Countdown to Texans-Steelers, Let’s Try Again, Rockets; Miami Epic Win

Friday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton prep for Texans-Steelers, react to the Rockets' latest loss, and weigh in on Miami's incredible win!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To another award winning edition of the A Team.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's Sports Talk seven to ninety an hour from now,
you can look at US Space City Home Network.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
But in the meantime, he's wex. I'm Ac Josh.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Jordan with you as we take you up until six
o'clock tonight. The Rockets will be back in action tonight,
same bat time, same bat channel, same city.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Portland for the second of two straight.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Didn't quite go their way on Wednesday night, and that's
putting it mildly, but they'll help to reverse that trend
tonight when they take on the Blazers for the second
time in as many games in that city. And then
they will wrap up their roady in Sacramento, and then
it's a whole bunch of home games. No, seriously, I
promise you they're going to play more than like one
game at a time inside Toyota Center. But first things first,

(00:48):
try to win out this road trip as you've started over,
and do that against a team that had its way
with you the other night.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
I will be interested to see what kind.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Of whistle Danny gets in comparison to Wednesday, but that's
hardly gonna be the number one priority for the Rockets.
They've got to find a way to score more efficiently
and do so with yet again in lineup that does
not include outbring Shingoon and will not for the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, the Houston Texans continue to prepare for
the finale of the opening playoff weekend that would be

(01:19):
Monday night at seven o'clock in the Steel City when
they take on the Steelers. A lot to get to
between now and then. We only have two shows left
at this point, wex. I don't know if we can
get it all in before Monday night.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
I have no doubt that we will take a trip
to Pittsburgh on Monday for the reporters look at it,
and hopefully I have a couple of guys joining us.
Then we'll have Sam Warren joining us two hours from now.
He was out of practice today and yesterday, just like
I was. He of course covers the Texans for the
Houston Chronicle, so looking forward to that conversation. Might as
well get that stuff right out on the table for you.
The Texans injury situation we mentioned yesterday, I figured it

(01:54):
was still a pretty good one all things considered. They've
played eighteen weeks of football. They're heading into the postseason,
and probably everybody on the roster is going to be
available to them, other than Juwar Jordan, if I were
to guess. He was not at practice today for the
second straight day as expected with the ankle injury that
he suffered in the season finale. But Deniko Autry, Kamari Laster,

(02:15):
and Titus Howard were all back on the practice field
today And I don't know if they'll be limited, listed
is limited or not, but I don't believe they are
going to be any limitations on them when it comes
to Monday Night football. And I pointed it out a
couple on yesterday's show, and you didn't know it at
the time, but when the Texans got the Saturday date
for the seventeenth game or seventeenth week of the season

(02:37):
with the Chargers, it likely led to them getting a
full seven days in between games before playing on the
following Sunday, And then when they got the Monday night
date for the playoffs, they got another full seven days
for their next game. So this is about his best situation.
He's get to hope for gives each of those players
and everybody else. It's a little banged up, which is
probably the other fifty players on the roster just a

(03:00):
little bit more time to get every possible minute of rest,
rehab and preparation done for this game. And clearly, in
one regard this team with those two players, specifically Titus
Howard and Kamari Laster, that's a totally different Texans team
if either one of those players is not out there
the rock of the offensive line, despite the fact that

(03:21):
he has not handled and solidified one position, He's handled
and solidified three positions. Titus Howard and a real nice
ride up from Sam on him today, So we will
talk to him about that when he joins us. But
needing him back out there for sure, probably getting them
back to the look that they had for about a
third of the season, five consecutive weeks of starting the

(03:43):
same five. Those five players are probably available. I suppose
there's a little wait and see on Trent Brown, but
it will likely go back to that formation. You will
likely see Blake Fisher in his usual tackle eligible role.
They'll have three tight ends available to them if they
so choose, and all sorts of weapon that at any
point in time seemed like somebody was in and somebody
was out, and in this case, other than Jordan, it

(04:05):
looks like it'll be in great shape. And every day
since Kamari Laster was on the field for the first
time as a rookie, I've been telling you about how
good he is, how much different a team they are
when he's on the field, and it's just gotten better
and better every day. So you know, the Texans have
a reasonably good defense when he's not on the field,
they have the best defense in the AFC when he is,

(04:26):
and I think that's the defense we'll see Monday night. Yeah,
I agree.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
The best version of your team is what you want
to put forth this time of year. I keep going
back to I can't help but dwell on last year
because it was such a lackluster performance honestly by that
defense when you consider how Travis Kelsey was able to
be a factor after really not being that form much
of the regular season. And it's more about the Texans

(04:51):
as per usual when it comes to situations like that,
because much like when I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed
with a child, you just know that they could have
done better because you've seen them do better before, and
that's what that situation was like. I don't want that
to be the case this year. I don't think it
will be the case this year. I do love the
fact that already, you know, the fake media types whatever

(05:12):
you want to call them, blog boy, fanboy podcasting would
be up there in the Steel City is already talking
about how well the Texans have only played one cold
game this year. I love that that's juxtaposed with what
Demiko Ryans had to say, which is that basically, we
will play you on Mars if we need to.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
We're not afraid of going in and we wait to
hear that sound by what Gwen's is that on next
year's schedule, as as chet GPT suggested, the twenty fifty
seven Super Bowl champion will have a home base of Mars.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Doesn't that sound like something that if our president was
fan of the Texans, he would say, We're going to
play the games on Mars because we can, like something ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
He is a fan of he once was a fan
of at least one player on this team prior to
him joining this team, since he got an invite to
the White House after he won a national title, which
one either's sean, oh, that's right, and called him out
by name and had a great job. He's a great player.
I mean, we know how he like, I'll admit, if
nothing else, and there probably are some other things all

(06:11):
throughout the year, especially because of you, we get greatness
from our commander in chief, Donnie t. But very specifically
we get over the top insane greatness from him following
invitations to championship caliber teams and they get to visit
the White House and then he says all the nonsense
that he says to him that is just absolutely hilarious.

(06:31):
The Astros obviously made a visit to the White House times,
so I'm looking forward to the next Houston based trip.
But it honestly doesn't matter who gets there, whoever is there,
whatever he has to say, it's always awesome.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
How many times and we'll do a ledger here on
the fly. Let's'll take ten seconds. One column will be
me and one column will be WEX. In the course
of the weekend's events nationally politically, that kind of stuff.
When everything was happening with Venezuela, how many times did
WEX think about that picture of Venezuelan native Jose Altuve iballing.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
The press laire? Yeah, versus how many times I thought
of it just on average go to zero for you,
that's correct, and at least one hand times I just
thought it was funny. I mean to me, if Venezuela
came up at all this weekend, I was probably thinking,
did somebody say they're going to play for Venezuela and
the World Baseball Classic.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
You know, if I really wanted to make fan Fist uncomfortable,
I would ask Cosey al Tuova what he thought about
everything that happened with Nicholas Maduro.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
What I want. Yeah, FanFest is coming up a couple
of weekends from now. We'll be out there as we
always are, live and talking Astros Baseball, Astros Baseball. Last night,
hopefully you did not miss with an Astro line Jeff
Kent and Jeff Blum. I actually was had arrived at
my destination when listening to Jeff talking to Jeff, and
I just stayed to listen to the rest of it.

(07:52):
It was awesome. It was great hearing Jeff Kent and
his former teammate Jeff Blum talk about things. Clearly, Jeff Kent,
if you were unaware, his head into the Baseball Hall
of Fame. As voted on by his contemporaries, not the
Joe Schmo's like us and the baseball writers out there
in the media, but rather those that played the game.
So he said that was actually a bigger thrill for
him to have that, So it was great listening to

(08:14):
them last night. Also heard a little bit from I
forty five, and we'll be talking to all those guys
coming up in a couple of weeks on site over
at dyke In Park, the new home for I forty
five and probably a few others. As the day ended yesterday,
and we told you about this just before we wrap
things up, there was no agreement with two players who
are now set to arbitrate their future salary their one

(08:37):
year deal with the Astros moving forward. They don't know
the figure yet because they were too far apart on
the players filing and the team filing. That's Yaner Diaz
an Esak Peretis. So we'll see what, if anything, this
leads to. I don't know what their long term future
here is in Houston, but I don't know one thing.
They don't have another major league catcher right now besides Guyiner.

(09:00):
I don't know if his happiness is of concern to them,
but usually going to arbitration is not something that makes
anybody involved happy other than the person writing the checks
or financial offices, because if you win, so to speak,
you kind of lose at the same time. You win
because you pay less, but you lose because you're asking
this player to go give you greatness while you told

(09:22):
him he was terrible and only deserves this amount of money,
which is what you normally do negotiations anyway. But nonetheless,
that's all on the table for some of the things
we need to get to today. The matchups that we
will see first haven't spent a whole lot of time
on them, but there are five other NFL playoff games
this weekend, beginning tomorrow with a pair and three more
on Sunday. We are halfway to setting the matchup in

(09:42):
college football for the National Championship Game. One of the
two teams last night had a best case scenario, no
matter what the outcome of the game was. I love
the semantics of the phrase win or go home because
it didn't apply to both teams. Well, if they win,
they get to go to the National title Game. But

(10:04):
for the Hurricanes, they didn't have to win to go
home because they're playing at home now in the national
title game after winning, so they are getting to win
and go home. They won the game last night. It
was very thrilling. I hope many of you were locked
in on it and how it ended. Now both teams
thought they had it at different points late in the game,
but Ole Miss will now not need to hold on

(10:27):
to all their coaches that we wanted to go to
LSU or the lane Kiffen demands getting on over to LSU.
But I'm hopeful tonight's game between Indiana and Oregon is
also equally as compelling Indiana a little better than a
field goal bet to win the game. And you will
see them that game on oursenal cold locks. It is Friday,
so we will get you those at four thirty. One

(10:49):
of us took last night's game. That was ac He
played the over and he was correct. Thank god. I
want to con game to the last touchdown of the game.
Is that two? You're three and fifteen. We've got three
wins on the college ledger. Yes, you've done a fine,
fine job. Now we got two more to go, not
one more to go for you, but Josh and I
will give our pick on that. And obviously we'll get
into the Texans Steelers. As we sit here today, it's

(11:12):
still about the same as it's been since it's open,
but we will lock more in on some of those figures.
I get you the Best of X, one of our
favorite NBA players of all time for most of his
non basketball contributions to our conversations will come your way.
During Best of X, we got Harball conversation to hold,
both for what the Harbaugh Chargers might do this weekend
to the Patriots and for the where is John Harbaugh

(11:36):
going to be coaching? Because he will be coaching in
the NFL, leading a football franchise when they start their
next season. You can bank on that. So we look
forward to a Friday show as we always do this
one maybe as much as any I would say definitively,
this is the most anticipated Friday show of twenty twenty six.
It leads into Texans playoff football after our Monday show,

(11:58):
which they will play. Look forward to it. Come on
along for the ride here on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Seven ninety Texans and Steelers getting together on Monday night
after all of the dust has settled. Throughout the rest
of the postseason, you'll have three and a half, three
and a half change hours of playoff football in the cold,
in the night, in the Steel City.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
I can't wait. I cannot wait.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
I'm too young to have appreciated what we talked about yesterday,
which is a lot of slightly older Houston football fans
just hardye two years in a row. By the way,
it's not just that it was, you know, the Renfro
catch that wasn't or was and should have been two
seasons in a row. That team's ending your your dream

(12:46):
of going further than any football team in this city
has gone before or since. And for some people that
doesn't register anything. They either weren't alive or they haven't
been alive long enough they just don't care. But I
just think it's it is interesting in a season that
kind of feels different for the first time in Texans history,

(13:07):
even going back to any of the good teams under
Gary Kubiak, that if they were to do something different
this postseason, which is advance past playing two games they've
never done that, it would start with a victory in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
And I'm fine with that.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
But in order to do that, that offensive line is
going to probably have to do what a lot of
teams have to do this time of year, but especially
this team and this particular unit.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
It's got to play your best football.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
We've already talked about health, We've talked about all that
kind of stuff, and the Texans have some of those
things going in their favor. But I don't think the
Texans go anywhere even with that defense if their offensive
line doesn't play its best football of twenty twenty five
ish into twenty twenty six right now, starting this weekend.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
It's what they've been doing for weeks, and hopefully that continues.
It's definitely a better defense than they face most of
those weeks. Chargers defense is probably pretty comparable and what
they can do upfront. Steelers are one of the elite
teams in the NFL in terms of getting after the
quarterback and just strictly number of sacks, but they're not
on elyite defense pretty much in any other way. They're
not an elite defense against the run, they're not an

(14:15):
elite defense against the actual pass. They're not an elite
defense in terms of keeping teams off the scoreboard. So
if that offensive line, and again it's so silly, I
hope people aren't still doing this it's not five guys,
it's like seven guys. They run so many plays about
thirty three percent thirty six percent of their plays are
with six offensive linemen literally on the field. Many of

(14:36):
those plays include multiple tight ends. Many of those plays
include a running back who is not a route runner
but rather a pass blocker. And there's maybe two, three,
four tops guys running routes. Texas don't run much five wides.
They don't run much empty backfield because they utilize the
players that would be on the field otherwise or closer
to CIJ should say, closer to the snap to help

(14:58):
protect him because they know if he protected well, it's
over for the other team, presumably. And I think the
Steelers fall into that same category. Two, they're very very
good up front. Four of their front seven are players
you have to concern yourself with in the pass rush,
between high Smith and Herbig Watt and Hayward. Hayward obviously
at the d tackle spot a little bit different, and

(15:19):
he's the guy most concerning from be awesome to get
second and six or second and five by running the football,
and he's the biggest reason why that is difficult to do.
When you try to run up the middle. It's not
anybody by any means the strength of the offensive line
from a blocking standpoint, But the last eight weeks or so,
with clearly different combinations of players, much of it with

(15:39):
Titus Howard, almost all of it with Ed Ingram, a
little bit of it with Jeff Jarrett Patterson, and all
of it with Jake Andrews, they've been a little bit
better in opening up some spots, especially when they had to,
not necessarily the beginning of games, but more so at
the end of games. As they closed out two opponents
by running the football, did it against the Raiders, and
they were able to do the same thing to just

(16:00):
end a game with almost a four minute drive, and
that's how you can get off of the field. They
obviously did it offensively at the end of the game
against the Colts. Probably not much to look at there
because most of the players on the field at the
end of the game are not gonna be on the
field at the beginning or at any point in this
game because they were already playing their reserves. But it's
a challenge. It's a challenge I think that they will

(16:22):
be well positioned to handle. Seeing what it is like
for Trent Brown is the biggest key for me, because
even if he's back, and even if he plays, even
if he's his run blocking, I'm completely unconcerned with He'll
be fine on that front. He's in a mountain of
a man, and when he gets his hands on you,
it's over for you. It's usually five yards down the field,
but he can get beat on the edge quite obviously

(16:42):
because he's not real quick, and I'm pretty sure if, if,
and when he's lined up on TJ Watt, there's probably
not a whole lot of decision making for TJ and
what type of move he wants to throw at Trent Brown.
He will probably cross out bull rushing him before the
game starts, and he will say I'm gonna use my speed.
And they're handful of plays during Trent Brown starts where

(17:05):
the guy just ran outside and Trent never even touched him.
Doesn't mean the play blew up. It may be something
you're watching for if you don't have any somebody there
to help him with a chip, but it's something to
I would be concerned against any realistically talented edge rusher
playing against Trent Brown.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Speaking of the offensive line, I know that CJ has
been asked about them all season long, except for when
he was probably out because he wasn't being asked about
anything during those weeks. But you can't really ask a question.
I mean, I guess you could. You could ask this
in the late stages of the regular season, but now's
probably the best time to ask a question like the

(17:41):
one he answered yesterday about the evolution of the offensive line,
because an evolution isn't really complete. I guess until you
get to the to this stage of the year, maybe
they'll continue to evolve in the postseason.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
I kind of hope they don't.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
I kind of hope they know what they are and
then they play their best football, like we just talked about.
But CJ was asked about this offensive line and that
particular word evolution.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
I think they're doing amazing, you know. I think a
lot of guys have been in there, and you know,
I think just schmatically too, just me trying to get
the ball as best as fast as possible, and you know,
taking one if one is there. And I thought, you know,
we've all grown, you know, from from Titus all the
way down to me, you know, so I think the
leadership in that room has grown. I think Cole. You know,

(18:26):
call is an amazing job, and you know he's hard
on those guys. He yells, he cusses, he does, you know,
everything that you'd think a whole lot of coach should do.
And you know those guys, you know they yes, yes, sir, no, sir.
And you know they're also you don't don't back down
the challenges. You know, present it so you know they're
the heart beat of our team, and you know we
go as far as they go.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
I love the phrasing.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
First of all, the stuff about Cole's hilarious, but that's
any offensive line I would think all the things you
would want your offensive line coach to do. Cussing at you,
yelling at you, you know, the usual. But I love
the fact that he didn't say they, He said we
we have evolved, we have gotten better, we have worked
on what you know. That's the phrasing he used. It's
a slight thing, but it's something that I think is important,

(19:09):
especially in a situation like this where they are easily
the most maligned unit in the entire team. And I
mean that can seem like it's bigger than maybe it
even is.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
When you have the other side of the football playing
so well this season.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
CJ.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Strouds first ever win was his third ever game, its
third start of his rookie season, and he was not
sacked in that game and was the first of three
consecutive games he started and was not sacked, and it
hadn't happened again until the three weeks preceding Monday Night's game. Now,
granted he didn't play the entire game on Sunday, but
Davis Mills also was not sacked with a group of

(19:46):
different players. But point being, this is the most he's
been able to run whatever offense they want as best
as possible. And I think he said we for a
very specific reason, and I they'll continue to point it
out as the new reasons come along. This is why
Bobby Sloan isn't here because as a unit, the five

(20:10):
to six offensive lineman, the running backs, the tight ends,
the quarterback, the OC, the O line coach, they're actually
doing things together the right way. You can have a
poorly protected quarterback that can still get his job done
because you're calling plays and executing the other parts of
the play better. And CJ's was always a part of that.

(20:30):
CJ having a fifteen yard loss on what could have
been a three yard loss. Always a part of this.
CJ now getting rid of the football more quickly, plays
being called where he has somewhere to go with the
football more quickly, players who see what he sees. Dude,
you're the hot route. I have to hope that you
know this, and the ball is stabbed and oh the
wide receiver did know, and so they make the play.

