Lamar Jackson OUT For Week 5, A WIN For The Texans' Schedule?

Wex and AC react to the news of Baltimore Ravens MVP QB Lamar Jackson's potentially missing Week 5's showdown against the Houston Texans. Does this give the 1-3 AFC South champions the edge entering the final week before the bye?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Schedule and that the off week for the Ravens is
just one more game away. So if he's kind of
hurt and he shouldn't be out there, then he probably
wasn't going to be out there. And maybe the same
thing is true for them a week from now, when
the Texans no longer care, except they're playing the same
We got to get ourselves into the playoff picture that
the Ravens are, so maybe they do care. But two

(00:20):
teams presumably in the race for the postseason in the
same division. Now, the Bengals without Joe Burrow look kind
of like, well what leftovers are to Clinton see? And
if the Ravens start one in three with Lamar Jackson,
I mean, I'd hate to think the Texans against Cooper
Rush for the second year in a row, is going

(00:43):
to deliver Cooper Rush a victory for the first time
in a row. Otherwise, they're one and four with Cooper
Rush as they're starting quarterback. As the Texans get to
two and three, as the Texans look a little presumably
with a win, they'll look a little bit more like
a team that has a chance to find themselves in
the postseason. So we knew that they had a lot
of guys banged up, and many guys were going to

(01:03):
miss the game. It hasn't become official yet. It's Tuesday
before a Sunday game. Might not even become official tomorrow
when the Ravens get on the practice field and John
Harbaugh meets with the media, but probably have a pretty
good idea if the report today that two to three
weeks missed time for Lamar Jackson his hamstring injury is
what the expectation is. Well on the Texans, like I said,

(01:24):
for the second season in a row, when they played
the Cowboys last year in November and Dak Prescott was hurt, well,
they got to face Cooper Rush and he threw fifty
five passes and it helped the Cowboys score ten points
and the blowout Texans lopsided sacked him five times victory.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Is it safe to say the given what we just
got done talking about, and given what we talked a
little bit about yesterday, and I think it will continue
to be a topic this week, especially in light of
this Lamar Jackson news that the defense for the Baltimore
Ravens is stinky, as you like to say. Is this
for the first time since well two thousand and two.
I don't remember if they played them that year. I

(02:04):
don't think they did. Is this the best chance that
Texans have ever had to win at Baltimore because they've
never done it? Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
And it's not the best team they've taken there will
they're currently playing.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Not at all. Matter of fact, they should have won
for the first time there in the postseason with probably
the best team in franchise history, for being.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Honest, maybe sans the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, the quarterback was hurt. So TJ.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Diex is trying to do it. Yes, I believe that
was a twenty to thirteen final. I think he targeted
Courtland Finnegan's friend like sixteen times in that game, and
everybody knew it, and so it resulted in a few
interceptions that the Texans certainly could have done without, and
unfortunately they came up a little short when it was
pretty clear a lot of other guys were blamed for

(02:51):
lots of other things that happened in that game. Kobe
Jones may rest in the special teams game, and I
still didn't believe it then and I don't now, even
though yeah, technically it's a mistake. Came up short, then
I would agree that was a pretty good group. This
team was supposed. They've battled Baltimore, Kansas City in Buffalo
the last two years since CJ and Demiko and Will
Anderson have all been here. They've beaten Buffalo in the

(03:11):
regular season. They have been to Buffalo or been to
Baltimore in the postseason. They've been to Kansas City in
the postseason. They've seen both of those teams each of
the last two years. We'll see them again this year.
We'll see Buffalo again this year. They've played them a lot.
They haven't had much success against them, and those are
the teams that we keep thinking, well, they're the ones
that are definitely ahead of them. So far this year,
more AFC teams have gotten ahead of them, but these

(03:34):
are still the only three teams that you clearly have
not played well against that matter. Can they beat some
of these other teams. They'll get the Chargers later this year, obviously,
we're going to see them play a different Ravens team.
They get the Buffalo Bills later. So at some point
you got to do it. And it's only the regular season,
but it's all you have until you get to that opportunity.

(03:56):
In the postseason. Not to mention, if they're one and
four and you're two and three and neither one of
you think it's going to take more than ten or
eleven wins to get to a division crown, which then
both of you could still win. Well, maybe they're coming
to Houston this year because you beat them in the
regular season and a tiebreaker would be in your favor

(04:18):
if it came to that.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
What a weird scenario and a weird start to the
season for I don't want to say it's weird for
both of these teams, because I do think some of
what has happened, at least offensively for the Texans was predictable.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, it's weird for them, it's not weird fem Texans,
in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Well, their schedule has a lot to do with that.
But then, if you fancy yourself a Super Bowl contender,
and I certainly did, and I know they did organizationally,
you got to win some of these games that have
come down to a play here or a play there.
After all, it is a game of inches. But that's
really I mean, they are a whisper away from having
a very different record, but they just haven't gotten those

(04:55):
plays to go their way this year.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, you don't have to win them all when your
schedule is what it is for the Ravens, but you
got to win one of them. They haven't won any
of them. They lost to the Bills, they lost to
the Lions, they lost to the Chiefs, and the last game,
the most recent game, was lopsided against them. So it
hasn't gotten better, it's gotten worse. They gave the game
away we all think on opening Night when they gave
up forty one points and had a fifteen point lead. Yeah,
it's good competition. There's a couple of teams that had

(05:19):
an incredibly difficult first four games of the season with
who they're up against and what we think they're still
going to be this year. In Baltimore's one of them.
But they've lost them all and that's what's unexpected. That's
why the word weird would certainly fit in. I fancy
them as a Super Bowl contender, and as long as
Lamar Jackson is healthy and they reach the postseason, they'll
still be a tough out. Even though he plays his

(05:39):
worst football at the worst at the best time for
everybody else and the worst time for him. He's not
been particularly good in the postseason. He hasn't been quite
as bad as everyone thinks, but he's clearly been a
lot lesser of a player then, and if that's who
you're counting on to make plays, and it hasn't worked
out very well for the Ravens get on the practice
field tomorrow for the first time this week for the Texans,

(06:00):
they will obviously make some changes with the Cam Robinson trade,
will need somebody, probably active, probably somebody on the active roster.
They obviously have players on the practice squad, and there's
a report that they've signed somebody off of the Carolina
Panthers practice squad to fill in that gap on their
offensive line. Just consider this. I know the Texans could

(06:21):
have just added their own players off of their own
practice squad, but we're heading into Week five and this
is already the third time this season the Texans have
signed a player off of another team's practice squad, not
good enough to be on their game day roster every week,
not good enough to be on their active roster, and
signed them to their active roster, which is all you
can do with practice squad players. Brandon Bates, the tight

(06:44):
end two weeks ago Zion shoulders, the cornerback and now
an offensive lineman from the Panthers. And of note, none
of them coming from particularly strong outfits. Well, I'll see
how they impact team. The Texans are one to O
with Brendan Bates in the lineup. He was active last Sunday.
He got in a handful of snaps and the Texans

(07:06):
did not lose Casarrio dominating as a GM.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
All right, so all of the leftovers from yesterday that
we have to get to on a Thursday. Wow, a
Tuesday edition of the program. It's Sports Talk seven ninety