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HEAD COACH JEFF FISHER**
(on if there are any roster additions at punter)
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Not today, no.
(on if there will be any roster additions tomorrow)
It's unlikely that Craig (Hentrich) will punt this week. When you only have one punter, we'll replace him and we'll take our time doing it. I don't have any names for you right now. Yes, (A.J.) Trapasso will be an option, but we're in the process of doing that.
(on if Craig Hentrich's injury is season ending)
There's a lot of different options right now.
(on if there was contact on Craig Hentrich when he was injured)
No, it's a calf strain.
(on if Craig Hentrich injured himself on the kick)
He did it on the final punt, yes.
(on if the coach's tape showed any new footage of the fight)
I could not see anything, coaches tape does not show it. I've looked at the TV tape and I couldn't see a punch thrown. You know, the whole thing started with Andre Davis [Johnson]. Walt Coleman misspoke when he said number 89, it was number 80. It was not number 89. Andre Johnson rather, jerked Cortland (Finnegan) down by the face mask on their boundary and that started the ruckus in the bench area. It was a crack-toss, he grab Cort and they we're pushing and shoving and he had cloth and pulled him out of bounds, grabbed him down by the face mask and then Cort was trying to get loose. Then Jason (Jones) went in to rescue or whatever. I didn't see a punch thrown, I'm not questioning whether or not. If you're going to eject a player, you better be sure that he threw a punch.
(on if Andre Johnson should have been ejected)
He'll be fined for that. That was the act that led to the incident on the sideline. But that's not something where you would eject a player.
(on if another Texans player threw a punch as well)
It's hard to see.
(on if it was surprising that only one player was ejected)
There's a lot going on over there. The league will take a look at it and I'm sure there will be more fines and things for the people involved. At this point, all I can say is I didn't see the punch thrown. Again, they're not going to eject a player without having been fairly sure that it was thrown.
(on how fine of a line is it to defend teammates in that situation)
It was a selfish act on Jason's (Jones) part. You know, we kept three tackles up and I have to have an end go on the field on fourth-and-one and play tackle in a critical situation. You got to put the team first. It is a fine line. You've got your teammate battling over there in their bench area you're going to go and try to help them. You can go help them without throwing a punch.
(on if Jason Jones did throw a punch)
I'm assuming they saw what they saw. I didn't see it.
(on if Jason Jones' punch is grounds for suspension)
He's already been ejected from the game.
(on not keeping another defensive tackle for the game)
It wasn't a difficult decision at all. It's unusual for us to keep up eight, last week we kept up eight but usually we carry seven.
(on if the length of Craig Hentrich's injury will determine who they sign)
Yeah, it has a lot to do with the length of the injury and the nature of the injury, and we don't have all the information yet. It's hard to carry two punters on your active roster the whole entire year. We have other needs and we may have other needs that come up. We're in the process of discussing it.
(on the return game)
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They're getting better. It's not where we want to be but they're both improving. Ryan (Mouton) needs to make better decisions on the ball that went over his head and not field that ball, backed us up like it did. Who knows, had that not happend maybe C.J. (Chris Johnson) wouldn't have had the 88 [91] yard run.
(on if the kick returners will remain the same)
We're evaluating everything.
(on if the secondary's communication problems are correctable)
Yeah, everything's correctable. We've given up too many big plays and we've got to get it straightened out and we will.
(on what safeties are coached to do with play-action)
On the touchdown pass, it was clearly Griff's (Michael Griffin) error. Griff had the deep half, he's not in the run fit. He should be playing on top. It shouldn't happen.
(on the players questioning the coaching staff after the game)
I addressed that. It was more frustration. As you go through a game and you call a game, in any one of the three phases, there's always going to be one or two that you'd like to have over to rethink yourself. But as far as our game plan's concerned, we've carried that same game plan into that ball game and haven't had any issues with that. We had some, when a player gets beat one-on-one, it has nothing to do with the game plan or the calls and so-on-so-forth. That's not an issue.
(on players questioning the game plan and the adjustments)
Let me set the record straight here. When you're a good football team and you start off the season 0-2, there's going to be frustration. And the only way you get out of it is you avoid pointing fingers at anybody, everybody accepts the blame and you move on. There were adjustments made on the sideline with each and everything that we saw. There was an adjustment made for that last big pass that they made on the sideline. It was made, I heard it. If the players are eluding to the fact that we're having trouble making adjustments, the players need to pay closer attention to what's being said on the sideline. That's just football, it happens week after week.
(on not kicking the field goal in the fourth quarter)
Rob (Bironas) probably could have taken a shot at it and probably could have made it, but at that point in the game a field goal's not going to win the game for us. That was my decision. There was significant wind and I was not going to have a field goal end up short and give them good field position. It was my decision on third down to take two shots at it to try to get the first down.
(on if Craig Hentrich being injured factored into that decision because he is the holder)
Craig would have held, yes.
(on the three-step drop by Matt Schaub factoring into less presser from the defense)
If we're getting hits on quarterbacks in three-step drops then something is fundamentally wrong with an offense. The design of the three-step offense is to get the ball out and not hold it. There will be a rare occasion where you've taken things away. They are pro coaches as well. They know that we have put their quarterback on his back many, many times over the last few years. They did not want that to happen, so they were getting rid of the football quickly or max protection, play-action. Same thing that we saw last week.
