Final Texans-Raiders predictions, Astros trade for pitching, huge college football weekend

Friday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler shares his final predictions for Texans-Raiders, reacts to the Astros trading for a new starting pitcher, and is joined by Cole Thompson to discuss all the college football action coming this weekend.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mate, it's Friday.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Great to be with you here on the A team
as we get you into the weekend, last weekend before
the Christmas holiday, Christmas Day itself, your last opportunity to
you know, make everybody else around you feel good. Find
something nice for them, maybe they'll find something nice for you.
We've got plenty for you to get you all the
way up until six o'clock this afternoon. Texans last practice

(00:23):
before the Raiders. Earlier today over at NRG Stadium inside
the stadium as they usually do on Friday mornings.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Was over there for that.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Give you an update on what I think we will
see from a who's available to Demiko O Ryans on
Sunday afternoon at three twenty five for kickoff against the
Raiders and what I actually think is going to play
out in the game. A couple of keys for the
Texans beyond the obvious Raiders stink you don't beat them.
Sounds simple, usually is, and based on what happened last
week for the Texans, I do think they understand that.

(00:54):
I don't think they're going into this game oh my god,
we won six in a row. Look at some of
the teams we've been we know what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
We got this.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
There's no way that group of players after what we've
seen this year. Honestly, even the last couple of years,
with many of the guys that have been here, I
don't think they go into too many games with the
we got this philosophy. I don't think the Rockets do either,
But they definitely did last night once they were a
minute into the third quarter and took a twenty five
point lead over the New Orleans Pelicans, and kind of

(01:22):
acknowledged as much after the game, at least according to
Kevin Durant, they got it. We had a twenty five
point lead. This team stinks. Let's head on the plane
and get to Denver. Well, they forgot to finish the game.
They forgot to play offense. They definitely forgot to play defense.
Their defense was actually pretty good in the first half,
all things considered. New Orleans as a team, if you

(01:43):
watch them in the first half last night and for
most of the most of this season, if you just
kind of give a little bit of effort, they just
go ahead and take the first shot.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
They think.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
They have a lot of chucking in the first half,
a lot of long threes, a lot of bad looks
at threes and a lot of misses. They went seventeen
to fifty in the first half, scored less than fifty points,
and the Rockets had a huge lead. Then in the
second half they just dribbled to the basket and took layups,
and the Rockets never stopped them, never stopped them all
the way through overtime, never stopped them. They shot sixty

(02:16):
eight percent after halftime the twenty nine minutes of basketball,
including overtime, sixty eight percent of the time when they
put a shot in the air went in because the
Rockets just did not care enough to defend them. Their
offense obviously was stagnant at times. They decided to take
Kevin Durant and just go ahead and double team him,
blitz him almost as soon as he passed half court

(02:36):
with or without the basketball, and as soon as he
got it, they were trying to get him to get
rid of it, and he turned it over six times.
Most of the turnovers on lazy passes defended well, but
should never happen, and the Rockets should be perfectly content
to say, well, we have Kevin Durant. He's a great player,
and he can get us out of any pretty much
any situation. But if they want to commit two defenders

(02:57):
to him forty feet from the basket to get the
ball out of his hands, don't we have enough talent
to beat the other team four on three? Don't we
have enough smarts to go out there and figure out
how to beat another team four on three, especially one
as awful as the Pelicans. I think they do, but
they certainly did not last night, falling by five in overtime.
Two overtime games to start this road trip and two

(03:20):
l's for the Rockets. Had the ball late against Denver
and drew something up pretty good and went about getting
alprin Sching Gooon from the top of the key to
the basket for a little baby hook, which he made.
Last night, they worked a ball to alprin Chingoon on
the baseline. He drove himself under the basket and was
well defended and got up a terrible look at a

(03:40):
game winning shot. He was tied at the time, so
they ended up in overtime, but not exactly the best
execution on that play, they executed phenomenally well. At the
end of overtime, five seconds left, they got the ball
to Reed Shepherd, who was wide open and he missed.
Then they got the offensive rebound, and after getting it
back to him and a pump fake from him, he
was wide open again and he missed. So they went

(04:02):
to New Orleans and lost to a team that's not
gonna win very many games this year, and now go
back to Denver to try to get their first win
on this road trip. Had a chance to get back
to ten games over five hundred last night, but instead
they'll be sixteen and eight trying to beat the twenty
and six Denver Nuggets. So they'll see each other for
the third time already this season, and the Nuggets continue

(04:23):
playing the best basketball in that franchise's history. I've never
gotten off to a start with twenty wins in their
first twenty six games before, but that's what they are.
They got the last of those twenty wins last night
in a very competitive night in the NBA. We'll actually
take a peek at some of the things going on
in the league last night with a host of overtime
games and get this, another very controversial call, and this

(04:46):
one occurred so late in the game. There's really not
anything the team that lost could do about it. Not like, well,
we could overcome that. We can't overcome it when it's
at the end of the game. You can't overcome it
when the final whistle has actually been blown, but they
put another tick or two on the clock, can send
the other team to the free throw line, who then
beats you because of it. So bunch of that stuff
going on. Clearly that happened in the NFL last night. Also,

(05:09):
I still can't figure out how I watched that game
with one eye as I was working rockets last night
and watched the numbers that the Rams were putting up
throughout the game, one specific number no turnovers and one
other number five hundred plus yards.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
How did they lose? How did they lose that game?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
And we know why because of what took place with
the two point play. The first one that the Seattle
Seahawks were able to convert in the most crazy way
we've ever seen before, the second one not crazy at all.
And I can't think that anybody's really debating the decision
that Seattle made. And I thought Kirk Herbstreet did a
great job during the game last night to explain the

(05:54):
why there's no reason not to go for two there. Yes,
you'd like to maybe extend a game certain points, Well,
why would you want to extend it there? With so
little time left? You need to win tie, doesn't I mean,
I'm not playing for the tie in that situation. And
they clearly weren't playing for the tie in that situation either,
and they went for it and they got it. It
was a very smart play call because Sam Darnald had

(06:17):
a bunch of options that could have been open when
they weren't. He had an unbelievable option because the Seahawks decided, Oh,
this guy's or excuse me, the Rams decided the tight
end on the end of the line to the left, Well,
he's blocking, so once I disengaged with him, I don't
need to worry about him. Well they didn't, and Sobert
just took two steps into the end zone and turned around.

(06:37):
And when Donald went through the rest of the progressions
and nobody was there and he was standing there uncovered,
he threw them the ball and they won. In Seattle
and Sam Donald specifically, this is familiar territory for Sam Donald.
This is very similar to what took place last year.
Last year's game to win the number one seed took
place on the last game of the season. This year's

(06:59):
opportunity to win the number one seed seemingly took place
last night, but I think many of you started to
realize it when it got pointed out as often as
it did last night. As it relates to the NFC West,
there's a little game they have later this year, Week eighteen,
They're gonna host the Seattle Seahawks. The Niners in the

(07:21):
driver's seed for the number one overall seed in the NFC.
Doesn't sound right, but if they went out, pretty good chance,
and I do believe there's one hundred percent chance if
they went out that that's the spot they're going to
be sitting in. They'll be the only four loss team
in the NFC other than the two other teams in

(07:44):
their division. That will be the fifth seed and the
sixth seed with the identical record as the number one seed,
the San Francisco forty nine ers.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
So they got work to do.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I don't think they've played at the level of the
Rams and the Seahawks this year, so forecasting three wins
might be a bit much. They will see the Colts.
That's your Monday night football game this week. That's on
the Roll Road at Indianapolis. They're hosting the Bears in
Week seventeen. The Bears are playing tomorrow in a game
that obviously could go a long way towards determining the

(08:14):
division winner and again would leave the door open with
some other help for that division winner to be the
number one overall seed. And as I mentioned, the Seahawks
and Niners get together in the last week of the season.
Very interesting that all that stuff really kind of unfolded
as maybe the best Thursday night game of the season
took place last night. Don't think any less of the Rams,

(08:36):
even though they lost. I might think even less, although
I don't know how. After yesterday's show of Pooka Nakua
the non football player, I already thought very highly of
him as a football player, so I don't have to
come here and say, oh my god, Pooka Nakua, what
a player. Look at the game he just had. Does
that all the time, maybe not to the two of

(08:56):
two hundred yards and maybe doesn't have an overtime touchdown
all the time, But he and Jackson Smith and Jigba
this year are so far ahead from of everybody else
in the NFL as wide receivers this year from a
productivity standpoint, what we saw last night was just an
absolute treat for both of those players to do what
they did. Smith and Jigba at the end of overtime

(09:17):
with the touchdown and then his team with the two
point conversion to win. Huge night for him, especially as
the game went on, and a huge night for Nakua
that Stafford and the Rams offense, but a special team's
touchdown from the Seahawks certainly played a big role. And
the controversial interpretation and ruling via replay of the two
point play earlier in the game, well that's how Seattle

(09:38):
ended up with one point more than the Rams did.
And that's how we get into the rest of the weekend.
Like I said, huge weekend in the NFL, and it
includes the whole weekend starting tomorrow. We got three days
of NFL activity between the games tomorrow, a couple of
them and then obviously the games on Sunday, Texans have
the three to twenty five kick against the Raiders and
then Monday Night football, which I hope it doesn't matter

(10:00):
to the Texans because I hope they will have gotten
their victory against the Raiders. It could help eliminate the
cults from the possibility of passing them in the standings,
But it would be nice if the Texans just didn't
really have to care what the Cults are doing the
rest of the season until week eighteen, or maybe not
even with week eighteen, should things really go the Texans
way over the next couple of weeks. But get into

(10:23):
some what we need to see from Houston and what
I think we will see from a health standpoint with
the Texans after catching them a little bit earlier today
over inside NRG Stadium, So get you an update on
that run through a bunch of different things. We got
Cold Thompson, remember him, Yes, from the morning drive. He's
going to join us for an hour starting at four o'clock.
We got our tickets to give away to both Ron

(10:45):
White and the show over at NRG Stadium with AMA Supercross.
Will do that in the final hour of the show.
It's Friday, so four thirty. That means we will hit
you with our stone cold locks and even in AC's absence,
which you better get used to over the next two weeks.
He was nice enough to offer up some picks that
may in fact be correct. Maybe one of them or
two of them, not many of them. The last couple

(11:06):
of weeks.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
But nobody's over five hundred in this group, so I
don't think anyone has any.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Bragging rights over anyone else. Get to that at four
thirty two to thirty. Of course, we'll hit you with
the best of X and we are off and running.
Always welcome to join the program. Number of different ways
to do so via the phones at seven one three, two,
one two five seven ninety of course via social media
at Adam J. Wexler's the best place to find me.
And we will come back and I'll share with you

(11:31):
my opinion on what it looks like the Astros are
about to finalize to make this team more competitive than
last year's non playoff team. You were following it throughout
the day on the Matt Thomas Show. The deal to
land pitching help for the Astros soon to be finalized.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
We'll talk about that next eight team continues, so we'll.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Mission for a little bit with ac out today. Cole
Thompson will join in the four o'clock Our got plenty
to discuss today, and as mentioned, it appears the Astros
are on a verge of finalizing a deal to Lansom
starting pitching varying degrees of what this means from some
of the people who have already weighed in on a
little bit. Have had a couple of conversations myself about
what we think of this deal, But it appears the

(12:16):
Astros are gonna land Pirates starter Mike Burrows. Chandler Rome
and those covering the Astros he and others first on
this discussion taking place. Gonna be a three team deal
between the Astros, the Pirates, and the Rays and involving
Brandon Loo as well a host of prospects, and the
Astros in fact sending out a pair of prospects. Jacob

(12:37):
Melton made his Astro's debut major league debut last season,
and Anderson Brito, one of their top ten pitching prospects,
although in the lower levels currently, they'll be sent elsewhere
and essentially the Astros will land a major league starting pitcher,
Mike Burrows. That player spent most of the year in
the Pirate's rotation a year ago Tommy John back in

(13:00):
twenty twenty three, so his workload in twenty twenty four
was limited. His workload in twenty twenty five was something
the Piers definitely wanted to keep an eye on. I
think anybody looking over his season can see quite easily
that he was not pitching deep into games, not even close. Obviously,
that also prevents much of an analysis about what he
looks like going through a lineup for more than one or.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Two times on any given day.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
There obviously will be concerned about that for just about
any young pitcher, but again the data on that is
a little unknown.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
He's just really never even.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Got the opportunity to do so, has really good stuff.
Fared very well over the final four months of his season.
Came up in late May last year to help their
starting rotation out first two starts, gave up eight runs,
and then after that he was pretty good. He had
a three forty nine ERA the rest of the way,
a FIP that essentially matched that good strikeout numbers, not

(13:48):
awful walk numbers obviously, gave up fewer hits than innings.
Is whip a little bit over that when you add
in the walks and hits per nine innings. But all
the things on the exterior look like this is someone
that can help the team. Definitely going to be concerned
about where you slot him. His experience level, and it's
very very clear why the Astros and really any team

(14:09):
would be interested, but specifically the Houston Astros. They are
for their own determined salary restrictions. There is no cap
and they have only internal restrictions on what they'd like
to spend. This is a move that well, it sends
out two players that aren't making any money and are
under club control for a long time coming. This player's

(14:30):
under club control through twenty twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine,
thirty thirty one, thirty two.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
They got a lot of.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Years with Mike Burrows if things work out. Obviously he'll
make more money as the years go on, but he
basically doesn't make any money. And if this is a
player you feel like can make twenty five thirty starts
for you next year, and I think that is what
the Astros believe, then that's obviously something that this.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Team is going to be interested in doing.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Michael King was at the top of a lot of
people's wish lists, and I would say he was at
the top of my wish list if I was spending
money for the Astros and trying to add a pitcher
that can clearly enhance their rotation. Mike Burrows can't clearly
enhance their rotation, he might be very good. The Astros
might also help to harness some of what he had,

(15:18):
as they've shown an ability to do that as well,
if not better than any team in the majors. Guys
that have a pitch or two that maybe should be
throwing more off and maybe there's a tweak to their
delivery or their mechanics that can sharpen a pitch that's
already very good. Their track record speaks for itself, and
even though there's a little bit different look to their
pitching coaching staff at the major league level, Bill Murray Murphy,

(15:40):
ironically enough, is the Pirates pitching coach for this upcoming season.
Having left his post with the Astros, Ethan Katz replaces
him along with Josh Miller to work through things. But
their developmental side of how they like to do things
and their evaluations on pitchers from a personnel standpoint, that
has not changed, and that's why this particular player was pinpointed.
We talked about Boz quite a bit here over the

(16:02):
last couple of years from AFAR because he was from
Houston and had some injury issues, very highly touted, very
high draftic, and finally had made his way and established
himself this season as a major league starting pitcher, and
knowing the Rays and their desire to pretty much pay
nobody certainly didn't want to pay many players in the past,
and after what happened with the one of the players

(16:23):
they decided to pay that's never going to play Major
League baseball again, and it has nothing to do with baseball.
They don't really like to pay a lot of guys,
so they are always a team you pick up the
phone and say, well, this really young pitcher doesn't make
any money yet, we'd love to have him, and they
will be all ears. He was in fact traded today,
just not to Houston, a massive amount of prospects going

(16:45):
back to Tampa for the trade with the Orioles. Varying
degrees again on how much they're going to get from
those guys, what level you believe they sit at, and
kind of an indicator of, well, if they're looking for
that kind of prospect hall that's why the Astros are
not in contention for that player. The second best prospect
in the Astros system is Jacob Melton, based on varying sources,

(17:08):
MLB Pipeline and Baseball America.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Somewhere in that neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
I think it's a fair place to put him for
the purposes of this discussion, and he helped net you
a number three a number four starter. Maybe he accelerates
beyond that, maybe he doesn't, but certainly not someone you're
immediately penciling in behind Hunter Brown for the immediate future.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Might play out that.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Way in twenty twenty six, but I don't think that's
fair to put like Burrows for what he's done in
the major leagues at that level.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
He just has not pitched like that.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
He's obviously only been at the major league level for
parts of two seasons to begin with, but he was
also not sitting like where was Hunter Brown sitting on
the Astros prospect list and what was it like when
he came up. It's a big deal and he immediately
paid dividends and he's pitching for this team in the
postseason and has now earned a third place finish in
the Cy Young voting. Well, that's not Mike Burrows. Mike

(17:58):
Burrows was a prospect for Pirates and was thought of
pretty highly, but not a can't miss. He's obviously going
to slot in behind Paul Skeins, and we're all set
for the many years to come a good pitcher. I
think these are the types of deals. While they aren't
very sexy and they do tell everybody the same thing,
the astros are actually literally telling everybody they're not in

(18:20):
their running for these guys.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
I brought up the name Michael King.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
He just got seventy five million if he wants it
over the next three years. He signed a one plus
one plus one contract to remained with the Padres. He
gave them a nice break on this upcoming season, five
million dollar salary for the season with a twelve million
dollar bonus, and then higher salaries each of the next

(18:43):
two seasons to thirty million in that final season. But
they're both option years for the player. So if he
decided seventeen million for one year was great, But I
bet you I can get more guaranteed money than the
fifty eight million that remains on this deal, then he
can go ahead and do it, or he can opt
in for year two and then decide again what he
wants to do after year two. I think it's good
for both sides. And if Michael King pictures the way

(19:04):
he did last year around his injury, they're gonna be
very happy. With it, It's why I thought the Astros
might be in position to do it. That's exactly the
type of deal I thought they might want to put together,
probably not at that rate, and that's why he's not here.
There are a few other front line starting pitchers, not many,
but a few, and obviously from Bervaldez is one of them.

(19:27):
And as these deals keep getting made, whether it's the
trade for Mike Burrows for the Astros, the trade of
Shane Baz, the signing of Michael King, the signing of
Merrill Kelly earlier in the free agency period, obviously, the
signing of Dylan Ceze, the two hundred and ten million
dollar contract, these all factor into what Frombervaldes and his
agency believes might be out there for him. But I'm

(19:48):
not sure what is actually going to be out there
for him. Seen a couple one hundred and fifty plus
million dollar deals handed out to position players with Kyle
Schwarber and Pete Alonzo, where does Fromber fit in and
what do you get I think of this acquisition? Again,
not finalized yet, but does appear that once medicals have
taken place, it will be and the Astros will have
another arm, another hopeful. I would pencil him in as

(20:12):
a starter. I wouldn't quite pencil and Ryan Weiss or
Nate Pearson as a starter yet, but they'll be given
every opportunity to do so. Christian Javier Spencerraghetti, Jason Alexander,
aj Bluebaugh, and Hunter Brown likely the makeup of next
year's astros. Starting rotation halfway through the first hour of
the program brings us to in case you missed it,

(20:34):
excuse me?

