Texans will keep leaning on veterans in secondary

Discussion in 'Tennessee Titans and NFL Talk' started by NewsGrabber, Oct 27, 2008.

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  1. NewsGrabber

    NewsGrabber Guest

    Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky The Houston Texans leaned a little harder on age an experience in their secondary Sunday in the big win over Cincinnati, and from what Coach Gary Kubiak said to reporters in Texas today they will do it again in Minnesota Sunday.

    Brandon Harrison and Nick Ferguson played as the safeties in the base defense, with Eugene Wilson replacing Harrison in nickel.

    Cornerback Dunta Robinson, still working his way back from an injury that cost him the first six games, played nickel corner.

    Here's the relevant piece of his press conference, courtesy of Texans media relations:

    (on where he is at with who will start between S Will Demps and S Nick Ferguson)

    "Well, Nick will start again this week. We gave him an opportunity. We gave Eugene an opportunity. As I told you guys yesterday, I don't feel like it was anything against Will to be honest with you. We're searching for some identity on defense. We haven't been playing the way I think we're capable of playing. We need to communicate better. We had a couple of veterans who've played a lot of football games and done a lot of good things in this league, so we gave them an opportunity. They've been working for it, and they went out and took advantage of it yesterday. We'll need everybody before this thing is said and done, and that's Will included. He was very professional yesterday. He went out and played special teams. He did his job, which I would have expected. But, we had a couple of guys take advantage of an opportunity also. So, we're going to continue to give guys chances to play and opportunities with our football team, whether it's (T) Ephraim (Salaam) helping out or however we're doing that. If it makes us better, we're going to take a shot at it."

    (on if CB Eugene Wilson is going to start against Minnesota)

    "Well, he played in nickel is what he did. He started at safety in nickel, but he did rotate with Nick a little bit during the game. We like that combination of those two guys just because of how much football they've played and how smart they are. I think they also help Brandon. Brandon is a very young player who's trying to become a big time player right now at a very young age. When he's out there with them, I think he's very comfortable with them. So, they're going to all play. To sit here and say, 'these two guys are the starters,' they're going to all play."

    (on if CB Eugene Wilson will start in the nickel)

    "Well, he was playing on the back end. Dunta plays the star position, the nickel position, but the two starting safeties in nickel were Eugene and Nick and of course, this football team played us in a lot of three wide. So, our nickel was on the field a great deal."

    (on if he is closer to starting CB Dunta Robinson)

    "I don't know. He played I think 39 snaps yesterday. Going into the game, we were a little concerned because he was sore coming out of last week, but in all honesty, he was much better this week. So, we're very encouraged. There was progress there. I think what he's doing is going through training camp. So, let's see how he comes out of this week. Let's see how he comes back Wednesday. But, to play 39 or 40 plays, you're only 20 to 25 plays away from saying you can play the whole football game. But, we'll continue to do what's best for him. We won't push him to the limit too quickly. We'll let him kind of dictate to us on how he feels and where we go from here."


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