Contrasting QB views: What Texans’ CJ Stroud, Cowboys’ Cooper Rush said after MNF Game
After the Houston Texans beat the Dallas Cowboys, 34-10, on Monday night at AT&T Stadium, the teams’ quarterbacks met with the media afterward. Here’s what they had to say, courtesy of the Cowboys and Texans’ media relations staffs:
Cooper Rush
On his thoughts about the offensive after his two losses as a starter…
“We just have to get the ball in the end zone. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. A couple chances, a couple [chances for] momentum there in the second half. We just didn’t punch it in and missed a couple throws, dropped the snap, just opportunities like that versus a good football team. You can’t blow one like that.”
On how tough it has been to accept his last starts being losses compared to his previous starting record… “Yeah, losing is never fun. I was fortunate to get off to a hot start with the wins, but this is the NFL. Everything comes to a balance and winning is hard. We want to get that losing taste out of our mouths.”
On if it is difficult to check his protection with O-Line guys going down…
“Luckily those young guys have played a lot. T.J. [Bass] has been there a ton. I think Brock [Hoffman] got in there later once T. Smith [Tyler Smith] went down, and he’s the smartest in the room. So, in terms of communication, protection and things like that, it’s no issue.”
On how he keeps a positive mindset…
“It’s just the competitive nature in me. Luckily, the NFL is not slowing down and our game is coming. The competitor in you; it sucks. You’re happy to have another chance to get out there. But you definitely want to get rid of the bad taste in your mouth.”
C.J. Stroud
Opening Statement:
“First, I just want to thank Jesus Christ himself. I am just in awe of who He is and how He takes the unqualified and makes them qualified. Playing in AT&T Stadium on Monday night, I am just super blessed to have the opportunity to play. I feel like I don’t deserve it. But He has blessed me and I just want to give Him thanks because He saved my life. I just really am at a loss for words about who He is, the love that He gives. He is a father, He is a friend. He is just a comforter. The Holy Spirit has comforted me. I am just blessed enough to be His son.”
On Joe Mixon:
“Joe has been amazing. He’s been somebody who came in, taught guys how to win more, because we won some games last year. He taught guys what it takes to get to that goal. We are not there yet, but we are taking strides. Every team goes through adversity throughout the year. My message to the team, and his as well, has been, we hit our adversity, let’s not look back. Let’s just march forward. Put our best foot forward. We know we can play with everybody. Now we just have to play four quarters, and once we do that, we will be a hard team to stop.”
On the second half and what they did to get better:
“We just played four quarters. We didn’t really change anything. Didn’t change our philosophy. Just came out here and played four quarters of football. We look back at some other games, we did that, we would have come out on top, woulda, shoulda, coulda. Now we have to learn from those things; that’s a good lesson to learn. Being where we are at, our future is in front of us. We want to put ourselves in our position, playing good ball in December, going into January and into the playoffs.”
On the first drive and overcoming the opening pass to Nico that was called back:
“It’s huge. A lot of times, its a drive killer. You can put your head down. But we’ve been through enough this year; [we know] that we can overcome anything if we trust one another. Come back, we run a real good run play. The next play, I think I hit Dalton [Schultz] on third down. Then you hit [John] “Metch” [Metchie] and now we are rolling. We get in a rhythm. We are playing fast on the ball. Our turnover was hard for me to deal with. When you are operating like that, it is hard to be beat. The good thing is, we started strong, we finished strong. That was the message we really wanted to see this week.”
On the offensive line:
“They’ve been amazing. They always do amazing. I’ve been better on with getting the ball out on time and I believe that helps those guys out. Slow (Bobby Slowik) is doing a good job of mixing it up. We got some more quick game in here, we got some times helping (with) their star rusher. I thought Tytus (Howard) played amazing. Tytus was in their battling. Him and Micah (Parsons) were going head-to-head pretty much the whole game. Tytus did amazing. I thought LT (Laremy Tunsil) played well. J-Patt (Jarrett Patterson), Juice (Scruggs), Shaq (Mason), them boys are the heartbeat of our team. O-line and D-line... they’re the reason why we win. But it’s up to us to play complimentary football. A lot of times they get the blame but it’s not them to blame it’s myself not getting the ball out on time... Those guys hung in.
On being able to flush the last game and get the guys together for tonight:
It’s something that for me I’ve learned a lot through this game and I look at life. Life isn’t something where you put your head down and for me I try to lean on prayer and discern from the Lord. It’s not as bad as it ever seems and it’s never as good as it ever seems. The ones teams that fix, there are always things to get better. But those types of games, you have to come out with a win, especially with ones like that at the half. You have to come out with a dub. What are we going to do about it? Cry and be like oh we should’ve got this, we should’ve got that call, we should’ve made this play, we should’ve made that play? We shouldn’t have done this but that’s every game. It’s all about if we got the dub or not. You learn from it, you move on. Might as well stay tight, we have enough people talking about us. At the end of the day, it’s the world we live in. It’s easy to be the guy critiquing but we’re the men in the arena. Everybody is entitled to their opinion at the same time. It’s all about building up, not breaking down. Bending not breaking. Building our house of solid rock and we’ve been able to do that.
On going for it on fourth downs:
“I think it’s great. For me, I’ve got to make better plays. But I think it shows that he still trusts me and the offense. I’ll take us over them 100 times regardless how it goes. I appreciate it because I do feel that I can make those plays. I just need more ops at them. The more I can get used to being in those positions, I can be better. I appreciate it and I just want more of them.”
On being able to have fun and cut loose:
“I’ve been having more fun, for sure, and learning that this game ultimately, isn’t everything. It’s important and I’m extremely blessed – I’m blessed and highly favored from Jesus Christ himself to be able play this game because I’m not qualified. But Jesus calls the unqualified to be qualified. Yeah, I’ve been able to learn not only from the game of football X’s and O’s but also just life. If you get knocked down seven times, the righteous man gets up eight. I’ve been able to live that life style a little bit more, on and off the field.”
On Nico Collins’ return:
“You know, play one he gets the ball in his hands and he makes special things happen. He continues to just show up and show out. His attitude while he was hurt was amazing. He wasn’t butt-hurt. He wasn’t looking down. Of course he was upset that he was hurt and wasn’t playing, but he was still around the guys and still was showing love.”
On Derek Barnett’s play:
“He’s scary. I don’t know why he did that with the ball. He could have just ran in with it. DB’s a dog, bro. When we got him last year, he showed his worth and now, he’s just putting more. There’s a lot of plays guys don’t see, but he’s pulling guards, sending them back and making plays for his backers to be free.”
On getting over their second half struggles:
“I believe that every game is an opportunity to fix problems. That was a problem we had. We need to score more touchdowns. Honestly, we could have been better today. There’s always something you can correct and fix. I’m excited and blessed to be able to go back to work and be healthy and be able to fix our problems for the Titans this week.”
On winning with a big margin of victory:
“It’s huge. For me, I don’t really look at it as a blowout. I look at it as did we execute one play at a time, I feel like, to the best of our ability. For me, I missed a couple throws. I threw an interception. But those happen. I’ve gotta learn and I’m learning. Like I told y’all during the week, I’ve got to keep swinging. I just appreciate them keep being aggressive and throwing the ball down the field. I know who I am. I know I can be a really special person and a special quarterback in this league, especially with the guys I have around me. They did a great job putting a team around Joe, me, Dalton, the O-line, like making individuals fit as one. It’s been huge for that. We’ll continue to grow.”
On the offensive line challenging themselves to have a big week:
“Amazing. Amazing. I was back there chilling a lot of times. I told Tytus (Howard) he had a big opportunity to play well against Micah (Parsons). He was able to do a really good job. I thought we mixed up the protections a lot pretty well. There’s always things to clean up, but definitely took a step forward. That’s what we wanted.”