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Best of X. That's next.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
History repeats itself type Baniel's succeed.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Never doubt that you're the one who pus for no
one bid You're the best of X.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Posting ever single day.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
If you're the best, breaking the entire internet, best of
X for you here on the eighteen Social media social
media's finest, whether it's the X platform specifically, or Facebook

(21:21):
or Snapchat or Instagram wherever else we might find it
some days more exasperating than others on social media. I
could start with this since it's very social media specific.
Let's see what what was the NFL up to earlier today?
Let's see, Oh, the NFL has fined Puka Nakua twenty

(21:45):
five thousand dollars for his comments criticizing officials.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Huh when did he do that?

Speaker 2 (21:50):
He must have done that earlier in the week, when
he's on that live stream, right, Well, technically, yeah, that
that is true.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Did he did he do it any other time?

Speaker 2 (21:58):
He sure did immediately after last night's game in a
say it with Me now since deleted post he spoke
to the media after last night's game, Pooka did talked
about lack of awareness in why he's gone against the officials,
once on social media and once on a live stream,

(22:20):
all in the span of a week's time. I guess
I don't lack of awareness of what? Do you not
know what social media is? Do you not know what
a live stream means?

Speaker 1 (22:31):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
I think he's just using pr speak, And I mean,
there's nothing much we can do about it, not much
really for us to even care about it.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Lee cares about it. Lee would prefer you didn't do it.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
That post that he made immediately after last night's game, well,
it was so new to the head coach. Game's end,
players mill round on the field for a little bit. Hello,
how you doing. Let's exchange jerseys? Great game. Back to
the locker room they go, and the coaches in there,
head coaches in there, and he's got words for them
after when you usually see it, or if it's after

(23:04):
a loss and it's Jacksonville, they post those two, which
is awesome, but usually it's some sort of you guys, really,
I loved what you guys brought. We got what we
came here for. Game ball for you, game ball for you.
Don't forget we got big work to do. This mean
win means nothing less we get another one or you lose,
and he has less to say, and we don't get
to see it. And then the head coach hits the podium.

(23:24):
Before he can hit the podium, that post by Pooka
about the officials had already been made, and so Sean
mcvaye asked about it, and he goes, what are you
talking about? And the reporter explains it, but not in
great detail. So he's like, well, I can't comment on that.
I don't know what that is. And another question is
phrased and he's trying to explain, well, here's what he said.

(23:45):
And you're worried about this, He goes, unless I have
all the information about it, I'm not in any position
to comment on it. And then they brought up the
idea that they had people the live stream had asked
and was on premises last week. And he's like, well,
did you not want that? He indicated you didn't want that.
He goes, I didn't have anything to do with it,
and it was explained to him. He said, you didn't
like it. He goes, what name did he use? And

(24:07):
they said boss man. He goes, well, that's not me.
It is amazing what nonsense players will engage in sometimes,
and I'm being nice, I think in the case of
Pooka and Akua and reguarding the other stuff that took
place on the live stream, which we addressed yesterday, but
to know that there was backlash from your comments about

(24:30):
the officials, which we brought up yesterday. When he said, oh,
there's you know, there's probably guys out there they just
want to be on TV and they're texting their buds
after the game. Hey did you see that PI? I
called there was no PI. And then he made a comment.
And now last night's game did have several controversial calls,
both of which the biggest two of which I guess
we could say were pro Seahawks results the two point

(24:52):
play which I referenced earlier, and an ineligible man downfield.
There were only eleven yards of field in front of
the Rams offense when they were at the one yard line,
and they scored a touchdown, and as one of their
linemen attempted to block one of the oncoming Seahawks well,
he blocked him well enough that he pushed him a

(25:13):
yard away from the line of scrimmage, and then as
he pushed through him, the Seahawks player rolled off to
the side and tossed him aside another two to three
yards be on the line of scrimmage, which the officials
called for an ineligible man downfield. I've seen these calls
get made quite a bit this year, and I've explained
the positions. We sit in four games at NRG Stadium

(25:34):
from the press box where you have a very nice
overhead view, and if you haven't to be looking for
that particular thing from our view, you can see it unfold.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Lots of other things unfold.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
We can see immediately when Jayden Higgins is going to
be wide open down the field because the coverage there's
been a blown coverage, or the player's falling down great stuff,
and an eligible man downfield occasionally is one of those.
But it's very easy to see on replay because where's
the camera. Camera's on the line, camera's on the quarterback,
came on the linement. It's ridiculous sometimes that that call

(26:04):
gets made. Literally, I don't know how many of them.
It's usually on screen plays, and the timing is off.
You know, the offensive lineman know they got a way
to beat and wait another beat and then they expect
the ball to be thrown, so off and running they go.
And on this play, all he's doing is blocking. They
penalized him for being good at it. He was good
enough at it that he went more than the requisite
number of yards away, and the in booth referee assistant

(26:28):
for the television Terry McCauley, their official assistant. I mean,
he said what I'm saying here, and I don't know
anybody that would think otherwise. I don't know what the
league will have to say about it. If anything, we
know it won't matter. But yeah, that's not a penalty.
That's not a call that should be made. That's not
the rule that was broken. That's not a call. You
don't make that call. Because nothing happened, and they did,
and obviously it took points off the board. The explanation

(26:50):
of the two point play has everybody just incredibly upset,
and McCauley not only talked about it during the game,
but then he went on social media and tried to
re explain it everything. He says, what about this, So
we're just ignoring the whistle? So we're calling it a
backwards pass?

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Are we saying?

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Whistles are irrelevant? And you're supposed to play through the whistle?
And if you ask the thirty two NFL head coaches
and they're sixty four coordinators thereabouts, they will all say, yes,
on that play, you better play through the whistle. If
the ball is on the ground, the whistle shouldn't matter
to you.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
And if it ends up.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Being a penalty for something you might have done, then
they'll probably take it. They'll take it out on the officials.
But if the ball's laying there, go get it. I
mean a Seahawks player leaned over and picked up the
ball that nobody else was going for because everyone thought
the play was dead. And yes, there was definitely a
whistle and that definitely plays into it, but they reviewed
it as they do with all two point plays.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Hey man, you got two points.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
You executed that play so badly and you threw a
backwards pass off of a Rams player, but nobody went
to pick it up once they heard the whistle, which
was only moments before the ball was picked up, and
well after there was no clear completion. Seahawks two points.
Good stuff, officials, good stuff. Social media.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety. Hey, it's coach Udoka.

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Here.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Every Rockets game on Sports Talk seven ninety.

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Back to Adam Clinton and Adam wexlerth the.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Eighty back with you here on a Friday edition of
The Eight Team wex here and it is final now.
According to reports, the Astros and Pirates and Rays have
finalized their deal. The details that were mentioned earlier are

(33:25):
in fact exactly how they go down. There's six players involved.
Astros will send out two the Pirates will get three
and the Astros will get one, Mike Burrows. That's what
the Astros are getting for sending out Jacob Melton and
Anderson Brito. Both of them will go to Tampa and
the Rays will send their three players Brandon Law, Mason
Montgomery and Jake Mangham to the Pittsburgh Pirates. So again,

(33:47):
Mike Burrows is going to pitch for the Astros next year.
It looks like obviously if as long as health permits,
and he'll be put in the starting rotation. I don't
think there's a whole lot of certainty on what comes
after Hunter Brown, but it is very possible he could
be the number two. It's possible Christianavier could be number two.
See what it looks like for Spencer Araghetty after his

(34:07):
season ended prematurely and was very much not much of
a season because of his injury freak as it was
when he got hit on the hand in BP in
Seattle earlier in the year, and a couple other names
that we obviously know from some of the other acquisitions.
This is the third different pitcher acquired from outside the
organization that profiles to exactly what the Astros have indicated

(34:32):
they were trying to do.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
These are not sure things.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
These are not pictures with major league success of any
long variety or in some cases at all. But pitchers
they believe have stuff that they can help make into
major league starters of quality. And again, I don't think
we're going to see these guys bucking for All Star spots.
I don't see think we're going to see these guys
blowing people away. Possible, maybe one of them could do that.

(34:58):
If they hit on all of them, obviously they'll be
in a very good position. But the best pitchers are
not going to be here based on money. This free
agent off season, best way the Astros felt like they
could acquire talented pitching was doing it via trade or
getting a little bit more creative looking outside well looking
outside major League Baseball. In the case of Ryan Weiss,
it's very possible Mike Burrows is their second starter when

(35:21):
they break camp and open up the season, we shall
see he does that very good stuff. And I don't
know how many of you remember his start against the
Astros earlier this year.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
It was just his third start of.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
The season, and I just happened to mention his season
did seem to take a turn for the better in
that third start, because he came up in late May,
pitched against the Brewers and the Arizona Diamondbacks his first
two starts to close out that month. We went eight
and the third in those two starts, and nine runs
scored on nine hits with three homers allowed in those

(35:53):
two starts.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Wasn't very good.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
And anytime you go into a game against the starting pitcher,
the numbers for that starting pitcher, well they're blasted to everybody.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Everybody sees them.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Oh, the Astros are facing a pitcher with an eight
sixty four era, Great, no problem. He's given up three
homers and eight and a third innings and nine hits. Awesome,
he's walked four batters. They're going to crush this guy. Well,
he went out and threw five and a third of
shutout baseball against the Astros and didn't walk a batter.
And the numbers are one thing, they're obviously spectacular, But

(36:26):
if you were watching that day, it looked every bit
like the Astros had no idea what to do with him.
It only took him seventy pitches to do that. Now,
I do think the Pirates were very, very careful with
him last year, still not too far removed from Tommy
John surgery, but there were a couple of games where
he got into the you know, the eighties and the nineties,
and still wasn't pitching into the seventh inning. And there's

(36:47):
some concern about how deep he might end up going.
But that particular afternoon, he had his way with him
and just kind of mode through them one, two, three, four,
five innings without much trouble whatsoever. I don't think that's
the biggest driving four towards adding him. But when he
was able to replicate shutout performances or one run allowed
performances throughout the twenty some odd starts that he made,

(37:10):
he ended up making twenty three starts last year, there's
something there. His stuff is good. He does have a
good fastball, it's not overpowering, and it does get hit.
He does have other pitches that I do think are
major league quality pitches, and again goes back to the
Astros trying to harness them. And I do think there
is some explanation on the other side of what the
Astros sent out. I mean, you can't look at it

(37:31):
like every team is equal, because there are a bunch
of teams who if they sent out their second best prospect,
they'd be getting an absolute star in return, a proven
major league star in return. But the Astros number two
prospect is not at that level. You know, Jacob Melton
does now have a little bit of major league experience,

(37:52):
plays pretty good outfield, has pretty good speed, has had
a pretty good bat as a minor leaguer. But their
number two prospect. Again, if I'm driving that number two
home and you feel like he should be three or
five or one or whatever, it's not relevant. He's one
of their best prospects. He is not a sure thing.
He's not a guaranteed major league player player. I'm not

(38:14):
talking about star, top level player. I'm just saying, will
he be a five to ten year major league performer period?
I think that's at the low end of what I
think he'll do. There's nothing to look at to say, yeah,
there's no question the asker is giving up way too
much for this, and it's just just one of the
players they gave away. He got eleven hits last year,
all of them were singles, but one. Seventy eight played appearances,

(38:36):
he hit, won fifty seven, he struck out twenty nine
times in the seventy eight trips he went to the plate.
And this is again to prospects struggle when they first
arrived high high level prospects. Absolutely did Cam Smith struggle
last year, no question about it. Alex Bregman did, Kyle Tuckert.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
It's okay.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
It's not the end all be all about what they are,
but you do have to look at how he arrived
or they arrived, at those that are analyzing it as
this is one of the players at the very very
high end for Houston.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
For Houston's prospects.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
His twenty twenty four Minor League final numbers across a
couple levels produced to seven thirty six ops. Its final
numbers the year before a couple of levels a ball
and double a ball and eight h one ops. He
hit two fifty those two seasons. I don't think he's
improperly placed on the astros prospect list, but I think
it's fair to recognize the level of actual prospect he

(39:31):
is when other gms are on the other end of
the phone, when other gms are looking.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
To add players.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
The Astros had to add a second prospect in their
own top ten in order to help facilitate this deal
in order to get a pitcher who's not also not
a sure thing three ninety four era, over the course
of the year, three forty nine ERA, over those starts
that began with the one against Houston. Number of different
ways this could go for them. I don't want to
go super It sounds very homer ish.

Speaker 9 (39:58):
Aw.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
I love this deal, but I think these are the
types of deals I expect them to make.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
I wish it were different.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
I'm just trying to be realistic with what I believe
they've told us many times are their own restraints.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Could Michael King be an astro?

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Sure, absolutely, they could have spent the money on him
if Jim Crane wanted to do that, if he wanted
to put this team even further out there. They are
paying seventeen and a half million to Lance McCullers junior
this year. They're going to see a huge increase in
pay to Christian Javier and Jordan Alvarez this year. They
still got twenty million dollars into Christian Walker. They are
spending the money, they are right up against it. They
are one of the bigger spending teams. They aren't going

(40:33):
to be in the top ten in spending. But in
their minds there is a limit to what they want
to do, and there's a limit to what they want
to do as it relates to the CBT, because then
you're paying not just a little bit more, but a
lot more. And this team was on the outside looking in.
But in order to get back on the inside of
the playoff picture. It's also fair for anyone on the outside,

(40:54):
anyone that wants to call in, weigh in, or hit
us up on social media and recognize it, well, yeah,
we weren't good enough last year with that payroll with
from FORER Valdez essentially as of today, Burrows in, Valdez out,
the Astros didn't get better. Very very fair, and we'll
address that more as we learn a little bit more
about Mike Burrows. And again the deal finalized, the Astros

(41:16):
headed in that direction. So more Astros movement, maybe not
what you expected, and probably assuredly they're still looking for
major league starting pitch and get you at the top
of the hour and visit with the Texans eighteen every
day today we are still the A team even though
we see is out today and throughout the rest of
the year. Got a couple of fill ins over the

(41:38):
course of the next two weeks. We also have several
vacation days the both of us over the next two weeks,
with Christmas and New Year's on the horizon. And got
Bowl game coverage for you on December thirty, first with
Will Muss Champs Texas Longhorns taking on the Biff Pogy
Michigan Wolverines. Yeah, well, must champions back into Austin. We

(41:58):
mentioned that breaking news yesterday. Sarkeesian has taken to the
microphone today, so he had some thoughts on why this
move was made. We also have Texans football to get
you ready for this weekend. We have playoff football for
you tonight, the first of the four college football playoff
games on Tap four tonight, Oklahoma hosting Alabama, Texas, A

(42:21):
and M first game of the day tomorrow, and then
the other two games get played, the Ole Miss game
and the Oregon game. Or I could call them the
Two Lane Game and the James Madison Game, but I
guess it'd be better to do it that way because
I probably won't need to mention their school's names after Saturday.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Would love to see competitive football.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
Don't believe we're going to any of those two games,
but the first two games are extremely compelling. We talk
a little bit more about that as the day progresses.
If we'll get the stone cold locks. Cole Thompson will
join us from our own morning show, The Morning Drive.
He will be with us from four to five, and
we'll dig out on that for sure. Also have those
awesome daytime Bowl games. I don't really care who's playing.

(42:59):
I don't really compare how competitive they are. I just
love the fact that we can sit in here and
do our job and watch football. NC State Memphis going
at it earlier at the eleven AM or ten to
eight m Bowl game earlier today, and again it all
leads into tonight's postseason game. As we get from twelve
to one, got to have eleven games to eliminate eleven teams.
The first of those games is tonight in Norman Kyle

(43:21):
Fields Tomorrow. Those sites, like last year with Austin, all
got to host playoff games. That's to me, that's one
of the things I think is cool about this playoff structure.
Even though the number eight seed and the number nine
seed were basically the same, right they're right next to
each other. Granted, in this case, the nine seed has

(43:44):
three losses and the eight seed has one or two
excuse me with Oklahoma. Now they played each other, so
it seems pretty fair. Yeah, great, you beat them, you
get the home game. This is the postseason, and after
this week there's no more home games. The only advantage
is you got to rest, and then there's no advantage

(44:05):
after that. While we get down to the final four
teams of the final three games, everyone's playing on the
same schedule. This seems like a pretty sizable advantage, and
it certainly was based on the results last year, but
also last year, remember we had some different seating situations
with automatic bids and automatic top four seeds. Nonsense that

(44:27):
at least they got rid of this year. But like
the Aggi's playing at home against the Hurricanes. I know
it's a very close line for Vegas. We'll see if
any of us chose to play it for our stone
cold locks. But I think the Aggies are gonna smoke
them easily, cover, probably go over. But they're playing at home.

(44:50):
I think it matters, and I think Miami's at a
significant disadvantage playing on the road, which is I guess
what they want. I mean Ole miss and Oregon playing
at home is one thing. Playing against JMU and two lane.
Ole Miss already played two lane. They smacked them. I
imagine even with all the changes in the fact this
is Pete Golding's first game as head coach of ole Miss,

(45:13):
I do think that result will play Vegas thinks so Also,
these are playoff games. Now, I'm not gonna sit here
and lie to you and saying these are the twelve
best teams in the country. No, they're not, and everybody
should know that, And anybody who keeps trying to say
it in a way that suggests they don't is dumb.
The twelve best teams in the country. You could put
it anywhere, you could have a team, a home game,
whatever you want to do. There aren't gonna be seven

(45:35):
and seventeen and a half point spreads. There aren't gonna
be twenty and a half point spreads. These aren't the
twelve best teams in the country. Don't act like they are.
Doesn't mean we can't see an upset, doesn't mean it
won't be entertaining, although I don't believe it will be
in either case, and we won't have an upset. But
these aren't the twelve best teams in the country, and
Vegas obviously is representative of that. Three and a half

(45:56):
point favorites for the Aggies tomorrow morning and one and
a half point FIFA for Oklahoma tonight. As I mentioned,
we'll get more into that as the afternoon continues. Revisit
the Astros trade that has become final when a Astros
announced it officially, but it's been reported Channelerroome was first
on it over at the Athletic that the Astros are
sending Anderson Brito pitching prospect and Jacob Melton outfield at

(46:20):
prospect who did make his debut with the Astros last year,
as part of a three team deal. They will head
elsewhere to Tampa. Tampa will get three players from Pittsburgh
and Pittsburgh will send starting pitcher Mike Burrows to the Astros.
He was part of their rotation for the majority of
last season, pitching four or five innings most of the time,
six on occasion, and like I said, more details on

(46:41):
that and a little bit more of a dive into
what it means for the Astros moving forward as we
continue wanting to get into the Texans. A little bit
on the practice field earlier today inside NRG Stadium. So,
as I've explained before, on the Friday practice the last
chance for players who may not be at one hundred
percent health to get back on the field for the team.
There's no second field, there's no third field. They're not

(47:03):
working on a side field. There's one field. But there
are players who obviously have been deemed working off to
the side, and those two players today were Deck Stingley
Junior and Woody Marx. Didn't practice Wednesday, didn't practice Thursday.
An oblique injury for Stingley that he has actually been
dealing with all year and it knocked him off the
field this past game for about ten plays.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
And the ankle injury for Woody Marks.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
He's had several different injuries that have taken him out
of games, some of which he's returned from. He did
not return from it in this game though, never got
treatment for it during the game, never even left the
sidelines other than for halftime, and indicated to the media
after the game that if he was needed, he would
have been able to go back out there. And Jamika
Ryan said the same thing thing. So both of those

(47:44):
two players were working off to the side. It'd be
pretty difficult for me to give a full attendance report
for all the Texans. Also, as I've explained before, when
the Texans practice inside the stadium NRG Stadium, it's where
their locker room is. Not every player is walking across
the street, on the bridge, across the field and into

(48:05):
the training facility. They're outdoor, indoor outside their building, but
indoor training facility at the same time. And then they
don't all hit the practice field at the same time.
Guys still getting treatment, getting taped, doing whatever it is
they're doing before they get out there. When we are
no longer allowed to view that portion of the remaining
portion of practice, there may be guys that just simply

(48:28):
had not hit the field yet. So I don't want
to tell you that this player didn't practice and that
player didn't practice. I'll wait for the injury report on that,
But yesterday's injury report was a pretty good indicator that
the only players to concern the Texans heading into this
game are what he Marks and Derrek Stingley Junior. I
suspect they'll both be mentioned as limited when the injury

(48:48):
report is released in a few minutes or an hour
or so, and both will be listed as question my guess,
best guess. I think they have a decision to make,
and it's a It's a tough one because you don't
want to give your team less of a chance to
win just because of who you're playing. But can you
give two weeks of trying to get healthier to one

(49:10):
of these two players, to both of these players? I
think they have to strongly consider it. In Woody Mark's case,
I would consider it so much of a factor that
I would just go ahead and do it. Probably would
love to see him enter a game healthier than he
has in weeks. And the combination of Darigon Bowalle, Nick Chubb,
who's practiced all week, limited on Wednesday, but full I

(49:31):
imagine today, definitely yesterday, and Juwar Jordan. Can you run
the ball effectively against the Raiders? Can you pass pro effectively?
Can you make yourself available out of the backfield effectively
without Woody Marx and with those three against the Raiders
on Sunday?

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Yes, yes you can.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
If what he's healthy, what he plays, if you think
it makes more sense to get him healthier for the
remainder of the season, and the fact that this is
a rookie, it's a lot of football more football than
he's ever played, even though you might look at his
snap count feel otherwise. He's been out there every week.
He took carries in the opener, He's been taking carries
throughout their fourteen games. There's still three more games this

(50:12):
regular season. They're going to clinch a playoff berth at
some point in the very near future. And there's your
next game that's eighteen. You win that one, which I
believe the Texans will. Well, now you're in a nineteenth game.
It's a long, long season, and a significantly longer season
than anybody coming out of college has ever played, even
with the playoffs, of which obviously USC and Woody Marks

(50:35):
were not players in last year. I mean, it's interesting
you look at the Longhorn, say, preparing for their game
this weekend. They have three losses, just like last year.
Last year they had three losses. Well, they have one
more game remaining this year and they're trying to get
a tenth win. Last year they won thirteen times because
they played sixteen games, making it nearly all the way

(50:57):
through the postseason or recently a sixteen game final schedule
for the Longhorns. It's very different. But again, if you
don't make the playoffs. You're playing thirteen games, or twelve
if you didn't have a winning season, or twelve if
you didn't have a winning season, and they didn't select
you as a five win team to fill out the bulls.
Because some of the teams that qualified for Bulls decided
it was in their best interest to not play any

(51:19):
more football this year, and many teams did that this year,
not just Notre Dame, but a couple of other teams
decided to forego their bowl invitation and work on whatever
it is they wanted to. They change coaches, and they
just didn't They wanted to take the fine from the conference,
which two teams in the Big Twelve decided to do.
That's the way they went about it inside the Texans
locker room and inside their thoughts. For this week we

(51:41):
come back, we're gonna hear from Texans defensive coordinator Matt
Burks specifically on a couple of things. Again, Remember, he's
taken over a much bigger role on this defense this year,
calling plays, been with Demiko all three years here, worked
with him on the structure of this defense, the personnel
groups they want to use, and obviously to a certain degree,
the play calling the last two years, although he was

(52:01):
not the primary play caller which he has become this year,
which I don't know if it coincides with when this
team started playing better nine to two on a sixty
eme winning streak offense recently probably in a bigger jump
and gives Demico Ryans a little bit more of an
opportunity to focus team big picture game day stuff, whether
it's challenges or timeouts, or just simply making sure he

(52:24):
and Nick Kyley can orchestrate what it is they want
to do when they want to consider it four down territory,
when they want to consider we need to go for
the field goal in this situation. Or you know something
I actually saw last week when the Texans were faced
with a fourth and short, not one, but fourth and
short in field goal range. Some of the special teams
guys were fully expecting to head out onto the field

(52:47):
and they started to maybe got a step or two
on the field, and it was actually Demiko who was
in front of them, throwing out his left arm to say,
not we're going, we're going. We're keeping the offense on
the field right here for this. And so he's very
very much in tune with what they have to do.
Matt Burke is one of the reasons why the biggest
thing on the plate for the Texans defense this week

(53:08):
against the Raiders.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
I'll tell you what that is next.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
The afternoon here, get off the roadways people, way too
much traffic today mentioned we would get some thoughts from
Matt Burke the Texans DC on the biggest thing they
should be concerned with with the Raiders.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Oh, we'll do that in the next segment.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Wanted to give you an interview our own Chris Gordy
was able to sit down for talk a little bit
about the Longhorns earlier. Now, Michael Taft's not going to
play football for Will muss Champ, their new DC. Just
wrapped up his career there, but Chris was able to
catch up with the now former Longhorn safety. Is he
enters of the NFL Draft. I wanted to give that
interview to you here Chris Gordy and Longhorn safety Michael.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Taff two different playing styles.

Speaker 14 (53:49):
You know, I don't want to knock the Big twelve
because I was a lot more conditioned than the Big twelve.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
You got to it's fastball all the time.

Speaker 14 (53:57):
You know, they're trying to snap the ball really quick,
and there's breading everybody out and trying to get their
their fast guys in space and you know, make some
DB's miss and the next thing you know, it's an
explosive play. But I think in the SEC, your body
takes hits every single week that I've never experienced before,
and it was really really cool. I think being in

(54:17):
the SEC it made me realize real, you know, real
down South football, and it was really cool. And your
body feels it every single Sunday morning for sure. When
when you play in the SEC and there's no game off,
you know, I remember when we stepped into the SEC,
what was that two years ago? They were like, all right, everybody,
you gotta everybody's gonna play really really tight, you know,

(54:38):
except Vanderbilt.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
That's kind of like a bye week.

Speaker 14 (54:40):
And Vanderbilts the last two years has probably been one
of our tougher games both years.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
So you can't no longer can say Vanderbilts a bye week.

Speaker 13 (54:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (54:49):
I mean, you talk about award season, everybody all being honored.
I think it says something that Diego Pavia was the
Heisman finalists, that the representative from the SEC, I mean
that dude. I've talked to several players around the league
go and thank god his eligibility's over because he was
just a tough out man.

Speaker 14 (55:05):
Right.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
Yeah, he was a really good player.

Speaker 14 (55:08):
I have a lot of respect for him, and I
got the chance to get to talk to him in
New York City this weekend, and he's a special guy.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
He's confident in himself. But I think that's why he's
gone so far.

Speaker 15 (55:19):
I think both times y'all played him, y'all were in
control of the game and then like if there was
like another two minutes left both years be like, oh,
that might have gotten hairy.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
So luckily you guys went to and oh against him.

Speaker 15 (55:29):
But it is interesting though, I mean, was there a
moment in sec play like a player that you hit
and went, oh that's different.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (55:40):
I think the floor running back number thirteen was really good,
and then the Arkansas running back number four he was
really good. He got the best of me this year.
So much respect about those guys.

Speaker 15 (55:51):
We're talking with Michael Taff of course from the Texas Longhorns.
I know you're a big advocate of giving back and
working in your community, and that's why you on the
All State Warrifol Trophy and you were named the Captain
of the All State AFCA Good Works Team. Give us
a little perspective on the work that you've done obviously
with Texas against fentanyl and as well as the relief
efforts over there Camp Mystic following those floods in Texas.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (56:14):
Well, first, my best buddy passed away to fednyl poisoning
and twenty twenty one, and so whenever I had an
opportunity to come back this year, and I knew my
platform was going to be bigger than it's ever been,
I was just thinking to myself, how can I make
this bigger than myself? And obviously I have a lot
of passion and feminol awareness because that's where my heart

(56:37):
is hurting at him. So you know, it was it
was an easy ability to talk about federal awareness because
I'm so passionate about it, and so you know, we
raise think a little over sixty thousand dollars for federal
awareness and that was way over our goal.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
So super proud about that.

Speaker 15 (56:55):
And then.

Speaker 14 (56:57):
The Texas fluds and fourth of July weekend, those were,
you know, twenty five miles away from from where I
grew up in West Lake, So.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
I think just knowing that there were.

Speaker 14 (57:08):
So many people that I knew that was I can't
mistaken people that knew those girls that passed away, and
I just wanted to have an opportunity to give back,
to to remember those girls and to try to make
a difference.

Speaker 15 (57:21):
It's one thing when you're a five star athlete and
you're you know, everybody's all American and all this, but
to come from where you were as a walk on,
and because I think what you were originally going to
go to Rice and then you came to Texas as
a walk on, I mean you have to almost appreciate
it that much more and the want to give back
when you get that larger platform.

Speaker 14 (57:39):
Right, Yeah, for sure, because I was definitely that kid
when I was six years old looking up to the
to the guys running out in the burn orange and
d k R and just a glove or anything.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
You know, it's probably still in my in my house
and my parents' house. So I was that guy. So
I always knew whenever it was hey can you sign
this for Christmas?

Speaker 14 (57:59):
Or can you send a quick video, It's always a
yes for me because you know, I knew.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
I was that guy at one point.

Speaker 14 (58:06):
And these these cheers are gonna turn echoes quick, and
nobody's gonna care about Michael's aff They're gonna care about
the new starting safety all Americans.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
So whenever I have this opportunity, I would love to
do it.

Speaker 15 (58:18):
We get to talk with Danny Wurfol a couple of
times throughout the year, and obviously it's tremendous work, you know,
with the All State Good Works Team and obviously the
All State Warfol Trophy. But you're now the second Longhorn
to win the award. Have you heard from Sam Macho?
Because Sam always brags about winning this award. Have you
heard from Sam yet?

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (58:34):
He was actually the one that surprised me that I
want it. So it was really cool to get to
see him the day that I want it and just
talk to him about it. And I've had so much
respect for Sam Macho even growing up. He came to
our our Bible study I think that was in seventh
grade and spoke to us, and then came back when
we were in high school and junior year of high

(58:54):
school and spoke to us about the freedom of the Cross.
And so he he's a super awesome guy. I'm very
blessed to being a family with Sam Macho.

Speaker 15 (59:05):
Yeah, he and and Tim Tebow and so many other
great winners of this award throughout the years, and just
genuinely good dudes, like dudes not just great football players,
but dudes who who mean well and want to do
well for for the world. A few more football questions
for you, Michael. Kind of a cherry on the top
of your college career. Your your last football game played
will be beating the Aggies their first loss of the

(59:26):
season in Austin. I gotta think that one means a
little bit more to you, right.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
Yeah, you definitely play a little bit.

Speaker 14 (59:33):
You always have passion, but you definitely play with a
little bit more passion when you play the Sooners or
the Aggies. And to be in DKR the last home
game against our big one of our biggest rivals, and
to get an interception and your second to last play
ever playing ever, putting on the burn ounch was was
super special.

Speaker 3 (59:51):
It was definitely, you know, a great end to this
very fairy tale story that I'm living.

Speaker 15 (59:57):
It's uh, obviously, I guess it was frustrating here and
that you know, you guys weren't going to go to
the playoffs. But man, I mean you look back at
the season that you guys had. I mean, look, people
were burying Texas by mid season. Oh these guys a
couple losses, they're done, But you guys didn't quit. I mean,
I guess you'll look back on this season to say
that's the most important thing about this year.

Speaker 14 (01:00:16):
Right, Yeah, I think, you know, as as hard as
it is to say, because I won't be on the
team next year, I'm confident to say that this year's
shaped who next year is gonna be. I think we
had to go through a lot of adversity because you know,
this program has been through a lot of success the last.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
Three years, so I think we had to go through
a little bit of adversity.

Speaker 14 (01:00:38):
You know, we had a bunch of young guys on
the team, So I think it was good for Archie's
He's gonna be one of the best quarterbacks in the
country next year.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
And I'm confident to say that.

Speaker 14 (01:00:47):
And it's not pressure for him because he already puts
a lot of pressure on himself. He wants to be great,
and you know, I think with him, you know, get
into the year under his belt to learn to to
experience loss and to experience success.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
I think it's gonna be really good.

Speaker 15 (01:01:02):
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about him. Obviously, you know,
his dad already came out and said, yes, he's not
going anywhere. He's gonna be back next year.

Speaker 10 (01:01:08):
Uh.

Speaker 15 (01:01:08):
And obviously that's going to generate a lot of excitement
and hype for for the Longhorns for next year. But
what you know, Look, when you have a name like Manning,
it's gonna garner a lot of hype and attention. But
it seems like Arch behind the scenes, just a normal dude,
very humble, very respectful and all that give us a
little insider perspective what it was like with Arch behind
the scenes.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 14 (01:01:27):
He's always a guy texting about, Hey, you want to
go get in the cold tub late at night? Do
you want to you know, go get in the sauna
to help us sleep? You know, do you want to
go get an extra throwing session just so I can
work on this little throw, or hey I just watched
this video of me throwing. Let me let me go
adjust this. I'm really quick. So he's one I think
the biggest thing for me that helped me get to
where I'm at. His consistency, and I think he embodies

(01:01:49):
that really well. It's it's not so much he has
a routine of what he's doing every day. He's consistent
at doing something every single day.

Speaker 15 (01:01:56):
Yeah, it's Look, if anything I know about Sark is
missing the playoffs this year, it's going to motivate him
to make the changes necessary to get back there next year.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
I know that about about coach Stark.

Speaker 15 (01:02:08):
One other thought here, Michael, your former quarterback Quinn Yours
was announced he's gonna get an NFL start this week,
and how excited you guys for him?

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Man, I'm stoked for him. He's he deserves it.

Speaker 14 (01:02:18):
He's gone through a lot in his career, and you
know it's I feel like it's been like this his
whole career. And what's the coolest thing about him is
up here and then here, he's been like this, and
that's who he is.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
That's a guy that that I love to play behind.

Speaker 14 (01:02:34):
And it was so fun watching him lead our team
and man, so happy to take for him to get
his opportunity to go shine.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Quinn Ewers and the Miami Dolphins have the Cincinnati Bengals
this week.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Michael taff there with Chris Gordy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Of course he's declared for the NFL Draft, and if
you spin it back to the beginning of the interview,
should have set it up a little bit better. He
was asked to compare over the two years he's been there,
what life was like as a player in the Big
twelve versus life there in the SEC. And remember, next
year in the SEC, they bump it up to that
full nine game conference schedule. Let me take that word
out there, partial nine game schedule. They're sixteen teams there.

(01:03:14):
They don't play fifteen games against them, they play nine
games against them. So you still will see what we
saw this year quite a bit. Maybe you're playing the
top end teams every week or close to it. Maybe
your schedule is not quite as difficult year to year.
It's going to change. Programs will obviously change, but you
could certainly see it with some of what teams turned
out to have in front of them once they saw
the schedule play out, once they knew what those teams

(01:03:35):
were like. We'll get back to the Texans, though, and
what coach Burke Texans DC pinpoints for the Texans defense
the challenge. Yes, there is one against the Raiders offense
this Sunday.

Speaker 5 (01:03:48):
The eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Back with you here on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Appreciate Gordy and Michael Taff for sitting down and cranking
that out. A little bit about arch Manning's future and
the fact that the SAP has no Patsy like Vanderbilt anymore. Boy,
a lot of people very unhappy they voted for Diego
Pavia after the fact. Why weren't they unhappy about it
before the fact? Interesting, some Heisman voters, actually Heisman Trophy

(01:04:14):
winning voters, actually came out and said how disappointed they
were in the actions post not winning it that Diego had.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
Mark Ingram was one of them.

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Mark Ingram, the former Houston Texans running back, maybe more
well known for a couple of other things, does handle
some studio work big there You're a pregame show on
Saturday morning.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
He was very happy about it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
He actually was most unhappy about the actual semantics of it.
So a man after my own heart. He got a
bunch of first place votes, did Pavia, and yet after
the fact he told them all to bleep off. Ingram said, well,
you got all these votes, you got one hundred and
whatever votes. Why didn't you just tell the other four
hundred and six hundred and some other vot ods to

(01:05:00):
do that.

Speaker 8 (01:05:01):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
I like being very very semantically oriented with your discussion topics.
You'll hear that from me from time to time. His
former team will be on the field three twenty five
kickoff for the Raiders this Sunday. Want any discussion on that?
Is there something you think the Texans should be concerned about?
Or is this going to be a cakewalk? What do
you want to see from the team this Sunday seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. I do

(01:05:24):
think they need to take it seriously, and of course
they will. I don't think every team in the NFL
does every single week take their opponent seriously, but I
think this one does. Doesn't mean they can't be beaten.
He doesn't mean you come out flat. People make excuses
when bad teams beat good teams, like the good team
did something ill conceived before they even hit the field.
We're taken lightly. We're doing prep work for the Chargers already.

