Torn ACL
Worse as expected: Brian Cushing out for the season, Texans vow to win on
The Houston Texans received the news they expected the day after that Monday Night Football win, with tests confirming that linebacker Brian Cushing has a torn ACL and is out for the season.
Wade Phillips' Bulls On Parade must go on without the intense football nut who in many ways brought the defense together.
"I do know what this group is made of and I know what they’re capable of," Texans coach Gary Kubiak said Tuesday afternoon. "We'll find a way."
First up in the first Next Man Up crisis of 2012? A desperate, talent-packed 2-3 Green Bay Packers team in Houston's first ever appearance on NBC's Sunday Night Football, arguably the biggest regular season game in Reliant Stadium history. It's one of those games that the 25-year-old Cushing would have killed to play in.
"I do know what this group is made of and I know what they're capable of. We'll find a way."
Instead, he will not be playing any football until the 2013 season.
"He'll get well," Kubiak said. "Brian's got a brilliant future ahead of him."
This Texans team still thinks its Super future is now. While Tim Dobbins will likely fill Cushing's spot in the defense, it will be up to the unit's stars — J.J. Watt, Johnathan Joseph, Danieal Manning and Brooks Reed — to make sure his loss doesn't derail one of the NFL's only two remaining undefeated teams.