(SportsRadio 610) - Texans head coach Lovie Smith didn’t beat around the bush Monday afternoon when he met with the media.
In his opening statement, he quickly acknowledged the disappointment still lingering from their 17-point fourth quarter collapse and outcome in the 20-20 tie to the Indianapolis Colts, and held strong on his controversial decision to not go for it on a pivotal fourth down in overtime.
"Not really looking back an awful lot on situations we made at the time," Smith said. The fourth down at the end of the game, I would do that over again."
During that final offensive possession by the Texans in the overtime period, Smith's fourth down decision was maddening to some, but many were even more frustrated at the third-and-one play call that led up to it.
Rex Burkhead got the carry, on a predictable set, that resulted in a two-yard loss to set up that fourth-and-three in which the Texans opted to punt.
Smith said he and the staff thought that was their "best play at the moment."
For those that thought rookie running back Dameon Pierce should’ve been in on that play, or just flat out had seen the field more than he did, having played just 29% of the teams offensive snaps, Smith explained that he needs to improve on some things like pass blocking, blitz pick up and pass catching to warrant being on the field more in those situations.
"I can’t defend the amount of reps our starting tailback got in some of those situations," Smith said. "I wished he’d have gotten more. We’re going to work to get him some more of those opportunities. Those are some of things that we’re going to work to make sure that situation doesn’t happen again."
As for that fourth down decision to punt with 20 seconds remaining in overtime, Smith said to avoid such decisions like that in the future, he simply needs to see more from his team.
"Play another game. That was a good football team we were playing also. I look in the NFL (Sunday), a lot of games came down a few plays here and there, that’s the NFL," Smith said. "For us, we’re in the ballgame now, we haven’t been in a lot of the situations. We’re in the ballgame now. There’s some things that we need to do. We’ll figure out how to finish games a little bit better than the past."
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the Texans respond next weekend in Denver when they face the Broncos and beyond.
While early, a concern has to be whether the buy-in remains as strong heading to week two on the road as it did week one, given the lack of faith Smith showed in his defense.
"There were some good things that we did also, just not enough in kind of critical moments," Smith said. "But it’s hard to be game ready. I’m talking about being able to finish games sometimes, that opening game of the season. Hopefully that improvement that most teams make between week one and two is what we’ll make."
Shaun Bijani has spent the last 16 years covering the Houston sports scene for SportsRadio 610. Follow him on Twitter @ShaunBijani.
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