(01:05:49):
The Texans aren't doing that. Chargers game isn't this week.
Chargers game is a week from tomorrow. They have a
game before that. That's the game they're focused on. That's
the film they're looking at, that's what they're working on.
A practice, they're practicing things they're gonna do against the Raiders,
not the Chargers. I don't think other teams do that either.
I don't think the Texans often, if ever, come out flat.
They have been beaten. They have been beaten by teams

(01:06:11):
we don't think they should be beaten by. And maybe
that happened this year. I'm not sure which of those
games we would point at. And you look back at
the Texans and their five losses, especially those first three.
At this point in the season, you might say a
loss to Tampa doesn't seem like one you should have lost,
especially when it's played in Houston you're a home opener. Well,

(01:06:32):
up until recently, it looked like Tampa was awesome. They
still lead their division, but they're only a five hundred team.
It's only because the Panthers are even more embarrassing than
they are. But clearly Tampa has come upon hard times.
But they came to Houston and beat you by scoring
a touchdown on the final drive of the game. For
them beat you twenty to nineteen. You've lost to the

(01:06:53):
first place Jaguars and you've beaten them. Lost to the
Rams who only give five hundred plus yards with no
turnovers and defeat and scored thirty seven points like they
did last night, so I can't call them the first
place Rams anymore. You lost to the Seahawks, who are
the first play Seahawks, and you lost to the first
place Denver Broncos. The Texans ability to not have those

(01:07:16):
games this year. The worst team they lost to is
seven and seven by record. Maybe some people still think
the worst team they lost to is Jacksonville. I might
be one of them. But they've played the Titans, who stink,
they played Cooper Rush and the Ravens. They've played the Titans.
The second time they played the Colts played a non
playoff bound six win Chiefs team. They got up for

(01:07:39):
all those games. They were ready to go from the jump,
came back to win a few of those games. Obviously,
the Jacksonville game second time around did not look very good.
Played that entire game with Davis Mills and did almost
nothing for three quarters, and then they scored four touchdowns
in the final quarter and they won by more or
they won by seven points, down by nineteen, won by
seven thirty six twenty nine. Thanks defense for getting that

(01:08:00):
last touchdown, Thanks Davis and the offense for getting the
first three. So taking the Raiders seriously not going to
be an issue. And last year, the best to tight
end in the NFL was Brock Bowers, definitely the best
tight end in the AFC. This year, he's fallen off
a little, but he also missed three games, and he
also plays for an even worse team than he did

(01:08:20):
a year ago. I'm not ready to put him quite
like DeAndre Hopkins, but when you consider he's caught Brock Bowers,
who's arguably the most talented tight end in the NFL,
as a pass catcher, and I know they just played
Trey McBride, that's kind of the point of all this.
Brock Bawers has caught passes from Desmond Ritter, Aidan O'Connell, Gardner,

(01:08:41):
Minshew Gino Smith and Kenny Pickett hadn't been in the
league two full years that but these are the five
guys that have thrown passes his way that he's been
on the receiving end of. And he's played, obviously for
the Raiders both years and they stink. They won their
opener against the Patriots, which everyone I'm sure has forgotten.
He's missed a couple of games, including their other wins.

(01:09:02):
So the last ten times he's been on the field
for his team, they've lost ten straight games. For Bowers
to hit the field and they've lost. Before we get
into what mac Burke has to say about him, let's
start with what the Texans first have to concern themselves
with on their side of the ball. It'll be their
first week without Mario Edwards at all, hurting last week's
game with that peck injury and now out for the

(01:09:25):
remainder of the season. So the rotation in that defensive
line room and for this game be a little bit
different than what we've seen. No Tim Settle last week
for the first time. Now no Mario Edwards Junior for
the first time moving forward. Matt Burke on that loss
in the rotation moving forward.

Speaker 16 (01:09:40):
I mean that's just part of our philosophy in general,
right that we want the style that we want all
those guys to play up front with. You know, it's
hard to do that playing seventy steps a game. So
we're gonna just keep working guys in and next man
up mentality. But you know, the way we play, in
the style we play, it's hard to do that with
just having one guy play a whole game.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
So our rotation is.

Speaker 16 (01:10:02):
Gonna stay there, and we're just gonna keep, you know,
trying to put guys like we always talk about, in
different spots and utilize some different alignments and some different
things to help those guys out. But we're gonna keep
rolling groups and try to keep those guys for us
because we want them all thrown fastballs.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
They have played rankings in Settle as high fifties mid
sixties snap count players for much of the year. Last week,
Tommy toji I took over for Settle and got near
to that range as well. He and Sheldon Rankins will
start again. Naekwon Jones, who's been with the team almost
two full weeks, we'll probably see a few more snaps
than he did in his first game with the team

(01:10:38):
last week, maybe in the mid twenties, somewhere in that neighborhood. Obviously,
depending on how many there are somewhere in that percentage
that's appropriate for that. Diniko Autry should be listed as
good to go for this weekend after practicing yesterday and today,
I'm sure he will line up inside quite a bit
because of their lack of bodies, and we'll see what
else they want to do. They have a couple of
other defensive tackles with them who've been practicing with the

(01:11:01):
team since they've been here, which is most of the
season for Marlon Davidson. Their international player in debc Marcus
Harris was just signed this week. He was a twenty
twenty four Texans draft pick, so very familiar with what
they do. And Junior Tafun who has been with its
team through training camp. Somebody among that four is almost
assuredly going to be elevated to.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
The roster for this game.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Now to the rest of the guys, their responsibility of
defending brock Bowers after seeing what Trey McBride and Jacoby
Brissette did a week ago.

Speaker 16 (01:11:33):
Matt Burke again, Yeah, I mean he's a great player,
you know, really, I think the thing that makes him
special is he operates from everywhere in the field. I
mean he runs the whole route tree, you know, not
just sort of tight end routes. I mean they use
him as a backside X. They put him in a
lot of different spots. He's really really good at using
his length in his body to keep defenders away from him,

(01:11:55):
so like, even if you're kind of on him, he
can really extend to make catches, so he makes a
lot of content to contested catches. So just really like
just a pretty unique player just from the diversity of
how they use them and then obviously the size and
skill set that he's playing with, So a great challenge
for us this week.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
I will guarantee you he has a more productive game
if Gino Smith starts and not awful awful awful Kenny Pickett,
who connected with him six times a week ago for
a grand total of twenty eight yards, just go ahead
and announce Gino's the starter.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Pete, we know it's going.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
We'll die a little bit more fully into the college
football weekend that sits in front of us, beginning tonight
with the first of the four playoff games when Cole
Thompson joins us at the top of the four o'clock hour,
So the next segment and looking forward to that conversation,
looking forward to seeing what is in store on Sunday.
On the NFL side, with so many games that are

(01:12:49):
pertinent to the Texans pursuit of an even better spot
in the postseason. Currently they sit seventh. The last two
years they were the fourth team worst division two straight years.
That's being mean, now worst wild card team still being mean.
Their chances of winning their opening game I think are
almost identical to what they were a year ago playing

(01:13:11):
at home against the Chargers. The year before that played
at home against the Browns, with those other teams carrying
a better record into that game, probably possibly, I should say,
could be the same this year. If the Texans land
in the five spot, it'll almost assuredly be the case.
Right now, they have one more win than the division
winner who is in their place from last year, the

(01:13:32):
worst division winner, which is the North Division leader. The
Steelers are sitting at eight and six. Steelers have the
Lions this weekend. I don't think too many people think
they're going to win. The oddsmakers certainly don't, as they're
almost a touchdown underdog. See if any plays that game
and are stolen. Cold locks coming up at four point thirty,
But the Steelers loss would almost sew up that spot

(01:13:53):
for whomever the AFC North winner is. The Ravens still
have a chance to win the AFC North, but they're
seven and seven. Their game this weekend a doozy. It's
the Sunday night football game between themselves as they host
the Patriots. Patriots would like to not see any kind
of losing streak before they head to the postseason. I
don't think they played badly by any means last week. Heck,
they scored thirty one points, they had twenty one nothing lead. Disappointing.

(01:14:17):
They gave it all away to the Bills and with
it the likelihood that they'll be the number one overall
seed and nearly well. They would have won the division
had they taken care of business, most likely, but they didn't. Bills,
who now are a threat to win the division they
have the Browns. They are the biggest road favorite in
the NFL this weekend at ten and a half against

(01:14:39):
Shredor Sanders and the Cleveland Browns. Brown's defense at times
has played really well this year. There have been other times.
Maybe it's a little bit of what they do or
don't have offensively has effected the way they've played, But
they've played not nearly as strong the last couple of weeks,
and I'm sure the Bills think they can take advantage
to that. Maybe the game most interesting to Texans fans
the Cowboys game because they're hosting the Chargers. You know,

(01:15:02):
the Chargers have one more win than the Texans. These
two teams meet in LA on Saturday, a week from tomorrow. Obviously,
a win over them would now put you on even footing.
But if they lose this week and you win this week,
now you're not on even footing. Now you've clinched being
better than them in the standings. When the season ends,
you'd have one more win than them with one week

(01:15:22):
to go, including a win over them. And if the
Bills are the other wildcard team Bills, Chargers, Texans, well
you know who win over both of those wildcard teams. Granted,
tie record doesn't matter unless you have the same record
than they do, but that certainly could come into play.
If you believe the Texans are going to be better
than the seventh seed, I do. I do think they're
going to be better in the seventh seed. I think

(01:15:44):
the worst seed there could get is six. And again,
if it's six, that means they didn't win the division,
that means Jacksonville did, And most likely that's where the
Texans would be going in the opening round of the
playoffs if that were the case. Very highest of likelihoods
as we see here today, is going to Pittsburgh to
open the postseason or going to Jacksonville to open the postseason.

(01:16:08):
And I would think, and again I'm not giving you
actual odds here, these are the Wexler odds. I think
the next most likely scenario is the Texans are hosting
the Chargers or the Jaguars on the opening weekend, as
the three seed Texans path through the division title obviously
requires a Jaguars loss, and the Jaguars Broncos game is

(01:16:29):
the game almost everyone has been pointing to for the
last several weeks as the first real opportunity for the
Jaguars to not win. Remember, the Texans have a six
game winning streak. The Broncos have an eleven game winning streak,
two best winning streaks in the AFC. Right behind him
is Jacksonville. Jacksonville's won five straight. Last time they lost,
they played Houston. The teams they've beaten the last four

(01:16:52):
weeks the Jets, the Colts, the Titans, and the Cardinals.
Not a who's who of anything. None of those teams
are going anywhere. None of those teams likely to be
in the playoffs. They do have a win over the Chargers, though,
that was the first of those five games, and they
absolutely annihilated them, just a beat down, a thirty five
to six, no question about it. Were much better than
you get off our field type of game. It was
in Jacksonville. And if the Jaguars do not lose this game,

(01:17:14):
as they are underdogs this week against the Broncos, well,
in all it's left for them, they're remaining two division games,
game at Indianapolis and then the home game against the
Tennessee Titans in week eighteen. I think the Colts are
going to be very competitive all of their remaining games
with Philip Rivers. That was the case last week when

(01:17:34):
they lost on a last second field goal of the Seahawks.
I think it will be true this week at home
on Monday Night against the Niners. I think it will
be true the next week at home against the Jaguars.
Then they come here to take on the Texans. We'll
find out what that game means. But competitive is one thing.
I don't think the Colts are gonna win any of
these games, not a single one. Of them, and I
don't know if that changes how they approach any of

(01:17:57):
those games concerning Philip Rivers and anyone else they might
want to play at quarterback. And I don't think Anthony
Richardson's going to play. I don't think he's considered healthy
enough with his eye or just the fact that he
hasn't been around the team.

Speaker 1 (01:18:10):
If it's and he it's weird.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
I listen to what he had to say in the
locker room yesterday with the media, and it didn't sound
like what he was saying about his vision matched what
Shane Steichen was saying about his vision. He didn't seem
to think it was much of an issue at all,
if anything, so, I don't know if they need to
get on the same page or the coach was maybe
protecting him from the idea that, well, Anthony Richardson's healthy

(01:18:33):
and Anthony c. Anthony Richardson is practicing, and you're gonna
keep playing Philip Rivers now if you're still in the
playoff hunt, fine, If you're not, I don't know what
reason you'd have to be playing Philip Rivers if it's
not injury related.

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
What do you want to know about Philip? Nothing?

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
You could play Riley Leonard, and I think that would
make some sense and we might get there what by
the time the season reaches that point. But again pointing
to this weekend specifically, you know, Broncos still have designs
on being the number one overall seed at twelve and two.
They're in a very good position to do so. They're
remaining games after this one with the Jaguars, Gardner Minshew
and the Chiefs and then the season finale against the Chargers.

(01:19:10):
A Bronco's loss opens the door for the Chargers if
they beat the Cowboys this weekend, to be right back
in the hunt to win that division, and with it,
the door is obviously open to be potentially the number
one seed. Broncos have twelve wins, Patriots have eleven, Bill's
Chargers and Jags have ten, Texans have nine, and then

(01:19:31):
you got the AFC North. So there's still essentially every
single scenario out there. We gave you the actual clinching
scenarios for this weekend. In the AFC, the Texans are
one of the few teams inside the playoff picture that
has none. There are no clinching scenarios for the Texans.
They will head into Week seventeen without a playoff berth
in hand yet. But if they go into Week seventeen

(01:19:52):
at ten to five, which is what they should do
as fourteen and a half point favorite so against the Raiders,
I still believe even if they close the season with
back to back losses that they will make the postseason.
It's not what up their goal should be at this
point beginning of the year. If you want a goal
of making the postseason, that's fine. It probably should be, Yeah,
we're gonna make the postseason because we're gonna win the division.

(01:20:14):
But where they sit now, whatever the best way is
to get the team healthiest and ready to go for
the postseason is probably something that they may in fact
have to investigate on their road to getting there. But
a lot of that every week things will change. Love
giving you all the scenarios, look at all the possibilities,
the numbers behind it, the tiebreakers.

Speaker 1 (01:20:32):
I love it all.

Speaker 2 (01:20:33):
Make so many more games interesting. Get to the top
of the hour here at four o'clock. Shift gears into
a little more Texans talk, but significantly more college football
playoff talk. When Cole Thompson joins the A team of
the program no AC but Cole Thompson a familiar face
here on Sports Talk seven ninety and you can see
his face via the simulcast on Space.

Speaker 1 (01:20:54):
City Home Network for the next hour.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
You hear them each every weekday morning on the Morning
Drive with Dan and Cole, or without Dan, but with Cole,
as was the case this morning. Plenty of our peeps
here at Sports Talk seven to ninety, the maximum amount
one per show taking the day off today.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
No Ross, no Ac, no Dan.

Speaker 8 (01:21:12):
So yeah, what gives? Why were we the ones that
we stuck behind the workers? Okay, that's fair.

Speaker 1 (01:21:17):
No, we love sports so much, we hate our families.
We just can't say no.

Speaker 8 (01:21:21):
See you said the second part first, which was the
best part, because again everyone knows that we just hate
our families.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
That's definitely not the case. Got a lot of time
to spend with them over the next couple of weeks.
Spend a little time over the Texans facility this morning
and each of the last couple of days. We were
both over there today as they finalize their practices for
the week inside the stadium, getting ready for another visit
with a subpar team. Last week, they dispatched of the
Cardinals forty to twenty and did so in short order,

(01:21:48):
taking a ten to nothing lead three minutes into the
game and carrying a two score game the entire rest
of the night. The Raiders will be looking to score
for the first time in two weeks. They didn't score
any points last week with Kenny Pickett a running the
show in a massive revenge game for him against the
Philadelphia Eagles, they lost thirty one nothing, and they've lost
every game since the opener that Brock Bauers has played in,

(01:22:11):
all ten of them. As they take the field this
coming Sunday, college football bowl season kind of feels like
it's in full swing. When you have a day where
you can flip on the TV and there's a bowl
game on. You had that with the first game of
the day lopsided. We've got it going currently with the
second game of the day, the Gasparilla Bowl, and it
is also lopsided with the ACC wolf Pack NC State

(01:22:34):
handing it to Memphis. Now, I don't know if you're
aware of this, but you know I'm in a fantasy
football league. We're just mentioned we have the Gasparilla Bowl
on in front of us. Have a fantasy football league. No,
we don't, because the name of that league is lame.
What's even the name of the league's shoot that is
so creative?

Speaker 1 (01:22:54):
Love that name? Really creative.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
Now there's some other leagues that I've been in where
they're actually is an interesting name. I'm in the league
with a bunch of my fraternity brothers who have since
moved to parts unknown all across the country. It's called
the Coast to Coast Fantasy Football League. Nice but league
I've been in for about twenty five thirty years also
with many people here in the Houston area and some
other places. We derived its name from the early nineties

(01:23:20):
Bowl sponsor, the Poohland weed Eater Fantasy Football League, which
is our league that is still running now three decades in. Seriously, Yeah,
the Pool what is it again? The PWFL, the pooland
weed Eater. They were once the sponsor for about eight
years of the Independence Bowl in the early nine So.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
The one out out what is it not La Fayette? Okay?
What is the one now on Treeport?

Speaker 13 (01:23:45):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
I think most recently it's Radiance Technologies something Armed Force?

Speaker 1 (01:23:49):
Is it the Armed Forces Bowl? The Independence Bowl?

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
That's yes, it's always been called the Independence Bowl, but
they've only gone.

Speaker 1 (01:23:55):
Through nine sponsors since pooland had the name.

Speaker 8 (01:23:59):
I remember one year when they had an SEC team
playing in it and they were trying to promote the
crap out of it sand.

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
Because Walks had it a couple of years backs was
the one that there was. It was the walk Ons
Independence Bowl.

Speaker 8 (01:24:08):
I remember that because I had a buddy who was
working at walk Ons and he was trying to sell
sponsorship deals when I was working out another place, saying,
you gotta talk about it because this is SEC location
and we have an SEC TB. Brother, you have a
six and six Mississippi State team in here.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
That's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:24:22):
Let's let's say take what the didn't get. We're down
on the selection pool, we get the niceelection.

Speaker 1 (01:24:28):
Is Texas down the selection pool? No, they're in the
Citrus Bowl. That's what I saying.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
They're high on the selection I mean Texas again, it's
this is a bowl game. You want fans in the
stands and you want people to watch the game. You
choose your teams when you can.

Speaker 1 (01:24:42):
I'm according fully convinced that this is going to be
one of the best balls.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
Well, since you brought up Texas for whatever reason you did,
which is always going to be the case if I
said this yesterday, do you think that it was accurate?
I said, I believe right there in his in his drawers,
in his in his bedroom, Will must Champ absolutely must have.
It just means more underwear because nobody's taken the tour

(01:25:05):
around the SEC like he has.

