Houston 30, Pittsburgh 6
Q. Your take-away from the defenses today just getting back. What was the energy like?
WILL ANDERSON: Man, the energy was high, but we knew going into this week what type of game this was going to be like. The way we practiced this week, the energy was high. Everybody's technique was good this week. The coach pointed out a lot on the film. He is like, I'm excited to see you guys because of the work you put in this weekend.
J.G., Maliek, Gaye, all the defensive linemen, they did a really good job of penetrating. That's what we practiced all week. Just penetrating, disrupting, having fun, and getting the quarterback often his spot.
Q. JJ going in today, he said that he talked to you yesterday in the weight room. He asked if you had some questions. You had to think of some. What was that interaction like?
WILL ANDERSON: JJ has been a good mentor for me so far. I'm going to start sending him some more clips so I can get some more help. He's been good. Honestly, it's a privilege and a blessing to have someone like JJ to communicate with and help out. What he has done in the league, what he has done for the Houston Texans is unbelievable.
The speech he came and gave to us on Friday -- it was Friday or Saturday, one of those days. He said a lot of powerful words, and I think it stuck with the team a lot, just don't take anything for granted. You're here in the NFL. Not a lot of people can say that, and I think that resonated with a lot of the guys.
Q. Will, how has this defense held together so well in the last few weeks?
WILL ANDERSON: It's simple. Everybody is just doing their job. That's all coaches puts on the board, everybody just do your job. When you do your job, you get -- that's what you get out there. You know what I'm saying?
It's just been so exciting. The future -- that's what we all talk about. The future is so bright here because the guys are great. We're hungry. We just want more. We want more and more and more. We just have that greedy mentality. The energy that Coach DeMeco brings is contagious, and we feel it. We just want to go out there and play for each other and play for him and play for the organization.
Q. Will, you kind of talk about daily progress, but just kind of in terms of confidence and growth of this young team, how big has it been to finally see those results the last two weeks?
WILL ANDERSON: Yeah, it's been great. We still have so much more work to do. We can get better at so many things. Again, just going back to the future of how everything is building up, we just say keep chopping wood, keep stacking those days, man, and everything is going to take care of itself.
To have a young team like that that everybody is just buying in, I think that's the biggest thing. Everybody is just buying into what the coaches are asking for and what they want for us to get done.
Q. Will, when you talk about -- how much do you see the growth each week? You talk about chopping wood. What gets better each week? Because it looks like the team is getting actually better each week.
WILL ANDERSON: The execution. That's it right there. The execution. The energy is always there. The intensity is always there. Now it's just everybody executing their job and doing their job.
Coach always talks about if we were one play away from this or one tackle away from this, and we start cutting on back on those things and everybody starts executing, and that's been the beauty of everything.
Q. Will, it's the first game for Jalen and Jimmie to be back together in the back. What was that like for you guys up front?
WILL ANDERSON: It was awesome having those guys back. We feed off each other, the rush and the coverage goes together. Coach talks about it, we talk about it. We do our job up front, they eat. They do their job in the back, we eat. Everybody is just working together.
Having those two guys back, man, high-energy guys, guys that's going to run through a brick wall for whoever is out there on the field. They always got their brothers' back. Having two guys like that on the field is always special and a big blessing for our team.
Q. Will, of course, everybody felt like this was going to be rebuild from the ground up with DeMeco coming in, but this team is proving you can get much better much quicker. Do you guys feel like, quite frankly, where you now, back to 2-2 and 500, this team can get better and get good enough to challenge for the division championship?
WILL ANDERSON: Yes, most definitely. We always focus on us. We can't focus on what anybody else has going on. I think that's what we do a really good job of, is focusing in on the Houston Texans. We go to work every day. We're not worried about the outside noise. We're controlling what we can control. When we step on the field, we just got to go dominate and do our job and have fun doing it.
Like I said, man, just to see everybody coming together, the chemistry from the team, the chemistry with the coaches, it's a beautiful thing to see, man. Just the coach that's getting changed around here, man, I'm so happy to be a part of it. It's a big blessing, and I know the guys are happy to be a part of it too.
Q. You talk about culture. Can you talk about what it meant for you guys on the side as a defense to see your offense go down and have to score three times but to be persistent and come away with seven?
WILL ANDERSON: It's just the grit. We get put in those situations in practice all the time, and how relentless can you be? No matter how you get on the field, no matter what, how greedy can you be for it.
And the offense showed that today, running the ball. Coach said something in the meeting like, we're going to run the ball. And we went out there and did that. It goes back to the execution, how bad do you really want it? I can tell you one thing about this team: We want it really bad.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports