QB DREW BREES

(on the play of the offense)

"We had 12 third-downs, I'm venturing to guess that a lot of those were third and long situations. We talked about it coming into this game we needed to be really good on first and second down, very efficient on first and second down so that we were in third and manageable situations. You get in third and long against these guys, you are asking for trouble because obviously they dial up the pass rush - they're a very good pass rush team, they have very good cover guys on the backend. It is just tough sledding when you do that. We did that and you see what the results were. I would say, as we go back and look at why we were not successful on first and second down, I'm sure we are going to see a lot of very simple things, it was really execution. Give a lot of credit to their defense and their plan. They played great, both in the run and rushing the pass and on the backend. They played a very good game. I think there were some things we did offensively that put ourselves in a bind, kind of behind the eight ball in those third and long situations, really because a lack of execution. Maybe unnecessary penalty here and there. Those add up though. It is one thing here, it is one thing on the next one, all of a sudden the first half is over and you feel like you never really had a chance of getting anything going. That's the frustrating part, I know how much better we are and today we certainly didn't show that." 

(on not scoring a touchdown today)

"I can't say we didn't have our chances, certainly there at the end. Two times, really three times we were in the red zone. In the first half we kicked a field goal down there, in the fourth quarter we were down there in a little bit of a 'we have to score mode and I felt like we had a chance really on both the times we didn't score to have come away with a touchdown. Credit to them, there's some execution that could be better on our end." 

(on the impact of the defeat)

"They're a good football team. They are playing for a lot just like we are. Every game we know is going to be hard fought and there are little things here and there that are going to determine the outcome. We didn't do those things today, to even really give us a chance. So, I'm confident that we've shown ourselves to play at a very high level. I think we've faltered here and over the last few weeks, but we still have a lot to play for with Carolina coming into town. It will be a big divisional game for us." 

(on the play of DE J.J. Watt)

"Well, J.J. Watt is a great player, in all facets of the game. It is not like he is just a good pass rusher, he's high energy, full-throttle every play. He's disruptive no matter what you're doing, whether you're throwing the ball or running the ball. Definitely a guy you have to have a plan for and try to neutralize. I felt like he got after us a few times today, but the situations lent themselves to allowing him the opportunity to go after us. Again, I'm always going to look at our execution and say 'man, things could've been better,' but there were times where you feel you are doing everything right and he just makes a play. You understand that it is going to happen when you're playing against a guy like that, he just happened to make a lot of them today." 

(on if the offensive plan centered on screen passes)

"Yeah, we didn't want to feed their ego. We knew that they feed off those type of situations where they can pin their ears back and rush the passer. That really puts you at a disadvantage, there are times that you have to resign yourself to the fact that you may have to punt this thing and play the field position game a little bit. Just put yourself in a more favorable position, otherwise you go back to don't let their best player beat you. If you put yourself right into his hands then shame on you. There were times that we had to be a little bit guarded about what we were doing just to make sure that (J.J. Watt) didn't end it before it even started." 

S KENNY VACCARO

(on Brian Hoyer's performance)

"I thought he did good.  Like I said about the first 15 plays, the coaches have that scripted, I think they practice that all week, so that's their time to execute and I think once we got settled in, we did a good job." 

(on not being dejected by this loss)

"Yeah it's tough, we talked about having a second season and staying in the hunt, at the same time, you got to respond, I mean I hate to repeat myself, but we got to bounce back and that's the way it is.  We're going to get better defensively, offensively they'll get it cleaned up.  We're still one of the top in the league and on defense I can see the progression." 

TE BENJAMIN WATSON

(on what The Texans did to disrupt the New Orleans offense)

"They were able to get some pressure.  You look at third down, we didn't convert well on third downs, we had a few three and outs there. We weren't able to sustain drives. The defense did a good job of disrupting our rhythm. We knew coming in they were going to be very good up front and they played better than we did up front today." 

(on if The Texans have the best defense he's faced this year)

"It's hard to say.  There are a couple of ways to define this - one of them is statistical, one of them is who won the most games, I mean there are so many ways to define best. I'll say this, the league has known all year there are some good players on that defense, not just 99. They've got good players all the way across the board. So, they do have a good defense.  Best? I don't know, but I know they play very good team defense."