Gary Kubiak Speaks After Monday's Texans Practice

As usual, here's a link to the full transcript of what Gary Kubiak had to say after the Texans' first practice as 2012 AFC South champs. I've culled a few quotes for your immediate perusal and commentary below.

(on the team’s health) “We came out pretty good. Our biggest concern right now, (ILB Tim) Dobbins got a thumb (injury), but we think he’ll be fine. It’s something that may have to get casted up for him to play. Other than that, the guys that went in, you look at (T Derek) Newton. He came out fine, got those guys back healthy and playing. (TE) Garrett Graham came out fine. We’re trending in the right direction from that standpoint getting some guys healthy.”

(on how important it will be to have young players step up) “I think what’s happening right now is some of our young players on our team are giving us a chance to continue to improve right now. Probably, you’re asking me a little bit about (WR DeVier) Posey and what he’s done. He deserves an opportunity to go out there and play. He’s made plays. He’s been good at practice. (G) Brandon Brooks is making us better right now up front. He’s playing really good. He’s going to play more. (DE Jared) Crick, Crick’s doing good stuff for us. We’re watching some young guys really contribute to this team. I think (OLB) Whitney (Mercilus) may have played his best game for us yesterday. Our young players and how they continue to progress and how they can take the big stage and go out there and play well adds to our football team. You know what I mean? It’s not just that position. It’s at a lot of places, but we are getting some help and it is very encouraging.”

(on OLB Connor Barwin’s game against Indianapolis and what he does for the Texans) “It’s very important. But I’m going to go back and I think (OLB) Connor (Barwin) has had a fine year. I think players’ statistics sometimes don’t always tell the whole story. Connor has been consistent. I think Connor may have played more snaps than any other player on our football team this year. He had to go from one position to another. We had a nice little moment together on the field after the game yesterday but I’m just happy for him for something like that to come his way late in the game because he sure deserves it. He’s been very consistent. I think he’s going to continue to step up here as we go down the stretch and get into January. But we’re very pleased with Connor’s play. When you keep playing that hard, those numbers come your way.”

(on the adjustment Special Teams Coordinator Joe Marciano made to move around OLB Bryan Braman) “To give you an example, it’s like us trying to get (WR) Andre (Johnson) the ball when everybody is doubling him and doing things to take him away offensively. You have to move Andre all over the place, you have to do different things with him. Well, (Special Teams Coordinator) Joe (Marciano) has a player that other teams pay tremendous respect to. (OLB) Bryan (Braman) was tripled on the first kickoff return. That tells you what they think of him. So Joe has to move Bryan to try to get him in position to make some plays. He made a great adjustment and Bryan took advantage of it. He’s been very close a couple of times this year and that play was used in the football game. And like I said, Joe did a great job of getting him free.”

(on not being able to finish drives in the red zone yesterday) “It was disappointing because we could have really put some points on the board. We were one for five. The first time down there, we should make that play. We had a really good play that we should make. We had a third and 14, third and 15, which you put yourself in about as bad a position as you can put yourself in. The last one doesn’t bother me, I think we’re doing the right thing to win the football game. You only get so many opportunities in this business and boy, you have to take advantage of them. And we had been pretty good down there. As well as we ran the ball, we didn’t run the ball very good in the red zone yesterday. We had a sack in the red zone. It was disappointing coming out of the game.”

(on if RB Ben Tate will get more carries this coming week) “I think it all depends on how it goes. What (RB) Arian (Foster) did yesterday, that looked like Arian to me. The load started to come, the carries started to come and he got better, he got stronger. I think our football team showed some life in their legs. I didn’t think I was seeing that the last three weeks with some of the length of these road trips we’ve had. I like the way we played strong late in the football game and Arian was a big part of that.”