Houston Texans Defense Needs Mental Practice

When Gary Kubiak took over as coach of the Texans in 2006, his mission was to change the mindset of a losing team. The Texans were coming off a thoroughly embarrassing 2-14 campaign and the players were understandably lacking confidence.  In his first preseason as head coach, Kubiak and the Texans went 3-1.  While preseason games rarely matter, Kubiak made them matter that year.  He celebrated the victories as a way to get the players to understand that winning feels good and they really can win in the NFL. Slowly the culture within the Texans locker room started to change from "we hope we can win" to "we know we can win." With that culture change came a change in expectations for both player and fan. With Sunday's 31-24 loss to the Jaguars, Kubiak may be faced with yet another coaching challenge that has nothing to do with X's and O's. While two plays stand out from this game (Kevin Walter's phantom pass interference that cost the...