All Episodes

October 30, 2024 126 mins
Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on October 29th 2024.

Hour 1: 
  • Stefon Diggs Is Done, Rockets Win A Close One.
  • Yankees on the brink of getting swept. 
  • Who could Nick Caserio trade for?
Hour 2: 
  • DeMeco and CJ speak on Diggs
  • Sean Payton isn't going to listen to anything about running up the score.
  • A Jets player thinks they can win out. 
Hour 3: 
  • Dan Leberfeld from Jets Confidential joins the show.  


Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your teams.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team A team.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Straight up three o'clock Houston, Texas. It is the A
team Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network. Wex
over there, ac right here as we more in the
loss of well we barely knew ye. You talk about
Stefan Diggs, the Texan and the fact that he is
now Donzo for the rest of the regular season.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I'm sure you heard the news earlier.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Because of a torn acl and you think about, okay, well,
he was actually very very productive for the Texans, not
that we didn't think he would be, and he and
Nico Collins, along with Tank Dell a very formidable trio.
In fact, we had long discussions this offseason about how
you could put that room up against any trio in
the NFL and have an argument that the Texans had

(01:02):
the best. And now you're going into a short week
on Thursday night with Tank Dell only and a whole
bunch of probably Joe Mixon. If I had to start
ranking players that Demiico and Bobby Sloak are going to
think about using the most. But it's going to take
somebody you're not expecting, I think, to really step up
and win a game on the road where you don't

(01:24):
fare as well and you're not favored right now against
the two win Jets team. I know, I mean again,
I know that they've got Aaron Rodgers. I know that
they have DeVante Adams, I know that they have players
on defense. I still can't believe that the Texans are
dogs of any kind in this game.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
They win a lot of close games the Texans. They
lose a lot of close games the Jets. It's pretty
much all there is to it. Texans are also not
very good on the road. They're playing on the road.
They're four and oh at home, they're two and two
on the road. It's correct, and until the money says otherwise,
that's where it's going to be. It's actually gone in
the Jets favor since the line open. They're sitting at
one and a half now. But obviously the news is

(02:02):
about what isn't going to be out there, not only
on the field, but in the locker room where I mean.
It may sound like we say it a lot, but
that's only because it's very evident to those of us
that are over there all throughout camp, offseason, in season,
training camp, preseason games, what have you. He met a
lot to this team beyond just the nearly fifty catches
in five hundred yards and three touchdowns that he had

(02:23):
through eight games in this uniform.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Which he very well might not ever be putting on again.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
He came to the Texans via trade and reworked his
contract to put him in position to need a new
one from somebody this offseason, and that's the same position
he's in now. Unfortunately, now he will have not played
football since this last game the Texans played against the
Colts will be the last time anybody evaluating his skills
will have to look at and it's really unfortunate for

(02:49):
him personally, financially and his future obviously in that sense.
But the Texans will also try to win remaining games
in the regular season, nine of them beginning in two
nights against the Jets, and then whatever playoff games are
in their future, and there should be several without him.
It's a team that felt pretty good about their wide
receiver group last year, despite injuries essentially NonStop. You know,

(03:13):
the group they left camp with they thought they might
see quite a bit during the season until Tank missed
half a season, and Noah Brown missed games here and there,
and Robert Woods was out for these games, and Nico
Collins missed these two games. It was kind of a
constant who's available this week. Obviously, they were good enough
to help CJ. Stroud have the kind of season he did,
the offense have the season they did, and clearly they

(03:34):
won enough games to win the division and then a
postseason game at NRG Stadium. So although not all of
those players are back, the vast majority of them are
essentially all of them outside of Noah Brown.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
I mean, what's Noah Brown done lately?

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Ah?

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Just kidding?

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Great catch against the Bears to win a game for
the Commanders. But the group they have here is I'm
not missing losing any sleep on the group that they have,
but these are also guys three, four, five, six, seven
and beyond on a depth chart. No team is supposed
to be able to account for that. Will Nick Cassario
do what the Ravens general manager did. I think he should,

(04:10):
and that would have been an ideal player to add,
especially for the cost. Tell you about that Deontay Johnson
trade as we continue here. But Tank Deell Xavier Hutchinson,
John Mechi, and Robert Woods. Those are the healthy, active
receivers they'll have at their disposal Thursday night against the Jets.
Stephen Simms is probably healthy enough also to be up.

(04:31):
Whether he takes on return duties or is part of
their receiving group remains to be seen. They have three
wide receivers on their practice squad. Two of them are
named Johnson and another one Wayne. Those are who they
have at their disposal currently. They'll be on a flight
tomorrow for the Metal Ends to go play on one
of the worst surfaces in the NFL, where one of

(04:52):
their own players obviously, as we all remember, was hurt
last year, and many others have been for different reasons.
And I don't think anybody's going into that game worried
about it. The players aren't because they were asked about it,
and the coach isn't, but I think everybody else who
plays on that surface certainly is. There was major news
coming out of Indianapolis also, which only affects the Texans

(05:13):
in who does Indianapolis now have a better chance to
beat since they made a smart current decision for their
twenty twenty four locker room.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
But I was over there today.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
You know, Demiko Ryans is available to us first on
this different scheduled short week, and he just came right
out and before he was even asked any Singh said,
you know, I know you're gonna ask about it, but
the news is, you know, he does have a torn
acl and he is out for the season. And he
continued with some comments about what he's meant to the
team and for the team and the additional stuff that

(05:43):
goes beyond his receptions and yards and touchdowns, et cetera.
So well, there are some of that from him, And
then CJ was at the podium. Then we had some
time in the locker room with the players, which is
rare for us to be in there in this setting
two days out from a game, because they're all packing
their backs. This was their day to practice and they

(06:04):
haven't even practiced yet. That's also weird. We don't normally
go in there before they've practiced. They won't even practice
for another hour today. I imagine they'll be inside the
stadium for that and then they'll be, like I said,
getting some more rest and heading out to take on
the New York Jets. But the vibe from the team,
I'm sure a lot better than the vibe from people
in our universe, both here on the radio and on

(06:26):
social media. It's an unfortunate situation. You don't get better
when these things happen, but they're absolutely an unfortunate part
of life in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Well, this goes back to what we were talking about yesterday,
is that you know the fact that they have created
this pad if you will, in the division already that's
going to come into play as games clearly get harder
to win, especially when you start playing real competition. And
I'm not saying the Jets aren't real competition, but they're
just not as good as some of the teams that
are still left on a schedule. But you know Stefan Diggs.

(06:59):
It's weird because when when Diggs was acquired, I think
everybody's first initial, you know, at first blush is oh
my gosh, this offense led by C. J.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Stroud is going to be incredible. It's going to be unstoppable.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
They're gonna put up video game numbers on and on
and on, and I think on paper.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
That's what it looked like.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
But what you didn't know is that the pass protection
was going to somehow get worse, and or at least
if you had an idea, you didn't know if it
would come to fruition.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
But it has.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
And you know, Stefan Diggs, while putting up good numbers,
I never felt like the offense had taken another step
because of his addition. He just did his job. It's
I'm not trying to downplay anything he did. I just
I'm talking about the offense on the whole. And what
I mean by saying all of that is, yeah, it's

(07:49):
it's a blow and nobody can duplicate replicate what he
brings on and off the field. But if there's been
anything we've learned from Demico Ryans and his brief tenure
as head coach, and every one of those games has
been with c. J. Stroud as well. The culture that's
been developed here. They've so got that next man up mentality.

(08:10):
I mean, there was injuries last season that they would
have to deal with, and it's there. They are not
the belly aching type, not that you know a lot
of NFL teams are, but they're not gonna sit around
and oh woe is me, Stefon Diggs is out. They're
gonna try and find a way to beat the Jets.
They're gonna hope that Nico Collins comes back and not
only stays healthy but puts up the type of numbers
he was putting up before the four year four games

(08:32):
that he missed, and they're gonna see what they can
do with a group that's left. But I mean, yeah,
the first thing I thought of was, Okay, who are
we trading for here? Who is Nick Cassario on the
phone with? How many teams is he on the phone with?
And who's a I mean, it's not just about who's available,
but who fits what they want to do and compliments
what they already have. And Joe Mixon, by the way,

(08:53):
I haven't even mentioned his name yet, huge, huge, huge
factor all of a sudden. Again, not that he wasn't already,
but he really is now.

Speaker 6 (09:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
I'm I'm maybe not to do my usual pushback, but
I don't. I don't really see it that way. He
was the biggest part of their offense. We had stand
in here yesterday and did just disagree with him, even
though it's hard to believe I wouldn't. Joe Mixon is
the most important player on their offense. Or he's the
MVP and CJ's the other. Whichever one name you give one,
you give the other person the other that when he's

(09:23):
been healthy, he is that every game is.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
That because of Nico's absence, though, because I would disagree.
I think Nico's the game of the season. He showed
you why, true, but so did Nico. Like Nico had
a big game that day too, And Nico had a
big game every single game that he was out, and
you kept winning in large part because Nico was doing
big things.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
Yeah, I mean I might not, just might not necessarily
agree with that. I think your offense is able to
do what you want to do more if Nico's out
there than if Joe's out there. But I think you're
able to win football games, probably because Joe is doing
his job, Like he's not gonna They're not gonna add
five more carries to him. He's not gonna be targeted

(10:01):
six more times in this game. I don't think, unless
it's maybe tailored to the Jets defense, it's not gonna
be in every game. Thing with Digs out and all
the indications are and Aaron Wilson's been reporting this for well
over a week now, this is going to be the
final game that Nico Collins misses. Remember, the Texans don't
play again until November tenth. After this Halloween game on
Thursday night against the Jets, his four weeks on IR

(10:23):
will have been served.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
And he was in the locker room today.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
Again, I'm not gonna tell you he looked great, even
though he was walking around perfectly fine. So was Brevin Jordan,
and I hated to see him in there. Similarly, Brandon Hill.
These are all players on IR and in their cases
they're not coming back. They could absolutely use Brevin Jordan.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
They would.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
They've been missing him all year and he certainly would
have been playing a huge role in the passing game
and the run game if he were not out for
the year. As he played through an injury into the
end of a game and then afterwards, oh well, I'm.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Done for the year. That was That was unfortunate.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
It is a very unfortunate situation because one thing we
knew based on what was done during the offseason, the
Texans are trying to win the Super Bowl. They're not
trying to win the AFC South. They're not trying to
win another home game in the playoffs. They're trying to
win the Super Bowl. So that's why, in advance of
the trade deadline, I think there is a pretty good
chance the phones are being worked. There is a deal
out there for them to make. There are a bunch

(11:20):
of teams that have had very bad starts to their year,
and for most of them and most of the league,
after this weekend's games, more than half the season is over,
so you probably have a pretty good idea where things stand. Clearly,
the trade deadline comes just after that. It comes before
the Texans played their next game, same for everybody else.
So I do think there's a real good possibility, and
they obviously will have to Thursday night's game to see

(11:43):
how things shake out with the group they currently have
versus what it might look like if a change is made.
No way to start the show without that leading the way,
So we will continue that conversation. Like I said, we'll
hear from some of the Texans today on the loss
of Stefan Dix.

Speaker 7 (11:58):
The a team. Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
We now returned to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexworth on Sports.

Speaker 7 (12:07):
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
You know, before we go any further into the show,
we should recognize wex that not all is bad news
on a daylight. Today, the Yankees are one loss away
from getting swept in the World Series and Aaron Judge
is an embarrassment during the postseason and continues to be so.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Not all is lost.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
In fact, the last time prominent Houston Texans player had
an ACL injury into his season, you know, bad things
happened to the Yankees too. But I guess that's not
quite the same since the Astros aren't playing in the
World Series right now. But yeah, that was I do
have one thing about that before we jump back into

(12:51):
the football thing that I just I have to address.
I get it, it's impressive, and some might even say
it's more impressive because he hasn't been there since three
years ago, in a different uniform in a different league.
But this whole Freddie Freeman, five consecutive World Series games
at the home run, Isn't it way more impressive when

(13:11):
you do it all in the same series like George
Springer did.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
I don't believe that's what he did. I thought it's
five consecutive World Series games at the home run.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
It is, but I think it was from twenty seventeen
through twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
George, I could be wrong. World Series games. They were
in those two World Series. Yes, No, twenty seventeen they
won it. Twenty nineteen they lost. Ah, I guess that
is true.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
I thought he had done it in the I thought
he did all five in the twenty seventeen series, is
what I was getting at.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
I could be wrong. It would be very different, for sure.
I thought that's what he did those seven.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
Game games of the seventeen series and the opening game
of the twenty nineteen series.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Well, then ignore what I said. My premise is sh
the hell and we can get back to football. Simple enough.
Yankees are gonna lose the World Series and Brian Cashman
will find a way to blame the Astros.

Speaker 8 (14:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
I mean everyone's kind of having their fun with that.
They were pretty offensively non competitive. The last couple of
games four to two doesn't sound that bad, and back
to back games, but as you watch the games unfold,
they would again. It's a four to nothing game, bottom
of the ninth inning, they hit a two run homer
and with two three four waiting on deck, Glaber Torres

(14:29):
hit one up the middle. He's got a good piece
of it, but it was easily fielded and he was
thrown out and that ends that game, so the tying
run doesn't even come to the plate. The starting pitching,
which was probably the only area you could debate if
they had an advantage the Yankees, has clearly not been
their advantage. They haven't pitched badly, but the Dodgers have
outpitched them. From a starting pitching standpoint. This postseason series

(14:50):
hasn't looked like any of the others because the Dodgers
have gotten three good starting pitching performances, each of them
going at least five innings each, for them giving what
looks like like a normal season game. Oh, our starter
is gonna go five to six to seven innings and
we'll try to slam the door after that. Won't look
like that tonight because they anticipate going with a bullpen game.
But it's never happened before, and I don't anticipate this

(15:12):
Yankees team being the first to do it. And the
sweetest part about it as they fall behind three games
to none, that is what I was referencing. It's only
happened once before in any series, never in a World
Series where a teams come back from three games to none,
but Fox is always doing the right thing, and it's
on purpose for all of us out there having a
studio show on site that features two Yankees and David Ortiz,

(15:36):
and David Ortiz never misses.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
He did not miss last night. He certainly didn't winlaming.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
To the two of them that they not like us,
over and over and over again to make sure the
Yankees know we did it to you, but your guys
on the field aren't about to do it to them.
So the series will end tonight or tomorrow or almost
assuredly before it needs to. The Dodgers will go back

(16:05):
to LA I don't think the Yankees will be joining them.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
So the best part about this is that it's going
to happen in New York. And I said Dodgers in five,
which means they can get their conciliatory game tomorrow night
or tonight.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
I should say they're win and then.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
Well, if they don't, then, even though he's not at
a soon to be free agent, Garrett Cole will be
waiting to pitch again but be told you can't, well
you'll stay. There's game five. But if there isn't one,
then his season with the Yankees is over. It's been
a bad postseason, been about World Series, incredibly bad World
Series and postseason. But as per usual for Aaron Judge,

(16:40):
so I'm sure time can be spent on that. The
other thing that is of consequence to us before we
shift back to the Texans and the Jets, is we
told you this when the series started. We know the
days they play, and we know how we know how
many games it takes to end the season. Well, that
takes only one more win to end the season. So
either tonight or tomorrow, or after Game six or after
games the season ends, and the Astros and anybody else

(17:03):
who's looking at their free agents will have their own
exclusive five day negotiating window with certain players. And for
the Astros, that is their five day negotiating window exclusive
to them with Alex Bregman, and it could be at
their doorstep as.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
The series comes to its conclusion.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Tonight, get or done, Jim Crane, and go ahead and
lower Juan Soto here while you're at it. Just you know, wambam,
thank you man. That's a nice offseason right there. Just
signing Alex Bregman would be a nice offseason.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
And that's I.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Can't imagine them being in the one Soto sweepstakes.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Currently you know who is supposedly you know, the Mets
and the Yankees and who else the team the Yankees
are playing right now.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's typical. We run a
baseball team and he's awesome, so we'll knock on that door,
kick on those.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Tires spectacularly with your most prized possession as far as
your you're retaining of a free agent and Aaron Judge
just absolutely crapping the bed. And then the only guy
besides Gean Carlos Stanton that was consistent enough on offense
to get you to this stage, says, I'm going to
join the team that just beat us in five games.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
Guys, I want to say, it's totally ludicrous, makes no sense,
and it's never gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
But why they got showy Atani on credit, Well, that's
what I mean.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
If another player wants to do that, then by all means,
any team can be in the mix for any player
at any time, no matter what their pay structure looks like.
If they want to get creative with it, and the
agent and the player on the other side are down,
then yes there are ways that they could do it.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
I don't anticipate that happening.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
I think they already did what needed to be done
and they're showing it now. I mean, we saw what
the Astros were dealing with all year from a pitching
injury standpoint. It certainly wasn't worse than the Dodgers. It
was either comparable or theirs was worse. They made smart
moves at the deadline to compensate for that. They welcomed
one of those pitchers back in Yamamoto, and he's obviously

(18:55):
pitched in this series. Bueller was returning from injury. He
just pitched last night. The pitcher they acquired at the deadline,
he got the game and one star. I mean, it's
three guys they didn't know if a they were even
on the team or what they'd contrude because just about
everybody else to pitch for them this year isn't a
part of it. I'm sure they'll still vote Clayton Kershaw
a Championship share or World Series share, even though he

(19:15):
only gave them seven outings this year in a year
where they were the best team in baseball and won
each of their postseason series with him watching them do so.
If they close out this World series. So yes, any
baseball chatter you'd like, we're happy to oblige. Probably not
necessary for much of the rest of the show today,
but we'll be sure to let you know off Shoheo

(19:37):
Tani's individual shoulder that's healthy will once again be in
tonight's starting lineup. And if we anticipate the Yankees starting
pitcher throwing him four consecutive balls to open up the game,
knowing he can barely swing, we'll we'll get caught up
on that a couple hours from now when it comes out.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Okay, back to the Texans, back to somehow spelling Stefan
Diggs the rest of the way, because even when Nico
Collins comes back, and provided that he stays healthy, Tank
Tell remains healthy, You're not You're still not gonna have
that production in the lineup. With Stefan Diggs going down,
mentioned that that the trade for Deontay Adams was already

(20:18):
made today. Deontay Johns, Deonte Johnson, Sorry, I have Dante
Adams on my DeVante Adams on my brain because of
the Jets. Is there is there a market for Adam
Feelin since we're talking about Carolina, and would that be
a guy who you would see fitting perfectly in this offense.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
Both of those players you mentioned also happy to be
in the same place, and yes, I think either one
of them would have fit. Johnson's down with the Ravens
feeling needs to I mean, I guess he doesn't have
to play first, But you know, his practice window was
opened a week ago. I don't know if it was
a big surprise, but I felt like it was at
least a mild surprise they did not activate him for
that game. I think the odds are good that he's

(20:57):
capable of being activated for this game, But because of
the trade window and when it occurs, I think teams
will believe he's healthy because they'll talk to whoever they
need to talk to and get all the medicals that
are necessary. Versus do the Panthers need to put him
out there and run the risk that he gets hurt
in their uniform before they're able to move him. There's

(21:17):
certainly I would think that somebody you would call about
be a little bit concerned about where he is in
his career in the fact that he's clearly hurt and
has missed a bunch of time. But he's also a
veteran receiver will take him five seconds to figure out
how he fits into this offense. For what he was
to Bryce Young last year, I'm sure he could be
very similar to CJ. And he actually will do some

(21:38):
of the same things from a route tree standpoint in
this offense that I think he was doing with Carolina
and what Stefan Diggs was doing. Not a big play
guy and not a big yardage guy. Talking about Stefan Diggs,
they were a lot of yards his way because of
an accumulation of catches, not because of a progression of
big plays over and over.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
You mentioned it yesterday.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
The catch he had in Sunday's game was the longest
of the season the so I don't expect they're going
to you know, I think that's the type of receiver, theling.
If Feeland's getting you one hundred yards, then he probably
had eleven catches. And as we could see with Diggs
having zero one hundred yard games here, he was very
similar to that. I mean, his yards per reception as

(22:18):
a Texan very very low. But that doesn't mean he
was bad. It doesn't mean they were missing something. That
is who he is, that is what I expected him
to be for this offense. You need somebody to do that,
and it all fits together when everybody else is healthy.
So I think at some point they probably will be
compelled to make a move, especially when you look at
the price for I think the caliber receiver they're looking

(22:40):
for the Johnson trade maybe has a little bit of
a guide. A flip flop of late round picks probably
should not be too Mitch for Rich for Nick Cassario's blood.
But the guys that are here and those who will
be missing Stefan Diggs talk about them and with them next.

Speaker 7 (22:58):
The A team.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Once Sports Talk seven ninety, let's talk about the best
checking account in the entire city of Houston, courtesy of
the good people over at Primeway Federal Credit Union. You
go to their website PRIMEWAYFCU dot com and open up
that account with a user friendly, easy application located right there,
and you're going to start having the benefits that you

(23:22):
can read from having an account like that under your name,
earning you up to two percent interest, giving you dark
web monitoring and mobile phone protection, shopping rewards, travel on
leisure discounts, telehealth, and so much more.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
PRIMEWAYFCU dot com.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Hey, yo, listen to Sports Talk seven ninety or any
device with our free iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
It's free. Like a punch to that face.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Forty seven catches just under five hundred yards, three touch downs.
That is what you got in a handful of games
from Stefana rushing. Oh I forgot about that one, and
he almost threw for a touchdown, but he decided against
it and decided to rush for the affords. Yeah, he's
not a team guy. He's actually a diva. He actually
doesn't like turning the ball over. If he would have
thrown that ball to c J. STRATTU might a bit

(24:16):
of pick six.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, well we don't need that, can I? Uh? We can?

Speaker 2 (24:22):
I just share something from my personal text message thread
that I just got during the break. That's it's not
the craziest thing I've ever heard in.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
Light of the situation.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, please, do you know there are teams right now
that are quote blowing it up because of whatever. I
wouldn't say Carolina is blowing it up because they've never
had something to begin with. But you know, we're talking
about one of their receivers getting traded in another one
that could be that kind of thing. If if the

(24:54):
Cowboys aren't going to do anything this season anyways, Is
there a situation where you could see Ceedee Lamb on
the move because he's not happy and look at that? No,
I mean, I know the money is outrageous. There you go,
but he's younger.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
I mean, are you talking about for Houston or any team?
For Houston, I don't see how they could do that.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
You're saying for any team though it sounds.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
Like, yeah, I am definitely not this team. They're not
in a position to be spending that much money on
their top two wide receivers.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, And honestly, if you're gonna spend that kind of
money in a trade.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
The same reason we just thought that Stefan Diggs was
not going to return.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Right But and again, if you're but he's he's been extended.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
Right, But if Diggs was going to play longer than
one year, then you'd be committing some pretty serious money
to him, not quite CD money.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
But and that's why I was about to say, if
you're gonna go trade for a guy and spend that
kind of money.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Shouldn't be an offensive lineman.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Well, yeah, nothing that happened with Diggs should change what
they want to do. And again they still have the
option to, you know, make a change from within.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
I've said this a couple of times.

Speaker 4 (25:57):
I've been over Texas a couple of times, So maybe
I said it there, Maybe I did and say it here.
If this game against the Jets was Sunday afternoon in
New York at noon, I think the Texans would definitely
be starting a different five manter offensive line combination. Being
that it's Thursday, I think it gives them pause.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
But I won't be.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
Surprised that all if K E and D period Green
is starting at left guard on Thursday night, number fifty
three for K E and Y period Green number seventy six.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
Is that how their jerseys are? They both say green.
They don't say k no because that'd be redundant. Yeah,
that doesn't solve the problem. You'd have to keep going,
keep going, keep going exactly. Yeah, I think that changed. Personally,
I think it will be made.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
The only thing that was said that would allow us
to waste our time reading between the lines. You know,
each of the last two days and talking to Jamiko,
our offensive line question has been focused on him.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Specifically.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
He was the only one of the five that was
asked to stop playing during the game. Also the only
one of the five that was asked to return to
the game, So us on what has been going wrong?
What are the things that you need to do to
get his confidence there? As it shot is, he's still
someone who can help you, and he's continued to point out,
you know, he's still made a bunch of good plays
for us this year, and I'm sure he will continue
to do that. One thing he left with today, one

(27:13):
of the last things he had said on a question
about Kendrick or Kenyon Green, was that he's had a
lot of good reps for us this season. I'm sure
he'll have some good reps for us on Thursday. And
he always has a little bit of an out because
provided they need Kaymi Fairbairn, John Weeks and Tommy Townsend
to team up as a trio at some point during
the game as in some sort of point worthy kick, well,

(27:37):
Kendrick Green and Kenyon Green are both part of that
special teams group. So Kenyon Green will play regardless. Just
he'll be active regardless, right, so he can give you
good snaps regardless, But it doesn't necessarily commit him to
saying no. And he's remaining our starter for this game,
and maybe there's something going back before Dimiko even got
here that other coaches have done, And an effort to

(27:59):
get the out of a player who is not giving
you one hundred percent excellent snaps is to spell them,
and I don't think that's what they were doing last
week with Patterson. I think that was a straight up benching.
And if Patterson had not gotten hurt, there would have
been no going back to him. It wasn't here you
take this series off and we'll get him twenty snaps
and then you'll cut. It could be something they do
with Kendrick Green, but again you might have that in

(28:21):
the back of your mind. But if Kendrick Green is
playing well enough for him not to be replaced, why
would you do it. So I think the player that
they play to start the game, which I think there's
a good chance it'll be Kendrick, will be the player
that stays out there. But again that's just a guess.
The littlest speculation. That's they don't really have any other
options unless you want to go down the depth line

(28:43):
to a player who's not usually active, which is Nick Broker.
Kendrick Green has a little bit more experience on the
interior of the line the last couple of years here
and with Pittsburgh, if not for injury, he probably would
have seen even more. That's what their option would be
if Kenyon is someone they don't want out there.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
And conversely, talking, you know, going back to the wide
receiver position, you know, if you're trading for someone of
consequence at that position this year, I kind of hope
it's like not a rental, Like there's gotta be there's
gotta be a situation where there's someone out there that
has some years left on his deal that's not I

(29:19):
don't know, over the top insane money, but you know,
money where you don't mind paying it because you're going
to have a complimentary receiver to your one a that
you already have under contract long term.

Speaker 4 (29:29):
And Tank, oh yeah, I mean Nico's under contract long
term because you extended him. Tank has two more years
because he's still working on his rookie deal. And now
who that third receiver is going to be was an
unanswered question. Even with Diggs right here, most of the
players are going to get probably aren't that. Christian Kirk
would have been a consideration for many many teams, but

(29:50):
his injury is very unfortunate for both the team that
wanted to move him and the player who would have
likely been in a much better situation.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
And for fantasy teams that drafted him and already have injury.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
I'm just saying you've seen several receivers already make the move.
Kansas City has DeAndre Hopkins, the Buffalo Bills have Amari Cooper.
Now the Ravens have Deontay Johnson. You know, I think
Tyler Boyd's situation in Cincinnati is probably one worth considering.
He's totally useless there. They're terrible, and at least Mason
Rudolph finally realized, well, if we're gonna lose, I might
as well throw every pass to Calvin Ridley anyway, and

(30:22):
he finally had a monster game. Did not come in
a win. But there's no reason for them to have
been neglecting him the way that they were, other than
their two quarterbacks are bad and Will Levis and Mason Rudolph,
and you know, I thought people tried to make Calvin
look bad when he talked about it in the locker
room after one of their games, because they kept asking
him about it because of something he initially said, which

(30:42):
of course sounds kind of like selfish and bad team wise,
but it's so unbelievably accurate. He's like, throw me the ball. Yeah,
why am I here? You gotta use me, You got
you gotta give me an opportunity to get going in
some of these games. So target me a little bit
more often. And that's what they finally did last week
with Nakua healthy, with Cooper Cup healthy. While it's dangerous

(31:04):
to do it, maybe one of their other receivers, maybe
DeMarcus Robinson is a player that the you know Rams
have seen his pedigree elevated a little bit because he
was a huge part of what they were doing, while
a bigger part of what they did. While those players
are that it's pretty dangerous because the health's concerns you
would have no matter what they may be playing now,
But they're always gonna have health concerns because the manner

(31:27):
in which they play for the Rams. But those are
just a couple of names that I would think will
get bounced around a little bit. Just take a look
at any of the teams that aren't going anywhere. I mean,
the Patriots have a roster full outside of Jalen Polk
of not rookie receivers, guys who've either been a little
bit established elsewhere, don't have much of a role there.
They're probably playing with Jacoby Brissett moving forward, they're clearly

(31:48):
not winning.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Is da Mario Douglass available? Is any one of those
players available?

Speaker 4 (31:53):
And you know elsewhere around the league the caliber of
like Nelson aguil Aguilard. These are the probably the caliber
of players that are out there. If I were the Giants,
I wouldn't dangle this player, But if Darius Slayton is available,
I would absolutely be looking at a player like that,
a much younger player with much more upside and actually
gives you something you might not have anyway. I think

(32:15):
the Giants would be dumb to do that, But they're
also at the bottom of the standings and probably have
to figure out when we're punting on the season, which
was probably last night around nine point thirty during Monday
night football.

Speaker 7 (32:27):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Refreshing time in your life, Well, it's certainly going to be.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
If you've got an ic cold bud light in hand,
that cooler full of bud light, your tailgate ready for it.
Whether it's this Thursday night or this weekend for your
college game, of course, any given Sunday with your Houston
Texans and your bud Light. Bud Light the official beer
sponsor of the NFL. That means the Houston Texans special
addition bud Light cans available to you. I've got my

(32:54):
fair share of them, and I have been enjoying them throughout
this football season. You could do the same, enjoy them safely, responsibly,
just like I do.

