FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Saturday, August 19, 2017 POSTGAME QUOTES FROM HOUSTON TEXANS HEAD COACH BILL O BRIEN (Transcribed by Greg Maiola) What are your thoughts on QB Tom Savage and the kind of night he had? Obviously, like I always say, you have to watch the tape. That s part of football coaching. You have to really see it on the film, but it looked like we moved the ball when he was in there, he threw the ball accurately went to the right people. Like I ve said all along, he s got good command of what we re doing, so he s able to get us into the right play at the line of scrimmage, which is important in our offense. For WR Jaelen Strong to make that move across the middle against a really good corner. What are your thoughts on that? I thought it was good to see him get that touchdown catch. He s working hard. It s a competitive position and I think he s doing a good job. So, it was good to see him do that tonight. What have you seen from G Chad Slade and G Josh Walker this training camp? I think that the line overall has improved. I think that they ve improved every day. Chad Slade is really one of the more improved guys on our team. That s regardless of position. He s really worked hard. He s been here with us now going on three years plus, and he s worked very hard to get to where he is now. He s in the battle to make the team. Josh Walker s really improved over the last couple weeks. So, we ll watch the tape. We ll see how they did on the tape but both those guys have improved. There s no doubt about it. What are your thoughts on what DE J.J. Watt was able to do tonight? I think that the key is to make sure that our top players, J.J. (Watt) obviously, is to be healthy on September 10. So, I think it s important that they prepare for the game, they warm up for the game, they get their juices flowing so they re ready like they will be for a game, and then they play a little bit. They get in there, there s contact, it s live, there s tackling. He had a TFL right off the bat which was good to see. But, you re not going to see a lot of J.J. (Watt) and some of those other guys. Next week they ll probably play a little bit and then you won t see them against Dallas. So, that s kind of the way it s going to go. But, you will see them on September 10, hopefully, because of how we play them. What kind of look does WR Bruce Ellington give to you? Give Bruce a lot of credit. Bruce just showed up here, I think about a week, 10 days ago, and he s picked it up pretty well. I think we do a lot of things that are similar to what he did in San Francisco, but maybe they called it something different, we call it something else, but it s the same type of routes, same type of rules on the route, things like that. He s been working hard with John Perry and getting ready to go. He made the most of his opportunity tonight. He did a nice job. It s good to have him around. What did you think of two of your rookies, QB Deshaun Watson and RB D Onta Foreman? Again, I want to watch the tape. I thought Deshaun (Watson) did some good things. I think they were doing some things defensively that were tough. It wasn t like a big schematic game, but they were playing a lot of man coverage. Guys had to work hard to get open and I thought he made some plays. The play that he made to (D Onta Foreman) is a play that he s been doing a good job on that play ever since he s been here. I think it was a similar play to what he ran at Clemson that type of scheme for that particular play. (D Onta) Foreman s done a good job. Since we ve gone to pads, put pads on, (D Onta) Foreman s stood out. That s what he is. He s a first- and
second-down back that has decent hands. He can do some things in the passing game, so hopefully that continues. What did you think of QB Tom Savage s performance? Look, I think preseason you have to look at it for what it is. I think that we practiced against these guys for two days. They came in here and we had a pretty good idea what they were going to do. They had a pretty good idea of what we were going to do, and I was just happy to see Tom execute. I think that, even on the first drive, I went for it on fourth down it wasn t a great play call. So, I think if that was a better play call maybe we score there. So, I thought he really handled the two drives that he had, he handled them real well. He s an accurate passer. He s got really good command of what we do, and he s a fun guy to coach. They re all fun to coach, all three of them. They re good guys. What does it mean to have the kind of playmaking ability in the offense that RB D Onta Foreman brings? Again, like I said about preseason in the previous question, it s preseason. I don t think we re getting ready to fit him for a gold jacket just yet, but I think he s a good player. I think he s a good, young player that I think, if he continues to work hard and learn and pay attention in the meetings and do all the things that we re asking him to do watch how Lamar (Miller) prepares, watch how Alfred (Blue) prepares. I think he s learning a lot from those guys. Charles London does a good job with those guys. I think that he ll be a good player, but I think this is just one step along the way and hopefully it continues. What did you think of what you saw from the safeties tonight? There