Texans-Patriots Preview, Rockets-Thunder, Mike Vrabel Knows the Deal

Thursday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton preview Texans-Patriots, look ahead to Rockets-Thunder, react to Mike Vrabel's comments about the Texans defense, and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have a coworker that I would loosely refer to
as a total diva is basically shooting his own television
show right now.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's a good tease if you like the people.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Friends over at Space City Home Network are good friends
over at the Houston Rockets where Matt Thomas the voice.
You just heard the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. He's
the play by play voice for your Houston Rockets. He
will be featured in the upcoming days don't know. I
don't have an air date for it yet, but they're
gathering materials to put it together as we speak. So
he still needed use of his old studio. It was

(00:33):
his studio until two o'clock. It's our studio now and
he has exited.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
He's a week in four hours. He'd have gotten everything
done by now. But here we are. We love the guy, yeah,
we do. We love Matt all right, Thursday one step
closer to Sunday. That's all we care about right now.
I know the thunderer in town. I know the Rockets
are looking to make it eight straight home wins. Like
quietly in the middle of all this, they have this
home winning streak because it's been like stretched out over

(01:01):
two months seems like. But yeah, it's a big deal
that the defending NBA champs are in town and the
Rockets will be taking them on, especially in light of
what happened on Opening night. You had, I mean just
an absolute title fight. Looked like two heavyweights going at it,
and it goes to overtime, and you're feeling good because
your guys scoring thirty nine and they are guys only

(01:22):
scoring thirty five, So that should be the game, right, No,
Shaye Gilgess Alexander had thirty five points that night, had.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Thirteen, almost as many as Olpi.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
I know, but his team got the victory, So Rockets
have a little payback there. I don't like the fact
that Tari Easton will not be available in all likelihood
to defend said Thunder. I think he's a vital part
of what the Tech or the Rockets would able to
be able to do in a win over the defending champs.
But as they were talking about on the show preceding US,

(01:54):
you just go. You gotta win games sometimes without people
in your lineup. The the Timberwolves did it the other
night with Anthony Edwards.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
They'll play the Thunder with the good Jalen Williams for
the first time.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
That's not true. A lot of team early this year.
How many games did he end up missing? It was
a lot, I don't know. Well, what's crazy is that
he was chet Holgren. Last year, Cheded Holgren was the
one missing all the games and they kept winning.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
So yeah, they're really good, They're really deep.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
I hope the the second apron of the luxury tax
absolutely metaphorically burns that organization to the ground. That'd be great,
But in the meantime you're stuck with them, and the
Rocket's gonna have to do their best tonight to find
a way to beat a juggernaut. In the meantime, we've
got a lot of Texans to get to. A lot
of meat still on the bone from yesterday, including the

(02:44):
fact Mike Vrabel knows he's going to play the best
defense in the NFL, and if you were wondering about that,
you'll hear him say as such. But look, this is
going to come down to, in my opinion, whether or
not the Texans defense. Yes, the defense who there's basically
no question marks about. It's gonna come down to whether

(03:07):
or not they do what they do best.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I know that the Texans offense has questions.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
I know everybody's wanting to see a better performance, or
some would say a bounce back performance from CJ. Stroud,
and everybody upon everybody is talking about how Drake May
is just the best thing since sliced bread.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I'm telling you.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Right in with the everybody's everybody everybody now, I'm gonna
hit post now.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay? Including Vegas, I'm gonna do it. Okay? Post? Is
that the show tweet that I haven't done yet? No?

Speaker 3 (03:38):
No, It is a very very lengthy informational tweet about
Drake May with some probable leans here and there to it,
So I'm sure it'll get met with some resistance by
some of the people who think differently about Drake May.
I lined up Drake May's games based on Passer Rating.
He's played eighteen games now and there's a really clear

(03:58):
picture of what type of perfemances there were against the
lesser quality teams and the higher quality team. So in
light of that, just peruse it at your leisure, everybody
out there on social media, right there on the X platform.
You know, his best games not by happenstance, but by
actuality in facts came against only teams with losing records

(04:18):
eleven of them, eleven of the eighteen. His numbers against
non playoff teams versus his numbers against playoff teams. And again,
they have certain teams that they play here and there.
I said this yesterday, I'll say it today. We'll be
on the air again tomorrow, and I'll say it then too.
It doesn't mean he's not awesome. I really truly believe

(04:40):
he is. I actually thought that last year. I thought
it after that he had his first start. I thought
it after he won only three of his starts with
the Patriots last year. I think this is an outstanding quarterback.
I think he belongs among the elite. I think he
needs to prove that in playoff games. He's only had one.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
He played.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Okay, I generated better than three hundred yards of offense
because he also runs the ball. But all these things
are in place, but the facts are what they are.
Didn't have to prove it against elite competition this year,
while still winning. They won all but three games. He
was great. They played very few teams that should compete
with the best teams in the NFL. The Patriots are
one of them. Patriots are one of the best teams

(05:18):
in the NFL. There's really no way you can argue
against it, because you measured teams by whether they win
or lose. You measure teams why whether they're still in
the playoffs or not. There's only four teams left in
the AFC, and they're one of the three teams that
had to win to get there, just like Houston. So
I think it'd be silly to try to paint them
as not one of the NFL's best teams because they are.

(05:39):
And now the Texans have an opportunity to say they
are very good, and they're not good enough to beat us.
They're not good enough to stand in the way of
something we've never done before, which is advanced past the
divisional round. And it's why Will Anderson said it when
I talked to him at the end of the season.
It's why we've said it throughout this season. It's why
we've heard it from other players throughout this postseason and
even before that.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
The Texans just aren't the same.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
I wish that their offense was so much more consistent
that we wouldn't even consider the possibility that they could
lose to the Patriots. Because a more consistent offense. An
offense you k knowe, oh, they're probably good for two
touchdowns a good day means they're probably good for twenty
four to twenty seven thirty points. You know, you don't
have to score thirty points every night, every game, but

(06:23):
if you're constantly putting pressure on the other team because
you're scoring. And they had about twenty fewer touchdowns offensively
than the Patriots did, they also had about a billion
more points than them via field goals, and they all
count the same when you add them up their points,
this team would be much more likely to They'd probably
be favored.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I'd just be honest with you.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
If the Texans had more consistency on offense throughout the year,
if they ran the ball better more often than just
in their most recent game, if their most recent game
wasn't a oh my god, I can't believe they made
another mistake and almost turned it over again, and they
already turned it over three times in that game. I
don't know what the final score would have been against
Pittsburgh if they had not made those mistakes, but I

(07:04):
know that they'd be viewed maybe a little bit differently.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
What to six oh, you're talking about offense making mistake.
I thought you were.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Said, I mean, they threw an interception in the red zone.
I'm pretty sure they were now on third down at
the very least, that's a field goal now. And you
know all the other times they gave the ball to
the other team or you know, they weren't mistakes that
were created by the Steelers or the opponent for that matter.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
They were mistakes.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
Yes, absolutely so, I do think that that's really all
this game comes down to. I really won't change my
tune on who the Texans are, and I think to
say so much, but the worst team in the AFC
playoffs is the team the Texans got. It's why everybody
should have been saying, yes, of course they want the Steelers.
Because of course they wanted the Steelers. They weren't going
to lose if they didn't turn the ball over, and

(07:47):
they did turn the ball over and still won by
twenty four points. I think it's it's maybe a little foolish,
but I don't mind saying it. I again will say,
if they don't turn the ball over against the Patriots,
then they're playing in the AFC title game.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
What if they turn over once makes it more difficult.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Okay, Like that's kind of the happy medium between what
happened on Monday night and what you would like to
see happen. I mean, it is a road playoff game.
And oh, by the way, and we'll get to this
next segment. That's all they do this year is win
road playoff games. That's all they've had this year. We'll
get to this next segment. I'm not saying it's gonna
be the Tuck Rull Game two point zero, but the

(08:24):
weather conditions are increased.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Somebody in this studio wants to begin with the scare tactics.
Somebody wants to put the fear of the weather in
everybody's heads. Texans players, coaches, members of the traveling party.
Fans are going to the game, Fans are going to
watch parties. Fans are gonna watch it at the house.
Fans are gonna just sit back and wait and see

(08:47):
what's happened. And everybody on social media. Somebody is ready
to scare everybody away from even the possibility that this
warm weather, climate controlled, roof covered stadium playing football team
can possibly imagine a scenario where they can play any
kind of decent football in these dreadful weather conditions, I'll

(09:08):
ask you some thanks. We're gonna see Sunday afternoon at
two o'clock in New England.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
I'll ask you some somebody. I'm not saying who it is.
I will ask you a simple question.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
If that's the case, if that weather gets to be
I'm not even saying it's gonna be like it was
between the Raiders and the Patriots way back in two
thousand and one or whatever that was. But if it
is any semblance of that, or like maybe a scaled
back version of that, who does that benefit more the
Texans defense or this all world offense we keep hearing

(09:40):
about from Drake May who beats all these juggernaut after
juggernaut after juggernaut. Oh my gosh, he's amazing. Look at
this kid in only his second year. He is the
next Tom Brady. Who's a benefit more which unit?

Speaker 3 (09:51):
That is a perfect question to send us into the
rest of the show. You guys weigh in, I will
weigh in. We also need somebody to weigh on it.
And if they think this is in reality, I know
it's Thursday, so you maybe want to pay a little
attention to the weather report. But we'll see what it
really turns out to be. We'll give you what they
think it might be when we come back. We give
you our thoughts on what kind of scenario it could

(10:13):
play into for how the Texans might want to attack
things offensively. Same thing for Drake May and their offense,
what they might do if those conditions are a factor.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
But that's just one of the things we'll talk about.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Was over at practice today a couple hours out from
seeing the injury report, and it's of great significance for
both teams as it relates to concussions. Unfortunately, I think
the news for one of the teams isn't good. I
think the news for the other team is very good,
and obviously the individuals involved. When it's concussions that we're
talking about, it's really good news for one of them,
and again no news for the others. We'll share what

(10:45):
I saw over at practice today, get into some comments
from the head coaches of both of these two teams
set up for this matchups, some other particulars. Obviously more
on the Rockets and the thunder coming up tonight earlier
than usual over at Toyota Center.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
We'll have coverage that for you.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Of course, right here on your home for Rockets Basketball
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
We will talk weather in a second, but I'm far
more intrigued with what wex T is going into the
break because he was there. We have this running joke
in my family, my immediate family, when Brooklyn was a
lot younger, and I had to work a lot of times,
maybe Rockets games like we do now or something like that,
and something would happen that I would miss out on,

(11:29):
and I hate missing.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Out on family stuff, as you know. And it's the same,
I mean.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Very easy sentiment to understand for listeners out there. You
got kids, you want to be there for as much
things as you can. And it became this joke, which
of course is hilarious to Teresa and Brooklyn and now Carson,
but not funny to me at all. She would just go,
you weren't there, you know, almost taunting me, even though
she's not upset at me. And I didn't do anything wrong,
but you know, just you feel guilty already, and now

(11:55):
you've got to well, Carson's starting to do it now.
So I say all that you were there at practice
today and I wasn't very very different situation. I think
they're too hurt about that.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
You don't think that Texans organization is disappointed in me.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
I don't think any of the players or anybody else
would be disappointed if they were to.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Learn that either you or I was not there at practice, Tam,
I think they know who either of us are. They
know who you are.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yes, they did, but it wasn't any different than yesterday.
And that's not good news for two players, Justin Watson
and Nico Collins. Again unofficially because I'm not there for
the entirety of practice. No member of the media is.
They were not a parent, did not view them during
the media open portion of practice. Likely means they did
not practice at all today, which was the case yesterday.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
They're both in concussion protocol.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Players have to go through essentially a five phase process
of clearing the concussion protocol. In one of these stages
to be passed, and something that has to happen is
getting through two practices. There are not two more practices
remaining for the Texans between now and game day. I
don't know if there are some bosness elements to those rules.

(13:03):
There's no scheduled team practice for again, Today's is a practice.
They have one more practice schedule. Well, they could practice
twice on Friday, I guess for the first time ever
under Demiko Ryans. They could practice on Saturday before they
board their flight. They could practice in the ballroom Saturday
night and call it a practice. Again, I don't know

(13:23):
if there really are these opportunities. And again, much more importantly,
there's probably a reason why the player is not practicing
because they haven't reached the stages where the parts of
the protocol have been cleared enough to get them onto
the practice field, or else they'd be in the same situation,
the better situation health wise mentally that Christian Gonzales is
in for the New England Patriots. He's participating in his

(13:45):
second practice today following his concussion over the weekend, and
was no longer in a red no contact jersey, which
is what the Patriots players do when their players are
in concussion protocol, and that is meaning he is headed
towards not being listed, maybe even as anything, but certainly
headed towards playing on Sunday afternoon against the Texans. The
two other players that did not practice yesterday, Denico Autrey

(14:09):
and Trent Brown, did not see either one of them
at practice today. But as I tried to not alarm
you yesterday, I'll do the same again today. It's not
been too different on their schedules the last several weeks.
Almost every week since Trent Brown returned to playing at all,
he has missed a practice. Usually it's the Wednesday practice.
Oftentimes he's returned for Thursday or Friday's practice, or at

(14:30):
the end of the day he has played in the game.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Obviously, he missed the.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Very end of the season with that new injury when
we had ankle and knee injuries, only one of them
there now. And Denko Autrey similarly, I couldn't tell you
the last time he practiced on Wednesday. He has practiced
some Thursdays. I do think he'll be available to play,
but did not practice today. I don't think there are
any other concerns for the Texans. Second day on the

(14:55):
practice field for Jawar Jordan this week. He missed last
week's opening playoff game with the ankle injury he suffered
in the game against Indianapolis. But considering he is practicing,
and I would think even if he's not a factor
anywhere else, probably not a consideration as a return man,
even though he is on their depth chart he is

(15:16):
a running back only. I do think there'd be a
pretty good chance they would want him active if he
is healthy. They only had two running backs in the
backfield the entire game against the Steelers, Darian Gooble. While
I did not take a single snap on offense in
the game, he obviously played his usual role on special teams,
and British Brooks also did not play offensively for the Texans.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
That's more normal.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
But with all three of Chubb and Marx and Jordan available,
I would think there'd be a pretty good chance they
would want all three of them available if healthy, and
thus all active. So there's a few questions about what
exactly the active roster might look like.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Those are the injury concerns.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Again, what I saw at practice in unfortunately, as per usual,
is not gonna shed all a lot of light on
on what you might see out there. Frank Ross is
still throwing bebes to the wide receivers. The eight of
them that were still on the field, three on the
practice squad and three on the active roster, and that's
pretty much it. And then they get ready and they
have one more lighter practice this one most Thursdays. They

(16:16):
will practice with officials out there with them and they
will do that.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Did do that again today.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Here from the Special Teams Coordinator DC and OC today.
And one thing of note from Frank Ross when he
met with the media just a little while ago, because
we don't talk about it a whole lot because the
Texans have been so solid without being maybe super spectacular,
like Jalen Noel had a phenomenal season returning punts and kicks.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
In my opinion this year, he.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Wasn't the exclusive returner all year, but he has become
that over the course of the year, and I thought
he was phenomenal. And Frank Ross said that Marcus Jones,
the returner for the Patriots, he said he thinks he's
the best return man in the league. And I agree,
And it is a concern. It should be a concern
for every team that plays them. I think everybody here

(17:02):
knows all about it, especially koog fans who watched him
do that at the University of Houston. There were games
and seasons that he played where you know, I even
remember being in the stands. I think it was the
SMU game. I'm like, what are they doing? Do you
not know who this is? Why are you kicking the
ball to him? And this is when we were in
the bud Light party deck. So he's receiving the kick
right there in front of us, you know, thirty yards

(17:22):
in front of and off he goes splits this. This
guy runs through this hole and he's off into the
end zone. And now he's been doing the same thing
for the Patriots. He's been huge for them over the years.
You'd like to think that's not an additional area of concern,
at least knowing that the Texans are very very aware
of it.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
They're always prepared. Hopefully it won't be.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
All of that being said, and especially the last part
you just mentioned about the return game lends itself to
the question I asked before the break though, who does
this benefit more? If indeed, and again I don't think
it's going to be a winter blizzard, but I don't know.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well, this is what they're saying. I'm saying they're expecting
significant snow activity, but they're just not sure on the
timing of it. Today's Thursday, and the expectation is they
will be covered in snow when they get ready to
not call off school. Monday morning because they're used to
it and this is what they do, and cities that
have snow know how to handle it, and yet they're

(18:20):
gonna be I don't know if blizzard conditions are the
right thing to say Monday, but covered in snow sounds
like what they are expecting. The question is is it
because it came overnight, is because it started at eight?
Is it because it started at six? Is it because
it started at twelve thirty Sunday afternoon. That's the unknown
really at this point, and I think most it sounds
like many weather predictors, forecasters, meteorologists, you choose the words,

(18:45):
are expecting snow in heavy doses, but not until after
the game.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
It's Thursday. They don't know that for a fact, and
it could come down during the game. But to me,
I would think that the best case scenario would be
that even if it's even if you're dealing with it
during the game, it's starting to accumulate. Not this has
been on the ground, It's going to be a pile
of you know what, to have to run through, tackle through,

(19:11):
all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
So, like I said, what do you think benefits more?

Speaker 3 (19:15):
I don't think it benefit I mean, it's the lamest
answer ever. I don't know why it would benefit a
young quarterback like Drake May, who pretty much hasn't played
in it as a Patriot or as an NFL player
in any game that matters. If he played in it
last year, and I don't know what conditions we want
to say, like it didn't matter. I mean, he was
learning the ropes and they were awful. Everything is on
the line here, and the same for CJ. Stroud to
a certain extent, They've played when it's cold, They've played

(19:37):
in games where there was snow. But if you're actually
trying to say it's a covered in snow game and
very windy and everything is affected by it, and the
likelihood of it being a low scoring game just went
through the roof, no roof, I don't know that it
benefits either one of them. You think defenses play through it,
for sure, and the Texans have a little bit better defense,
so maybe it's a small advantage in that regard, But

(19:58):
is it less of an advantage when the other I
just don't think it will impact how the game is played.
I don't think it favors one team or the other.
This is a cold weather team they play in New England.
But is this If this was at the tail end
of the Brady era, Patriots they playing it all the
time because they were playing in January games every single season,

(20:19):
which were the likelier games to have it. Clearly they
were playing in important December games every year too, to
try to see by how many games they would win
the AFC East and how early they could clinch the
number one seed and things like that. But this team's new,
this team's young. He's gonna get Drake Mays in his
second year. He's gonna be handing off to Traveon Henderson

(20:39):
who's barely been there. Hunter Henry's not a lifer there,
most of their line. It's just not like that. So
I just don't think it has much of anything to
do with it, unless you just want to take the
simple route. Well, Texans never play in it. This group
of Texans, which is basically a three year old team,
like dan Orlowski told everybody yesterday. So that's who we're
looking at. And that's fair too. If you think it's

(21:02):
a big deal, I mean, the weather conditions in Sundays
or Monday's game against Pittsburgh pretty mild.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
It was cold, But did it have an impact?

