Texans Flop In Jersey, Gordy In-Studio and Stone Cold Locks

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 series,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A team.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And just like that, it's November. It is the A Team.
On a Friday edition of the program Sports Talk seven
ninety Space City Home Network, wex over there, ac right here.
You can look at us, you can listen to us,
you can do both. Whatever you do, we appreciate you
joining us for the next three hours, as we will
be talking a whole lot of Texans football, specifically the

(00:41):
offensive line, c J. Stroud, Bobby Slowick, Dimiko Ryans, everything
that was wrong about last night's incredibly lackluster twenty one
to thirteen loss to the Jets. And let me just
start out by saying something before we go any further.
I don't know what it is, and I don't have
the all of the results right in front of me

(01:02):
over the entire existence of the Texans franchise. Wex. I
know they've beaten them before, so it's not like it's
not like Minnesota. Yeah, I just feel like every time
they play in that stadium, regardless of who they're gearing
up against, because there's two teams that share that venue.
They don't do well. They don't beat them. They don't
win at MetLife Stadium, and especially against the Jets. And

(01:22):
I think the Jets were beating them before they were
in that stadium, because that stadium is pretty new. But yeah,
didn't feel great from the outset when neither team could score,
and it was just a matter of all, right.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Which, how did it fill in the fourth quarter when
the Texas were in front.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, that was a lot of Okay, here are all
of the things wrong with your football team, some of
which you can control, some of which are unfortunate because
of injuries, but all of which say, all right, if
you're questioning this team, well you've got a lot of
ammunition after losing to a two win New York Jets
club before that game started last night. And it's not

(01:58):
the end all be all. They're still in very good
shape but the division, but I don't particularly feel great
about them going up against any sort of team that
has even a remote possibility of rushing the passer.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
That's every single team in the league. And I'm being
absolutely honest. It doesn't matter what you have with personnel,
it doesn't matter what kind of defense you run. It
only matters if your coaches take the time. You have
time in between every game, whether it's three days or
nine days. If you look at the film, it's pretty easy.
This is how to beat the Texans. And not only that,
you really don't even need to look at the film
because you employ defenders. As long as you employ defenders,

(02:34):
unless there's some group of defensive personnel people out there
that have found defensive front four or front three that
are weaker than the Texans five, and I mean literally
just from a strength standpoint, then you're in good shape
in every possible way. We talked about it on Monday
before this game, after their last game, and should have
been talking about it every game, but most specifically these

(02:56):
last three games. Every possible way you have an issue
with an offensive lineman or your offensive line, the Texans
are suffering from. They get beaten one on once, they
get overpowered, they get run around, they get out talented,
they get out physical, they get out maneuvered, they get

(03:16):
out schemed. They're bad with twists, they're bad with games,
they don't recognize things well, and they commit penalties last night.
That's the one thing they kind of you'd hope you
can control but neither team could control themselves. And I
mentioned this to you via text during the game. It
took me all of one play to remember I had

(03:37):
forgotten to mention it during the week. The NFL decided
to assign the most unwatchable NFL officiating crew that they employ,
and unfortunately this was for the Texans Jets game. Couple
that with the fact that these are two of the
six most penalized teams when real referees work their games.
The group last night not a real group, but they
are employed by the NFL. That's like the fifteenth most

(04:00):
important story about the game, and we're only gonna talk
about the first fourteen. That was a display of football
seen far too often for this personnel group to have
done nothing. You don't need a deadline in this situation.
They're not a negotiation. We're not waiting till the eleventh hour. Okay.
Now they're gonna have a deal and there's not gonna

(04:20):
be a strike. Okay, Now they have a deal, and
this player is not gonna hold out. Any time you want,
the offseason, training camp, preseason, game one through four, Game
five through eight, you can make a deal anytime you want.
There's no reason for them to have continued to employ
the exact same group of linemen one through nine on

(04:41):
their roster for this entire season up to this point.
But that's what they've chosen to do. And the offensive
results you saw last night, last week, the week before,
and each of the preceding five weeks are the results
of that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
And if you're CJ. Stroud, and this is why I
said last night, and it's not probably gonna happen because
he's too nice of a guy.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
He's a leader. Publicly, he is a public leader.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah. No, I'm saying publicly he's not gonna do this right.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Publicly he is a leader, yeah, because he was a
leader privately too, has asked the questions that would allow
for him to have given honest truth. But there's I
meant to say this yesterday after the show, so there's
no platform here on the radio or TV. Only via
social media. The amount of people locked in on what's

(05:30):
happening with the Texans is awesome. The passion that people
have again for this team is earned because they finally
started winning, deserved, wanted, and great love it. I feel
like I want to take this one segment for me
and you and our listeners and like, give them the
other eleven and you can fire away with whatever you want.

(05:51):
We're gonna hear some outlandish things. Get rid of this guy,
Get rid of this guy, fire that guy. I knew
Demiko couldn't coach. Bobby Slowak's never gonna be a head coach,
which might be true all sorts. CJ's regressing he's no good.
You name it, I'm here for it.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
I might not.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Agree with it all, but I kind of want it all.
And I think we kind of saw that last night
in postgame as to what I believe you're about to reference,
there were things that were said that at some point
it sounds like Demiko's a broken record, and for CJ
to be so overwhelmingly pointing the finger at himself when
we all know, yeah, your play could be better, but yeah,

(06:29):
you should probably hit this receiver and not have happy feet.
But and Demiko similarly, yes, he knows what's going on
up front, even though the first words out of his
mouth are I don't know what's going on up front,
and we'll take a look at the film. I mean,
give them a little bit of They don't feel the solution,
and pretty much everybody feels the same way every team.

(06:51):
The solution to your problems isn't burying guys in public.
I mean this week he said, we've gotten some good
plays from Kenyan Green. We've won six games with Kenyon Green.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
To kick around anymore.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
I think he's a good player. He's just telling you.
It's true. They've had some good plays, but too many
of them are not good plays. He's the lowest rated
player at his position. He was hurt by getting beat
by his quarterback when C. J. Stroud landed on him
backside to shoulder. He hurt him. It's almost where Kenyon

(07:22):
Green got in a way. Yeah, some sort of shoulder injury.
Those real specific details. Teams off today, Tomorrow and Sunday
and probably get a little bit of a line on
what will be available to them next week. To offensive
linemen have significant injuries. Patterson concussion and the obvious injury
we just mentioned to Kenyon, the Nico Collins situation, Al Shaer,
Jimmy Ward, will Anderson Junior and his eight snaps that

(07:46):
he took last night got hurt on play number four.
No shortage of injuries in last night's game on that
miserable field.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
New Jersey if they never play there again. I'm fine
with it. It's so embarrassing for the NFL well, that
this keeps happening and nobody addresses it. Nobody, And it's
not like it can't be Come on, man, this is
New York City, this is the NFL.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Can we fix the turf? Yeah, we could probably put
it in a new surface, probably take take care of that.
Maybe you are three or four week span. Well, the
schedule doesn't allow for it, and well maybe we can
do it in the off season. Okay, great, let's do that.
Yeah you in the back? What what? What? What do
you want? They put concrete so close to the surface.
I don't know what we can do about it. I
mean I think we can put maybe a mattress pad

(08:28):
in there between the concrete and the turf surface. No, no,
we can't do I think we're just screwed. Maybe we
have to blow it up. All right, we'll take that
under advisement.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
I mean, stadium is barely ten years old. It's literally
the closest NFL stadium to Roger Goodell's office headquarters. Get
it fixed, like, it's not a coincidence that these injuries
keep happening, and as far as will Anderson Junior goes,
I've never been so happy to see a guy come

(08:58):
out of the tunnel in my life and you know,
basically doing drills on the sideline for four more snaps.
I know, I told you last night via text, and
like I screamed when he came out, I was like, yes,
because it's like they don't have a shot otherwise against
Aaron Rodgers because he finally figured it out. Oh, I
have DeVante Adams on my team, and if I am

(09:18):
allowed to be given time to throw to him, it
doesn't matter what defenders back there, at least against the Texans, because,
as I said the ross last hour, he just decided
that his physical God given abilities are better than anybody
else that matches up against him.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
I think one team had two number one receivers, the
other team had zero. Yeah, the two number one receivers
caught all three of the touchdown passes.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
But I think Herbstreet said it. He was like, yeah,
he stumbled there, but it wouldn't have matten right.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
He could have. Why did he stumble because he got beat?
He was a great initial move. His initial move that's
what won the route. I mean, that's what I'm asking
is Jalen Petree, JJ Taylor Over and over and over,
guys were just falling like they couldn't keep their feet.
And I'm aware of and you're aware of. The Anderson
injury probably had nothing to do with the turf unless

(10:07):
he was stuck in it because he got run over
by his teammate Neville Hewitt. He is a person wrecker.
Pe Tree and will Anderson both needed a break from
the game. Anderson's lasted nearly the whole game. Peatri's lasted
a couple plays when Hewitt was involved in a violent tackle,
and that's how he plays. He's continued to give them
really good snaps in the absence of al Shair. But

(10:30):
there are a billion different things to get into the
unfortunate trip to New York. It would have been nice
if you played it different, less physical, less injury filled game,
Win or lose in advance of your time away. Because
they've got to use this as their off week. They
don't have an off week until the fourteenth week of
the season. They need this week to get a little healthier.

(10:50):
They need this week more than anything to reevaluate what
I'm not sure why they haven't evaluated properly to this point.
The same group that's been playing needs to change. We
know it. Unfortunately, the rest of the league knows it.
GMS know it. So when the Texans continue their conversation
about look, he's your eighth lineman, Come on, man, he's
your fourth guard. Can we have him please, they'll jack

(11:11):
up the price on them and they'll see if they
can screw them over. Because the Texans are now one
of the good teams at six and three, both of
us have got a lot to say. We know you
have a lot to say. We've got a lot of time.
Got all the way till six o'clock for you. Your
weekend continues here with us. I know we'll get into
a couple of other elements, the trade deadline that comes

(11:31):
up on Tuesday, where nothing else in America is going on,
We've got hoops to at least briefly go over. Since
the Rockets made up for their opening night trip against
Charlotte with their trip to Dallas resulting in a win
last night. Five strong efforts from Jalen Green through the
first five games of the season, stone cold locks all
but the Texans game. Because we already did that. Two

(11:53):
of us did well one of us. He's dumb. Hello,
that's me. We're just getting started.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety back to Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
The eight.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
All right, let's dive in seven one three, two one two, five,
seven nineties. Your telephone number if you want to uh,
commiserate way in whatever you want to do. If you
want to vent, we can be your your your couch
if you will. We can listen to all of your
problems about the Houston Texans. And it's again, it's not
just the offensive line, but it just feels like wex

(12:38):
that so many things are a direct result of that,
or it's got tentacles that bleed into that, like yo.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
It is.

Speaker 5 (12:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Well, let's be real. I'm not trying to absolve everybody else,
but let's let's just pretend that their offensive line is
not performing like the thirty second best offensive line in
the NFL, which is what they've been doing overall. And
I'm not concerned with separating their run blocking and pass blocking.
They've performed like each of the other thirty one offensive
lines are better than them. Let's slot them in at

(13:08):
top ten. Back at the top ten, they're the tenth
best performing offensive line. You think CJ. Stroud's having a
season like he did last year, or do you think
he's even better. You think Joe Mixon is continuing to
run for one hundred yards on a weekly basis every
time that he's healthy and finding the end zone, you
would think he wouldn't have less success than he's already having.
Behind that group, you think maybe e Xavier Hutchinson and

(13:31):
John Metchi would have a catch in their first game
without Tank Dell or excuse me, Stefan Diggs and Nico Collins.
And you think the offense might score in the second
half of a football game if I only changed one thing,
move the offensive line from thirty second to tenth A
good offensive line, one you think is befitting of a
team that expects to compete for the Super Bowl. We

(13:54):
can talk about all the other problems, because they absolutely
deserve some of our time. If that one law large
problem that concerns five different players was not a disastrous problem.
Most of the other little bits and pieces you would
work through as you pile up wins.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
But okay, for example, this is something I saw last night,
something that I was one thing I was kind of
shocked about is when I posted what I did on
social media about it just basically again killing the offensive line,
I got a lot of yeah, but CJ sucks too?
Like what like I get if you are just gonna

(14:33):
say he's not as accurate as he was last year,
or if you're gonna say, well, you should have made
this throw or that throw, but what's the reason for that?

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yes, should he have hit John Metchi going across the
field heading into the end zone with that throw? Of
course he should have. Uh, there's a couple other plays
just like that in last night's game, in each of
the two preceding games. If you think CJ. Stroud on
that particular play at that juncture of the game, had
he been hit one to three times and been sacked

(15:01):
once in the game, if you think he would still
have missed that throw, I don't know what to tell you,
because it's just it's so unlikely that that would be
the case. If if you're able to get some belief
in the group in front of you, which he lies
publicly and says he has and probably does him lying
privately because he's nice, then you're gonna play differently. The

(15:21):
very first play of the game, it looked like he
had happy feet. And it's not because of last night.
It's because of the games that preceded it. And it's
not a game, and it's not a couple of games.
It's most of the season, pressured at a thirty percent clip,
for most of the season, pressured at a fifty percent
clip for three weeks in a row. When you pile
them all together, and last week was the last night

(15:42):
was the third one of them, you can't pretend that
what has happened and then what did happen doesn't affect
the way that you play. Of course it does. How
many titles does that guy number fifteen in Kansas City
have three? Three, I think three trips to the Super Bowl?
They've won the last two mm hmm. He's been to
the Super Bowl and lost right.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, against Tampa because the Bucks defense was in his
kitchen from the start of the game.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
Their offensive line was unable to give him time to throw,
and they had been three were injured, it had been
I don't know, I think it was at least two
of his starters were out for that game. If you
can't play and perform, then for this conversation, that's all
that matters. Yeah, they knew that going in and yeah,

(16:31):
at that point the season, what can you do about it?
I understand all that, but just on that particular day
for a guy who had not been faced with that
for the whole season. They were obviously times that season
where offensive line was a problem, to the point that
they did everything that could in the very next off
season drafted two permanent starters. Yeah, all seasons that have followed,

(16:51):
both of whom have been given accolades for their performances
by those who hand them out like the Pro Bowl games.
And then they they even signed a player who's just okay,
but way better than what they had because they knew
they couldn't They couldn't even go one more game like that.
Now Texans have gone into an off season off of
a year where their offensive line's performance was it was okay,

(17:15):
it was good enough to give CJ the time to
look extremely good as a rookie, and they've just brought
it all back. They hoped health continuity, same coaching staff,
same scheme would assist them in rising up the charts.
But too many of those players, especially the tackles and
Shaq Mason, way way too far into their career to
expect that, and yet they did. So that's where they

(17:37):
are right now. I do want to allow for it
and expanded what could CJ have done, What should Bobby
Sloweck be doing? What can they do defensively to not
have a shutout in thirty minutes? Followed by we never
stopped them for thirty minutes? The Jets didn't score it
all in the first half thanks to stupidity on their

(17:59):
end from Corley, and they didn't get stopped even once
in the second half. Three seventy plus yard touchdown drives
on the only three times they possessed the ball before
the final mel down. That's you still could have won
the game. All these things that we've said, and they
still could have won the game. They got a bunch
of gifts. They gave away a few themselves. The CJ

(18:20):
fumble was pretty much a gift. Even though the pocket
collapsed on him, nobody touched the football slipped right out
of his hands. Can't have that got to be a
little bit more protective, especially for someone who knows their
line in front of them is likely to get run over.
And they did probably don't want some of those play calls.
The long developing pass plays that remain a staple of
this offense that make no sense to do over and

(18:41):
over again. Understand them, you need to do them at
some point, but not over and over again. With nothing
else in the playbook to use. We will probably spend
a minute or two or ten on the next Texan
superstar that attempted to pass. This time it was Joe
Mixon in the red zone to his quarterback covered. So yeah,
we do have other things to get into on the

(19:03):
twenty one to thirteen loss. They're leading the division as
they're at six and three. The other three teams will
all play this weekend to get a little bit more
even with them. The Titans have already had their off week,
so there's still one game different in terms of total
number of games played. But if the Joe Flacco led
Colts beat the Minnesota Vikings this weekend in prime time,

(19:24):
well then they at least do get to five and four.
You still have the Tibergers still have a two game cushion.
Playing the way the Texans are playing is the only
reason I believe there's even a possibility they could fall
back to the pack in the division, and they have
three more division games But if you really want to
look at it, the reason why the Texans are six
and three is the division. They're five hundred against the NFL,
they're three and oh against the AFC.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
That's very Bill O'Brien. That's the formula he used to
win the division every single year. Pretty much.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
If they go six and oh, which they should, I
still believe that even with their shortcomings, then we know
they'll be in great shape. Just add the three to
the current six and you're sitting at nine. Think anybody
else in this division is winning nine times? It's possible.
But even then, if say it's the Colts, who are
five wins away from that, you still have the tide
against them. You'd have it against everybody. But their next
game is not inside the division. Their game after that

(20:13):
it's inside the state, but it's not inside the division.
And then they get two more division games when Jacksonville
and at Tennessee are finally on the schedule. But a
three game losing streak absolutely a possibility with how they're
playing seven one three two one two five seven ninety
mentioned plenty of time for you guys. There's always time
for you guys, any whole day, this day does feel

(20:33):
on a Friday a little bit more special than the others.
You guys are sitting there on your couches or sitting
in the passenger seat of your car, trying to get
through your Halloween candy, hopefully the good stuff, no better fingers.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
How'd you do?

Speaker 3 (20:45):
How did I do?

Speaker 6 (20:46):
Well?

Speaker 3 (20:46):
When I got home and was shocked that both of
the residents that I lived with were awake because I
stayed up here through postgame and through unnecessary tweeting and
et cetera, I asked them, how did you decide to
handle you know, turn the lights on, put the candy
out right? I never got around to getting any.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Candy, so they just laid around all night.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Last night at my house was like any other night
in the calendar. Sadly, boy, that is bad, bad neighbor
bad neighborhood, probably, and it's not my fault. I wasn't there.
I actually asked during the day before I went to work,
you want me to go out and get some candy? Oh? No,
I'll get some later. I guess later meant in advance
of Halloween twenty twenty five. Well, it is on discount

(21:30):
today everywhere in bulk. That is probably true. Hopefully you
guys made out a little bit better. I'll ask Ac
how he did here as we waste the final few
seconds of this segment so as to give James Fastine
and David full segment work when we bring you in
on the other side of this, how did you and
your actual still trick or treating child to do?

Speaker 2 (21:53):
I have a theory on this. When your child starts
his school day before the sun is up, essentially he's
gonna run into fatigue on like the second leg of
the of the trip around the He just he's that
guy like his money gets this from his mom. When
the social battery is drained, there's not any bargaining, there's

(22:18):
not any compromise. He's done. That's it. And he doesn't
even want to walk. I want to piggyback ride back
to the house. I want to sit there and eat
food and not deal. He didn't care. I was having
to like direct him to the front doors of houses
as he was walking by, because he just he was
add not concentrated. He just was done.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Did he do so well out of the gate? He
didn't need more?

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, I mean it's a good it's a good good Shrek. Yeah.
So he got he's just not concerned with it. I
think next year, maybe even the year after it gets better.
But uh, for kindergarten, Carson wasn't a top priority. He's
much more enthused about giving out candy after we got
home last night. But I digress. That's Halloween.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, top priority for us. Next the A team.

Speaker 7 (23:03):
On Sports Talk seven ninety, Myers prusses it this good bar, Hey.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Jake Myers, catch every Astros name on Sports Talks seven
ninety or the iHeartRadio app Home of your Astros. Wonder
how the exclusive negotiating window is going for the Astros
right now with Alex Bregman, just since it came off
it did, yeah on a liner just now. I mean
I didn't bring it up, you didn't bring it up,
but you know we have.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
An exclusive negotiating window, Alex Bregman liner.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
That's what that was in that it was about the Astros,
and it made me think on the day the Dodgers
hopefully didn't have an additional fan blowing their own hands
off with a firework they lit, and they had their
parade today where they said they want to have another
one next year. No one ever says that at a
victory parade, but yeah, just made me think of it.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
One one hundred and thirty six players declared free AGENTSLA,
as they do at the end of every year, sends
out that release and lists all the free agents and
the teams they previously played for. The team that beat
the Astros in the postseason, they have zero free agents
from that list. The Astros have eight. You've seen him

(24:18):
throughout the last couple weeks with us as we posted
that for you, and yes, Alex Bregman is one of them.
He did not play last night in the Texans game,
so we're not talking about him today.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
That's awesome. No, he did not. But again, I don't
know why I did this to myself. I pulled up
CJ's game log. I just wanted to see the damage
in compared to the other games this year that he's played.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Well, what I did that I hate myself for is
finally got those low life do nothings that I call
the Wexler research team to get up off their backside
and do what I've been waiting for all year. Put
together the freaking chart. Dude, Let's go do something. What
art the number of I want to see his numbers
for the whole year. That include, dude, how many times

(25:01):
he's been sacked, how many quarterback hits, how he's performed
in those games? How many TFLs the other defense has
had in those games to give an indication of his
Was it pass blocking only? Was it runt? Was it everything?
Are the teams saying, hey, man, let's meet in the
Texans backfield? Okay, one, two, three?

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Break?

Speaker 3 (25:16):
And they say who and how many can get there
every single snap? But we'll get to that momentarily to
the phones we go. The Texans are six and three,
They lead the AFC South. More than half the season
is already in the rearview mirror. How good do you
feel right now? Let's get David in here on the
A team on a Friday after the Texans fall on Halloween.
Hey David, Hey, are you great?

Speaker 6 (25:42):
I was puzzled by the game last night. In the
previous games, I think the last two games, CJ was
sacked fourteen times, and I was wondering what the difference
between last year's line and Dish's offensive line is. And
I'm not trying to put total blame on them, but
it's just pretty, you know, pretty bad right now, because

(26:04):
if it continues like this, you can forget it. In
my opinion.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
Now that's a very good point. It comes up in
discussion quite a bit, seemingly far more often off of
this show than elsewhere, because I just had that conversation yesterday.
The Texans offensive line last year, for the most part
return George Fink got a ton of playing time last
year because of injury, and he obviously is not back,
and he played very very well. It shifted where they
could place other guys, and clearly both Patterson and Jewe

(26:30):
Scruggs were in and out of the lineup due to injury.
Juice Scruggs and Patterson might not have played at all
last year if Scott Questenberry didn't get hurt in camp
and then right after he got hurt, Jew Scruggs got
hurt in camp. That put Patterson in the number one spot,
and then he got hurt, and then Jew Scruggs wasn't
playing center because they moved him to guard and played
Mike Dieter at center. And every single combination of players

(26:53):
they used last year, most of which are on this
year's roster, not Deeter, not Fant, has produced far worse
results and it isn't that easy to explain, and I
wish I had a better answer. I think only there's
one small part of it that probably is you've played
a year like this and other teams have looked at
your blocking schemes for a year. It is a new offense,

(27:13):
it's a new coach, it's some new players. I think
there's a little bit of here's what is giving them trouble,
and here's what we need to do. The other I mean,
the physical part of it really just shouldn't shouldn't be
what it is, and it did not change. They get
physically pushed around still on the interior Titus Howard physically speaking,
strength wise, balance, and same with Laromy Tunsel. I think

(27:36):
they handle themselves perfectly fine like that. And do they
get beat by a speed rusher. Do they get beat
on occasion, absolutely, but far less often are they literally
just pushed into the quarterback's lap when they're trying not
to be like each of the three players in front
of them, the two guards in the center, and those
are play ruiners.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Here's what I was asking Ross about and what I
wanted to ask you about, and anybody that can, you know,
wants to weigh on this too, And I was texting
with someone last night that we both know I would
say he's a pretty good authority on this type of thing.
In that, Uh, well, I'll just leave it at that.
And I said, you know this is not this is

(28:13):
not a quick fix. You can't. That's the problem with this.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
It's not a quick in season fix. You think they
cannot agree that you cannot fix this in one off season.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Well, I'll say this, you can because it's the NFL.
I mean, look at what the Texans did from year
not Demico and CJ to first year Demiko CJ. So
but okay that I still say that even if you
were to do that, so many things have to go right,
and I don't think that those things are going right.
Heavily weighted towards the draft side of things, Well, that's

(28:47):
free agency.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
One other part of that conversation goes back to the
deadline and the digs injury and the digs contract. You're
not re signing Stefan Diggs and you're not spending that
money on a new wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Because you got both. You've got that, You've got eCos Collins,
and you're gonna have You're gonna have cap space to
spend on.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Well, you're gonna have to figure out how to do it,
and they're gonna get killed in dead money by doing it.
But it's better to get killed by dead money then
get your quarterback killed. And then that's what they have
to face, the reality.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
They're not gonna make it through the season.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
Wex Yeah, Shaq Mason in twenty twenty five will be
a better, be worse in twenty twenty five? What do
you think?

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Uh B and me?

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Older, it's not I could have picked any of the five. Yeah,
I picked a player who's established for a reason, because
I could have picked Titus. Titus Hower's not gonna be
better next year. Larry Tunzel is not gonna be better
next year. That's three guys right there. There are three
fifths of your offensive line that can't stop pass rush.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
If you're agreeing with me, you've seen all you need
to see from Titus Howard.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
At this point, what I'm saying is you can't go
into another season and think it's going to be better
because of this reason. And it's because of oh it's
only their second year together. Oh we're gonna bring the
whole group back because the old like all this being said,
H like, I'm sure I never even said it, because
I keep saying to myself, you need to say this.
I think Aaron Boone should be fired. And I don't
think he's the reason the Yankees are losing, and I

(30:09):
don't even think it's catchman. But you can't do nothing,
and in their situation, you're such a bad fundamental baseball
team and your manager clearly doesn't care. You don't use
analytics like you should. You position your players terribly, you
don't take leads off for it. You do all the
dumb stuff that gets you beat. And Garrett Cole even
said it, and then it's in an article another day
and you don't even realize. It's the same thing. The

(30:30):
Dodgers thought going into the series, all you have to
do is put the ball in play. We want to
make this major league professional baseball team feeld the ball,
and if we do, we should be all set. Garrett
Cole literally said that what they do to you in
the fifth inning, they did a good job of putting
the ball in play. So for that reason, I would
say you move on from Aaron Boone, even though I
don't put it all at his feet. I bring that

(30:51):
to the Texans to say before they play the Lions,
won't be surprised at all. Actually think it's warranted. He's
a very good, long tenured, good resume coach. I'd fire
the offensive line coach, no question about it. Game after
game after game. We can't have this. It's unacceptable. We
need to do better. We hear it publicly, we know

(31:12):
we're hearing it privately. Well, if it isn't happening, you
only carry nine linemen. You literally can't replace all of them.
You got a couple guys on the practice squad, but
my god, if you really want them out there, it's
not the right way, and it's unfortunate. It's like a
hitting coach. They get fired. Well, somebody's got to be
somebody's got to take the black in the immediacy. Well,
you also have a chance, maybe over the final eight

(31:36):
games to have an uptick and.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Performance cohesion, all that kind of stuff. No, it's good,
and I'm glad you brought in because you did my bit.
You brought in another major sport to compare it to
the Texans. To make a point, a very good one
that I agree with. I've got another one it's kind
of the opposite direction, but it was on display last
night while the Texans were playing. And you'll understand what

(31:59):
I mean. You probably already do because you're always thinking ahead.
I'll explain that when we come back.

Speaker 7 (32:05):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Hey, no, everybody, Bill Walton here, you're listening to the
due Where is Jerry Garcia?

Speaker 2 (32:14):
I guess I'll settle for the eighteen toimes.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
A lot to get to here, You guys are a
part of that lot to get to. Usually we'll take
a call or two and go off on what we
our opinions are, which is kind of how things work.
So we'll line up a few more here at seven
one three, two point two five, seven ninety fourth consecutive
game for Joe Mixon with one hundred plus yards rushing,
also found the end zone for the Texans their lone touchdown.

(32:41):
Third consecutive game. The Texans offense has hung up their
cleats at halftime. Have you yet to score a second
half touchdown in the last three games? Fifteen points over
those last three games, all fifteen points coming off of
Camie fairbearrant field goals. He obviously missed two of his kicks,
one of them from inside third that hit the other upright.

(33:02):
When you hit that upright, it bounces out. When you
hit the other upright, it bounces in, as it did
for Riley Patterson. Second time this year the Texans have
played a team whose kicker was unavailable for the game,
so they elevated or signed to the active roster a
kicker and he wasn't asked to kick any field goals
in the game. It happened in Week one when they
beat the Colts. It now happened in Week nine as

(33:22):
they fell to the Riley Patterson kicked New York Jets.
Last night. DeVante Adams had a very good game and
went into and out of concussion evaluation during the second half.
Hurt in the second half when he was bounced out
of bounds and landed on his shoulder and head when
at a tent briefly that went into the locker room
for that concussion evaluation.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Of all the things that could have been, by the way,
just looking at that play, I never would have guessed concussion.
I thought it was his leg.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
He landed on his shoulder when he was upended when
he went out of bounds, and he also landed on
the side of his head helmet and right when he
was on the ground the way he didn't immediately get up,
That's what I thought it was. Then when he did
get up and walked over seemingly all right to the tent,
I wasn't sure. Obviously, that's what it turned out to be.
He then cleared it. He found his way into the
end zone on one of the three long touchdown passes.

(34:10):
Garrett Wilson made two spectacular I'm a number one receiver
type of catches. The first one. I do not blame
Jalen Petrie at all for that path he took to
the football. It's unfortunate he did it against Aaron Rodgers,
even at age forty. I don't think there's many quarterbacks
that put the ball in that exact perfect spot. And
I'm crediting Rogers. I do not think it was an
accident that that ball was just out of the reach

(34:32):
of Petrie and forced his receiver to be spectacular just
to make the catch. Because you'd had to make sure
of one and we're hoping for the other. You make
sure the safety or the man in coverage doesn't pick six.
You That's what job one was. Job two was if
I can make sure to do that, just give my
receiver a chance, maybe he can go up there and

(34:53):
get it, grabbed it with one hand and swerved his
way into the end zone. The second touchdown catch is
definitely one that I found surprising and would have either
way if they had called it a touchdown on the field,
I don't believe they would have overturned it not calling
it a touchdown on the field. Was definitely surprised that
they did. And again I actually thought for once the crew,

(35:13):
the booth crew, Al and Kirk, plus their rules analyst Terry,
they were right on it from the jump. They talked
exactly about what was being looked for, why it might
get overturned, what they needed to see, and it played
out that way. Unfortunate for the Texans.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
What amazing catch.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Third and long. You're going to force that field goal
try I just mentioned if that play is not successful.
It also came right after Aaron Rodgers ran for nine
thousand yards on that third and long, but it was
called back by Kennalty. Took him forever to get there,
but man did he get there. It would have had
a first and goal instead they had the third and nineteen.
If that play isn't converted as called on the field,

(35:50):
they would have been forced to kick a fieldal. Instead,
they got the touchdown, took the lead. Wish they never
gave back. But as I mentioned earlier, I think you
see that when you have elite players and the Texans
are trying to win games, win a game one game,
hopefully without elite receivers, no offense to any of the
four that were out there, and Tank had a number
one wide receiver worthy evening with several huge catches in

(36:14):
the games, even the first one that got them the
first down that got the chains moving obviously the fifty yarder,
and the one where Joe Mixon was twenty yards down
the field burying a defender blocking, which he also is
very good at a lot of good things came out
of it in that regard, but obviously the overall performance
leaves a lot to be desired. And again, Aaron Rodgers
three touchdowns, all going to top flight receivers, one of

(36:37):
whom was just added to their team. Hassan Reddick, similarly
just added to their team, had an impactful several plays
in the game. Texans got two sacks in the game,
the first two sacks of the season and in the
career as a Texan for Denico Autrey, both in the
first half. They didn't have any in the second half. Hey, James,
thanks for calling into the A team seven one three

(36:57):
two one two five seven to ninety. We have time
four years. What's up?

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (37:01):
I don't believe they have the personnel to run the
offense they trying to run. I think they should go
to a double tight end or get a full back
and try to establish a running offense. In that way,
you're not getting your quarterback killed and do you play
action or something. But what they're running is just let's
step back and hope the pocket forms and we can
throw pass and it's not working.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Just out of curiosity to establish a running offense, what
would you like them to do differently from maybe a
play call standpoint or a play count standpoint. Because you
had twenty four carries for mixing three more for Taylor,
that's twenty seven handoffs. It's basically a fifty to fifty
I take that back, it's about a sixty to forty
split because all the Stroud scrambles. Do you want your

(37:41):
running backs carrying it more than that? And do you
need to put that personnel group out there to succeed,
because I think both Adam and I would say they
have a successful ground game that should lend itself to
play action pass success.

Speaker 8 (37:57):
Well, I want to be able to run the ball
where they're midding the chains constantly, right, you don't get
into a third and seventeen, You don't get into a
third and twelve. You just run the ball almost every play.
I know it's boring, but if you can just move
the chains and eat up the clock, that's gonna be
your best chance to be de Troy, cause you're not
gonna be Detroit by Stephan Becker.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Winning isn't boring. And the other thing, though, is that
I forgive me if I don't have faith in a
two tight end set as far as blocking goes. That
involves the personnel we're talking about here. I don't know
is Brevin Jordan, in your opinion, a good blocking tight end.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
He has a big loss for this team, and they
would be better if you were out there for that
very reason. But I don't think they also use two
tights end. Two tight ends currently all not all that,
not literally all the time, but a lot of the time.
Your suggestion for a fullback, considering Bobby Slowk came from
San Francisco. Yes, I could apt I'm not a fan.

(38:51):
But as you continue to watch this offense unfold under Slowk,
you're now into game twenty six or twenty eight with
you add the playoff games. They don't have a full
back on the roster, even when Andrew Beck was on
the roster last year and Troy Harston at times when
he's been elevated. I don't really think they're committed to it.
And again, me personally, my answer is I wouldn't. I

(39:11):
don't think they need to go that route. I don't
want to see them go that route. There's about three
fullbacks in the NFL that can handle what you actually
can get out of a fullback in that and even
Kyle Yuschek the Pike snap count on them and what
they're using them for. I just don't think it's the
best way to put your roster together. What I was
saying about Beck last year, he was on the roster
and he was active. Go back and look at how

(39:32):
many snaps he had as an offensive full back. It's very,
very limited. They just don't feel like that's what they
can do. I agree, I don't think it's a terrible suggestion.
I'm no genius, so what is not out there? And
they aren't having success and I want to say, yeah,
don't do it. Maybe it's worth a look.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
By the way, going back to the last segment, the
you made the baseball analogy when we're talking about the
offensive line, and you know, I asked you if you
thought that you'd seen all you had needed to see
of Titus Howard. The reason I last at that is
because I was thinking as the Rockets were playing last
night at the same time as the Texans, and they
were busy polishing off a very very good road win

(40:12):
against the Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks. Jalen Green's start
to the year is going to lend itself to people
who will say, well, you just had to wait long enough.
He was a kid when he came in the league
nineteen and he's finally, you know, looking like he's going
to be that guy consistently. Now. The shooting's not great,
but I just you're not gonna get that from offensive

(40:34):
lineman in the NFL. They're either I know, you've got
to like get better and seasoned and get reps and
all that kind of stuff. It's not even remotely the
same situation when you're talking about an offensive lineman and
you're talking about ones that you've drafted, like you know,
Blake Fisher. Is that going to be a situation where
he gets better? We'll see because it's his first year.

(40:55):
But Titus Howard's a completely different conversation.

Speaker 7 (41:00):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety weekends arrived.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
You better have your bud Light handy. Those of you
that have enjoyed the bud Light backyard over at Cougar games,
well you can do that again this weekend thanks to
us here on the show. We'll tell you more about
that coming up this next hour, but of course this
weekend as well. Enjoy your special edition Houston Texans bud
Light cans. They are the official beer sponsor of the NFL.

(41:26):
Your bud Light Always enjoy it just like I do.
Safely and responsibly, enjoy your football. Enjoy your bud Light.
Easy to Sunday, easy to enjoy. That's bud Light.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your teams,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
A host of Next Up. That's Chris Gordy. Welcome into
the Friday edition of our program ac WEX right here,
and of course Chris is joining us. I always like
to start with something from your show, and I'll present
it this way. Regarding the Texans, you had two hours

(42:12):
to bounce things off of each other, listen to each
other rant or scream callers as well. I heard much
of the show today and now stands not here. Callers
aren't here. Yeah, there's something you wanted to say then
about the game last night that you did not have
a chance to between ten and noon right here on
Sports Talk seven to ninety.

Speaker 9 (42:32):
No, the only thing I really took exception with that
he wanted to do was run the ball with Joe
Mixon in the final two minutes, and I kept telling him, staying,
you were down eleven, you have to score. He goes, well,
but you know, mixing only an X amount of touches
the second half. I'm like, at that point, that's out
the window. You must throw to come back to win
because the clock is your enemy. So that was the
one thing we really disagreed on.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
Ended up going through that final series. Getting the points,
which allowed for them to attempt the on side kick,
which they did not recover. There was even a question
of whether they should have kicked a field Will sooner
and given him a chance to have more time on
the clock. I totally disagree with that because you're so
close and you have your timeouts. Mainly you're just so close.

(43:13):
If you score a touchdown, then you can win the
game if you recover the on side kick. No matter
how much time is left. When you recover an on
side kick, you're a play away from a Hail Mary
if that. And I know Matt Eberflus doesn't coach the Jets,
but you're gonna get in position either way. I don't
mind how they handle that. It's more about the first
fifty seven to fifty eight minutes. We all know what

(43:34):
problem number one is. What is a what is an
initial thought on a solution as they get ready for
a much better offense, maybe the most explosive offense in
the NFL, the Detroit Lions.

Speaker 9 (43:48):
Well, I mean defensively, you hope to get a little
bit healthier, but you know, we'll see how what extent
Will Anderson is is injured. Hopefully the extra week plus
we'll get him, Uh, we'll get him ready to go.
But yeah, I mean offensively, I think you gotta look
at I thought Kendrick Green did better than Kenyan Green
at left guard. It's still not great, but I mean

(44:11):
there's no elite offensive lineman just sitting out there, you know,
when I'm seeing like trade scenarios and like you can
get Andrews Pete well, Andres Pete's stunk for the Saints
and he's gonna come here and be a stud here.
Like to me, there's no just dude out there. It's
just gonna make you better. You need your guys to
play better, and whatever that is, whether it's coaching effort,

(44:31):
you gotta figure it out. Because CJ is getting killed
back there. And I love what you said. I mean
that first drive. I went back and rewatched it earlier.
That first drive. It's it's the third and whatever it is,
third and four that is an incomplete and the drive stalls.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
CJ has a pocket. He runs out of the pocket.

Speaker 9 (44:49):
Now I don't know if it was a designed rollout
because he's taking himself out, but Titus has his guy blocked.
And Titus turns around and is like, CG what are
you doing like I'm pushing him to the outside, you're
running where he's going and it ends up being incomplete pass.
It's just there's so much blame to go around offensive
line all this, But yes, CJ takes some blame too.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
Bro, you're you.

Speaker 9 (45:09):
Know, in the house where Sam Darnold saw ghosts. You
were seeing ghosts last night.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
You hear the term happy feet when what's going on
is going on with any quarterback? Do you think that
is How much of that do you think is it
play here for CJ?

Speaker 9 (45:24):
I mean, he's had a little bit of it, but
you can't blame him when you start getting hit now,
I think it's in a game, Yes, in a game,
in college pros whatever. You get hit early and often
throughout the rest of the game, you're getting happy feet.
It shouldn't happen on the first drive of the game, though,
Like you shouldn't be you know. But I mean, I
guess that's just how poor this offensive line is placed.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
What I'm saying, do you think that's what's going on
now that we're into, you know, the stage of the
season we're in with what's happened, He's clearly like the
next time he goes out there, he's gonna be playing
the Detroit Lions. And while Aiden Cutt Hutchinson isn't gonna
be out there, he's coming off an eight sack performance
his offensive line. Who's now down a guy, even though
it's the guy that probably is the worst of the five,

(46:06):
and he's going up against a really good defense. It's
hard to blame him if he has that mentality going in,
even though it kind of sounds like it's defeatist.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yeah, it starts with the front full five.

Speaker 9 (46:17):
If the front five are doing their job, they can
then release Dalton Schultz on some easy crossers and give
him more options in the passing game, so you can
get rid of the ball quicker. A lot of times,
they're having to keep the extra tight ends in two
block to help the running backs can't even go out
in the flat because they're having to stay in the block.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
It's just it's a mess everywhere around.

Speaker 9 (46:35):
But I think all the root problems come back to
the starting five have to do what they're paid to do.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
Doesn't seem like much came of that first drive, even
though I could explain it a little differently. First play
of the game, the kickoff Texans. Oh awesome, they're gonna
start at the thirty five, just kidding, holding The Jets
were practically in the backfield before the Texans snapped it
on the second play of the game, but they didn't.
Oh it dead and all the Texans go, what are

(47:02):
you doing? They handed off to Joe Mixon, who took
an unnecessary hit because they clearly was a penalty. I
know the whole let's you know, Oh, this quarterback you're
playing Aaron Rodgers. Of course he's gonna take advantage of
an off side, not when they're that far across the line, right,
And then the Texans were able to put the ball.
They're sitting at the forty three on that play you mentioned,
third and four, they'd made the completion to Tank Dell
his first reception of the game gained sixteen yards. Because

(47:25):
the Joe Mixon play was wiped off the books. It
was pass past pass, pass past pass, punt to open
up the game for the Texans when their best weapon, presumably,
if your old line's going to be in trouble and
you don't know before you start, except you do, you
didn't give it get the ball to him at all.
To open up the game, and then drive two starts
with the fall.

Speaker 9 (47:45):
Start yep, and then there's the drive you start your
own two that you go ninety eight yards And it
felt like it.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
Was mixin, mix and mix and mixed like every time.

Speaker 9 (47:53):
And as a fantasy owner of Joe Mixon, I said,
thank you, I appreciate this, Texans, And I mean that
was when the offense got going. But was crazy is
how many didn't They had eight possessions of the first
half the Texans, they had three in the second half.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
The long methodical drives killed. They had six possessions in
the first half, three in each quarter, and then they
had the kneel down at the end of the second quarter.
But you have three possessions in that.

Speaker 9 (48:17):
It just shows how you couldn't get off the field.
For Green Bay, every one of their drives ended in touchdowns.
All of your drives had scoring on it, but the
made field goal that was then taken off the board
because you accepted a penalty led to a missed field goal.
So but yeah, I mean, any any game where you're
trading touchdowns for field goals, no, you're you're not sitting

(48:39):
pretty there.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Just such a just a gross result overall and you know,
we were talking about this earlier. The first half while
it was probably better for the Texans, especially defensively, and
of course they scored, it just seemed like was anybody
going to score in this game? For a lot large

(49:00):
part of that well, but that benefited the Texans.

Speaker 9 (49:02):
I thought, today's a day. Are you a glass half
empty or glass half full?

Speaker 3 (49:06):
Guy?

