Houston Texans Media Conference

Sunday, October 2, 2022

Houston, Texas, USA

Brandin Cooks

Postgame Press Conference


Chargers 34, Texans 24

Q. What's the start of the season been like for you guys?

BRANDIN COOKS: Frustrating. Close ones, as we all know, pretty much this league comes down to close games. There's hardly ever any blow-outs, and the great teams find a way to be able to finish. You know, we haven't been able to do that.

Today we just simply as an offense didn't start fast. The past four weeks has absolutely been frustrating as a competitor, no question.

Q. What was the difference, Brandin, in the first and second half? You guys offensively were able to do some things with the passing game. We hadn't, quite frankly, haven't seen that.

BRANDIN COOKS: I think at the end of the day that sense of urgency was there because of, obviously, what the score was. We have to have that mindset from the get-go.

Like I said earlier, being able to start fast, but I think it's just all about a sense of urgency. That's why we were able to do some good things in that second half.

Q. What do you feel like the team needs to do from here? Obviously, you still have to do some improving. Once again, you know in every game you are close. What do you need to change?

BRANDIN COOKS: I wouldn't necessarily say change anything. It's just getting back to work and in those situations being able to be situational masters and being able to actually focus and hang in there and stop biting ourselves in the foot, whether it be penalties, whether it be turnovers.

I'm just speaking from an offensive standpoint because that's the side of the ball that I play on. So, the things that's biting us in the foot is going to continue to hold us back from winning games as long as we continue to do that.

Q. It seemed like after Dameon scored that touchdown, you talk about slow starts, but both offense and defense got going a little bit. What did you think about Pierce's run? How much did that give you guys the spark that --

BRANDIN COOKS: Absolutely, it was crazy. As we talked about, it takes one play to be able to get the team going, and that run, to be able to make a guy miss like that and be able to strike down the sideline, got the whole team amped up. From there on it gave us some juice.

I think that was a defining play to be able to keep us going and moving the ball in the right direction.

Q. How do you describe the passing game inside those two drives and outside and the struggles there?

BRANDIN COOKS: I'm sorry. Say that again.

Q. How do you describe what's going on with the passing offense outside those two successful drives there?

BRANDIN COOKS: I think, like I said earlier, just being able to have that sense of urgency early on. I feel like once we had that, we got going getting the ball to the play makers, but I think we've got to have that mindset to start the game off just because we talk about start fast and finish faster. We can't just choose one.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
125396-1-1878 2022-10-02 21:08:00 GMT

ASAP sports

tech 129