is a lot of competition there. They re really a good group to coach. They re very competitive. They re fun guys. They all love football. There s some you mentioned those guys, and then there s (Marcus) Gilchrist, there s (Kurtis) Drummond. There s a bunch of guys in that room that are all competing for playing time, competing to make our team. That s going to be a tough decision. There s some guys in there that play well on special teams. That comes into play there, too. There s some guys that are in that room that have been with us for a while, some guys that haven t been with us that long, like (Marcus) Gilchrist, who brings a lot to the table. So, that ll be interesting to see how it plays out over the next couple of games. Any thoughts on ILB Shakeel Rashad, ILB Dylan Cole and ILB Zach Cunningham? Look, I think that playing linebacker in our system is not the easiest thing, especially for a young guy. I think you have to learn a lot about communication, about what package you re in this is our base package, this is our sub package, this is our nickel package. I think at times those guys made some plays tonight. I think Shak (Shakeel Rashad) knows it pretty well. He s a very bright player. I think Dylan and Zach at times struggled, at times they made some plays, just from what I could see. Again, I ll watch the tape, but all three of those guys are great guys. They work very hard and I know they ll improve over the next week. WR BRUCE ELLINGTON (Transcribed by Raj Sheth) What has it been like being a part of this team and part of this group and being out there and perform the way you did today? It s been a blessing. To have these group of guys that want to go out there and play the game of football and love the game of football. It s just been a blessing to come out here and be a part of this team. How did you learn the offense so quickly? Is it similar to some of the things you did with the 49ers? No, just study my playbook and got in with Coach for some extra work and just learned it myself. How big is it for you to come out early like this and make some plays? Very big. You have to make plays to make the team, so it s huge.
What do you like about your opportunity here? I like it. It s a great group of guys at receiver they all come out to work hard every day, it s very competitive and I m just going to do what I got to do and control what I can control and work hard. What does it mean to you to hear a guy like Jaelen Strong say he learned from you and for him to learn from you? I had Anquan Boldin, Stevie Johnson, Michael Crabtree (on my team) - I had those guys on my team, so I learned a lot from them and anything I learned I can pass it on, and I learn a lot from him too being a bigger receiver just learning different techniques to get off of releases and stuff like that. RB D ONTA FOREMAN (Transcribed by Cole Thompson) Can you talk about the short catch that you turned into a 63-yard run? I went out there and he gave me the signal. I just wanted to win. I went inside and looked for the ball. He threw me the ball and then I was loose. I was mad I didn t score though. What about catching the ball in traffic? I feel like I catch the ball well. I said that coming out of college and I m able to display that now, so I want to be able to continue to do that moving forward. Talk about the ability of making the big play? You ve been able to show some flashes of that these past two weeks. It really comes from my coaches. They re putting me in the right situations to where my line is blocking for me and where the quarterback can find me when I m open. Ultimately, I m just going out there trying to give the best I can give every day, even at practice. That s where it starts at practice. I try to go out there and work hard every day so when I come to the game, it just goes normal for me and I m not thinking as much when I m out there. This was your first game at NRG, did you have a lot of family here with you being so close to home? My mom and my grandma came today. It was wonderful though. I ve only been in this stadium one time for a bowl game and I didn t even play. I never watched a NFL game live, I ve only watched a game on TV, so, for me, my first NFL live game was the one I first played in. It s a blessing to be here. For me to be able to play basically in front of my home crowd, that s how I look at it. Take us through the touchdown run. I wanted to score. That s pretty much it. I just had to find a way to get in. They did a great job up front blocking for me. I found the edge and once I made the guy miss on the edge I just had to go in and score. G DAVID QUESSENBERRY (Transcribed by Christiana Johns) How special was it to be out there playing this football game? Like I said before, this is a special stadium, and it s a special city. Being on the sidelines the past few years, watching and just waiting for my chance to get out there, and finally today I got to play in front of the home crowd, and it was special. Was it extra emotional for you, your first home game in this uniform? Yeah, I felt like I was back. This is what I wanted to get back to. Last week was the first week back, and that was really important. But this game was my first one in front of these fans, and that was really the goal. What was it like playing a little bit of center?
