Texans 38, Colts 30
DEMECO RYANS: All right. First off, just as always from me, what an awesome game. All glory and praise goes to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Just thankful for such an unbelievable regular season. Our guys were able to accomplish a lot of great things no matter how dim it looked to start the season.
Just proud of our guys continuing to battle every single week, finding a way to win games, and to now finish on a high note winning here versus a really good team, really proud of our guys.
Q. Were you -- did you find yourself at all during the game looking at the score of the Jacksonville game? What went into when you decided to take your players out?
DEMECO RYANS: Of course I saw the score of the game and Jacksonville was up, so, yeah, we got our -- got a few guys out I guess. That's the whole thing about everybody talking about resting starters. It's hard to take everybody out. You only get 48 guys to go play on game day, so it's hard to take everybody out.
But when we saw where they were in that game and they were up, had a pretty big lead, so pulled out selective guys, selected guys when I could.
Q. When you look at Tommy and the way the coaching staff and the locker room has talked about him, how exciting was it to see him get on the last play, that touchdown?
DEMECO RYANS: Yeah, that was a huge moment for our team. Fitting way to end the game. Thought we would get Tommy -- told him on Friday, you know, the team is going to go crazy when Tommy scores a touchdown.
So we thought he was going to get in earlier in the game; he didn't. But to close it out the way he did, getting in the end zone, that's why you saw our entire sideline running down, celebrating for Tommy.
Fitting for a guy who does everything the right way. Everything you ask a guy to do. He's a coach's dream. He's always in the right place. Always doing what you ask him to do.
Very cool way for him to have that clutch moment and end the game with a touchdown.
Q. Coach, can you talk about -- you mentioned you pulled out several players. Davis Mills came in. (Regarding closing it out.) When he did what he did the first three games when CJ was out and certain other backup players, they started helping fourth down just to keep the game (indiscernible.)
DEMECO RYANS: When Davis went in there, I know we were a little bit ahead of the two-minute warning there at the end. Told the guys, it's time for a little Mills Magic. That's what he's done before. We've seen him lead our team to victory there in two-minute situations.
Everyone was calm in the moment understanding we knew Davis would be able to make the plays to get us down. We wanted to get in range there to hit the field goal, and Davis did exactly that. We threw the ball, ran the ball, whatever we needed to do to gain yards. Davis was able to execute the offense in such a great manner to put us in position to win the game.
Q. Demeco, I know you would love to have had a game that didn't come down to the very end like this, but then again, on the other side of that coin, how much does it help you with a back-and-forth game like this getting ready for the playoffs knowing how tight the playoff games are?
DEMECO RYANS: As I told the guys after the game, we been in all sorts of games, you name it. What I'm most proud of is our guys find a way to finish, no matter if it's like it was today, in that fashion where you need a drive at the end, a two-minute you need to close it out. Hey, we can go do that. We're not shying away from any of those moments.
That's the game of football. You're never going to lineup and blow everybody out. That's not realistic. You got to persevere now matter how it looks. You keep persevering and making winning plays throughout the game, you'll end up on top.
Q. Wanted to see consistency from the offense coming into this week. How did you like how they performed there in the half, first team in particular in the first half?
DEMECO RYANS: How many points did we have? Yeah, we had over 30 points. Again, I thought our offense did enough to get us down, score points.
And shoutout to 'Imi. We can't be where we are right now without 'Imi and what he's been capable of doing. To hit six field goals today, tied for his career high, tied for most field goals in NFL history in a season, like a lot of times I tell our guys you take for granted when you have such a great kicker who is able to secure you points, even if things don't go your way in the red zone.
You want to score touchdowns every single drive, but it doesn't happen. You get in range and you got a sure-footed kicker who can make those points, and we are so thankful for 'Imi and how he consistently has performed throughout this entire year.
Q. Now that you guys get ready for the playoffs and going in as a wildcard team, how do things shift at this point?
DEMECO RYANS: Yeah, nothing shifts for us when it comes to our mindset. Our mindset never changes. We don't turn it up because we're in the playoffs. We continue to grind out, put the work in, do what we have to do to practice really well throughout the week.
No matter who our opponent is we got to have a great week of practice, and that shows up whenever that game is. How we work throughout the game, it'll show up then.
So our process and mindset doesn't change.
Q. DeMeco, when you don't have a guy like Nico out there, sometimes trying to get the ball spread out, but how pleased were you with Xavier, with Jaylen...
DEMECO RYANS: All the guys did a great job at the receiver position. When they had their number called, all the guys did a great job catching the football, run after catch, making plays. Hutch made a play. Hig was able to get a touchdown for us. Dalton, man, what a one-handed catch he made on third down.
So multiple guys stepped up and made plays for us.
Q. With the CJ rushing touchdown in the second quarter was the goal to get Tommy the ball on that play?
DEMECO RYANS: The goal was to score, baby. Touchdown.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports