Dolphins - 30, Texans - 15
COACH SMITH: It's tough. Simple as that. Never could get the running game going. It's tough. Protection wasn't good again early on. Didn't give ourselves a chance.
And defensively, we just -- the big plays in the first half really hurt us. We knew we were playing good football players, especially on the offensive side of the football, and it would be tough duty.
First half-wise we didn't get a lot done, all of us. Coaches, we've got to be a better job. And offensively and defensively, just gotta get more production, gotta start the games off a lot better than that.
On games like today, when you're down 30-0 at the half, you have to look at the positives. Could have gone, of course, two different ways in the second half.
But I like the way the guys fought in the second half. Couldn't let them score anymore. I don't think they scored in the second half. And offensively we're able to get a little bit going in the passing game. Protection was better. Made better throws. Caught the ball better. Never really got the running game going.
And I thought we had a chance. Right before -- we turned over the ball that last time. If we had gotten it in the end zone, now it's a one-score game.
With everything that happened, we can at least at the end feel like we got, we made progress. We understand what the record is. It don't really matter unless you get a win. And we didn't get that. But we have to find things to build on right now.
Injury wise, we had a few guys that went down. Christian Harris went down early. We'll see the extent of some of those injuries.
Q. Kyle Allen, [inaudible] change quarterbacks, what did you think of his game overall, including the interceptions?
COACH SMITH: It's never good when you turn the ball over. It's as simple as that. You can't win football games when you turn it over. And those turnovers early in the first half, they scored a touchdown. And, of course, they got one inside of the 5-yard line.
We as an offense can't allow that to happen. And our quarterback starts it all. So Kyle didn't start and the offense didn't start the way we needed to. But in the second half we had our moments where we looked like we could get some yardage and have a chance.
Q. How much do you evaluate where this team is going under your leadership, the confidence come to you that you --
COACH SMITH: I think it's little bit early -- I could talk to you about this game, how about that? This game, we didn't start well, as I said, but I liked the way we finished.
Most of the times when you come into a new game there's a reason why there's a coaching change. And most times you don't come in when you're ready to win right away. You start building. And that's what we're doing.
We're building, and eventually we're going to get it done. Right now it's kind of easy to take shots at us because we're not quite there. So we'll take that, but eventually we'll get over the hump.
Q. From today's game, what are the signs that you're building?
COACH SMITH: Well, when you're down 30-0 at the half and you come back and make a game of it at the end and we put ourselves in a position to win the game, that's what I saw today.
Q. You had plays where you had Kenyon at (indiscernible). Is that to teach him?
COACH SMITH: It's not necessarily teaching anyone. Yes, we're always teaching, but if the play, we don't feel, is what it should be, you have to look for other options.
The plan going in was to spell Kenyon and get Justin some plays. So that was just the base part of what we were going to do coming in. It's like getting Dare a couple more carries and different things like that.
Q. Do you anticipate Allen to continue to be the quarterback?
COACH SMITH: (Indiscernible) right from where we are now. As you know, it's pretty hard -- yes, to answer your question. We're not going to put a guy, give him his first start and start yanking and things like that. We let a guy play.
We want to see him. We've got to eliminate those turnovers. But I thought he did some good things throughout the game. But we're not quite there yet as a team.
Q. How much do you think -- I know throughout the week you split (indiscernible) and Davis direction how much do you --
COACH SMITH: I don't think we split his reps in practice. Our back up, we have two guys that get reps each week. It wasn't a split of the reps. Take it from there.
I felt like we practiced enough -- every time a guy goes out there and he gets more reps he's going to play better, but I can't say that that's the reason why.
Q. Talking about (indiscernible) on Maliek Collins, the way he played?
COACH SMITH: Yes, it was. Maliek is capable of that. It's not just about the sacks. I'm thinking overall, defensively, that's a pretty good offense. For us to hold them without points in the second half, I think that's something that probably, I think that's a positive you can kind of talk on a little bit.