Speaker 7 (33:02):
I'm Clinton Weler.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Continue on Sports Talk seven nineteen Goes Up Tours, Rockets
Basketball lives here.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Maybe it's time to hear from the Texans themselves on
the loss of Stefan Diggs. In case you've been under
a rock over the past hour or two or several,
Stefan Diggs acl tear out for the rest of the season,
probably out for the remainder of his would be Texans career.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
I just don't see anyway.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
I asked you this yesterday because your mind changed now
that you know it's the worst case scenario. Is this
somehow make it easier for the Texans to bring him back,
like he's a damaged good situation for other teams.

Speaker 4 (33:49):
I wouldn't look at it that way, but I would
still answer it yes, because he and the team have
information on how his season would go here in Houston.
He's not going to Minnesota, He's not going to Buffalo,
so there's twenty nine other people those out he can consider.
He won't know what it's like to play with that quarterback,
with that oc in that city, on that team. He

(34:10):
will know what it's like here. He will know what
it's like being in CJ. Stroud's offense, Bobby Slowek's offense,
which presumably will be the same, what it's like in
this locker room, what it's like to be here. All
those things I do think play in his favor when
he's in a very undesirable free agent offseason.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
The thing about it is an ACL is still bad.
It's still injury season and all that.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Good stuff or not so good stuff.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
It's not an Achilles rupture, for example. It's not something
where even now that he's on the wrong side of thirty,
I don't worry about Stefan Diggs coming back and not
being productive next year because of this injury. It'll be
because of a variety of other things that will probably
be the case before his actual ACL is affecting him

(34:55):
or anything like that physically.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
What he could do for his last two teams, and
what he was doing for the Texans through eight games
was winning his one on ones. The guys that step
up in his place will have to do the same.
I don't see why moving forward in his career he
will stop doing that at some alarming rate immediately after
this injury. And thus, yeah, I think there's still a
very productive Stefan Diggs NFL future. It's just a matter
of where and what's the right kind of soft spot

(35:19):
in the financial situation for both he, his agents, and
obviously whatever team he's looking to. I want to get
kJ in here, but also want to let you have
a chance to hear from c J. Stroud, Jamiico, Ryans,
a couple of other Texans spoke with in the Texans
locker room after the game.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
But we'll keep it here with kJ on the.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
Phone lines here on the A Team on a Tuesday
afternoon edition of the show What's going on?

Speaker 3 (35:41):
kJ?

Speaker 9 (35:42):
What Adam and Adam as you was a typical intro
love this show. Been listening to you guys for years.
Man kind of miss old Bill Walton on the mobile.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
We all miss Bill Walton, all right, we all, Miss
Bill Walton.

Speaker 9 (35:56):
Absolutely absolutely real quick man, A couple of quick takes.

Speaker 8 (36:00):
Man, I don't want to hear y'all's opinion on the
back side. I looked at us.

Speaker 9 (36:03):
I'm watching Stefan Diggs this year, and other than being
a consistent chain over, Stefan Diggs didn't make any He
wasn't a game changer for me.

Speaker 8 (36:13):
I mean, I mean we.

Speaker 9 (36:13):
I don't think we got the version of Stefan Diggs
that we were thinking that it could have been play called.
It could have been a number of factors in regards
to that, but I don't think the drop off offensive
licks from saying Stefon Diggs to a to a Mechi
or or Hutchison would be that dramatic. Although I do
think we need to kick the tires and a couple

(36:34):
of those receivers that you mentioned. We's in addition to
Chase Claypool, he's still a free agent. I had my
eye on Cooper Cup as a potential trade destination since
it has already been broadcasting that he's on the block.
But this is the question that I wanted to ask
you guys. We don't have any definitive way of knowing
what the issue is with the offensive line in regards

(36:54):
to the problem, and we are we are banned about
it and pontificated about it a lot, but the fact
of the matter is we don't know if they're not
being coached properly or if they are being coached properly.

Speaker 8 (37:06):
And the problem is between the years with what we
do know.

Speaker 9 (37:09):
And this comes from OC to offensive line coach to
the actual talent on the line extelf, which by the way,
are all up and up around draft picks going.

Speaker 8 (37:18):
Into this offseason.

Speaker 9 (37:19):
If this offensive line continues to underwhelm the way it
as the season's.

Speaker 8 (37:23):
Thus fall, what would do you guys?

Speaker 9 (37:26):
What would be you guys's approaching the regards to addressing it,
Whether would it be draft, free agency or just checking
it up, getting the new O line coach, whatever.

Speaker 8 (37:33):
And I want to what you guys gotta sayd The
back ends Well.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
If so, the first thing is determining what the bigger
cause is. If you think it's coaching, in other words,
if you think someone else can come in here and
get these same guys to perform way better, which isn't
the case, I don't think, then you would change coach,
But I just this is a situation where you're gonna

(37:56):
have to I think draft is obvious, but it's also
the least attractive from the standpoint of, Okay, maybe you
do get a guy who's improved, he's still going to
any time, he's still going to need the reps, he's
still going to have to have the the gelling, if
you will, with the other forur members of the line,
whomever he is. Like, there's a lot that goes into
all right, we'll just draft another guy to replace whatever

(38:18):
we don't like or do whatever's not performing at the
level we would prefer.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
If you're properly evaluating offensive linemen, then you can draft
someone in the top one hundred that can start Day one.
Definitely in the first round, definitely in the second round,
and if you are really good at it, you can
find somebody in those top hundred picks top ninety six picks,
depending on how many picks are actually made in those
three rounds of compensatory picks. When they're added to it.

(38:44):
You can do that and they can step right in.
They can go through your offseason program, they can go
through training camp, and they can win a job and
then if they play that at that level moving forward,
you've got him for five years, six years, eight years,
whatever the case may be. The Texans weren't in a
position I don't think to have anybody compete, because nobody
really did. I mean, Blake Fisher was the second round pick.
That means you drafted him to be a starter, but

(39:05):
not this year. He didn't compete for any starting job,
even though he got almost all the reps because Titus
Howard and Laramie Tunsel missed so much time during the
preseason obviously during the games, which was not because they're hurt,
but because playing them is not something most teams do
with their starting lineman. So he just wasn't in any
position to do that. And I don't think it was
a whole lot different a year ago. Until injuries forced

(39:27):
them to have both Jews Scruggs and Jarrett Patterson, a
second and sixth round pick a year ago. They ended
up starting basically all of their games on the interior
line between the two of them, those three players, Patterson,
Scrugs and Fisher, I'm having a hard time looking at
the group that they have today and knowing what they're

(39:48):
likely to do in free agency and not envisioning a
twenty twenty five starting offensive line that includes at least
two of them, if not all three. The interior of
the Texans offensive line will feature Drew scarre Rugs next year,
and I think it will be at the same position
he's at now, and I think he will continue to
show improvement and you will have found a nice player
in the second round that it will be a long
term starter. I think both of the other guard positions

(40:10):
will be started by players that aren't currently the starters.
I think Shaq Mason, they'll eat the money left on
his deal and they will move to somebody else if
they are confident in the other things. I don't think
they want to open up multiple holes if they don't
have to, So the only way they'll make that move
is that if they feel confident at the other side also,
And then are they gonna reconsider Titus Howard. I don't

(40:33):
mean to get rid of him, because they've recently re
upped with him and it would be a pretty big
hit to do something like that, but I mean, go
to the school that he was attending before Nick Cassario
got here, and that school was, well, you're one of
our best five, but we don't know where to put you,
so we'll work it all over the line and we'll
fill in the gaps. Could he be moved away from tackle?
Is that Blake Fisher's new starting spot the right tackle?

(40:53):
Left tackle, Jaromy Tunzel, and now Titus Howard is back
on the inside. He's better than what they have, probably,
but he's also not good at guard. I don't think
he's ever been good at guard. He's better than what
we're watching. But all those things, as Debiko said during
the season, those things would be on the table during
the off season. They have all four of their top
picks next year, rounds one through four, and they have

(41:15):
all five of their top picks the year after, and
so on down the line.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
They have them all.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
I don't think they've traded any twenty twenty seven picks yet.
I'm not sure what else you're looking at. If you're
the Texans, watch this season unfolds for the next nine games.
Is there any more glaring need for this team? You're
gonna get by a wide receiver. You've got two more
years with Joe Mixon, You've re upped with Schultz and
Stovers on his rookie deal. Your secondary is totally revamped

(41:41):
and two kids are on it, two rookies are starting.
You just signed Al Shaier, you only play two linebackers.
You revamped your whole defensive line. I mean, it can't
be any more clear to this team that many assets.
From a draft standpoint, it's getting spent on a line.

Speaker 7 (41:58):
The a team one sports seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
Who's blocking for you?

Speaker 7 (42:04):
Though?

Speaker 2 (42:04):
If you have been in a collision with a driver
in this town, maybe even a drunk driver, Mocarum Injury
Law can be the elite offensive line if you will
that blocks for you.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Now.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Obviously, if you've been in a collision, something happened, but
it's gonna make it even worse if you don't have
a team on your side. It's gonna get you the
compensation you deserve so you can focus on healing or
just going about your day to day life and not
having to worry about some knucklehead that ran into you,
whether it's drunk drivers or just a regular old collision.
If you've been in one, Mocarum injury Law is where

(42:38):
it's at two eight one two two two, twenty two,
twenty two, twenty four to seven. They are available to
you at two eight one two two two twenty two
twenty two. They will help you get the ball rolling
on the assistance.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
You need when you need it.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
They'll meet you at their office, at your home, or
even bedside in the hospital. Over twenty five years of experience,
you can trust Mo Carum in law two eight one
two two two twenty two twenty two.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams
series Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
A Hour number two of a Tuesday edition of the
A Team Sports Talks seven to ninety Space City Home Network,
wex and AC with you, taking you until six o'clock.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
The first hour went about like you thought it would
on a day.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Where we find out for sure this Stefon Diggs will
no longer be playing here in twenty twenty four and
the early parts of twenty twenty five for your Houston Texans,
torn ACL takes him out for the year. As the
massive amount of really serious injuries to really big names
in the NFL continues. The Texans are no strangers to that,

(43:55):
having already watched Nico Collins sit on the shelf for
three weeks they're going to hit him do that one
more week here on Thursday night. But then, as wex
mentioned in the first hour, all indications are he's going
to be back in time for the Detroit game, with
you know, the rest of his teammates getting an extended
rest after this short week, so you'll have you'll have

(44:16):
one guy come back into the lineup, but for this
week on a short week, no Nico Collins and no
Stefon Diggs now, so it's gonna be Tank Dell and
a cast of characters along with Joe Mixon and CJ.
Stroud trying to put up enough points on the board
against a good defense by the way, on the road
in order to get to Texans to seven and two.

(44:37):
That's the other good news, I guess, is that despite
all of these injuries you're dealing with and you've dealt
with so far, you do have that pad in the division.
And that's as much about you being able to gut
out games as it is about every other team in
the division just really not being very good. We didn't
even mention the other big news in the division today.

(44:58):
Joe Flacco is the starter in Yeah.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
Alluded to that the opening segment knowing we would have
a chance to visit about that. I mean, again, it
seemed pretty obvious why they had not done it before,
and now they're far enough into the season that they've
seen enough for now. I don't believe this has even
remotely close to closes the door on Anthony Richardson. But
they'll just be right back in the same situation next year.

(45:22):
If he doesn't get back on the field, they won't
have an answer. They will install him as the starter,
and they will have a roster full of players that
are kind of not real happy about it. I don't
really think the tapping out was the last straw, but
it definitely didn't help. It's a locker room issue, it's
not a public issue. Again, him acknowledging that he tapped
out because he was tired to us is totally irrelevant.

(45:46):
His teammates already knew that. His teammates have already talked
to him about it at this point in time, maybe
not at that point in time. This is about the Basically,
it's about the five guys in front of him. You
don't think they're guessed sixty five times every year game
and utilize that forty second clock to make sure they
have enough in the tank to take another snap and
then do it all over again fifty eight more times

(46:07):
every game.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
And he should too.

Speaker 4 (46:09):
Now he's not hurt, he's not He shouldn't be asking
out of the game, and he wasn't hurt, and that's all.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
It's as simple as that.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
And so it's an inside the locker room problem that
I think was already dealt with her from one of
their offensive linemen, that they'd already talked about it. Again,
I don't think that's the true reason for why you're
taking him out of the lineup. You're trying to win
football games because you're still four and four. The playoffs
are right there. They're eight in a conference where seven
teams make the postseason. They're not gonna win this division

(46:34):
unless the Texans fall apart, and I don't anticipate that happening.
But they're basically going to the playoffs if they win
a game against the team ahead of them. If somebody
ahead of them loses a game, maybe they're not supposed to.
So they're telling the rest of their locker room, we're
with you, we get it. It's not all His completion
numbers are dramatic in how awful they are. I don't

(46:55):
think there are one hundred percent on his shoulders. And
even though we talked about yesterday how some people they
have no business analyzing the game the way they do
in the social media stratosphere, are trying to tell you
things that aren't necessarily true. There's a lot of other
people kind of painting a better picture of it, but
they're coming to the same conclusion. Okay, maybe his completion

(47:15):
percentage could be fifty five or fifty eight or even
as high as sixty with receivers helping him more, or
receivers not flat out dropping the ball. And everybody has
apparently a different definition of a drop. If you throw
the ball to a covered receiver and the defensive back
is standing right there in his catch zone and he's
got two arms in there that both have hands attached

(47:37):
to them with fingers, and he knocks the ball away,
so you basically have no chance to catch it because
it didn't even reach you.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
How's that a drop?

Speaker 4 (47:45):
But some people refer to it as a drop because
the ball got there and it's all the quarterback can
do other than leading him or throwing where it's supposed
to be, or being accurate beyond completion percentage numbers. I mean,
there were some drops in the game on Sunday for
Anthony Richardson. Were not defended drops. They were just dropped.
But the ball wasn't also necessarily to me in the

(48:05):
right place. Wasn't leading the receiver properly? Was it throw
to the shoulder where it should be. There were others
where yeah, his receivers just flat out missed it. The
touchdown that wasn't to ad Ni Mitchell. Hey man, your
receiver's got to get his feet down. You're right he does.
I mean I don't. I'm not maybe asking the quarterback
to make an even better throw on a throw thirty
five forty yards down the field. He did make a

(48:27):
pretty good throw, but he wasn't pushed and he didn't
get his feet in bounce, So he was probably a
little Either he ran the route too close to the sideline,
or maybe that throw doesn't need to be quite so
far outside leading him out of bounce. Twenty twenty four,
NFL Football. It was as clear as day, and the
Colts finally acknowledge it. Joe Flacco gives them a better
chance to win. They don't see the Texans anymore. They

(48:48):
got plenty of division games, but again, I don't think
they matter unless the Colts go on a run. The
games that might matter are their remaining games against good teams.
Texans got to play the Colts at their worst with
their less capable quarterback. Everybody else the rest of the way.
Presuming Flacco stays healthy and plays like he has for
both the Browns and the Colts in the regular season,

(49:09):
he gives.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
Him have a better chance to well.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
I said it before today, that's that's gonna be a
crazy indictment on Anthony Richardson the latest indictment, and I
just said it yesterday. I was like, well, I flow
to this scenario out there because I'm like, well, if
Bryce Young can get benched, why can't Anthony Richardson.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
Well, Bryce Young being benched.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
It's different though, it's they're not going anywhere anyway and
benching him for they benched him because yes, their locker
room had something to do with it. We can't send
this guy out there when fifty eight other guys are
sixty eight other guys.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
No, we can't win with this guy.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
I know we're gonna be terrible and then we'll erroneously
go get after Sean Payton for running up the score
on us.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
How laughable I would.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
I mean, I get the frustration for the Panthers players,
and I get the reputation for Sean Payton. He ran
a fake field goal up three touchdowns in the fourth
quarter on a fourth and short with about six minutes
left in the game, which was successful, and so they
bled another several minutes off the clock on the possession,
which ensured that they would win.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
It's called coaching.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
It's called coaching, and it's the NFL, right, as he
even said himself, will save that for say what So
to the point you're making, I just think it's just
a indictment of Anthony Richardson. Of course, he's played poorly.
He's not throwing the ball well. It's hurting their offense.
It's hurting the ability for some of their playmakers. Josh

(50:31):
Downs has won Michael Pittman's another. It's hurting their ability
to make those plays because he's not getting the ball
to them enough. And Joe Flacco, will you know Josh
Downs just look at his numbers with Joe without it's
I know he had one huge catch last week, but
without it, there was basically nothing for him, and with
Joe Flacco, they're just gonna be a much more diversified offense. Still,

(50:52):
I do blame Shane Steich in a little bit because
I think he did a really nice job figuring out
what was working for Richardson early last year when he
was healthy, then figuring out what works for Gardner Minshew
when he used him almost the entire year, and now
figuring it out again. And I just don't think he
did quite as good a job this year with what
they were doing. If you recall on Sunday, it was
one fifteen to twenty plus yard throw after the other,

(51:15):
all first twenty thirty plays of the game. He starts
one to five and he's two for ten and he's
two for thirteen. I mean, these plays are not working.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
You might hit.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
One, which they did, but it's not sustainable for you
to constantly put points on the board. And I think
they should be running a little bit different offense. And heck,
one of the first couple throws of the game was
to Jonathan Taylor in the flat and then there weren't
any the rest of the game, not even one.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
It's it's painful because he does bring things to the
table that other quarterbacks don't. But the main thing he
was bringing to the table is inaccuracy. So until that
either changes or you know you are, it's weird.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
They're in a weird spot.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Like they're not as far out of it as a
two and sixteen, you know, they're not.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
They're four and four. Yeah, it's it's different.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
I mean the Cowboys still even after their loss on Sunday,
they're they're not two and six.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Yeah, I mean teams that are.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
Honestly, I don't even think look at well, if the
Colts are still in it four and four and the
Bengals are still in it at three and five, these
two and six teams, like the Jets, who have experienced
a lot of close losses, not all of them, but
several of their recent ones, I don't have any issue
with them believing that they can win a bunch of
football games the rest of the way starting Thursday. If
you're talking about the Jets or even for one of
those other teams, you're gonna need some help, that's fairly obvious.

(52:33):
But can you count on help from a Chargers team,
a Broncos team, a Colts team. These are the teams
that are at the bottom of the AFC playoff picture
right now. I mean Baltimore right now is the first
wild card team because Pittsburgh, of course is the best
team in their division, again proving it last night against
a terrible team. They've played no games inside their division.
Things will change, I think when they do. But are

(52:55):
you sure the bow Knicks led Broncos are gonna keep
pushing further over five hundred and same thing with Herbert's
Harbaugh's Chargers. I don't think the AFC. The bottom of
the AFC by any means, is closed up, and the
Cults are the closest to it. Like I said at
four and four, they should be telling the two and
six Dolphins and the two and six Jets forget it,
even when all you want, you're not gonna get better

(53:15):
than us. To me, that's what they said today by
inserting Joe Flacco into the starting lineup.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
Well, until Joe Flacco doesn't duplicate what he did last
year in Cleveland, it's who's to say he won't. And again,
like you said, it doesn't even matter if he does.
He still gives you the better chance to win, which
is unbelievable that we're saying this in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
Yeah, they did not have a win. In his start
against Jacksonville. He only offered up a thirty four point
offensive day. That day, he threw three touchdowns no picks,
three hundred and fifty nine yards, but they lost because
they gave up thirty seven points. The rest of the year,
they've been pretty good defensively. That's why they've had eight
close games because even while they're not scoring, neither is

(53:56):
the other team. It was on display at NRG standing,
it was on display in Indianapolis a twenty nine to
twenty seven game. But now you have an option on
offense to actually move the ball up and down the field.
They're last in the NFL in time of possession. Probably
they get a boost on that with Joe Flacco out
there mentioned a couple of times we wanted to let
you hear from CJ. Stroud, Dimico Ryans and others. We'll

(54:17):
tease it until we do it. So we'll tease it
again and maybe we'll do it next.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety back to
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 7 (54:32):
The eighteen.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Eighteen Rolling along Here on Sports Talk is seven ninety
WEX and AC with you on a Tuesday edition of
the program. Our signature segment coming up next, it's say what.
But in the meantime, speaking of people who are saying things,
probably the two people you'd like to hear from the
most outside of Stefan Diggs on the Stefan Diggs season

(55:02):
ending injury, that would be his quarterback and his head coach,
Demico Ryans first on this, who said he actually had
a conversation with Steffan Diggs, as you would imagine, and
they talked about what the tough news ended up being.

Speaker 10 (55:17):
Yeah, speaking to him, it's like anyone would be. It's
tough and tough news to hear, especially with how much
he pours into it. All Right, that's one guy who
gave us all to everything that we ever asked him
to do, and it's he's he's hurting, of course, uh,
and we're hurting for him as well.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
And you know they're probably going to be hurting as
a team offense. I mean, if you're already having issues
blocking for CJ. Stroud so that when he does get
available or open or is able to see receivers open,
I should say that that whole process is as difficult
as it is. I can't imagine losing a guy who's,

(56:01):
let's face it, a very good route runner and has insane,
tremendous athletic ability to get open for a guy like CJ.
Stroud no longer being there, that's probably gonna make his
life all the more difficult, especially going up to New York.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
Yeah, undoubtedly it will. And they do happen to face
a very good defense, a couple of really good corners.
They're obviously very good upfront, and pretty much all the
numbers look like they have the bankings of a team
that can shut other teams down. It's one of the
reasons why their inept offense has been in games almost
every single week. Not every week, but almost every single week.
Kind of disappointing if you're a Jet to see what

(56:34):
happened last week, one of the multiple times they've lost
a game while having the lead late in the fourth quarter.
That's what happened to him last week, to Jacoby Brissett,
who led his team all the way down the field
for the go ahead touchdown in the final minute of
the game against that Jets defense that the Texans will
be facing this week. So Demiko was first at the podium. Obviously,
the first thing from him, without even being asked, was

(56:55):
the news about Diggs. And then you heard what he
said about his conversation. Well, I actually asked him after
that if he kind of got any sense or maybe
even what the conversation was between he and Stefan, because
I don't know if they showed it on TV, but
it's normal for the coach to usually head out onto
the field and kind of see what's going on in
this situation. Not only did he do that, he walked
off the field with him all the way to the

(57:17):
neighborhood of the tent. He never went in the tent
and he just walked straight to the locker room. But
they were clearly having a conversation. I asked Amika of,
you know, if he said anything about knowing how serious
it might be or whatever, and Dimiko's answer was more clinical, like,
you don't know what it is, and obviously we want
to around all the tests and things like that.

Speaker 8 (57:33):
C J.

Speaker 4 (57:34):
Stroud similarly, the first question for him was obviously about
you know, Stefan Diggs and you know it's a bummer, Yeah.

Speaker 11 (57:41):
Man, it sucks. You know, it's it's not easy. It's
not you know, something that I just can't have a
whole bunch of words for. I just hoping and you know,
and just trying to just wrap my mind around, you know,
what happened. But it's it's you know, he can't really
try try to think positively about it, but you know,

(58:01):
it's not a bunch of positive thoughts. And I just
really feel bad for him. You know, he's worked extremely hard,
he's I think he was having one of them, you know,
the best times he ever had on the team, at
least that's what he told us, you know, So you know,
I just feel for him and praying for him, you know,
and just hoping you know that you know, he keeps
his head up high, and you know he'll bounce back
here and stronger. So you know, it just sucks.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
That's got to kill those people with a non narrative
that he's a diva and he's a bad teammate. When
you sound by like that, I.

Speaker 4 (58:29):
Think it opens up the door for your favorite saying
in sports. Because I clipped some of the cut or
for some of the comment and put it in the
tweet when I sent out that audio clip, just some
of the things he said a transcript if you will,
and including what he said there about you know, I
think he was having, you know, the best time he's
had playing football on a team. At least that's what

(58:51):
he told us, or told me, And I included that
in there, to which all of the Bills fans that
caught wind of it, obviously a lot of people saw it.
They were all, well, of course he says that it's
that every time he gets on a new team, or
of course he says that he'd asked off of this team,
like it wasn't fun here until you all this kind
of nonsense. There's no Bills reference in it. It did

(59:11):
include the words digs in it and Steffan and so
I guess they catch wind of it for that reason,
because I'll usually go back and look and see if
this is some sort of negative comment about it, or
a comment I might not have been expecting. Well, where's
this person who has twenty three followers uses an egg
as an avatar, but clearly he lives in Buffalo. How
do they feel about it?

Speaker 8 (59:30):
Now?

Speaker 4 (59:30):
I can see, well how they exactly feel about it.
But I actually think what CJ said was had little
to do with that, and I'm gonna go back again
and say it. I'll say it as many times I
think people need to hear it, whether they're listening here
on the iHeartRadio app or watching us on Space City
home networker, just listening to us as many of you
have done for years on Sports Talk seven ninety. The

(59:51):
Bills told him very clearly from a football standpoint, we
don't want you here. You're gonna ask for a trade
because that's how it works, and that's how it's going
to get reported. And it's probably even true because we're
telling you without telling you, we don't want you here anymore.
In the offense we want to run. We think it
can work without you. They were wrong, obviously, that's why

(01:00:13):
Marii Cooper is there now. But Josh Allen's played great,
so they weren't necessarily wrong on that front. And clearly
last year, as they phased Stefan Diggs out of the
new offense that their new offensive coordinator put together, they
won football games. There's no denying that they told him
basically with here's you at the beginning of the year,

(01:00:33):
target target, target, target, reception, yards, touchdowns, points, and then
they changed those seas and he said, let's do something different.
They won games, and he was a very small part
of their offense despite being on the field, but basically
the same amount, they're telling him, we're not bringing you back,
we don't want you here.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
Let's make this work for everybody.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
And they got something in return, and he went to
a place that wanted him here, one that wanted him
so much here. They agreed to turn his contract into
something that he clearly he was for. It looks awful now, yeah,
and we feel bad, I think, for him for that's
the situation he now takes into the offseason. But they're
taking it like this guy doesn't want to play for us.
This guy's been rocking the boat all these years. I

(01:01:13):
don't even know if it's this guy's been holding us back,
this guy's keeping Josh Allen from bringing great I don't
know what it all.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Is, but it's just not the case at all. It's
so surprised at all that the people we talk to
here and yet it's very short term.

Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
There's no playoff disappointment. There's no we lost a division
at the end of the year disappointment. There's no we
went to Kansas City, played great and lost disappointment which
he had in Buffalo, not on his shoulders, but he
was part of those teams, so of course the vibes
are still good. I get that too.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
How Amari Cooper winds up panning out there and Buffalo
will go a long way towards determining you know, some
of those things you brought up, as far as digs
old team, how they feel about him, how they feel
moving forward, you know, him and Josh Allen. The side
eye capture was hilarious, even though it was probably taken
out of context, because you can make anything look like
anything for a millisecond it was.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
It was still funny, though.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
I just I'm only focused on the Texans and you know,
moving forward, and again I just wonder what the play
is now really for both camps. You know, if you're
if the Texans and you're looking to improve on whatever
ends up happening this year, we don't even know what
that's gonna be yet, but you know you've got to
get an offensive line upgrade somehow, some way. But if

(01:02:33):
you if you're able to because of this, get us
to fon Diggs at a more I don't know what
the word affordable price I don't know if this ends
up being a blessing in disguise as far as that goes, Like,
in other words, would he have commanded way more money
and it was just a sure thing he was out
the door. If this never happens and he goes on
to be as productive as we think he would have been.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
I see where you're going.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
Not really feeling the blessing in disguise when twenty four
Super Bowl run is in jeopardy partially because of this injury.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
But you know what the caller earlier said something, Yeah,
I know the Texans aren't the greatest team in the NFL.
I heard myself. I get it, take it easy, I
know what's coming.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
But when the caller called in an earlier and said
I didn't feel like he was a game changer, I
understand where he's coming from too. I mean, he's just
a consistent pass catcher. But again, you're gonna see what
he was doing, unfortunately the hard way, well the rest
of the way.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
And I know that everybody does know this, but we
don't ever kind of present it this way. It's he
is the game manager of wide receivers. We crap on
game managers like Brock Purty because they don't wow us.
He's not where's this seventy five yard touchdown? Hey, Steph?
Come on now, why wasn't brock Purty lighting teams up

(01:03:49):
with four hundred and fifty yards and multiple spectacular plays.
I don't know, but they're winning chain mover. We say
it like it's a bad thing. We say it like
it's a negative godwin. Nico Collins Stefan Diggs top three
in chain moving this year. They're not the same receivers
by any means. Nico and Steph are extremely different caliber, types, bodies,

(01:04:10):
route running, all those things are different. Their yards per
catch are dramatically different. Nico Collins is among the league leaders.
Stefan Diggs is at the other end of the spectrum.
But guess how you score points by moving the chains?
By continuing? Guess how you win games?

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
I mentioned the Colts were last in the NFL in
time of possession.

Speaker 4 (01:04:30):
The Texans are first. You know how important that is.
How about their defensive players. How about how few snaps
they have to take? How about how often? How about
the very last snap of the very most recent game
the Texans played, they put three defensive linemen out there.
Both of their starters and Deneko Autry against five offensive

(01:04:51):
linemen and they outran them all of them. Deniko, Audrey,
will Anderson Junior, and Daniel Hunter all met at the
quarterback because they're not getting worn down because they're on
the field for twenty seven minutes a game, yep, instead of.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
Thirty two or thirty four, thirty five. They're not taking
seventy snaps, they're taking fifty six, they're taking sixty two.
These things actually do matter.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
And they add up over time in the form of
wins and losses. And if you want to talk about
how they're not winning sexy or they're not blowing teams away,
well neither are the Chiefs and they are undefeated. So
it's just that kind of year here in the NFL.
We got our signature segment coming up next.

Speaker 7 (01:05:29):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
To have a discussion about your vision courtesy of Berkeley
I Center, where they do a whole lot more than
simply correct your astigmatism during their Lasik procedure. There in
nouned lask team actually specializes in treating it. So if
you've been diagnosed with a stigmatism or you've been told
maybe you're not a candidate for LASIK because of it.
Give them a call seven pet three five two six eyes.

