October 20, 2025 • 11 mins
Houston Texans beat reporter and insider Jonathan M. Alexander joins the show to discuss the status of the Texans entering Week 7's showdown against the Seattle Seahawks
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your team.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All right, let's dig in on Monday night football, second
kickoff of the night. We're only five hours out from
kickoff between the Seahawks and the Houston Texans, Game six
for the Texans, trying to continue their winning streak. It's
reached two. A third win would put them at five hundred.
Houston Chronicle Texans beat writer Jonathan Alexander joins us from Seattle,
(00:38):
being with us many times before. And Jonathan, why don't
I just start here since you just put it out.
Christian Kirk is unavailable for the Texans tonight, already been
ruled out the hamstring injury suffered in practice. Now the
second or the excuse me, third game he'll miss this
year with hamstring. But as you wrote about and just
post it on your X handle, it could be meaningful
(01:01):
for another Texans receiver. We know about the rookies, Jalen know,
we know about Jadon Higgins, We obviously know Nico Collins.
Probably good night to try to have him eat. What
about Xavier Hutchinson. He's had a very very important season
offensively for the Texans this year, more so than in
any of his previous seasons. You wrote a little bit
about him this week. He's visited the end zone and
(01:22):
he's certainly at least, if not already known based on
his performance in the game against the Chargers of the
postseason last year. He certainly seems to be seeing things
have the trust of his quarterback is OC. But why
don't we start there, Jonathan, Welcome to the show. Tell
us about Xavier Hutchinson and the Texans tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Hey, Adam, Yeah, I think if you look at Xavier's
twelve catches, and he haven't had many catches through five games,
but if you look at many of his catches, a
lot of them have been on third down for first downs.
So to me, that indicates that he's become somebody who
c a stroud is really starting to trust. You know,
I think the Texans have implemented him a lot more
(02:03):
into this offense than what was previous. He improved his
game a lot, and you know, you're starting to see
his swagger his confidence really come out. And I think
that was on four display against the Ravens a few
weeks ago when he scored those two touchdowns and his
confidence was sky high, and I can only expect that
it will continue to increase.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
The offense obviously needs to do a lot more than
they've done over the course of the season. Scoring seventy
points in two games back to back sounds fantastic. Clearly
a totally different opponent in terms of quality and ability
to slow an offense down. What were the things that
you think they did well in those two wins against
the Titans and the Ravens. That mean they're understanding what
(02:46):
they can do well offensively and it's not totally related
to well, sure they did well, they played too crappy defenses.
Thus maybe it carries over into this game tonight and
the rest of the season.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah. Well, obviously the running game in the passing game
was a lot better, but I thought it started with
their lack of penalties. They only had two offensive penalties
and going for week one, that was a significant improvement,
you know, not you know, getting in third and long situations,
not committing silly penalties really helped offensive coordinator Nick Kyley
(03:20):
dig deep into his playbook and they got the Ravens
off guard and they exposed them. And I think that's
what Denico Ryans has been preaching all along, as we've
you know, asked a ton of questions about Nick Kayley
and his status, you know, the whole time, he said
they just needed to eliminate those penalties, and we saw
(03:41):
that against the Ravens. Now. Of course it wasn't as
good of a team, but the Technicals put up forty
four on the forty four on them, and they needed
to do that, and they did that.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Yeah. I mean you talked about what Demico's always talking about,
which is cleaning things up, and the penalties were a
big part of that. All all I keep hearing about
going into this game is how Seattle is going to
have its way with the Texans offensive line up front.
And while that might end up being the case, and
it could very well determine how tonight goes. Maybe I'm
(04:13):
the only one that thinks this. Maybe I'm in the minority.
I don't know if the Texans defensive unit is getting
the type of respect I would imagine it should going
into a game in which they've they have held teams
to the low amount of point total.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, no team has scored more than twenty points against
the Texans, and they've gone against some of the best
offenses in the league, whether that was the Rams, are
the Buccaneers, so we know this defense is the real deal.
Actually number one in the league and points allowed per game.
You know, they're going to make it difficult for the Seahawks,
and they're the unit that helps keep the Texans in
the game each week. They're, you know, one of the
(04:51):
stronger units in the league. So they'll today tonight is
an opportunity for them in front of the national audience
to be able to earn that respect. Now, one thing
I do think they need to continue to do is
force turnovers and make things a lot easier for the offense,
get them in favorable positions. But they are they're confident bunch.
(05:12):
And now they get Denico Autry back to add to
that defensive line. You know, if they remain healthy, this
can get scary for other teams.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
That surprised you and all, since you brought that up
that both Denico Autry and and Jalen Reed, two players
that had their twenty one day practice window open and
was nearing its close, that that was the move that
they made. I know, because of the timing of it,
there might not have been an alternative. But how do
you see them with Autry mixing him in. They've had
a pretty clear rotation with Anderson and Hunter and the
next group with Horton and Barnett, et cetera. How do
(05:42):
you think he fits in with this group tonight.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, you know, I thought it was inevitable, but I
did think that they were going to wait till the
very last minute, which I think that was in a
couple of days. But you know, Denico liked to rotate
a lot of defensive linemen and defensive ends, and the
fact that Denico Autrey can play multiple positions at defensive
end and defensive tackle gives him an advantage to get
(06:09):
some snaps. And obviously they lost fully Photocosi to the
IR with the injury, so they're going to be opportunities
for him to get some actions. As far as Jalen
Reed goes, they like his upside. He gives them depth
at safety and you know, if they would have an injury,
he would likely be the first guy up right now,
(06:32):
So it makes sense. You know, the fact that it
happened before this game was a tab bit surprising, but
it made total sense.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
It was inevitable given you know where they're playing tonight,
given the defenses involved and everything else, and given that
they're coming out of a bye week, especially who is
the one guy that you think maybe might be flying
under the radar tonight That could wind up being an
X factor And this could go on either side of
the football for the Texans in order to get this victory.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, I think one of the expectors on defense, and
maybe it's not necessarily flying under the radar, but I
think Jalen Petrie is gonna be an ex factor because
he is possible he might get matched up on Jackson
Smith and Jack but you know, I expect the Seahawks
(07:21):
to move him around. He plays a lot of outside receivers,
so he'll be matched up on Stingley at times, maybe
even Kamari LEAs year. But I think that they'll try
to use him in the flight as well, similar to
what the Rams did with Pooka Nakua. So that might
mean Jalen Petrie is matched up on him. So Jalen
Petrie is gonna have to cover him. Well, I'm gonna
have to have a really good game. As far as
(07:42):
the offense, like we mentioned earlier, I think it's got
to be Exavier Hutchinson. With Christian Kirk being out, he
was relied on against the Ravens, and he's gonna have
to step up again.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I know Titas Howard was asked about it earlier this week,
and we know all the numbers. And if you've seen
a lot of the Seahawks for well recently and definitely
this pass game against the Jaguars a week ago, they
do a lot of good things up front. They do
a lot of things to confuse an offensive line up front.
They're tackles specifically, both strong and capable of doing those
(08:15):
I think confusing things. It seems like the same thing
that's has plagued the Texans offensive line the last two years,
regardless of personnel, regardless of coaching staff, regardless of OC
but stunts on the interior as much as anywhere else. Potentially,
is that kind of the biggest thing to trying to
have successful offense tonight is handling the potentially confusing looks
(08:35):
or ultimate I guess execution they might see from the
Seahawks up front.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah. Absolutely. Coming into this week, Byron Murphy was high
for the league league among defensive tackles in sect ts
four and a half, but that defensive line unit. The
ed rushers are among the best units on this team.
They make this defense go and they do great job
was stopping to run. So when they stopped and run,
(09:02):
they get teams in third and wrong situations and that
lends itself to them using their stunts. They use stunts
at a very high rate, and I was talking to
Ariante Ersery he expects them to test him. The Techtans
haven't really experienced many stunts this year. We obviously know
that that was a huge issue for them last year.