In the beginning, beyond taking a lot of reps, kind of jump in there and see how it goes, it went well. I hope Greg (Mancz) is OK, and I think he will be. We went in there and we made it work. QB TOM SAVAGE (Transcribed by Tomorrow Huff, Stephanie Weaver and Christiana Johns) What are your thoughts on your performance tonight and the throw to Jaelen Strong? Yeah, I thought offensively we did a good job moving the ball down the field and scoring some points. How comfortable did you feel just running things, and after the hit from LB (Kyle) Van Noy when you came back and found WR (Bruce) Ellington? Yeah, the hit felt good. It felt good to get out there and take a shot, but I think all the guys made some big plays for me, and it really helped out. Was this a confidence builder in some ways for the offense or for you? Yeah, obviously it s preseason, you know. So you got to do this in the regular season, and go out there and consistently score points and then move the ball like we did, but it s a good foundation that we re in. How did you feel as a team that you went out there and clicked, and specifically you and the new signee WR draw or another play? Yeah, that was the call, and the clock kind of got down a little bit. I mean you don t want to take a delay of game there, so obviously we got to go back and watch it, and kind of see where we can correct. Do you feel you had pretty good protection most of the game? Absolutely, I mean the sack was 100% on me, and I told the o-line that. You know, sometimes you want to make a play, and you want to stay in that pocket, and get the ball out of your hands, but I can t say enough about this offensive line, and how they re playing, and what type of guys they are. Do you think some of the work you got with the (New England) Patriots earlier in the week helped them for tonight, the group in front of you? Yeah, whenever you get the chance to go out there and you play against talent like that, it helps this team a lot, and I know we enjoyed it. I know we re kind of moving towards New Orleans (Saints) now. Midway through the preseason, how do you feel about your performance? Yeah, I think, just from a personal stand point, just protecting the ball and I think that s been good. But like I said, it s tough to get a good gauge of it, this is a good foundation we re building, but we got to keep improving. We got to get out there, and keep working. Thoughts on WR Jaelen Strong s play tonight and this offseason? Yeah, Jaelen s my guy. I love the guy. He s a Philly guy, so we have to keep that connection going. We worked a lot this offseason together. I know he s really working his tail off. He s a great player, and I m lucky to have him. What did it mean to have two sustained drives to open up the game? I think it kind of just shows the resilience of this team. Obviously we knew that we wanted to start this game fast. I think with you just mentioned with that fourth and five, we really weren t satisfied with the drive unless you score a touchdown. Just coming back down the field and finally putting it in was a good boost for us. We got to watch it and correct some things and get better. How do you continue to add elements to your game to get quicker but still staying the course with what Head Coach Bill O Brien wants you to execute?
