A Mile High Misery In H-Town, La La Land Buys A Title, Rockets Ready To Rock?

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
By Earl.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Nolan.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
He molted by the magnificent roller coaster ride that is
Houston Sports. Chill h Town for the only homegrown afternoon
team is talking your Teams? Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler

(00:32):
are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
A Rockets basketball tonight on Sports Talk seven ninety Welcome
back in to another week of the A Team.

Speaker 5 (00:50):
Wex ac Cole Thompson with you. It's a Monday.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
It is not a victory Monday, wex Oh no, no, no, no,
it could have been. There are a lot of things
as it went well for the Texans on one side
of the football until they didn't on that side, very
very late in the game and a fifteen fifteen tie
turned into eighteen fifteen slammed the under Broncos win.

Speaker 5 (01:16):
Texans season is done. CJ's concussed. Boy. What an uplifting.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Sunday afternoon that was at NRG Stadium for Texans fans
and the organization and everybody thinks that someday they're gonna
do something.

Speaker 5 (01:28):
I don't think they are.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
That's just one man's opinion though, But I happen to
agree with something Matt Thomas said earlier on this very station,
I'm starting to think that as long as that family owns,
that team ain't gonna win nothing.

Speaker 6 (01:43):
Okay, that's just amazed at those takes. Sometimes that's why
we're here. We got four hours with you here of
Texans talk. No Rockets talk, no World Series talk, no
college football talk, all Texans all the time. They play
close games, they lose. They play not close games they win.
It's as simple as that. This is who they are

(02:04):
in twenty twenty five. They don't know how to win.
This is a team of players who thought they knew
how to win.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
In year one.

Speaker 6 (02:11):
We're almost like that in year two and this year
with the same quarterback, same head coach, same DC, same
offensive system. For all intents and purposes, when you've watched them,
they don't know how to win this year. This is
as simple as you can put it. And it's a
this year problem. It's this group problem. They don't make
winning plays. They make good plays, they win the turnover battle,

(02:31):
they score five times, but they don't know how to win.
And that is a big problem in the NFL. When
everybody else that's playing to be a playoff team does
Jacksonville freaking knows how to win. Jacksonville's won two games
with Trevor Freaking Lawrence scoring touchdowns on their last offensive
possession individually by running it in or diving as he

(02:54):
did yesterday. They're terrible, but they know how to win.
In twenty twenty five, for whatever reason that it is,
Kansas City and Buffalo played one another. Obviously they both
can't win. The Bills did, Chiefs didn't. Nothing changed in
the AFC standings ahead of the Texans other than those
two teams flip flopping. Everybody else is in the exact
same spot they were in a week ago. The Texans

(03:15):
are still needing to jump over two teams, but there
aren't any teams that have fewer than two more wins
than them.

Speaker 5 (03:21):
That's what has changed.

Speaker 6 (03:23):
They're two wins behind every team in front of them,
and the closest teams they luckily still will play.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
But what difference does it make.

Speaker 6 (03:31):
They'll play a competitive game, there'll be an opportunity to
win it. And I cannot stand the terminology they continue
to use. We just got to go out there and finish.
Finish what you're not winning at the end of the game.
What are you trying to finish, You finish. If you're ahead, well,
let's go ahead and finish this game. We're up seventeen
to ten. Let's go ahead and finish this game. We're

(03:53):
up twenty three to twenty. If you're not winning, what
are you finishing? You have to do something, as in
the game. That was a phrase that Christian Kirk used yesterday.
He was right on the money. Teams aren't just gonna
give it to you. Teams aren't just gonna let you
beat them. Teams aren't just gonna go away.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
You have to take it.

Speaker 6 (04:12):
And the Texans did enough to stay in the game,
had the lead for most of the game, but they
never took it. And it's been the same story against
the Rams. No touchdowns, opportunity to win, they never took it.
Opportunity against the Bucks, never took the game from them
because obviously their defense let them go all the way
down the field and score. They weren't really that close

(04:33):
to Seattle, but it did end as a one score game,
a game in which you turned them over four times.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
You've had some unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (04:40):
Turnover battle advantages and come out on the losing end
of it. I got all sorts of numbers for you
throughout the day that it will make you sick to
your stomach. But the game itself, what happened in the game,
Watching the game, the first and second and third and
fourth and goal from the one of the game. That
should be enough. Yeah, that probably can do it all. Well, well, no,

(05:01):
I actually saw your tweet about that and I was like, yeah,
I don't even know which one. There were so many, Well,
the one where they sucked and then they suck me
in the massive humanity tweet.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
Then they sucked again, and then they sucked again and
those were four downs.

Speaker 5 (05:13):
Yeah. Sometimes I talk about the math.

Speaker 6 (05:15):
I didn't get into trying to weigh everybody on the
Broncos defensive line. But you gotta be smarter than this.
There's nothing there's no execution that went wrong on the
Texans on first and goal, second and goal, third and goal,
fourth and goal from the one execution on fourth and
goal when you false start, yes, but there's nothing wrong
with the execution. You're asking somebody to do something they

(05:36):
cannot do, and then you ask them to do it
three more times in a row.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
It's just dumb. Why did it take so long for
Bonnicks to have that run.

Speaker 6 (05:44):
I don't know, honestly that Bonnicks is the younger, less
experienced version of Trevor Lawrence begging his team to lose
by doing nothing. My God, the receivers open all freaking day,
and the Texans actually got away with it. They chose
to play a certain way because they thought bo Nicks
wouldn't be able to beat them with his arm, and
they were right. Even though he made one great touchdown throw,

(06:07):
the one over the hands of Derek Stingley Junior was
very good, and I do think there was maybe some
miscummunication on safety help there. The other throw was a
piece of cake. R J. Harvey came out of the backfield,
Henry Toatoa turned his hips slipped and he was opened
by about eight yards, just coasting into the end zone.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
Most of his other throws.

Speaker 6 (06:24):
The interception way too much air underneath it, and Kaitlyn
Bullet came over to get it. Has several pass breakups
on throws that were close, and a bunch of balls
that had no chance of their receivers who were open,
catching them, and he chose not to scramble. I do
think the Texans had a little bit better rush lane
integrity earlier in the game, but his games were on
and you tire and you're trying to at what point

(06:47):
in the game yesterday? And I did not ask any
of the defensive players that I talked to yesterday.

Speaker 5 (06:51):
I did not ask him this question.

Speaker 6 (06:53):
I don't think there's an answer for it, and it's
more of a radio talk show question. At what point
in a Texans game like yesterday? Many times the Texans
defense has been in a game like yesterday, at what
point in the game do they say, Hey, man, I
know what my responsibility is. I know what the defense
that is called. I know what we can do if
we go that route. But we got to do something

(07:13):
because we're not gonna win unless we take a chance
and play outside the framework of what they're asking us
to do, because we pretty much have to take the
ball away or score ourselves or this game where we
don't have a chance to win. I don't I'm not
gonna get an answer from them, darn near did it.
I mean, they've they've they're so good, they're so good,
but they also they still have some issues that are

(07:34):
plaguing them. They didn't show up a tremendous amount yesterday,
but they've shown up over the course of the season.
My most recent post about the Texans defense, it litters
a list full of them being at the top of
the league. First in yards allowed, fourth in yards per
play allowed, first in points allowed, you know, third and
third down defense, fourth in the league in takeaways. Oh

(07:56):
but they're also twenty sixth in red zone defense and
last goal to go defense. It's the same exact thing
that they did not fix from last year. And I
don't know if it's the personnel they're design or who
they're playing, but they can't stop anybody once they get
close to scoring. And in this team team game, you
gotta hold the other team to field goals every now

(08:17):
and then because your team can't score. It's way too
much to ask of anybody. I'm telling him, you gotta
stop letting up touchdowns. You got to keep them only
to field goals. I'm saying this about the defenses is
giving up the fewest points in the league.

Speaker 5 (08:28):
It's ridiculous. It is ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
But if you even had a passable offense, you wouldn't
have to make statements like that.

Speaker 6 (08:34):
And at some point eight minutes in probably worth noting
that a passable offense became an impossibility when two things
happened and both were concussions.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
CJ.

Speaker 6 (08:44):
Stroud after the third series. The final play of the
third series, he had a concussion and did not return,
and a one series conclusion later, Titus Howard left with
a concussion. The tightus howard Is concussion is not being
discussed nearly as much as it should be. Texans offense
has been clearly better the last several weeks. When they've
done something, they've run six linemen out on the field.

(09:06):
They've run three tackles and three interior linemen for a
much larger percentage of their plays than ever before. Yesterday,
thirteen times in thirty five snaps. To open up the game,
they had a tackle eligible and Blake Fisher was out there,
But as soon as Titus Howard left the game, Blake
Fisher becomes the right tackle. They don't carry on any
other tackles for whatever reason into games on Sunday. Instead,

(09:28):
they let them stand on the sidelines and street clothes
and Trent Brown and Garrett Kingston, so they played the
entire rest of the game forty plus snaps, never using
the personnel group that they've been the most successful with
for the last several weeks because they simply didn't have
anyone to go out there and play. So Davis Mills
played the entire second half and part of the end
of the first half with your run of the mill,

(09:49):
which other teams can get away with five man offensive
line group. It doesn't sound like much, but it sounds
like a lot to me. Look at the difference between
the first half and the second half. They did score
field goals when Mills was on the field in.

Speaker 5 (09:59):
The first a lot of them.

Speaker 6 (10:00):
They didn't do anything in the second half because this
team can only do so much when they only This
is ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (10:07):
You're in the NFL. Listen to what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (10:09):
This team's offense can only do so much when they
only play five linemen like every other team does ninety
eight percent of the time and is capable.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
Of they played against Yeah, I mean, I just that's why.
I mean, I mean, there's there's different reasons for it.
You get to the same conclusion. But like if I
were to ask you right now, do you honestly think
in your heart of hearts, the Dallas Cowboys will ever
win another Super Bowl as long as Jerry's the owner.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
Yeah, I don't make it's not It's not on him
once you get to the playoffs, it's on the players,
and it's on the coach maybe, which you could say
is him. But they've had teams capable of doing it,
just like Tony Romo's teams were capable of at least advancing.
Like they didn't win the Super Bowl because of Jerry
Jones either. No, they say they're not gonna win. It's

(10:57):
the same thing I would apply to Houston. The fact
that Hannah cal and janis run this football team has
nothing to do with whether they're or not they're going
to win or lose unless they're repeatedly hiring leadership that
is bad at their job. And I'm not gonna say
Nick Cassero's bad at his job. He's bad at one
extremely important area of his job. And I'm not gonna
say Damiico Ryans is bad at his job. And those

(11:19):
there are only two super important football related highers.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
But the problem with that is, and I agree with
like that, that's such a logical way to put it,
but it's so not logical to think we're gonna field
this amazing elite super Bowl caliber defense. We're gonna get
the quarterback that can actually get the job done, and
he's proved that when he does have time. But we're
not gonna field an offensive line in front of him,

(11:44):
and we're gonna expect the same result. It's the definition
of insanity, and it's happening again this year, except for
they don't have a crappy three other teams in the
division to kick around. Heck, they haven't even played the
best team and they've lost to the other. Well, they've
lost to one of the two other teams the Titans
apps suck, which there they're saving grace because otherwise they'd
have even less wins. But I just don't know how

(12:05):
you can expect anything different as long as you keep
doing things the same way and it's not you know,
it's not the exact same way, because I can't. Again
every time this topic comes up, I say the same thing.
It's not like Nick Cassario has done a terrible job
as a GM. He's done a really good job in
a lot of other areas. But when it's darn near
malpractice at the one area to protect the guy who's

(12:27):
concut by the way, No, he didn't get sacked and concussed.
He got flushed out of the pocket for the umpteenth time,
and then he got concussed. We can go into the
semantics of whether or not it was bad for him
because Demiko's he's he's taking it today from the national
perspective for what he said yesterday and what he said
a year ago when Aziz al Shaier did the same
thing to Trevor Lawrence, only it was actually way worse.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
But I just I don't know.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
I hate seeing good things that you've done right basically
get wasted. And that's what it feels like twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (12:58):
Is that's how we get things started here. Plenty more
from you guys to join us on your thoughts. Obviously,
that play that we mentioned there a couple of times,
the CJ. Stroud hit definitely worthy of discussion. How it's
being viewed, how you guys view it, how this team
is viewing it, how the rest of the league is
viewing it, Broncos are viewing it. None of that truly
matters to the end game, when will CJ. Stroud hopefully

(13:19):
soon be cleared from this personally obviously to the point
that he can play football again. But These are hits
that take place, and these generate a lot of discussion,
and it generates a lot of discussion at the league
office and from a rule standpoint and the sliding standpoint
and protecting quarterbacks. So it is a huge topic coming
out of yesterday's game. The Texans are three and five

(13:39):
halfway through the NFL season in terms of weeks. One
more game to get to the other side of the
halfway point, and that is a visit from the Jaguars
next week, who miraculously didn't lose to the Raiders on Sunday.
Lots to get to excited to be back here with
you this start of the week. Busy, busy sports weekend.
So other items we've not even scratch the surface on.

(14:01):
We'll get us to six o'clock tonight here on the eight.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Team, the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
Well, they lasted a little after Halloween before the season
was finally over. Wes looking to twenty twenty six now
for your Houston Texans.

Speaker 6 (14:33):
Yeah, not me, not like that. Math says it isn't over.
And they obviously again, any play that a reasonably competitive
team would make, this team could have a dramatically different
record I get they are who they are. The record
is not a fluke. They have earned every bit of
this three and five. They can still beat the two
teams in front of them, but they need help. They've

(14:55):
needed help this whole time. This was a week to
make up a game on the Chiefs, a week to
make up the game on the Jaguars until Gino Smith
failed on the two point conversion in overtime. But no
matter what they do individually, game for game, the final
nine games of the season, when they're actually capable of
controlling the outcome of a game, they don't see enough

(15:15):
of these teams often enough. I mean, if they had
two games left with one of these teams, that would
be one thing, but they don't. They have to get
help in order to make the postseason. The idea of
winning a division championship this year is pretty remote. You lose,
and the Colts lose, and you're still four wins behind them.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
They only have eight games left.

Speaker 6 (15:35):
You have nine, two of them against them, sweep them,
embarrass them, destroy them, show them whose boss, and then
you need help from two other teams to beat them
two other times, and you have to play at least
even with them in the rest of the season's games,
So it does seem very likely that it's out of
the question that that is going to happen. The Colts
would really have to creator the rest of the way.

(15:55):
Not to mention the fact catch them is great. If
the Texans catch the Colts, it's a pretty decent chance
that Jaguars do two and would probably be ahead of them.

Speaker 5 (16:05):
So there's a lot more.

Speaker 6 (16:06):
To it than that they played good enough football to
keep you interested over the course of the game, unless
you hate field goals. They keep you interested in the
game because their defense is making a bunch of plays.
You can count on one hand yesterday rather easily, even
with a couple of fingers tucked in, how many plays
their offense made. Dalton Schultz made a play, Nico Collins
made a play. That's pretty much it in yesterday's game.

(16:29):
And if I'm talking about Nico Collins making a play
in the second half, it would sound the same. Crickets
nothing in the second half. They allowed a team without
Pat Certain to keep Davis Mills from completing a pass
to Nico Collins. Over the final thirty minutes, the Texans
punted on six consecutive possessions to close out the game.
They had three first downs in the entire second half,
and remember they got.

Speaker 5 (16:49):
The ball over and over and over and over.

Speaker 6 (16:51):
Again because the Texans defense kept forcing the Broncos to punt.
The Broncos just beat you in a game. They lost
the turnover battle two zo and punted eight times because
you were just flat out worse. Yes playing with your
backup quarterback, and yes, playing with another edition of your
offensive line at Ingram. I don't know how he went

(17:11):
out there and played the second half. I was watching
on the sidelines when he came out with his knee injury,
limping badly, went to the locker room early testing it out.
I was pretty certain that Scruggs and Tomlinson would end
up now needing to both be on the field to
play guard. But he went out there in the second
half and did everything he could to stay out there,
all while he was now playing in a line that
included Blake Fisher for every single snap. I don't even

(17:34):
think Blake Fisher played poorly, not the Blake Fisher that
normally plays extremely poorly.

Speaker 5 (17:39):
At least.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
I don't know how low the bar is, but I
do think they got over the very very low bar
that they had. But you got to be able to
do something even with a backup quarterback. And Demko said
it himself, and I've seen teams win with a backup quarterback,
the Texans claimed, and I have echoed it. They have
a competent backup quarterback. It just didn't look like it yesterday.
Saves Mills did not play well. Unfortunately, had he played

(18:02):
a little bit better, just a little bit better, missing
Christian Kirk over the middle and the second half, misfiring
on throws to the sidelines all game long, and to
start the final drive of the game, which was an
absolute killer another part of the game that needs excessive
discussion about. Unfortunately, he left them with almost no chance
to win in a game they didn't run the ball

(18:23):
well when CJ was out there, So it wasn't a
change to when Davis came out there and they continued
to not be able to run the ball well. They
just weren't going to run the ball well against the
team that has one of the best fronts of football.
Yet they still probably even today, think they can see
their goal line play calls. It's not that I mean,
this is stuff that should never happen. In the game

(18:45):
you already know going in it's okay. It's it's like, oh,
we don't want to be defeated before we get there. Yes,
you do, because otherwise that's what happens. It's okay not
to run into their best part of their line, a
best part of their defense, with the worst part of
your offense.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
What's that?

Speaker 6 (19:00):
Why would you think that would be successful because you
don't have very far to go. I got thirty six
inches to gain here, I bet I can do it.
Why where's the thirty six inches? You got this two
hundred and ninety pounder and this two hundred and ninety
pounder and then eleven defensive players. Because on top of it,
you run a bunch of formation. It's just unsmart play
calling and it absolutely takes the guts out of your

(19:23):
football team. I think it hurts so badly mentally when
you do crap like that.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
You know it's funny about you saying that very last
part is that's what is sort of going on, only
much more vocally and much more from a fractured standpoint
in the Bengals locker room, because they're talking about basically,
I'm gonna stay in my lane, not point fing but
you know they're pointing fingers.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
They are. One side is pointing fingers at the other side.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
And that's honestly, I guess the biggest compliment I could
pay to Miko is that that's not happening yet, because
if I were that defense and I had done what
I did for ninety nine point nine percent of the
game until that final drive, I'd be like, you gotta
give me something to work with. Yeah, I know the
CJ got can cuss, but like what you're talking about,
the whole play calling, and this is the second offensive

(20:14):
coordinator in as many years to try and change things up,
I don't know, Like, can you can you hire an
offensive coordinator three times in three years if you're the Texans.

Speaker 6 (20:25):
No, you don't let your coach do that, and you
certainly don't let your GM do that, because at some
point somebody in the organization above them, all three people
have to recognize, well, maybe that isn't the problem, or
even if it is, it's the people hiring him that
is the problem. You're gonna let him hire another guy,
Like it's not even just get rid of the guy.
They're saying, well, who is in charge of hiring the
first two you guys, well, maybe it's your fault. So

(20:48):
that's what would happen this time around, all these discussions
we're having about the team itself, the bigger picture, the
organizational stuff. You should not survive this, and you could
be applied to two different people. Should Demiko Ryan survive this? Yes,
the team's been in the playoffs the last two years.
Should Nick Cassario survive this? No, he's been in charge
of this team for five going on six years. If

(21:10):
he gets through another offseason, and the biggest problem once
you tried to win still remains the offensive line. You're
cutting off your offense's legs before they hit the field
every week for almost entire run of these three years.
At times they've been serviceable. That was year one. At
times you've been able to figure it out, but most

(21:31):
of the times over the last two years, all seventeen
games last year plus playoffs, and what we've seen so
far for eight games this year, the amount of overcoming
an obvious problem every week from Monday through Sunday is
it's too much. You shouldn't have to ask your coaches
and the remaining players that aren't up to it to
go ahead and do that, you're going into the game defeated.

(21:53):
But then it's even worse when you don't acknowledge that
by trying to run through it like these goal line plays,
I'm never gonna get away from. It's just dumb. It's
not the offensive line's fault. It's not British Brooks fault.
It's not Nick Chubb or what he mark's fault. And
it's not CJ's fault. It's the coach's fault. It's the
GM's fault, it's the play caller's fault. You can't do this.

(22:13):
I cannot believe they did it three times.

Speaker 5 (22:15):
In a row. And I don't know. I have to
go back and watch.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
Does anybody think CJ got in on that quarterback sneak
that obviously didn't count because there was a false start.
The team thinks he did, and I'm not saying I've
watched it fifty times. I watched it live and watched
the replay, and I was at the stadium. I didn't
think he got in. And honestly, I'd rather see them
run that four times than what they did. I'd rather
see them run plays that every other team in the

(22:42):
NFL runs, wearing their first and goal from inside the five,
but the Texans don't run any of them.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
There's other issues that, gosh we got.

Speaker 6 (22:51):
I'm glad we got full shows almost all week because
there's so much to dig into on why and they're
three and five by just a fraction of a play
here and a play there. But you will not hear
me say they're close. And you will not hear me say, man,
if they could just finish, that's for them to say,
and I don't want to hear it anymore.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 7 (23:17):
We're putting out between five and fish posts a day.

Speaker 6 (23:20):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 7 (23:24):
History repeats itself type bang, you'll succeed. Never doubt that
you're the one who post no one building, You're the
best of it.

Speaker 6 (23:36):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best of it.

Speaker 5 (23:41):
Post never seen mole day. You know you're the best
of it.

Speaker 7 (23:46):
X breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 6 (23:52):
It is time for the best of XS, best of
social media. Here on Sports Talk seven ninety, halfway through
the first hour of the program, we try to line
that up and as per usual, especially on the Monday
shows with a full weekend of nonsense going on in
the sports world, and nonsense can be a good thing too.
There's never a shortage of replies, comments, posts, things you

(24:12):
might have otherwise missed, or opinions based on what's out
there on social media.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
We'll stick with the Texans here.

Speaker 6 (24:19):
It was pretty important to play for the Houston Texans
and that they have one of the better quarterbacks in
the league, top half at least, and if he's not
out there, it makes it very difficult to win, as
evidenced by what took place yesterday. Davis Mills, by the way,
has hardly played since DJ Stroud was drafted. Has plenty
of experience from prior to that. When the Texans weren't

(24:39):
trying to win, he got a lot of starts. He
was on the field a bunch of times. But over
the three years since CJ. Stroud has been playing games,
he hasn't played a whole lots, just about a hundred
passes attempted because of the thirty he attempted on Sunday
during his three years of being teammates with CJ. Stroud,
and he needed to be out there for everything they did.
Yesterday after the first three series of the game, the

(25:01):
last play of which was the one in which CJ
was sent to the sidelines on a hit that drew
a penalty flag but ultimately did not draw a penalty
upon replay assist review, and the time taken to slowly
examine CJ. Stroud and slowly get him to sit upright
and slowly have him walk off the field, showing the

(25:22):
fans and teammates a thumbs up as he slowly walked
into the medical tent. It spent about two or three
minutes there tops, and then slowly walked back to the
locker room not long after being evaluated for a concussion
was the report, and then early in the second half
out for the remainder of the game and in concussion
protocol as his head coach acknowledge after the game, and

(25:42):
then set again today when we spoke to them a
couple hours ago, said he's talked to him, said he's
doing better, but obviously they'll have to wait and see
how the week goes. Sensitive situations always a delicate and
individual situation. You never know how somebody's going to react
or how things will go for them. So his availability
for this week and quite post and obviously beyond that
is certainly in question. But Demiko Ryans the first to

(26:04):
have an opportunity to speak. He exits the locker room,
heads down to the postgame podium, and before in the
locker room he has usually addressed the media at least
a couple minutes worth, and he did make those initial comments,
his thoughts on how the hit happened and was officiated,
and certainly having been a defensive player and then obviously
in a situation very very much like this a year

(26:26):
ago with his own player.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
Here's what he had to say after the game.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, CJ Scramble.

Speaker 8 (26:31):
Of course, he tried to He slid and the guy
came up and hit him, as I see his unnecessary roughness,
and he hit the quarterback when he sliding and giving
himself up.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
If I'm incorrect on the rules.

Speaker 8 (26:44):
I've seen that happen multiple times and with our guys
and we get the penalty, but for some reason it
just didn't happen there.

Speaker 5 (26:54):
From that standpoint, I agree with him, Yeah, it is.

Speaker 6 (26:57):
It's such a difficult thing to compare because there are
no plays that are equal, even though they seem very
very similar.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
But I know you were there how long until in
your brain disease on Trevor Lawrence came into it. Ten seconds?
Five seconds, That's what I was thinking immediately, like, you
didn't take long less than that.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
Okay, because of the nature of the play, we're going
to get into the description of it. I think as
we talked through this here and Best of X, and
again this is much much more than Best of X
that those comments get posted. We have different audio to
kind of go along with this, but we need much
more showtime to filter through all those things.

Speaker 5 (27:36):
We can make this bleed over, you know. Well, that's
what I mean.

Speaker 6 (27:39):
I want to get to all of these elements of
it because there are so many. There's the angle of
oh man, you guys were just in this on the
other side a year ago. You know, there's people firing
off karma comments and I can't believe you're saying this.
Where were you last year when this happened? And we
do have Dimiico's comments from last year, we have Demiko's
comments from today and specifically think I'd like to stay there.

(28:02):
So Demiko was was asked, you know, because he said
last night, when I have a chance to go back
and look at it. We'll see how things go. Well,
he has had a chance to go back and look
at it. He took it more of a what did
I learned from how the league's gonna officiate it, and
what happened on the play. This is what he said today,
you know, half day later after the occurrence of the play,
and again the chance to go back and watch it,

(28:25):
the chance to you know, see what they saw on tap,
because when you're watching it live, that is the hit
comes from the Broncos sideline. In terms of where's Demiko
when this play unfolds, He's watching CJ run and the
hit that sends him into concussion protocol just happens to
be coming from CJ's right. So it's obviously CJ's in
between he and the player. And if you remember the play,

(28:46):
which I'm sure you do, it was just yesterday, about
twenty five hours ago.

Speaker 5 (28:51):
CJ was looking ahead of him.

Speaker 6 (28:55):
Doesn't mean it's the only place you should look as
a runner, because in this situation he's a runner. But
he was looking at the defender Singleton coming towards him,
engaging in his mind. All right, I don't really want
to take this hit. There's only so many yards from
me here, At what point do I need to start
my slide? And he began his slide in relation to
that player, and I think to that player only. I've

(29:16):
watched it enough now, and obviously I haven't asked CJ
about it. I don't think he had any idea there
was another player that was going to be involved. He
had peeled off coverage once CJ crossed the line of
scrimmage and he hit him from the side, which right
then and there makes it very difficult to complay to
the compared to the play that we want to compare
it to, and will compare it to with a zaz

(29:37):
But Demiko, again having a chance to look back at
it today, he said this about the play.

Speaker 8 (29:41):
Look, it's a tough play, all right. Quarterback is sliding.
I thought the quarterbacks aren't protecting when they slide. But
what I'm learning is if you hit him, don't hit
him in the head or neck area they slide.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
You hit him in the chest. And that's just fine.

Speaker 5 (29:56):
I understand.

Speaker 6 (29:57):
And he was smiling extremely wide after he said that,
because he clearly is at odds with that.

Speaker 5 (30:03):
I will read it from the rule book.

Speaker 6 (30:06):
It starts with a defender must pull up when a
runner begins a slide or dive. This does not mean
that all contact by a defender is illegal. If a
defender has already committed himself and the contact is unavoidable,
it's not a foul list the defender makes forcible contact
into the head or neck area of the runner with
the helmet, shoulder, or forearm, or commits some other act

(30:29):
that is unnecessary roughness.

Speaker 5 (30:32):
And just thinking about what we just heard, what I
just read.

Speaker 6 (30:37):
It's like impossible to officiate that because of the last statement.
They lay out all the ways you can make a
legal hit in this situation, which I think applies to
everything that the defender did in this situation, but then
they add or commit some other act that is unnecessary roughness,
which opens it up for interpretation the team that had

(30:58):
happened to or at least in this case, Tobiko Ryans,
he used the terms unnecessary roughness, and I think you
could be justified in saying that if you believe that was,
you know, the type of hit that is unnecessary roughness.
C J.

Speaker 5 (31:11):
Stroud had clearly begun us slide.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
It wasn't a very smooth slide, and the old pitter
pat of the feet rather than a true slide is
what he did. He also had not reached the ground yet,
there was no contact to the neck and shoulders. There
was no contact with the helmet. Everything about it does
look to me like that hit should be unflagged, unpenalized,

(31:34):
and unfined.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
As we get to well, it's time to hand out
our fines during the week.

Speaker 6 (31:39):
But I can't say that I'm right just telling you
what I think, even though I'm.

Speaker 5 (31:44):
Reading you the rules.

Speaker 6 (31:45):
I've watched the play, I've heard NFL players talk about it,
and there are plenty on the other side of it.
Former Denver Broncos secondary player Chris Harris Junior weighed in
quite a bit.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
I don't think there's anything.

Speaker 6 (31:56):
Wrong with it, and I can absolutely understand that point
of view.

Speaker 5 (32:00):
I have my point of view, but we're gonna wait
until the next segment.

Speaker 4 (32:02):
Plus we have other comments from participants both in this
game and what happened, and of course the infamous game
last year with regards to the hit on Trevor Lawrence.
All that coming up next here on a Monday edition
of the program.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 5 (32:24):
Ninety mack on more can we go fish shopping? What? What?

Speaker 3 (32:29):
What? What?

Speaker 5 (32:31):
What? What?

Speaker 3 (32:32):
What?

Speaker 5 (32:32):
What? What? What?

Speaker 6 (32:34):
What?

Speaker 4 (32:35):
Is the A team sports Socks seven ninety winding down
the two o'clock hour. We'll be on camera coming up
at three o'clock and then you can see the pain
on our faces after last night's Uh.

Speaker 6 (32:46):
Not, Emma, I'm not in pain. Well I didn't say
you were in pain full weekend and not be in pain.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
Mental pain is something that Frankly, QC kinetics they can't
help you with that.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
That's not what they do.

Speaker 6 (32:57):
Saturday A quote unquote tended or worked three games this weekend.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
Yeah, and they were all else. That's not accurate.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
All right, one of them was awesome, but we're not
allowed to talk about them until the football season's over.

Speaker 5 (33:09):
Apparently we can talk about the Rockets freaking beast. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (33:14):
I was at the Cougar game obviously those of you
who enjoyed the bud lights backyard, telling you guys, we're
doing it again later this year. It's the best thing ever.
It's the best place to enjoy game. We got your
bud light, we got your food. You're all in there.
It's awesome. Weather was great, It was great to meet
the winners we had and hang out with them a
little bit. This time, we'll do it again, like I
said in three weeks. But they didn't play particularly well,

(33:36):
lost the turnover battle handily and lost to a very
bad West Virginia team.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
Saturday night.

Speaker 6 (33:41):
Came up to the station to bang out Rockets basketball.
They crushed it. That was an easy game. The Celtics
kind of knew it early on. Hey Jalen Brown, that's
enough for you tonight. We don't need you out there
any game. We have no chance to win because the
Rockets don't miss from behind the three point line hardly ever,
number one three point shooting team in the NBA by
a huge margin. Five games into their seat.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
Was there a percentage on Saturday night just for fun,
over fifty percent over sixty percent from three both accurate? Yeah,
fifty five and sixty five respectively.

Speaker 6 (34:13):
And then yesterday I was over at NRG Stadium, got
over there to see Bonnicks and Patrick satan To walk
into the stadium. There were a ton of Broncos fans,
so a ton of their jerseys. Did see one Peyton
Manning jersey and almost nothing else. It was almost exclusively
the two current stars and they were filling the stadium. Again,

(34:34):
other teams fans get in there way earlier than Texans fans.
They don't have any tailgating to do. They came specifically
for the game. They're going to go into the stadium
and they're going to be out there early. So when
the opposing team takes the field, it is loud at
eleven o'clock, and when they retake the field at you know,
a few minutes till kickoff, it's very very noticeable. And
then during the game, when Bonix throws a touchdown pass,

(34:57):
it does sound like he's playing at home. And when
the Texans to kick a short field goal, it almost
sounds like they're also playing at home. But yeah, two
out of three not very entertaining and fun football games
for me this weekend. But hey man had a good
time regardless sports.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
Well, yeah, it's not work.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
So but I will say this, just coming off of
what we talked about last segment, I think this is
as simplistic as I can make it on taking two
situations that happened in two separate years and applying all
the same things to them, even in light of the
rules that you read and all that kind of stuff.
I think both hits should have been flagged. They both

(35:37):
were initially. I think they both should have been penalized,
and I think that's it. I don't think there should
have been a suspension last year. I don't think there
should have been one this year. I don't think either
one of those guys were particularly trying to hurt that quarterback.
But I think in both cases, and it is bang
bang and all that kind of stuff, give give yourself up,
all that kind of I think in both cases the

(35:58):
quarterback need to do a better job of getting down sooner. Again,
it happened so fast, especially yesterday's like neither one of
cj or Trevor Lawrence are particularly fast fast. I don't
think either one of them would be confused with like
a cheetah.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
But why In my opinion, they're way more susceptible to
these hillsrect because they can't run their way away from them.
They know it's inevitable, so they're more prone to take
the I'm going to slide a tactic.

Speaker 4 (36:27):
And I'm not saying this because I saw it and
saw him running with it, because it's the same thing
I thought if that were Patrick Mahomes yesterday there's every
official had he's throwing two flags.

Speaker 6 (36:38):
Yeah, he honestly, I don't know if you saw this,
I'll send it to you. If you didn't, someone posted
I think this is the hardest hit Patrick Mahomes has
ever taken, and it came from yesterday's game. He was
dancing towards the sidelines, which he loves to do extend
the play. No, we can just get out of bounds
and avoid the hit, and he got really close to
the sidelines. He stopped, he reset his feet, he was
looking downfield. He makes the throw, but before he's out

(37:01):
of bounds, he absolutely gets leveled, just driven out of bounds.
But the player also did not drive him into the ground,
but rather hammered him and rolled off to the side.
And there was no call, surprisingly because of who it was.
But I don't I hardly the uh sliding in fraction
that hit the Mahomes helped hit the Texans with I

(37:21):
guess it was in last year's postseason.

Speaker 5 (37:24):
It was not like these hits.

Speaker 6 (37:26):
We're so mad about it because we know, dude, the
guy dove over the top of him intentionally trying to
avoid hitting him, and he barely hit the top of him. Again,
Comparing all these hits is so difficult because they just
aren't the same. And like Aziz and Alex Singleton, I'd
compare those two players. Singleton's running towards cj. Asese is

(37:46):
running towards Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence is running directly into
his path and slides directly in front of him.

Speaker 5 (37:52):
Where do you want Aziz to go?

Speaker 6 (37:54):
He can dive high and try to miss him, but
that means he's basically gonna hit him right in the head.
He can try to drive right through his body, but
the target's getting smaller and smaller because the player is
diving to the ground and exposing less of his chest.
So when you dive into him, you're likely to hit
him up high. In the case of yesterday, Stroud was
running right in to Singleton and he slid in a

(38:16):
way that allowed Singleton to avoid a penalty hit, a
devastating hit, a personal foul hit. He barely hit him
at all. It was a totally different player coming from
the side of him that hit him in the chest. Yeah,
that caused all this physical pain. Yeah, concussion.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
And I should clarify when I bring up Mahomes, I'm
not saying it because I think those plays are similar,
or the one in the postseason was. I'm just saying
it's Patrick Mahomes, and I think he would have gotten
the penalty. And now I know that there was reviews
done off site and all that.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
Kind of stuff. I just I just think he would have.
I could be wrong.

Speaker 6 (38:52):
I think you'd be I mean a total opinion, no
way to know. I think you'd be wrong because of
the replay assist angle of it. Like they call on
the field and they would have with my Homes, and
then they went back and looked at it, and I
think from where he hit him, and from I mean,
you got hurt because you were that close to the
ground with your back and head exposed. He didn't get
hurt because of the hit. He might have his ribs

(39:14):
might also be hurt. Yeah, that's that's most messed up.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
And like there was a game yesterday between the Rams
and the Rams are playing the Saints.

Speaker 5 (39:21):
Correct, it's very competitive game.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
Well, yeah, somebody got loose on the edge and absolutely
destroyed the Saints.

Speaker 5 (39:30):
Terrible quarterback. Why am I drawing a blank on his neck.

Speaker 6 (39:32):
Because he's been out there for one I mean, show
the way that you're going to stay as starting quarterback.

Speaker 4 (39:39):
Yeah, so he he you know, he timed it right
on the Cadence got a great hit because he glanced
helmet to helmet and it was completely you know, it
was not part of the hit. It was basically incidental
contact in the in the in the process of hitting
him and just destroying it. It's first down, it's a penalty,

(40:00):
it's fifteen yards instead of we got off the field.
As a defense, I don't know what you want defenders
to do.

Speaker 6 (40:07):
Yeah, I think I said this at least last year.
I'm not sure if I said it years before that,
But every year it happens. I try to make sure
I'm not changing my mind because I've seen something new.
Yet I'm not really seeing the advantage from a player
safety standpoint of having the slide rule the way it is.

(40:28):
I almost want to say take it out completely. They're
getting hit less often when they scramble because it exists.
I can clearly see that. So it has done so
when they get hit because you're telling them it's okay
to slide, they're wanting to slide. The viciousness and the
damage being caused because of the hit you've created by

(40:49):
allowing them and asking them and offering them, the ability
to slide is ten times worse than it would be
under any scenario. Let's say there's no positive to sliding.
There's no protection for a quarterback by going into a slide,
so CJ doesn't really even consider that as an option.
He's gonna get hit when he tucks the ball and

(41:10):
gets hit in the shoulder. He's gonna get hit when
he dives face first. He's more prepared for a hit
because he knows there's no other way to avoid it.
He runs differently. He gives himself up way sooner, like
I know, there's not an obvious answer to it. But
he takes a hit when he doesn't slide. Then maybe
he hurts his shoulder. Maybe he's gone for a year.
I don't know, but he probably doesn't have a concussion,

(41:32):
which is I think what they are trying to avoid
and aren't because they're allowing quarterbacks to believe they're being protected.
They're being protected with a penalty normally, but that's not
really protecting their health, which is sending them the sidelines
for quite some time on end. And we don't know
this extent of it yet for CJ, but he is
in the concussion protocol. Like I said, your input on

(41:55):
this certainly warranted much more so, where do these Texans
go after this? Obviously they go back to the drawing board.
Let's try to win a football game against Jacksonville a
week from this past Sunday, the third consecutive home game.
They're back to two games under five hundred and very
much looking up at a playoff picture that is very
likely to not include them. And we'll touch on the

(42:17):
other things that through the first hour of the show
still are in front of us here on the eight Team.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston
sports guys named Adam Talking your Team. Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (42:48):
Monday edition of the eight Team Sports Talk seven ninety
first show in November.

Speaker 5 (42:54):
And like I said earlier, wex season's over now.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
Mathematically, the Texans are not eliminated, But like we keep
talking about, they've got so much of an uphill battle
and they're not doing themselves favors by not winning all
these games. I think they'll win the next two weeks.
Even with Davis Mills as the quarterback. And by the way,
since we're just kind of resetting everything as a three
o'clock hour begins, and welcome to all of you Space

(43:19):
City Home Network viewers that are watching us now, wex
ac Cole Thompson with you. Texans lose eighteen to fifteen
to the Broncos yesterday. I just think that, you know,
looking at what happened yesterday with the defense playing just
fantastic football for I'll say it again ninety nine point

(43:40):
nine percent, because I don't think that really you mentioned
that that Derek Stingley kind of got burned for like
the first and last time all year on the touchdown.

Speaker 5 (43:50):
He's had a few instances.

Speaker 6 (43:52):
This play, it's possible he kind of stopped as if
maybe this is I'm handing him off to the safe
who should be coming over in coverage. It's hard to tell,
and I didn't ask Derek or Kalin about it after
the game or the DC yet this week, and maybe
we'll get a more definitive answer. But someton just ran
right by him and once he I couldn't tell if oh,

(44:14):
I'm not getting help now, I need to run faster.

Speaker 5 (44:16):
He almost got there in time to knock it away.

Speaker 6 (44:19):
But yes, at first glance, it looks like someton just
ran right by him and he threw him a thirty
our touchdout.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
Neither one of these offenses were lighting it up. But
then CJ going down with the concussion, it really took
the wind out of the Sales and it just felt
like the defense was going to be relied upon so
heavily to try and not only keep the Broncos offense
at bay, but just try and make something happen themselves,
almost because you couldn't rely on Davis Mills to do it.

Speaker 6 (44:45):
But I scored four times as many points with Davis
than you did with CJ. And by points you mean
field goals, yeah, twelve to three. Yeah, field goal offense.
Have we not paid our dues here in Houston with that?

Speaker 5 (44:58):
By now?

Speaker 6 (44:59):
I wish they wouldn't get sacked on fourth down. I
wish they wouldn't get themselves these awful positions because I
want so badly, and I'm sure the team does too,
to sit here and say, yeah, we should have gone
for it on fourth down more often. But these down
in distances they left themselves in for too much of
the game. They really didn't have that option. It wasn't

(45:19):
fourth and one except that the goal line until they
fall started it was fourth and two. Once in the
middle of the field, you could have done it there,
and they probably should have. But on these attempted field goals,
it was rare in yesterday's game that they were sitting
in they didn't have an option. They weren't weighing that
decision should we kick it here or should we go
for it other than the goal to go one, And

(45:40):
I honestly would have strongly considered going forward on a
fourth and sixth fourth and goal from the sixth after
the fall start, because maybe the space would allow you'd
actually call a play that could work. But they kicked
field goals on what were pretty much obvious field goal opportunities.
Both teams missed a field goal, although it's forgivable when
it's or it's unforgivable when you just flat out miss

(46:00):
and that's what Kaymi did on his first attempt. More
forgivable when Denico Autry is on the other side. He
blocked another field goal, like I don't. So many other
things happened in the game that allowed this game to
be where it's at. Had you defended the two point
play differently. I'm sure that changes the way teams would
have approached it. What if the Texans were up fifteen
to thirteen when they got the ball back at the

(46:21):
end of the game, with one fourteen on the clock
and the Broncos only having two timeouts. I hope there's
no way they would have passed it on first down.
And we asked Amiko Ryans again today about that and
he said he had no regrets. It is not obvious
what you should do in that situation. One fourteen left,
fifteen fifteen. Your quarterbacks, Davis Mills, you've done nothing on

(46:42):
offense for two hours, the other team has two timeouts left,
and it's tied.

Speaker 5 (46:47):
You're on the thirteen yard line. What should you do?

Speaker 6 (46:51):
They chose to pass on first down and throw a
pass right at the sticks. If Christian Kirk and Davis
Mills connect on that, it does change things dramatically. It's
first and ten and then probably from the twenty three
or the twenty four yard line.

Speaker 5 (47:03):
You have moved the ball.

Speaker 6 (47:04):
In the NFL, by the way, you don't have to
move it very far anymore. As long as they keep
letting kickers use these k balls that they doctor up
before games. Legally, we're gonna see this way more often.
These Goldilocks balls, they're ridiculous. I'm sure there's kickers that
have retired in the last few years are like I
hope they have a different record book for what we're seeing.

Speaker 5 (47:23):
We had a sixty eight yard field goal yesterday.

Speaker 6 (47:24):
The guy's standing on the thirty eight yard line lining
up for his kick on the other side of the
field before he makes contact with it. If this is
what they want, this is what they've got. But nonetheless
that means okay, Demiko and their team thinks, well, we're
on the thirteen, we got a minute fourteen and we
have timeouts. What if we gain thirty five yards or
the forty nine if we do that, or the forty

(47:44):
eight yard line, what if we gain forty yards. That's
not asking too much for seventy four seconds of football
with timeouts. Absolutely, we can go win this game on
a field goal. But the converse conversely, you give the
ball back to the other team if you decide to
throw the football and it doesn't work. That's what they
decided to do. It was a bad throw from Mills.
He missed Kirk by a lot. He had no chance
to get it. I don't know if Kirk thought he

(48:06):
was interfered with, but I.

Speaker 5 (48:07):
Didn't think he was.

Speaker 6 (48:08):
And then you complete a pass on second down and
Higgins slides to the turf and goes out of bounds
before getting it, so the clock stops again. Then they
get a little bit of pressure on Mills on third
down and he throws it into Nowheresville avoids the sack,
but the clock also stops. Worst case scenario, it was
a fourteen second drive before the punt, and the other

(48:28):
team didn't have to use either one of their time out.

Speaker 5 (48:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
This from a team that was just milking the clock
and has the last two weeks in a row on
the first quarter especially.

Speaker 6 (48:37):
It to me, Like I said, I'm not saying there's
a right or wrong, although I think I'm right and
they're wrong. Just my opinion in that situation, knowing your personnel,
knowing what's happened that particular day, and what's happened leading
up to that, five consecutive punts one first down, forty
four yards on the last five drives combined. You need
forty four yards on this drive all by itself, and

(49:00):
you've run the last fourteen to fifteen plays and haven't
even done that. You have to run the ball on
first down. You get any kind of yard, it's great.
It doesn't even matter what you get. You force them
to call timeout number one. Now, depending on what you did,
you call your second play, which almost assuredly is a
run too. Again, I don't care if you get no yards.
They now use their second timeout running and it's third

(49:22):
and ten with one oh two on the clock. Well,
now you know what you're doing on third down. You
have given up the opportunity to win in regulation.

Speaker 5 (49:30):
So what you run it?

Speaker 6 (49:32):
They don't call time out because they don't have any left,
and you're punting with twenty e seconds left.

Speaker 5 (49:37):
No, I don't have time for them.

Speaker 6 (49:38):
They're receiving a punt and starting their offense with ten
seconds left, twelve seconds left. Maybe they get a good
punt return, which you were willing to risk. That's honestly,
with who they had and what had been happening that day,
that's what I would have done. And Dimiko's made it
very very clear, both with the plays they're calling in
the red zone on offense when it's first and goal
from the one, and how they're playing it here. If

(50:00):
you didn't know it before yesterday, I don't know where
you've been. As much as the complaining about too many
field goals, this is an aggressive offensive coach. He's a
defensive player, he's got a defensive mind. He runs the
defense when they are on offense. He is an aggressive coach.
He wants to push people around, no matter what the
personnel is. He wants to play physical football no matter

(50:23):
what their personnel is. And because their personnel isn't up
for it, it's hurting them.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
That so there's plenty of frustration to go into that
side of things. And then going back to the CJ.
Stroud concussion. I was going to talk about this a
little bit later, but I'll just go ahead and get
it out of the way now. I don't maybe I'm wrong.
I don't think I am. I think this was a
particularly controversial opinion. Well, a lot of people didn't like it.

(50:50):
I saw what I saw.

Speaker 5 (50:52):
I saw.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
You know, we've seen Tua with some really nasty concussions
the last few seasons prior to this one where the
whole team is concussed apparently, but you know, we all
know what happened with Tua and the curling up of
the fingers and all that stuff that we saw on
the field like tangible evidence that something very, very bad
is going on with this player's brain. To a lesser extent,
but not any less scary. When CJ's head hit the turf,

(51:16):
you can see the SlowMo replay, you can see his
eyes rolling back in his head.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
It's bad.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
It's not just a Nicocollins a couple of weeks ago concussion,
which is minor. And I'm sorry that we have to
talk about the severity of these things, but there are
levels to this. This was not a minor concussion. This
was not something that he certainly is not playing next
week because he's not going to clear concussion protocol.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
And I was just musing about it because I'm looking
at the schedule.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
As soon as it happened, I'm like, all right, he's
missing next week, that's a given. Let's see what's on
the calendar, Let's see what's going on. Should they provided
pull this game out? And I said, will Stroud be
back in time for Thursday night against Buffalo, because by
the looks of that obvious concussion, he ain't playing against
Jacksonville or Tennessee Jacksonville's next week, Tennessee's after that.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
It is not at.

Speaker 4 (51:59):
All un heard of, by the way, for a quarterback
who's been severely concussed to miss multiple weeks. But you
would have thought that I like personally insulted some of
these people's families. On the one guy, I was just like,
that's the dumbest take I've ever heard of my life.
It's nothing about that makes you remotely I'm like, okay, dude,
just calm down, touch grass, whatever you gotta do. I

(52:21):
don't he's definitely not playing next week. I don't know
that he's playing at Tennessee.

Speaker 6 (52:26):
I mean, I know what you're saying, but we do.
I don't think it's I don't know that. I saw
the evidence, and I'm no doctor that mirrors some of
the other concussions that we've seen. I saw this, the
force with which he hit his back and head on
the turf, and so I fully expected it. But even
with his right hand up in the air, it wasn't

(52:47):
or or somebody might say it was, I didn't know
that it was curled up in that yeah, knocked out position.
It looked almost like he was getting sensation back in
there because of the force that his show hit and
so it had knocked his arm because of the way
he was laying down there, the arms the other arm
across his chest. I think that's why the defensive players,

(53:09):
the Broncos players, they immediately jumped up and were facing
the Texans sideline and saying, get out here, get on
the field.

Speaker 5 (53:16):
He needs help.

Speaker 6 (53:16):
And I think that's what maybe gives the impression of
the severity of it. But not knowing what he was
discussing there initially with Roland Ramirez, the Texans, you know,
head of athletic performance out there on the field with him,
and then when he walked off the field with him
because it I don't you don't have to be carted
off from a concussion for it to be severe. You
can walk off even if it is severe. So, like

(53:38):
you said, it's very difficult for us to grade it out.
It was nice, I think to see the thumbs up.
It was nice to see the CJ. Stroud Foundation post
the picture of him yesterday. He and his mom took
a picture of him after the game and said, appreciate
the prayers. He's doing okay. Demiko said earlier today he's
talked to him and he thinks he's doing okay. I
talked to Jalen Noel and Dalton Schultz in the locker

(53:59):
room yesterday after the game. They said the same thing then,
which was only you know, roughly two hours after the
hit had happened. So all those things point well, he'd
have to participate in two practices for one thing. I
would agree, it's unlikely. I don't even know that I
rule him out for this week's game yet. Oh I
don't want him to play. But this discussion obviously continues

(54:22):
here on the.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
A team, The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
Sports Talks seven ninety, Space City Home Network. Just a
quick moment, not only to appreciate our Houston Rockets. They
play again tonight, Dallas Mavericks are in town. No Anthony
Davis because he's hurt about Kyrie?

Speaker 5 (54:52):
What's he doing? Kyrie Irving? Why, well, he's hurt too,
He's been hurt. What about Derek Lively? What about him?

Speaker 4 (54:59):
He's probably not gonna he's out, But you know what,
Cooper Flag's gonna play. And he had a season high
sixteen the other night in Mexico where they got smashed.

Speaker 5 (55:08):
Yeah, the Mavericks of two and four.

Speaker 6 (55:10):
Announced this late last week that Anthony Davis, with the
calf injury that cost him all but six minutes of
the game that night, was gonna miss their next two games.
One of those games was the Mexico City game against
the Pistons on Saturday night, which, as you noted, they lost.
Their next game is the game tonight here in Houston,
so it's not a given that he begins to play.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
After the game.

Speaker 6 (55:31):
They're going to reevaluate him and assess the situation at
that point in time. Kyrie Irving is obviously not close
to returning, and you know, Lively among other players, they've
had a few players already with some other reasons why
repeatedly or here and there they've needed to miss time,
and he will miss tonight's game as well. The Mavericks
are so far, we're getting into the beginning of week
three in a couple of days of the NBA season.

(55:53):
They've been not very good this year, obviously, at two
and four, one of the league's worst records. Very early
in the season, there's only a couple teams that haven't
won any games, so their nestle upright against those. For
six teams we hit this third week with no undefeated
teams other than Oklahoma City. Real shock, there they are
seven and oh, but everybody else now, the Bulls, the
Spurs among those two, gather their first defeats over the weekend,

(56:15):
all while the Rockets were going from zh to two
to one and two to two and two to three
and two to into tonight's game before they get back
out on the road for the next three looked on
paper like, yes, the way that the team lost to
OKAC in Detroit, if all all they have to do
to win is play like that, Certainly play like they

(56:37):
did against Detroit, because the thing that's changed from the
first game to all of the game since if the
Rockets take an open three, it is going in.

Speaker 5 (56:45):
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (56:46):
The first game of the year, they were atrocious from
behind the three point line against Oklahoma City. They already
lead the league in three point shooting, which includes that
first game of awfulness. They're forty five percent through five
NBA games this season. The last four games they've not
shot under forty three percent in any of them, and

(57:07):
combined over a four game stretch. I said this during
the broadcast Saturday night. I can't remember it ever happening before,
and if it has, I'm sure Sean over at the
Rockets we'll figure it out. They're over fifty percent combined
on threes over a four game stretch, not during the preseason,
not on an exhibition game, not at practice, in NBA
game activity. More than half of their threes are going

(57:29):
through the net for four games combined.

Speaker 5 (57:31):
And that's what they had in Toto tonight with you
know who. It wasn't going in for last.

Speaker 6 (57:36):
Night last night Wemby. Yeah, they suffered their first loss
last night. He was awful four fourteen and they got
run out of the building by the Durant Beal Jalen
and Dylan Liss Phoenix Suns.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
That's the thing, that's the thing right there.

Speaker 5 (57:55):
They were gonna lose.

Speaker 4 (57:56):
They're not as good as they looked through five games
and they were five and zero, and people.

Speaker 5 (58:00):
Like, oh my gosh, the Spurs has never been five
and oo it starts the season. They're gonna win the
title this year.

Speaker 4 (58:06):
It was never gonna be that good. It's never gonna
be as bad as it has been in recent seasons.
But like I just got done giving them all the
hype last week. They're not gonna win, or they're not
gonna lose another game until he play the Rockets on Friday. No,
they're gonna lose to whatever that was the Spurs trotted
out last night.

Speaker 6 (58:23):
Yeah, the Suns were without obviously both the players we
mentioned from the Rockets and managed to handle them. They
had a thirty one point lead in the game. The
final score was much closer than the game actually was.

Speaker 5 (58:34):
He almost had a double double. He had nine and nine.

Speaker 6 (58:37):
Yeah, he also had six turnovers four blocks. He is
still at this stage of his career, just like happened
many times last year, he's prone to having those games
where other teams either they're getting to him physically and
not letting him kind of wander around on the court unchecked,
or just has a night where if his shot isn't falling.
He he is a seven foot seven wingman. He plays

(59:00):
on the wing. He's not sitting in the post all
the time backing guys.

Speaker 5 (59:03):
Down the other nch, you just gave him another end.

Speaker 6 (59:05):
Me and these people on ESPN can't get I don't say,
maybe seven eight, I don't know, have you seen him lately,
but he's not He will post up, but he's like
chet holmger in for more familiarity for someone they've seen
this year. If he's going to hurt you, it's going
to be because his jumpers falling that night and many
nights it has. He's going to hurt you because you
can't score when he stands in the lane, because he

(59:25):
does protect the basket very well, but on the nights
where his shot isn't falling, not getting to the line
an unbelievable amount of time. And we've already seen it
happen with Alpi among anybody. You can physically make him
uncomfortable by just getting into him, both offensively and defense.

Speaker 5 (59:41):
He weighs one hundred pounds.

Speaker 6 (59:42):
He'll learn how to overcome it. But he's only going
to get so strong on that frame.

Speaker 4 (59:48):
But look at this week, right, you have this hapless
mav squad coming to town tonight.

Speaker 5 (59:52):
I hope it's that the case when we get you
here tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
I mean, come on, if the Rockets should win this game,
if they don't, it's gonna be they beat themselves. I
just don't think Dallas is gonna beat them tonight in
any way.

Speaker 5 (01:00:04):
Hopefully, Jabbar is good to go.

Speaker 6 (01:00:05):
He showed up on the injury report with an ankle
that has him questionable.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
Probably because he was blocking twenty shots the other night
against the Celtics.

Speaker 6 (01:00:12):
That sequence with Player of the Year Jabari coming per
Alfi per per.

Speaker 5 (01:00:16):
Alpi hands Alpi hot take time.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
I just like that whole sequence where it went from
the block shot on Brown. By the way, a legit
star in this league just handed him his lunch and
then Amend's like, I'm gonna take this to the other
end and get two plus the foul.

Speaker 6 (01:00:34):
Dude tomorrow morning before school. That's how I'm going to
hand Ryan his lunch. I really I had back him
in the face. He usually put it on his desk
so he could throw it in his backpack, but I'm
gonna actually hand it to him in the manner that
Jabari Smith Junior handed it his lunch to Jalen Brown.
Say he's not gonna like it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:51):
No, he shouldn't. I don't think anybody would.

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
Jason Tatum's out is what it's like playing the Pacers
this year. Like, I don't relish it too much. I
mean that game last year was probably a five highlight
for the Rocket season because the men hit the game winner.
It was awesome. There was never gonna be that kind
of drama in that game. But they still have some
good players. Let me ask you this, why is everybody
trying to trade Derek right White to the to the Rockets?

(01:01:16):
Like I saw this floated out, it was a Bleacher
Report story. Everybody's trying to quote fix the number one
net rating, number one, three point shooting number one. Like
we all knew the Rockets would probably have a decent
defensive team this year. I don't think we all saw
what happened in the preseason. Just continue into the regular season,
and that's what's happening. They're leading the league in scoring.

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
I'm totally fine with looking at what Derek White could
do for this He's a good fit, but not under
the premise of here's one trade for all thirty teams
that could help them, or here's how the Rockets could
get fixed post adding Kevin Durant.

Speaker 5 (01:01:50):
How about the trade itself.

Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
You're giving up for Reeen Shepherd, the Brooklyn number one,
and I think you were giving up maybe Fred's contract
was going in a three teen deal. Was the dumbest
thing I've ever seen. Hey, Fred, who's this? I don't
have your number. It's rafel Oh what's up?

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
Man?

Speaker 5 (01:02:07):
If you want to know reabs going?

Speaker 6 (01:02:08):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:02:09):
Do you want to see if I'm traveling with the team?

Speaker 9 (01:02:11):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:02:12):
Oh, but what's up? What can I do for you? Well,
we were contemplating this trade. No, I will not be traded. Okay,
buys like people are forgetting that he's not being a
He won't be a part of any any move that
they make.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
No, nor should he. By the way, Yeah, they're fine
figuring out the next two months.

Speaker 6 (01:02:29):
This is It's great that they're playing this way and
I think that will continue. But they got too much
to figure out what is it that we need, if anything?
And then if they need to, I'm sure they will
make a move a team that's capable of winning a title.
If they think this can put them over the top,
that's absolutely something they will do. But I don't think
they're convinced yet, nor should they be, that they have
to make a move.

Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
As we wind down the three o'clock hour, we will
get back to the Texans. We also need to talk
about an absolutely epic choke job that's.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Next on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:03:11):
It is the eighteen SPOURSAC seven ninety Space City Home.

Speaker 4 (01:03:14):
Network Colts lose Chiefs lose, but you lost for the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:20):
Like I said earlier, the teams Texans were ninth heading
into play and that's where they still sit. Nothing else
really changed. Baltimore obviously one, but at three and five
like Houston, they aren't ahead of them because Houston has
the tiebreaker over the Ravens. Colts lost, all it did
was bring them back to the rest of the pack.
They currently hold the tiebreakers based on other things, over

(01:03:42):
the two other seven and two teams, So three teams
at the top of the conference are at seven and two.
The Chiefs loss and the Jaguars win did flip those
two teams. That was the only change in the standings.
The Chiefs are outside looking in at five and four
and the Jaguars that last playoff spot at five and three.

(01:04:02):
But the Steelers, the Bills, Chargers, the other three teams
in Steelers were the team that beat the Colts wasn't
even particularly close because they kept turning over Daniel Jones
who had four turnovers in the game, and Jonathan Taylor
never got going. The Patriots game was remarkably close because
they let Drake London own them and got away with it.
Because the Falcons kicking issues continue. They missed an extra

(01:04:23):
point to tie the game at twenty four. They Patriots
won twenty four at twenty three. You obviously know why
the Broncos got to seven and two. The Bills beat
the Chiefs, and I don't know if people think the
score was closer than the game actually was. It was
a one score game, and the Chiefs had the ball
at the end of the game a couple of times
to try to put a dent into that. But the
Bills were ahead most of the game, if not all

(01:04:45):
the game, and one twenty eight to twenty one.

Speaker 5 (01:04:47):
They should do that in the postseason.

Speaker 6 (01:04:48):
They have owned them, absolutely owned them in the games
that matter less in the regular season, and obviously the
owning has been flipped in the Rockets. I wouldn't say
the Rockets own own the Warriors in the regular season.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
They would beat them all the time in the regular season,
and sometimes it would come down to a thriller. Sometimes
they would actually handily beat them.

Speaker 6 (01:05:09):
Maybe if you say these are the two teams most
likely to represent the conference in the Super Bowl or
NBA Finals, and one team can't beat the other in
the playoffs, and.

Speaker 4 (01:05:16):
Then they get to the postseason, it was always the
Warriors would find a way.

Speaker 6 (01:05:19):
I mean, then look at the Bills heading in, Okay,
well this is a problem.

Speaker 5 (01:05:23):
That's a problem.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:05:24):
I guess you could say they got well against the
Andy Dalton led Panthers a week ago, but people were
looking at the Bills like, yeah, what have they really
done this year? I mean, you look at who they've beaten,
and yeah, they're not playing that well. And John they're fine.
Josh Allen's their quarterback. Are you getting this yet? It's
they're still gonna be hard to beat in the playoffs
no matter what else.

Speaker 4 (01:05:45):
Hayley Steinfeld from like ten years ago as a bump
to go to commercials.

Speaker 5 (01:05:49):
I enjoyed that.

Speaker 6 (01:05:49):
Since you brought up the music, maybe this will be
the only time we talk about it, because I'll get
too fired up if we talk more about it. I
am super appreciative, And was the whole postseason on the
baseball side for who was pushing the buttons and loading
up the carts on the bump music.

Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
For the World Series. There's no way they've used cards.
It was elite.

Speaker 6 (01:06:09):
Yeah, the music they played going in and out of
breaks and the slow mo highlights of whatever had taken
place or wherever was coming up. The production team was phenomenal,
but in order to enjoy that, I had to watch
the postseason games themselves and this World Series, a drama
that was there and unfortunately paid way too close attention

(01:06:30):
to the extra inning drama of Game seven that has
the Dodgers. I believe they're still currently in parade mode
in LA and I don't think it has come to
a conclusion yet.

Speaker 5 (01:06:40):
Do you think they should have bunted? Oh my god,
I told you I didn't want to get into this. Stop.

Speaker 6 (01:06:47):
What is wrong with your in Major League Baseball? I
said it a console. I play on my computer. I
go to games. I drink beer and pretend like I
know everything. Why are you doing this? They're paying you
to make the decisions the manager? You're the manager.

Speaker 5 (01:07:01):
What are you doing?

Speaker 6 (01:07:03):
The game is measured in outs. There's no clock to
say we're done. It's one o'clock in the morning. We
gotta go. Game's over look at the clock.

Speaker 5 (01:07:13):
It ran out.

Speaker 6 (01:07:14):
No more game to be played here. I'm aware there's
a pitch clock. You know what I mean? Why?

Speaker 5 (01:07:18):
Why? Why?

Speaker 6 (01:07:19):
What did the batter in front of you just do
the most recent important pitch that the pitcher threw.

Speaker 5 (01:07:27):
What happened?

Speaker 6 (01:07:28):
Oh, Vladimir Garero smash the double off the wall. You
gotta get that run home, right, You gotta tie the
game at least or maybe win the game. What would
you like to do here? Well, I'm gonna make sure
they get an out. I'm gonna get the pitcher settled
down a little bit. I'm gonna make sure he only
has to get three two outs this sitting instead of three.
I don't want three chances to get the run home

(01:07:50):
or more. I only want two. It's what I want
to do here. I know it's twenty twenty five, but
this is the way I want to I want to
measure my team and see if they can get it done.
And stupid manager, your stupid play, stupid execution. Successful, It
was done properly. He succeeded, gave the outer way. Oh
my god, this is awesome. Vladimir Guerrero is still in

(01:08:14):
scoring position where he was before I bunted. Okay, well,
then what do you need to do? Nice at bat
by Addison Barger draws the walk because.

Speaker 5 (01:08:26):
They did it intentionally. Yeah, well, what did he do
after that?

Speaker 6 (01:08:31):
Stayed at first base, Hey man, take the double play
out of order. Victor Krattini thinks, Alejandro kirk is slow.
John Singleton sorry, Lindsay thinks Alejandro kirk is slow. He
sucked Perettis and his broken leg thinks he slow. I mean,
come on, of course he's gonna hit into a double play?

Speaker 5 (01:08:53):
Did They just made mistake after mistake mistake?

Speaker 4 (01:08:56):
But again, that's in that all all of that just
now was in the extra innings of Game seven.

Speaker 5 (01:09:02):
You had a three two lead coming home. Yeah, three
two lead coming home.

Speaker 6 (01:09:07):
Yamamoto was going to definitively pitch once turned out he
pitched twice, and.

Speaker 5 (01:09:12):
He pitched in a twenty four hour period, one hundred
and forty. It was like he was on a college campus.
It's crazy, but I didn't disagree with the move. And
if he tells you he can bring it, he can
bring it. And he did.

Speaker 6 (01:09:22):
But it's a little bit different situation. I thought that
could be a situation where you can get to him.
You obviously hit him a little bit the innings prior
to that, like you mentioned, they had a chance to
play much more add on, and you know, I feel
like Ernie Clement did exactly that absolutely Tattooedaball to the wall.
But Dave Roberts had made a good move, strategic move
putting in his better center fielder defensively in just prior

(01:09:44):
to that, and he runs over Keyke Hernandez who was
absolutely going to miss that baseball, and he makes an
inning ending season.

Speaker 4 (01:09:53):
Part of that whole sequence was watching a grown man
who walks around going by Key k get absolutely steam
by a bigger human.

Speaker 6 (01:10:01):
It was major League Baseball wants what happened in this
World Series. Fans in LA and fans in Toronto should
have absolutely been locked in for obvious reasons. If you
like baseball and you want to watch a World Series,
you want to be entertained by it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:15):
I will give them that.

Speaker 6 (01:10:16):
It was in crazy drama, super entertaining, multiple extra inding games,
totally deserving MVP performance in a series where Otani did
what he did, and Freeman did what he did, and
Vladimir did absolutely they got it right with the MVP
pitching three times, winning three times, and closing out the
World Series.

Speaker 5 (01:10:34):
It really was awesome. This close to a walk off too.

Speaker 6 (01:10:37):
Yeah, they had a couple of obviously the controversial play
previously earlier game with the barger ball at the bottom
of the padded outfield wall. I think Miles Strap might
just have had a chance to score if it doesn't
get dislodged there.

Speaker 5 (01:10:51):
There's so many things, Like I said, great World Series.

Speaker 6 (01:10:53):
Unfortunately, the result that I think a tremendous number of
our listeners and you listeners are tremendous would have liked
to see go the other way.

Speaker 4 (01:11:02):
All that money they spent and they still barely want
it to buy that championship in Los Angeles.

Speaker 5 (01:11:07):
But don't worry.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
At least Otani's money is actually gonna be paid after
he retires because it's on credit.

Speaker 5 (01:11:13):
That's what they do there in LA. And why don't you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
The A team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your team.

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (01:11:37):
It is the A team Sports Talk seven ninety Thursday
excuse me, Monday edition of the program close you know what?

Speaker 6 (01:11:46):
Texans beat the Broncos thirty one thirteen we go. I'm sorry,
was that wrong too?

Speaker 5 (01:11:51):
No, I did that. I'm gonna blame my son on
this one, and I'm not even throw him under the
trying to get closer to next year's Halloween. Gets it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:56):
No, he gets into the truck this morning to go
to school and he goes, oh, man, I can't wait
for Friday, like dude instept putting school for the week.

Speaker 6 (01:12:05):
Yeah, that's a little early to be looking forward to Friday.
Monday has not even begun. He had a good time
with Halloween. They had school today. Oh yeah, you see
because Kirson's kids in have school today.

Speaker 5 (01:12:15):
Why I don't know. No off today and tomorrow because
trigger treating went too hard in the painting. That's what
I first thought. But no, because of voting, you know.
Well that's that is that sometimes districts they will do that.
But I'll tell you this.

Speaker 6 (01:12:26):
Two days of days off too because they have to
prepare to vote as they are in high school and
they can't vote. Well, i mean maybe the schools is
being used as a voting center.

Speaker 5 (01:12:36):
I'm trying to shake this down. I'll say this. He uh,
he did not last that long. Last year. He was six.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
He was like I'm tired, blah blah blah, you know
that kind of thing. This year, he was making us
keep going, and he hauled it in.

Speaker 5 (01:12:56):
So the costume was what UH he was as a
warden from Minecraft, so he was fully covered. Yeah, you
could not tell who he was. And he had the
little fan installed in the back, so it's inflated.

Speaker 6 (01:13:10):
Oh well, I would have hoped that the fan that
was installed in back, even with our milder weather, could
have kept him cool.

Speaker 5 (01:13:17):
He was sweating. Like costumes like that are awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:13:20):
I saw it, but they do tend to make the
costume wearer warm, Yes, very warm, and that can slow
down your But you.

Speaker 5 (01:13:27):
Gotta go, we gotta go. I can't do this.

Speaker 4 (01:13:29):
And I know you haven't gone trigger trading in the last
two years because your kids are in high school and college, respectively.
But like the last two years, counting this year and
last year, we have been absolutely blest with the weather
because I've been out for some humid nights in October.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
It's just brutal.

Speaker 6 (01:13:47):
Yeah, those of you that were following me on IG
saw what I did do Friday at all. So I
left here six o'clock and was on my way home
and making the decision on the fly. The rest of
my family had already left town to join my college
daughter at UH in Austin because they were all going
to the game on Saturday. So I'm like, I know,

(01:14:08):
we don't have any candy, and I know how much
longer the sun's going to be out for And I drove,
and I'm like, should I stop?

Speaker 5 (01:14:15):
Should I where do I? Yes? I should go grocery store.
I stopped, and I had options.

Speaker 6 (01:14:19):
I could either go to the grocery store or go
to the store with that bow and arrow thing that
you shoot at as their logo.

Speaker 5 (01:14:28):
What is the matter with you? Cole?

Speaker 6 (01:14:31):
So I stopped there and they were well shopped, but
I knew what to do.

Speaker 5 (01:14:36):
I got what I over. It was still enough left.

Speaker 6 (01:14:38):
There was enough left. You saw, That's what I mean.
You saw the hall that I had. Yeah, so got
plenty of people. And as the night went on, the
knock the trigger treaders were getting older and older because
the night was getting darker and darker. But it was
very pleasant. I don't hand the candy to them. I
let them choose themselves. I like to see what they pick,
or I like to see which ones of them are like,

(01:14:59):
I mean, he's handing out candy. Why wouldn't I just
take two or three? I'd never stop it. You want
another one to have another one. It's fine, no problem.
I knew I'd still lef leftovers full sized candy bars.
They were not full size everything of the snack sized riety,
because that's what I had to choose from, yes, when
I purchased the candy. But there wasn't one thing that
I handed out that I don't like. And that's how

(01:15:21):
I do it, because I'm never gonna I have never
run out. I buy it knowing that I want some
of this. I want leftovers. I want not enough people
to come that I can't also have some for myself.

Speaker 5 (01:15:33):
And then I ranked him in order. Okay, so you
and you did it properly by the way I tried.
I didn't have all of my favorites. There were no
twigs in the mix. Well, what you have what I had,
And that's the thing.

Speaker 6 (01:15:43):
What number one was easily Reese's pan Fire Cuffs, I
told you because I stuck with what I said on
the show.

Speaker 5 (01:15:49):
Ries's was two, and kit Cut was one. I I
haven't had the peanut butter Snickers. I'd never even seen
it before. Let him try it. We have a few left.
Those are the ones I've been crushing. Bring one in it.
I have some candy with me. I'll see what I have.
Is it that one? I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:16:03):
I have to go to the game on Saturday, the
Cougar game to hand it out to Ted and Dave
and Esh and JB.

Speaker 5 (01:16:12):
Did Esh crush it a marathon runner? That's what Esh did?

Speaker 6 (01:16:16):
Is he he pulled a candy out and said, I'm
not taking the kit kat.

Speaker 5 (01:16:21):
I listened to the show. I know that's your favorite.
He's such a nice person. Kevin.

Speaker 4 (01:16:27):
Okay, shout out to Kevin and I'll see in a
few if if you're listening right now, two things. One
on what you're talking about. No matter if they've been
picked over or if there's tons, is it not true?
This is for both of you or anybody listening. You
get those bags where there's like everything, it's a variety,
But no matter which one you get, no matter what
company it's made by Mars or whatever, there's always the

(01:16:49):
one thing they put in there that sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:16:51):
Is that not true?

Speaker 6 (01:16:52):
Like a Snickers variety pack, the one you're talking about, probably,
even though I don't think it's the one that has Yeah,
it's just a Snicker's almond yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:17:01):
And there's the worst of the Bunch or the dark Chocop.
It's not trying to be exotic, Okay, it's candy. And
the other thing is like whoppers, what a waste of space.
I mean, they're not horrible.

Speaker 4 (01:17:12):
Yes they are, Yes they are. Well, they're okay, hang on,
they're not. There's degrees to this, like they're not the
orange peanut. Tell me candy.

Speaker 6 (01:17:19):
Tell me you don't make face when you ask someone
their what their favorite Halloween candy is and you make
a face when you hear the answer. If it's either
whoppers or milk duds, you definitely make a face. If
that's going to fight back on milk duds. Milk duds
are fine. They're not fine, They're not They're fine, and

(01:17:39):
you have your.

Speaker 5 (01:17:40):
Conversation with them. If they say tutsi rolls, yeah, you
walk away, you're done and you never talk to them again.
And now that is a big handout on Trick or
Treat night.

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
It is.

Speaker 4 (01:17:50):
And I don't I don't even actually dislike tutsi rolls.
But if you're gonna getthing else exactly, you guys have
not said the worst one yet. I'm not trying to
get to these worst one.

Speaker 5 (01:18:00):
Oh they they still make those.

Speaker 6 (01:18:02):
Yes, I know that the premise is well thought out.
If they sell it at the movie theater, it's got
to be considered candy.

Speaker 5 (01:18:11):
But it's raisins. I know, the chocolate. I get it.
It's nature's candy, all the good stuff. I'm ready for
the good stuff. You guys are this is so good sports?

Speaker 6 (01:18:21):
No, that's the good kind of okay, not really all right,
So I just can't get over Sean McDermott's a postgame
speech to the Bills he's giving after the Chiefs win,
and you know, I can't get.

Speaker 5 (01:18:32):
Over it because he looks like Bill Burr.

Speaker 6 (01:18:34):
No, because Brian Gain is in the corner listening to him.

Speaker 4 (01:18:37):
Shortest tenured Texans GM ever and probably laughing right now.

Speaker 5 (01:18:41):
The good stuff, yes, okay, before we moved out of
the city, I'm not going to give away where we
live or weird people.

Speaker 6 (01:18:49):
Sit there hour and fifteen minute drive in each week
and asked to make sure he closes the gate behind
him so the herd or you get out.

Speaker 5 (01:18:56):
Get out? Yeah, okay. So I had to kind of
work on her. And I wasn't even like, oh, let's
go to the burbs, but I was like, I don't
want to raise him in the city where he's going
to be learning how to ride his bike on Richmond
Avenue as people fly by.

Speaker 6 (01:19:12):
It.

Speaker 5 (01:19:12):
Six came out per hour, Like I just didn't want
to do that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:14):
You guys want to join the bike parade? No, And
I just I wanted some space. I wanted to have
a yard. We didn't have that, you know, just the
cliched stuff whatever. So we move out there and like
immediately all of the things that she used to make
make fun of, she became like wine nights are happening
with neighborhood girls, or she's joining like neighborhood Facebook pages

(01:19:36):
and discussing all the things. It's like, come on, and
I say, I don't say anything because it's just it's
I got what I wanted I do, so whatever. So anyways,
it happened. We finally had a controversy. There are people,
like you said, that sit out front with the candy yep.
Then there are people that put a bowl out with
a sign on it, and you just it's it's kind

(01:19:59):
of an honor thing. You know, you trust your fellow
neighbor to not be a total and utter Delta Bravo.

Speaker 5 (01:20:05):
Pick up the bull, pour it into your bag, and
walk away.

Speaker 4 (01:20:08):
We typically go to a separate section of our neighborhood
where her friend lives with her husband, and we know them,
and that's because the houses are like a little bit
closer together. There's more kids on that side. That kind
of thing.

Speaker 5 (01:20:20):
It's just the luck of the draw with the street
you live on, So we leave the candy out.

Speaker 4 (01:20:24):
Carson made a hand. I mean, it's so obvious that
our seven year old son wrote this sign. That's key.
She's got cameras everywhere. If you ever find out where
I live and come try to get some good luck,
you gotta get through her first. But point of all
that is she sees everything at all times. She checks
it all the time. Some little rhymes with bit came

(01:20:46):
over and was like pouring it all into his bag. Well,
we have awesome neighbors, really awesome neighbors, because they caught
him doing it and made him stop.

Speaker 5 (01:20:57):
So that's fine. You would think that'd be the end
of it.

Speaker 6 (01:20:59):
M M.

Speaker 5 (01:21:00):
Not when Teresa's involved.

Speaker 4 (01:21:01):
So all of a sudden, she posted it's a above
the headshot of this kid, so she's not exposing the miner.

Speaker 5 (01:21:10):
You know, It's nothing like that.

Speaker 4 (01:21:12):
But you know, if it was your kid, you unit
he was wearing that night, it's clear you'd be able
to you'd be able to see that from these two
screen caps that she posted in this neighborhood facebook page.
So all the comments underneath this is Saturday morning, right,
All the comments underneath that are like, oh, what a jerk.

Speaker 5 (01:21:30):
You know, I can't believe that.

Speaker 4 (01:21:31):
I mean this one lady, well, I mean he just
looks like, you know, maybe this should make an excuses
right now, that's her kid, it's her kid, And before
you know it, she slides into Teresa's DMS.

Speaker 5 (01:21:44):
All right, you made your point, no deleted up picture
of my miner. I'm like, what a second.

Speaker 4 (01:21:50):
You had your kid going to somebody's house, probably more
than ours, pouring all the candy out into his bag,
and now you're trying to diff this is what's wrong
with society.

Speaker 5 (01:21:59):
Do your job as a parent. Don't let them.

Speaker 4 (01:22:02):
And when you find out that your kid has done
something crappy like that, don't try to excuse it or
get him pulled off the internet.

Speaker 5 (01:22:08):
Just to it he's just a kid. Yeah, well he
was doing adult things.

Speaker 3 (01:22:11):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:22:11):
You do the crime, you do the time for kids.
He was fifteen at least. Okay, you do the he's
a shirk, he was a jerk, he's a bravo and
I here's the.

Speaker 4 (01:22:21):
Thing, wex I found out that somebody we both know
knows him and the family.

Speaker 5 (01:22:27):
Let's get to him. I'll tell you during the break.
But thank you for taking all of our candy. No,
the candy didn't get taken turned back. Yeah, because our
neighbors swooped in for another year. Don't be a jerk
on Halloween.

Speaker 6 (01:22:39):
Don't be a grease pimple face and also be a
trick on Halloween.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:22:43):
I couldn't have said it better myself. I won't say
anything at all. What do we have for our signature
segment today? It all could have been right there, the good,
the bad, ugly about fifteen minutes out. We'll get into
that as we continue here on a Monday, Remember it's
Monday edition of the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:23:13):
A team rolling along on a Monday edition of the program,
not Thursday. Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network,
wexac Cole Thompson with you eighteen to fifteen.

Speaker 5 (01:23:25):
The barn Burner lost by your Houston Texans. Yeah, some
other elements that we really haven't gotten into. Was partially
due to the fact they couldn't run the ball. You know,
some of the issues. They obviously have thrown the football.

Speaker 6 (01:23:38):
The Broncos didn't have to do anything out of the ordinary,
didn't have to send extra guys, weren't loading up the box.
Texans just simply couldn't move them. Knew that they were
a very good front. They talked about it all week
with us. They obviously talked about it all week behind
closed doors and meetings, and it just simply was somewhere
where they were physically at a disadvantage.

Speaker 5 (01:23:57):
They're very, very good.

Speaker 6 (01:23:58):
This is what the biggest concern will be for every
team going against the Broncos, with or without Pat certain ps.

Speaker 5 (01:24:04):
Two who did not play in this game. You are
loving that nickname.

Speaker 6 (01:24:07):
That's my last chance to probably speak about it unless
they meet in the playoffs at some time in the future.
Maybe not this year. But they did a good job
up front, as they always do. I do not think
Davis Mills or c. J. Stroud were running for their lives,
but I think their lives were made more difficult because
even when they had protection they weren't gonna be finding

(01:24:28):
receivers running open a lot because they didn't have to
commit to trying to get to the quarterbacks. They could
just rush with four throughout. It sounded like that's what
they were telling us in the locker room. It sounded
like what Demiko said after the game and again today.
It was nothing really exotic, nothing that they really change.

Speaker 3 (01:24:43):
Now.

Speaker 6 (01:24:43):
They mix up their coverage looks, and I think that
would have given any quarterback a little bit of pause
because it's one of the things that makes Denver's defense
so good. But I'm not sure how everybody else views
how this game unfolded. And I'm not trying to say
that CJ. Stroud and the Texans offense was killing it,
because clearly they weren't. However, I definitely think the Texans'

(01:25:07):
offense is going to be significantly more productive if the
last forty seven snaps of the game are not taken
by Davis Mills. I thought that was a very disappointing
performance for a perfectly reputable, experienced backup quarterback. And like
I said, I know they weren't driving for touchdowns with CJ. Stroud.

(01:25:30):
They didn't score, they weren't in the end zone. I
think the plays that were going to be open to
them were already on display. His connection with Dalton Schultz
with should have ultimately resulted in a touchdown. It was
the drive where they ended up on the first goal
from the one where they did not score. They should
have had first and goal from the one on another
drive with Nico Collins reaching the ball to the one

(01:25:51):
yard line and not being marked down and laying on
top of a defender. But again, we don't talk about
this in the NFL for I don't know what reason.
Their inability to correctly spot the ball is maddening. They
only missed the spot by about a yard and a
half only, and it's you're at the goal line. Now,
maybe it benefits the Texans to be at the two

(01:26:12):
instead of inside the one. But he catches the ball,
runs through defenders, gets tackled, he's lying on top of
defender as he reaches the ball out and it lands
inside the one. You could maybe say some part of
his body was down before it went. That's but his knee.
He's on top of another player. How can his need
be down? So how is it being marked at the two?

(01:26:33):
It was Nonetheless, I just think they're gonna fare a
whole lot better. I mean, I don't, like you said
before during the breath, I don't think this is controversial.
I'm not sitting here saying, well, they definitely win the
game as CJ plays. I think that, but I don't
want to say that because I think that's a little
much to expect from a team three series.

Speaker 5 (01:26:51):
Into a game.

Speaker 6 (01:26:53):
But yeah, of course this hampered the Texans, and I
brought this point up to Tamiko earlier today. Cole, if
you can fire up number four for us here we
talked about the concussion for him and what has this changed.

Speaker 5 (01:27:06):
Davis Mills is in the game and so well.

Speaker 6 (01:27:08):
Titus Howard played half the game, Titys Howard left with
the concussion. Also, Titus Howard wasn't on the field in
the second half, So guess what else went out the door?
The most successful personnel group they've used for weeks, No
more jumbo package. They didn't roster enough or keep enough
active players among their offensive line to do it. They
carried a swing tackle and their other two tackles, Jared

(01:27:30):
Kingston and Trent Brown, were made inactive like they have
been all season. Either one of them's gotten in a
game this year, despite being on the active roster in
each of their cases at some point during the season.
I don't know why they continue to do that, and
it absolutely burned them, in my opinion, in this game.
The most successful offense they've run is when they've been
able to mix in tackle eligible.

Speaker 5 (01:27:52):
They don't run it every play.

Speaker 6 (01:27:53):
They ran it thirteen times on their first thirty five
snaps in this game, so they were well on their
way to running it maybe twenty five to thirty times.
And it's not every play. They're only successful plays. Aren't
those plays only that they all mixed in. They don't
run every time, they'll pass every time. But it clearly
has allowed them the last several games as they've used
it more and more to do things that they haven't

(01:28:13):
been able to do. So as soon as Howard's out
of the game, well now your tackle eligible's gone because
he's playing right tackle, and that's where Blake Fisher was.
The entire rest of the game. They did not run
a tackle eligible play the entire rest of the game,
no times in the final thirty seven snaps, all of
which were taken by Davis Smills, almost all of which
ended in punts and very few first downs. It has

(01:28:34):
to Miko Ryans today if the Howard concussion did force
them to do things differently. In light of the fact
that they never ran the jumbo package at all, the
rest of the game.

Speaker 8 (01:28:44):
Didn't change much for us. Not going jumbo package is
not a huge deal for us. Still had opportunities to
run a football. Just got to make sure we're targeting
the right way. We got to make sure we're blocking
and making sure we're finishing our blocks.

Speaker 3 (01:28:58):
If we want to be great at a run game,
is gonna.

Speaker 8 (01:29:00):
Take more finish in our blocking, which we got improved.

Speaker 6 (01:29:04):
Last thirty four snaps of the game, none of which
were in jumbo package, all of which were commanded by
Davis Mills. They had a drive for negative one yard
followed by a punt. They had a drive for nine
yards that started at the Denver thirty. That was one
of mills field goal drives. They got a first down,
they went a whole nine yards and they kicked a
field goal. They had a twenty four yard drive for

(01:29:25):
another field goal. They went three and out. They went
three and out, They got a first down and punted.
They went four and out. They went three and out.
They went three and out. I almost I wonder if
there was another way to phrase it, because clearly that
is an inaccurate answer.

Speaker 5 (01:29:41):
That changed everything.

Speaker 6 (01:29:43):
I don't think it was all well, yeah, well Davis
is out there, he's a backup. That's why it didn't
work well. It changed what they like to do. It
changed everything about what they want to do, regardless of
who the quarterback is.

Speaker 5 (01:29:54):
I am.

Speaker 4 (01:29:56):
I know we disagree a lot about a lot of things.
I think I fundamentally disagree with with your and that's
not your assessment, just the assessment that Davis Mills is
a Look, it's hard because backup quarterbacks are backups for
a reason. Yeah, but I just don't think he's as
good as you think he is.

Speaker 6 (01:30:17):
And this is why what he did yesterday would make
it hard to be on my side.

Speaker 4 (01:30:22):
Well, and I know we had a bad performance, but
even at his best, I just think they could have better.
That's why I'm kind of pseudo surprised that they extended him.

Speaker 5 (01:30:30):
Not because it's just.

Speaker 4 (01:30:31):
There's a lot of thought put into your backup quarterback
and getting but there kind of needs to be I think,
especially if you're fielding this kind of offensive line.

Speaker 6 (01:30:38):
Look around the league, there's gonna be a backup quarterback
starting again tonight, Jacoby Brissett. Yeah he's better than him, Okay,
But and then the backup to Joe Burrow is Jake Browning.
He's benched and replaced by Joe Flacco.

Speaker 5 (01:30:52):
Yeah, who had the game of his life.

Speaker 6 (01:30:54):
The backup for JJ McCarthy, who played a lot this year,
was Carson Wentz. Obviously he's now hurt for the remainder
of the year. Moving forward, the Commanders are going to
be playing Marcus Mariota because of the Daniels.

Speaker 5 (01:31:05):
Injury last night, which should have never happened.

Speaker 6 (01:31:07):
And we will play dan Quinn Audio as he addressed
that before he took questions today at his press conference Washington,
there was a sword there and I think he tripped
and fell on it during a press conference.

Speaker 5 (01:31:21):
So this a small example of the quality there's not good.

Speaker 6 (01:31:26):
Andy Dalton started two weeks ago against the Bills and
they got crushed forty to nine. I mean this, that's
the caliber of players most gms and personnel people think
is all they need at the backup spot. There's very
few guys that are backups right now that other teams
in the league are like, man, I wish we could
get our hands on that guy.

Speaker 5 (01:31:44):
Because he could start for us. It's just the way
it is.

Speaker 6 (01:31:47):
Like Tyson Bagent got into the game yesterday for Chicago
and through a pass. Four different players through a pass
yesterday in the Bears game, and their quarterback was never hurt.
It just fancy Gadget plays. Tyler Shuff is the backup
to Nobody Spencer Rattler.

Speaker 5 (01:32:03):
When the year begins in New Orleans, it's very it's
a very watered down league at that position.

Speaker 6 (01:32:10):
I would agree investigating something that might be better, and
they just decided we'll make it easy on ourselves. He's here,
he knows the offense, he knows CJ. Everything's worked. Let's
just keep it going.

Speaker 4 (01:32:21):
But again, going back to the original point, it's I
don't I mean the most well known of Tom Brady's
backups was who Matt.

Speaker 5 (01:32:30):
Castle because he got to play a season and it
was like a total fluke and they changed a rule
because of it. And for the most part, guys like him,
guys like Peyton Manning, guys like Drew Brees, because they
had just mountains of men in front of them that
would not let that happen.

Speaker 6 (01:32:46):
You know, you also don't have to worry about as
much if you Gosh and the honestly, since you picked them.
The Patriots have done it very differently. They would draft
quarterbacks that had no chance to play for them, like
Jimmy Garoppolo and Ryan Able to flip him into for
another team. Ryan Mallet's another we're never gonna play started

(01:33:08):
a Super Bowl yep, and he was there pick he started.
He he did start for the Patriots because of the
ball inflation issue. See how I didn't say to flake Gate,
I saw that it was a ballation?

Speaker 5 (01:33:21):
Was the BII? Why don't they call it that? Nobody
called it that? That's why?

Speaker 4 (01:33:26):
Uh yeah, well, Davis Mills, it is in all likelihood
this upcoming week the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Hey maybe that's the ugly. You'll have to stay tuned
to see.

Speaker 2 (01:33:35):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:33:41):
Now the good, good, the bad, that's my good and
the ugly.

Speaker 2 (01:33:46):
Don't make me good with the A Team.

Speaker 6 (01:33:53):
Say eature segment time Monday, as that brings the good,
the bad, the ugly full sports weekend to bring to you. Here,
Cole has the ugly, I have bad something good from
this past sports weekend or otherwise.

Speaker 5 (01:34:06):
Ac what do you got for us? Well?

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
This the good news is that the season is almost
half way over.

Speaker 6 (01:34:14):
I did this for you. I can't help but hate that,
I know, hate that the season is almost over. Hate
that the college football regular season is drawing to a close.

Speaker 5 (01:34:21):
I had all those.

Speaker 4 (01:34:22):
Because there's like start chaining games left ear with the Texans.

Speaker 6 (01:34:27):
I mean, I wouldn't if you say anything thinking about
college football.

Speaker 4 (01:34:31):
Listen, no, I'm not gonna do that. Listen, just look
not even far ahead, look into the immediate future and
see what we're gonna be talking about.

Speaker 6 (01:34:40):
We're five and five Texans after they win two more
division games.

Speaker 5 (01:34:44):
Yeah right, yeah, and that's gonna be.

Speaker 4 (01:34:46):
What a good thing all that's doing now at this
point in the year, with what's ahead of them and
the standings and everything, you're hurting your draft stock.

Speaker 5 (01:34:56):
That's where they're at now.

Speaker 6 (01:34:57):
So you're trying to figure out which pick in the
first round they're gonna trade out of.

Speaker 5 (01:35:01):
I hope not, because I hope they do what they
need to do before the draft.

Speaker 6 (01:35:03):
Well, if Nick's no longer the GM, then they will
not be trading out.

Speaker 4 (01:35:06):
But in all seriousness, Davis Mills, by the way, will
be fueling you to probably that is a lot to
that week of practice, other than having a super Bowl
caliber defense, which you're wasting. And it's just another reminder
of this that is just rewinding the clock back to
like twenty twenty three. Oh great, another Davis Mills start.

Speaker 5 (01:35:29):
Yay, it sucks because it's what's the good. It's almost over.
That's what I said. You're halfway there. Many, this is what
you guys want for your good.

Speaker 6 (01:35:39):
It's halfway there. And I say backwards ass Wexler version
of good.

Speaker 4 (01:35:43):
I am the wet blanket. Come on, man, here's the deal.
True Texans fans that want this to get better agree
with me.

Speaker 6 (01:35:50):
They want to throw away a season with nine games remaining.

Speaker 5 (01:35:54):
No, it's almost over, team already, it'll all be over soon.

Speaker 4 (01:35:58):
The team already did that when they feel that this
crap offensive line in front of CJ.

Speaker 5 (01:36:02):
And by the way, we're burying the lead.

Speaker 4 (01:36:06):
What's that he didn't get sacked and concussed behind that line.

Speaker 6 (01:36:10):
He chose to take off and run as he's been
doing all year.

Speaker 5 (01:36:13):
Why plotting? Why did he make that choice?

Speaker 6 (01:36:16):
Though, because he's been running a lot more this year
because the protection broke down and he eventually protection is
going to break down when you've been back there on
that particular play.

Speaker 5 (01:36:26):
As long as it's his fault, I'm just saying you playing,
he's playing football.

Speaker 4 (01:36:29):
You heard it here first, Wex is blaming CJ for
his own concussion.

Speaker 5 (01:36:33):
There you go, this just Inny slid Ley.

Speaker 6 (01:36:37):
I mean, people really do think that he put this
on himself, the version of the caliber of injury that
he suffered. Yes, we can get into that again. To quarterbacks,
no one to slide. Are they putting themselves more at
risk they are by when they slide and all that stuff. Yes,
it's all a part of it, and I definitely want
to get back into that. But I assume that that's

(01:36:59):
it for the extremely uplifting only Like it's the good,
the bad, and the ugly.

Speaker 5 (01:37:04):
I think we know the ugly is going to be bad.
You know you're enjoying it.

Speaker 6 (01:37:07):
We know the bad is going to be bad. Can
we not get some good from the good? It was
all bad? Now?

Speaker 5 (01:37:12):
What somebody was supposed to say?

Speaker 6 (01:37:14):
The worst thing that happened this weekend is the Rockets
only won by twenty seven.

Speaker 5 (01:37:18):
That was bad. I will by twenty eight. I'll give
you the good. Kevin Durant's even better than advertised.

Speaker 6 (01:37:24):
Yes, he really is, in all seriousness, and keep this
in mind, even better than advertised. Don't come back and say,
but he only averaged twenty five point five points per
game this year.

Speaker 5 (01:37:37):
That's among the lowest of his career.

Speaker 6 (01:37:39):
I know for a fifty what win team, for a
final eight, final four, final two team in the Western
Conference or in the playoffs in general, it's about winning
at some point in your career. And he is what
you scored twenty six points on Saturday night.

Speaker 5 (01:37:55):
He didn't play the fourth course. He took eleven shots. Right,
It's so efficient.

Speaker 4 (01:37:58):
This is why you I sat in his chair and
said this to you, and I know you remember, I'm like, dude,
I want Kevin Durant. He's efficient af like that guy.
There's no drop off whatsoever. This guy can shoot, but
he can get open to shoot. He does it within
the framework of the offense. He plays defense. There's not

(01:38:21):
I mean, what was your biggest fear about him? The turnovers?

Speaker 5 (01:38:24):
Well?

Speaker 6 (01:38:25):
Did I would accidentally say something that I didn't mean
on the X platform and he would get after.

Speaker 4 (01:38:30):
Me, did he No, I would have worst fear. I
don't have no fear. Oh my gosh, that would be
like the best theater ever. Oh my gosh, of all
people to pick on. Katie went after we Why don't
we just talk in person? Make it easy. I don't
think he wants to walk up those stairs and he's
not waiting on you.

Speaker 5 (01:38:49):
Hey, it's WEX up here.

Speaker 6 (01:38:50):
Hey, no, no, over here, look over yeah, right up here,
you're talking to I don't think I'll do it.

Speaker 4 (01:38:55):
Would you like me to take some pregame video of
him on the baseline again tonight?

Speaker 5 (01:38:58):
Every time I do it, they win.

Speaker 6 (01:39:00):
Okay, please, I'll give you the bad in the form
of a good. Yes, the bad was the final five
or so minutes of the Longhorns Vanderbilt game.

Speaker 5 (01:39:11):
Oh my god. The good was the whole rest of
the game.

Speaker 6 (01:39:15):
Yeah, and that people are like, I don't know if
they which one they're saying more Texas is back, which
is preposterous, or should arch Manning still be in the
Heisman Trophy conversation? Both of them are ridiculous. But I
do think he threw the ball, just the ball leaving
his hand and getting to where it's supposed to go.

Speaker 5 (01:39:36):
That looked better.

Speaker 6 (01:39:37):
I think they've changed the offense a little bit to
make the passes a little bit more easier to just
take the snap, look and throw and let's move on
from there. First play the game, they took the lead,
they were up a couple scores right out of the gate,
and then some calls that were a little questionable, then
an onside kick that they nearly let Vanderbilt recover, and

(01:39:57):
everything that happened up to a thirty fourth, thirty one win.
When they blew them out, that was the final score.
Having to sweat that one out unnecessarily. It was a
great weekend twenty all I can give you for the
Bemember twenty beating nine as a favorite. I'm just saying
as a favorite, Ugly Cole, that's you.

Speaker 5 (01:40:18):
Thank you appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:40:19):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:40:19):
I mean I consider you to be a very your
turn to talk. Oh you're not talking about my own
personal feelings.

Speaker 5 (01:40:25):
I am not very attractive.

Speaker 3 (01:40:26):
You are looking very.

Speaker 5 (01:40:28):
Much a good person.

Speaker 6 (01:40:30):
Only think that would have been more ugly is watching
Keith Hernandez drop that ball, and it would have been
a fantastic weekend out in Toronto. I digress my personal feelings.
Let's go out to Cincinnati. It was ugly, by the way.
By the way, it was ugly on two different instances.
The first one is the Bears jumped up with less
than I believe it was five minutes off on the

(01:40:50):
clock to a forty one to twenty seven lead on
a Dj Moore's seventeen yard touchdown. Well, here comes Joe
Flacco twenty three yards downfield to Noah Fense to make
it forty one thirty five with fifty four seconds left.
Driving once again, Andrea baasays in the back of the
end up for a nine yard touchdown.

Speaker 5 (01:41:12):
Forty two, forty one.

Speaker 6 (01:41:14):
What a collapse by the Chicago bas Oh wait a minute,
never mind, Here comes a fifty eight yard pass from
Caleb Williams to Colson Lovelin with thirty six seconds left
on the clock. The Cincinnati Bengals over the last two
seasons moved to two and four when scoring thirty five
points or more. The rest of the NFL eighty three,

(01:41:37):
six and two went scoring thirty five points or more.
Just in case you were wondering, the Bengals are bad defensively,
very very bad. Defensively, that was a weird, weird, weird,
weird game. From an offensive standpoint, obviously, that's a four
hundred and seventy yard passing day for Joe Flacco in defeat.

(01:42:00):
In defeat, they dropped the three and six the Bears.
Somehow they are five and three and it took them
forty needed to get forty seven points in order to
do it to beat the Cincinnati Bengals, who went back
to back weeks miraculously found a way to entertain everybody
for the final two minutes of each of their football games.
But like I said, they've all two, three and six.

(01:42:21):
That was ugly.

Speaker 1 (01:42:24):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:42:31):
Five just a few minutes.

Speaker 6 (01:42:34):
So undoubtedly we'll get back into something specific about the Texans.
That something is their physical mindset and who is weighing
heavily on their decisions on what calls, what plays to call,
even though they are not the OC something else it's
extremely difficult to figure out is happening with the Texans.
And I'll talk to him Autter the game yesterday, and

(01:42:56):
obviously watch things unfold offensively yesterday for the Tech since
who decided at ten thirty they would have all six
of their healthy wideouts active for the game. That includes
Braxton Burios, the two rookies Noel and Higgins, the two
returning vets Collins and Kirk, and Xavier Hutchinson. All six

(01:43:17):
of them were active. Expectations were Nico Collins would take
a full complement of his normal workload.

Speaker 5 (01:43:22):
He did.

Speaker 6 (01:43:24):
Likely the same for Christian Kirk, and he's been nowhere
near a heavy use player this year, but the games
he's played where he's been healthy, he's obviously been used
quite a bit. Xavier Hutchinson has been healthy all season
and has usually been the wide receiver who gets the
second or third most snaps on any given week. The
week Nico Collins was out, you bump him up a
little bit. Jayden Higgins is usually on the field about
half of the time. Did not expect Bracton Bracston Burials

(01:43:48):
to play much at all. In fact, he did not
play at all. On offense. He REI he was back
to receive for all three of the Broncos kickoffs in
the game. He received two of them. He did not
take a snap on offense, but I guess with Damian
Pierce inactive, they thought it was necessary to have both
he and Tremon Smith active to receive kickoffs handle return duties.

(01:44:12):
Jalen Knowle, as per usual, handled all their punt return duties,
which he's been doing throughout the year at an extremely
high level. I don't watch every team. I do look
at numbers, but it's hard to say from numbers alone.
I doubt there are too many punt returners having a
successful as successful a season as Jalen Knowles having. He
has been electric as a return man, and during the

(01:44:34):
last couple of weeks, as they've been missing a couple
of wide receivers, he was borderline electric as a wide receiver.
So what is it that isn't clicking for him, for
the OC, for whomever. How can he be on the
field offensively for only eleven snaps on Sunday, which was

(01:44:56):
the case. He was on the field for eleven of
the texans se three offensive snaps, the fewest snaps of
any offensive player they had that played in the game yesterday.
British Brooks, who's a short yardage back and a blocker,
he was out there for the same number. Daray was
out there for one more play. Their backup tight end,

(01:45:16):
who's the only tight end they had active in the
game yesterday along with Dalton Schultz only two. He was
out there for almost twice as many plays. And what's
worse is Jaden Higgins was on the field for half
of their plays thirty five of seventy three snaps. If
you want to be specific, I'm a math guy, it's
forty eight percent. You know when he saw his first

(01:45:38):
target on his thirty five snaps, it was snap thirty four.
The pass he caught on the final drive of the
game on second down before their final play of the
game was the only time he was targeted the entire
game while playing thirty five snaps.

Speaker 5 (01:45:53):
You can't even call him a decoy.

Speaker 6 (01:45:54):
I don't understand how, and it's happened repeatedly throughout the year.
It's okay if you don't want him on the field.
It would even be okay if somewhere there's some acknowledgment
that he's doing something wrong. He's doing enough right to
get on the field to be trusted to take all
these reps. Is he doing something wrong when he is
on the field. Is he running the wrong routes? Is
he a terrible blocker? Is he not handling his assignment?

(01:46:17):
I think it's I watch a lot of football over
the years. These numbers are They're really hard to produce.
Play half the game, never see the football. It's almost impossible.
And just the fact that Jalen Knowle's not on the field. Yes,
but you got a backup quarterback out there. He touched
it one time technically a run when they threw him
the ball. He was behind the line of scrimmage. Who

(01:46:38):
it counts as a running play, but don't he's who
do you have that's killing it offensively?

Speaker 5 (01:46:42):
On Sunday? You had five field goals. You were struggling
to move the ball.

Speaker 6 (01:46:47):
You never thought to try something else with a player
who's kind of maybe special.

Speaker 5 (01:46:53):
The least helpful.

Speaker 4 (01:46:54):
Yeah is this? But okay, here's the deal. Who do
you put this on the most? Nick Kyley, yes, or
Demiko Nick Cayley.

Speaker 6 (01:47:04):
I don't think Demko is so heavy handed with what
he wants to do offensively that he's making it harder
on Nick. I think Nick's doing it himself. I know
he's involved a little bit more offensively than he was,
seeding some of the defensive play calling duties to Matt Burke,
so he can be But I mean I'm not saying
with authority, I'm saying with a speculative guess that he

(01:47:26):
and Nick talked before that. I mean, it's not a
Sunday thing, I don't think, which is also part of
the problem. It should be a Sunday thing. You can
game plan all you want before the game, and you
can run through everything on Friday and go through the walkthrough,
and then you get Saturday night and the final few
tweaks are made and this is what we're going to do. Yeah,
but then you play the game. Then you have to
react to what's happening in the game. Titus Howard is

(01:47:47):
out and CJ. Stroud is out, and this isn't working,
and that isn't working. And we're averaging two point seven
yards of carry. We don't have a double figure yard
carry the entire game. I mean, what we're doing, what
we decided would work, is working. So some adjustments have
to be made. And it kind of goes back into
the Jumbo package saying I credit them. They found something

(01:48:07):
they what Bobby Slowk did not or would not do
last year. This group said, well, we're not operating like this.
Our five crimemens are working. We're going to do something exactly,
you try something else. If it doesn't work, you try
something else after that. You can't just keep doing the
same stuff that isn't working over and over and over again.
So to that end, I credit them, But then they
call some of the plays that they run, they use
some of the personal l packages that they do, and

(01:48:29):
they just they just don't seem to make a lot
of sense with what they're keeping active for games and
how they're going about it on days where things look.
So that was a bad offensive day of football.

Speaker 5 (01:48:39):
It was not great. Well CJ was out there, and
it clearly got worse after that.

Speaker 4 (01:48:43):
Christian Kirk at least making appearances now when he wasn't before.
But this goes to the you have so many options
available to you, and that's just another one of them.

Speaker 6 (01:48:55):
Well, how about the second half worth of play calls
and you bring up Christian Kirk and who's out there
for almost sixty percent of the snaps and was targeted
to open that final drive of the game, had eight
targets on the day. Very, it's perfectly fine. He's your
slot receiver, the mill slot guy. Yeah, your second most
snaps in the neighborhood of week to week. That's a fine. Well,
how about Nico Collins going nine targets, seven receptions seventy

(01:49:16):
five yards in the first half. I know he played
in the second half. I swear to God, I swear
I saw him out there, and I know he took
a couple of big hits and there were some plays
he would normally have been out on the field for
but was taking a couple of extra snaps off I
think to physically be prepared. He was targeted twice in
the second half with no catch up.

Speaker 4 (01:49:34):
I think if you are to assess things, and again,
we're only about it the halfway point, at least from
a games played standpoint for the Texans. When you start
looking back at the end of this season, should things
keep going the way they're going to? And again, I
don't know if Davis Mills playing next week. Should he play?
Is a better thing? Or open up the offense? If

(01:49:55):
you're Nico Collins, though, this is the least productive from
a non health affecting it, even though he did miss
one week standpoint of your career.

Speaker 6 (01:50:07):
I mean so far this season. Yeah, that's that's definitely
a reflection of the offense was fine. I mean the
day was seven for seventy five. It's not awesome. It's
not awful, But you did all that in one half
of football. Yeah, against a team that was missing not
just a good corner again their best corner, but he's
significantly better.

Speaker 5 (01:50:27):
Better than Stingley in the entire league.

Speaker 4 (01:50:29):
I just yeah, I think that's the most glaring aspect
of Nick Cayley year one, who was brought in to
do what he was brought in to do. By the way,
it's just it looks like it's so much more of
a glaring issue when you consider who he came into
a place, what the prom because he had no problems

(01:50:50):
finding Nico Collins.

Speaker 6 (01:50:52):
Well they like you saw eleven targets that big pick.
It wasn't the big problem. It's there's no way the
Denver defense change show dramatically in the second half. This
was a factor of the Texans offensively. We're putting it
on Neil the Nico Davis connection. They didn't do anything
in the second half, and when one of your best
players is still out there, you would think, well, if

(01:51:13):
nothing else, let's try this. Yeah, forcing it in. They
didn't turn the ball over. I think that's how they
try to approach it. If we don't turn the ball
over and we kick field goals, maybe we will win.

Speaker 5 (01:51:23):
Well, maybe not. I should talk about football at five next.

Speaker 2 (01:51:26):
Okay, the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:51:34):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team.

Speaker 6 (01:51:47):
It is football at five here on Sports Talk seven
ninety five o'clock hour, the show final hour of the show,
before we gets you into Rockets coverage, they have the
Dallas Mavericks in town tonight. Rockets are looking to get
to four and two and in the process would drop
the MAVs to two and five. Right there in the
middle of all that is the three and five Houston Texans.
A five field goal performance five of six for Kiyomi

(01:52:11):
Fairbairn left the Texans three points shy of well overtime
eighteen to fifteen, they get beat, they lose. On the
last play of the game, field goal goes through the uprights.
Will Luttz his only made field goal of the day,
attempt at a field goal on their opening drive, which
was blocked, and in between, the Broncos were able to
find the end zone twice convert a two point conversion

(01:52:34):
on the second of those two touchdowns. That tie the
game at fifteen, and with the Texans scoring zero points
in the fourth quarter while the Broncos scored eleven points
in the fourth quarter, a staple of their season.

Speaker 5 (01:52:47):
We talked about it all week last week.

Speaker 6 (01:52:49):
They have been very good at securing victories when it
appears they aren't going to. Three times this year they've
done that with massive fourth quarter comebacks. Four games this
year for the Broncos have ended on a field goal attempt.
They've won two and lost to and all these close
games are part of the league, and oftentimes they kind

(01:53:10):
of even themselves out an up year a down year.
You got eight of nine of those games in a
year you win five, you lose four, or something like that. Well,
the Texans better go streaking in the right direction over
their final nine games or this is gonna be one
lopsided season in one score games. Fourteen to eight was
their record in one score games prior to this year,

(01:53:31):
if I have that correct, a seven and three followed
by a seven and five in their first two seasons
of Jamiko Rans and CJ Strout quarterback. This year, eight games,
five of them have been one score games eight points
or less at the final score that won any of them.
They've lost all five of those games. Their constant refrain

(01:53:51):
of if we could just or we just need to finish,
I do find laughable at that point. It's not like
these games are twenty one to fourteen with a minute
left and you're blowing it. It's not like they've got
a one score lead late in these games and they're
not coming through. They had one such game, and that
was the Bucks game, and the only reason they had
a one score lead a lead of five, was because

(01:54:14):
the Bucks let them score a touchdown so they could
get the ball back and go all the way down
the field and score the game winning touchdown and win
by one. After allowing the Texans to go up five.
The game could have turned out a number of different ways.
Texans could have ultimately scored a touchdown, could have kicked
a game winning field goal with no time. All sorts
of things could have happened. That's the one game that's
a little bit different. Rams game. You had the ball

(01:54:36):
in the final minute after forcing a turnover and had
just gotten into the red zone, which is the Texans
kryptonite when you turned it over. So I'm not sure
what you were finishing when you were losing fourteen to
nine in a game where like yesterday, you scored no touchdowns.
Twenty five percent of the games the Texans have played
this year have included zero touchdowns being scored their first

(01:54:58):
game and now their most recent game, and the subsequent
one point losses like Jacksonville, like Seattle and yesterday, like Denver.
You're not trying to finish a game. If you're not
winning the game. They're not even in yesterday's game at
least they were tied, But in the other two games
you're losing. What are you finishing? I said this earlier.
I know it sounds very broken record, ye, but what

(01:55:21):
is it that you're trying to finish? The best case
scenario is you forced overtime against Jacksonville. You scored ten
points in fifty five minutes. What are you trying to finish?
You didn't play good football that. I will give credit
to Demiko o Ryans for something he said today very
briefly and to close out his press conference. He said

(01:55:41):
it very succinctly, and I'm glad he answered it this way,
and he didn't try to challenge Jim Mora in any
way with his comment. But when presented, and I've got
it with the idea that the playoffs, are they attainable?
Is that how do you get your team in position
to play for That question about the playoffs and the
three and five Texans was answered like this by Dimiico

(01:56:04):
Ryans right now.

Speaker 8 (01:56:05):
We can't talk about playoffs until we played football better.

Speaker 6 (01:56:09):
It's very simple. He didn't playoffs. He thought it and
he gave an answer like it. But he's right, like
they're playing week to week. I'm glad they do view
things like that, and I know it's how they feel
in the locker room. It's very similar in every locker room.
It's why games don't bleed over one weekend or the
next very often. And when they do, that means you're
not a good football team. You know, the idea that

(01:56:30):
this team is going to fall apart and break apart
and fracture and splinter, and maybe because one side of
the ball is very good and one side of the
ball isn't. We've been through this before here in Houston,
for those that remember wondering why the Texans locker room
isn't fracturing With JJ Watt and Brian Cushing on one
side and a defense that could do. I don't think

(01:56:50):
this is some sort of sign of well it's going
to be okay, and just because the locker room isn't lost,
it'll be okay. I lose in the locker room, Clearly,
that is bad. And having a team that isn't playing
for each other and playing for the common goal and
believes in one another, I get it, that is all bad,
but it's it's also okay for them to realize we've

(01:57:12):
got something.

Speaker 5 (01:57:12):
We got to do our part.

Speaker 6 (01:57:14):
We gotta and I know they do, but I'm not
going into the locker room and asking questions about it.
And when you know, giving them pats on the back, well,
you haven't lost the team, and you guys aren't breaking apart.
And what does it say about the leadership of this team. Well,
it's great that they're competing five times in their five losses.
It's great that they have three one sided victories, one
of which is against a good team. I mean, that's

(01:57:36):
that's neat. That's fine. But keeping the team together is
not a goal. It's only a goal when you stink,
and that's what they are. They're three and five. Is
it gonna Are you gonna be happy with will They never,
They never, They never had any internal issues. There wasn't
It wasn't a locker room issue with this team. They

(01:57:57):
fought for their coach. They want six and eleven? Is
that okay? Is that what the goal is? You know,
I'm not trying to make a bad situation worse, which
is really all that you're trying to have them tell
us they're trying not to make a bad situation worse
by adding any other issues to it. They put together
a locker room that we already knew this wouldn't happen.

(01:58:18):
I didn't expect them to lose football games. I didn't
expect them to be owing five in close games. Didn't
expect them to have so much trouble scoring and so
much trouble in the red zone, both on offense and defense.
You know, they're the only team in the NFL when
spotting the ball at the two or closer, they have
not scored a touchdown. They've had that opportunity on ten
different snaps. They have not scored in any of those situations,

(01:58:38):
and three of them came in succession in this game yesterday,
to which I want to hear from Demiko again. So
this team had an opportunity to put touchdown number one
on the board pretty early in the game. First drive,
they got all the way down the field, sniffed the
red zone, but after another bad third down play third

(01:58:59):
and five from the two twenty three obvious field goal range,
CJ sits in the pocket and waits and waits and waits,
and ultimately he get sacked and loses nine yards. So
now they're back at the thirty two and the fifty
one yard field goal is missed. Defense picks you up,
blocks denvers field goal, get the ball back in very
good field position after the block on a fifty one

(01:59:19):
yard attempt, and almost immediately two snaps later, you're in
the red zone.

Speaker 5 (01:59:25):
Yeah. The great play, best play of the game.

Speaker 6 (01:59:28):
The ball over the middle to Dalton Schultz about thirty
yards of yak forty seven yard catch and run, and
there you are at the twelve yard line. You get
a nice first down run from Nick Chubb, you get
four yards. CJ scrambles to inside the five yard line
and you tack on a defensive holding call and look
where you are. Early in the game, up three to
nothing or in a tie game after two missed field

(01:59:49):
goals one for each team and your first and goal
at the one, and Blake Fisher reports his elegible on first, second,
and third down all from the one, and you run
up the middle three consecutive times, once with your tailback
Nick Chubb, big strong back, and twice with your full back,
a very big strong back.

Speaker 5 (02:00:10):
But what are they supposed to do? This is math?

Speaker 6 (02:00:15):
It could work, sure, the math already tells you it
shouldn't work and is a low success rate play. Just
the physical math of who is in your way the
entire team, All eleven players are in the box the
way that they lined it up on those plays, and
five of them are right on the line and another
three are right behind them. You maybe have three or

(02:00:37):
four guys that are blocking for you, because you can't
run behind five guys. You're running behind two or three guys.
And when you hand off dude or tailback, he also
gets to run behind the full back if that's where
the play takes him. When you give it to the
full back, he has even less to help him out
as he runs into that mass of humanity. And as
I brought up earlier and on X yesterday, your offensive

(02:00:58):
line is not good.

Speaker 5 (02:00:59):
They're not good.

Speaker 6 (02:01:00):
Last blockers. They're not good run blockers. I'm not telling
you they're the worse in the league, but they're not
good at either of those things. So why are you
running into the teeth of the defense where that's their strength,
not once, not twice, but three consecutive times. And if
you didn't know the answer, Demiko rans made sure you
got the answer today. When I asked about the physical
mindset of the team, I.

Speaker 8 (02:01:18):
Approached the game from a physical mindset. Oh hey, if
you're on the one yard line and we got to
knock somebody back to get in the end zone, that's
how I approach it, and that's how I always approach it.
And then when we do get in the end zone
on the fourth down, we got a false start, so
it's like we got in the end though, CJ got in,
and let's take points of taking off the board because

(02:01:40):
we have a false start.

Speaker 3 (02:01:41):
We're not locked in on the snap.

Speaker 8 (02:01:43):
So it's just so many things there that goes, hey, yeah,
there's a physical mindset.

Speaker 3 (02:01:47):
That's what this game is built on.

Speaker 8 (02:01:49):
You have to have that mindset and you should want
to be in those situations where hey, we got to
knock somebody out the ball to go get one yard.
If you don't have that mindset, you're probably not gonna
get in.

Speaker 6 (02:02:00):
But even if you do, it's a physical thing. Their
mindset is fine. Laken Tomlinson and Jake Andrews and Juice
Scrugs and Ed Ingram. They don't think, man, there's no
way we're gonna do this. That they think they can
and they have the right mindset. They're just getting physically

(02:02:20):
pushed back, not just not getting pushed forward. They're getting
pushed back in these situations repeatedly. But then you just
tried to run the same play over and over again,
A Cole, you were there. I've watched the replay. I'm
not sure. Let me ask you this. Did any of
the referees put their arms up when CJ. Stroud ran
the fourth down sneak? Or had they already resigned too?

(02:02:41):
There was no play, there was a false start, they
already resigned to. Okay, now you watch the play. I
watched the play. Did it look like he got into you?

Speaker 5 (02:02:48):
H close? But yeah, I think so? Okay.

Speaker 6 (02:02:51):
I did not think he got in, but it's definitely debatable.
And he described it as he thought. Essentially, they took
points off the board because the Texans screwed up. Now
he's right on that there was a fault. I'll start
by ursery, But I love the idea. I like a
coach who thinks like that. But you got to use
who's on your team, who's out there to execute that.
It's not a strength of the team, it's an absolute

(02:03:13):
weakness of the team. And repeatedly going after it in
that way by your own choosing, which he's clearly influencing.
From a play call standpoint, I'll call it unsmart.

Speaker 2 (02:03:26):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:03:33):
Some people are wondering why they're drafting on this date,
November three, you just get into the eleventh month of
the season. Well, something you know is gonna happen. It's
college basketball season. College basketball season opens up this evening
all across the country, and here in Houston you have

(02:03:54):
h opening up what could be another special season. Come
in definitely ranked in the top two anywhere you might look.
Some have them at two. Most I don't know why,
but pretty good. Leehis in toown to help the Cougars
kick off their season this evening over for Tita center
Cooar's come in as a thirty six and a half
point favorites should be special. Looking forward to more from

(02:04:16):
them over the course of the next several weeks and
on through the madness that will be March. We've mentioned
I was over the Cougar football game this past weekend
opportunity to stay atop near the top of the Big Twelve.
There is now just one remaining undefeated team in the
Big Twelve, that is BYU, and BYU will be in

(02:04:36):
Lubbock this weekend to take on Texas Tech, one of
two teams with just one losses in the Conference Cincinnati.
If you were listening earlier to the Ugly and Cole
began the Ugly with I gotta go with Cincinnati, he
absolutely could have been talking about the bear catch who
fell from the ranks of the conference unbeatens in a
very dramatic or a very one sided fashion. Thought for

(02:05:00):
a second maybe they would be staying in the inside
the ten and a half number, as they were ten
and a half point underdogs. Was twenty four to fourteen
in the second half, and then they just absolutely fell apart,
caught a couple of bad I don't know if breaks
or just simply did not make a play what they
could have and the game just completely got out of hand.
Utah looked like the significantly better team, hammering them forty

(02:05:23):
five to fourteen, and I was mentioning the Cougars. The
Cougars were playing a winless conference team in West Virginia,
and even though the West Virginia had changed a lot
of their offense with the change at quarterback, obviously recognizing
some of their deficiencies, they just couldn't stop them. You know,
you were minus four in the turnover game, had the
late punt where it hit off of a player's foot

(02:05:44):
after everyone was trying to get out of the way,
the last of the cougars four turnovers in the game,
and they ended up losing forty five thirty five, dropped
seven to two, dropped their second game in conference play
ahead of their final three regular season games Friday night.
They have UCF seven o'clock game coverage of that begin
over on nine point fifty at six o'clock. I will

(02:06:05):
be there for that game as well, so we'll be
coming to you from Orlando for Friday's program here when
we once again hit you with our stone cold locks.

Speaker 5 (02:06:13):
I hope not to have a five and oh week.

Speaker 6 (02:06:16):
Last week followed by an oh in five this week,
but that will be the case if the Cowboys don't
win tonight by more than two and a half points.
They've got the Cardinals that wraps up Week nine when
they get that game finished. And I put this some
numbers out there for you a little bit earlier regarding.

Speaker 5 (02:06:33):
The Texans defense.

Speaker 6 (02:06:35):
I'm not trying to tell you they're not awesome, because
they are, but there are some things that I talked
about all off season that had better get fixed, or
all the awesomeness that they are and have been and
will be and continue to play like it won't really matter.
Texans defense ranks first in the NFL and points allowed,
first in the NFL in yards allowed, and it's not

(02:06:55):
going to change tonight with these two terrible teams playing.
They're fourth in yards per play allowed if you want
to measure it via that their third and third down
conversions allowed. They're fourth in takeaways after another game yesterday
where they were on the plus side of things. Also
their twenty sixth in red zone defense. By the way,
they'd be thirty first in red zone defense if they

(02:07:17):
didn't get a gift statistic at the end of yesterday's
game guess what the Broncos were in the red zone
against the Texans defense yesterday.

Speaker 5 (02:07:24):
They were oh for one. That's how it goes in
the books. You know.

Speaker 6 (02:07:27):
Their O for yeah came because on the last second
to last play of the game they advanced the ball
into the red zone for the first time in the
entire game.

Speaker 5 (02:07:38):
They had one snap.

Speaker 6 (02:07:39):
In the Texans red zone and they went zero for
one in the red zone because they didn't score a
touchdown on the final play of the game, in which
they kicked the game winning field goal. So it actually
does make the Texans numbers slightly better. They're only twenty
sixth than the league instead of thirty first, so that's
bad enough. When another team gets a goal to go
situation against the Texans, they score a touchdown every single time.

(02:08:04):
They're one of a couple teams that has not prevented
a touchdown in a goal to go situation the entire season.
Texas defense is very good at preventing that. They're very
good at letting teams only march the ball in between
the twenties. That's great because they stink in the red zone,
which is a little bit surprising, but it is who
they were last year and so far this year. It

(02:08:25):
is the same thing, and it is not a good thing,
and it is something that does become hard to overcome
and does put you in a very bad, seemingly unnecessary
position because you're so good at everything else. How can
you be so good at everything else and not be
able to keep teams from converting. It's exactly what's killing
the Texans on the other side of the football. They
obviously cannot get the ball in the end zone. Offensively,

(02:08:46):
they haven't been in the red zone nearly enough. They're
awful in the goal to go situations inside the two
worst in the NFL. And they come off of a
game yesterday where they had a two takeaway game. They
had a zero turnover game. Half of their games they
have not turned the ball over at all. They've still

(02:09:07):
managed to lose two of those games. Won the turnover
battle two nothing in defeat. Two weeks ago, they won
the turnover battle four to one in defeat. It's hard
to come by. You look over the giveaway takeaway numbers
in the NFL, there are a bunch of teams on
the positive side. There's twelve of them, the five and
three Bears, the five and three Steelers, the five and

(02:09:30):
three Jaguars, the six and two Bucks, the Lions, the Rams,
the Chiefs, the Eagles, the Colts, the Bills are also
the three and five Texans. Three and five Texans are
fifth in the league in turnover margin. Everybody else is
not just a winning team, but a winning team by
multiple games. Any way you want to slice it. It all

(02:09:52):
points to the same thing. They don't make winning plays
and they don't score enough points. You should not be
leading the league in defense and have this much tru
five times in eight games. They had two games with
no touchdowns scored at all on offense or defense. No
touchdowns at all in the game, among the many, many,
many many things they would like to avoid. The update

(02:10:12):
we got today on the two players in concussion protocol
was good news, but not real news. A good news
that Tamiko Ryan said he had talked to both Titus Howard,
who left the game about halfway through with going into
the concussion protocol. I went back and watched. I was
there Sunday. I did not know which play it took
place on, and I will continue looking this evening, but

(02:10:33):
it looked like he played all the way through each
of the series he was involved in, and then it
just simply did not return.

Speaker 5 (02:10:38):
CJ.

Speaker 6 (02:10:38):
Stroud obviously we know when that took place said he
talked to both of them separately, and each of them
told him that they were doing well.

Speaker 5 (02:10:45):
They seemed to be doing better.

Speaker 6 (02:10:47):
But phases of the concussion protocol have to be passed,
and timing of it suggests pretty difficult. It's not impossible,
and it has happened before. A player goes in and
gets back out of the concussion protocol within a week's
time and does not miss any football games. I think
it's a dangerous game to play. I understand the protocol
is what it is. If the player is passing all
the steps, goes through the necessary practices to practices, then

(02:11:11):
if he passes, he passes, you can still hold him
out of the game, but he certainly would be eligible
to play in the game. I think the Texans are
a dramatically different team with Blake Fisher at right tackle
and no snaps with a sixth offensive lineman.

Speaker 5 (02:11:25):
You can look at the rushing numbers if you want.

Speaker 6 (02:11:27):
Doesn't tell you a very good story because the Texans
don't only run out of tackle eligible formations. The two
biggest plays of the game two weeks ago, where both
tackle eligible plays a fifty yard pass and a forty
four yard pass. These are the types of it has
to do with pass protection as much as it has
to do with run blocking. They need to give their
quarterback time to throw. They need to keep him bill

(02:11:48):
with the ability to go through progressions. A sixth tackle
is not necessarily only on the field to run the football,
so it's something they completely lost. They obviously didn't have
the right personnel up for that game. You can't forecast
all of your injury issues, and yesterday it was a
pretty I thought heavy day for injuries. At Ingram miss
Time was able to return with a knee injury. Christian

(02:12:11):
Harris had four special teams snaps, but apparently on one
of them he heard his shin and was not able
to return. He went into the tent and went into
the locker room before halftime. He came back to the
sidelines during the second half and continued to try to
test it and try to get back in the game. Ultimately,
he ended up going back to the locker room for
Gerd Darryl Taylor did the same thing. He only saw

(02:12:31):
a handful of plays, only two on defense and a
few more on special teams. He had an ankle injury
that he was clearly on the sidelines trying to see
if he could continue to give it a go, but
he could not. Obviously, the two concussion issues that also
took place during the game, so there were losing players
throughout the game. They a couple weeks ago were in
an unbelievable place from an injury standpoint. Essentially every player

(02:12:52):
on the active roster was unlisted on the injury report.
Woodie Marx also came out of the game after receiving
some attention. Sure, but it looked like they were looking
at the calf injury that he was listed on the
injury report for on Thursday. But he also returned to
the game, not very successfully. But neither Woody nor Nick
nor anybody else that ran the football had much success.