Speaker 9 (49:06):
Like, cause you can make arguments either way, dude. The
Texans defense just shut out Aaron Rodgers for a half, Like,
come on, you got to take some positives away from that. Yeah,
but you gave up twenty one in the second half,
and you know you couldn't score a touchdown. Texans have
lost two of three. Man, this team is really going down. Yeah,
but look at all the pieces they've had out and
yet they were in this game. They had their chances.

(49:28):
I feel good about them moving forward, you know. So
it's really about today. Are you the ultimate optimist or
pessimists with this team?

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Again?

Speaker 9 (49:34):
I think this next game is the is the big one,
right because I said this yesterday. If you lost this game,
all right, you're six and three, but you lose to Detroit,
you're six and four. You're now on the path to
five hundred closer than you are to having one of
the better records in the AFC. That's why I thought
you win last night seven and two. Man, you're sitting
pretty for a while.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
So the last road game was last night, they led
at the half. The last road game before that was
the Packers, they led it half. The last time they
were at New York against the Jets, it was tied
nothing nothing, and their last playoff game, which was a
road game, which happened more recently than that last Jets game,
you were also tied at the half. But they all
have the same thing in the second half. Your offense

(50:15):
completely disappeared all four games against three different defenses, and
that has become a huge issue here. I'm not big
on what these guys are doing at the half. You
got four minutes five minutes to really go over things
and try to impart that to your players. But clearly
things have changed in all of those games, and on
both sides of the ball. The season. Coaching staffs make
halftime adjustments. What are you doing? You mean like jeff

(50:37):
Olbricks staff.

Speaker 9 (50:38):
Well not yeh, but I mean like Baltimore and some
of the other ones you met.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
You there. I mean, I suppose I just think it's
you're not. I'm not worried about what they are doing.
Like Aaron Rodgers is the one who probably made the
most difference. He just he operated a little differently. He
was so honed in on what the Texas were doing defensively.
I think they actually showed it when he did that
thumbs up move, like when Devanta Adams can verted on
that fourth down catch. When he put the move on

(51:02):
Kamari Lassner and was wide open, Kamari thought he was
gonna put his foot in the ground, turn up field
and try to catch a quick slant to just get
the first downright. Both he and Aaron Rodgers knew that.
That's why he ran right past him. They have they've
played football before. Right absolutely matters, but your quarterback also
matters in that situation. Again, trying to look at positives,
and you're talking about the unlikely nature of an offensive

(51:24):
line trade. I'm not looking for them to add Andres
Pete and say problem solved. I'm looking for them to
add a player that improves the quality of their current play.
Last year's line was not a good offensive line, but
it wasn't this right, You got to get back to serviceable.
You gotta get back to one of the other things,
Tomko said, after they get we can't operate like this.

(51:45):
Who cares what your game plan is? Sometimes it's out
the window when this happens. And I know people don't
want to discuss it.

Speaker 9 (51:50):
But Titus, you know, always usually gets a day off
from practice because of veterans every week. And like, those
guys just felt so comfortable Shack Manson, Titus Howard, Larry mctonsil,
like there's no one behind them to push him. You
bring in a new body, at least it sends up
red alert bars. Oh, I better go play my butt

(52:10):
off because this guy could come think my job. I
don't know, some guys maybe feel that way. If there's
no you just feel ultimate job security. That look, I
tried my best, but you know what, whatever, if there's
a guy behind you pushing you and challenging you for your.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Job, maybe you play a little bit with a little
bit more desperation. Yeah, Blake Fisher's there, but I don't
think he's pushing any of them. And each of those
two players, plus Shack Mason, I'll have the security of
some sizeable guaranteed money still headed their way and long
term deals at some point during their respective time here
with the Texans. A little bit more obviously, with Chris
here on the other side about the Texans, a note

(52:44):
or two about the slate of college football games this weekend,
and a whole bunch of other stuff that maybe we've
not gotten to yet, like the gift giving the Jets.
We're trying to do for the Texans that they could
not take advantage of.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety, The A
Team continues one Sports Talk seven nineties.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
All Right, I'm here to save the show. Lesa's see
here with you Dan as well. This is the A
Team and it's Friday, and it's just after four o'clock.
So Chris Gordy's got a few minutes for our listeners.
He has ten hours for our listeners when our Sports
Talks seven to ninety listeners tune into the station between
ten and noon each and every weekday morning after the

(53:27):
Sean Salisbury show for next up, he alongside stand Norfleet. Obviously,
we're talking a lot of Texans here with you, Chris. C. J.
Stroud even got into a few things last night about this.
The expectation is this was the one game, barring future injury,
that he won't have a true number one wide receiver,
or he won't have two of his top three receivers available.

(53:49):
Maybe a better way to put it as the expectation
is Nico Collins comes back and heat and tank and
everybody else available against the lines. After the game, though
he indicated he did not believe, and I think accurately
so if Nico had been out there last night, that
probably doesn't change a whole lot, which lends it right
back to the offensive line. And you said they've got
to fix from within. If anything, do you expect them

(54:14):
to just put Kendrick Green back at left guard when
the Lions are in town and just say all right,
we're good. I mean everything else as is.

Speaker 9 (54:22):
I mean, I don't know what else you do. I mean,
maybe they make a coaching staff. I think Aaron Wilson
floated that out this morning. If if it's Chris Strausser
is the problem, and.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
I said that about forty five minutes ago. That's just
something I think has firing people.

Speaker 9 (54:37):
And Cole Popovich, the assistant online coach, if he's better,
then maybe they he's just the guy who just elevate.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
I don't know. I mean, they do have other offensive
coaches on staff that don't have a specific position group
they're working with other than basically the quarterbacks, like Bill
Laser and others who've been a part of this offense
for two years. That could also help augment any area
where you eliminate. But like listening to how Demico's described

(55:03):
the issues, the anything on the table, Bobby Slowik two
weeks ago saying, we know this, we know what our
problems are. We know it's on us with the coach.
We've got to do a better job of getting well
somewhere somewhere. You can only do so many things. They
have the options of changing personnel, and they have the
options of changing coaches. They could also do both, And clearly,
I believe by the time we were finished with November fifth,

(55:25):
the NFL's trade deadline, to what I'm referring, they will
have added an offensive lineman, a backup of somebody else's team,
almost assuredly. But you can't. I said, it's to open
the show, keep doing nothing.

Speaker 9 (55:39):
See what happens right exactly well, And it's a fine
line too for me. College a little bit more than
pros but in the pros, how much do you back
your guys, right, because that's you know, the savvy vetts,
Titus Howard, Larramie Tunsil, Shaq Mason, Like, you know, I
got their backs, guys, I got your backs.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
I'm going to war for you. I know you had
a bad game, but hey, I'll stand behind you.

Speaker 9 (56:00):
And we're gonna better next week versus bad guy of
you guys sunk today and if y'all will pick it up,
you know what I mean, Like, it's the fine line publicly, Demiko,
well your two coach, is he the buddy buddy behind
the scenes, but you.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
Think it makes a difference, like he needs to say
these things pobably.

Speaker 6 (56:16):
No, no, not.

Speaker 9 (56:17):
Publicly, but behind the scenes. Like it's a fine line
between losing your guy, you know what I mean, versus Also,
these are vets, I shouldn't have to say a thing
to them.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
They know they sucked, they admitted it in the postgame.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Well, and we were talking about, you know, publicly versus
privately speaking about the obvious. I mean, it's the elephant
in the room. But the interesting thing is that and again,
very small sample size, you didn't see C. J. Stroud
throwing his helmet down on the sideline. Last year, you
didn't see he just didn't look. Now again, they were
playing better last year, but he had some times where

(56:51):
it was like, Okay, this line's not protecting him very well.
This year it's like, and it's gotten quick. You know,
he's he's not happy. He's saying all the right things.
Miko's saying all the right things publicly, which they're supposed
to do as leaders. But I just I would be
shocked if he hasn't already said something behind the scenes,
like you guys got to help me out here.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Well, here's the tough part.

Speaker 9 (57:11):
They're doing a pretty good job run blocking, Like since
Joe Mixing, it's like the opposite of last year.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
So it's like when they go back and watch film.

Speaker 9 (57:18):
I'm sure there's a lot of players you go, hey,
great block there, larom Me, Hey, you know, Titus, great
job there. But you know, like how much of that
is versus the line that obviously he's getting past their
blocks and then doing his thing and.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Cuts and all this.

Speaker 9 (57:32):
But but yeah, I mean that's the tough part. I
see it in college right now. LSU is fantastic at
pass blocking. They suck in run blocking, and so it
becomes do you just put different guys in there, or
do you just coach them up hard er. Hey, you're
lacking in this department. That's where the Texans are right now.
When Joe Mixon is playing in a game, my god,
he just you blink and he's rushing for one hundred yards.

(57:53):
Run blocking there they seem to be doing okay. But
pass blocking is just a big, big issue, and teams know.
And last night, every third down, if I'm going to
posing defense, send pressure because you're getting through at CJ's
going down because they can't get rid of the ball quickly,
even though they know they got to get rid of
the ball quickly on third long.

Speaker 3 (58:13):
Yeah, the field goal attempts for the Texans three times
of four opportunities were immediately preceded by a third downsack
of CJ. Stroud, which means you can't go for it
on fourth down, and even give it a better situation,
you've also made the kick a little more difficult and
you ended up attempting two fifty plus yarders for that
very reason.

Speaker 9 (58:31):
There's Bill O'Brien when you need him, you know he'd
go check down to the running back for a game
of five.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
Well, I mean, I know you're joking, but can't the
quarterback who you currently have do that? Yep? I can't
say I saw it for sure in last night's game
because I did not watch the All twenty two live,
which nobody does unless you're in the press box, and
I was not. I was here in the studio doing
Rockets basketball. I don't know for a fact outlets were there.

(58:56):
I don't know for a fact he did have dump
off here check down there that he was just nick
and not going to because he wanted something bigger. Felty
had time to go for something more.

Speaker 9 (59:04):
Often, they're keeping the running back in, whether it's Oga,
Mawally or Mixon, is staying in to help protect him
because I can't release. I have to help protect all
these behemoths coming at us.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
They have a first place team, they have an off
week or a home game awaiting them in the playoffs.
I'm sure they'll get there. How concerned are you that
it doesn't matter because this team can't win a playoff
game the way that they're playing three straight weeks now.
Green Bay, Indie and the Jets varying degrees of quality
of teams they're against. Yeah, they've had the three worst

(59:37):
days in allowing pressure rate. All three times he'd been
pressured forty six percent of those dropbacks or more. And
these are the only three games all season the opponents
have had ten or more tackles for loss in a game.
They've done it in all three games after the Texans
did not allow it to happen in any of the
first six.

Speaker 9 (59:56):
Well, and look at the offensive output to twenty two points,
to twenty three points, thirteen points. It feels like the
offense is getting worse in terms of points scored. And
you know, that's that's the thing I think about in
a playoff game, if it's you know, somebody asked, could
they beat the Denver Broncos, Well, yeah, because I have
zero faith in bo Nicks. But I also know Denver's

(01:00:17):
got a really good defense and then Vance Joseph's gonna
blitz like crazy and final score that game might be
thirteen to ten.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
So I just that's what's disappointing. And the loss of.

Speaker 9 (01:00:27):
Stefan Diggs really does hurt because we thought this was
going to be an offense I was gonna score in
the thirties every week and it's just how many they've
scored in the thirties once the New England win.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
I mean, but.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
That's again, even if Stefan Diggs doesn't get hurt, the
reason that's not happening is because of this line and
something we talked about earlier, because you know, we're both
of the very firm opinion and I think it's with
merit that you can turn things around in an offseason,
whether it be a certain position group in this case

(01:00:59):
or the franchise in general. I mean, we all remember
what happened the year before Demiico and CJ got here
if you make all the right moves. But as far
as improving this line in season, it's just I don't
know if if it's possible, just because the personnel is
not there, and so if that's the case, what what
are you left with it? It just feels hollow and
another season where you're not paying CJ. Stroud insane money

(01:01:21):
that you will be eventually that you're not capitalizing onto
the rest of you.

Speaker 9 (01:01:26):
But you're paying a ton to these offensive linemen. I mean,
they're not cheap, and again they're well deserved for their careers,
but I don't like if they lose to Detroit and
the offensive line gets murdered again. I almost go into
that Monday or whatever, Tuesday PRAC whenever they hit the
practice field again and go guys, open competition, like, literally.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
But what's to tell you right now? I mean, but
what's to tell you right now? That's not what's gonna happen.
That's exactly what I think is gonna happen.

Speaker 9 (01:01:51):
I'd still think you're six and three, like wex say,
you're still in first place.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
You're playing Detroit, and every time you die your.

Speaker 9 (01:01:55):
Team this year you get but a buffalo, you said
a And Hutchinson's not in there now. If he was
in there, I'd be scared to death right now, because
you would get murdered.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
He is a huge loss, but he's not the only
reason that defense is fierce in the pass rush against anybody.

Speaker 9 (01:02:12):
Yeah, Nico Collins, but I think that helps a lot.
Nico can be his guy one on one. He's a
deep threat. It's going to help. It's not going to
solve all your issues, but it will help.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Just one quick thing. Since you always drop a little
knowledge on the college football front, before we let you go,
Aggie's have rattled off seven straight wins. Will they make
it ten before they host the Longhorns? And similarly, the
Longhorns recovered kind of from their loss to Georgia. Will
they get to College Station without another loss?

Speaker 9 (01:02:41):
I think a loss is coming for A and M,
either this weekend at South Carolina or at Auburn in
a couple weeks. I know Auburn's been bad, but that
weird things happened at Jordenhair Stadium. I think the Aggies, Look,
it was a great win last week, but everybody's been
patting him on the back, telling, oh, man, you guys
have arrived in all this. We're ignoring they played a
first terrible first half of football. And oh, by the way,

(01:03:02):
now we quietly have a quarterback controversy all the conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
Do you go with Connor Wegman, do you go with
Marcel Reed? Do you play both of them?

Speaker 6 (01:03:07):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
My god? What do we do here? Look?

Speaker 9 (01:03:10):
I think they're right for the picking to get upset.
This is a great defensive front for South Carolina this weekend.
But if they don't lose this weekend, I still think
they lose.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
So that was a no. The Aggies won't make it
ten in a Row. What about the Horns. I think
they should.

Speaker 9 (01:03:23):
I mean, with their schedule and what they have ahead
of them, they should be able to take care of business.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
We had a long time to go before we actually
talk about that game on November thirtieth and what it
will mean on the college football and SEC landscape, So
we'll pause on what will happen then. Always appreciate the
visits here. Hopefully it sets the table for you to
have a wonderful weekend after spending time with us in
our listeners. Hey, you guys do the same. Have a
better weekend than Keny Ingrey. He has the weekend off.