(09:24):
But they have a totally different unit with exception of
Titus toward so they'll have to contain those stunts. They'll
have to communicate properly, and they've got to stay out
a third and long situations, so the Seahawks can't perform
those stunts.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Talk with Jonathan Alexander, beat writer for the Texans for
the Houston Chronicle. There in Seattle a running back situation
for the Texans. You expect a similar look that we've
seen all year in terms of snaps. A little bit
maybe slightly in favor of what he marks, but a
heavy dose of both he and Nick Chubb.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yes, I expect them to both give both the ball
and whoever has the hot hand. I'd be honest, I
think Nick Kylee will ride with that person. You know,
obviously winning mars do multiple things, whether that's catching him
out the backfield and running it as well. I think
he'll have an opportunity to have more touches than Nick Chubb.
But whoever has a high hand is probably going to
(10:14):
get the bulk of the carries.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
All right, So you're in Seattle, You're aware of the setting,
the decibel levels, all that kind of stuff. The Texans
haven't gotten off to the best start this year Seattle
with the four and two record. Ultimately, who do you
think comes out of this one tonight in a final
score prediction?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know, I think the Texans are getting really close
to improving, but I'd like to see them do it
against an elite defense before I picked them in a
game like this, So I'm picking the Seahawks and the
Way In twenty to sixteen.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Jonathan Alexander covering the two and four Texans for the
Houston Chronicle. If you guys are following along two and
four start to the season, with that much offseason change
and excitement for a potential third straight year, there will
only be four wins behind the Colts seven weeks into
the season. If they do not win tonight, I can't
(11:05):
wait to hear what the team has to say about
it after that, if in fact, it goes down like that.
But you pretty much sound like everybody we've talked to
and the same thing we've said throughout the week. I
don't have a great feeling about this. Enjoy Seattle and
hopefully it's the last game for Mariners fans there in
Seattle as they lose to the Blue Jays elsewhere tonight.
(11:25):
We'll catch you back in Houston later this week.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Thanks Adam and Adam the As on Sports Talk seven
ninety
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your team.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All right, let's dig in on Monday night football, second
kickoff of the night. We're only five hours out from
kickoff between the Seahawks and the Houston Texans, Game six
for the Texans, trying to continue their winning streak. It's
reached two. A third win would put them at five hundred.
Houston Chronicle Texans beat writer Jonathan Alexander joins us from Seattle,
(00:38):
being with us many times before. And Jonathan, why don't
I just start here since you just put it out.
Christian Kirk is unavailable for the Texans tonight, already been
ruled out the hamstring injury suffered in practice. Now the
second or the excuse me, third game he'll miss this
year with hamstring. But as you wrote about and just
post it on your X handle, it could be meaningful
(01:01):
for another Texans receiver. We know about the rookies, Jalen know,
we know about Jadon Higgins, We obviously know Nico Collins.
Probably good night to try to have him eat. What
about Xavier Hutchinson. He's had a very very important season
offensively for the Texans this year, more so than in
any of his previous seasons. You wrote a little bit
about him this week. He's visited the end zone and
(01:22):
he's certainly at least, if not already known based on
his performance in the game against the Chargers of the
postseason last year. He certainly seems to be seeing things
have the trust of his quarterback is OC. But why
don't we start there, Jonathan, Welcome to the show. Tell
us about Xavier Hutchinson and the Texans tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Hey, Adam, Yeah, I think if you look at Xavier's
twelve catches, and he haven't had many catches through five games,
but if you look at many of his catches, a
lot of them have been on third down for first downs.
