Rockets lose heartbreaker to Nuggets, Ime cooks refs, Texans-Raiders

Tuesday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton discuss the Rockets' disappointing loss to Denver, examine Ime Udoka's criticism of the refs, look ahead to the Texans' upcoming matchup with the Raiders, and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is a Tuesday edition of the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's wex over there, ac right here.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
We are taking you until six o'clock once again tonight,
and boy, I just wish we had more to talk about.
Plenty of leftovers from the Houston Texans from yesterday after
they met with media and spoke on all things well
win over the Cardinals and some of the some of
the I guess subplots from that victory, in addition to

(00:31):
looking forward and how things are going to go the
rest of the way, we can definitely dive into the
Monday night football game last night. As Aaron Rodgers continues
to turn back the clock, I'm doing this for the
effect of my co host over here. We'll get into
that a little bit. He had some interesting thoughts after that,
but let's let's just let's dive right into this. I
do not think the Rockets lost that game last night

(00:55):
because of officiating. I don't even I mean, you know me,
you were there. You were there last night in the studio.
It's not normally how we do it. We usually bounce
off each other, but you were doing local pre and
post and so you just stayed along for the ride, which,
by the way, it was a nice, pleasant surprise. I
didn't even know you're gonna do that until a game.
But we were all there, you, me, Josh C watching

(01:15):
the game, watching it all unfold, and you know me.
You know me probably better than anybody in this business.
When it comes to this exact factor when I don't
think the officiating's going well, I'm very very loud about it.
I'm very very transparent. I wear it on my sleeve.
I will tell anybody who's with an earshot. Did I

(01:36):
say that a lot last night? I don't remember saying
that a lot last night until that final play in regulation.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
You might have said a little bit of it off
the air You definitely said a little bit on the
air and the postgame show. I can't remember the Jamal
Murray specifically. Oh, I called it all all the people,
Giljes Murray, maybe Jamal gild just Alexander, Jamal Gil.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
He took fifteen free throws. But why did he fifteen
free throws? Because he was he got felt, He got felt,
and I didn't feel. And that's why. See, that's the thing.
If I'm watching SGA on any given night, you're gonna
hear from me.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, he's he's looking to hey man, I think this
guy is not good enough to defend her, to even
try to defend me. So I'm just going to run
into him and then fall backwards. You'll do your job
the free throw line. I don't even have to shoot
the ball because I'm gonna get to Jamal Murray didn't
play like that. Jamal Murray took advantage of everything last night,
driving to the basket, making shots, making jumpers, hitting threes

(02:32):
the way he has played most He's also very very
very very good. I think he plays like that on
a lot of other nights, and it was not said
very much during the broadcast on our end, or even
amongst ourselves. Aaron Gordon didn't play, Christian Brown didn't play.
They lost their starter Peyton Watson after just a few minutes.
Rockets obviously are playing a different way this season because

(02:54):
two guys haven't played it all this year and Tarry
Easty was out full strength. That's a hard team to beat.
Nobody else is beating them either, And amidst this incredible
Oklahoma City start, well, this is the best team that
Denver Nuggets have ever had. They are off to the
best start in franchise history. The Rockets aren't just losing

(03:15):
to the teams in front of them. They've now lost
two games to Denver. They've lost a game to the
Oklahoma City Thunder. The Spurs are ahead of them, they've
lost to them, and you look at what the Spurs
haven't done in forever. Each of those three teams aren't
just out playing Houston or outpacing the league or having
a good season. These are historically good teams for their

(03:35):
particular franchisees. Obviously not quite in the case of the Spurs,
but it's been a long time since they've done anything
like this, and this is where the Rockets need to be.
And it was very noticeable last night. I don't know
that I've ever posted it, but I said it during
a local postgame. The Rockets have played five games against

(03:55):
the six teams that have better records than they do
this year. They don't have any wins. They're ozero and
five against those teams that have a better record than them. Essentially,
they can't be beaten by anybody else. But they have
not been able to come away with a victory against
those teams yet.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, our buddy Dave hardesty. Actually a few hours ago
broke it down because versus teams under five hundred, they're
ten and two. Both of the losses in that record
are on the second game of a back to.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Back Utah in Dallas.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, in their buildings exactly, But there's you should beat
those two teams.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Sure, but these are still road games.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, versus teams between five hundred and six hundred, which
is kind of the perfection. Yeah, they're five, they're six
and zero, and then versus teams six hundred are better
the teams you just mentioned, they're oh and five.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
And looking deeper into that, it's a three point loss
to Denver, It's a three point loss to Denver in overtime.
It's a one point loss to Oklahoma City in double overtime.
The disappointing game against San Antonio clearly and the fourth
quarter definitely got away from them. That's an eleven point
loss turnovers. And the other game is the second game
of the year, first home game the best team in

(05:02):
the Eastern Conference by a good margin, the Detroit Pistons,
another very close game. I'm not trying to make you
feel about it. I'm trying to explain what these games were,
so you see where they stand. The Rockets stand exactly
where their record says they should be. The only reason
they're not ahead of the teams record wise in the

(05:22):
standings that are ahead of them is because they've played
them and lost to them. The sole reason why they're
not further down in the standings there aren't more teams
ahead of them because they've beaten all those teams. Their
record could be more of an indie. It's not, Well,
they beat Oklahoma City and Denver, but then they lost
to New Orleans and Washington. It's not like that at all.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
This Those Dallas Utah games are the only ones you
could point to that are like outliers because they are
They're exactly you are what your record says it is.
And and last night that's why that sucks, because it
was fun, it was was entertaining, and that's why I
feel like I wasn't I mean, I was. I irritated
it the way it was going and how many foul
shots they were shooting. Yeah, but it wasn't like ah

(06:03):
that Now what I will say that I did notice
earlier in the game, and I said something about it
in the contest.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
You know, he is Jokic.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
He's a multi time MVP, he's a walking triple double.
He's actually I think the most impressive thing about him
is that he looks like the most unathletic slob on
the planet and goes out there and doesn't even like
the game or particularly the people playing it.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
None of that.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
He could not care less, and he puts up these
numbers and it's insane and it's just it's just amazing
to see. But I did think that, you know, from
a consistency standpoint, you needed to have the whistle go
both ways when it came to him, because I did
not think that Albera and Shingoon was getting that benefit.

(06:48):
On the other end, he was getting clobbered at times
and wasn't getting the same whistle, I realized, and they
talked about they both talked about this, but specifically Shangoon
talked about this, and we'll hear from him.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
You know, he's not to that point yet and he
hopes to.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Get those calls someday and that Jokic probably didn't get
those calls when he was Outp's age. I mean, give
it to the rest of the rockets last night. If
your name wasn't Ime Udoka, You weren't really bitching about
the officiating.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, Kevin Durant's pretty I think notorious or well known,
I should say, for having a lot of chatter with
the referees, but they're just conversations. He tells, he looks
at him and says that was a foul. He gets
a little demonstrative at times as he's going back to
play defense, but he doesn't really get into those shouting
matches and technical fests. And I'm saying this knowing full

(07:33):
well that he got a technical last night, but it
wasn't for a conversation with the officials for shoving nikol
I Jokich. A lot of different elements of the game,
very small factors in winning and losing. Just the technical
fouls and the free throws that went with him would
be one way to go. Just the fouls in general.
The Rockets were actually whistled for three fewer fouls than
the Nuggets. The Nuggets shot seven more free throws than Houston.

(07:56):
Seven different Rockets attempted at least one free throw last night,
and all seven of those players missed exactly one free throw.
If you had six attempts, you made five. If you
had eight attempts, you made seven. That was Alpi and Kevin.
If you had two attempts, well you missed one. Steven Adams,
Reed Shepherd and Clint Capella all did that. Amen was
four for five. A Kogi tried to complete a three

(08:17):
point play. He went over one. Those seven missed free
throws in twenty six attempts versus just six miss free
throws in thirty three attempts could easily just forget everything else.
There's the difference. The technical free throws. Three individual technical
free throws were shot on technical fouls assessed to Imadoka,
Alprin Chengun and Kevin Durant. Jamal Murray shot all three

(08:40):
of them. He made all three of them. Two technical
foul shots were attempted by the Rockets, both on team
related non aggressive technicals. They call him non onn sportsmanlike technicals.
Kevin Durant shot both of those. He only made one
of the two, even that small little technical free throw
swap of points. They were played US three. You were

(09:01):
plus one and an opportunity to make two. You made
one opportunity to make three. They made all three, and
obviously the call that certainly sent it to overtime. I'm
not sure if Denver would have played their final possession
any differently had there not been the foul called in
Aman Thompson, which ultimately allowed them to then inbound it
in a tie game rather than down one. But essentially,
every shot is on the board, whether you're down one

(09:22):
or you're tied, because any shot wins it. So I
don't know if we would have seen a different game
ending play from the Nuggets. The play they ran was great.
They got Nikola Jokich, who arguably is their best three
point shooter on any given night, and last night, who
was good, very good. He made five of his nine threes,
including a huge one late in the fourth quarter that
was followed by three consecutive makes, two by the Rockets

(09:45):
and one by Spencer Jones's teammate. As like I said,
this game was phenomenal, and what I took out of
it as you look at this team trying to get
further than they did last year, is they're very, very
different when it gets to this stage of the game.
Kevin Durant hit a three, didn't do a whole lot
else in the period, but you have confidence that if

(10:05):
the balls in his hands you're gonna get a good
shot and he's probably gonna make it. Read Shepherd made
a three. They scored on their every possession, every possession
from the one when they had one hundred and four
points to one hundred and seventeen they had through regulation
five consecutive possessions. They score every single time. They made
every single shot. And so last year's team, that's a

(10:25):
one hundred percent chance they would win because they would
have been making consistent stops. This team doesn't do that
right now. And maybe there's a tar Euaston factor. Maybe
there's a Pinny Smith factor, because those players were supposed to,
in some form take over some of what Dylan was doing,
continue some of the toughness you have on the perimeter.
A Mend's in a much different role this year offensively.

(10:46):
I'm not sure how much that's impacted him defensively, but
I think he's having a lot less of an impact there.
This team is basically who's on the court every night.
They're built to win down the stretch by outscoring the
other team.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Nobody saw coming last year.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
They were built to keep the other team from scoring,
so if you scored, you would win. And last night
they were just trading baskets down the stretch. They didn't
have any trouble scoring, just as we're laying out, but
they couldn't keep the Nuggets from scoring often enough.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Well, and that's I think that you're talking about the
game against Oklahoma City and you're talking about these two
games against the Nuggets, which, by the way, Alprin shinggoon
complete one point eighty from his outing the first time
they played the Nuggets. He had probably his worst game
of the season last night. It was very apparent early
on that wasn't going to be the case. It was
almost like he took it personally and wanted to make

(11:35):
sure he had a better offensive, especially showing he hit.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
The game winner. Unfortunately, now they didn't win a little. Hey,
they really ran a nice set which got him set
up to back down Spencer Jones, which Jones I think
is a super underrated physical defender for the kid that
he is, but he's not tall enough in this particular matchup,
so he just backed him down until he got close

(12:00):
enough to the basket, banged it off the front rim,
and dropped it in on a little two foot mini hook.
Two point three seconds left. The Rockets have to lead
because of that shot there was.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
We need to get to the actual audio we're talking
about when we come back. You'll hear what emi Udoka
had to say. You probably have already, but you're gonna
hear it with us this time. It's different when you
hear it with us. Plus, I want to get to
an aspect of the game that I don't think many
people are talking about because there's so many layers to
this kind of onion when it's a game like this.

(12:29):
But I think it was a big part of why
the Rockets just had a close game to begin with.
I think they could have run away if this factor
was more at play last night. And it's not something
that I think is being talked about enough. So we'll
do all that when we come back here. On a
Tuesday edition of the program.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety, I had to
hear Eddie's voice before I start talking.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
What did he say? Nobody knows to this day. You've
seen the alternate lyrics to yeah, I have yellow leadbetter right,
all of them, all the videos, the ones with the Muppets,
It just.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
It does entertained me inside my own brain wondering what
their recording sessions must have been like a lot of weed.
We can't. I mean, I'd love to get in there
and record this, but we haven't written any lyrics for this.
Not a problem.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
What do you think it was like when the band
was talking to ticket master execs about the fact that
they no longer wanted to perform at venues that were
affiliated with that particular ticketing coming.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Man, some bands like to stand up for their people.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
We're not playing there anymore. All right, let's get into
what happened last night. To the best of my knowledge,
and again, I just walked down the hall, so I
haven't checked during the break. I don't think ema Udoka
has officially been fined yet, but it's coming.

Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
I think it's gonna be hefty. What do you go
with twenty five? Has he been fined before for something
like this?

Speaker 1 (13:57):
I imagine that he has, but I had not seen it.
Research on that. Thirty five thousand dollars fine, fifty thousand
dollars fine? Likely? Why well, we'll get you right into
the press conference last night, as he got right into
it last night. Matt Young covering the team for the
Chronicles There on the Road, and Vanessa Richardson who's always
there on the road with the Rockets. Of course, of
Space City Home network handling most of the questions for

(14:19):
the Rockets last night, and Matt opened with a question
about Imay, what did you think of the foul that
was assessed to him and Thompson just before the end
of regulation, before the ball had been inbound into it,
awarded them that one free throw that ultimately tied the
game and set the game to overtime, followed by his
thoughts after a second question about the officiating. So, first
E may your thoughts, let's go on the foul on

(14:40):
them in Tiki.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
Tech went along with the game tonight, So no surprise
by the crew we had out there.

Speaker 6 (14:51):
When you got the technical earlier because Jokis was pushing
on Alfie and then what the call is that part
of the BPL.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
I guess, yeah, I guess.

Speaker 5 (14:59):
I mean, just in general, I think it's poorly officiated game.
I've seen a long time to have no business being
out there, and the crew chief of Second starstruck, so
you're seeing all kinds of inconsistent calls and I'm sure
we should have got a few more texts.

Speaker 7 (15:17):
What do you say your team went a game is being.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Called the way that it less tonight.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Keep being who we are.

Speaker 5 (15:24):
We're not gonna adjust to poorly poor officials. So we're
gonna do what we do and hopefully they can adjust
and call it the right way.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Okay, first of all, I want to re emphasize my
undying love for Email Yudoka, but I would have said
that before that little UH press conference last night. I
just I'm a big fan of who he is, what
he's about. Is he perfect?

Speaker 4 (15:48):
No.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
I saw some really dumb takes on social by the way,
about why he's not the guy to take this team
to a champion. I mean, just pull your heads out, people.
You don't have to tweet everything that pops into your brain.
I'm living proof. I just I don't know if I
agree with ah. I was just poorly officiated throughout. If
he wants to take personal shots and NBA officials, far

(16:09):
be it from me to say stop doing that, because
I think they all deserve it. This again, I can't
emphasize enough how much more poorly officiated NBA games are
in comparison to even Major League Baseball, let alone NFL games.
I just think it's like NFL's way up here, and

(16:31):
then there's a bunch of piles of crap, and then
here's mlb umps, and then like several other layers down,
that's where NBA officials are. And I think what he's
talking about, without going into detail, lends itself to the
new problem with NBA officiating. The old problem wex was
that we had a bunch of dinosaurs, and Scott Foster's

(16:53):
one of them, by the way, and he has no
business being in the NBA for a myriad of other
reasons that have nothing to do with the games themselves necessarily.
I mean, the guy was texting back and forth with
Tim Donahey in the midst of the gambling scandal.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
It what do you want me to call in you hungry?

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Stuff like that? I mean, and I really do think
stuff like that. No tonight, No, nothing like that. I
just think that, in all honesty, what I think is
that you had an NBA official that was about to
get busted for what he was doing, and if you
take down two of them, that looks a lot worse.
Kind of like, if you only take down one Major

(17:30):
League Baseball team for cheating, it doesn't look like you've
got a big scandal on your hands, so you scapegoat
one and you just kind of neatly sweep it under
the rug and try and act like nothing happened outside
of that, and hope your fan base is stupid.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
That That's why I think Zach Zarba, the crew chief
last night, who if you were watching the game on
Space City Home Network or elsewhere, you would have seen
his face in the microphone as the crew chief multiple
times throughout the evening. Natalie Sego and JD. Rails the
other two officials you heard email reference all three of them.
Two of them didn't belong there. That would be those
two non crew chief officials. Both of them are extremely inexperienced.

(18:07):
Sego has been refereeing NBA games for multiple seasons, but
does not have a tremendous number of NBA games officiated
over that time from staff official to the current position.
And Rails is even less experienced as an official. He's
only been an NBA official for a couple of seasons.
You could count the number of games he's officiated very
very quickly, and it in e Ma's mind it looked

(18:28):
like and I don't even think he was referencing it
one way or the other, as I pointed out earlier,
there were fifty three fouls called in the game, twenty
eight of them more on Denver. I think they missed
calls both ways. I think they But I think what
he was most upset about is, Okay, if this happens
on that end, it's not a foul, Well, then when
it happens on the other end, it should then also
not be a foul, and obviously vice versa. And that's

(18:49):
where I think he did not see what he should
have seen. And as we watched his time in the
game where he drew his technical foul, Alprin Shangoon had
been on the other offensive end and had not gotten
a foul called, and he was clearly hit and they
both got technicals. I can't believe he wasn't teed out
of the game either. That I did too, I don't.
I'm not usually a big fan of it in a

(19:09):
game like that, and last night's three point overtime result
is exactly why. I know you need to get your
point across. I know you think it pays off as
the game continues, but man, I don't like the other
team getting points for without doing any work. And that's
what it ultimately resulted in. But those are definitely findable comments.
It's how he felt during the game, clearly, and he
certainly didn't want to shy away from it. At the

(19:32):
end of the game, calling the crew chief starstruck is
basically saying they have a star, they have an MVP,
And he was officiated in that way, which is not
how you're supposed to do it.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, and yeah, I don't think he was saying, oh,
you know zag Zarbra walked out and wanted you know,
Yokic's autograph. That's not what he's saying. And what you're
the way you described that as perfectly encapsulates when he
was like trying a star call correct correct, like if
Michael was out there or or whatever. Michael, not Jackson.
But anyway, I think that we haven't even gotten to

(20:06):
the actual planet of itself what I've seen, and we're
still waiting on the last two minute report, which is
going to just not you know, why did it finally
refresh and it's there, No, there's it's absolutely one hundred
percent going to have a sea see next to it. Yeah,
it's going to be a correct call. Yeah, but it's not.
And here's why. The angle that I've seen floating around
which everybody's saying, see.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
This confirms this is what.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, it's taken exactly two seconds after when Tim Hardaway
Junior had already started tripping over over his own feet.
The fact that a men Thompson, this is exactly like
what happens when the team in question that's been called
for a foul will then have the officiating crew review
it so that they can discover the foul they missed beforehand. Well,

(20:51):
in this case, what that crew should have done in Secaucus,
New Jersey, which is beautiful this time of year, is
check out the fact that Tim Hardaway Junior was all
already starting the process of falling down over his own
feet because he had two left feet on that exact possession,
long before the process of him tripping over his own
feet caused his foot to kick back onto him in

(21:13):
Thompson's leg, at which point he falls down and in
a one point game at the end of regulation, they
call a foul. And I'm not saying that you don't
call fouls at certain times because we're all talking about
consistency here, but really, NBA, in a season where you
are nightly being criticized with how you usher the Oklahoma
City Thunder to the free throw line ad nauseum, and

(21:35):
everybody is consistently talking about this. That's something every NBA
fan base can agree on. They're sick of it. You
might want to get it right in some of the
other games because it's going to start looking like what
you just said.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Wex is the new problem here.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
You've got to get new officials to replace these dinosaurs
who suck. But that process means you're gonna have new
officials replacing the dinosaurs who suck, and they're just not
experienced enough.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
I don't think it's a there's not good enough experience
will help them get better. But let's go ahead, no
offense to the three, four, five, six win teams. Last
night's crew should be working Pelicans Clippers games. They should
be working Wizards Nets games. I say that because we
lived it. When the Rockets were coached by Steven Cesilas
and the Pistons, let's say were coached by Monty Williams

(22:21):
and Dwayne Casey. Those teams were awful. You remember how
many times the Rockets were getting what would be considered
the top officials in the NBA. Never ever, zero times.
There's no reason to send them to those games. And
last night's game was a featured NBA we have a
new partner. This is the second game of a double O,
our double header game. I would think the league would

(22:42):
also say better game, better teams, very important, lots of eyeballs,
let's send better officials. They chose not to do that
last night. That was very just a curious decision. And
I know they're scheduling involved in everything else. And there
are some very key assignments still on the board because
tonight the NBA Cup will be handed out to either
the New York Knicks.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Or San Antonios, and so.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
The best of the best, I'm sure are signed to
tonight's game. I could look it up and see who
it is, but I will not do that. Rather, I'll
remind you that it's halfway through. Our number one best
of X is next.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
People were arrested for things, so Base said on social media.
History repeats itself type banguels succeed. Never doubt that you're
the one.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Who pleus look at the one building. You're the best
of X. Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the
best of X posting ever seen. Moll Day, You're the
Best of X breaking the entire Internet. It is Best

(23:47):
of X social media, are sites anything out there we
deem important, funny, unnecessary, ridiculous, or all of the above.
We'll bring it to you here on Best of X
and likely throughout other portions of the show as well well.
A lot of rockets talk here the first thirty minutes,
both from the outcome of the game, the plays that
were and were not made, and obviously the officiating all
rolled into one. We'll get some more of what the

(24:09):
Texans have to look forward to now that the week
is complete. With last night's Monday night football game, heavily
Steelers Aaron Rodgers played well. According to Mike McDaniel, the
head coach of the Dolphins, Tua did not, and it's
possible that Ted is not going to be their starting
quarterback moving forward. Though they are off the graphic, they're
not still in the hunt in the AFC. You just

(24:30):
like the Chiefs, there are nine teams available for the
final or the seven spots in the AFC postseason picture.
There are no clinching scenarios for the Houston Texans this weekend.
There are a bunch of scenarios for just about everybody
else in the AFC other than Houston and the teams

(24:51):
in the NFC AFC North like Pittsburgh and Baltimore. But
we'll get to that momentarily. Picking right back up on
Best of X with the officiating last, there's a couple
different places to go with this Space City Home Network.
Obviously gathering and capturing the postgame presser with e May
audio from Kevin Durant and Alberam Shanngoon as well, which

(25:11):
we'll get you later in the show, but that particular
audio and post it on social media generates a lot
of feedbacks. Few other people associated with the NBA that
felt similarly again, though maybe not with a team lean
as in, not somebody who covers the Nuggets or not
somebody who covers the Rockets, but somebody who follows the
NBA posting similarly what we were talking about the first

(25:34):
half hour that Rocket's Nuggets game was atrociously officiated. I'm sorry,
but that type of officiating suld result in referee suspension,
so bad for the integrity of the game. Just somebody
who covers the game for CBS Sports the NBA, So
we'll visit some of the comments there again, I think
this could be taken from either side of the bench,

(25:54):
the Rockets side or the Nuggets side, but specifically for
our purposes. Emai Udoka's comments posted by an at Sports Vanessa.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
She works at Space City Home Network. Her name is
Vanessa Richardson.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
It's the Space City Home Network coverage of the presser
last night and posting his comments did generate quite a
few views and thoughts.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, before we get to those, there was an analyst
who had thoughts on email Udoka's comments.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
The name's Calvin Jerome Murphy.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
I was watching. I mean, I can't. He's not that guy.
He's mister accountability. He does not blame. My problem with
the NBA today is they don't let the players decide
the game.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, I always it's interesting that very actual statement, like,
if players are committing fouls, what are the referees supposed
to do? As it relates to that comment, if you
don't make the call, are you letting them dictate the game? No,

(26:57):
you're getting out. You're not doing your job.

Speaker 8 (27:00):
Now.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Conversely, if there aren't vowels and you do make the call,
then that comment holds true.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
There are play on plays and then there are you know,
you swallow your whistle moments. I just you. I guess
you and I disagree on the Tim Hardaway call. You
thought it was the correct call.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
I thought it was correctly reviewed. Unfortunately, I did not
think that I going back and looking at it, and
it was Natalie Sego who made the call. And she
was probably the worst culprit all night. Oh my bad,
you were going to say something else. She was probably
standing in the best position to see. I can't tell
you if if that's what she saw or she just
saw the player falling down.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
She also called amend for a foul when he clearly
stripped Murray at one point.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
She was terrible last night. Well, I think she called
him for that foul for holding him afterwards when Murray
went to go retrieve it. Because the steal, like we
both said last night, was clean. But I think once
the call was made on the court and the reviews
and the video that I think everybody is seen by now,
the overhead shot where you see contact being made by
the shin of a me with a shin to the

(28:04):
back part of and free Hardaway. I knew. I can't
believe I didn't say it at any point during last
night's game or last night's postgame show, Tim Hardaway Junior's
leg or foot, well, that moved his foot behind his
front foot, which was why he kicked himself down to
the ground. I think that's how it's being interpreted by

(28:24):
what they saw. Would he have kicked his own foot
and tripped over his own feet if a mentoms made
absolutely no contact with him, I think there's a really
good chance yes he would have. But they believe there
was contact that helped that to happen. So I think
upon review you could see there was contact and this
is what caused this, and that's why it fell down.
That's a foul.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
You know what I learned from that play last night
that if there's a similar situation, just fall down.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Oh, one hundred percent, you should just fall down, because
they're probably going to call it and then upon review,
unless there was just gaping spaces between you and anybody else,
they're gonna find something there. Because we were looking up top,
we were looking his hands, we could clear it. Like
when you and Matt were talking about it on the air,
I was muttering to myself, he tripped over his own feet, Yes,
he tripped over his own feet, But we hadn't seen

(29:08):
the replay that showed that there was minimal contact. I
almost thought that's what we would hear from Zach when
he hit the mic, that the contact was not deemed,
you know, foul worthy. I can't remember that.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
I lost his mind. Yeah, and so it did generate
a lot of thoughts elsewhere. Well, Yeah, the NFL and
NBA are in the entertainment business.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
The refs are the show producers.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
As an added bonus, you can bet the farm on
the games and players. Now, it's really just a business.
The thing about this is comments like that compound what
we just learned about with you know, some of the
gambling accusations, the gambling ring, all that kind of stuff.
I'm not saying they have anything to do with each other,

(29:52):
but in a season where this is happening in your league,
you cannot have situations like this like SGA on a
nightly basis and not how people saying things like Adam
Silver has ruined the league because that's what a lot
of people were saying in the comments.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, there was a play last night where the game
was stopped where Jokic was trying to inbound the basketball,
and they had a big conference about it, and they
weren't sure what to do, and ultimately they did nothing.
I just don't think they were clear on what exactly
they were trying to call, and it seemed like the
players were well aware of it. The other side of
it is, as the game finally rolled through the fifty

(30:25):
first minute, the second of the two big men foul
outs occurred. Jonas Valonchuna's six foules fouled out in overtime.
Nikola jokic six fouls also fouled out on a night
where most of the rocket side of things was this
was a horribly officiated game. They probably don't have any
issue with that on the other side, because I don't

(30:45):
think they were missing, I mean, should have found fouls.
He should have filed out sooner. But my favorite star,
and you're allowed to You're allowed to make more contact
when you were a star, when you play defense the
way he does.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
The technical you may got was because he thought there
was a foul that should have been called on Yoki,
and if that had been the case, he would have
been out way sooner than he was with a minute
thirty remaining in overtime. So all the people that were
saying I mean, they were playing without Aaron Gordon and
all these other people, and then Jokic filed out and
Valentuna has filed out, and you still couldn't win.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Losers.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Well, he fouled out with a minute thirty to go
in an extra bonus frame of basketball. Stop acting like
he fouled out at halftime and the Rockets just couldn't
muster up a win. That's just absolutely asinine.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, and at no point that he may say that
this is why we lost, and you know, he just doesn't.
I don't think he enjoys his job as much when
that is his focus and he tries. I don't think
he tries to have that be his focus. But he
just was so overcome by it because those technicals came
in the first half and it just never went away.
That was what he thought he was watching all night

(31:46):
and what he said about, we're not changing anything. We're
not gonna play any differently. They need to adjust, they
need to be better. This is how we play basketball.
Get with the program. He better all right when we
come back. Aaron Rodgers did get it done last night again,
and he thumbed his nose at the critics in the
process and a very interesting way of describing his teammates

(32:10):
all in that win over the Dolphins. The red hot
Dolphins fell last night the eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

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We now returned to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexelworth on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
As mentioned the week in the NFL. Now in the
rearview mirror, the week's ahead in the NFL leave everybody
with just three games remaining. Last night's Monday night football
game had what always happens when the Pittsburgh Steelers play
at home on Monday Night. They win and absolutely ridiculous, ridiculous,
ridiculously long home winning streak there and they were able

(37:44):
to easily beat As Ac said, the very hot six
and seven at the time Miami Dolphins. We actually talked
about the Dolphins how they got here. Apparently they must
love Mike McDaniel because as soon as it appeared that
he was definitely, one hundred percent, absolutely going to be
fired after they started one and six, they won all

(38:05):
but two of their next seven games and got to
six and seven and were not yet eliminated from the
playoff race with big wins over the likes of Atlanta
and Washington and New Orleans and the New York Jets
losses to Baltimore and now Pittsburgh that got clawbord last night,
even though twenty eight to fifteen was the final score,
the final numbers for two attack of I LOOA. If

(38:25):
you did not watch any of the game and listen
to anything that was said by coach McDaniel after the
game and again today, you probably wouldn't know it. Twenty
two of twenty eight, two hundred and fifty three yards,
two touchdowns, interception, one hundred and thirteen point two passer rating.
Sounds like you played pretty good football. To h Well,
he didn't, and Mike McDaniel said as much today, especially

(38:47):
saying everything's on the table. The quarterback play wasn't good enough,
he wouldn't commit to a remaining the starter the rest
of the way, which is comical in and of itself
for the amount of money they've put into him and
in the fact that they don't have anybody to look at.
The quarterbacks on their roster are not future NFL starters,

(39:08):
they're not developmental players. They're young, they're inexperienced. They're also
not very good and so for them to go that
direction kind of tells you what they're trying to do.
Zach Wilson, the number two and Longhorn's rookie quinn Ewers
the number three, both have played spot duty throughout the season.

(39:28):
But anybody playing Miami the rest of the way, if
that's of any interest to playoff teams and seeds, and well,
they got the Dolphins the reginder the season. Well it
doesn't matter next week because the Dolphins are playing the Bengals.
It is a draft impact only game. Other side, Steelers
are in an awesome position to have their season continue
into the postseason under Mike Tomlin on yet another quarterback

(39:52):
leading the way to get them there. This is how
the eight and six Steelers finish the season. Versus how
the seven and seven Ravens f finish the season. Next up,
the Steelers go to Detroit, followed by a game at Cleveland,
and of course they finished the season with a home
game against those Ravens. Ravens have a game at home
against the Patriots, then a trip to Green Bay to

(40:15):
take on the Packers, and then obviously that season finale
against the Ravens. The Ravens and Steelers met earlier this month,
and the Steelers losing that day or beating the Ravens
that day put them in incredibly good position.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
To do what I just said.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Aaron Rodgers playing in his first ever playoff game, not
in a Packers uniform.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
You have to call it right now. Who wins that game?
Next week? Who wins which Ravens Steelers? That's the last
game of the season. I'm sorry that game. I'm sorry
the end of the season, not next week.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
I mean, the way those teams are playing, the Ravens
aren't even playing well. I mean they played a terrible
team who had the ball the whole game and never scored.
I don't know how the Bengals managed to do that.
It's almost a miracle. But Lamar Jackson is not playing
great football. I don't. I don't think they're they're good
at I just I guess that's simple as I can
put it.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
I don't think they're very good. I guess what's crazy
is that they do have him. He's not out. Derreck
Henry has been a shadow of himself for most of
the year, and it just they just all of a
sudden look. I mean, like, if you want to say
Derek Henry looks old, that's one thing you shouldn't be
saying that about Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Well, they are a game ahead of the Steelers, as
a game ahead of the Ravens as we sit here
today talk about the Steelers, Well, if they win one
more game than the Steelers before we get to week eighteen,
the only thing that's on the line is a seating
or a playoff berth for the Steeler Ravens if they're
still in the wildcard chase, because the division race will
be overfore where they get to week eighteen.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah, I just I'm I'm just stunned that all of this,
like one of these teams having this happen this season
would be one thing like the Chiefs, that is that's
an aberration, which, by the way, and we'll talk about
this in the next hour. The speed with which they
got it feels like they wheeled Patrick Mahomes off the

(42:08):
field and directly to the hospital to get his surgery
for that torn acl The speed with which they're moving
lets me know that they mean business and he means
business about him getting back for the start of next season.
But I've seen more than one person compare it to
a prior quarterback injury in which the player in question

(42:30):
just was never the same. If you're in the AFC
and you're seeing that, just keep an eye on that situation.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
But I just I didn't.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
I never thought that, you know, the Bills would struggle
the way they're struggling this year, the Chiefs doing what's happening,
and then the Ravens all happening in the same season,
Like it really lends itself to the old adage the
AFC is wide open this year.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Well, I think what you're saying is something a lot
of people would agree with, saying the Bills struggle. Well,
that shows you how awesome they are. They're ten and
four right looking at it as if they're struggling. They
just beat the best team in the AFC. Arguably they
just evened up their season series with the Pats. They
kept alive their hopes to be in the top three
seeds to win the division, and they did it by

(43:11):
coming from behind down twenty one to nothing. And this
is the Bills struggling.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
But they've kind of had to do with the Texans,
maybe not in the same manner, had to do where
they didn't. They had a rocky start to the season.
They've had to kind of build up to this moment,
those four losses coming a lot earlier in the calendar
than they probably would have liked.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
I mean, they started four and oh, and then you
kind of blinked and they're not. What happened? They're seven
and four, Like, they went through an eight week stretch
where they only won three games, that's very Unbills like.
And who they beat those first four weeks potentially four
non playoff teams, So I don't think they've been very impressive.
But the record is, Yeah, they're ten and four with
a game against Cleveland Philly and the Jets remaining. That's

(43:52):
a twelve win team.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
It's not how you start, it's how you finish. And
the Bills and the Texans both living proof of that.
We will get into a whole lot more on the
Texans when we come back for the start of the
three o'clock hour. The simulcast will begin over on Space
City Home Network straight up three o'clock. It's our number
two of the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network on a Tuesday edition of the program.