(01:03:48):
It'll be fine. No practice today. We don't know the
extent of the injury. Locks. Are next the.

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Nice stream beats right talking about frog baseball Strike one.
Here you dummies, listen to Astros baseball and Rockets basketball
games on any device with the free i Heeart radio apps.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
Remember that magic hatball A nice little shaken.

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
Look at this I'm getting late tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
Make an answer, guys giving it to you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
You can trust whatever it said, or you could trust
these two guys named Adam. It's a crap shoot either way,
but these are your stone Cold.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
Locks as promised for thirty on a Friday time for
a stone Cold Locks. Things were going quite well for
all three of us the last two weeks, some record
setting numbers and our selections last week not very much
like that at all, although for me it was even
worse than for the those other two. Here managed to
get one selection out of five right, but that was it.

(01:05:04):
So we did actually have a tie for the top
spot between you Ac and myself, but that was before
last night. We did our obviously, get our Texans selection
in yesterday, and I will hit you with our prop
bet our college game of the week and or two
wild card games. And of notes, one of the prop
bets has already come in and it's a cash it

(01:05:27):
out man, you won.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
It's a doozy.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
We talked about it yesterday a little bit off air.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:05:32):
Stroud's rushing total, all things considered for last night's game,
he's under duress. We've watched him scramble for yards for
the last couple of weeks. He's been over ten and
a half five times this year. Make it six, buy
a lot. His over under on rushing yards was ten
and a half he ran for fifty nine yards in
last night's game, thankfully because they needed him, kept some

(01:05:54):
drives alive, and would have been nice if he was
gifted or granted the proper spot on the ball when
he ran to try to gain a first down and
went out of bounds right at the marker and was
marked shy without even being hit. But you had it
at ten and a half AC so a dub your way.
You and I with twenty six correct selections so far
this year on forty five picks. Dan at twenty one.

(01:06:16):
You and Dan got one already. Both took the under
in last night's game, and that was rather easy. And
I thought the Texas going to win, considering they were underdogs.
All they had to do was accomplish that, and I
would have claimed to victory. I did not. College football
Game of the Week is Ohio State on the road
at Penn State to top five teams. I think one
is more respected than the other, and it's the one

(01:06:37):
with a loss. That's why they're favored on the road.
Ohio State minus three the over under at forty seven today.
We'll start there and just make your way through the
full list of the other four or three selections you
have for everybody here, Dan get us started.

Speaker 10 (01:06:54):
All right, I'm gonna go with Ohio State. They've got
survival mode because a loss pretty much knocks them out
of the Big ten Champapionship game. Picture a little bit
of a look ahead last week against Nebraska, That's what
I chalk it up to. And also two Penn State
fans are supposedly pissed that the game is being played
at eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
They want it in primetime because.

Speaker 10 (01:07:15):
Yeah, the white out, all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Yeah, the white out. Don't they do that all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
Well, no, it's like night Yeah, they're night game.

Speaker 10 (01:07:23):
Everybody wears white except for the one section that wears
the blue shirts to spell out the S and Penn State.

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
So they can't wear it during the day when the
sun's out.

Speaker 10 (01:07:30):
They can, but they just feel like it doesn't have
the same cachet.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
They're one hundred percent correct, but it's not like they're
making them miss out on it. They're making miss out
on the biggest game of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
Good.

Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
I'm glad Penn State has their priorities in order, as
they have handled some pr tremendously well. Okay, so, ah
stake desperate mode. They want to go and cover what else?

Speaker 10 (01:07:50):
All right, I'm gonna go with the wild cards? Is
that what we want here? So all of your picks
there we go.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
All right.

Speaker 10 (01:07:55):
So I'm gonna go Pittsburgh on the road at SMU
plus seven and a half the NFL, I go Bengals
at home minus seven against an awful Vegas team, and
my prop gonna go Kyler Murray under twenty and a
half completions against the Bears.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
Maybe a difficult question to answer, even though it sounds
so simple. Is SMU good?

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
I think they are?

Speaker 10 (01:08:17):
And r at Lashley, we'll probably get another job after
this season.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
He might be one of the yachter coaches on those
lists as we get close to the season. Certainly a
win here, I mean pitt they're undefeated, so I guess
that matters this deep end of the season. But both
of the conferences you're pulling these games from, we've had
some discussion about it. If Ohio State loses, you think
that closes the door on any playoff possibility. They obviously

(01:08:45):
are going to miss their conference title game. At ten
and two with I'm not sure what you'd call their
most impressive win. They might have two impressive losses, but
as a win over Indiana, who then goes to the
title game and loses themselves, would that put Ohio State
in and Indiana out.

Speaker 10 (01:09:07):
I mean, I just think that there's gonna be a
log jam and probably the chance for three secs to
get in, because I mean you factor in Georgia of course,
who lost to Alabama but then beat Texas and then
Texas if they losed A and M and in LSU
do they find their way into the SEC championship game
that I just think that there's no more than two
Big ten teams that get in.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
All right, A S, We'll take your full lot of
non Texans related selections.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Well first and foremost, before we go any further, I
have been alerted by a very reliable source I E.
Him that Greg Cook is watching us right now. Oh nice,
so Uncle Greg, shout out to you. I miss you, dude,
And yeah, he he's one of the best in the
biz and good to hear from him. And glad he's
watching and listening right now. So yeah, I am two

(01:09:52):
and zero so far on the week. Just wanted to
put that out there because I had the under forty
three on the game last night plus CJ. Stroud obliterating
the ten and a half rushing yards. Because of the
defenses plural involved in this game, I'm gonna take the
under on Ohio State Penn State. The number is at
forty six. I believe I did these yesterday, So.

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
It's at forty seven now. So you got it a
forty seven, which is even better for you thought it
was going under forty six. Well, you probably think it's
going under forty seven.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
I guess I'll keep my pick as is. Dolphins at
Bills With Tua back in the lineup, it just screams
to me, shootout. So I'm gonna take the over on
a forty nine, which is kind of a tricky number,
I think, even in a shootout.

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
Just I think it was what a week ago, two
weeks ago, whenever these two teams played Buffalo and Seattle
similar situation, a slightly higher number took the over figured shootout,
Buffalo scored thirty one points off way over and Seattle
couldn't score it all.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
Yeah, I don't think that'll be the case provided to
us stays healthy. I mean, we all know what that means.
I just it's almost like a train wreck. At this point,
I'm waiting for when we find out that it's happened
again with him. But if he's out there, I think
these two quarterbacks are more than capable of putting up
more than forty nine combined. Also, I feel similarly with

(01:11:09):
the two quarterbacks and a running back for sure on
one side, and the Bengals Ravens game. I think that's
the Monday Night game this week over on the fifty
in that one, even though the Bengals have looked nothing
like the Bengals, I just think that they'll somehow be
able to combine for at least fifty points in this
game because the Ravens have put up a lot of

(01:11:31):
points this year, and you know the Bengals have two.
At times, you look like you're confused about something.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
Yeah, I am very confused by something. Oh. First of all,
Lamar Jackson was not practicing the last two days, but
he's fully healthy and said as much today needed rest,
He's gonna play. He's not on the injury report. So
that you said Bengals Ravens, do I have a wrong game?
The Bengals are home for the Raiders, as Dan noted earlier.
When I play that and the Ravens are home for

(01:11:59):
the Broncos and welcome to the show.

Speaker 10 (01:12:01):
Dude.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
Well, I might have skipped ahead when I was lady. Yeah,
maybe there's a there's a misplay there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
Yeah, I'm guessing there is, since they don't play each other.
I'll fix it, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
We'll just give you this instead. Let's see you got
Do you want to take the Saints minus seven over
the Bryce youngs.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
Oh, I've gotta look, I've gotta look.

Speaker 3 (01:12:20):
I want the Packers and Lines over forty seven and
a half.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Hold on, I don't want that.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
I know I'm messing. I'll take you through my picks here,
Ohio State minus three. Just as Dan said, I'm going
Jameis Winston. They're dogs, Jamis Winston's Browns plus one. I'll
take the Colts and Vikings Sunday Night Football to hit
the over on forty six and a half, doubling up
on Jameis Winston basically his new favorite target, Cedric Tillman

(01:12:48):
over three and a half receptions.

Speaker 2 (01:12:51):
Bengals play the Ravens next Thursday, and I scrolled too far.
That's all it was. So I'm gonna take the over
on the Bucks and the Chiefs. It's a forty five
and a half. The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
Let's go see if we can make this little kiddie per.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
Six panther cologne for your radio six the time.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
It works every time.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler, the A team
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
I can't wait till I nail all of my picks
this week. Oh there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
I don't know what was the word or name coming
up next.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
Can't wait till I nail that Reese's peanut butter cup
when I get home.

Speaker 3 (01:13:36):
Did he get any Yes? I think, well you should
know by now, you know what's the night of You know, I.

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
Haven't gone through his his Uh you know he hirate booty.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
He doesn't dump out the bag and organize them.

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
I told you he didn't care. He was so tired
because they've got him going to care about his costume. Yeah,
when he was, you know, putting it on and finally
decided on it five choices later. But yeah, he didn't.
He didn't. I don't even think he opened his bag
last night after he got back in the house.

Speaker 3 (01:14:04):
And you're watching the Texans game, did you happen to
see the PA announcer at American Airlines Center, no beetlejuice.
So wait, when did they show him just randomly whenever
the camera panned across the court.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Have ever told you about the fact that the other
two NBA teams in Texas and this.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
Is Nallas in San Antonio.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
Yes, this is not a shot at current PA announcer
Jonathan Sanford, who came over from the Spurs. I'm talking about.
I think the guy that preceded him stand something or
other sounds great. He sucked And the guy in Dallas
he sucks too. Shut up?

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
Who's he playing for? Who's his audience? Just like a columnist,
the local.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
It doesn't matter. I think the guy in Miami socks too.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
Don't feel that way. Two minutes doors.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Shut up, Just do your job. Just you know, have
a booming voice. That's fine, Scott. You know Mason in Detroit?
Is he still there?

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Ben Wallace, that guy sucked to. I don't need any
of that stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:15:13):
What do you think he does?

Speaker 6 (01:15:13):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
You know who was awesome?

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
Cockade cunning him?

Speaker 2 (01:15:16):
I hope not. There's that is. But I'll tell you
what Ray Clay was was fantastic. Oh and Matt Thomas
was okay too. He's he's all right, He's okay, Yeah,
he's all right when he works like not today.

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
Very busy. Worked two shifts yesterday time he got in
last night. Rockets did get the win last night. They
moved to three and two. They have one of the
three teams that's ahead of them in the Western Conference
coming on tap on Saturday night over Toya Center. That's right,
just three teams ahead of them in the Western Conference
standings with a mirror seventy seven games to go.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
Is Steph playing tomorrow night.

Speaker 3 (01:15:53):
I haven't seen the Warriors. Given update on his day
was the reevaluation. I honestly, they've shocking played incredibly well
offensively whomever has been available to them over their first
five games of the year. Uh, they've been probably the
best offense in the NBA. And it's not only because
of him. Some real randoms like Lyndy Waters having helped

(01:16:14):
the well him from an offensive, he's helping run their offense.
He's not helping them put the ball in the.

Speaker 2 (01:16:20):
Basket, helping run his fingernails over people's eyeballs.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
One Western Conference team is undefeated. The Thunder. And one
other Western Conference team is ahead of the Rockets, like
the Warriors, and it's the Phoenix Suns.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Yeah, they're not gonna go south like I thought, maybe.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
A long way to go this season. And while they've
won two straight games without Bradley Beal, so they're starting
hurt again. I'm not just saying he wasn't playing for
them for whatever reasons unless I don't, I don't know
what's gonna happen, but I don't envision them being anywhere
near the bottom of the standings immediately, like the Brooklyn

(01:16:56):
Nets almost assuredly will be Nets have started two and three.
We talk about this only because of the trades that
have been made.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
It just tell Refell you think it was a bad
trade again.

Speaker 3 (01:17:05):
Might I don't need to tell him, I told our
listeners as bad's probably the wrong word. I didn't think
it was the I wouldn't have gone that route. I
totally understand what they're thinking, So from that standpoint, calling
it bad I don't even think is correct. I just
would not have done that. You know, you're kind of
pushing off into the distance picks you think will be comparable,

(01:17:26):
if not better, while you figure out what to do
with your extremely talented current team. Now a little bit
of that has to be balanced against. Is the twenty
twenty five class so good it's not worth it? Or
is there some prize that you can't afford to potentially
miss out on when maybe if you feel that way

(01:17:46):
about Cooper Flagg or some other several players, and that's
for everyone else to decide, maybe you have pause on it.
But I understand the reasoning behind what they're doing and
where they're trying to go. And again, it's more about
what the product is currently on the court, because I
think that's the most likely reason, and they're gonna end
up winning big Some huge star maybe is here, maybe
has to come here, and they have to go find them,
and you still have the assets to go make that happen.

(01:18:08):
They won three of their last four kind of gotta
get me back game, beating Dallas in Dallas after losing
to Charlotte at home, so he kind of even things out.
You've kind of steady things three straight home games on
the way, and the Warriors, like I mentioned, are the
Saturday night game just under twenty eight points per game.
Jalen Green through five, he is tenth in the NBA

(01:18:31):
in scoring. He's fifth in the NBA in fourth quarter
scoring and the Rockets outside of the game against Memphis,
all the games have been decided in the fourth quarter.
Four of those games six points or less. They've been
on the right end of three of them, mostly because
he has played his best at the end of these games.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
And last night on Halloween he committed sorcery.

Speaker 3 (01:18:53):
Sorcery, he got fouled and went across the lane for
a reverse I'm not even gonna look layup which dropped in.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Well, he didn't have to, he knew going in, but
you know it is going to be interesting. I was
sitting here saying, oh, Alprinchingoon's definitely going to be the
one averaging twenty five or more per game this year,
which would happen if he would hit his free throws.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
I mean to have a lot of them.

Speaker 2 (01:19:15):
Yeah, But like if you're if you're in that twenty
two ish range, I think like he was last year,
and you are a sixty some odd percent free throw shooter,
well then if you improve on your free throw shooting,
that right there tells me that with enough games that
are north of twenty five, Because he has plenty of
those games where he scores thirty that you'll be able

(01:19:36):
to bump that average up in the twenty five range.
The problem is it's been Jalen Green that's been doing
all the scoring, not necessarily with great shooting, great.

