All Episodes

January 6, 2025 168 mins
Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on January 6th 2025.

  • Regular season is over, bring on the Chargers.
  • Texans-Chargers is the Wild Card Weekend lead-off game. What a surprise...
  • The Best of X- JJ Watt shots on the Tennessee "Oilers"/Titans. 
  • NFL firings. 
  • DeMeco Ryans huge praise for Justin Herbert. Herbert with bulletin board material?
  • What AFC South team has the brightest future? 
  • Good, Bad and The Ugly.
  • Jerry Jones the actor
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams series,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A Team.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
It is a Monday edition of the program as we
get back to normal here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and in an hour on Space City Home Network and
get you ready for playoff football here in Houston, Texas.
The Texans winning on the road to finish out a
ten win campaign yesterday in Nashville, just like I predicted,

(00:44):
albeit not even remotely how I thought it would happen,
But they did get those ten wins back to back
seasons in which Tamiko and c J. Stroud, the partnership
that has resurrected the Texans from the depths of you
know what, to double digit back to back playoff and
division championship seasons. But as I was watching it yesterday,

(01:06):
and you know, great, you know, perfect, perfect handling of personnel.
If you will get CJ. Stroud in there, get him
to go down the field with a perfect drive, score
a touchdown to his best receiver, and then call it
a day, just like a preseason game, just like a
tune up.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
If you will for the postseason, and you know, everything
was fine. It looked great.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Obviously, they beat the Oilers in their jerseys even though
they're the Titans and that name has been retired, and
still have the jerseys the second when they play the
Texans once a year when they can wear them. But
I just found myself thinking, all right, well, probably better
if the Pittsburgh Steelers are the ones coming to town.
But when that was off the table, I started thinking

(01:49):
about this Chargers matchup and I started to try and think, Okay,
how can I take positives away from a relatively meaningless
game against the Titans, who frankly, probably organizationally wanted to
lose that game so that they could get the number
one pick in a draft where there's no surefire number
one quarterback, which is what they need. But how can

(02:10):
I take actual, real, not surface but tangible positives away
from a win over and you know, three win Titans
club that's going nowhere and try and instill some sort
of confidence in the Texans when the postseason and the
bright lights and you know, a team that frankly is

(02:30):
playing better than them comes to town for their regularly
scheduled every single time, it happens, it happens at three
point thirty on a Saturday playoff game, and I just
can't do it, Lex and will probably differ on this
all week. You're very confident that the Texans are going
to win this game, at least from our text exchange, but.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I just don't see it. I think the Chargers are
playing very well, and even though you like to tell
us that every team has a pass rush, some are
better than others. And while I think this is probably
not as good as the one they would have faced
with the Steelers if they had come to town, I
don't know. I just feel like the offense that the
Chargers brings the town, even against this very good Texans defense,

(03:14):
I think it's going to be too much and the
Texans will be one and done, even though they're playing
at home.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
My extreme confidence that you deduced for my text was
I said win. Your extreme arrogance in them losing was
They're gonna get their asses handed to that. I'm not
sure that both of those are the same, but we
could treat them as such. Texans Chargers, Texans Broncos. Those
are the last two teams left or Texans Steelers the

(03:41):
wildcard teams that they could have faced. As I said
on the show last week, to end it, if they
got the Steelers to come to town, regardless of their result,
but clearly that would have helped.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
They still could have won and ended up here in Houston.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
They were going to be favored, and I said they
wouldn't be favored over anybody else, and they are not.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
They're not favored to beat the Chargers.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
I think the last couple of weeks, looking at who
might end up being here, I was likely to be
the case. The Texans weren't going to give everything they
had into yesterday's game. Thus, I really don't think odds
makers would have looked at them any differently. Clearly, the
Chargers wanted to give enough to get the win. Once
they saw that the Steelers were who they have been
for a month now, which is the worst team in

(04:23):
the playoffs. Still, all they had to do is go
out and win and they get a trip to Houston.
It's a pretty different matchup than you get a come
to Houston. It's the second worst team in the AFC,
arguably in the playoffs. It's in controlled conditions because you'll
be inside at RG Stadium, versus not getting win yesterday
against the Raiders and having to travel to Baltimore in

(04:44):
both conditions, and against the likely MVP of the NFL,
a defense that's looking more like the Ravens defense of
old and certainly an offense that is just the most
difficult offense to match up this side of the Detroit Lions.
So it's a huge difference for the Chargers. The only
negative of that is the karmecide of it or the feeling.

(05:04):
But they won. They had to earn the right. They
didn't say, well, we want to manipulate our spot here
and see if we can catch the Texans. They needed
to win in order to catch the Texans in a matchup,
and that's what they got. So I don't really think
even that angle is what You'll have a lot of
different parts of this. We got a whole week of
shows to kind of break it all down. We'll start
with looking at what the Texans did over the course

(05:25):
of the season, and certainly yesterday at least a little bit.
There was one thing of great significance that came out
of that game, and we'll see if the Texans even
have the option to make a decision on it. Or
if the decisions already made for them, and that's what
they have upfront, inside or in front of CJ. Stroud
with yet another combination of an offensive line got to

(05:46):
recognize who they were up against. While that same front
did give them trouble earlier this year and is very good.
I think all the way around, both on the edges
and on the interior. Was one of the better performances
for the line, at least when the halftime buzzer went off,
because after halftime, the Texans weren't playing really any starters
of consequence. Even if there was a handful on the
offensive line like Patterson's scrugs, they weren't playing with the

(06:08):
other three regulars, So I wouldn't put a whole lot
of stock into it. But for the first half when
they were out there, when Tunsell and Fisher were a guard,
are these tackles and Scrugs and Howard the guards, Patterson
at center, that's what they need to run out there
against the Chargers, a group that's played one entire game together.
Probably this is what they're up against. This is what

(06:30):
they have to see. If Shaq Mason has recovered enough,
and I don't think it should matter. This is the
exact same situation as the first time a guard got hurt.
You're not playing good football when Kenyan Green is out there.
You're not playing good football when Shack Mason is out there.
I don't believe he's even gonna give them that option
by being healthy. But hopefully if he does no offense
to him personally, they recognize they're just not better with

(06:53):
him on the field, and we'll see if this team
can match up with a good front, two good edge rushers,
although older most with Mac and Bosa.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
A Dupre's a pretty good player.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
They know a couple of the players on the Chargers defense,
Denzel Perriman among them, Derwin James excellent player. This is
where they're probably better, but they also have a better
offense than the Texans. Texans have a little bit better defense,
Chargers have a little bit better offense. Neither team has
performed particularly well against playoff competition. Texans have a win,

(07:25):
the Chargers have two wins.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
They lost.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Basically, those two wins came against the only team in
the NFC playoffs behind them that they faced, and that
is the Chargers or the Broncos, excusely.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Whom they beat twice, so lots to get into. It's
justin Herbert versus c J.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
Stroud, It's Tamiko Ryans versus the other Harbaugh, It's the
Texans versus the Chargers, and looking forward to it. As
much as everyone else wants to just say, why bother
same old Texans.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
They stink one and done one.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
A crappy division, perfectly fine to have that point of view,
I don't have it.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
I don't think they're the same old Texans. I just
think that their biggest achilles heel is going to keep
them from doing anything of consequence. That's I mean. I
keep saying that all season long. What's so frustrating about
this team is what I feel like it could be
if you did have a good line in front of CJ.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
And I guess, I guess when.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
You're looking to kind of grade CJ, especially in his
sophomore year, where so many quarterbacks get that Moniker, Oh,
it's the sophomore slump. I don't know if it's real
or not because of that, Like I know he's oh, yeah,
but why is it? But why is it real? Is
he didn't just forget how to play football. He didn't
just forget how to play football, Like, there's things playing well,

(08:42):
but why is he not playing well? Is you just
forget how to play? No, it's the offensive line that's
probably responsible for like seventy to eighty percent of it.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
In my opinion.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
You just got done talking about all the crap players
they're going to put out there in no matter who
it is, and the depth is non existent, and so
you're supposed to he.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
Had a sophomore slump, point blank, end of discussion. He
was watched this year and pretty much every possible way
you could look at it.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Would it have been the case if he had a
better line. I don't think it was.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
But it doesn't even matter. It doesn't matter, No, it doesn't.
He'd had one. We just watched it happen. Why it
happened is worth a discussion, but we watched it happen.
He's going into the playoffs as a lesser player than
he was a year ago, and he's playing behind that
same line. So presumably that's the same player that gets here.
We'll find out on Saturday if the line plays good enough. Okay,
can CJ play better football? Because now he's at some

(09:31):
point during the game he'd get comfortable at some point
during the game, they've blocked well enough. At some point
during the game, the offense is working, they're playing in
front of the change, maybe they're playing from in front,
and maybe CJ. Stroud turns in a game similar to
last year's postseason game, similar to many games last year
where he clearly was an outstanding quarterback, but he basically
hadn't had any of those games for an entire season.

(09:54):
He had five or six games last year better than
any game he played the entire twenty twenty four regular season.
That's who he was this year. That's just a fact.
But do you feel like the line was better last
year this year? Unquestionably, nobody should be debating that their
line was way better last year. Again, hard to explain,
considering how much of the scheme didn't change at all,

(10:14):
and how many of the players didn't change it all,
even when they were in their normal positions for much
of this year.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
And see that would maybe support what you're saying, which
is that he just regressed.

Speaker 4 (10:24):
Well, I don't want to I don't want to make
it sound like I don't agree that their offensive line
contributed to it.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
There's no debating that either.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Of course it did but I also can't think that
that's it.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Everything else was fine.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
He was hitting open receivers when he had time, His
footwork was good, his ability to progress through the reads
was good.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Because it just wasn't as good.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
It just simply wasn't too many plays that looked very
similar to last year, right up until the point he
threw it five yards over the guy's head, even on
a first series, even at the opening of the game,
even against teams that did not turn out to have
a great day rushing the quarterback, there weren't many of those,
but their offense was significantly worse. I think we're a
little bit fooled into how good their running game was
this year if you really kind of look at it

(11:07):
over the course of the year, especially after game one,
which means the last seventeen weeks, which is a massive
sample size.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
They just didn't run the ball well enough.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
You churned out enough total yards, but getting four point
one to four point two yards to carry is in
the back half of the league. It's not good because
this is who they are. It doesn't mean they can't win.
And officially, maybe I'll wait till Friday, but we waited
till the whole first segment of the five show week
to tell you what we're thinking coming up on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Why not? Why not just get to it.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
And by the way, speaking of that, let's get the
most recent and I mean within minutes opinion from the
head coach of your Houston Texans on that very topic,
Demiko today on the Texans offensive line.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
When we come back.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety back to Adam Clinton.
I'm Wexler on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Wex ac with you on a Monday edition of the program.
As we begin counting down to the latest three thirty matchup.
By the way, I don't think there's anybody that the
Texans would have matched up with that it wouldn't have
been three thirty, I mean eighty. But we kind of
talked about that last week. It was pretty much set
in stone. I don't mind it. I guess I mean,

(12:39):
it has to be better if the Texans weren't playing
this weekend, because that would mean the season went better.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
But wow, number one seed, Yeah, well why not. I've
never been there before. They've never been to a lot
of places in the postseason. Before that they need to
before we don't. Houston team has.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, I know, well they've been to the AFC Championship
the other No, not as the number one, and see
that's they've never been there before. Well, I was just
talking about this team going like further than the second
round of the postseason on any given year. But I'm
not like up in arms about it. I don't think
it based up in arms, but I just don't.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Whatever. That's the time.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
It's kind of you for the worst team and you
have the second or worst quarterback and you are in Houston.
This isn't there's nothing to even be discussing about it.
You're just kind of getting sick of it. But they
don't make the decision based on other years. They make
the decision based on this year plus information they have
from the rating standpoint in other years.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
What do you bringing to the table?

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Nothing?

Speaker 2 (13:36):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
I will say this about this situation though, because you
know a lot of times this happens in the NBA,
and it is I think market based. That's the one
fantastic difference between the NFL in general and the NBA.
They absolutely want the Lakers from Los Angeles on TV.

(13:56):
They absolutely love the fact that the Knicks matter again
for the first time in like two and a half
decades in the NBA, but the NFL. The best quarterback
on the best team, at least in the AFC record wise,
and for the most part over the last few seasons,
it's actually been that is tiny little Kansas city, you know,
and that's that wasn't always the case.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
Yeah, but they have the league's biggest star and second
biggest star for other reasons.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
So that adds a lot to it.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
When you got the MVP on the team, you got
a multi time champion. Obviously at the beginning of the run,
they're a zero time champion in this era, so but
that does add up. And then you move to the
next team. You got Baltimore, they got a two time MVP.
They've been a consistent playoff performer. They're very recognizable to
everybody across the country in there about as consistent a
winner as an organization for a long period of time

(14:47):
as anybody in the AFC. You know, Josh Allen has
been in some of the greatest postseason games in the
AFC the last five years, not often on the winning
side of it, but providing them with great value for
the viewers that are watching. Well, those are the first
three teams that are all playing at home. Obviously Kansas
City not this week, so the other two plus Houston,
it's an easy, easy playoff that. I don't know that

(15:09):
the other three teams bring much to the table either.
The Steelers probably bring the most, which is that and
the fact that it's a division game gets them the
evening game. You know, the Bills. I just talked about
them in a very positive way. Well, the Bills Broncos game,
the Sean McDermott, Sean Payton matchup, the bow Nicks Josh
Allen matchup is probably in the second least desirable time slot.

(15:33):
They're playing the first game on Sunday at noon, typical
of an NFL week. But I would think with the
six open slots, three of them in primetime, that's pretty undesirable.
And that's why they got it they have. I think
they care a little bit about some of the markets
on the NFC side from where they are, and obviously
the opposition, but there wasn't we weren't waiting to see, well,

(15:54):
which other match this was a given the Texans and
their viewership and their fan base they don't bring anything
to the table the way the NFL looks at it.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
They have to change that by winning.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, at least last year, CJ was you know, the
darling I guess of the rookie class. It certainly wasn't
Bryce Young, and he was doing things that made you
made him and the Texans as default must see television
from a like actual play standpoint, all the stuff built

(16:31):
in market and all that kind of stuff. Like I think,
you know, the NFL puts Dallas on TV because they're
the Cowboys, which I still don't understand, but the numbers
back it up, so it is what it is, even
though they will almost assuredly be more of a spectacular
disappointment every single time in the postseason that.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
Also plays Yeah, I mean, I mean these spectacular disappointments.
One reason why they're making these ridiculous, hilarious end of
game plays is because the game's not.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Over yet, because it's captivating, because it's close.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Yeah, there's something that's gonna happen that the winner has
not yet been fully exammined.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
That a lot of games last year was the Texans.

Speaker 4 (17:09):
It was a lot of games this year they played
an e Ton of one score games. Yesterday thankfully wasn't
categorized as one, as they won by nine points most
of the time.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
It is because they had let the opposition back into
it though this year.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
Or they just never they simply didn't build any kind
of lead. That they had a very few games where
they were up big and then oh my god, they
let They just didn't produce a big enough lead for
the way that it seemed like they were dominating the game.
They'd drive all the way down the field, have a
red zone turnover, they drive all the way down the field,
getting the red zone and run eight plays and then
kick a short field goal. Just the opportunity to kind
of put their you know, their foot down just didn't

(17:44):
happen often enough this year.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
And all goes back to the offense.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
That they were extremely non explosive, saying that a day
after they had a ninety two yard run. And consider
the competition, what was on the line. You were playing
a team that thought, well, there's an outside chance that
we have the number one pick in the draft, but
only if we do our part, and our part is losing.
And I definitely think they did a few things to
lose that game without going over the top and making

(18:10):
their players play badly. And that's the hardest part to
do if you're a team, asked the Patriots who won yesterday,
It's hard to make players play badly on purpose. It's
easy to put players out there you think just simply
can't perform. It's easy to not do certain things as
head coach, and I am one hundred percent convinced they
did not challenge the Nico Collins fumble because they would

(18:30):
have gotten the ball back or gotten the ball.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
They didn't want it. They didn't want any part of that.
So you're stazing to do that.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
I mean they want to lose, Yeah, exactly, And you
know sometimes we just talked about this last week, the
players auditioning for their futures and not wanting to lose
this game. Yet organizations probably do, whether they want to
admit it or not. That's that's a clear indication of Okay,
I can maybe control this situation because I think you're
right they challenge that they get the ball back. It's

(18:57):
a different it's a different story on the opening drive
of the game the Texans.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, maybe it wasn't clear cut. I would agree, But
you know, any other game, if if you're really truly competing,
somebody upstairs is going to tell coach Callahan, come on, man,
so what if you lose it's the first half.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
You can get the ball here.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
They would have challenged it one hundred times out of
one hundred worked out in their favor. They do have
the number one pick. They did get a Patriots victory
over the Bills. The Bills were not playing their regulars
because nothing could change with their postseason position and they
won't get an off week, so they treated this week
like their off week, which is smart. It's definitely what
I would do. I told you I advocated for the
Texans to do the same, and Dimiko felt otherwise, and

(19:36):
he was to me, lucky, lucky that everything worked out.
He definitely played with fire in two ways. One the
obvious somebody could get hurt, and two, what do you
do when it doesn't work? When Nico Collins runs for
one yard on the quick pitch to him?

Speaker 2 (19:53):
When CJ.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
Stroud misses on his first two throws and it's third
nine on your opening drive, deep in your own territory,
you're punting right, and then what and you send CJ.
Stroud and Nico Collins and Joe Mixon out there for
a second series. How about it's nothing, nothing after the
first quarter and you've had it twice, you keep sending
him out there. I mean the good vibes that you

(20:15):
wanted you luckily got. As a team, probably not, but
they had enough individual plays that you could see how
much this team is still in on what could happen
because they're one of the fourteen teams dancing. It was
a phenomenal scene watching Damian Pierce run ninety two yards
with the football when it looked like he was gonna
get caught at the fifty and still manage to get

(20:35):
all the way in there. Again, can't help the cynicism
in me to wonder that last guy chasing Damien piris
going full speed. I mean, he caught him and then
he didn't do anything until, oh, he's definitely gonna score anyway,
I might as well just grab him now. Derek Barnett's
run that got a lot of juice on the Texan sidelines.
I know it was just a receiver there, but man,
that was he wasn't caring a lot of guys because

(20:57):
there was nobody else there. There was really only one
guy there to try to tackle them. Yeah, let's go
ahead and go ahead. Punch it in, build that lead,
make this easier on, make it look good, make it
so we don't have to really try to lose this game.
I mean, we're trying our best anyway, we're playing Will
Levis and Mason Rudolphin. He's seriously but from this play
with Barnett and that play with the touchdown as well

(21:19):
the Collins touchdown, these are just indo I mean the offense,
of course, is going to feel a lot better about
going down the field of scoring to open up a game. Anybody.
As they like to say, it's hard to win in
the NFL. So even though they were playing a team
that was destined for the number one pick, they had
to go out there and execute. They haven't done that
since barely since they did it against the Dolphins. Another

(21:39):
game where it seemed like you were out playing them
by a large margin and it's still only twenty to
twelve and you've had to punt the ball back to
the Dolphins with two minutes to go and they could
go tie the game. It's nice that you intercept with
the first pass that they threw, but it was just
another indicator of they weren't. They weren't even playing good
offense on that day. They're a back half of the
league offense. They're a back ten teams in the league

(22:01):
offense in some areas, one series is probably not gonna
change everything, but mentally, that's why Dimiko did it and
they rewarded him.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
We will hear from Demiko coming up in the final
segment of this hour, but we got to get to
what we always do this time of the day. Next
segment that would be the best of X. It's coming
up next The A.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
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Speaker 2 (24:09):
You'll succeed.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
Never doubt that you're the one to per no one building.
You're the best of X.

Speaker 7 (24:19):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best of X.
Posting every single day, you're the best of X breaking.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
The entire Internet.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
Internet isn't broken, but it has been harmed a little bit.
Thanks time festive X back here with you. We continue
through twenty twenty five what we do each and every
day here on the show. Around two thirty, we got
a lot of things that you might have seen on
social media. A clip from this interview, a clip from
that TV show, some postgame comments, all good fodder and

(24:54):
they definitely it's nice that social media is around for
But we'll sprinkle those into the other fifteen second of
Today's an everyday show. We try to find what people
have posted, some original content, some things that might make
you think. We can start on the football side. Today
is well, yesterday it actually began. It's a bad day
in the NFL when the season comes to a close

(25:15):
for eighteen teams, maybe more, When coaches, GMS, head coaches,
personnel people find out that you've worked your last day
here the AFC South, considering they just had their fourth
consecutive season of just one team making the postseason, not
a surprise that.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Some changes are being made.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
It's maybe even a bigger surprise that changes aren't being made.
So we'll start with the changes that aren't being made,
and then we'll look at the Houston versus Houston game yesterday,
as echoed and emphasized very loudly and clearly by the
CBS crew, most notably JJ Watt. But we'll start in
the division with the Indianapolis Colts. They are not making changes.

(25:59):
Shane Steichen is going to enter his third season as
the Indianapolis Colts head coach back to back years of
finishing second in the division and missing the postseason. Last year,
they played into the final day of the season. This
year they played into the second to last game of
the season, but major major issues with who their quarterback
is moving forward. They definitely do not have a definitive
answer on Anthony Richardson after two seasons. The undraftingman the

(26:23):
top five. That is bad news. Usually it's bad news
for your GM. The GM is Chris Ballard. It will
remain Chris Ballard. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight consecutive seasons of not winning the AFC South. Jim
Mersey's fine with that, loves how the foundation they've built,
and wants to continue to move forward with Chris. Mind You,
during those eight years, everybody else has won the division.

(26:45):
The Texans and the Jaguars have won. The Titans have
won the division multiple times. You could say the Texans
have dominated the division. But that's not the point. At
Indy Colts GM. Late yesterday, after word got out that
Chris Ballard would be retained, unleash the following on social media,
A nice little graphic, a picture of I thought five

(27:07):
very specifically chosen players.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Technically they're the captains.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
They all happen to be draft picks of Chris Ballard,
Nelson and Taylor and.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Pears and Pittman and Downs, and.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
He writes, I'm deeply humbled and excited to return as
the GM of the Colts. Over the past seasons, we
face challenges, but the resilience of this team, the dedication
of our players, the unwavering support of our fans.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Have been nothing short of inspiring.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Together, we will work tirelessly to build a championship caliber team,
focusing both the media's attacks and long term stability. I'm
committed to making the tough decisions necessary to bring a
Lombardi Trophy back to Indianapolis. Thank you to mister Ursa,
and it's continued trust and to the Colts nation. If
you're enduring support, let's get to work. Sounds pretty good, right.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
It sounds yeah, it sounds manicured.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
It sounds manicured, but it does sound real, it sounds authentic,
sounds appreciative all those things at Indye Colts. GM is
the bio fort reads parody GM of the Indianapolis Colts.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
So if you just read it, move on, you.

Speaker 4 (28:14):
Probably thought, oh, he's pretty appreciative of continuing to be
the GM there. But luckily not everybody felt that way,
and that's why the comments are so good. If you've
heard him talk before and we've played sound from him before,
remember he's the GM that gets so ticked off around
the combine when information leaks like it did with CJ. Stroud,

(28:34):
like it did previously with many others, and test scores
and other things like that, he's even cursed. But he's
also had to have postseason press conferences or end of
season press conferences where he has to kind of, you know,
put it on himself. Brandon says, back to him, parody GM.
Chris Ballard not enough. Look starts with me man in
there for this to be believable and at Indy Colts

(28:58):
GM response, look filled this season, that's on me. Totally understand,
totally gets it. Realizes yeah, I didn't write it, play nothing.
Just cursed at him and Chris said, deal with it, buddy, Austin,
who must not realize it's a parent You should have
been fired. Sounds like Jim needs to go back to rehab.
Chris says, take a Xennex and chill. A sad Colts

(29:21):
fan just said it's time and tweeted up a photoshopped
picture of the Colts next quarterback. Caption is It's time
and the photo is the Colts next quarterback?

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Do you know what it might be? One of?

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Should your Sanders not a rookie?

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (29:41):
Well, now, a very serious looking photoshop in a Colts
uniform of Aaron Rodgers, So obviously joke.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Would Aaron Rodgers be better than Anthony Richardson next season?

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Uh, that's not the way to ask it.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
Would there be any reason to put Anthony Aaron Rodgers
on your football team blanket statement NFL wide.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
The answer is no.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
But if you think about the way I pose that question,
what a horrible choice.

Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, and I can't even believe what the Dolphins did
yesterday to have him go out like that, a four
touchdown game and a victory for the Dolphins after he
tried to get Devonte Adams killed on that ridiculous double passage.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
See he didn't gain yards on it though.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
My goodness, so many people are going to fall for this, Lamo.
No one likes you, even if you are a parody.
So Colts fans get it. They realize this is We're
in a terrible situation. The Colts aren't finishing last in
the division, and they aren't finishing first in the division,
and as you know, that's like the worst place to
be in the NFL. We turned to JJ Watt. What

(30:46):
happened yesterday in Nashville was pure comedy. Derek Oil, Derek's
all over the place, the sweet Columbia blue, red and
white Unis logos, some gear, and obviously the team all
clad in that. Brian Callahan evokes memories of nobody but
he was in their gear anyway. Michael just a simple tweet,

(31:08):
but he did direct it untagged to JJ Watt. JJ
Watt needs to stop menching about the Tennessee Titans, throwback jerseys,
bleep lives rent free in that loser's head.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
JJ.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
I don't think he still or ever maybe did have
a staff of people working with him on social media,
but some players and ex players will note and notice, Hey,
did somebody tweet about me and not tag me?

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Can I find it?

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Nobody's better at that than former Texans safety Tyrone Matthew.
If you put anything remotely close to Tyrane and Matthew
in a tweet, he would see it.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
You don't have to tag him. He'll find it good
or bad.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
But JJ found this and he quote tweeted and said,
you're owing to while wearing them against the Texans.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
I would beg to differ. That makes you the loser.
One hundred percent accurate.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
By the way, got a response from an at Brian McTaggart.
It was just a gift of one of your favorite
actors in one of his finest roles, Denzel Denzel Okay
driving his car my man.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Yeah yeah, well that's one of your favorite roles of
his too. Now it is.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Now JJ Watt when it comes to owning the Titans
caption with a bunch of great stuff, nice little gift
from a VT of Ashton Kutcher and one of his
most famous roles on that seventies show burn.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
It's always, it's always a go to when it comes
to gifts. I feel like I responded to this, I
had some time and I feel like when this whole
thing went down, this particular situation because again, oh yeah,
here we get well.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
And we do have some additional audio on this topic
because it was did catch a little bit more of
a nationwide flavor to it in one of the CBS offices,
So we'll get to that later.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Oh yeah, I use the Kevin Durant response that look
at you emotional.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
It does get my I mean, it cracks me up.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
And even the last segment of the Matt Thomas Show
without Matt Thomas starring ross today he got Titan Chris
calling in talking about this very subject like, don't take
it personal, man, don't be so no one here is
taking it personally or is an emotional thing. And this
is a cause and effect thing. And the cause started
in Nashville because Amy Adams Strunk continues to be or

(33:30):
try to be, as petty as her dead father.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
That's all this is about.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
Yeah, they did the right thing as a football team
from a football standpoint. They lost, they found their way
to slide all the way up to the top of
the NFL draft board officially announced today, but we already
knew this yesterday. The league gave us our official draft
order at least through the fourteen teams that have postseasons
in front of them. So like most of us here, remember,

(33:54):
JJ was not a Houstonian when the Houston Oilers played
in the NFL. He was a Ustonian when the Houston
Texans were a franchise and the Titans were over there
and Nashville.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
He wasn't even around when they were in Memphis.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
And by the way, he has a good feel for it.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Equally as dumb as the whole uniform thing is when
they honor greats from the past that never played in tennessee.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
Earl Campbell in the Ring of Honor at their stadium
as an absolutely hilarious joke.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
Awesome, so stupid, it's like, and for us to say
that is again, I need to break it down to
you simpletons out there. That's not us being obsessed with it.
That's not us being emotional, none of that. That's just
pure rational observation that. By the way, many national media
types were making yesterday, A lot of them, not just

(34:46):
JJ who played here, guys that have nothing to do
with Houston were like, this is stupid.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
I leave you with the thought from Davy, who is
based on his handle. I think what he said is
also true. He's got vall in his handle Tennessee person.
He's a volunteer, he likes Tennessee, he lives in Tennessee,
and he writes the Titans are losers, lifelong Tennessee and
I want nothing to do with them.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
He's rational, He's absolutely rational.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
And people like Rob who said only Texans fans talk
about the Titans throwbacks, that's the do you realize how
you are opening yourself up to verbal assault like immediately,
because it took me about five seconds to say, well,
only the Titans only wear them when they play the Texans.
And then I told him that we could do this
all day, but I was bored with him, so he
needed to touch grass and pick one city's team to

(35:34):
root for. Since he's like a Pistons Astros Titans fan.

Speaker 4 (35:38):
And the Texans did grab a hold of that JJ
post and had a few others of their own, you know,
making the Derek into an l and some other things.
They're all in as usual. Great digital team over there, absolutely,
and now it's time for one of the teams to
focus on the off season and the other to focus
on football because they still have a game left.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Couldn't have said it better.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
All right, We will wrap up the two o'clock hour
coming up next with reaction from Demiico Ryans, particularly on
the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
That is straight ahead.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety back to Adam
Clinton had Adam Wexler the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Final segments that's not televised today on a Monday edition
of the program. By the way, nobody cares about this,
least of all you. But how do you know?

Speaker 2 (36:33):
I know that's say no, you let's go.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
I feel better that I feel like today's an actual Monday,
Like it's not, oh.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
We had two days off and then we're gonna work
for five days, and then we're gonna get two days
off and then we're gonna work for five days. I
get it this, I totally am with you. I do
care a little bit weird. There's no way even this
isn't even just us because of you know, when Christmas
falls during the week, most people, not everybody, this sucks.
People get at least one day off. Sometimes you get

(37:02):
both the twenty fourth and fifth. Sometimes you get both
the thirty first and first, And in this case this year,
both of those days and back to back weeks fell
during the week. We had some broadcasts, some football game,
one football game that took us off the air, so
we as much as we wanted to be here, we
just couldn't be.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
There was something else on the air in our place.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
But yes, a little bit of twenty twenty five on
the air kind of started here today on our program.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Another thing you and others probably don't care about, but
I'm still gonna.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
Go with it. The feral cat that we have around
our house.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
That is our six year old son, who's basically been
off longer than his older sister, who's on a college
schedule where it's normal to have like a month off. Well,
because of their schedule being different than the elementary school
districts schedule of holidays, we had to take him out
of school just so we could take our week long vacation.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
So he's been off forever, and he's off today and
tomorrow too to be able to catch up home work
and stuff.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
I don't be all right, it's just why can't they
everybody get on the same page. I get it, like
you said, middle of the week Christmas, but like, it's.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
Just I don't think everybody in the terms of your
school district, the other thirty school districts in the city
or area, colleges across the country, and workplaces, I don't
think they're ever.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Going to be on the same page.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
I think they should strive. They could try. I mean,
they can't even get summer right. They're off well, and
they're off, but we're not.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
That's so true.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
And yeah, I just but also, you know what people
are saying to me, Hey, maybe don't have a college
freshman and a kindergartener under the same roof, which technically
she's not anymore, but you get the idea.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
I got a random text threat. I'll just bring to
the show here.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
From time to time, I do so with other sports
fans that I'm friends with that have been for a
long time. But I only want to read the most
recent one that I received, and then maybe this isn't
the Dallas group, is it. I mean, I don't know
who it's from or what it's all about. All I
know is it says back up to eleven inches as predicted.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
That's the prediction. What it could it be about? Snow?

Speaker 4 (39:06):
This is a group of people who are contemplating their
arrival for this Friday's Cotton Bowl.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
So how far south do you have to be for
this storm to not affect you from an ice and
or snow standpoint?

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Clearly we're not getting it here.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
Right, Yeah, if you're not talking about people going to
the game, then there's some answers. People going to the
game are going to be affected. People that live in Dallas,
people who live in people who living for Worth candidates.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
She's like, well, we're getting snow on Friday. I'm like, no,
we're not. Yeah, no way, not.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
Until I told her, I was like, look, I know
you're from Kansas City, you're well versed in this.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
But I'm from Houston and I'm well versed in this.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
It doesn't actually stick, even if it does snow, unless
it's like fifteen degrees.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
The unfortunate part is the precipitation that lands and sticks
on the streets and the roads, well, it becomes very
difficult for people who aren't used to it, or cities
and areas that don't know how to handle it and
combat it to handle.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Wait a second, we need salt for like five million people.
Now there's a balance.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
Do you want to have a big, huge stock built up,
a supply just waiting to be used in these areas
where they never need it?

Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (40:24):
Or do you scramble to go find it when, oh
my god, how did this happen? You have enough time
between now and Friday, between two weeks ago and Friday,
because once the game was announced months ago, and then
once the weather reports were at least close enough to
the actual date, there's some plans that could have been
put in place. Been to Dallas during a Super Bowl
where the roads were very very very very unhelpful, I

(40:47):
really couldn't use them. Yeah, it was awful, and it
could be the case for some of the people going
to Texas, Ohio state. The game itself should be okay,
considering it's inside. Just getting there and making your way
around it, at least here on a Monday is of
minor issues. Shouldn't be any issue for the Chargers to
get on a flight on Friday, arrive in town on
Friday in Frona, California, play a three point thirty game

(41:08):
here in Houston on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
How many how will the ratings be in Los Angeles
where they're not even the most well received team, How many?

Speaker 2 (41:18):
You know what? Take that back? This is the more
important question.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
How many times between now close to three o'clock on
Monday and the end of the show on Friday, are
you going to refer to them as the San Diego Chargers.

Speaker 4 (41:29):
Well, if you want to take it back to them
rather than insulting me, which is well deserved, because five
days of this, I will definitely do it five times
or more.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
At least the Rams, yeah, are postseason bound Saint Louis Rams.
The Chargers are postseason bounds San Diego Chargers, and they
will be trotting out conversation about this in this manner.
I think, oh my god, what a great season for
Justin Herbert and John Harbaugh. I think the Chargers have
a great opportunity this weekend to play Dallas.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
Good luck to them. The Rams, obviously they weren't trying
their hardest. I think this team has got a really
good chance this weekend. Hopefully they can get past the
Bears and then that matchup. Okay, the Dodgers, they just
signed somebody this last weekend.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
We think he's gonna play the infield. You know, they
got him for twelve million. Everybody was looking at but
they got him. Phone lines are open, you know, on
the heels of last night's loss here to the Rockets,
who gets more.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
It has to be the Dodgers right now. It has
to be.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
I know it's a Lakers town, but Dodgers. They just
won the World Series. They've added to that roster.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
Hey, guys, I really appreciate the Dodgers going out there
and having a great offseason, really trying to make a
World Series caliber team even better. But I really want
to call and talk about Lebron James and the Lakers.
You know, what was that yesterday? I mean, what kind
of defense was that? I thought they were playing better defense.
I mean, I don't know. I think JJ Redicks got
to go. I'll hang up and listen. JJ looked depressed

(42:52):
last night by the way. Well, JJ and Scott Brooks
and the rest of their staff. I do think made
a pretty strong tactical error at one point during the game,
challenging a somewhat meaningless call that didn't allow them to
challenge later in the game.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
All that never happens.

Speaker 4 (43:08):
Well, I just shouldn't call it meaningless. It was a
three point play and we got three points. We the
Rockets got three points out of it, So it's of note.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
I like it all right.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
When we come back, I promise you you're going to
hear from Demiico Ryans because we're gonna reset everything. We're
gonna get you ready for the televised version of things.
So if you're wanting to see our bright shining faces,
go ahead and turn on the Space City Home Network,
or you can keep it right here on Sports Talk
seven ninety as we get you ready for the final
three hours of a Monday edition of The A Team

(43:39):
Getting you Ready for Texans playoff Football at the end
of the week.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
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Speaker 4 (44:16):
Yeah, when you use the word different and it actually
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Speaker 1 (44:47):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team Serious.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Just like that.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
It is a televised hour for the remainder of the
show here on Sports Talk seven ninety of the A Team.
Wex over there ac right here on a Monday edition
of the program. All of the matchups are set, all
of the times are set. But we could have told
you that even before yesterday's game. Not the matchup, but
we knew it would probably be the early affair here

(45:26):
in Houston for the Texans, and that's exactly what it is.
Three point thirty kickoff the Texans and the Artists formerly
known as the San Diego Chargers will be inside inn
RG Stadium, where CJ. Stroud and company will look to
overcome some of their woes from this season. The offensive line,
the regression of CJ. How much those two have to

(45:47):
do with each other, and upset as it were, the
now less.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Than three point favorites.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
I don't know what what you go by for your
official but I think it's two and a half now
places out there for the Chargers favored at or on
the road over the Texans this upcoming Saturday.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
Only team that is traveling that is favored the Chargers
are the Commanders have a better record than the team
they're playing. They'll play the night game on Sunday night
at Tampa. Tampa wins that division and the three seed
at ten and seven, Commanders at twelve and five. Late
victory yesterday over. The Cowboys got them twelve and five,

(46:30):
so two games better. But they are three point underdogs
Minnesota who lost late last night. I'd forgotten that game
wasn't set, so that early line wasn't set. That is
the other road team that is favored. The Vikings are
going to the Rams and they are one and a
half point favorites after looking really really bad against a
totally broken down group of defensive players for the Lions,

(46:52):
who owned them last night.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
Well, Dan Campbell didn't seem to mind. He told the
Vikings that he'll see in two weeks. Well that's how
they play. He's like, please, please, can we see you
in two weeks. Depends a little bit on some of
the other matchups, and that the four to five matchup,
It certainly is contingent on the seventh seed or the
sixth seed. That's the Packers and the Commanders not pulling

(47:15):
off upsets, because one of those two teams, if they do,
could potentially be the matchup for the Lions, who did
close out the NFL season very impressively. Like I said
earlier last week, it's a different way to do it
when David Montgomery's not out there offensively but their running
game and the explosiveness of their offense barely changes.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Because your mirror Gibbs is that good.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
He was actually the guy they used a little bit
more already, and now they're using him almost exclusively. The
playoffs set up. Chargers Texans open it on Saturday afternoon.
The night game is Steelers Ravens Broncos Bills. To kick
things off on Sunday, a triple header Packers Eagles follows.
By the way, Jalen Hurts as of today, is still

(47:57):
in concussion protocol. Commanders Buccaneers. They have the Sunday night
games I mentioned, and the Vikings and Rams will close
things out close things out Monday night, so three evening
games wild Card weekend as it has in the past,
to stretch out to three days. The subsequent schedule, which
will be Saturday Sunday the following weekend to the divisional round,
will accommodate for that. A Vikings Rams game probably not

(48:21):
gonna be scheduled for Saturday, and it will be scheduled
for Sunday, which leaves those other three spots open for
the normally advancing Houston Texans. They've had a couple of
instances losing to the Chiefs thirty to nothing and losing
to the Colts Luck v. Watson where they did not
win their opening game at home at NRG to open
a postseason.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
The t Y Hilton clown face game every other.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
Game their opening game, they've won, and they've advanced, and
they've gotten into the final eight, and they've gotten within
one game of advancing. Now only a few times as
it looked like, well maybe they have a chance to
win this day.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
You know.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
Obviously the game in Kansas City felt that way when
you had a twenty four point lead. I don't know
if it felt that way last year, but you had
a field goal attempt right before halftime to take the
lead into halftime. Instead you went into halftime at Baltimore
in a ten to ten game. But reaching the conference
championship never been done. Not much inspiring coming from this

(49:17):
year's Texans to get there. And again they're in the
four or five games, so provided there is not an
upset of the Ravens or Bills this weekend, they're lined
up to go to Kansas City for the Chiefs to
open up their postseason, but and upset in either of
the two games that follow them, and for some reason,
the NFL set it.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Up this way.

Speaker 4 (49:35):
AFC, AFC, AFC play and then the three NFC games
go after that. So midday Sunday, the AFC's Divisional round
will be complete and the Texans, should they win, will
know where they are headed. Potentially, with two upsets, they're
not headed anywhere. Well, technically three offsets including their own. Yeah,

(49:57):
all three AFC wild Card are upsets. Yeah, the Texans
will host the Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Steelers for a chance to go to the AFC Championship.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
It sounds pretty awesome, but we're painting a picture that's
extremely unlikely.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
And we're putting the cart way ahead of the horse.
You got to deal with.

Speaker 4 (50:17):
The Bills are eight and a half point favorites, Ravens
are ten point favorites, and your dogs.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
Which of those two teams, because I could actually see this,
which of those two teams is more likely to get upset?

Speaker 2 (50:31):
I think it? Now, this is weird.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
The Ravens have already lost to the Steelers this year, right,
But my answer is the Broncos.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Yeah, that's exactly what I would say, because Bnicks Bonix
is kind of like this year.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
CJ. Stroud in a little bit a little a few ways.
If it's not Jaden Daniels, well, that's what I was
about to say.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
He's the AFC version of CJ kind of taking the
league by surprise, slash storm, a little bit mixture of both,
and doing so with a defense helping him, so to speak.
He didn't give up any points yesterday, that's true, but yeah,
I just to even think of that scenario unfolding is

(51:12):
just crazy, especially when you consider that, first things first,
the Texans have to take care of their own business,
and to do that, they're going to need significantly better
offensive line play.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
We've been telling you that.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
That was one of the things Demiko Ryan spoke about
today at his press conference meeting with the media following
the Texans win yesterday back to back ten to win
and division championship seasons, albeit in very different ways to
get there. And as we mentioned in the first hour,
the offensive line and CJ Stroud both significantly taking a
step back as far as performance here in the twenty

(51:45):
twenty four season versus the twenty twenty three campaign when
CJ was a rookie. So, having said all that, Tomko,
what did you think about your own line yesterday against
the Titans.

Speaker 8 (51:54):
Thought, our guys did a good job yesterday just when
it comes to the when they came to protecting, when
they came to the run game, you know, staying on blocks,
staying attached, and then allowed us to have some success
in the run game with Joe and DP running the football.
But our old line did a really nice job of
creating some lanes there. Of course, our backs, DP of
course did a really great job playing great vision when

(52:15):
the space wasn't there, he was able to create on
his own and break a really long run. They were
so proud of DP for what he was able to do.
And old line also with the protection, but they did
a really nice job of giving our quarterbacks time. Quarterbacks
stepped up in the pocket, both CJ and Davis and
made some nice plays off schedule there. So man, we're
all we're hitting in the right direction. We just have

(52:37):
to be more consistent all the way across the board.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
So several game balls given out in the victorious visitors
locker room there at Nissan Stadium, and Damian Pierce obviously
one of them for what he did running the football.
Did you get a kick out of Ross Tucker during
the broadcast saying hey, man, hope this guy get some
carries in the postseason, just because Damian Pierce has not
done that basically ever since maybe his rookie campaign, and

(53:01):
he never did that.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
What he did against the Patriots, got that long touchdown
run was what he was able to do yesterday. And
if you watch that player or a number of his
eight ten twelve yard carries, there was a hole, there
was somewhere to go. Yeah, there was a middle, was
a cutback lane. There was another offensive lineman able to
make his assignment work. We need you to disengage right

(53:26):
after the snap and you need to come through this hole.
There's gonna be a linebacker there who's filling the gap.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
You need to push him out.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Of the way, and if you do that, there's gonna
be a massive hole. The touchdown run for him, he
saw the cutback lane and got to it very quickly
and was able to shoot through it. And I was
very surprised he was able to outrun the entire Titans defense.
But that's now two runs of better than fifty yards
for him this season. Very few players in the league
have that this season. Basically Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley

(53:53):
and now Damian Pierce. I believe Jonathan Taylor's also in
that group.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
It's pretty nice group.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
Yeah, it seems a little much to expect more of
that against the Chargers in line in the line of
thinking that, well, they're opening holes for whomever's back there,
give Joe Mixon a little bit of a breather and
get the ball into Damian Pierce's hands. They played a
team that was playing players are playing to win, the
organization was playing to not win. He had two hundred

(54:19):
and ninety three yards on this season. He was an
active for six games, so he played in ten games.
In those ten games, Damian Pierce carried the ball more
than he did yesterday twenty one times. He had nineteen yesterday,
and in those twenty one carries, he ran for one
hundred and seventeen yards.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Fifty four of.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Them came on one play. He basically ran for fifty
yards this year before yesterday. He's probably not really in
the game plan. Two carries, eleven snaps, maybe probably fewer
snaps than Dara who's their normal third down back, and
definitely a lot fewer touches than Joe Mixon. Mixon got

(54:57):
a game ball as well. He went over a thousand
yards on the season. He also missed three games, averaged
just four point one yards to carry unfortunately, and he
and the line were very very inconsistent down the stretch.
Every other game was good followed by bad for eight
weeks and technically yesterday probably gets thrown out because he
was only out there for the first series and he

(55:17):
did very very well helping him get down the field.
He got over a thousand yards, had his eleven touchdowns,
got a game ball, you got Nico Collins his thousand yards,
and again, like mixing, it came with missed games. He
played in twelve games this year, one thousand and six yards,
caught his seventh touchdown pass. He ended up finishing a
fourth in the league in yards per game receiving, and

(55:39):
that's without a one hundred yard game in any of
the last four weeks. Obviously, yesterday he played very sparingly
as well.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
I loved seeing some of the incentives being met by
some of the players around the NFL.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Yesterday.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
Mike Evans was the coolest because it was the final
play of the game.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
Mike Evans was the coolest. They just forced the Saints
to punt. The game was over. They absolutely were a
kneel down mode because the win gave them the division title,
the playoff berth, and they said, this stuff matters.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
It's a million bucks, it's people.

Speaker 3 (56:11):
And there were people saying, I can't believe they did that.
That is so selfish, that's not how they what is
wrong with selfish? Look at how the sideline reacted to
him getting it, because it's a team exactly care and
this stuff matters. And it's historical too, because there's only
one name ahead of him on the consecutive thousand yard
seasons list and his name's Rise.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
He's eating rice? Are you eating?

Speaker 8 (56:34):
Jerry?

Speaker 3 (56:35):
So yeah, that was pretty cool to see people are
saying that are dumb.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
All right?

Speaker 3 (56:39):
Speaking of dumb, Justin Herbert is talking trash. Maybe we'll
review that. Plus, we need to give some credit where
it's due. Over at Toyota Center.

Speaker 5 (56:48):
Last night, the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Back to Adam Clinton had Adam Wexler the eighteen on
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety Monday
edition of the program. Texans ten wins season here in
twenty twenty four, Well, this is technically twenty twenty five.
But the twenty twenty four season ends with a ten
and seven campaign, just like I predicted at the beginning
of the season.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
That was really all that was on the line yesterday.
Obvious predictions nine and eight, ten and six.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Ten on cold looks.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
Yeah, well the game itself, which you tried to tell
me it was over, and I tried to tell you
not with Will Levis on the Titans, it isn't.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
How did you describe what he was gonna do if
he got back in there?

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Let it rip? I think, And what did I say
in response? Go ahead?

Speaker 3 (57:46):
I want to hear you say it on television and radio.
I'd have to look it up. His back was to
the end zone. Actually he was in the end zone
and the football was on like the inch yard line.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Then they got a delay of game. That was what
they were doing.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Was smart though, Yeah, just you if the other team's
dumb enough to.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
Fall for it, just keep trying. I thought somebody was
gonna jump both times. It's it was. It was the
right play. Eventually they had to go a different direction.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
That was a hard count.

Speaker 3 (58:13):
By the way, for those of you not watching, I'm
not in any sort of pain, but it sounded like
he was.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Yeah, I was not over.

Speaker 4 (58:18):
And then the Texans not only saw the Titans put
some points on the board, they got some points of
their own, and then in order to hit the over
of thirty six and a half, they smartly made it
a nine point game by going for two. But they did,
and they succeeded. The Texans complied by saying, well, we
don't need to cover him, right, even though he's wide
opening the end zone, and even will leviskonh they.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Thought they could drive twice, once for a touchdown and
another for a game winning field goal.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Duh.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Now, so the Texans both covered and hit the over
only because you brought it up. I didn't want to
tell you what happened with one of my stone cold
locks is. I wanted to save it for today because
I still even today keep checking the box score because
I cannot believe this.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
Sac What went down sounds like it's bad for me. No,
it's bad for me.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
Oh good, So I took Najie Harris over fifty six
and a half rushing yards.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Oh no, first drive of the game.

Speaker 4 (59:08):
He usually starts, and then they kind of mix and
match between he and Jalen Warren and he had a
pretty that's a pretty low number for how little Russell
Wilson usually gets done himself. So they have to lean
on their ground game and short passes to the backfield guys,
so they did so. I wasn't really concerned. He had
a great first drive at thirty two yards on the
opening drive of the game, and then as the game
went on it he clearly wasn't producing quite that much.

(59:29):
But then he hauled off, had a nice catch and
he was sitting there with fifty eight yards and on
the play that hit the over, he took a shot
to the head. I'm like, okay, well, I doubt he's
coming back because he's going straight into the medical tent,
which he did. Yeah, And then they had a couple
of series and he did not return to the game
until very very very very late in the game. His
very first play back in the game, Russell Wilson threw

(59:52):
him a pass that never happens this usual place behind
the line of scrimmage, and he was tackled for a
two yard loss. He did not play again. Fifty six
yards was his finishing number, a half yard shy of
hitting the over. Yes, you landed with one more win
than I did this week, Dan had us lady, Yeah,

(01:00:13):
but he's still waiting because he picked a game that's
still three days away.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
That is a little how did you Okay?

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
I told you Judge's ruling allowed it because the prior
week I had allowed a Tuesday game pick anyway, because
LSU played the Kinders Texas Bowl on Tuesday. If I yeah,
I got him his win that week. But had I
really really locked in on Come on, man, if you
want Notre Dame Penn State, then take it for week
twenty calls tell us Thursday.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
But he got it in any particular reason why you
went with that game? Dan, just feel really good about it.
I think Notre Dame's on a roll. I think they're
gonna win. I don't believe in Drew Holler. I'm gonna
be wex right here. Well, then you could feel good
about it this week. He feels good about Riley Leonard.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
He thinks he'll probably throw for one hundred yards this week,
unlike last week.

Speaker 9 (01:01:00):
Is that right?

Speaker 6 (01:01:01):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
Now, Drew Sieler I have, I actually have plenty of
confidence in him. But I do think Riley Leonard is
just the kind of quarterback that what is it we
need today, then that's what I'm going to do. I
think that matchup is, as the number suggests, should be
very very good. It's obviously a much closer Vegas line
than the other semi final played on Friday night between
the best team remaining by far, far and away unbeatable

(01:01:26):
as Sark might say, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the
Texas Longhorns. But yeah, Notre Dame point and a half favorite
over Penn State and Ohio State neighborhood of a touchdown
a little bit less over the Horns. We'll have that
Horns game for you five point thirty. Our coverage begins
on Friday. A couple of things will happen between then
and between now and then two more Rockets games to

(01:01:48):
bring you before Friday. We got a game tomorrow night
with the Wizards, and the first of three on the
road after they closed out the homestand or bad awful
They lost last night to the Pelicans.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
If you weren't where they're bad.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
That helped them land solely in possession of the worst
record in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
Yet they still beat the Chicago Bulls handily.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
They've beat They've had five other instances where they've outscored
their opponents. They've played the Rockets once already and they
did not beat them.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
No, No, it's funny you phrased that quarterback. What do
you need? I will do it for you. That could
also describe Aman Thompson last night.

Speaker 10 (01:02:25):
Fambly left side the lane underneath the basket, swings at
baseline right over to Green, met there by James and
by Phinny Smith and the ball is high in the air, caught.

Speaker 11 (01:02:34):
And then dumped by Amn Thompson.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
It was like they drew it up. Goodness he I mean, look,
I know there's a lot going on this team right now.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
I know, just at the very tail end of the week,
we found out about Jabari Smith Junior's broken hand, which
will be anywhere from four to eight weeks before reevaluation
slash look at it a return. And then they got
just trumped by the Celtics on Friday night, which I
thought that would happen even if they had.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Jabari Smith Junior.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
They're just really, really good as It's no disrespect for
the Rockets doesn't mean I don't think they're a good
basketball team. I just think the Celtics are far and
away the best team not named Cleveland right now?

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
Is that you like I did that? You saved yourself?

Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
Well, I mean, if I was picking a team to
win the East, it would not be Cleveland, even though.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
They have a better record.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Yeah, because I think And how about this, a Boston
Cleveland Eastern Conference Finals is about as sexy as you
could hope for.

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
I mean, I'd have a hard time finding a team
in the East that's going to knock them off before
they get there. But right right they're significantly better. And
this is including the Knicks, who are on a nice
run with their only loss recently and the last month
basically was to Okay, See, this team is great. The
Knicks are really really good. I don't see how the
Knicks can beat either one of them, even with Arling,

(01:03:52):
Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson there. They're definitely the next
best team. But they're a tier back from both the
Celts and the Calves in my opinion. But they're all
at full strength. And by the way, I was so
ready I was gonna fire off. I wasn't even gonna
wait for the show. I was gonna fire off at
text last night. Told you the Lakers suck then they
made it a game.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
It's typical of the NBA and men Thompson.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
You heard there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
He scored the Rockets first six points. He's going to
be the starter for everybody. Oh Fred's out, well let's
just start him in. Oh wait, Dylan's not available, Well
let's start him in. Jabari's out, all right, I'll just
start him in. There's really no other team in the
NBA that can do that. And he scored the first
six points, all in typical Amend Thompson fashion, playing above
the rim, out, hustling guys, speeding past guys, and the

(01:04:37):
play there. Jalen Green had the ball in the corner
and he was actually slightly behind the basket with his
defender with a shot clock going from six to five.
At that moment, I thought Lebron made a very smart play.
He went out there and doubled him, and Jalen was
there was nowhere for him to go. It was very
difficult to see over that lengthy Both players defending him
were much taller than he was, so very difficult for

(01:04:58):
him to find anything to go to. So he kind
of felt like, well, I know the shot clock's about
to go off, I have to fire something up and
a men. Thompson went up, probably with the ball another
eight to ten feet.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
From its rider.

Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
Eric Wittenberg, I did my best, and I also applauded
Matt Thomas earlier today for doing the same thing. I
know I thought it, and I acknowledged with him today
he also thought it. Neither one of us said a
word about it during the game.

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
The only difference was it was from the coffin corner
instead of straight on from the top of the key.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
And it didn't matter right, And there's not a whole
lot of well, they had a nice late bucket to
help him win a game, a regular season game, a meaningless,
so to speak, regular season game. But yeah, that's what
it looked like. That was a shot that had pretty
much everybody else. There were seven other players on the floor,
the two defending, Jalen and Jalen were the other three.
The other seven players were watching the ball, one of

(01:05:50):
them Lorenzo Charles. Then amn Thompson now played the ball.
It wasn't even the only time he did that last night.
He did it on a free throw he missed.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
He got his own on that and finished it off.
He was great, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
Twenty three points, sixteen rebounds, best number of the season
for both. It's a career high in rebounds, and it's
going to be more of the same for every game
he's out there, provided he's fresh, and he probably was
a little bit more juiced up having not played either
of the last two games. They pretty much have played
every other day and will do so to start off
this road trip. They'll be missing something without Jabari Smith Junior,
especially since this team is terrible at shooting threes and

(01:06:25):
he's at least one of.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Their better ones, and he's been on a really nice run.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
In doing so, you've also replaced him with their second
worst three point shooter, which ought to tell you how
bad they are, because a man cannot make a three
unless it's from the corner. Last night he was zero
for three from the corner, and he's still out shooting
Alpera in Shingoon, who's taken fifty threes in their first
thirty five games.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
Take like I know he took one, lest he's not
shooting him a lot. His percentage is it's awful. No
one should ever come out on him, which makes it
harder to beat a team's defense, and when both Fred
and Jalen are still sitting at thirty two percent. You're
going to miss that, but you're getting a lot with
what a man can bring. And he defended Lebron, he
defended Anthony Davis, he defended whomever they needed, and you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Got a good knight from Jalen. Great night from Jalen.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
Which whenever he's ten more in the third, Big five
in the fourth, they're undefeated when he scores thirty. This season,
he's only done it six.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
Times, but five of them have come in the last
I think twenty games.

Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
Eighteen games.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Is this his month?

Speaker 4 (01:07:27):
Well, a part of the part of it was in December,
so it's carryover. He's playing better basketball, that's pretty clear.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
He is, and he looks more comfortable out there. So
we'll see if it continues. Not the best homestand by
the way, you would have liked more, but at least
they ended on.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
A hot No.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
We'll get back to your Houston Texans when we return
here on the eighteen.

Speaker 5 (01:07:49):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety, This.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Is Joyce Potta.

Speaker 10 (01:07:54):
Listen to the Astros on your radio and on the
free iHeartRadio A. Sports Talk seven ninety is your home
Philashros Baseball.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network Monday edition of the program.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
We have the matchup. It is set.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
It's time for the trash talk slash bulletin board material
to begin. And noted trash talker slash bulletin board material
giver Justin Herbert is at it again, totally playing this up,
totally over the top and in all seriousness.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
I don't even know if this is what he was doing.

Speaker 6 (01:08:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08:40):
They went into the weekend knowing they were in one
of two spots. They were gonna be the five seed,
they were gonna be the sixth seed. The AFC North
played their two games on Saturday, and that helped determine
what might be an opening for them. If the Steelers
had claimed the division on Saturday, well, and the Chargers
would have had nothing to play for. They would have
been locked into the six seed. With the Ravens being
locked into the five. They would have known their opponent

(01:09:02):
because they would have been going to Pittsburgh because the
Steelers would have won the division. But neither results that
needed to happen that day happened. The opposite happened. So
they went into the game knowing who their matchup would
be if they faced the three seed the Ravens, and
knowing who their matchup would be if they faced the
four seed the Texans, because the Steelers' loss allowed them
to pass them if they won their game against the

(01:09:25):
Las Vegas Raiders, who may or may not have been
playing for their head coach Antonio Pierce has already met
with the media today and has not yet been fired,
although other coaches have been today, and that's definitely something
we need to get into. But nonetheless, the Broncos went
about their business kind of Bronc or excuse me, Chargers
went about their business. Didn't really do a whole lot
in the first half. Field goal here, field goal there.

(01:09:47):
It's a close game, we're kind of flirting with do
we really want to see this get dramatic In the
second half, it wasn't. They ended up with a three
touchdown lead late in it rather convincingly, thus thrust them
up one notch in the seeding from six to five.
Finished eleven and six and punched their ticket for a
trip to Houston. So again, as they prepped for the game,

(01:10:07):
you know how much attention were they paying to what
was happening in terms of how it affected their scenarios.
He got that question after their win.

Speaker 3 (01:10:15):
Did you get a chance to watch the end of
the Steelers game yesterday?

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Now it kind of followed along.

Speaker 11 (01:10:21):
You know, I was meeting and watching film, but I
heard it in the other room, so I could tell that,
you know, good things were happening.

Speaker 4 (01:10:27):
I guess that last part was the the eyeball part,
the double eye emoji you might have for it, or
the hmm, did he say something that will end up
on Demico Ryan's whiteboard or did he say, Hey, dude,
I don't know if you guys have ever done math
before or know how numbers are sequenced.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
Five is better than six.

Speaker 3 (01:10:49):
That's all I was saying.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
We could be the sixth seed if we lose, or
we could be the five seed, and potentially with other upsets,
maybe that's one additional, very small percentage chance that we
end up somebody or we set up other matchups.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
Yes, it could be construed either way.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
We'll say you you mentioned during the break that the
way to stretch and make it into trash talking the
Texans is that Well, I'm glad I'm not playing the
Ravens and I'm playing the Texans instead.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
Ravens are awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:11:20):
Texans are not if you want to take it that way, absolutely,
because it's a fact.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
And if you think that that's trash talk versus just
him assessing the situation by the way, neither of which
I think he was doing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
I just think that this is a stretch.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
He didn't smirk after he said it. I was just
about language, right, and I just answered it. I feel like,
how often does a player not named Aaron Rodgers really
trash talk?

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
I mean, when's the last time.

Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
Aaron Rodgers was too busy making kind of a joke
when people would say, well, people are citing sources close
to you, blah blah blah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
I have people close to me. Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Like, even when he does quote trash talk, most of
the time it's like the CDC or or someone else. Well,
he has notoriously trash talked at the Bears. Yeah, franchise.
But that's what I'm saying. He's the only guy I
can readily think of. Even Tom Brady didn't trash talk
that I can remember, at least not going into a game.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Now, if you want to talk about afterwards.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
As his head coach, wouldn't have it at be underscore Belichick.

Speaker 3 (01:12:27):
How about a new to the platform, right, Yeah, well
it was only a matter of time after he didn't
he already make a Instagram account, not too recently he did. Yeah, So,
I mean even Eli waited until after beating Tom Brady
to trash talk them all these years in the biggest game.

(01:12:48):
I just can't think of anybody, And if there was
going to be somebody, I don't think.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
I mean c J.

Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
Stroud has talked more trash in the last year than
Justin Herbert. I mean you were you're looking at a killer.

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
Yeah, I take it however you want. The team can
take it however he wants. You can make of it
what you will. My opinion was he was mathematicing it.
We're six right now as we take the field, or
technically with the Steelers loss, they actually were already five.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
They should need to hold that spot with a tire
of victory.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
They went out there. They wanted to win a game,
they wanted to finish off the season. That's why they
were out there. But it's also true the Chargers are
playing the Texans. The Texans are not playing good football.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
They had a nice series one good series offensively against
the Titans. Their defense managed to keep the awful Titans,
the worst team in the NFL, from beating them, and
their reserves were better than the Titans starters for most
of the afternoon, which is again remarkable and sad for Tennessee.
The Ravens went out there and just annihilated another opponent,

(01:13:48):
and the Browns didn't even play badly. The Browns defense
was for the most part up to the challenge. They
just wore them down and eventually big plays were coming
and it turned it into a blow out. They also
covered they're nearly three touchdown favorite status. You want to
play in Baltimore against a twelve and five team with
Lamar playing like this, even though he's not a great

(01:14:09):
playoff quarterback, I would love for him to dispel that
this year.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
Well he is when he plays the Texans.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
He wasn't even great against the Texans last year in
the playoffs. He was good enough to beat them, but
he wasn't great. So the bottom line is who wants
to go play them?

Speaker 3 (01:14:22):
When the option is all we have to do is
beat the Raiders and we get to go to Houston,
we get to play indoors. We get to play the
Texans and C. J. Stroud and that offensive line and
that it's a no brainer. Yeah, of course it's better
for them for one week now, winning that game without
any upsets means the following week you're going to play
a team you've lost to twice this year.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Yeah, Kansas City.

Speaker 4 (01:14:45):
If you're the five seed, you're up against the Bills
potentially after you upset the Ravens. Neither secondary path is good.
But you're only trying to win that week's game. They're
trying to win this week's game.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
They're buying the Texans yea ahead too much.

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
But as is usually the case this time of year,
whether you're going to the postseason or not, a lot
of graphics start floating around on social media about your
road and home opponents next year. I loved for like
the umpteenth time in a row, looking up and saying, oh, great,
the Texans will be traveling to both Kansas City and
Baltimore in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
Can't wait.

Speaker 4 (01:15:22):
Yeah, the Texans will have a first place schedule again.
They obviously shift around the division that they will see.
They these are how this is how Brady and Peyton
Manning developed a rivalry. Yep, it would be nice to
be on the right side of some of these games,
and you're good enough to belong there, so you can
develop a rivalry with the Ravens and Lamar, the Bills
and Josh, the Chiefs and Mahomes.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
But it's also daunting.

Speaker 4 (01:15:46):
I mean, maybe you disagree because of what the Lions
did this year, but are there are three teams you'd
like to play less than the Chiefs, the Bills, and
the Ravens every year?

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
I mean, those are the the three best quarterbacks in
the NFL, not the NFC or the AFC. The NFL,
and yeah, here we go again. So you're rising the
schedules not too daunting?

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
Well, you do.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
You get to play in the AFC South, where everybody
sucks road trips.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
Next year.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
The three games in the AFC South, those first place
teams you mentioned, Kansas City and Baltimore are both road games.
You'll play the Chargers on the road, and you'll also
see the Rams and Seahawks your home schedule. Dude, you
got nine games, you gotta win six of them. Raiders, Cardinals, Bucks, Niners,
Broncos and your division teams.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
Don't find ways to lose them either not not only
win them, but don't find ways to lose them. Speaking
of the rest of the division, I will pose a
question to my co host about the AFC South and
the team's futures within this terrible division. The Texan should
own for the next decade.

Speaker 5 (01:16:57):
The A team.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
On Sports Talk seven ninety, I'm cleansing Adam Wexler our
eighteen returns these as fancy?

Speaker 8 (01:17:06):
Are you hear the woods?

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
It's just those crazy Houstonians find Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
I'm looking at this Fox Sports lawsuit.

Speaker 4 (01:17:30):
Yeah, for best of X we could have easily just
hit the trending topics. I thought earlier yesterday the trending
topic would be Skip.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
It turned out to be Joy. Uh huh.

Speaker 3 (01:17:40):
But we went a different direction. Well, it could have
been either of them. I mean, for similar reasons, allegedly,
but different avenues of going about that reason. I guess harassment,
am I Yeah, But in Joy's case, I don't think
it was hers.

Speaker 4 (01:18:01):
So much as it potentially could have been, as suggested
by the person who's only side of the story.

Speaker 3 (01:18:09):
We've heard, yes, and the funny and when you say
this all the time, the funny thing about lawsuits is
everything always comes out, but there's no there's usually no
winners in these things because even the person, like let's
just say this hairdresser that's alleging all of this gets
what she wants, money whatever, I'm sure things will come

(01:18:34):
out about her if there are any and even if
there are just embarrassing situations, uncomfortable situation, just all this stuff.
I mean, sitting there and reading that during the second
window of games yesterday was quite the experience. It was
not what I expected to be doing during the second
window of NFL games during week eighteen.

Speaker 4 (01:18:52):
Makes a lot of people look bad. If Fenny or
some of it is true. The executive involved, for sure,
that looks awful. It's not a way to go about
running your business. It's very very very bad, very bad.
Doesn't look either of the two doesn't make Joy look
good at all, or any of the people she was
alleged to be involved with, both the executive or the

(01:19:13):
on air personality, or the people that she worked with,
whether it was Colin who she shared a show with
for some time, and obviously the newer show with different
people at different times. She's been on two different shows
with different people, but it was unfortunate for sure. And
I think, as many people at there pointed out, you know,

(01:19:34):
this makes a lot of people that do the right
thing in terms of working and working more and working
better and getting promotions, makes the whole group of them females. Well,
it's not a good look for anybody because they have
nothing to do with it. And yet this is how
people think many women rise in the profession, and so

(01:19:57):
it makes them all look bad.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
It puts them them backwards.

Speaker 4 (01:20:01):
I guess you could say for nothing that potentially they
have done at all other than produce great work.

Speaker 3 (01:20:06):
There is at least one member of the media who's
I don't know if he's crowing, but he kind of
alluded to all this kind of stuff in the past
and he's he's looking good. And by the way, at
least for that prediction.

Speaker 4 (01:20:23):
Or what was the prediction things were going to blow
up or it's a bad situation.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
There, Yes, the second, the latter, Keep.

Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
In mind, this is a a There aren't very many
of them. This is a major national sports production television
outlet and other arms.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
It's huge, second to only ESPN. You could argue, maybe.

Speaker 4 (01:20:43):
And could they be any more similar? Now, like this
is literally a hundred times over at ESPN. How many
stories like this came out from their shop?

Speaker 3 (01:20:55):
Yeah, I just feel like this stuff was going on
before either network and particularly ESPN kind of deviated from
sports only if you will. It just reminds me again
why I don't watch either of these channels really, I mean,
unless I have to, well the Rockets are exclusively on

(01:21:16):
an ESPN game or something like that, I have to.
You know, not a lot of great people working at
some of these places. Although there are some people that
get like you just said, they get caught up, they
are actually like who would have thought Colin Coward would
come out smelling like roses in a situation like this?
Not that I think that Colin Coward would do something
like this. What I'm saying is probably not the most

(01:21:38):
well liked personality over there in a list of many,
but kind of kept his his nose in his own
business and his head above water. And in the lawsuit
it explicitly says he was always professional.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
Didn't have to worry about that guy.

Speaker 4 (01:21:54):
Again, I'm not in their shoes. I'm clearly not like them.
I have worked for a lot of years, three decades
worth of work. I've worked in the industry.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
And you've managed to never get accused of any of
this kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:22:07):
Well, not only not get accused of it, it would
be a complete and utter fabrication if I had been
accused of it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:15):
You guys know about that. Out of Wexford.

Speaker 4 (01:22:17):
Here it seems a little easier, and I can also
recognize the difference in pace. I'm trying to continue working
in a local market, hopefully my family has some nice
meals out of them and the roof over our head
is good, while a lot of people we're talking about
here are trying to go from being very well paid
to ridiculously well paid in some of the most high profile,

(01:22:40):
high pressure situations in the industry. I understand a little
bit of the difference. But you'd like to think that
you can continue operating in the same way that presumably
helped you on the way to just do good work
and meet the right people and treat them the right way,
and continue to produce work that people want to hire
you for.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
Well, just like in any business ambition, it runs rampant.
But like I got asked this question a lot over
the years, just being in this business doing what we do,
and wow, you definitely want to go to New York
or LA Are you No. I always, and I said
this from a pretty young age. I mean, getting into
this business in my mid twenties, I've just this is

(01:23:19):
what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in
this city, in this market talking about these teams. If
that meant I wasn't a bazillionaire, that's fine. Like I
certainly wasn't in it for the money the first decade
plus I was in this business because I wasn't making
any So yeah, you know, as they say, mo money,
no problems at times that can happen.

Speaker 4 (01:23:41):
Mentioned earlier that at belichick Underscore b was on the
old X platform.

Speaker 3 (01:23:46):
It was his first tweet. His first tweet.

Speaker 4 (01:23:49):
Wasn't that recent because he's actually been cranking him out here. Okay,
his first tweet technically would be beat Duke, So he said.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
Was it really?

Speaker 1 (01:23:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:23:59):
I was.

Speaker 3 (01:24:00):
It was earlier in the last ten to twelve hours.
So he makes his account. And if you had some
sort of betting odds on what Bill Belichick finally getting
on Twitter would say, first thing out of the gate,
I think we all would have beat Duke on our
Bengo go with the.

Speaker 4 (01:24:14):
Proper duke spelling, d okay, hashtag gohels, hashtag chapel Bill, etc.

Speaker 3 (01:24:19):
You're kidding me, right, I'm not kidding. He really put
d okay and that was his first tweet ever beat Duke.
My first words as a boy are my first words
on X go heels. You sure this isn't a parody?
Account positive?

Speaker 4 (01:24:31):
He's got us a couple of items with his some recruits,
some coaches, a couple of items from appearances on the
Pat McAfee show. But my question to you was, among
the sixteen people entities that he is following, how many
of them do you think you can guess? There's about
eight that aren't even worth it? So of the other eight,

(01:24:52):
how many do you think you can.

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
Guess Tom Brady? No, he doesn't follow Tom. This is
how beef gets started.

Speaker 4 (01:24:59):
I already gave you two very very very very obvious ones.
North Carolina he follows at UNCA football. What's the other
obvious one you gave me at pack McAfee show.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:25:09):
Sorry, Yes, he likes the NFL, so he follows the league,
Field Yates, Chef d Fox, NFL Network does he follow?

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
ESPN does not?

Speaker 4 (01:25:19):
He follows a few of his new staff members at
Freddy Kinchinz who coached the Bowl game, and at Micha Lombardi,
his new personnel Director's GM. One of the sixteen people
or entities that he follows is female?

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Is it his much younger significant others account? At Jordan
Bella that's Jordan Hudson, he follows her.

Speaker 3 (01:25:44):
Dang, where's my Jalen Rose bell Dan? She is super active?

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
Right? The three tweets ago was twenty nineteen.

Speaker 5 (01:25:52):
That's because the eight on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:25:56):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A Team.

Speaker 3 (01:26:16):
Four o'clock hour underway here on a Monday edition of
the show wex Ac with You on Sports Talk seven
ninety Space City Home Network. As the Texans get the
win over the Titans yesterday to set up that date
with the San Diego Slash LA Chargers. I'm just doing
that for your benefit so that when inevitably happens. I

(01:26:38):
actually think, now that you're concentrating on it, you're not
going to call them the San Diego Chargers all week.

Speaker 4 (01:26:42):
Just call them the Chargers, dummy. I'm talking to myself
out loud.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
Well talking to anybody that would do it.

Speaker 3 (01:26:48):
But it's, uh, it is a We've already gone over
the fact that Justin Herbert, their quarterback, is not trash.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
Talking the Texans, at least we don't think he is.

Speaker 3 (01:26:57):
We've gone over the fact that Tamiko Ryans thought his
offensive line was playing well yesterday in a end of
regular season game against the Tennessee Titans. But we all
know that at this point as the currently the Chargers
are favored by two and a half here in Houston
against the Texans in the opening round, the wild card

(01:27:17):
round of the postseason, that in order for the Texans
to you know, move on play whomever in the second round,
the Texans are going to have to take care of
business by doing things on the defensive side that I
think they're probably somewhat used to, and then I think
they're going to have to overperform on the offensive side.

Speaker 4 (01:27:37):
They're gonna have to do something defensively that has been very,
very difficult to do against the Chargers.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
Take the ball away.

Speaker 4 (01:27:45):
Lamar Jackson a great season, should win MVP, Josh Allen
should get plenty of support for MVP, and may in
fact win it. Joe Burrow was insanely successful at passing
the football, but he had a few other faults, and
his team was absolutely dreadful default sensively, so much so
that they a missed the playoffs and b fired their
extremely well respected defensive coordinator today, someone who the last severally,

(01:28:09):
oh my god, this guy's great. This is why they're
winning there. He's didn't all of a sudden become a
bad defensive coordinator. But they could not stop anybody. And
it's the biggest reason why. Even though almost everything that
had to happen for the Bengals to make the playoffs
the last four weeks happened all the way until the
very last thing needed to happen and didn't. Broncos played
the Chiefs and Carson Wentz started for the Chiefs, so

(01:28:32):
the Broncos won easily and the Bengals, at nine to eight,
were left out of the postseason. So just gave you
three quarterbacks. That add Pat Mahomes to the list, even
though he wasn't unbelievable this year. Nobody paid any attention
to Justin Herbert this year. They didn't get off to
a very good start. They had the early season lost
to Kansas City. They had another loss to Kansas City
later in the year when they were fighting for playoff positioning,

(01:28:53):
and all the while, Justin Herbert was out there with
very little early in the season, until they realized, oh
my god, this lad mcconkee's pretty good. She's probably throwing
the ball all the time, and until Quentin Johnson also
remained healthy. Both of them were out there yesterday and
are expected to be out there again against the Texans.
But you get to the end of the season, and
he threw an interception in week two. He also threw

(01:29:16):
it in their thirteenth and fourteenth game, had an interception.
That was it the whole year, number one in the
NFL in interception percentage. Justin Herbert, the quarterback and the
offense the Texans are about to face. He threw three
picks this year, and their team turned it over nine
times in seventeen games the whole year, second best figure

(01:29:39):
in the league. This is what the Texans are up against.
The Chargers have lost a few games, surprisingly without turning
the ball over. But that's the best way for the
Texans to overcome some of the other weaknesses. And you
saw that during that stretch of games where they turned
it over or took it away from the opponents twenty
five times. And then they played Kansas City no takeaways,
and then the played Baltimore no takeaways. Oh and then

(01:30:02):
they got to play Tennessee this weekend and not only
did they have a takeaway, they scored on it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:08):
That almost absolutely has to happen.

Speaker 4 (01:30:12):
I really can't envision the Texans losing the turnover battle
and winning the game. I probably can't envision them that
the Texans winning the game at all if they don't
have at least one turnover. I think they may turn
the ball over. And they are actually pretty good this year.
They were tied for eleventh in the league, and their
overall giveaway takeaway number was in the top six. It's

(01:30:35):
one of the reasons why they actually managed to get here.
But justin Herbert twenty three touchdowns, three interceptions for the
last five weeks of passer rating over one hundred, including
one to twenty five this past game that they needed
to win to advance to the seed that they got,
and he ended up the year seventh in the NFL.
Do you want to run through the list of where
quarterbacks headed to the postseason finished in passer rating Jackson

(01:30:59):
and Goff won two. They're headed to the playoffs. Mayfield Hurts,
Darnold four five six playoffs, Herbert Allen, Jayden Daniels eight,
nine and eleven. There's Jordan Love he finished twelfth, Even
Russell Wilson, Matt Stafford, Pat Mahomes all there in the
top fifteen. Bo Nicks rookie he's seventeenth. I think I've

(01:31:20):
named all the playoff quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (01:31:23):
Where's cj h He's twenty third.

Speaker 4 (01:31:26):
Gross, And I like, even close to anybody else here,
who's he? This is who he's close to, Cooper Rush,
Caleb Williams, Drake may Bryce Young stuck right in the
middle of that group.

Speaker 1 (01:31:41):
Hm.

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
I mean that is like the most bitter pill to swallow,
juxtaposed with what he did last year and the promise
going into this season, even with like, and I said
it all offseason, how much I hated the offensive line
and how it just was not going to be good.
And yet it wasn't good last year, and he had
lesser options at running back and receiver, and the numbers

(01:32:06):
dwarfed these heading to the postseason.

Speaker 4 (01:32:09):
Last year, there were six quarterbacks with the passer rating
of one hundred or better Perdy Prescott, Cousins, Lamar Jackson, Tua,
and c. J.

Speaker 3 (01:32:17):
Stroud.

Speaker 1 (01:32:18):
C J.

Speaker 4 (01:32:19):
Stroud was among based on every possible number result. How
he played, how he played in the clutch.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
He was great.

Speaker 4 (01:32:26):
He was just as simply as you could put it.
And the opposite has been true this year. There always
are other factors, and there were big, big ones this year.
We've pointed them all out all throughout. But on any
given Sunday, if they can just provide some protection, some
ability to go through reads, play calling absolutely has to

(01:32:47):
be a part of that. And seeing that little handoff
shuffle pass to Nico Collins dusted off and used this
past Sunday, these are some of the things you're gonna
need to see. The play that the Titans to Calvin Ridley,
that's how a screenplay to a whiteout is supposed to work,
and even their flea flicker. I'd love to see that

(01:33:10):
it worked because it was executed properly. They've a fooled
the defense, but they got their two offensive linemen blocking
in front of their incredibly slow former Texan tight end
Nick Benette, and he still gained almost twenty yards because
they just blew away the tiny players in the secondary
they needed to block.

Speaker 2 (01:33:28):
You've got to execute these plays.

Speaker 4 (01:33:30):
These a lot of the negativity surrounding slowks play calls,
specifically these screenplays that don't work. They're not necessarily bad calls,
especially when you recognize we gotta just something else because
we can't block anybody up front. Well, now they're also
not blocking anybody on these screenplays. Or CJ's not getting
the ball there on top or in the right spot,
the accuracy is not there.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
All these things play into it.

Speaker 4 (01:33:52):
And I say all that noting that if you were
not aware, and you probably aren't because I haven't told you,
you might be aware since this is the first day
after the regular season ended, because the Texans have had
some success lately. Even though they're not firing their GM,
it doesn't look like and they're not firing their head coach.
The new twenty twenty five head coach GM spreadsheet has

(01:34:14):
been launched. Oh my goodness, Bobby Slowick requested to be
interviewed by the New York Jets for their vacant head
coaching position.

Speaker 3 (01:34:22):
How many interview requests did he get last season six?
There were eight openings. He got interview requests for six.
He went on second visits with three, So we know
of won this offseason and it's from the most dysfunctional
organization this side of the Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 4 (01:34:38):
Do you still say that knowing the Bears have made
a very specific request for a head coach interview that
you may or might not know about. Oh, I know
about it, and there's quested to interview current Cowboys head
coach Mike.

Speaker 3 (01:34:50):
McCarthy, and the Cowboys Boys responded yet.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
Right, they're just letting him twist in the wind. By
the way, what's his contract status with them?

Speaker 4 (01:34:58):
He's not under contract, but they would have to grant
permission at.

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
This point in time.

Speaker 2 (01:35:02):
I don't understand that.

Speaker 4 (01:35:03):
Just the timing of when the you know, the dates
and things like that. So his contract didn't technically end
the day the season ended.

Speaker 3 (01:35:10):
Right When does it end? Though, I'd have to whe
the calendar ends.

Speaker 10 (01:35:14):
Uh No.

Speaker 4 (01:35:15):
I think it's more about whatever parameters they put in there,
or if it was just simply based on the day
signed it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:19):
There's a couple of different ways that coaches can get that, but.

Speaker 3 (01:35:22):
Usually traditionally it's some time around the end of the
Super Bowl for most teams.

Speaker 4 (01:35:27):
Well, that's the other part of it. That's why Mike
Rabel's gone on interviews already. That's why Rex Ryan is
interviewing tomorrow. That's why Ron Rivera has gone on interviews already.
They don't currently have jobs in the NFL. The Rabel
did during the year, but his consultant position with the
Bear the Browns expired prior to the end of the.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
Regular season, so that became open.

Speaker 4 (01:35:45):
We haven't mentioned yet there is another coach opening in
this division, as they're seemingly as every year. The Texans
took care of that three years in a row, but
now Doug Peterson, as we expected throughout the season, he's
been fired. The Jaguars kept their g who's awful, and
fired their head coach who's won a Super Bowl. The
Colts kept both their GM and head coach. Their head

(01:36:06):
coach has only been there two years, their GM has
watched them not win the division every year he's been there.

Speaker 3 (01:36:12):
This would be year nine. And the Titans, who have.

Speaker 4 (01:36:16):
The most newly hired both RENK Carthon is going to
get a third year and Brian Callahan's going to get
a second year girod Mayo in New England. Not getting
a second year, his team was gifted the pole position
to land the number one pick by the Giants two
weeks ago, and then they gifted it to the Titans
yesterday with a victory. Hard to tell your players, or

(01:36:39):
you the coach, trying to win games in your first
year with a poorly untalented, poorly talented team.

Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
He went out there and played to win.

Speaker 3 (01:36:48):
And well, I'll say this was not a monster surprise
based on what had been reported out of New England.
It is an enormous surprise that he spent all these
years with the team, both as a player and as
a coach. Was already hired as their head coach while
Belichick was there a coach in waiting, so he could
not leave one year in. He's doing so many things

(01:37:10):
so badly running this under talented team, you had to
fire him while you found your coach or your quarterback
of the future. This is why he was a little unfair.
But I don't know what happened inside the building. Well
to me, that scream something else is going on as well.
In addition to all the things you just mentioned before,
the organization said we know we made a mistake. We

(01:37:31):
can't wait. Why should we? It might look bad, but
we get closer to a solution if we know this
isn't it. That's kind of what we always tried to
give credit to the Arizona Cardinals for doing with their
quarterback situation.

Speaker 2 (01:37:42):
They did it with a head coach.

Speaker 4 (01:37:43):
They fired Steve wilk after one year, but we know
there were actually internal issues in addition to losing.

Speaker 2 (01:37:48):
Yeah, wow, it is.

Speaker 3 (01:37:51):
It's that time of year, speaking of which who has
the brightest future in the AFC South?

Speaker 2 (01:37:56):
Not named the Texans After this weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:38:00):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:38:05):
You've got more add I'm Clinton and Adam Wexler on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:38:11):
Home for your home teams.

Speaker 2 (01:38:18):
All right, So we were talking a little bit about.

Speaker 3 (01:38:20):
The coaching carousel. I don't know if you I mean,
I guess you call this black Monday. Hasn't been.

Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
I mean especially violent metaphorically.

Speaker 4 (01:38:33):
Well, three spots were already available. We had three interim
coaches fishing out seasons in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans,
and now you have New England and Jacksonville in coaching
searches and general manager search as well, the Jets and
the other two teams and interim situations could have kind
of taken a little bit of a lead, and the
Jets maybe have done that. But you know, last night's
result impacted who was technically going to be available to

(01:38:55):
be talked to in person because of the situation their
respective playoff teams were going to be in mentioned. Bobby
SLOWETK got an interview request with the Jets, and I'm
sure the Texans will allow it. I'm not sure that
he's going to end up being their choice, but I'm
a little I'm curious how many teams there will be
that are interested in going that route. There is a
sat one of the same teams is back on the

(01:39:17):
interview circuit, so to speak. In New England, although I
don't think they had much of a search last year
because we all knew who they were hiring. Jacksonville should
be pretty familiar with him, even though they have not
interviewed him because they go up against him each year,
and Trent Balki, who they're keeping his GM, will help
with their search. Shadkhn sounded like he'd be a little

(01:39:37):
bit more involved, but you know, for the most part,
for the faults of the franchise and being extremely unsuccessful
during his tenure as owner. He is more of a
hands off owner. I mean he hires people and lets
them do their job. The only time he didn't do
that was Smart after he was dumb and not only
hired Urban Byron said hey, man, whatever you want, we'll
do it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:56):
You hire whever you want, free reign, huge contract.

Speaker 4 (01:40:00):
He's another example of a coach who did not last
the season, and it wasn't management's fault.

Speaker 2 (01:40:05):
Management made the right.

Speaker 4 (01:40:06):
Decision to correct their own very bad decision. You deserve
to be moved on from, and they did on Vegas.
Like I said earlier, has not really done anything. So
Antonio Pierce meets with the meet and say, as far
as I know, I'm here that I haven't heard anything otherwise.

Speaker 3 (01:40:21):
Would you let him go if you were them? But
he's not the problem.

Speaker 4 (01:40:25):
I mean, he's definitely not the problem, and I'm not.
It is a hard thing to quantify usually, and it's
hard to then value. How much value do you put
in it? Unless he's really bad at game planning, hires
bad coordinators. Let's they clearly played unlike a lot of
these other terrible teams.

Speaker 3 (01:40:45):
They play hard.

Speaker 2 (01:40:46):
Yeah, they tried to.

Speaker 4 (01:40:46):
I mean they were running out of players by the
end of the year and Max Crosby got hurt. And
look at all these situations we're talking about. So the
Jets have a new coach. Why because their long time
established quarterback was embarrassingly bad this year. The Bears are
going to have a new coach again. The rookie got
to go one year with the staff. They should have
fired him already. They already knew he was the wrong choice,

(01:41:08):
and they didn't do anything about it. So now they
had to fire their coach. Their quarterback situation might be okay,
though New Orleans terrible quarterback situation. Of course they couldn't win.
Of course it's not Darren Reetzee's fault. Might be Dennis
Allen's fault. I thought it was a terrible higher but
he was a couple of years ago. So they had
to fire their coach. Jacksonville's quarterback play was it good
this year? It was terrible. They can't win. They fired

(01:41:30):
their Super Bowl winning coach. Not with them Doug Peterson
a New England who they have it like Caleb Williams.
They did find their quarterback of the future. So if
you get terrible quarterback play. The Raiders had Gardner Minshew
and Aidan O'Connell running the show all.

Speaker 2 (01:41:47):
Year, what would you have him do?

Speaker 3 (01:41:49):
How are you going to mean?

Speaker 4 (01:41:51):
The only thing they got out of this year was yah,
brock Byers is pretty good. Prock Powers might be had
the greatest tight end season of a rookie ever, probably
did might land on most people's first team All Pro selections.
He was phenomenal drafting rather early, but the way they
actually use him like a wide receiver, that's how often
they target him, that's how often his matchup is a

(01:42:13):
positive one. Well, they use him. That's like the only
way to get me to back off. Don't take a
tight end in the first round. Don't take a tight
end early.

Speaker 3 (01:42:20):
If you're gonna play him and use him like he's
better than everyone on the field, which brock Bauers clearly is,
then by all means, go ahead. Just don't do what
dum Falcons did and draft Kyle Pitts and finally figure out, well,
not only did we never use him? Right now, I
can't even catch the ball. He's like a fifth option.

Speaker 4 (01:42:37):
But the Raiders could easily say, yeah, they played hard, great,
but we aren't winning and we're not getting any.

Speaker 3 (01:42:43):
Closer to the top of our division. What did we
watch this year?

Speaker 2 (01:42:46):
Everybody else go to the playoffs?

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
Yea, Broncos, having a quarterback of the future, went to
the playoffs and their long term coach. The Chargers found
their long term coach and they already have Justin Herbert,
and neither of them are anywhere near as good as
the fifteen and two Chiefs, and you're in their division.
So speaking of that scenario, you had the Cults and
their sauced owner say, all right, we're keeping our coach

(01:43:11):
and our GM around for at least another year with
Anthony Richardson as the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:43:16):
We think you had, as you.

Speaker 3 (01:43:18):
Mentioned, the Jags fire their head coach but keep their GM,
and you had whoever's running The Titans get the number
one pick in the draft, in the draft where there's
no surefire number one quarterback, and you might not even
want to take a quarterback number one if you're the Titans.

Speaker 2 (01:43:35):
In other words, you might want to trade down. That's
what I would do if I were them.

Speaker 4 (01:43:38):
I can appreciate the sentiment, but if you don't think
there's a number one quarterback there probably isn't. So this
team you're trading with thinks otherwise, like who's going to
fall in love in miam Ward that they want to
trade of, who's going to fall in love with sugar
that they want to trade up.

Speaker 3 (01:43:52):
Maybe it's somebody else they want that they don't want
another team to get that's not a quarterback. That's the
only definitely the scenario reasonable thought. But you just wonder
who the hit that's the other party.

Speaker 4 (01:44:03):
It's not like, well, if we don't take a quarterback,
no problem, We'll just take Julius Peppers or we'll just
take some unbelievable, obvious, game wrecking defensive player.

Speaker 2 (01:44:13):
And I think I said this the other day.

Speaker 4 (01:44:15):
I think that the draft is pretty good and there
are some impact players right there at the top.

Speaker 3 (01:44:20):
I don't even know that there's a consensus on who
that is. Yeah, so how do you make your So
you're also saying, if you're not taking a quarterback, then
you're playing Will Levis again next year as your starter
in all likelihood unless you sign a veteran to band
aid the situation.

Speaker 2 (01:44:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:44:36):
See the Houston Texans, That's what they did with Davis Mills.
They went three year, two years, watsonless years intentionally to
stay at the top of the draft, and it landed
them CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:44:47):
Stroud. Hey, they signed Tyrod Taylor to play a handful
of games. And by the way, stop telling me that
we should thank Lovey Smith for winning that last game.

Speaker 2 (01:45:00):
Since Gerrod Mayo's like, I'm not hearing that.

Speaker 4 (01:45:02):
Well, they didn't bump in the draft that Lovey did it.
We can't have the same conversation. Because there were lots
of quarterbacks available. Everybody knew that the number one pick
in the draft was unquestionably going to be a quarterback,
no doubt about it, no doubt who was going to
and then the next quarterback would probably not definitively but
probably be the next pick. It turned out that it
was that way, and there were others that could have

(01:45:23):
been drafted fairly high. Well, the next best player went
to the Texans, also right, and that they got Will
Anderson Junior. By the way, we didn't I don't think
mentioned it. Will Anderson did not play yesterday, so he
could be even healthier and fresher for the upcoming games.
Had a little bit of an injury issue here of late,
had played through it no reason to play him yesterday,
finished his season with most of the numbers across the
board a little bit better than they were a year

(01:45:45):
ago of his draft class, blowing everybody else away, most sacks,
most TFLs. He's been the best defensive player of that draft,
which is exactly what I think everybody thought at the time.

Speaker 2 (01:45:55):
I said it for sure at the time.

Speaker 3 (01:45:57):
Actually I said they traded away the twenty twenty four
number one pick so they could draft.

Speaker 2 (01:46:01):
Him in twenty twenty three.

Speaker 4 (01:46:02):
I remember that, and I told you he'd be the
best defensive player that they could have gotten in twenty
twenty four. Probably a little early to say that for sure.
That player, whomever that might be, is only played one year,
but it was.

Speaker 2 (01:46:14):
It seem good.

Speaker 4 (01:46:15):
It's looking unbelievably good. And this is what the other
side of it, this is what Justin Herbert has to
deal with. Well, he's not the one facing Bosa and
Khalil Mack and Bud Dupree. He's the one facing Daniel
Hunter and Will Anderson Junior and a front that's been
incredible all season long.

Speaker 2 (01:46:29):
The strength of the Texans defense.

Speaker 3 (01:46:31):
So going back to the original question, and I'm using
the term very loosely outside of the Texans. Who's got
the quote brightest future in the AFC South given the
parameters I just laid out you.

Speaker 4 (01:46:45):
Know those you know, handyman chores task you might have
around the house. Hey, this is just a run of
the mill light switch. You flip it on, you flip
it off. Can we can we go ahead and get
some dimmers in here? And you're like, all right, that's
not too hard.

Speaker 2 (01:46:56):
I can do that.

Speaker 4 (01:46:56):
Unscrew the facing, do a little wiring, pop it on
there on a switch and a dimmer. Who has the
brightest future? You mean you can push the on button,
you can flip it to on, but you're not moving
the slider up at all.

Speaker 2 (01:47:09):
Nobody.

Speaker 4 (01:47:10):
It's the Titans do not have a bright future because
even if they found their quarterback, where's the rest of
the talent? And for how long are those players there?
They're moving beyond the shelf life. Jeffrey Simmons was awesome
again this year, and maybe Sweat has a great future
in him.

Speaker 2 (01:47:26):
He was really good as a rookie the.

Speaker 3 (01:47:27):
Day Calvin Ridley's good, but he just got done saying
yesterday he was so glad that season was over.

Speaker 4 (01:47:32):
Understandably so, but I'm what I said about him in
Atlanta when he was great is not translating to post Atlanta.
He was not great in Jacksonville, and he was not
great this year in Tennessee. Tony Pollard had a nice season.
How long and how many more good seasons does he have?
They have some ok players and then the players they
went out to get, specifically like Lagerius Snead, total lost

(01:47:55):
waste of a season. You sure he's gonna come back
next year for big money and play well? So their
future is awful. I think Jacksonville's even worse because I
personally think Justin or Trevor Lawrence is going nowhere. Trevor
Lawrence at best is middle of the pack quarterback at best.
So where's your franchise going? You're locked in for the
next minimum two and a half three years.

Speaker 2 (01:48:16):
Where are you going.

Speaker 4 (01:48:17):
They can spend some money, they can go get players, well,
they have him, So what is this?

Speaker 2 (01:48:23):
What's so appealing about Jacksonville?

Speaker 4 (01:48:25):
And sadly, the answer for Jacksonville, if they were an
opening in the other two plays, the answer is the same.

Speaker 2 (01:48:30):
What's appealing about that job? You get to coach in
the worst.

Speaker 4 (01:48:33):
Division in football, and you have a chance to win
the division probably every year unless the Texans get their
act together, because they're so clearly like it's not even
close how much more talent they have.

Speaker 3 (01:48:45):
And they won the division by default this year. So
the Colts won the Demmer competition, is what you're saying.
I didn't even mention them, so they win.

Speaker 5 (01:48:54):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:48:59):
Dylan Brooks Here the Dylan reverse lamp Gottess, stay clutched
with the iHeart Radio app. Here every Rockets game on
Sports Docs seven ninety. There it is Dylan Brooks, Home
of your Rockets.

Speaker 1 (01:49:09):
Rockets now the good, good, the bad, that's not good,
and the ugly ooh.

Speaker 2 (01:49:18):
That's getting real ugly.

Speaker 3 (01:49:20):
With the A Team four thirty weekd Afternoons on the
A Team is signature segment time.

Speaker 4 (01:49:28):
Appreciate those of you listening both via the app, the
iHeart Radio app, the noon Improved iHeart Radio App, and
of course you listening there or watching on our simulcast
each and every WEEKD afternoon three to six on Space
City Home Network.

Speaker 2 (01:49:41):
Plenty of good to choose from.

Speaker 4 (01:49:43):
I've got the good, the you know, simple stuff like
the Texans offense feeling yippie, we played well.

Speaker 2 (01:49:48):
This is nice, good vibes.

Speaker 4 (01:49:49):
Let's head into the playoffs good like the Lakers and
their lebron fans coming inside Toyota Center and crying on
their way out as the Tech the Houston Rockets took
care of them one nineteen one fifteen yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:50:02):
Lots of I love that for him, lots of good options.

Speaker 4 (01:50:05):
You were mentioning something to me off the air about
a big, huge event coming up tonight in Los Angeles,
their fancy new arena.

Speaker 3 (01:50:15):
What event is tonight at the Intuit Palace the very
first Well, the hope is of many Monday Night Raw
on Netflix.

Speaker 4 (01:50:24):
So Monday Night Raw comes to town. Clippers play in
the same building. There are a lot of personalities that
are involved with Raw, and often you'll co promote hey,
Like when the Astros Foundation is hosting a big, huge
golf tournament and some of the players are in town
and the Astros also have a game.

Speaker 2 (01:50:42):
You might see them at the game.

Speaker 4 (01:50:44):
They might throw out a first pitch, they might sit
down with Julia or hop in the booth with t
K and Plummer. Well, the same thing is going to
take place if the Clippers are playing in advance of
Raw taking place. One of the wrestling personalities you know
him well, a former reality show star, the Miss. He
was the chosen one. Lauren Rosen is the fan Duel

(01:51:07):
Sports Network, the regional sports network sideline reporter that caught
up with the Miz and I'll give you this in
two parts. She asks a very good question to tie
in the products, to tie in Raw and the team
that she's covering and playing that afternoon by asking the
Miz this, I if you.

Speaker 3 (01:51:27):
Had to choose to put you on the spot here
as we wrap up, if you look at these clippers
behind us, which of them would make the best ww wrestler?

Speaker 4 (01:51:35):
So options are limitless. We got Kawhi Leonard's return to
the court this weekend. I'll put it to you first
and then I will give you his answer next.

Speaker 3 (01:51:48):
Who would you answer?

Speaker 2 (01:51:50):
I mean, isn't the ultimate heel James Harden.

Speaker 4 (01:51:53):
Seems like a reasonable thought in coming here from our
perch in h Town, seems like the right answer. Why
Leonard Mobamba could be possible selections? I mean, there were
some very famous Russian wrestlers, Eastern European wrestlers, So you
want to say, if itatsa Zubats, I would probably say
that's that's not a bad suggestion.

Speaker 2 (01:52:13):
I mean, technically PJ. Tucker is still on their roster.

Speaker 4 (01:52:16):
You could have suggested him, but in fact you are
correct the That was the answer given by the miss
though his reason on the Clippers broadcast was phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (01:52:27):
James Harden, just not in the playoffs regular season. James
Harden is definitely superstar.

Speaker 3 (01:52:34):
I trust him all season long, party, but I do
think he'd be great.

Speaker 2 (01:52:36):
I think he'd be gabulate. The brand, the beard, it's
all there. It is, It's all there, the whole brand
is there.

Speaker 5 (01:52:42):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (01:52:43):
Thank you, Lauren did a nice job of spinning it
back in a positive I'd go with James Harden, just
not in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:52:51):
I mean on the Clippers broadcast. If there has ever
been someone that has earned that reputation as a high
profile guy, I mean, let's just face it, the equivalent
would be him never getting to finish his story every
single main event of WrestleMania, except for he wouldn't even

(01:53:11):
be in the main event because he'd be stuck in
the undercard because he wouldn't headline WrestleMania, because in order
to headline the NBA, you'd have to make it to
the finals once after being the sixth man of the
thunder Back in twenty twelve.

Speaker 4 (01:53:26):
And just to close it out if they did it
as a package deal, Clippers only wrestler and handler again
from inside the organization like a manager. Jeff Van Gundy
assistant coach for the LA Clippers.

Speaker 3 (01:53:40):
If Van Gundy cutting a promo would have to be
TV Van Gundy in that awesome coach fan Gunny. By
the way, you see what Triple H said at anticipation
of tonight's event.

Speaker 2 (01:53:48):
What did he say? Was it bad or ugly?

Speaker 3 (01:53:50):
Well, he was just talking about it was good because
he was talking about the difference between you know, traditional television,
cable what have you, and streaming services. He said, no
one ever says, let's CBS and chill.

Speaker 4 (01:54:03):
That is true. Dan has the ugly, So you with
the bad are next?

Speaker 3 (01:54:07):
Can I just go with the Texans playoff matchup? It's bad, yeah,
Michael Jackson, bad like it's a hit. No, No, you're
gonna want to beat it because you are so your sting.

Speaker 2 (01:54:19):
It doesn't matter who it is.

Speaker 3 (01:54:20):
Last game season, I'm saying if the Steelers had been
the opponent, that would have been better.

Speaker 2 (01:54:24):
That's what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:54:25):
Okay, So the unfortunate fact that the terrible matchup team
you were hoping to get here was so bad they
couldn't win any.

Speaker 3 (01:54:31):
Of their last four games. What's the best thing they
managed to avoid the Texans. What's the best thing that
the Texans have done defensively this year? Among many other
than sacks or quarterback pressures. They takeaways? Right, Demiko just
said it himself. Well, he doesn't give away the ball much.
They threw the ball to the other team three times
this year. Kaitlyn Bullock nearly had his AFC leading sixth interception,

(01:54:54):
but didn't quite hang on to the football. Made another
awesome break on the ball and play on the ball.
But you get your feet down the way you need to,
you gotta hold onto the ball.

Speaker 4 (01:55:02):
Yeah, And in weeks ago, it didn't look like either
the Broncos or Chiefs were even Broncos or Chargers were
even schouants to make the playoffs, let alone rise to
where it seemed like the Texans would be.

Speaker 2 (01:55:13):
That's the top wildcard team.

Speaker 4 (01:55:15):
You know, Steelers were in good position to claim the
division looked like Baltimore would end up being the five.
Last couple of weeks, it clearly shifted, and the schedule
did kind of dictate it. The last four games of
the Steelers season were played against four good teams, four
teams that are still playing football, and all four of
them beat them, and in most cases beat them soundly.
So the Ravens got that gift. The Ravens and Steelers

(01:55:35):
play the late game on Saturday. The Texans and Chargers
play the first game, the early game, the first of
the six wildcard weekend games, three thirty in the afternoon
at NRG Stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:55:45):
Dan, you have the ugly all year.

Speaker 10 (01:55:47):
People have praised Sam Darnold, and I get that last
night it was not one hundred percent his fault, but
a hell of a time to lay an egg. And
some of it, too, is probably on Kevin O'Connell of
don't put yourself in that position.

Speaker 2 (01:56:01):
Just take the three and if they.

Speaker 10 (01:56:03):
Had at one point they would have been leading the game,
of course, assuming Will Riikert makes the field goal two
of them, but in this case right here, Donald's had
a great season, but unfortunately if they go to La
this week, it get bounced That's what people are gonna remember.
That's what people are going to remember about him this season.

Speaker 4 (01:56:20):
Yes, tough one against the Liones, knowing that they have
a tendency to put a lot of points on the board,
taking the three versus going for more. You know, the
Lions are going to go for more almost every chance
they get, and they did throughout the game. Ended up
with a thirty one to nine victory. You know, the
season for Sam Donald, he had a game against his
former team that was not very good, and that was

(01:56:42):
pretty much it the whole year. He wouldn't he wasn't
unbelievable every week, but he really only had that as
a stinker. Even their game against Jacksonville, I probably you'd
maybe you'd consider that a second stinker. And then last
night with so much on the line, they're now the
fifth seed. They could end up with a home game
somewhere down the road, but it's unlikely. So not only
will they not have one, they will have nothing, but

(01:57:03):
how many road games that it could possibly take them
if they keep winning just to get to the super Bowl,
maybe get back to a Lions game rather than getting
a week off. Needing only two wins, both of them
would be at home, and yeah, he was bad. I
think looking back on it, I did not see every
single play doing Rockets game last night, but they were
just the same plays he's made for seventeen weeks. Were

(01:57:26):
there to be made, and guys were open and decisions
were not made very well. And then he obviously did
not throw the ball very well. That was by far
his worst game of the season and a rather important game.

Speaker 3 (01:57:37):
Was it hard to concentrate on the Rockets with so
much NFL stuff going on the Rockets played to night,
there was one game left.

Speaker 2 (01:57:43):
Well, it was a little earlier.

Speaker 3 (01:57:44):
I guess by then I had known. I think the
Chargers have this. I think the Chargers are coming to Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:57:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:57:50):
All right. We will wrap up the four o'clock hour
coming up next year on the A Team. Demiico on
the Chargers offense and defense.

Speaker 5 (01:58:01):
On Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:58:02):
Ninety Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 5 (01:58:07):
The A Team now continues.

Speaker 3 (01:58:16):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety. Maybe
we should be talking about the Fox Sports lawsuit more
since it's just has so many it just goes in
so many different directions and there's so many layers, and man,
I is that the shortest live tenure for the future

(01:58:36):
host of Amazon Primes NBA Studio show with a partnership
with Joy Taylor on the podcast. You notice that Taylor Rooks,
It's just like, I'm gonna just ease on out of
here very quietly after a month.

Speaker 4 (01:58:51):
I mean, I would think that it's a little too
hot to just h crank out a podcast like No, I.

Speaker 3 (01:58:57):
Don't even know this, You're not even aware of this.
I've been trying to get Taylor Rooks on the show
for a while now.

Speaker 4 (01:59:02):
Talk little NBA, sure, talk a little football, whatever handles
both Sure, okay, great.

Speaker 3 (01:59:08):
Big fan, awesome, huge fan. But yeah, this thing has Uh.
The only thing that I know for sure again is
that Colin Coward is a distinguished gentleman there at Fox Sports.
I was kind of like low key hoping to hear
about more talent just mentioned in some way, shape or form.

(01:59:29):
But I guess I was getting my fill of it yesterday. Anyways,
the memes, the jokes, uh, just Antonio Brown's Twitter account
in general, it's a lot of Uh, it's a lot
going on. Let's just leave it at that, all right,
Dmiko Ryans today talking about the Chargers. Finally, the Texans

(01:59:49):
know their opponent, they know what's you know, to expect
somewhat going into this thing, and you were mentioning, you know,
against all odds, the are gonna have to do some
things that they're just not known for doing this year,
particularly on the offensive side of things. Dan, We'll start
with Demiko's thoughts on the Chargers defense, because I mean,

(02:00:12):
I don't know if the Texans defense is going to
be able to take care of business. And he'll get
to that in just a second, but I do like
their chances versus Demiko getting the offensive line that's been
much maligned and has just not played up to championship
caliber all season long in front of your young quarterback

(02:00:33):
to perform in a playoff setting. So Tomiko with some
of his thoughts on the Chargers defense.

Speaker 8 (02:00:39):
I think coach Mentter has done a really good job
with this team just eliminating the deep pass. They do
a really good job of, you know, playing a shell, coverages,
mixing the coverages up. And this week we gotta fine
number three Dervin James. He's all over the place talk
about blitzing or blitzing safety Nickel, whatever dB position you

(02:01:01):
want to call it. Like Durwan is playing lights out.
He's an impact player. We have to have awareness for
where he is at all times. Their heads rushers also
good player, has been doing it for a long time.
Mac and Bosa really good tandem there on the head.
So you know, we have our hands full as should
be in a playoff matchup, but we're excited to go

(02:01:22):
against a really good football team.

Speaker 4 (02:01:24):
One of the players defensively, he did not mention, and
he mentioned a bunch of them was their sack leader.

Speaker 2 (02:01:30):
Friend of the program. We interviewed him last year. I
can't do this.

Speaker 4 (02:01:36):
Kui two a Polo two the Lombardy. Yeah, he had
eight and a half sacks this year. Joey Bosa had five,
Klough Mac had six, but Pree had six, James had
five and a half. They did spread it around pretty
good with who they have getting after the quarterback and
a couple of former Texans also where there, Perryman and Tart.
But that is one of the reasons why they were

(02:01:58):
able to create fifteen interceptions this year. They gave up
sixty five percent completion, which is significantly higher as in
worse than what the Texans did passer rating of eighty
seven overall on the season what their defense allowed, and
again comparing that to Houston, Texans gave up eighty three
point seven and had nineteen interceptions. The completion percentage was

(02:02:20):
under sixty best in the league. And if you're just
saying defense versus defense from a comparison standpoint, clearly they're
never on the field together. Pretty much across the board,
the Texans were better. It's the Texans versus Herbert and
the offense, and the Chargers versus Stroud the offense. But
for as much as the concern might be what they
can do to you, well you can, you need to,

(02:02:43):
You should be able to do some of those things
to them. They have a little bit better line. Even
though it's young. Joe Alt another player we talked to
the front of the show. He has been very, very good.
It was very smart selection to help the build day.
He plays left tackle. It was it was they hoped
he'd pan out. He absolutely has sacks per pass attempt.

(02:03:04):
The Chargers are very good. They're eighth in the league.
The Texans are fourth. You know, interception rate, you know,
the Chargers are very good. They's seventh in the league.
The Texans are second chargers. Yardage totals are really hard
to kind of figure out. They're pretty good against the past,
they're in the top five and yards per play, top
ten in yards per game, but again side by side

(02:03:25):
with the Texans, the Texans are significantly better. Their six
division games are definitely different than the Texans six Division games. Obviously,
they didn't have a first play schedule either, so there's
a little bit of that mixed in.

Speaker 2 (02:03:40):
Yeah, but they don't play the dregs of society six times.
That's kind of the biggest factor.

Speaker 4 (02:03:46):
Not only that their offenses are the Colts offense is
bad and when you play them it was probably even
worse than it was. Later in the year, Jonathan Taylor
all of a sudden said, oh, we're out of it.
How about one hundred and fifty yards every game? Just
running like crazy the last few weeks. You know, Flacco's
at least when he's not turning the ball over, clearly
throws the ball better than Anthony Richardson does. Texans only

(02:04:07):
got to see him for one snap when a r
was he was tired. I have to step off, that's man.

Speaker 3 (02:04:14):
As if it wasn't going to that hasn't exactly aged.

Speaker 4 (02:04:17):
Well, well, that's part of what is wrong in Indianapolis.
It's internal. They have internal problem, they have locker room problems.
He has to be our guy. We drafted him. The team,
the players aren't behind him, problem believe in him.

Speaker 3 (02:04:32):
Yet according to the guy who didn't bother to show
up to his suite on Sunday for the season finale.

Speaker 2 (02:04:38):
How's that?

Speaker 3 (02:04:39):
How does that matter?

Speaker 2 (02:04:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:04:40):
I mean I made it a thing by his actions
after the game, yes, and I do. I don't want
to make it into some big deal. He went around
and did something cool. He shook the hands of fans
that have some field side suites. One of them was
next to the McAfee field side suite, and after he
shook some of their hands, he went over to that
and shook hands with the ghost.

Speaker 3 (02:04:57):
Because there's nobody in there a deal. There's nobody that
was a bigger proponent of last year's Colts than Pat McAfee.
He had the biggest platform, obviously, so that helps, but
he didn't have to use it to completely. But every
week when JJ's on, it's a constant I hate you
because you're the Texans I'm backing the Colts.

Speaker 2 (02:05:15):
We're going to do this.

Speaker 3 (02:05:16):
He's absolutely on their side, but he also knows things
that other people might not about what's happening there, and
he's probably being pretty honest about what he thinks is
taking place in there, which isn't helping them win.

Speaker 2 (02:05:28):
Yeah, they're I mean, he's looking out for their best interests,
but it might not seem that.

Speaker 3 (02:05:32):
Way well because he's calling out elements that are also
players by the way, literally, so they're not going to
probably take too kindly to that.

Speaker 4 (02:05:41):
But well, Franklin and teammates have a weekly podcast. We'll
see what they're if there is a final post end
of the season.

Speaker 3 (02:05:49):
But the thing about the Pathan McAfee in his role
there with the Colts during his tenure is that he
has scoreboard to say things like this. He has scoreboard
because his teammate was Peyton Manning.

Speaker 2 (02:06:00):
Well, I wasn't his only teammate that probably gave him.

Speaker 4 (02:06:03):
But it's not like the punter has scoreboard because he
played in the greatest era of Colts football. Now, I'm
not saying he was a bad player, but he wasn't
the one that was an idiot or a drunk. According
to Peyton, at least he has that going for him.
I know he embarrassed the Texans with an incredibly well
executed on side kick way back when.

Speaker 3 (02:06:20):
He was also an absolute beast tackling at times on
special teams.

Speaker 4 (02:06:25):
Yeah, I mean, where would they be without Pat McAfee
in exactly the same place.

Speaker 2 (02:06:31):
I don't know about that.

Speaker 4 (02:06:32):
How do you guys think you got it done today?
I mean you threw for five touches. Hey, hey, we're
not winning this game without Pats punts. Just back it
up there, win.

Speaker 3 (02:06:41):
I know Reggie Wayne had two hundred and fifty yards,
I know Dwight Free and he had another strip sack
or ten.

Speaker 2 (02:06:46):
But we're not winning this game without pats punts.

Speaker 3 (02:06:49):
And then they look at Pat McAfee and say, well,
we could have won more Super Bowls if we'd had
a better punter kicker.

Speaker 2 (02:06:56):
Sorry, either or it doesn't matter. All right.

Speaker 3 (02:06:58):
We will begin the five o'clock hour next with what
Else Deshaun Watson News Football at five Straight.

Speaker 1 (02:07:05):
Ahead, the a team on Sports Talk seven ninety two
lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams series
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler r the A Team A.

Speaker 3 (02:07:35):
I spent the break before this five o'clock hour began
with Football at five reading some of Nicky Glazer's cut
jokes from the Golden Globe Awards last night.

Speaker 4 (02:07:45):
I was able to get that watched last night after
the Lakers Rockets game with the help of the old DVR.
Pretty good, great open about ten minutes of her as
she said she wasn't doing. Absolutely was roasting everybody in
the audience. Was total normal for an awards show, especially
this one, which is tailor made for it, because you
can see everybody. They're all right there in front of

(02:08:07):
you pretty good throughout the show. Obviously here and there
you can get a few barbs out there. Maybe the
best moment without involving NICKI was when Vin.

Speaker 3 (02:08:18):
Diesel came out.

Speaker 2 (02:08:20):
I didn't see it, so so he came out to.

Speaker 4 (02:08:22):
Announce the award for you know, achievement in movie like
Blockbuster moves that made a lot of money, stuff like that.
And the co star of Moana was in the crowd.
His name is Dwayne And I believe sources in my
house were telling me they have maybe had a beef.
I could see that, and I've heard about so when
he learnt out there before he said anything else and

(02:08:43):
began talking about the award.

Speaker 2 (02:08:44):
He was about to announce.

Speaker 4 (02:08:45):
The nominees and winner for he said, oh hey, Dwayne
and then went about his business. So it was just
it was it was noted that clearly he and Dwayne
and everybody are a where there's something between them.

Speaker 2 (02:08:58):
But yeah, she did. She did a good job. As
as she's.

Speaker 4 (02:09:00):
Shown the ability to do pretty much nothing was off limits.
It wasn't out of bounds.

Speaker 3 (02:09:04):
It was very funny. Well, you're at this point with
this particular award show in that role, you're constantly fighting
for second place to Ricky Gervais.

Speaker 4 (02:09:14):
I mean, there have been some pretty good hosts of
different award shows. I mean, to me still non Hollywood
award show. Norm is the host of The Spist. It's
like an all timer. Peyton Manning did a good job,
justin Timberlake did a good job, Jamie Fox did a
great job. But Norms Woodson OJ joke is probably at timer.
Football at five has arrived, so naturally we talked about

(02:09:36):
the Golden last time.

Speaker 2 (02:09:37):
It doesn't matter. Oh it's the best.

Speaker 4 (02:09:40):
Yeah, So the end of the season has come for
eighteen teams. Fourteen teams are in the postseason, seven on
each side of the conference. Texans are number four, winners
of the AFC South, last seed among the AFC Division winners.
They draw the Chargers Chargers number five after getting their
eleventh win yesterday to push them past the Steelers, who
fell to ten and seven after losing the last four games.

(02:10:01):
Maybe realize that today Russell Wilson guy isn't very good.
And we talked about Deontay Johnson coming to Houston after
leaving Baltimore, after leaving Carolina, after leaving Pittsburgh all in
twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (02:10:14):
Try to get him a touchdown yesterday, which.

Speaker 4 (02:10:16):
Brought up the George Pickens angle Man, Did George Pickens
have a rough rushing?

Speaker 2 (02:10:22):
Honestly?

Speaker 4 (02:10:23):
See, I will never sway from the pure talent that
he has. Yeah, but problems and performance have never left
his side, both at Georgia and clearly through his Pittsburgh career.
And you're gonna get to the point if you're the Steelers,
of well, we can't really pay him, can't We can't
commit long term to even though he's a super talent.

Speaker 2 (02:10:45):
Antonio Brown, Deontay Johnson, now George Pickens.

Speaker 4 (02:10:51):
Yes, amidst a holy grown heads, really really talented players
that you know get to the postseason more often than that.
There are some people also down on my top acting like, yeah,
they get to the postseason every year, let me know
when they've done anything recently. And this year's probably going
to be more of the same. For the eighteen teams
they did not get there, there are a few coach
firings a few retainings. The New York Giants have retained

(02:11:16):
both their general manager Joe Shane and Brian Dable, their
head coach. The Colts did the same with their GM
Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen. One kept one let go
by the Jaguars Doug Peterson, the head coach let go.
Trent Balki kept in place the three interim coaching situations
we mentioned. In New New England, Patriots added their name
to the we are searching for a head coach. Most

(02:11:37):
people are attaching Mike Rabel to that team. Rabel has
been on an interview with the Jets and is likely
at the front of the line for most teams in
search of a coach, and the Raiders could become that
sixth opening if they make that decision, and.

Speaker 3 (02:11:50):
Clearly there's a Brady angle to it.

Speaker 4 (02:11:53):
Those teams and many others had a end of season availability,
whether their head coach was there like Antonio Peers with
the Raiders. For the other GMS, Jery Jones had some
words to say, same thing happened in Cleveland. Cleveland season
has long been over. They lost their last six games
of the year. They got off to a miserable start
back in October. Deshaun Watson ruptured his achilles had surgery

(02:12:16):
just a few days after that, and their GM Andrew Berry,
met with the media today, but before he took questions,
he decided this is some new information he wanted to
share with them about Sean Watson.

Speaker 11 (02:12:29):
I did want to give an update on Deshaun so
yesterday as we went through our normal player you know,
medical process, we did learn that he did have a
setback in his you.

Speaker 2 (02:12:43):
Know, achilles recovery.

Speaker 11 (02:12:44):
We don't have all the details and everything yet, but
its obviously extend the recovery process for him. It is
new information, just learning in the past couple hours, so
I don't have everything yet, but did want to make
you all aware of it before for opening.

Speaker 1 (02:13:00):
Up for questions.

Speaker 2 (02:13:01):
So they have the season that they have after the season.

Speaker 4 (02:13:04):
They had last year, until they announced this year's winner.
They employ the reigning coach of the.

Speaker 2 (02:13:10):
Year right this year.

Speaker 3 (02:13:14):
So he sits down to address the media and you know,
by default, the fan base, and before he gets to
anything else that went wrong, he drops that bomb on them.

Speaker 4 (02:13:27):
I mean, maybe they were gonna ask about Miles Garrett's
future because that's clearly been in doubt. Maybe a player
that wants to not live through a rebuild, which they're
clearly in some of the other contractual situations. Kevin Stefanski's
situation only in the fact that he's probably safe. He's
the reigning coach of the year and he already made
what is normally the way to keep yourself safe.

Speaker 2 (02:13:45):
Well, you're gonna have to make some changes.

Speaker 4 (02:13:47):
They'd already fired their OC and he's you know, there
are a bunch of things to talk about the season.

Speaker 3 (02:13:52):
I didn't it was.

Speaker 4 (02:13:53):
It was a very bad season for them, and this
is how he opens it, and undoubtedly some of the
questions then followed. My first thought was, so surgery was
October twenty fifth, Okay, November twenty fifth, December twenty fifth,
and now we're.

Speaker 2 (02:14:07):
Two weeks past that.

Speaker 4 (02:14:08):
So in all those ten ish weeks, when did the
setback happen?

Speaker 2 (02:14:13):
Well, he's saying he had discomfort to Sean.

Speaker 3 (02:14:16):
But the GM is saying, we found out yesterday during
or today basically during our routine end of season medicals,
without like speculating too much, even though that's exactly what
I'm about to do. Like if he's not getting anything
flagged during those two plus months you just mentioned, I
mean again, the recovery might not have there's not a

(02:14:37):
whole lot to do, you'd get flat, but there was
enough to do that he had a setback, right, So
did that just happen this week?

Speaker 2 (02:14:46):
And what I mean, I there's some far be it
for me to be a doctor on the radio? We
leave that to you.

Speaker 4 (02:14:51):
Well, there's some things in this type of situation when
you've been hurt, and contractually it's almost always thinking there'll
be some insurance policies related to the they could offer
them some salary cap relief based on how this plays out.
I'm sure the Browns will investigate every possible way to

(02:15:12):
get financial help and won't care at all.

Speaker 3 (02:15:15):
Party wants in future, just for because you know why
if they had indeed reset the market, like, thank goodness
they didn't. They're they're now responsible for everyone in the
NFL having to make bad decisions because they made a
bad decision.

Speaker 4 (02:15:34):
I mean, if you kind of walk us back through
all the decisions that have been made to A got
his money this offseason, and while he had a very
good season, he played really good football, they didn't win
as much with him as I think they thought they
would if I said that correctly. But their GM should
be fired, and he's been there for so long. I
can't believe he hasn't been fired. You signed a guy
who's always hurt to play quarterback.

Speaker 3 (02:15:56):
How could you not sign a backup? Took them all
season to finally get Huntley in there, and he wasn't
familiar enough with the offense at the time.

Speaker 2 (02:16:03):
And now Tyreek Wan's out, well.

Speaker 3 (02:16:06):
I'm not sure about that.

Speaker 4 (02:16:08):
Jalen Ramsey also went to his social media, and there's
some confusion on exactly what he was trying to say.
But you know, obviously not making the playoffs and having
Toua who didn't actually miss all that much time this year,
but just those handful of games where they were inept
it cost them, but they signed to that huge deal.
There's no way they're happy about it. There's no way
they feel good about it. The Jaguars are the same,

(02:16:28):
no way they feel good about it.

Speaker 1 (02:16:30):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (02:16:30):
The Cowboys are the same. No way they feel good
about DA's deal. I mean, how clearly it's a different
deal that Cousins signed with Atlanta about one hundred and
sixty million over four years. They're already wanting to get
out of that. Do the Cardinals feel good about how
everything's gone with Kyler Murray? Because he didn't have a
bad season, but that division was awfully winnable this year

(02:16:53):
and they weren't even first or second.

Speaker 3 (02:16:55):
You know, you just described well, except for that last part,
not a good division quarterback didn't have a great year.

Speaker 2 (02:17:03):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (02:17:04):
I don't even believe this before I ask it. The
answer that I would give is no. But do the
Texans need to worry about, like how much are they
keeping an eye on year.

Speaker 2 (02:17:13):
Three of CJ?

Speaker 3 (02:17:14):
Before the they and look, it's not even about CJ
as much as it is. Look at all these other
examples of investing in the wrong guy. They got one
in their division and all the guys you just mentioned.

Speaker 4 (02:17:23):
Well, the good news is none of the players we
mentioned were committed to after three years.

Speaker 3 (02:17:27):
And again I don't agree that that's the case, like
CJ was so good as rookie year and still showed
flashes this season.

Speaker 4 (02:17:34):
But you say all the right things for the whole
next twelve months. Of course, we don't have concerns. He's great.
It's on us to make sure everything around him is
working so he can do his best. You say it
in March, you say it in April, you say it
all off season, you say it during the whole season
next year, no matter what's.

Speaker 3 (02:17:52):
Happening, how wild might have in this conversation.

Speaker 4 (02:17:54):
If the season goes similarly to this year from an
offensive standpoint, you're probably gonna get a new real target
somewhere after Nico, but above everybody else that's.

Speaker 3 (02:18:04):
On the roster. It's probably a draft pick, I would assume,
and you're going to try to make sure what happened
in front of him isn't happening again.

Speaker 2 (02:18:12):
If you do all those things and your.

Speaker 4 (02:18:14):
Offensive line is back to where it was last year,
at the very bottom of your hopefulness, well then he
needs to have the type of season that suggests yes,
was on us completely.

Speaker 3 (02:18:23):
He can play, he's our guy. We're gonna win and
we can commit. Do you think it's gonna be a
draft pick for a whiteout?

Speaker 2 (02:18:29):
I think they. That's how I would do it.

Speaker 3 (02:18:31):
And the reason I asked that is because, and this
isn't always the case, but how many times traditionally does
that first year or that white out you just don't
expect much because they're getting acclimb.

Speaker 4 (02:18:41):
Even if they're a highly met those things should be
over Like Jalen McMillan's a good example of that. Took
him a while, and he clearly never beat out Chris
Godwin or Mike Evans.

Speaker 2 (02:18:50):
Nobody thought he would.

Speaker 4 (02:18:51):
But now that Godwin's been out, he just keeps getting
better and better every week. He was awesome again yesterday,
even though his celebration got flagged because his first two
fingers were taped together.

Speaker 2 (02:19:01):
I can't. I don't get it anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:19:03):
You're allowed to have these elaborate in zone celebrations, but
yet if you do this over here with two fingers.

Speaker 2 (02:19:10):
Well that's a flag.

Speaker 3 (02:19:11):
Don't go pew pee pew. It's just ridiculous. But that's
the no Fun League for you.

Speaker 5 (02:19:17):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:19:22):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:19:34):
A team rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Wex in ac with you on a Monday edition of
the program. Texans and Chargers coming up on Saturday afternoon
inside in RG Stadium. I got a text from somebody
we both know during the break. I won't know how
many false starts Larry tonsl is gonna have.

Speaker 4 (02:19:53):
Yeah, I'd do my best to not really respond to
any of that stuff. Yesterday's game, if you were watching closely,
he could have easily been called for four or five
false starts before he wasn't gonna be called for him anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:20:05):
He was rocking.

Speaker 2 (02:20:06):
He was rocking back.

Speaker 4 (02:20:07):
In his stance pretty regularly throughout those first couple of
drives of the game, first with CJ and then with
Davis Mills, and he was flagged for it twice.

Speaker 2 (02:20:16):
Like I said, it could have been a bunch more.

Speaker 4 (02:20:17):
I was watching the other games also last night, specifically
the Lions game, and on one of their scoring plays,
their tackle did the very same thing. Ball's not snapped,
he's rocking back, he's moving. That's a false start. He
happened to have a crew that wasn't interested in calling it,
and maybe the Texans have been lucky the last handful
of games. He hadn't had one since Week twelve. I
don't think that that particular group of referees and officials

(02:20:39):
weren't looking for it. I think it's to me, it's
almost something he does every week to see what are
these guys on it?

Speaker 3 (02:20:46):
Do these guys care? Are they looking for it?

Speaker 4 (02:20:49):
Because if they're not, then I'm gonna do everything I
can and push the rules as far as I can to.

Speaker 3 (02:20:54):
Give my team a chance to keep playing CJ. Stratat quarterback.

Speaker 4 (02:20:58):
So I know it sounds stupid, and I know that
he could both be good and not false start more
than anybody in the league by a lot, But the
alternative sucks. The alternative is dumb. The Texans are not
better by keeping his fifteen false starts a year.

Speaker 3 (02:21:20):
They have to do it if he won't. I wish
he fixed it. I wish he was a better leader.
I wish his teammate tell him accountable. They don't.

Speaker 2 (02:21:27):
Well, his replacement just isn't on the roster yet.

Speaker 3 (02:21:29):
So replacement isn't on the roster, and it's very hard
for a team in their position, who's probably not drafting
in the top eighteen anytime in the near future, to
find his replacement in the draft, And then it's even
harder to find it in free agency because why are
they available.

Speaker 2 (02:21:44):
They're good, their.

Speaker 4 (02:21:45):
Team wants to keep them. It's why he keeps signing excensions.
The situation, i'd use the same word. It also sucks.
They just have to live with it. You can complain
about it. I'm not going to disagree with you about it.
It's not an ideal situation, but saying they got to
get rid of him is just not Unfortunately, it sounds
like a good answer because you probably would have fewer

(02:22:08):
false starts and sacks go up and pressures go up.
It shouldn't be this hard to find somebody when this
is not year one, two, three, four, or five of
it being a problem. They have literally never attempted to
find a replacement for him until maybe the second round
of this most recent draft, and that player finally got

(02:22:29):
on the field near the end of the season, played
the other side, and should be playing there this week.
That's Blake Fisher. The five man line they had for
this game is the same line they had better use Saturday.

Speaker 3 (02:22:41):
Do you think that is ultimately Okay, let me ask
it's two part question. At the time they drafted him,
do you think that's what their intention and do you
think it still is now with Fisher?

Speaker 4 (02:22:55):
Uh, unless they've watched him and think otherwise. Yeah, I
think their intention was when he is with his four
year contract. He was not a first round pick, so
there's no option year. They would have to extend him
or franchise him or whatever. When he's done with his
four year contract, he needs to be our starting left tackle.

Speaker 2 (02:23:12):
He can play with Laramie for however many years.

Speaker 4 (02:23:15):
He can move inside if we all of a sudden
get great tackle play from Titus Howard, which you've never gotten,
good enough to get an extension, never been considered one
of the better right tackles in the league. He's an
okay tackle. You paid him like he's a much better tackle.
You paid Shack Mason like he's good. He's not good.
He's actually really bad, and you're much better without him.

(02:23:36):
That is a position you can replace. And that's the
other point I'm making. You replaced him. He got hurt.

Speaker 3 (02:23:42):
Don't go back.

Speaker 4 (02:23:43):
I don't know if he's gonna be healthy or not
this week yet, but I'm pretty sure he won't be,
so that decision's probably made for them. But run out
the same guys you had out there and see what
when and if you need backups to them. And again
signing autsin Deculus should show you what a terrible situation
they have even as their reserves. We've had a few
injuries this year, and one or two is about all
any team could probably stomach with who's on the roster.

(02:24:07):
You only go into games with eight. Most of the
time you only roster nine. But it's probably their best
bet and there's no imminent replacement for Laramie. But financially speaking,
it's going to be difficult. But they probably have to
start this offseason ridding themselves of Titus Howard, Laramie, Tutsel
and Shaq Mason.

Speaker 3 (02:24:27):
Mason first man has a lot to do well. It's
just the way it's hard to because money being spent
in all that. It's the finances of it. They all
make way too much money. They all have major cap
ramifications when you let them go, and I don't know
that you're going to be able to move them.

Speaker 2 (02:24:43):
This might seem some other way.

Speaker 3 (02:24:45):
Yeah, this might seem like a dumb question because it
still doesn't solve the fact that they're not good players,
or they're not as good as they need to be
in certain cases. You know, we always hear about restructuring deals,
but they're typically like Deshaun Watson. That's such a bloated
contract and all the bad things that come with it.
I mean, Titus Howard getting an extension and Shack Mason

(02:25:09):
getting you know, money, Like, has that ever even.

Speaker 2 (02:25:14):
Been discussed or personally?

Speaker 4 (02:25:16):
In Shack Mason's case, trading for him was bad and
then extending him was worse at the rate you did.

Speaker 3 (02:25:21):
I don't want no more. Just don't get rid of him.
He can't be here, right because otherwise what happens if
he's here, he plays, that's worse, right, And I'm sure
I'm like the hardest on him of anybody out there.

Speaker 4 (02:25:33):
Just not personal. He's a great guy. He's much better
locker room guy than some other players. He's perfectly fine
in all those regards. He just can't play anymore, in
my opinion, not at a high enough level for a
team whose aspirations are to win playoff games.

Speaker 3 (02:25:46):
Titus Howard is probably somewhere between Shaq Mason and Laramie
Tunsel as far as definitely the money but playability and.

Speaker 4 (02:25:55):
He's perfectly You can play him absolutely and there's no
issue there. He's not I didn't put him above average,
but he's an average tackle. He's played better at guard
than I expected to do, but he's probably no better
than an average guard. But it's okay to have average
players if some of the other players are above average.
So long above average player who fall starts all the time. Yeah,
and that they don't have any everybody else is averaged

(02:26:16):
below average.

Speaker 3 (02:26:17):
So having said that, best be nice. We know the uh,
we know the situation. Do you see him since he's
under contract long term being more of a guard situation
where he's not terrible but that's you know, he's not
he's not great, but he's not terrible. And that's actually
the best of a bad situation that you can immediately

(02:26:39):
address one of those two guard spots where you haven't
gotten any good play.

Speaker 4 (02:26:44):
Yeah, you playing because you don't have anybody else. That's
a strong a recommendation for Titus Howard the guard that
I can make. I also don't believe he's psyched about
it well tenth time when they keep playing him in
there at not his best position.

Speaker 3 (02:26:56):
Snee, It reminds me a little bit of how they
handled Mario Williams on the defensive side. They just kept
moving him up and down the lot after he had
the foot issue.

Speaker 2 (02:27:03):
What do you had? The what do you have? He
had planner for once.

Speaker 4 (02:27:08):
Yeah, but to me, defensively, JJ, Jadavion, Mario will Daniel,
Deniko Autry, they all move yeah, because they're awesome, but
that shouldn't be a negative.

Speaker 3 (02:27:18):
Yeah, And that was the difference though, Like Mario was good,
he was never awesome to me.

Speaker 4 (02:27:24):
He was borderline, you know, Pro Bowl caliber player, you know, third, fourth, fifth,
best d N in the AFC six to seven some years.
He didn't have a bad career in Buffalo after they
signed him for the money they signed him for. But
I would just have never I wouldn't have admitted that
much you're not getting enough out of it, even though
he's still a pretty good player. But yeah, how they
go about ridding themselves of a guy who signed the

(02:27:47):
contract that they gave him At Titus Howard got a
three year, fifty six million dollar extension, and so for
this twenty four season that is now complete in twenty
five and six as they plays out the extension, and
he's got a cap hit of twenty three million or
twenty five million, and the dead cap hit in this
coming year if you weren't here, is only a little
bit less than that, and then you get a nice

(02:28:07):
break the following year from a cap standpoint, but it's
still over twelve million.

Speaker 3 (02:28:11):
You're paying him not to be on your team, eating up.

Speaker 4 (02:28:13):
Your cap space, which inevitably every team does, even the
good teams, and some teams manage it a little bit
better than others. But in the meantime, you get him
off the team and you got a better player. And
that part hasn't been accomplished. Nick has been the GM
of this team for four years. As much as they
didn't want to win in the first two years, that
shouldn't preclude you from finding good players, certainly not offensive linemen.

(02:28:35):
They're not necessarily going to make or break your ability
to win and say ruin your draft position.

Speaker 3 (02:28:39):
I just but to me, and I've said this a
million times, I know I can't believe this GM, who
has done so well at other positions particularly on the
defensive side of the ball, but also on the offensive side.
Has gotten this offensive line this wrong. I mean, there's
no other way to put it. I can't dress that up.

Speaker 2 (02:28:59):
No, you shouldn't.

Speaker 4 (02:28:59):
It is one hundred percent accurate about why this team
is where it is. You know, free agency is a
little bit different. You obviously know if this player can
play or not he's been playing. But drafting last year,
drafting Bullock, you know, I think you would say drafting
Jalen Petrie, and you definitely say drafting Derek Stingley junior,
and clearly will five starts plus these are draft picks,
some of them very high, others not quite as high,

(02:29:20):
that take a little bit more acumen to find them.
Along with your scouting and personnel staff, they've they've done
a great job. That's five starting defensive players that are
Casario and Crewe draft.

Speaker 2 (02:29:30):
Picks on one of the best defenses in.

Speaker 4 (02:29:33):
A little bit less so on the offensive side. Nico's one,
CJ's two, Blake Fisher's three. That means just from it
and in tank Dell I think rightfully would be you
know three before Fisher. That's unfair to not give him
some credit for a third round pick who clearly can

(02:29:53):
play in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (02:29:54):
He's just been hurt twice. I hate the fact that
I'm like trying to talk myself out of ever expecting
anything from tat you got one way or the other.

Speaker 4 (02:30:01):
On Just Nick here to wrap up this segment, if
you said you're gone, it's totally understandable. If you kept him,
the same thing is true. The bottom line is that's
very texting that has to get fixed, and you can't
win until it does. That's why they're not favorites.

Speaker 2 (02:30:17):
This weekend, The A teen on.

Speaker 5 (02:30:22):
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:30:25):
Mat and Shingoon Hey, Solfie Turns Left, Spans Rise, Stay
Clutch with the iHeart Radio.

Speaker 10 (02:30:32):
Suits Sports Doll seven nine Am All for Ruck as possible.

Speaker 4 (02:30:42):
Halfway through the final hour of today's Monday edition of
the program, brings us to in case you missed a
lot of NFL news today, We've only mentioned the other
team in Texas on the NFL side a couple of
times to say that Chicago Bears have requested to interview
current head coach Mike McCarthy. I didn't mention the game
yesterday other than to note that the Commanders came back

(02:31:03):
late to beat them. With Marcus Marriotta running things, got
them to their twelfth win and honestly helped the Cowboys
a little bit with their draft pick, Trey Lance finally
got to play.

Speaker 3 (02:31:13):
And that's part of what we will catch you up with.
And in case you missed it here.

Speaker 10 (02:31:16):
Yeah, that comes next, because first we start off with
Jerry Jones playing Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on the hit
new Paramount Plus TV show Landman.

Speaker 2 (02:31:27):
So part of it.

Speaker 10 (02:31:29):
I don't think I'm giving away spoilers here, but John
Ham's character has a heart attack.

Speaker 2 (02:31:32):
He's in the hospital.

Speaker 10 (02:31:34):
Tommy Norris, who is Billy Bob Thornton's character, goes to
see him in the hospital. They get another visitor who
tries to give John hamm some advice about how he
should handle the later stages of his life.

Speaker 6 (02:31:47):
I just know it's not gonna be this time, but
you're gonna be sitting there sometime in the future, laying
here sometime in the future, and this room's gonna be
full of your business associates and the people you've worked
with all your live and more than like, your children
and family going to be there because they are your
children and your family, but you could have them there
because they're the people you spent your life with, you

(02:32:08):
worked with, you fell down with, you got up with,
just Thanksgiving, Christmas. That's who you want to be with.
So when that time comes like this, it's a celebration
of your life and you're not wishing you to spend
a little more time saying a few more sons come on.
That's the trick.

Speaker 10 (02:32:24):
So Jerry had about a two minutes and fifteen second
monologue in the scene that he was in a dialogue.
The crux of it was basically he bought the cowboys
so he could work closely with.

Speaker 2 (02:32:35):
His kids, which is what he's doing.

Speaker 4 (02:32:40):
My first thought when Dan noted to me that Jerry
Jones appeared on land Man, which I watched when it
was being teased to us in between Yellowstone episodes. I
have not gotten around to going to the streaming continuing
saga of what's going on with William Robert Thornton, but
I will I was pretty entertained, but I think it's

(02:33:01):
a pretty good show. But you noted that to me,
and my immediate thought is, Jerry Jones has been around
and in this spot for so long that he's made
guest spots, as himself cameos on some of our favorite
old HBO series.

Speaker 2 (02:33:19):
We know he was on Entourage.

Speaker 4 (02:33:21):
Heck Ari was trying to buy an NFL team in
La Jerry Jones was in on those meetings. Clearly, this
is an NFL story, and Jerry Jones was one of
the NFL owners. They chose to have a speaking role
in all of this. Way back in the late nineties
and early two thousands, one of the all time great
sports television series on HBO Rless Carless, with Houston's own

(02:33:44):
Robert wool as the agent. Well, Jerry Jones of course
cameoed on that show as well as obviously that's what
a cameo is, Jerry Jones. And now he's on land
Man as he now remind us of the second part
of the Jerry Jones story today as he runs the
Cowboys so.

Speaker 10 (02:34:02):
Well, yes because coming into yesterday's game, Cooper Rush had
played forty five percent of the offensive snaps this season
that kicked in a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
contract incentive.

Speaker 3 (02:34:14):
Had he played yesterday, he could.

Speaker 10 (02:34:16):
Have earned an additional two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
because he would have played fifty five percent of the snaps.
People were wondering, Okay, well that's got to be the
reason that Trey Lance started right that question, asked the
Jerry Jones after the game.

Speaker 6 (02:34:30):
I didn't even know about it until I read about it.

Speaker 3 (02:34:34):
So nothing, nothing at all.

Speaker 9 (02:34:36):
Those incentives are in there for the team, and we
put him in there so that if someone is in
his case as a backup quarterback cast to play, they've
got the financial incentives. But they're usually put in there
because of people representing it, and they have should be.
So he did really earn some pretty serious incentives this year.

Speaker 3 (02:35:00):
So again just to review, Jerry didn't even know about it, supposedly,
and so this guy didn't play because two hundred and
fifty grand was at stake. But a few states over
to the east you had Mike Evans getting his and
I realized Cooper Rush and Mike Evans are not of

(02:35:20):
the same caliber. But that's again why there was a
million dollar incentive at stake.

Speaker 4 (02:35:27):
Yeah, if you were paying any kind of attention to
the Texans game, you heard Ross and Jay and Tom constantly. Well,
Tony Polig got on its Saturdays. He's eighty yards away.
He's seventy four yards away, he's seventy one yards away,
he's sixty eight yards away. They're obviously trying to get.

Speaker 2 (02:35:42):
It for him.

Speaker 4 (02:35:43):
First catch of the game in the Jets game was
going to mean something to Tyler Conklin.

Speaker 2 (02:35:48):
They got that out of the way, right out of
the gate.

Speaker 3 (02:35:50):
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars incentive from Aaron Rodgers,
not from him personally.

Speaker 2 (02:35:54):
The pass was hit from him personally.

Speaker 4 (02:35:56):
There were seventy eight offensive snaps in the Cowboys game yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:36:00):
Try Lance got all of them.

Speaker 4 (02:36:03):
The incentive, as Stan noted, would have absolutely been triggered.

Speaker 2 (02:36:08):
All the way top down.

Speaker 4 (02:36:09):
Jerry, whatever role and whatever title you drop on him,
it's okay if he really truly knowing that he's got
a lot of things to do, didn't know every single
detail of every single contract off the top of his head.
But he can't not know it before the game, because
do you have anybody else working for you? I know
Steven's there, I know you have cat people there. I
know you have personnel people. I know you have coaches,

(02:36:31):
everybody in the nobody like I want to believe Jerry,
I'm gonna play the role of believing Jerry, but he's GM.

Speaker 3 (02:36:37):
I know he's the GM, but in the fact that
he's also the owner. Like even Bill O'Brien is head
coach in GM, he even knows. Now, you can't do
all that all by yourself. Pete Carroll's been both. Until
they had John Schneider doing way more, it wasn't gonna
work the way it needs to. Bill Belichick, same thing.
You can't be on top of everything. But even still,

(02:36:57):
before you get to your decision on who's starting, somebody's
got Hey, Jerry, if you're unaware of the contract you
signed him to, and I know Cooper's probably signed like
five deals with the Cowboys because they've been their backup
so long, you gotta know this stuff.

Speaker 4 (02:37:12):
That stuff matters. Everybody in the locker room knew about it.
Reporters knew about it. I know agents probably helped them
know that. But this sounds very much like the way
the Cowboys have been run for decades, very Jerry jonesy, messy, messy,
and not winning. Like some years, the talent suggests they should.
The talent this year probably suggested they should have been

(02:37:32):
an out and playoff team, and they were.

Speaker 3 (02:37:34):
By the way a team that you didn't expect to
be as good as they were isn't going anywhere in
all likelihood. And the other team I'm talking about in
your division is the Eagles. So good luck with that
because right now you're on track to be third in
your division if I'm betting next year's twenty twenty five
NFC East one more.

Speaker 10 (02:37:53):
Yeah, how awesome would it be if there was a
real life Kenny Banya and you work for Jerry Jones?

Speaker 2 (02:37:57):
Hey, Jerry? All right?

Speaker 10 (02:37:59):
So this is kind of into a DFW version of
why not the.

Speaker 4 (02:38:04):
Home of the Southwest Sports in Dallas and your foremost
Yankees enthusiast station, there you go, the A team Sports
Talk seven to nine.

Speaker 10 (02:38:12):
Well, I think AC's gonna love this one because, in
addition to Luka Doncic being out for a prolonged period
of time, Sean Sharania throwing out and I'm gonna be
careful with this. Dallas Maverick's star guard Kyrie Irving has
a bulging disc in his back.

Speaker 4 (02:38:26):
Expected to miss one to two weeks. Two ways to
deliver this story. This is the soft way. Maverick star
Kyrie Irving expected to miss one to two weeks. This
is the harder version, a more troubling version of the story.
Maverick star Kyrie Irving has a bulging disc in his back.
Does that sound like he's gonna be back after five

(02:38:48):
or six games? Does it sounds like he's gonna be
back on the court playing really high level.

Speaker 3 (02:38:51):
Basketame or anyone you've known ever suffered from a bulging disc,
and you can't just like get up out of the chair.
This guy's supposed to play world elite class athletes defensively
and using offense, and that's not happening.

Speaker 6 (02:39:06):
Am.

Speaker 4 (02:39:07):
I've also seen this weekend Luca on a scooter because
he can barely move with his calf injury.

Speaker 3 (02:39:13):
Klay Thompson saves all Go MAVs.

Speaker 5 (02:39:17):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 12 (02:39:23):
I'll always remember my friend Adam and my other friend Adham,
and maybe another Adam if they get another guy on
the show. That's why they call this splitting the atom.
Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler, and I don't give us about
either the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (02:39:47):
I still can't get over the Fox story. I'm sorry,
It's just like a soap opera.

Speaker 2 (02:39:52):
It's not a good one. No no, this is.

Speaker 4 (02:39:57):
Something we periodically until it changes. We'll need to continue
to follow a story, and it's a lot longer lasting
story than we thought it would be. The Red Sox
made an announcement today their truck is leaving for spring
training on February third. Remember today is January sixth. Pitchers

(02:40:17):
and catchers will be reporting on February twelfth. Their first
full squad workout is February seventeenth, one month and eleven
days from now. Just one of many teams that will
make these announcements over the next handful of days, is
Alex Bregnan gonna have a team to play for before
spring training begins. Like, Oh, he's gonna sign during winter meetings. Oh,
he's definitely gonna sign before Christmas. I'll probably sign before

(02:40:39):
New Year's. Well, each presumed day on the calendar, we thought, oh,
he should have something done. Now, this guy's signed, and
that guy's signed, and this guy's not on the market anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:40:49):
Somebody I know that's very privy to that situation seem
to think it was coming very soon, like going on
two weeks ago, and it hasn't.

Speaker 4 (02:41:03):
Tigers are thought to be very serious. The Blue Jays
have been reported recently as very serious questions.

Speaker 3 (02:41:09):
Okay, the question for those two things you just said,
what's the hold up? If you're serious and you want
this guy on your team, then is the money that ludicrous?

Speaker 2 (02:41:20):
Are you close? In figures?

Speaker 4 (02:41:22):
Well, you you've offered him a contract if you're one
of those three teams that he could say yes to.
But he's looking for I'm using you to put I'm
pitting you against them.

Speaker 3 (02:41:31):
I don't really want it your money. I want you
to make sure I get the money from the team
I want.

Speaker 4 (02:41:35):
And maybe that's the last thing in the way, the
money he probably thinks he could get. I would assume
it's somebody's given him something worth saying yes too.

Speaker 3 (02:41:42):
Like Carlos Late to the Astros when he was signing
with the Mets with his agent Scott Boris.

Speaker 2 (02:41:48):
A little bit like that.

Speaker 4 (02:41:49):
I mean, without the Astros really truly believing they were
in it, the Mets probably don't have to offer him
what they did. That was pretty long before Steve Cohen,
but yeah, and helped him get that. And you would
kind of thing like, is does he know that the
Tigers have kind of pushed the Red Sox to where
the Bregman and Boris group wants them to be. But
I need to make sure that Blue Jays are so

(02:42:10):
engaged that they're the team that's actually gonna get the
Red Sox where we want them to, and then we
can just go ahead and sign with the team we've
always wanted.

Speaker 2 (02:42:17):
Again, I'm making a lot of a seni.

Speaker 3 (02:42:19):
And you know the funny thing is, that's one scenario that,
while you're making an assumption, it's not out of the question.
Are you surprised that the Yankees haven't pushed more for this.

Speaker 4 (02:42:33):
I think the Yankees, as weird as it may sound,
they did their smart, prudent thing this offseason. They've already
spent their Bregman money. They gave it to Max Freed.
They decided there was a stopping point in the bidding
war for Juan Sota, and they let I guess the
other New York team have him. And then they have
made other moves and spent money to do so. Even

(02:42:56):
though Wan SODA's gonna hit his forty plus homers and
score and drive in one hundred plus for somebody else,
you might have a pretty good team this year. If
these other moves and the other ways you spent a
lot less money work out, and it does not include
going out and now getting Alex Bregman. I mean Bellinger,

(02:43:17):
is he gonna be good if he has a reasonably
good season with Aaron Judge's protection in the lineup. Presuming
that I mean Bellinger could lead off an Aaron Judge
could bat second. This year means you get maybe your
two best hitters up that much more often.

Speaker 3 (02:43:30):
Remember you wanted to get the Can'tmera if he was
with the Eagles or the Patriots or if he signed
with them, and you got Danielle Manning and Jonathan Joseph instead.
Who is the player Namdi ausen wah nomdy Austin Wall.
That is what that reminds me of that scenario you
just laid.

Speaker 2 (02:43:48):
Yeah, they were and it was real. They were in pursuit.

Speaker 4 (02:43:51):
Rick Smith was engaged and wanted Namdi Austin Wat to
be a super highly paid corner to come there to
play for Houston.

Speaker 2 (02:43:57):
And you got two pro bowlers for the price of one.

Speaker 4 (02:44:00):
You pivoted into less money for your safety Daniel Lanning,
less money, but good money for a very accomplished Bengals
corner in Jonathan Joseph Manning also helped you in the
return game in the playoffs as a matter of fact,
and they both had very good careers. Manning's obviously a
little shorter than Joseph's, but as free agent report cards
might go, that was two hits, two a's on the signings,

(02:44:22):
and among the best free agent signings that Rick Smith had.

Speaker 3 (02:44:26):
Now, as I recall, Nandi Ausesome, Wall didn't have a
particularly fantastic career after landing with the Eagles.

Speaker 4 (02:44:32):
He did not, so injuries were a part of it,
but where he was in his career, it seemed like
there was a there were a lot of good years
still in front of him.

Speaker 2 (02:44:41):
He was on the right side of thirty.

Speaker 4 (02:44:43):
After leaving Oakland, where he played for eight years, he
only played three more seasons.

Speaker 3 (02:44:48):
And the other part of this is you know will
be And I believe me, I'm not saying the Astros
have made all the right decisions. They certainly have not,
and they're paying for two of their bad ones again
this year, and neither of them will perform for the team.
But given what we don't know what he's gonna end

(02:45:08):
up signing for, but given what it probably ends up
being or where it ends up being or.

Speaker 2 (02:45:15):
How that team.

Speaker 3 (02:45:15):
We're gonna look back and say to ourselves, Okay, it sucked.
It hurt from a legacy standpoint and from what he contributed,
But the Astros made the right move in not giving
Alex Bregman whatever he and Scott Bores were asking for.

Speaker 4 (02:45:29):
Unfortunately, that could be true. They might feel that way,
and it might work out that way. But if they
haven't done other things to make this team without Bregman
really really good, You're not really gonna care, are you now?
You're still gonna feel bad about You can let Bregman go,
but let's keep winning. Let's figure out a different way
to do it, and even moving Kyle Tucker can help
you figure out a new way to do it. You

(02:45:49):
could have been the team that gave Goldschmid a short
term deal. You'd be taking a lot of risk coming
off of his awful season. The Yankees were the team
that did that. They had enough of in their arsenal
to go out and trade for Devin Williams. He had
a closer problem for much of the year. Clay Holmes
had a great start to the year, then he fell apart.
Then it took a while for them to find Luke Weaver.
Devin Williams could be the best closer in the American

(02:46:09):
League this year. I'm not saying he will be. I'm
saying he's good enough to where that could happen. And
you couple that with the other moves we may me mentioned.

Speaker 3 (02:46:17):
I would be pleased if I were a Yankee fan,
which is thankful him, not about what they've done the Astros.

Speaker 2 (02:46:22):
Christian Walker probably turns out.

Speaker 4 (02:46:24):
To be a very good signing. But do they win.
I think he'll play well. I think he'll contribute, and
I think it was a smart play, But will they win?

Speaker 3 (02:46:34):
The relief pitcher or the relief pitching is slightly less
of an achilles heel than the outfield A much much
less of an achilles heel.

Speaker 4 (02:46:47):
Well, you have argued you have one of the five
best relievers in baseball that's not a closer in Brian Obray.
You yeah, and you still have Josh Hater who will
did not have an awesome year last year. It was
pretty awesome when he was trying to save games. I
know he had a few blown says, but when he
was put in that position, he usually came through.

Speaker 3 (02:47:04):
Hopefully he's willing again to give you more than three
outs every now and then, and they always seem to
find the right guys, and maybe Miguel Castro is another
one that augment their bullpen Taylor.

Speaker 2 (02:47:14):
Scott last year. My im Pressley situation is just the.

Speaker 4 (02:47:17):
Tough one because it's probably family wise, wife, kids. This
would be a place they'd want to continue. If an
opportunity presented itself for him to feel like he was
in a better situation somewhere else, a more important role
or the role of closer, which is I think very
hard to come by, then maybe he'd be okay agreeing
to a deal.

Speaker 2 (02:47:35):
Which he doesn't have to.

Speaker 4 (02:47:36):
And then if the Astros were willing to kick in
I think a nice chunk of money to help that
deal along, that might make it happen. They clearly are
concerned with where they are as it relates to the CBT.
They have not announced their report dates. FanFest is not
far off in the future either, so all those things
on the horizon will be a big part of all
of those things. Great welcome back to the new year, Normalcy, Normalcy.

(02:47:59):
Appreciate everybody being with us today, those of you on
the simulcast, those are you on the app, But of
course right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. The
Nightcap with Dan follows us, and we'll do it all
again beginning tomorrow at

Speaker 1 (02:48:09):
Two the a t on sports Talk seven ninety
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