(02:13:14):
They didn't have a running play over nine yards in
the game. Two of their longest plays are three of them,
as a matter of fact, were from the quarterbacks. CJ
had a pair of six yard runs, Davi Smills had
a seven yard run. Nick Chubb and Woody Marks each
had one run over that but less than ten yards
This team's not built to drop back forty times in

(02:13:34):
a game, which is what they did in this game.
It makes it very, very difficult. You got kind of
lucky that everything worked out perfectly in the game against
San Francisco. Best pass pro they've had all season, most
time to throw, most accurate game, best game he's probably
had in two years. Not gonna happen every single week,
and certainly you played a very beaten down defense that

(02:13:55):
day in the forty nine ers.

Speaker 5 (02:13:57):
In case you miss it.

Speaker 6 (02:13:57):
And there are a few items that definitely deserve our attention,
we will hit on those.

Speaker 1 (02:14:02):
Next the aight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:14:09):
Final hour of the show.

Speaker 6 (02:14:11):
Halfway through that final hour, we hit you with in
case you missed it. Before we get into those items,
a quick reminder of what we have to give.

Speaker 5 (02:14:18):
Away for you this week.

Speaker 6 (02:14:20):
All week long, we're gonna send you out to see
some great music. Should you win here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. Sting is coming to the Woodlands Pavilion, ac
DC is coming to NRG Stadium.

Speaker 5 (02:14:33):
And we have tickets to get away to each show.

Speaker 6 (02:14:36):
The Sting performance to May May thirteenth over the Woodlands Pavilion.
Tickets go on sale this Friday be a Ticketmaster at
ten am, and the ACDC show.

Speaker 5 (02:14:47):
Is August thirty first, twenty twenty six.

Speaker 6 (02:14:53):
The Power Up Tour August thirty first over NRG Stadium.
Tickets for that event go on sale this Friday as well,
Ticketmaster at ten am. Both of those shows just announced today,
So if you want to see either of those, be
a pair of tickets. We'll give those to you in
the final hour of the show, and we'll thank you
for listening. Because you've been listening, you'll know the answer
to the question we ask you at that time. Well,

(02:15:14):
we gotta get going with in case you missed it.
What do we have here today?

Speaker 5 (02:15:18):
All right? So you kind of brought this up a
little bit earlier.

Speaker 6 (02:15:20):
But Jaden Daniels, oh boy, I mean, I understand that
there is sometimes that you want to go ahead and
give it your all, but then there's other times where
it's just game's over.

Speaker 5 (02:15:30):
Why are you doing this?

Speaker 6 (02:15:31):
And especially knowing that he's dealing with injuries while Dan
Quinn and the offensive side to leave him in a
little bit longer. And the Washington Commanders lost last night
to the Seattle Seahawks. It's the fourth quarter they're down
by thirty one, they're driving into the red zone, and
then everyone had to watch what was far and away
the most gruesome injury of the year as his arm

(02:15:54):
went left and his elbow went right. The good news
is it was on his non throwing shoulder, which did
show a fracture afterwards. He did actuit the game with
seven thirty nine remaining in the loss, and dan Quinn
has been facing a lot of scrutiny ever since, well
before he ever started his press conference today about what
do we look for moving forward? Sitting at three and six,

(02:16:14):
where do we go for me? Here with Marcus Mariot
as a starting quarterback, he decided to go ahead and
just bite the ball and let everyone know, guys, I screwed.

Speaker 5 (02:16:23):
Up at the start of the fourth core.

Speaker 9 (02:16:24):
I guess it was probably like twelve and a half
minutes left in the game, and that was gonna be
the last drive for a couple of guys, Jayden and
Zach and Debo and LT and so we're gonna have
many Reid run plays and meaning no carries, you know
for the quarterback on a run. And honestly, man, that's
where I missed it. Of course, he could scram bus Jayden.
It's what he's special at, and that is one hundred

(02:16:45):
percent that's on me and.

Speaker 5 (02:16:49):
It cost him.

Speaker 6 (02:16:50):
We don't know how many weeks. It's a dislocated elbow.
You mentioned the fracture they then found it was. It
was pretty gruesome. I did think that's is what happened. Luckily,
oftentimes the bones that get broken, either the leg or
the arm, and you can see it, and it is
something that you know is going to take an exceptionally
long period of time to recover from left elbow. Very
important that they scored on the next play to only

(02:17:12):
lose by twenty four points. And he said as he
did as he noted at that time, I don't believe
a whole lot in what this can do for your
team rale wise, and next week and building on this,
you say, we don't carry one loss to the next,
so we don't carry over one win to the next.
Momentum is only what you produce each and every game day.

Speaker 5 (02:17:34):
It was time.

Speaker 6 (02:17:36):
There's a lot of time left in the game. You're
down thirty one points. This drive, by the way, was
already into its fourth minute. They ended up having a
five minute touchdown drive. The closer you get to the
end of the game, as the scoreboard hasn't changed, you
obviously are not going to come back and win that game.
And unfortunately it did cost him. Their quarterback who did
not run on any of the other plays, a bunch
of passes, some straight handoffs on all the others, but

(02:17:58):
they got close to the red zone and just scrambled
outside the pocket. And as he went down, he put
his arm down and it buckled underneath him. So it
is Marcus Marioti Mariotech time again for the Commanders. Last year,
they battled the Eagles in the NFC title game. This
year they're three and six and are turning to their
backup quarterback what Else. We just saw recently the Washington

(02:18:21):
Nationals hire the youngest manager in MLB with Blake Butterra
at Lanta. They just can't get out of their own way.
They've decided to go ahead and hire what Wise, former
manager of the Colorado Rockies from twenty thirteen to twenty sixteen.
The sixty one year old brays Brent bench coach since
twenty eighteen. Has been on Stickler staff for the last

(02:18:42):
four years after being an internal hire coming up from
TRIPAA in twenty and sixteen, replacing Fredi Gonzalez midseason when
he got the full time job, Sticker decided to turn
down another year with the.

Speaker 5 (02:18:54):
Program after turning.

Speaker 6 (02:18:55):
Seventy What Weiss is sixty one? Do you think this
is a bad hire because Walt Weiss is old? I
think that when you look at the other names that
they were potentially targeting, going for a more fresh.

Speaker 5 (02:19:08):
Approach, like who Mark de Rosa? Okay, I agree with
that wholeheartedly.

Speaker 6 (02:19:13):
We brought his name up a little while ago, be
a first time manager at the major league level, has
some international, major league or managing experience with Team USA.
But I hear you on that, I just can't look
at Walt Weiss and I think that's.

Speaker 5 (02:19:27):
A bad hire.

Speaker 6 (02:19:28):
Might not work, But what difference does it make if
he's sixty one?

Speaker 2 (02:19:33):
Fair?

Speaker 6 (02:19:34):
But personally the one that I was very much excited
to hear about, and they brought up in Atlanta multiple times.
Danny Lenneman from the Los Angeles Dodgers, the bench crutch
for them, forty years old, three time World Series champion,
being a part of the organization from twenty eighteen to now.
That felt like a hire that would have sparked new
life and more specifically, just in my humble opinion, it's

(02:19:55):
not a deciding factor, but when you're trying to swing
big and free agency, this maybe was a move to
where you could have at least landed another name that Hey,
we're getting younger, we're getting more experience, we're adding in
a little bit more gust, so you can have to
be this piece that kind of gets so over the top.
Maybe so health of their team would be paramouth towards
winning when one of their best players hasn't been healthy.

(02:20:16):
And honestly, if you look at their roster and then
I tell you they were bad at baseball this year,
it is a little bit hard to figure. Seems like
they have a much better roster than that. I don't
blame the manager at all, and obviously injury was a
big part of it. But h Walt Weiss, once a
brave that we hated, and now a brave we don't
care much about. Don't see them very often. But it's
okay if you want to still hate Walt Weiss the

(02:20:37):
baseball player.

Speaker 5 (02:20:38):
What else do we have? Happ betrayals? Thank God?

Speaker 6 (02:20:41):
And finally for Hugh Freeze, who was fired after what
had to have been one of the worst games of
the SEC football season, a ten to three loss to
Kentucky on Saturday night. Freeze Fancais with the fifteen to
nineteen record and two plus seasons out.

Speaker 2 (02:20:54):
On the planes.

Speaker 6 (02:20:56):
He was He's owed fifteen point eight million dollars six year,
forty nine million dollars salary.

Speaker 5 (02:21:03):
He was bad offensively.

Speaker 6 (02:21:05):
He was brought in to fix the problems as one
of the more big gurus.

Speaker 5 (02:21:08):
At quarterback playing.

Speaker 6 (02:21:09):
Never got the quarterback position right, went six and sixteen
in conference Plane.

Speaker 5 (02:21:14):
And a name that has been rumored but is.

Speaker 6 (02:21:16):
Not expected to be the front runner for the job.

Speaker 5 (02:21:18):
Is Houston head coach Willie Fritz.

Speaker 6 (02:21:21):
So currently that's four interim head coaches in the SEC, Arkansas, Auburn,
Florida and LSU yep. Is there going to be a
fifth opening when we get to the college coaching hiring season. Yeah, well,
I mean the question is is there going to be
more than five? Because I do think that by the
end of the day we will see Mark Stops either

(02:21:42):
step down or be fired. I don't see him coming
back in twenty twenty six. The question is is what
happens with Lane Kimpin and Eli Drinkquitz. If they take
LSU and they take Florida, that now opens up Ole,
miss and Missouri as well, So we could see up
to seven.

Speaker 5 (02:21:58):
And there's been a rumor that.

Speaker 6 (02:21:59):
Maybe Jeff Lovey he goes back to the state of
Oklahoma and takes the Oklahoma state job. So eight potential
sec moves a year after nobody got fired in the conference.
Just a quick thought from you, since you brought his
name up. I don't need a lot of explanation. You
can give a semi long answer, but it has to
be in ten seconds or less. Willie Fritz is the
new coach of Auburn. Does that sound like it's really

(02:22:21):
gonna happen. It sounds like something that would be underwhelming
to the Auburn faithful and really upsetting to the Houston faithful.

Speaker 3 (02:22:29):
No.

Speaker 6 (02:22:29):
Yeah, I'm not not necessarily seeing it, although I do
think he's deserving of eyes being on him. They did
lose a game this weekend that they probably should not have,
and what happens the remainder of the season could go
a long way towards what people feel about Willy Fritz.

Speaker 5 (02:22:42):
They were a four win team in year one, at
U of H.

Speaker 6 (02:22:44):
They're already a seven win team now with three winnable
games remaining on their regular season schedule. Got those tickets
for staying It and ac DC separately to give away.

Speaker 1 (02:22:54):
Next on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:23:06):
Just about set to hand you off the Rockets coverage
Rockets and Mavericks tonight. They brief stop in Houston for
the Rockets, a couple of games on the road. We'll
have three more on the road after this, five out
of six on the road, but they return home to
Toyota Center with a winning record. Previously playing against Detroit
and Brooklyn at home, have not yet hit the Toyota

(02:23:27):
Center floor with they were winning record. They will do
that again tonight. He lamenting the fact that Texans can't
get there. They've played as an zero to one team,
they've played as a two and three team, they've played
as a three and four team, and they have failed
in each instance to get back to five hundred and
now we'll have to wait until they win a game
until they can get back to that point, if not worse.
But we got a couple of tickets to give away

(02:23:47):
and a couple of updates on the baseball side of
things that you may have missed from over this weekend
or the last few minutes. First to the tickets told
you we've got a couple of great performances coming to
Houston in the next couple of months. May thirteenth, Woodland's
Pavilion Sting will be performing that show announced earlier this morning.
Tickets on saleviat ticketmaster dot com this Friday beginning at

(02:24:10):
ten am. But we've got a pair of tickets for
you should you want to go, could win them here.
We also got a pair of tickets see ac DC.
The Power Up Tour is coming to the h in
twenty twenty six, August thirty, first over at NRG Stadium.
Tickets for that show similarly go on salvia ticketmaster dot
com Friday morning at ten am. Just announced that show

(02:24:30):
earlier today, So a pair of tickets to either show.
Should you win? Because you've been listening to the program.
In fact, last segment, you'll know the answer to this question.
At seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one at three two one two five seven ninety
we were talking about the reported hire of the Atlanta Braves,
moving from the bench coach to the manager. That's Walt Weiss,

(02:24:53):
the former Brave, the former Rockies manager, had a discussion
about whether or not they were still getting in their
own way or just simply making a bad choice, and
we brought up one name we both agreed on should
have strongly been considered as their next manager, even though
it would be his first managerial job at the major
League Baseball level. Who was that name? Cole brought it up.

(02:25:17):
I agreed, I thought it would have made a fine choice.
We've actually talked about him multiple times in the last
year and change about how I do think he will
be a major league manager, and probably for that team.
But now that job is not open anymore. Who was
that player, former player turned broadcaster that we suggested would
make a good choice for the Atlanta Breys, which they

(02:25:38):
didn't make. Name that player seven one three two one
two five seven ninety We just mentioned it last segment.
Announcements on the Gold Glove Awards were made over the weekend.
Astros had a couple of finalists. They had a winner
again at the utility position. Mauricio Dubon was awarded with
the Gold Glove for his utility work all around the

(02:26:00):
infield and as we speak, the Baseball Writers' Association of
America are unveiling their finalists for the respective awards. Their
regular season awards, they get announced just after the season ends,
and the season just ended over the weekend, and so
they announced the finalists. I don't think there are going
to be very many, if any, surprises, but it's pertinent

(02:26:23):
to the astros, as we've discussed throughout the year, talked
about it with Chandler Roe and Brian mctagger who have
joined us throughout the year. It matters to the astros
if Hunter Brown finishes in the top three for cy
Young voting, as they will be awarded an additional draft
pick if he does so well. They named three finalists
and he's one of them. He finished in the top

(02:26:43):
three for the cy Young Award. Very unlikely he got
even a single first place vote, and if you're asking me,
but he accumulated enough points to finish in the top three.
I suspect Turk Schooble will receive somewhere in the neighborhood
of thirty first place votes, and then Garrett Crochet hunter
Brown obviously split the rest of the second, third and

(02:27:05):
fourth place finishes, and one of them will finish second,
and one of them will finish third. Those are your
three finalists for the cy Young Award. Jose Ramirez is
in a similar situation in the MVP race. He's one
of the finalists for American League MVP, and if anybody
voted for him as the MVP of the American League,
I would be shocked. I don't have the power to

(02:27:26):
take people's votes away, but I would if I did.
Cal Rally and Aaron Judge are the other two finalists,
and one of them will win it in what I
think will be a pretty close race. I think Cal
Ray will win the award. Joe Spotta not among the
finalists for American League Manager of the Year. I don't
necessarily think people expected him to be as the season

(02:27:47):
came to a close, but there are obviously times during
the season where it certainly appeared a possibility. John Schneider,
the manager of the American League champions, Stephen Vote, the
manager of the Guardians, and the apparently best manager in
the division. Were they finalists. Dan Wilson of the Seattle Mariners.
He's been on the job just over a year, but

(02:28:08):
guided the Mariners to their first division title since two
thousand and one. All the other awards finalists are also
being announced tonight. Pertinent to the Astros, probably not much
else if you care about the National League, etc. But
that's going on out there. Two other baseball notes of consequence.
Both were expected, and both will become official when the

(02:28:32):
all of the announcements have been made and the MLBPA
puts out the official list. Opt out time five days
from the end of the season is when players will
have that opportunity.

Speaker 5 (02:28:43):
We'll have the qualifying offers.

Speaker 6 (02:28:45):
We will be inside the general manager's meetings by the
eleventh of this month for a couple of days. So
this all does kind of happen rather quickly. It doesn't
mean moves will be made as quickly, but it could.
Cody Bellinger, as expected, opt out of his Dodger of
his Yankee deal. He is expected to be pursued and

(02:29:05):
has interest in returning to the Yankees. Alex Bregman has
opted out of his deal with the Boston Red Sox. Reportedly,
this was also expected. It does not mean he is
playing the market. It means he is playing the Red Sox.
I don't necessarily think it's a done deal that he's
playing there. I think I would say there is a
strong possibility that he is getting re signed by the

(02:29:27):
Red Sox just to a different deal. Could have opted
in for forty million this year with the remaining forty
million dollar option for the twenty twenty seven season, or
in advance of what could be a work stoppage coming
during the length of his contract, he could just go
ahead and sign a lengthier contract with more than eighty
million guaranteed, which is all he is essentially guaranteed to

(02:29:48):
get currently, and that's what he's doing. It's gonna come
from the Red Sox or some other big spending team.
He had multiple suitors just a year ago and had,
even with injuries, what I would think would be called
a successful season, both individually and for what he provided
for his Boston Red Sox, who were in the postseason.
He's gonna get more than eighty million guaranteed. I think

(02:30:10):
the same teams will show some level of interest. Other
than Houston. They already have a logjam in the infield.
Unless you're moving multiple players and finding new positions for
at least one player you keep.

Speaker 5 (02:30:25):
I don't really think.

Speaker 6 (02:30:25):
That Alex Bregman and the Astros are negotiating a contract
for the second consecutive offseason, but I do think he's
gonna end up back in Boston. Few other names will
trickle out over the next couple of days and some
decisions on qualifying offers. Astros will make that decision on
from ber Valdez. I'm pretty sure the decisions already made,
and they will give him a qualifying offer and he

(02:30:47):
will decline it and hit the open market, knowing that
there are not a lot of pitching options from a
starting standpoint out there. Ironically enough, the Astros will be
tied to two of the best Dylan Cees and from
ber Valdez among the arms that will be available this
off season. Texas Showdown between the two and four MAVs
and the three and two Houston Rockets sober at Toyota Center.

(02:31:10):
Of course, we have it right here for you on
Sports Talk seven to ninety and those watching the sim
will cast you get to game right there on Space
City Home Network. Rockets launch Pad begins here in mere moments.
Rockets Countdown at six thirty, tip off at seven o'clock,
and we'll talk to you again tomorrow at two

Speaker 2 (02:31:28):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety

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