But Maliek did some good things. Maliek, Jerry, some of those guys are going to play that way always. A game like that you just look defensively, they scored a touchdown. They set up another. When it's games like that, just the offense on their own, 16 points.
But what their defense was able to do, that's what we need to be able to do, get a couple more of those slash plays to help the offense when we're struggling.
Q. The early (indiscernible) games leading to this game (indiscernible) they sacked (indiscernible) in the third quarter, where are you seeing how you guys --
COACH SMITH: As far as setting (indiscernible), is that what you're asking me, on them?
Q. Where do you guys go, (indiscernible) --
COACH SMITH: We play the Miami Dolphins, or whoever the hell are out there. In the second half, whoever they chose to play, I saw progress on our part. That's what I saw.
Based on what they did, I don't have any -- I can't judge that. I saw progress at the end. And we moved the football and had a chance before that last interception. That's what I saw. Were you watching the same game? I guess not.
Q. How much of a grain (indiscernible) did they have, the defense did have?
COACH SMITH: Let me start back over. We're down 30-0. And we didn't play well enough early on. So I understand where we are.
Second half we're down 30-0, I saw some positive life simple as that. We didn't win the football game and we're not patting ourselves on the back, but we're looking for positives as we go forward. We're not there yet. That's obvious to everyone.
But we have to talk about what happened during the game, not based on who they played or any of that. Just basing it on the how the game ended up. Simple as that.
Q. (Indiscernible) slowed down Dameon Pierce today. Rough getting going with him. What did you see from him today from that and how they were able to stop him?
COACH SMITH: It's as simple as that. I don't know exactly how. I mean, y'all know when someone stops someone up front, it always starts up there, up front, the last few weeks. We played good defensive lines and they haven't allowed us to get our run going. It's kind of as simple as that. We need to play better.
There's no other answer than I'm going to give you 30 minutes after the game, because believe me, if we saw that problem we would have been taking care of it out there.
Q. (Indiscernible) you did sack Tua four times, which is more than he's been sacked throughout the last four or five games. (Indiscernible) might be why they took them out because you were starting to get to him?
COACH SMITH: You were watching the game, I see. That was the case. We did sack Tua few times. That's when I say that, I mean, we lost the game, but there were some positives. We made a couple of plays while we were out there against a pretty good offensive team, I'm going to say that also.
Q. The fumble by Jordan, the scores -- the football --
COACH SMITH: Gotta take care of the football. Gotta secure the ball better. As simple as that. When you turn the ball over like that, I mean, it's tough.
Normally something bad happens when you turn the football over. Yes, we acknowledge that. Believe me, we want him to protect the football. That's a part of the game too. Heck of a job by them. Yes.
Q. Nine losses to this point, how do you manage the locker room? How do you address -- what's the way you approach it at this point?
COACH SMITH: Because you can't take those nine. That's how we're going to approach it. Even this one, we're going to watch this video and analyze it, see what we need to do better. There's a lot of things we need to do better.
And then we're going to get ready for the next opponent. I think it's what everybody does. Whether you win or you lose, you can't bring the past with you. I think we'll have enough to prepare for, enough to get ready for with our opponent this coming week where we don't have to concentrate an awful lot on what's happened in the past.
And as we go through, as you have a disappointment right now, we've had a little bit of -- we've been in situations a few times, I mean, you can't. You have to move on to the next one.
And that's where we are. We're going to -- the positives that we have from the game, we're going to try to highlight them. And the negatives, the things that we did wrong -- from turning the ball over, fumbles, giving up some big plays, all those things -- you start working. You try to improve upon it. It's as simple as that. There's no other answer you can get in this situation except for that.
Q. Amari, not active, not ready yet?
COACH SMITH: Answer your own question. They've been here a few weeks. They're making progress. We felt where we are right now that the group that we went with gave us our best chance. Simple as that.
Will they be active? We hope we get in a position where we get a chance to see both of those guys because we think that's the reason we signed them.
Q. Do you know the (indiscernible) --
COACH SMITH: No, I think right now he's being evaluated for concussion.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports