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January 9, 2025 11 mins
The NFL on CBS' Charles Davis joins The A-Team, before he calls this Saturday's Texans-Chargers in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs. He talks about why he believes in this Texans team. Charles also is a huge fan of a recent move that the Texans made on their roster. Plus, we get a little bit of a College Football Playoff semifinal games. 
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got playoff football all weekend long, and since it's Thursday,
as Charles Davis knows, the weekend is well underway. Charles
Davis happy enough to join us, and we appreciate the time, Charles.
We've talked to you several times over the years, looking
forward to all of the fantastic action throughout the weekend.
But it starts tonight with Notre Dame and Penn State,

(00:21):
and then of course everybody here in the state of Texas,
or at least a lot of us, looking forward to
tomorrow night's tilt against Ohio State. Which one of these
matchups is most intriguing to you, and yes, you have
to pick one.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, I think Notre Dame Penn State's more intriguing, only
for this reason. They seem to be a little more
of the match of which one finds a way through.
But you're essentially the same team, you know, like change
of uniforms. I don't know that Penn State plays differently.

(00:55):
I don't know that Notre Dame plays differently, Like they
are kind of the same type of a group. They're quarterbacks.
That's what intrigues me the most. I think Drew Holler
has made a nice jump this year because prior to
you worried about him being dependable in bigger ball games.
And I don't think we asked that question of him
any more. He's kind of, you know, made his bones

(01:16):
in a sense. And Riley Leonard. Look, let's face it,
anyone follows college football, no matter what a great job
David Cutcliffe did and re establishing Duke or really establishing
Duke as a program, and what Mike Elko did there.
And you're still saying, that's a Duke quarterback going to
Notre Dame. You know, I mean no offense to anyone
at Duke, but we're talking football, folks, We're not talking hoops.

(01:40):
It's different. And he went and did a tremendous job there.
Nor than Illinois, notwithstanding Marcus Freeman, James Franklin, both them
with different pressures on them, but major league pressure. Don't
don't fool yourselves, maybe more on Franklin because in the
Big Ten they can't beat Ohio State. You know, that's
sort of a deal. But I always laugh when my
pens and friends get all upset over it and I

(02:02):
just start laughing. They're like, why are you laughing. I
was like, ask yourself. This question who is beating Ohio State?

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Isn't the answer Texas.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
You're hoping to find out that it's Texas, but it's
not a lock. And the other the other thing is
that they're like, well Michigan has I said, yeah, Now,
I said, prior to that Ohio State was running Michigan,
I said, not many people beat them. You guys act like,
you know, it's a fad of company. It's not. They're
very good. It's a good program. So it's a tough deal.
But I think that game's a little more intriguing Texa.

(02:33):
Ohio State's you know, obviously has its intrigue. But for me,
when there are two teams that seem to be the
same team, I want to see how you find your
way through. I want to see what advantage you can
figure out and try and gain and win that ballgame. Look,
I'm rooting for Texas over Ohio State because I'm an
SEC guy. Since Texas is now an SEC program, they're
in the family, So I'm good with that.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
I mean, far be it from me, Charles to try
to read between the lines and decipher what you're saying
in my own way. But it sounds like the two
last Ohio State team is unbeatable. To you, they're not
going to lose to Texas. I don't care what they
did in any other year. I only am looking at
this year. They've lost too.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
They're not. Yeah, they're not unbeatable. They're not unbeatable, but
they're playing the best out of the teams left in
this in this final four. Well, so okay, so they're not,
but they're not. But they're not unbeatable.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
It's interesting you bring that out.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Lost twice this.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Year, Yeah, right for whire. So many people talking about
them as if they.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Are have you seen have you said, have you seen
them play these two games? Yes, of course they're pretty good. Okay,
so what we've seen in these two Look, my Tennessee team,
we would like to say we didn't show up very
well in play Ohio State. It had a lot to
do with that. Oregon was number one team in the country,
had beaten them prior to they ran them like like

(03:50):
they were scrimmaging. Is this They are hot right now
and they're playing well. So that's all I'm telling you, Like,
I'll put to you this way. If they played Michigan
ten times this year, that was Michigan's one win.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, and I think that's what a lot of people
will point to, is that game. But do you agree
with this, Like, just since we're on the subject of
how well they're playing, is Texas gonna be the best
defense they've seen all year?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, I'd say yes. I would say yes. It'll be
interesting to see how Texas takes it all the way
through because that Arizona State game put a few chinks
in the armor, you know what I mean. So when
you're looking at it and that Scataboo kids a heck
of a football player. Now, how the State's gonna run
Judkins at you, They're gonna run Travon Henderson at you.

(04:40):
You're gonna have to continue to get Scataboo times two.
Are you ready to hold up for that for for
for an entire ball game? The answer is yes, Texas
can no if stands or butts. What they did with
Arizona State impressed me in this way they had the game.
I watched it a little bit. I was doing stuff

(05:00):
getting ready for my games, and every time I turned
away and turned back, I kept saying, there's no way
Texas is this game. Like whatever is going on it
just never felt like anything was gonna happen, and then
it all happened. Right, So now we're into a ballgame.
Texas could have very easily found a way out and
not won that game. Like the momentum could have overwhelmed them.