Speaker 1 (01:25:08):
And this isn't even a new visit.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
He's made multiple stops now at multiple SEC schools. However,
though it is the first time he'll be coaching for
Texas as an SEC team. Steve Sarkisian spoke today and
he has a new DC. They made that announ speak yesterday.
It is Will mus Champ and Pete and Dwayne were
let go the dB coach Dwayne and the former DC

(01:25:31):
Pete and Sark made it sound like he needed someone.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Who could not need a babysitter.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
He wanted to take more of an initiative and control
and helpfulness with the offense which he runs and calls,
and he wanted more of his eyeballs in mind on it.
So he wanted someone who was more capable of basically
doing it all defensively without needing Sark listening on the
headset for this and deciding on that is that what

(01:26:00):
it sounded like today. Is that part of the reason why.

Speaker 8 (01:26:03):
So the thing that I had heard, and I had
heard this a while ago, that one of the first
phone calls when made available was actually to Will mus Champ.
He wanted to bring Will must Champion back in two
thousand and twenty one when he got hired. He believed
that getting a guy who had experienced coaching throughout not
only the Southeastern region of the United States, had a
good foundation of what it takes to win in the SEC,

(01:26:24):
and on top of that had ties to the state of.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
Texas was always going to be priority number one. At
that time.

Speaker 8 (01:26:30):
He wasn't interested. Will mus Champ was not looking to
go back to Texas. He was not looking to be
a play caller. He was looking to be just a primary,
full on straight up. He was so coaching at South Carolina.
He's just looking to be, you know, in charge of
that and they can just be an assistant. Well, come
to find out, initially after Jeff Cholt left to become
the head coach at Nevada, first phone call made before
Johnny Nansen was over to Will must CHAMPI to see

(01:26:52):
if he would come on in and be the co
defense coordinator. I think there's a good understanding about what
it takes to win in a place like Texas. And
I'm not saying that you were going out to bring
in a dude who maybe has not had his ties
there for a while. But you and I watched the
same secondary this past year. Wex it was the weak
point of that defense. It was an area to where
it just was a blanketed I sword that ultimately was

(01:27:13):
a major factor in keeping them out of the College
Football Playoff.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
And if you're able to get somebody who's been known.

Speaker 8 (01:27:18):
For his entirety coaching and doing a good job of
developing talent on the back end, with the names that
are currently in the building and the names that currently
are going to be targeted in the portal, and names
who could eventually become fixtures of your team in a
year to where they don't feel like a little bit
more pressure. You went nine to three, and nine and
three is a good season when you look at who
Techs had a.

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
Face off against, but it's stiff was Florida and.

Speaker 8 (01:27:40):
Ohio State And who are those three teams that were
like ranked us at the.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
Town tex We were talking about it at length earlier today,
I wish the committee and not just to get Texas in.
I think for all the teams that they were analyzing,
I don't think they valued wins as much as they
should have, but rather valued losses more than they should have.
Losing matters, your record matters. But with the imbalanced schedule,
some teams played three good teams, some teams played five

(01:28:07):
or six. You just have to use you got to
use your brain a little bit.

Speaker 8 (01:28:11):
But given that time period to be able to now know, hey,
this what's going to take for us to go to
the College Football Playoff? This what's going to take for
us to consistently be right alongside Georgia and Alabama and
now Texa and m what they're doing in the SEC
with dan Il Deals all these other rosters. We have
got to make sure that there is no margin for error.
I think a guy like Will must Champ provides that

(01:28:31):
at least enough spart So why does this happen multiple
weeks after the season and multiple weeks in advance of
the bowl game. This just kind of seemed like a
weird time for this to go down. Like if you
planned on bringing Will must Champion the week after the
regular season ended, even before the conference title game, which
you weren't playing in, which was weeks ago, it seemed

(01:28:51):
like that might be the time to do it. Did
he have to talk him into it?

Speaker 10 (01:28:54):
Was Bord?

Speaker 2 (01:28:55):
Did he not realize he wanted to move on from
their former defensive coordinator who was up for the Broiler
or Wars year ago. And there were some good things
that they did, and I think yesterday I came up
with this and thought it was just as simple as
they felt like they had more talent than showed on
the way that they played, and a little bit of
that was stylistically. And I think there's no question anybody
who's seen a Will must Champ coached defense. Now he's

(01:29:17):
been a part of the Georgia staff for the last
couple of years, but a defense that he's running, whether
it was in South Carolina or Auburn or previously at
Texas or at Florida, I think we know what they're
going to play like and we'll see how that plays out.
In Week two next year, nine game SEC slate, they
have two no offense Patsy's Texas State every one of them,

(01:29:37):
and then in between them. Second week of the season
is their game against Ohio State, who obviously is a
couple of wins away if they should three wins away
from potentially winning the national title, and that is on
their schedule next year, so we'll get to that. We
got four playoff games this weekend, including the one tonight
three tomorrow. I'm imagining the need to dissect what will

(01:29:58):
happen in tomorrow's after noon game and evening game is limited.
Is there any reason to believe anything will be different
this go round between Tulane.

Speaker 1 (01:30:08):
And All Miss?

Speaker 8 (01:30:09):
Yes, see, the first time your quarterback gets hurt in
the first drive of the game, and then you have
to go turn to your backup quarterback, and then he
gets hurt on the second drive of the games. Like,
did Chulane get better over the course of the season,
more time with retz laf back there, just more time
to become a better football team?

Speaker 1 (01:30:24):
No, they did. Did All Miss clearly get worse? That's
the thing. Did almost get worse?

Speaker 3 (01:30:28):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:30:29):
And did they get worse for the obvious reasons? They
have a Whatever they're putting in for this game is
they're hearing it from some new people and they've been
uprooted to a certain degree.

Speaker 1 (01:30:39):
But at the same time.

Speaker 8 (01:30:39):
You still have your offensive play caller in Charlie Wise,
you're running the show. You still have your defensive play
caller in Pete Golding, who's now your head coach, running
the program. You didn't lose Trandad, you didn't lose Keewon Lacey.
You didn't lose any wide receivers. Same offensive line, same
top twenty five scoring defense, still same top twenty five
pass defense. All the things that are there that were
in place when you face off against them in Week four,

(01:31:01):
it's still there. Like, yeah, two lanes gotten better, but
wex keep in mind, this was a team that put
in its backups that ran for two hundred and fifteen
yards and scored fifteen points I mean sixteen points in
the second half against this two lane to roster in
a forty five to ten win.

Speaker 1 (01:31:16):
Like nothing's changing in that sample. I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:31:18):
I'm I think people paid so little attention to ole
Miss football this year. They just paid attention to Lane Kiffin.
They lost one game this year to a team that
went and won the SEC in a game they led
throughout most of the game, they led late in the game,
and they easily could have won.

Speaker 1 (01:31:35):
That game was to Georgia forty three to thirty five defeat.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
If you were watching that game unfold, every minute that
went by, you're like, yeah, Ole miss is going to
win this game. Everything they're doing looks like they're out
playing them. They're not just level playing field. They're gonna win.
And they were tested a few other times. A little
disappointing in how they beat but didn't smash LSU. Earlier
in the year, their game against Oklahoma is another playoff team,
very competitive game. Then their season of ended with the

(01:32:01):
easiest closing schedule you could ever hope to have, with
South Carolina and Mississippi State for the Egg Bowl, which
somehow they won.

Speaker 1 (01:32:09):
So that was easy to knock one game out of
the way.

Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
We'll get to the other three postseason games, including tonight's
game between the Sooners and the Tide as we can
send you here on we are just about fifteen minutes
away from Stone Cold Locks. Cole gets a preside over
the nonsense picks that each of the three of us
make in his absence. Josh doing a fine job in
your places. Doing better than me is the main question.

(01:32:34):
It's all relative. We'll get to that when we get
to that. Just say yes, yes, there, but we also
want to get into some football chatter here, both the
NFL side and the college football side. With the playoffs
beginning this evening, wanted it also mention that it is official.
The Astros and the other two teams involved have made
the announcement and they have concluded details on their trade.

(01:32:58):
Mike Burrows is now a Houston Astros right handed pitcher,
slotted in for a spot in their starting rotation. Astros
sending out Jacob Melton Anderson Britoil a couple of their prospects.
They go to Tampa sends three players to the Rays
to conclude the Tampa sends three players to the Pirates
to conclude the three team deal, Brandon lou Jake Mangham,

(01:33:19):
and Mason Montgomery. So the Rays looking for more prospects
they always are, the Pirates getting a couple of players,
one of whom is certainly ready to play Major League baseball.
It would be very bad for the Pirates if Jacob
Melton was not on their roster when the season begins
breaking camp with them.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
That's what they want.

Speaker 2 (01:33:37):
And one angle of that deal we really didn't discuss
at all yet was the Astros outfield side of it.
For the last several weeks, when looking over the Astros
infield overflow of players just kind of pointed to, well,
here's what they're looking at in the outfield. Chas McCormick
obviously is not going to be back. Cam Smith presumably
is one of the starters. Jake Myers is mentioned quite

(01:34:00):
often in deals because there's believe to be interest in
him from other teams. And if he were to be moved,
which I think a lot of us think that he
will be, what does that leave them for the other
spot or other spots.

Speaker 1 (01:34:10):
In the outfield.

Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
Well, Jacob Melton obviously would have been a very good
position to compete for one of them, and now that
is left to Zach Cole and probably Zach Cole most likely,
And there will be a few other options. I guarantee
you there'll be some major leaguers probably brought into under
minor league deals. Taylor Tremmell could factor into that in
some form or fashion also, and they'll still have to
figure out exactly what they want.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
To do in left field.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
Is that a spot they will reluctantly put Jordan Alvarez
out there. Joe Spota made it sound like they don't
want to do that. Is it a spot they will
reluctantly put Jose al Tuve out there for Joe Spotam
made it sound like they don't really want to do
that either. Is the possibility that while backing up first base,
second base, and third base, they'll ask Esak Perettis to

(01:34:56):
patrol left field during all games.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
I don't think so. They never brought it up.

Speaker 2 (01:35:01):
I wouldn't think they would think that is a real,
true viable option in a pinch in the tenth inning
after you've made all your other moves and you run
out of players. Maybe outside of that, I don't think
that's a real consideration. And the Astros obviously have to
figure out if they have weakened the team in some
areas too much while they're trying to strengthen the areas.

(01:35:21):
Because all of the moves have pointed to very similar things.
They've added Nate Pearson, They've added Ryan Weiss, They've added Burrows.
Now the rest of the team has basically remain unchanged.
They don't currently have a backup catcher because Victor Karattini
is a free agent. They have not unfurled their overwhelming
number of players they can only play the infield yet,

(01:35:43):
so those things are still to come.

Speaker 1 (01:35:44):
Hopefully.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
We're hill a little bit from Dana Brown who is
commenting on the deal that they made today, and we'll
see what other irons are in the fire, at least
per the Astros as they get this deal done and
continue to work towards trying to be better like this
is not They've they always try to be better, as in, well,
we probably should have won more games in the World Series,
or we probably should have advanced from the Championship.

Speaker 1 (01:36:06):
Series to the World Series.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
It's been a while since they've had to say, be
nice to make the playoffs, because that is where they
were not one season ago.

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
The playoffs begin tonight in college.

Speaker 2 (01:36:16):
Football, and I will continue to keep that game's analysis
for last, but rather i'll go tomorrow Knight's game. Tomorrow
Night's game between Oregon and James Madison has the widest spread.

Speaker 1 (01:36:29):
It will be Billion Apier's team moving forward. It's not
currently his team.

Speaker 2 (01:36:33):
All well, Fox Well, I also don't want to tell
this to people who are trying to give some analysis
on the game.

Speaker 1 (01:36:40):
You know, Oregon's played very well this year.

Speaker 2 (01:36:42):
They got one of the best defenses scoring defenses in
the country, but so does James Madison. And then they
run through all the good numbers that James Madison has
and then they move on to something else and they
act like, I guess it's possible. Our viewers and our
listeners have no idea the competition that James Madison played
because we just tell you the numbers and we don't
tell you who they played.

Speaker 1 (01:37:01):
Maybe we'll fool you so.

Speaker 8 (01:37:02):
You don't want to talk about how they have the
number two run defense in the country.

Speaker 1 (01:37:05):
They have, and who have they been stopping all day?

Speaker 8 (01:37:07):
They have a top five pass defense in the country,
they have a top ten scoring defense in the country.
They've been elite when it comes to third down. And
then you have to remind yourself they've only played against
one team that am ESPN's FPI ranking ranked inside of
the top forty and they proceed to lose by fourteen
on a Friday night.

Speaker 2 (01:37:23):
To an eight and four louis Yeah, Louisville is not
a particularly good team out of the ACC just a
run of the Miller a winning team, but not anything special.
But the numbers produced against Weber State and Georgia. Both
State and Southern not the Bulldogs, Liberty, ODU, Marshall app
and Washington State, Coastal Carolina and Troy along with Louisiana.

(01:37:48):
I'm happy that you won all of your games, and
I'm extremely condescending when I say this, and foot in
Mouth absolutely Monday afternoon beginning at two, when you pull
off the upset of a not.

Speaker 1 (01:38:00):
Even overwhelmingly good Oregon team, but it's just not gonna happen.

Speaker 8 (01:38:05):
See, I actually do think that Oregon is going to
be one of these sleepers that make a run in
the playoff.

Speaker 2 (01:38:09):
Maybe that's because of I really do believe quarterback you
trust the most in the college football playoff. There's twelve
of them. Where does More fit number three? Who's number two?

Speaker 1 (01:38:17):
In one? I go train at Chandless at number two,
I go number one with Frnanda Mendozo. Why Chandless over More?

Speaker 8 (01:38:24):
I think it's just because of you still have your
offensive coordinator there and the fact that he would have
probably been in the running for a Heisman Trophy appearance.
He would have been the number one quarterback when it
came to passing yards, passing, touchdowns, completion percentage in the SEC.
If you would have started in Week one. But the
problem was that you started Austin Simmons. He won the
job outright.

Speaker 1 (01:38:44):
You love that guy. I love the season, dude.

Speaker 8 (01:38:46):
I loved Austin Simmons, and I like I remember when
we were in Atlanta for SEC Media Days and we
get to do the poll every single year, and who
are going to be your top three for the SEC team.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
I put Austin Simmons a QB three because I loved
him so much.

Speaker 2 (01:38:58):
But and no concern that his worst game of the
year talking about Dante More did come in the biggest
toughest game of the year against au Yeah, but.

Speaker 8 (01:39:06):
At the same time, he didn't have Evan Stewart out there.
He was very limited when it came to the offensive personnel,
and the defense for the most part, did a good job.
They shut down the big mL of what has been
the strength of Oregon all year, which is their rushing attack.
They got four running backs that are averaging over four
point five yards of play. They have four guys that
are averaging over that have over six hundred total yards

(01:39:28):
in the season. Every single one of them can score
on any given moment, and this is gonna be one
of those games where I think that you trust what
has been the backbone of your team, which is running
the football and good defense. But the good news is
that they do have Decrean Moore practicing. They have Gary
Bryant practicing. They have Evan Stewart for the first time
since Week one or before the season even begin. They

(01:39:49):
have him now on the field getting ready to face
off against likely Texas Tech in the second round.

Speaker 2 (01:39:54):
So what's the play as twenty and a half point
favorites if you're jam you and if you're a wagerer.

Speaker 8 (01:40:03):
Oh, it's a hundred. That's the That's one of my
best mats of the week. It's one hundred percent. Go
ahead and throw it down the twenty one a half
it is. I'm sorry like this, don't be sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:40:12):
I'm sorry because I feel Do you see that game
on my stone cold locks graphic? For me, that's what
I'll be playing if it's there. If it is there,
If it is here's why I will say. Way Night
is a good running back. He plays for JMU. He
averages five six point six yards of play. You also
have a lots of Burnett who can make plays in
the open field as a quarterback. But all you gotta

(01:40:33):
do is sal him fin throw the football downfield, like
the game plan for JMU should be.

Speaker 8 (01:40:40):
Let's try to score and play keep away as long
as possible to give Dante Moore as little time to
be able to connect downfield.

Speaker 2 (01:40:47):
Quick thought, and we'll give more of it as we
continue this hour on the early game tomorrow with Texas
A and M on the field against Miami three and
a half point favorites for the Aggies. I mentioned it
earlier today off air with you and have said it
a couple of times since the bracket was unveiled. I
think Miami is not a real good team. I think
Carson Beck will have to play over his head to

(01:41:09):
have them have any chance in this game. And I'm
probably too high on the Aggies, but I've thought from
the moment this game was announced, no problem, Aggie's easy win.

Speaker 8 (01:41:19):
Can you make sure that Carson Beck looks like Week
one Carson Beck versus the last two weeks? And I
understand that what you're gonna say, who is he going
up against when it comes a competition. The dude has
had a seventy eight percent completion rating. He has a
ten to one touchdown at interception ratio. He has been
on point his last two games of the season, and
he's got a weapon named Malakai Toni, who is just
a speed eman in the open field. Like I'm telling you,

(01:41:41):
wex from a standpoint of just who is the most
dangerous football player when he is in route set with
anybody on the field, it's number ten for Miami.

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
So if you can slow him down, best of luck
to ye. Yeah, Carson Beck completing passes a non issue.
He's been awesome all year, completing about seventy five percent.
Who they played and how they played is the major concern.
The Aggie's beat Notre Dame. I think everyone would agree
the Aggies are better than Notre Dame. Sure, and that's
the best team they played, and it was weeks ago.

(01:42:10):
Who has Miami been challenged against for the last several
weeks or the whole rest of the season, and they
lost two of those games. Their schedule was a breeze.

Speaker 8 (01:42:20):
Well, the good news is if you are an A
and M fan, you can look currently at Labian Moss
potentially being the X factor corner reports game time decision
more than likely to play you pair him alongside of
it through of Nowen's you may not even have to
worry about about a Marcel Red deep shot overthrow that
creates an opportunity for Miami to strike.

Speaker 2 (01:42:38):
How about underneath to either of their receivers, who are
capable of carving any defense up, even a Miami defense.
If there's one thing I do like about Miami, it
isn't Beck. I do think their defense can play at
a top level. But I do think the Aggie offense
is absolutely loaded, and they're wide receivers. Still, we're four
or five months into the season. Didn't get nearly enough

(01:42:59):
love as they deserve. I think we'll start seeing that
in at least this game, if not their next game
or next game or maybe their next game. We got
one more game to talk about. But next we hit
you with our stone cold locks locks Stone signature segment
time and on Fridays that means we hit stone cold

(01:43:19):
locks halfway through our number three cold Thompson in today
joining us from the morning Drive. Will you hear him
each and every weekday morning six to ten a m.
And had previously this season been contributing his stone cold
Locks to the discussion here before myself and the absent
Ac and Josh give you our stone cold locks of

(01:43:41):
the week. Did want to pass along the Texans injury information.
The status report on Friday has been released a very high,
surprisingly high number of players listed as questionable for the
Texans based on our earlier conversation here on the air,
me and you and the listeners. But I'll explain why
Texans have seven players listed as questionable. Two of them

(01:44:03):
aren't even on the roster. They are players whose practice
windows are open, but would need to be placed on
the active roster to play in this game, and spots
be opened up for them. I doubt that will be
the case for either of them. That's Darryl Taylor and
Justin Watson. Though they are both healthy. They practiced in
full both today and in Watson's case and in Taylor's
case earlier this week. You have Christian Kirk listed as questionable.

(01:44:26):
That's because he didn't practice today with an illness that
definitely puts his availability in question. But the main reason
he's a listed questionables because he just simply did not
practice today. He practiced earlier in the week without issue,
and today's Friday. They play at three twenty five on Sunday.
Lots of NFL players get better in very short time periods.
But I don't know what this illness is, so I

(01:44:47):
don't want to say too much guessing. Aziz al Schier
is one of the interesting ones. He did not practice
on Wednesday with his ankle and knee injury, practiced on
a limited basis. Saw him out there Thursday, and did
not practice today. I was telling you earlier about the
arrival to practice. When they practice indoors in the stadium

(01:45:07):
on a Friday, not necessarily when we get there and
then leave that every player has emerged from the locker
room for practice, So I wouldn't have wanted to say, well,
I didn't see this player there. It might be true,
but it might not mean he isn't practicing that day.
I did not see him and he did not practice,
but did not know that at the time. So two
DMPs today, both questionable. And all the other players that

(01:45:31):
we were concerned about during the week other than one
when we told you don't be concerned, don't be concerned
Diniko Autry, J Hanson, Kamari Laster, Sheldon Rankins, EJ.

Speaker 1 (01:45:40):
Speed.

Speaker 2 (01:45:40):
They've been practicing. They practiced in full today. They don't
have any injury designation. Curious why Nick Chubb does. He's
listed questionable practice in full both today and yesterday, and
then as expected, your limited participants today were Woody Marx
and Derek Stingley Junior. Both of us were out there
as they arrived to practice and then worked on the
side field prepareing to see if they'd be available for Sunday.

(01:46:02):
But in that regard, having not practiced earlier this week
and only limited today, they're listed as questionable. I would
say today the Mark Stingley Junior, Asiz Ales Shire and
Christian Kirk are of concern.

Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
We'll see what the Texans. So you do you think
that is gonna play? Yes?

Speaker 8 (01:46:18):
Okay, I figured that maybe you rest him for this
game because of it's a two win last Vegas.

Speaker 1 (01:46:23):
So then now you have to play Woody. No, you
just don't play either. You played Gerward Shortan and dari.

Speaker 2 (01:46:28):
Are you are you gonna go into the game with
only dare Jawar and British as your active running backs?

Speaker 3 (01:46:35):
Get some.

Speaker 2 (01:46:37):
Light number regardless, usually go in with four, and recently
that means British has been the fourth. That's a light
number of backs to go into a game with.

Speaker 8 (01:46:44):
Okay, you can make Nick Chubb active, Let him get
two carries and the call today.

Speaker 2 (01:46:48):
Nothing of consequence on the Raiders side. Told you Max
Crosby will be of no concern and as the week
ends he practiced in full Today no designation. Same for
Gino Smith. He will play on Sunday to yours. Truly,
Let's take a look at the week sixteen results for
your Stone Cold Lock. Sixteen weeks into the season, we've
seen something now in back to back weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:47:10):
Look at all that pink up.

Speaker 2 (01:47:12):
There on the board in the middle column under Clanton
zho and five for a second consecutive week and the
third time in four weeks.

Speaker 14 (01:47:22):
I leave it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:23):
He sucks Stille. That's awesome, and I don't want to
be too mean to him. I will when he's not here.
Other days, I'm more than happy to Josh and I
both produced three and two weeks as he is now
three weeks into the competition and produced some pretty good results,
an eight and seven mark through three weeks of choosing games,
the same eight and seven that I've produced heading into

(01:47:44):
Week seventeen. Stipulations on Week seventeen, you must pick one
of the college football playoff games any variety of the
four and obviously Raiders Texans. I'll give you Clanton's picks
other than the final pick of the Raiders. Somehow all
three of us chose the same game to pick from,
and that's tonight's game. He's taking the over on Bama

(01:48:04):
Oklahoma at forty and a half. He loves playing the Cowboys,
and if that's the case, he loves the over all
the time. He'll play Chargers Cowboys over forty nine and
a half. Loves him some quinn yours over forty seven
and a half against Joe Burrow and the Bengals in Miami.
Likes the defenses in Denver, where the Broncos host the Jaguars,

(01:48:24):
will play the under. They're littst surprising for me to
see any unders with his choices. And that's the only one. Josh,
what about your four selections leaving the Texans for last
when we come back.

Speaker 12 (01:48:37):
Yeah, I'm with you on Alabama plus the one and
a half. I'm also taking the points with the Chargers
and the Cowboys. That's also one of sa Should the
Chargers be favored. Yes, that's what I was kind of thinking.
So Vegas must know something I don't, which they often do,
all right, So you'll take the Chargers as one and
a half point dogs, yep. And also take the Cardinals
plus three at home against the Falcons. That just Cardinals,

(01:48:59):
pretty good offense there. And then also Patriots plus three.
They burned me against the Bills last week, got off
to a good start but didn't come through.

Speaker 1 (01:49:05):
So I'll take them plus three at the Ravens on a.

Speaker 2 (01:49:07):
Scale of your just sick in bed versus you really
want to violently throw up? Does it make you sad
when you take a terrible team as as an underdog
at home like the Cardinals and think they'll cover well.

Speaker 1 (01:49:21):
Of course, but they do have a good offense.

Speaker 12 (01:49:24):
We saw the garbage time even against the Texans, so
I think they make this maybe a little bit closer.

Speaker 2 (01:49:28):
Don't feel bad, Josh. I picked the Cardinals to go
to the playoffs this year. I think that's a great play,
to be honest, it is a great play. The Falcons,
the Kirk Cousins Falcons, specifically your favorite quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:49:41):
They're a stink bomb.

Speaker 2 (01:49:42):
I like Josh said, and playing the underdogs tonight Bama,
You're gonna give them a point in a half and
I think they're gonna win out right. That obviously is
the play I told you earlier about the Aggies and
Miami Hurricanes tomorrow decided to play a second college game.

Speaker 1 (01:49:56):
I think that one will go over.

Speaker 2 (01:49:57):
I think Miami's defense is in for a handful with
the Aggies, and the Aggies have given up some points
to a few teams this year. I'll take Josh Allen
to cover the ten and a half on the road
at Cleveland, and I'll play the over in the Jalen
hurts Marcus mariota ball second consecutive massive revenge game for
a backup quarterback against the Eagles, with Mariota going against

(01:50:19):
its former team, AC and I are playing the over.
Sunday three twenty five Texans Raiders. I guess the Texan's
gonna have to score a lot. The number is thirty
eight and a half. Josh, you're doing what everyone that
is listening to the show and watching the show wants
to hear. You're taking the Texans to cover the fourteen
and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:50:39):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (01:50:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:50:40):
I don't feel great about it, but I mean, this
is a terrible team and they beat the Cardinals by
a big margin last week, So why not let's go texansch.

Speaker 2 (01:50:50):
I'm gonna score two touchdowns in a field goal. Do
you think they'll cover the fourteen and a half?

Speaker 8 (01:50:54):
Yes, yes, far and away. Now I'm riding with Josh
on this one. I think that's gonna at least a
fourteen and a half point when.

Speaker 2 (01:51:03):
Wex they had one hundred yards of offense last week
almost almost, let's just start there had less than one
hundred yards of offense. Talking about the Raiders more than
once this year, once with each of their starting quarterbacks,
and Picketts only started one game.

Speaker 1 (01:51:18):
They're going back to Gino this week.

Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
A little over two hours from kickoff now, the first
of the four playoff games in the College Football Playoff,
and it absolutely means more.

Speaker 1 (01:51:28):
You got the SEC taking on the SSEC Oklahoma. Yeah,
they're in the SEC, just like Texas. Yeah, just like Texas,
A and M. And they've got Alabama and Norman.

Speaker 2 (01:51:41):
Kind of wish the other hosting one of the other
hosting SEC teams had drawn the other night game, so
I think it would be wild in College Station Saturday Night. Similarly,
it'd be interesting to see what those who traveled from
the grove to inside the stadium for a Saturday night
playoff game might be like, well, how the hell does

(01:52:01):
ESPN mess that up entirely? Like they had the entire
process of trying to select the twelve teams they it's
a cluster mess throughout that and then you can't even
get the right game on what time you want to
be able to play it when you have two games
for T and T.

Speaker 1 (01:52:13):
Like T and T serve they deserve to have the
early cakes, I'm sorry they do.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
We will talk about tonight's game now, boys saving it
for last. I kind of feel similarly about both Oklahoma
and Miami. I understand their ten and two records and
why they got there and how they earned their way there,
and obviously the matchup tonight for Oklahoma is one of
the reasons why they're there to begin with.

Speaker 1 (01:52:35):
They beat Alabama.

Speaker 2 (01:52:37):
Also, remember what they looked like when with Tier came
back from his thumb injury and did not look good.
I don't really know how much to place on the injury,
how much to credit to give to the team that
fired their defensive coordinator after the season like that back,
but I just had something about Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
I just it doesn't feel like.

Speaker 2 (01:52:58):
They're great and they're good enough to be top eight
and land this home game, but I definitely know Alabama
also is the same, and I think that's what we
might end up seeing maybe outside of the top four
or five teams, and I would probably include Texas A
and M despite their numbered seating that they feel like
one of the better teams in the country. These teams
feel like the next tier, which may be accurate to

(01:53:18):
eight nine. Eight nine suggests it's an even matchup. A
one and a half point spread suggests the same. I
think Alabama was winning tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:53:27):
I hope Allaman was.

Speaker 8 (01:53:28):
Winning tonight for my synctity, but still listen, here's the problem.
Oklahoma has a national championship defense. They just do, and
they are going to have their best pass rusher and
ar Mason Thomas back for this.

Speaker 1 (01:53:39):
He was the toughest offense. Bama's defense impressed you against.

Speaker 8 (01:53:45):
Probably Georgia, I'm being honest, because Edy Gunner and even
still in that game, they probably had a couple of
plays that just did not go in their favor. They
would have won that game outright because the Taylor Taylor
touchdown that was dropped and then you had the fourth
down conversion with cash Jones when he had Chauncey Bowens,
who was just making plays and demoralizing the interior of
the defensive line.

Speaker 1 (01:54:05):
He should have probably been on the backfield on that play.

Speaker 2 (01:54:07):
So if, and this is I think it's fair to
talk negatively about their offense if their offense was not
a lot better, just a little bit better and a
lot more consistent.

Speaker 1 (01:54:18):
Alabama's Oklahoma's Alabama.

Speaker 2 (01:54:20):
Okay, just making Alabama's defense you described as national championship caliber.

Speaker 1 (01:54:23):
No, I think Oklahoma's events the other way around.

Speaker 8 (01:54:26):
Now. I think Oklahoma's events is stashal campienship talent. I
think their offense is shav That's the problem. You werely
far too heavily on the explosives downfield to guys like
Dion Burks and Isaiah sa Tanga and getting the ball
to Jeron Cannick. There are some limitations when it comes
to Jemetier. He has not looked like himself since the surgery.
With the hand, you can move him in the ground game,
but still if you take away his legs, he's kind

(01:54:46):
of a mobile. And then people want to talk about, well,
look at what he did against LSU a couple of
weeks ago. Okay, Well, number one LSU did not have
an offense that was combative at all, and while he
did throw for three hundred yards, he also threw three
interceptions and needed two plays of fifty yards downfield to
guarantee a win, and they were spotting the playoff.

Speaker 1 (01:55:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:55:04):
I think if there is a big play to be had,
it probably shifts the outcome because I think Oklahoma needs
it some kind of fluky big play. You know, you
pitch it out wide and all of a sudden he
breaks it. You throw a little dump off past and
he's got a blocker in front of him. They're sixty
yards of field that they earn. Or you throw deep
over the top of the defense and get lucky and
make it happen. Don't like their offense at all.

Speaker 1 (01:55:25):
How about you.

Speaker 8 (01:55:26):
Run an illegal play against the other state from the
Obama because you already did that against one from Alabama.

Speaker 1 (01:55:31):
I don't do that.

Speaker 2 (01:55:32):
Their offense has been pretty underwhelming, and again I don't
know if it's even the timing of when the material
injury happened.

Speaker 1 (01:55:38):
Their offense wasn't great before that.

Speaker 2 (01:55:39):
They didn't look great against Auburn, they didn't look great
against Michigan at the beginning of the year. Both of
them were wins, and they obviously have not looked great
down the stretch. They won their last four games, only
scoring well once in those games. Even against Bama they
didn't score well. I think we're going to see a
lot of what we saw a couple of weeks ago,
just a slightly different outcome.

Speaker 8 (01:55:58):
Okay, Well, Alabama out gained Oklahoma by over two hundred
yards offensively, they Ty Simpson had over three hundred and
fifty passing yards. They really were playing well, and they
were in range of being able to strike twice.

Speaker 1 (01:56:10):
But here's the problem.

Speaker 8 (01:56:11):
You had an interception inside the red zone that was
returned for an eighty seven yard touchdown, and you had
a missfield goal. If those two plays don't happen, Alabama's
sitting at eleven to one going into the SEC Championship game,
and nobody is arguing about Notre Dame versus Alabama versus
Miami because they're all in and Oklahoma's out. The thing
that you have to do if you were Alabama in
this game is you cannot have the turnovers. But if

(01:56:33):
you are Oklahoma, you have to follow the same game plan.
Oklahoma scored seventeen points off of turnovers against Alabama, and
they got a big one on the Ryan Williams fumble
on the putt return, except the Jommet Your score, which
was one of the only offensive plays that you really
had any success with. So if Oklahoma can do that
in its backyard, by all means, I think that the

(01:56:53):
defense is good enough to keep them in this game.
I think the defense is good enough to take over
this game. But if Alabama is just able to play
into the brand of football that we were saw a
customer seeing when they took on Missouri, when they took
on Tennessee, when they took on South Carolina before their
second bye week, Alabama should not only win this game,
they should win this game by double discrets.

Speaker 2 (01:57:11):
Last night in the NFL was a thirty eight to
thirty seven game. Seattle beat the Rams in overtime. The
Rams five hundred yards of offense and they had no turnovers. Yes,
just totally blew them off the field. The Alabama offense
generated four hundred yards against Ou.

Speaker 1 (01:57:31):
Oh, you generated two hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:57:33):
But unlike last night, where the turnover margin you know,
was not that it was a three zip margin in
this game between Ou and Bama at the beginning of
the or earlier in this month, about a month ago ago.
But it derailed the team that was dominating the game,
absolutely derailed them. It's a no contest game. They don't
win by a little, they win by a lot. And

(01:57:54):
I'm not dismissing the turnovers, But how about throwing an
interception in the red zone that doesn't go eighty seven
yards the other way? All that does is keep points
off the board for you. Sure doesn't put on the
board points for Oklahoma. Without it, they have no chance.
I'm not sure that Oklahoma looks a whole lot better
offensively tonight. I do think it's a similar type of game,
and maybe it is the one big play. One big

(01:58:14):
play gives Oklahoma the victory a month ago. One big
play could do it again without.

Speaker 1 (01:58:19):
It, no chance.

Speaker 8 (01:58:20):
Here's what I will say for Alabama's standpoint. If you
need the big time play, you have the receivers to
do it. It's not just Ryan Williams. Everyone wants to
talk about Ryan Williams because of what he did as
a human highlight realgy.

Speaker 1 (01:58:29):
You know, he's not.

Speaker 8 (01:58:30):
Seventeen years old anymoreuse apparently that was a big time
deal for Paul fine Bomb last year. Jeremy Bernard has
been the unsung hero this year. He has been phenomenal
for this passing attack downfield. Josh Quavis is the name
that you gotta know. He has been the tight end.
He has been the security blanket. He is a chain mover.
He was the guy who finished with the most receiving
yards in that matchup against Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 (01:58:49):
The first time around.

Speaker 8 (01:58:51):
It ties Simpson to him. Can be on the same page.
You're get into the red zone, you don't miss your
field goals. I think Alabama's gonna win this game, but
I'll tell you, as an Alabama I am nervous as
all hell because I've seen this storyline before, and apparently
for some reason, people still want to think that Michigan
is going to hire Kaylin the More come Sunday morning.
I think Michigan's going to hire Jed Fish. I told
you that the earlier today. I told our listeners that yesterday,

(01:59:14):
if not earlier in the week. I think it's Kenny
Dellingham Personally.

Speaker 2 (01:59:16):
I think Kenny is going to say if I'm ever
going to leave Arizona State, it's not going to be
for Michigan, and that's why I think he won't leave
for this job. I think ultimately he'll have a hard
time saying no to the money that's going to be
thrown at him continuously, pretty much every single season, because
I think he's going to continue to do a.

Speaker 1 (01:59:33):
Great job there. I just don't think he's going to
take this particular job before I head on out of here.
Who do you have one? In the National Championship? Come on,
weeks off into the future. Early prediction right now, I'll
take Indiana the number one seed with no losses. See,
my dad loves you for that reason, I'm going with Georgia.
We shall see.

Speaker 2 (01:59:50):
I always appreciate your time, and remember you got him
each and every weekday morning right here to kick off
your day on Sports Talk seven to ninety Cole Thompson
on the Morning Drive with Dan and Cole. We got
one hour left then it's weekend time for every day
it's football at five here, final hour of the program
both today and for the week. A reminder later on
this hour, final segment of this hour, have an opportunity

(02:00:11):
to get you set up with some tickets to go
see Ron White. It'll be live at Smart Financial Center
on March twenty seventh or two see Monster Energy am
A super Cross. There'll be at an RG Stadium on
January thirty first. We'll have a pair of tickets for
each of those events and have a chance to get
you set up there. In the final segment of today's show,
whit you with in case you missed it. Halfway through

(02:00:33):
this hour and we got to get to some football here,
gave you the lowdown on the injury situation for the
Texans and Raiders just a little while ago. But if
you did not hear that, the Texts have quite a
few players they've chosen to list as questionable. In my opinion,
there are four of them that may not play this weekend.
I only say Christian Kirk is one of them because

(02:00:54):
he didn't practice today due to illness. You never know
what it is or how long it would affect him.
They have more than enough healthy, capable wide receivers. If
they felt that was the best course of action, they
could go that route. Questionable listing for as he's al Shire,
who did not practice today or Wednesday, was limited on
Thursday with his ankle and knee issues. He's been on
the field for nearly every snap this season. That would

(02:01:16):
be a very significant loss for the Texans.

Speaker 1 (02:01:20):
Looks like EJ.

Speaker 2 (02:01:21):
Speed will be able to play this weekend, So if
this is in fact somebody that does not play, talking
about Al Shire, you would still have Christian Harris, Henry Toatoa,
and EJ.

Speaker 1 (02:01:31):
Speed available.

Speaker 2 (02:01:32):
Just keep in mind Al Shires the quarterback at the
defense and has basically been able to play that spot
and handle that green dot helmet the entire season, So
that would be a significant change to what they have
on the field and how they go about things. The
other two players we've known about most of this week
limited participants today for both Woody Marx and Derek Stingley
Junior each left last week's game and did not return.

(02:01:54):
Derek Stingley Junior missing the last handful of snaps with
the oblique injury that he had also missed time for
earlier this year, and Woody Mark's ankle injury first half
of last week's game, stayed on the sidelines, tried to
work his way back into the game, going through some
stuff with the Texans Performance and Athletic training staff. Never
got back into the game. Also never got treatment during

(02:02:16):
the game that I'm aware of considering he stayed on
the sidelines throughout a couple visits into the tent and
then some running of the sidelines testing of the ankle,
but then when they came back out for halftime, he
stayed on the sidelines. I didn't have his helmet with him,
but it was obviously there and Demiko Rans both said
if he were needed, he would have gone back out there,
but nobody else behind him was unavailable the rest of

(02:02:38):
the game. He didn't have Nick Chubb a week ago,
but obviously you got one hundred and one yards on
fifteen pops from Juwar Jordan Daria. Gumbiwale was a factor
on offense, and again they have another running back that's
active every game in British Brooks. He contributes greatly on
special teams, does come in in some short yardage situations,
even has a couple of short yardage carries, but certainly

(02:02:59):
could handle the running back work. Truly, British Brooks could
play tailback for this team no problem if that's what
it came to on any game day. Gets work with
the running backs every day. Obviously, ran the ball a
ton at North Carolina in an exceptionally talented backfield when
he was there, so obviously that means pre Bill Belichick,
but that's what they're looking at at those particular spots.

(02:03:20):
Denico Autry, Jake Hansen, Kamari Lassiter, Sheldon Rankins, and the
aforementioned EJ. Speed along with Trent Brown practiced at varying
degrees throughout the week. All of them practiced in full
today and all of them have no injury designation with him.
The only other player that I have a question about
is Nick Chubb. He practiced in full today. Nick Chubb

(02:03:42):
practiced in full yesterday. He was limited on Wednesday after
missing last week's game with the rib injury. Well, he
was listed as questionable, which is not usually the case
for someone who practiced like that.

Speaker 1 (02:03:55):
So I don't know if there's something else or this.

Speaker 2 (02:03:59):
I really just don't know what's I do think he's available,
and we'll see on Sunday, ninety minutes before kickoff, so
one fifty five pm. That's when the inactive list will
be made official for the Texans on Sunday afternoon, and
officially for the Raiders with no injury designation and practicing
in full throughout the week, Gino Smith will return to

(02:04:20):
starting games for the Raiders. He has started all but
one game. They have lost all of those games but two.
They've lost all of those games but one since the
season opener. Remember, the Raiders started the year one to
zero with a twenty to thirteen victory over the playoff
bound Soon Patriots. They lost to the Chargers after that,

(02:04:40):
and that sent them off on a four game losing streak.
They managed to win a game against the only other
two win team in the NFL, the Titans. They haven't
won any of their other games since. They ride an
eight game losing streak onto their plane ride into Houston
for the three to twenty five kickoff. They'll finish with
the Giants and Chiefs. They are in very very good
position to finish two and fifteen and see how their

(02:05:03):
strength of schedule factors in with the two and fifteen
Titans to see who lands the number one pick. They
new need a quarterback. The Titans probably will not draft
a quarterback, and I absolutely think that pick will be
up for grabs if any team around them that needs
a quarterback loves Fernando Mendoza.

Speaker 1 (02:05:23):
I don't know that anybody will.

Speaker 2 (02:05:24):
Don't think he's an obvious number one pick by any means,
I'm not sure who the non quarterback would be, probably
Reese at number one, and that could end up being
the next great Tennessee Titan or the next great Raider.
Draft talk for the Texans, it's been awesome in the
years where it hasn't been right there at the top.

Speaker 3 (02:05:44):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:05:44):
Granted, the only reason they're in the position they're in
is because the Texans were right there at the top
a couple of years back. Going into the last game
of the season, all things were in place for the
Texans draft first overall, and then they beat the Colts,
so they got the second pick, which turned out to
be CJ. Stroud, and within the next ten minutes they
had traded for the number three pick and they turned

(02:06:05):
in the card that so Will Anderson Junior. Will Anderson
Junior is one of the best at his position. This year, again,
some would say he's had the finest season among all
edge rushers.

Speaker 1 (02:06:13):
He's been out there every week.

Speaker 2 (02:06:15):
He continues to produce incredible pressure rate numbers, win rate
numbers in terms of edge rushers, and everything else that
goes along with it. He and Deneil Hunter both in
double figures and sacks, and a couple of other things
about this team we rarely get into the smaller details
of especially defensively. You know where they rank pretty much
across the board defensively, right there at the top. They

(02:06:36):
actually fell one spot this past week to number two
in passer rating allowed because the Chargers just inched ahead
of them. That's how good the Chargers, or how well
the Chargers defense has been playing these last couple of weeks.
Very quietly, that's probably how well they're going to be
playing a week from now when the Texans are in

(02:06:58):
Los Angeles to face them.

Speaker 1 (02:07:00):
But they slid ahead of them in terms of passer
rating allowed.

Speaker 2 (02:07:02):
Texas are still first in points allowed per game, yards
allowed per game, first downs allowed per game, and their
twenty four takeaways rank third in the NFL. They have
been insanely good at both protecting the football, especially after
the first three games. Remember they turned it over five
times in their first three games, and they've now turned

(02:07:23):
it over five times total in their last eleven games,
eight times this year. They haven't turned it over at
all last week A plus two the turnover via special teams.
The takeaway from Kamari Lassiter last year has a team
leading four interceptions. Jalen Petrie has a team leading four interceptions.
Kayln Bollock has a team leading four interceptions. Only team

(02:07:45):
in the league that has that Chicago Bears, very similar
they lead the league in interceptions. And a little note
on Demiko Ryans a couple of them actually a chance
to win ten games in the third consecutive season to
open up his head coaching career. There's one current head
coach who also won ten or more games the first

(02:08:08):
three years of his NFL head coaching career for the
team he currently coaches.

Speaker 1 (02:08:15):
Just one.

Speaker 2 (02:08:16):
Jim Harbaugh has actually done it, but he didn't do
it with the Chargers, did it when he was with
the Niners, and no other active head coach has done that.
Demiko hasn't done it either yet. He's got three opportunities
to get there. And I think this team was not
gonna finish with ten either. I don't think they're gonna
stop at ten. I do think they have a chance,
and very likely we'll convert on a better regular season

(02:08:37):
record than they've had under Demiko and win an eleventh game.
If they won a twelfth game, they'll take a nine
game winning streak into the postseason. They will probably win
the division also because I think if the Texans finished
twelve and five, then the guys will be with them
and Jacksonville will have given them the gift of one
loss in their final three games. Not likely to happen
if it doesn't happen this week. They have two division

(02:08:58):
games after this week, but I do think it's likely
to happen this week. Somebody's winning streak is ending in Denver.

Speaker 1 (02:09:05):
These are there.

Speaker 2 (02:09:05):
Either it's the Broncos eleven games streak or it's the
Jaguars five game streak. By the way, it's Bat Lafleur,
the other coach who won ten games to open up
his head coaching career with the team he currently coaches.

Speaker 1 (02:09:20):
Done an awesome job there.

Speaker 2 (02:09:22):
It's why a couple weeks back I scoffed at the
notion that Green Bay would consider moving on or his
seat was in any way hot reminder on the NFL
side this weekend mentioned it a couple of times. Full
weekend of NFL activity. The Eagles are going to smash
the Commanders tomorrow afternoon, and then the division winner in

(02:09:42):
the division that includes the Black and Blue Division, the
Bears and the Packers and the Lions and the other
team that stinks. Well, the Packers and Bears are getting
together for the second time in a couple of weeks
in Chicago.

Speaker 1 (02:09:54):
Slight favorites the Bears.

Speaker 2 (02:09:57):
I think the Packers are going to win, and I
think it's going to to lead the way to the
Packers winning the division and send Ben Johnson's Bears to
the wild card route whether or not when they're opening
playoff game. They win this game, then they're gonna be
sitting at home in the playoffs, and I think it
is a very good chance they will. The AFC will
take over after that. We had last night's NFC thriller
and controversy with Seattle getting two two point conversions. The

(02:10:20):
first one all controversy on a pass deemed a backwards
pass hit the Rams verse first and landed on the
ground after it was not picked off, and then a
Seattle player just leaned over and palmed the ball and
picked it up while it was in the end zone.

Speaker 1 (02:10:35):
And after they reviewed it, they.

Speaker 2 (02:10:37):
Said, even though the whistle blew, even though our call
in the field was stalled, if anything else, Yeah, that's
two points.

Speaker 1 (02:10:45):
You can have those two points.

Speaker 2 (02:10:46):
Their second two point conversion was a thing of beauty
if you're a Seahawks fan, and it was disaster if
you're a Rams fan.

Speaker 1 (02:10:53):
Great drive to answer the Rams.

Speaker 2 (02:10:55):
Great drive. This is a big night for Sam Donald.
He looked every bit Sam Donald. Don't want him in
the playoffs for about the first three and a half quarters.
In his fourth quarter interception looked like it would end
their chances of winning the game. Then he put together
drive after drive after drive that got them the win,
and the last drive of the game in the overtime

(02:11:15):
period after trailing seven by seven because the Rams scored
a touchdown, drove him straight down the field, fired a
beautiful touchdown pass in the back of the end zone
and then a well designed play by Clint kobi X offense,
and you had a tight end blocking and then leaking
out right in front of Darnold standing in the end zone.

Speaker 1 (02:11:34):
Two point conversion. Go home. Rams. We beat you.

Speaker 2 (02:11:38):
We will talk to you a little on the text
in side of things, some of the sound we have
not given you this week on this matchup. This week
the Gino Smith era in Houston as an opponent this Sunday,
we hit on that next.

Speaker 1 (02:11:51):
Power of the program this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (02:11:53):
Appreciate everybody that's been with us throughout the day on
social media and via the phone lines and elsewhere. Get
you up until six o'clock, gets you ready for the weekend,
Get you ready for the college football playoffs. Laid out
our stone cold locks, and give the final thoughts on
Texans Raiders this weekend. Mentioned that the Raiders made it official.
What was obvious that Geno Smith would see the field

(02:12:14):
and return to his starting role as Raiders starting quarterback.
It's been a bad season for Geno Smith got paid
a lot of money to leave Seattle and come to
the Raiders. Said earlier this week he plans on being
there and planned on winning games. Didn't go the way
that it went, but he really and it's given much
thought to the future there. He's focused on the game

(02:12:35):
and I'm under contract.

Speaker 1 (02:12:37):
That's what it is.

Speaker 2 (02:12:37):
That's where we are. And again I think it was
pretty non it's not in his thought to what the
future holds. What the future likely holds is that they'll
be looking for somebody else, that they'll be wanting to
do something else. And it's a joke if you put
this all on Geno Smith. It's clearly not on him.
They fired the oco I think gave him virtually no

(02:12:58):
chance here. Chip Kelly Higher might find out and maybe
you already know. Pete Carroll bad Higher, Tom Brady bad owner.
We'll see not real good things. Since he's helped the
brain trust make their decision. And like I said, Gino,
Smith's not having a very good year completing a lot
of passes. As you know, completion percentage is very similar

(02:13:21):
to what it's been during this resurgence is three years
in Seattle to what it is now, it's virtually the same.
But they're not doing much with it. They're not moving
the ball down the field. He's way too many poor plays.
They don't run the ball well enough. They don't really
don't do anything well enough. And to be fair, the
Jacksonville Jaguars just gave Jacoby Myers a three year, sixty

(02:13:42):
million dollar contract extension because he's their best receiver. Well,
the Raiders traded him to the Jaguars in season. It's
a smart move by management. You got a player that
you think he can get something in return for and
they obviously thought they did get a reasonable return. He's
not gonna help us win games. Because nobody can help
win games. We're not good enough elsewhere. Jacoby Myers can

(02:14:02):
be great, and he was. He was very good with
the Raiders, but he's been more impactful to wins because
he's playing with a winning outfit. He's not making sure
the Jaguars win. He's not turning losses into wins. But
he actually gave his quarterback that was looking for somebody,
anybody to be a true number one threat. Wasn't Travis Hunter,

(02:14:23):
and it wasn't Brian Thomas Junior. No matter how much
talent Brian Thomas Junior has, and he's probably one of
the ten most talented receivers in the league, or very
close to it if he's not. He's a little like
Marvin Harrison Junior in Arizona with the Cardinals. The talent's
all there, and a little bit of is who are
you working with? Because I'm not a huge Trevor Lawrence guy.
And clearly the Arizona Cardinals passing game the two years

(02:14:45):
that Harrison Junior has been there not elite. I do
think Jacoby Brissett has been pretty awesome, and unfortunately, in
Harrison's case, he's missed almost half of the Jacoby Brissette starts.
But back to the Raiders, they're limited offensively with their talent.
They spent two first round picks on a running back
and Brock Bauers a tight end over the last two seasons.

(02:15:05):
There's nothing wrong with the talent of those two players.
Could a running back or could a tight end ignite
an offense despite the other problems?

Speaker 1 (02:15:16):
No, and that's why they are where they are. Are
they part of a foundation of winning? I think they
can be.

Speaker 2 (02:15:21):
I don't know if the Raiders will do the other
things correctly, especially at quarterback, offensive line, and wide receiver,
to help them, but you know, kind of look at
the Atlanta Falcons. Spent a very high pick on Kyle Pitts,
spent a very high pick on Bijon Robinson. They also
spent a high first round pick on Drake London, and
then they also spent a first round pick on Michael

(02:15:42):
Pennix Junior. So look how many years it took them
to put all those pieces in place, and with Kyle
Pitts now being a very popular target, especially with Kirk
Cousins running the show. If Pennick Junior is healthy and
is ready to go, most of next year, did they
put together their foundational pieces around what is good enough
offensive line? Where they've obviously not spent nearly the asset

(02:16:04):
allocation on Jake Matthews' number one pick. They've spent some
capital on the rest of the line. But if they
think they can just win because of that, or they
think they can put everything around that once they're all
in place, I wouldn't advise it, but it could work.

Speaker 1 (02:16:19):
There are we two years.

Speaker 2 (02:16:20):
Away Fernando Mendoza second overall pick to the Raiders or
first overall if they land there or trade there and
then they find him some wide out help. I'll tell
you what, if they draft Fernando Mendoza this year, they
better signed some free agent wide receivers again. Back to
the Jaguars. They did that a couple of years ago,
early in Trevor Lawrence's career. They spent money on Evan Ingram,

(02:16:43):
They spent money on Christian Kirk, They spent money on Jones.
They signed three veteran targets for him, not elite level talents.
Ingram was not one of the best tight ends in
the NFL, but a very suitable target and sensible addition.
Christian Kirk was not one of the best slot receivers
in the NFL, A longtime starter who's gonna help stabilize
the offense. And same thing with what they tried. They

(02:17:04):
tried to give him a chance after the Urban Meyer
era has tossed him a lot of money, but not
long term money. None of those players are there now,
and in the meantime, then you draft the other players
to hopefully make you great. You draft Brian Thomas Junior,
your draft Travis Hunter, you trade for Jacoby Myers because
now you're an established team and all the other pieces

(02:17:25):
hopefully are in place. Raiders still seem like they're so
far away from that, even if last two years first
round picks Bowers and Genty turn out to be great.
Ashton Genty is he's kind of in an O win
situation as a rookie. He's been out on the field
probably is. I bet he has more snaps than any
other running back rookie, and there aren't many of them
around the league.

Speaker 1 (02:17:47):
But what is he what does he have to show for?
Did he learn something? Is he a little bit better
in this area?

Speaker 3 (02:17:52):
In that area?

Speaker 1 (02:17:53):
He's just had so little success and just so little
of it falls on his shoulders. He has one game
this year with more than seventy five yards rushing. In
the last nine Raiders games, he hasn't run for four
yards to carry in any of them, none of them.
It's not because he's bad at football. It's not because

(02:18:14):
he's a bad running back.

Speaker 2 (02:18:15):
Nobody respects their game, nobody respects their past game, nobody
respects their offensive line, and nobody's too concerned about committing
a certain person. Oh, we got to we have to
do this in order to stop the run. And the
Texans are the worst example of all for as an opponent.
The Texans don't have to do anything different against any
team in the NFL. Here's our eleven here's what we
run almost every single play. We're not disguising this, We're

(02:18:38):
not sending blitzes here. It's not some crazy look that
you've never seen before. Everything you've seen on film from
the Texans is exactly what they're gonna do. And they're
number one in the NFL defensively, the hardest team to
score against, the hardest team to move the ball against.
All those things should be at play. And additionally, you
know what the Raiders record is, They've gotten worse as

(02:18:59):
the sea has continued. The Texans have clearly gotten better,
better defensively, better offensively. Would love to see the Texans
do similar things offensively. Who spent all this time talking
about the defense against Geno Smith, an offense that hasn't
scored more than seventeen points in six consecutive games. I
don't know why this game would would have them break that. Texans,

(02:19:20):
like I said, giving up twenty points last week, had
Demiko o'rians meeting with the media on Monday, and after
he was asked about the defensive performance and if it
was up to their standard, he said, no, it was not.

Speaker 1 (02:19:32):
Flipping it over a little bit.

Speaker 3 (02:19:34):
CJ.

