzer, and what corners you attack or you don’t. You know, all of that’s part of it. And it’s the same when you have certain players offensively, right? Whether it’s a receiver that you’ve got to make sure that you don’t let them wreck the game. And a quarterback. So that’s all part of it. That’s the NFL. Feels like every week, ‘I can’t let this guy wreck the game. Can’t let this edge rusher wreck it.’ That’s what makes them so unique, is they have, you know, a couple of them that really are their engine and make them go. Them and Pitre, you know, being around the ball. And so, they do a great job, and that’s going to be a real challenge. And it has been. This is the fifth time in four years since I’ve been back in the NFL that we’ve gone against them. In ‘23, ‘24 twice, ‘25. Might have been ‘23 twice, ‘24 and ‘25 and then now ‘26. So really difficult to go against. Really well coached, and we’re going to have to play well.”

 

What have you seen (C.J.) Stroud? Because it feels like he’s heating up as the season has gone along.

“Well, I think there’s – confidence is a powerful thing, right? And players playing well around you, whether it’s the offensive line. It’s the second year the coordinator’s been there, right? Like, you change coordinators, you don’t start fast. Maybe last year. And they’ve added some weapons. They’ve lost some, but they’ve added some, right? And get the O-line playing together as one. You know, like I said, confidence, like I said, is a powerful thing. And I’ve always thought the world of C.J. all the way back to when we played him, you know, in the playoffs in 2022, and what a great player he is. And so, I just, I believe, like any player, confidence is a – or any human being, confidence is a powerful thing. And what’s our job? Try as best we can to take that away. And the things that they do well.”

 

With the pre-snap penalties, I know they’re not all on the offensive line, but a lot of them have been. So are you kind of planning any personnel changes up front?

“I don’t see it that way. I mean, our starters are the starters. We addressed it again today, who the biggest culprits are. And they’re our guys. And they’re like, like we said before, I mean, they’re like our kids. We’re not going to just change out our kids. I mean, we’re not going to change out our players. They’re our best players. We got to get our best players. And we have a very diligent team. We have a lot of guys that love playing football, but the stats are what they are. I mean, we’ve got to look in the mirror and say, ‘at some point, this is it.’ I mean, that we just can’t continue down this road.”

 

You haven’t reached that point yet?

“I haven’t reached that point. We can’t change out our starters. I mean, I’m not changing out our starters. I mean, they’re either going to, they’re either going to buy into those types of things and the mental stamina that it takes to hold their water on defense or for us to have discipline offensively. But we’re not going to be the team we can be, because there are starters for a reason, right? If the other guys we thought gave us a better chance to win, they’d be in there. So, it’s all of us. How do we coach it better? How do we get our guys to dial in in the most critical moments, when it matters most.”

 

So, we’re talking about the pass rush that Houston has. Last week you had to keep Harold Fannin Jr. in to chip a lot, and that might happen this week. So, how does that detract from your options?

“Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard. You know, that’s what makes it hard, is protection beats coverage. And pass rush allows you to mask a lot of your coverage deficiencies. We all know that. That’s a part of it, right? And that’s why they’re the highest paid guys on defense in the game. All you have to do is take that into consideration. The money tells you the most important players are, right? Quarterback and edge rushers. That ought to just tell you right there how important those guys are. Because it changes the game. It changes the way you scheme, how you can get guys out, right? Certain pass concepts that they don’t have to defend nearly as often, because you can’t just send five guys out and throw caution to the wind. It’s just silly. It’s not a winning formula. So that’s the challenge that you have, right? In the NBA, you’ve got prolific scorers. They have to make a decision, right? We’re going to double team them, we’re going to play one on one and try to stop the others. I mean, that’s part of being in pro sports when you’re the best in the world, right? Dominant pitcher, these guys that are on the edge, man, makes it hard, makes it real challenging. But that’s the fun in coaching, right? The challenge of how do we offset some of these other things that they do well with some of the things we’ve got to be able to do well as we continue to move forward. But that is a challenge. Just like a challenge of playing a great quarterback, right? And with what comes with that.”

 

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