(05:23):
They didn't let it happen. Fourth and thirteen and they
stick it and it wasn't fourth and thirteen and the
ball tipped around five times and found his way in
someone's arms. That thing was well designed, well executed, and
my man stuck it. Boom, And then they went ahead
and made the play on defense and got it done.
That's what impressed me, because they had their chance to

(05:44):
go back. Oh God, we blew it. No, they hung
in there and found a way through. And it's gonna
be a whiz bang of a game, I really do.
It's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. And
believe me, I'm gonna be hooked. I'm gonna be throwing
up the hook of horns because I'm definitely rooting for
the SEC squad.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, hopefully when you're in the booths on Saturday afternoon
here in Houston, you'll be able to do that. In
the fact that the game will have ended the night before.
But you're in the booth with your crew with CBS,
Iroan and Evan for Texans Chargers. You've had a bunch
of games to see what the Texans are all about
both of these last two seasons, which obviously is all
that matters. The Demiico will Anderson, CJ. Stroud era Texans.

(06:22):
Anything before that pretty irrelevant. But in your mind, can
they take what they did during the regular season and
pay it little mind and go out there and play
like a much more impressive team.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, they can, because we've seen it happen a lot
in the NFL. We've seen it happen in college, where
that second season is different. It changes things. And you
hear of coaches all the time talk about you guys
spend more to talk about us as media people, Right,
you guys spend more time I talk about momentum. Momentum
is week to week. Man, it's only at that moment

(06:57):
at that time. It's not carry over. Well, I don't
believe that. I think it does carry over a little
because I spent time with this Houston franchise now in
the last few days, and they talk a lot about
how much they felt better coming out of Tennessee. Well,
you beat it a three win team, no one should
care much about it. But they needed that kind of

(07:18):
a game, right They needed to feel good about themselves.
They needed to feel like stuff was working now. First
drive for CJ, six for six. They needed that. Okay,
so they feel like that can carry over for them,
and they're hitting the reset button. You start over again.
You have a good football team. Everyone's complaining about how
they did this, how they did that. I laughed at

(07:40):
myself and I said, yeah, but they won ten games again.
Two years in a row. They won their division two
years in a row. Jacksonville came all the way back
and beat Los Angeles in that playoff game. But two
seasons ago, we thought they were ascending, didn't we Right,
Oh wow, Jacksonville. Look out, what's happened to Jacksonville? Since

(08:00):
that has not happened in Houston. That's why I do
think that this team can flip things, change things. Look,
the Giants have pretty good precedent nine and seven during
the season. We've seen a lot of teams not have
great regular seasons and somehow win in the playoffs. I
think that they have what they're looking for. I think
they have the right quarterback. I like what they've done

(08:23):
with the offensive line because I was surprised it took
this long to get Titus Howard to guard in the
first place. But yeah, can they change it? They absolutely can.
There's no reason they can't. Now there's a challenge there, sure,
because Los Angeles is coming in with nice They're coming
out a nice role. Right now, they're playing well interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
You would bring up the offensive line, as it's been
much malign this year, But allow me now to be
the one who's reading between the lines. Does this mean
that you're telling us that, unlike the next self proclaimed
head coach of the New York Jets, this will not
be a bye week for the Chargers.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
I don't see how it is like this Houston team,
because remember, you're getting all Shire back full time right
last week was his first game back. You got both
of your defensive ends ready to go, both of them
harboring a little What do you mean I didn't make
the Pro Bowl? And don't think for a second that
these guys don't use this, because you know they do. Right.

(09:20):
You get probably the best corner in the game right
now in Stingley.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
And I love Lassiter.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
What's gonna be interesting to me to say, is who
goes with lad McConkie Because he tends to operate out
of the slot, Lasiter can play slot. Does he go
over there more in this game because they like to
use a lot of those five dB sets. Does he
go into the slot more? Maybe Okuda or someone goes outside.

(09:47):
Now that'll be interesting because I don't know that Stingley,
you know, does he go in there himself? Maybe? I
feel like more like it might be Lassiter, not just
because they played in college, but body type and people
working in the slot of it's a little bit different
than working outside and Stingley I don't think has to
travel in this game. Like, you know, there's not a
receiver outside of mconkie that I would spend time saying, hey,

(10:11):
you go get him all game long. I just don't
see it. I know Johnson had a big game against
Las Vegas, but I don't think he's that type of
receiver that you gotta go. I'm I'm going to devote
my number one resource to him full time. So that's
gonna be interesting to me to see what the chess
match is on that side and if they even do that,
or do they just kind of find a way to

(10:32):
double him without moving someone into the slot. Then maybe
whoever is there is one person and you have a
second person vicinity with him, cause you're gonna I just
gotta feel that Matt Burke and Demico Rimes are gonna
try their best to say, listen, if you're gonna throw
the ball, that rookie number fifteen is not gonna be
the one that shreds us I tink you to make

(10:53):
someone else beat me.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
So we'll say that name came up quite a bit
this week. And to wrap things up, Charless, we let
you go. The s mentioned you made off the top
and threw out. I'm not sure if you realize this.
You just mentioned six players in this game coming up,
all but okudah SEC football players. Charles really appreciate the time.
Look forward to y'all's call this weekend on CBS and

(11:15):
thanks for joining us.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Hey, thanks for having me. Always great to be here.
We're looking forward to it. Take care, guys,
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