(44:14):
We's over there ac right here. Josh Jordan is our producer.
As per usual, we're taking you until six o'clock tonight,
Rockets with a game in the books again last night. Now,
of course they will wait three more nights until they
play again. They will have the New Orleans Pelicans in
the big easy before they go right back to Denver

(44:35):
and play to this team again. That's gonna be the
interesting game. After what happened last night and all the
discussion we had about officiating and all that kind of thing.
I still can't get over, like e May talking about
that being one of the more poorly officiated games he
had seen. I guess because it was still nip and
tuck at the end, and it went to overtime, and

(44:56):
it was on the road, and as you pointed out
in the first out, the foul call differential wasn't really
slanted one way or the other. I just never felt
like ad officiating is really controlling this game until that
play involving him in Thompson and Tim Hardway Junior.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, you got a huge series of offensive plays down
the stretch to match everything Denver had. You hit the
shot with two point three seconds left and wanted to
defend and win the game, And unfortunately they were able
to defend, and they then tie game because of the
foul happening before the ball was inbounded means a free
throw plus the retaining possession, So they made the free throw,

(45:35):
tied the game, threw it into Jokichi missed off the
back rim, and then the next seven points were all
scored by the Nuggets. They immediately rolled out to a
seven point lead, so the Rockets were playing catch up
in overtime, but to the point that they had a
final possession. I do think what they did something I
would not have done in their shoes, and wished they
hadn't themselves done. They forced a miss from the Nuggets,

(45:56):
they had the basketball and threw it in with eighteen
seconds left, or brought it up court. I should say
with thirteen seconds left, and then once the possession had begun,
they called their time out to set something up.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
I would not have done that.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
I would not have called time out there and made
the given the Nuggets the opportunity to formulate a defensive,
a coherent, cohesive, communicated defensive plan, because sometimes players aren't
on the same page defensively. We're up three? Do we foul?
When do we foul? How do we foul? I'm looking

(46:30):
to you, what is he going to do? Does he
know this? Do I know that? And obviously, coming out
of a timeout, I imagine coach Adelman got everybody on
the same page and what they wanted to do, and
then the Rockets executed their play as if they were
expecting a foul. So the second the ball went into
the hands of Alprin Shengoon, essentially the only player of
the group that was on the court that you would
not want shooting a three, He took the ball from

(46:51):
inside the three point lines, outside the three point line
and just fired him up a shot that caught nothing
but glass. There wasn't anybody there to foul him, but
he acted so quickly it probably made the Nuggets think,
we don't want to foul him because we don't mind
this shot, or we don't want to give him a
four point play opportunity. So I don't really think the
game ended the way the Rockets would have liked. Quite obviously,

(47:14):
I don't think they want that play that shot, either,
But not calling time out with Kevin Durant on your
team and enough talent offensively, even with Reed Shepherd still
on the bench, even with Aaron Holliday not able to
check in, because there's no dead ball, that's the balance.
Do I want my offensive lineup out there? But now
I've given them an opportunity to set things up. I

(47:35):
can draw up a play, or I have Kevin Durant,
I have a men Thompson and the rest of the group.
I'll be these are our guys. They'll figure out how
to get a shot that is worthwhile to tie this game.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
And something that happened last night that doesn't just happen
last night. It's happened every game this year, and I
guess it's something I never really noticed until he was
on the Rockets. Kevin Durant gets fouled pretty much every
single possession away from the ball a lot of times,
and to the point where he can't get the ball
because he's being fouled at times, and they rarely call it.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
He was triple teamed on the inbounds play. There was
contact throughout the night. He drives right eighty nine point
six percent of the time, roughly nine in front of it.
Players know that, and he gets he tries to force
his way there, and he gets hit a lot. He
gets knocked off his center a lot. He's not as
strong as some players we've seen who are that ball dominant,

(48:30):
but I don't think he forces things. I think he's
very aware of who is on his team this year
and the confidence he has in them to create good opportunities,
whether he's passing to someone who he knows is going
to shoot, or passing to someone who knows is going
to make a play, or is okay saying you want
to play four on three, Okay, I'll take these two
defenders out and the other four players on my team

(48:52):
will take on your three, and I like our chances
just didn't work out last night, so they end up
dropping to sixteen and seven. It's the first game this
six game road trip, game against New Orleans, game against Denver,
which comes Saturday in Denver, the front side of another
back to back, their third of the season. They'll see
Sacramento on Sunday night. Then they'll go to Los Angeles
to see each of the LA teams, Clippers first a

(49:15):
week from today and then a week and two days
from today. The road trip will end on Christmas Day,
a seven o'clock game against the LA Lakers, their first
meeting of the season with one of the teams they
haven't seen that has a record better than theirs.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
At this point in the season, Clippers still stuck on
six wins after losing at home to the Grizzlies last night.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Grizzlies might be starting to figure it out. They won
a pretty good percentage of their games. I think over
their last fourteen they might be eleven and three or
eleven and four over their last fifteen, something along those lines,
and they won pretty handily. They started four and eleven,
they're now twelve and fourteen, so they're eight and three
over their last eleven games. They should be more like that.

(49:57):
That's more like who they are. And there's no sugarcoating
the LA Clippers their points in the game where they
don't have enough players to care and if that's the
point in time where they're gonna get outscored fifteen to one,
and then that's why they're gonna lose by fourteen. They
got three players that can score, and when those guys
aren't connected offensively, they don't have good, efficient nights, they lose.
Last night was one of those nights. Didn't get a

(50:18):
whole lot from Zubats like they did get from him
against the Rockets. And this is just not a very
It sounds like it's very, very, very much like the
Sacramento Kings, except worse. The Kings might have zero Hall
of Famers, noteworthy players. Zach Levine's a big time scorer,
Demarta Rozen's had a great career. They have talented players,

(50:39):
and the names on the back of their jerseys are
very well known.

Speaker 9 (50:42):
Well.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
The Clippers have the same thing, except they do have
Hall of Famers. Kawhi's going to the Hall, James is
going to the Hall. You got MVPs, he got titles.
And they're still playing personally individually at a reasonably good level.
One of them's a two way player, one of them
is still a one way player, and their team is
very bad defensively. They have six wins. They've played twenty

(51:03):
six times.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Did you happen to read Ramona Shelburne's article about the
departure of Chris Paul.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
I have not read it yet. They're such a mess.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, both sides look awful in that article. I have
no doubt.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
And the good news is it's not a concern for
Houston until it is. And I don't remember off the
top of my head the exact day for the NBA
Draft in twenty twenty six, but that's the point in time.
It will be an issue for Houston and everybody else
in the Western Conference if the Clippers hand the Oklahoma
City Thunder a spectacular draft pick.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
I want to say this as succinctly and eloquently as possible.
I hate the Thunder. I hate everything about them. I
don't like their free throw merchant MVP. I don't like
the fact that Chet Holmgren thinks he's better than he is.
I love the fact well, I hate the fact that
he made me like Victor Winmbenyama for five seconds, but
I love the fact that Victor women Yama called him
out for what he is and what they are, which

(51:59):
is unethical basketball. I'm sorry, but if you have one
of the future stars of your league that you think
is gonna be, you know, the next generation. Saying that
at a press conference, you have big problems, Adam Silver,
not to mention what's going on with your officiating, but
I digress.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
I have everything about that team.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
And then the fact that they've got lottery picks coming
from all points of the globe, including from the Rockets
thanks Darryl Morey. Well there won't be lottery picks. Well, yeah,
first rounder though.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Next year Oklahoma City has two first round picks at
their choice. They get the best two of these three.
Their own pick not gonna suck, not gonna be that one. Yeah,
the Rockets pick not to be right now is twenty four,
so they'll get that, and the Clippers unprotected pick.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
The Clippers are always going to be the Clippers. There's
no you can put them in a brand new playpen.
You can have a billionaire owner like Steve Balmer with
I think he's like the seventh richest guy in the world,
None of it matters. You still have that stupid name
and that stupid other city little brother phenomenon going on.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
There, and there's still a possibility, a likelihood that will
also have two other first round picks via one Utah
and one Philadelphia, so' worry about that when we get
to the end of the season. And obviously the other
draft concern for Houston. As you recall, they once possessed
the future draft of the Brooklyn Nets, and I've switched
over to the future draft of the Phoenix Suns. Well,

(53:26):
Phoenix Suns are playing pretty good basketball this year. They
are two games over five hundred. Their pick currently would
land them somewhere between well, their spot and the standings
is somewhere between the lottery, the sixth pick, the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth,
playing tournament pick, So really hard to pinpoint where it
would actually turn out to be, but it's certainly not
going to be among the worst. They're not going to

(53:47):
be among the worst teams in the NBA this year.
Doesn't look like unless they have some significant injuries, Brooklyn
is going to be one of the worst teams in
the NBA this year.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Dylan Brooks culture changer, prove me wrong, because he's done
it twice now.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Probably they had one other thing that we just didn't
know about at the time there that we knew about
at the time here. We knew that Ema Udoka was
a culture changer here and it would work or he
would be a better coach. I think we're seeing the
same thing there. I don't think many people know a
lot about Jordan Ott, but he's a significantly better leader
of that team than previous management was.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
It's amazing what good coaching and leadership can do for
any organization in any sport, like the football field over
here in Houston. Yeah, Demigo, Ryans, and the fact that
I think CJ. Stroud, the time that was forced on
him to be away has paid off. There's something I
want to get to on that standpoint a little bit

(54:39):
later in the show. But as it pertains to the
Texans looking ahead to what I think is going to
be a super pivotal weekend, you mentioned it. There's no
decisions that could be made win or a lot, but
there is help that can be given them in the
form of the Denver Broncos beating the Jacksonville Jaguars and
them taking care of business at home against the Raiders.
And that's going to mean that you're going to need

(55:00):
that quarterback to continue to play a very good game
when we come back. You're gonna hear from Demico about
CJ and the game he thought he had this past
week against the Arizona Cardinals, but the fact that that
guy CJ has to keep doing this as they continue
on here down the stretch, not just this game against
the Raiders, but obviously you've got the Chargers game that

(55:22):
looms large, because that's I think really the only resistance
they're gonna get. Maybe Philip Rivers is gonna have this
out of body experience continue, out of very big body
experience continue, and he'll give them all they can handle
in that finale. But I'd like to think that if
the Texans take care of business these next two weeks
and you get that help from Denver, you're gonna be
in good shape for the division, not just making the postseason.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
So we'll get it, get.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Into some more Texans conversation as well as Patrick mahomes
acl surgery and will he come back to Sam afterward.
That's next.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
So who's gonna be the quarterback for the this weekend?

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Kenny Pickett?

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Does it matter?

Speaker 11 (56:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (56:06):
I mentioned this yesterday. It matters because I think Kenny
Pickett is significantly worse. I'm amazed that he's anybody's backup
quarterback Gino's having an awful season. They traded away their
best weapon in the past game as a wide out
and Jakobe Myers smartly because they weren't going anywhere. It's
also probably the best acquisition by anybody at the trade
deadline for what he has meant to Trevor Lawrence and
the Jacksonville Jaguars. But they're putting together an impressive season,

(56:32):
certainly recently offensively, and remember impressive doesn't necessarily mean bad
being good, it is impressive. How bad the Raiders are offensively?
One hundred yards? Man, can you get one hundred yards today?
The answer was no, if you were talking about last
Sunday and they're thirty one. Nothing lost to the Eagles,
and it's not really very far off from what they've

(56:54):
been doing on a regular basis. They are a very
bad offensive team. They do not score a lot of points,
they make a ton of mistakes, and their defense isn't good.
But other than that, they have two wins. It is
not a fluke and.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
They are Look, they're trying to get the number one
pick in the draft. Yeah, so they can get nobody.
So what sucks about this game is that the random
three to twenty five in Houston. Start time means that
the Jacksonville game against Bronco or against the Broncos in
Denver will basically be going on at the same time

(57:26):
that one's starting at three zero five, so they'll already
be in progress, hopefully the like hopefully the Broncos defense
will have already had a pick six against Trevor Lawrence
by the time the Texans kickoff against the Raiders at
home twenty minutes later. But I dare I don't remember
the last time, well maybe since last season, but I

(57:49):
don't remember the last time we're gonna be watching scoreboards
like this during a Texans game in quite some time.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
I mean, I'm tried to pay attention to all of
it as much as possible these last few weeks. As
once the Texans started winning games this year, the way
the things started, you knew they were going to be
back in it and they were going to need help
at some point along the way, especially in this case,
they've played their games against Jacksonville, you got a half
a season left, you don't see Jacksonville again, and so
in order to take over in order to win this division,
they can't do it on their own anymore. There's three

(58:16):
weeks left, and if nobody beats Jacksonville, then the Texans
won't win the division. The Jaguars will. Even if the
Jaguars lose a game. The Texans don't automatically win to
the division, but it does only take one loss. The
Jaguars lose a game and the Texans win out. I
believe every scenario would have them winning the division via
a tiebreaker if the Jags don't also lose a second game,
which would give them the division title outright. So take

(58:38):
care of your business. You're going to the playoffs. Take
care of your business, get a little help, and you
could be these seven six, five, three two or one seed.
I guess it's possible. You could still be the four seed.
The Texans at nine to five somehow are only one
game better than the Steelers. You could still, I believe
with the jag You know, Jags have to lose a

(58:59):
bunch and you'd have to catch them while not staying
ahead of the Steelers to land the fore seed. But
the Texans have lived in the four seed with CJ
and Debiko. It's the seed they've had both in the
last two years. Odds are very very very low. They
will be the four seed in this year's postseason.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
And the Broncos do have something to play for, Like
it's not they're still trying to clinch the division, and
there's a like, what's the most outside chance ever anything
has happened that they could clench the number one seed
this week because.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Well, they need three other results along with their win
in order to finish the season on Sunday, because they
could be the number one overall seed after activity this weekend.
If they win and the Chargers lose or tie at
Dallas and New England loses their game at Baltimore and
Buffalo loses or tie.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
And that's their game, because that's not happening Cleveland, even
in Cleveland, that's not happening.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
They would win the division and claim the number one seed,
but they would division if they just win and the
Chargers lose, or if the Broncos tie and the Chargers lose,
so they go out and win the game, they actually
might clinch nothing. But with the Chargers playing the Cowboys
and the Cowboys not being not being a good team,
but they're not a pushover, They're not a Raiders. There's

(01:00:19):
a chance that this weekend. They clinched the division, but
they're still If they haven't clinched the number one seed,
then their future schedule matters to them, it would matter
to anybody because of how the playoffs change once they
added that seventh team to each conference. I think driving
to that number one seed has never meant more. You
don't need four wins to win the super Bowl if
you are the number one seed. The other six teams

(01:00:40):
in your conference.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
Do yeah right now as it stands, and then all
this will probably well, a lot of this could change.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
Denver would get that buy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
It would be Chargers at Steelers, Bills at Jags, and
Texans at Patriots in the first round of post season.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
There's so much time yeah, between now and then, like
they all, that's gonna change. The Bill's winning the division
I think is a real possibility because of what they
did last week, evening things up in the season series.
So they go to the second or third or fourth
tiebreak or when they get there, Bills close out their
season with the Browns, Eagles and Jets, and the Eagles
and Jets games are at home in Buffalo. No reason

(01:01:21):
they can't go three and oh and if they go
three and oh, it just takes one Patriots loss to
put them at the same record. Like I said, I
believe there are a handful of tie breaking scenarios that
would lean Buffalo's way. Patriots close with road games in
Baltimore and New York to play the Jets, and then
they finish maybe against Quinn Yours and the Dolphins in
the final week of the season.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
The Texans somehow So there's a chart that ESPN has
where it has make playoffs when division earn a bye
make the Super Bowl. The Texans right now have a
fourteen percent chance to make the Super Bowl, whereas the
Jags only a twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Yeah, I think the positions these teams are in in
the past that they go plays a little bit into that.
Most of it is what do they think about this team?
They're looking at who they have left. They're simulating some
of the results, so they're putting them in certain spots,
like you'll play at home against this team and then
you'd have to play that team presumably. But the bottom
line is the Texans are viewed by those who are

(01:02:18):
able to put models together. They're viewed as no worse
than the third best team in the AFC. Some teams
think they're fourth, I guess because Denver, New England and Buffalo.
But I don't think that any models or people who
are watching how these teams are playing, I should say,
would put them behind the ten and four Chargers. They've

(01:02:39):
played the Bills head up, so that is giving people pause.
I think there's a lot of people who love Buffalo,
but they also know they can't beat Houston, and they've
watched Josh Allen not beat Houston, So how can they
favor them to win the AFC over Houston when they
would likely to have to go through Houston. So that
leaves us those teams with the eleven wins and the

(01:03:00):
twelve wins as teams that are viewed as better bets
to win the AFC than Houston. And even those teams
are quarterback by second year guys. Yeah, I just.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
I want to feel like Denver's fools fools gold, which
is kind of crazy to say about the number one seed,
which looks like it's gonna stay there.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
I don't know, I'm just not a couple of years ago,
the Titans were the number one seed. Ryan Tannehill was
the quarterback, Derek Henry was running people over. It was
just hard to envision them winning the AFC. They were
still very good, and they played two playoff games very well.
They did not win the AFC, and I could see
that very thing happening now. I don't want to call
them frauds. They're just not like what we've normally seen

(01:03:45):
in number one seeds before Chiefs is a number one seed,
or the Bills is the number one seed, even without
winning the AFC, or even on the other side, but
the Lions as a one or the Eagles as one,
they just seem powerful and unbeatable. And I'm saying this
about a team that's won every week for the last
two weeks, the Broncos and their eleven game winning streak,
and they played really, really good football against the Packers

(01:04:06):
this past Sunday. They put thirty four points on the board.
They had touchdowns on five consecutive drives. They got four
touchdown passes from bow Knicks, and he is throwing the
ball well and much better than he was earlier in
the year. I think they have a good enough ground
game with Harvey. They certainly have a good enough defense.
It's I almost feel like they're being overlooked because nobody
wants to pick them, and nobody wants to pick the

(01:04:27):
Patriots for the same reason. And we brought this up
the other day just to lay it all out. From
a experience standpoint in the postseason as a playoff quarterback,
it's a pretty interesting look at the AFC. The Broncos
quarterback has started one playoff game, didn't win it. That
was last year with bow Knicks. The Patriots quarterback has
started zero playoff games. He's in his second year. They

(01:04:48):
were bad last year. The Jaguars quarterback has started two
playoff games, miracle comeback and one lost in the other.
So those are the three teams at the top of
the AFC standings right now, and they a combined three
starts from their three quarterbacks in the postseason. Chargers quarterback
Justin Herbert's been to the playoffs twice, hasn't won a game.

(01:05:09):
You have Bill's quarterback and Steelers quarterback. That's like the
whole postseason behind those guys. It'll be the twenty second
postseason start for Aaron Rodgers if he gets there. With
the Steelers, he's won eleven of those games. He's eleven
and ten. Obviously, he's been a super Bowl quarterback before,
and Josh Allen has not. But he's won seven of

(01:05:30):
his thirteen playoff games, and right in between is CJ.
CJ has four playoff starts. He has one more playoff
win than Nicks, May, Lawrence, and Herbert combined in their careers.
He's two and two in the postseason. But Herbert is
a team. He is the darling.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Still, I wonder if this will be the season where
that stops, Like, you can't just keep saying the same
thing about the guy over and over as he continues
to not winning the playoffs. I've never seen anything like it,
and there's a good chance that continues this year.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
By the way, it won't continue if they don't win.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
No, what I'm saying is, oh, you're saying that they Well,
first of all, I don't even think it exists personally,
you don't think that. We're fifteen weeks into the season.
Nobody's going gaga over Justin Herbert. They're barely They're saying
he's overcoming their miserable offensive line, their horrible running back
situation due to injuries, and they've had a great season.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
He seven't had a great season. They've had a great season.
Who's going gaga over the Chargers and Justin Herbert it
seems like nobody.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
So they're they're giving him the benefit of the doubt.
They're not giving CJ about those very same things lack
of a running game for most of the year and
a bad offensive line. That's interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
I don't see it that way at all. I don't.
That's not what I'm hearing seeing or anything. Plus CJ
wasn't even on the field for three of these games.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
Yeah, but coming into the season and the early parts
of this season, it was all about what's wrong with CJ? Shrown?

