What Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said after beating Dallas on Monday Night Football

After the Houston Texans beat the Dallas Cowboys, 34-10, on Monday night at AT&T Stadium, Houston coach DeMeco Ryans met with the media. Here’s what he said, courtesy of the Cowboys and Texans media relations staffs.

We’re just thankful for this opportunity on this stage. Man, we’re blessed to get to do what we do and our guys, we’re very thankful for this moment, thankful for this opportunity to play on Monday night football. It’s a big deal for us. A lot of young guys haven’t played in it before, so I’m really proud of the way young guys competed and finished today.

On Joe Mixon’s three touchdown runs and the way he took control.

The run game starts with our offense line. I asked them, I challenged them to play fast, play aggressive and I thought they did a really nice job. And Joe, when he’s on, he’s a force for us. Over 100 yards, three touchdowns, I just really liked the way we just kept churning it in the run game. And (I’m) proud of the guys for stepping up to the challenge.

On the defense, the takeaways, and the pressure they had all night.

The defense played with the elite energy and we executed really well. And all for like one big play that we gave up, I’d like that one back, but overall, I think our guys played really well and attacked the football. The D-line really picked up the pressure in the second half. Derek Barnett, the play he made really change the game for us. They flipped the momentum and got everybody juiced up on the sideline. It was just a huge play. Him, get the strip sack for Pitrie to come up and force the ball out. Something we talk about, we harp on, is attacking the football. And we talked about, this week, not just attacking it but going to score. So that was a huge play for us defensively, and I thought the D-line really played well in the second half. And Stingley, really great job in coverage all game. And we get the pick, that was big time for us.

On getting Nico Collins back and the impact he had on the offense.

Everyone instantly sees the impact of Nico. Our first offensive play goes for a touchdown, right? It gets called back, but you see his impact instantly. He’s a game-changer and we’re so thankful to have him back and see what he provides to our entire team.

On what it meant to get the touchdown in the second half with Joe Mixon and what it meant for the team, considering the second half struggles this season.

For the second half, it meant, it wasn’t just our offense, right? They’ve got a lot of the stories being about offense. I look at it defensively like we haven’t finished in the second half, right? And for our team to go out and really play a complete second half, to shut them out in the second half, that was a bigger deal to me than us scoring a touchdown. It’s just not about us coming out playing with the right energy, executing and finishing the proper way. That’s what finished looked like, right? And if we want to continue to progress, move forward, play good football, we have to finish second halfs. It always comes down to how you finish in the second half. And this is how it looks, like I’m excited for what we’re going to do.

On how good it was to go back into the locker room with a winning feeling, especially after what happened last week with the Lions.

It’s an awesome feeling, right? It’s hard to learn in this league. No matter who you’re playing, it’s hard to win. It was a great feeling, coming in, knowing we had it out there, just seeing our guys, seeing a different bounce in their step. Seeing a different look in their eye all week. Like I just want our guys to remain focused, remain locked in, locked in on the task at hand each and every week. And if we do that, we’re a really good football team, right? That’s something we knew last week, we’re good football team. We can play with anybody, It’s just about finishing.

On being able to come back and still be able to score after the first play of the game was called back. Well, I really loved that first play because it just showed what we could do in this game. So even though it got called back, I just told all our guys, hey, we can go score on these guys again. Just get it in your mind, we’re going to score again. Like, we can move the football on people when we execute the right way, so I loved that first play. I hated that it got called back, but I was excited just to see us make that big play that we’ve been looking for.

On Jalen Pitrie.

Jalen is a physical player. Really, you know, he played physical all night, played really well in coverage. Very active. He’s been playing really good football for us. Instinctive player, and him, down in the box, making a lot of plays, being active, I really love what he provides to our team.

On how the Houston fans showed up tonight.

Yeah, it was awesome, seeing all our Texans fans show up. That was really cool to see on the road, to see all the Texans jerseys, see how fired up our fans were, created some crowd noise. Now that’s cool. Any time you can come into an away stadium and really feel your fans, hear your fans being loud, being disruptive, that was really cool for our guys.

On any changes made with the defensive line in the second half. Was there one thing you can put your finger on? No, we just made a few adjustments with the D-line, and D-Hunter, he cut it loose in the second half. He did a really good job. I thought our guys did a better job of just executing. The stunts and everything we were asking them to do, especially on a few things, but they executed really well.

On Nico Collins.

We’re excited to get Nico back. Really love the plan that he had, and he showed up and make an impact play for us the first play of the game, right? So I’m happy to have him back, I thought our guys did a good job of managing him, giving him the proper snaps that he needed, and, you know, it’s his first week back. He’s not going to have a full workload on his first week back.

More on Jalen Pitre.

Jalen played physical, man, That’s what we pride ourselves on defensively, playing physical.

On John Metchie.

Another physical play on special teams, right, with Metchie coming up, making a huge hit. It was a really cool moment for that play because we had a little highlight this week in our meetings where we showed the play where Metchie, Alabama/Florida, when he made the big hit, so we talked about this, playing with physicality tonight, and Metchie showed up made almost the exact same play. But that was a huge play for him. Having the awareness, we know these guys are in really good on special teams, and they have a lot of gimmicks and things on special teams, and Metchie, he played with elite awareness, and he was able to read the play diagnosis and make a big time, game-changing play fakes.

On tonight’s physicality.

Jalen [Pitre] played physical. That’s what we pride ourselves on, defensively, playing physical, Jalen, exhibited that. We had a lot of guys playing physical, I didn’t know.

On what allows Derek Stingley Jr. to have a lot of success.

What allows Sting to have a lot of success is just him being locked in on his technique. Not making it bigger than it is, and just going out and executing. He understood the challenge on their best player and he stepped up to the challenge and made plays all night. Very proud of Sting and how he has continued to grow as a professional and having a really great year for us. Really proud of Sting.

On the fake punt play during special teams.

Another physical play on special teams, right? When Metchie [John Metchie III] coming up and making a huge hit. It was a really cool moment for that play because we had a little highlight this week in our meetings where we showed the play where Metchie in Alabama vs. Florida, when he made the big hit. We talked about this, playing with physicality tonight, and Metchie showing up and making almost the exact same play. It was a huge play for him having the awareness. We know these guys are really good on special teams. They have a lot of gimmicks and things on special teams, and Metchie played with elite awareness, he was able to read the play diagnosis and make a big time, game-changing play for us. >> You know, this is how you want to play it, it’s like a hat.

On how tonight’s second half is a lesson for late November, early December games…

Playing the way we played in the second half is just for our entire team to understand we finish the way we finish in the second half. Hold the team out of the end zone, and we’re able to put more points on the board. Like we can play with anybody. It’s just a matter of continuing to press forward, and continue to just execute, and don’t make it bigger than what it is. If everybody is doing their job on the details, we’re good football team.