Texans RB Chris Henry Accuses Saints of Hair-Pulling

The Houston Texans and New Orleans Saints will play a preseason game Saturday.

Judging by the competitive -- and perhaps, chippy nature -- of the last of their three dual practices this week, perhaps the game can't come soon enough.

The Texans and the defending Super Bowl champions went through a relatively low-key uneventful pair of practices on Wednesday in preparation for Saturday's game at the Louisiana Superdome. But on Thursday, the one practice between the teams was...

Well, it was a little higher in intensity."Well, it's the third practice,' Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. "So you're expecting that. Guys start to wear on each other a little bit, but I thought it was some real good work."

Running back Chris Henry was in the middle of some of the extracurriculars, one reason being the Saints pulled his hair on several occasions.

"There's not enough of it for it to all come out," Henry said.

Henry said the intensity came about naturally.

"We were just out there running and the intensity picks up as you get closer and closer to game time," Henry said. "Guys start itching and the backs and the offensive line, we're trying to make it just like game time."

Said Texans Pro Bowl wide receiver Andre Johnson, "It's just comes from being tackled a few times and we weren't supposed to be tackling. That happens. It happens when we're practicing. So just going against another team, emotions get going a little bit and it turned into little pushing matches. No one really gets hurt."

Texans quarterback Matt Schaub agreed that there will be hard feelings between the teams.

"I think it's a give-and-take," Schaub said. "It always gets chippy the second morning after three practices. It's just the way it is. You just have to learn how to diffuse it, keep going and move forward. ... It's football. It's the way it goes."

What the Texans said they took from the work more than anything was an impression of what it takes to play at a Super Bowl level.

"No doubt, they're a hell of a football team," Kubiak said. "I like the way they do things practicing, tempo-wise. That's something we're trying to achieve every day when we go on the field. But they're very sharp in everything that they do and a class act across the board. That's why they did what they did last year."