(20:51):
There's just so much more of that happening this year,
with multiple changes. It's not just Nick Kyley being here,
and it's not just Cole Popovich being elevated to the
line coach from assistant online coach. It's all of the
things all together, all over eighteen weeks of working on
it in season and all the weeks they worked on
it prior to the season. A zero sack game doesn't
mean well, their five offensive linemen were awesome. It means

(21:12):
all of those things are much better than they've ever been.
There was only one sack the game before that. All
of these things play into it. It doesn't equal they
scored thirty five points a game, even though they did
actually score more than thirty points in two of those
four games to end the season. They're not playing any
of those teams now, So I do hope people do
realize there's a lot that goes into why they were

(21:34):
so bad last year and a lot that had to
be fixed to get to this year. Personnel is definitely
part of it, and I think it's okay today, just
like it was okay the day the trade was made,
and I said it then, they're better off without Laramie Tunsel.
It was much easier to say it after draft day,
when I knew that drafted a tackle who would almost
assuredly win the job. It was even easier to say

(21:55):
after we'd seen tay Erceerie on the field. But it
should have been very easy to say, very very early
in the season. They're better. The offensive line without Laramie
Tunsel is better. And it's not just he's out. The
guys that were here got better. They read it everything,
so it's not even all on trying to point fingers
at him. But there was just a lot of angst
in the off season when you took clearly your most

(22:15):
talented player, your best pass blocker, the guy you trust
the most to save your franchise quarterback, and you said
get out of here and we can do things differently.
It wasn't it wasn't his fault, and it's not being
blamed on him, but this was one of the ways,
especially financially, they knew they needed to rebuild their line
and in so doing, get yourself a high second round

(22:36):
draft pick. They will have two second round picks over
the next or one second round pick and one third
round pick from the two trades that they made of
great significance this offseason. That's one of them coming from
the Commanders. And then the draft day deal they made
for the guy who mouthed the words Harbaugh and Stefanski
on the sidelines of the Ole Miss game last night,

(22:56):
the trade with the Giants so they could draft Jackson Dart.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
We'll get to where he lands. That's one of the
leaders in the clubhouse, I would say. But that's a
little bit later on. As WEX mentioned one NBA legend
dissing another NBA legend is a big part of our
signature segment every single day at this time.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
It's the best of X. It's straight ahead.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
You know, back in the day when we used to
actually do Wednesday BS that included bit stealing and not
just the other thing that BS stands for.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
I just don't get it is one of the ones
we used to steal.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
And I'm not gonna say that that definitely applies here
because I do kind of get it from the standpoint
of I think. In one of the responses to this
video of Isaiah Thomas for the upteenth time having an
AX to grind with Michael Jordan, Charles Oakley was on
the Up and Smoke podcast and he basically, in about

(23:59):
twenty seconds or so, said, this is all about A.
Michael's never going to be friends with you, doesn't want
to be friends with you, and B you're mad because
he came to your city and took it over. I mean,
Michael Jordan was raised in North Carolina, right famously went
to North Carolina, and then he was drafted number three

(24:20):
overall by the Chicago Bulls in nineteen eighty four and
proceeded to take over the city of Chicago like no
athlete has done before or since. And it's not even close.
Terrek Rose was a drop in the bucket with his
MVP season. The nineteen eighty five Chicago Bears are a
real nice story, but Michael Jordan came in there and
won six championships in eight years, and they have never

(24:42):
even approached that kind of dominance in that franchise or
any other in that city, unless you want to go Blackhawks.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
But I don't really know a lot about the hockey Lindy.
They they do not have any stretch of Blackhawks hockey
post his titles or where they won six times in
eight years. Yeah, but I'm talking about ever in the
history of Chicago sports. What's the best air It's the nineties, right,
It's one of It's arguably the best era for any
team in any of our lifetimes. Yeah, I mean showtime Lakers.

(25:08):
I don't know how old our listeners are and they
want to go back to when there were hardly any
teams in the league.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
But I mean, you can talk about all the dominant
championships the Yankees won in the twenties when they were
playing against formers.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Making an assumption, and I appreciate you. If you are
listening and you're in your hundreds, and when you were one,
you were watching Yankees baseball, you would they had you
in front of the non existent television. Well they could
have been at the game, okay where at the Polo
Grounds they played them. You are they had fans were
allowed to go to games in the twenties.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Oh gosh, all right, so Isaiah Thomas went on with
that hack Michelle Beatle and that other former rocket Hack
Chandler Parsons, And who's the third guy, is it?

Speaker 1 (25:51):
I thought you were going to go Former rockets Hacked
Lou Williams, And I thought you were going to go
Former Rockets Hacked de Marcus Cousins boogie because they're all
they were all on this particular episode. Most of the
time they are, they're all regular.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
So this, well, the stream cap I'm looking at right
now has Isaiah on his own little channel, and then
it's a trybox if you will, of the other three
and and uh involved.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
So basically.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
He's just running Michael into the ground and he's trying
to do so while pumping up lebron.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
So go talk from Isaiah. Is that what we have
for the Best of X Today? Well, it's how people
reacted to it all. Just talk from Isaiah is what
we have on the Best of X Today. Let's hear it.

Speaker 6 (26:31):
This is what I don't understand about your era, right you?
You guys are playing with arguably the greatest player to
ever play, and excuse me when I say this, But y'all,
y'all treat.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Him like he ain't nothing.

Speaker 6 (26:47):
And I'm talking, wow, alright, Well, y'all instead of instead
of pugging y'all era up, y'all go back and say,
our era was that's the greatest. Oh, you know, Michael
Jordan was the greatest. Nobody could ever be greater than
Michael Jordan, right, Okay? And then you turn around, but

(27:08):
in your era, Lebron James sitting there, he holding ed
he so basketball record, I mean, every single one of them,
and you're looking at Kevin Durant and you're looking at
Steph Curry. But then when y'all say who the great is,
y'all talk about the guy that gave you some shoes
and you know, gave you some.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Okay, you can't not love Isaiah. You have to love
this stuff to the hate. It's awesome. It's so ridiculous.
It's awesome.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
That part right there, the last thing he said and
the last thing you said, it's so ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
I didn't I should have. It's just so obvious. And
where have we all been? Why does this generation the
last twenty five thirty years worth of basketball fans worship
Michael Jordan, not because of his basketball, because he made
nice shoes that we all still wear. That's it.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
That's the only reason. No one's ever talked about his
warm ups, not once. Now, Brand Jordan, I get is
a clothing line on top of the shoe wear. But
it's the footwear. It's not nobody's ever talked about. He
gave you warm up shoes and warm ups. What an iconic,
stupid quote. And just let me go, like take it

(28:21):
from the the very end and then go backwards. The
reason that Lebron has all of these records is not
just because he's a good basketball player.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
How many full seasons did Michael play? I've got a question, Okay,
all of these records, what are they? All time scoring
and the others? Because you should there was an S
on the end of the word record. I'm using his words,
not mine. What are they? I don't know. I don't either.
It's not championships, it's in little longevity. Okayonet played. If

(28:51):
Michael had played the seasons games played record, but.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
If Michael had played the amount of basketball games that
Lebron James had played, it's a rap.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah, but that's stupid. I think what's what he's saying.
So I have to go with he does have the
games played record, and I will say it should be
noted like there are some reasons to give him some credit,
and I think he's right in only that regard. People
are not giving him any credit for all sorts of
excellips that I would never say he holds all these
all time records. What are they? He holds the most

(29:26):
points scored in NBA history, and he's played in the
most games in NBA history. Now, I'm sure Isaiah is
not talking about him being the career leader in turnovers,
which he is. I'm sure Isaiah's not talking about him
being right near the top ind offensive player efficiency or
offensive win shares, which is number one. There's some analytical

(29:46):
records that nobody cares about. Mike actually number one. But
it's silly to say he has all these records until
we start realizing why Wex is always saying. How stupid
I think people sound when they say, well, Lebron just
scored nine points. That's ends his NBA record one thirty

(30:08):
six straight games with ten points scored. It's not a record,
it's nothing, but people keep hearing he's the oldest player
to do this. He's the first player after age forty
to do that. He's got the most point scored by
any player in his fort It's it's part of who
he is and he should We should understand that nobody
else is doing this. It's not a record that we
should be saying he holds all these records. It's just

(30:32):
what he's done because he's still he's still playing at
a very, very very high level, and nobody else really
has ever done this. It's it's fine, that's well worth
adding to the legend of one of the best players
to ever set foot on the NBA court. Well, somebody's
number one on everybody's list, and I think there's it's
a hard thing for everybody to get on board with.

(30:52):
It can't Everybody doesn't have to agree who it is.
It does seem like the majority think it's not Lebron,
and so Isaiah is just beside himself.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Everybody's entitled to their opinion on a number of things,
and everybody's entitled to be very wrong, and Isaiah's wrong.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Like finishing second in this debate is not a bad thing.
It's also something he should be used to. Wow, now
he's finished second in the NBA countless times. Yeah, he's
been because he's carried led, been a part of his
team winning his conference more than anybody in this generation

(31:30):
by a pretty good margin. You know, they've never had
always one in the finals. Michael did. He got there
and he always won. Yes, but he also only got
there six times. Right, he played another fake record that
Lebron has. Well, I'm just saying there nine times, played
all these other seasons where he did not win his conference.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
And in part because Isaiah was keeping him from doing that.
So nobody should know better than Isaiah how great he was.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
But it also means nobody at any time in the
conference finals at least obviously Lebron has been in the
finals every year, but if you know, more often than
not half almost half his career, he's he was in
the finals.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
And by the way, another thing he's blatantly wrong about
nobody acts like he's nothing. All I hear all the
time is how Lebron is sit there too, like shut up, Isaiah.
And again the responses are great. The the usual suspects
are obviously there, like the gift of Michael looking at
the laptop and laughing at Isaiah in the last Dance.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
But my favorite. You remember the scene in the Sopranos
Keep Going when Christopher and is it they were they
were in the woods and they were very hungry and
it was very cold, and they were eating ketchup packets
something like that. I don't I don't know. I think
you're probably going for something.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Well, it's they they dispose of someone with a lot
of bullets in a river bank.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
What have you so? Literally that he was wearing cement shoes. Well, no,
it wasn't like that.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
They shoot this guy and the it's a it's video,
it's not a gift.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
But it's like it wasn't one of theirs? Was it
my old big p Michael.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
It gets cut off Isaiah Thomas, And that's the response
as they're just blowing this guy away with everything in
each of their magazines. That's basically what happens if you
mentioned his name around Isaiah, he just goes off and
he did it again, and he's an idiot.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
It's good to have people making the case. It'd be
like the Hall of Fame boat in the NFL. You
got someone making your case for you. Well, Isaiah would
be a representative for the Brownie James Dad Foundation. I
met the criteria, but I wasn't. And it's also okay,
Like very few people are as strong willed as Isaiah.
This freaking grudge of his, it's just awesome. He will

(33:37):
not let go. And I mean, and look, MJ's not
blameless in this. He him out not during the game,
You're not going to go to Barcelona. It's this is
I mean, I'll give I think Isaiah can I can
credit him for this. I don't think this is some act.
He's not saying it because everybody knows I so I'll

(34:00):
just keep running with it. He's genuinely hates he genuinely,
but he also genuinely believes what he was just saying.
Well that's where he's wrong.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
So anyways, that is one NBA item I definitely wanted
to get to today and that is best of X
the A on Sports Talking a surprise appearance in studio
by one half of the Morning Drive Cole Thompson.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Good to see him again.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
I don't think i've seen him in person since since
we broke up.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
We didn't really break up.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Hey, look at that he's still on the mic. That's true.
I forgot about that. One part, but I'm talking about
during the show, like where you were actually here producing
back in the day. Of course, all right, let let's
wind down the two o'clock hour the right way and
talk about something that on the other side of the ledger, right,

(34:56):
Aaron Rodgers is lining up. And honestly, there is some
of this talk I'm talking about nationally, and I knew
there would be some of this, but there I'm kind
of like, low key surprise, there's not more of this.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
The playoff experience talk about Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Now, do you agree with me if there's some, but
maybe not as much as in recent seasons. And maybe
the biggest reason for that is that he's in his forties.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Well, his playoff experience all happened when so he's going
to start his twenty seconds to playoff game. Yeah, and
when he was making playoffs, start number twenty one. CJ
was sitting at zero and he was a Packer correct. Yeah,
he didn't make it with the Jets. I didn't think
he did, but I was I couldn't remember. It's all fuzzy. Well,
the last two years with the Jets, they didn't make
the playoffs. Last year with the Packers, they were eight

(35:44):
to nine, didn't make the playoffs, so his last playoff
game was prior to CJ's arrival to the NFL. So
four games of playoff experience the last four years for
these two quarterbacks. All of those games are CJ. Stroud
quarterback games. Clearly, pressure experience is of no consequence. He's
been here a hundred times, he's played in the Super Bowl,

(36:06):
he's won MVPs, he's said twenty plus postseason starts before.
None of that matters. But at some point it's about
who you are and when you're in your fifth game
and you're in your twenty second start. Now we've moved
beyond that. Well, so we're just talking about how they play.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
In the case of CJ, I think it's the first
real time. I mean you could have said this last
year and maybe it would have been apropos, but I
think for the first time in his career, especially given
how the regular season went on his side of the
football and all to talk about him before, during, and
after the injury, playoff experience coming into your fifth playoff

(36:48):
game is a huge factor this year for CJ. Stroud
and more importantly for the Texans, because if that was
Davis Mills or if that was somebody.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
I mean, how many times have.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
We looked back on the playoffs the Texans have been
in and we had to also say, oh, by the way,
it was TJ Yates out there, or it was a
lesser quarterback than CJ out there.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah, and I was maybe I was phrasing it incorrectly.
It absolutely matters to the point that it's not a
distinguishing factor between these two quarterbacks in my opinion. He
was asked about that yesterday a little bit about what
they've done and the games before and even how they
finished the season needing to win so often every single
week in order to make the playoffs. And here's what
CJ said about doing that.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
We have a lot of experience on high pressure moments,
high pressure games, so it to be an opportunity for
us to, you know, do do it again. And I
think to a heck of an opportunity to play, you know,
at a legendary stadium against a legetary coach, a legendary team,
and I think, you know, this is gonna be a
great challenge. So you know, we gotta be ready. It's
gonna be cold, and it's gonna be loud, and it's

(37:51):
gonna be a lot of elements that are not for us,
and is it against us? But we've been in this
before and we played plenty of cold games, pretty allowed games,
you know, been silent operation. So a lot of experience
in a lot of different ways, and I think you
know that to pay off, you know when we when
we go out there on Monday Night.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
That's what it's all about.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
It's about the Texans paying off any number of subplots
you want to look, this is the story every single
year going into the postseason.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Oh, it's the storylines. Oh what are the subplots?

Speaker 2 (38:17):
It's a microcosm of what ends up happening at the
Super Bowl. And you have to watch twenty four straight
hours of coverage day of and so much ad nauseum
for two weeks building up to it beforehand. But in
its little vacuum here and it's a little small microcosm
that is a storyline that might kind of end up
getting overlooked, if for no other reason than anybody who's

(38:40):
picking the Texans right now to beat the Steelers on
Monday Night in Pittsburgh is doing so because of their
defense and they're not not saying anything about the offense.
But it's very, very minute in comparison. If you just
take a sampling of one hundred articles that may or
may not have been written about this particular matchup, it's
all about the Texans defense. Yeah, but it's ninety five

(39:00):
percent about the Texans defense.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
No.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
No, I don't mean that. I don't mean to him
a haw about it, But I mean most teams aren't
built equally. It's the same thing that's happening in Buffalo.
Ninety five percent of if they're gonna win, it's gonna
be because of Josh Allen and their offense. But here's
just how teams be built.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
The reason I think this is interesting, though, is because
I still believe, and I think you believe this, and
a lot of other people believe what some of the
naysayers may not believe. I still think CJ is not
being given enough credit for what he can do now.
Part of that's because he hasn't done it this season
from a number standpoint, but like I don't, he's almost

(39:40):
coming off as being treated as a game manager at
this point in my opinion, the way they talk about it, the.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Football that was played this year by the Texans was
that of a game manager that is I think fairly accurate.
It's by design and not to take a look and say, well,
he can't do it. But it's also about how they're built.
Same thing. Yeah, I just Dimiko's team with who he
has and who's on offense, and what their offensive line
issues were, and what's behind CJ in the backfield and

(40:06):
what you started the year with rookies and Nico Collins
because Christian Kirk wasn't even out on the field till
Week three. I think there are all factors and why
Nick Cayley and Demiico Ryans and CJ. Stroud played offense
like they did this year. It's almost like they're saying,
you might be able to do that. We've even seen
you do that, but we don't know if that's the
best way for us to win football games. We'd just rather,

(40:28):
you know, keep our defense fresh, make fewer mistakes. One
team in the entire NFL turn the ball over less
than Houston, only one team, and they only turned it
over twelve times. They tried to make it easier to
win games without being unbelievable on offense.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
And if there's nothing else you want to give them
credit for because you just think it's the worst offense
in the history of the NFL.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
Fine, that's your progress.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, people can be wrong, it's okay, but there is
something you cannot take away, and it's as quantitative as
it gets.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
It's not even an analytical thing.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
It's pure numbers from a stand point of they dominate
time of possession with the way they've played this year.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
So take it back to you know, everybody talking about
why they're going to win this game, they're talking about
their defense. I think that's quite obvious and I think
it's accurate. Well, now when you're writing articles about and
talking all the radio about the Steelers winning, the reason
you're giving is Aaron Rodgers against the Texans defense. If
the Steelers advance, if they win as an underdog at

(41:25):
home on Monday Night Football, it's going to be because
of their offense.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
It's Aaron Rodgers. That matchup is who's favorite I guess
to win this ends game.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
There are people that think they're going to win, and
they think they're going to win because Aaron Rodgers is
going to do what is necessary to beat the Texans defense.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
There's also people that think they're going to win because
the Texans aren't going to be able to do anything
about the way he plays against their defense, their particular defense,
and the way he in particular plays.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
The other thing CJ mentioned was everything's against them and
they'll be cole. It's high of mid sixties today in
Pittsburgh and a low of just under forty. They don't
play Friday, the temperatures drop by about fifteen degrees tomorrow,
they drop even more on Sunday, and then they start
to pick back up on Monday. But as has been
the case for the last several days, probably in the

(42:18):
neighborhood of mid thirties, high twenties, low thirties, limited wind
but maybe a little bit more being it there at night,
and not likely any rain.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
If this were Chicago, so I would be maybe somewhat concerned,
And if you haven't checked out their weather forecast, you
should probably do so.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
But this ain't it. So we'll continue to discuss this.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
And as a matter of fact, the very thing that
I was just talking about, Steelers fans are mad at
one national pundit about the way she is calling this game,
So we'll get to that. And something that we haven't
discussed about the Steelers offense. All of that coming up
in the first televised hour next the A team on

(43:01):
Sports Talk seven ninety, Sports Talk seven ninety our number
two of the program, and Space City Home Network first
hour simulcast over with our good friends over there. So
if you want to check us out on the telly,
you can certainly do that. Maybe you are right now,
maybe you're sitting in a bar and you're looked up
and you see our lovely shining faces. We welcome one

