Texans coach David Culley attributes DT Maliek Collins’ roughing the passer call to ‘playing hard’

With 22 seconds to go until halftime, Houston Texans defensive tackle Maliek Collins was hit with a roughing the passer call following his 9-yard sack of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.

Collins allegedly led with his helmet, but one of the aspects of playing against the 5-10, 207-pound Murray is the target area for where to avoid going helmet-to-helmet virtually disappears, especially for a 6-2, 310-pound defensive lineman like Collins, who ended up inadvertently hitting Murray’s helmet.

Texans coach David Culley has blamed penalties for Houston’s misfortune throughout the six-game losing streak. However, Culley wasn’t so harsh on Collins.

“He was playing football,” said Culley. “He was playing hard and he just happened to hit the guy right in the helmet. And it’s just one of those things that I don’t know how he could have prevented it other than coming off of the guy, but we tell them to play hard, and you keep playing hard like. But those things happen.”

The penalty extended Arizona’s drive and allowed Matt Prater to kick a 31-yard field goal to take a 17-5 Cardinals lead into halftime.

Collins finished the game with 1.0 sack, a quarterback hit, and a tackle for loss.