HOUSTON (AP) -Owen Daniels didn’t fumble once last season as a rookie for the Houston Texans. He hasn’t been so lucky this year.
With a fumble in each of the last two games, the tight end has helped push Houston’s total to 14 this season, which is tied for second most in the NFL. Adding to the turnover problem is Houston’s 15 interceptions.
Coach Gary Kubiak isn’t sure what to do to help his team cut down on turnovers, but Daniels insists he won’t add to the problem again.
“I’m definitely going to clean it up and you won’t see me put it on the ground any more this year,” he said. “I guarantee that.”
Daniels is upset about his recent fumbles and said this is the first time he’s had this problem. To be fair, his fumble against the Saints came after a hit that dazed him and broke his nose.
“I just need to just pay better attention because I don’t want to get that label as a guy who can’t protect the football,” Daniels said. “I don’t want to get that label from guys around the league because they’re just going to keep trying to get it out even more if I’m a guy who’s putting it on the ground.”
The topic of turnovers has been discussed a lot this week as the Texans prepare for their second meeting with AFC South rival Tennessee. The Texans had six turnovers in the first meeting with the Titans to help Tennessee to its fifth straight series win.
Daniels believes cleaning up that part of the game will be key to Houston’s success in the last five games. The Texans have had three or more turnovers in four of their six losses this season.
“Really the only time we’ve gotten into a lot of trouble this year is when we haven’t protected the ball and there hasn’t been a game where we haven’t turned it over,” Daniels said. “But when we’ve played our best, we’ve limited our turnovers.”
Kubiak said his team is going “back to the basics” in practice this week to try and eradicate the problem.
“We added periods in every practice we’re going to have this week about the importance of protecting the football,” Kubiak said. “If we don’t protect it, we’re going to have a hard time winning. We’re doing everything we can this week to put another added emphasis on it. Hopefully, we get better.”
Despite Kubiak’s focus on turnover drills this week, Andre Johnson doesn’t think it’s something that can be learned in practice. He said the simple solution is for the team to protect the ball better.
He thinks if they do it will help get the offense going.
“When we go out and we get in a rhythm, we play well,” Johnson said. “When we don’t get in a rhythm, that’s when we tend to struggle. I think we just have to go out and make some plays early in the game, not waiting to get down and then get into a rhythm and have to play catch up.”
Notes: Ahman Green, who has missed the last two games with knee swelling, took snaps with the scout team at practice on Thursday. “We wanted to push him a little bit,” Kubiak said. “We’ll see how he wakes up in the morning, how the knee responds. But it was a positive move.”
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