So to me, that indicates that he's become somebody who
c a stroud is really starting to trust. You know,
I think the Texans have implemented him a lot more
(02:03):
into this offense than what was previous. He improved his
game a lot, and you know, you're starting to see
his swagger his confidence really come out. And I think
that was on four display against the Ravens a few
weeks ago when he scored those two touchdowns and his
confidence was sky high, and I can only expect that
it will continue to increase.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
The offense obviously needs to do a lot more than
they've done over the course of the season. Scoring seventy
points in two games back to back sounds fantastic. Clearly
a totally different opponent in terms of quality and ability
to slow an offense down. What were the things that
you think they did well in those two wins against
the Titans and the Ravens. That mean they're understanding what
(02:46):
they can do well offensively and it's not totally related
to well, sure they did well, they played too crappy defenses.
Thus maybe it carries over into this game tonight and
the rest of the season.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah. Well, obviously the running game in the passing game
was a lot better, but I thought it started with
their lack of penalties. They only had two offensive penalties
and going for week one, that was a significant improvement,
you know, not you know, getting in third and long situations,
not committing silly penalties really helped offensive coordinator Nick Kyley
(03:20):
dig deep into his playbook and they got the Ravens
off guard and they exposed them. And I think that's
what Denico Ryans has been preaching all along, as we've
you know, asked a ton of questions about Nick Kayley
and his status, you know, the whole time, he said
they just needed to eliminate those penalties, and we saw
(03:41):
that against the Ravens. Now. Of course it wasn't as
good of a team, but the Technicals put up forty
four on the forty four on them, and they needed
to do that, and they did that.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Yeah. I mean you talked about what Demico's always talking about,
which is cleaning things up, and the penalties were a
big part of that. All all I keep hearing about
going into this game is how Seattle is going to
have its way with the Texans offensive line up front.
And while that might end up being the case, and
it could very well determine how tonight goes. Maybe I'm
(04:13):
the only one that thinks this. Maybe I'm in the minority.
I don't know if the Texans defensive unit is getting
the type of respect I would imagine it should going
into a game in which they've they have held teams
to the low amount of point total.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, no team has scored more than twenty points against
the Texans, and they've gone against some of the best
offenses in the league, whether that was the Rams, are
the Buccaneers, so we know this defense is the real deal.
Actually number one in the league and points allowed per game.
You know, they're going to make it difficult for the Seahawks,
and they're the unit that helps keep the Texans in
the game each week. They're, you know, one of the
(04:51):
stronger units in the league. So they'll today tonight is
an opportunity for them in front of the national audience
to be able to earn that respect. Now, one thing
I do think they need to continue to do is
force turnovers and make things a lot easier for the offense,
get them in favorable positions. But they are they're confident bunch.
(05:12):
And now they get Denico Autry back to add to
that defensive line. You know, if they remain healthy, this
can get scary for other teams.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
That surprised you and all, since you brought that up
that both Denico Autry and and Jalen Reed, two players
that had their twenty one day practice window open and
was nearing its close, that that was the move that
they made. I know, because of the timing of it,
there might not have been an alternative. But how do
you see them with Autry mixing him in. They've had
a pretty clear rotation with Anderson and Hunter and the
next group with Horton and Barnett, et cetera. How do
(05:42):
you think he fits in with this group tonight.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, you know, I thought it was inevitable, but I
did think that they were going to wait till the
very last minute, which I think that was in a
couple of days. But you know, Denico liked to rotate
a lot of defensive linemen and defensive ends, and the
fact that Denico Autrey can play multiple positions at defensive
end and defensive tackle gives him an advantage to get
(06:09):
some snaps. And obviously they lost fully Photocosi to the
IR with the injury, so they're going to be opportunities
for him to get some actions. As far as Jalen
Reed goes, they like his upside. He gives them depth
at safety and you know, if they would have an injury,
he would likely be the first guy up right now,
(06:32):
So it makes sense. You know, the fact that it
happened before this game was a tab bit surprising, but
it made total sense.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
It was inevitable given you know where they're playing tonight,
given the defenses involved and everything else, and given that
they're coming out of a bye week, especially who is
the one guy that you think maybe might be flying
under the radar tonight That could wind up being an
X factor And this could go on either side of
the football for the Texans in order to get this victory.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, I think one of the expectors on defense, and
maybe it's not necessarily flying under the radar, but I
think Jalen Petrie is gonna be an ex factor because
he is possible he might get matched up on Jackson
Smith and Jack but you know, I expect the Seahawks
(07:21):
to move him around. He plays a lot of outside receivers,
so he'll be matched up on Stingley at times, maybe
even Kamari LEAs year. But I think that they'll try
to use him in the flight as well, similar to
what the Rams did with Pooka Nakua. So that might
mean Jalen Petrie is matched up on him. So Jalen
Petrie is gonna have to cover him. Well, I'm gonna
have to have a really good game. As far as
(07:42):
the offense, like we mentioned earlier, I think it's got
to be Exavier Hutchinson. With Christian Kirk being out, he
was relied on against the Ravens, and he's gonna have
to step up again.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I know Titas Howard was asked about it earlier this week,
and we know all the numbers. And if you've seen
a lot of the Seahawks for well recently and definitely
this pass game against the Jaguars a week ago, they
do a lot of good things up front. They do
a lot of things to confuse an offensive line up front.
They're tackles specifically, both strong and capable of doing those
(08:15):
I think confusing things. It seems like the same thing
that's has plagued the Texans offensive line the last two years,
regardless of personnel, regardless of coaching staff, regardless of OC
but stunts on the interior as much as anywhere else. Potentially,
is that kind of the biggest thing to trying to
have successful offense tonight is handling the potentially confusing looks
(08:35):
or ultimate I guess execution they might see from the
Seahawks up front.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah. Absolutely. Coming into this week, Byron Murphy was high
for the league league among defensive tackles in sect ts
four and a half, but that defensive line unit. The
ed rushers are among the best units on this team.
They make this defense go and they do great job
was stopping to run. So when they stopped and run,
(09:02):
they get teams in third and wrong situations and that
lends itself to them using their stunts. They use stunts
at a very high rate, and I was talking to
Ariante Ersery he expects them to test him. The Techtans
haven't really experienced many stunts this year. We obviously know
that that was a huge issue for them last year.
(09:24):
But they have a totally different unit with exception of
Titus toward so they'll have to contain those stunts. They'll
have to communicate properly, and they've got to stay out
a third and long situations, so the Seahawks can't perform
those stunts.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Talk with Jonathan Alexander, beat writer for the Texans for
the Houston Chronicle. There in Seattle a running back situation
for the Texans. You expect a similar look that we've
seen all year in terms of snaps. A little bit
maybe slightly in favor of what he marks, but a
heavy dose of both he and Nick Chubb.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yes, I expect them to both give both the ball
and whoever has the hot hand. I'd be honest, I
think Nick Kylee will ride with that person. You know,
obviously winning mars do multiple things, whether that's catching him
out the backfield and running it as well. I think
he'll have an opportunity to have more touches than Nick Chubb.
But whoever has a high hand is probably going to
(10:14):
get the bulk of the carries.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
All right, So you're in Seattle, You're aware of the setting,
the decibel levels, all that kind of stuff. The Texans
haven't gotten off to the best start this year Seattle
with the four and two record. Ultimately, who do you
think comes out of this one tonight in a final
score prediction?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know, I think the Texans are getting really close
to improving, but I'd like to see them do it
against an elite defense before I picked them in a
game like this, So I'm picking the Seahawks and the
Way In twenty to sixteen.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Jonathan Alexander covering the two and four Texans for the
Houston Chronicle. If you guys are following along two and
four start to the season, with that much offseason change
and excitement for a potential third straight year, there will
only be four wins behind the Colts seven weeks into
the season. If they do not win tonight, I can't
(11:05):
wait to hear what the team has to say about
it after that, if in fact, it goes down like that.
But you pretty much sound like everybody we've talked to
and the same thing we've said throughout the week. I
don't have a great feeling about this. Enjoy Seattle and
hopefully it's the last game for Mariners fans there in
Seattle as they lose to the Blue Jays elsewhere tonight.
(11:25):
We'll catch you back in Houston later this week.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Thanks Adam and Adam the As on Sports Talk seven
ninety
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