Speaker 2 (02:19:34):
Stroud's performance a week ago, the way he has played
since returning from the concussion, honestly, the way he played
in the first ten passes that he threw against Denver,
I think he was already starting to show some of
the learning points of this Nick Cayley offense. The mental
side of it. I think that's where he's made the
biggest strides these last several weeks. The timing of when

(02:19:56):
the ball's coming out, the recognition of where the ball
should be going, what he is seeing pre snap, and
thus what information he already has dialed up and where
to go, and a little bit about the Schultz and
CJ connection. They've had plenty of games where he's thrown in,
you know, ten targets, eight targets, and it's worked out nicely,

(02:20:16):
but not like they have in the last couple weeks.
These are plays designed to gain yards, not I didn't
have anything else to do. Dump it to Dalton in
the flat where he's covered, and we get three yards.
Dump it off to Dalton that he's out of bounds
and we stopped the clock and there's five. You know,
these are real plays, like we're trying to get down
the field. We're trying to get a first down. We've

(02:20:37):
got second and eight and he's thirteen yards down the
field or he has space, but he knows when to
get there. He knows when to get the ball to
him or anybody else for that matter. I think a
lot better now than at any point this season. It
was probably two weeks ago. I thought he was on
the same page talking about CJ with one target, and
that was Nico Collins. I think I would definitely add

(02:20:58):
Schultz to that. I think we're getting closer and closer
to saying Higgins is in that group two, and it's
not because of any kind of crazy production, certainly not
off of this last game they just played. If you
can't recall Jayden Higgins work from this last game, he
was targeted once he caught it. He had four yards.

(02:21:18):
That was his workload in a game where he saw
the field just as much as he has the rest
of the season, if not more so. He was out
there for seventy two percent of the snaps forty eight snaps,
one target, one catch. I actually think watching the game
and rewatching the game, they do kind of understand the
field a little bit more. Similarly, the idea of being
on the same page. I think you're seeing a little

(02:21:39):
bit more of that. He just didn't go his way,
didn't send the ball his way. You know why, because
everybody else was open. This one of CJ's best game
of the season. And when there's no reason to force
it to this player or that player, no matter how
much they're on the field, the other guys are open.
The progression one is open, throw it, Progression two is open.

Speaker 1 (02:21:58):
Throw it.

Speaker 2 (02:21:59):
You have time to get to progression three, and he's open.
Just didn't happen to be Jayden and Higgins on their
forty point offensive day against Arizona. We'll take a six
game They'll take a six game winning streak into this
game against the Raiders as heavy fourteen and a half
point favorites. So you missed it some items we might
not have had a chance to get to today, or

(02:22:20):
others that we need to revisit.

Speaker 1 (02:22:22):
There's a couple of those. Obviously.

Speaker 2 (02:22:24):
The situation with your Houston Astros not always making news
this offseason, but they made a couple of changes to
the roster, including a move that they made today. A
couple weeks back, they added Nate Pearson, a couple weeks
a little bit more recently, they added Ryan Weiss, and
now today they have traded for an additional starting pitching option,
most likely above those two and that he started nineteen

(02:22:48):
games a season ago and pitched in twenty three games
for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Right handed pitcher Mike Burrows maybe
familiar to Astros fans if you recall an early game
in June, third game of the UK for Burrows. He
pitched against Houston and was splendid spectacular, if you will,
nearly unhittable Astros got a couple of hits off him.

(02:23:09):
They didn't really test him, and they weren't in any
kind of well, this guy's losing it here. Five and
a third of shutout baseball against the Astros in his
lone appearance against them this past season. A twenty six
year old pitcher who's been with the Pirates throughout his career.
Is a recovering Tommy John surgical patient. That happened in
twenty twenty three, so he pitched a little bit in

(02:23:30):
twenty twenty four major major league debut, but last season
qualified as his rookie season, and in such, he is
under club control for a long, long time, six more
seasons of club control, starting in twenty twenty six, all
the way through the early stages of the next decade,
should he pitch well enough for the Astros to want
him here, and I do believe that he will.

Speaker 1 (02:23:51):
A lot of good signs from him.

Speaker 2 (02:23:52):
Last year, first two starts gave up nine runs in
less than nine innings, eight and the third, and then
he really kind of figured it out. I know, if
it was just because of the timing or only two
starts or whatever, but the remets of the season, his
last twenty one appearances, he had an ERA of three
forty nine. He was even better over his last eight
appearances last season, five of which were starts. He had

(02:24:13):
a two twenty two ERA three forty nine ERA over
the final four months of the season and actually ranked
fifteenth in the National League in ERA among pitchers starting pitchers. Basically,
so pretty good stuff for him. It does cost the
Astros a little bit. They send two prospects out. It
was part of the three team deal. The Pirates are
getting three prospects, all three or three players, Brandon Lau

(02:24:36):
among them, a major leaguer. They all come from the Rays.
Rays get two prospects from the Astros. That's Jacob Melton
and Anderson Brito, and it's the Astros that land the
major league pitcher. Mike Burrows had a chance to pipe
into the Dana Brown press conference or zoom availability earlier
today with the Astros. So the mechanics of this three

(02:24:58):
team trade, how they got to together and ultimately landed
on a right handed starting pitcher. With now a very
right handed starting pitching group of options for this upcoming season.
Here is Dana Brown talking about the mechanics of this
three team deal.

Speaker 17 (02:25:15):
Yeah, so you know, we were in the market for
a starter of course, as as we've talked about throughout
this whole offseason, and so there were multiple guys that
you know, we had on our radar. You know, a
couple of guys went in trade that I want to
talk about, you know, a couple of guys sign us
free agents, and so.

Speaker 3 (02:25:37):
You know, when these guys start.

Speaker 17 (02:25:38):
Going off the board, you kind of, you know, kind
of stay locked in on what.

Speaker 3 (02:25:41):
The main thing is. In the main thing is to
keep the main thing the main thing.

Speaker 17 (02:25:45):
And we you know, we locked in on Burrow Burroughs,
and so you know we were able to land them,
and we had to give up something to get them.

Speaker 3 (02:25:54):
You know, make no.

Speaker 17 (02:25:55):
Mistake, it's not easy to part ways with you know,
successful pieces that you have that are high end prospects.
But you know, you when when when there's a lot
of teams that need starters, and you know that's where
the market is, a lot of teams need starters, and
so you don't want to lose out, so you have

(02:26:17):
to get creative and you know, pull from your dept
and and maybe fill that spot.

Speaker 2 (02:26:22):
Well, keep in mind, among those things he was kind
of talking about from a Major League standpoint. Well, the
market for Shane bos another player of the Astros were
linked to, was I don't know if you call it
massive or not. You can grate out the prospects they
got back form, but the Orioles orchestrated a deal for
Boz earlier today and looked like an awfully nice haul
and one that I don't know that the Astros could

(02:26:45):
have matched. So I do think that's why, especially using
day his words, that's why they locked in on Burrows.
The Pirates and Rays, for whatever reason, they always seem
to have players that other teams are willing to trade
for at the front end of their careers, and they
don't win. I know, the Rays and Kevin Cash have

(02:27:05):
advanced in the playoffs and done really good things. They
obviously knocked the Astros out of the Championship series with
no fans several years ago, overwhelming number of promising players
flying through their respective system seemingly forever, Pirates don't win
at all, and I do think they're at least going
to give Paul Skins like the biggest contract ever and

(02:27:26):
hope they can build a team around him until he's disenchanted.
But Tampa, this is just a constant cycle. We draft them,
we develop them, and we move on from them, whether
they get to the majors with us or somebody else.
We're just gonna keep doing this over and over and
over again. And I think this year with what Baltimore
is doing, with what the Blue Jays at the top
of the division are doing, and we'll see where Bregman
ends up to determine what the Red Sox are doing.

(02:27:48):
They already added extreme pitching help for a very good
rotation with Sonny Gray.

Speaker 1 (02:27:53):
And then there's the Yankees.

Speaker 2 (02:27:54):
So the Rays very possibly are the last place team
in the AL at least. One more quick item from
data assessing the pitching market this offseason.

Speaker 3 (02:28:05):
Yeah, I mean, I can't get into the prices of
the market. You know, we could probably read.

Speaker 17 (02:28:09):
That and tell what they are as they come as
they come off the board, But I will say this,
there are a lot of teams that are looking for
starting pitching. And you know, when when you're trying to
get multiple starters, you know, in our case, you know,
we got why Weiss earlier, and you know Burroughs today
and and.

Speaker 3 (02:28:28):
And so, uh, you know, you have to be active,
you have to be aggressive. And you don't want to,
you know, be caught, you know, empty handed.

Speaker 17 (02:28:35):
And so you know, we we had to continue to
be creative and keep an open mind and have the
right thought process, uh to feel these needs at the
major league level.

Speaker 3 (02:28:48):
And so that's basically what our thought process was.

Speaker 17 (02:28:51):
And and and we were happy that we locked in
on a upside guy that's already having success in the
big leagues and we have him for six years.

Speaker 2 (02:29:02):
In alphabetical order, Jason Alexander Spencer Raghetti maybe at some
point later in the season, Renel Blanco, AJ blue Ball,
Hunter Brown, Mike Burrows, JP France, Colton Gordon, Christian Xavier,
Lance McCullers Junior, Nate Pearson, maybe Brandon Walter very late

(02:29:24):
in the year.

Speaker 1 (02:29:25):
And similarly with Hayden Wiznsky and Ryan Weiss.

Speaker 2 (02:29:29):
As of today, that's pretty much your group of hopeful
starting pitchers for the Astros twenty twenty six campaign. I
don't think it's gonna end like that. Absolutely think there's
another veteran pitcher coming here. It will not be Michael King.
If you missed that earlier, he is not going anywhere,
at least not yet. Three year seventy five million to
stay with the Padres, though it is a Bregman like deal.

(02:29:50):
If you remember last offseason, Bregman signed a three year
deal with the Red Sox, but after each year there
was a player option.

Speaker 1 (02:29:57):
Same thing for King.

Speaker 2 (02:29:58):
Money goes up in year two, money goes up to
thirty million in year three should he exercise the respective options.
But he is now off the free agent market. I
thought he made a lot of sense for Houston, maybe
even on a similar type deal, but probably for less money,
which likely took the Astros out of these straight up
free agent signing situation. A few other things that we

(02:30:18):
didn't get to here, and in case you missed it,
will visit in the final segment of the show. As
we continue It's Friday, our final predictions for the Texans
and the Raiders, even a final score for you, along
with each of the four CFB playoff games beginning tonight.

Speaker 1 (02:30:33):
That's all next.

Speaker 2 (02:30:35):
Way to you, guys, appreciate listening throughout the day, throughout
the week, throughout the years here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety and the A team, WEX and AC here
with you normally he's off today and throughout the remaining shows.
There aren't many of them the rest of this year.
Got a few days off coming up around the holidays,
both of us, but always looking forward to the opportunity
to talk with you here over the airwaves and mention

(02:30:57):
We've got tickets to go see Ron White Live March
twenty seven Smart Financial Center right there in Sugarland. Tickets
are on sale for that event at Smart financial Center
dot netch you do not win them here or we
also have a pair of tickets to see Monster Ama
Monster Energy Ama Supercross that's at NRG Stadium on January
thirty first. Those tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster

(02:31:22):
dot com. Talked about it all afternoon. You can probably
find it many other places as well. But the Astros
made a deal today and ask you something about that
if you know the answer to it. Seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two
one two five seven ninety six players, three teams involved

(02:31:42):
in this trade. The Rays sent three players away, The
Astros sent two players away, Pirates sent one player away.
Astro's got that player. It's Mike Burrows, right handed pitcher.
My question for you, though, is what two players did
the Astros have to move on on from? Who did
they send away in this six player deal. If you

(02:32:04):
know the answer to that question, there are two players
you need both of their names seven one three two
one two five seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven ninety. If you know the answer to
that question, you can also weigh in if you like.
If you think the Astros, Wow, I'm really man, I
can't believe they gave up on this guy. I can't
believe they sent this guy out for Mike Burrows. Give

(02:32:27):
you my thoughts on that. But like I said, those
two pictures are those two players I should say, I'll
just tell you right now. One's a picture, one's a
position player seven one three two one two five seven
ninety And give Josh the answer to that, and make
your choice of which pair of tickets you'd like to have.
If you're the first answer it, if you're the second
to answer it, well, then you get whatever's left.

Speaker 1 (02:32:44):
Which is awesome. Both great giveaways, so enjoy them.

Speaker 2 (02:32:50):
My thoughts on the deal if you didn't hear them already,
I expect what the Astros have said to play out.
Don't expect them to be signing the best. Didn't think
they should even be in the Dylan C's market never
thought they would ever be a two hundred million dollar
offer from them to any player, and Dylan seasons two
hundred million dollar player apparently, so of course he's not

(02:33:11):
going to become an Astro. These are exactly the types
of deals I thought they would make a little bit
difficult to guess which players pitchers specifically, are going to
be available from which clubs. Like knowing that Mike Burrows
is somebody who's under club control for six years, but
the Pirates aren't looking to keep him. That's not always
easy to figure out. You'd think that's something that's a
player they would absolutely want to keep a little bit

(02:33:32):
older player to have that much club control in front
of him. He's twenty six years old, have Tommy John surgery,
so not the fastest path to the majors.

Speaker 1 (02:33:39):
Who was a rookie last year and the Astros now
have him. I like the deal.

Speaker 2 (02:33:44):
I think this makes not only makes sense, I think
there's more to come. Like you think your rookie season
is your worst season. You think your rookie season is
where teams don't really know you very well, so it's
to your advantage. It's probably somewhere in between, But looking
at what kind of stuff he holds, mid nineties fastball,
maybe ninety five ninety six fastball. With multiple other pitches

(02:34:07):
that play at the major league level, I sure feel
like this is just right up the astros alley on
a pitcher that they can make a little bit better.
I'm hesitant to say he's the guy that starts behind
Hunter Brown. I think there's a really good chance that's
where he is this year. I don't know if that's
good enough. I know it's a major step back from
last year, but I'm not trying to convince anybody that

(02:34:28):
they've replaced fromber Valdez with Mike Burrows. They replaced him
as a number. He's one of their starting pitchers. From
ber Valdez was also one of their starting pitchers. He
just happened to be one of the best starting pitchers
in baseball and certainly one of the best lefties in
the majors, and someone who basically took every start for
the last half or yea half dozen years. That's hard

(02:34:51):
to replace and hard to replace when you're paying and
this is a player who's going to make less than
a million dollars next year. They're trading out two players
who are maybe on the major leage roster next year
in the case of one of them and the other
one still got a ways to go through the minor
league system. I don't I don't know what this will
amount to, but I just ran through the entire list
of names that are on the Astros forty man and

(02:35:12):
there could be others that are still in the system
that you know, maybe impressed during spring training and ultimately
find their way to the team. You know, remember the
Astros traded for Brandon Walter in August of twenty twenty four.
Didn't pitch for the anybody the rest of the year.
He had been hurt and nobody really thought much of it.
Huge reason why the Astros stayed in the race as

(02:35:33):
long as they as they did. His partial season of
making starts, he was awesome, just gave him a chance
to win every time he took the ball, but once
pitched six to seven innings. On occasion at seven innings,
he was great, and he just kind of found him.
He'd run its course with the Red Sox. It wasn't
a healthy enough pitcher for them to, you know, keep around.
And Danna Brown made a play for him. If Ryan

(02:35:53):
Weiss or Nate Pearson or now Mike Burrows does that,
you'll see how the Astros are trying to build a
little bit of a rotation. A healthy Spencer Araghedty, a
healthy Christian Javier, maybe things will be a little bit
better than we think.

Speaker 1 (02:36:06):
But I'm not here to convince anybody of that.

Speaker 2 (02:36:08):
But my simple analysis of the deal is it doesn't
bother me at all giving away what they gave away.

Speaker 1 (02:36:13):
I think Jacob.

Speaker 2 (02:36:14):
Melton might turn out to be an everyday player. I
think the odds are he is the low end everyday player.
If that, maybe he starts for a team that's not winning,
like the team he's headed to and Anderson Britil. You
got a couple of years away from where he is
a major leaguer. If you can't replace players like that
in your system over multiple drafts where you have no restrictions,
which the Astros are now in, there's no draft picks

(02:36:36):
being taken away from them. They're actually getting an additional
draft pick in the first round this year with the
finish in the cy Young voting for Hunter Brown. So
two of the top twenty eight picks are Houston's. I'm
hopeful that the names we liked last year in their
draft Class nine's and others they play out that way.
If Walker Yannick is a major league catcher, Janek in

(02:36:58):
a couple of years is a major league catcher.

Speaker 1 (02:37:00):
Great.

Speaker 2 (02:37:00):
By the way, congratulations to Heat and his new wife
as he got married over the last couple of weeks.
He's probably the Astros catcher of the future, whether you
like it or not. So hopefully he proves to be that.
They don't even have a second catcher unless you count Salazart.
Right now, Janner's under contract, he hasn't been moved, and
Victor Carratini apparently has a marketplace that prices him out

(02:37:24):
of the possibility.

Speaker 1 (02:37:25):
Of remaining here with Houston. But we'll see.

Speaker 2 (02:37:27):
One other note, just to mention the Basketball Hall of Fame,
The Natesmith Basketball Hall of Fame rolled out their list
of eligible candidates.

Speaker 1 (02:37:36):
So this is a massive list of coaches and.

Speaker 2 (02:37:41):
North American nominees and women's nominees and contributor nominees. That
list of contributor nominees, by the way, and we'll definitely
be talking about this the next time AC is on
the airwaves with us. It includes Marv Albert. It also
includes Mike D'Antoni on the contributors list, interesting that that's

(02:38:02):
where he would be, but also includes Calvin Samson, University
of Houston current head coach, rising up the list in
all time wins up in the eight hundreds now and
for the fifth consecutive year, sixth consecutive year. He's got
a team that has an opportunity to find its way
playing in the Final Four, hopefully playing its way through

(02:38:23):
Houston and Toyota Center during the regionals portion of March Madness,
and looking forward to what they have to unfold the
remainder of this regular season, conference tournament play and everything else.
And I don't know if everyone realized it was a
little bit of a joke. When I posted it earlier,
I mentioned there are some Houston area first time nominees
Mike D'Antoni, Calvin Samson, and Rockets guard Joe Johnson.

Speaker 1 (02:38:48):
It's all true. He did play for the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (02:38:51):
I don't think anybody references Joe Johnson as a Rocket,
but it is still true and he is still a
first time nominee. Appreciate everybody was part of the show today.
Our ticket winners included of course, Josh Jordan producing the
show and your one last opportunity. Josh, you're the one
who picked the Texans to cover the fourteen and a half,

(02:39:11):
so I imagine you expect to score to be a
lot like last week.

Speaker 1 (02:39:15):
I am the same.

Speaker 2 (02:39:16):
We're taking Bama, Texas A and m Ole miss and
Oregon not quite chalk to make it to the next
round of the college football postseason, into the final eight.
We've got Rockets basketball for you tomorrow. I will join
you at three point thirty for that. Our coverage starts
at three o'clock. Have a Rockets basketball for you Sunday nights,

(02:39:36):
I'll join you on coverage for that at eight thirty
and our coverage begins at eight pm.

Speaker 1 (02:39:41):
Have a great weekend, everybody. I'm looking forward to it.