(43:23):
and all on a Friday edition of the show. Wex
Ac Josh Jordan with you as we take you until
six o'clock. Rockets basketball getting underway. Shortly there after. They
are out on the West coast for the second of
two in a row in Portland, Oregon.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Lost by a bucket the other night.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Not even that it was by one point and Tari
Easton's tip in that wasn't certainly burns. But you get
to get right back at them again possibly if things
can go a little bit better tonight for you, and
we'll have that action for you here on Sports Talk
seven ninety and they'll have it on Space City Home
Network as well. WEX and MT on the call on
the radio side of things, So we'll get into a

(44:01):
little bit more NBA conversation already had a little bit
this first hour, but it's been all about the Texans,
and I mentioned going into the break today, is the
Texans prepared to go to Pittsburgh a take on the Steelers,
and everybody's putting out their opinions. Everybody's, you know, making
their predictions. They're doing this, they're doing that. One of

(44:23):
the people that's doing that is someone who, frankly I
think is a lightning rod For various reasons, she's employed
by the Four Letter Network. She fancies herself an expert,
and she is predicting basically an immobile Aaron Rodgers, and
because of that immobility him struggling against the Texans, she's

(44:44):
basically not thinking he's gonna do much of anything, and
of course that has made Pittsburgh fans very upset. Man
just she says, I just think Aaron Rodgers against this
Texans defense is like it's not happening. You can't play
the tech with an a mobile quarterback. It's like the
Ravens they missed one hundred million tackles. The Texans are

(45:05):
not missing those tackles. They're not this team that swarms
to the ball. I'm looking at the Texans team and
I'm like, what are you even? They can give up
some big plays, and they can give up some yards
to scrambling quarterbacks, which obviously Aaron Rodgers is not. Do
we trust them to hit on? I think about the
three go balls to DK Metcalf. You know, maybe it's
not been reliable all year, So I'm going to go

(45:29):
Houston here. That said, the devil magic tends to expire
in the playoffs. So in one meandering paragraph, she basically says,
I give Aaron Rodgers no chance because he can't scramble.
But then at the very end, she leaves the door
open by saying the devil magic, which is apparently what
the Texans have been playing with for nine consecutive weeks

(45:49):
of wins, can or tends to expire in the postseason,
and Steelers and fans are upset.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Well, the last part sounds pause it for Pittsburgh, right, Uh?
What the devil magic thing? Yeah? Sure, I don't even
know why. I mean, that's why, That's why I'm trying
to understand. Well, again, this I'm not a Meena Kimes fan,
I want not have to do with anything. Just what
does she have to say and what is it that
like all the stuff you said at the beginning was
our quarterback can't the quarterback can't move right. Texans dominate,

(46:20):
so you can't win. But then the part at the
end said but maybe they can win.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yeah, And I'm like, based on what the Houston shows
up and they play not up to their standards defensively,
because that's how the devil.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Magic would end. It's not magic if you've been doing
it all season. But the reason that it would end
isn't because the Texans don't bring it. It's because the
Steelers have counteracted it. The Steelers have the ability to
do something against that. They can utilize their running game,
they can utilize Jalen Warren. You might be a team
that doesn't miss a lot of tackles. Well, you have
a player on the other side who generated more mistackles
than just about anybody in the NFL. You have two

(46:53):
different backs that do two different things that the Steelers
as the season has worn on and figured out better
and better ways to use them and talking about game
well and Warren, I think they're a lot more capable
It's just hard to put a lot of stock in
saying that when you just run through their season and
you look at why, well, why were they still playing
on the last week of the season that should have

(47:13):
already been over. Why were they still trying to win
the division? Why were they still just a nine to
seven team heading into the final week? Well, they had
to win four of their final five games just to
do all that. They got clobbered by Buffalo. Before that,
they lost a close game to the Bears, they gave
up thirty five and thirty three, and back to back
games to Green Bay and Cincinnati. This defense that's supposed

(47:34):
to also get after the quarterback kind of goes back
to me saying they do have a good pass rush,
but they do not have a good defense, and they
do not keep teams from throwing the ball or running
the ball against them. They do force turnovers, but again
they're not an elite defense. And then two weeks ago
or two games ago, it has to stand out to
everybody because this was to put the division in their

(47:55):
back pocket, and they played the Cleveland Browns. It was
an absolutely embarrassing day for Aaron Rodgers and his offense.
Arguably their worst important performance of the season and what
to that point was their most important game of the season.
They scored twice, both on field goals of forty or
more yards. They never found the end zone against a

(48:18):
Browns team that was going nowhere, that was terrible, that
beat you thirteen to six because your offense was awful.
You went three for fifteen on third down with Aaron
Rodgers throwing the football thirty nine times. They were bad.
This is what I think people think the Texans are
going to do to them and prevent them from doing.

(48:39):
And it came on a day where Miles Garrett had
no sacks. The Cleveland Browns defense had two sacks. It's
not all about that. They can be stopped and the
Texans should do that. I think that game might stand
out more to any button than at any other, to
people who are echoing the same thing she said. I
tended to agree with it to a certain extent. But

(49:01):
as much as I car you know, been harsh on
Aaron Rodgers, the more you watch him this year, the
more you realize he's gotten a lot better from what
you saw in a Jets uniform. He's probably playing better
football now than his last year in a Packers uniform.
He's he's a threat. He can't absolutely beat this Texans
defense and their offense. I've said it whole week. I
do think is somewhat tailored to do so because they

(49:24):
don't have to change anything. They're gonna want to continue
with the short passing game. They're going to want to
continue throwing to their backs and tight ends. They'd love
it if DK metcalf, broke open and went down the
field and nobody went with him, but that's not likely
to happen against the Texans.

Speaker 7 (49:39):
No.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Look, the what's been interesting to me is the people
that are talking about the speed with which he gets
rid of the football and how that's going to be,
you know, a great counter to this Texans defense. But
then in the same breath, almost a lot of those
people are saying, yeah, and even when he does get

(50:01):
rid of that football, if he does, it better be
way down the field because otherwise the Texans aren't going
to get Let you get the yards after.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
The catch, it's possible, but you're not looking for fifteen yards.
You're looking for six, and then you're looking for four,
and then you've moved the change, and then you're looking
for another five, and I think that's the way that
they're going to have to do it. And as great
as the defense is, and they are, and as much
as we've talked about them the proper amount, we should
never not be talking about how awesome they are. He's
played against defenses like this fifteen times, five times in

(50:29):
the playoffs, ten times in the playoffs, forty times in
his career, fifty times. Nobody currently playing in the NFL
has played against defenses as good as this one as
often as he has, even in his crap division all
those years over in Green Bay when they were mopping
the floor with the Bears and others. But he's seen
it all, he's played against it all. He's played against
teams where he knew his offensive line could not protect him.

(50:50):
A lot of that happened in New York and that's
why their performance was what it was. But their offensive
line can protect him to the extent that that's how
they played this year. Just the same accommodations that Texans
and Nick Cayley and their offensive scheme this year adapted
to who they have and what they can do. The
Steelers did the same thing. Their offensive line is not
unbelievable they're not impenetrable, but Aaron Rodgers has only sacked

(51:12):
twenty nine times this year for a reason. And it's
not just their capabilities up front, that's part of it,
but it's their ability to recognize, well, how do we
make this all work? This is the offense we want
to run. And while Riley Leonard was able to in
the first half kind of stand in the pocket and
throw deep a couple times, make his progressions, make some
pretty good throws and throw for more yards than anybody
against the Texans the entire season. If that's the type

(51:36):
of pass rush they have against these Steelers, then they're
probably in a bit of trouble.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, there's one other thing that we haven't really talked
about this. I mean, it's kind of come up a
few times, and a lot of times when we've talked
about the Steelers run game, it's been essentially Okay, yeah,
they can do the traditional thing, but Aaron Rodgers is
going to look to pass to these guys. He's going
to put them out in space. He's gonna get them

(52:01):
out in the open and try to do things to
the Texans defense. And what it does most effectively to
kind of counteract that, and it makes me wonder if
all this talk about Aaron Rodgers, that could be the
secret to their success, not the traditional run game, but
just the running backs that they offer on the roster,
even if it's in a passing situation, being what absolutely

(52:25):
gets them over or across the finish line against this
Texans defense.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
And Demiko spoke about that when he met with the media.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
The fact that the Steelers run game and what it
can do in various way, shapes and forms will definitely
be something that he's keeping an eye on heading into
this one.

Speaker 8 (52:41):
Yeah, when you.

Speaker 9 (52:42):
First pop on the film watching the Steelers, a thing
that jumps out the most, you know, is their running
back position.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
They have two guys you know Warren.

Speaker 9 (52:51):
You know you know who's I mean, you watch him
run the football. It's really impressive to see a young
guy run the ball.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
The way he runs the ball.

Speaker 9 (52:59):
He's he's small guy, but he's tough, he's physical, runs
it really well and game well. Another receiver that step saying,
and he's done a really great job as well running
the football. But the thing where they make a lot
of plays is you know, both backs, whichever guy's in,
you know what they do with the ball in their hand.
Once the ball is out, Aaron's done a great job

(53:20):
of not making bad plays.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
He gets the ball to his checkdown very quickly. I
feel like the checkdown's gonna come into a play a
lot this this game for the Steelers offense, it's gonna
come down first five plays. You're gonna see it at
least once, if not twice, a first five pass plays.
I don't think there's any doubt about that. And I
think there's a little bit of a The numbers are
what they are, but I think if you look a
little bit deeper, they paint a little bit different story.

(53:44):
You know, Steelers were seventeenth in the NFL and yards
per carry, and that's just a flat out hard number.
Here's the number of times the team carried the football,
here's the mount of the yards they had, and here's
the yards they got for it. But they were using
different players throughout the year, and obviously includes the rushes
that Aaron Rodgers had killed. Is not gonna cary the
ball in this game. He's gonna have zero carries for
zero yards. He's not gonna average two point five yards

(54:05):
of carry like he did during the season because he's
not evenna play in this game. They're gonna hand it
off to game. Well, they're gonna hand it off to
Warren and that's it. And those two guys averaged better
than four almost four and a half yards per carry
between them, which would have had them inside the top
ten in the NFL and yards per carry. I think
their two headed backfield is much better than the raw

(54:25):
numbers you might be looking at leading up to this game,
and that should be what the Texans are most focused
on because it's usually how they win games. Good luck,
we've stopped the run like we always do. Now you
have to beat us without a running game.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
There is one other element that is returning to their offense,
and we've really not even touched on him all that
much this week, But we'll get to that when we
come back next as we continue to talk Texans Steelers
wild card game coming up on Monday night. Hey, Wes,
suck you and I earlier this year, it might have

(55:00):
even already been into the season, but I think this
was like a preseason conversation, pre week one conversation week
leading up to the first games of the NFL campaign
type of conversation I don't know exactly when because I've
slept since then.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
You know how we are on the show.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
But you and I talked about the Steelers specifically ironically,
and I thought, you know, Aaron Rodgers with Mike Tomlin
in a DK Metcalf edition, they could do some things.
And then, as I recall, in Week one, it wasn't

(55:35):
like gaudy numbers, but it was solid.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
I know they won as I recall, and they did win.
They outscored the New York Jets by two points thirty
four thirty two.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Okay, but the Jets suck and they did then and
they ultimately did all season. But specifically those two guys
and hooking up together, the numbers were pretty solid.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
As my fourth highest receiving game of the year occurred
in Week one, eighty three yards. That's less than I thought.
Caught four balls. How many times was he targeted? Seven times?
So a guy who's a.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Pretty big part of your offense, it had a solid day,
but not over the.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Top signed the entire season, yeah, it was turned in
his lowest yardage total of his career. He scored six times.
Four of them came in the first five weeks, so
he's only scored two touchdowns since their first five games.
When they started the year four and one, was actually
doing a little DK Metcalf research and because I have time,

(56:39):
you don't have to research anything else all the week
team doing. They haven't even been mentioned on the show
in several weeks, not in twenty twenty six. They haven't.
I mean, I get it. You have to ask them
if their contract was renewed for another year. You only
have an eleven and a half month window. First five
games of the year, he was targeted six point two times,
had seventy one yards per game and four touchdowns. Ah,
but those were the first five games he'd played with

(57:00):
Aaron Rodgers. Let's get things going. Let's see how things go.
So six point two target seventy one yards per game,
it's not bad. And four touchdowns, it's really not bad.
Four touchdowns in five games, it's great. And then the
last six games he played. Obviously he did not play
in the final two weeks of the season because of
the fan interaction and the suspension. Well, his targets per
game up to seven point five, among the most targeted

(57:21):
receiver in the NFL, and certainly on their team. He
was the most targeted receiver. His receptions also clearly went
up to four and a half per game, all while
his yards went way down. Fifty eight yards per game
is what he was giving them the final six weeks
of the season. He scored one time through the air.
He ran one in one receiving touchdown during those six games.

(57:44):
Of course, getting him back makes them better. He's a
good player, He's a threat. Could he have a seven catch,
one hundred and forty eight yard day with two scores,
Sure he could. I would not anticipate that happening. But
he also does in one way. Regardless of all these
other statistical numbers, there's a number that plays in his
favor every single time he steps on the field in

(58:05):
the NFL. Uh, he's six four to two thirty. Yeah,
I was about to say height. He can go out
with just about anybody. He obviously still has good speed.
I don't think he has catch Buddha Baker speed still,
but very good speed. And this is why, even though
they haven't done it a ton and I don't expect
it to be a huge problem. I'm telling teams if

(58:25):
they want it, and I'm not trying to hurt the
Texans or their fans by saying it, but I've said
it the whole year. Take shots. What's the downside? In
my opinion, there isn't tenny balls. I'm not even saying that.
Just go run down the field and give your quarterback
time to throw, and they will. I mean, Riley Leonard
freaking did it. Kobe Brissett did it. It's it's one.

(58:46):
I think it's it's because you have Aaron Rodgers is
the most specific reason why I'm saying it now, because
I do think he's still an accurate passer. If you're
asking you line up the thirty two NFL starting quarterbacks
with health and say all right, we got a go
route and there's like no window. He's barely open. The
guy's with him stride for stride, but you got to

(59:07):
get the ball where he can catch it. Aaron Rodgers
is still on a pretty short list of quarterbacks who
probably put the ball in the right place. And whenever
we say, yeah, Stingley got beat on that or last
got beat on that, like nine times out of ten,
it's because of the throw. Because they're sticky, they're right
there to make the play and they're a fingertip away
from knocking it away. You know, they just barely didn't

(59:28):
get there to prevent the completion. It's not because they
were beaten. It's not because there was five yards of separation.
It's because whichever quarterback made the throw just made a
great throw. Cornerbacks will get beat the best cornerback in
the history of the league, even Dion, they'll get beat
by a great throw. And Rogers is still capable of
making those throws.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
The and this article, granted, was a few days ago
now by Brooke Pryor. But she said that the second
that dk Metcalf saw Calvin Austen the third crossed the
goal line to score the go ahead fourth quarter touchdown,
he jumped off his couch. You know, God, Dress grabbed
his keys and started driving to the stadium because he

(01:00:12):
just had to be a part of the celebration.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Ah, please tell me there's more. Because after Calvin Austin
caught the ball and he grabbed his keys, and he
got his gear and he left. If he's fast enough,
if he was prepared, that means he missed Chris Boswell's
extra point that was missed. That means he missed the
kick return that got him to midfield. It means the
fourth and seventh conversion. Isaiah likely that got him into
field goal ranks. He also missed. It means the kneel

(01:00:37):
down that they did and time out to set up
Tyler Lup's game winning field goal. He didn't see that either,
and then he missed the missed kick. What's the T word, traffic,
So he was listening to it. I want it. I
want her to have written that he did not actually
see what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Live traffic kept the suspended Steelers wide receiver from reaching
the locker room in time to celebrate the AFC North title.
But then, of course, speaking Monday for the first time
since that altercation with the fan in Detroit and the
two game suspension he got because of it, he just
talked about expressing gratitude for his teammates because he says

(01:01:17):
they gave him another opportunity to come back. They don't
win that game, he ends his season two weeks prior.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Yeah, I do think there's some motivation in that for sure,
and the gist of the story I don't want to
miss like that's a big deal. He's what He's forced
to watch this game in that manner, and it's back
and forth in the fourth quarter. It ended in the
first half ended so dramatically badly for the Steelers. They
went forward on fourth and goal from inside the five
yard line instead of taking a field goal and did
not get in. So it's ten to three, and then

(01:01:44):
they almost immediately flip it into a thirteen to ten lead.
And then we know what happened in the fourth quarter.
We know that Calvin Austin got wide open because the
defender fell down and Rogers hit him, and it did
look like this was going to give them the victory.
It was going to put them up by a margin
that would not have any possible way they could lose
in regulation unless they let the Ravens go all the
way down the field and score a touchdown, but then

(01:02:05):
the extra point was missed, all the other things that happened,
I do think there's a real drive within a player
that was in DK's situation. I'm sure he regrets his
actions and definitely doesn't agree since he appealed the NFL's
decision to sit him on the sidelines for two games,
well he and now he has a chance to play.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
He refused to even answer questions about it, and obviously
because it's the appeals process. But yeah, it's not like
getting back Jerry Rice in his prime. It's not like
getting back Randy Moss even on the the Patriots late
in his career.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
It's but it is they have a wide receiver one
on their loster. That's who they are getting back.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
How about this, It's not even like getting Pickens back,
whom you traded in the offseason, right because you can
count on him once he's in the game, Whereas you
can't count on Pickens even if he's in the game.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
And the Cowboys saw that a little bit this year.
The talent is not like he runs circle around DK Metcalf,
who's unbelievably talented. In terms of talent, there aren't five
receivers in the NFL with more talent than George Pickens.
I really believe that, like just pure wide receiver talent,
there aren't five guys with more of it. But he's
not someone that most teams really feel confident about trusting.
There weren't teams knocking down the Steelers door to trade

(01:03:18):
for him. Jerry did. Jerry turned out to be the winner,
and this season one of the biggest reasons why the
Cowboys offense was able to continue to maintain excellence this
year was because Jerry actually made two awesome offensive moves.
They were the team that took a chance on Javonte Williams,
who had been hurt in Denver and just really awful
this past year, just one year removed from the injury.
He was great. He was the best run acquisition in

(01:03:39):
the offseason at the running back position by anybody in
the NFL from a veteran standpoint. And you could say
the very same thing about the wide receiver position adding
George Pickens. But the Steelers aren't worse off for not
having him, quite honestly.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Yeah, And I think the thing about the Steelers that
worries me, and it's not about the Texans so much
as just it would worry me if I were any
team playing them in this city situation. And of course
because of the division matchup, you know, because of the
championships pitting these two teams against each other, with Pittsburgh

(01:04:12):
getting the home game that you love so much, as
you've talked about all week.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Well, I hope people remember I said the same thing
the last two years. Texas did not deserve the Steelers,
same record, same venue situation. Two years ago, it was
even worse. They just played Cleveland and got clobbered in Houston,
and with a worse record they got to host.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Yeah, well it all worked out. It did work out.
I don't think they would have won that game if
they were in Cleveland. The Browns dragon magic, what is it?

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
Yeah, it's gonna run out. Their dragon magic showed up
in their first playoff games each of the last two
years with three.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
Defensive touchdowns that first scramble by a CJ.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
Though they're not their defensive dragon magic. They scored three
times in two games. Yeah, blew out both opponents. Derek
Stingly is dragon magic. He's probably just the dragon doesn't
need magic. All right, we are going to take a
quick time out. We'll switch gears a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Another streaming service that you're going to have to have
if you want to watch certain Astros games, but only
in one month of the season.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
That's the good news. I guess we'll talk about that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
Maybe get to a Player's Tribune article that kind of
blew me away when I read it. All that's still
coming up here on a Friday edition of The A Team.

Speaker 8 (01:05:26):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
A Team Rolling along here on a Friday edition of
the program. Wish we could say we were going into
the weekend that would give us the viewing of that
Texans playoff game, but we got to.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
Do one more show before then know about what lies
in front of them. Because the other two AFC playoff
games will have been completed, we'll know the entire playoff picture.
On the NFC side, who's playing where and when. Upsets
could certainly impact what the Texans do. If all holds
to form, they will be going to Denver in the
divisional round if they win, and holding to form if

(01:06:02):
you're talking about whose favor to win would include a
Texans victory. Holding to form, though if you're only talking
about it in that form will mean there is a second, higher,
better seeded team in the AFC that will not win.
Because the Jaguars, like the Steelers, are a home dog,
Buffalo is still a one and a half point favorite.
Chargers are just a three and a half point dog

(01:06:22):
is the other of the road teams. But depending on
how those games are finished, and both of those are
Sunday games, first game of the day is Bill's Jags,
last game of the day is Pats Chargers. In between
will have Eagles and forty nine ers, and obviously at
that point in time, we will be done with the
NFC because they have the two games on Saturday, Panthers
at Rams or Rams at Panthers and Packers at Bears.

(01:06:44):
But if a seven seed or a six seed wins
on Sunday, well, the Texans will not be playing in Denver.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Which of the two top seeds being upset in their
first games do you feel more? And I realized that
only one of them is playing in the first weekend,
but I.

Speaker 1 (01:07:03):
Think the Seahawks are significantly better equipped to avoid an upset,
except the Rams are probably possibly their opponent. If they're
playing anybody other than the Rams, then I think they
will win. Let me rephrase in the AFC. In the AFC, so,
what's the question.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Which of the top two seeds, even though only one
of them plays on opening weekend, do you feel like,
has the better chance of being upset?

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
I think it's pretty even, to be honest with you,
because the Patriots absolutely are capable of losing this very
first game. I think there will be people picking them
to win. I don't want to say who might be
picking them to win immediately as we talk about this
on a rival television program, but somebody is. I think
most people anticipate this being a last five minutes of

(01:07:48):
the game decision. I don't feel good about the guy
who's picking them to win or to lose, so I
will not be picking them to win. I think the
Charges are going to lose to the Patriots, and then
depending on the match up. I mean, if the Texans
go to Pittsburgh and win, maybe a little bit of
how they do it will matter to me, but probably not.
If the Texans go to Pittsburgh and win and then

(01:08:10):
go to Denver the next week, I'll be picking the
Texans to win.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
Again, that's such a revenge game, I mean, just because
of what happened where it happened.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
It's a revenge game because I'm sure the Texans look
at it like, well, we just played them earlier, we
played them this year, this year's Cleveland. We're better than this.
It's just a different version of that game.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
You lost to them in the regular season and your
quarterback came back and made some big plays.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
That's again I'm predicting what would happen. Well, I think
I get what you're saying. You played them with your
backup quarterback. You played Cleveland with your backup quarterback in
that season, but they also came to Houston against your
backup quarterback who started the game, and it absolutely embarrassed you.
The Cleveland Browns with Joe Flacco and Amari Cooper embarrassed
the Texans on their home field that day, and then c. J.

(01:08:58):
Stroud and the Texans embarrassed Joe and the Browns on
that very same field when it mattered a whole lot
more in the postseason this go around. I mean, the
thought in the Texans mind is, we know what this
team can do, and we know they should not have
outscored us, even with Davis Mills in the game. I mean,
the Texans defense was great against bon Nicks in their
offense for much of that game. They kept them out

(01:09:20):
of they missed a field goal, but then they got
their two touchdowns. They were able to get the two
point conversion means obviously they got into the end zone
technically three times. And then they let Boone Nicks do
to them what Baker Mayfield did to them on the
final drive of the game with his feet, huge game
put him into field goal range. They were able to
kick a feelal. On the last play of the game,
Texans only scored fifteen points. That's the other part of

(01:09:42):
the Texans offense, which was half a little less than
half Stroud and then a little more than half Mills.
They were bad that day. The Davis Mills that beat
the Jaguars wasn't the Davis Mills that played the week before.
And this is what most people talked about when all
of these other new starters kept making their way into
other teams Lineupsquarterback, when you're forced to play in the

(01:10:03):
game that you weren't the number one quarterback for just
one week later, is totally different because you got every
single rep because the game plan is for you, because
you're on the field all week knowing you're going to
play versus Davis Mills. The week prior to the Broncos game,
he was watching CJ get every rep, and then he
watched CJ get every rep until he was concussed out

(01:10:24):
of the game, and then he was forced into the game.
It's just a totally he's the same player, did he
And do you think he was capable of doing that
against Denver the way he did what he did to
Jacksonville in the fourth quarter, and then the next week,
and then the next week. He was just a much
better player. And I'm fully aware that his first three
quarters against Jacksonville were outrageously underwhelming, as he and the
Texans scored ten points.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
All right, just a quick change of pace before we
take another quick break here. I have, I want to say,
have complained it was more about the quality of the
broadcast more than having to actually go find it. But
if you liked Apple TV and trying to watch random
Astros games on a Friday night on that streaming service,

(01:11:09):
you're gonna love the month of August three Sunday night
baseball games for the Astros on that new carrier. Most
you know, the exclusive or the exclusivity I should say,
of Peacock carrying Astros games August night at the Padres,
August thirtieth at the Mets, and in between there at

(01:11:33):
home against the stupid, hated Mariners. All of those are
gonna be On's the sixteenth. All of those are gonna
be on Peacock this year.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
And NBC, Yeah, I guess NBC Sports Network, No NBC
over the air channel television. Well, this graphic.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
Twenty twenty six Sunday Night baseball games and special events schedule.
Most Peacock exclusive games will be simulcast on nbcsn.

Speaker 1 (01:12:02):
Right, those are the games that don't have NBC next
to them, the non Astros games, right, Yeah, so all
those other Astros games, it's like three point font that
I'm trying to well, geez, it looks like maybe eight
of their twenty five games or so are Peacock exclusives,
which I see that might because they weren't very specific
about it, be also simulcast on one of their cable channels,

(01:12:26):
the NBC Sports Network. But the other games that Peacock
will carry on their streaming service look like they will
also be carried by NBC, just the regular old NBC,
which is those August games you were mentioning with the Astros.
Is that a Tarico situation. I don't know that they've
even made that announcement, to be honest.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
With you, because I'm like, I'm fine with them not
being on ESPN because well, they're crew sucked, but I
would like to know who's going to be calling these here.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
I would love it if it were like, does no
Ego do baseball? I've never heard him do baseball? And
his dad doesn't. I can't recall every hearing eye do baseball.
Now if I would assume they will hire people that
you like a lot more than you have in the past.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
Uh, well, well, they don't bring back to one guy
who's an NBC staple to do baseball games, who's terrible
at it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
I think those days are over, but he still calls it,
doesn't he He has some MLB network assignments and they're bad.
That bad is being fare Yeah, I think everybody knew.
I'm trying to make sure, I mean bad is being
very generous. Well, they just because we're here. You might
as well mention that the Thursday Night Football team will

(01:13:34):
be returning for next season's broadcast. Al Michael will be
back for another season. I'm not even going to make
the joke that I want to make right now, so
I'm not very good at it. We can just be blunt. Well,
that wasn't where I was going with it. He's not
any worse than Chris Fowler was last night? Why does
he keep doing that? Being bad? All right?

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
Speaking of national types making picks involving the Texans game,
I am now certain the tech since will advance on
Monday Night it's based on a pick that was made
against them, and we'll tell you who made it and
what they said next.

Speaker 8 (01:14:09):
The on Sports Talk seven ninety nice wex, I.

Speaker 10 (01:14:14):
Like that, all right?

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
My demeanor, Yeah, day disposition. Hey, are you in a
good mood today? I'm in the same mood I'm in
every d and the delivery is just so convincing, you
know what.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
The fact that you say that as much as you
do makes me think that that is actually uttered in
your household. Somebody says something about your mood, and somebody
meaning you, says I'm in the same mood I'm in
every day.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
So occasionally, when we're doing the show, you will be
in the midst of making another outrageously awesome point for
our listeners. Awesome is the word that first you'll be
looking at me and you'll see that I've made some
sort of physical movement an eye roll is not positive,
and you're like what, And occasionally you'll just flat out

(01:14:58):
say it on the air instead of just log it
in your memory, like I got to ask him what's wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Because if you're in my position and you're you're seeing
that situation through my eyes, it's very jarring.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
That's what happens at home a lot. But it's not
even always that I tried well, I try to make
them sure that it wasn't them, and it happened earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Today, Sometimes it is me and sometimes it's not. You
can't differentiate.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
I get irked to a physical degree by so many
different things. You have three screens. That's why I like,
it's pretty easy to tell you it was something else.
It was it was a graphic, it was a text,
it was an email, it was a mistake I've made.
There's so many different things. Two, three, four, five.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
Well, the five six, and you can count seven because
there's two different pictures on that over there. That's how
many screens you have in front of you. I could
never do that. You have one right well two technically,
this bad boy's.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
Right there on your You have two Apple products, one
of which is not necessary because the computer handles at all.
I didn't tell you about that. You can text right
there on your old lap. I can actually tap on
my matt or my PC as well, but I usually
I don't like to.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
You know what, I found people who are third world citizens,
i e. Androids, androids. I can't text on my computer
to them. Effectively right, Well, who told me?

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
What made that? Sure? We'll get there one day now.
I know you had something specific to get to, but
I just wanted to make note of this before. I
didn't think we should wait until in case you missed it.
This is very much that I don't know how many people,
because of everything else going on, we're watching the late
stages of the latest Maverige game. Oh I saw it,
so just real briefly describe how what was going on

(01:16:32):
and how Anthony Davis got hurt. I don't know exactly,
that's the thing. I still don't know what happened. So
he was defending somebody near the baseline, and as the
player drove past him, Davis had reached out and then
almost immediately clutched his arms right back into his chest
and kind of doubled over a little bit. Something wrong
with a hand. Wristed finger is what it looked like there.

(01:16:52):
And he left the game. And the report today is
he sustained ligament damage in his left hand. Oh my gosh.
And a second an opinion could mean surgery is required,
it's done, and it would likely keep him out past
February fifth. What's February fifth? A month, it's the NBA's
trade deadline. Oh and this could put his future with

(01:17:15):
Dallas in a totally different light, his future with a
new team in a totally different situation, because I think
the Trey Young deal was the first of several big
player names that would have been moved, and he was
probably the next in line.

Speaker 4 (01:17:27):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
I did get a text from somebody living in the
Greater Dallas Plano Richardson area that said it said MAVs
lottery team, and I responded with, so same as before
this injury. That's so mean. Are they listening? Yes? What's
their name? This would be Brad. That's up, Brad. Wait,

(01:17:48):
hang on, I'll do it like phoebe Hi, Brad, you
know that's the rest that you don't You don't write
a red bikini, but not for law. And then Brad
would say, Geez does not anymore. And I have a
feeling that Brad is laughing at this past change. Someone
named Brad from our generation's probably heard that a time
or two. But this is pretty significant on an NBA front,

(01:18:09):
less about their wins and losses. I mean, everybody knows
this is Cooper Flagg's team, and Kyrie Irving could still
come back. And this doesn't even mean he's out for
the season. A tenth place Mavericks team because they've had
to keep it together with those players playing better basketball
at the end of the season entering the play inn
on this. Maybe there's someone to team to worry about
me on this regardless of where he ends up playing.

(01:18:31):
You're telling me February fifth for ligament damage. Correct, This
is all a non Yes, Sean is reporting these possibilities. Yeah,
let's just say he has a surgery. It is ligament damage.

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
There's no complications, it's not more severe than they saw it.
They get in there, they clean it up, being bang boom,
you're fired, and they get done and he's back February
fifth for whoever he's gonna play for. He's wearing something
on that hand and it's getting reinjured.

Speaker 1 (01:18:59):
Locket in Vegas right now. Well, if he doesn't have
more ligament damage is his left hand.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
The last time I said on this show, he's gonna
get hurt again, I wasn't kidding, and he did.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
He has missed games since being acquired by the Mavericks.
I think this will be for the fourth different injury.
His first game as a Maverick. He didn't even play
the second half.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
Of course, he put up enough numbers for an entire
game and they beat the Rockets and tying Anthony Davis
and Trey Young together is there's another way to do
this as we got here, and I've seen lots of
memes about it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
Trey Young was just traded for zero first round picks.
He's a four time All Star. Luka Doncic right before him,
the two players that were traded on draft Day that
had now both been traded away by their original team.
He was traded for one first round pick, but Rudy
Gobert for four first round picks and Michal Bridges for five.

(01:19:53):
Desmond Bane the similar. For like, it's crazy, but I
think when you get into the minutia of the salary structure,
age of the player, the amount of money do the player,
the stage that these other stars were at outside of Luca,
and I mean it's okay to factor in the team
that didn't get all those first for Luca did think
stupidly they got a star in return, they got a

(01:20:14):
star talent. They didn't get a star player. Anthony Davis
is not a star player because he's not playing. He's
a starting to talent, right, but he's not a star player.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
And the reason I think the Mavericks are trying to
pry that first round are away from Atlanta and would
be doing so, presumably in a trade that would involve
sending the oft injured Anthony Davis to Atlanta, is because
they know that they know deep down he's not going
to ever be a part of anything we ever do

(01:20:42):
actually win. Some of the players that are our roster
might be, and we hope that Cooper Flag is one
of them. I would even argue, I don't know how
much Kyrie Irving's going to be because I don't know
what Kyrie Irving is going to be when he gets back.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
I think he's still gonna be good. He's a great player.
I think he's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
And him and Cooper Flag together may or may not
be electric at times. But I just if you're the Mavericks,
I know why you are trying so hard to get
that pick. And this complicates it that he had a
booboo again, because that's what it every time every time
he gets hurt. Though it looks like somebody breathed on
him too heavily like, again, I'm sure he did tear ligaments.

(01:21:20):
That's the thing. Anyone else that had that kind of
non collision in that game last night certainly wouldn't have
torn their ligaments. It might have been like a ah, man,
that kind of is uncomfortable for two seconds. Maybe a
mosquito bit me. Not Anthony Davis. No dead for a month.

Speaker 1 (01:21:36):
I mean, it's unbelievable. February fifth date is merely the deadline.
It's not relative to his recovery. He could be out
significantly longer. Okay, that's what I misunderstood when you said
that you're ready diagnosis the well, the diagnosis is that
he's going to be out beyond the deadline. So if
you're for him, there's an issue.

Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
Now we're cooking with gas because torn like it sounds
to me like a minimum of six.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
Or ligament surgery. Not all definitive, but it is likely.
Where this is headed with Anthony Davis. The injury situation
for the Texans, we've mentioned it's pretty good, and they've
given the injury report, and we mentioned earlier. When we
get to the four o'clock hour, which is where we
have arrived, we are diving full force into the Texans
conversation with Houston Chronicle Texans writer Sam Warren comes your way.

(01:22:22):
We're talking specifically about the impact of Titus Howard on
this vastly improved offensive line. When Sam joins us next,
the A.

Speaker 8 (01:22:31):
Team on Sports Talk seventy.

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
Four o'clock has arrived here just three short days before
the Texans will play their first playoff game of this campaign.
They're set for Monday Night football against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The other five playoff games will have concluded the opposite
of what every fan in Houston with the Texans has
been used to in previous playoff trips. They always opened

(01:22:55):
up wild Card weekend with the first game Saturday afternoon
at three thirty. Now they will wrap it up with
Monday night football against Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers. And
to that end, we have a visit from Houston Chronicle
Texans writer and Rockets writer at times, Sam Warren joins
us here on Sports Talk seven ninety on The A Team.
Saw Sam earlier today over at Texans as I usually

(01:23:17):
do over the course of the week. Although today was
the Texans Thursday, even though it's every other Humans Friday.
Tomorrow they'll be back on the practice field again and
then off to Pittsburgh Sunday. One of the things we
noticed today, Sam was the addition to the practice field
after yesterday's missed practice by Titus Howard. He was back
out there. Trent Brown has been out there this week.

(01:23:39):
Let's get to what you wrote about specifically first, because
I had a chance to run through it or I
was talking. I heard you talking about a little bit
this morning and knew the gist of it even before
I had read it. Having covered Titus Howard all these years,
his career here is beyond remarkable for a number of
different reasons, and it was all on display this season,
starting it three different positions on this offensive line much improved.

(01:24:03):
You had a chance to talk to him this week
and wrote about it. How does how's his viewpoint on
both his career to date with this team and this
team as they head into another postseason.

Speaker 5 (01:24:14):
Yeah, Adam, Adam, thanks for having me on first.

Speaker 8 (01:24:17):
But yeah, I had.

Speaker 5 (01:24:18):
The chance to speak with Titus yesterday kind of just
about what this this season has meant for him, how
it's kind of been different for past seasons, and why
he's been able to play so well at so many
different positions this year, and just talking with him, I mean,
we we kind of all knew that Titus moving around
wasn't his preferred thing to do. You know, at points

(01:24:39):
last year when he had to make the move, he
was pretty pretty adamant about wanting to stay at tackle,
saying that he was a tackle and that's the position
that he wanted to play and that was the position
that he felt pretty natural at. But in speaking with him,
you know, he was honest about not wanting to make
those moves. I mean, he told me that he was
pissed off every single time that that coaches asked him

(01:25:02):
to make the move, and he was kind of blindsided
whenever he did have to make the move. But the
approach that he's taken to that this season has really improved.
He's kind of, you know, embraced his versatility, so to speak,
with him being able to do things that kind of
the typical offensive line they can't do, with playing multiple positions,
playing inside, outside, and having his play not.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
Really drop off.

