Texans receiver Will Fuller has a torn knee ligament

HOUSTON (AP) — and will miss the rest of the season Jadeveon Clowney Color Rush Jersey , a big blow to a team that has won five in a row and is coming off a high-scoring victory.He was injured during the fourth quarter Thursday night against Miami when he became entangled with a defender and tumbled to the ground.Coach Bill O’Brien said Friday he doesn’t know when Fuller will have surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.“I’m very disappointed for Will because Will’s a great guy,” O’Brien said. “He’s really been playing at a high level.”Fuller had a season-high 124 yards receiving with a 73-yard touchdown on Thursday before the injury. He had 503 yards receiving and four touchdowns in seven games this season. The third-year player was a first-round pick in 2016.The Texans ran up a season-high 42 points against the Dolphins and have recovered from their 0-3 start to the season. At 5-3, they are leading the AFC South.“If you go through every team, everybody’s dealing with injuries,” O’Brien said. “It’s such a cliche, but the coaching staff, the players, we all have to pitch in and figure it out and figure out how we’re going to construct the offense. And maybe some things will be the same and maybe some things will be a little bit different.”The loss of Fuller is the latest setback for a team which played without receiver Keke Coutee on Thursday night. The rookie, a fourth-round pick, injured his hamstring last Sunday against Jacksonville after missing the first three games of the season with a different hamstring injury.Since Houston doesn’t play again until a trip to Denver on Nov. 4, there is a possibility that Coutee will be healthy by then.“We’ll see where he’s at … he’s a guy who had been playing well for us, and hopefully he can come back at some point,” O’Brien said.Coutee has 21 receptions for 196 yards and a touchdown this season.“Keke’s a very versatile guy,” O’Brien said. “You’ve seen us put him in the backfield. He’s played on the outside and obviously he plays on the inside. So he’s got versatility. A little bit different than Will, no doubt about it. Every guy’s different. But he does a lot of (good) things.”With Fuller out, the Texans could look for increased production from Sammie Coates and Vyncint Smith or get their running backs and tight ends more involved in the passing game.O’Brien also didn’t rule out the possibility of the Texans signing a player to help fill in.“I know there’s guys in the locker room that can do certain things Johnathan Joseph Color Rush Jersey ,” O’Brien said. “Obviously if they could do them like Will, they would have been out there like Will. But there’s definitely guys who can do some things. We’ve got a lot of good players in that locker room.” HOUSTON (AP) — After finally getting their first win this weekend, the Houston Texans know that they still have plenty of work to do if they hope to get on a roll and turn their season around.The Texans (1-3) squandered an 18-point lead on Sunday before beating the Colts 37-34 in overtime to end a nine-game losing streak going back to last season.Coming up next is a showdown with in-state rival Dallas, a team that enters the game at 2-2 after a victory over Detroit this weekend.“There’s a lot of things that we need to correct, but when you come out of that game with a win, there’s a lot of things that you can look at that you can build on,” coach Bill O’Brien said.The Texans got great performances from defensive ends J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney on Sunday. Watt had two sacks, a tackle for a loss and forced two fumbles. Clowney recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown, had two sacks, four quarterback hits and four tackles for losses.O’Brien said Sunday was Clowney’s best game this season.“He had a very disruptive game … it was fun to see him back out there playing that way,” O’Brien said. “He did a great job.”Despite the strong play of Watt and Clowney, O’Brien is looking for improvement on defense this week, especially in the secondary after Andrew Luck threw for 464 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday.The Texans are also searching for ways to better protect Deshaun Watson after the quarterback was sacked seven times by the Colts. The second-year player has been sacked 17 times this season, which is the second most in the NFL.Though O’Brien knows that his team must cut down the number of times Watson is getting hit, he was quick to point out that the problem isn’t just with the line.“The sacks are definitely not all the offensive line,” he said. “I would say Bruce Ellington Color Rush Jersey , to be honest with you, the offensive line is probably only responsible for two of those sacks. I think the other five came from missing some assignments here and there at other positions.”Houston’s offense took a hit on Sunday when receiver Will Fuller left the game early in the second half with a hamstring injury. Fuller, who has 263 yards receiving and three touchdowns, missed the season opener with an injury to the same hamstring.O’Brien didn’t have an update on his condition on Monday, saying he’d know more later in the week. With Fuller out, the Texans got a strong game from rookie Keke Coutee, who made his debut on Sunday after missing the first three games with an injury. Coutee finished with 11 receptions for 109 yards.“He’s a very, very instinctive guy,” O’Brien said. “He’s got really good quickness, but he’s also got really good speed and he’s got strong hands. So, he really did a nice job for us in some key moments that we really needed a play because maybe they were doubling (DeAndre) Hop (Hopkins) or Will wasn’t in there.”If Fuller can’t go on Sunday, the Texans could lean on Coutee even more this week. O’Brien expects him to take another step forward this week after getting his first game under his belt.“When he sees some of the things that he missed, he’s going to really even be better the next time out … that’s what’s key about the rookies is when you have a good game like that, you’ve got to really try to build on it,” O’Brien said.