December 2, 2025 • 11 mins
Yahoo Sports and NFL Network contributor Nate Tice joins The A-Team to breakdown all the angles in the Texans' matchup with the Chiefs, Houston's chances to make the postseason, what to expect in the NFL as the calender turns to December, and much more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Block our second hour of the program today. This is
the A team here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Adam Wexler and Adam Clinton here with you to jump
in on the NFL discussion. Big weekend all around the AFC,
and maybe nowhere bigger than Sunday night in Kansas City
with the Chiefs outside the playoff picture hosting the Texans
also outside the playoff picture six and six Chiefs seven
(00:21):
and five Texans, and to talk with us about that
and other things NFL related. Nick Tice of y'ahoo and
NFL Network and his Football three oh one podcast joins
us here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Nate certainly appreciated.
I'll keep the first question simple. What did you see
from CJ. Stroud this past Sunday and their victory over
the Indianapolis Colts.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I thought someone very excited to be back on the
field based on how aggressive he was, including throwing a
pass past the line of scrimage. And then I saw
someone that really settled in and reminded me that, oh yeah,
you're a top ten quarterback that can really shred the
blitz and play with so much confidence and so much intelligence.
I thought he really after maybe a couple of misses
(01:03):
in the first quarter early on. I thought the second
half and against the Blitz and on third down c
J was playing just really good football, especially just coming
back from injury. The Colts defense isn't phenomenal and sas
Gardner got hurt early. But I thought it was a
very complete game from the Texans. I really did. Now,
just with Stroud by the offensive line, I thought Woody
marks in protection, just a whole bunch of things. The
(01:26):
receiver room is starting to make sense to me as
an outsider as I look in on it. But I
really did think that Stroud just played a good game,
and it really just has me feeling optimistic and bullish
about where the Texans go the rest of the like
the final month of the season as they battle for
this playoff spot.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
A lot of different directions I could go with that.
I'll try a read between the lines angle. Are you
almost saying on draft nights this past year you were
a little uncertain of what the Texans had in mind,
with Christian Kirk and Nico Collins already there, and then
adding to Iowa state wide receivers to the mix.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I wouldn't say I understand maybe a transition period, you know,
where you have some bets for a year and they
needed it since some of the receivers were hurt. I
did it was curious to me. It was curious, I
will put it that way, even if I did think
the skill sets of everybody would make sense. The Kirk,
the Kirk plus Nol combination was the most confusing to me.
(02:21):
My comparison for Noel coming out of college from Iowa State,
I really liked him, by the way, was that he
was Christian Kirk butoo could block like that was kind
of my comparison for him, and maybe play on the
outside a little bit. But I actually think Higgins has
made a lot of sense there. It was just a
with the injuries they've had, it actually has helped that
they had maybe a little bit of death at the
(02:41):
receiver position. But it was a curious off season of
how they did it. But I like what it looks
like now. Like I said again, the Colts game was
kind of like a crystallation. Maybe maybe it's because a
Stroud was back where I was like, oh yeah, okay, okay,
I see how this is all working. Seeing how you're
using Higgins. I see in Eco Collins, of course, but
seeing touches Thon getting used as well, So it's started
(03:02):
just a click in my brain.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Talking to Nate Ties here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Before we go any further, I must let you know
that I do agree with you there is nothing prettier
than a Randy Savage elbow drop. So I've got a
two parter here. Number one, what was your favorite Savage
elbow drop? And why was it? WrestleMania three on Ricky
the Dragon Steamboat. Number two. We've been trying to figure
(03:25):
out how to compare this Texans defense to the great
units of even recent memory. It's not the Ravens of
the early two thousands. I'm trying to figure out where
you would put it in relative terms, since it's hard
to really stop anybody in today's NFL.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
They remind me a bit of maybe the twenty fifteen Broncos,
the kind of no flies on Broncos that were just
in the sense that they have just an incredible front
or with like a guy that would be a Defensive
Player of the Year candidate of Miles garretton because it's
(04:05):
this season but still is battling for it, Will Anderson,
but also Daniel Hunter. They can win with four, although
they I did see some more blitzing a little bit recently,
but they can win with four. They also they can
play tight coverage on the back end, you know. And
I also think that they are one of the few
teams in the NFL that can live in man coverage
(04:26):
for down after down, which I think only a few
teams can actually do that, which is in playoff time
is incredible kind of ace up your you know, ace
up your sleep to have. But I think that's the
team that maybe they reminded me of. I haven't really
thought about that who they remind me of, but I
do think them and the Seahawks and maybe the Broncos
are kind of the top of the top, the cream
of the crop of the defensive class this year. And
(04:48):
I would say those mid twenty tens Broncos teams are
the ones that kind of reminds me of stylistically and
just personnelized too.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I know it was kind of rhetorical. What did you
want to add anything to the Savage elbow?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
See I got into the seat because i'm, you know,
maybe a little younger than you. It was it was
W CW. Savage. Oh, Okay, there was one where he
won the belt and in the rings there were smaller
in WCW, so those ones were just like he would
get so much height on them. So there was one
he had on Hogan that he won the belt, one
(05:22):
of the few times that Hogan was like actually letting
him actually lost clean. That's the one I remind uh,
that's the one that like I remember, I'm trying to
remember the pay per view. I really want to say
it was wargames. Yeah, but I feel like I'm off there,
but wargames is what's coming to mind. I would say
like ninety five that if I had just had a
throw number out there, I think that would be it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, in full disclosure, when WrestleMania three happened in nineteen
eighty seven and the Pontiac Silverdome, I was like all
of four years old at the time, So I'm not
you know, I'm right there with you. I'm just a historian.
As as as it partakes to that.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh yeah, okay, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. It's
like me saying like, oh yeah, I really love that
baseball player. You know, I love melt Ted Williams. You know,
I talked to baseball, Yeah, some.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Players I really really like talking to NFL with Nate
Tice here obviously here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
How do you handicap the AFC South file? Five games
to go? The Texans seem like quite widely they're getting
the this is the team you don't want to play,
They're the most dangerous team. They still clearly have issues offensively,
(06:24):
but with the defense that they have. Of noting what
they have left on their schedule, two games between the
Colts and Jaguars still left to play, Texans will finish
with the Colts. They've got the Chief Sunday night. What
do you think plays out over the final five weeks
with these three teams separated by just one game?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Really once the Texans kind of reconfigured their offensive line,
so that have been like around week ten, that is
made me feel a lot different about where they're at
as an entire team that since that point they've been fifteenth,
and all the underlying stats that look at success rate,
EPA p play, so the advanced metrics I look at
and that's you know, so it's a four weeks sample size,
(07:03):
which is kind of getting there in football terms, and
they played more like an average offense, which has me
much more optimistic about their like what they can win
now with the division, but the run they can maybe
go on in the playoffs because if the offensive I
can just be average. I mentioned it's top to the
top of the show on for your first questions, like,
I do think that's strouts the top ten quarterback and
(07:23):
that I do think that because of that, that's always
just again, that's that what you can do in the playoffs.
They're going to take away your strengths. So the defenses
are going to take away Nico Collins. Okay, now you
have auxiliary receivers that are making sense. Okay, defenses are
going to pick on your offensive line. Well, now there's
not as many weaknesses, so that helps there. The run
game is fine, I wouldn't say good, but they're gonna
(07:44):
teams are gonna try and make them run the ball.
And the fact that they can kind of sort of
do it makes me much more optimistic because I believe
in the defense. Because I'll mention it throughout the show.
The defense has the things that you need to be
a contender. They can play coverage and they can rush
the passer, and they can play zone or man average
equally well. And they have an ACE pass rusher, a
secondary pass rusher, an ACE corner. They can do all
(08:05):
the things, the hard things. So that to me, and
I'm not just pandering to a Houston audience, is that
even if they don't win the division, it's just playoffs,
like whatever the percentage is, you know, if they're uh,
I think they have to win the Vision, you know,
but you know, making the playoffs overall or the wildcard team.
Is that they have the components now that I think
that they can make a run. And that's very exciting
(08:27):
because the AFC is very wide open. There's a lot
of incomplete teams. So Houston fans might go, oh, we
don't really have an offensive line, and we might our offense,
our run games not great, But actually that's a lot
of teams in the AFC. The Bills don't can't stop
the run at all. The Jaguars offensive line isn't good either,
and they have injuries right now. The Chiefs their defense
(08:47):
is kind of below average. It's average at best. The
Colts their defense I think is average as well, Like
you know, the Broncos. You guys just play on the
Texas just playing recently. So it's just a lot of
incomplete teams in AFC. So I feel good about the
Houston Texans as they to anybody, even if they don't
win the division in the playoffs, and what they could
do in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Well, let's talk about that division since it keeps coming
up and it is tightly packed. All of a sudden,
it looked like the Colts were gonna run away with it.
And I'm assuming you you have at least kind of
skimmed over the final schedules, but that might just be
an assumption. I mean eight and four, eight and four
and seven and five. Currently technically the Jags lead it.
(09:26):
Do the Texans ultimately have the best perfect storm there
to come out on top yet again in the AFC South.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, they do. The Jaguars are kind of doing something
that are better. I don't fully trust either one of
their units, you know, defense or offense, but they both
have good highs. But you know, the rest of your schedule,
they have the Colts, which is a huge game, but
then they have the Broncos on their schedule. They have
the Colts again, you know, and the Jests and Titans
are kind of just you know, the Jets and Titans
(09:55):
this year, So I think that that kind of schedule
is equal to the Texans. But I think the Texans,
in the weirdest way, are more complete than them. So
that's why I'm saying, it's like, yeah, they have a
clearer path and then the cold schedule, whether they have
they have the Jaguars wwice of course, but then they
have SEAWX forty Niners and of course the Texans. So
it's just like that's a gauntlet, and I do think,
(10:15):
like I feel almost worse about them than I do
other teams, the other two teams, the Jaguars and the Texans.
So yeah, I think the Texans Jaguars have like equal paths,
but I do think the Texans are a little bit
more complete. I actually feel, in the weirdest way, a
little bit better about the Texans O line than I
do the Jags O line. And I really like Ursery.
(10:37):
I think he's had a you know, he's a rookie,
day two rookie, but I think either I'm bullish on
what he can become. So it's just little things like
that makes me feel better about them.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Nate, we really appreciate the time. Love the analysis both
here with us obviously on your Football three one podcast
and your work there on social media. Appreciate your afternoon's
worth of insight here and look forward to catching up
with you again soon.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Awesome, Thanks for having me
Block our second hour of the program today. This is
the A team here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Adam Wexler and Adam Clinton here with you to jump
in on the NFL discussion. Big weekend all around the AFC,
and maybe nowhere bigger than Sunday night in Kansas City
with the Chiefs outside the playoff picture hosting the Texans
also outside the playoff picture six and six Chiefs seven
(00:21):
and five Texans, and to talk with us about that
and other things NFL related. Nick Tice of y'ahoo and
NFL Network and his Football three oh one podcast joins
us here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Nate certainly appreciated.
I'll keep the first question simple. What did you see
from CJ. Stroud this past Sunday and their victory over
the Indianapolis Colts.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I thought someone very excited to be back on the
field based on how aggressive he was, including throwing a
pass past the line of scrimage. And then I saw
someone that really settled in and reminded me that, oh yeah,
you're a top ten quarterback that can really shred the
blitz and play with so much confidence and so much intelligence.
I thought he really after maybe a couple of misses
(01:03):
in the first quarter early on. I thought the second
half and against the Blitz and on third down c
J was playing just really good football, especially just coming
back from injury. The Colts defense isn't phenomenal and sas
Gardner got hurt early. But I thought it was a
very complete game from the Texans. I really did. Now,
just with Stroud by the offensive line, I thought Woody
marks in protection, just a whole bunch of things. The
(01:26):
receiver room is starting to make sense to me as
an outsider as I look in on it. But I
really did think that Stroud just played a good game,
and it really just has me feeling optimistic and bullish
about where the Texans go the rest of the like
the final month of the season as they battle for
this playoff spot.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
A lot of different directions I could go with that.
I'll try a read between the lines angle. Are you
almost saying on draft nights this past year you were
a little uncertain of what the Texans had in mind,
with Christian Kirk and Nico Collins already there, and then
adding to Iowa state wide receivers to the mix.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I wouldn't say I understand maybe a transition period, you know,
where you have some bets for a year and they
needed it since some of the receivers were hurt. I
did it was curious to me. It was curious, I
will put it that way, even if I did think
the skill sets of everybody would make sense. The Kirk,
the Kirk plus Nol combination was the most confusing to me.
(02:21):
My comparison for Noel coming out of college from Iowa State,
I really liked him, by the way, was that he
was Christian Kirk butoo could block like that was kind
of my comparison for him, and maybe play on the
outside a little bit. But I actually think Higgins has
made a lot of sense there. It was just a
with the injuries they've had, it actually has helped that
they had maybe a little bit of death at the
(02:41):
receiver position. But it was a curious off season of
how they did it. But I like what it looks
like now. Like I said again, the Colts game was
kind of like a crystallation. Maybe maybe it's because a
Stroud was back where I was like, oh yeah, okay, okay,
I see how this is all working. Seeing how you're
using Higgins. I see in Eco Collins, of course, but
seeing touches Thon getting used as well, So it's started
(03:02):
just a click in my brain.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Talking to Nate Ties here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Before we go any further, I must let you know
that I do agree with you there is nothing prettier
than a Randy Savage elbow drop. So I've got a
two parter here. Number one, what was your favorite Savage
elbow drop? And why was it? WrestleMania three on Ricky
the Dragon Steamboat. Number two. We've been trying to figure
(03:25):
out how to compare this Texans defense to the great
units of even recent memory. It's not the Ravens of
the early two thousands. I'm trying to figure out where
you would put it in relative terms, since it's hard
to really stop anybody in today's NFL.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
They remind me a bit of maybe the twenty fifteen Broncos,
the kind of no flies on Broncos that were just
in the sense that they have just an incredible front
or with like a guy that would be a Defensive
Player of the Year candidate of Miles garretton because it's
(04:05):
this season but still is battling for it, Will Anderson,
but also Daniel Hunter. They can win with four, although
they I did see some more blitzing a little bit recently,
but they can win with four. They also they can
play tight coverage on the back end, you know. And
I also think that they are one of the few
teams in the NFL that can live in man coverage
(04:26):
for down after down, which I think only a few
teams can actually do that, which is in playoff time
is incredible kind of ace up your you know, ace
up your sleep to have. But I think that's the
team that maybe they reminded me of. I haven't really
thought about that who they remind me of, but I
do think them and the Seahawks and maybe the Broncos
are kind of the top of the top, the cream
of the crop of the defensive class this year. And
(04:48):
I would say those mid twenty tens Broncos teams are
the ones that kind of reminds me of stylistically and
just personnelized too.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I know it was kind of rhetorical. What did you
want to add anything to the Savage elbow?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
See I got into the seat because i'm, you know,
maybe a little younger than you. It was it was
W CW. Savage. Oh, Okay, there was one where he
won the belt and in the rings there were smaller
in WCW, so those ones were just like he would
get so much height on them. So there was one
he had on Hogan that he won the belt, one
(05:22):
of the few times that Hogan was like actually letting
him actually lost clean. That's the one I remind uh,
that's the one that like I remember, I'm trying to
remember the pay per view. I really want to say
it was wargames. Yeah, but I feel like I'm off there,
but wargames is what's coming to mind. I would say
like ninety five that if I had just had a
throw number out there, I think that would be it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, in full disclosure, when WrestleMania three happened in nineteen
eighty seven and the Pontiac Silverdome, I was like all
of four years old at the time, So I'm not
you know, I'm right there with you. I'm just a historian.
As as as it partakes to that.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh yeah, okay, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. It's
like me saying like, oh yeah, I really love that
baseball player. You know, I love melt Ted Williams. You know,
I talked to baseball, Yeah, some.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Players I really really like talking to NFL with Nate
Tice here obviously here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
How do you handicap the AFC South file? Five games
to go? The Texans seem like quite widely they're getting
the this is the team you don't want to play,
They're the most dangerous team. They still clearly have issues offensively,
(06:24):
but with the defense that they have. Of noting what
they have left on their schedule, two games between the
Colts and Jaguars still left to play, Texans will finish
with the Colts. They've got the Chief Sunday night. What
do you think plays out over the final five weeks
with these three teams separated by just one game?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Really once the Texans kind of reconfigured their offensive line,
so that have been like around week ten, that is
made me feel a lot different about where they're at
as an entire team that since that point they've been fifteenth,
and all the underlying stats that look at success rate,
EPA p play, so the advanced metrics I look at
and that's you know, so it's a four weeks sample size,
(07:03):
which is kind of getting there in football terms, and
they played more like an average offense, which has me
much more optimistic about their like what they can win
now with the division, but the run they can maybe
go on in the playoffs because if the offensive I
can just be average. I mentioned it's top to the
top of the show on for your first questions, like,
I do think that's strouts the top ten quarterback and
(07:23):
that I do think that because of that, that's always
just again, that's that what you can do in the playoffs.
They're going to take away your strengths. So the defenses
are going to take away Nico Collins. Okay, now you
have auxiliary receivers that are making sense. Okay, defenses are
going to pick on your offensive line. Well, now there's
not as many weaknesses, so that helps there. The run
game is fine, I wouldn't say good, but they're gonna
(07:44):
teams are gonna try and make them run the ball.
And the fact that they can kind of sort of
do it makes me much more optimistic because I believe
in the defense. Because I'll mention it throughout the show.
The defense has the things that you need to be
a contender. They can play coverage and they can rush
the passer, and they can play zone or man average
equally well. And they have an ACE pass rusher, a
secondary pass rusher, an ACE corner. They can do all
(08:05):
the things, the hard things. So that to me, and
I'm not just pandering to a Houston audience, is that
even if they don't win the division, it's just playoffs,
like whatever the percentage is, you know, if they're uh,
I think they have to win the Vision, you know,
but you know, making the playoffs overall or the wildcard team.
Is that they have the components now that I think
that they can make a run. And that's very exciting
(08:27):
because the AFC is very wide open. There's a lot
of incomplete teams. So Houston fans might go, oh, we
don't really have an offensive line, and we might our offense,
our run games not great, But actually that's a lot
of teams in the AFC. The Bills don't can't stop
the run at all. The Jaguars offensive line isn't good either,
and they have injuries right now. The Chiefs their defense
(08:47):
is kind of below average. It's average at best. The
Colts their defense I think is average as well, Like
you know, the Broncos. You guys just play on the
Texas just playing recently. So it's just a lot of
incomplete teams in AFC. So I feel good about the
Houston Texans as they to anybody, even if they don't
win the division in the playoffs, and what they could
do in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Well, let's talk about that division since it keeps coming
up and it is tightly packed. All of a sudden,
it looked like the Colts were gonna run away with it.
And I'm assuming you you have at least kind of
skimmed over the final schedules, but that might just be
an assumption. I mean eight and four, eight and four
and seven and five. Currently technically the Jags lead it.
(09:26):
Do the Texans ultimately have the best perfect storm there
to come out on top yet again in the AFC South.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, they do. The Jaguars are kind of doing something
that are better. I don't fully trust either one of
their units, you know, defense or offense, but they both
have good highs. But you know, the rest of your schedule,
they have the Colts, which is a huge game, but
then they have the Broncos on their schedule. They have
the Colts again, you know, and the Jests and Titans
are kind of just you know, the Jets and Titans
(09:55):
this year, So I think that that kind of schedule
is equal to the Texans. But I think the Texans,
in the weirdest way, are more complete than them. So
that's why I'm saying, it's like, yeah, they have a
clearer path and then the cold schedule, whether they have
they have the Jaguars wwice of course, but then they
have SEAWX forty Niners and of course the Texans. So
it's just like that's a gauntlet, and I do think,
(10:15):
like I feel almost worse about them than I do
other teams, the other two teams, the Jaguars and the Texans.
So yeah, I think the Texans Jaguars have like equal paths,
but I do think the Texans are a little bit
more complete. I actually feel, in the weirdest way, a
little bit better about the Texans O line than I
do the Jags O line. And I really like Ursery.
(10:37):
I think he's had a you know, he's a rookie,
day two rookie, but I think either I'm bullish on
what he can become. So it's just little things like
that makes me feel better about them.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Nate, we really appreciate the time. Love the analysis both
here with us obviously on your Football three one podcast
and your work there on social media. Appreciate your afternoon's
worth of insight here and look forward to catching up
with you again soon.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Awesome, Thanks for having me
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