The relationship between veteran players-turned-commentators and current players can often be fractious. See: Donovan McNabb trying to give advice to Robert Griffin III, and Griffin shuttering his relationship with the former Eagles quarterback.
Rodney Harrison says Brian Cushing is loafing. Cushing agrees, sort of.
At least he’s honest!
So it was surprising when former Chargers and Patriots safety Rodney Harrison called out Texans linebacker Brian Cushing for lollygagging against the Dolphins and Cushing fired back by ... agreeing.
NBC analyst Rodney Harrison accused Brian Cushing of loafing on a couple of plays against Miami. Cushing said he knows the play.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) October 29, 2015 Cushing "I know 1 play in particular (Harrison) is talking about. I could have played a lot harder. I thought (WR) was out of bounds."
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) October 29, 2015 The play in question occurred in the first quarter. Cushing assumes Jarvis Landry is headed out of bounds after he makes a reception on the left sideline and pulls up. He learned a very valuable lesson that you should NEVER ASSUME JARVIS LANDRY IS GOING OUT OF BOUNDS as Landry weaved his way across the field and through the Texans' secondary for the Dolphins' second touchdown of the day.
Cushing eventually runs down Landry, but it’s no consolation. The play was emblematic of the Texans’ outing. The Dolphins would go on to take a 41-0 halftime lead in a 44-26 win that dropped Houston to 2-5 on the season.
The linebacker didn’t totally agree with Harrison’s assessment, saying that while he respects Harrison, “I’m definitely not a player that loafs.”
Cushing certainly isn’t the Texans’ biggest problem. Top of the list is probably a quarterback situation that, in addition to the lack of talent and depth, was threatening to create a rift among the team’s leadership prior to Week 7. Cushing has been a very good linebacker in the past, and seems to at least have the self-awareness to improve. Fixing the Texans as an organization will be a much harder undertaking.
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