Rockets-Blazers, Texans-Steelers outlook, craziest story you never knew

Wednesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler discuss some leftovers from Texans-Colts, preview Rockets-Blazers, and look ahead to Texans-Steelers. Plus, the guys reveal a crazy piece of information about the NFL sack record we never knew.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All the life the life, not lessons, just the life
things that we discuss off air. That just it's it's
even minutia for the stuff I bring on. That is
what was going on just before we hit the on
button on a mic on a Wednesday edition of The
A Team.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
In about an hour, it's gonna be simulcast over on
Space City Home Network. Welcome into the program. I feel
like everybody's in purgatory in Houston sports right now because
nobody's playing and everybody's waiting on them to play during
the day.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well no, I'm talking about like they're.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Playing every other day, including today. Eventually when the tip
off at nine o'clock. Let me tell you something about.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
It usually tips off after our show. What's the difference
after our show?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, either several minutes or in this case, several hours.
You know what I did after I again, it's amazing
the amount of energy I have given that Today was
the first day back for my kids' school. I'm driving
him to class this morre. I'm driving him to school
this morning, and I mentioned to him, because he's seven
and a half off at this point, he can grasp

(01:02):
concepts like this. He's he knows how to complain now,
which both of his parents do a lot, so he
gets that from us. He's. I said to him, I go,
I forgot how ridiculous it is, how early it is
to get you to school. And I get why they
do it, because you want them to have some semblance
of daylight, or at least an hour before it goes

(01:23):
the sun goes down here in these winter months. But
I guess I understand it rather than trying to pick
them up during rush hour. But this is stupid, man.
And I bring it up because I came back home.
You had an early morning too, you wanted to get
your car fixed or something.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
They want to but it was a requirement. Well I
did too. I did some maintenance this morning. Warning light
was on. I might as well check it out. Was
it the check engine light? Warning light? Okay, yeah, I
took it.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
It was like I got into a new lease and
the alignment was off, and they're like, you can't come
and get this adjusted until it hits five hundred miles.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's a perfect topic for what we're going to be
talking about today. Well, I'm seven franchises in the NFL.
Their alignment is so off they have to look for
a new head coach. We want to be aligned, we
want to have a clear vision. I can't wait for
all those comments coming after these seven jobs get filled.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Did you see where John Harbaugh got eight teams contacting him,
which means, if you do the rough math, somebody who
currently has a head coach is interesting in hire and
interested in hiring John Harball.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, there was a I think it was Diana Rossini
who said multiple teams have contacted him that don't have openings.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
You know why, because he's a good head coach and
you shouldn't fire him.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, it's also you have an opportunity to speak with him,
even if it looks bad because you have a head coach,
when you could actually just say, well, I don't know
what your interests are, but we could sure use a consultant.
But you know why. Well we all know why. But
it's an easy get around if you're trying not to
be so blatant about it. But the guy's going to
immediately know the guy's gonna immediately get fired.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, but what I'm saying is what if John says no,
he's not interested.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Now you've got a real pickle. Right, someone said yesterday.
You know, he's eighteen years of head coaching experience and
most of it extremely successful and a Super Bowl title.
He is such a powerful figure potentially if he wants
to be, he could go in and interview with the
GM and interview with the owner and say I would
love to work here under one condition. The guy who

(03:18):
interviewed me that doesn't own the team, that runs the team, Yeah,
go ahead and fire him, and I'll bring in somebody
else that's better that I want to work with. We
have a deal. And it's shockingly it's kind of what
happened with Liam Cohen when he thought he was going
to be somebody else's head coach but it wasn't going
to work out. Where was he going to go? Well,
he was with the Bucks, and then he was going
to be the Jags head coach, but they weren't going

(03:39):
to get rid of their general manager. So then he
wasn't going to leave the Bucks. And then they did
get rid of their general manager per his request, and
he said, okay, now I'm not going to be with
the Bucks. I will be your head coach. So kind
of left the Bucks in a lurch and obviously changed
everything for the Jags. But early returns are good thing.
They listened to him.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
They're going to be out after When do they play
the Bills Saturday or Sunday?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Either Josh Allen's team is gonna win no games or
Liam Cohen Trevor Lawrence's team is gonna win no games.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Spoiler alert, Josh Allen is not gonna win no games. Well,
let me get into this since we're on it already.
It is a topic that came up because KD loves
the ex platform, but we'll relate it to football as
that's what we're talking about here. There's fourteen teams the
NFL playoffs. C J.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Stroud quarterbacks one, Aaron Rodgers quarterbacks one. The guys we
just mentioned are at the helm of another Matt Stafford,
long standing loser from Detroit quarterbacks one, and now he's
not a loser because he's with LA. Help me out
with the math here. There's fourteen teams playing, there were
thirty two teams playing. There's a bunch of playoff games
to get them all eliminated, and they're trying to get

(04:41):
to Santa Clair to play in the Super Bowl. How
many NFL championships will be one representative of the twenty
twenty five regular season. Just one, just one. It's one
each year, yep. So like, let's say Joe Burrow wins
it one year. Now, did Pat Mahomes also win it
that year? Or can he? What about Dak Presc can
he win it that very same year? Like, there's only

(05:03):
so many champs. There's only so many, And if all
these guys play in the same era, there's only so
many of them that are going to win even one.
Lamar Jackson's not gonna win an NFL championship. Book it,
write it down, no, Sir Thomas said, So, I mean,
I'm not really saying it, but what are the odds?

Speaker 1 (05:19):
They're great good that he doesn't win one. This is
a year where he's not. It's just it's the.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Nature of how many. I mean, I'd be nice for
everybody if we could all say, yeah, Joe Burrow won
one super Bowl and Pat Mahomes won one, and Josh
Allen won one, and Aaron Rodgers won one and on
down the line, and all these great quarterbacks could have
just one, but nobody gets two because there's too many
good ones all playing at the same time. Gotta have parody,
or we can actually have reality and stop acting like

(05:45):
you didn't win three playoff games in a row that
year or now like it is for twelve the fourteen teams.
You didn't win four games in a row this year,
so you suck right. You don't have any championships. I
don't care about your regular season MVP awards. I don't
care that you're one of the three best quarterbacks without
debate for five consecutive years, you didn't win a championship.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Get out of here. Okay, terrible, but here's useless. But
here's what I'm saying. And you know this, Josh Allen
and Trevor Lawrence aren't even in the same stratosphere as
each other for sure, And honestly, I can I can
come off sounding like you know too much of a
Houston Homer by saying that about Trevor Lawrence, But honestly,
this is the first season that you've even, like with

(06:28):
a straight face, been able to say this guy looks good.
And it's not even the whole season. People forget, he
wasn't awesome all year. And I know you have the numbers.
You probably have a spreadsheet up right now. His last
six weeks. I do have a set of numbers up
right now. Yeah, when he was playing the likes of
who and he was killing well, I ran through that
list yesterday.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
They've beat the Broncos during this six game stretch of
their eight game winnings, which the.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Texans couldn't do because their starter was concussed. Yes, I
mean take Trevor Lawrence out of that game. Do they
still win it?

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Probably? I mean they no, probably not? Probably not. I mean,
I'm not even. They played the Jets, they played the
Titans twice, and they played the Terrible Cults twice. Those games,
those are the only six games where he looked what
I would call awesome this season. All of his best games.
The first eleven games of the season this year, he

(07:20):
had zero games with a passer rating better than ninety
seven and a half. That's mediocre. At last six weeks,
he had five of six games with a passer rating
of one oh five or better. So it's just a
totally different player.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
And if you want to get into a shootout with
Josh Allen because you're at home and you think you're
awesome because you won thirteen games or whatever.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Be my guest.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
What aspire to reality is going to suck on Monday.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Is it Sunday or Saturday that they play? I can't remember.
They're the first game Sunday.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Okay, So Monday morning, as the Texans prepare to keep
laughing at them, they'll be at home. A lot of
good that division championship got you do you know what?
The Texans will win that night, and it'll be even
funnier on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
It'll be great to laugh at them because as you
as I will point out, they can laugh at five
of the other teams because five teams will be out
of the playoffs before the Texans even kick off.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
And I like Liam com, I hate these coaches there.
It's kind of like, uh geez, It's kind of like
when Kevin Durant went to the Warriors. Ah crap, Now
I can't root for him for well however long it's
gonna be.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, I do. I mean we didn't know it at
the time. It was a first year head coach. He's
calling plays there, it's his offense. It's absolutely his team.
They got a first year GM and you could argue
this is the best regular season that they've ever had.
They've been to a conference championship game in franchise history.
But it's been such a long time since they weren't.
Really if they won a few games this year, well

(08:43):
then we knew they would be terrible the next year.
Or they've been five years. Jacksonville has not been consistently
competitive for like, yeah, I mean the the recent year
when they made it that far. That was him, That
was a Blake Bortles led team. Trevor Lawrence is still
two wins away this any post season unless they're the
number one seed from reaching that, and Josh Allen is
two and so is c. J. Stroud this year, and

(09:05):
this franchise has never reached that stage. You look at
like Drake may or Justin Herbert, one of them is
going home this weekend. Same thing with Lawrence and Trevor
Lawrence and Josh Allen. It just doesn't feel the same
way when talking about Stroud and Rodgers because Rogers has
so much experience. It's not like it's it's a totally
different situation for him and what he's already done. He's

(09:28):
the one. Look at the AFC quarterbacks, he's won at all.
Nobody else has. Nobody else has even been of the
Super Bowl which of.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Those quote unquote upsets And I don't honestly, if you
look at the numbers and you look at this season,
they're really not upsets. Do you think is more likely
to happen the fact that Josh Allen moves on or
the fact that Justin Herbert moves on, because those would
be upset seeing as how they're playing on the road
in their le seed all that, it's not an upset.
Though if either of those teams win, I don't think
it's an upset.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
The Bills are one and a half point favorite, and
it's been pretty steady there as the weekend as a approach,
they play the first game Sunday.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Because their defense isn't what it used to be. Their
defense is awful, right.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
The Chargers and Patriots are the Saturday are the excuse me,
the Sunday night game. The Patriots are favored by three
and a half and the Texans are favored by three.
So two of the three road teams are favored. And
again the number two seed that has three more wins
than the team they're playing in their house is still
only a three and a half point favorite. When you

(10:25):
set it up this way, I just think there's not
a lot of faith in anybody. I mean, we're gonna
wide open talk to the Steelers at some point over
the course of the week. We're talking about the Steelers
every day this week. Absolutely, there's no problem at all.
If you're in Pittsburgh, if you're a fan, if you
have eighteen terrible towels from all the years you've had
Mike Tomlin there and hoped for the best, that you
should believe. Of course, you should believe you can win

(10:47):
or will win. You're at home, you have Aaron Rodgers.
You had to win on the final day of the
season to get there, and you did. And you had
some good moments over the course of the year, not
so many of them, and some bad moments too, losing
to the Browns in Week seventeen among them. But it
is it's not just wide open. If I told you
that all the home teams were winning, when you said
all the road teams are winning, and the Josh says

(11:09):
every team is gonna be upset and the number one
seed is gonna win zero games, there's not one thing
in there that doesn't sound believable. Yeah, that's all fair,
it's all reasonable. Yeah, the Broncos are gonna win weird
zero games this postseason.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Totally, totally could happen. Same with the Broncos, same with
any team you can pick. I'll tell you who's definitely
not gonna win any games this postseason. The Baltimore Ravens
and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Love that. Yeah. Last two years, the final four in
the AFC has been exactly the same. The Mahomes led Chiefs,
the Ravens, the Jackson led Ravens, the Bills, Allen led Bills,
and the Stroud led Texans. Two of those teams can return,
the Texans and the Bills. Two of those teams are
out of the playoffs. One of those teams is lining
up head coaching interviews after the news that broke during

(11:57):
the show yesterday that John Harbaugh is out, and we
wondered at the time if he was looking to immediately
get back in. All indications are yes, he must be
interested in at least one of the jobs. They haven't
lined up and finalized any interview spots for him to
land yet, but teams have reached out to him and
try are trying to line them. A lot of former
head coaches currently on the interview circuit, especially because of

(12:19):
the timing, I think there's maybe a little bit more respect.
I wish college football could do it like this, a
little bit more respect for the teams that are working
and playing. Like Clint Kubiak's gotten request, his team's not playing,
Vance Joseph's gotten request, his team's not playing even though
they're in the postseason their number one seeds. Well, the
other twelve teams that are playing this weekend obviously have
assistants that they want to talk to, but they're not

(12:42):
all that news isn't sitting here every single day. This
assistant is he's got six head coaching interviews lined up
and he's trying to figure out where to do them
while he's reviewing tape for his game in three days.
I think this year they're getting a little bit big.
Maybe it's just not being reported. But they also can't
go on the interviews anyway until either Monday of next
week or Tuesday of next week if they win. So

(13:03):
I think that's a good thing, and we'll start hearing
many more of those names, including Texans defensive coordinator Matt
Burke sometime in the probably next seventy two to ninety six.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Hours funny you should bring up the Texans defense more
national love for that exact unit happening twenty four hours later,
because I mean, we got to do something. The Texans
aren't talking today or yesterday, but there's a lot of
people talking about them.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
And I ran into somebody this morning. It was very
leary of that very thing.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
I'll explain about that and all of that coming up
next on a Wednesday edition of the A Team ninety
Wednesday edition of the program, wexsay, ce Josh Jordan with
you as we take you up until six o'clock tonight,
and as Jared Wex mentioned several hours later, Rockets and
Portland trail Blazers tipping off the first of two straight.

(13:52):
If you were, you know, if we traveled for these
road games, would you be excited about a multi day
stop in Portland?

Speaker 2 (14:00):
I mean maybe not this time around. So so I
was just there this past summer and been there multiple times.
What's Portland like in the summer?

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I mean, after you get past the ANTIFA protests and
all of the world.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
I mean, I mean if I got into all the
stuff that I saw at the Antifa process while I
was there, it would take me till right now to finish.
She didn't go to one. I didn't see one either.
I actually should have. It's not a protest, it's more
of a presence. If I didn't have you as a
co host, I wouldn't know anything about had some meals.

(14:32):
I rode their public transit, I did some whatever you're
supposed to do as a tourist, hit some waterways, and
had some voodoo donuts.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Somebody we both know in this business has said several
times Portland used to be their favorite stop on the
road when it came to travel.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah. I've gone to Portland when they played at the
Rose Garden then moved to Modus Center. So I've been
to games there and where it is and where we stayed.
It was just so different. Like I stayed in downtown
on this vacation. Why I was surprised you didn't run
into an ANTIFA protest. I guess I went to the
wrong places. Best so much fun. But Yeah, the city
itself I think is pretty cool. Uh, if you're okay

(15:12):
with the dreariness that the weather same Seattle actually brings.
I mean, it just depends. I mean I'm not there
for six months, I'm there for a couple of days,
whether it was fine while we were there.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
So Winston dutch And who used to I used to
work with over at Channel two, has since moved up
to that area because his wife is from Washington State.
I think they live in basically the equivalent of, uh,
what's Northwest, because I don't want to say like the Woodlands,
and I don't want to say Katie, it's more of
that area, So whatever that is for Seattle. And so

(15:44):
i've kind of, you know, we've talked about that over
years because he always used to talk about how hot
it is here and humidity and all that kind of
stuff because he's from Wisconsin, so he's been he's had quite.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
The culture shock.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
But yeah, rockets one trip, they're not going back to
That's true. This is it, but you know, and I
like it's kind of a it's kind of a pick
your poison because if you set up to schedule and
you're gonna have these types of stops where you're gonna
knock out two games instead of just one. If you're

(16:15):
playing a team who's terrible, that's great for you. You
can get fat and happy on these two games. Portland
is I think they're out playing everybody's expectations this year.
It's not like they're a great team, but they're better
than I think a lot of people thought they were
gonna be.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, they are in position to play more games after
the eighty two game regular season is complete. Could be
just one, could be two, It could be two plus
a series after that because they're likely a playing tournament
team because they've had some guys miss some time. Very
young team and very explosive team, a lot of offense,
a lot of fast paced basketball, a lot of tempo,
a lot of pace. The Rockets are well aware of that,

(16:51):
and you know, playing these two games in a row,
you bring it up all the time. It's still a
matter of happenstance, luck, coincidence, what have you. They're not
gonna use alprin Shangoon and two matchups against Portland because
he's currently hurt and both of the games happen to
be in this tight window. So that's what the Rockets
will not have with them tonight, same thing they did
not have with them for the last couple of games.

(17:12):
Essentially the game that he'd missed because he left so early,
and then the game he missed entirely that they won
the other night. Rockets are a much better team than that.
They need to become a much better team on the road.
They're eleven games over five hundred, and nine of those
eleven are because they're eleven and two at home. It
needs to They're too good of a team to be
anywhere near five hundred on the road. In my opinion,

(17:34):
They're not going to be anywhere near five hundred at home.
They're going to be way above it. But they need
to do some more work and you know, win some
more close games because they're going to be more close
games on the road, and tonight, more two nights from
now or both could be among them. I don't think
this is an easy game, even though it's a seventeen
and twenty team and there won't be a holiday versus
holiday matchup. We brought up Drew Holliday the other day.

(17:56):
He's been hurt for much of the year and he
is still hurt and.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
Certified killer, so I don't mind that. But they're also
not going to see operation. It's pretty includes a lot
of players, especially this season, because their defense is falling
off a cliff. Their defense was not real good for
about a I don't know about a twenty game stretch.
There have been some games here recently.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Obviously, the Phoenix game is a pretty good example of
what they look like when their defense isn't real good
first half, and when their defense is real good second half.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's Jekyl and Hyde. That was a textbook example of
what they are sometimes this year and what they can be.
Hearkening back to last year, even without Dylan Brooks in
the house, which, by the way, you know how many
times I saw a future teammate referred to between because
there was this moment in the game the other night
where Kadie and Dylan Brooks were exchanging pleasantries and not

(18:44):
the kind I'm talking about, you know, usually with Dylan Brooks,
we're talking about genuine smiles were had. It was a
stopping point in the game, and just a lot of
people are like, future teammates. Is his deal up this year?

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Future teammate? That's what I'm saying. Dylan Brooks is under contract, right,
and if Phoenix wants to build a different way around
different younger players more than just Booker, he would be
a desirable asset this trade deadline or even in the
off season.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
They're not sending him back to Houston because ninety percent
of the reason he went there and the KD deal
was not about his talent, It was about the money
he was making.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, the Rockets don't have what Phoenix is looking for.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
They have one of their draft picks still, but that
doesn't do anything about the money aspect.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
They don't have what Phoenix is looking for. That they'd
be willing to give them right to get back Dylan Brooks.
But honestly, Dylan Brooks isn't really what this team needs.
I'm not saying he's not a really good player and
he wouldn't help them, But how's he what minutes is
he getting? And who's not getting them because he's here?
Figure that out. I don't want to figure it out.
It only worked out so well because guys were out,

(19:49):
most notably Tarry Easton. Yeah, and Jalen Green and Dylan
Brooks aren't redundant and Kevin Durant and Dylan are more redundant,
and that they're front court players. Yeah, but I don't
to me, Durant is positionless. Oh that's all. Yes, they
could put to They absolutely could put a lineup together
where they're all fit in this day and age in
the NBA. It's almost silly to suggest otherwise, but.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I just feel like when you did that, what you
just said, and Dylan's on the floor playing defense, and
I like that, right, I mean, and he's not a
liability on offense like like Reid.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
He's gonna I think he will be extremely important to
somebody's push for the playoffs, and right now it should
be Phoenixes. Fences is right on the cusp of getting
out of the playing tournament and being in the top.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
Similar record to the Rockets coming in. Actually, I both
had twenty one wins when the game began. They've had
played more games and have more losses, and Minnesota's still
between them. Rockets have made a little movement in the
standings and every night it's probably gonna change one thing.
Just if you like good numbers, and I told you
that the Blankets this year in twenty twenty six, for
the most part, we're gonna try to keep it dry

(20:52):
if you like the numbers and the numbers that make
you make you smile about your Rockets. The Rockets will
enter play tonight with eleven wins. There are eleven losses.
There's two teams in the NBA with fewer losses than Houston.
We're not even like, oh my god, the Rockets are
playing unbelievable basketball. They're a machine. They cannot be stopped.
They have eleven losses, and there's only two teams that

(21:15):
haven't lost eleven games yet this year. They obviously sit
in the top spot in the respective conferences. Both of
them have beaten Houston way back at the beginning of
the year.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
But that's it. Pistons have nine and the thunder have seven.
Everybody else has at least eleven losses, just like Houston.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, it's all caught up, and we're going to actually
get to later this hour. Two of the teams that
are ahead of the Rockets currently in the standings the
only two we really care about. And I say that
because Denver's currently not one of them.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
I can't take Denver seriously until Joker's back, and he's
not going to be back for a while. So I'm
going to take the other two teams, one of which
is Oklahoma City seriously, and the other one comes to
Houston twice this month.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yay.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
There, they're losing. They're losing right now, okay, and they're
whining about it. One guy's whining about it.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
They lost on a shot that went in and out
at the buzzer one. It's fine, it's okay to be
upset about that. Well, it's the reason he was upset
about it.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
We'll get to that, but yeah, I just will get
I I have adjusted. We're going to get to the
national love for the Texans defense in a matter of minutes,
but first we got to do our signature segment, and
that's coming up next.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Sometimes the old X platform specifically is a very surprising entity.
I mean, I think you guys have all seen that.
I never thought this would happen. I can't believe this place.
I can't believe this hellscape we're in, or just something
happens you just did not expect at all that happened
to me. As we lead into the two thirty segment
Best of X, I'll tell you about it next the

(22:48):
eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninete.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
History repeats itself type Benuels succeed. Never doubt that you're
the one too, before going on building you're the best
of the X.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Nothing's gonna have a top.

Speaker 4 (23:06):
You know, you're the best of X posting ever single
day you're the best of the X breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Halfway through our number one, we hit you with the
best of X. It's the best of social media. Anything
that might have taken place at the social media streets
in the last twenty four hours, any of those sources,
today's source does happen to be the X Platform. You'll
see something out there and you'll decide, oh, man, I
like that. You'll click the like button. You'll see something
on there and you'll think, and I really think that

(23:44):
I need to respond to this, and you'll do so,
and maybe they'll be a back and forth. You'll see
something that you just want to get back out there
for your followers, or things that you want people to see,
and you'll just quote post it and send it back
out into the X platform universe. Essentially that that's all
I thought I did yesterday, and turns out I did
much more than that yesterday on the X platform the

(24:08):
NFL game Day, Sighted posted something with a picture of
Texans edge rusher Daniel Hunter and said can't stop. Daniel
said fourth career season with more than fourteen sacks, tied
second most of the NFL since nineteen eighty two. It's
good stuff Like I said, sometimes people will see a

(24:28):
post like that and say that that's incredible, and I
want to quote that, and I want to say something
about it when I do, and at jj Watt did
just that. Former edge rusher himself and a defensive lineman
for the Texans and Cardinals, soon to be a Hall
of Famer, but only when he's eligible and if he
doesn't come back to play football like Philip Rivers did,

(24:50):
has a case for most underrated player in the league,
says jj Watt, legitimate Hall of Fame level numbers consistently
great year after year after year. To not even be
a Pro Bowl or whatever that's even worth is asinine.
I really didn't know pay much attention to that line
because nobody cares about the Pro Bowl elections except for

(25:13):
everybody because in eight years, when we're thinking about Daniel
Hunter's career, oh my, he was only a Pro bowler three. Yeah,
because of how dumb it is, let's you know, recognize
it for what it is. But mostly this was about
what he had to say, at least it was to
me when I decided, well, that pair of Texans pass
rushing disruptive forces, very good reason why you should put

(25:38):
those two together, and I didn't know if Daniel was
aware of it, or if he pays much attention to
the X platform. Even though he has a handle and
an account, it's not very active on it. It hasn't
been for quite some time. JJ, on the other hand,
very very active. So I thought, just looking around at
things like I normally do, there's some numbers that I
found kind of interesting. So I quote post to jjson
quote post of the Daniel Hunter's awesome, and I said,

(26:02):
very simply, I only used six words and says career
sacks at JJ watt one hundred and fourteen point five
at d Hunt ninety four underscore TX one hundred and
fourteen point five. All I'm trying to say, no meaning

(26:22):
behind it. No, you need to ask me why I
said it. No making one look good and the other
look bad. Just facts. They both have the exact same
number of sacks. They were involved in these two posts
on the X platform. Neat. This is a neat thing.
So I put that out there and overnight, this was
during yesterday's show about four forty five. I posted that

(26:42):
I didn't think much of it, but was curious if
maybe somebody even JJ oh this is I didn't even
realize that, or I mean, he's gonna go way past me,
or well, at least he still has to pass TJ,
who has one half sack more than them. But I
don't even think he acknowledged it. But somehow, and for
some reason, it just got legs. Why it's the most boring,

(27:05):
insignificant piece of numbers. But we're sitting at almost five
hundred thousand views, four and a half thousand likes, and
an insane number of comments. And I think that's why
it blew up. I think because someone's trying to say,

(27:25):
why are you comparing these two players who didn't even
play the same position. He's never been an edge rusher
in his life. He's been an interior alignment. The guy played,
you know, defensive tackle his whole career. Just people going
just vicious back and forth. You don't know what you're
talking about. No, you don't know what you're talking about.
He only went inside when this happened, and he played
in a three four. This is apples and orange. You
can even compare these two players. They played defense and

(27:49):
they had a bunch of sacks, and it's the same number.
That's literally all I said, and I haven't involved myself
in any way since then, But my gosh, this doesn't
deserve it went viral. Why.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Well, that's the crazy thing about social media is sometimes
you never ever can see this kind of thing coming,
and it's always for some of the well it's not always,
but sometimes it's for the oddest reasons.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
I will say, one of the people that had a
question about the post said, and fourteen thousand other people
liked the comment, and it has about the most responses
of anybody out there, is that did you just compare
an edge rusher's sacks to an interior defensive linement? And
that's what really was the extent of why people went
back and forth as often as they did. If you

(28:37):
only watched JJ Watt a handful of times or a
little bit of his career and most of it happened
to be where he was wearing Cardinal red, you might
think that's where he was his whole career. He played
a ton inside in Arizona, not exclusively, but close, and
he played a lot of football there. For younger people,

(28:58):
I guess are new to the game. I guess he
did line up inside here in Houston, they did play
a different front than the current front that Daniel Hunter plays,
where he almost never lines up inside a true four
to three edge rusher, and JJ playing so much in
a three to four defense that people are, I think
afraid to call them an edge rusher. They have to
call them a defensive end just because of the front

(29:20):
they're in. And this particular defense that Daniel and Will
play in is like the widest nine, the widest defense
ever could Take a look at how far away from
the football these two guys line up as edge rushers.
JJ Hardley ever lined up out there ten times, fifteen times,
fifty times in his whole career. But the amount of
anger people have over this slight little distinction. They had

(29:45):
the exact same job, go get the quarterback. Did it
really require all this anger? Well it is again as usual.
I mean, you just darkly put out the numbers. JJ
Watt won fourteen and a half, Daniel Hunter won fourteen

(30:06):
and a half, happened to be in the same spot
on the all time sack list. As we sit here
today and throughout this coming off season, does.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
It really matter how you got it and where you
got it from? But yet one is lauded to this
day and I'm not saying Daniel Hunter hasn't gotten love,
but that's the whole point of JJ's initial tweet.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, he de heel's not getting enough love. Yeah, and
he's right in one regard. There's three players from the
AFC at that position quote unquote that get recognized initially
for Pro Bowl Games recognition, and they even have starters
because they're trying to keep it uniform with the previous
years to make players career resumes look the same. But

(30:43):
he wasn't among the three. Now, the three that are
there are very good, but no, I don't think he
was not among the top three AFC defensive ends, edge rusher,
and for no good reason, he just wasn't. I'm sure
there will be a spot for him if the Texans
aren't still playing, and somebody that's there is. Obviously one
of his teammates is in that same boat. But he
did make the squad, and will Anderson eds was and

(31:05):
was voted in as a starter. A lot of people
brought up the time missed by JJ Watt, and we
obviously know all about that because it happened here. I
actually think people don't know about Daniel Hunter's time missed
because it doesn't look like the guy would ever miss
a game, because he hasn't missed a game, because he's
a machine in almost he really has a resume, so

(31:25):
similar to JJ, what happened to JJ before he got
hurt the first time, he was never hurt, He never
missed any time. Four consecutive years, Daniel Hunter played every
single game in the season, Then he had next surgery
and missed an entire season. Then he came back and
towards peck in the following season and missed more than
half the season, And then he played another four years,

(31:46):
including the two with Houston, without missing a single game.
He's played each of the last sixty eight games on
the schedule for his two respective NFL teams at that
edge rushing position. But what would his numbers look like
if in twenty twenty he didn't have zero sacks and
in the twenty twenty one season, where he only played
seven games, he had six sacks. What would that season

(32:08):
have looked like if he had another nine games on
his schedule, he'd easily be in one one thirty two,
one forty even because of the probably more than the
one thirties, and he would have so little left to
do to probably play the last couple of years of
his career as the active leader. He's basically right there
with TJ, and he's a little bit behind von Miller
who's currently that. But there would be no doubt. There

(32:30):
is no doubt about JJ because he had a couple
of monster seasons. He won Defensive Player of the Year.
He's going to the Hall of Fame. But these are
the types of players who might not have had some
unbelievable twenty three and a half Miles Garrett type season,
but every year and the whole point of their very
first tweet, fourteen plus sacks four different times. Only one

(32:51):
other player's done it more during the last twenty five
thirty years. That sounds like a Hall of Famer.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
And I'll go ahead and put this out there. Well,
first of all, that's that's going to be a great conversation,
and I hope it's not a debate.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
I hope he is not finished, right, And.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Only this season's Texans defensive unit could somehow have Daniel
Hunter putting up these kinds of numbers currently and somehow
flying under the radar.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, it's okay, because he's not flying under the radar.
For the coaches on the offensive side that to have
to figure out how do we stop this team from
getting in the backfield and ruining our day. And that's
what the Steelers coaches are doing right now. They certainly
are all right.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
We're gonna dive more into the intricacies and the numbers
if you want to nerd out, especially my co host
who loves to do this sort of thing about numbers
on the Texans defense.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
That'll happen at the top of the hour.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
But right now, coming up, the two teams ahead of
the Rockets that we actually care about, they're currently having issues.
They've got locker room issues, they've got chemistry issues. All right,
I'm really leaning into this hardcore. It's probably not as
bad as I'm painting it. I'd like it to be.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
And we'll discuss that next It's Wednesday afternoon here on
the A team, Wexac and Josh Jordan here with you.
We will get you into a conversation about why you
should be happy that one of the NFL ownership groups
is not here in Houston running this football franchise. There
are a lot of ownership groups you're happy that aren't

(34:21):
here and should be happy about the one that is here,
but this one really stood out, so we'll bring that
to you at three thirty. Of course, four thirty, we've
got our signature segment coming up on a Wednesday. That
means Wednesday's bs. Whether we are a bit stealing from
our friends on the Morning Driver the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross, or simply getting into those two letters, which
is the much more likely path we almost always take.
We'll do that coming up at four thirty. In case

(34:42):
you missed it five thirty, some items we might not
have gotten to over the next app two hours and change,
and of course football at five each and every day
comes your way beginning the final hour of the program
gets you into the nightcap after that, and of course
Rockets Basketball will begin with coverage at eight o'clock. With
launch pad eight thirty, we'll get you into Rockets Countdown.
I will have that for you, and then Matt and
I will bring you the first of the two.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
Games on the road at the Blazers over the next
three nights, beginning at nine o'clock.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
They play them tonight at nine. They will play them
again on Friday at nine in the final game of
the road trip. Will take them through Sacramento for a
Sunday game at eight o'clock, and then finally back home
for a little bit more of an extended period of
time so they try to even out their schedule. The
college football landscape continues to be up in the air.

(35:28):
This player's declaring for the draft. This player has found
his new home and is committed. This player has signed
to stay at his original university, and then after signing
said no, no, no, no no, I'm going into the
portal now. And that's created what might finally be the
biggest litigated story in the NIL transfer portal era. We'll

(35:50):
see if it reaches out route. Talking about Washington's quarterback,
who I guess had either a change of heart or
a just flat out well, I didn't expect that offer
to come in the way that it did and have
to change my mind. Washington seemingly standing firm with their
head coach Jed Fish, not wanting to see this player
who actually transferred to play with him when he first

(36:14):
got to Washington. So definitely a story will continue to
follow throughout the day and obviously the rest of the landscape.
With the NFL postseason, couple teams will go on Saturday,
two games, then three games Sunday, and of course Texans
and Steelers wrapping up wild Card weekend. The last of
the teams to be eliminated in Wildcard Weekend, of course,
comes Sunday night. Sam Donold and bow Knicks and their teams, well,

(36:35):
they have advanced. They will be among the final eight
teams playing for the ultimate NFL Prize. Six teams will
join them over the three days this weekend.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
The old NFL Prize. Oh wait, that's a different guy
for a different league. Speaking of that league, Victor woman
Yama came back last night. Were you excited? Did you
love seeing the big man out there again?

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Did you love it? Did you love it? That's a
rhetorical question.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Say thirty points off the bench in a one point loss,
as you mentioned to the Memphis Grizzlies. It was his
first career thirty point game as a reserve. I don't
know why people write these things. Who cares he scored
thirty He's never done that off the bench before, which
meant that he just didn't stand there at the opening

(37:19):
tip to do it. It's the dumbest thing ever, but
even dumber than that, maybe, did you see what he
said after the game.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
I mean he used the voice of the Spurs, so
they went to the source to get some quotes. What
did he have to say?

Speaker 1 (37:31):
I've been working on my Victor wimbin Yama impression. By
the way, Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
We don't usually need with our coverage, extensive coverage of
Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the NFL,
we don't usually need accents like that.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
But it's not so much the accent, it's the delivery
of the voice, tone, inflection. The fact is we play
down to the level of the opponent. That's just what
I hear every time. It sounds like, what's the guy
from Digital Underground, you know, the one with the nose,
the Humpty. That's who he sounds like when he talks
to me. Anyways, he says, the fact is we play

(38:09):
down to the level of the opponent. The good thing
is we can match up with anybody and look everybody
in the eyes, not you. But the bad thing is
we look everybody in the eyes again, not you. And
sometimes him, he's usually on the around he's looking. Oh,
that's true, and sometimes we should just put people away.
Most of the time we execute well, but we don't

(38:31):
finish plays and possessions.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
We just keep people in the games. Listen.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
I guess I could if I were a Spurs fan,
God forbid, Missy, I could maybe.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Look at this and admire the confidence.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
But this is the same thing I've been saying about
the guy since he pumped his little bitty fist on
draft night and realized he wasn't gonna come play in Houston.
And you can say that I'm taking that way too hard,
and maybe I am, maybe I'm not. It's fairly obvious
that's what happened. It was all on camera. I've never
been more fascinated, and we do this all the time

(39:07):
on the show. Two people see the same piece of
video and completely interpret it different ways. But I think
that was pretty telling how he behaved when that happened.
He wanted to play for the Spurs because he grew
up rooting for the Spurs in France. As we all know,
French people love San Antonio and that's who we wanted
to be. So whatever he's been this way since that night.

(39:30):
He says things that come off as it's because he's French.
By the way, I'm in a stereotype right now. He's
completely arrogant in so many different ways. He should be
a waiter at a cafe.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
No, it's not about that. It's just like, dude, you've
done nothing.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
I know, you're seven foot ten, I know everybody thinks
you're gonna be the next big, bad thing, even though
you're not. You're gonna get hurt and your injuries are
gonna sure, you're gonna curtail your career. But like this
guy for accomplishing next to nothing, nothing, he talks so much,
and again you're gonna ask me, what's he supposed to say?
I'm sorry, But like when you talk about playing down

(40:07):
to your competition publicly, how many times have we said
that on the show? We say it all the time
about the Rockets. What the hell are they doing losing
two out of three of the Mavericks. They're playing down
to their competition, But the Rockets never say that, especially
in front of cameras or microphones. Like, dude, read the room.
You've done nothing, absolutely nothing. You've been called an alien.

(40:28):
Everybody goes gaga over you on ESPN. Dad da da
da da da. You've done nothing and you probably will
never accomplish nothing. I know everybody thinks he's gonna win
the next ten NBA titles. But until he does, shut.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
The hell up. They're a twenty five win team. They
lost to a fifteen win team. Yeah, it happens all
the time, and he doesn't like they. Oklahoma City Thunder,
you just got blasted by the Hornets. You didn't see
Shay Gilles Alexander, the reigning MVP and NBA champion who's
actually done something with his life, say hey, we really
played down to our competition in our second straight loss.
He didn't say that.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
He's talking to his teammates. He's trying to get them
to realize they're news flash. Victor wimbin Yama is a
big a hole? How about that? Seriously? No, seriously, over,
I'm tired of holding my tongue about this guy because
his team happens to be ahead of the Rockets and
the standings currently. Screw that and screw him, And I
hope the Rockets beat their ass twice this month because

(41:22):
I'm gonna be the first one on this microphone to
laugh at.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Them, probably the only.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
Ah, Well, there will be tons of people in this
town on this mic Everybody in this city hates this
guy already, and you know what.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
He just gave him another reason to he's a douche.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
He is.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
He's a big giant douche. What they lost? Tell me
why I'm wrong? To the Grizzlies, he played down your competition.
He wasn't happy about it, he said.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
By the way, the Grizzlies aren't even that bad anymore.
He's acting like they're the what's the worst team in
the NBA? The Wizards. That's what he's acting like. By
the way, if you're Trey Young, why do you want
to get traded there?

Speaker 2 (41:57):
While we're on the topic, well, that's a bigger, better
topic for another show in another city. I hate this guy.
We'll get to I really hate this guy, and you
should too. He's not talking to me, you guys. He's
talking to you guys. You people that watch you NBIA basketball.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
You should too.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Guy's a giant douche. He's a giant giant douche.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Got nothing, Texas, It's the A team Sports Talk seven
nineties Space City Home Network simulcast is underway. You missed
a lot in the first hour if you haven't been listening, uh,
and you haven't been watching, because the simulcast just began.
I should have waited to be on camera to yell
at Victor wimben Yama the way I did last segment.
If you missed that, you'll be able to check it

(42:40):
out on the podcast. I'm already getting reactions on my phone,
so I know some people were listening. I can't believe
I haven't heard from Missy, the ultimate Spurs fan yet,
but that's a different conversation for a different time.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Again.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Spurs and Thunder tow of the teams ahead of the
Rockets right now in the standings, both coming into town
this month. I believe the spur played two games here,
so that'll be interesting as and hopefully, like I said,
the Rockets at that point will be a lot healthier
because it's gonna be a long two weeks ish without

(43:13):
outbring Shingoon and I say maybe longer because we don't know.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah, they're probably it's probably longer than that. Probably they
should either this weekend in between games after the two
Portland games, do a reevaluation of the ankle injury. Obviously,
he also had a calf injury that were concerned with
and trying not to have that be a major reason
to sideline him. But then he had the ankle injury
to go along with it, so they'll get a little
bit better idea. I think the timeline that he may

(43:37):
put out earlier this week was a little reflective of, well,
we already know he's not coming back in the next
ten days, ten to fourteen days, but we really don't
have a full line of when we really think he
could get back into rehab and get back into trying
to make it back on the court. So it's probably
a little bit more than two weeks. They've got this
last three games of this five games out of six

(43:58):
on the road, these three games out West, and then
they got a five game homestand they will see san
Antonio on that homestand they go out for two and
then san Antonio is on the next home stand as well.
Before the month closes, they'll have an opportunity for the
last time to try their hardest to get a second
win against the Dallas Mavericks. And that closes out the
month of January, you'll all be all done with the

(44:22):
Anthony Davis led Mavericks. Just days before he moves on
and February's trade deadline. I bet the Rockets don't talk
about playing down to their competition. When they go into
that final matchup with the Mavericks, I bet they don't
talk about playing down to their competition. When the five
teams that aren't inside the top ten in the West
have all beaten them, that's another good reason not to

(44:44):
do that. Again.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
I'm very happy for you that you have twenty plus
wins like a bunch of other teams in the NBA
right now, and things are going rosy for you, But
you were like trash six months ago with your record.
You can blame it on him being out because of
the blood clot situation and all that, but the Spurs
organization hasn't won the last six titles the way he's acting.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
So to me, it's a little bit like Jacksonville and Lawrence.
Not that he's saying that, but who cares what the
Spurs were last year? That has no bearing on anything. Well,
he was a part of it. That's why I care,
so right, I know that's but it doesn't really matter.
Like Jackson Jacksonville has been terrible for years, Lawrence has
been an awful free years. Forget it. They have no
chance to win this week in Buffalo. Of course, I'm

(45:26):
picking Buffalo. They're gonna run all over this team and
pass all over this team. Is gonna be the same
old Trevor. Maybe Trevor Lawrence was part of all those
loser teams in Jacksonville, clearly, but does that really matter.
Has he been so bad in five different playoff series
or games that we know that's what's to come when
he's got a new coach, that got a new outlook.
They won thirteen games with they've never done before. They

(45:47):
won eight. It's just totally different. And the Spurs last
year playing even playing with Victor, they weren't very good.
They were clearly worse without him, and this year's just
a totally different story. And he's not the only difference.
I mean, Darren Fox was pretty much a non factor
until the twenty five to twenty six season as a Spur. Obviously,
Dylan Arber wasn't even on the team until they drafted him.
This offseason. You're into year two of Stefan Castle, just

(46:10):
like you're into year two with Reed Shepherd. They should
be much better. This is significantly better, and that they've
been sitting in the two spot in the West for
quite some time, that's a pretty sizable leap from outside
the playoff picture and a much different leap than the
Rockets took. The Rockets got to forty one and forty
one and then they got to fifty two wins. The

(46:30):
Spurs are pretty likely to win fifty this year. Yeah,
it'd be wild of like the Rockets.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
We're talking about playing down to the competition, having that
second seed last year, where the Spurs weren't even in
the postseason. That would almost I would almost accept that,
and I still wouldn't like it. Well, they don't say
that publicly. No, most teams don't say what he says.
So use it, not you and not our listeners. I'm
using it, fans. How about if the players in the
in the NBA use it? Who does this guy think

(46:57):
he is? Everybody in the NBA is thinking that right.
Could be right, and I hope they play against him
as such, because.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Teams are going to they f win nineties. You know,
Lebron comes into the league as an eighteen year old.
You know, Kobe takes over the Lakers as a young player.
You're good enough that they can't do it, but everybody
wants to knock them down. Everybody wants to keep this
kid down. The chosen one.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Bill Lambert would baptize this kid everybody for saying to
want to do this.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
But in this day and age, they don't do it
in the bad boys way. They just simply try to
outscore them in a basketball game. Yeah, because it's beat
them up. Well, I'm not even asking for that. I
just you couldn't Bill Yamber the fifth most important Piston,
I would do this to him. I mean, that's how
silly it was.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
It depends on what you're talking about when you say
he's the fifth most important. But we're not going to
get into a bad boys conversation here because I want
to talk about another physical sports team, and that's your
Houston Texans, and specifically on the defensive side of the football.
Because far be it from me to bring up the
Spurs in two different segments. But I did it, all Righty,
that's on me. I gotta do better, as Gary Kubiak
would say. But man, so I went in, as we

(48:01):
mentioned in the first hour, unbeknownst to us, because we
don't discuss these types of things.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
You know why, because we're only work married, we're not
real married.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
That's why I didn't know that WEX was going to
do car maintenance this morning, on the same morning that
I was doing car maintenance. Otherwise I wouldn't have known
I was going to have this conversation. All the guys
there at the shop when I go, I've been going
there for years.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
They know me.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
We have a good relationship. I love the guys down there.
I don't speak for them, so I'm not going to
say anything else, but I will say it's a great
place to go. If for no other reason, then in
addition to doing a good job on the vehicle I drive.
They all they watched sports and they listen and watch
to us. They like our show. A lot of these
guys do. And one of them was like, man, I

(48:45):
don't know how I feel about the Texans getting all
this love on the national shows right now, the espns
of the world and even just you know, some of
the bigger podcasts. I mean, you know, like every other
day Pat McAfee and JJ Watt are talking about how
much they love this Texans team and the defense.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Well, what do they talk about when he's talking to
Aaron Rodgers. You don't have him on every day every
week anymore. I don't think he does.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
That was his first love. JJ's second love, But that
was that was Aaron the pack or was it not?
Has he been on since he began? He was on
with the Jets, right, and he was on while he
was hurt because he wasn't doing anything. I don't think
he is his guy anymore.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
I don't know. It's tough. This is a tough one
for Pat. I mean, he has to pick somebody to like.
Since Indianapolis is never in the playoffs, he's still talking
about them. We'll get to that in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
He's talking about something that happened in the Texans game,
and we'll get to that in a look.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
JJ Watt actually was the one that brought this up,
so we'll get to that.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
But there is a there was an article that it
was an ESPN writer, and I'm sure you're familiar with
his work.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
We're talking about Ben Solak.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
If you like numbers, and I mean like getting in
the muck of the numbers, well you're gonna love this
article about the Texans defense.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
And it's not just the Texans.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
He's talking about the playoffs, boasting three of the best
defenses we've seen in some time now. We've all been
talking about the Texans. Clearly here in Houston. We've all
been talking about the Broncos here in Houston and abroad.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
I mean, I know it's talked about, but like I
feel like the Seahawks aren't getting their just due for
what their defensive unit has done this year.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Is that fair to say?

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Probably, just in the fact of where they are and
we don't hear about them and the fact that it
But what I'm saying they was fourteen and three, Yeah,
they had the best record, or thirteen and four went
they're the number one seed. Yeah, we hardly hear anything
about him. They had an unbelievable year.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
But I think when you do hear about him, it's
more about Sam Darnold in his first year there and
all of the things the offense has done this year.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
When you start talking about them, Yeah, the guy who
led them to three more wins than they had last year,
the best record they've had in forever, and nobody thinks
he should be MVP. Correctly, he sounds like you're mad
about it, though. No, only if we're talking about all
we hear about is Sam Donald. We can't hear about
him that much because people realize who he is and

(51:04):
why he's not an MVP candidate. I was having a
conversation with somebody today.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
We both know that as a text conversation that wishes
the Texans had gotten Clint Kubiak instead of Nick Cayley,
and you'd probably still be having the same situation where
he's being.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Yeah, he would. I mean, Nick Cayley's much more likely
to remain here for long ago.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
But the reason he said that is because he thinks
this person and I think you may have said this
by now coaching versus personnel. I'm more about, Hey, I
don't like who Cassio put on the line. This person
has been more about you get the right coach in there.
This line can work because they know how to make

(51:44):
this guy knows how to make Sam Darnald and what
they're doing look like a you know, he believes CJ's
being held back right now by what they're doing offensively,
Like he's not a guy who should just be able
to manage you on offense to wins. He should be
a guy who's winning you games on that side of
the ball, and he's not, in large part because of
the way Nick Cassario has put this offensive line together

(52:05):
and this offense together with Nick Cayley.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
So just say, and largely because of Nick Cyeh times too. Yeah,
I don't disagree with that, but I think because of
what Nick Cassio did personnel wise on the line, I
think Nick Kyley has done what he's done somewhat at
the request or continued, I think we should do this
from his head coach. Do you think there's a point

(52:29):
in time where Demiko Ryans, the head coach of the
Houston Texans, wants to have the number one offense in
the NFL or would he just rather have the best defense.
I mean, it's kind of a ridiculous premise. Of course
he wants the best offense, but what it takes to
have the best offense means you're taking a lot more chances.

(52:51):
You're doing a lot of the things that put your
offense at risk. It might be fine because for the
fifteen turnover worthy throws you make, there's forty touch down
worthy throws that you make. You know, not everybody's gonna
have the the great imbalance that Matt Stafford does, but
he also had some mistakes down the stretch. We've seen
Jared Goff have some remarkable seasons with a tremendous touchdown
number at a very low turnover count. But I don't

(53:14):
think that's a team that will ever be under Demiko's watch. Look, man,
I don't I don't want to take all those chances.
I don't. I don't really need it because we can
win this way. Just don't turn the ball over like
we're not gonna lose. We will never lose. They've literally
never lost for nine weeks now, mainly because they don't
turn the ball over. Five turnovers by the Texans offense

(53:35):
in the first three games of the year. That's three games.
Then they played fourteen times after that, and they turned
it over seven times, and those fourteen games combined winning
the final nine in a row. It is that simple
for Demiko, and I really think that's why they do
some of the things they do. If they had a
better offensive line, it probably changed. If they had a
better running back, proven elite electric, maybe it would also change.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
They don't have that well, and it's something else that's
kind of simple, simplistic. As we go into the next segment,
I'll tell you why this guy, why Ben thinks that
the Texans have one of the best defensive units out there.
It's very very basic, but it's very very accurate.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
And that's straight ahead.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
On a Wednesday edition of the program, It's Sports Talk
seven to ninety Space City Home Network, WEX and AC
with you as we take you up until six o'clock tonight,
we were talking about the three best defenses from the
twenty twenty five regular season this past year in the NFL.
And there is a graph that's involved here that says

(54:38):
NFL defensive scheme diversity grades one through one hundred, and
the very very very very bottom of this is the Texans. It's,
as the article puts it, look at the little purple
bar way way way at the bottom. That's the most
homogeneous defense in the NFL by a country mile, the
Houston Texans. And they tell about them just having two

(55:01):
personnel packages nine and eighty five snaps. You love snap counts,
by the way, wex nine hundred and seventy three of
which have been in either base three linebackers, four defensive
backs or nickel two linebackers, five defensive backs personnel. And
the Texans played one snap of dime, which might have
just been an accident, and ten snaps of goal line personnel.

(55:25):
And they they if you remove the goal line snaps.
They played all but two defensive snaps this season in
base or nickel. And the reason why this is the
easy answer I was talking about going into the break
their best eleven players. This sounds so much like something
Wex has said all season long. Their best eleven players
are better than your best eleven players.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Yeah, I've brought it up a couple of times because
there's a different one of the other grafts that's been
out there pretty much all season, updated every week. You
got the left or the X and y axis with
the blitz rate of what you try to do, and
the Texans rate pretty low there almost well, actually, I

(56:07):
should say, by far the lowest of any team in
the NFL. And you got to what's called a shell
rotation rate elsewhere, and only the Broncos rate slightly lower
than them, but they sit in the exact same part
of the graph. They're all the way in the bottom
left hand corner, which means they don't blitz, they don't
change their coverage, but they wreak havoc. They're telling you

(56:31):
you can put whatever eleven players you want on the field.
It's not going to change what we're doing. We're not
going to change our personnel group. We're not going to
put this guy out. You don't need to We don't
need to blitz, because that's why we run the defense
that we run. It's why I brought it up yesterday.
It's twofold. Even though I bet they would try to
do it if it was only one fold. It's easier
to do it when you have what the Texans have.

(56:51):
There's thirty one other NFL teams. Nobody has this. They
got the best edge rushing duo, they have the best
cornerback duo. You want to put your corners on an
island and assume your four are going to beat their
five up front, go right ahead. You're not the Texans.
You can't do that, and it's awesome when you try,
because you get beat. The Texans don't get beat when

(57:11):
they have stingling and lasted or just go just go
cover your guy. You're not even chasing the same receiver
across the field. Whoever's on your side. Kamara, you get him.
Whoever's on your side, Derek, you get him. And then
our edge rushers and our interior alignment, which are still
unbelievably underrated considering the circumstances, they just get it done.
We're rushing four. I guarantee you have at least five

(57:32):
offensive linemen against us, and we're still going to win.
Teams have been bringing a six offensive lineman against them.
Teams leave their backs into block, teams use their tight
ends to chip and it just doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Well, what's fascinating about this is I'm talking about all
these numbers and all that kind of stuff. This article
talks about the fact that with a you know, a
tightly knit core group of personnel that the Texans you
would think, run a large variety of coverages. We hear
about this all the time. Who's the DC in Kansas City,

(58:06):
that's spo. He's always these exotic blitzes and exotic this
exotic that.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Guess why, because they don't have what the Texans have.
And they do have Chris Jones and Trent McDuffie when
they're both healthy, but they don't have the other players
that the Texans have.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
And that's what he's talking about in this article that
Demiko along with his you know, his mentor is Robert Sala.
Not a good head coach in New York, but a good.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Defense What are you talking about there was not a
head coach in New York Robert sala Oh, I thought
you meant all of them that have ever been there.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Yeah, well I knew that was coming. But when he
was with the forty nine ers and he's back there now,
that was him. Ryan's and the Falcons Jeff Ulbrich share
a common philosophy when it comes to coverage. This goes
back to what we were just talking about with all
those exotic plays. The deeper the toolbox, the easier it

(59:01):
is for the right tool to get lost somewhere in
the bottom. In other words, long menu of all these
coverage options creates space for mental errors and coverage busts.
What he's saying, in Layman's terms is the playbook's very thin.
Here's what we're going to do. We dare you to
beat us on offense because we know you can't, and.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
It's the same guys out there trying to do it
unless they've been forced off the field. And I think
that's part of what happened against the Colts, you know,
I think Cavan Wallace really came in and did a
nice job two weeks ago and against that particular offense
and what they tried to do and how the Texans
wanted to defend them, especially because they knew they were
gonna dominate upfront. They dominated the Chargers up front, and

(59:39):
they could not run the ball against the Texans. They
didn't dominate the Colts upfront, though they were able to
stop the run. I was about to say they couldn't
run either. No, but they didn't force Riley Leonard into
all these quick throws. He had time to let plays develop,
and in doing so, he forced the new person in
the Texans, not just the secondary, but the defense. There

(01:00:00):
are no other new players that get significant reps other
than the defensive lineman that they've added due to injury.
But the safety has been constantly turning over all year,
and the latest was Wallace. And if you go back
and watch the first big play to Alec Pearce, it
seems pretty clear that there was a miscommunication between two
players who were almost never on the field, Traymon Smith,

(01:00:21):
who was playing for Kamari Laster and Kevon Wallace, who
was their starting safety. We didn't even mention this yesterday.
It happened during the show. They let Wallace go. He's
basically the full time safety. The last two weeks and
they just let him go because I think, I mean,
I'm trying to add two and two to get four.
I think it was a miscommunication, but he did the
wrong thing. He bit on one of the three. They

(01:00:43):
were in a trip set and you had two cornerbacks
and him. They were on that side of the field
and two guys ran short and it looked like Alec
Pierce was going to break off his route short and
when Traymont Smith went with him, well, Wallace was clearly
looking in the backfield. He was watching Riley Leonard's eyes
and he thought he was throwing short. So he comes
running up to go get the ball, which hasn't even

(01:01:05):
been released yet, and he throws it over both of
their heads for an easy, huge touchdown. And I think
it happened to elsewhere in the game as well, So
I just don't think he was quite doing what they
needed him to do. And this was all to get
edge rusher Darryl Taylor active. So I'm very curious about
what players are actually going to be up for this game.
And maybe it's a little bit injury related, but when

(01:01:26):
you have one little piece of these are the eleven
guys we play and we're not changing this, and we're
not disguising that, and we're not bringing extra rushers because
we don't have to. But when you take one of
them out or another one out, it can change things,
especially when it's one of the four that I mentioned.
If you played a game without Daniel Hunter or Will Anderson,
or you played a game without Derek Singley Junior or

(01:01:47):
Kamari Lasser. This stuff happens. And that's why I'm hopeful
that all four of them, three of whom ended the
year healthy and played, they'll all be back out there
to start and finish the playoffs. All four games, four
Texans games. I'm fine with that, and I'm fine with
the defense leading it. Listen, I said this yesterday or Monday,
I can't remember which. If the Texans win the Super.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Bowl and they average like sixteen points a game doing
it or twenty or whatever, the you know, anemic. We
don't like this at the league offices because it's not
sexy on offense thing they do. They were only thirteenth
in the league in scoring. Well here, how about this
defense of those how about this Madison Avenue? What if
what if the defense has a pick six? Would that
be enough for you. What I'm saying is none of
us here in Houston are going to care.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Yeah, the Texans and scoring on defense in their opening
playoff game, I think he got used to it the
last two years with what they did to Cleveland and
La here in Houston, scoring three times defensively. They didn't
do that in the next game on the road, which
was part of the reason why they haven't been able
to win on the road, and it's been a staple
of them. They've done it a bunch at home. Obviously,

(01:02:50):
JJ got it all started with the Andy Dalton completion
to his hands. I'm not expecting the Texans to score
defensively against Aaron Rodgers, but I am expecting them to
win their half of the game. I'm expecting them to
win the turnover battle against Aaron Rodgers. He is Look,
he's not He's not a turnover machine. No, but he's

(01:03:11):
also not twenty eight. But he's not trying to do
things like he was twenty eight. He's trying to do
things like we what I mentioned yesterday or maybe Monday,
they're a pressure rate against Aaron Rodgers overall this year
the Steelers, they've allowed him to barely be pressured. Well,
it's all. It all goes together, just like the Texans
have been telling us for years. If you can't block anybody, well,

(01:03:31):
then you need to accommodate for that. They can block people.
But then you got the other twenty snaps where they've
called a three step drop, where they've called a wide
receiver screen, where they're throwing to one of their nine
tight ends that are on the field. Like the Steelers
are doing things to recognize, we don't really want him
standing back there forever because he's not likely to get
one of his receivers open deep down the field unless

(01:03:52):
Metcalf gets you know, there's a bust and he gets open.
I mean, they have some some speed with Austin and
some shiftingness with other guys, but that's not their game.
The game is the short passing game.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
You have to determine how you're going to beat this
defense right now, kind of like what Marcus Spears said yesterday,
it's gonna take Aaron Rodgers coming up with a game plan.
And what he means by that is, once you get
out there, everything that you've tried to script is not
going to work because these people are absolute animals.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
I mean, I totally gonna be up to Aaron. I
understand that, but they they happen. In my opinion, they
actually have an offense that is ready for that. This
is what they do.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
Are you gonna flip on Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh
field the Steelers offense?

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
But I don't the texts aren't gonna massacre them defensively.
I don't believe I'm okay saying that. Okay, you want
to bet, I mean not today, but we got till
Monday afternoon. That's true. We're gonna wait a long time
to do that. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
We have a brand new nickname submitted by a listener
for the newest astro. Plus, you're gonna be happy that
a certain owner is not your owner, Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
We'll explain that next.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Carolina has taken over the Texan slot in the three
thirty game on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Yeah, for the one year they'll be in the playoffs. Listen,
if Bryers Todd Bowles enough of this tying for the
division title, he'll be back. According to reports today, even
though I thought that was obvious, but they got to
take control of that division once again. We can't have
this Panthers team in the postseason. You hate it, I don't.

(01:05:25):
I do hate I hate them anyway, but I hate
that this happens. But you can't have this man because
of the But there's no end in sight to it.
It's not gonna say there is an end in sight
to it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
They were supposed to vote on it this offseason, but
they didn't get enough support for it before they put
it to a vote, so they just canceled the vote altogether.
But if you think that it's not going to pass
because of the lack of support, why would you even
have the vote?

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
Because it's happening again. Oh bad teams going to the
postseason and hosting freaking games you won eight times. Stop
doing this. Dumbs in the NFL. Good thing. There are
some other dumbs in the NFL, which one I wanted
to to here. There are four teams in the AFC South.
Each division has four teams. Seven of those divisions had
a new division winner, a bunch of new coaches, a

(01:06:08):
bunch of young quarterbacks, rookies. What have you thinks changed
pretty quickly for most teams. The Texans have had one
ownership group their entire existence. I've had different people running
the company for obvious reasons, but always the mcnairs. There
are other situations that are very similar to that. Some
of them happen to be right here in this very division.
I stress this and I mean this, and it hasn't

(01:06:30):
always been this way, but for most of the time
since two thousand and two, I would have rubber stamped this.
Be happy that this is who owns your football team
and runs it the way that they do. The way
that Bob McNair ran the football team for most of
his time. Here was the way I thought a team
should be run. It's a good way to do it.

(01:06:51):
Maybe half the teams do it that way, maybe a
little bit more, maybe not. It was a very bumpy
post Bob McNair portion and late Bob McNair late in
his life, and then the late Bob McNair after that
into where we are today. But where we are today
is hire the right people and get out of the way.
Every sport I think is usually best served when you

(01:07:12):
do that. Maybe it's hard to find the right people
and you stumble over it a few times, or you
think you know more than them and realize you don't,
But that's all that Cal and Hannah, I think have
done to right the ship. I mean, I'll say Nick
Cassario is the right person five years in. I think
that's a fair statement to make. And clearly, three years
in to his third head coaching hire, he got the

(01:07:33):
right guy. Now, he didn't try to get the right
guy the first two times, but he got the right guy. So, look,
do you view this ownership group as a positive? I
would think you do. But I don't even have to
tell you that you need to look at this as
a positive because there's so many reasons why other owners stink,
and other owners leave a very bad taste in your mouth,
and other owners have you, as fans of that team,
worried about what are we in for? And I thought

(01:07:57):
it'd be nice for you to hear from one of
those owners. When the season ends and you go to
the playoffs, ownership probably is that's not when they meet
with the media for the first time. When you're one
of the eighteen teams that isn't going to the playoffs
and you might be making changes, you usually get in
front of the media if you can, And that's what
one of the owners in the AFC South decided to

(01:08:18):
do earlier this week. Well, you got two choices, because
it's not Jacksonville. They're in the playoffs. It's not Callan Hannah,
they're in the playoffs. I know who it is. The
Titans are looking for a head coach, so we already
kind of and they already announced what their new front
office structure is like. So it's not them either. So
it's the headset, the coaching staff, and the personnel side

(01:08:42):
in Indianapolis. It wasn't a given that they would be back.
You've had three consecutive seasons of eight and nine's in
your win and lost column all three years with Saint Steichen,
and it's been a long time coming for this team
to try to win again. So in an effort to
entertain you and make a see go Holy cow, thank you,

(01:09:04):
thank you, thank you. This is not the owner of
any Houston's pro sports franchises. We're in good hands because
we're not in those hands. So I'll just let you
hear from her, but I'll set her up every time.
I will ask miss Gordon carly Er, say Gordon a
handful of questions. Let her address the fans and our
listeners here all as we get to it. It's our

(01:09:25):
little chance to talk about the monumental collapse of the Colts.
So I'll all introduced CALLI er say Gordon. Give her
a chance to address our listeners and fans of football,
maybe the Indianapolis Colts, and give her thoughts on the seasons. Carly, So,
thank you guys all for being here.

Speaker 5 (01:09:43):
You're right to be frustrated with how the latter part
of our season went.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
I'm pissed. We are all pissed. Are you dreading what's
still to come already?

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
I'm wondering, and I'm gonna say this very carefully. Why
does she sound like a phone sex operator?

Speaker 6 (01:09:59):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
I don't think that's the case.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
I'm pissed and you're pissedsed.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
That's pretty good. I mean, come on, man, we're all pissed.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
Now. Sounds like that's the emotion you're trying to project
into that microphone.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
Carly. Wow. Okay, Carly. So you're keeping your head coach
Shane Steichen, You're keeping your general manager Chris Ballard. So
what's your message to your two leaders?

Speaker 5 (01:10:26):
We have been very clear with Chris and Shane that
giving them another opportunity means that the sense of urgency
for them to deliver and perform has never been higher.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
I'm gonna need Josh Jordan to get the miss teen
South Carolina queued up.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
We use that too much? No, we don't. Now you're
comparing this not pageant worthy owner of an NFL football
team to a pageant contestant. Not in looks, not in
the way she talks either. But you continue because you're
gonna and I absolutely think that after we continue here.
So you just heard her message sense of urgency, all
that stuff called out the GM and the coach by

(01:11:07):
first names. So is that the message that you delivered
them before and will continue to deliver to them?

Speaker 5 (01:11:13):
So I've been a sense of urgency, yes, is certainly
to win and finish, win and finish games.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
Are you going to repeat this message to them all
off season?

Speaker 5 (01:11:25):
Obviously? I think what Chris knows, and she knows that
is that the sense of urgency this year has never
been higher to be able to win and finish games.
I think we've made a lot of progress, but we've
got to be able to win and finish games.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
I'm sensing some talking points, Carly, I sense you have
a limited capacity to stray from this canned message.

Speaker 5 (01:11:45):
Well, the sense of urgency is higher than last year.
The sense of urgency has to be higher, and we
have to be able to find a way to win
and finish games. The sense of urgency to do that
has never been higher, and we believe they can do
it next season.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Oh my gosh, jeez, Can I ask her some more questions? Sure?
Do you hear the fans discussed with how the season ended,
how most of your recent seasons have ended.

Speaker 5 (01:12:08):
I hear them.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
I mean, I'm pissed. For pissed. You mentioned that she's
made promises in the past. You've made promises in the past.
Will it be Why will it be different this time?

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
Like I said, the sense of urgency to deliver on
what we promised is a sense of urgency goes for us.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
Too, But it could not be higher. No playoffs in
five years, no playoff wins in seven years, not since
Andrew Luck. Do you care about that?

Speaker 5 (01:12:34):
I'm pissed about that, But also you know, I think
that's where the sense of urgency.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
Has to go up.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
Okay, thanks. By now we're at the end of the segment,
so Clanton will have a chance to compose himself and
we'll rerack some of these small bits of that. But
my thought is, if Colts fans aren't showing up to
every single future Colts event, game, training camp, practice with
shirts that say sense of urgency, I'm pissed too. You

(01:13:02):
have to you have to do this. Come on, Colts fans,
for everybody out there, I'm pissed. We're pissed. They should
be pissed. There's a sense of urgency. It's never been higher.
We've got to win and finish games. We've got a
sense of urgency. We've got to win. I didn't edit
any of these, It was all in order of how
she uttered it over the course of her several minutes

(01:13:22):
with the media earlier this week. Stop writing things down
just to speak from the heart like your old man.
You did absolutely have a prepared opening statement, as you
heard us play from the onset of that segment. Thank
you for joining us. I'm pissed, We're pissed. It's break time.

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
So I have a sneaking suspicion that Carly might end
up giving us more fodder than even her old man did.

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
Well, I bet you she doesn't hit social media like
he did, which is some of where his more recent
fodder came from. And I doubt she will meet with
the media on any kind of regular base. This will
probably be very infrequent. Do you think she keeps doing
the headset on the sidelines thing next year? Yeah? There
were there were some actual football questions that were asked
about what should they do about Daniel Jones future and

(01:14:11):
what do you think about this and the evaluation of that,
and she really I don't want to say this, but
she said I should stay in my lane on that. Yeah, said,
that's not you know, it's for the that's for them,
that's why they're here. And you know, did you stand
in the way of the Sauce Gardener deal? No? I
actually I believe she was encouraging it. And so if
we're thinking, oh, Chris Balla, what a terrible thing, Well

(01:14:31):
she was for it. So I think she did. Owner
has to sign off on deals, sign off on it.
But you could easily say I don't really like this
if you have football acumen, that is what you're saying.
I mean, it's not I thought it was a bad
deal for I mean, I thought the other team made
it made out great.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Well, it wasn't about the person, it was about the
assets you gave up to get him, and then when
he gets important, is you're you're giving up?

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
Yes, it's two first round picks, but he is a
he's a proven first round pick. He can play the game.
He's also at the super duper duper high end of
your salary scale, the opposite of the player, not quite
the opposite. They're gonna make good money, but less money
for four to five years of the players you're trading away,

(01:15:16):
but you're you're on an eight win team, I mean,
as odd as that sound, or a seven win team.
They won once after he arrived, and they were headed there.
How were the Colts going to miss the playoffs? Daniel
Jones and Sauce Gardner were playing for the Colts in
the playoffs in twenty twenty six after he left. Then
the Colts won. If you hadn't seen the meme, it

(01:15:36):
was basically, here are the worst teams in the NFL,
Vegas and Tennessee and all the three win teams, even
though they were all one win better than Sauce Gardner.
This year he won twice. Yeah, I feel real bad
for him, and I feel real bad for them. Can
you tell? Yeah, I'm loving this. It's going to work
out for the Jets even better than they would have
hoped because of how the Colts fell apart, and it

(01:15:59):
just did not work out in the short term, and
now it looks even worse for the long term because
now you're hoping he comes back and plays well, while
you're already guaranteed to be paying him an incredible amount
of money, and you're doing now you have to figure, well,
this was already true, and this is the real problem.
They still did not no matter how well Daniel Jones played.
He is not and never was going to be, no

(01:16:19):
matter how well he played this year their answer. He
might be their best short term answer if he finished
the year healthy and they went to the playoffs and
he was nice and you gave him a tour. He
was getting a Sam Darnold deal at best. He's getting
a two or three year deal while they looked for
his eventual successor.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
And that's what's actually the bigger issue. I know we're
talking about sauce Gardner and the money and all that
kind of stuff, but you have put yourself, in my opinion,
back with those two moves, because even if sauce Gardner
is the best corner in football not named Derek Stingley,
which is not you haven't solved your quarterback situation and

(01:16:59):
you have less assets with which to do that because
we just got done talking about first rounders, and you know,
maybe you don't want to do that this upcoming year
in the draft because you don't think anybody that's going
to be coming out is going to be better than
what you've got. Although you don't win's Daniel Jones playing again,
that's a huge, huge issue.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
Like that's the thing. And I think we kind of
know this without saying it out loud, but we'll point
it out as we do most postseasons. You know, how
are they going to trading way two's first round picks
is a sure path towards not getting your quarterback of
the future m H first round picks or this is
where each of the fourteen playoff quarterbacks the draft position

(01:17:38):
that this year's postseason produced. Four of the quarterbacks in
this year's postseason went number one overall, another five win
in the top ten. Another three went in the first round.
That's twelve. Already twelve of these quarterbacks were first round
draft picks. They just traded away to their first pick
in this year's draft coming up and next year's draft
coming up. The other two where Jalen Hurts was the

(01:17:59):
second round pick and the other one was the last
pick of the draft.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
And there's not a bunch of teams sitting around they're
going to give you a first round pick for Jonathan Taylor,
who's your best player.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
It's just yeah, he's their best player. It's what are you?
How are you going to answer this question that you've
only been trying to answer since you last won a
playoff game. The last time they won a playoff game
in twenty seventeen was the second playoff game that season,
or the first playoff game that season, right here in
Houston at Energy Stadium, with Andrew Luck as quarterback and
t Y Hilton as their best receiver. Right, But the

(01:18:28):
point is Andrew Luck didn't play anymore for them after that,
and t Hy Hilton doesn't play anymore, and he could
play for every game since then, but he's not going
to do anything with Jacoby Brissett and Matt Ryan and
Carson Wentz and all these times answers. It's not three years,
it's not a couple of years. I mean, I understand
it's not that easy to find one. So teams might
go through it for three or four years, but again,

(01:18:49):
they've gone through it for every year since twenty seventeen
because the only time they even tried to find the answer,
they just missed when they drafted Anthony Richardson. But that
was already five years into not trying to answer the question,
and now they're three years removed from that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:04):
Nobody, least of all AFC South fans who don't root
for the Colts, feels bad for a team that had
Peyton manning for basically twenty years, went one year, then
got Andrew Luck and he was supposed to be the
heir apparent.

Speaker 2 (01:19:15):
And he wasn't terrible, but he wasn't that. I mean,
he was above He was a quarterback you can win
a super Bowl with.

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
Yeah, that's the best way to put it, because I
don't want to say he was above average.

Speaker 2 (01:19:24):
That's giving him, that's slighting him. He was kind of
a turnover machine. But he had the talent was Brett
fav and he won super Bowls. So that's why I said,
you can win a super Bowl with him.

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
But here's the thing, nobody cares now that they're in
this purgatory, and least of all me. Yeah, this is
a two horse race now in the AFC six so too,
because the Titans are still a mess. They are are
coachless and maybe have a quarterback, and they're rudderless because
I don't think they have good ownership.

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
Right, So bring it all back to where we started
last segment with my awesome interview with Carley. There's four
teams in this division. That means they're owners in this division,
and two of them we love, because three of them
we love. We like this group if the current Texans
ownership group and two of the other three teams have
owners that we think will prevent or help continue their

(01:20:13):
path to Nowheersville.

Speaker 1 (01:20:15):
I still I know he saved his job this year,
and by he saved his job, it's not even really accurate.

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
I think Demko saved his job this year.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
Saved Nick's job, yep, because you and I both agreed
at one point when they were two and three or
whatever it was. I'm talking about the first six weeks
or so of the season. Nick's out at the end
of this year. If this keeps up, and the fact
that they turned it around I think has far more
to do with Demiko keeping that locker room together, which,
by the way, we haven't even touched on Joe Mixon's situation.

Speaker 2 (01:20:47):
I don't know what you believe or what you've heard,
but it's somewhere between oh to oh.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
That's the range you have right now as to why
he didn't play a single down for the Texans this year.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
Yeah, it's saying Demiko saved him is not quite fair.
I respect all the things that the coach did to
keep the locker room together, like three, but they the
players that Nick put on the team just had a
nine game winning streak, just won twelve out games. They
did because he's the GM.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
But tell me that, like you have to know or
you have to at least assume that Demiko has a
huge shay on one side of the football for personnel, right,
But now you're almost saying players that didn't do it
without him On defense, he can if Demiko Ryans was
put in charge of drafting the defensive bill.

Speaker 2 (01:21:37):
No, no, I don't want that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
I don't either, But what I'm saying is if Demiko
Ryans was solely put in charge of only defensive player
picks for the rest of the time he's here, there's worse.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
Options in the League. A couple of years ago, he
slid a note under Knick's door that says, sign Daniel Hunter,
get me a zas. I'll shire make a trade for
Will Anderson Junior and I'll see you at the draft
if he did. Would you be surprised? That would be amazing.
You can do what you want to quarterback the A
team on Sports Talk seven ninety two in two to

(01:22:09):
go and we'll later on this evening get you into
Rockets basketball the eighteen four o'clock our wex A C.
Josh here with you plenty obviously still to get into
have barely scratched the surface on some of what we've
learned over the last couple of days since the Astros
made it official and signed a brand new starting pitcher
for their six man rotation, which could last several weeks

(01:22:30):
into the season, if not longer. Obviously, some Rockets chatter
after their win two nights ago and their jump back
out to the West Coast two games in Portland, a
game in Sacramento over the next five days before they
return home to Houston the game winner and it will
hopefully not be referred to that for too much longer.
I'd love to see another one. I mean, I'm fine

(01:22:50):
if they blow everybody out. But as of now, KD
has hit the game winner this season for the Rockets
and for his mark early on his early Houston Rockets tenure,
and clearly the Texans will hopefully take advantage of what
was not necessarily a given when you make the playoffs.
They actually got extra rest, you know, playing Saturday in

(01:23:13):
Week seventeen, and then a full week plus one day
until their Sunday finale, plus another full week and a
day until their Monday playoff opener. The health of the
team is always of great concern. It was great to
see tay Ursery back on the field after missing just
one week, and there's no reason to believe having seen
him and talked to him after the game, he'll be

(01:23:34):
back out there this Monday night. I think I think
they will get Trent Brown back, but we'll find out
a little bit more about that on Thursday. Didn't really
get into anything injury related with Demiko on Monday because
there was no reason to. Hey, Dimiko, Kamari Lasser didn't play.
Juwar Jordan went down in this game. Trent Brown was out.
Do you have an update on where they're what it

(01:23:56):
is with their injury situations. Yeah, we'll see how the
week goes. When we get out there, I already know
the answer, so it wasn't asked and I's totally fine.
But Thursday, Friday, Saturday, they will practice this week. Tomorrow
will be out there and I'll let you know what
we see and what it might mean for the upcoming game.
Most likely Friday's practice will be a big indicator of
what health situation they are in. And one of the

(01:24:18):
things that we've been talking about is talent on the team.
We were in a conversation about Demiko Ryans what his
role in making them an zero three team into a
twelve and five team in Nicosario's role, and we clearly
couldn't miss it because it happened late in the season.
They were without two defensive linemen who were lost for
the year. They started the year with a player who
was in their rotation last year, Kurt Heinisch, on the

(01:24:41):
pup list, and he was one of their defensive tackles.
He never came off it didn't play a single snap
for the Texans this year. We were a couple weeks
into the season and fully fought Acasi, who came in
last year, was a big part of their rotation defensively,
a starter at times, and was a part of it
this year. And then he was hurt and he missed
the majority of the same season. Then Tim Settle went

(01:25:01):
down for the season. Then Mario Edwards Junior went down
for the season. They all play the same position. They
all played defensive tackle. They lost four defensive tackles from
the end of last year until Week fifteen of this year,
and barely you couldn't even notice because the team was
not only currently outfitted with players that you could fill
the gaps in. One of them was Sheldon Rankins, who

(01:25:22):
came back during the offseason for that very reason, and
he stayed healthy throughout the year. TOJII obviously was a
massive input into the starting rotation, starting lineup, I should say,
but he obviously was a rotational player and now just
has more snaps and more of an impact. They added
Naikwon Jones. They added a player familiar with Matt Burke
a couple weeks ago Tu and he's been out there.

(01:25:44):
They're playing who they have at their disposal, not necessarily
who they'd want, but who they have, and they Nick
has found a way to keep them just as good.
Jonathan Taylor got to play against Sheldon Rankins and a
bunch of reserves and he couldn't do anything, not only
against them, but you know, give a little credit also
to Will Anderson Junior. He had that was probably his
most impactful half of football, one of them of this

(01:26:08):
entire season. He had six first half tackles and almost
all of them more of Jonathan Taylor in the backfield
or four to no game. He was incredible. I just
I was actually shocked.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
I mean it's not that I didn't think they could
do it, but I just thought, all right, well, you know,
Jonathan Taylor is gonna not get his maybe, but he's
gonna have more of an impact on what they're trying
to do offensively than this. Put it this way, I
never thought Riley Leonard would have far more of an
impact on that game offensively than Jonathan Taylor did.

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
And that's exactly what happened. Texans has been good against
the run all year, and I think they felt comfortable
as usual not changing anything and being able to stop
the run and forcing the quarterback to beat them, which
they do every game. They forced Josh Allen to beat them.
I mean, they would have liked to and they think
would have liked to have James Cook not bust off
a forty yard touchdown, run early and end up with

(01:26:59):
a one hundred yard day. I think that would be
their intention. But Josh Allen could not beat them, and
obviously most of the other quarterbacks I only lost five
times couldn't beat them. Bo Nicks beat them with his
feet almost as much as he beat them with his arm.
And that was kind of the one thing that always
kind of seemed still out there. You had four games

(01:27:21):
where an individual ran for better than one hundred yards
against the Texans this year. Most of the games it
was just a totally different story. Heck, some of these games,
the leading rusher on the other team was their quarterback.
It wasn't when you played Kansas City. It was when
you played the Chargers. It was one of the two
games you played against the Jaguars. Yeah, it's I am

(01:27:41):
fascinated to see. And look, it's a completely different style
of offense. They're playing completely different quarterback at a completely
different time in Hearon Rodgers will not leave these Steelers
in rushing on Monday Night. I'm gonna the Texans could
hold Jalen Warren to negative two yards rushing, and I
bet you they could find away to have maybe a
botched snap that turns into a run to get Aaron

(01:28:04):
Rodgers to minus four. So he still wouldn't lead the
team in rushing. He's not gonna lead the team in rushing,
now what you know. But I kind of asked you
this question earlier. What is their game plan against the
Texans defense? The game plan is to use both Warren
and game Well in the passing game, and they will
line up as receivers at times. They'll also obviously come
out of the backfield. I think they would love it

(01:28:24):
if all of their tight ends were healthy, and obviously
Washington getting hurt late in the year is impactful for them.
But I think Friarmuth will be a big part of it.
I think steam routes for him will be a big
part of it. And just keep in mind the last
two weeks for the Steelers. Two weeks ago, their offense
was absolute hot garbage against the Browns without DK Metcalf.
Last week it was pretty bad for about two and

(01:28:46):
a half almost three quarters without DK Metcalf, and then
they had the Ravens have a few busts, a guy
fell down on a route and you scored some points,
but they're getting DK Metcalf back. He is a threat,
he's legit. He's some you have to care about, you
have to concern yourselves with. And even if he's defended
by whomever, Kamari Laster or Derek Stingley Junior, he's as

(01:29:08):
big as they get. He's as big a target as
you're gonna be up against all year, and in the
red zone that could be an issue just getting down
the field. He obviously is fast, very very fast, and
you're just a week removed from having busts in your
own secondary that allowed out peers to get behind you
over and over and over again. I don't think there's
a lot of shot plays coming from Pittsburgh, but if
Pittsburgh has access to technology, you can't have zero shot

(01:29:34):
plays against the Texans this week. They have to take shots,
in my opinion, with DK Metcalf down the field against
the Texans have to.

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
I'm trying to ask this question carefully, but it's basically
the same thing. Does the because if all things go
the way we think they're going to, the Texans defense
will have a good good day because they normally do.

Speaker 2 (01:29:58):
I don't really know what to think about.

Speaker 1 (01:30:01):
The Steelers offense, but I think when healthy, the Steelers
defense has some players that can be disruptive.

Speaker 2 (01:30:07):
Obviously TJ. Watt at the top of that list.

Speaker 1 (01:30:10):
So basically, is the Steelers defense or the Texans offense
gonna have more of an impact on who wins this
game one way or the other? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:30:23):
I think the Steelers defense or the Steelers offense versus
the Texans defense is a known It's gonna be a
twenty point game or less. In my opinion, the winner
will score twenty points. The Steelers will score twenty points. Oh,
I got you? Okay? That matchup between the Texans offense
and the Steelers defense. And when you look at the
numbers of when the Texans offense is out there or
when the Texans defense is out there, you can see

(01:30:44):
what you're up against, especially defensively, Like just their defense
is the Texans defense and the Steelers defense. Steelers did
not have a good defense this year. They had a
really good pass rush, but it didn't equal a good
pass defense. They created a lot of turnovers for their
pass rush, but they also let teams throw the ball
against them. They let teams go up and down the

(01:31:04):
field against them, they let teams score against them, and
scoring is still the name of the game. It's great
to have turnovers, and that's part of the biggest part
of the game. And so you can overcome the effect
that you're giving up points because you're setting up your
own offense. But despite the fact that you're right, and
three names immediately come to mind upfront for the Steelers
and Hayward high Smith and what they do have playmakers.

(01:31:25):
They will make plays upfront, and it is going to
be troublesome for the Texans, but they already know this
going in and they last three weeks with whatever they've
done with their tackle eligible they're play calling, they're designed
to prevent CJ. Stroud or Davis Mills from getting hit.
Has worked, and I think even against an elite front,
and I think the Raiders don't have an elite front,

(01:31:47):
but clearly Max Crosby playing that day made it into one.
I think we haven't mentioned Nate Herbig at all, and
that's a complete and total oversight on our part. He
is the other fourth of their or front seven that
is a handful and is a concern. I personally don't
think anybody is in their secondary is a concern. I
think Patrick Queen is an okay player for a linebacker now,

(01:32:09):
but not nearly the player he once was. Jalen Ramsey
has a phenomenal name. I don't think he's a phenomenal player,
and I'm not too concerned about anything they might do
to try to attack him. I think Porter is a
nice player. He had a nice start to his career.
But I'm again not looking at that saying this is
trouble spot. I don't know which Texans receiver can take

(01:32:29):
advantage of that matchup. I think they're honestly just fine
against them. They don't don't get forced into the turnovers.
They did force twenty seven turnovers Texans force twenty nine.
Both were in the top five, but Texans don't do
it very often. I don't know if it'll be different
because you're on the road, and honestly, the weather conditions
will probably be a little bit worse than they could
have been, just simply because it's a night game. Have

(01:32:50):
you checked the weather yet. It's Wednesday, it's getting closer,
it's getting worth looking. I looked immediately though it kind
of wanted to wait. Supposed to be in the high twenties,
low thirties in the evening with a very small chains
of rain and actually not a whole lot of wind.

Speaker 1 (01:33:02):
But it's like what they've played in at Kansas City
on Sunday night. Sounds like from a temperature stamp.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
Yeah. All that being said, there is actually one huge factor,
he enormous factor that is specific to playing the game
there on the road at night for the Texans. That
I mean, no time like the present when we come back,
A huge negative factor for the twelve and five Texans
as they head to Pittsburgh this week. I don't know

(01:33:28):
how they're going to avoid it. I'm honestly worried that
they're not going to try to avoid it at all.
And that's even bigger than the problem itself. So I'll
explain what I'm talking about with the Texans on their
way to play the Steelers, a team them they don't
see very often historically and obviously have not seen as
they're currently constructed this entire season. I'll hit you with
that next.

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
The eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety. By the way, I
put this in the rundown quick, just a quick opinion
of yours on this. So Skip is a I'd call
him a p one. He's a loyal listener.

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
He saw that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
There was a an account that referenced Tatsuya Emi and
his new jersey number being forty five.

Speaker 2 (01:34:15):
Em I forty five. His nickname is I forty five.
According to Skip, he was a fan of Garrett Cole
and Zach Wheeler. Number forty five's and I'm representing myself
and after one year with the Astros, I am leaving
for more money. He is a forty five as the
Houston Astro. I don't mind the cleverness of it. It's

(01:34:39):
a big part of h town. Makes a lot of sense.
His last name is an, his name is I, and
his number is forty five.

Speaker 1 (01:34:48):
Maybe he could hit up Gerald Green to see about
getting an iphore five roadside.

Speaker 2 (01:34:52):
Tattoo that goes somewhere around our city that I don't
know much about. It's called I forty five Interstate forty five,
not in downtown anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
It makes sense. Shut it down, scept what is it?
I mean, it has so little meaning, Like well, his
first his last name starts with an eye.

Speaker 2 (01:35:08):
That's what I just said.

Speaker 6 (01:35:09):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
I get the reference forty five. I mean, I have
to explain this. You don't like it because he's a
baseball pitcher and his nickname is a highway.

Speaker 1 (01:35:19):
No, his nickname is the combination of his last name's
first letter in a highway that's primed.

Speaker 2 (01:35:25):
And to think of a nickname that, while it makes
sense to use, it has so little value and so
little Oh yeah, it's a great.

Speaker 1 (01:35:32):
Nickname, Like every nickname has little value. A RIDS is
just a lazy way to say two different players who
people don't like their.

Speaker 2 (01:35:41):
Right but it tells yeah, so this is like that.
It just tells you who he is. He's his name's Emi,
and he wears forty five. He's at forty five. Let's
if you dig a little deeper. I mean, we could
call it if he was Larry Johnson and he didn't
want to go with Grandmama, could just call him LG.
He doesn't pitch for the Rangers. I mean, honestly, while
we do have an interstate forty five, aren't you essentially
just giving him Chris Paul's nickname.

Speaker 1 (01:36:04):
CP three I forty five, same thing, But he's not
being that's his it's his jersey number only it's not
incorporat CP three.

Speaker 2 (01:36:14):
He wears three, his name is CP. This guy's name
is EMI and he wears forty five.

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
But it's a double meaning. It's the same Chris Paul's
had a single meaning. You can't call him I forty
five anywhere else and make it the same type of meaning.

Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
You're right, you would lose the meaning of having the
added benefit of when the Dodgers signed him. You known
as a highway that's highly congested. Now doesn't it ten?
Go to? It goes? They call it the ten in La?
So why didn't we call I? Mean there were two
eyes in Ulie's name? Why didn't we call him I ten?
Because ul ten? That's what I should I should have

(01:36:47):
called him ul like ten because.

Speaker 1 (01:36:49):
He had a better nickname, Yes, lapina, because he had
hair like a pineapple. Right, that's much better. Well, what
are you gonna say about I think this is a very.

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
Good effort and might very well stick. Even though I
did it again, didn't I? What did I do?

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
You?

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
Blanket? Did I did? I couldn't even I didn't even
realize it only the third show of the year together
terrible and it's a skip of all people dude, I
know it's not very nice.

Speaker 6 (01:37:11):
You know that.

Speaker 2 (01:37:12):
Yes, I do know that he's a big deal. No,
I think that's there's a reasonable chance that between ourselves
some of the most important voices in Houston and our
broadcast partners right here on Space City Home Network Regular
seven ninety, between t K, Julia, Jeff Robert and Steve

(01:37:35):
and ourselves, I think there's a chance that it gets used.

Speaker 1 (01:37:39):
By the way, nobody calls him Jeff uh Blumber there
you go. I mean maybe occasionally now TK usually refers
to him as.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
Blumber alongside Blumber Todd Collis here in the boot. He
doesn't say that.

Speaker 1 (01:37:50):
He calls him Jeff blum Plumber. Here's the thing about
this next inning, and then he says whatever. He never says.
You know, Jeff, that was a bad performance.

Speaker 2 (01:37:59):
Tells him to open his eyes.

Speaker 1 (01:38:02):
You look at it. He's not necessarily telling him to
open his eyes so much as he's saying to use them.

Speaker 2 (01:38:08):
You look at how Jose tried to get from first
to third there. You look at it. He hasn't done
that as much lately. You know why, I think Corey
put the kebash on that. You know, when to listen.

Speaker 1 (01:38:19):
I don't clearly never he does. I do, happy wife,
Happy life. Yeah, I forty five.

Speaker 2 (01:38:26):
That's good. I'm gonna try and make this happen. The
T shirts would be easy when a player like you
just had a game winning shot, HM, easy money, sniper
at it again, rockets win. Emi just struck out the
side in the eighth inning of a one nothing shutout,
and he's headed back to the dugout.

Speaker 1 (01:38:47):
What are you saying there's a strikeout from my forty
five that would work?

Speaker 2 (01:38:52):
It runs right by the state. I mean, can't you
hear saying that in the upcoming season?

Speaker 1 (01:38:59):
Well now I can, and I just did. Yeah, I
love it. You imagine I forty five after dark? All right,
you get on this channel.

Speaker 2 (01:39:10):
So I did tease something Texans related, and I am
serious and I am concerned about it. The Texans just
got out of a six field goal game, and earlier today,
Kymie Fairbairn was appropriately awarded with the Special Teams Player
of the Week fifth time in his career. The most
points in Texans history in a game with twenty, tied
the team record for field goals in a game with six.

(01:39:31):
Whose record did he tie?

Speaker 1 (01:39:34):
Chris Brown, Randy Bullock and he tied a long former
Texans kicker Fat Randy really had six in a game as.

Speaker 2 (01:39:43):
Yes, And he tied the NFL record for most field
goals made in a season. And he did all that
without even playing in two of the Texans seventeen games,
the team made forty eight field goals this year. He
made forty four, and it is the NFL record for
an individual. The Texans obviously led the league in a
field goal attempts, they led the league in field goal makes.
His percentage was out of this world. He didn't miss

(01:40:03):
any kicks of less than fifty yards the entire season,
only missed four kicks total, and one of them was blocked.
He was insanely successful. And he made another game winner,
made several throughout the year, and in his last kick
it was a game winner and they beat the Colts.
Now you're going to Pittsburgh and I just got through
Monday and Tuesday show talking about would you back off

(01:40:24):
the thirty points that the Texans scored thirty two points?
Did the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, And
that was what led off this whole conversation. Sometimes I
don't hear it all sitting right here. You would think
I would, I would think so gosh, I mean, but
you were probably still squeezing out and you know, trying
to wring it out a little bit, maybe not paying
full Attention's all right.

Speaker 1 (01:40:45):
You didn't get AFC Special Teams Player of the Week
Tyler Loop that's great kicking him.

Speaker 2 (01:40:52):
While he's down. Man A right, go ahead. We do
need to bring that up, and it's coming in Wednesday's
vias something specific to Tyler Loops kick and the Ravens.
Right now, we're talking about Tyler Loops kick and Chris
Boswell's kick. The last two kicks of the game were
both missed, and this is where the Texans are playing.
It's been a long held narrative. But it's not really

(01:41:14):
a narrative. I didn't say think about fast Yeah, field
goal kicking, plump, just place kicking two score points in
general in this stadium, long before it got this new name,
has been awful. And one end of the ends at
one end of the stadium is even worse than the other.
But both are bad and the numbers are stark. It
really didn't play out over the course of this year.
I was looking back at what field goal kickers did

(01:41:37):
on the road at Pittsburgh this year, and it wasn't
overwhelmingly bad, and it's nothing that you would normally think
about if you're playing anywhere else, but it is. It
is a night game. It is on this particular field
that in between those two miss kicks are at right
before the first of those two miskicks, it was because
a Baltimore Ravens defender slipped on the turf and that's
why Calvin Austin was wide open. I'm totally fine in

(01:42:01):
every controlled environment stadium in the NFL, like NRG Stadium,
if Tamiko Ryans on fourth and four, fourth and two,
fourth and seven, which they did all throughout the game,
go ahead. I want my three points. And on this
forty three, forty four, forty nine, forty eight fifty two
yard kick, I know I'm going to get them. I'm
totally fine with that. I'm not you need to go

(01:42:22):
get touchdowns. You gotta go for all fourth down those
are points. Kaymi's making those kicks all the time. I'm
telling you, I have a bad feeling early in the game,
end of the half, late in the game, or multiple
times in the.

Speaker 1 (01:42:33):
Game when the Texans offense can't get it down the
traditional way they're When it's.

Speaker 2 (01:42:37):
Fourth and six, it's almost like you need to kick.
You shouldn't be going for it when it's fourth and
two and you want points and maybe you have an
option and maybe you should be going for it. Maybe
you're at the twenty, like when he doesn't go for
it on these forty yard kicks on fourth and two
or fourth and four. It's also because great, we got it. Well,
now it's first and ten from the thirty nine. You're
no closer to scoring a touchdown. You just still have

(01:42:59):
your drive going. If you still might end up kicking
a field well, it just might be a little bit closer.
Maybe you miss that. I mean, there's a little bit
different than these red zone field goals they kick. Those
are different enough of that. I hate those, yeah, we
all do. But they're going to attempt a forty three
yard field goal at Akroscher Stadium on Monday night football,
and it's not gonna go calling it now. I got

(01:43:20):
a new sponsor, so and I'm worried that unlike the
forty four times he was successful, this year, he just
won't be. And we've seen it in the playoffs before
did you have supreme confidence with him kicking on the
field in Kansas City or kicking in Baltimore. And he
has playoff experience prior to the Domico Ryans era also,
and you could easily easily say he was the best

(01:43:41):
kicker in the NFL this year. Chris Boswell's had a long,
long history of kicking in Pittsburgh and on that field,
and he's going into this game off of a missed
point after the only one he had all year. I
hope the kicking game is not nearly as big a
deal as it was just this past Sunday night. But
what other part of the Tyler loop missed field goal

(01:44:05):
which would have had the Texans going to Baltimore and
would have changed a lot of things in the NFL.
That's the point we'll make next in Wednesday's BS hum
with some Wednesday BS two Adams and a whole lot
of bit stealing, bit stealing with the bit Stealers better
known as the eighteen. All Right, it is halfway through

(01:44:32):
the third hour of the program four to thirty. We
hit you with our signature segment and on Wednesdays we
hit you with the BS. Wednesday's BS, whether we bitsteal
from one of the other programs here on the station.
And don't worry, Josh, when you are cranking out unbelievable
segments bits on the nightcap, we'll be stealing them. And

(01:44:52):
we do that with everybody because we love everybody here
and they do great things. We like to encourage you
to listen to their great things as well in their
respective programs. Today, however, it's just playing bs. John Harbaugh
got fired. A lot of people were up in arms
about it. Some of them have been in his shoes
previously or certainly know the feeling. One such person was

(01:45:14):
broadcaster and former head coach Tony Dungee. He took to
the X platform and said, I can't believe what things
have come to in the NFL. John Harbough's coach the
Ravens for eighteen years, took them to the playoffs twelve times,
won a Super Bowl for him. Last four years they
were ten and seven, thirteen and four, twelve and five
eight nine. They made the playoffs three straight years, and

(01:45:35):
because their kicker missed the game winning feetball on the
last play of the season, he was fired. I'm sorry,
I don't understand. Good luck Baltimore and in finding a
better coach. Well, that's yeah, that's one way to look
at facts. Everything he said, they're all facts. If the
kicker doesn't miss, he's not going to be fired. If
those things didn't happen in his past, he wouldn't been
able to say all those things happened. I think we've

(01:45:56):
started to learn that what happened on Sunday night was
not really even the last straw, and we need to
move on. It was more about, all right, well, you
know you can continue here for the fifteenth time after
us asking you to make changes on the coaching staff,
and he didn't and didn't want to. And there were
also some people that thought, maybe this not just the

(01:46:18):
right time. But there's he's lost the locker room, his
relationship with the quarterback through the OC, and that relationship
with twenty all three of them is not likely to
push us forward. So it really is we do have
our reasons to fire him. But I wanted to point
this out for those that do not recall. I didn't
recall it immediately, but earlier this week I was thinking
about their seasons, and you know, we got Lamar Jackson,

(01:46:40):
We've got a Super Bowl winning head coach. Why hasn't
there been more of this winning? Okay, so help me
out here. Why did they not make the playoffs this year?
If you could just think about all that happened during
the season and forget it all and then only tell
me about the last play they lost the trip to
the playoffs, the last play of their season.

Speaker 1 (01:46:59):
They missed a field goal, just like the Steelers would
have been able to say the same thing.

Speaker 2 (01:47:02):
Okay, So that's how Baltimore's John Harbaugh led twenty twenty
five season came to a close. They were in the
playoffs each of the last two years, actually the last three.
Do you remember how the playoffs ended for them? Last season?
How did the Baltimore Ravens season in the Divisional round?

Speaker 1 (01:47:20):
This would this would have been Mark Andrews' drop yes
on the goal line against the Bills.

Speaker 2 (01:47:26):
They had just had Lamar Jackson drive them all the
way down the field down eight and find Isaiah Likelely
in the end zone with a minute forty four remaining.

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
Same guy who set up this field goal, and they
scored their potential game tying touchdown.

Speaker 2 (01:47:41):
Then they called a very good play, a well executed play,
and Lamar Jackson hit Mark Andrews for the two point conversion,
which he dropped, So they lost twenty seven to twenty five.
It doesn't mean they would have won this particular game,
but their season ended on a physical error. Tyler Loops play,
that's a physical glare. This was a physical error on

(01:48:02):
Mark Andrews. It's not really a coaching mistake. They didn't
do something wrong. He didn't put them in a terrible situation.
There are a lot of factors, sure, but this is
how their season came to an end. How about the
playoff season prior to that, do you remember how that
season down to us? Well, they were playing the Kansas
City Chiefs. Now they were at home, and this was
for a trip to the Super Bowl after the Chiefs.

(01:48:23):
So John Harbaugh's team is in the AFC Championship Game
just two seasons ago at home against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Down ten as Lamar Jackson leads them down the field,
drives them into the red zone and the fourth quarter begins.
And the first play of the fourth quarter, down seventeen
to seven, he hits Zay Flowers and he runs it

(01:48:44):
into the end zone, but at the one yard line
he reaches the ball out and he fumbles and it
goes out the back out of the back of the
end zone for a touchback. Now the chief's special.

Speaker 1 (01:48:54):
So they again Sean harbors such a bad coach, and
again I think he was fired for other reasons. But
their seasons would have ended, so three straight years, a
player they count on who's been good, who's helped them win,
made a mean I don't know if there's a physical
or mental mistake, but it's not a coaching issue. They

(01:49:16):
just went right down that they were gonna make it
seventeen to fourteen, fourteen minutes and fifty five seconds left
at home, but they lost that game and their championship
titles ended.

Speaker 2 (01:49:27):
One went away from the Super Bowl. Last year they
ended in the Divisional round on a two point conversion
in the final two minutes that was dropped. And this
season they ended on the last play of the regular
season when you missed a seemingly makable forty four yard
field goal from the kicker who had not missed from
that distance.

Speaker 1 (01:49:43):
By those impossible standards that we just mapped out about him.
Why isn't your quarterback being held to the same standards,
especially when he was as involved if not more involved
in those plays than John Harball was.

Speaker 2 (01:50:00):
Well, I gotta I'm curious, like held accountable for what
he drove this very game. Yeah, after the kick return,
which was excellent, he converted a fourth and seven, He's
the one who threw the ball to Isaiah likely tore
him and fieldal range. His job. Lamar drove him down
the field to get them the touchdown to make it
twenty seven to twenty. Did his job, threw the ball

(01:50:21):
to Mark Andrews to.

Speaker 1 (01:50:22):
Be caught for the tying conversion, and in the year
before he threw it to Say Flowers who should have scored.
Lamar Jackson did do his job, accountable for what he
was successful?

Speaker 2 (01:50:31):
Who call all those plays John Harbaugh, somebody on his
staff at hire. They're not related to one another. Lamar,
Like what you said, held accountable, well accountable for one.

Speaker 1 (01:50:41):
Here's what I mean by that. Have you seen John
Harbaugh's playoff record before Lamar.

Speaker 2 (01:50:47):
Yeah, he won four straight games with Joe Flacco one
year and then what did you do with Lamar? He
was more successful, less successful, losing record in the postseason.

Speaker 1 (01:50:58):
As you've pointed out, some of these losses, all of it,
like we're pinning all three of these losses on his
quarterback that I'm mentioning, not all of them were playoff losses.

Speaker 2 (01:51:07):
No, actually on the coach because he's the one that
got fired. That's what we're really doing. In reality, that's
what the Ravens just did. I think they're actually well,
that's kind of why I laid out all the stuff
in front of him, Like, what are the.

Speaker 1 (01:51:16):
Other things you mentioned that you think he got fired for.
I'm actually asking because I don't think they believe he
can lead this team anymore. Because I think there are
people who've tuned him out, so he didn't think the team.
He lost the locker room is the number one thing.
I think that's maybe part of it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:30):
And I also think that his OC, his quarterback, and
he specifically those three people they don't see things the
same way anymore. And they've made multiple OC changes now
in order to continue as they were, they were going
to need to make another and he didn't want to. Yeah,
and so they're going to make offensive changes now. They're
just going to make wholesale coaching changes because they've fired
the head coach. And the interesting thing about twenty twenty,

(01:51:50):
they're sticking with Lamar correctly as much as he said
playoff failures and other games.

Speaker 1 (01:51:56):
This is like James Harden, This is like any superstar.
The coach is going to before the superstar player if
he's a superstar, a true superstar.

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:52:06):
But the interesting thing about this year's twenty twenty five
Ravens as it pertains to putting any sort of blame
on Lamar, they weren't good when he played either.

Speaker 2 (01:52:16):
Yeah, but we're talking about one specific season now. We
haven't even gotten into the playoffs prior, where he really
he wasn't very good. He's had some bad playoff most
really bad playoff games and moments. But these three specific
instances this year were on the positive side. This whole season,
as you point out, wasn't on the positive side. He
was pretty good throwing the football, but not the way
he used to be. Their offense wasn't what it used

(01:52:37):
to be with him running it, even with Derrick Henry
having a fifteen hundred yard rushing season and when he
was just really bad. Yeah, as the Texans found out,
no doubt. All Right, we will wrap up the four
o'clock hour.

Speaker 1 (01:52:48):
Coming up next, I've got another crazy NFL story that
you've never heard before, and you will hear. Plus, what
is Colt McCoy's ex roommate doing, We'll tell you next.
So I don't know if you've heard this story. I
don't even know if you're aware of what I'm about
to play here. I'm very aware, are you what? You know?

Speaker 2 (01:53:10):
What I'm talking about? I feel bad about when I
found out we all should well for an unfortunate reason,
like I have this text thread with people that are
obviously a bunch of them are longhorns. So I'll tell
you why after you tell people what you're talking about.
I'm not even talking about what you think I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the other thing.

Speaker 1 (01:53:28):
But I feel like that comment you made applies because
I think we all should have known about this. And
what's crazy is that the opponent with which this happened
against backs it up. So I don't know how you
feel about Jared Allen when he played for the Vikings.
I hated that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:53:49):
I swear I was about to say, what, why were
we talking about the cav Center, not Jared? Jared? You
know he tried to hurt Chob. Did he try to?

Speaker 1 (01:54:00):
I don't think he tried to, but he came in very,
very low on his leg and it seemed intentional. And
let's face it, is a Hall of Famer, Yes, recent
great speech. You should go back and watch it if
you haven't. It's one of those where it's like, okay,
no matter whether you rooted for the guy or not,
or the team or not, it's one of the good speeches.

Speaker 2 (01:54:16):
So you should just watch it if you like football.

Speaker 1 (01:54:18):
But I think that in hindsight, partly because of that,
I've come to appreciate him a lot more. But let's
face it, when a guy has the type of sack
celebration that he does, it's going to rub you the
wrong way if you're on the opposing end of it.
All that being said, what do we just celebrate this year?
As far as what he liked to do, what was

(01:54:39):
his best was his best attribute as a defensive lineman
getting after the quarterback?

Speaker 2 (01:54:44):
Right? Yeah? Yeah. I had a lot of discussion about
that today. I don't want to get too specific with
my answer. If he played in a three four or
four to three year, was in a five technique or
a three technique or pobab was on the interior, was
on the exterior if you'd played in a wide nine.
So yeah, he had a lot of sacks.

Speaker 1 (01:54:58):
And before this season, the all time sacks leader for
a season was what number twenty two and a half
mm hmm, And then Miles Garrett got the twenty third
of the year this year, and now he's the new
title holder, except for he's not even the first one
to do it. And if you don't believe me, listen
to both Jared Allen and the guy he supposedly got

(01:55:22):
this twenty third sack against.

Speaker 7 (01:55:25):
The reality is I hold the twenty three sack record.
It's twenty three, not TJ. Wade at twenty two and
a half at seventeen games. I'm not Michaels straighthm It's
faster facts.

Speaker 2 (01:55:34):
It's on film. I sacked you on Rodgers.

Speaker 7 (01:55:36):
They took it from me on Wednesday and called it
a team sack. When you go back to that Monday
night football game, Aaron Rodgers got the ball, went to
step up in the pocket, drops the ball, picks it
back up, he can still throw the ball. I chase
him down, tackle, sack, Give it to me.

Speaker 2 (01:55:53):
It's two sacks for the game. Wednesday.

Speaker 7 (01:55:54):
They take it back, called it a muff and gave
it a team sack. Well, I'm part of the team.
I'm the one that physically tackled him, so I should
at least after that, right. But yeah, if you go
back and look, I physically sacked Aaron Rodgers for my
twenty third would have been my twenty third sack. I
had twenty three quarterback on the ground that year and
they took it from me.

Speaker 6 (01:56:13):
Hey, Jared and Saron Rodgers, you are in the all
time single season sackly, But I don't care what the
numbers says, because that fantom both sack thing took away
from you would give me the record. So in my
book and probably in most Vikings fans books, the all
times single sam sacked lyad.

Speaker 8 (01:56:28):
At wet Prime.

Speaker 2 (01:56:30):
Did you even know that before today? Yeah? I remember it,
and now that you've I've gone back and watched it again.
I remember when that happened.

Speaker 1 (01:56:37):
So Miles Garrett is tied for the all time lead
if you watch this, because I agree with him, if
you watch the play, don't you How do you make
that a team sack when he's the only guy in
the vicinity that gets him?

Speaker 2 (01:56:48):
Well, what I wouldn't making in a team sack is
utterly ridiculous. That's the part. I want to call it
a tackle for loss because he became a running back.
It's kind of more believable gray area. But I think
calling it a team sack is nonsense. That's stupid. Yeah,
he dropped the ball as he was standing in the pocket,
and before he really had a full handle on it.

(01:57:09):
He was in the process of then being tackled sacked
by Jared Allen.

Speaker 1 (01:57:13):
In other words, if you're gonna call it a sack
at all, it needs to be Jared Allen sack, which
means twenty three, which means Miles Garrett is not the
sole leader.

Speaker 2 (01:57:21):
And honestly, I know that there's less controversy about this
and the guy's record he actually broke one of them.
The Straighthan record is even bigger nonsense, Waid. There's no
way to get around the NFL ruling on it. I mean,
they're not going to say, well, we can't, we can't
register that for a sack because it was.

Speaker 1 (01:57:39):
Who was so upset about it that he broke his Yeah,
I gasta and he didn't confront.

Speaker 2 (01:57:44):
Him about it. Yeah, there were a card show. That's
always what you want to do. I mean, come on, dude,
what a loser.

Speaker 1 (01:57:51):
He's had some incredibly, he's got issues. So does the
guy who the record originally came against.

Speaker 2 (01:57:59):
Yeah, Farv at fifty five is like not doing well,
but you played that Aaron Rodgers portion of that.

Speaker 1 (01:58:06):
I mean that's the key. So Aaron Rodgers. Cool, dude,
I listen. I need to say this because I've said it.
I don't think it's ever been emphasized enough. There's two
guys that people love to hate at that position in
the league that I love both of them, and I
always have and I always will. I don't hate Tom
Brady like most people in this city and a lot
of others in America, and I don't hate Aaron Rodgers.
I think they're both great quarterbacks. And I also happen

(01:58:28):
to like I'd want to hang out with them. Maybe
that makes me in the minority, Maybe that's weird. I
wouldn't be having a beer because I don't drink it
and he doesn't drink it. But I would hang out
and have a drink if you so want to choose
with Tom Brady, and I would absolutely do that with
Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 2 (01:58:42):
What about some of the other younger guys. You want
to hang out with Jackson Dart, Baker Mayfield, No, Matt
Stafford one of the older guys.

Speaker 1 (01:58:50):
I do like Baker Mayfield against most of my traditional
you have to or hatred.

Speaker 2 (01:58:54):
You have to go to Big City Wings with two
current NFL playoff quarterbacks and it can't be c J. Stroud.
Who are you going with? It's not Herbert, it's not
Bryce Baker didn't make the playoffs. Matt Stafford probably can't
go because he's got four girls at home. He's got
to get home early. Wife won't let him. He's also old.

(01:59:17):
I don't think he's your mister fun guy.

Speaker 1 (01:59:19):
Umm.

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
Probably not as you call him horse face. Probably not him.
Not him, Probably not going to have a fall asleep.
Are you going with Hailey Steinfeld's husband or no?

Speaker 1 (01:59:29):
Josh Allen is definitely one of them. That's a that's
a like no Brainery's probably the top of the list.

Speaker 2 (01:59:34):
Actually, And you know what, maybe Aaron Rodgers and his
wife will meet you out there at Big City Wings. No,
you can find out who she is. You're very fascinated
by this. It's amazing that there is a recently married
superstar celebrity quarterback in the NFL and nobody has any
information about this smart it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:59:55):
Well, so since it's I feel like the answer can't
be around Rodgers you're talking about right now, that Jalen
Hurts would be the other guy.

Speaker 2 (02:00:02):
So there's three options.

Speaker 1 (02:00:02):
Aaron Rodgers still at the top of the list, probably
because I just think he's one of the all time greats.

Speaker 2 (02:00:08):
But I mean, I've hung I mean for a while
with Josh Allen's now wife and baby mama.

Speaker 1 (02:00:17):
And are you uninterested in hanging out with the Brock party?
Why would I want to hang out with an accountant
when I do that every day?

Speaker 6 (02:00:25):
A right?

Speaker 1 (02:00:26):
That kind of sense that now he seems he actually
seems like he's a pretty nice guy, but he doesn't
strike me as, oh, this would be like tons of fun.
So what people don't know about WEX is that he
actually is a ton of fun. Yeah, I would not
be the answer to that question. Now, you got five
sports talk seven ninety hosts. One of them is your
co host.

Speaker 2 (02:00:43):
You can go hang out with two of them at
Big City Wings, have some bruise, enjoy some some boneless tenders.
You're You're probably not gonna pick Wex, are you no?

Speaker 1 (02:00:51):
No?

Speaker 2 (02:00:51):
But then if you done that, you'd find out the
off air Wex is just he's a great guy.

Speaker 1 (02:00:58):
I tell people this all the time. He sha on
air Wax not a great guy. You should drive to
Cushato with him sometime, for example. It is a blast,
especially when we stop for food. The running commentary on
everything we're observing at all at any given time is spectacular.

Speaker 2 (02:01:13):
It's good stuff. Uh, we'll have to We'll see who
that turns out to be. Well, we'll see if it's
enough fun. But yeah, Aaron Rodgers seems like he's advocating
for another player with a twenty three eight SAX session.

Speaker 1 (02:01:27):
Well the official scorer on Wednesday after a Monday night game.

Speaker 2 (02:01:31):
That is so lame. Ask fantasy football players who makes
those decisions several days later that affect the outcomes of
games Football at five. There is something about the Texans
regular season finale against the Colts in which they won
that needs to be discussed, but hasn't. We'll do that next.

Speaker 1 (02:01:52):
It's football at five time here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:01:58):
It is taking forever for this playoff game to get here.
You know how I get like this. I know how
you get like this, and my gosh, our listenerss know
by now how you get like this.

Speaker 1 (02:02:06):
Well, look, it's Pittsburgh, who the Texans haven't even played
since twenty.

Speaker 2 (02:02:10):
Three Texans thirty eight Colts thirty five seconds later. Oh
my god, when is the next ten game? Like they
legit play the latest possible moment. You're spending your whole
life watching them in the playoffs, play the first possible.

Speaker 1 (02:02:26):
Game here in the daylight hours, neither of which will
happen this time. It's gonna be at night, Monday.

Speaker 2 (02:02:32):
Football from Pittsburgh, last game of the weekend on Monday.

Speaker 1 (02:02:36):
Now, before we get to that, there is something that
happened in the regular season finale that I think. I mean,
given who it was, the consequence may have been, it
might have affected the outcome of the game.

Speaker 2 (02:02:56):
I don't know. I'd like to think it didn't, but
I do think.

Speaker 1 (02:03:00):
Even because of who we're talking about again, he's on
my sports A list for sure, and because of the
team he plays for, I should not be as forgiving
or as empathetic, if you will, But listen to Pat
McAfee and JJ Watt talk about the only ejection that

(02:03:20):
happened in the regular season finale between the Texans and
the Colts.

Speaker 2 (02:03:26):
His ejection, in my opinion, I get it.

Speaker 8 (02:03:28):
I understand the rules, but man, that injection was that's.

Speaker 2 (02:03:32):
We gotta we gotta figure that out. These appreciate these
refs have gotten worse, and I appreciate you calling it
out now.

Speaker 7 (02:03:39):
I do fear that they are going to keep putting
you on Houston Texans Colts games because you did.

Speaker 2 (02:03:43):
But I appreciate you doing I.

Speaker 8 (02:03:47):
Was shooting it straight, dude, I mean, for the good
of such. It was such like, yeah, you throw the flag,
that's fine, but like, I don't I just that doesn't
have to be an ejector are you kidding me right there?

Speaker 2 (02:03:58):
Like if you showed video or somebody and said somebody.

Speaker 8 (02:04:02):
Got ejected from this play, they'd be like, all right,
where's the rest of the video.

Speaker 2 (02:04:06):
What happened? That's what got him ejected? Yeah, come on, listen.
I don't like it at all.

Speaker 7 (02:04:12):
I appreciate you speaking up for it in there, because
there's some commentators that won't tell the ref analysts, hey
shut it.

Speaker 2 (02:04:19):
How about that?

Speaker 1 (02:04:20):
And he goes on to talk about Gene's territory, which
is really funny stuff because he calls him babe all
the time apparently, But listen, I don't like Alec Pierce.
I think he has a punishable face, and him getting
passes from equally punishable face Riley Leonard was about more
than I could stomach on Sunday, especially when it looked
like the Colts were gonna sneak in there and win
a game against second stringers in the second half. But

(02:04:41):
by all accounts, what Justin James Watt is saying I
agree with. He barely bumps the official, and you could
actually make an argument that if he wasn't wearing shoulder pads,
it might not have happened. I don't know if that
was intent his intent when he walked over there to
complain that shouldn't have been an injection.

Speaker 2 (02:04:59):
So told you this or Monday. We sit in the
second row of the press box, and almost every single week,
the people directly in front of us slightly to our
left is usually the out of town media. The reporters
that are covering the game to our immediately in front
of us slightly to our right usually team staff, digital staff,

(02:05:20):
creative social media team, and then this particular game we
also had the added bonus of their general manager, Chris Ballard.
He was sitting down there, so Colts dedicated seats and
that's where he chose to watch the majority of the
game from. And I did note from him some things
that were saying he actually had some thoughts on that play,
and I think they're fine to share. He didn't agree

(02:05:40):
with it either. She'd have gotten his number and had
him on the show. What he said was, that's like
our nicest guy, that's the nicest guy we have on
the whole team, and you're doing this like he agreed
that the ejection seemed harsh. I'm torn on whether it
was harsh or not. I'm not torn on this. You
can't do that. He did something that he should not
have done, and it's not the ref's fault, and it

(02:06:02):
wasn't even an egregiously bad call. If it wasn't even
a bad call at all, So it's okay to be frustrated,
upset or mad. But everybody kept posting the wrong replay
on social media because the first time they replayed it,
nobody knew that he was going to be ejected. Everybody
was looking at the why didn't they call a flag
or why was he out of bounds? They were only

(02:06:23):
looking at the play and they didn't even notice that
he bumped him in the very late stages of it.
But it gave you the camera angle that showed what
he actually did, not the one from the sideline that
had the camera followed by the official followed by Pierce
on the other side of him, where it looked like,
oh my god, he barely grazed him. Oh my god,
the ref was actually walking into him, both of which
are untrue. He put his left arm up and he

(02:06:47):
bumped him enough to send him off his make him
go off balance, and then he dropped his whistle and
had to blow it and obviously through the flag and
ejected him. I didn't think he was going to get
ejected when I saw it first. People would show that
replay so they would stop saying I can't believe they
flagged him for that. I can. I can go with
the why did he eject him? I suppose, but you

(02:07:07):
have to consider who it was. Players can throw punches
at each other and they're only gonna get hit with
a fifteen yard penalty most of the time. But that
you're not trying to you know, you're trying to tell
people what he did you can't do and it's an official.
So a fifteen yard flag is that gonna do anything?
To tell people? This is you're out of line by

(02:07:29):
the letter of the law. You make contact with an official,
it's an ejection. I mean, we've seen players who unknowingly
are being pulled off the pile by an official and
they think it's a talia. Yeah, and they've been ejected
for that. And I think that's ridiculous because how are
they supposed to know? Everyone is literally fighting the word
you use as fighting for the football, and now he

(02:07:49):
wants to fight the guy that's pulling him off the pile,
only to turn around and see, well, that's not number
twenty seven that that says LJ on the back of
his jersey. I probably shouldn't hit the guy in the
black and white shirt, but they don't know that because
they can't see those especially since some of those guys
are beefy. Now, after he got ejected, he was walking
back to the locker room, but before he got there,
Pierce actually stopped and shook hands with the referee and

(02:08:12):
acknowledge he shouldn't have done it. I don't think he
probably truly believes even in that moment right there. I
know he talked about it after the game. You don't
see that very often, but he knew he shouldn't have
done what he did. But I would probably side with
most everybody on this, And it has nothing to do
with the situation in the game. It was a two
point game. They ultimately had to kick a field goal.

(02:08:32):
It should have nothing to do with it. That probably
is a play you should it's a personal foul making
contact with the official. They felt it was a little
too harsh. I don't know if it was as harsh
as they felt it was.

Speaker 1 (02:08:43):
Maybe it's I probably shouldn't use the colts because the
star power just doesn't exist.

Speaker 2 (02:08:47):
But all right, insert let's just say he.

Speaker 1 (02:08:51):
Was the star that day. But I know what you're saying.
Why don't we just say Josh Allen. If Josh Allen
does that to an official, there's no way that official
ejects him if every things the same, But it's just
change out Alex Peerce, who we're talking about. I should
have mentioned his name way at the beginning of this.

Speaker 2 (02:09:05):
Sorry.

Speaker 1 (02:09:07):
If Josh Allen does everything Alex Pierce does, no bleeping
way he gets thrown out by any official anywhere in
the NFL.

Speaker 2 (02:09:14):
Right probably already has a long standing relationship with that official.
And how much more the quarterbacks and I mean the
officials talk and are around each other and almost feels
like they hang out. And that's why we have all
these great memes to make because Pat Mahomes is always
shaking one of their hands, and we can put dollar
bills in it and make a photoshop of it, and
to do it now send it to Grock and have

(02:09:36):
Josh Allen hugging this guy inviting him to his wedding
like it's a little different. I think you're probably right,
that's that's totally fair, even if I'm usually no, Yes,
I'm sure that they would unfortunately do the wrong thing.
I mean, you can't eject him for it. Not him.
They probably shouldn't have ejected Alec Pierce to begin with.
It was just so like minute the contact.

Speaker 1 (02:09:59):
I mean, I unless you are watching it in slow motion,
you might have missed it, you know, like he doesn't.
It's not like the official's body was the trajectory of
the way he was moving was changed.

Speaker 2 (02:10:11):
I think he hit him harder than people think, but
it probably was not worthy of an ejection. But you bring, well,
why did he hit him. He hit him because he
was yelling at him. He hit him because he was
mad at him. He hit him for all the reasons
you might. He could have gotten a personal foul without contact,
just for the whatever he said. I don't actually couldn't
read his lips. I don't know how awes it was
been all that bad. Yeah, that's my point. They had

(02:10:33):
to go back to the replay because nobody even realized
what had happened. But it definitely it did impact the game.
He was obviously having a great day. I've mentioned this before.
I don't know how the Colts are going to keep
him because they've spent money on guys like Michael Pittman
already and some other players. They're not in a great
cap situation. They just traded for Sauce Gardner, and I
still can't figure out why he only caught forty seven
balls this year. You know, Nico Collins finished second this

(02:10:55):
year in yards per catch, and he had a really
good figure and he obviously didn't playing in the final
week didn't impact him negatively or positively, But he ended
up finishing second this year in the AFC in yards
per catch fifteen point seven an entire yard clear of
the person who finished second fifteen point seven yards per catch.

(02:11:15):
Number three was fourteen point seven. Number one was twenty
one point three.

Speaker 1 (02:11:21):
Alec Pierce crushed it this year and the dumb Colts
only throwing the ball to catch.

Speaker 2 (02:11:27):
It forty seven times. Isn't he a free agent? He
is going to kill it in free agency? And yet
I feel like he's not going to go anywhere else
and put up these numbers. He should. He He's the
reason he has them. He's good, he has great footwork.

Speaker 1 (02:11:42):
He puts guys on skates, he fulls secondary players, and
he can outrun them. I just feel like all those
things you say are absolutely true, and he just screams
that guy that goes elsewhere and doesn't do it.

Speaker 2 (02:11:52):
It could be true. We don't know. He's definitely long,
he's gone. I keep watching who they dote, who they
do throw to him. I'm like, why are you doing this?
Go back to two years ago when Anthony Richardson was
a rookie. The play of his entire career throwing the
football was the one he threw down the field when
he was getting sacked when he was being chased when

(02:12:13):
the Texans couldn't corral him, and he just uncorked this
ungodly throw to Alec Pierce who was double covered and
he caught it.

Speaker 1 (02:12:20):
He liked the Anthony Davis of football for Houston. He
only's playing against you, but he's gonna miss a lot
more games.

Speaker 2 (02:12:27):
Yeah, it's just it was very odd to see that.
You know, there were only a couple receivers in the
AFC this year, they'd even had thousand yard seasons. There
were only six of them. One's Nico, another one Stefan Diggs,
and Alec Pierce was the sixth, and he got it
in this final game. He kills the Texans, So probably
good news for the Texans that he should be able

(02:12:48):
to break the bank, which means he won't likely be
in the AFC South, although the Titans have a ton
of money and that kind of signing wouldn't surprise me
at all because cam Ward has no weapons at all
in the past game maybe outside of Gunnerhill. Give the
Longhorn a little credit there, But that's for the offseason teams.
That's for the teams that are looking for head coaches,
like the Titans and the other six that are looking

(02:13:10):
for head coaches. How about Anthony Weaver. I haven't mentioned
his name today, one of the first people that looks
like they are lined up to get an interview for
his former team, the Baltimore Ravens. He's currently the Dolphins DC.
He's coached for the Ravens. He's played for the Ravens.
He's been a head coaching candidate before and a finalist
before elsewhere. He will get one of the interviews among

(02:13:30):
many to take over for his former coach John Harbaugh.

Speaker 1 (02:13:34):
Ninety and try to distract Wes. He's locked in right now.

Speaker 2 (02:13:37):
They wouldn't distract me. They would be helping to me
to entertain everybody. Not if they called in and talked
about something other than sports. You were more than welcome
to Colin to do that. It doesn't happen very often.
It doesn't. Okay, we uh, first of all, should probably
tease some tickets right here. We just Monster Jam right,
got Monster Jam tickets for one of their three shows

(02:14:00):
coming up in February, the show on the fifteenth. We'll
give those tickets away in the final segment of the program.
Got a four pack of tickets that also includes pit
passes February fifteenth at NRG Stadium. They have a couple
of other shows on the seventh and fourteenth of February,
and tickets are on sale for all of those shows
at ticketmaster dot com. We'll give you more dates on
that and what you'll need to do to win those tickets.

(02:14:21):
As per usual, you win them because you're a listener.
You're winning them because we love you and we appreciate you.
So if you've listened to the show, you'll know the
answer to the question that we ask at the appropriate
time in the final segment of the show.

Speaker 1 (02:14:32):
We didn't get to this story last segment when you
thought we were going to get to it. But this
Jordan Hipley story is crazy, so affectionately referred to as
Cult McCoy's roommate because that's all the commentators ever had
to say every time he caught a pass from Cult McCoy. Yep,
you know their roommates. I don't think like even after

(02:14:54):
they weren't roommates, I think they were still saying it.
That's just what I remember about that time, very very
fun time in life. Horn's history. Ultimately came up short
in that game against Alabama, but I thought they were
going to tack on another one right after the Vince
Young Championship, and Jordan Shipley was a big part of
that run. According to the article today Earlier is in

(02:15:18):
critical but stable condition after suffering severe burns in an
accident on his ranch yesterday. According to a family statement
released by the University of Texas Athletic Department, Jordan Shipley
was operating a machine on his ranch near his hometown
when it caught fire. He suffered severe burns on his body.

(02:15:41):
It was driven to a local hospital by one of
the workers at the ranch and was then careflighted to Austin,
where he remained hospitalized as of last night. And you
included this on the rundown that there has been an
update from his wife and they, to the best of
my knowledge, they don't exactly still know what happened yet

(02:16:03):
they may know a little bit more, but we do well, right,
we don't, because there's not they're either still investigating it
or they just haven't shared it.

Speaker 2 (02:16:10):
Sounds like whatever the accident was, not only was it
horrific and difficult to overcome literally to still be here,
but the lack of there wasn't anybody around, and the
distance he had to go to get help and then
to get the life lighted. Like you said, it's one
of the reasons why they I think they believe their
key is extremely fortunate.

Speaker 1 (02:16:30):
Yeah, Like it's it sounds like we were very close
to talking about another person going well but before their time.
That's either a athlete, celebrity, like I think of Malcolm
Jamal Warner passing away over the summer because of a
freak drowning situation.

Speaker 2 (02:16:49):
Like it's just this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:16:52):
What you mentioned is the scariest part about not only
like if you're in a ranch situation, but I think
of like people like my uncle Randy, the uncle Randy,
the late great uncle Randy who passed before his time.
He always lived on land that was out far away
from whatever major city he was closest to, And I
always thought about that, like, if you have some sort

(02:17:12):
of emergency medical variety, you're so much further than the
typical person is that lives not even in a like
a booming metropolis, just a regular civilized society. This is
the same thing, Like he was apparently far out from
whatever the closest help was to get to him, but

(02:17:33):
that's that's part of I guess living that lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (02:17:38):
Yeah, maybe twenty percent burns over twenty percent of his body,
obviously breathing tube in to assist with that. Because of
the amount of pain he's in and the medications necessary
to allow him to do that, They're obviously into several
surgeries to try and hope and that everything you know,
generates itself enough to handle all this. But does it is?

(02:18:00):
You know it's a bad situation, it does look like
maybe there's a possibility for a positive ending. He was
ten miles away from the closest help.

Speaker 1 (02:18:09):
So I'll think about being burned over twenty percent of
your body and you don't get to anybody to even
get you in the process of getting help until ten
miles later in that state.

Speaker 2 (02:18:21):
That's a tough dude. I, Like I said, we don't
know the particulars. Dad is a tough dude to be
able to do that.

Speaker 1 (02:18:26):
He's forty years old, by the way, which just saying
that is crazy because it seems like just yesterday they.

Speaker 2 (02:18:31):
Were putting up big numbers for the Longhorns. Well, if
we were on the air and talking about what they
were doing on the field, that's you know, that's now
normal six times, And it's been a long time since
I've interviewed any players that were younger than me, and
I do remember a time where I was younger than
some of them. And I also remember a time when
I was pretty young and still interviewing players younger than me,

(02:18:54):
and I was in my twenties and had already seemed
odd then, and it certainly does now.

Speaker 1 (02:18:57):
It really just sucks now. It's just, you know, it's
just how it is. Youth is wasted on the young. Right,
that sounds exactly right. That's what you're supposed to say,
wasted on That's what you're supposed to say when you're
an old person that's lived more life than these people
in their twenties making millions of dollars.

Speaker 2 (02:19:16):
Well, they'll get their bad decisions. So what do people
like to watch on TV? A lot of things. What
do they like to watch the most? Football? There you go, football,
actually soccer one hundred the top one hundred shows this
past year, football games, other events that might be on
TV otherwise most of the games.

Speaker 1 (02:19:37):
Tell me how how many of the hundred weren't football games?
That would probably be easier?

Speaker 2 (02:19:41):
Well, there were two different lists. One of them had eleven,
the other one had thirteen that were not football games.
So would you like to tell me what the most
watched not only non football game, non NFL game. There's
a handful of college football games that ended up making
the list. A bunch of Texans games made it. Only
one of them was not against a playof team or
in a playoff game or against the Chiefs. Their game

(02:20:04):
against the Bucks that was a Monday nighter. Monday Nighter
landed very very very very end of the list, watching
the game, watching Jordan put his leg on backwards. But
there was one program in the top twenty four that
was not an NFL football game. Number twenty five was

(02:20:26):
Game seven of the World Series. That was the highest
rated sporting event that was not a football game, but
the eighth most watched program thirty six point six million people,
comparable to an NFL playoff game or a Thanksgiving Day
game twenty on the rating scale, which was very high,
but in terms of number of viewers it was thirty

(02:20:47):
six point six million. What could it have been, Well, it.

Speaker 1 (02:20:50):
Definitely wasn't any of the Oklahoma City Pacers series. There's
no NBA games I know what's the subject matter. I
won't make you be too specific.

Speaker 2 (02:20:59):
This is easy. It's got to be some sort of celebrity.
These political programming. Oh, the debate address to the Joint Session,
which was carried by multiple networks. Obviously, the address to
the Joint Session was I I guess that makes sense.
Most viewed program of the top one.

Speaker 1 (02:21:20):
I guess if you were gonna tell me politics, I
would have thought that it would have been one of
the debates.

Speaker 2 (02:21:26):
M this is from the entire year of twenty twenty five.
I think it's Yeah, it's more about the timing of this.
I mean, we're not what debate was in twenty twenty five.
Oh man, I'm already thinking it was twenty twenty four. Wow. See,
this is what happens when you get old. The Super
Bowl was number one by a lot. Yeah, as usual,
one hundred and twenty seven point seven million viewers. Among

(02:21:47):
the other non football game related items, For some reason,
people still watch parades. The Thanksgiving Day Parade was thirtieth.

Speaker 1 (02:21:55):
I remember this year thinking, okay, maybe I'll turn it
on to see if he wants to watch.

