After missing the regular season opener against the Indianapolis Colts due to injury, defensive end Rasheem Green finally made his Houston Texans season debut against the Denver Broncos.
He made his impact felt immediately when he was able to get to Broncos quarterback and former teammate Russell Wilson early in the second quarter for his first sack with the Texans.
“I knew it was going to be a pass,” said Green. “There was no back in the backfield. I was lined up wide—had a plan. I just went out there and was playing fast.”
Green, 25, was on the Texans’ radar this past offseason as they looked to add depth to their defensive line. He signed a one-year deal worth $2.75 million with Houston after spending four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.
Texans head coach Lovie Smith was impressed by Green’s debut as he finished the game recording 1.5 sacks and five tackles, but his ability to help in the running game stood out to the Texans’ first-year head coach.
“His play against the run was pretty good,” Smith said during his postgame press conference. “There’s a reason why he’s been in the mix, though. He is a good football player. We like what he was able to do.”
Although he helped the Texans’ defense contain Russell Wilson for most of the game, Green would have liked the outcome to be in Houston’s favor as he watched his team squandered another fourth-quarter lead in the 16-9 loss to the Broncos.
“To me, finishing means you’re out there doing ‘right’ longer,” Green told the media in the locker room after the game. “So, I felt like we were doing ‘right’ for a large amount of the game, but we just got to do it longer and better.”
“I mean we got a team that is on consecutive losing seasons. You kind of lose a sense of how to finish out those games because results start going the opposite way. But yeah definitely, just continue to do the same thing that we did that got us to that point, just execute and finish it out.”
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