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
How is the regreeing of the season? I'm talking about
the during this twenty twenty five campaign only edition of
the program.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety, it's Space City Home Network.
So one of the things that I always find fascinating is, well,
why did this guy have this catastrophic leg injury or
why did this guy have this injury or that injury,
and why did he wait so long to.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Go get that repair.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
The worst example of this is when a guy will
get a surgery done so late in the offseason that
it's guaranteeing they're not going to be there in time.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
For the year, the Scottie Pippen surgery.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Yes, that would be one of them. Or you just
like sit out games until he gets his contract while
MJ carries the team because Dennis went to Vegas with
Carmen Electra. You should really watch the last dance if
you haven't seen it. Spoiler alert, Yeah, spoiler alert. Michael
knocks on the door and Carmen's not wearing anything and
she was scared of him anyway. Patrick Mahomes hurt on

(01:07:56):
Sunday surgery Monday night in Dallas, not messing around. Do
you think it was interesting that the Dallas Cowboys lead
team physician was the one that performed this procedure? Not
at all.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Happens all the time different sports. This doctor and that
doctor who technically may work for a team in that capacity,
like you said, head physician well known at being good
at this surgery or that surgery. A lot of people
will end up there. It happens quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Twenty twenty six NFL season opener, September tenth, typical recovery
from the injury.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
He's so you're concerned about the season opener just because
they won't be in it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
What do you mean the Chiefs. Oh, because it's the
Thursday night game. Yeah, that's true. Save for the best
team in the NFL, not them. What if they're in
any four days later? What if they're in it? Anyway,
it won't be Could you imagine the nauseating groans you
would hear from basically every other fan base. Really, who's
his return? We knew it would be ratings.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Great, So send them over to the international game on Friday,
send him to the Sunday night game, center of the
Monday night gains up to the moon. You have plenty
of other places to put them. This is reserved for
good football.

Speaker 13 (01:09:06):
Ta.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
What if it's the defending Super Bowl champion Houston Texans
hosting the Chiefs?

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Would you be okay with that? I would? That shouldn't
be their opponent?

Speaker 4 (01:09:16):
C J.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Stroud Gardner Minshew Thursday Night football season opener.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Ifs if Gardner's back.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
I'm sure he's on a one year deal, right so anyway,
typical recovery for an injury that he sustained is nine months.
And it's so obviously all the off season stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
But have you not.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Seen more than one person say his status for twenty
twenty six is in doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
I'm like, why I haven't seen that. I mean, it's
only in doubt for other reasons. It's not in doubt
for recovery reasons. If they choose to make sure that
his future is okay, they could choose not to bring
him back. Let's say he's not ready for the season opener,
and then they're ow to one, and then they're one
and five, and then the two and seven. At some

(01:10:01):
point they're going to say, what's the point, We're gonna
get a better draft pick. He's gonna be even healthier
in the future. Why bring him back? And I don't
know what his position will be because we're kind of
watching that right now. I mean, the Bengals were not
eliminated from the playoffs when Joe Burrow came back on
Thanksgiving and then they won, they beat the Ravens, and

(01:10:23):
then he played and then they got eliminated and his
joy was sucked out of his body. Should he have
come back? Did he come back too soon? Should he
continue playing now? Jayden Daniels is being held out for
the remainder of the season to protect his future. They're
eliminated for the playoffs. His position is that he'd like
to be out there and play their position is that
Exalebo kind of hurts and we're kind of concerned about it,

(01:10:44):
but we don't have any reason to win games. Where
does Kansas City fall on that? With what this offseason
now brings. We talked about it yesterday. I don't think
their needs or financial situation changes at all. They may
not have Mahomes for next year year, but they have
their quarterback of the future.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
It's him.

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
They're not concerned about that, and they're not even concerned
about how well he's gonna play. He's gonna be great,
But they do have to realize that this is a
stoppage in the Chiefs run. So a new Chiefs team,
if they can get there, is what Patrick Mahomes is
going to win with his number one target. When he
returns to the field, it's gonna be somebody else. Their

(01:11:23):
ground game had better be something else when he returns,
and quite honestly, their defense should be something else when
he returns. It's a new era. He just will maintain
his status as their quarterback. The reason I bring up
when Andy Reid retires, he probably should just based on
his play calling against the Texas, a loan play calling
was Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
Let's go We're gonna go for on fourth down on
our own thirty. How's that gonna go against this defense?
Didn't go well. So the reason I bring up next
season is because for all of the memes and graphics
I saw today, Hey, you know who else had torn
acl after they had won three Super Bowls and they

(01:12:04):
went down in year nine and they came back even better. Yeah,
Tom Brady. A lot of people are saying that because
of the similarities between Mahomes' injury and when it happened
and what he had done already with his resume and
the goat.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
But there's a darker comparison to be made.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
You remember what happened on December out or around December tenth, eleventh,
twenty seventeen to the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback at the time.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
I know you're bad with years. The twenty seventeen Eagles quarterback.
I'll just put it this way, he was never the
same after Ron Jaworski got hurt. I didn't say nineteen
eighty three, twenty Donovan McNabb got hurt. I didn't say
two thousand and three, Michael Vick got hurt. I didn't
say anybody Arsenal Lenzk got hurt. There you go. Carson Wentz.

(01:12:55):
The stupid pass to Nick Foles was in the twenty
eighteen Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Holy I was at that Super Bowl. It was minus
five and there was a fat guy ruining it for everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Okay, so Eagles were there with Carson having an MVP
caliber season and then Nick Foles was able to guide them.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Beat Tom Brady, the aforementioned Brady. He just never bounced back.
And a lot of people were saying that this is
because it also included what was it the lcl Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
You're comparing the injuries that just happened to Mahomes to
the injury that happened to Carson Wentz.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
I believe it was similar, right. I think the injury
the bigger.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
He was never the same as well, because the season
he was having was the one that was not the same.
He that was an outlier season. In my opinion, I
think most people share it. Carson Wentz, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
But he was never going to duplicate to get it
duplicated again either.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Fully healthy, he was never going to duplicate it again.
Had no injury happened, he could have had a better season.
I mean, it was early enough in his career. Next
year is unfair. This was year two. If he went
from being an okay starter as a rookie in year
one and he was an average player basically that year
to an MVP caliber player. They won eleven of the

(01:14:11):
thirteen games he started that year. He was number one
in the NFL and touchdown percentage, had thirty three touchdown
passes in just thirteen games, number one in the NFL
and QBR as a second year starter. Well, then he
got hurt, and like you said, he was never got
to that level again. I mean, who's to say he
might not have been able to stay there. I don't
think he would have because I thought that was his
outlier season. So it wasn't overly impressed with him during

(01:14:33):
year one, and honestly, even that year when the statistics
were so good, I wasn't overly impressed. But I guess
that's fair to say. Who knows. I don't really And
I'm not saying there was no concern about Brady's return.
I don't think I was covering sports at the time.
There shouldn't be any concern about mahomes return. Mahomes is
going to be just as awesome as he was. He's
got ten more years in the NFL if he wants.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
Yeah, no, But but one of the reasons Brak he
was so awesome after he got back. Well, first of all,
he was never the scrambler of the athlete from that
standpoint that Mahomes has been, but he started using his
brain a whole lot more.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
He played two hundred and twenty two games after he
got hurt in the regular season and multiple more and
one ran for five hundred and ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
Yards across those two hundred plus games. That's called spread
it out.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
That's called not being Pat Mahomes with your scrambling abilities.

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
But do you don't you wonder from a physical standpoint,
if that happens only Mahomes, he's just buying time when
he scrambles. Anyway, I think his career is over.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
The lots on the football side to still get into
and specific to the Texans not only their playoff chase
and some seeding situations, but honestly about how they have
been playing and what is in their future specific to CJ.
Stroud's performance, and there's definitely a point in time to
pick that up. The Texans started the year with three
consecutive losses. They were very good defensively preventing any of

(01:16:00):
those teams that beat them from hitting twenty one. They
unfortunately couldn't get to those totals themselves and started the
year in three allowed fourteen, twenty and seventeen in those
three losses, and then things started to look a little
bit better. They took a part two teams that couldn't
play with them in Baltimore and Tennessee. They settled into
the season, and then CJ got hurt, and then they

(01:16:21):
went and won three straight games, started by Davis Mills,
and they haven't stopped winning the games recently now started
by c J Stroud, they've won nine of eleven. So
we'll take a look at where things changed and the
numbers that go along with it specific to CJ. When
we get to the top of the four o'clock hour,
I wanted to revisit a couple of things about what
we very well may see a best of seven later

(01:16:43):
this year between the Nuggets and the Rockets. Both of
these teams may look a little bit different over the
final four months of the season, pending health for their
respective rosters. A Brown missing time and Gordon missing time,
Tarry Easton, Fred Van Vliet, Dorian Finney Smith missing time
among the players that would otherwise be in the rotations
for the Nuggets and the Rockets, respectively, But both games
they've played so far this season, with very different details,

(01:17:04):
have ultimately ended the same way. A couple more plays
made late by the other team, you lose by three,
this one was on their turf in overtime, and you
lost by three in a game that resulted in the
Rockets head coach not being very happy with the officiating. Now,
both Alprin Shangoon, who played head up against Jokich for
much of the night, and Kevin Durant, who's played against

(01:17:25):
Jokic about as much as anybody over the last couple
of years, coming through Phoenix and now Houston, both had
some thoughts on the big man for the Denver Nuggets,
who is very possibly in the running to finish first
or second in the MVP voting. Yet again, start with
Kevin Durant's thoughts on Jokic last night, and interesting in

(01:17:46):
that the question was asked to him specifically about what
can you do differently? Are there ways to do a
better job or slow down Nikali Jokic.

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Now you get the ball every play.

Speaker 7 (01:17:58):
You know, I'm saying, like, you can do none different
against so I mean we did. He's just thirteen for
twenty seven. I mean he's usually a sixty percent shooter.
He also had four turnovers so and filed out. So
we attacked him. We made him miss as much as
he gonna miss and then turned the ball over. But
somebody at the ball all game, every game where guys
don't even look to shoot the ball, he looked to

(01:18:18):
give him the ball first. Of course he gonna get numbers. Man,
is the name of the game.

Speaker 8 (01:18:22):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:18:23):
The thing that I already knew but yet I continue
to almost either rediscover or just it gets solidified, is
how much he's just a basketball junkie.

Speaker 1 (01:18:32):
He's basically trying to tell you that, Look, man, we
did do a good job as good a job as
teams are going to do against him. In the games
where he's averaging thirty six and a half points against
US thirty nine in this one, had thirty four in
the first victory over the Rockets last month. He's got
twenty five rebounds against them. He's got nineteen assists against them.

(01:18:54):
He's at back to back four turnover games against them.
He's fouled out of one game and played with five
foul for the majority of the late third quarter and
fourth quarter of the last matchup. But like you said,
he's he's looking at it like, okay, great, get yours,
don't get fifty, don't have a fifty to fifteen to

(01:19:14):
fifteen game, and we feel like we can still win,
which is one hundred percent accurate both times they've played.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
Now, do you remember, and I know you do because
you were sitting right next to me, do you remember
my second key to the game last night before they
get tip off? The first one was obviously helping out
on Joker because it's the only way you'll have a prayer.
The second was to marginalize Jamal Murray because he's a
bona fide Rockets killer and of course, coming in averaging

(01:19:43):
twenty six on the season, you can't have him also
go off against you and expect to win.

Speaker 1 (01:19:47):
That's exactly what happened, and I don't They did both
go off and the Rockets had a one point lead
with two point three seconds.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
Yea, but if he's not and again like they both
went for more than what they get yes on an
right and yeah, the right. But the funny thing about
that is what you were talking about in the first hour.
It wasn't because the Rockets defense was so fantastic across
the boar on everyone else, because they were also scoring.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Yeah, both teams actually offensively, they played very well. They
both tilt team shot the ball fairly well. Just one
last thing on Jokic from Durant from Alprin on Jokic,
he just mentioned he shot, you know, thirteen to twenty seven.
He wasn't that efficient. Thirteen to twenty seven is as
close as you can get to shooting fifty percent on
twenty seven shots without getting there. One more shot made

(01:20:32):
and he's over fifty percent. That's forty eight point one
percent shooting. He's played twenty five games this year. It's
way below his average. He's had two games worse than that,
only two games below forty eight percent shooting. In the
game he shoot, as he said, he shoots sixty one
percent on the season. If he made sixty one percent

(01:20:53):
of his twenty seven shots last night, you're talking about
a ten point loss.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
Do you know what he's talking about? A twelve point loss?
He shoots sixty two percent for the season. He's not
a dunker only he's shooting threes consistently, and when he's
not doing that, he's shooting inside the three point line,
sometimes very deep and oftentimes over an outstretched defender's arm.
He's ridiculous, and he's doing all of it by looking

(01:21:20):
like he goes over during the breaks to the sideline
in a timeout and has a shot of vodka. He's
the most unathletic looking superstar I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
Twenty five games eight hundred and seventy four minutes. Since
you said it, I'll ask you how many dunks do
you think he has in those twenty five games at
eight hundred and seventy four minutes, eight hundred and seventy
four Huh, I mean yeah, which is obviously thirty six
thirty seven minutes a night.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
I don't know what's the number twelve? He never dunks it, Yeah,
because he can't jump over the morning paper. He's Larry Bird.
That's not what he does. That'sactly right. He's chunky Larry Bird.
That's who he is.

Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
Alprin Schengoon is up against him plenty, and I do
think he is bristling more and more at the well,
you're just baby, yo. Just he plays his game. He
plays his game. But he did ask get asked last
night about how they're treated, maybe by the officials.

Speaker 2 (01:22:16):
No, I don't know. I mean, you know he got
a tree time ampa.

Speaker 16 (01:22:20):
No, you know, I'm sure he wasn't getting the clods
when he wasn't my age too, So you know, eventually,
you know, I'll get there, you know, And I mean
he did work all the way this come to here too,
you know, get those folks. But still, like, you know,
it's putting the other player get down because you can

(01:22:41):
do anything. You know, he alder making the hard shots,
and in the same time when you can, like you
know what I'm saying, basically not touch him, it's hard
to guard him.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
So you know what I'm saying, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
You can't touch him otherwise it's foul. He can touch you.
Well that he does, that's that's probably not you can't
touch him when he shoots it. He's not sgs.

Speaker 2 (01:22:58):
He bangs in to you as much as you bang
into him. This is why I still like the guy.
He's not insufferable and nauseating to watch because you breathe
on him or you walk into the building, and you've
got six fouls likesga SGA is. They're ruining him. They're
ruining the OKC thing before it's even really started. Like
they're only going to get better, and he's only gonna

(01:23:19):
get better if he gets this whistle.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
I don't want to watch it anymore. I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
I just don't want to watch OKAC games that are
involving anybody, let alone with the Rockets.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
Yeah, Denver doing what they're doing this year and Jokic
continue to play at this insanely high level is just
what it is in the NBA. It's just who he is,
and it's just how things are gonna be. I've mentioned
it in the opening segment. I'll mention it here again.
This is the best team they've ever had through this
point in any season in franchise.

Speaker 2 (01:23:43):
Hists, including the title team. They're awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:23:45):
Yeah, it's Rockets are super close in the regular season
to them, and the way they're playing, it doesn't seem
like they can't beat them in a postseason series. But
that's many months off. Even if you know, I do
think we're looking at OKC one Rockets and Nuggets two, three, Spurs, Lakers,
some Minnesota four, five, six, And those are your top

(01:24:06):
six teams in the West.

Speaker 13 (01:24:08):
Not.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
Golden State. John Hollinger at Golden State's barely going to
be over five hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
Week, John Hollinger, and tell him they're still gonna be
a threat.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
But they're not gonna They're gonna trade for Giannis with
a package headlined by Draymond Green. What a stupid league.
Tuesday edition of the programs Sports Talk seven to ninety
we are two hours in two more to go here
on a Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
WEX over there ac right here. Josh Jordan is our producer.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
A team rolling along with a lot of conversation about
that game last night in Denver. It is excruciating to
think about the fact that the Rockets have lost three
games to the two teams ahead of them, well, the
the top two teams ahead of them in the Western
Conference standings, by a combined total of seven points. They've

(01:24:59):
lost three games by combined total of seven points to
those three team to those two teams in three games
and close. But no cigar doesn't give you any sort
of solace moral victory, Nor does the fact that have
they come out yet and said they were correct their
assessment of their officials the NBA. Nope, really, we're still

(01:25:20):
waiting on the last two minute report at four o'clock
the next day.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
Not abnormal. What are they doing in the league office
trying to send out mailers on tonight's NBA Cup game?
Is Adam Silver getting a pedicure right now? Or what
I mean? There's lots of options. I'm sure he's in Vegas.
They got a lot of places that do that. Are
you gonna watch every minute of the Cup game tonight?
I can't watch any other game.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
Because there's nothing else on. There's no football tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:25:48):
What about like professional gambling? You like watching a poker game? Yeah,
I'm probably not gonna watch a poker game. No, I
used to do that. I'd probably watch that over Spurs Nicks. Well, like,
I'll probably watch when they get that little miniature trophy.
Do they think they've like actually accomplished something. Hey, look,

(01:26:08):
it's not the Brian Trophy.

Speaker 1 (01:26:10):
What about when they get their nearly six hundred thousand
dollars check, they'll probably think it's something. And that is
the only reason these players are cool with us. And
mind you, when I said there's no football, I with
all due respect to Jacksonville State and Troy.

Speaker 2 (01:26:25):
Well, I know one degenerate coworker of ours that's definitely
watching that instead of the NBA Cup game.

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
Well, why didn't you come here yesterday with some plaudits
for the great work of Washington head coach Jed Fish?
What did he do thirty eight ten dismantling of Boise
State and the bucked up LA Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
All I care about is whether or not he's going
to be at the post O Hotel in a few
days so I can ask him about the oj trums
in January. Yeah, well a few days away. It's not
a few months. It's a few days. That's next month.
He might be.

Speaker 1 (01:26:56):
He might be at your one of your favorite bowl games.
Which one's that The cheese Its Ball. The cheese Its
Bull comes our way at the end of the year.
I don't know why I said that, Like Brick Tamlin.
It's the Citrus Bull, the cheese It Citrus Bull. It's
in Orlando. It features the Texas Longhorns, who will be
playing with next year's starting quarterback. As reported out of

(01:27:18):
Austin yesterday, Arch Manning is, in fact, as we all knew,
going to remain in Austin for another season of the
preseason Hype this time so they are hosting the Michigan Wolverines.
I think it is very possible that between today December
sixteenth and then December thirty one, Jedfish is named the
new head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
Is his first act to fire the staffer. She's not
getting fired. I don't understand that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
Well, first of all, legal reasons outweigh all this stuff.
Remember the day they fired Sharon Moore and we're talking about, well,
they did this investigation and they knew about this, and
they knew about that, and they fired him in this
manner for cause. Well, he's going to have grounds to
sue them because of this. This and this we think

(01:28:08):
now we think is coming from the outside. It may
not be true, they may not have all the facts,
but it's the same type of thing here. I don't
think she's going to work every day. I don't think
she has job tasks to perform. But I think they're
trying to make sure that there is not anything on
the other side of this other than you don't work
here anymore. But I just I'm a litigation standpoint. No,

(01:28:28):
I get that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
But like, from the standpoint of these were two consenting
adults that were both in this inappropriate relationship, considering he
was married with kids, why is he the only one
that got fired.

Speaker 1 (01:28:40):
I know he's a scumbag, that's not in question here.

Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
Well do you necessarily landing an OnlyFans model after he
got released from jail?

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
Dude? Shake yourself, man, Well I don't. That's the part
of the story that while people like to talk about
on social media, I don't know. I don't have any
re and I know this Only Fans model has actually
come out to say some things about this, like produce
her own video not only fan style, to give people
a store her own side of this particular story. You subscribe,

(01:29:12):
you can get my side of the story. I saw
the video and I'm also not a subscriber because it
was basically, you know, she's just she's posted on social
wid Yeah, here's here's what I can tell you. Because
this wasn't true, and that wasn't true. She had indicated
some of the things that had been put out there
were not factual. Whether or not I believe her, again,
I don't know who to believe. It doesn't Canada be

(01:29:37):
a part of the story. Yes, because what I do
continue to hear is that basically the ad was saying,
would one of you just confirm this? You know, and
you know, and you know and you know, and the
two people that are involved obviously know, but they're lying
to me. Will somebody else who obviously knows, please just
tell me this is the proof I also have so

(01:29:59):
we can move on with our cleaning house. Let's get
to the real as worst secret type of deal. Yeah,
let's get to the thing that we all care about
the most. The next time Ohio State and Michigan play
each other and college game Day is there, how depraved
are the signs gonna be?

Speaker 2 (01:30:19):
Hmm? It will be like you just gave Ohio State
ammunition for the next millennium.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
Yeah, I mean they did win this time around, like
they won the game this year. It's kind of It's
usually a big deal for Ryan Day, who all he
does is win there except maybe this game, and except
maybe the championship, which he also now has. Like gosh,
what do you want? How many wins? How many perfect
seasons do you want?

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
Type of thing like this is what Urban Meyer looked
like with some of the like Lurid screen caps or
the video or whatever in that bar. But like this
is taking that, This is like inflating it with so
many steroids, like Charon Moore is a wow.

Speaker 1 (01:31:01):
Well, the Ohio State Michigan game at Ohio State next
year could be the second time that game day has
an Ohio State game. Now there won't be it won't be
any Michigan involved, but there's a reasonable chance they'll make
their way to Austin early in the season for that
rematch from last year's opening game. It's the second game

(01:31:21):
of the season this coming year on September twelfth.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
No, you know what they say about payback, Tell me
I can't. It's an FCC regulated TV and radio station.
Payback is a witch? Right, Well that rhymes with that? Okay,
So anyway is that something? Yes, the signs, well, the
signs won't be out of control because they'll confiscate them
exactly now, the clever signs will make their way to

(01:31:45):
our eyeballs? Can I Just as an aside on that subject,
we take carsonto his first raw. We go through all
the painstaking process of making a sign that says this
is my first WWE Monday Night Raw, and they confiscated
it on the way in tell me we're no longer
in the attitude era that I went to college in

(01:32:07):
without telling me we're no longer in that era.

Speaker 1 (01:32:09):
So was a sign free event, yeah, I'm saying because
his sign was Yeah, I all said it was, this
is my first raw, but nobody was allowed to have signs.

Speaker 2 (01:32:19):
It was for Cody Rhodes. It was something about Cody.
It was in his colors. I think I made two
trips to a craft store to get extra letters the
second time so we could put this sign together that we.

Speaker 1 (01:32:31):
Never got to use. I went back and made it though.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
Yeah, I went back and got it out of the
trash because I carefully put it in there when they
made me right in there at the skybridge, and then
I got I took it back out to take it home.

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
That's what you do at the airport.

Speaker 2 (01:32:43):
So I can show people later on when he's older,
that this is the sign we didn't use. Stupid. I
just there's a picture of like a gajillion signs during
like the early two thousands.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
And it's just times changed.

Speaker 5 (01:32:55):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:32:56):
Yeah, I know it's very corporate now. Everything's corporate different,
corporate correct, little yellow different.

Speaker 1 (01:33:05):
Not this do they still make nuprin.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
I don't really know. I didn't use it then and
I don't use it now. All right, Well, the Texans
are gonna need some if actually, the Texans are gonna
need to be handing out some for whoever is the
quarterback of the Raiders this upcoming week, because I think
no matter who suits up, Sheldon Rankins and company are
actually they're gonna demolish them.

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
It's gonna get ugly. They've had more than one game
of less than one hundred yards of offense, and they
weren't playing the Texans on those days.

Speaker 2 (01:33:32):
As the lines well were. They were both those games
against their division rivals in Denver.

Speaker 1 (01:33:37):
Oh, it doesn't matter who they played. They're bad, and
honestly I don't I'm much more looking at the Texans offense.
Just keep just building build some confidence, build some momentum,
build some rhythm, realize what you can do offensively. Because
their defense, while a better unit than their offense. Talking
about the Raiders, the Texans should not have They should

(01:33:57):
not allow themselves to let that offensive side of the
ball for them be dictated by how the Raiders play.
The scor Roers shouldn't matter either. The Texans should do
the exact same thing offensively against the Raiders, who I
think have a few more threats. Obviously, Max Crosby is
better than anybody that was on the field for the Cardinals,
but that should not The Texans need to be good

(01:34:18):
enough where that does not impact what they want to do.
An absence of Woody Marks and Nick Chubb should not
impact what they want to do if that's how it
gets played. We don't know the status of wood yet.
We don't know the status of Nick Chubb yet. They'll
be on the field tomorrow for the first time this
week to prepare for this Raiders game. But it's this
team's won six in a row. They look a lot
better offensively. Clearly, I recognize the competition, But at what

(01:34:40):
point this season when they were all and three, when
they were three and five, did you say, yeah, I'm
sure they'll be better than two touchdown favorites in a
game coming up later this year, which is what they
are this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
Old Man Rankins weighed in on this defense. Sheldon Rankins
with a similar to what we heard earlier this year,
looking left and right in the locker room.

Speaker 8 (01:35:00):
I kind of thought about this the other day where
now I looked to my left some toimes as well.
That's Daniel a little bit of my sting as Marskale
like what we got? All right, let me just make
sure what I have to bring to the table is
and I'm doing at the most elite level. W I
can do something. Yeah, I take pride in not only

(01:35:23):
doing it for me, but you know, being able to
put it on display for those guys as well. You
know sometimes it's it's cool when they come, you know,
show the old guy love and you know what rank
you still got it, Appreciate it, appreciate it, appreciate it.
You just keep doing you you know. So uh yeah, yeah,
I take pride and not only being able to do
it for me, but do.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
It for there such an easy team and specifically defense
to root for the Houston Texans. Hopefully they destroy whoever's
in front of them that the Raiders put out there
on Sunday. Plenty more discussion on that, and plenty more
discussion on NBA officiating, among other things. As we can
teach you hear in the four o'clock hour, Hey wex Yeah,

(01:36:06):
huh what dominated most of the first hour that we
were talking about what's subject basketball?

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
What about the.

Speaker 2 (01:36:14):
Basketball game last night in Denver, specifically.

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
The officiating with two point three seconds left in the
game or otherwise?

Speaker 2 (01:36:22):
Did you happen to catch the highlights or even some
of the game between the Lakers and Suns the other night.

Speaker 1 (01:36:29):
When the Lakers had a huge lead and then barely
hung on to win by two.

Speaker 2 (01:36:34):
Yes, And did you happen to catch the subplot within
that game, which is always a subplot within any game
that these two players are involved in.

Speaker 1 (01:36:43):
Dylan Brooks was ejected picked up a technical foul in
two separate instances, second one obviously leading to an ejection.
Lebron James a technical foul and brought it up late yesterday,
never really got into specifics. Maybe it was off the air.
Even I can't believe he wasn't ejected from that game
because he made so much contact with the official while
he was arguing with Dylan Brooks. He was mad about

(01:37:04):
a particular play. He had bumped into Dylan intentionally in
that instance because he was mad, and Dylan kind of
laughed and walked away. Fisher went in to separate the
two of them, and Lebron was so irate as the
official was, and there was no I didn't know it
was an official, as some excuses might be on the
football field or elsewhere. This person, the referee, was standing
right in front of him there, talking face to face,

(01:37:25):
and as the referee on a couple of occasions, was
slowly moving elsewhere to be done with this, you know,
Lebron grabbed him by the arm twice and pulled him
back in to continue the angry, upset complain conversation with him,
and that's grounds for an ejection. There was a pool
report from It wasn't the crew chief, but the Cruel

(01:37:47):
chief obviously handles the pool report. They basically said there
was no contact that should have led to anything other
than what was called in the game, which was nothing.
And I could not disagree more this kind of contact
like usually the league goes over board and like we
need to protect the officials physically as much as we can.
If you do anything, we're probably gonna over officiate that.

(01:38:07):
And they did the exact opposite here. What was there
something else? Well? You brought up that pull report.

Speaker 2 (01:38:13):
The question was asked, why was Dylan Brooks ejected from
the game, and the official, this was Dwayne Rankin of
the Arizona Republic, by the way, and the crew chief
was Tyler Ford, and Tyler said Brooks was ejected because
he received his second second technical foul from making unsportsmanlike
contact during the dead ball because he bumped Lebron James.

(01:38:36):
Question why was Devin Booker called for the late foul
on Lebron James three point attempt and Ford said he
made illegal contact to the right risk of James during
the shot attempt and was called for a defensive foul
early in the third Lebron James took issue with the
call and it appeared he made contact with the ref
Was that reviewed at any point? And Ford again during

(01:38:58):
instant replay review, we have the ability to review all
unsportsmanlike acts. There was no unsportsmanlike act observed for making
contact with the referee. Come on, dude, I don't don't
insult our intelligence. You got two players over here that
were specifically, according to this same official, given punishments of

(01:39:22):
some sort because of quote unsportsmanlike contact. But Lebron didn't
do anything unsportsmanlike. Like I'm so over this guy, Like,
hurry up, get out of the league. You're never gonna
be MJ. You never were gonna be MJ.

Speaker 1 (01:39:34):
He didn't do anything who Lebron. He didn't do anything
to elicit the reaction. The league did this completely on
their own. Yeah, no, for sure, but it's who it's about.
Would this have been the case right him? They made
the mistake. Oh no, It's just part of the package
you get with him. I mean, every game is the

(01:39:56):
same with with this guy. It's all of the things
are gonna be there. He's gonna be whining about officiating,
he's gonna make a scene, he's gonna.

Speaker 2 (01:40:03):
He's gonna do all the Lebron things he does.

Speaker 1 (01:40:06):
Maybe in games against the Suns. Well, it's I mean
Dylan Brooks specifically. Yeah, and listen, I'm not sitting here,
Dylan balls you went through there were unfortunately accurate. Devin
Booker's got to be smarter than that. Yeah, I mean
that was a bit. They accidentally had to throw the
ball to Lebron for a desperation heave basically, and he
fouled him. He did, and that obviously gave them the

(01:40:27):
opportunity he needed to stave off the loss. And Dylan Brooks,
this is what he was always up against. Tier The
same thing was up against in Memphis. If you're gonna
get a technical, then don't get the second one. He
does so many things that give the officials an opportunity
to hit him with the first one, double technical or
whatever it is. Well, then you can't get another one.
These are two totally separate incidents in the same game.

(01:40:50):
We're gonna tee you up for this. Well, we can't
not tee you up now just because you have one.
This isn't an ejection worthy act. It's it's just a technical.
But y aard have one, so you gotta go. He
leads the league in technicals against this year, does Dylan Brooks.

Speaker 2 (01:41:05):
But going back to the non call or the non
ejection and the non suspension, by the way, because that's
what the rule calls for. Physical contact suspension, any player
or coach guilty of intentional physical contact with an official
shall automatically be suspended without pay for one game. A
fine and or longer period of suspension will result if

(01:41:26):
circumstances so dictate nowe that's happening.

Speaker 1 (01:41:28):
Yeah, they have made a mistake and they have not
done anything about it, and they will just be moving on.

Speaker 2 (01:41:33):
And if this were any other player, do you think
they would actually go back and fix it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:37):
I know they're not going to for him. Not only
they don't really do that with when they miss a
we should have that's a technical like it would have
had to be over the top, because then they could
always go back and say, well, we got to suspend
you for a game. We gotta find you fifty k
whatever the case may be. Do you think I don't
think they will look at this particular contact in that way,
but they should have. It should have been officiated differently
in game, no question about it. It's those calls should

(01:42:00):
there's nothing to miss Like you're there, the other official
doesn't have to see anything. He grabbed your arm, grab
your whistle, put it in your mouth, you blow through it.
It makes a noise. It's not that hard.

Speaker 2 (01:42:12):
And on these reviews again, to be clear, it's secaucus
making the ruling. It's no longer the officials in the
building correct when they're reviewing this kind of stuff to
say on sportsmanlike conduct, the ref nosy made wet like them.

Speaker 1 (01:42:26):
They're not going back to usually they're going back to
look did this person enter the fight? Did this person escalate?
Was there a punch thrown? Was this above the shoulder.
Was this an open hand? They're not reviewing it to say, yeah,
uh hey, Mark, that's your arm and that's Lebron's hand
he's grabbing you. Did you not feel that, we're looking
at it right now. You didn't feel that? You didn't

(01:42:47):
feel Lebron pulling on you. You didn't feel that you
were being pulled because guess what, it doesn't matter who's
pulling you. It can't happen because the only people that
are there are NBA players. So somebody's pulling you, that
is a technical foul at the very very least. Did
you not you didn't feel that? Are these guns so
big and strong? You couldn't feel it? Dude? Like those

(01:43:08):
things should never be overlooked, not in game, and again
if you're taking it to a review, certainly not there,
but it should never get to that point. You don't
need to. You're reviewing these other plays because you're trying
to see did player X get hit by player Why?
You're one of the people you don't have to check
to see if he pulled you.

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
He pulled you.

Speaker 1 (01:43:25):
You're there, you're alive, you're a human, you're breathing, blood's
pumping through your body.

Speaker 2 (01:43:32):
Ah Man, What's how many more years does Lebron have
on his contract? Is this the last one on this
current one? Mm hmm, Maybe it'll finally just go. I mean,
he hadn't said it yet, but and I know they're
I think their their record is surprising this year relative
to what I expected so far. I mean it's early.

Speaker 1 (01:43:52):
Still, both of the players that are better than him
are not only better than him, but they're having unbelievably
successful seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:43:59):
Yeah, I know they've They are so good that they've
given him time to practice his golf swing during timeouts
in the huddle.

Speaker 1 (01:44:05):
Yeah, he's had a few better games here recently, but
he's he's just last year to this year, and maybe
as you get to a certain age there's a quicker
drop off. He was still pretty he was much better
last year, I'll say that. And I don't know what
his physical condition is. Clearly he has a back problem
among other things that he's probably playing through a little bit.
But he's just he's certainly not the same guy he

(01:44:26):
was just six months ago, just late last season when
they were playing late in the year. These other two guys,
Austin Reeves and Luca both at least in the primes
of their respective careers. Physically and age wise, they've been awesome.
There's nights where Luca doesn't even shoot well and they
still win. There are not many of them where Austin
Reeves hasn't shot well. But both of them have also

(01:44:47):
missed a little bit of time too. Probably a little
bit of a little bit of credit to JJ Reddick's
He's done a pretty good job as Lakers coach.

Speaker 2 (01:44:56):
They do.

Speaker 1 (01:44:56):
They gave him a much better team since his obviously,
plus he.

Speaker 2 (01:45:02):
Has to put up with Lebron twenty four to seven.
That's a job in and of itself. He's so unlikable
he plays basketball to me, so the likability factors doesn't
really reach. You're oversimplifying it. His whole for me, I
don't really you have to. You can't ignore it. You
can't pick and choose.

Speaker 1 (01:45:21):
Well, I can't what happened on the court. No, that
he should have been he shouldn't have just been tee,
that he should have been ejected. But I'm talking about
to off the court stuff, just the stuff he says.
He's just he's the most obnoxious player in the NBA.
It's not even close. I mean I'm talking about him
the same way I talk about it just about everybody
else other than Draymond. I just pay so it doesn't
cloud it doesn't. I don't let it overcome me by

(01:45:44):
watching him play. Draymond's a little different because I've said before,
I don't know how the players that are on the
other team respect.

Speaker 2 (01:45:50):
Him at all. Nobody respects him, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:45:52):
But they say that they do, and they act like
they do, and they wap him up like they do him.
How can you do that? That comes?

Speaker 2 (01:45:59):
That's that's similar to when these these like last night
or just any time where there's a questionable officiating of
some sort, and how many times do we routinely hear
it on national broadcasts where the actual broadcaster will be like, ah,
well there you got them right there, Like, No, you're
watching the same thing we are. It's not a foul,

(01:46:20):
or it's not this, or it's not that. Why are
you lying? You're making it worse.

Speaker 1 (01:46:25):
We'll get you into our signature segment halfway through. Our
number three is when we get you with it, And
today we got you for say, what.

Speaker 7 (01:46:32):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (01:46:33):
On a Tuesday? Pay what O day?

Speaker 8 (01:46:37):
I did? Now say what.

Speaker 1 (01:46:43):
Say What's our signature segment on a Tuesday, It's a
Doozy Today replay review of a foul called on Thompson
of Houston pursu into a coaches challenge was deemed unsuccessful.
Thompson clips Hardaway Junior's right heel with his left knee,
which is what causes him to fall forward before the
addictiontional foot contact as he is falling, as indicated earlier

(01:47:03):
on Houston's local sports talk radio Sports Talk seven nineties,
A team host of the program, Adam Wesler, said there
would be a CC listed next to this call, and
in fact there is congratulations. You're both wrong. There was
an incorrect call later in the game. Oh really, what
was it? Kevin Durant was called for a foul on

(01:47:24):
Nikola Jokic shot attempt. The comment is Durant cleanly blocks
Jokich's shot attempt. That was an incorrect call. I'm sorry,
another incorrect call. Hardaway Junior extends his arms into Shengun's
body and delivers contact that affects his pursuit of the rebound.

Speaker 2 (01:47:39):
There should have been a.

Speaker 1 (01:47:40):
Loose ball loose ball foul called on Tim Hardaway Junior
on Alprin Shangun in the fifth quarter. That was an
incorrect call. There was an incorrect call as Thompson dislodges
the ball from Murray and the ensuing body contact that
occurs as Murray secures the loose ball is marginal. That
was an incorrect call. That is a call we actually

(01:48:01):
discussed both last night when it happened and earlier today
on the show, and I sided with the official saying
after the ball was dislodged, it looked like he grabbed
his arm. The review actually says no, wex he should
not have been called for a foul there.

Speaker 2 (01:48:16):
So that's host of the A Team Adam Clanton said,
what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:48:20):
That's three calls on here that we discussed, But there
are three other calls that were all deemed incorrect, all
of which would have did benefit the Denver Nuggets.

Speaker 2 (01:48:35):
When did the first one go down? What was the
time and part of the game the first one. I'm
just trying to go back chronologically here just so I
know how badly the Rockets did get jobbed in hindsight,
with the first of the calls that we've brought up
was thoms Yeah, okay, and then every other call that
I mentioned that was incorrect. What happened in overtime with

(01:48:55):
under two minutes, and all of them benefited Denver.

Speaker 1 (01:48:58):
Huh foul on Durant on what should have been a
clean block.

Speaker 2 (01:49:01):
But we should stop whining about the officials here in Houston,
right Denver.

Speaker 1 (01:49:04):
Fans or alprin Shongoon should have gotten a foul call
in his favor when Hardaway hit him with one eight left,
but did not, and the foul called on Amn Thompson
when he had marginal contact with Jamal Murray was called
but should not have been.

Speaker 2 (01:49:18):
All of these are free throws, by the way, correct,
uh Deinopson. That one was Jamal Murray who had again
fifteen free throws last night. Jamal Gilgess Alexander living at
the foul line for one night.

Speaker 1 (01:49:32):
But he's not foulbating, he's just playing basketball. But if
it's a wrong call, then it just happened to be him.
And this is again, this is an officials mistake. He
didn't beg for it, he didn't do anything, he didn't fly.

Speaker 2 (01:49:42):
I'm glad you're recognizing the theme here. The officials suck
in the NBA. So I don't need to change his name.

Speaker 1 (01:49:48):
So the best part of all this.

Speaker 2 (01:49:50):
As per usual, these last two minute reports are maddening
for one reason or another. One is that yes, we
did screw up and there's nothing we're going to do
about it, but we're going to show you that we did.
And two we screwed up, there's nothing we're going to
do about it. Did you catch those sounded very similar?
I just like you can't. You can't expect fans casuals especially,

(01:50:17):
but I mean diehard fans, like these games do matter,
Unlike you know, baseball season, where this guy comes in
every day and says it's one of one sixty two,
and I'm supposed to just be like Oker, I can't
and I really can't do it here, and I really
can't do it in twenty twenty five, twenty six, where
the Western Conference is so packed tight it makes last

(01:50:37):
year look like it was Lucy Goosey and that was competitive.
These will matter in the final analysis. You play the
Denver Nuggets, who are one of the teams ahead of
you right now four times, well you've already lost to
him twice and the second time you lost to them,
there's some shenanigans going on I'm sorry if they're both
three point losses and one of them has I mean,
how long do I have to scroll until we're done

(01:50:58):
with this? And this is just the last two minutes.
Maybe you've got a freaking problem, NBA. Maybe you should
fix it instead of year after year after year just
acting like it's not there, but also admitting to it
at the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:51:10):
That's my favorite part about this. They just they're admitting
to is they don't like Kevin Durant. We actually have
him saying it because he said it last night, we
played it earlier. They're not gonna get every call, right.

Speaker 2 (01:51:19):
Yeah, I know that, and that's fine, and I'm glad
he's being classy about it.

Speaker 1 (01:51:22):
But I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:51:23):
If I played in this league, I would be worst
Park Avenue is that where the league offices are. I'd
be there so fast with my agent and with a
like a whole cauldron of whoever I needed to until
something changes.

Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
Well, again, getting every call is not reality, that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:51:40):
But you know what, you should get the obvious ones right,
and they routinely don't. And and you're defending NBA champion
is already being ostracized by every other fan base in
the league because of the way they're officiated. The best
team in the league, the Lampire.

Speaker 1 (01:51:54):
Yeah, just like happens in every other sport.

Speaker 2 (01:51:58):
He did this one. So I'm gonna go ahead and
pick on you too. You know what I love the most.

Speaker 17 (01:52:02):
I mean, SGA doesn't even go to the lion of
the most in the league. There's two other people that
go to the foul movie. That's how you sounded when
you said it, and it sound like your wife. No, no,
that's different. That's a different I've heard that voice.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
I just I just don't think it's too much to
ask for, like competent c I was gonna say competent officiating,
but I decided mid sentence to just league competent.

Speaker 1 (01:52:24):
Let's do this please. Yeah, every it's it happens a lot.
It definitely happens in these games that we know in
four months when we get to late March.

Speaker 2 (01:52:32):
Early April, use that one back in December.

Speaker 1 (01:52:34):
I gets have fifty five wins, the Rockets have fifty
four wins. Like, nobody wants to hear this, but he
just like the Murray foul shots that were a result
of that a men Thompson foul he made them both
and they put them up six and there's less than
a minute left. Do you defend that possession well the
rest of the way and it stays a four point game?
Do they ultimately score on that possession? We don't know,
but we do know you made it awfully easy for

(01:52:55):
them to score two points that they otherwise would have
had to work for. I think the Rocks can win
in Denver. I think the Nuggets can win in Houston.
They've already done that. I don't know that home court
advantage in this particular series unless there's a mile high
factor from a health standpoint that plays into it. I
think these two teams I really hope. I think I'm
saying it more out of hope that the Rockets and

(01:53:15):
Nuggets finished two and three, because I'm not ready to
say the Spurs or Lakers can't. I don't know what
kind of push the Lakers are really gonna have in
April and March or March in April, because they're counting
on players who are injured a lot in Luca or
playing at less than one hundred percent, and the other
one of the players they're counting on it's a thousand
years old, so they might not be pushing to land

(01:53:36):
a top four seed like maybe the Spurs could be.
But their issue is probably if we play Wemby thirty
five minutes a night until he gets hurt, we're gonna
win more. But should we play him twenty eight minutes
a night to try to get him to not be
hurt so we'll go to the playoffs as the five
or six seed and we don't care. They actually won
a bunch of games without him recently. He has just

(01:53:56):
come back and he is playing to That's the most
impressive part of the Spurs season by far to me.
Because we're a forge winning we don't want to acknowledge that.

Speaker 2 (01:54:04):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:54:04):
First of all, their draft pick is already very good.
Devin Vessel is finally in a role where hey man,
you're in the background. Now, you're not one of our
two best players. We're not asking you to do things
you can't do. Just take wide open shots all the
time and run the break. He's been great. Castle is
making improvements this year. Harrison Barnes is Trevor Arizaike on
a very good team, nauseating. He's a helpful player, even

(01:54:27):
though it doesn't it's hard to say, well, what does
he do well.

Speaker 2 (01:54:29):
He hits six threes against you if you're the Rockets.

Speaker 1 (01:54:31):
And Dearon Fox also gets to slide back into a
complimentary role. He's a great player, but it's not all
on his shoulders like it was in Sacramento.

Speaker 2 (01:54:40):
Well, it's just it's fantastic for them that their lottery
seasons always seem to work out and the Rockets always
get jobbed. If Webbin Yama's health stayed, that's what the
great workout. The sports gods know, they always know, and
they're undefeated. I want to continue this theme in the
next segment. Because you just thought you hated it the Dodgers,

(01:55:00):
how many give you proof that you don't hate him enough?

Speaker 3 (01:55:02):
Next the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:55:09):
That liner is funny in light of the joke I
made during the break. The next game the coach Sark
will be in charge of will likely be right here
on Sports Talk seven ninety when the last game of
the year where the Longhorns gets played December thirty first
is the Citrus Bowl. The Cheese at Citrus Bowl have
coverage for that beginning at one o'clock that afternoon two

(01:55:31):
pm kickoff. There are some probably Desmond Howard, who think
the next game that Steve Will coach could very well
be for somebody other than the Longhorns, maybe an NFL outfit.
I think there's a chance that the Texans' last opponent
and next opponent will both be looking for new head

(01:55:51):
coaches this coming off season. I think Jonathan Gannon's numbers
probably up in Arizona, maybe not all his fault. They
don't have a particular talented team. The quarterback play they've
had when he's been there has been very bad, and
there wasn't anything he could do about it because it's
Kyler Murray. They have won a lot of football games.
Three years later, I think Arizona will be ready to

(01:56:12):
make a change. I don't know that they're gonna look
at Monte Austin Fort's work as their general manager much
more favorably either, so I don't know if his seat
is warm. He did help their team some with the
deal he made with the Texans, but he helped the
Texans a lot more. It's nice to get more assets,
it's nice to land a nice player, a starter, But

(01:56:33):
you traded the Texans the ability to draft Will Anderson junior.
You could have just picked him, as many people thought,
that's what's exactly what they should and would do. It's again,
you get a nice asset haul for giving up the
right to draft a player who hasn't played in the
NFL yet, But three years later you've given up one
of the best players in the NFL by making that deal.
And I don't think it's that far fetched to have

(01:56:54):
believed that would happen this week.

Speaker 2 (01:56:56):
They have the Raiders. Raiders have already made other changes.

Speaker 1 (01:56:59):
Chip Kelly's been five tired, they recently made wholesale changes,
and Pete Carroll's in year one hasn't even been there
a full season last in his seventies, and I could
absolutely see Tom Brady and the Raiders deciding that they
made a mistake.

Speaker 2 (01:57:14):
Well, tom Brady has already beaten him once. Well it
was actually his defense that beat him technically when they
did not run the ball and instead tried to throw
and it got intercepted. But would be the obviously would
be the first time he'd beat him again. But I
wanted to get to this because I saw it didn't

(01:57:34):
anticipate this being in the show today, and then I
just realized, if my blood pressure has to be this high.
Everyone else's does.

Speaker 1 (01:57:42):
Too, all right, I'll say I can get there.

Speaker 2 (01:57:44):
This is why we are not going to have a
twenty twenty seven Major League Baseball season.

Speaker 1 (01:57:50):
Okay, Saber runs out of this upcoming season, So twenty
twenty six were good for I think.

Speaker 2 (01:57:55):
There's no cap, correct, there's no floor?

Speaker 1 (01:57:58):
Okay, act correct.

Speaker 2 (01:58:01):
Remember when we would make fun of Bobby Bania day
every year? That is a huge, huge eye roll day
for me. But it's it's the essence of it is factual.
It's so stupid they're still paying him. Oh, I mean,
I guess why do you say it like that because
it's only one point two million?

Speaker 1 (01:58:22):
Because the money is it matters to the individual, it
doesn't matter to the team.

Speaker 2 (01:58:28):
But it was a stupid thing for them to do,
I guess. I mean, I know, inflation and all that
kind of stuff makes it a drop in the bucket.

Speaker 1 (01:58:35):
Now, like the fact that he's getting deferred money sounds ridiculous.
They the bad part of the deal was they thought
he was good. The bad part of the deal was
they paid him to play for him at that stage
of the courier details.

Speaker 2 (01:58:47):
All right, The real reason I bring this up, do
you know, just take a guess how much deferred money
the Dodgers will nine different players on their current roster, not.

Speaker 1 (01:59:03):
So just the total figure. Yeah, so show hey, you
want the list?

Speaker 2 (01:59:08):
Mookie yep, Will Smith yep, Glass Snow, No, he's not
one of them. Uh, Blake Snell Lake Snell, duh, Freddy Okay,
that's six, Tay Oscar former astro okay seven, Tommy Edmond
okay eight, and Tanner Scutt all right, that's nine. So

(01:59:29):
show hey, got seven hundred million.

Speaker 1 (01:59:31):
We wanna do some rough math one live right now?
How much? Just gonna do his rough math and then
I'll make eighty is his showy. Six hundred and eighty
seven hundred million is deferred.

Speaker 2 (01:59:39):
Between the years of twenty thirty four, which seems like
it's just doesn't even get and twenty forty three.

Speaker 1 (01:59:45):
It's like my mortgage. M h uh, Mookie Betts. This
should be in the neighborhood of a billion dollars in
deferred money.

Speaker 2 (01:59:52):
One point zero six, yeah, billion. And they haven't even
signed Kyle Tucker yet, nor are they going to. This
is after Edwin Diaz, which, by the way.

Speaker 1 (02:00:03):
He got sixty nine million over three years. Hmm.

Speaker 2 (02:00:06):
Nice. Do you want to know what the uh Dodgers
payroll in twenty thirty seven already looks like? Yes, show
Hay is gonna make sixty eight million that year. This
is twenty thirty seven. Yes, what do you think his
numbers are going to be? Like?

Speaker 5 (02:00:19):
Not?

Speaker 2 (02:00:20):
Existent? You don't think he's gonna be playing in twenty
thirty seven? No, Okay, Mookie Betts will be making eight
million that year. What do you think his numbers will
look like? Even less existent than the previous guy you asked? Okay,
Blake Snell five point five, Freddy Freeman five, even, Will
Smith five, even, Tommy Edmond two point five, Taoscar two

(02:00:44):
point three, five Tanner two point one, and Edwin Diaz
bringing up the rear with a mere nine hundred grand.
That is ninety four point three five million that are
going to be paid to nine players who will be
so far retired in twenty thirty seven. That's more money

(02:01:05):
than the Rays, Pirates, White Sox, A's, and Marlins each
paid their entire rosters this past season.

Speaker 1 (02:01:13):
And you'd probably agree that the chances of the Dodgers
winning the World Series in twenty thirty seven is still
very high.

Speaker 2 (02:01:22):
No, why not because this has to change.

Speaker 1 (02:01:25):
Oh, because the rules will have changed.

Speaker 2 (02:01:27):
Okay, I mean, and look, I don't as much as
I hate them, and everybody should, including Dodgers fans, they
should hate them.

Speaker 1 (02:01:34):
You going to Dodgers stay to day?

Speaker 10 (02:01:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:01:36):
I hate the Dodgers, But what am I gonna do? Exactly?
Dodger Dog's got to be consumed. They've got A. They're
in the middle of a twenty five year, eight point
three five billion dollar local media rights deal with Spectrum Nice.
So A, their strategy is working. B they've got the money.

(02:01:57):
You can't if you, I mean, if you, if you're
major League Baseball and you want the Dodgers to win
every year, which they do, if the Yankees aren't winning,
of course, which is clearly not happening, right because it's
rob Manfers and plus, how's not gonna do this. He's
gonna we got cut back man. We're the Yankees, we
think we are. We do not have money. I mean,
if you're cool, is that? But like I'm telling you

(02:02:19):
right now, if the Dodgers keep winning, and it looks
like they will, I know they sign the best players.
Doesn't ever guarantee, but it has lately.

Speaker 1 (02:02:27):
So this is a billion dollars in deferred payments in
twenty thirty over the time between now and twenty thirty seven. Well,
and the guy who owns the team, the CEO, he's
a CEO of a a financial services firm, same guy
who now owns the Lakers. They firm, he's the CEO
of like a three hundred and fifty billion dollar asset firm.

(02:02:50):
So he's somehow gonna be able to siphon off a
billion dollars of that three hundred and fifty billion for
these baseball payments.

Speaker 2 (02:02:56):
Well, he doesn't gonna be Okay, he doesn't even have
to worry about the firm when he has eight point
three to five billion just from the TV deal that
no one else has. That's fair, totally fair. I mean,
it's not the NFL, it's not any other league. They're
the only league that can do this. Hey, buy that
player on credit, pay him later when he's in his sixties.

Speaker 1 (02:03:20):
Showy is only going to be in his forties. Nope,
he and be in a rocking chair, cash and checks
if he wanted to. He could probably still he could
probably still play one of the positions.

Speaker 2 (02:03:28):
Generational wealth, generational talent. And by generation, I mean it'll
be in the next generation when he's getting that wealth
because it's on credit.

Speaker 1 (02:03:36):
Football at five, being that it will be five is
next arrived. At the final hour of today's program. We
get it started each and every weekday afternoon with Football
at five. Wex here with you along with Josh Jordan,
as we give you this final segment of the program.
Just after this past week of the NFL came to
its conclusion, We've got playoff clinching scenarios all across the AFC,

(02:03:58):
none of which include or Houston Texans. There are no
scenarios for them to clinch a playoff berth. However, inside
their division, Jacksonville can clinch a playoff berth. They cannot
clinch the division this weekend, but a Jacksonville victory, along
with a Houston loss or tie and three other or

(02:04:19):
three other things happening would get them into the postseason.
Doesn't mean they've won the division. It just means there
aren't any other teams left that can pass them and
push them outside the postseason. There's already just nine teams
left with any playoff possibilities. The Miami Dolphins were taken
off of the list last night with their loss to

(02:04:40):
the Steelers. Obviously, the Kansas City Chiefs were taken off
the list the day before Sunday with their loss to
the Chargers. Subsequently, they also lost Patrick Mahomes for the
remainder of the season, possibly some of the next season.
He's already had ACL surgery and during the ACL surgery
they also repaired an LCL injury suffered up the very
same time. But Jacksonville has playoff clinching scenarios. The Chargers

(02:05:03):
have playoff clinching scenarios, and actually their clinching scenarios are identical,
except just insert the different team. An Indianapolis loss or
a Houston loss coupled with a victory by either the
Jags or the Chargers would clinch a playoff berth for
either of those teams. Then new factor in the ties. Similarly,
if there's a loss or tie, then same thing holds.

(02:05:26):
They're going to know, we're going to know most of
the playoff teams pretty quickly. We're not going to know
where these teams are situated though, for quite some time.
And the schedule this weekend with these games that are
involved pretty good matchups. Obviously, the Denver Jacksonville game is
for most on our minds because that is seemingly the
last remaining opportunity for the Texans to win the AFC South.

(02:05:49):
We can act like Philip Rivers is capable of doing
something with that, but I don't think that is the case.
I also think they already in the Colts case, they
already shot their shot. The best game they're going to
play with Philip Rivers was this past Sunday. Newness for him,
excitement from maybe we have a chance. We don't know
what we can't do. Teams hadn't seen him, even though

(02:06:09):
it was pretty I thought it was pretty obvious how
he was not going to be able to play, and
he went at exactly like that. Everything's underneath. He can't move,
he can't throw down the field. They don't want him
to take too much time. They obviously don't want him
to get hit. They'd love to run the football. Everybody
knows what they're going to do, and that'll be make
things pretty difficult on Shane Stike and to come up
with a game plan that will be successful. I think
his game Penn last week was successful. They had the

(02:06:32):
lead with under a minute to go. They gave up
a field goal lose it after they got their own
field goal to take the late lead. But the Jaguars
losing a game is the only way the Texans have
any chance of winning this division, landing a home game
to open up the postseason, and quite possibly landing one
of the top three seats. They're probably not going to
be the fourth seed either way, because the winner of

(02:06:53):
the AFC North appears headed into that spot could be
determined before they even get to the last game of
the season. Week eighteen is a Ravens Steelers game. Ravens
already lost to these Steelers at home a couple weeks ago,
and now the Ravens also trail the Steelers by a game.
But back to the Jags. In the Texans, Jags have
three games remaining. They begin those last three with a

(02:07:15):
trip to Denver Denver and the Colts. They are two
road games, and then they finished with the Titans. The
only way the Jaguars are losing to the Titans in
the final week of the season is if their playoff
seed is already locked up or if they have an
injured quarterback. So now you're left with two games, both
road games. Broncos and Colts. Texas can't win the division

(02:07:37):
unless the Jaguars lose to either the Broncos or the Colts.
If they lose to both, then you have an even
bigger cushion and you could potentially go two to one
and win the division. But three and zero is almost
surely the only way the Texans can get there. Raiders
this week, go to the Chargers next week, and they're
hosting the Colts in the final week.

Speaker 2 (02:07:54):
If I just told you I didn't think the.

Speaker 1 (02:07:55):
Colts had much of a chance to win the rest
of the way, I don't think they have much of
a chance to beat the Texans, and we knew this
going into their final few weeks. The five final five
games on the schedule for the Colts, as they were
already in their tailspin, were road games at the Jags
and Seahawks.

Speaker 2 (02:08:13):
They lost both of those.

Speaker 1 (02:08:14):
They got two home games these next two weeks against
ten win teams, the ten win Niners, the ten win Jaguars,
and then they close with what will likely be a
double figure win team, the Texans. Texas are at nine today,
will be at least ten by Sunday at seven, and
hopefully at eleven. The following Sunday because they have a
Saturday game. The Colts aren't gonna win a game. The

(02:08:35):
Colts are gonna finish eight and nine. They were eight
and two, They're gonna finish eight nine, and they're gonna
finish the season on a seven game losing streak, and
they're not gonna matter in the playoffs. And as they
keep losing, the only spot that's remaining that won't be
taken is the North winner. The Texans will already been,
the Chargers will be in, the Bills will be, and
all these teams will have this clinched playoff spot before

(02:08:56):
we get there. Now. I mentioned this earlier, and here's
where we're gonna get two. CJ. Stroud's work this season.
Texans are nine to five. He missed three games, they
were all wins when he plays. This team is six
and five. Doesn't sound very good for a team that
many are pointing to as a possible We don't want
to play that team in the playoffs. They have a
chance to win at all this season, and I do

(02:09:16):
believe they do, but a record of six wins in
the eleven games that this particular quarterback starts doesn't sound
very very good, So let's separate it. The last three
times he started all wins, first three times he started
all losses, this team has played dramatically differently. CJ included,

(02:09:37):
just if you start the season after those first three losses,
and statistically speaking and offensively speaking, that's clearly where the
biggest jump has been. The defense has been better than
the first three games. The defense is great the first
three games, but they've been even better since the first
three games. I brought this up to Tamiko Ryans when
we spoke yesterday, that this team just completed their eighth

(02:10:01):
game of the season without giving the ball away. Texans
are now number two in the NFL, number one in
the AFC in turnover differential. They're plus fourteen. The Bears
are plus twenty, the only team ahead of them. Jacksonville
and Pittsburgh are right behind them, But fourteen is the
best turnover differential in the entire NFL. And like I said,
Sunday's game was the Texans eighth game out of fourteen.

(02:10:25):
But they haven't turned the ball over at all any times. Zero.
Go back to those first three losses. Texans gave it
away twice against the Rams, gave it away three times
against the Jaguars, that's five turnovers. They've played eleven games
since then, also five turnovers. They've only turned the ball
over five times in eleven games. They're nine to two.

(02:10:50):
I don't need to analyze the rest of the team.
I don't need to analyze the opponents. I don't need
to look at see Davis mill start to CJ. Stroud start.
I don't need to look at how many sacks the
defense had. I don't need to look at how many
points they allowed. I don't need to look at how
many points they scored. You're going to be awesome in
the NFL if those are your turnover numbers. They haven't
had a game where they've lost the turnover battle but

(02:11:12):
one time since the first three games. First three games
they lost it twice, lost to the Rams, lost to
the Jacks. The only game they've been negative in a
game in turnover margin was their win over the Colts
a couple weeks ago. Daniel Jones was still out there.
The games that surround it plus two plus three plus
three plus three plus three plus two, over and over

(02:11:34):
and over again, additional opportunities to score, the defense actually
scoring themselves. Yes, some of these resulting field goals, But
you just have so many more opportunities to make it
harder to beat you. And there is a balance between
trying to be super awesome super risky. We're going for
it all the time with these high risk play calls

(02:11:56):
offensively and not turning the ball over. And the Texans
are coming off there arguably their most successful offensive game
of the season. They've had a forty four point game.
But I'm looking at their yards. They averaged more yards
per play in this game than any other game this season.
No other game did they average more yards per play,
and they obviously scored forty and they didn't turn the
ball over even once. Now CJ. Stroud obviously has a

(02:12:19):
lot to do with where this offense is today. So
let's cut his season off at the same point in time.
Three games into the season, he wasn't playing well, the
offense wasn't playing well, and they didn't have any wins. Okay, well,
how about since then? Well since then they've gone nine
to two, And since then he started eight of those
eleven games. The three games he didn't start where all
Davis Mills starts. His individual performance not very good. His

(02:12:42):
individual performance in the fourth quarter of the Jacksonville game
was out of this world. But overall, for those three games,
he was a backup quarterback. That's how he played, that's
what he looked like, and those are the results they got.
They managed to win those games. They managed to also
not turn the ball over. He had a one hundred
and thirty team pass attempt streak without throwing an interception.

(02:13:03):
Do you see the similarity. Just don't give the ball away,
don't make it easy on the other team. It is
that simple when you have a defense like this. But
if this is all to make a point about, they're
better and can be better, and I think are going
to be better because CJ has been better. CEJ has
been very, very good for a very long stretch of time,
basically half the season, the last eight games for CJ,

(02:13:25):
which covers the team's last eleven games. Here's the list
of AFC quarterbacks with a higher passer rating than his
There's Drake May, There's Josh Allen. That's it. Those are
the only two quarterbacks that have produced a better passer
rating since Week four of the season. This is Week
sixteen coming up Sunday. That's a pretty long period of

(02:13:47):
time with a break because of the concussion protocol, but
a pretty long period of time to be playing like
one of the most successful, most effective, most efficient quarterbacks
in the AFC. The only team that really matter. Doesn't
really matter if he's out playing Jordan Love, doesn't really
matter if he's out playing Jalen Hurtz or Matthew Stafford
or Jared Goff. He's not playing them. They're obviously not

(02:14:09):
on the schedule, and they're not gonna be on the
schedule except for one of them. Maybe if you get
to the Super Bowl, and it only really matters how
he performs against the Bills defense or the Patriots defense
or et cetera. AFC defenses, and they maybe will see
a defense that caliber the rest of the season because
they do have a playoff team in front of him,
and the Chargers defense is playing better here in the

(02:14:30):
second half of the season significantly better. Go look at
their overtime win against the Eagles two weeks ago. That
was not a good day of football for Justin Herbert,
was not a good day of football for their offense.
It's great that they scored all those times, all those
field goals and overtime to get there. Their defense turned
the ball over for them five times and saved the
game for them with the last turnover inside the five

(02:14:53):
yard line with the Eagles trying to score the game
winning touchdown in overtime.

Speaker 4 (02:14:58):
C J.

Speaker 1 (02:14:59):
Stroud, I guess quietly, has played a lot like his
rookie season over more than half of this season. You're
gonna continue with more of the football discussion specific to
c J. Stroud, his tight end and wide receiver and
their opponents this week. Earlier today, Las Vegas Raiders head

(02:15:20):
coach Pete Carroll inter giving an interview and talking about
what their quarterback depth chart looked like.

Speaker 2 (02:15:26):
Well, we see Aidan O'Connell.

Speaker 1 (02:15:28):
How do you think about Kenny Pickett after his first
start with the team, and where things stand with Gino Smith.
He wouldn't commit to anything, but he did say what
they saw from Gino earlier in the day looked very
good and that he was ready to go. Wouldn't commit
to saying Geno Smith is going to be the starter.
They want to see how he feels after that. They
want to see how he looks and feels after Wednesday's

(02:15:49):
first practice basically of the week. But I would say
it's trending towards Geno Smith returning to the field. They
the team might kind of play it like the Commanders,
though Commanders are sitting Jayden and Dameals for the rest
of the season. He's healthy enough to play, if not
this week, certainly one of the next two weeks.

Speaker 2 (02:16:04):
But they don't want to play him. They don't want
to get him hurt more. They don't want to.

Speaker 1 (02:16:07):
Run the risk, and also doesn't bother them as an organization.
If they improve their own draft position lose games, it's great.
They just won last week with Marcus Mariota. They very
well could win again, but they're not going to put
their real starting quarterback in jeopardy by putting them out there.
I don't think the Raiders have to worry about their quarterback. Really.
Their quarterback of the future is not on the roster.

(02:16:29):
Their quarterbacks of the president aren't very good. They might
lose regardless, and they're playing the Texans much like the
Commanders and who they might be up against. Last week,
the Raiders played the Philadelphia Eagles. They were shut out.
Both of their shutouts this season have been by the
identical thirty one nothing score. The other shutout was against
the team that signed and going to the playoffs. The
Kansas City Chiefs shut out the Raiders thirty one nothing.

(02:16:50):
The Raiders lost their eighth consecutive game. The Raiders have
gone six consecutive games without scoring more than seventeen points.
They've given up twenty four more points in five consecutive games.
They've given up thirty or better in three of those
six losses, and add another four games where they've given
up at least thirty points. Texans are favored by fourteen
and a half points for a reason. If Gino Smith's plays,

(02:17:13):
they're a little bit more competent on offense, but they
shouldn't be doing anything to this teams. And I don't
care if rock Bars has a thousand catches, it's not
going to result in a lot of points for the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (02:17:23):
Ashton gent He's not gonna be able to run. I
don't think.

Speaker 1 (02:17:26):
I think the Texans will have to figure things out
a little bit on the interior of their defensive line
because it's been back to back weeks where they've lost
a defensive tackle for the season. Last week, it was
timp settle after the win over the Colts. This week,
it is Mario Edwards Junior. After the win over the Cardinals,
both of them lost for the season, foot injury for Settle,
a peck injury for Edwards, and an Edward's case. It

(02:17:46):
happened very late in the game, unfortunately, but they will
have already gotten Akwon Jones familiar with what they do.
He was claimed on waivers midweek and played sixteen snaps
against the Cardinals this past Sunday, likely gonna be a
part of the rotation this week. Juar Jordan's situation with
the team really didn't change. It's more of a logistical thing.

(02:18:06):
If he's going to need to be up and he's
on the practice squad, then you have to use another elevation,
which would have been a second there's still two games remaining.
I think they ultimately just saw that, well, he's gonna
need we're gonna play him, and in the fact that
we're gonna play him and we're concerned about the health
of both of our other two running backs, just put
him on the roster. They put Mario Edwards Junior on

(02:18:27):
ir yesterday, so that already cleared a roster spot today
was officially taken by Jordan. Jordan is no longer on
the practice squad. He is on the active roster. Another
draft pick of Nick Cassario's safety Brandon Hill from pitt
who had an injury riddled time with the Texans where
he spent time on the practice squad and was ultimately
let go. He is now back on the practice squad.

(02:18:50):
So a couple of things that I wanted to add
to the discussion I had last segment. Action Network put
a little chart together looking at quarterback efficiency here in
twenty twenty five, and for the most part, I should
say it is segmented like I was segmenting it earlier.
How about the last eight weeks, last eight games quarterback
efficiency as long as the player had been on the

(02:19:11):
field for one hundred and twenty five plays. You got
one side of the chart measuring EPA per play. You
got another side of the chart measuring completion percentage above expecting.
You know CPOE. You plot all the quarterbacks on it.
Who's above the plot line, Who's way in the upper
right corner meeting they're outstanding in EPA per play and
outstanding in completion above expected. Let's take a look at

(02:19:35):
the upper right Who do you see? I see Drake
May I see Josh Allen, I see Matt Stafford, teams
that are quarterbacking the number one seed or the number
two seed, or a team with ten wins or more
through fourteen games. I see Jordan Love they're in position
to win their division. And I see CJ.

Speaker 2 (02:19:54):
Stroud.

Speaker 1 (02:19:55):
CJ. Stroud, who ranks above all of them in APA
per play over the last nine weeks of the NFL
eight weeks of the NFL season.

Speaker 2 (02:20:04):
CJ. Stroud's playing very very well. I think he just
played his best game of the season. It's not just
the numbers. Did he make good decisions? Is he seeing
the field properly? Does he know when to get rid
of the football?

Speaker 1 (02:20:17):
Are he and his receivers on the same page this week?
They were? I spent time last week saying, I think
he's on the same page with Nico Collins, and I
don't know if he's on the same page with anybody else.
I don't think there was much of a connection play
by play, you know, thirty snaps in and fifty snaps
into certain games with he and Jaden Higgins or Jalen Knowle,
who sees the field a lot less, Jack and Christian Kirk,

(02:20:40):
who's been on the field and been used offensively very
very infrequently lately, and I think it is beneficial. It's
not anti Christian Kirk, it's anti that personnel group. Texans
won with two tight ends more than they have in
the entire season in this game against the Cardinals, and
I don't know if they think this is something that
can work. It's better defenses, but I bet you will

(02:21:01):
see a lot more of it again this week with
Katee Stover and Dalton Schultz being on the field very
very very quietly, so quiet, I.

Speaker 2 (02:21:09):
Haven't even mentioned it.

Speaker 1 (02:21:10):
Dalton Schultz is going to catch another pass this year,
and when he does, he'll be the all time leading
pass receiver in a season for the Texans at tight end.
He's got seventy receptions this year. No Texans tight end
has ever had more, tied currently with Owen Daniels from
the twenty two thousand and eight season when he also

(02:21:31):
had seventy catches, no one's ever had more than seventy,
and Dalton sitting at seventy right now. Clearly he's become
a bigger part of the offense, and not just as
all right, we don't have anything air dump it off
to him. But actually trying to move the chains, actually
trying to get in better down and distance, not necessarily
even throwing the ball down the field. What did you
also see from Dalton and CJ? Together, long developing play,

(02:21:54):
extend the play by scrambling, and you're in the red zone,
wide open in the back corner of the end zone
Dalton Schultz. That was the touchdown pass in this past
weekend's game. CJ stepped up in the pocket, rolled out
to his left end. Probably could have run it in,
but there's no reason to absolutely wide open after that
long of a play, You're gonna have open receivers. Defenders

(02:22:17):
are not gonna be able to stay with guys that long,
even in the end zone, even with the compressed field,
and even with more defenders in the area. Dalton Schultz
know where to go and c J. Stroud found him
and it was a very easy pitch and catch. Touchdown,
three touchdown, zero interception. Games unfortunately, are not a staple
a persistent part of CJ. Stroud's three years in the NFL.

(02:22:38):
It would be nice if they were. Those are usually
games you can't lose. Very rare that you lose a
game like that. He just doesn't have very many of
those games. He has four games in his whole career
with three touchdown passes or more, and two of them
are this season. Two in his first two years combined

(02:23:00):
to this year, a three touchdown zero interception game to
this year won the rest of his career. There are
a lot of things that he's doing significantly better. And
guess what else goes right along with it. You'll never guess. Unfortunately,
Ac is not here to hear this. It's their offensive line.
They're definitely playing the best five guys they have. They're

(02:23:22):
definitely making fewer mistakes, not zero mistakes. There have been
some missed assignments. There have been some one on one
matchups where they've just flat out been beaten. I think
you've seen Woody Marx and now Jawar Jordan and Nick
Chubb all season long do a remarkably good job. Daria
is a good bowally as well. In Passpro, when they're
the last line of defense, you've got six on the line,

(02:23:45):
they send seven, and that running back has to know
where that rush is coming from and has to get
there and has to lay that player away from CJ.
So he's got time to make that throw. It's been working,
you know. Credit to Trent Brown for being in a
position to help this team, battling injuries the last several
seasons on the pup list, all through training camp, put
on the active roster when the season began, and ultimately

(02:24:08):
got healthy enough where when his time came and his
number was called, he played well. Huge, huge credit to
Titus Howard. Almost impossible to do what he's done this year,
play three different positions on the offensive line, start and
play entire games at three different positions on the offensive line,
and play great at all three spots. He was already
playing good right tackle for this team. He has now

(02:24:30):
played good right and left guard for this team. And
he's not going anywhere. If the Texans are looking to
add a player on the offensive line in the draft,
I'm sure they could take a guard, and I'm sure
they could take a tackle. I don't think that they're
going to move Titus Howard. Again, I do think they're
going to have a new right tackle. It's currently Trent Brown,

(02:24:51):
and so we can wait till we get to the
offseason or truly have that discussion. But Jak Andrews ed
Ingram and Titus Howard flanking him, tayor Sree flanking them.
It's the best offensive line group they could have and
finally did find for this season. They hopefully can play
the rest of the season every single snap, and then
when you get to the playoffs, you might be in

(02:25:12):
a much better situation when they were you were a
year ago. Yes, even with Laramie Tunsel. No, they're not
among the best the offensive lines in football, but you
don't have to be. Just don't be among the worst.
And we're about five six weeks into that being the
case for a Texans team that isn't doing anything but
winning repeatedly, six straight times. Half way through the final

(02:25:40):
hour of the program. Each and every day, that means
five thirty. That means time for in case you missed it,
and since we haven't mentioned it, you haven't missed it.
In case you don't recall what we do each and
every day here on the A team got tickets to
give away, we'll do that in the final segment of
the show today. We'll be giving away a pair of
tickets to see Ron White March twenty seventh, Smart Financial
Center right there in Sugland. Tickets on sale via smart

(02:26:03):
financial Center dot net. Pair of tickets to Monster ENERGYMA
Supercross that's at at RG Stadium January thirty, first tickets
on sale for that event at ticketmaster dot com. Give
a pair to each of those in the final segment
of the program. Something you heard on today's show, maybe
even during this segment, that is what we will ask
you about. Then if you'll remember the answer, then you'll

(02:26:25):
have a chance to win those tickets. A couple of
items I wanted to get to before I throw things
over to josh On in case you missed it today,
because I just don't think we brought it up here
on the show when it happened and it became official
earlier today.

Speaker 2 (02:26:39):
On the baseball side of things.

Speaker 1 (02:26:41):
Jorge Polanco's very surprising season a year ago with the
Seattle Mariners. Remember last off season, coming off a bad
Mariner season, Astros were interested. Maybe it was a little
bit too rich for their blood. He got about eight
million to play for Seattle. He was great, didn't have
an awesome postseason althothough he did have a couple of

(02:27:03):
awesome swings and the Mets said, yeah, that sounds like
a forty million dollar contract. Two years, forty million, twenty
million A year for or Hey Polanco. They made that
signing official today, So if he's good, great, he plays
for the Mets and not the Mariners anymore. If he's
not well, then the Mariners probably made the right decision,
though they still have opened a hole in their lineup

(02:27:26):
by not having Polanco moving forward. They did resign Josh Naylor,
so they're probably gonna be okay. A couple of other notes,
A couple of different people have reported that the Arizona
Diamondbacks aren't interested in free agent third baseman Alex Regman,
same as last offseason. I don't know how seriously he

(02:27:49):
got into discussions with them last year. I'm not sure
what kind of future he thought they had then. One
reason he might still be interested is because they always
find a way to compete. They do have talent, both
offensively and with their pitching staff. They probably have some
flexibility with their decision making if they were to bring
him in, and could still unload some pretty talented players,

(02:28:11):
whether it's on the high scale or the low scale.
From a financial standpoint, there's a lot of good things
they could put together. I could see him being interested,
and they also got Meryl Kelly back. If you missed
that news over the weekend. Merril Kelly is signing with
the Arizona Diamondbacks. He pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks all
the way up until last year's trade deadline, when the

(02:28:32):
Rangers orchestrated a deal for him. He pitched very well
for the Rangers. They also gave up three prospects to
get him, and now all four players are back with
the other team. He's a diamondback, all three prospects are
in their system, and the Rangers obviously did not have
a postseason and now don't have him either. Always a
dangerous play when you trade for players on an expiring

(02:28:54):
deal at the deadline, costly from a prospect standpoint, and
you'd clearly run the risk that they will no longer
be with you after that season. And that's exactly what
happened to the Rangers. We are not crying at all.
What else do we have today, Josh, Well, we got.

Speaker 14 (02:29:10):
Some NFL news I'd like to get into here, because
it's nice to be a Texans fan where you know
who your quarterback is. Not so much if you're a
Dolphins fan. Mike McDaniels saying everything on the table when
asked about a possible QB change, and we look back
at to his last performance. He was six for ten
for sixty five yards and a pick through the first
three quarters, added to his numbers in garbage time. But yeah,

(02:29:33):
looks like the Dolphins are willing to roll the dice
and see what else They have.

Speaker 1 (02:29:37):
Gave his numbers earlier on the show, and I'm glad
you gave the numbers through three quarters while they were
getting whacked. Put up fifteen points in the game, had
a bunch of late stats. He was twenty three of
twenty eight. He had a passer rating of one to
twelve point three. He had two touchdowns in the game.
Looks like he played fine. When you complete six passes
through three quarters and your team's down three scores, you

(02:29:57):
didn't play fine. And that's exactly factly what basically, almost
word for word, his head coach said today. The quarterback
play wasn't good enough, and everything is on the table.
What is also on the table was a pen and
paper and it came from the Dolphins and was shoved
across the table to Tuatagovailoa, who is under contract through
twenty twenty eight and is set to bring in about

(02:30:21):
one hundred and forty million during that time period, a
player whose base salary rises to thirty nine million next year,
and if he were to be taken off the roster
this offseason, it would be I read it would be
the largest cap hit ever in the NFL. There'll be
another one that's bigger later and if Sean Watson gets
moved on from Reese in the in this offseason, his

(02:30:43):
will be the highest and we'll see other players there.
But for the time being, that's what the Dolphins are facing,
and the idea that somebody would trade for this player
who and why, and that's everybody that writes about it.
There's a possibility they could move him, and you know
the Dolphins will look to do it. Pick up the
phone and call some team, call some quarterback needy team

(02:31:04):
and say, do you want an injury prone, unsuccessful, super
highly paid quarterback who rats out his locker room when
he hits the podium? Oh, did I not do a
good sales job? Your answer is no? Okay, well, at
least I learned a valuable lesson that were screwed. They
fired their GM. It doesn't look like they're going to
fire their head coach. And they do not have a
quarterback of the future. We like teams like that in

(02:31:26):
the AFC. Not bad enough to draft at the top
of the draft, not good enough to compete for a
playoff spot. The injury to Tyreek Hill did not impact
their future at all. Really good player might have impacted
this season, but he's not a part of their long
term future. That injury didn't derail the Dolphins. They're just
not a very good football team. They're an average team

(02:31:48):
with a slightly below average quarterback.

Speaker 2 (02:31:51):
Who played well enough in his first couple of years.

Speaker 1 (02:31:52):
As a first round pick to get paid because they
didn't feel like they had any other options. That's not
usually the way to go.

Speaker 2 (02:31:59):
Yes, Josh, I like where the Texans are as opposed
to their situation at the quarterback spot.

Speaker 14 (02:32:04):
What else, Yeah, a little more NFL stuff. Davante Adams
looks like he got hit by a sniper. His hamstring
went out in his last game over the weekend. Now
they're saying he might still play against the Seahawks. I
get a huge game, but it's on Thursday night, and
I just don't buy it. I don't think Adams is
getting out there.

Speaker 1 (02:32:22):
What do you think you see animal House. Sure, do
you know what Senator John Bluetarski's grade point average was,
I do not zero point zero. Davante Adams is not
playing Thursday Night Football this week. He has been nursing

(02:32:42):
this injury, making his way through. I think they're just
trying to get their spot at number one clinched and
he won't plague in the regular season. But then, as
you said, and it's exactly what it looked like, it
grabbed a big time as he was running a deep
route this past Sunday. It's three days later. He's a
playoff performer. He's a red zone dynamo. You can't possibly

(02:33:06):
put him on the field on Thursday night. There's ten
days before they play their next game. No way he's
playing on Thursday Night football. Way too valuable for the
team that right now. I don't think there's much question
about it. They're the favorites. They're the favorites in the NFL,
let alone the NFC.

Speaker 2 (02:33:21):
What else?

Speaker 14 (02:33:22):
Yeah, finally, all combine these quick since we're up against it.
Jerry Jones saying it's important to compete over the final
three games, So no tanking for your cowboys. So if
you do have some fantasy football guys in the playoffs
on the Cowboys, I guess you roll with him. But
the other thing, Jerry did not support eber Fluse as
his DC didn't like the way they performed in the
last game. I think that would be their fourth DC

(02:33:43):
in the last four years. If they make another.

Speaker 1 (02:33:45):
Move Jerry Jones making changes, I would not believe It's
Cowboys defense ranks twenty ninth ten yards allowed and thirty
first in points allowed, basically right where they were a
year ago. They don't stop anybody. In the final segment
of the program today and into your opportunity to win

(02:34:07):
a couple of pairs of tickets two different winners. You
can win a single pair, they can win a single pair.
We've got tickets for you today like we always do,
and we'll have you phone in with an answer to
a question I'm about to ask for your opportunity to
win seven one three, two one two five seven ninety
pair of tickets to Monster Energy Ama super Cross on
January thirty first, NRG Stadium the site you can get

(02:34:29):
tickets for that event. They're on sale now ticketmaster dot com.
And we've got a pair of tickets to see Ron
White Alive on March twenty seventh over Smart Financial Center
right there in Sugarland. Tickets on sale for that event
at Smart Financial Center dot net seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. With the answer to this
question earlier this hour, I was telling you how good
c J. Stroud is playing NFL quarterback, especially since he

(02:34:53):
put the first three games of the season in the
rearview mirror. The team wasz and three, and he had
not played well in those three games. The offense not
played well in those three games, and since then the
Texans are nine to two, and since then he's one
of just a handful of quarterbacks league wide with a
passer rating of better than one hundred. In fact, there
are eight quarterbacks one fourth of the teams eight quarterbacks

(02:35:18):
with a passer rating of better than one hundred. I
told you earlier there are only two AFC quarterbacks with
a higher passer rating than CJ. Stroud since Week three
of the NFL season, So from Week four to this
pass game, he's played eight of those games, and there's
only two AFC quarterbacks with a better passer rating than
his one hundred point two. Call in with the answer

(02:35:39):
of either of the names of the two quarterbacks that
have a higher passer rating in the AFC than he
does in that time, which I mentioned earlier seven one
three two one two five seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven nine. If you want to
go see Ron White, or if you want to get
in on some Monster Energy AMA Supercross, make that phone
call now seven one three two one two five seven

(02:36:02):
to ninety one. Thing we didn't mention beyond the negatives
in last night's game, Well were the positives in last
night's game. And I'm talking about football here. I'll get
you some time for the Rockets to close out the show.
But I've been pretty negative about the play expected play
of Aaron Rodgers this year, and as the weeks have

(02:36:23):
gone by, and as the games have continued to unfold,
he's played better football, pretty consistently, making his way up
the charts, giving his team a better chance to win,
and winning a game over Baltimore two weeks ago, winning
the game last night easily over the Miami Dolphins other offense,
which has been pretty inconsistent. You know, two weeks before

(02:36:45):
that they only scored seven points and that devastating lost
to Buffalo. But the two weeks prior to that twenty
eight to thirty four points. They've had games of thirty one,
twenty seven, and twenty five all over their last eight games.
He's played better than I expected him to. Not a
cool incidents that it started to head in that direction
when he started to send the ball in DK Metcalf's direction.

(02:37:07):
Last night, he had one of the best plays of
the year. And it wasn't because he made some unreal catch.
It's because he made a catch in traffic and then
just told everybody to get out of here. DK Metcalf
is an absolute beast, and that play showed it. One
of the most beastly receptions of the entire season. Last
night he was only targeted three times, fewest of the season.

(02:37:27):
But over the past five games twelve and five and
eight and eight and seven, he's been more productive and
the offense has been more productive because he's clearly a
bigger threat. They played this game without TJ. Watt, remember,
and now they have a one game lead or maintain
their one game lead over the Ravens with three games remaining,
they'll see each other in the final game of the season.
It's looking more and more like Aaron Rodgers is going

(02:37:50):
to make his twenty second career postseason start and first
with the team other than the Packers when this season ends.
Highest passer rating of the season since the open for
Aaron Rodgers and back to back games and seven of
his fourteen games or thirteen games excuse me with a
missing one, or he's had a passer rating of better
than one hundred. I don't know what else to say.

(02:38:13):
He's been good. Aaron Rodgers has been good this season
and the Steelers are gonna make the playoffs because of it.
And it's the best quarterback that Mike Tomlin's had since
Ben Roethlisberger left. Mike Tomlin has been coaching with a
team that shouldn't win because they do not have a quarterback.

(02:38:33):
Russell Wilson, Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph started forty one times
for Mike Tomlin. If I have the numbers correct, justin fields,
they stink. They don't win, They're not good, and they
never had a losing record. They've been to the playoffs
multiple times with those guys as starters. I know they
have a six game postseason losing streak. I know they

(02:38:54):
haven't won in the postseason. How were they supposed to
with those guys, how'd they even get there? Quite honestly,
Aaron Rodgers is probably not gonna be the better quarterback
on the field, but that particular day, could he be?
Could he out play justin Herbert Herbert playing against the
Steelers defense, him playing against the Chargers defense for sure?
Could he do that against the Bills? Could he do

(02:39:16):
that against the Texans who are a possible opponent? Probably
whichever team is the best wildcard team is who's going
to face the Steelers the worst division winning team, It'll
be in Pittsburgh Bill's defense, Texans defense, Chargers defense the
most likely opponents for Pittsburgh in that situation. I don't
like his chances against their defenses. I would like his

(02:39:37):
chances against Buffalo's defense, but we've already seen it. That
was one of the games I just mentioned he wasn't
very good. One last thing, since it was also last
night and we spent a lot of the show on it.
Rockets opened up their sixth game road trip last night
with one of their more entertaining games of the season. Unfortunately,
it reminded a lot of people of the opening game
of the season. Easily could have beaten the Oklahoma City

(02:39:58):
Thunder out of the gate, played well in to win
that game, made plays well into that game that you
thought they were going to win that game. Had a
few instances, especially late in quarters, where they lost a
little focus and Oklahoma City went on a few runs.
They ended up losing in double overtime by one. That's
what happened last night in the Nuggets game.

Speaker 2 (02:40:17):
They let the.

Speaker 1 (02:40:18):
Nuggets have a two minute spurt here and a three
minute spurt there, and that was really all it took
for the Rockets to be playing uphill most of the
rest of the game. That happened in the late stages
of the half happened again in late stages of the
third quarter. Rockets were awesome at the end of the
fourth quarter, though, and did everything offensively that it should
have taken to win five consecutive possessions with a basket

(02:40:39):
to close out the game offensively, and they only ended
up in overtime because Aman Thompson, according to the refs
on site, according to the review, that the Rockets did
not get overturned, and then, according today's Last two Minutes report,
a correct call out a men Thompson on his foul
on the flailing Tim Hardaway Junior. Now, I'll mention that

(02:41:00):
there were three calls made in overtime, all favoring the Nuggets,
that were deemed incorrect via the Last two Minutes report.
Two of those calls netted four free throws for the Nuggets.
Nuggets were good free throw shooting team last night, so
they made them all that played into it. Don't think
that's why the Rockets lost.

Speaker 2 (02:41:19):
Didn't help.

Speaker 1 (02:41:20):
It's not gonna change things. Not gonna cry and whine
about the officiating. The Rockets too many turnovers and too
many missed free throws. They've been a much better free
throw shooting team this year, so that is one thing
that if it continues, will help this postseason, as opposed
to herding in last year's postseason, especially early in that
series against Golden State. I mean, Thompson's been fantastic at

(02:41:43):
the free throw line, but they missed too many of
their twenty six attempts. They missed seven of them. Each
player that went to the free throw line missed at
least one. And unfortunately, the Nuggets, who are the best
free throw shooting team in the NBA, and one of
them they didn't miss as much and that was all
it took. Their stars played great, the rock Stars played
great men. Thompson had a good night, Kevin Durant had
a good night. Neither of them were spectacular, but both

(02:42:05):
had good nights. And al prinching gun with a triple double.
He was spectacular, and to do so against a team
that he had not looked very good against back in
November very noteworthy. Rockets lost by three in both games.
Nikolae Jokich has gone off in both games, but just
in the Nikola Jokic kind of way. He actually shot
his third worst percentage of the entire season and scored

(02:42:27):
thirty nine points and still shot forty eight percent. Forty
eight percent is one of the worst days of his season.
That's how good he is. That's how well he's played.
And the Rockets record and their place in the standings
reflects that. When they've played the best teams in the NBA,
they've played them all close, they've lost them all. They're
owned five against the six teams with a better record
than theirs. Basically, they haven't lost anybody else. The only

(02:42:49):
other losses they have the entire season are games on
the road on the second day of a back to
back to Utah and Dallas, both happened last week. Like
where the Rockets are, they'll be back on the court
and a couple of nights when they take on the
New Orleans Pelicans for Game two of that six game
road trip, which will take us all the way through Christmas.
Get you into the nightcap when we wrap things up here,

(02:43:09):
which we are doing now. We got Longhorns basketball coming
up for you a little over a half an hour
as well. We'll be back with you tomorrow as the
Texans take the practice field for the first time this week,
and a little bit more intel on if the Raiders
are sliding back to Gino Smith as their starting quarterback
and looking forward to all of that discussion tomorrow beginning
at two on the A team