(on challenging Jacoby Jones' touchdown pass and how it was different from the Raiders game)
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I didn't see the Raiders play. The reason I challenged the play was because I saw him establish possession of the football, but when he went down he went down on our player so he wasn't technically down. When he came down in the end zone, the ball came loose. So, I felt it was close enough to challenge and look at that.
(on seeing Jacoby Jones' catch again)
I haven't seen enough yet. I have to look at the TV tape. I just looked at the coach's tape. I would challenge it again. It's one of those plays. Keep in mind there's a difference between plays involving catches in the end zone and catches on the field of play and catches on the sideline. If you've got possession in the end zone it's a touchdown. So, if there's possession as you cross the plain it's a touchdown. My question was I don't think he was down. He was on our player, that doesn't establish the fact that he's actually down. That's why I looked at it. That's the way our replay system is. There's always going to be things that come up that you've just not seen before, but in that case it clearly made sense for me to challenge it.
(on the muff punt rule)
Of course I've thought about it long and hard. I hope it's something that we'll address next offseason. It just doesn't look right. There's no way we can coach a player not to hit the return man or go after the ball once the ball bounces out of his hands. You can't wait for the ball to hit the ground and then jump on it. To me, I think we need to look at it. Again, it was the correct call considering our current rules.
(on if he's seen the muff punt rule in effect before)
Yes, I have seen it before but it was a few years ago and it didn't involve a turnover. The ball came loose and the player was hit but the player still recovered it so there was fair catch interference. The hard thing about this play when you see it is we've got the ball first down at the nine-yard line, and now we don't have the ball and they assess the 15-yard penalty on top of it.
(on how to keep guys from being down after being 0-2)
You know what, we're just going to keep getting better. That's all we do. We take it one day at a time just keep getting better, not thinking about playoffs, keep working on the little things. There were some good things in this game. Chris Johnson's effort, that was historic. For our franchise that's the most yards from scrimmage since 1961. I think Robbie (Bohren) said it's one of the 12th best efforts yards from scrimmage since 1970. Unfortunately, that was overshadowed in a loss. That's a tremendous effort. Our defensive tackles, against their run, played really well. There were some good things in this game. Our kicker kicked especially well. We have to work on a lot of things and were going to continue. We're not going to dwell on the loss. We're going to correct the little things and move on.
(on if there is frustration from the players)
I would expect frustration from them and it's okay to be frustrated but you have to come to terms with it. You have to deal with it, you have to move on and that's what Monday's are about.
(on communications problems in the secondary)
We corrected a lot of things. It's being corrected and it's continuing to be corrected now. There were things that just happened that should not have happened.
(on if the secondary was looking at the wrong places on the field that led to the confusion)
I could list 20 different things here. It's just part of playing football. We've got a good secondary. They've given up too many big plays. This is a team loss, it's not a secondary loss, it's not a Michael Griffin loss, it's a team loss. We played a good offense.
(on what the Jets are doing similarly to Rex Ryan's former Ravens team)
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It's the same defense with a healthy Chris McAlister and Samari Rolle. They've got an extraordinary secondary, so it makes them a special team.
(on the wide receivers catching one pass in the second half)
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You know, we ran the football a little bit. We wanted to try to slow the game down. It happened. Kerry had to hurry a couple times. The second half of the game was certainly different. They were 0-8 on third down in the second half, and we were 2-7. It was a tale of two halves, you know?
(on any other injuries other than Hentrich)
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At this point we're still evaluating, but we'll have a report for you on Wednesday.
(on Bo Scaife's injury status)
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I have not ruled him out for this week.
(on if the team will be patient with rookie returners Javon Ringer and Ryan Mouton)
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It takes time, but you saw they both flashed. In the kickoff return game, if they get better help from their support teammates, the blockers, there are some lanes there. There are some opportunities, and Ryan showed some run skills. He just has to settle down and just get more confident with his decisions.
(on if they will stay with Ringer and Mouton on returns)
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Yeah. I mean, if there's somebody else out there that's better, and we feel like it's a move we need to make, we'll make it. And we'll let you know about it.
(on if he's concerned if a player is coached not to field a punt and then fields it)
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I know what happened. I'm clear as to why he did it. It was a unique experience that we hadn't put him through as a staff. I believed in him from this standpoint: when you tell him to do something, he does it. Now, catching is easier said than done. You tell a young man to catch a football, sometimes they drop it. So they don't always do what you say they're going to do, but in this case, as the situations have come up through the preseason and all the different scenarios that have come up, this one hadn't. So I understand why he made an attempt to try to catch that ball.
(on players warming up on the sideline after Hentrich was injured)
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Just to try to cover our bases to see what our best options were going to be because I knew that he was not going to be able to punt and finish a game.
(on how easy it was to send Rob Bironas out to punt)
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It was easy to send Rob out there only because Rob's the kicker. My concern was Rob fielding a snap, which is not an easy thing to do, especially with a kicking ball. So you've got a guy that's used to catching the ball that probably hasn't punted since high school versus a guy that kicks the ball every day that hasn't caught it.
(on who finished next in the emergency punting competition)
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That's extremely confidential information.
(on if he expects the replacement punter to work as a holder)
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The perfect world would be that our punter would also hold.
