Here is everything Houston Texans special teams coordinator Frank Ross said ahead of Houston’s Week 3 matchup versus the Indianapolis Colts, including on addressing last week’s special teams mistakes, what happened on the mishandled field goal and reiterating the standard for special teams.
Frank Ross opening statement: “Ready to prove ourselves this week. Excited to get a divisional game going here. We have ourselves a tall task with Indianapolis. As you guys know, the divisional games, they're one score games. We have to find a way to swing that into our favor. We have to execute better than a week ago. We have to make sure that when we get ourselves onto the field, we have to make our field goals, we have to tackle better. Fundamental things
that we've been teaching. Been around for a second with you guys, you guys know it's like the recipe is never going to change. We're going to strain. We have to play sound football first. The electricity and the plays and the effort, those big things come second when you just do the little things right. We're looking forward to doing that this weekend in Indianapolis. Have to make sure we protect an aggressive punt rush unit. We have to make sure we tackle these slipper returners. You saw the rookie [Indianapolis Colts RB] Seth McGowan had another explosive versus Kansas City. We have to make sure we get body on body tackling corrected and really control that field position that we always talk about as being such a premium for us. Tough football game for us in the fourth down world. What are we going to do about it? I look at it as an opportunity. Find out how tough we can be, what kind of chin we have."
Question: Fixing mistakes on special teams
Frank Ross: "Everybody in that locker room is an NFL player. It's my job to get whoever is out there ready to go. I trust that we're going to play collective team football. That's really what it comes down to is us not doing that at a perfect level. Shoot, that's on me. We've got to find ways to coach it up, get it coached up, put people in the right seats on the bus. We'll make it work with whatever we have out there. I look back to Training Camp seven at nighttime; I think somebody asked me, 'Hey, [LB] Wade Woodaz, how is he?' I'm excited about Wade Woodaz. He's a rookie. You're asking about young players. Young players, that's an entry-level role in the NFL is playing on special teams. We'll get it corrected and we'll make sure that those guys, the best thing we can do is grow. I'm excited for those guys."
Q: On what went wrong during the mishandled field goal
Ross: "It's not something we're going to hide from. We know. It's blatant and obvious. We missed an opportunity. I love that you guys are asking those guys questions about it post-game. That's on me. I have to be better. From each person in the operation and that's all you can ask for. You get a low snap, not good enough. You get a hold that when you have to make a good hold is not good enough. Do you know what the best part of all this is? How do you grow from a scar? You look at it and you say, 'Hey, here's what we got to get better at.' You go to work and you fix it. Look at us. We're working. I'm proud of the way when we came to the sideline, there was no shake and the kicker's [K Ka'imi Fairbairn] like, 'Hey, man, next thing. That's all I want. The only thing I care about right now is the next play.' Opportunity for them to challenge their mental toughness. I think they did. It'll serve us well in the future. Go ahead."
Q: On being more consistent on tackling
Ross: "I watch every kickoff, every punt. I watch every player in the league every week. If you watch, people have figured some things out a little bit. We need to play compression football. We need to get more population to the ball and we have to tackle better. British Brooks takes his shot. What do I always say? I believe you've asked me this before, I want guys to play aggressive off of each other in coverage. If a guy takes his shot, where's the next guy to clean it up? They need to be closer and more population to the ball. Don't forget, I hear you guys asking questions about Dexter Lawrence. They have good players. That kid made a wonderful stop-and-start cut. Give credit to him. Our job is to, when he does that, collapse down and make sure the run lanes are shut down. We have to do a better job of that. We've been practicing it and we're going to continue to do so. We get a division opponent this week. No one's hanging their hat. I cannot wait to go improve ourselves and get another opportunity, another crack at it."
Q: On P Kai Kroeger
Ross: "There's going to be some punters that can send the ball 80 yards. I think I watched [Jordan] Stout hit one backed up that went all the way to the other 20, got it. Some punters rise the ball. J.K. Scott, he's hit a 5.5 [second] hang time in game. Everybody plays there... I'm very happy with where he's [Kai Kroeger] at, placing the ball directionally. Some of them are going to go. Some of them are going to be a little bit shorter, but he's taking the coaching that we're asking him to do and directionally punt the ball so we can cover and leverage it. The ball getting out is not on. Once it leaves his foot, we have to surrender the outcome. We have to leverage the ball in coverage with our release patterns essentially and everything can knot itself up. I'm pretty proud of where we are with him. Excited to see him go against a division rival for the first time in the AFC South."
Q: On reiterating the standard for special teams
Ross: "Here's what's part of that. I don't care what you did as long as we're moving up and forward. Our standard is we have to get better every time we step on the grass. This punt return rep, the next punt return, learn and grow and whatever happens in the past, you need to grow forward. We know our mistakes. For us, that's part of the standard is growing. We all want to play winning football, but when you don't perfectly do that, it's on the coach and it's my job to say, 'Hey, fellas, toughen up. You took one, okay, we're still standing, let's keep going.' Give me that versus the Indianapolis team this week."
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans STC Frank Ross said ahead of Week 3 game vs Colts