Ultimately, it s just continuing to watch film on yourself but also on the defense. And shoot, just playing against a guy like that in practice, Tom Brady over there, I mean that s a good gauge. You see the guy get the ball out of his hands and he s constantly making good decisions for the team and I think that s my main goal, just to keep protecting the ball. And you know, there might be a sack here and there, but ultimately we ve got to protect the ball and put our defense in good situations, because they can t score as many points as we need to win a game, you know? I m sure they can. I shouldn t say that with J.J. (Watt) out there. Is it meaningful to start well offensively even in the preseason? Absolutely. I mean, we have to go out there and we have to score points, and I ve kind of been saying that over and over again this whole preseason, but I can t emphasize how important that is for us, is to go out there and score touchdowns. And we did that. And obviously the red area is something we ve been working on a lot. The first drive, you want to score a touchdown there, but it s good to get down there and punch it in, and we ve just got to keep doing it. WR JAELEN STRONG (Transcribed by Sarah Hoffman) How do you think the offense worked when you were in the game? I feel like we worked hard out there when I was in there and when I wasn t. I feel like we competed. How well did the offense play? We played good. We re always going to come back, make the corrections and practice and all of that to get better and better every day. What s it like to have a guy like Bruce Ellington step in, and what do you learn from each other? We constantly learn from each other. Bruce, what he learned where he came from, he brings it over here and puts it out there in the receiver room. We can choose to listen to it or not. Everything Bruce says is meaningful, so I lean on him a lot for advice. Whenever he says something I take it in. QB DESHAUN WATSON (Transcribed by Sarah Hoffman) How would you look back on what you did? I did a decent job. I did what I needed to do to try to move the ball to help the team out. There s always things I can get better at. I m going to watch the film and I m going to continue to work on that. Take us through the play where you avoided the rushing and got into the end zone? It was a play call that O.B. (Bill O Brien) called and I just made it work. Everyone did their job. It was a one-onone matchup and I won my matchup. What did you think of the job RB D Onta Foreman is doing for you and what he did tonight on that one long run after your good throw? He s doing a heck of a job. He s getting better each and every week and each and every day. He s a playmaker. That s one reason why the Houston Texans drafted him when he makes plays like he did last week and this week. He ll continue to do that and get better and continue to be an impact for this team. How did you feel about the reaction from the crowd when you entered the game? It was cool to have the support and the home team behind you. That s just for every quarterback and every player. We have a great fan base and it s fun to go out there and play in front of the home team. DE J.J. WATT (Transcribed by Cole Thompson)
How special was it to get a tackle for loss right off the bat? Yeah, it felt good. It was really good to be back in front of our home crowd. We have some of the best fans in the world. It s really good to be back in Houston. Good to be back in the city, in front of our fans in our own stadium, in our own home. We love it here. We love playing for these people. Big picture is you looking forward to September 10, what is the step by step process for you to be ready for that? It s just a couple plays here, couple plays there. I m just getting my toes a little wet. I m just getting started. You know, I m really just show glimpses here and there of what s possible. It s going to be a lot of fun. For getting a tackle for a loss, was that a good feeling knowing you could make that play? Yeah, it s a great feeling. Like I said, it s just a glimpse. There s a lot of stuff I ve been working on a very long time. There s a lot of plays that I ve built up in the archives that I want to get out there and make. It s going to be a lot of fun this year. Our defense is a blast to play in. This team is a lot of fun. Offense did a good job today, so when you put it all together, we are a lot of fun. How do you feel with the work that you ve had and do you feel like you ve come a long way from where you were? I feel great. I think I d be less tired if I wasn t standing on the sidelines the whole game. Staying on the sidelines is a lot more tiring than I thought it was. It s a lot of fun to get my feet wet. Last game was a bit of a tease to get out there for only one series, but we all understand the plan, we all understand what the angle is. I m perfectly fine with it, but my body feels great. My mind feels great. I love being able to come to work each day and get better. This group is really tight. You think West Virginia trip helped you all bond? Yeah, it was really good for us. We have a really, really good group of guys. I think we have guys who truly care about each other. We have guys who truly and vested in each other s success and are truly happy for each other when they make a play. We have really good chemistry and I think West Virginia was great for that and it s a testament to the guys in this room. We love each other and we love playing with each other so it makes it fun. It makes coming to work every day fun. POSTGAME QUOTES FROM NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK (Transcribed by Stephanie Weaver) Opening Statement Well, this was a good week for our team. I feel like we got a lot of work done at The Greenbrier and a really competitive game tonight. Got better at a lot of things. We obviously still got a lot of things we need to work on, things that we can improve in. I feel like we took a positive step this week. Need to do it again next week and start stringing them together. I think we re making some progress here with our team. Obviously still got a long way to go. Lot of things to work on and improve. We ll look forward to addressing those this week. When did you decide to play TE Ron Gronkowski tonight? I played all the players that were healthy. Was there any change in approach to this preseason versus other preseasons? I don t know. Not that I m aware of. What was your impression of CB Cyrus Jones on punt returns?
Yeah. I ll go back and look at it. It looks like he made something out of nothing a couple of times so that gave us some good field position. Thoughts on the running backs, specifically on catching passes out of the backfield. Yeah. Backs on both teams made a lot of plays tonight. Our backs have always been productive for us so hopefully they will continue to be. What are the benefits of a joint practice versus a preseason game? Well, it s live football. Tackling. Blocking. It s live football. We got a lot out of those practices. Game situations are different. You learn from those, too. Due to your depth with edge rushers, are you exploring the market for anyone right now? Not right now. We just got done with this game. Right now, I m not really exploring anything. I m going to back and look at the film, make corrections and do what we can with the team and move on from there like we always do. What have you notice about QB Jacoby Brissett s progression? Really everybody on our team, we ve improved. That s what we practice for. We all got a long way to go. I don t think anybody is where they need to be, any player, any coach. Any anybody. We re just not there yet. You keep grinding it out, and it s going to take a while but keep plugging away at it. Have you seen steady progress from RB Rex Burkhead? Yeah, same thing. I think everybody is making progress. We ve got a long way to go. Some guys played their first preseason game tonight, some guys played some last week, but we ve got a lot of work to do and a long way to go. It pretty much goes for everybody across the board. Do you feel any nostalgia about coming back to play where you won the Super Bowl? Yeah, really that s all in the past. I mean it was great, but we re on to 2017. I think right now, last year, or two years ago or twelve years ago isn t that important. Trying to get this team ready to go. This year s team is this year s. It s my responsibility to make a strong commitment to this group. Not trying to live in the past. Not trying to live in the future. Just trying to do a good job with the team that we have today. QUARTERBACK TOM BRADY (Transcribed by Alison Chastain) What did you think about finally playing in preseason? It was fun being out there. The last time we were here it was fun playing and it s fun to be back playing here again. It was a nice feeling pulling up today. I wish we would have won, but we had a good week of practice. We tried to carry it over to the game and we will see if we can keep getting better. Tell me about your touchdown pass to RB Rex Burkhead and how he gets open for you? Yeah, it was a great play. He had a one-on-one matchup with the linebacker they had in coverage and he made a really good move to the out, and then broke across to space. I knew there was a lot of space in there if he could make the catch. He made a great catch and obviously a good run. It was a big play. How well do the Texans defend up front as far as the front seven? Very good. They are very fundamentally sound and they have a lot of good matchups. They make it tough on you. We played them in the playoffs last year and they made it tough on us. I think they just do a good job challenging every position up front. They challenge you in the run game. They re always going to have an extra guy in the pass game. They ve got good rushers and really good coverage guys. They ve got a good team. They were the first ranked defense in the league for a reason.
What is like seeing DE JJ Watt back in the game? It s great seeing him out there. We practiced against him all week and he certainly looks like he s up to his old self. He was defensive player of the year a couple of times and I have a lot of respect for him. He plays the run. He plays the pass. They move him around quite a bit so you can t really get a beat at where he is at, but he is a phenomenal player. How do you feel about TE Rob Gronkowski and what he s been through? It was great. I think for all of us to get out there and play is something you can t just replicate in practice. To get those reps in and get the speed of the game; everything is just happening the way it normally happens. For him to get out there and be out there all of training camp he is building so much confidence. I am proud of him. We just have to keep it going. How much do you think spending time off the field could help extend TE Rob Gronkowski? Good. Everyone knows how I feel about that and I am just happy he s out there playing and healthy. He is building his confidence. I think that s what everyone is out there trying to do. In different times of your life you try different types of experiences that you have force you to do different things. I am proud of his effort. We ve got to just keep building as a team. Having everyone out there, we ve had a relatively healthy camp so we just have to keep getting after it. How tough do you think your offense is making it on defenses? I think that s what makes a good offense. Having a lot of versatility and I ve said for a long time I throw where the guys are open. If they double someone everyone else is singled across the board. You ve got to be careful who you double. If we ve got the right play call against a certain defenses it s tough to stop us. We were decent out there. Obviously we had quite a few mistakes that we ve got to clean up. It s a good defense we are going to see them quickly. We had a good week of practice against them. It was a lot of fun. Having all the experiences with them this week led into this game. It will be a little different next time we play them. RB REX BURKHEAD (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) Can you take us through your touchdown? It was a route out of the backfield, kind of an option going in or out. I just made a move on the defender. Tom (Brady) threw a great ball: right when I turned it was right there. Just got to try to get in the end zone as fast as possible. What did it mean for you to have your family and friends in attendance? It was cool. I had a bunch of friends and family in for the game, of course. They made it down from Dallas, so it was fun to have a good game and play in front of them. I think this our closest game to home this season, so it was nice to come out here, and it s always cool to see them come out and support. It's a crowded backfield, how did it feel to be the guy who got the start? We have a ton of great guys, and everybody produces, everybody competes, and I think that s what s so great about our backfield is we compete, we root for one another. Whenever we make a great play, we re right there cheering each other on. Whatever roles the coaches want to put us in, we re more than happy to do it. What was your impression on how you were able to show your versatility tonight? Just trying to do the best I could, and credit to the offensive line. Up front they did a great job of opening up some holes, and really helping out the passing game as well, giving Tom (Brady) time to throw. That s a very impressive front that Houston has, as well as their linebacking and secondary corps, too. We knew it was going to be a challenge for us, and I think we did well.
Did you expect to have a big work load that early? I didn t know. Just going in, I was just going to be ready for whatever occurred or happened. A lot of times, things can change pretty fast, so whatever was kind of thrown my way, I was hoping to be ready for. QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) How do you feel? I feel fine right now. I m sure tomorrow it will kick in a little more but I m good right now. Can you talk about being able to play into the fourth quarter? Coach (Bill Belichick), you never know what he s going to do, so he keeps you on your toes. Getting into a rhythm, especially at the quarterback position, is very important. I think once we got moving - some of these drives we ve got to finish them with touchdowns. But for the most part, it was pretty good. Do you think you just did too much on the interception? I avoided the D-end at first, I was just trying to throw it away but didn t put enough on it. It was just a bad play. Rough way to end the night. It s frustrating when you can t go back out there and make up for it. What did QB Tom Brady say to you after the interception? Pretty much what I knew already. You just gotta throw it away. Put more on it. Don t give them second chances. Don t give the guy a chance to do that. Can you talk about all the weapons you have on offense? It makes my job a whole lot easier, especially when we get to the second and third guys, they re still just as impressive. The O-line did a great job for me tonight. The sack-fumble was my fault. Can t have that happen. What kind of progress has TE James O Shaughnessy made? A lot, especially because he was out for a little while with an injury early in camp. So, to come back and rebound the way he has been, he s an impressive player. All those young tight ends, they re coming along real well. They re impressive. Why was the sack-fumble your fault and what s it been like working behind an offensive line with a lot of moving pieces in training camp? I m the quarterback. It s just my fault. They ve been great, the whole O-line, whoever it is in there. They mix and match a lot. Coach (Dante) Scarnecchia does a great job with them, getting them ready, and they ve done a phenomenal job for us. DL LAWRENCE GUY (Transcribed by Nicholas Williamson) What did you think about play alongside DL Alan Branch? It was great. He s a big man. It s great playing with somebody with that experience and that size. He s a great player, so I enjoyed it when I got to line up next to him. He is a great athlete and he does his job very well. Like I said, I m glad I get to play next to him. I don t feel too happy about the offensive linemen that get to hit him, but I m glad I get to play next to him. TE ROB GRONKOWSKI (Transcribed by Nicholas Williamson) When did you know you were going to play?
We expect to play every game, 60 minutes every game. It felt good to be out there and get my feet wet how many plays, whatever we played, the coaches had us in. It was great. I love to play football and it felt great to be out there. Was there a moment when coach came to you and said you were playing? We expect to play every game no matter when it is, even if it is preseason. We expect to play all downs. That s how we prepare (and) that s how we go into these games mentally. Did the contact feel good for your first time in a game situation this season? It felt good to be out there, get the speed of the game. It just felt good to be back out there with the boys, for sure. -END-