HOUSTON -- The Texans are carrying five running backs on their active roster because two are unable to practice right now.
Those two -- starter Arian Foster and backup Ben Tate -- are critical to the team's success and have left coach Gary Kubiak "very concerned" about his running back situation.
Foster and Tate both missed practice Monday. Foster suffered a hamstring injury on Oct. 20 that didn't allow him to finish the Texans' 17-16 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Tate suffered cracked ribs in the same game but played until the end.
"On a scale of what? One to ...? The highest number, whatever that is," Kubiak said, when asked how concerned he is about his running backs.
"I'm very concerned. We understand Ben's situation. I think they're both going to give us everything they can to try and play this week. I don't think we're going to know anything until later in the week, which is probably a good thing. I know it's a good thing we had the bye."
Foster said Monday that he expects to practice this week and is working to be able to play Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.
Tate said he expects to play Sunday. He said his condition will be much better this weekend than it was for most of the game against the Chiefs, when he received a painkiller and played through his injury.
The Texans had only two running backs on their roster last week, having released rookie Cierre Wood. They signed three running backs to their active roster on Monday -- Dennis Johnson, Deji Karim and Ray Graham, who was previously on their practice squad. All three were in training camp with the Texans.
