Observed and heard in the locker room after the Houston Texans' 30-17 loss to the New York Giants.
Coming back to MetLife Stadium was a bit eerie for inside linebacker Brian Cushing, who tore his ACL because of an illegal peel-back block on this field two years ago. He thought about it during the week of practice, during warm-ups and heading into the visiting locker room. Cushing cleared a nice mental hurdle by playing Sunday's game healthy and leaving healthy.
Although Cushing was pleased with that, he was frustrated by the Texans' defensive performance against the Giants. New York running back Rashad Jennings gained 176 yards rushing. "First half seemed to be inside handoffs," Cushing said.
"Second half kind of seemed like he was running inside bouncing outside. Felt like nothing was working. Honestly just felt like nothing was working. We weren’t doing our jobs."
Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick began his news conference with a heartfelt note about his former teammate Rob Bironas, who died in a single-car crash Saturday night.
"We woke up this morning to the tragic news that Rob Bironas passed away," Fitzpatrick said. "He was a teammate and friend of mine. I just want to express my sorrow and condolences to the Bironas family and his wife, Rachel, on their loss. Hopefully they can get through this. ... Great guy, everybody in the locker room loved him. It was obviously shocking news for everybody this morning. When things like that happen, it really puts into perspective the game of football and how there are things that are a lot more important than that."
Receiver DeAndre Hopkins made a spectacular catch in the second quarter that was called back because of an illegal formation penalty.
"I kind of jumped early," Hopkins said. "It was my fault. Bad timing on the ball. I really couldn’t time it right like I wanted to. I just put my hand up. Luckily my 3X hands came down with the ball." Hopkins said he hasn't made a catch that nice since a catch he made in a seven-on-seven drill in high school that is apparently on YouTube.