Speaker 5 (01:25:25):
He's really embraced that and felt like that's something that's
made his game more valuable other than you know, being
averse to moving around. So he also said that you know,
with that with kind of that embrace of him moving
around has it's allowed him to play with more confidence
and this allowed him to play better. So by him

(01:25:46):
kind of buying into cult Popovic's what he's doing and
moving him around and kind of having that that foresight
of this is something that could have possibly happened going
into the season. Titus has really embraced kind of that role.
It's made his teammates respect him a lot and kind
of the value that he brings to the offensive lid room,

(01:26:07):
and it's helped him have probably what he's described as
his best season in his tenure as a Texan. So
he's a really versatile piece for this team that we've
seen this year, very valuable piece to this team and
kind of the biggest reason that this offensive line has
been able to hang together throughout seventeen eighteen weeks here.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
Well, thanks to the Colts owner Carly Ursa Gordon and
now you and Titus, we've really driven home the word
pissed on this show. And I want to read the
direct quote that you got from him that's in your article.
Howard said in the past, I ain't gonna lie. I
was pissed. I was mad. Younger me was mad. I
was moving around. Didn't understand why I was moving I
didn't want to do it. And as you just described,

(01:26:48):
embracing it more, allowing him to accept it more, thus
allowing to play the positions a whole lot more effectively.
Now take that into this matchup, if you could. This
is a good defensive front. This is a sack happy
defensive front. It's not a great defense, but up front
they are a lot to handle. Hayward and Herbig and
Watt and high Smith. How do you think this matchup

(01:27:11):
in the trenches when the Texans offense is on the
field looks like, how do you think it plays out?

Speaker 8 (01:27:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:27:17):
I think that's probably one of the biggest matchups going
into this game, just knowing, you know, the difficulties that
we've seen from this Texans offensive line and past playoff games,
like if if we go back to that Chiefs game
last year, that was probably the main reason that they lost.
It's giving up all those stacks, the T K shroud
and then you're playing against you know, like you just said,
do you have Alex high Smith, you have T. J.

Speaker 8 (01:27:36):
Watt, you have.

Speaker 5 (01:27:37):
Cameron Hayward named her big like all these guys that
are able to rest the passer. That's gonna be something
that's gonna be really interesting for this Texas team.

Speaker 8 (01:27:44):
I think they'll be.

Speaker 5 (01:27:45):
Able to handle it a lot better than they've been
able to in the past. And I think Titus you know,
we've seen Trent Brown back on the practice field. The
thought is is that they'll probably return to that same
offensive line configuration that we've seen in the past, with
with Trent Brown going to right tackle, Titus Howard going
to the left guard, and I think that's gonna really
help them, especially on the interior handling like a Connor

(01:28:07):
Hayward h or Cam Hayward. Sorry, I think Conners's brother
and also plays on the team, so he's gonna mix
that up. But yeah, I think, you know, that's going
to really help them with with having that interior presence
of Titus Howard and adding Trent Brown back in there.
That's just kind of sharing up their offensive lind group,
and I think they will be able to manage it

(01:28:28):
a lot better than what we've seen in the past
and and keep this uh, this thing that they have
going on up front kind of rolling here.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
Talking to Sam Warren of the Houston Chronicle Texans Steelers
Wild Card action Monday night. So this this might be
a tough question. Who of a litany of names you
could say here is gonna end up having the biggest
impact defensively for the Texans Because we know what these
Steelers are gonna want to do, uh with Aaron Rodgers

(01:28:57):
and getting the ball out quickly and all that. We
know all the good things that the text defense is
capable of doing, both up front in the secondary.

Speaker 1 (01:29:03):
But what's the one name you look to have?

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
I mean, because Derek Stingley was the guy you know
a year ago, maybe you say that in the postseason
against the Chargers, who's the guy you think is going
to make the biggest impact of the Texans defense.

Speaker 1 (01:29:14):
Of all the names that could.

Speaker 5 (01:29:17):
I'm gonna give you two, and they're both in the secondary.
I think first, Jalen Petrie is gonna be big for
this defense.

Speaker 1 (01:29:24):
If we remember last year he didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:29:26):
Play in the playoffs because of his his injury. There
so a lot, you know, he adds so much to
this defense in terms of, you know, just being able
to play inside the box and do a lot of
things there playing as as the nickel and Megan plays,
you know, as a as a run defender, but also
just being able to cover, you know, both the slot

(01:29:47):
defender or both the slot receiver and the tight end.
The Steelers like to do a lot of stuff at
their tight end, So his impact both in the run
in past game is gonna be huge. And then I'll
also throw out tomorrow last year. I mean, it looks
like he's gonna be coming back this week from some
injuries that he was dealing with. And although he said
that he felt like he could have played against the

(01:30:09):
Colts in that in that Week eighteen game, I think
the Textans held him out. I was a little bit
of precaution, but just given the things that he's able
to do from the corner position, not only in coverage
with them getting DK metcat back and trying to get
him aligned on are getting DK aligned on him instead
of Derek Stanley, but also just the things that he

(01:30:30):
can do in terms of making tackles and playing aggressively
from that corner position. You know, the Steelers like to
get the ball out in the past to their their
running backs, kind of getting it out in the flat,
and when you have a cornerback who can tackle like that,
make plays kind of out in the open space against
the Cats gain well against the Jaleen Warren. That's really
an X factor for this defense that not a lot

(01:30:52):
of defenses have. So having the physicality of Kamari Lasseter back,
having the physicality of jale and Petrie, those I think
are gonna be big players for this Texas defense coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:31:03):
The team's been on the road in the playoffs twice.
This team, obviously the franchise, been on the road a
few more times than that, and the results have been
the same every single time, with this particular group having
lost in Baltimore and Kansas City, and there are two
previous postseason road games, and now opening on the road
against a totally different dynamic of a team in the
Pittsburgh Steelers, albeit still with a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers.

(01:31:24):
From a mentality standpoint, from a believing maybe this year
is different the way we got here, the kind of
defense we have. Do you sense that they're heading into
this game truly believing we're going in there and we're
getting a win and we're going to keep winning this postseason?

Speaker 5 (01:31:39):
Absolutely? I think be confidence wise this team is you know,
if you win the non straight games to end the year.
I don't know how you can't be top of it
going into this playoff game. You know, they have a
better record than the Steelers. The Steelers had to play
a win and get in game to get to this point.
And to be honest, I feel like, you know, from
all the playoff bacups in the sp for the tech Like,

(01:32:00):
this is the one that you wanted. The Steelers, they
have a lot of you know, weaknesses to their guantee.
I think that the Technans, you know, feel like they
should be favored in this backup and I think they
have the competence to prove it. So in terms of
previous maculos, I don't think that really, you know, I
think that can motivate them, but I think they're just
have that competence by himself and what they've been able

(01:32:22):
to do this season going into Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (01:32:24):
UI's talked a little bit about kind of an anomaly
with regards to the stadium that this game is going
to be played in. Do you buy in, especially in
light of what happened last weekend? Do you buy into
the swirling winds at the Artists formally known as hinz Field,
I was call it that just because that's where all
those those kicks happened that got shanked, and Chris Brown

(01:32:44):
famously was there before coming to play for the Texans
and he had a lot of difficulties. I wonder how
much that's going to be a factor if any on
a on a cold Monday night in January.

Speaker 5 (01:32:56):
Yeah, absolutely, I think it has to be a factor
if we if we look back at that Cheaps game
last year too, there were so many special teams mistakes
by the Texans that hurt them so and the Frank
Ross has said as much, it's gonna taste a little
bit more preparation just given the stuff that has happened
at uh AT. You know, I still call it Hinsfield
as well. I think it's Akrascher Stadium whatever it is now.

(01:33:19):
But he's said as much, Tamika Rance has said as much.
I think it definitely comes into play in terms of
their preparation and they're pretty confident in their special teams
unit and what Kenny Fairburn has been able to do
this year though so Tommy Townsend has also improved his
game as well.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
So I think as much as the.

Speaker 5 (01:33:39):
Past has been an issue at that field, I think
they're they're pretty confident, their skills well.

Speaker 1 (01:33:44):
Out asking for a score. You and Brett and Jonathan
and Matt all out of Texans this week. Will you
guys be covering the Texans game next week? Also? Will
there be one?

Speaker 5 (01:33:57):
If there is one, I think we will be so.
I think I think that the Texans I have plans
so far right now to be working next week.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
So that's a very good prediction, ary diplomat said Sam.
We appreciate you joining us. Great article on Titus in
the in the Chronicle today, great stuff throughout the year,
and we look forward to booking you next week in
advance of their divisional round game.

Speaker 5 (01:34:21):
Awesome, guys, thank you so much, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:24):
You got it, Sam Warren, Houston Chronicle covering your Texans.
What do you think about what will happen in this game?
We haven't even asked you guys that and we still
have a full show before we need your answers.

Speaker 8 (01:34:36):
The a on Sports Talk seven nineteen.

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
Thanks again, it's Sam Warren, all of the Houston Chronicle
for joining us last segment, so diplomatic in his.

Speaker 1 (01:34:47):
I've made it easy for him. Well, you'll be working
next week covering the Texans, and ultimately he said, yes,
the other plans are to be working.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
He said, everything's short of I have not made social
plans outside of covering sports now weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
So yeah, I think he feels good about it. But
it is interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
I would have texts with Chandler Rome about that kind
of thing often during the playoff run by playoff runs
by the Astros, because you know, Chandler is very surly
and it just wants to go on vacation as soon
as possible, no matter what. But it wasn't like he
was rooting against the Astros either. It's just funny how
some of this stuff goes down, especially in light of

(01:35:25):
the fact that it's you know, on the road and
you got to make travel arrangements and all that. But
I can tell you somebody who doesn't think Sam Warren
will be covering another Texans game after this weekend, technically
Monday night.

Speaker 1 (01:35:37):
One of your favorites. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:35:39):
Anytime I see this guy flapping his gums about anything Texans,
I generally think the opposite will happen, and a lot
of times it does. He has the Steelers, as he
puts it, upsetting the Texans. They are underdogs, it would
be an upset. He has the Steelers winning twenty three

(01:36:00):
and here's what he says. The Steelers are the Texans,
I should say, have one of the best defenses in
the league. That could be a problem for a Steelers offense.
That is just okay. Aaron Rodgers does have a lot
of playoff experience, which matters. He also gets back dk
Metcalf in this one, which is big. The Steelers offensive
line has also been good as of late. The Texans

(01:36:21):
offense has been better during a nine game winning streak,
but this will come down to Houston's offensive line against
the Steelers front. That's a problem. Look for the Steelers
to force some mistakes by c J. Stroud as Pittsburgh
advances behind its defensive front in a playoff upset.

Speaker 1 (01:36:42):
I mean, can you at least tell everybody who's this is,
because I don't even know, Oh, Peter Prisco, Okay, I
mean it's plausible what he's saying, but everything he's saying,
it's a supply. We're some billion times the other way
in my opinion, to Rogers facing this Texans defense. Right,
but if what he says happens, the outcome probably will

(01:37:04):
match if CJ. Strout has a bad day, if their
defense beats the Texans offense to a certain degree, however
you want to describe it. The mistakes obviously would assumably
be turnovers, then that's probably me ask you a simple question.
If the Texans offense struggles, then there's probably not a
lot of points on the board and forced to, you know,

(01:37:26):
give up seven or less, ten or less.

Speaker 2 (01:37:28):
Let me ask you a simple question about this this matchup,
as it pertains to what we're talking about. Do the
Steelers have a much better offense than the Houston Texans?

Speaker 1 (01:37:38):
You could argue they don't have a better offense at all.
So then who has the best defense on the field
the Texans. So then if those two things are facts,
and I'm not saying this like the Texans have this
awesome offense, we all know what the issues are. But
if those two things bear themselves out, I just don't

(01:37:59):
see any way that what Peter Prisco is saying here
comes to be. He was out it last night during
the college football game. We'll save that for another portion
of the show. It was pretty funny because everybody is
doing what you're doing, saying, man, this guy's dumb. He
is dumb. I'm not saying the surprise has time for
any of this. With Jacksonville actually being in the playoffs

(01:38:19):
his team, so I would think all of his time
and effort would be wrapped up in what goldilocks a postseason.
He's got them advancing to even though everybody else is
picking the Bills. Yeah, you're gonna have guys that just
want to either be contrarian. I mean they are at home.
Aaron Rodgers did have a good year. This is a
legitimate team. The Texans aren't favored by ten. The Texans

(01:38:41):
are favored by a field goal. It's close to a
coin flip. Obviously, the location may have an impact on
the line itself, but I mean we'll see. I don't
think we'll see any entity ESPN at large, any of
the television programs at large, are six hosts at large
that will all pick the same result. I mean maybe
here because we're in Houston. I guess if we're biased.

(01:39:03):
But I don't think it's crazy to think that one
out of every five national or local coverage people, media
people will think the Steelers are going to win for
the reasons that he said. I do think that's how
it's going to have to happen. As I say it
every week, and I definitely think the same thing is
true this week. I don't care. What are the Texans
going to do to Aaron Rodgers? Well, tell me this first.

(01:39:26):
Is the Texans offense going to turn the ball over?
Because if they're not, then they're coming back to Houston
with another game to play. If the Texans have a
turnover free offensive evening in Pittsburgh, they will win. If
they have a turnover, they'll still win. I think each
one makes it. It also matters where you turn the
ball over, so it takes your offense off the field.

(01:39:47):
It usually puts them in good position or you're in
the red zone, which I would hate to say. And
just because we're talking about I know everybody thinks people
in the media, especially when it comes to no hitters
and things, they have all this unbelievable power to do
things and what they say, oh, how could you say that?
Because that's the response I'm going to get here. I've
talked about the takeaways all year long with the Texans,
they only had twelve of them. There's only one team

(01:40:08):
in the league that had fewer. That's the Bears. They
only had seven turnovers after the first three games when
they started going three and two of them came in
their finale or in their game against the Chargers when
CJ had a tip ball intercepted and threw a ball
directly to the Chargers because he obviously didn't see who
was there waiting for it in front of Christian Kirk.

(01:40:30):
But he also didn't lose a fumble the entire season.
The team lost a fumble only three times the entire season,
like they did it twice in the first three games,
and both of them were brutal, the Dari fumble in
the opener YEP and two weeks later Nico's fumble in
the red zone against the Jaguars. They lost one fumble

(01:40:51):
the rest of the entire season. They barely put the
ball on the ground to lose a fumble all year.
The ball right, So saying that in advance of this
really important postseason game usually scares people. Who's gonna fumble CJ?
Because TJ.

Speaker 2 (01:41:10):
Watt got after him? Or are you talking about like
a running back situation. We talked about it with Sam.
You could see a special teams issue. One of their
lost fumbles this year was a special team's lost fumble, Like,
that's how well they took care of the football. And
I really think it's so everything. We gotta protect the football.
I gotta protect the football. What do you do to

(01:41:31):
do that?

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
Oh, we run these drills and we do this, and
we see the drills. Every team does them. But go
back and watch the last play of the season. Watch
Tommy TOGII. Did you see him protect the football when
he was running for the end zone? He obviously picked
it up, scooped it up, and had it tucked away
like a running back in one arm, and as he
felt the defense coming to tackle him, he put both

(01:41:51):
arms around it, put it in his waist, made sure
there was no punch possibility, and took it into the
end zone. It's almost even he knows he's a fullback,
by the way, for one play this year.

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
Right, It's almost like James Kahn is coaching them and
every player on the Texans roster is Omar Epps in
the program.

Speaker 1 (01:42:08):
Now, which season was halle Berry named after in that movie? Oh? Autumn?
She was Autumn. Okay, Summer's another good one, but Autumn
is a good one. I think so, Yes, that's correct.
She looked amazing in that movie, as did she has
in all of her movies except for maybe Losing Isaiah
and Monsters Ball.

Speaker 2 (01:42:28):
But no, she looked good in Monsters Ball. It's just
that Billy Bob Thornton was in the picture.

Speaker 1 (01:42:32):
Okay, I thought she looked good in the Bond film
she was in, you know, pretty good. Well, what I'm saying,
she looks good in The Last Boy Scout pretty good.
I would say Boomerang pretty good. I mean, we can
run down the whole list, We're gonna come up with
the same answer pretty much every time.

Speaker 2 (01:42:47):
But this movie is not one of those that you
would immediately think of, Oh yeah, halle Berry was in that,
and the look that she has in the movie is
just not.

Speaker 1 (01:42:56):
Really very halle Berry like she was as a tutor.
She was a student tutor. Dad was a football player,
that's true. And who is the other female lead again,
Christy Swanson. She follows me on Social Buffy. Yeah, I
never watched it, That's quite all right.

Speaker 2 (01:43:13):
I didn't watch that show either, even though I was
also a fan of Sarah Michelle Geller, who's still married
to Freddy Prince Junior after like thirty years. It's a
Hollywood marriage that never happens. It worked, It did work,
and he got into wrestling after acting wild who got
into wrestling after acting Freddie Prince Junior was a writer
for WWE for many years.

Speaker 1 (01:43:33):
Not a wrestler. No got into the sport, got into
being a part of the sport producing it. That's pretty
different than what my image was. He could never wrestle.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
He would be a horrible manager, let alone an actual wrestler.
But yeah, going back to Pete Prisco, I'll tell you
what I would never do is book him on a
show that I was hosting. Okay, someone else did.

Speaker 1 (01:43:56):
I've talked to him maybe once or twice over several decades.

Speaker 5 (01:44:00):
Year.

Speaker 1 (01:44:00):
I'm talking about it. First night, so he was ripping
one of the defense, the defensive player for the Hurricanes
basically called him a no show, and it was met
by someone all else in the media business who was
watching the game saying, oh yeah, Bane, he had more pressures.
He had six pressures more than any other player in
this game.

Speaker 2 (01:44:19):
Here's the problem with Miami. For me, I cannot root
for Carson Beck. He was unlikable last year as a Bulldog,
and he's even more unlikable this year.

Speaker 1 (01:44:31):
He's just not very I don't know. He won the game.
He made the play to win the game, obviously, with
the scramble to put them in the end zone to
give them the margin they needed to score late in
the game after they'd been scored on late in the game.
And they do get to go back home. And this
is one of the couple of teams that was discussed
very heavily. Do they even belong there? It shows you

(01:44:51):
how closely packed together some of those later additions to
the you know, the seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve
that could have been that they can win. And we
said it all year there was no overwhelming team. Maybe
it looks like there is one. Now Indiana will have
a chance to prove that tonight Indiana Miami in the
National Championship. Join Miami and they're the under they're trying
to go sixteen. And oh yeah, that's crazy stuff right there.

Speaker 5 (01:45:14):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:45:14):
You know what else is crazy? Our stone cold locks
or maybe they're not, maybe they're great. We'll find out next.

Speaker 8 (01:45:23):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:45:28):
Before we get to the picks, the most important picks
of the season so far, someone we both know in
the business sent along the following Utah State great Jalen
Warren will be an issue for Houston. This person is
a noted Cowboys fan. What do you think? I texted back. No,

(01:45:51):
he won't even better, I said, Oh yeah, who's going
to be an issue for Dallas? Oh wait, all right,
now we can proceed.

