Brandin Cooks doesn’t mince words about what he sees as the root cause of his Houston Texans struggles.
“We’re an undisciplined team,” Cooks recently told ProFootballTalk.com. “I’m being very honest with you. From all of us, we’ve all got some type of accountability in that. We’re undisciplined. It’s just the truth.”
With the Texans traveling to Arizona this week to face the unbeaten Arizona Cardinals and former teammates J.J. Watt and Deandre Hopkins, Cooks is imploring teammates to take added stock of themselves.
“It’s about everyday life choices,” Cooks added. “It’s about, deep down inside, individually, do you want to be that or not? It’s as simple as that. We can’t make our teammates; we can’t make anyone else do that. You’ve got to do it by yourself. It’s been going on since Game 1, and we still haven’t fixed it. You can’t make anyone be disciplined. You’ve got to want to be disciplined. It’s as simple as that. Success is not a gimmick. Discipline is not a gimmick.”
During their current five-game losing streak, the Texans (1-6) have been outscored by 91 points, including last week’s 31-3 loss to Indianapolis.
The Texans struggles aren’t just beginning. Things got so bad during Watt’s 10 years in town the three-time defensive player of the year asked to be let go.
“I have sat down with the McNair family and I have asked them for my release, and we have mutually agreed to part ways at this time,” he said in a video posted to Twitter following his release earlier this year.
Houston went 4-12 during Watt’s last year in a Texans uniform.