Speaker 2 (02:22:00):
If there was no debate this year, then what was
there this year? Because he'd already won the debate. What
did we do in twenty twenty five? The inauguration? That
was number forty also on multiple networks. Wow. College football
National title game was fifty two. Biden's farewell address makes
the list sixty seven. How long was it? I don't

(02:22:22):
know is enough to register as a television program?

Speaker 1 (02:22:26):
For sure?

Speaker 2 (02:22:28):
The Any Awards seventy two? Okay, and Florida versus the
University of Houston. The basketball title game was eighty seventh.
Derby was ninety six. Watching horses run around a track
and in this, like the super Bowl, has an excessive
amount of build up and pregame coverage, huh for a

(02:22:50):
three and a half hour product, right, the Derby has
an insane lead up to a However long it takes
for this less than two hundredred and seconds worth of
the race less than one fifty.

Speaker 1 (02:23:03):
Which makes people dressing up like dorks even more stupid
for that event.

Speaker 2 (02:23:07):
I wouldn't call that was not the word.

Speaker 1 (02:23:09):
Things that we docure sports has well, look, you know
the how there can have fun?

Speaker 2 (02:23:16):
What's wrong with that?

Speaker 1 (02:23:17):
There's situations where hey, bucket list, you know, I want
to go see a game at lambeau Field. I want
to go to an NBA game at Madison Square, but whatever,
I have no desire a to go watch horses right
around a track.

Speaker 2 (02:23:29):
In humidity, wager on it. I don't want to, and
I definitely don't want to dress up on top of it.

Speaker 1 (02:23:35):
Well, it's easier for us. What's it called a seersucker suit? Yes,
I'm now going to the door. I wouldn't even rent
one of those. I'm definitely not buying it.

Speaker 2 (02:23:45):
I'm sure you have one in your closet. No, in
case you missed it, a look at AC's wardrobe. Next
we would do with the case you missed it, some
items worthy of revisiting or just getting to the forefront
for the first time. One of those items we've not
yet mentioned is I think it's a pretty significant move
in baseball with Edward Cabrera heading to Chicago Cubs Marlins

(02:24:07):
one of the best farm teams in Major League Baseball.
If you're good and you play for them, you will
be playing elsewhere. They're very much like the A's on
the American League side, although unfortunately, the A's are young
enough and good enough that they will keep some of
those players. But while he's had injuries. Edward Cabrera over
the last several seasons. He was awesome last year, just

(02:24:29):
flat out great, and he'll be a front end of
the rotation pitcher for the Cubs. It did cost them
a lot with one of their top outfield prospects to
other prospects position players, so I don't think it was
a cheap deal, and it's probably a fine deal for
the Marlins. It just means they will also continue to
pretty much be a non factor when it comes to
winning games and going to the playoffs. See what else

(02:24:51):
happens with the rest of their roster. But that's a
pretty significant move for the Cubs, and it's not a
super financially driven move. I'm not sure what it means
for the the rest of their pursuits. And we continue
to hear stories about the Jays and their interest in
Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker's real remains the biggest financial prize
out there on the market, and I don't know where

(02:25:13):
his money situation is, what teams he still thinks can
give him that money. But it's the same teams we thought,
the Mets among them, LA and obviously the Toronto Blue Jays.
I don't think we're anywhere close to him signing a deal.
I thought this from the beginning he would be one
of the players that went deep into twenty twenty six.
As it relates to when they get to spring training

(02:25:33):
without a contract, and today is January seventh, I think
teams are encouraging or flat out telling their players that
are in the World Baseball Classic that you're basically reporting
to spring training about a month from now. He doesn't
have a team. A lot of players don't have a team.
A lot of ex astros that are at the top
of the market don't have a team. Alex Bregman and

(02:25:56):
from ber Valdez the same. In case you missed it,
nothing happening with any of those three players. It's not
hot for them, No, very very very much. The opposite
of that. Astros obviously of added pitcher after pitcher after
pitcher after pitcher. So far, not much of a change
to the rest of their roster. We'll see. There's plenty
of time to still make moves, and I do think

(02:26:17):
there are a couple of things that they still need
to do. One significant move they have to make. Janardy
haz is not catching one hundred and sixty two games
next year, and I don't think is Sezar Salazar is
catching the rest of them. Some other major league veteran
catcher is signing with the Houston Astros sometime in the
next five weeks. All right, Josh on you, Now, what

(02:26:38):
else do we have?

Speaker 9 (02:26:39):
Ooh, how about a little Jerry Jones? He has a goal, guys,
you think he's gonna achieve his goal. He wants to
retire with the most Super Bowl rings. He's sitting at three,
mister Kraft, sitting at six. What planet is this guy
living on? Not Planet reality?

Speaker 1 (02:26:57):
I mean, Jerry Jones isn't gonna sit anywhere that much longer,
let alone with rings on his hand.

Speaker 2 (02:27:02):
He's old. So he's had how many Cowboys seasons as
owner of the Cowboys whatever eighty nine is. He's been
there for eighty nine years, No, whatever, nineteen eighty nine,
So twenty one plus twenty five, forty five seasons, forty
six seasons? Uh, why don't you ask? Well, he won
three Super Bowls. Obviously it's Josh alluded to in the

(02:27:23):
first forty five years years own the first forty five years.
That's not how Cowboys fans look at it. They should
it's accurate. Well, I hope they. They love looking at
those trophies from the night. If he still owns this
team and is firing defensive coordinators into his one twenties,
then he's got a chance to tie Robert Kraft.

Speaker 1 (02:27:43):
His one twenties. Nobody even says that, you know why,
because people die before that. H Yeah, that's that's uh
a lofty goals. He's had plenty of good enough teams
to say this could be the year. The most recent
teams that he had that with were with coach McCarthy obviously,
and they had disastrous playoff exits. Chance Mike McCarthy gets

(02:28:04):
one of the openings this year. Oh, he looks like
he's a very popular interview candidate.

Speaker 2 (02:28:09):
I don't know why. I don't know if he'll have
to say goodbye to the Pat McAfee show like others
have before him. But he's also a frequent guest. Odd
that we haven't used any of his sound this year.
But I think Jerry Jones, it's good to have goals
and dreams. Sometimes you fall short of them. He will
in this case. They're not even close to winning.

Speaker 1 (02:28:29):
You know Stugie who's constantly listening to the show, and
he goes, can we not talk about Jerry please?

Speaker 2 (02:28:35):
He just messaged in, well, they're also looking for a
new DC because Jerry released Matt Aberfloss. No Eberflus allowed.
All right, what else we have?

Speaker 9 (02:28:44):
That's four years straight for them replacing their defensive coordinator.
And maybe Jerry's counting on AI. Maybe he's gonna live
another fifty years. Maybe that's what he's hitting on, right.

Speaker 2 (02:28:53):
I mean, I've seen some of the next fifty Super
Bowl champions as projected by chat GP two, and I
don't know if the London Monarchs, who don't even exist
are on there more than the Cowboys, but I think
they were.

Speaker 1 (02:29:06):
So Wait a second, is four straight years or just four?
You said of losing their DC? Yes, they will have
a new DC for the fourth consecutive season.

Speaker 2 (02:29:14):
Oh, this will be the fourth. That's still last three
of each lasted a year of terrible personnel or coaching
or both. What of the Texans did offense this year? Yeah,
Javonte Williams is great signing. Adding George Pickens was a
great addition. They were good. Dak had a good year.
He was leading the league in passing yards. Still Stafford
passed him the best defensive player and decided, buddy, yeah.

(02:29:38):
About the Diggs brothers, they had a really great end
of the year, both of them. Well I don't I
mean Trayvon Diggs. His career went south because of injury
and things did not work out in Dallas. There were
obviously issues he and management didn't see. II that's football stuff.
That's personal stuff from a football standpoint, and Stefan Diggs
had an insanely, overwhelmingly never expect did awesome football season

(02:30:02):
and he still had a much worse time because here
he is again in legal problems that I mean, I
don't know what happened. I don't know whose words you
take to keep his nose clean here in Houston, because
it didn't affect him on the field exactly like it
didn't affect him on the field in New England.

Speaker 1 (02:30:16):
He didn't keep his nose clean here. It just wasn't
a big enough deal for to sideline him relatively speaking.
He had the issue with the person he was living
with not living with in the downtown apartment, and whatever
happened there, I didn't even stealing my stuff or it's
not your stuff, or it is my stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:30:31):
Or you shouldn't be here. You don't live here.

Speaker 1 (02:30:33):
Why do you have keys like Vince Vaughn and wedding crashers?
It existed, it just wasn't. I mean, I do think
being interested, so I'm not interested.

Speaker 2 (02:30:41):
You can give him an ass out hug.

Speaker 1 (02:30:43):
And he was talking to his secretary. By the way,
she was a low key like smoke show not bad.

Speaker 2 (02:30:49):
Shockingly in wedding crashers a lot of heat, especially in
the beginning montage at all the weddings.

Speaker 1 (02:30:55):
I don't know what you're talking about. I don't watch
films like that. How was your research last night? By
the way, was in it too, Todd.

Speaker 2 (02:31:02):
Wouldn't hurt you to play some competitive sports once in
a while.

Speaker 1 (02:31:06):
I can't do a walking I'm that wasn't terrible.

Speaker 2 (02:31:09):
One more item for us, Yeah, just quickly.

Speaker 9 (02:31:11):
I won't run through all the stuff they laid out
in this article, but good man, quick take, dude, that's
more fun anyways.

Speaker 2 (02:31:19):
Easiest paths and hardest pass easy.

Speaker 1 (02:31:24):
We're sorry on my hair, it was, he said, out
on my hair. Oh wow, that was clutch, Josh.

Speaker 9 (02:31:36):
I've about a little sacrist, So let's just keep doing
this for the next ten seconds.

Speaker 1 (02:31:40):
How about what's on his plate? Everything? Everything is on
his plate? Recharge? Oh man, I wanted that plate. I
want that plate right now. All the waffles. You're not
going to run through everything in the article?

Speaker 2 (02:31:50):
No, what was it again?

Speaker 9 (02:31:53):
It was just quick, easiest and toughest paths to the
Super Bowl. Do you agree they have Rams and Pats.
Is the easiest from NFC and AFC and the toughest
they have Packers and Bills.

Speaker 2 (02:32:02):
Well, so they took the number one seed in each conference,
the Rams and Pats, and neither of them are number
one seeds. The Rams are the real number one seed.
The Rams are playing the Panthers. That's why they make it.
That's a bye week, Rex Ryan, that's when you use
that line. Don't lose to the Panthers. Please don't lose
to the Panthers. Please, please don't lose to the No way.

(02:32:22):
Bryce Young is gonna die in this game. Already did
once this year.

Speaker 1 (02:32:26):
That was different. That was a regular season that didn't count.
All right, final segment coming up next with some tickets
to give you guys. This is this.

Speaker 2 (02:32:36):
Portland game, gonna go tonight. Before we give away these tickets,
you're on the call. I actually was texting about something
totally not necessarily related to that, but Rockets related, and
I just in the texting mode I was in, I
just gave a final score to this person. What was it?
Fourteen Rockets? Yep.

Speaker 1 (02:32:56):
And then what happens two nights from now when they
play again in the same building. It's very hard to
do that twice. One of the teams will be up
by twenty in the first half. Really yep, and it's
the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (02:33:09):
Well, I hope it's not like the Utah situation. That's
the one I hate. That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (02:33:14):
You. You do these schedule quirks, and they can be beneficial,
especially if you see Utah twice on the calendar within
three days and it's the same.

Speaker 2 (02:33:23):
There's no travel and they suck and you're good more.
Probably both be played at Portland's pace. Probably both be
high scoring, and hopefully the Rockets can keep up with
no Alpie.

Speaker 1 (02:33:35):
Hey is Alpi? I'm still out man. I do not
like that injury because everybody complains about him until he's gone.

Speaker 2 (02:33:43):
He's got an opportunity to hopefully get a little bit
better from a calf standpoint, because he's not going to
play for the next several weeks, and he spread he's
also not going to play for the next several weeks.
I think both. I don't think. I think the one injury.
Once he's healed from his ankle, I don't think he's
gonna do it again. I hope.

Speaker 1 (02:33:58):
Yeah, I'm just saying, if you're without him, I get it.
I mean, he's a twenty and ten guy.

Speaker 2 (02:34:04):
All they needed to get was one hundred the other
night and they won barely first teen to one hundred wins. Yeah,
when nobody can even get to eighty before the fourth quarter.
They have an all star that they're playing without. That
makes it difficult.

Speaker 1 (02:34:18):
We shall see coverage coming up at eight thirty, tip
off at nine love launch pad at eight o'clock.

Speaker 2 (02:34:26):
Oh, it's an hour long launch pad. We do a
half hour launch pad and then countdown. I'll hit you
at eight thirty.

Speaker 1 (02:34:31):
And I'm sorry, You're right, I was omitting the local
pregame coverage. I'm sorry, Ross, who is, by the way,
the one doing it from that earlier when I was
sitting next to him. All right, let's give away some
tickets to Monster Jam. Right, you said there was three
dates coming up. There's three dates. We've got tickets to
one of those dates, that's the date on February fifteenth.
They will also have Monster Jam on the seventh and fourteenth,

(02:34:53):
all at Energy Stadium, all with tickets on sale ticketmaster
dot Com currently, But we've got a four pack of
tickets with pit passes to Monster Jam on February fifteenth
that we'd love to give to you. Here. You're gonna
have to know the answer to this question. And boy,
are you going to have to have been listening to
the show.

Speaker 2 (02:35:11):
There's no googling available. No, that's right.

Speaker 1 (02:35:15):
We were talking about highly rated sporting events in the
year twenty twenty five. Well, we were talking about highly
rated televised events, most of them being sports events, some
of them weren't.

Speaker 2 (02:35:27):
Now I guess this is considered one of them. The
one I'm going to refer to, yes, presented by NBC Sports.
It's a sports product, I mean, but it's not humans.
Half of the race Duo is a human that's not
a human.

Speaker 1 (02:35:44):
They're subsisting on like a peanut per day. They weigh
like legs sixty pounds, flyballs, ears four foot eleven hand's feet, torsos, anyway, brains,
people wear stupid things to this event. And I mentioned
that's such an item that a lot of the I'll
give you the hint. I'll give you the wex hint
of the day the men wear this particular item. And

(02:36:07):
I declare that I will neither own nor rent one
of this article of clothing.

Speaker 2 (02:36:13):
Three words that someone might wear to the derby. Yeah,
but he won't. I will never tell if you know
the answer to what he will never buy, never wear,
and never want to because he mentioned it once during
this hour. And definitely, if you were listening, you will know.
And if you weren't listening, podcast isn't available to you
just yet. And it's ninety seven one three two one

(02:36:36):
two five seven nine if you know the answer to
that question. And uh, we will have probably an additional
pair of tickets to give away tomorrow because nobody will
answer the question today. That's not true. I bet you
we get an answer in the next two minutes. I
bet you we get it in less than two minutes.
I was just trying to put the pressure on them.
Come on, people, I mean, it's not that long ago. Boom,

(02:36:58):
we have a winner, say less than two minutes. Your
sucker suit. Don't ever wear one of those, keyword being
sucker well, although you would look funny in one. Now,
one thing we did not mention, just the way we
got a minute here. You don't often like these events,
but I do think you're missing out on it on occasion,
and last night would have been one of them. Over
at for Tita Center. I think Texas Tech is awesome,

(02:37:20):
and I heat the Cougiars beat him, and they were
in a bad position or trailing position, I should say
not a bad position, but a trail position almost the
entire night. It was incredibly close the entire game. The
Cougars hit a pair of free throws late in the
game to take a seven point lead. It was the
largest lead of the game for either team, and Tech

(02:37:40):
closed with a buzzer beating unnecessary three, so they ended
up winning by four. But Kingston Flemings was just absolutely
insane down the stretch, and he was fun to listen
to talk about how his game went, because he really
wasn't even very happy with how he played overall defensively
in some other areas. But this is a true freshman, obviously,
and he steps in and he basically scored all their

(02:38:02):
points down the stretch, he hit a huge three when
nobody picked him up. He's just dribbling down court, getting
ready to set up the offense, but nobody coming out
on him. All right, I'll just stop and pop. Then
he drove the lane and ended up with a step
back jumper, and then with a shot clock winding down,
he threw it to fellow freshman Chris Sanak at the
three point line. He immediately threw it right back to
him and they launched another three and drained that as well.

(02:38:25):
They aren't quite the same team and they're probably going
to do it a little bit differently this year, but
they have another two guards that can lead the way.
Last year is LJ. Cryer and Uzana. Now Bulos and
Kingston will be those two guards. I think Sanaks just can.
He's showing it already. He's just going to keep getting
better and better and better. So with he and Tugler

(02:38:46):
manning the middle for most of the games, certainly if
they're not in foul trouble almost the entire game. We
got a lot of different wing players they will utilize,
but for the most part, they continued forgotten star of
this team because of his abitbility to shoot the three
is Emmanuel Sharp and he's an incredible defender. Nobody moves

(02:39:06):
their feet like he does. Texas Tech could not get
past these guys. They kept setting screens out top and
they could never get around it because the Cougars know
how to show and get back to their man. I'd
see NBA teams who don't even know how to do
that tremendously well. But it was a great start to
the early Big Twelve portion of their schedule. They've only
lost one game in their last forty seven at Fortida Center,

(02:39:27):
and it was to Texas Tech. I don't think there's
revenge there, but it's always nice to do that with
some of the players that were around or people that
were around to see that, and it was obviously in
front of another unbelievable crowd there. They are one of
the teams that could win the national title this year.
I don't think they're playing well enough that I would
say they're underrated, being on the fringe top ten, being

(02:39:48):
ranked seventh in the country after just one loss, But
I think it's because they're just going to continue to
get better, and I think they were already good even
with losses. Earlier in previous seasons, and everybody knew it
wasn't ever concerned about those losses. But I think they're
actually putting the team together. And you know, they lose
Marcus Saser one year, they lose Jamal Shed another year. Obviously,

(02:40:09):
this past year they lose LJ. Cryer, and they keep
finding players. And this year's a little different because of
the McDonald's all American caliber players. They added, they're just
as good as I think. At the end of the air,
they'll be just as good, just different, but just as
good as they've always been. One other crier note.

Speaker 1 (02:40:28):
This chance.

Speaker 2 (02:40:28):
This brother is coming to school as a Florida State
transfer to u of H to play for Willie Fritz.
There are more of them, and they play different sports.
I like that, all right.

Speaker 1 (02:40:39):
As we mentioned, we got Nightcaps straight ahead and then
Rockets coverage beginning at eight, tip off at nine. We
will come back in here at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon
to discuss all things Rockets, all things Texans, as they
will finally mercifully start talking about this playoff matchup tomorrow
and everything that that in tales. When we come back

(02:41:01):
here for a Thursday edition of the show. In the meantime,
enjoy the rest of your Wednesday night. We will talk
to you tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (02:41:08):
The eight