Here’s everything Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said ahead of Week 2’s Monday Night Football showdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, including covering new receiver Emeka Egubka and potential Pro Bowl quarterback Baker Mayfield.

Question: On the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive front

DeMeco Ryans: “The Bucs are a really, really good team. Starting out with their front, Vita Vea is the guy that gets everything going. Adding [Haason] Reddick on the outside, really good group. [Yaya] Diaby, ton of great players. Guys who can get after you in the running game, also in the passing game. Not only physical players but athletic guys who can swim gaps. They do a really good job with their stunts on the interior. Tough job, again, up front, but that’s every week in the NFL. We have our work cut out for us.”

Q: On what RB Joe Mixon brings to the team off the field

Ryans: “We’re rolling with the guys that are here. That’s the main thing. We miss [RB] Joe [Mixon], miss his energy and his enthusiasm and everything that he brought to our team. But we continue to press forward and hope he’s doing well.”

Q: On the challenge of facing Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka

Ryans: “Egbuka, he shined in his opening game. He was explosive. He can catch the ball. He’s a threat at all three levels of the field. That’s where he shines. Everybody saw the two passes that he caught for touchdowns. He’s an explosive player, fast. He moves all across the formation. We definitely have to have eyes for Egbuka and also Mike Evans. We know those are their two top targets. Baker [Mayfield] did a really nice job of finding those guys throughout that game.”

Q: On the message to the team following penalties in Week 1

Ryans: “The message for our guys is just do what we do well and that’s it. Own our fundamentals, own our technique, control the things that we can control. You control how you prepare. You control how you execute. That’s strictly up to you. If our guys are dialed in and just execute the right way, there’s no elaborate meeting or coaching point about it. We know how to play football the right way. We just got to go out and do it.”

Q: On if there is a different feeling about playing on Monday Night Football

Ryans: “Monday night is always a little different. It’s always a special game because you’re the only show on. Well, it used to be. Now we’ve got double-headers. So, it definitely changes a little bit. But, Monday is always special. You know the entire league is watching. Your peers are watching as they’re preparing for their next week. So, that’s always in the back of your mind.”

Q: On Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield

Ryans: “Baker’s doing a really nice job. The thing that sets him apart when I’ve seen him grow as a quarterback is how he escapes the pocket. Whether that’s keeping his eyes downfield to find open receivers or just scrambling to get the first down. He does a really great job. He’s gutsy. He has everything you want in a quarterback, tough guy. He scrambles to make plays, run and pass. So, you just have to play together. That’s what we preach all the time is the rush, staying after it, playing together, and our guys in coverage, we have to make sure we’re plastering and staying in coverage, covering the guys twice because we know he can escape from anywhere.”

Q: On the key for players to play well in primetime environments

Ryans: “Every game to me is really, it’s the same. Once the ball is kicked off, I always say it’s football.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re playing on Monday, Sunday, it doesn’t matter. It’s about how you prepare, how you show up for those 60 minutes. So, it’s not about you’re going to play better because you’re on Monday night or Sunday night. That’s pie in the sky. You’ve got to line up, play football, execute, do what you’re supposed to do no matter when the ball, what day, what time. Football is football. So, that’s what we’ve got to go do. We’ve got to go play good football no matter when, no matter where.”

Q: On Tampa Bay Buccaneers S Antoine Winfield Jr.

Ryans: “Playmaker. Winfield’s definitely a playmaker. Todd [Bowles] does a good job moving him around. He’s a smart, versatile player. You can trust him. He moves around, put a lot on his plate. Man, that’s the thing that jumps out at me. He’s a playmaker. So, we’ve got to have eyes for him. At the end of the day, they have a lot of good playmakers. So, you can’t just watch one guy. They’ve got a lot of guys on their defense. That’s why they’ve been good. They’re a talented group. We’ve just got to go out and execute our offense the proper way.”

Q: On if the defense plays well together

Ryans: “That’s a staple for us. It’s all 11 guys working together. That’s what we do. That’s how we are a good defense. When we operate that way, we’re a great defense. But if we have one person that’s off, that’s when bad things happen. So, it’s a matter of us just making sure we stay together, making sure all 11 guys are doing what they’re supposed to do.”

Q: On how he can take some pressure off of QB C.J. Stroud in Week 2

Ryans: “There’s no pressure on C.J.. We line up and we play ball.”

Q: On his evaluation of Offensive Coordinator Nick Caley’s playcalling in Week 1

Ryans: “Nick did a good job with the play calls. At the end of the day, we all have to just put ourselves in position where we can actually call the game. We’re behind the sticks a lot, shot ourselves in the foot a lot where we’re in 2nd-and-long, and 3rd-and-long a lot. That’s not a great place to be as a first-time play caller in your first game. So, if we can play well together and stay on schedule, stay on track, then we can see how the game is called.”

Q: On the difficulty of planning for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defense

Ryans: “There are many different looks. Many defenses do a lot of different things, moving guys around, disguising. That’s a staple thing for all defenses. So, you see it every week. It’s nothing grand or nothing new. We just have to make sure we’re getting to the line of scrimmage in time. We can ID what we need to ID and execute our plays.”

Q: On if he’s seen his team come together in practice this week

Ryans: “Our team is together. The building isn’t burning down. We’re together. We didn’t execute on some plays that didn’t turn out good for us. We ended up losing the game, but our team is together. Our team has never not been together. We’re together. We’re ready to go play on Monday night. That’s what it’s about for us.”

Q: On how the offensive live performed in Week 1

Ryans: “I thought our offensive line did a good job. Again, in a game, we can help ourselves by stepping up in the pocket on a couple of the sacks that happened. But, again, I thought we had clean pockets versus the [Los Angeles] Rams as well. There are a lot of good things that happened versus the Rams. They made more plays than we made, and that’s the bottom line. We hurt ourselves in the red zone, defensively. We were down in the red zone three times. Two times we gave up touchdowns in the red zone. We stop them. We make them kick field goals there. We’re sitting here telling a different story. So, again, it will always be about us and what we do, how we execute. We execute the right way. We’ll put ourselves in a favorable position to win games.”