Q. Obviously not the game you wanted. RB James Robinson, 13 carries. Did you hope to be able to get him more involved in that and have a better, I guess, balance on offense?
DOUG MARRONE: "We felt like we had a good plan going in. There were some things that we wanted to take advantage of. So I think anytime you lose a game, it's always going to be questioning how many times so and so got the ball or what you did. So again, whatever we did wasn't obviously good enough. So I acknowledge that."
Q. The fourth-and-1 play, with the halfback pass, looking back on it, I know hindsight is 20/20, but do you wish you just handed that ball off and tried to power forward for that one yard?
DOUG MARRONE: "I mean, we worked on that play a bunch. You work on things in certain situations and I think that we felt very comfortable with it. I don't think we did a good job executing it. I don't think we sold it well enough because the corner was able to get off on it. So you work on something during the week. You feel comfortable about it, you know when you're going to call it in that situation, and we just didn't execute it. So to answer your question, if I had to go back and knowing it wasn't going to work, would I rather run something else? Obviously I would. But that's what we worked on and that's what we were preparing for."
Q. Obviously, K Stephen Hauschka misses those two kicks in the second quarter. What was your conversation with him at halftime and what is the game plan moving forward?
DOUG MARRONE: "I just wanted to make sure I just was with the team. I think that our guys are playing extremely hard. We weren't able to take advantage of a certain sequence of the two turnovers. We weren't able to get the momentum back on our side or turn them into points or touchdowns. And then I thought (Keelan) Cole's big return out to the 39- yard line, the way we were moving the ball, we should have got it into range to be able to score and we had two negative plays. So there's opportunities out there that we didn't take advantage of and that's why we came out with the loss."
Q. But as far as the kicking game goes, I mean, where do you guys go from here in terms of the kicking game?
DOUG MARRONE: "I think we'll figure that out as we go. Obviously with the way the ball was being kicked, it just doesn't have any, he said he just didn't have any pop in his leg."
Q. How did you feel like QB Gardner Minshew II played today?
DOUG MARRONE: "I think at the end of the day, you talk about individual guys, I'm sure that Gardner (Minshew) wishes he had some plays back and was able to make some more plays for us to win. I think whenever you get those questions and you lost, I mean, obviously everyone, including myself, we want to get more. So I think it's difficult. I think, at the end, he was throwing there and I think it was 31 for 44. He had two touchdowns, didn't have any interceptions, had the fumble, got hit from behind trying to make a play. So that's always difficult. He's doing everything he can. We just got to execute better."
Q. What did you see out of CB Sidney Jones IV?
DOUG MARRONE: "I saw the two pass defenders. I was excited about it. I think he had an opportunity, came in, and did some good things. So we'll go back and look at it. I think, he's a guy that came in here and he's been bouncing around a little bit and he's worked really hard and I was happy to see him. He almost got the pick on the one. They went to undercut it, got his hand on the football. But I think it was good to see him out there and I think that he is someone that can help us down the road now."
Q. You said earlier with regard to not and talking about RB James Robinson and his kind of lack of carries today, he only had 13, that there were other things that you wanted to try to take advantage of. What was that, especially, I think it's a fair question, given that the Texans were last in the league in run defense?
DOUG MARRONE: "Yeah, I think that we wanted to go after certain people. We wanted to make sure that we could score touchdowns. We want to be able to push the ball down the field. We wanted to, we thought we would be able to do a better job converting a lot of those things. So those are reasons. I mean, we go into a week game plan, and I mean, we can't really predict. We felt that was going to give us the best opportunity. I mean, to go in there and we felt like we were going to have to score and we didn't. I think the game plan that we were trying to put together was to be aggressive and push the ball down the field and score points. We felt coming in with a lot of the defensive players out, we thought we wanted to get a game plan where we could score. And that's as simple as it is, I think. That's what we were planning and we didn't execute it. I think that's a fair answer."
Q. You guys got a pretty good pressure on QB Deshaun Watson. It's hard for anybody to catch him. He does the same thing to almost anybody. But talk about, you did make him work a little bit. You did get him on the run. And comment on DL Dawuane Smoot in that regard and how he played.
DOUG MARRONE: "Yeah, I think, overall, I think all those guys, I think there's been a lot of pressure on us to get to the quarterback. I think that we changed a lot of things up today. We mixed some things up. We were able it get some pressure, get him off the spot. It's always difficult to get him down. I think a lot of times when we were pressuring or in man, I think that they had a good matchup. I think Brandin Cooks had a big game and they were able to, he was able to find him and be, and go to him and the guy made plays. It's one of those things where I think all those guys up front were busting their butt effort-wise, not just (Dawuane) Smoot, and really trying to get into the game, trying to get pressure, trying to stop the run, all these things that we ask of them. So at the end of the day they were able to make the plays and we weren't able to. I thought the effort, though, was good. It's just we have got to get it right, play-in and play-out, and be able to win some of those matchups, which we did a couple, but not as much as we need to to win the game."
Q. You talked a little bit about margin of error last week. How much does it hurt a team when you guys aren't able to score off of turnovers and a play like WR Keelan Cole Sr.'s long kick return?
DOUG MARRONE: "Yeah, that was a key to the game, not being able to take advantage of the turnovers or the kickoff return. Like I said, before with Gene question or the running back question, we were planning on coming in here and thinking that we were going to have to score points with the injuries that we had on defense. So that's the plan that we tried to put together and obviously it didn't work well. But that's what I'm talking about where we move the ball at times and look good and then you have opportunities and you need to take advantage of it because if you don't take advantage of it, and then this is what happens. The momentum swings the other way and it's tough to capture them. When you have a time where you have the situations like we have had, especially after the turnovers or having the ball down there on the two- or three-yard line, you got to turn those into points. We weren't able to do that, so that's on all of us."
Q. Can you just talk about just the inability to just get everything clicking with all three phases and this is like the fourth game that that has happened?
DOUG MARRONE: "Yeah, I think you get to a point where you basically pulling, you know, I'm pulling for these guys. I'm pulling for these three phases to come together. We're working on that and we talk about that. But we're not able to do that play-in and play-out right now. We're not able to, and it's not like we don't have opportunities. There's opportunities out there. We just haven't been able to take advantage of it. So we just got to work as a whole. And the reason why I say that is because, just like I told the team before I came in here, I mean, the effort of how they're playing is, I can't, I mean, I can't ask for more. Now we can play smarter and we can make some plays, yes, and these are the things that we're going to have to do. And we're going to have to go out and get ourselves a win because it stinks. We've lost now four in a row. And the one thing about it is these guys work hard and they have got to learn to take advantage and we have got to learn to win some of these games and learn to get this momentum back in our favor. And these are the things that we have to do to win and we're not doing it right now."
Q. The S Josh Jones ejection, I was just curious your thoughts on that. And then, did you really, did you have an idea it was going to be a long day defensively when you're playing without three of your top studs like that?
DOUG MARRONE: "The Josh (Jones) thing, from the angle I have, I understand that. I don't argue that call. I mean, we're trying to protect players and player safety, so I'm behind that 100 percent. I don't think that Josh was malicious where he tried to do that. I think he was just trying to make a play and some things happened and, you know, it's probably the right call, not having seen it in slow motion. But beyond that, knowing that the players were not going to make it, obviously, you change what you try to get done. But I thought early on, I think when they hit the big coverage, we had a new starter in there that kind of missed it, and with the over route from the tight end. We want to be looking at that. So that gave up the touchdown. But they were playing hard and playing their butts off, so those are the kind of things that are going to go on. I was just disappointed that we didn't take advantage of the opportunities that presented them self in the game because we're not, we can't let those things go by. We have to be able to take advantage of it because, like you said, we don't have a large margin or anything of that nature. It's not like we have to play perfect. I'm not saying that. But we got to play better than we are."