Speaker 3 (01:19:45):
Three point shooting, well over forty percent. Yeah, but that
he's a career what thirty three? Yes, to say massive improvement,
even though we're just last year, which was a little
bit better than thirty three.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
But I'm I'm more concerned.

Speaker 3 (01:19:56):
With this far to this month and it's over now. Yeah,
but I don't want to check and say, oh, he
was unbelievable this month. They played five games, right, the
month of March last year is what so many people
got so excited about. And he's been better in those
five games than he was in that month of excellent
last year. And there's really no reason for it not
to continue. There's areas where he can get a little

(01:20:17):
bit better, I think, and last night, when things weren't
all clicking for him, he just went out and grabbed
double figure rebounds and then got going in the fourth quarter.
Alprim Shingoon's start to the season, I'm sure is one
he would like to quickly move past, and maybe there
is some lingering issue health wise. We've seen him have
the back wrapped a little bit. He obviously is coming
off of last year's season ending injury, though he was

(01:20:39):
healthy for the off season thirty minutes a night so
far this year, he's shooting thirty seven percent from the floor.
He's shooting much better from three point distance, so it's
not his lackluster three point shooting that's dragging his field
goal percentage down. It's actually he's not making his shots
this year. Twenty three of sixty four from the floor

(01:21:01):
this year, about thirty six percent.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
That is wild that he's shooting the clip.

Speaker 3 (01:21:07):
He's a fifty seven percent shooter. He's shooting thirty six
percent from the same place.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
Why he's averaging fifteen points per game instead of the
aforementioned twenty five. But that first loss to the Spurs,
I actually kind of saw coming. It was a classic
back to back short trip. They thought they were going
to just walk in the Spurs would roll over, and
then they absolutely destroyed them the next game and then
made it more interesting than it needed to be down

(01:21:33):
the stretch. But I loved earlier when Ross asked me
about Victor Wimbinyama's huge statistical game last night, and then
I reminded him of the game before that when he
played a real team, the Thunder, the one that you
mentioned that was undefeated. He put up a grand total
of six points and eight rebounds. He's not going to
be this awesome specimen that everybody says he is. He'll
be all right though. Anyway. We got the five o'clock

(01:21:55):
hour and Football at five coming up next.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
The team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston
sports guys named Adham Talking Your Teams series, Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the A team A team.

Speaker 3 (01:22:24):
Finally, those of you who have been with us for
two hours, we appreciate it. We can talk some football.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
I thought we'd never get here.

Speaker 3 (01:22:30):
It's Football at five here on Sports Talk seven ninety
the final segment of the week and day hour of
the show for US Texans. Coming back home late last
night after losing their third game of the season, they
lose twenty one to thirteen. All three losses have been
away from NRG Stadium, two and three on the road.
They are four and zero at home. Their next game

(01:22:51):
is at home. It is also in primetime it's the
second of three consecutive games in primetime Sunday Night football
against the Detroit Lions on at NRG Stadium on November tenth,
following week, with a whole extra day between their normal
week Monday Night Football at the Cowboys would like to

(01:23:12):
believe the Texans won't be taking that as a three
game losing streak. I recognize the Cowboys on a particularly
good team this year based on their record and their play,
which is usually what I go with. But Texans aren't
a very good team on the road either, so it
wouldn't even surprise me if they were not favored three

(01:23:33):
consecutive games. They were not favored last night, they did
not win or cover. They I don't believe will be
favored at home against the Lions if the Lions head
into that game off another strong performance, which I do expect,
and just in the fact that they're on the road,
I don't know what the Cowboys will do between now
and then, and we don't really need to concern ourselves
with that, but just noting it before they get back

(01:23:54):
inside the division and have back to back games against
the Jaguars then the Titans, till you've obviously not yet.
The Titans offensive line has been a huge topic of
conversation inside the building. I kind of ran through some
of the numbers over the last couple of weeks for
the Texans and their protection, which has been awful, and
the other teams are spending way too much time in

(01:24:15):
there offensive backfield. It is impacting the running game. As
strong as Joe Mixon is and he turned in his
fourth consecutive game of one hundred plus yards. He's run
for one hundred and more yards and a touchdown in
all four road games he's played in. And again we say, ah,
you run the ball, you should take pressure off your
offense and your quarterback. And then it's usually true, and

(01:24:35):
it probably even does, but not to the point that
it's allowed them to overcome all of the issues that
they have offensively and defensively. They put an awesome first
half of football together, record setting Aaron Rodgers turned in
the worst first half yardish performance of his entire career,
and then in the second half he looked like a
totally different quarterback. He looked like the quarterback that has

(01:24:55):
had some pretty good afternoons or evenings of football against
the Texans, and most everybody else you could argue this
was his finest game of the season. Barely had any
incompletions in the second half. Just three of his eighteen
passes were not complete through close to two hundred yards,
had three touchdowns, no interceptions, no turnovers, wasn't sacked, and
they only had the opportunity to score three touchdowns because

(01:25:19):
they only had the ball three times in the second half,
scoring on all three drives. All were very long, and
so both sides, even special teams with the two miss
field goals, don't really care that you missed the first one.
From a special team standpoint, it should never have been
that long to begin with. Really don't like teams kicking
short field goals because I'm never happy. It's impossible to

(01:25:41):
be happy. I hate three points on short field goals.
I'd rather just go for it kind of no matter
what fourth and whatever is. And if you do make it, okay, great.
I wish you'd gone for it. He didn't make it.
He hit the upright and it did not succeed.

Speaker 2 (01:25:55):
What a weird knight for him.

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
He had just hit a field goal two game minutes prior,
but it was one of three massive special teams penalties
the Texans were gifted during the game. You had a
face mask call on a return, You had that call
where John Weeks got destroyed, which is why that play
is illegal. You can't protect himself. And you had running

(01:26:17):
in roughing the kicker. These were all These are monster
game changing, momentum changing type of plays that don't even
include they fumbled at the half yard line because a
wide receiver still makes a play that should never have
happened once, let alone the fifty times we've seen it
well over and over and over again. These are the
reasons one of some of the many reasons they were

(01:26:39):
in a game where they did so many things poorly.

Speaker 2 (01:26:42):
Tommy Townsend is probably lucky that it wasn't way more serious.
On the initial replay, it didn't look like much, and
then when you see the super slow mo, I mean
he was directly at his shin.

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
Yeah, it's not so much that he got hit so hard, right,
but he's even more vulnerable than a long snapper. And
how you get hit, how you might end up falling.
It's a leg injury waiting to happen. And usually if
a leg injury occurs for your punter, his season has
also come to a conclusion, it did not. He didn't
even leave the games, which is obviously good news moving forward,
although it would have been nice, would be nice if

(01:27:16):
he was having a little bit better season. We'll run
through a couple of comments from those with the podium
last night, just two people, Demiko Ryans and c. J. Stroud.
We'll start first with Demiko, since he went first in
this comment right out of the gate definitely generated a
lot of commentary from people who heard it or read
about it after the fact when he talked about what
was going on up front and how they aim to

(01:27:38):
move forward.

Speaker 11 (01:27:39):
Not sure what was happening up front. We watched the
film and see what it is. But obviously we give
up a sacks and you know, every drop back or
pass situation looks like you know, we're in scramble molds.
So it's just not good enough and we can't operate
on time, and we got to get that fix.

Speaker 2 (01:27:57):
I mean, it's funny because you said it at the
top of the show, not really sure what's going on
up front?

Speaker 9 (01:28:02):
Here?

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
They are, we all are. They're just not protecting their quarterback.
I mean, yes, but it's his way of saying, yeah,
and you know, did we miss a blocked. Are we
missing a stunt? Are we missing a twist? Are we
missing a game? Or guys getting just pushed her out?
Are there missed assignments? Is their miscommunited?

Speaker 9 (01:28:17):
What?

Speaker 3 (01:28:17):
So many things? He answered it the simplest way, with
the old We're gonna go have to take a look
at it, see what's up. But he also said, we
can't operate like that. And that's the bottom line here,
and it's they weren't real good the first six games,
but they could operate, They could run their offense. They
weren't having to scramble through the playbook to find what
can we even try here that allows us to get

(01:28:39):
away from this pass rush. The last three weeks have
been that every single game, and it's against varying degrees
of talent on defense, varying scoreboards that they were facing
at whatever point in the game. Green Bay, Indianapolis, and
now the New York Jets have been living in the
Texans backfield. Thirty two tackles for loss in the last
three games, each of those games with ten or more

(01:28:59):
from the D. So none of them are the Steel Curtain.
None of them are or the eighty five Bears or
the Jets are good. I can't. The Jets are really good,
and I think the Packers over the rest of the
season are going to show how much better than people.
But you're right, that's not even the point. Well, eight sacks,
point is anybody I think can do it? And the
sack totals are obviously way out of whack. It's fourteen

(01:29:21):
sacks in those three games, eight of them coming last night,
and the quarterback hits at some point are going to
add up. How many times did it look like that
was CJ's last play for a few minutes, or he's
not going to get up from this one, or they
need to bring Davis Mills in for a snap or two,
or thankfully this not so thankfully, but thankfully this drive
is over and he has a chance to recover. It
looked like he heard his back. It looked like he

(01:29:42):
heard his leg. He was limping at a certain point
in time. Seven quarterback hits, nine quarterback hits, and then
last night eleven quarterback hits. That's twenty seven over the
last three games.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
Hanna is going to start firing people soon.

Speaker 3 (01:29:54):
As Demiko said, we can't operate like that. However, if
you noticed they had one humongous air yards pass play
in the game, the fifty yard at a Tank Dell
and CJ. Threw it when he was on the run, right,
so he must have been in scramble mode, right, mm hm, No,
he wasn't. They moved the pocket. It was a designed rollout.

(01:30:16):
You got seventy seven snaps. I don't want you to
call design rollouts seventy six times, but every once in
a while, and probably a little bit more than literally
once in a game, that's what you have to do.
You have to do something incredible else the throw is
where his guy was going to get it. Not an
easy throw to make, and certainly Tank was able to
come down with it. A couple of big explosives for Tank,

(01:30:38):
his most productive game of the season, started with that
early catch for sixteen yards and had several more throughout
the game. He was really the only target that was
thrown to with any kind of commitment over the course
of the game. Few throws to Robert Woods, fre throws
to Adult Schultz, and then a bunch of others throwers
that weren't cut and again, he only completed eleven passes,
so it all kind of goes hand in hand CJ's
thoughts after the game late in his press conference is

(01:31:00):
where this answer comes from, about what he saw, what
he thinks what it might mean for his team.

Speaker 12 (01:31:07):
We've got a couple wake up calls this year. I
would say, you know, we just gotta honestly just play football, better,
execute better start point of here and realize, you know,
at the end of the day, like this is not
winning football and we can't keep squeezing our way by
every game. You know, we gotta we are a really
good football team, have a lot of really good football
players once we buy into the systems and what is

(01:31:29):
being you know, coach. And also we got to be
able to have leadership to take over. So you know,
I believe you know this is at the end, but
this is definitely a great wake up call for us
to you know, tighten up the ship. And you know,
this is now playoff football. It is November of December,
so we gotta be able to This is gonna be
the track of our schedule. A lot of great teams

(01:31:50):
were playing on prime time and you know, we gotta
be able to find ways to win.

Speaker 2 (01:31:55):
Finding ways to win is kind of in my opinion,
going to be with the team.

Speaker 3 (01:31:59):
Of the rest of this unfortunately, I almost feel like
he was not talking about what the final score was.
Finding ways to win up front, finding ways to win
our one on ones as receivers, finding ways to win
with our play calling, and on and on and on
and on. You know, we have talented players all over
this football team. Totally true statement. There's one position group

(01:32:20):
that starts more players than any other position group on
the entire team. It's the offensive line. I mean, I
might still say Laramie Tunzel is a very good player,
even as a even as the line goes through what
they're going through, he was not a good He didn't
have a good game for his standards. I would say
as a pass blocker, it is still noticeably different what
the person or people he's usually tasked with defending and

(01:32:44):
keeping CJ away from him. He's still doing a better
job than the other four guys. Of course he is.
I do still regard him as a plus level blindside protector,
a must on the offensive line. But every other position
group we're looking, I think we see a star here
or a guy right behind him emerging to star, and
we just don't have that on this offensive line. All
replaceable parts in the middle of a season is a

(01:33:06):
terrible place to be. I said it very early in
the season, at some point in twenty twenty five, if
not sooner, even if he isn't good, and it puts
CJ's health at risk, and they're games at risk. Blake
Fisher is a starter on this team, and then he
has to prove that he is or isn't. It's the
same thing Jue Scruggs is doing. It's no different second.
Where you do well, even you're you're on the team

(01:33:29):
and playing a position where the guy's in front of
you aren't doing the job. At some point you have
to play whether you're good or not. Right, Okay, it's
kind of rhetorical. As we close the segment.

Speaker 13 (01:33:40):
The A t on Sports Talk seven ninety, well, let's
talk about the best way to get your hands on
some tickets or resell the tickets that you've got.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
We're talking about quick assists your ticket everywhere. All you
got to do is go to the App Store or
Google Play Store and search quick assists q U, I,
C K A S y ST. They do all of
the work for you. They get the job done.

Speaker 3 (01:34:03):
It's quick Assist your Ticket everywhere, Adam Clinton, Adam Way
for it, the eight teams. We'll have our usual giveaway
of jelly roll tickets coming up in the final segment
of the show. We will have in case you missed it,
coming up the next segment of the show, I wanted

(01:34:26):
to give some more of you an opportunity to go
see Cougar's football tomorrow, Cougar's U H Over td ECU
to thirty kickoff against the Kansas State Wildcats. We've got
spots for you in the bud Light backyard. I'll be
able to stop by there as well tomorrow and you'll
enjoy yourself, I assure you, enjoying some ice cold, refreshing

(01:34:48):
bud Light. We have two sets of six packs of tickets,
so we'll get a couple of winners here. And if
you've been paying attention today, not just to this show,
but and the U of H Cougar sports landscape, the
Cougars released their H Town Blue uniforms for multiple sports

(01:35:10):
and all the merchandise that goes with it. A lot
of people were wondering about that the last go round.
With this, I've now seen many many people taking advantage
of the multiple retailers around this city. Their own on
campus stores that are displaying it all and ready for
you to enjoy it. Is awesome stuff. When they came
out with it before, I think everybody came to like

(01:35:32):
it and say where can I get it? Well, now
you have your answer and you can get it. I
mentioned it's for multiple sports. I'm gonna ask you to
answer a question, and that's how you're gonna win the
tickets at seven one three two one two five seven
ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety
and this is a great place to enjoy the game.
The special section right there in the bud Light backyard awesome.

(01:35:53):
So love to see you out there and you'll enjoy
it if you do. Their volleyball team has a set
of New h Town blue uniforms. They're gonna debut those
on the ninth against Texas Tech. All you have to
tell me, and I'll tell you one hint first, if
you didn't already know, tomorrow's game that you're about to
win tickets to is their blackout game. They'll be in black,

(01:36:17):
You'll be in black, So be ready for that tomorrow.
It should be very cool. I just want to know
when they're actually going to be in the blue uniforms.
They announced that as well. Tell me the opponent they're
going to play this year on this year's schedule at
TDECU Stadium, against whom they are going to wear those jerseys?
Seven one three, two one two five seven nine. If

(01:36:39):
you know the answer to that question, or are smart
enough to realize how few home games are remaining this
season and how easy it might be for you to
guess the answer to that question, because I really want
you to come out and enjoy the game in the
bud like backyard. So seven one three two one two
five seven ninety Just tell Dan against whom, what team,
what program are they gonna wear the each town blue

(01:37:00):
uniforms the University of Houston Cougar footballers before this season
comes to an end.

Speaker 2 (01:37:05):
I love the fact that they're just wearing those and
not even worrying.

Speaker 3 (01:37:11):
About buying in the face.

Speaker 2 (01:37:12):
Yeah, yeah, it's great, it is, and it should be.
I mean, if they wore those all the time, then
maybe I would say they sort of have a case.
But they're basically hoarding something they don't use. It's like
having a nice sports car and just keeping it in
the garage.

Speaker 3 (01:37:28):
Yeah. Fy, The Cougars have one home game remaining after Saturday.
So if you can maybe use flying by deductive powers
to figure out against whom very hard they'll be wearing
them on November twenty third at on Senior Night over
at TDECU Stadium, then you'll they'll win.

Speaker 2 (01:37:45):
Is there anything that can happen between now and next
Sunday night that's gonna make you feel good about the
texans chances against Detroit? And this is more about Detroit
than it is about the Texans in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:37:58):
Uh, I think completely the opposite.

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
Why because they're so hurt or they're so.

Speaker 3 (01:38:04):
Texans aren't losing because they're incapable of matching up with
other teams no matter how good they are.

Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
It's that this is the best team they will have played,
by far. Forget Minnesota, this is by far the best
team they will have played.

Speaker 3 (01:38:16):
Great The Texans can't. They are too talented in my opinion,
at every other spot other than the only place that
kills your whole team. To look at it that way,
there's no reason for any team Detroit is not going
undefeated this year. They obviously already lost. They're in a
run of games where it definitely looks like they are

(01:38:37):
an unbeatable, unstoppable force. But why can't the Texans put
points on the board on their home field, Well, mainly
because their offensive line isn't stopping anything. Why can't their defense.
Like the timing of all this, if it was Sunday
to Sunday, it'd be awful. They actually have a few
extra days. One thing that's going to make me feel
differently is when I see who they acquired at the

(01:38:57):
trade deadline before they hit the practice field on and
they will not. They will trade for somebody on the
trade deadline or before the trade deadline.

Speaker 2 (01:39:07):
An offensive lineman.

Speaker 3 (01:39:08):
I think very very likely that they will the same
five offensive linemen that finished the game on well last night.
No way they take every rep in the game on
Sunday against the Lions. They would have to play so well.
But what they should have done weeks ago is do

(01:39:30):
what they did with Dwayne Brown and many others in
many other situations across the league. Okay, this guy's not
getting the job done. We're so afraid of pulling him. Okay,
then take him off the field for a couple of series,
split the reps. Your continuity is already in such a
back you're not gonna be you. They have gotten to
such a low level of execution. Bringing somebody new in,

(01:39:52):
especially somebody on your own team, is not going to
upset that. I would take it as far as trade
for a player that's taken twenty snaps for the Browns
this year as a backup. It's played in this league,
but it's currently not a starter. He's watching the Browns
play every week. He's watching his Cardinals teammates play every week,
whatever team he's from. I'm completely unconcerned with him getting

(01:40:14):
up to speed and being on the field for you.
After a couple of days of practice and a couple
of extra sessions with the new offensive line coach, if
you might consider that you've got that happening too. You're
just I can't believe it's gotten to this point. And
it really wasn't at this point four weeks ago. Four
weeks ago, it was bad. Four weeks ago, they should

(01:40:34):
have said, oh, we need to play Kendrick Green, we
need to play Jarrett Patterson, we need to consider putting
Blake Fisher out there and sliding Titus Howard. And I'm
aware Blake Fisher has gotten a bunch of reps this
year that were not ideal. The Jacksonville game had a
lot of people wondering, I hope he's a lot better
next year, because that was a tough assignment for him
against Josh Heinz. Allen and I agree. You can't just

(01:40:55):
keep trotting out the same thing, or you can't keep
trotting out the same play calls. You've got to do
something else or else. The same thing is going to
happen over and over again, and for three straight weeks
it has. For three straight weeks, the other teams have said,
we'll run a couple of stunts. We'll just assume that
our talent is going to be better than their talent
on the other plays. They're just gonna run these guys over.
And that's exactly what they've done. The problems that are

(01:41:17):
gonna get fixed in the offseason can't get fixed here.
I'm not even trying to find them a long term
solution in season. I realize how unbelievably that difficult that
would be. You'd have to have a team playing such
bad football, or a player so disgruntled that he's forcing
his way out and that he's been on the field
but teams will trade pretty much anybody other than offensive linemen,

(01:41:40):
like these bad football teams. They're bad, okay, so most
of their players are available. Well if they're still protecting
a commodity like the Patriots arent gonna win a lot
of football games, but they're gonna want to protect Drake May.
Panthers aren't gonna win a lot of football games, so
they're probably gonna want to protect their number one overall
pick now that he's back out there. You can pluck
almost anybody else off either of their rosters, but those

(01:42:02):
aren't the huge positions of need for the Texans. Wide receivers.
They're available. If Texans want one, they can get one.
They're probably getting one who wears number twelve anyway, And
I think the Texans offense should find should be able
to find a way to have Joe Mix and continue
running for successful yardage total, whatever that might be in any
given week, and Nico Collins, Tank Dell Dalton, Schultz, Cade

(01:42:25):
Stover and the rest of their wide receivers should be
able to move the football against the Detroit Lions. It's
just they cannot be this bad.

Speaker 2 (01:42:34):
I'm trying to figure out if it if it's just
one trade at that position for example, like cause to me,
it sounds like you're saying and others would be saying, well,
they're making this trade because their starter got hurt, when
in actuality he wasn't good even if he wasn't hurt.

Speaker 3 (01:42:51):
Yeah, I'm not saying if that was sounded like that. No,
I'm definitely not saying that. Well, I mean, you can't
agree by the way we've talked about him, never really
truly mentioned Aaron Wilson's report that it's a dislocated shoulder
and his season is likely over.

Speaker 2 (01:43:03):
Yeah, for obvious reasons, considering the injury and what he's
expected to do. But I mean, unless you're making you're
basically guaranteeing they make a trade. And I agree, what
other position? I mean, I guess there's someone else out
there at another position that could improve one of those positions,
But this one just seems like it's such a glaring

(01:43:24):
weakness right now because presumably if he was the starter
then and he's that bad, then whoever's behind him is
not going to be a great option if you're going
up against Detroit and anyone else the rest of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:43:37):
Thus, you make a trade. But again, I don't care
how bad they are behind them. You're watching a poor performance.
There's zero accountability for it. If he keeps playing, which
he started every game this year. I don't I didn't
understand it for the last several weeks. We're pretending like
it just started these three games.

Speaker 2 (01:43:56):
Well, he got benched for that one little spot during
that one game.

Speaker 3 (01:43:59):
Eight in Week eight, right like their offensive line has
gotten worse as the season has progressed. Their performances as
a unit have gotten significantly worse. You drop back thirty times,
you're seeing eighteen pressures. That's virtually impossible to say. Look,
how well you have to play. He's got a complete
pass as while he's under pressure, which all quarterbacks do,

(01:44:22):
but not usually at a super high percentage. And he's
got to be almost perfect on the others. There were
some hand there were clean pockets at times last night,
and some throws were missed, some throws were made. That's
what you want. How about I have a clean pocket
on eighty percent of your dropbacks. You don't have to
hit one hundred percent of those plays now because you
had so many of them. He has so few. It's

(01:44:44):
all while Joe Mixon is killing it right.

Speaker 2 (01:44:46):
That is the probably on top of everything else, because
it's the obvious part where you know CJ is not
given the proper amount of time to do his job
and yet and I think it's kind of what Chris
had to say Gordy when he was in here. He's
just after that initial push, he's just finding ways to
make it look really, really easy, even though we all

(01:45:06):
know it's not.

Speaker 4 (01:45:09):
The eighteen.

Speaker 7 (01:45:10):
On Sports Talk seven ninety, No need for a roadmap
when all roads lead to that sweet iHeart Radio app,
Astros and Rockets games plus legendary Houston Sports Talk seven
ninety on any device with a free iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (01:45:29):
Now that's the art of living.

Speaker 3 (01:45:35):
Halfway home on I Remember three of the eighteen in
case you missed it Here at five thirty in case
you missed it. The Texans didn't win last night. They
fell twenty one to thirteen, a interception free game from CJ. Stroud,
though he did turn the ball over early. Yep, Texans
were able to get one back when Malachi Corley fumbled
the ball untouched out of and through the end zone.

(01:45:59):
One of those plays, yes, and numerous others that they
could have taken bigger advantage of but did not. They
fall into six and three. It was under pressure. They're
out the entire night, and they've got a couple of
extra days this week to prepare for their second primetime
game in a row and third this season. They will
host the a NFC Best Detroit Lions November tenth over

(01:46:20):
at NRG Stadium. Will be a big day for Detroit
and Houston, if I'm not mistaken. The Rockets have an
early tip with the Pistons that afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
Maxed out Cad Cunningham. Maybe he'll play.

Speaker 3 (01:46:34):
He actually is having a pretty good individual season as
howards the records.

Speaker 2 (01:46:38):
How is it dreadful?

Speaker 3 (01:46:39):
It is dreadful. Okay, this is in case you missed it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:42):
What else do we have?

Speaker 6 (01:46:43):
Dan?

Speaker 10 (01:46:43):
I actually was thinking that we probably should just devote
the entire segment to Al Michaels gracing the audience last
night about his chest hair.

Speaker 3 (01:46:52):
I was lucky enough to be doing a Rockets broadcast
last night, so I was aware of what was happening
in the game, and it was one. It was volume less,
so I heard none of al Michael's commentary, and even
though I've rewatched the game twice, I still managed with
the use of rewinding. In fact that well, so last
night was a streamed game, although locally it's obviously offered

(01:47:16):
by whichever station decides to purchase it or make that happen.
That was Fox, So I already had set it up
to record on NFL Network, which was airing it immediately
after it concluded, same game, no matter what. So yeah,
when I got home, I flipped it on, watched it then,
and then this morning, as I was preparing for an
appearance on a television program you won't see until Sunday

(01:47:38):
night after Sunday Night Football, I wanted to watch a
little bit more so I would have some really really
smart things to say, which all proved to be accurate.

Speaker 10 (01:47:47):
What else do we have noted Glutton for punishment Adam Wesler.
All right, So Jim Bowden putting out his twenty five
predictions for the off season in Major League Baseball. At
number five, he gets to the Astros. The Astros signed
center fielder Cody Bellinger after he opts out of his
contract with the Cubs four years, one hundred and twelve
million dollars. Now here's the part that I think Astro

(01:48:08):
fans would Love Houston resigns Alex Bregman seven years to
the tune of one hundred and eighty five and a
half million dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:48:17):
Yeah, this is an Unfortunately, if you really really wanted
to your other in case you missed it, to hit
our listener's ears, they're not going to because we're all
on this article, the entire segment. I'm not sure why
in his twenty five predictions article if he's going to
list this as number five, if it's in some sort
of order, though it's kind of random. The more important
note was second. The less important note was first. Great

(01:48:42):
Cody Bellinger an outfield of Bellinger, Tucker, and Alvarez on occasion.
That's awesome. Cody Bellinger might be kind of a four
to twenty type of guy, but that's okay. I think
so if the astros can handle it. He's not Trevor Bauer.
I'm not trying to say anybody's fine. They're in our uniform.

(01:49:05):
Like we always have discussions about when somebody puts on
the pinstripes or Dodgers blue and they've been booing them
for years. Oh it's fine, now you're with us. Cody Bellinger,
I would prefer somebody else. But I can handle that.
But Bregman seven years, one eighty five. I was actually
asked that very question today by somebody. What do you
think the offer is that he takes.

Speaker 2 (01:49:25):
That's a little over twenty six a year.

Speaker 3 (01:49:27):
Yep, So twenty five million is right there at one
seventy five six years at one fifty is Matt Chapman.

Speaker 2 (01:49:34):
An article excerpt where you're giving Cody Bellinger two more
million per year on his deal? That's fake, that's shorter.

Speaker 3 (01:49:43):
Yeah, but and in baseball it really truly to both
the play and eighteen. Well it's no, it's the opposite, no,
I know, but it's that for the agent, but the
player wants to guaranteed money. Bregman is walking out the
door after he signs his contract with one hundred and
eighty five million. Cody Bellinger's walking out the door with
one twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:50:00):
Now I get that.

Speaker 3 (01:50:03):
Probably going to be able to make more money later
in his career, so those numbers will equalize a little bit.
This is just do you think it's a believable number? So? Well,
the reason why I asked, because I'll tell you what
my answer was, in that.

Speaker 2 (01:50:16):
The Astros would pay it or believable and that he
would say.

Speaker 3 (01:50:19):
Out of it. Do you think that is a believable
end contract? The contract he agrees to with whomever? Is it?
Seven years, one hundred and eighty five and a half million?

Speaker 2 (01:50:28):
I think it's low.

Speaker 3 (01:50:29):
You think that an offer of a greater value for
comparable years or greater AAV is out there for him
that he'd prefer over this.

Speaker 2 (01:50:37):
I'll get I think there's at least one team that
could top this. Therefore, yes, I think it's pretty close.
It would not shock me.

Speaker 3 (01:50:44):
Seems a little low, but we'll find out once the
door opens what free agency is really like and how
much money is left to spend by these teams that
did pursue and fail getting one Soto if they view
anybody else on the market at such a high level.
I don't think there's anybody, you know, does Willia Doomas
get in this ballpark that Bellinger's in? Is Bellinger's contract

(01:51:05):
one that affects how much Bregman gets seven years, one
eighty five. I actually to bring it to the Astros.
I think they would do a deal like that for
Alex Bregman. Don't you No, you think it's too much.

Speaker 2 (01:51:15):
I think it's too many years. It's Jim Crane. He
just says, for whatever reason, I don't do more than six, Okay,
well then do six and make the money up, like
make this happen. If you don't re sign Alex Bregman,
you're not going to convince me that you're serious about
winning unless you make a better acquisition that offsets it.

(01:51:38):
And I don't know how you can do that unless
it's another third baseman, because third basement is then going
to be awful.

Speaker 3 (01:51:44):
So six years one and as.

Speaker 2 (01:51:45):
Much fun as the other corner infielder spot being awful
was in twenty twenty four, I don't want to do
that again.

Speaker 3 (01:51:51):
So we'll continue talking about that these next couple of days.
But as I said, I wanted to kind of run
through Astros related items in his twenty five things to
look ahead to whether it's a strictly the Astros are
something that's impactful to the Astros. Anthony Santander is another
name we continue to.

Speaker 2 (01:52:10):
Am obsessed with him coming to the Astros. I can't
even help it.

Speaker 3 (01:52:13):
Six years, one hundred and forty two million is what
he signs for, and he goes to cross the way
I don't know my directions in the DC area. He
goes from the Orioles to the Nationals. Six years, one
forty two. Uh, you say, Kakuchi has a new home.
It's in Boston. Three years, forty two million, fourteen million
a year. Seems like something the Astros could consider, right, Yeah,

(01:52:37):
fourteen ish million a year. The Rangers will still have
their superstar ace, right handed pitcher that everybody in this
room loves.

Speaker 2 (01:52:45):
He's a bum.

Speaker 3 (01:52:46):
Native Aldi signs a two year, forty two million dollar
deal to remain a Ranger.

Speaker 2 (01:52:50):
Now, I was proven right their whole season.

Speaker 3 (01:52:53):
Vet Chuck Morton calls it a career. Charles retires after
seventeen seasons. The Mariners solve their first base problem by
signing Christian Walker.

Speaker 2 (01:53:06):
That hurts, because that's somebody that i'd like here.

Speaker 3 (01:53:09):
Three years, seventy two million dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:53:12):
Okay, here's the deal. If you're not signing Alex Bregman,
what are you doing, because now you have two corner
infield spots that are just atrocious.

Speaker 3 (01:53:23):
Right now you're signing au Hannio Suarez.

Speaker 2 (01:53:26):
That makes me want to throw up in my mouth.

Speaker 3 (01:53:29):
He was better this year than he was last year.
With the Mariners that we're familiar, much more familiar with him.

Speaker 2 (01:53:34):
That's like saying I only broke my arm instead of ageting.

Speaker 3 (01:53:38):
I mean, you're I'm not going to just completely dismiss
a thirty home one hundred rbi guy, which is what
he did this year.

Speaker 2 (01:53:42):
I will he does strike out a lot Suarez. I'm
just not a huge fan. But again, I.

Speaker 3 (01:53:48):
Like one last thing. Yeah, Billy Wagner elected to the
Hall of Fame in his tenth and final year.

Speaker 2 (01:53:54):
That's happening. Or I'm going up to Cooper's town myself
and dragging him into the Hall because he deserves to
be there, especially with some of the bums they've put
in that he hasn't gotten in before yet. But we
will wrap things up on the day and the week
when we come back.

Speaker 4 (01:54:11):

Speaker 1 (01:54:15):
The Unauthorized Houston Sports Shakedown continues.

Speaker 7 (01:54:18):
Because every time you say something that's not true, you're
gonna get hit.

Speaker 1 (01:54:22):
We now returned to Adam Clinton and Adam wexlerth.

Speaker 7 (01:54:26):
To the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:54:33):
D D D in a.

Speaker 3 (01:54:35):
Minute to gather yourself, to prepare yourself to give away
one last set of Jailly Roll tickets.

Speaker 2 (01:54:42):
I mean, you've got You've given away most of them
this week.

Speaker 3 (01:54:45):
I'll let you have this one while I remind our
listeners you asked about it earlier and I didn't have
the information. It could always change when we get to
the game tomorrow night over at Toyota Center. But currently
Steph Curry is listed as out.

Speaker 2 (01:54:58):
Good. No one's gonna get a disgusting used mouthpiece thrown
at them if he doesn't like a foul call against him.

Speaker 3 (01:55:07):
Warriors as a team are second, defensive rating, fourth and
offensive rating, thus first in net rating.

Speaker 2 (01:55:14):
You know what I don't like about this week's schedule?
Nothing every other day, not playing there anymore. I still
had to see Klay Thompson's stupid face in the same
week I saw the rest of the Warriors.

Speaker 3 (01:55:24):
Not that we need to go round and round about
the Rockets and MAVs. It did not feel like Klay
Thompson was two of nine from three. It felt like
he was much better than that, was making a much
bigger impact in their rockets inability to keep their.

Speaker 2 (01:55:38):
Leading because normally when he plays the Rockets, whatever jersey
he's wearing, he's eleven of six. I mean it's ridiculous. Yeah,
I said what I said of six. That means he
hits eleven even though he only hits six. That's really
really good. It's what he does.

Speaker 3 (01:55:51):
Yeah. The interesting in the three more home games coming up,
Rockets do in the first of those games right here,
Maybe I should look at the schedule on Sports Talk
seven ninety we have no long horns. Cougar's play on
nine to fifty in the afternoon would seem like it
would be here.

Speaker 2 (01:56:09):
Uh, yeah, that sounds right. By the way, are you
going tomorrow night.

Speaker 3 (01:56:13):
To the Rockets game? Yeah, it's possible. I'll be at
the Cougar game first, and that's a two thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:56:19):
Kickoff, so there's plenty of time for you to drive
fifteen minutes if that. Yeah, you could walk. Actually, in
fact you should. Let's see how it works.

Speaker 3 (01:56:28):
I've gone stadium to stadium without a car before, and
I don't intend on doing it with these two. You have, well,
we've talked. We talked about it even this week. You
not that stadium in that stage two are downtown stadiums.

Speaker 2 (01:56:41):
Oh well that's different.

Speaker 5 (01:56:42):
Yeah, the uh Rockets and Warriors seven o'clock tip, Yes,
I'll be there. Good good for you, probably on time,
I hope so.

Speaker 2 (01:56:53):
And everything all right, A pair of tickets to see
Jelly Roll, as you mentioned, live on his Beautifully Broke
tour that's coming up this month. Now it's November, Wax.
I don't know if you saw the calendar flip at midnight,
but November one. Today, it's November one, and the seventeenth
is going to be where this This concert goes down

(01:57:13):
at Toyota Center. Tickets on sale now at Toyota Center
dot com. This is where I make something up on
the fly. I am. I almost I'm almost tempted to
go back to yesterday's candy bar discussion.

Speaker 3 (01:57:29):
What was who you're asking a lot? I don't care
you should why they gonna earn these continue?

Speaker 2 (01:57:36):
What was the underrated candy bar that I always have
a tendency to reach for when I go to chib
and I'm in the express line. I was very very
specific about the fact that that's my routine when I
just got a couple. In fact, I'm gonna do this
tonight on my way home. We've already decided we kind
of have an idea of what we want for dinner.

(01:57:57):
I need to pick up a couple of things at
the grocery store. I'm going to chi be inevitably, because
I'll go to the express line. I will see this
candy bar there, I will pick it up. And to
give you a further hint, since Wex clearly thinks this
is too hard already, I can tell you by the
look on his.

Speaker 3 (01:58:11):
Shoon you need to be satisfied by this question.

Speaker 2 (01:58:13):
I said specifically yesterday that I would describe this candy
bar as being a Snickers without the chocolate. I can't
make this any easier. Seven one, seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:58:26):
Can you do that? Can you peel the way?

Speaker 6 (01:58:28):
Dan?

Speaker 2 (01:58:28):
You know what's one I'm talking about?

Speaker 3 (01:58:29):
Right? He has no idea, even though he listened to
the entire show yesterday intently.

Speaker 2 (01:58:33):
Just in my ear, what you just said is the
correct answer? What did you say?

Speaker 3 (01:58:37):
Nothing?

Speaker 2 (01:58:39):
He listened to the Hey, welcome to the show right exactly,
he was.

Speaker 3 (01:58:42):
He's been here.

Speaker 2 (01:58:44):
This is gonna be a weird way. I always these
weekends are weird when there's been a Thursday night game
and you feel like you're in like purgatory. There's football
everywhere to watch, but you don't feel as committed to it,
like when you turn on that red zone on Sunday,
which I know you will wex, I know you will.
Probably won't be able to this week. I think we're
too far into the season. What do you mean, I

(01:59:04):
would imagine the free previews. Oh my gosh, you don't
pay for it.

Speaker 3 (01:59:08):
I don't know. There's plenty of football for me.

Speaker 2 (01:59:12):
Yeah, but you red zone is an experience.

Speaker 3 (01:59:15):
Well half of the games. I will watch none of
it because I'm at the game.

Speaker 2 (01:59:19):
I know see and you're right. This is why. So
we have this discussion a lot. And I went to
my first Texans game as a member of the media
in sheez It was north of five years. It was
since before Deshaun had been drafted. It was the Cleveland
playoff game. And I was shocked, first of all, at

(01:59:40):
all of the stuff they have in the press box.
Voodoo donuts really and not just like in a box,
like on a display electronic case with lighting and everything.

Speaker 3 (01:59:51):
For those that enjoy them, they're great.

Speaker 2 (01:59:52):
Oh look some fruit loops on a donut. I need that.

Speaker 3 (01:59:56):
They're big too.

Speaker 2 (01:59:57):
Yeah, no, it's but it's just it's very, very hard
to get me out of my little routine and That's
one of the reasons if you are at a game,
you are missing so much football by.

Speaker 3 (02:00:15):
Design, correct, but you're locked in on something else.

Speaker 2 (02:00:19):
Well, you're locked in on the local team. But I
can do that and keeping a better eye on everything
else going on in the early window of games normally,
because the Texans kick off the majority of their games
at noon, when I am not in the press box,
so it's at I want to be there, I really do.

Speaker 3 (02:00:37):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:37):
But also I like my kid. I don't like seeing him.

Speaker 3 (02:00:40):
Yeah, mine is probably like, go ahead, do whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:00:42):
You half of yours are gone out of the house.
I mean better.

Speaker 3 (02:00:46):
Uh, Texans lost a half game on their division lead
with their l last night. I think they will get
it back on Indy because India is at Minnesota better
chance to win than they had had they stuck with
Anthony Richardson currently. In my opinion, I do think it
was the correct move.

Speaker 2 (02:01:02):
Joe Flacco is going to get folded in half like
an accordion.

Speaker 3 (02:01:04):
Yeah, Joe Flacco is not a starter for a reason.

Speaker 2 (02:01:06):
We get it.

Speaker 3 (02:01:08):
He's not elites, he's not great. They're not upgrading tremendously.
He can't throw the football at an NFL level, and
their previous quarterback was proving week after week that he's
not quite there yet.

Speaker 2 (02:01:17):
You'd better get rid of it.

Speaker 3 (02:01:18):
Colts are five point underdogs. That's the Sunday night football game.
The Jaguars are at the Eagles. They are more than
a touchdown underdog, and their season essentially is over. I
think for the playoffs without a win, and I expect
them to get one.

Speaker 2 (02:01:31):
That Colt's Vikings games was flexed into that spot, was
it not? What was the original schedule.

Speaker 3 (02:01:37):
They moved the I believe it was the Bears Cardinals game.

Speaker 2 (02:01:41):
Out of that Sitsu motion.

Speaker 3 (02:01:42):
I agree with that that was correct.

Speaker 2 (02:01:44):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (02:01:47):
As it relates to Houston, Buffalo is now ahead of
the Texans. They're six and two. They stay ahead of
the Texans if they win their home game with the Dolphins.
We talked about that earlier. They're favored by nearly a touchdown.

Speaker 2 (02:02:00):
They'll win.

Speaker 3 (02:02:02):
I think so. I think so.

Speaker 2 (02:02:03):
It hits a lot of scoring, but they'll win.

Speaker 3 (02:02:05):
Pittsburgh is now also slightly ahead of the Texans a
half game. It'll stay that way because they're one of
the two teams that has off this week. The undefeated
Kansas City Chiefs, Chiefs. I know you'll find this hard
to believe America. They are in primetime this week. They're
hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over super underrated Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 2 (02:02:27):
He is underrated and if Chris Jones can't get a
hold of him, he'll probably put up some points in
that game. I'm banking on it since I took.

Speaker 3 (02:02:34):
The over heavily favored Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (02:02:36):
Is this the week where they finally have like a
Chiefs like offensive output, out outburst.

Speaker 3 (02:02:43):
I'm gonna say no, I can't stand.

Speaker 2 (02:02:45):
Him this year as a fantasy owner. I mean, he's fine.

Speaker 3 (02:02:49):
I got you, so enjoy your weekend, everybody. I'll see
those of you that are on your way to the
Cougar game, especially those of you in the Button Light backyard.
We'll see you over there tomorrow for the blackout game
for the Cougars Rockets basket ball tomorrow night right here
on Sports Talk seven ninety for Dan and Ac and
everybody that was with us throughout the week.

Speaker 2 (02:03:07):
Have a good one.

Speaker 4 (02:03:09):

Speaker 2 (02:03:13):
Talk about Mocarum injury law, because if you've been in
a collision, you don't want to mess around with some
second rate team. You want the winning team. It's going
to get you everything you have coming your way as
far as compensation, so you can focus on healing. If
you've been in a collision, if you've been in a
drunk driving collision, if you've been in any kind of collision,

(02:03:34):
you got to call two eight one two two two
twenty two to twenty two anytime twenty four to seven.
They'll meet you at their office, at your home, or
even at your bedside in the hospital and molcarum injury Law.
As I mentioned, they're gonna get you that compensation because
they know what they do. They're doing they've been giving
and treating people with personalized service for over twenty five years.

(02:03:54):
The experience you can trust at two eight one two
two two twenty two to twenty two for more car
injury Law

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Dateline NBC

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Texans Flop In Jersey, Gordy In-Studio and Stone Cold Locks

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Dateline NBC

Crime Junkie

All Episodes

Texans Flop In Jersey, Gordy In-Studio and Stone Cold Locks

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang