Houston Texans Head Coach Lovie Smith, Brandin Cooks, Davis Mills and Jerry Hughes meet with the media after Week 1 vs. Colts.

“To start the game off, you want to have a winner, you want to play well. We had our opportunities. We talk a lot about finishing. We didn’t finish the way we would like. 20-3 lead at home, you would like to think you could finish that off, but we didn’t. Some good things we did early on to get 20 points. Offensively, O.J. Howard coming in, making an impact right away the way he did. But never really got the running game going completely, so the passing game can help an awful lot. Passing the ball though. And I thought the big sack there where we had the turnover, I think we were plus two at the time, turnover ratio-wise, that really gave them momentum going the other direction. They were holding on at the end. Both teams were a little tired there at the end. We had control, they had control, of course, with the field goal, and once they missed it, we had an opportunity. On the third-down play before the fourth-down play we had, the plan wasn’t to lose yards on that, and I made a decision on 4th-and-3. And there’s a lot of football left going into the season. It’s kind of simple as that. I felt like a tie was better than a potential loss. Defensively, we weren’t really stopping them an awful lot there at the end.”

On the 4th-and-3 at the end, did you hesitate before you decided to punt?

“We thought about it. I knew if we didn’t get it, they had time, and it’s not like we were playing our best defense then. If we had made it, we would have been in position. Just felt like there, based on what all had happened in the game, that was the right decision.”

At first, you all went to RB Dameon Pierce a lot more, but then started going to RB Rex Burkhead. Why was that?

“As we look at the plays now, Rex got a chance to carry the ball more. Passing plays, passing situations, Rex was our lead back in that situation, so that’s kind of what happened. In an ideal world, of course, when you have a lead, you would like for that not to be the case, but once they…