(01:05:55):
Because the thing I've discovered, having been there myself and
sending a lot of people to Berkeley Eye Center, there's
always something they can do. And they're gonna provide you
a free consultation so that you can find out exactly
where you stand without having to pay a dime, and
then they're gonna permanently correct your astigmatism if.

Speaker 3 (01:06:12):
That's the way you choose to go.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
They'll also give you thirty percent off your procedure and
you can even use your Health Savings account or Flex
Savings account for tax free Lasik. It's all available to
you when you call seven one three five two six
eyes seven one three five two six e y E
s for Berkeley Eye Center.

Speaker 10 (01:06:29):
Set up.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
You see two Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
On any device with our free iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
See that shapom stick that Houston Sports in my ear hole.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
This is Adam and Adam sweekly charged through mind buckling
moments that make you, God, what what.

Speaker 7 (01:06:57):
Time tare you talking about?

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
On a Tuesday?

Speaker 8 (01:07:02):
Play? What O Dain Dan? Now? Say?

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
What takenaure?

Speaker 4 (01:07:08):
Segment time just at for four thirty on a Tuesday,
we play say what, no doubt only the week's time
has passed since we last did this. There's probably fifty
things we could have used in this segment. We'll go
with some of the recent stuff. We'll have something from
one of these several teams in the NFL, in fact,
several in just the AFC, there are six of them

(01:07:30):
with only two wins, So a comment from one of
the players on a two win team, and we'll start
with a comment from the aforementioned Shawnie p Sean Payton,
head coach of the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
He went onto the field, do a.

Speaker 4 (01:07:44):
Little handshaking and got a twenty eight to fourteen win
over Bryce Young's Panthers. Bryce Young led a eight touchdown drive,
so the margin was even larger than fourteen points throughout
the fourth quarter, during the time where they decided, instead
of giving the ball back to the Panthers with well
time to score at least once, maybe twice, who knows,
maybe a third time, they decided to try to extend

(01:08:04):
their drive by running a successful fake field goal, which
they did and thus bled more time off the clock
before ultimately losing the ball on downs, and then the
Panthers got the ball back with very little time, scored
a very meaningless touchdown, and it was time to go
shake hands and listen to players complaining to you about
your bush league nonsense running up the score. JC Horne

(01:08:27):
was one of them. Completely understand the frustration for the Panthers.
Yet another extremely disappointing season for them. There got a
new head coach, their quarterback play has been abysmal.

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
I get it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:40):
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I
don't even look at Dan Campbell's well, his lack of class.
According to Chris Christy, I don't even look at Dan
Campbell's Tom Fooler and the Cowboy game as running up
the score. Just my personal thought, that's probably literally exactly
what he was doing.

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
He's run up to score on a lot of teams
then this year.

Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Right, it's at this level to me, I really actually
feel the same way in the NBA, and I think
it's laughable how some teams react to shots taken at
Leyden games and dunks taken Leyden. I mean, give me
a break, Why are you fighting? Why don't you just
not get clobbered? It's so easy, which I think you'll
hear eventually from Sean Payton when he was doing a

(01:09:21):
radio interview after the game during the week early in
the week and it was brought to his attention or
asked about how the other team reacted to how you
finished off the game.

Speaker 6 (01:09:30):
After the game, a number of Panthers players that were
frustrated felt like you were running.

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
Then, I know, I know, how do you respond to that?

Speaker 12 (01:09:39):
Listen, I said it last night. We're trying to finish
the game the right way. We're not trying to run
up the score on anyone. It's the National Football League.
I've been in games with a twenty eight point lead
in the fourth quarter and lost. So we're trying to finish.
The Burton throw from Sutton is trying to continue.

Speaker 4 (01:09:56):
A drive played better if I got to the money
bite at the end. And I'm think you guys are
probably aware. I've had the Wexler research team take a
long extended summer fall vacation, or else I would have
had him do the Sean Payton research there. I've been
in games plural where we've had a twenty eight point

(01:10:17):
lead in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
In Blue twenty eight fourth quarter we have to take
to believe it's even happened once, let alone multiple times Falcons.
But I get the point that he's trying to make.

Speaker 4 (01:10:27):
And again in this case, while I'm not a huge
Sean Payton fan for how some things go and it's
not just because of what happened in his can you
please take the year off situation with these Saints. I
just think he's not wrong if you understand what they
were trying to do, and I think everybody but the
Panthers must have that's that is the smarter play. There's
a lot of times where teams in front, I mean,

(01:10:49):
you know, do they go forward here? Do they kick
the field goal? Are they rubbing it like you're trying
to win? Is another touchdown? Gonna help?

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Is running the ball on fourth and one versus taking
a knee or taking a knee now versus trying to
grind out another first down.

Speaker 4 (01:11:02):
I mean, it's all there for you. So yeah, I
don't have an issue with that at all. Plus very unexpectedly,
at least to me, they're five and three, they're inside
the AFC playoff picture just about at the halfway point
of the season with an extremely unheralded rookie as the starter.
He was not considered one of the top prospects in
this draft. He clearly was drafted as such, and he's

(01:11:26):
been their guy from day one. They don't have a
great running game. He's been way better than that running
the football. They're playing for something the Panthers aren't.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, this
is kind of like batflips and baseball. I mean it's different, definitely,
but it's the same mentality, and it's a soft one.

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
Like we hadn't talked about it. Did you like Freddie
Freeman's post home run celebration. He just held the bat
up in the air, and then after everyone was already
on their feet and excited and everything, he just kind
of dropped it. It wasn't with the flare we would
maybe see from a host of other players, But I
thought it was equally as awesome and equally as non

(01:12:04):
directed to the other teams.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
So you don't think he was holding up his baseball
bat and saying this is what ruined your lives Yankees.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
You don't think that's what he was doing. I don't
think so.

Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
I mentioned we had another piece of say what for you.
There are a bunch of two win teams. Some probably
think their seasons are over. There's a handful of one
win teams. Their season probably is over. Titans are a
one win team and the Panthers are a one win team.
But I bet near the end of this commentary you
might be able to figure out on which of the
two win teams this particular player plays for, while still

(01:12:38):
showing extreme confidence in his two and six football team.

Speaker 13 (01:12:43):
You know, right now we're two and six, which is horrible.
It's horrible, but my mindset is we could still win out.
That's my mindset, which you know might sound crazy to
a lot of people, but that's how I approach it.
I feel like we can still went out because we
had the team to do so. Does everybody feel like that,
I don't know, but that's I still think it's possible.
I still think like, obviously we can't lose, but I

(01:13:03):
still think it's possible to, you know, make this right.
And it just starts with, you know, winning this Thursday
night game.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
Winning this Thursday night game. He plays for the Jets.
He's really good. He plays in the secondary. It's one
of their corners. It's DJ Reid, and you could hear
him as he walks himself through that comment. Some people
may think I'm crazy. Yeah, you're on a team that's
lost five games at all. I think you're right. People
probably do think that he had preceded that with talk
about the roster we do the same thing, preceded that

(01:13:32):
with talk about putting together a good, talented team, which
we all think they have. I think we can all
easily take a look at the pre season predictions made
by the people that sit in the two seats in
this room and the producer's chair as Dan is in. Currently,
wex AFC Division winners predictions, Jets AC predictions one of

(01:13:54):
these seven AFC playoff teams as a wild card Jets.
Obviously one of us is smart and it's neither a US.
Dan did not have the Jets making the playoffs. I
think I have the Dolphins winning the AFCAS as well.
They're also a two win team again injuries. Yeah, I
mean they're playing with two and now, so I don't
look at them as a two win team, even though
they just lost to the Cardinals with TUA this past Sunday.

(01:14:16):
But this is one reason why the Texans aren't favored.
He talked about their finding ways to lose previous to
the comment I played for you. They did get blown
off the field late in the game against Pittsburgh two
weeks ago, and they were embarrassed on opening Monday Night
against the forty nine ers. They have a one over
the Titans, who stink, And they have one over the

(01:14:38):
Patriots who have also beaten them, and they stink.

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
And they lost every other game.

Speaker 4 (01:14:43):
All those other games I didn't mention, a one point loss,
a six point loss, a three point loss, all to
playoff teams, and then their loss last week to New England.
I don't think he is alone. I think other people
on their team are going into Thursday night game as favorites,
planning on expecting on winning over your Houston Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
Well they should, because if you have the talent that
they do, even if you haven't put it all together yet,
and you're at home and the Texans are not a
very good road team, and all the things to go
into it, and you have a good defense, which is
the way to beat the Texans, get after their quarterback,
who are down one of their best receivers. Well you

(01:15:27):
pay attention to that, and you think you got a
shot to win.

Speaker 7 (01:15:31):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety, You.

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
Always have a shot to win.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
With Quick Assist, who makes ticket resale easy and hassle
free that lets you focus on enjoying the game.

Speaker 3 (01:15:43):
You want to simplify your.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
Resale process, do it with Quick Assists by going to
the App Store or Google Play Store searching Quick Assist
q U, I, c K AS YST. Make the most
of your game day seats. They will do all the
dirty work for you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
You just enjoy it. Quick Assist your ticket everywhere.

Speaker 7 (01:16:02):
Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler, the A Team, continue cou big Ball, football, Basketball.
Isin't you my Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
Talk seven ninety home for your home teams?

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
It is the A Team. Sports Talk seven ninety. By
the way, left tickets to Jelly Roll later on in
the program about an hour from now. You're gonna want
to stay tuned for that if you want to get
a couple of tickets to his show over at Toyota
Center coming up on November seventeenth.

Speaker 3 (01:16:34):
Hey, wex guess what today is the anniversary of.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
Game five, twenty seventeen World Series now one, well not
the Dodgers, And I can tell you this. I would
like to think that even this year's Astro's club would
have given the Dodgers at least a little bit more
competition than the Yankees are right now as they are
down three. Well, definitely more so, Aaron Judge. But yeah,

(01:17:02):
that was to this day, and I'm biased, but I
don't care. It's the greatest World Series game of all
time other than like you know, if you want to say,
it was not a clinching game, so from that standpoint,
it couldn't be. But like I know, you were there
inside for parts of it, at least as you were
trying to do the TV start.

Speaker 4 (01:17:20):
That was outside for some of the Devo's finest work.
I think they had a three run cushion during his inning,
and then they didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
They didn't cushion at all. No one ever had a
cushion at any point during that game. It was extra innings.
You'd think three runs is was enough. It wasn't.

Speaker 4 (01:17:33):
I was back inside as it concluded. But I mean,
if you want us to go live, well, we will
absolutely go outside the ballpark and accommodate you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:41):
And we did. What a dumb request that is, But
I digress.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
You know what's interesting is I saw somebody say this,
and it's totally like tongue in cheek, not fair at
all to him, but I don't care.

Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
All it took was for the Dodgers to say, you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
Know what, Clayton Kershaw, you're not on our playoff roster
this year, and just took care of everything in a
real season.

Speaker 3 (01:18:03):
At least that's what happened.

Speaker 4 (01:18:04):
Yeah, I mean, it's caesar to win when you go
to people who are success like last night, Walker Bueller,
very hurt last couple of years, wasn't able to pitch
the way he wanted to be really good. Yeah, and
then his World Series numbers are elite. Yeah, he had
another strong outing. I believe he's now eighteen World Series
innings and he's allowed to run. Clayton Kershaw has been historically,

(01:18:25):
He's been notoriously very poor in the postseason. He obviously
wasn't very good this year, but he did not pitch
very much either. His seventh start of the year was
his last. He lasted one inning and then they knew
his season was over and he wasn't expected to be
back for this, so there was no decision to be made.
He's unhealthy, He's I said it before. And I know
it probably is hard to do when you if they'll

(01:18:48):
have you back for any amount of money, they can
win another World Series and maybe you can contribute. But
I think he's retiring, and I think not having to decide, well,
he's healthy and he's on our roster, do we use
it and what do we do? And you know, roll
the dice is familiar. Yes, the Astros weren't faced with that.
Timing allowed them not to have him make much of

(01:19:09):
a decision for their world or their wild card roster.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
Was not going to retire. Yeah, we're talking about Justin Verlander.

Speaker 4 (01:19:15):
They almost assuredly would have placed him on a succeeding
roster in the Division series and then kind of figured
out where what makes the most sense, where do we
slot him in and kind of take their chances. I
would necessarily have agreed with it, but it has more
to do with how he was literally pitching at that
very moment versus, well, this guy just sucks in the playoffs,
because Verlander's only bad when you get further in the playoffs.

(01:19:38):
And then one of his more recent outings, obviously the
opening of the series they played against Seattle, was less
than stellar. It took a walk off monster shot from
jord On Alvarez to flip a poor Verlander start into
an Astros victory and ultimately a sweep. But yeah, the
Dodge didn't have to make any decision at all. I
think he's going to retire at the end of this year.
He's just had too many injuries and too hard to
try to get back out there and pitch at that level.

(01:20:00):
The lineup tonight will feature Shoho Tani again leading off.
He unfortunately probably will not have much offense in this
World Series. He is only hitting oh ninety one heading
into this game, and I don't expect him to be
capable of doing much more than contacting the ball and
hope it goes somewhere where he can hold onto his
shirt and run to first.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
And he's doing that to protect against the Yankees. He's
doing that to protect his bum's shoulder. Oh it's not
a wire.

Speaker 4 (01:20:24):
And Aaron Boone is batting Jim Carlos Stanton fifth, putting
Jazz Chisholm in front of him.

Speaker 3 (01:20:32):
I don't know. Judge ninth, judges third, so the top
of the order hasn't changed. Is this to.

Speaker 4 (01:20:38):
Entice people to walk Judge because it's just Chisholm. There
is this enticing, you know, Chisholm to look for better
pitches because now he's front batting in front of Stanton.
At the end of the day, what it's actually doing, Well,
he had three games of crap. So I don't, I don't.
I'm not gonna say Aaron Boone's nuts for doing this.

(01:21:00):
You got two guys contributing and you just told one
of them we need four other guys to back before.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
Well, he'll get fire at the end of the year
because somebody's gonna have to take the scapegoat for this,
and well we know it's not gonna be Brian Cashman
because well he's got a built an excuse.

Speaker 4 (01:21:13):
The Astros cheated. They get their game tonight. It's a
bullpen game for the Dodgers. Yankees get their dub they
throw Garrett Cole in Game five, and they get it back.

Speaker 3 (01:21:23):
Travel.

Speaker 4 (01:21:24):
Both teams don't have to travel because it's now three
games to two. Yeah, and you take your chances. I mean,
I like their chances. If they're only down three to
two with two left, I really think they've got it.
If they can do that, this thing might like people,
right I mean, I get it, there's nothing else to write.
It would be better, actually if it ended tonight for
my purposes. I think there's a pretty good chance that
the purposes of laughing at them, that would be good

(01:21:46):
for me. The Yankees, you know, the two run shot
in the first inning, you should never have walked out Tani,
and then Freeman comes up and hits a home run.
You're down to nothing, and it almost felt like the
game was over, but Dodgers gave up two runs the
next eight plus innings, absolutely out of chance to do
anything you want to do offensively.

Speaker 3 (01:22:01):
You're fine. They're pitching has been fine.

Speaker 4 (01:22:04):
Nestor Cortes probably would have liked to have those two
pitches back. You're so nasty. I only think, honestly, I
don't know if either one of them were bad. The
location to Freeman just happens to be where he likes it,
so thus it's bad. And the pitch to Atanic he
got him out. He's since pitched in this series, and
he did the job, but they can't score it, so
they can't win.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
It's just it's it's glorious. I mean, it's weird.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
I went into this series with a t shirt in hand,
by the way, hoping both teams lost somehow. But it's
not like if the Yankees were up three nothing right now.
It would be way worse for somebody like me, way bitter,
way all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
At the end of the day, the only thing.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
That truly sucks about the Dodgers winning the World Series
is that Joe Kelly's gonna get a ring he doesn't
even deserve.

Speaker 4 (01:22:50):
I also passed over for being a part of their
roster because he sucks exactly. I mean, there's there's one
other element. I wonder if you care because of how
you feel about twenty twenty the Golden Age, The Golden
era of Astros baseball includes two championships m M. Later
on tonight, when the Dodgers win, they will also in

(01:23:10):
that same time period, actually less have two championship.

Speaker 2 (01:23:14):
Yeah, and both teams will be able to say, well,
one of those has an asterisk next to it for
different reasons.

Speaker 3 (01:23:20):
That's I mean, that's how I feel about it. I
don't know how La feels about it, nor do I care,
but it just doesn't bother me as much.

Speaker 4 (01:23:26):
Do you think of the dynasty term being wrong when
it replied when it refers to the astros. Would you
no longer use it? Would you no longer debate? It
even applies if you have If you're talking.

Speaker 2 (01:23:38):
About Dodgers for eight consecutive or seven consecutive years.

Speaker 4 (01:23:43):
Right, but you won two titles. They won two titles.
How are you a dynasty?

Speaker 6 (01:23:48):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
Well, when you're losing in the first round, it's different
than when you're not.

Speaker 4 (01:23:53):
Isn't it almost exclusively about titles. I don't want to
dismiss doing something that nobody else is going to do
in the American League, and that's go to seven straight alcs's.

Speaker 3 (01:24:01):
They also win the World Series, lost another title season. Yeah,
dynasties are mostly almost exclusively about titles. Are they?

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
Non title seasons where you're in the championship round? Are
especially in baseball, are way different than just ah, well,
you know you didn't do it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:20):
It's a dynasty because you didn't do this, that and
the other.

Speaker 6 (01:24:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:24:23):
In the NBA and in the NFL, if you don't
win the title, we don't even consider it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:28):
Maybe there's a little rains culture, a little.

Speaker 4 (01:24:31):
Bit of a break on the on the baseball side
because of the difficulty. That's why we regard it as
this era of incredible times, which we hope is not over.

Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
By the way, who started all that shenanigans in Game five?
Clayton Kershaw giving up that whiplash job to Yuli who
had tied it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:49):
That's how that went down.

Speaker 7 (01:24:52):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:24:59):
Two, lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking Your Team series.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
Team football at five conversation underway here on Sports Talk
seven ninety as we are wont to do, especially just
before a game, which is a lot earlier in the week.

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
This week, we like to go.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
Behind enemy lines, as Adam Wexler over there, Adam Clinton
right here, and Dan Leberfield on the or lever Feld,
excuse me on the phone lines right now if Jets confidential,
So get you ready for a little conversation about this
week's opponent. Dan, this is a very odd matchup because
I would I think I would be safe in arguing

(01:25:50):
that a lot of NFL fans will look at these
two teams and say that their records are deceptive for
very different reasons.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
Would you agree?

Speaker 6 (01:25:59):
Yeah, tweeted today that these two teams the rosters are
about the same in terms of roster strength, and the
difference is the Texans have won a lot of close
games this year and the Jets have lost a lot
of close games this year, and it just shows you
the margin of victory can be so narrow in the NFL.

(01:26:21):
The Jets just lost another heartbreaker, just like they did
to Denver and several other games this year in the
Minnesota Viking game as well. So once again, maybe you
make your own luck, and maybe Demico Rans is doing
a better job coaching his team than the two Jets
coaches have. But the bottom line is the Jets should
be a lot better than two and six.

Speaker 4 (01:26:43):
There's probably no maybe there, and I think everybody would agree,
but I actually would say the difference is how they
follow their leader and how their leader performs. I don't
think it's a fluke that the Texans are running through
their second consecutive season of dominating one score games and
the Jets and their offense and their quarterback are struggling
through his first season, first healthy season of winning one

(01:27:05):
score games. And this is after a week where their
offense put them in front in the fourth quarter, only
to see their defense unable to stop Jacoby Brissett. How
does the team feel good about going into a game
when they were unable to stop Jacoby Brissett.

Speaker 6 (01:27:19):
Well, because one of the issues is that their defense
is not very good, and the hype about their defense
in the off season was very misguided. They didn't stop
the run last year and they haven't stopped the run
this year. So I never really got the hype about
their defense in the offseason. The narrative you heard, the
talking point you offer heard about the Jets was, you know,

(01:27:40):
they had a really good defense last year. If they
could just get going on offense and Aaron Rodgers could
take their offense to the next level, they'll be a
really good team. No, their defense was not that good
last year. Yeah, the secondary was good with Sauce Gardner
and DJ Reiding company last season, but their run defense
wasn't good last year. And Rogers is at the point

(01:28:01):
of his career where he's still a good quarterback, but
he's not an elite quarterback. So in the past with
Green Bay when he was in his heyday, if they
had issues at other positions or their defense are struggling
or special teams, he could lift the whole team to
a win. He can't do that anymore. He needs a
supporting cast. He needs a good run defense, because I'm

(01:28:22):
telling you right now, nothing demoralize his team more than
playing bad run defense week in week out. So I
think you can win an Aaron Rodgers, but you can't
expect him to put the team on his back anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:28:34):
I'm just curious. You know, clearly they haven't turned other
teams over very much. They're near the bottom of the
league and takeaways. They only have two interceptions, but they
don't give up a lot of yards. They don't give
up a lot of yards per play, they sack the quarterback.
Why isn't their defense, well, why don't you consider them
good or why do you just flat out and say
they aren't good when most of the metrics and even

(01:28:54):
in the game, it's one of the reasons they're in
all these games because their offense stinks.

Speaker 6 (01:28:59):
Yeah, that's true, but their run defense. I mean, in
the second half against Pittsburgh, here's the thing with Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh was starting three backup offensive linemen and they still
dominated the Jets on the ground. I don't know exactly
how all those metrics details work and analytics. I don't

(01:29:20):
know much about that stuff, but all I know is that,
like for instance, that last drive against New England when
New England took the lead and won the game, they
will run on and they don't see. One of the
problems is, and Stroud can take advantage of this if
he's inclined to run this week, is that they run

(01:29:40):
past the quarterback all the time, which is a cardinal sin.
When you're playing defense on the NFL level, you can't
be running past the quarterback. And Drake May before he
got concussed in that game, he could have gone over
one hundred yard rushing because how many times they ran
past him. So they don't play discipline defense, they don't
stay in their gaps, and it's leading to problems. Now,

(01:30:03):
like I said, the past defense is not bad. So
maybe that has something to do with some of the
numbers you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
Well, as you're preparing for a game and you're the
Texans and you just lost Stefan Diggs for the season
and you still are one week or one game, I
guess I should say away from getting Nico Collins back
me hearing you talk about the run defense of the
Jets being porous is music to Joe Mixon's ears and
probably music to C. J. Stroud and Demiko Ryans. This guy,

(01:30:30):
how much does that concern you with what you're talking about?
Because he is a He's not only you know, big,
but he's just a physical, punishing running back and he
has proven the ability to literally carry the Texans at
times this season.

Speaker 6 (01:30:46):
Yeah, and the Texans have a good line. I know
sometimes on the road it's not as good as at home.
And sometimes I have issues with stunts and twists up Trump,
but the Jets don't.

Speaker 7 (01:30:55):
Do a lot of that. So when you look at the.

Speaker 6 (01:30:58):
Jets run defense, one of the problems, aside from gap integrity,
is some of the positions upfront are too small. Now
Will McDonald, the second year defensive end out of Iowa State,
is a good pass rusher, but he's about two hundred
and forty pounds and you talk about those massive tackles
for the Texans, I don't know how he's going to
get off blocks. And now they ad Hassan Riddick who's

(01:31:20):
two hundred and forty pounds. So one of the issues
is the ends are too small. And then you look
at inside Quinn Williams a very good player, but there
are certain games when he's matched up against big interior
lineman where he gets belk Row to block. So yeah,
you would think the potentially.

Speaker 7 (01:31:37):
Could be a big week for Joe Mixon, DJ.

Speaker 3 (01:31:39):
Reid, Morgan Moses.

Speaker 4 (01:31:40):
A couple of the players with the Jets were as
positive as one could be about the future, Reid saying
I think they can run the table and Moses saying,
we have so much football left, the season's far from over.

Speaker 3 (01:31:51):
I tend to agree with them.

Speaker 4 (01:31:52):
However, a seventh loss actually does make me think otherwise,
and it's going to come at some point if it
comes on Thursday. Are the Jets listening to teams when
they call them and ask them about their talented roster
that has two wins in nine games.

Speaker 6 (01:32:07):
Yeah, you know, I was thinking about that a little
bit today. As far as players that if they lose
this game could be available. You wonder a little bit
about Tyron Smith, the left tackle, who you guys know
a lot about in Texas. You know, with his long
run with the Dallas Cowbache. A lot of teams Minnesota
Vikings need a left tackle and the Jets have Olu
fashion movie. They picked in the first round of the

(01:32:30):
twenty twenty four NFL Draft out at Penn State is
a very good left tackle prospect, So you know, you
have to wonder about that and some of their other players.
Obviously one of their receivers. You wonder if the Texans
would call, you know, about Mike Williams now that Devonte
Adams is with the Jets. Yeah, I think you make
a good point. If they lose this game and drop

(01:32:51):
to two and seven, they definitely could be sellers.

Speaker 4 (01:32:53):
I mean, seriously, Dan, eight minutes in, we've barely asked
you about Aaron Rodgers. I mean, what's the Aaron Rodgers
experience been like for you this year? And everybody covering
the Jets and inside the building.

Speaker 6 (01:33:04):
It's definitely different. I know the Jets beat was criticized
by Pro Football Talk for not asking tough questions of him,
and I could see that a little bit. He is.
I'm not saying I'm intimidated, not at all, but I
think some people might be intimidating him in press Conerence,
and he's got that kind of aura to him. As

(01:33:25):
far as you know, if you're asking something tough, it's
not going to go well, so maybe the questions could
be tougher. But you know, when you look at the
overall experience, I don't think he's playing as bad.

Speaker 12 (01:33:35):
As some people would lead you to believe.

Speaker 6 (01:33:37):
I'm sure you, guys, because it was a national game,
saw the little bit of the text of the Jets
Steelers game. I mean, they get out to a fifteen
to sixth lead. He throws a bad pick late in
the first half. Granted, but that passed to Garrett Wilson
now on the sidelight that bounced off his chest and
the cornerback for the tech since it always goes by Beanie,

(01:34:01):
I'm forgetting his last day right now. But Beanie intercepts
it and runs it back to the one that wasn't
Aaron Rodgers' fault. Aaron Rodgers like said, he's not the
same player as was ten years ago. But covering the
Jets throw as long as I have, he's making throws.
He's making plays at the quarterback position that I have
not seen around here in a long time. I'm not

(01:34:21):
saying he's perfect, and he's not who he used to be,
but he's still making some really good plays. So if
they get their act together, look at the special teams
like one of the you know we're talking before about
Texans being six and two and the Jets being two
and six. How much does the field goal kicking have
the factor it to that when you think about it,
how great Fairburn has been and how much the Jets

(01:34:42):
kicker has struggled.

Speaker 4 (01:34:44):
Yeah, Jets only brought in one, two, three, four, five
six kickers today to work out to see if maybe
one of them can unseat Greg Zerline for the game
on Thursday night. Last thing on the offense for me
quickly before we hit our break. Should they be scoring more?
Are they under a ch as Aaron indicated after their
last loss.

Speaker 6 (01:35:03):
Oh, there's no question they're underachieving. And one of the
problems is whatever you think of Nathaniel Hackett's offensive coordinator,
he and Aaron Rodgers obviously have that long relationship. To
demote Nathaniel Hackett and promote tout Todd Downing to offensive
coordinator who was essentially the quarterback coach, you're basically promoting

(01:35:26):
a guy to run Nathaniel Hackett's offense. Todd Downey used
to be the offensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans, So
you guys saw his offense a few times. Why would
you have someone else run someone else's playbook? This wasn't
Todd Downing's playbook from Tennessee. So I'm not saying Nathaniel
Hackett is Bill Walsh, But who would you rather have

(01:35:46):
running Nathaniel Hackett's playbook? Nathaniel Hackett or Todd Downing. So
I think the last couple of weeks I have never
seen this one before, or two things I've never seen.
First of all, calling a time out on the first
drive of the game that scripted that happen in last week.
Another thing I've never seen, burning three timeouts in the
first quarter because you weren't mined up properly. So I

(01:36:08):
ask you, guys, who would they be better off calling
the plays with Nathaniel Hackett or Todd Downing.

Speaker 4 (01:36:13):
Yeah, it definitely sounds like a very easy answer, almost rhetorical.
I'm gonna say, Nathaniel Hackett as I thank you for
your time. Je's Confidential the publisher, that's Dan Leverfeld. We
appreciate your time. We're looking forward to the game on
Thursday night and appreciate you taking some time with.

Speaker 6 (01:36:26):
Us anytime, guys, enjoy the game.

Speaker 3 (01:36:29):
You got it more on what we just heard when
we come back.

Speaker 7 (01:36:34):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:36:38):
You know you're gonna have some joint pain in your
life in all likelihood if you live long enough. And
if that is the case and it's not allowing you
to live your best life, living life to one hundred percent, especially,
don't get a surgical procedure and don't deal with the
drugs and downtime that comes with it. Instead, give this
telephone number a call seven one three nine one three
fifty two eighty five. Seven one three nine one three

(01:37:00):
fifty two eighty five. When you call that number QC Kinetics,
they answered the phone and they say this, wex.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
Hey, which one of the four locations can we set
you up with a free consultation with? You know we
have one in Sugarland, the Woodlands, the Heights, and our
Cypress location. You give them the information and then they'll
get you on the road to getting back to the
life you want to lead once again. It's actually a
quick in office procedure that can get you moving again,
whether it's back pain or shoulder pain or knee pain.

(01:37:25):
Cutting edge treatments required, no surgery, no drugs, no Downtime
seven one three nine three fifty two eighty five for
QC Kinetics seven to one to three, nine to one,
three fifty two eighty five.

Speaker 1 (01:37:38):
The eighteen continues one Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:37:47):
Appreciate Dan Leberfeld from Jets Confidential joining us. This last
segment obviously went back at him with a few of
the things that he commented on because I just didn't
believe it to be the case. He covers the team.
I don't, but the numbers are what they are. They
have had issues finishing games. I think that's probably the
safest way to say, well, this is why they aren't winning.

(01:38:08):
They've been in position to win multiple times. They've had
leads late multiple times, and essentially their end they fall short.
On the Texans end, they come away with it. I
did point out something that I continue to think matters
and is something that actually carries weight. I think Pat
Mahomes will show you that over the course of his career.
I even think Josh Allen's probably a good quarterback to

(01:38:28):
attach to this number. I didn't ever thought it was
a fluke last year and they didn't win all of them.
But when the Texans weren't close games, I pretty much
felt like they were going to get the job done.
You lost two games on field goals that were kicked
as time expired, to Atlanta and Carolina.

Speaker 3 (01:38:42):
On the road.

Speaker 4 (01:38:43):
You lost a three point game to Jacksonville here in Houston,
the only loss they had in Houston after the opener,
and that was it for.

Speaker 3 (01:38:51):
Close game losses. Last season.

Speaker 4 (01:38:54):
You won in Indianapolis in a one score game to
clinch the division. That's one You won an over time
in Tennessee with Case Keenum. You won a five point
game against Denver. You want a five point game against Arizona.
You beat the Bengals by three. You got a five
touchdown game while trailing and trying to come back against Tampa,
which you did. You won the one score game against

(01:39:15):
New Orleans. It now into the second year of doing
all that all over again, all but the one game
with Case.

Speaker 12 (01:39:22):
With c. J.

Speaker 4 (01:39:23):
Stroud, your four and one this year in one score games.
You're winning way too heavy a percentage of those games
for it to be the proverbial coin flip. Sometimes you
win them, sometimes you don't. The only difference between the
Jets and the Texans is their close games have gone
their way versus the Jets that haven't. That's I just
I can't have accurate.

Speaker 2 (01:39:45):
Well, here's the thing, it's it's it's not gonna sound
sexy and it's definitely not gonna sound like a strong argument.
But in the Texans, if you're gonna defend them by saying, hey,
this six and two is legit and it's not as
these games aren't close as they see they aren't. They've
shot themselves in the foot on how many drives where

(01:40:05):
they were looking to just put the gas pedal down
and take their foot and put it on the team's throats,
and then there's been a dumb penalty or ten or
they have you know, inexplicably tossed the ball to Joe
Mixon when they should have been running up.

Speaker 3 (01:40:20):
I mean, yeah, he could have, but it could have
been a better toss too.

Speaker 2 (01:40:23):
If we're gonna be honest about the play, ye like
things like that have happened, and yet you're still six
and two. I'm not gonna complain that they're winning close games. Now,
is the rubber gonna really meet the road? Now that
you have Stefan Diggs out and you know you're gonna
you're gonna get Nico Collins back, But you know, I
just I don't know. There's still very tough games remaining

(01:40:45):
on the schedule, but there's not as many tough games remaining.

Speaker 3 (01:40:48):
As we previously thought there would be.

Speaker 2 (01:40:50):
So I while I think they're gonna run away with
a division, I mean, the closest team than the division
just decided that it was a better idea to start
fifty five year old Joe Flacco at quarterbacks. So I'm
pretty confident the AFC South runs through Houston still. But
then it's about what you do with the rest of
this season, especially in light of what we found out today.

Speaker 4 (01:41:12):
Just for statistics sake, the Texans are eleven and five
and one score games the last two seasons starting in
the Dubiico era. The Chiefs are twelve and five in
such games. It's not an accident, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:41:23):
Not a fluke.

Speaker 4 (01:41:24):
Their record clearly is not going to be different. If
they were playing more successfully offensively, they'd just be winning
by more.

Speaker 3 (01:41:33):
They've won every game.

Speaker 4 (01:41:34):
I don't think the Texans record would be different really, honestly, because.

Speaker 3 (01:41:37):
They take care of the ball well.

Speaker 4 (01:41:38):
If they had won well like the Chiefs, No, the Texans, Yeah,
the Texans done a pretty good job of that. Obviously,
they don't.

Speaker 3 (01:41:45):
Specifically mean talking about CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:41:46):
Though, Yeah, he'd done throw a lot of interceptions. He
has two of the team's four fumbles, although the one
on Sunday goes to him was a bad toss. I
don't know how much consternation the official scorer feels on
those plays.

Speaker 3 (01:41:59):
I mean, I don't know. It was a badly poorly
executed play, but yeah, I just think the better quarterbacks
almost always end up on the right end of this.

Speaker 4 (01:42:09):
And that's why there's a difference between the way c J.
Stroud's playing this year, even under duress, and the way
that Aaron Rodgers is playing this year. Played you the
cut on Monday of him talking about we should be
scoring thirty points every week. He's telling the media and
his team we should be doing something every week that
we've literally never done even once. I mean, there's nothing
to base that on. I know he sees the problems,

(01:42:30):
he sees how close they are to this and how
close they are to that, and I don't think he's
wrong for showing the confidence of that and taking the heat.
Their defense has played plenty well enough for them to
have a lot more than two wins, there are a
very good run defense. In my opinion, I don't think
the Texans will find such an easy road running the football,
and I don't know the situation in their own backfield

(01:42:51):
to begin with, because of what's going on with the
groin for Damian Pierce.

Speaker 3 (01:42:56):
I think that is a factor.

Speaker 4 (01:42:57):
And Texans also don't have the depth they had early
in the year because well, Cam Akers plays for the Vikings.
Their injury report again today as they've just finished up practice,
is an estimation if there was a full practice, because
there are no full practice when you play a game
on Sunday, fly on a Wednesday, and play again on Thursday.
But for dnps in yesterday's estimated practice, two dnps today,

(01:43:23):
and Damian Peis is one of them again. Jared Patterson
is the other, and he is not gonna play on Thursday.
He is in the concussion protocol. Talk to Henry Totoa
today he is not in the concussion protocol anymore. He
expects to play on Thursday night so they get his return.
Al Shaire, Kaylin, Bullock, Jimmy Ward all limited. Bullock's gonna play.

(01:43:44):
I feel pretty confident saying that. I think if they
were playing on Sunday. Both share al Shayer and Ward
would probably be good to go, but I would imagine
they will be inactive well them Thursday, yes, and then
return along with Nico Collins on the tenth against Detroit.

Speaker 3 (01:44:01):
T's gonna say playing well.

Speaker 4 (01:44:03):
See, that's interesting because that would mean all of their
linebackers are healthy and they don't need They barely need
more than two. Last week they played three, and that
was really the first time all year they played them
throughout an entire game, any set of three. Because I'll
share in Totoa took one hundred percent of the snaps
essentially for five straight games. Then Hanson and Hewitt took
one hundred percent of the snaps when both of them

(01:44:24):
were gone before Devin White had been added. And now
White mixed in with Hanson last week, and I thought
it was really good for both of them. Hanson had
a really good week where he got all the snaps
two weeks ago. They could played fair just as well
as he did this last week, but the defense was
enhanced by having White spell him. By having White two
certain things that were better suited for him. But if
all five of them are healthy, I don't even think

(01:44:46):
all five of them will be active. Hanson's and Hewitt
clearly are big special teams contributors, but White isn't, and
I don't think they'd want toato on special teams. So
it's an interesting situation if all five of them were healthy. Oh,
we'll find out an hour and a half before kickoff
during our show five forty five on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:45:04):
That's true, And I think you're gonna find out regardless
of who plays for them or doesn't play for them.
In the case of these guys, I think you're gonna
find out pretty quick on Thursday. Where Aaron Rodgers is
at if he goes well, No, he's out of the darkness.
He's been there before. Of course, he's a peace with it. Yeah,
and he made a winner out of it yesterday with

(01:45:26):
our trivia.

Speaker 3 (01:45:26):
He's a conference football player.

Speaker 4 (01:45:28):
Where he is, he feels like he he feels like
he can still be the player he once was. The
play is showing that he can't. Like what do you
what do you think we're gonna find out? Well, the
first couple series.

Speaker 2 (01:45:38):
What I'm saying, how okay, how how much are danil
Hunter and Will Anderson Junior going to be able to
get to him, and if they are getting to him
on an even semi consistent basis, you know how much
the Texan secondary can maybe play into that because they
don't have to just because they're you know, not sacking him,

(01:45:58):
doesn't mean they're not getting to him. And if they
can throw them all like he hasn't been accurate this year.
We just talked about this the other day.

Speaker 4 (01:46:03):
Sixty one point five completion percentage again doesn't tell you
the whole story of drops and other things like that,
but at least gives you an indicator that if thirty
other quarterbacks are more have a higher completion percentage, it's
probably not your fast saying.

Speaker 2 (01:46:16):
You're saying he's Anthony Richardson, but he's close. But he's
not Aaron Rodgers either.

Speaker 4 (01:46:20):
Yeah, though those days are over and comparing him to
what he once was is silly. He just needs to
be better. I mean, he needs to be one of
the top half in the Texans quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (01:46:29):
Detections are going to hope to delay that process or
just prove that this is who he is now. That's
what I mean when I say we're gonna see who
he is because this is you said it the other day.
Probably one of the best defenses he's going to have
played against.

Speaker 4 (01:46:42):
I mean, in my opinion on the Yeah, in my opinion,
it's the best defense the Jets will have faced all year,
especially since if those players return like you mentioned, and
maybe even if they don't, the only player they would
truly be missing in this instance would be Edwards, who's
still suspended, but Audrey's now in his third game. The
rest of your defense of line is healthy. It has
allowed them to run different combinations out there. Just a

(01:47:04):
reminder again on their offense that has scored more than
twenty four points zero times with Aaron Rodgers as their
quarterback this season.

Speaker 3 (01:47:13):
The Jets, I'm not.

Speaker 4 (01:47:15):
Sure you know how they kind of put it all
together late last year. The Jets scored thirty points twice
in their final five games last year, once with Zach Wilson,
once later in the year with Trevor Simeon. Obviously, the
Wilson game came against Houston, so dumb as zero zero

(01:47:35):
at the half. Yeah, that was a it was thirty
to six the final Texans were down big in the
fourth quarter when CJ got hurt and left the game,
So it wasn't like it cost them an opportunity to win.

Speaker 3 (01:47:48):
By then they were getting smacked.

Speaker 2 (01:47:50):
I should be probably more upset about both the Panthers
and Falcons losses, but that's the one, and I think
it's because it raw does of more CJ in his
rookie year, because it knocked him out of action.

Speaker 4 (01:48:04):
Honestly, bigger picture, it's it started his concussion career.

Speaker 3 (01:48:09):
I hate that.

Speaker 4 (01:48:10):
Oh yeah, no, you don't like that, but that didn't
mention it earlier. But you know, Henry Totoe is coming back.
He had a concussion last year. He's now had a
concussion this year in his only two NFC.

Speaker 3 (01:48:19):
I don't like that.

Speaker 2 (01:48:20):
This is why I just invest draft. Whatever you gotta do,
like put put put a wall in front of CJ.
Do not let him get in.

Speaker 3 (01:48:30):
What's the height? We'll have to talk about that next.
In case you missed.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
It, the ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:48:40):
Is Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 8 (01:48:43):
Catch every astro's game on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 12 (01:48:45):
Ninety talker the Glover.

Speaker 7 (01:48:48):
And streaming on the free iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (01:48:55):
Music means in.

Speaker 4 (01:48:56):
Case you missed it, so does the clock. It's five
thirty on a weekday edition the show. Those are all
of the editions of the show. The eighteenth Wexac and
Dan here with you, and you can also catch the
simul cast right there on Space City Home Network. A
couple of items to get to, but I wanted to
add one thing to our discussion about the Texans and
what they needed to do up front to Aaron Rodgers

(01:49:17):
and every.

Speaker 3 (01:49:17):
Quarterback they face the rest of the way.

Speaker 4 (01:49:19):
If you were unaware, my bold prediction about the Texans
was for the first time in team history, they would
have a duo with thirty combined sacks.

Speaker 3 (01:49:30):
Daniel Hunter is at five and a half.

Speaker 4 (01:49:32):
Will Anderson Junior is at seven and a half, So
they're sitting at thirteen with one half of football left
till they reach the actual halfway points of the regular season.
They each have at least one sack in each of
the last three games. And since it's not all about
sacks in terms of determining how excellent you guys are

(01:49:53):
as pass rushers, Will Anderson fourth in the NFL and
quarterback pressures trails Miles Garrett and Nick Bosa's at forty four,
Garrett's at forty one, Will Anderson's at thirty nine, and
way ahead of all of them is Daniel Hunter at
fifty one, number one in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:50:10):
Killing people without actually killing them.

Speaker 4 (01:50:13):
His sacks are among the most fun to watch because
he's usually trying to black out the recipient by leaping
into the error and landing on them without driving them
into the turf and thus drawing a penalty.

Speaker 2 (01:50:27):
Who's the one that he dove on was that he's
done it twice, but the really demonstrative one where they
had the good camera angle and I was like, oh, he's.

Speaker 3 (01:50:35):
Dead, and yet he was alive. He didn't even leave
the game. Is there anything more terrifying as an athlete?
He's pretty terrifying.

Speaker 4 (01:50:42):
Although it's funny talking to him, and I think Kay
Adams noticed that when she talked to him.

Speaker 3 (01:50:47):
Earlier the Best year.

Speaker 4 (01:50:48):
He's a really great guy to talk to, really down
to earth pleasant and really is thoughtful with what he
talks about. And there's one other note from that, but
I'll say that for our upcoming segment on Daniel Hunter,
Deniko and Will Anderson Junr.

Speaker 3 (01:51:01):
What else do we have it? In case you missed it?

Speaker 5 (01:51:03):
All right, so wex you were on the call last
night at the Rockets one O six, one oh one game,
in the middle of the game, we saw a little
bit of a tie up between Jeremy Sohan and Jabari
Smith Junior Double Technicals. Now there's a history with so
Hann Last year, of course, he tripped a Men Thompson
on the floor. Then after the game, if you were

(01:51:23):
watching on TV, you saw so Hann as players there
ought to do go and try to tap up some
of the rockets, and Fred van Vlietz stepped up and said, Ah,
that's not gonna happen here, Bud. We're not friends. He
talked about it with Matt Thomas in the postgame interview.
I don't think you and so Han were mixing up
postgame celebrations where.

Speaker 8 (01:51:41):
You know, no, I don't. I don't do no faking.

Speaker 11 (01:51:43):
So I don't like people talking crazy and try to
come shake my hand.

Speaker 8 (01:51:46):
So that's good. I carry that all day. And you
know we're men at the end of the day, and
I'm a man of respect. I carried myself that way.

Speaker 3 (01:51:52):
Fred van vliet certified dog.

Speaker 2 (01:51:56):
So this is a kid who is off to a
very start this year, I suppose, and he's averaging nineteen points,
nine rebounds, three assists, a handful of games.

Speaker 3 (01:52:09):
He's a decent role player.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
On a Spurs team that's not very good, which means
overall he's just a guy. If that i His claim
to fame is he looks like a knockoff Dennis Rodman.

Speaker 4 (01:52:25):
Yeah, coloring your hair and playing for the same team
and wearing his number, and up until this year, he
was a basketball player who did a lot of good
things playing basketball except making baskets, which also made him
very much like Dennis rod He was horribly misused early
in his career when they tried to put him into
a spot he did not fit in, you know, dribbling

(01:52:47):
as much as he did running their offense as much
as they were asking.

Speaker 3 (01:52:50):
It was just silly.

Speaker 4 (01:52:51):
And now he's in a much more comfortable role where
every once in a while he'll cut to the lane
a few times in a mismatch, he'll try to back
a guy down. He's extremely he hasn't quite yet developed
a distance jumper. But you're right if you put him
on a team that had championship aspirations and the talent
for it, and he was part of your rotation, or

(01:53:11):
he was in a really good set of five players
like PJ.

Speaker 3 (01:53:15):
Tucker, a Trevor Ariza.

Speaker 4 (01:53:16):
Players of that caliber, well, the only reason those players
essentially have been noteworthy is because of the teams and
teammates they were with. He doesn't have that kind of
team with him, and he's a top pick that isn't
going to be a star him.

Speaker 2 (01:53:30):
Zach Collins, Keldon Johnson, these are all just some They're
just annoying.

Speaker 4 (01:53:37):
And again, in my humble opinion, it was foolish to
add Harrison Barnes, preventing Keldon Johnson from playing the amount
of minutes he deserves.

Speaker 3 (01:53:46):
And I don't understand that. It makes no sense to me.
He's also making eighteen million.

Speaker 4 (01:53:51):
It's I almost understand the Chris Paul signing, almost, but
not really.

Speaker 2 (01:53:56):
You know, Harrison Barnes is he's just a better, slightly
better shooting Shandon Anderson.

Speaker 4 (01:54:02):
Yeah, I just if you're trying to develop somebody, well,
why'd you put somebody in front of him? You're gonna
give twenty nine minutes too so he can score two points.
Shannon Aerseldon Johnson is begging to be on the floor
more and deserves it.

Speaker 2 (01:54:13):
Shandon Anderson might be the second worst contract that Carol
Dawson ever gave out, you know, the first one.

Speaker 3 (01:54:18):
They made a rap song about it.

Speaker 2 (01:54:20):
Well, how's it go, Hey, Kelvin Cato, we want our
money back.

Speaker 5 (01:54:24):
Somebody tell Kelvin Cato or whatever. Well, you get interest
of it, all right. So there was something missing from
the game last night, and it's something that the head
coach of the reigning NBA champions, Joe Mazzola, wants back fighting.
He told he said us much to NBC Sports Boston,
saying we're robbing people of entertainment. I wish they would

(01:54:45):
bring back fighting. He brings up that baseball you get
to clear the benches and be able to blow off
little steam hockey. Same deal there as well. So are
we missing fighting in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:54:55):
Well, there's this thing called the Malice at the Palace
which basically ensured that, and a couple of Nick's Heat
playoff series, both of which went a long way towards
determining that the NBA will remain the league of all
leagues when it comes to just jawing at each other
then waiting until fifty teammates get in between the two
of you and never actually throwing a punch.

Speaker 4 (01:55:17):
I mean, I feel like it's absolutely necessary if we're
not going to hear from Joe. I have to allow
you to understand what he said. What's more entertaining than
a little scuffle. How come in baseball they're allowed to
clear the benches. How come in hockey they're allowed to fight.
I don't understand. I don't get why some sports are
allowed to clear the benches. They have bats and weapons.
In baseball, we don't. We have a ball. The other sport,

(01:55:39):
hockey has one of the hardest playing surfaces and a
puck and a stick.

Speaker 3 (01:55:45):
And yet we're not allowed to throw down a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:55:49):
But again, I'm going to play the they'll never actually
throw down card in the NBA, unless, of course, it's
Ron our Tests and Ben Wallace.

Speaker 4 (01:55:59):
I imagine if Joe Missoula replaces Alex Cora as Boston
Red Sox manager anytime soon, if I were any one
of the other twenty nine Major league teams, I would
ask if we could no longer be on the Red
Sox schedule. I would absolutely be afraid of them.

Speaker 3 (01:56:14):
One not even kidding. He would be a bean ball machine.

Speaker 4 (01:56:19):
Oh yeah, yeah, and that's obviously something I've long.

Speaker 3 (01:56:22):
Said is absolutely stupid. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:56:25):
Asking for NBA players to be allowed to fight, Like
who's getting hurt because they're not fighting? Who's being out
physical and they're treating Steph Curry or Trey Young badly
and we don't have any chance to push people around?

Speaker 3 (01:56:39):
Is that what he's said? Green does exist? You know
it's funny though doesn't fight people. He just kicks him
in the grind and their eyeballs.

Speaker 2 (01:56:47):
Adam Silver's gotta love that his defending NBA champion coach
is saying four games into the season, you know, we
need more fights in this league.

Speaker 4 (01:56:54):
And if it were any other coach, I would say,
I'd actually like to see the video of this to
make sure of the mood that he was in.

Speaker 3 (01:57:01):
And maybe he was kind of joking. Don't need to.
When it's Shoe Missoula, I know it's dead. I'm serious.

Speaker 2 (01:57:07):
What he says, what he feels, and there's no filter
at any given time.

Speaker 4 (01:57:10):
And at the end of the day, it's much. It's
not he doesn't have the petit the long term resume yet.
But he's winning, and you're you're not gonna look at
anything he's winning. You can pretty much say, or do
I mean to a certain extent, what you want.

Speaker 2 (01:57:25):
The Celtics have churned out some really good coaches over
the last two hiring cycles, if you want to call
it that, I mean, one of them's right here in Houston,
and he's hoping to have that same kind of success soon.

Speaker 1 (01:57:37):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety, It's the A
teen Adam Clinton, Adam.

Speaker 7 (01:57:46):
Wexler on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:57:49):
Your rockets, your astros, your voice.

Speaker 2 (01:57:58):
It is the A team Sports Talk seven ninety, and
it's time to give away free tickets a pair of
tickets to see Jelly Roll live on his Beautifully Broken
Tour November seventeenth at Toyota Center. Tickets on sale now
at Toyota Center dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:58:17):
All right, we are gonna give you.

Speaker 2 (01:58:20):
This might possibly be the easiest question ever in the
history of us giving away tickets simply because of the
recency of said answer that we're gonna ask from you
at seven one three two one two five seven ninety
A pair of tickets to go see Jelly Roll November
seventeenth at Toyota Center. Which NBA coach wants to bring

(01:58:42):
back fighting to the NBA. It's almost like we just
talked about this last segment.

Speaker 4 (01:58:48):
Yeah, we like to reward those who listened to the program.
And we know, you know, people are busy. You might
not be able to listen to all of each of
the first eleven segments of the show.

Speaker 3 (01:58:56):
But if you listen to the last segment, maybe you
gotta work.

Speaker 4 (01:58:58):
Uh, you'll know the answer and you can call it
in and get yourself some tickets. Seven one three two
one two five seven ninety jelly Roll Beautifully Broken, November seventeenth,
Toyota Center, You and him and probably a guest since
it's a pair of tickets.

Speaker 2 (01:59:12):
I saw an inordinate amount of videos from Toyota Center
over the past forty eight hours of the last big
show that was there.

Speaker 3 (01:59:19):
I'll give you a million dollars if you can guess
who it was.

Speaker 4 (01:59:21):
Well, I'm sure she was singing about bed km and
something about taste. What's the one about coffee? See that's
like her new one?

Speaker 8 (01:59:30):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:59:31):
Yeah, Sabrina Carpenter was over at TC full house. Yeah, packed,
I got a confession to make. I'm ready. I want
to go see Becky g at seven one to three
Music Hall. Is she singing songs of hers? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:59:48):
I don't even know her songs. I could not name
a single song of hers. So what do you want
to see, Becky? I mean, you know there's Kevin g
in mean girls, I'm not going to his show.

Speaker 3 (02:00:01):
I don't want to go to his show. Definitely want
to go back to competition. Becky G. You know who?
You know what? She's not an athlete? Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:00:08):
Well, one of the eight participants was okay to look at?

Speaker 3 (02:00:12):
I follow her on Instagram. Lindsey No, the girl on
the other's team, Rebecca G the girl from north.

Speaker 2 (02:00:18):
Shore No No, and I did not go to the
Halloween Parky.

Speaker 3 (02:00:23):
What's what's the point of the follow.

Speaker 2 (02:00:26):
What's the point of following any female on Instagram? For
the most part.

Speaker 4 (02:00:30):
I mean there's a personality in our city that I followed.

Speaker 3 (02:00:34):
I mean, while she is nice to look at, that's
not why I follow her.

Speaker 4 (02:00:37):
Who is necessarily name names? You know her very well?
I don't you know her extremely well? You're probably going
to see her tonight when you go home to her house.

Speaker 3 (02:00:46):
Oh oh yeah, well that's different.

Speaker 4 (02:00:48):
I follow her too, By the way, I want to
know how to upgrade my wardrobe and use scissors.

Speaker 3 (02:00:55):
That's who to follow.

Speaker 8 (02:00:56):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:00:56):
It's funny.

Speaker 2 (02:00:57):
There are plenty of people who follow her for the
same reason, and they don't mind letting her know about it,
which is always fun.

Speaker 3 (02:01:04):
It's kind of slide into the comments sometimes. Yeah, so
good good luck.

Speaker 2 (02:01:09):
Did we get the Jelly Roll tickets given away? By
the way, I'm sure we did. So are you gonna
go with me to Becky g On?

Speaker 3 (02:01:14):
Uh? I think it's like the beginning of next month.

Speaker 11 (02:01:16):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:01:17):
Well, if it's as you said, seven one three, so
it could end up still being on a Rockets night.

Speaker 3 (02:01:21):
I'll definitely. I think I think there's not a game
that night, then I'll find something else that it keeps
me busy that I don't want to know about. You
could just say no, no, you don't want to go.

Speaker 4 (02:01:30):
I don't want to go, like not only like think
about who's going to be there? Ah who just the
crowd in general. There for the crowd, I know, Becky,
they're there. So what screaming clamoring.

Speaker 3 (02:01:46):
It's not it's my first concert, man. Okay, Well there's
better concerts out there. You can go find one of those.

Speaker 2 (02:01:51):
It probably is, all right, so, uh, Stefan Diggs Donzo,
we've kind of gone over a few of the options.

Speaker 4 (02:01:59):
Well, well, we actually haven't really talked about the nuts
and bolts of the options. I think I'm not trying
to oversell Hutch Match and Robert Woods, the three that
will join Tank Dell as their top four wideouts this
Thursday night.

Speaker 3 (02:02:14):
Match being traded up for By the way, could.

Speaker 4 (02:02:17):
I mean I still want to mess up to saying
I think it's I couldn't I could couldn't care less.

Speaker 3 (02:02:23):
I couldn't care less? Could you care less about?

Speaker 4 (02:02:28):
They don't matter on Thursday night? It's totally irrelevant to
what they're trying to do. What if he really sucks,
then do they matter? It doesn't matter. He's on the team,
he's playing, That's what matters. And what he did last
week with a little bit bigger opportunity because Diggs clearly
wasn't coming back and there were only so many guys
they could put out there. You know, the the reception
that he made on the scramble from from CJ. It

(02:02:51):
showed you some in sync nature of understanding how this
offense works and being in sync with your quarterback. Those
plays are hard. Nico Collins makes them easy. See Jay
Stroud makes them look easy, they're not. And for the
receiver to go where he wants to go to create separation,
to know and see what's happening behind the line of
scrimmage while he's out looking to catch a ball and

(02:03:12):
then move with his quarterback to go get it and
make the catch.

Speaker 3 (02:03:15):
That was not an easy catch. The ball was put
in a great spot so nobody else could get it,
but you had to make a nice diving catch to
haul it in. His three catches.

Speaker 4 (02:03:22):
And actually, after we were done talking to Xavier Hutchinson today,
I said to him, clearly, the team did the smart
prudent thing after your catch. Remember he went sliding down
to the turf and made that incredible catch. And the
smart prudent thing that the team did immediately after that
was rushed to the line of scrimmage and immediately snap
the ball as fast as they could because you don't

(02:03:44):
want to give the replay booth a chance to do something.
Just run the next play as fast as you can
and a successful one, which it was, and then you
don't have to worry about it. But I asked him,
he goes, I caught it. I wasn't worried. I mean,
we still did what we needed to do. That's a
smart thing to do. But I caught it. I don't
think already, through the first eight games, they've thrown the

(02:04:04):
ball to Hutch as much as they should have, even
when Nico and Dell and Diggs were all healthy. I
think he's run some routes that have created this this
is actually where the ball should go. I think they've
put him out there in some positions where he's shown
how he can help the team already because they usually
use him as a blocker. I don't think he had
a very good game blocking this last week. But if

(02:04:25):
you put those guys out there, they just I don't
know the success rate they're gonna have winning one on one,
and you really never do until they're in the competition
over and over and over again. But this will be
his third game in a row, almost fourth game in
a row. He's catching more than fifty percent of the
snaps already, he was doing that in Nico's absence. They're
just gonna have to start sending passes his way, and

(02:04:46):
the same thing with Mechi Robert Woods probably is the
same guy he was the beginning of last year when
that was the first guy that CJ really leaned on
early in his career. Remember he had about eighteen targets
the first four games of the season.

Speaker 2 (02:04:58):
When they line up against the Detroit Lions in a
little less than two weeks from now, will they have
a new acquisition at wide receiver.

Speaker 4 (02:05:06):
If they win the game and are successful throwing the football.

Speaker 3 (02:05:09):
I bet you the answers no.

Speaker 4 (02:05:11):
If they look like they have the last two weeks offensively,
even with CJ's two hundred and eighty five yards on Sunday,
I think the answer is yes. Because this it's probably
smart to do it anyway, because what if somebody else
gets hurt? I mean, after Nico comes back, everybody's healthy again,
because Digs isn't now sadly not a non factor. He's

(02:05:31):
not coming back. But are you concerned that, well, somebody,
we's got nine more games, We got eight more games
after Thursday. Do I expect Nico, Dell hutch metch woods
All to stay healthy for the last two months of
the season or should we protect ourselves a little bit
more because we've clearly lost somebody who's a seventy plus
percent snap player in Digs.

Speaker 2 (02:05:51):
Is Diggs on the sideline as soon as possible the
rest of the season.

Speaker 4 (02:05:54):
I think maybe as soon as possible was probably a
ways off. I don't know if you saw it. Over
the weekend the Lions game, Aiden Hutchinson was there, much
more drastic injury. He wasn't on the sidelines, he was
up in a suite with his leg propped up in
the air. I think camera and the place went absolutely nuts.
I think if he can, he means a lot to
the players, to the people, the person means a lot

(02:06:15):
to them.

Speaker 3 (02:06:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:06:15):
I think he will be there when when he can
be following the corrective necessary procedure on his torn ACL
That was the bad news for today. Good news is
they're flying out to New York tomorrow to go beat
down the Jets. We'll talk more about it tomorrow at
three o'clock

Speaker 7 (02:06:31):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.