Speaker 1 (01:45:59):
Jalen Warren was actually on the injury report today for
the Steelers, although he practiced in full but to illness
the reason why he was not on the injury report yesterday.
We'll get you the full lot of that coming up
in the next segment. I'll try to work some of
your phone calls in here with your thoughts on Texans Steelers.
But it is a signature segment. Time on a Friday
during football season. That means we hit you with our

(01:46:20):
stone cold locks. Had some odd game days and had
some vacation days around some of the last couple of Fridays.
So we'll just get you caught up on things and
get you right into week twenty. Mandating that you made
at least one pick on the college football playoff games
either last night or tonight. Mandating that, of course, you

(01:46:41):
make a pick on Texans Monday Night football and then
any of the other games any way you wanted to
play it. So among these seven games we now have
to choose from an ac already sitting at one and
oh this week played the over on Miami Ole. Miss
it hit with the final score. I did a great game,
went over thanks to that. But Josh, you always get
us arted in these picks. As I look over the

(01:47:02):
graphic I created will sound very familiar to me. Off
the Jumps Savior Texans pick for last, though, as always,
when we come back to you, Okay, you got it
for me.

Speaker 11 (01:47:11):
With the college game, I'm gonna go with Indiana minus
three and a half. I bet against them twice the
last few weeks. I'm not making that mistake again.

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
So do you think it's even more comfortable than that?
I too, am playing Indiana minus three and a half.

Speaker 11 (01:47:24):
I think it's gonna be in that ballpark. But like
I said, I'm just I'm done doubting them. They've proved
me wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:47:29):
Well from afar, it's enough you can probably stomach doubting them.
If you were closer to Kurt Signetti's wrath, eyeballs, and anger,
you probably would have doubted them even less correct. I
do kind of run the same way much of this year.
I didn't actually look the numbers before I made that play.
In their previous games, I would imagine they covered a

(01:47:51):
majority of them, at the very least with the way
they played this season. Obviously, this is a rematch, but
I agree at minus three and a half, I think
Indiana takes it heads into THEAA Championship game as an
undefeated outfit.

Speaker 11 (01:48:03):
What else I'm gonna go with the Bears plus the
one and a half versus the Packers, I'm a Ben Johnson,
Guy Aroma Dunze expected back.

Speaker 1 (01:48:10):
I'm gonna take the points. The Bears are at home.

Speaker 11 (01:48:14):
My other picks, I'm gonna take forty nine Ers plus
five and a half versus the Eagles at the Eagles,
I just like I said earlier in the year, the
Eagles just haven't been an offense that really runs away
from anybody in Shanahan and brock Purty have looked pretty good,
So give me the points there.

Speaker 1 (01:48:28):
And then Bills at Jags.

Speaker 11 (01:48:29):
This is actually probably the game I'm most excited to
watch besides the Texans game. So I just I think
there's something going on with the Jaguars. I think it
might be the run game in ETN that helps them
at least cover, but I think they actually win, So
I'll take the one and a half points with the Jags.

Speaker 1 (01:48:44):
Two teams are one and a half point home underdogs
in these six games that are played in the NFL
this weekend, and you've taken both of them. I took
one of them. I took the Bears also at plus
one and a half. I assume we both think they're
just flat out going to win the game. I don't
like the way the Packers have played obviously late in
the season. That's pretty obvious to tell with how many
games they lost their matchup from matchups from earlier this year,

(01:49:07):
I think indicate that a slight line one direction of
the other was probably the way to go. But I
will as well take the home team. That means we
expect for another of these young players. CJ. Stroud made
the playoffs as the number two overall pick in his
rookie season and won his first game. Jayden Daniels made
the playoffs as a first year quarterback, and they won

(01:49:28):
their opening game, and then they made it all the
way to the conference title game. Caleb Williams obviously did
not make the postseason last year, but one year later,
with a new head coach and a totally revamped offensive
line and a two headed monster of a running back
duo in the backfield, I do think that the Bears
are going to emerge victorious. I also took the forty

(01:49:48):
nine ers same way plus five and a half. Everything
you said I totally agree with. It's almost like, if
you're playing the Eagles to cover that game, you just
think they're going to be able to flip a switch
and all of a sudden, Sakwan Barkley is going to
look like twenty twenty four version of him, and their
offense is gonna click and they're gonna be able to score.
And Lane Johnson's gonna play and be healthy. He's still questionable,
but most expect him to be out there. I just

(01:50:11):
don't think of them as they flip the switch type
of offense, and for that reason, I think the Niners
at the very least stay within that number. I also
played the Bills Jaguars, just not how you did. I
couldn't ultimately come to a firm enough conclusion in a
wagering sense, stone cold locks sense, So I just said
the game is gonna go under. I think both teams
will be less than spectacular on in that game Sunday afternoon,

(01:50:36):
So I'll leave my Texans pick as well to the
end a see what you got.

Speaker 2 (01:50:39):
According to the latest updates from the NBC five Storm team,
temperature Saturday in Chicago expected to be potentially slightly warmer
than they appeared earlier in the week, but when gusts
are still going to be around fifteen to twenty miles
per hour, And even though there was there was predictions

(01:50:59):
in actually have a lot of snow, I guess it's
not going to be a ton in comparison to what
they were predicting.

Speaker 1 (01:51:07):
I'm still taking the under on this game because of
all that.

Speaker 2 (01:51:09):
All right, super cold, all that kind of stuff factors
in so forty four and a half have taken the under,
taking the over on Chargers Patriots. I mean, I just
feel like all these two quarterbacks we keep hearing about,
if they do what they're gonna do in this game
or what they're capable of, you're going to be able
to combine from more than forty five and a half.
And I feel the same way about the Bills and

(01:51:30):
the Jags because I don't think either, Like, I don't
know if Cook's gonna go off, but I think he's
gonna have a better day than everybody's thinking. But I
definitely think there's gonna be points put up in this
game because primarily the Bills defense is lackluster, and I
think they can make the Jaguars defense not as effective
as it has been.

Speaker 1 (01:51:50):
I think that is the key to the game. I
think Alan's gonna play well, and I think if Cook
plays exceptionally well, they win the game. I think that's
what's going to lead them to winning that game, taking
it all out out of Josh Allen's hands. I don't
think it's that he can't win if he has to
do that, but I think it's a whole lot easier
clearly if they get a little bit more of a
balanced attack, have a few more plays where he's not

(01:52:10):
the only guy counted on to do everything. He's had
a really, really good statistical postseason career Josh Allen almost
every time out there. He's had some unreal postseason performances
individually on the wrong side of the scoreboard, and I
just doesn't seem like he's going to take any of
his teams into the playoffs and lose on the road

(01:52:32):
at Jacksonville. No matter what the Jaguars are, Clearly the
Jags are a good team, all right. On the Texans Steelers, Josh,
you and I agreed on most everything this week each other.
This is as opposite as you can get. I'm going
to take the Texans, who I obviously believe are going
to win with the number at minus three. I'll just
take them to cover the number. You're on the other side,
tell us why. I just think I like the points.

Speaker 11 (01:52:55):
I think the Texans will win the game, but the
plus three if there's a missed extra point, which could
absolutely happened in this you know, in this on this field,
I'm gonna take the points here.

Speaker 1 (01:53:05):
And even though there won't be snow on this field either,
you will, once again in a cold weather game, take
the under. Yeah, it's just because of these two teams
as offenses and the defenses that are involved. Twenty seven
to ten Texans victory would hit the under and make
me a winner and make Josh a loser. Sounds great
for WEX. We're all here for that. Those your stone
cold locks. Week twenty here on the EIGHTEAM.

Speaker 8 (01:53:30):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:53:32):
Ninety and obviously and unfortunately so some lots of time
to still get to it, since there's a Monday night
game in the playoffs and your Texans are in it
asked for throughout the week and getting some of them
in here your predictions on the upcoming game. Appreciate a
few of you hanging in through our stone cold locks
so we can get to you now and talk little
Texans Steelers. Texans are about a field goal favored on

(01:53:53):
the road at the Steelers. Steelers a ten and seventeen
that had to win for a five down the stretch
just to get there. That included a Cleveland. The Texans
were a three and five team. They won nine consecutive
games to reach the postseason, although the last of those
nine was not required. They would have made the postseason
no matter what the result of the Colts game, but
they would not be going to Pittsburgh had they lost it.

(01:54:14):
They would be going to Jacksonville had they lost that game.
Let's get some Texans thoughts from David joining us here
on the A team. Appreciate your patients with us, David,
appreciate you listening joining us here. What do you got
for us absolutely, wex.

Speaker 10 (01:54:27):
What's happening?

Speaker 1 (01:54:28):
I ran all good things?

Speaker 10 (01:54:31):
Yes, sir, Ac, what's happening?

Speaker 1 (01:54:33):
How are you?

Speaker 5 (01:54:34):
Sir?

Speaker 1 (01:54:36):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (01:54:36):
Long time?

Speaker 9 (01:54:36):
No here man.

Speaker 10 (01:54:37):
I follow you on Facebook, my.

Speaker 1 (01:54:39):
Dude, Okay, thank you. I hope I follow you back.

Speaker 10 (01:54:43):
I'm You're welcome.

Speaker 5 (01:54:44):
Oh.

Speaker 10 (01:54:45):
I love following you back. Your You're a good conversational piece,
which is a very good which is a very good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:54:52):
What you got today?

Speaker 10 (01:54:54):
Yes, sir, I want to before I predict the Texans game,
I want to go a little bit, a little bit
with over and under with the wild card weekend games. Uh,
starting with the first one are Away? Uh, what's the
first one? That Carolina and La yep. Okay, that's going

(01:55:16):
to be an under.

Speaker 1 (01:55:19):
Okay, I think that's probably what I would play in
the Stone cold lockshet. I mean, I don't. I'm going
to keep them. Keep these in mind, David, and I'll
add you if you go six and oh, he can
actually take over from me at that point because I've
been a business all right. So the under on the
first game, second game of the yeah, that's true. Bears Packers,
your thoughts.

Speaker 10 (01:55:39):
Bears Packers. That will also be an under.

Speaker 1 (01:55:44):
Like Ac said, three games on Sunday.

Speaker 10 (01:55:46):
It starts with the Jagson, Daggs and Bills. That game
is going to be.

Speaker 1 (01:55:57):
Uh over you and ac are match made in Heaven,
Middle Games, the last the NFC Eagles and Niners.

Speaker 10 (01:56:06):
Eagles and Niners, Eagles and Niners. That game, I believe
is that.

Speaker 1 (01:56:10):
Under forty four and a half, last game of the day,
Chargers and Patriots.

Speaker 10 (01:56:16):
Chargers and Patriots, that game is going to be over.

Speaker 1 (01:56:22):
All right, forty five and a half the number there
what we've all been waiting for. David Texans Steelers Monday
Night Football Texans.

Speaker 10 (01:56:30):
Steelers, that game is going to be an under as well.
And my final score for the Technan game is twenty
the Texans twenty three the Pittsburg Steelers nineteen ooh.

Speaker 1 (01:56:47):
A tight one, A very tight one. David. Appreciate you
a very tight one. Appreciate you being with us, sharing
your thoughts with our listeners as well, and they see
made note of all of those picks. I believe you
are in lock step every step of the way.

Speaker 2 (01:57:01):
I don't even know the guy, but I feel like
we're twins separated at birth when it comes to that.

Speaker 1 (01:57:05):
Anyways, let's get Mark in here on the same NFL
postseason Houston Texans Pittsburgh Steelers topic. Mark, Welcome into the program.
What do you have for us?

Speaker 8 (01:57:16):
Love the A team guys.

Speaker 1 (01:57:18):
You man listen.

Speaker 4 (01:57:19):
Every day up in North Jersey with iHeartRadio app beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:57:23):
What is Jersey like right now?

Speaker 4 (01:57:27):
Jersey right now is actually uncharacteristic, touristically warm for January.

Speaker 2 (01:57:33):
Like everybody else around the co So, okay, tell me
this before we get to the good.

Speaker 1 (01:57:38):
Usual at this time of year in Jersey. If you
ask about the weather.

Speaker 4 (01:57:41):
Stuff for you guys before, I got two points before
I go into Texas.

Speaker 1 (01:57:44):
But go ahead. Well, I just wanted to ask you.

Speaker 2 (01:57:46):
You live in New Jersey, which means you are within
at least relatively close distance of Tony Soprano's place. Have
you ever been to the front of the house?

Speaker 4 (01:57:56):
I have not.

Speaker 8 (01:57:58):
On the list.

Speaker 4 (01:57:59):
All right, I'll make it out there.

Speaker 1 (01:58:00):
I'll make it out there for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:58:03):
So the two points I got, So if we're talking
nineties blonde, I'm going Eric Olaniac popping out of a
cake on under Siege or or Elizabeth Shoe as a
centerfold and adventures in babysitter like my over Christy swants.
All right, I've never been a big fan of of
of uh babe, Watch you know number two number two,

(01:58:28):
uh Stone cold lock guy talking about taking the taking
the glitter kiddies over gosh Allen in the playoffs in
an open air stadium in warm weather. Come on, no way, Bills,
Bills are gonna run him over onto the Texans.

Speaker 5 (01:58:44):
CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:58:45):
Stroud has been sacked one time in the last what
fourteen quarters? I think it is almost almost.

Speaker 8 (01:58:50):
Four games, that's correct.

Speaker 4 (01:58:52):
It's not gonna be an issue. I think we got
him on lock unless TJ. Unless TJ accelerates beyond on
eighty percent that he's at right now. I don't think
we're gonna have to worry about worry about Steelers defense offense.
I think we're locked in defense.

Speaker 5 (01:59:08):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:59:08):
You guys know, come on, Aaron Rodgers is gonna be
running for his life, and not in the right direction.
He's gonna be running backwards. So I like, I like,
I like uh. I like Wex's prediction twenty seven ten.
I'm saying twenty four to twenty seven to ten Texans
run even gonna be a game. It's gonna be thirty degrees.

(01:59:29):
We beat the steel the Chiefs at you know, in
Arrowhead at what twenty five degrees with teen wind chills,
Weather's not gonna be a factor. Defense plays in the cold.
We're gonna We're gonna murder them. It's not even close.

Speaker 2 (01:59:41):
I like him, Mark. He might be my favorite caller
of all time. And it's not just because I love you, guys, Hey,
we love you man.

Speaker 1 (01:59:47):
I appreciate you joining us, love that you listen via
the Rheart Radio app. And you're welcome anytime.

Speaker 2 (01:59:52):
Let's just can we just recap all of the things
I loved about that call. He reminded me that Eric
Erica Liniac did jump out of a case and under siege.

Speaker 1 (02:00:01):
I'm just a cook under siege. Great movie, Tommy Lee
Jones unhinged. It is a great comedy.

Speaker 2 (02:00:06):
Winds up with a face on any radar screen. YEP
number two. He called the Jaguars glitter kiddies. We'll have
to keep a hold of that one.

Speaker 1 (02:00:15):
I need them to play each other now in the
playoffs so I can use that. Don't gloss over one
of the two finest looking versions of Elizabeth Shoe. I
mentioned one of them, Adventures and Babysitting and the fact
that she was a centerfold in the movie Erroneously, unred
or recognized erroneously, but weiko, But we usually reference that

(02:00:36):
along with her her role in Cocktails.

Speaker 2 (02:00:39):
Cocktails when she was in her prime, like Jordan, hard
to be beat. I mean, now, we can't blame Tom
Cruise for getting her pregnant.

Speaker 1 (02:00:47):
Who wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (02:00:49):
That's so terrible. I can't believe I just said that
on live television. But she was insane. Even Teresa knows.
In fact, I mean, Teresa likes that movie so much,
how much she wants to get the Cocktails and Dreams
Neon signed for our pool table room.

Speaker 1 (02:01:06):
It would be a nice, nice addition.

Speaker 2 (02:01:08):
It'll go right next to the framed photo of the
rat pack that's already in there. I love Elizabeth Schoe
and she's not somebody that gets brought up a lot
by people ooh, chicks from the eighties, just all these people.
She's like, so sneaky, good looking, it's insane. So he
brought that up because why because he could? Okay, I

(02:01:28):
don't even remember why.

Speaker 1 (02:01:30):
I know we had a brief mention of it earlier,
and it wasn't because we also mentioned Phoebe k so
that's multiple mentions here Today must be Friday at eight.
Reference must be Friday here on the A Team. So
appreciate you joining us with those thoughts. We welcome your
thoughts on the Texans throughout the rest of today's show.
Got another hour with us. Also have a nightcap coming
your way beginning at six full four our program coming
on Monday for the last chance to predict what you

(02:01:53):
think might happen between the Texans and the Steelers. Big
time game, How big? How much of a referendum is
this game on Monday night for a pair of Texans?
Talk about that next.

Speaker 2 (02:02:08):
Final time of the week, although we'll have another one
before the Texans playoff game. We're talking about football at
five every single day here on the eight Team. Sports
Talk seven ninety powered by Men's Tea Clinic. Optimize your
total wellness with the Men's health experts over at Men's
Tea Clinic. So we've talked about a number of aspects

(02:02:31):
of this game, and we'll continue to on Monday. That's
just the way it goes, especially when you have the
last game on the schedule of any given playoff weekend,
and hopefully the Texans are going to be advancing and
all that good stuff with it.

Speaker 1 (02:02:43):
But I don't know how much.

Speaker 2 (02:02:45):
I mean, we talked about the Texans offense, we talked
about CJ, we talked about protection the line, D da da.
I haven't asked this question, and I think wex is
gonna have the answer. Is this Nick Cayley's time to shine?

Speaker 1 (02:02:59):
I I hope it's enough of a time to get
them another game shine. I don't think we're going to
see a whole lot different, to be honest with than
what we've seen over the last four weeks, other than
maybe it's a little bit more success on third down,
which I think would help them get into where Demiko
actually has to decide what to do with fourth down,
because I don't really think he had much of a
decision to make this past week. Oh my god, they

(02:03:21):
kicked six field goals. What a terrible offense. I wish
people didn't think like that. He had fourth and four
a couple of times, he had fourth and two to once.
Most of the other fourth downs were obvious, and they
also weren't even in the red zone. They weren't even
inside the thirty on some of those field goal kicks.
So inside the thirty five, I should say those are
really easy situations. Now, they did go forward on fourth
down almost as infrequently as any other team in the league,

(02:03:44):
and they clearly led the league in field goal attempts
at field goal makes, and it also helped them be
one of the higher scoring teams that are on the
front half of scoring teams. They were thirteenth in the
NFL in scoring. They did have some return touchdowns that
helped to boost that. And while he only scored thirty
three touchdowns, which just not one of the top thirteen
numbers in the league, is actually on the other end

(02:04:04):
of it. When you kick forty eight field goals, that's
a lot of points, and that's how you get in
the top half of it. I think Nick Cayley probably
it's fair to say he was better throughout the year.
I think one area that we never talk about enough
that he got better at is you got to get
the plays in. You gotta make your decision sooner so
CJ has time to get the guys out of the huddle.

(02:04:25):
Breaking the huddle with ten seconds left, where CJ has
no time to look things over, has no time to
reposition guys, you're gonna end up with illegal shifts because
you've got have two guys in motion because the second
player can't get set because the play clock's already at zero.
They had a lot of instances that earlier this year.
I thought they had far fewer later in the year.
That's usually a product of your play caller who's clearly

(02:04:46):
going to need some time because it's the first time
he's ever done it. Hopefully he gets better at that
throughout the season, and I think he did. I think
obviously the plays that they were designing and utilizing out
of their playbook also were better. I mean, even the
our very first play of last week's game. It's all
about what you want to really truly see and how
you want to analyze it. Because the very first play

(02:05:07):
of the game was a nice little roll out and
a throw and a catch to Dalton Schultz. Nice little
play he got open in space. But if you were
watching coaches film after or if we were in the
stadium and watching it from eight floors up like I
was in the press box, that should have been a
touchdown because Harrison Bryant was absolutely totally wide open, uncovered,
and fifteen yards beyond Dalton Schultz. They were essentially running

(02:05:29):
mirrored routes at different levels, and nobody went with Brant.
And I'm not sure if CJ just wanted to make
the safer play or the easier player, the more trustworthy play,
or the expected play and just didn't see him or
just chose otherwise. But Harrison Brian would have scored his
first touchdown of the season if CJ had thrown on
the ball, and fans would have been like, oh my god,
another game where we bolt out of the gates offensively.

(02:05:52):
So I say that to point out that the play
designs of what the Texans have been running with a
line and a blocking steam, they clear feel more comfortable with.
They're ones that should be able to help this team
make their way up and down the field. I could
save it for Monday, but you know, what Nick Kaylee
does and what CJ. Stroud does, all that is obviously
tied together in certain ways. But I feel pretty confident

(02:06:12):
about one thing offensively. I think Nico Collins is going
to crush Oh yeah, I think Nico Collins is going
to have one of his best games of the season.
He's gonna have his fifth consecutive productive type game U
two touchdowns, whatever. When they're in the red zone, I
pretty much want them to throw him the ball. I
like the fact that when Jason Higgins is also out

(02:06:34):
there there there's a little bit of where where do
we think the Texans are going? But I just love
his It's a body type. It's the same thing Hopkins had.
It's the same thing that you know, Andre Johnson should
have had. Their plays that are just indefensible if you
get the right look and you put the ball where
it's supposed to be. When you have a player like
that and you're in the red zone and he just
runs a little slant and he's in the end zone.

(02:06:56):
But to Kaylee specifically, you know, this is who do
we think the pressure is on when the Texans get
to Pittsburgh? Said on Demiko, to make sure this team
doesn't lose and all the nine game winning streak means something,
means nothing. Is the pressure on daneil Hunter and Will
Anderson Junior to make sure Rogers can't do anything? Is
the pressure on the secondary the lasser in Stingley both

(02:07:16):
had four picks this year to do more of that
running game, offense, quarterback oc Everything I mentioned has one
thing in common except for one of those they're all back.
They're all here again. Except for Nick nick Kley, this
is his first playoff game as a play caller. Everybody
else has been here, done that. They've had good performances.

(02:07:36):
They've won. Joe Mixon on the sideline. It's just that's
what's different about this year, among all the other little
bits and pieces of the clear football, but the personnel,
what they've tried to do, the fact that they've all
been on the field for playoff victories. The defensive players
have been on the field for overwhelming defensive performances against
both the Chargers and Browns. And while they lost by
twenty four to Baltimore in year one and then lost

(02:07:58):
last year by a figure year larger than the final
score because of the safety at the end, their defense
kept them in the game. They had to lead at
the half in Baltimore. Their defense did enough to give
their team a chance for most of, if not all,
of those games they've been there. They've done that. CJ.
Stroud when he hasn't been pressured at home, I think
it was about a thirty five percent pressure rate in
the two home games and a fifty one percent pressure

(02:08:20):
rate in the two road games, and When we were
talking with Sam Warren of The Chronicle earlier, he pointed
that out the pass rush against the Texans against the
Chiefs last year was overwhelming. He had very little chance
to succeed in that postseason game. Forget about what Travis
Kelce and the Chiefs offense did. The Chiefs offense scored
twenty three points. You can overcome twenty three points, but
they obviously couldn't score on their own on offense hardly

(02:08:42):
at all, and that has to change. And all that
goes into Yeah, this is a pretty big game for
Nick because it's his first go round. I think it's
kind of like, what do we talk about all year
with CJ? What are you going to do in the offseason?
This is huge for CJ. Go out there and win
a road playoff game. Go out there and put twenty

(02:09:03):
four to twenty seven thirty points up there as an
offense on the road in a playoff game against the
worst defense they've faced in the playoffs. I don't know
what you think of Baltimore in twenty four and the
Chiefs in twenty five. Now we're here with the Steelers
in twenty six, a comparable defense. They need to go
play well, and it's pretty much on his shoulders to
do so. He's got Woody Marks in the backfield, a rookie.

(02:09:26):
He's been throwing to Jayden Higgins, a rookie. He's got
a left tackle who's a rookie, like he's been here
and done that. I do think this is a monster
game because of the unfortunate other side of it. What
if it doesn't happen, then what are we going to
think about their future and their contract and their thoughts
about CJ. I mean, they will become a real thing.
You've got me thinking about the worst defense they've placed.

(02:09:48):
They faced there really good. I don't want to paint
that kind of picture. But the Steelers were not an
overwhelming defense this year. The Chiefs won a lot of
games last year strictly because of their defense being so good.
I'll say it again, just if you haven't heard of,
our Steelers have a great pass rush this year, and
the Steelers forced a ton of turnovers. They're not a
good defense, though. That's what they do and that's how
they manage their way through the season. So you could

(02:10:09):
call them a good defense, but you can. I shouldn't.
Maybe I'm not even saying it right. You can move
the ball against the Steelers defense. That's probably the best
thing to say. You can move the ball up and
down the field and you can score on them. They
do create havoc and they do force turnovers, and so
CJ in this offense has been very good at limiting
those things. That's what makes it such an interesting matchup

(02:10:30):
on that side of the football, just all by itself.

Speaker 2 (02:10:32):
Well, on the topic of Kaylee himself, c J. Stroud
addressed his offensive coordinator yesterday when talking about this upcoming
playoff game, and I.

Speaker 3 (02:10:43):
Think you know his ability to you know, to block
out the noise and continue to go forward. I think
you know, everybody in this day and age wants microwaves,
you know, they want just throw something in a microwave,
let a heat up fast and be a new product.

Speaker 1 (02:10:55):
And that's none of us.

Speaker 3 (02:10:55):
So, you know, football is an other type of sport
or whatever you use, crock pond, whatever, whatever any y'all use.
We try to do our best, but just block out
the noise, you know, and just stay you know, in
our in our you know, in our brotherhood.

Speaker 1 (02:11:12):
Martha Stroud talking about cooking, I did not anticipate that
another answer, as it's a good analysis. Bradley Cooper tries
to convince us otherwise, CJS is saying, no, you're wrong.
He mentioned the special sauce or ingredients that might be
there to do this, and it is a very good reference.
Microwave is nick nick Keley rolls in here, Boom offense,

(02:11:32):
Top five offense. No Nick Keley comes here, and the
ingredients go into the slow cooker. Now it's gonna take
four hours if you cook it on high, but it's
gonna take eight hours if you cook it on low.
You're gonna be here a while. And the thing about
crock pots, since we're on the topic, it's torture because inevitably,
after about an hour of those eight hours, you're gonna

(02:11:52):
start to smell what you want to eat eventually, but
you can't have for another long That's why the slow
cooker's best utilized. In my opinion, if I were to
use it would be okay, so early in the day,
before you make your way out, when you're going to
return later with the meal ready for you. What if
I told you being there for all six to eight
hours of its slow cooking. What ifio is elite in

(02:12:15):
the slow cooker. It's awesome and it keeps it hot.
What if I told you that she makes this certain
type of meatballs every once in a while, and I
would believe you not those they're not Italian, it's a
different recipe. I would stop, and she fully like wanted
me to do this. I would go to a local
chain on the way home that sells bread. I'm not

(02:12:36):
gonna mention it. You know you know which one I'm
talking about. It's the same letter twice. This is a
sandwich chain. Okay, they'll sell you bread good and I
would go get that. I would never get the day
old or whatever, get the fresh bread, bring it home,
Slam those meatballs and make me some Texans offense. I'd
like it. Meatball sandwich at the house sounds pretty good.

(02:12:59):
Oh man, that was really great. Right now now, I'm
now I'm tired and hungry and not in that order
you just said. CJ just talked about his relationship with
Nick Keyley and where things have gone well. Nick Kyley
today was asked about his relationship with CJ. Do the thoughts,
do they believe in each other? Do they match? We'll
find out next we get to Nick Kaylee. I uh

(02:13:25):
have been for a second. It's not about my personal
life so much as it is about a huge event
that happens every year here in town that you love
to go to every year and have the proper attire
to attend. Okay, of course I'm talking about the rodeo. Okay,
neither of which of those things that play well you.
You go to the carnival a lot, don't you. The

(02:13:47):
barb Championship, Barbecue Cookoff. Yeah, carnival absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:13:52):
The carnival with the carnival rides and the carnivals.

Speaker 1 (02:13:55):
Are two different things. Like we usually go literally to
the carnival every year and enjoy all the midway games
and the mood that goes with it. But yes, the
barbecue Cookoff, the three day extravaganza of meats and the
drinks that go with them. Yes, I try to attend
when possible. So the announced the lineup last night exactly.
Let's just get to that real quick. Now.

Speaker 2 (02:14:17):
I realize this is probably months of thought that go
into this, and schedules are probably of the acts, I
mean are probably a big part of this. Whatever, you
gotta find a way to put Ella Langley in the lineup, man,
I don't even care about country most of the time.
There's like three people I will listen to on purpose,

(02:14:38):
and she's one of them.

Speaker 1 (02:14:40):
And she's like the.

Speaker 2 (02:14:42):
Hottest and hottest young star in country music and massive
crossover appeal, and you didn't find a way to put
her on there.

Speaker 1 (02:14:50):
I haven't locked in on what people's reactions were to it.
Away from those that announced it, my initial thought was
it seems like they kind of hit everything they have.
Luke Bryan, Landy Wilson, Parker McCollum, Tim McGraw, Cody Johnson,
Riley State, Riley Green is opening. Chris Stapleon is also coming,
and she and Riley Green collabed, so maybe he'll bring

(02:15:14):
bring this hole up. Because of how excited you were
for March eleventh, Is that the Creed date? Of course?

Speaker 2 (02:15:22):
Well I went and saw them in the Woodlands with
three doors down last year, so I got my fix.

Speaker 1 (02:15:26):
Red clay strays cross Canadian ragweed. Because you got to remember,
and this is giboozy Kelly Clarkson trying to get everybody.
There's something for everybody over the March twe second through
twenty second portion.

Speaker 2 (02:15:41):
Of for There's nothing for anybody on the night Lizzo's
here except for the people that like her, which is
whre they the people that will fill up the.

Speaker 1 (02:15:48):
Stadium ninety If you like Lizo on purpose, you don't
have to call us to tell us. We know you're there.
Shocking how someone who's so popular has fans she's not,
She's not know except that she is. She's awful. I
said popular. You don't have to like her. You don't
have to everybody popular. Doesn't mean you have to like
Taylor Swift's awful. But I know she's popular. Lizzo nobody's

(02:16:11):
on her level of popularity. But to say Lizzo is
a popular seems well.

Speaker 2 (02:16:16):
Ella Langley's never gonna get to that level if you
don't book her at the Rodeo.

Speaker 1 (02:16:21):
Why can't I be mad about this? No one's stopping
you for being mad about it?

Speaker 2 (02:16:24):
Why are you mad about this? Because it's not sports.
You can't wait to you cannot wait to play this,
Nick Kayle.

Speaker 1 (02:16:33):
I've ever said, man, I can't believe is not coming
to the Rodeo.

Speaker 2 (02:16:37):
I've never said this. That's the thing, that's the whole point.
I don't care about the Rodeo lineup year in and
year out, unletus. I know George is coming.

Speaker 1 (02:16:43):
As long as Forrest Frank is on the lineup, I'm good.
Stop it and he is. What's your favorite Forest Frank song?
The next one?

Speaker 2 (02:16:51):
I hear you could have picked somebody that you could
at least have been an effective lie for.

Speaker 1 (02:16:57):
I could I go see him? He's awesome. I thought
he was great in The blind Side? Was he Dallas?
Or Orlando? U? And Christmas? Remember a flashlight?

Speaker 10 (02:17:10):
Man?

Speaker 1 (02:17:11):
Really? It's a good actor.

Speaker 2 (02:17:12):
Where'd you find an xbox for ten dollars? It's funny?
All right, let's talk to Nick Kayley. So he was
asked today about his relationship with one C. J.

Speaker 1 (02:17:24):
Stroud.

Speaker 5 (02:17:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:17:25):
I think we have a great relationship.

Speaker 12 (02:17:26):
I think it's transparency, it's honesty, it's cohesiveness. We're always
trying to communicate and share ideas and thoughts and I have.
You know, I have a lot of respect for him,
and I'm proud of the way he's played this year.
His best is out in front of him. He's a competitor,
he's a stud. I'm glad he's our quarterback. You know,
I have a lot of respect for him. I think
it's just continuing to grow. The more, the more we've

(02:17:47):
spent time with each other throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (02:17:49):
Sounds like they're going through it right now. I'm just kidding.
He just sounded very emotional there for some reason. Is
that just me? That's just the manner in which he
was speaking. And then does he have a cold?

Speaker 10 (02:17:58):
Maybe?

Speaker 1 (02:17:58):
No? Uh Now we played that stroud earlier. That was
actually half of like a minute long answer about Kaylee
the microwave in the crock pot. He continued more specifically
on why he likes what's going on between the two
of them as they've gotten here into the postseason.

Speaker 3 (02:18:13):
I thought he's done a great job of you know,
leaning on us, asking us what he what we like,
even if it didn't work, like not running away from
asking guys, you know, what they like and putting guys
in position to, you know, do do what we need
to do best. So, I mean, know, we're still working,
we're still you know, got ways to go. But I'm
just proud of that guy. Man. I think he's done
a heck of a job of calling it of you know,
being honest, you know, and really one thing I respect

(02:18:35):
about kills he doesn't, you know, point fingers and if
he does it's it's it's in the right way. It's
not like blame game. It's like, hey, you can be
better here, because I know you can. So he's uplifting,
you know, and and I have a lot of love
for that guy. But he's done a heck of a
job for us this year.

Speaker 1 (02:18:49):
I kept waiting for the grow reference.

Speaker 2 (02:18:52):
He in all seriousness, it sounds like he enjoys playing
for and with Nick Keyley.

Speaker 1 (02:18:59):
I think Kaylee came in with a pretty good idea
of who he was, and you hear something like that,
you get the impression that the player is viewing him
as somebody who doesn't think they know everything like Nick
Kayley is his coach. He runs the offense. It's Nick's offense.
He's the play caller. But he's not acting like I
know everything. And I'm glad he's not acting like that
because there's no way he does. He's relatively young for

(02:19:22):
a coach. It's just his first time as a play caller.
His role on the Sean McVay staff is different clearly
than the one here. I mean he could have been
an oc before as a non play caller. Those do
exist when you play for a head coach. Who calls plays.
But he wasn't that wasn't even his job there, and
then obviously his time in New England kind of learning
how things worked, and clearly has relationship with people in
the building before he gets in the building. But the

(02:19:45):
listening to the suggestions, the constructive way in which he
tells players you did it wrong or this is how
or we need this. I think it sounds more like
he knows who's on the team, he knows their personality,
he knows what works best. That's how coaches succeed. This
coach with that player and that team in any sport

(02:20:05):
almost doesn't necessarily mesh the right way unless the coach
adapts to who these are. We talk about adapting to
who you have from a play calling standpoint, like you're
not gonna run a Lamar Jackson centric offense for these
ten quarterbacks. That's one part of it. But knowing your people,
knowing the people you're working with and how it works
best to teach them, to help them, to criticize them,

(02:20:26):
to encourage them. That's almost what we're getting from the
two of them talking about one another as they mean
grow together. Maybe if everyone doesn't get him fired for no.

Speaker 2 (02:20:35):
Reason, and we might as well have his thoughts on
this topic since we've been talking about it all day.
I mean, it sounded like CJ was proud of the
offensive line and the growth, the growth that they had
made as a unit. He and the five guys whoever
they are on any given snap in front of him.
But what does Nick Kayley think about what this unit
has become? Here is we're heading into post season play. Yeah,

(02:20:59):
I think I think they've jeled in a lot of ways.

Speaker 12 (02:21:01):
I think the most communication, cohesiveness, seeing the game through
the same set eyes, Jake sets the table. They've done
a really good job. The focus has been on communication,
you know, throughout the season, and I think they're, you know,
we've done it better and better each week we focus
it on practice. Cole Popovich does an outstanding job with
those guys. I think he's a hell of a coach.
And I'm really proud of how far along those guys
have come. And we've had some moving You're right, we've

(02:21:22):
had some some different people in their times. But I
feel like we're, you know, we're playing our best football
and those guys are continuing to get better and I'm
really proud of those guys.

Speaker 2 (02:21:31):
I think there's a fine line between, you know, when
a new coach of any kind comes in, even if
it's a head coach, but especially a coordinator, because I
just feel like there's so much turnover in football for
various reasons, not always because they're bad, it's sometimes it's
because they're good, see Detroit this year. There's a fine
line though, between having a guy like you said that

(02:21:54):
comes in and kind of how we talked about with
with CJ comes in, doesn't act like he knows everything
and all that, and you know ingratiates himself with whatever
side of the football he's coaching. But then when things
don't go well, like they weren't going well, and when
you consider that they weren't going well for the second
consecutive year, if you want to look at it that way,

(02:22:14):
because Bobby slowly had his shortcomings, it would have been
very easy for a lot of parties in that building
to not jump ship, but maybe at the very least
tune him out. Like you heard CJ talking about, he's
good at coming to guys saying, hey, this didn't work,
or what do you like?

Speaker 1 (02:22:33):
That kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:22:34):
There's so often and I've been in work situations like
this where you have somebody that's either in charge or
is new or whatever, and they try to be almost
buddy buddy in that way, and that's how it comes off,
even though they may really want to be trying to
find out what is going to make the situation work best.
I don't know what goes on behind closed doors, and

(02:22:55):
all of us don't know how it looks. But that
says something to me that he's a as supportive of
Kayley as he is, even given the relative shortcoming of
this offense this year.

Speaker 1 (02:23:07):
What do you think about your evolving relationship with your
first year OC as you headed to the playoffs? That's okay, yeah,
but it's all right. See, that's that's that's not being
genuine to what we've will. I think all this stuff
is genuine and and is how they really view one another.
And and they you know, they've still even been together
less than a year. They're not putting they're not putting
up eye popping numbers. They are not so you know,

(02:23:30):
it's it's easy to say this stuff and it to
either come off his lip service or whatever. And CJ's
individual numbers were clearly better. And as a rookie than
they have in the last two years. The offense was,
oh my god, they Textans have a great offense. We
didn't say that in twenty twenty three. We said it
more than that we do now and it was better
than it is now. But it wasn't unreal, by the way,

(02:23:51):
unless Mike McDaniel takes him with him at his next
stop Bobby Slowick, because he was on the offensive staff
in Miami this year, probably looking for a new spot
beat it. That's not all what I said his fault.
We got some tickets to give away. I want to
mention that, and we also tickets to both the Cougars
and Monster Jams. We'll let you in on the deats

(02:24:11):
on that, and also we hit you with in case
you missed it, as we always do, five thirties each
every weekday afternoon right here on the eighteen again too
as all ways here on the A team, and we
look forward to getting you in on that, you know,
in case you missed it. We love having great partnerships
with the people that listen to our program and have
great services out there, and maybe you're in need of

(02:24:32):
a service like myself, like a new roof. I've been
a homeowner for almost three decades, had some roofing issues
in the past, might be having them again. Would love
to speak for your roofing company. Would love to have
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there listening, that's what you want to do, and you
want us to create this wonderful partnership together, which I

(02:24:54):
know we can do, which way I have done with
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me with an email. You can find me Adam Wexler
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And you and I and your company can create a
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(02:25:15):
this particular case, can I have a wonderful new roof.
You homeowners out there like myself. I'm sure you'd appreciate that,
So appreciate you guys out there listening, and maybe well
we'll help you out. We'd love to do that via
a partnership. Here, in case you missed it is where
we are headed next and there's quite a few things
to get to whether they are items we need a
revisit of or just something we have not talked about

(02:25:36):
at all. I have one other NBA note of what
I would call pretty large significance. This week we had
the Tray Young trade, and I said, very very clearly,
I believe while you were out, do not break off
a phone call the Sports Talk seven nineties program that
airs weekday afternoons between two and six, so you can
discuss the merits of adding Trey Young to this roster,

(02:25:58):
because there are not any team that trades for Trey
Young will lose the trade. So that is Washington that
has happened. But today Joan Serani are reporting for the
first time ever since he became a Memphis Grizzly. Management
is listening to offers. Obviously this is done to stimulate
even more offers because probably what they've heard they did

(02:26:18):
not like. Unlike former Mavericks general manager who didn't want
anyone to know that he was thinking about trading a
star so he could just lock in on one horrible
deal and make it happen, at least, the Grizzlies appear
to want something in return of value. Young players, assets
and draft picks more likely what they are looking for,
and he will definitely net them more in my opinion,

(02:26:41):
than Trey Young, even though he has suspension worthy baggage
with him, not a lot of winning with him. The
talent and the youth is pretty significant. Not sure what
team it's going to be, but like Trey, it is
not going to be the Houston Rockets. They are uninterested.

(02:27:02):
They have no reason to be interested for what it
would cost them to get him, and for the idea
that it might not even be a good fit. He's
super talented, clearly, but they're not interested. And yes, so
he'll go elsewhere and maybe he'll make another Western Conference
team a non factor. I believe the Memphis Grizzlies are
current non factors in the West.

Speaker 2 (02:27:24):
One thing on that though, it would just from a
pure fascination standpoint to see him in e may interact
on a day to day basis.

Speaker 1 (02:27:34):
He's been through a couple of coaches there. Clearly feels
like this current coach is a bit rocky, and I
think the whole reason that Taylor Jenkins isn't there anymore
is because there's some sort of disconnect between management and
the players, and who's all sorts of stuff that went on,
which is another bad thing to have with you, although
in the NBA it kind of happens and nobody seems
to care. Oh you butted heads with your coach, then

(02:27:55):
he's fired. Oh you butt heads with the new coach. Well,
then we'll just send you somewhere else where you can play. Well,
Jimmy Butler's done it, James has done it. Lebron has
done it countless times. It is just how things go
on the NBA side. And if you missed it earlier,
we did mention that Sham's reporting it is ligament damage
for Anthony Davis. Now, possibility is surgery is in his future,

(02:28:16):
and if that is the case, that is a long
enough recovery that he would be shelved beyond the February
fifth trade deadline, which could change the plans for the
Dallas Mavericks. What else do we have in case you
missed it today, Josh, Yeah, let's do it. You hit
on it earlier.

Speaker 11 (02:28:31):
WEX said, let's get into some injury updates for your Texans,
and good good news, Kamari Lassiter, Titus Howard, and Denico
Audrey returned to limited work after missing Thursday session.

Speaker 1 (02:28:43):
Yeah, all three of those players returned to practice and
were listed as limited. I was out there was able
to visualize that, and I don't think there's any concern
for any of them about their availability for the game
on Monday night. The only other player that was practicing
but was limited is Trent Brown. That's how he was yesterday,
and I imagine how he will also be listed on Saturday,

(02:29:03):
because they do practice Saturday before flying out on Sunday.
I am a little concerned that maybe he's not gonna
be at the level that they want him out there starting,
but not very I do think he'll probably make the start.
And there's only one player on the roster that is
not practicing, and that is Juwar Jordan. His ankle injury
probably has him shelved for this game coming up on Sunday,
and tomorrow afternoon we should find out definitively if he

(02:29:25):
is out. I think we'll also find out tomorrow afternoon
that they are going to activate Jalen Reed a safety
return to practice this week. He's on IR his practice
window is open, designated to return. Practiced in full today.
Everything I've seen from him in the limited time we're
out there, looks like he's moving is he needs to.
It also wasn't a leg injury, it was an arm injury.

(02:29:46):
So they'll need to make a roster move in order
to make that happen. They already activated Darryl Taylor earlier
this week. I'm not sure how they feel about their
numbers at the edge position where he plays, and with
Autrey playing on the interior of the line so much,
it's a possibility that's the move. Jamal Hill's returned to practice.
He's healthy, He's a huge part of their special teams,

(02:30:07):
and a couple of weeks ago they activated Justin Watson
and he's played on special teams. And then last week,
because all the reserves were out there, he played some
wide receiver. They have seven wide receivers on the fifty
three man roster. They will not carry seven wide receivers
into the game. Braxton Barrios has repeatedly been inactive. I
wonder if he might be the move they make to

(02:30:30):
open up a fifty three man roster spot for Jalen Reid. Hmmm,
it's whoever it is. It's gonna be tough. He's been
here all year, and if all of a sudden he
is now off the team in advance of their first
playoff game. That's always a mentally and just for the
person punch that stinks, Yeah it does, that would be unfortunate.
What else we got?

Speaker 5 (02:30:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (02:30:50):
I also one of my big concerns was with the
Texans is are they gonna have a counter punch?

Speaker 1 (02:30:55):
You know when we c J.

Speaker 11 (02:30:57):
Stroud getting blitzed a lot of times, they don't have answers.
Maybe they go into the games to do they have
a plan if things go wrong? Can they pivot? So
Nick Cayley talked about that today.

Speaker 12 (02:31:07):
Every game's a little different. Sometimes you go into games
and you think, man, it's gonna go this way, or
here's the ideal, you know scenario that I think where
this is how I think the game is gonna get played.
And sure enough, do you know, you're a quarter into it,
two drives into it, and things change and you gotta
you gotta change with it. So I just want us
to go out and be ready to go from the jump.
I want us to go play our best football. I
want us to play with good fundamentals. I want us

(02:31:28):
to play with great effort and technique and urgency and
I want us to, you.

Speaker 1 (02:31:31):
Know, continue to build.

Speaker 12 (02:31:32):
That's what I want us to do when we kick
this thing off on Monday night.

Speaker 1 (02:31:36):
Kick this door in more like it, Like bum would say,
call it an sob while you're at it. It would
be nice. What if are we gonna get him a
ton gallon hat? I mean, could you imagine much as
the ten gallon hat was a staple, a weekly part
of his attire, but the jacket he was wearing in
Pittsburgh is elite.

Speaker 2 (02:31:54):
Okay, But all that being said, that's in the past, right,
that's in the past. Yes, Which one of Nick Cayley
or Damico Ryans heck put anybody who's in charge of
any member of the staff Frank Ross on special teams,
Matt Burke on defense. Which of those guys would look
the most out of place wearing said ten gallon hat?

Speaker 1 (02:32:17):
And why is it Demiko? Probably because he's the head coach.
It just would look ridiculous on him. I mean, one
of them wears a hat permanently. Nick Kayley a baseball cap,
he wears it all the time. Is something entirely different, right,
but you just you never see him without a hat.
On Burke either and Demiko. He wants to show you, Hey,

(02:32:41):
I shaved my head again today for the eighty billionth
day in a row. I know you can in case
you missed it there, you haven't got tickets to go
see U of h Hoops got tickets to go see
Monster Jim give you the deats on that. When we
come back our giveaway here like we usually do, I
want to mention what we have a question for you
to get you to go see on us your friends

(02:33:03):
here at four Soox seven ninety and the eight team
got a four pack of tickets with pit passes to
Monster Jam their February fifteenth show at NRG Stadium. They
do have two other shows on the seventh and the fourteenth,
and you get tickets to any of those three shows
at ticketmaster dot com. We also have a couple of
pairs of tickets to go see the Cougars Hoopers go
play West Virginia an awesome, awesome game at Fortita Center

(02:33:25):
this past Tuesday when they beat down the Texas Tech
Red Raiders, very close game. They were good down the stretch,
they won the game, and they're gonna be getting even better,
so you'll get a chance to see them play West Virginia.
It is the January thirteenth game. So this coming Tuesday,
got a pair of tickes to go, send you out
to Fortita Center for that. If you know the answer
to this question about something you heard on this program

(02:33:47):
this afternoon, you can call in at seven one three
two one two five seven ninety and give Josh that
answer and we'll get you hooked up with those seats.
I always like to hook up our listeners. You listen
to the show, you get entertained, you have things to
talk about. You can call us from because you listened
on the iHeartRadio and you can win. What do they
what do they need to know from our show today

(02:34:08):
to get this right?

Speaker 2 (02:34:09):
Well, as much as I wanted to have them call
in and tell us the name of the Playboy model
that popped out of the cake and under siege, I'll
keep its sports related.

Speaker 1 (02:34:19):
Okay, Uh. Earlier she was a swimmer on a show.
Wore a red bathing suit. She was a lifeguard. That
seems kind of sporty.

Speaker 2 (02:34:30):
That next thing you were going to say is if
she had jumped off the aircraft character she carry her
a swimmer. No Earlier in the hour, we were playing
a SoundBite from CJ. Stroud where he was making some
analogies that were very, very kitchen friendly, and he named

(02:34:51):
two things, particularly with regards to a pace of cooking.
One of them was a slow cooker. Obviously that's the
slow What was the other one that he mentioned. It's
a specific appliance in your kitchen.

Speaker 1 (02:35:07):
Yeah, specific appliance in your kitchen, which you should already know,
even without the hint about what people taught about refrigerator. Yeah,
people talk about it all the time. The type of
society that we're in.

Speaker 2 (02:35:16):
Some people on the Boston Celtics in the eighties were
nicknamed after this.

Speaker 1 (02:35:20):
The Celtics. I thought he played for the Pistons. That's
what I meant. It was one of those eighties Eastern
Conference teams. I don't know. I'm in the West with
the Rockets. The NFL food references. They came out of
CJ's mouth yesterday when he met with the media. He's
asking you for a very specific kitchen appliance mentioned by
CNN's Johnson. Well, Dennis Johnson played for the Celtics, but
Vinnie Johnson. Vinnie Johnson was the answer to the question. So, yeah,

(02:35:43):
I didn't even ruin it for you now last night
because we haven't hardly talked about it at all. We
haven't even talked about the playoff games coming this weekend
before Monday's game. Kind of need to give predictions. Well
that's because like one of them really sucks. But last
night we started the college football playoffs. Tomorrow tonight, we've
got Indiana and Oregon. We mentioned that in our Stone Locks.
I think we feel pretty strongly that even in a
good game and a close game and a competitive game,

(02:36:05):
that Indiana will get to fifteen to zero and reach
Miami for the title game against the Canes. Last night,
a couple things happened that we probably find a little
bit interesting or entertaining. It was the goodbye to the
football season because of the loss for Trinidad Chambliss, the
quarterback for ole Miss. He's been attempting to get an

(02:36:25):
additional year of eligibility so he can have a sixth season,
which ultimately, now as we learn over the last couple
of weeks, would likely be played at ole Miss rather
than at LSU, where many thought he would be following
many of their coaches and Lane Kiffin to play. But
he was going to play at ole Miss next year
if it was granted, but the written denial came today.

(02:36:48):
It was verbally denied earlier. It was written and denied today,
and they still plan to appeal. So there's a bunch
of specifics in it, which I will not read to
you here. But you're into Ad Chambliss, just after his
season ended in heartbreaking fashion last night, was told. Yeah,
and your college football career, as far as we're concerned

(02:37:09):
here at the NCAAA, is also over now when ole
Miss loses they were part of the twelve team playoff?
What else happened? Whose dream died with ole Miss's loss
last night in the college football playoff? What entities dream does?
Southeastern Conference? It just means more when we don't have
any teams left, so their chances of winning the title

(02:37:30):
went out the window. Send it back to August in
early September when all of our preseason predictions from those
who know or those that claim they know, come in,
especially when they are very very very loud voices for
the South Eastern Conference. Paul Finebaum's a nice enough guy,
also nice enough with his time to spend some time

(02:37:51):
with other entities on podcasts and what have you. He
did do a podcast just before the season started, and
I thought the host was very smart and how she
asked and phrased her question to him to get some
information from him about what he would be predicting for
the upcoming season. And obviously because of what he said,

(02:38:13):
it kind of made the rounds again and I wanted
to bring it to our listeners. So Danny Kloupinger was
the host, and she left him with this thought and
asked him, you know what his thoughts were for the season.
I wanted to hear you to hear exactly how she
said it and exactly how he answered. This is back
in August, just prior to the season beginning. Who's gonna

(02:38:34):
win the national championship? And is it going to be
an SEC team?

Speaker 7 (02:38:36):
It is? And by the way, if it's not, I'm
leaving the country now.

Speaker 1 (02:38:42):
I obviously cut off the remainder of his answer, which
I will give to you in full. Okay, But this generation,
this era of personalities, sports are otherwise celebrities too. This
seems to be a very popular thing to say. If
what I want to have happened doesn't happen, I'm out.

(02:39:02):
I'm leaving the country. This is what he said about
if an SEC team doesn't win, I'm leaving the country,
which obviously now Part A has happened, Yes, will he
address and follow through on part B.

Speaker 2 (02:39:17):
What I think will actually happen only because I know
some rumblings about his current situation. I actually think he's
gonna leave because he's going into politics.

Speaker 1 (02:39:25):
But he was already, so he's leaving the business. And then,
like he said here, he's leaving the country. So what
country is he running for political offices? Alabama? Oh, that country,
it's its own country. He did mention how many titles
Alabama has won, which I cut out of this full
answer because it's just getting too long. But here's your
full thoughts on what was gonna happen in the twenty
twenty five season from a SEC noted Honk and genius.

(02:39:47):
Let him tell you so, Polly Finebaum.

Speaker 7 (02:39:49):
It is, And by the way, if it's not, I'm
leaving the country because I am so sick and tired
of being harassed by Big ten fans on our show.

Speaker 1 (02:39:57):
The Big Ten has.

Speaker 7 (02:39:58):
Literally done nothing. They won you national championships, Michigan won
one two years ago. For they've won one and a
half national championships I think, and before that in seventy years,
and they act like they invented football. I believe Texas
are going to win. I didn't mean to avoid your question.
It's going to end all this, and on January twentieth,
I'll be the happiest man in Americas because I won't

(02:40:18):
have to listen to the big Channers, or as my
callers call them, the little Tenors.

Speaker 1 (02:40:23):
Indiana will either be in the the National title game
or fellow Big ten team Oregon will be in the
National Title Game. They're guaranteed to be playing for the
national title, those little Tenors coming up on the twentieth
August of this year, this last year. Yes, and just
to knock gloss over all of that, like many many,

(02:40:46):
many foolish, foolish, foolish people, he picked Texas to win
the national That's.

Speaker 2 (02:40:51):
What I'm saying. I mean that alone tells me right
there where his heart's at. And I don't mean his heart,
I mean like his head. Because ed any And I
said this. I said this, mister, I will casually watch
some college football. It's not I freely openly admit. That's
why my stone cold locks on the college side are
a joke.

Speaker 1 (02:41:08):
This year. Well, if you.

Speaker 2 (02:41:10):
Don't watch the games, I just don't. I don't have
two days a weekend to dedicate to this stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:41:15):
I can't.

Speaker 2 (02:41:15):
I'm sorry, So maybe I should pick a different profession.
But the thing about Paul Finebaum is I actually like
the guy. Most people don't.

Speaker 1 (02:41:22):
Well, he's on the air to entertain people. He entertains them.
He just doesn't rubbed me the wrong way like he
does a lot of other people. There's many of those
types in this business. All right, Tomorrow Panthers Rams Bears,
Packers wins for who say it again? Rams at Panthers,
Packers at Bears, Rams Bears with you on both Sunday,

(02:41:43):
Bills at Jags, Niners at Eagles. Phill's Big Bill's Big
Bill's big Okay? And what are the other ones? Niners
at Eagles, Chargers at Patriots. My heart wants the Eagles
to win. Some's telling me the Niners are gonna win
that football game. And then the other one was what again?
Chargers Patriots? Oh Pats? So two road, two Tames is
what I think as well. And I'm in agreement on
all five games, so naturally we'll get at least one

(02:42:05):
wrong or all of that. And again, if the Bills win,
that opens the door for partially for the Texans to
play a home game. It opens the door for them
to not play the Broncos should they win.

Speaker 2 (02:42:18):
I actually think the Texans are going to be hosting
a playoff game next weekend.

Speaker 1 (02:42:21):
Well, that means the Bills and Chargers have to win somehow,
some way. If that happens, then the Chargers would go
to Denver and the Bills would come down.

Speaker 2 (02:42:28):
And again, if the Patriots lose at home in the
first round, it would not surprise me because come on,
rookie basically and rookie playoffs.

Speaker 1 (02:42:35):
Now, we got four hours with you on Monday to
talk about Texan Steelers. Looking forward to that. Enjoy your weekend,
Enjoy the playoff games tonight, Joy Rockets basketball tonight, both
on Sports Talk seven nine needs Space City Home Network,
nine o'clock tip as Kevin Durant passes Wilt Chamberlain on
the all time NBA scoring list, this evening, we'll have

(02:42:55):
it all for you, beginning at nine o'clock.

Speaker 10 (02:43:00):
Eight