Fifth day of camp complete for Texans

Jul 27, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans head coach Gary Kubiak watches practice during training camp at Methodist Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

There was a live audience for the Houston Texans on the fifth day of their camp, and more work was done as the Texans inch closer to their Monday Night Football season opener in San Diego against the Chargers on Sept. 9.

Having a live audience of fans to practice in front of didn’t go unnoticed to head coach Gary Kubiak, as the leader of the Texans spoke on the effect of having the fans watching them as they prepare for the upcoming season.

“It’s good,” Kubiak said. “It helps us because we’re in the dog days of summer right now. Having everybody out here kind of gets the juices going a little bit, gets everybody moving around.

“I appreciate them coming out. It seems like it gets bigger every year. That’s a good thing for our team … we appreciate them.”

Besides speaking about practicing in front of the Houston faithful, the head coach of the Texans spoke on a variety of topics, including the addition of inside linebacker Joe Mays.

“He’s a veteran player,” Kubiak said of Mays. “He’s got a lot of skill, can run. He was a great special teams player in his day. The bottom line is we’ve got a need for some experience right now with what’s going on with our linebacker situation.

“We’re just pleased to get him. It gets competitive out there for players at this point when you’re losing a guy here or there.”

Even though the Texans won the AFC South and a playoff game the past two seasons, one thing the Texans are working on to improve their 12-4 regular-season mark from one year ago is cutting down on penalties.

The Texans were penalized 90 times on defense for 863 yards (ninth in NFL) and 108 times on offense for 873 yards (eighth in the NFL) in ’12.

“It’s something you’ve got to improve upon,” Kubiak said to the Houston media on penalties. “All you can do is coach it in practice. We’ll have officials come in here this week. I think they come in (Wednesday).

“I don’t like having them here all of the time. I don’t like taking away the aggression in practice, but at the same time, we’ll get them involved here in the next four days. We’ll make sure we take a look at everything.”

In the afternoon, Kubiak spoke on the energy of his team after the fifth day of camp was complete.

“This is a real tough time,” Kubiak said. “We’ve been in pads for three days now. We’ve got a big push until I give them some time off all day Friday and Saturday. Just trying to push them right now through the rest of this week.

“We’re down some bodies, just have got to push. This is the toughest week of camp. Once we get going next week, we’re playing games, so something to look forward to every week.”