Ben Tate’s broken ribs making it hard for him to breath

It looks like the Houston Texans’ 27-24 loss to Indianapolis Colts hurt more than a normal loss.

Not only did the Texans lose head coach Gary Kubiak collapse at halftime, they also lost starting running back Adrian Foster to a back injury that knocked him out of the game.

Luckily, there isn’t much of a drop off between Foster and backup running back Ben Tate.

Tate, who had broken ribs that had limited him in practice all week, carried the ball 22 times for 81 yards in the game. According to Pro Football Talk, the workload and injury are definitely taking their toll on the running back.

Tate said today, via the Houston Chronicle that the injury makes it ““hard to breathe and laugh.” Luckily, the injury did not seem to give Tate too many problems during the game, where not being able to breath while playing a very physical sport could be more than detrimental. However, it is stopping Tate from telling as many jokes, which the 25-year-old admits he likes to do.

Tate said that he intends to play next week despite his level of pain. If both Tate and Foster are unable to go, The Texans would definitely be looking at playing some combination of Dennis Johnson, Deji Karim, and Ray Graham at tailback, which I’m sure many Texans fans wouldn’t find too funny.