Speaker 3 (21:12):
And I don't think we know definitively because I don't
think he publicly acknowledged it one way or the other.
Did he drop the ball more often because he of
the weather, because of his inability to feel the ball
the way he normally wants to. There weren't gloves on
his hands. He doesn't throw the passes with gloves. So
some quarterbacks can can kind of just say, well, this
is what I do, so I'll figure out a way
to do it in cold weather. But I mean, the

(21:32):
temperature we know, I think we know, not knowing how
much snow will be there, the temperature is going to
be lower than it was for this past game. I
didn't think the weather had anything to do with the
way the game was played, but I can't deny it
might have had something to do with his ball handling abilities,
which we never talk about.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Literally the entire.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
Season of not having any issues with it, and then
they played in a colder game, more important game on
the road, he dropped the ball a few too many times.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah, And even if it did affect him in that game,
he's never gonna let on publicly.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Well, I mean, why would he Yeah, I like to
play without gloves and cold weather. I'll probably do it
again this weekend and if it's still a problem then
then maybe we'll address it. But yeah, I had a
hard time feeling the leather on the football.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Did you hear that? In New England?

Speaker 3 (22:14):
I'm telling you I won't be able to hold onto
the football again this week. It was a huge, huge
problem for me. Next question, right, you don't think you'd
answered it like that.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
I don't think any quarterback that has a functioning brain,
and even some that don't.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Even with the media people there, you probably some of
those just gotta go. He's got a lift, got.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
He's got a session, he's got a no no, ESPN's
got a one on one set up with him there
in the next room. Laura Rutledge, Oh you need him
right now. Okay, sorry, guys, Q and A is over.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
I did like that. Laura Rutledge loved her interview with
Will Anderson Junior. And I love the fact that I
was able to make the joke that of course she did,
because he didn't run away from her like the last
two guys.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
She tried to prominently interview on.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Cara not that we aren't way over, but it's two o'clock.
She gave a pretty good explanation way after the fact,
because I don't think she thought it was necessary until
people kept talking about it, that Sam Donald's situation and
the Justin Herbert situation should not ever be linked together
anymore because they were totally different.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
She talked to Sam Donald before she and he were
ever on camera. She cleared it.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
She had told him, Look, we've got all this time
you could I need you, but I don't need you
right now because we're not ready for you yet, and
I know you have other things. You got guys who
want to talk to She's like, are you sure, and
she's like, yes.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Oh, so he was nice about it. Well, it was.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
They were actually very different situations. One of them literally
when you saw them, they were trying to go live.
The other one they weren't. That's one huge difference, ae
Let alone the difference. She explained that she she didn't
have a prior conversation with her because they went to
her so quickly. She had already spoken to Sam when
you first saw them together.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
And to me, it's not even about that, because even
if you think the players coming off like a giant
a hole, which Herbert did. Whether it was his fault
or not, that's on the pr like, that's got to
be They've got to be right in the middle of
that kind of stuff. I also wish we cared less. Yeah, well,
which got more attention? That or the stupid positive reinforcement

(24:10):
that the chicken Jacksonville did. I mean the two stories
that probably neither of whatch should have gotten as much
attention as.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
See there's no question we should not be so anti
what happened at the podium with Liam Cohen, and we
shouldn't be as anti for this either. We should be
what way more anti And also wish this was a
story but the coacher.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Wants it to be.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Maybe that's best of X material, Maybe that's what's next. Well,
it is here on the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
The eighteen on Sports of It breaking the entire Tony.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
So one of our favorite times of the day every
day around two thirty we peruse social media and come
up with something that we can have a little fun with,
and today that is definitely the case. So a lot
of times this week because it is Thursday and this
has happened in the past two I'll mention the term
these people, and WEX will inevitably say who are these people?

(25:10):
He doesn't say it like Jerry Seinfeld, but you get
the idea. He wants to know who I'm referencing when
I say that. For example, media is all in on
the Patriots. They want them to be successful, especially against
the Texans. They want another twenty plus years of excellence
in the New England area because it's a blue blood

(25:31):
media situation, and if it's any team in the New
England area that's successful, they want to talk about it.
But as it pertains to this topic today, there's nothing
that gives me more pleasure sometimes than just making fun
of Dallas.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
You're Southwest, your deep Southwest home for your Dallas sports.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
So imagine my surprise when I cracked open build X
machine today and I realized that I miss something. Not
only did I miss it, I missed it by a
couple of days. But it's still timely because if we're talking.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
About the Texans, they've been.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
Out of the playoffs for several days, so it's definitely
going to be timely. But if we're talking about the
DC right after the season, it's timely.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
If we're talking about the Texans one went away from
the AFC Championship game again, and we're also talking about
it in the same postseason that the Dallas Cowboys are
not participating in. Then I've got to read this graphic
that Fox Sports NFL's account just laid on us at

(26:40):
five o'clock two days ago. That's why I say I
missed the boat really bad on this one. It's a picture.
It's actually a couple of pictures. One side has CJ.
Stroud in a helmet in his gear. The other has
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, and it simply says Amy right,
Texas quarterback career wins in the playoffs CJ. Stroud three wins,

(27:06):
first appearance twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, and on
the other side, it says Dak Prescott two wins, first appearance.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
That's kind of hurt if you're a Cowboys fan knowing that, well,
you think you've got a great offense. I mean, just
look at the numbers they put up all season long.
They bounced back. Baby, this is our year. Every year
is our year. We're America's team. The Dallas Cowboys, and
yet this not sure handed third year quarterback just piling

(27:41):
up playoff wins while Dax sits on the sideline.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Who'd you say put that out there? Oh? This is
Fox Sports NFL's account. So that was January thirteenth at
NFL on Fox like five o'clock. Yep.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
I just want to make sure I had the right post.
That was quote posted by Edwarder. Oh, thank god he
has weighed in. It's been a day since we've heard
from Ed Werder.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
What's the best of X? I thought it was a
very nice spot for it.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
No, it's perfect, okay, So he quote posted what you
told our listeners was out there thanks to Fox Sports NFL.
Texas is a quarterback career wins to the playoffs. C
J Stroud three, Dak Prescott two, and you gave the
years of their first appearance. If I told you Ed
quote posted that and had four words, what would those
four words be?

Speaker 5 (28:24):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I don't know the exact words, but I would say
it has something to do with championships.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Dak doesn't have any championships there zero.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
His organization does. And that's usually the default argument. It's
more of a Dak based argument. Okay, it's the four
words in this order are give Dak that defense. How
about he should have changed the word that to a
that's true, give Dak a defense, or don't trade it away.

(28:55):
It is worth noting you you shouldn't completely fall on
your face when one player on your defense is not
available to you anymore. The Cowboys probably were gonna be
okay defensively, not great, not among the league's best, but
probably okay if Michaeh Parsons gave them a full seasons

(29:16):
worth of play. Now, mind you, he didn't even give
the Packers a full season's worth of play, and mean
spirited Jerry Jones even mentioned that as part of his
rationale contractually.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Being hesitant to give it to him.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
And then once they made the deal, well you never
know how many games the guys, you know, he was
pretty clear about him noting the injury history, like there
was some severe injury history with Michaeh Parsons. This is
part of his reasoning gonna lot let him go. And
then he goes to the page to the Packers where
he and they as a team were awesome until he

(29:48):
got hurt and they couldn't stop anybody, and they couldn't
win any games. They didn't win any of the last
five games they played without him, including their playoff game
where they couldn't even hold on to an eighteen point
halftime lead. But it is I think this season maybe
as many as any of the ones that have come
before Dak Like this is clear. It's not like the

(30:11):
whole graphic is based on quarterback wins, which I fully acknowledge.
I hate using but have to because I feel like
nobody else can relate to what you're saying unless you do.
But they are nonsense. Did Dak Prescott have a good year?
Scream no, and you could be right. You could make
a case for it. Scream yes, and you could also

(30:34):
be right. Do you not want your quarterback to complete
sixty seven percent of his passes, near the top of
the league. Do you not want your quarterback to play
and start every game and throw for forty five hundred
yards average two hundred and sixty seven yards a pop.
Do you not want your quarterback to throw for thirty
touchdowns and only ten interceptions because he did all those things?

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Well what I mean, But it.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Doesn't matter because they couldn't stop anybody all season long.
They had the worst. It's unreal how his play was
just whatever you can. You can go out there and
score thirty points. We will find a way to give
up thirty three. Yeah, okay. I had this argument with
a Cowboys fan this morning.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
We're about to go to break Rob, don't worry, and
we're not on TV, so it's fine. He said, you
really in this visitors this hour, I know you really
roll out that graphic after CJ's absolute dog bleap performance.
Give Dak that defense sound familiar, and they will be
clear favorites to win it all. I've had this conversation
with multiple Cowboy fans all season long. If you could

(31:34):
take a peanut butter and jelly situation with the Texans
teams or the two teams in Texas, I should say
Texans defense Cowboys offense pretty much. You've got the ninety
five Cowboys. They're unstoppable, right, just like I would say,
we'll give CJ. Dak's offensive line. You know, it's not
this CJ's awful. It's just that I think he hasn't

(31:55):
been as protected. But whatever, he said, no excuses. He's
the highest paid guy on the team. But when you
sit on the sideline and see your defense give up
forty points to the Packers last year?

Speaker 2 (32:06):
What was he supposed to do differently?

Speaker 1 (32:08):
That's where he lost me, because you know what my
response was, Well, the Packers wouldn't have put up forty
if Dak didn't keep throwing into them.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yeah, one of those, if not two of those, clearly
attributed to him.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
What do you think the CJ.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Stroud and the Texans record would be or was in
games where they allowed twenty three points or less?

Speaker 2 (32:28):
You're talking about regular season?

Speaker 3 (32:29):
Yeah, they're gonna win those games, right, pretty much every time,
probably with this defense. Well, the Cowboys won every game
this year where they gave up twenty three points or less.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
That was the bar.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
I mean they didn't have very many Yeah, how many two?
Let's see one, two, three, four, five, okay, five, five
and zero in those games. They won two other games,
that's it. And that's why they scored forty and lost.
They scored thirty and lost, scored twenty seven and twenty
six and lost.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
I honestly don't know what's more frustrating scoring that many
points and losing, or not being able to score enough
points to win when your defense is holding the other
team to a crow as much as you would not
have total figured it to be spun this way.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Dak had a better year in twenty twenty five in
the regular season than CJ.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
And what did that get him? He also had runs
again this weekend from his couch. It's not a good
way to analyze things.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, all right, we'll leave it that when we come back.
Are we gonna have snap issues ever again? Mister Andrews
will you'll hear it from him next Mae. Everybody loves
Rob Reese, one of the best sales account executives here
in the iHeart family.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
We also love talking football, and when we talk.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
Football sometimes especially this time of year, you know, especially
if you're I'm gonna throw a WEX under the bus here.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
But it's it's it's it's all in good fun.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Things get a little bit, as Matt Thomas calls them, minutia.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
I can't do what WEX does. I can't tweet snap counts.
I can't. That's a WEX thing. But you have to
understand about WEX everything not counting them, no, but you're
posting them and it's so it's hilarious because it's God
bless you.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
It's it's on brand. If you were to like look
at his computer right now, I wish we were on camera.
I would make you put your camera or I would
make you put your laptop up to the camera so
they could see the amount of windows.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
You guys think I'm exaggerating. How many windows do you
have open? Right now? Count them?

Speaker 3 (34:29):
On the Air Live, there's eight windows open, two tabs.
Two of them are audio related, another one is graphics related.
Three of them are audio related, so half of them
are show related. But the tabs in the is what
you're usually getting at. It's it's starting to slow down
the operation of the computer.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
How could it not? You know what we tell Carson when.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
He's thirty five tabs on one of his One of
his games is dragging Hey, close the fifty other apps.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
You have opened, and he'll go, oh, yeah, he knows.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
I'm fully aware, and I try tonipulate my way through
that I don't really need this, or I could just
put this link in a doc. If I really need
it during the show, I can just pop it right
back open. But there's so many things I like to
remind myself of, like something Astros related that we have
to get to today right now, no today, this segment
that we just began is almost over, so probably few

(35:18):
tall to do that, but we will get to that.
There was an introduction in Chicago today, Oh really yeah,
newest member of Team USA I felt nothing was introduced
as a Chicago Cub, which means he's coming to play
games at dyke And Park during the World Baseball Classic,
Alex Bregman and who will be a Chicago Cub this

(35:39):
year when the Astros and Cubs get together. But yes,
that took place today. We didn't mention it yesterday. But
a pitcher who maybe isn't quite as good as from
ber Valdez, just younger got a fat contract yesterday, one
hundred and thirty million dollars worth of contract for Ranger Suarez.
And that eves with Dylan c signed and with Suarez

(36:03):
signed and pretty much every legitimately considered top flight front
of the rotation starter in free agency now with a
home including I forty five right here in Houston. Emi
Frommer's the last one left. And the contracts have been
very good for the market. Now it's just a matter

(36:24):
of is there still a team willing to put a
contract that fits with his quality? And this marketplace that's
still out there.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
For him, it's going to suck.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Well, otherwise we'll have to revisit the odds that say, yep,
seven to one, then he's coming back to Houston.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Well, I think you should root for him to go
to Baltimore because I just think that if he goes
to Toronto that's just not fair. And I don't think
Toronto will do it now because they gave all their
money to uh what's.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
His face, Well, their prize potential outgoing free agent doesn't
have a home. Bashett, Chris Bassett doesn't have a home.
There are some players that Chris bas In the Heartbeat
by the way, doesn't have a home, and there they've
been linked in some form of fashion. Even with all
the money that the Blue Jays have already spent this offseason,

(37:09):
have still been linked to all of those players in
some way.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
That just shows you how awesome Jeff Luno is at
his job. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
I mean the three most intriguing free agents, I think
you could argue for different reasons, we're Kyle Tucker, Alex
Bregman and roperfeld Is. I'm not saying the best or whatever,
but you know the guy that's gonna get it looks
like he's still gonna get the best aav is Kyle Tucker.
He might get a short term deal for forty five
to fifty million a season.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
I know the Dodgers. It's the Dodgers world and we're
just living in it. But man, the Astros still make
the world go round in baseball ten years ish after
the fact. It's just incredible what Jeff Luno was able
to do. Would back the Brinks truck up and hand
right an apology to bring him back and run this team.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
I would.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
I don't care who knows it. I hope Jim Crane
hears me, because that's what I would do if I
were in charge. But that's just me, all right. We'll
get to Jake Andrews and whether or not the Texans
will have any snap issues. Plus Mike Vrabel very aware
that his team is playing the best defense in the
NFL this weekend. We'll hear from him as well. That's

(38:14):
coming up next now on Space City Home Network. He's
wex I may see. We've got Josh Jordan producing us
as per usual, and we've got a lot to get
to as we take you up until actually technically tonight. Uh,
five point thirty, because that is about the time the

(38:35):
Rockets launch pad's gonna get underway. Since the Rockets and
Thunder game is on Peacock and uh or is it Prime?

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Now I've forgotten it's on Prime? And we'll be here.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
We won't be here till six, but I will be
so it's I believe it's the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
We'll be with you till six.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
Sports Talk seven ninety will have the game for you
as well. But yeah, the Thunder are in town. It
is the second time these two teams matched up. They're
coming off a blowout win over the Spurs. By the way,
I had this sent to me today. I won't name
the source. See Wimby shaved his head.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
I did see David Carr shaved his head. Why do
you call him David Carr?

Speaker 3 (39:12):
If we cared about a player shaving his head, then
we have to call all of them David Carr?

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Why do we care?

Speaker 3 (39:18):
I know? And it's a huge story and everyone's talking
about it and we're interviewing this San Antonio spur Well,
why did he do it? Because there's a reason behind
it it. Come on, now, let's play basketball. Wemby did
he just want to look more like Kareem. I didn't
hear the reason. I won't even shoot down your guests
because I don't know the answer. Guess what, I might
actually try to not find out the answer. I mean,

(39:40):
I love talking sports, I love having answers when I can.
I love doing the work that it takes to really
have a good understanding of things, not just here in Houston, everywhere.
But I'm somewhat determined to care so little about the
reason that I want to not.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Know the reason. I think I followed.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Okay, I don't want to know why he shaved his head.
I don't think that's like even we didn't talk about
Gerald Green or Dylan Brooks hair when it was Super
Pro Houston. The logo was in it It's cool, and
then they played basketball, talked about Rod This is just
another day in the NBA, and players in the NBA

(40:17):
they cut their hair a lot, they die it a lot.
Nikola Jokic cuts his hair after games and before postgame
media session sometimes, and we did, we did mention it,
and then we moved on to the basketball almost immediately.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Alex Bregman once shaved his mustache in the middle of
a game.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
Because he's he's a little stitchus. Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Did you see the tweet that I sent out, I
don't know about the Office, prove that you watch the
Office by using one sentence.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
You know what I used. It's very clever. I love
the smell of crackling bacon. That's good, all right.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
I say all of that to say that we've got
a huge matchup between the Rockets and the Thunder tonight.
Spurs beat that Thunder team three times in twelve days,
I believe it was, and then got trounced this fourth
time around. And you know they've they've got this budding
rivalry now. But now the Rockets have to take their

(41:11):
second shot at this. And they lost by exactly one
point in overtime on opening night, and both teams have
gone in very different directions since then. I mean, the
Thunder hasn't exactly gone in a direction. They've just stayed
at the top, have been dominant. The Rockets have had
their ups and downs this season. Still a very very
good basketball team, still could win this game tonight. Although

(41:32):
I'd feel a lot better if you had Tarry Easton
at your disposal, because as many defenders as possible as
the name of the game. And if you liked the
free throw merchant acted in Portland last week, I think
you're gonna love it here tonight because SGA is gonna
be hunting and he's going to be committing offensive fouls
almost every time down the floor. Can't wait for that.
As it pertains to the Texans. They had snap issues

(41:55):
in Pittsburgh, and it's gonna be probably colder and perhaps
even more precipitation of some sort coming down in that
game in New England on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Whether or not CJ.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Stroud is sure handed, that's a factor going into this game.
And it just became that way when he had the
game that he had.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
The other night.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
He had some good moments, obviously, but fumbling the ball
multiple times and everything that comes with that, it's going
to be an issue until it isn't. And ball security
having been such a big part of the text and
success this year.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
It was out of character.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
So you heard during the game, and I know you
heard this because you were watching him and Jake Andrews
were off to the side actually snapping the ball to
each other, or he was snapping into CJ. Just to
kind of make sure they were on the same page.
And so Jake Andrews was asked about the snap issues
and this is what he had to say about it.

Speaker 6 (42:52):
He just got to try to adjust it on the fly.
You know, there's a lot of factors that go into it.
You know, we're not really too mummed out of it.
You know what happened, it's in the past. You know,
when Morano the next one say we.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Got to handle it, sounds like they're gonna be fine.
It sounds like it's a one game problem. Yeah, if
it happens again, it's another one game problem. It happens again,
which would be awesome because they're playing still. Uh, then
I would I would be concerned about it. But it
didn't happen for the entire year they were together. The
entire year. He missed one game.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
They've been snapping to each other or one guy to
the other the whole year.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
It's not an issue. It came.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
And again, there's two different things here. These are shotgun
snaps we're talking about, and they're not CJ. Stroud fumbles
when he gets sacked, two totally separate things. If CJ
drops the ball after Jake Andrews makes a perfectly good
snap to him and then he tries to fight his
way through traffic against the ball knocked out of his hand.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
It's not a snap issue. The snap issues.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
Were two plays or three plays, and one of them
was a communication issue, and that has nothing to do
with CJ. That has everything to do with Jake and
the offensive line working with him. The old tap from
the guard until you get it, don't snap it. He
didn't get it, and he snapped it anyway, and CJ
wasn't ready for it. That is something they need to discuss,

(44:07):
and you heard him describe it. We worked on something
you got to fix on the fly. Well they did,
and that's why he doesn't think it's any issue moving forward.
Just like the other I don't know one hundred and
fifty two hundred, two hundred and fifty shotgun snaps they
had the rest of the year.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
It wasn't.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
I don't know that it was sound related, noise related,
because they're all prepared to not be able to hear.
They're prepared to know when to snap it. But that's
why they have these techniques. So the tap from the
lineman to make it happen, and then the one that
CJ dropped, don't. That's not really a snap issue. That's
a catch the ball. It's not a permanent problem. It's
not something they have to work on. He would love

(44:42):
to have perfect shotgun snaps. They don't have to be
perfect for the quarterback to catch them. When it hits
them in both hands and he barely has to move
for it. It was a little low, it was a
little off to his left. His eyes and his mind
weren't focused on it. He was looking downfield. That is
a quarterback problem, but it's not a long term problem.
And that was a it happened once problem. I couldn't

(45:03):
tell you how little I think that is going to
carry over intom I thought about this game, No no
analysis for me on Friday, saying, well, if the Texans
can fix their problems getting the ball from the center
to the quarterback, then I think they should be okay.
Couldn't be more of a non issue to me. CJ's
decision making and being loose with the ball while in
traffic and attempting to make plays long after the pockets

(45:27):
collapsed on him, that's different. Nothing to do with old Jake.
Jake said his problems licked.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
You remember that guy Jordan Moore, I told you about
the other day. That was you told our listeners about it.
Told today I was one of your listeners. We never
even talked about it at all. I don't even think
it was on the rundown, but I was fully aware
of all of it. We'd seen it and probably reacted
to it well. He had it in his bio. Dude,
he's an elite reply machine. Elite reply machine, you can

(45:54):
talk a lot. Whether or not you're saying something is
another thing. He's still at it. The Texans are zero
to six in the divisional round all time.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
CJ.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Stroud is zero to three this year. Versus teams with
a winning record that score more than sixteen points, you've
already lost me because the sentence is too long. Somebody
actually chimed in with a straight face and said Davis
Mills is a better quarterback. If he was starting, Patriots
would have been in trouble. That's bad enough, right. Jordan
responded to that and said, I actually believe this.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Is this.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
This is why I'm glad you talked about it when
I wasn't here, because I thought I wouldn't have to.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
But if you're if you're wanting to be taken seriously.
He doesn't want to be taken seriously. Do you think
he does? I do think he does. That's the problem here,
Otherwise I wouldn't be saying it. But by whom the
people he's catering to?

Speaker 1 (46:47):
I think who's he catering to the lowest commons denominator
of society?

Speaker 3 (46:53):
Boston So yes, the same thing, Boston fanatic. In the bio,
he's constantly bashing the opponents for whatever reasons he thinks people.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Will latch onto. I do that too, I don't do that.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Are similar responses to it, similar reactions to it.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
I would never say the equivalent of Davis Mills is
better than CJ. Shroud in any sort of argument, just
to bash the opponent, you have to be smart or
you you at least have to have an IQ above
the chair you're sitting in.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Or or here's the other option. You could use the
word or in this word, you could ignore like I
know it. It gets a lot of people's gears going,
and it fires people up. Nonsense should anger you, especially
the larger the platform the nobody has or the person
you shouldn't be taking seriously at It's not just because

(47:50):
we disagree with some of what he's saying.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
It's just because it gets to a point.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
It's because you're just you're saying it to say it
because it's some of it is nonsense. But I also
think there's a point to be made. It's same point
we're making about the Patriots offense, just for different reasons.
I don't it's okay to say that Texans aren't offense
isn't scaring anyone?

Speaker 2 (48:07):
That is the first line of his first post. No kidding.
It's the only.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
Reason the AFC is wide open because the Texans offense
isn't scaring anyone.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
If it did, it would be over wrap. They also
wouldn't have gone twelve and five. They would also not
be a wild card team. But this is it would
also probably not be traveling for these games.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
This is a different thing altogether, because this is just
what you were harping on. Hey did you and this
is one of the replies to this guy, and I'm
glad he said it. Did you know that the Steelers
were twenty three and oh on Monday nights at home?
Did you know that the Texans had never won a
home play or a road playoff game like it means
about as much, right, So I'm trying to shrowd that
was owned three. It was the Texans that were owing

(48:49):
three this year.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
Like I just I'm glad because it's gonna make it's
gonna make the victory video a lot more sweeter. I
don't have a lot to do on Sunday night.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Well, the other part of it is some of these
this is a one year thing. Drake may same application.
It's such a small sample size. There's not a lot
of history for him at all. This is one year
as a full time starter. You know, the limited number
of playoff games. They played a limited number of games
against good teams.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
This year.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
They play only five games against playoff teams, and one
of them was Carolina in the.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
Opening month of the season.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Like, there's only so much you have to really just
numbers are awesome, nobody loves them more than I do.
But you also got to watch these guys play football
a little bit. Just watch how they operate, watch what
they can do, and respect them a little more. When
they don't go in and out of a game with
the Jets and win seven to nothing, but rather win
forty two to ten and blow them out in the
first five minutes, because that's what they're capable of a
lot of ways to look at it, and we got

(49:45):
another whole day to do it, and most of today's
show to do it. We will hear from Coach Vrabel
on the Texans exactly how high on the list of
defenses does he place them.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
He'll tell you next.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
There's plenty to get to as far as the Houston
Texans goes will continue. I just want you to let
me know when is a good time to completely eviscerate
Bob Nightingale. You can choose any time between now and
four thirty. Okay, it will not be now, all right?

Speaker 3 (50:10):
I got to prepare myself to what a stupid idiot
that guy.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
On the other side? Are you really? I don't even
know what you're going to talk about? So you haven't
read it? I maybe I have. I don't know. Did
you read his article about colors Carlos Beltron? I did so?
Where are you? Are you on my side? Are you
on the wrong side? I'm trying to tell you about
Coach Frabel, all right, tell me about Coach Rabel, Like,
do you want to do Bob Nightingale here right now? No?

(50:35):
You don't, so I don't. I'm not going to commit.
Let's do it. I mean, I got about two paragraphs
through this thing, and I wanted to the good stuff
because he's lying.

Speaker 7 (50:46):
No, he's not.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
He's lying. Tell me what he's lying about, and I'll
tell you what he's not lying about.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Hold on, I'll get to the second. Can go first
if you want? No, No, I want to. I want
to read this.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Uh what he said is that the anger about the
Astros cheating scandal.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
This is the first paragraph.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Houston Astros cheating scandal is now eight years old, and
while bitterness and anger still lingers in certain cities and
players from that twenty seventeen team still are booed.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Most resentment stems from the.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Fact that there was no real discipline or serious repercussions.
And he goes through and talks about Bregman, Springer, aj Hinch,
Alex Korra, that the fact that the Astros have remained
a powered since that time, and then.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
He lies, he outright lies.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Really, only one person has ever paid the price, Carlos Beltron,
Poor Carlos Beltron, the guy who brought the whole thing
to Houston. He's the only guy that has paid the price,
which in and of itself is a lie. He's the
only who should be paying the price right now.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
He's the only player cited that was that lost his
job because of.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
It, the only player that's right right.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
So he was the only one that was cited in
it among the players who's basically like, that's what he
was supposed Why I have.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
A problem any time people try to say the Astros
weren't punished. They were, and nobody got any sort of
you know, suspensions.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
That's not true. That's not just because Alex Korra and
aj Hinch are back at it. You can't. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
I know that people like him who are small brained
don't think that Jeff Luno being blackballed by Major League Baseball,
which is exactly what happened. It's exactly what happened. And
believe me, I know this to my core because I've
talked to the right people. That is no small thing.
We just got done talking about how this guy's the
one who built this machine. This machine that's getting Alex

(52:47):
Bregman paid by a second team. Now, this machine that's
getting Kyle Tucker paid by whoever this year. From Bervaldez,
the list goes on and on and on, not to
mention he just got done talking about how they've been
dominant in the division in the al Wes since twenty seventeen.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
You think that just happened by accident? Can I see it?
Think Jeff Luno just wasn't there, or he's okay at
his job? Can I hit the other side?

Speaker 5 (53:08):
Now?

Speaker 2 (53:08):
What a jackass?

Speaker 3 (53:09):
The part where he's not a liar, he's telling the truth.
He's making sure people understand what really happened. He is
I'll tell you, I'm gonna go with it right now. No,
he writes the follow.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Ups, he's trying to get Carlos Beltron favor to get
put into the Hall of Fame. And that's fine if
he wants to do that, but he better damn well
do that for guys like jose Al Tube when the
time comes, provided he's still employed.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Same article, and he writes it's ridiculous to think that
the Astros were the only team stealing signs. The Yanks
in Red Sox were caught relaying signals with their Apple
watches and dugout phones too, and only had their wrists slapped.
Other teams had hidden cameras and used similar techniques to
the Astros. Other teams had hidden cameras and used similar
techniques to the Astros, like, not a lie. We know

(53:57):
the same thing he knows, maybe from different people in
different sources.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Not a lie.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Oh I know that, but that's it's that means he's
The whole purpose of this article is exactly what you described.
It is a vehicle to do something that he feels
strongly about. I don't know if it's a favor to
pay for Carlos, or he just likes him personally, or
he really truly believes this is a Hall of Fame
player and he just wants to make the case for
him without maybe bringing it to all the other elements

(54:23):
that you're talking about, because he goes so far to
say there not only should this, it should not be
tainted in the least. That's what he says. And you're
begging for what shouldn't have to be begged for because
we know we're going to get there in about eight
or nine years. There's a bunch of years left on
l two VA's contract. He's not likely to play anywhere else.

(54:43):
I don't think he's likely to sign another contract with
the Astros after that.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Is either five years post retirement, is that the eligibility
window starts.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
Yes, okay, And it should not take ten years of
voting for him to get in, and I don't believe
it will. It should take very few number of years
to get him in. It should take one year. But
the same line should be written by everyone who's voting.
It won't be because that's how they you know, not
everybody believes the same thing. I'm surprised that they wouldn't,
but they won't, I know that for a fact. But

(55:10):
at least this line from from him, someone who's so
closely to writing something so close to the situation, because
it is about Beltron the person, and even Beltron's own
words in this article are I mean.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
That's the most astounding part of all. This quote blows
my mind. A lot of people, this is Carlos Beltron.
A lot of people always ask me why you didn't
stop it, And my answer is I didn't stop it
the same way no one stopped it. This was working
for us. Why are you going to stop something that's
working for you? Okay, but you act like someone else
started it. You're the guy like Alex Korra isn't even

(55:45):
as blame worthy as Carlos Beltron, can.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
We share that from New York?

Speaker 3 (55:49):
So one more line is worthy of this, Why are
you going to stop something that is working for you?
And he continued, so, if the organization would have said
something to us, we would have stopped it, for sure.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
That's good he has good companies since they're both lying
in this article because that's a lie.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
So if they did try a station would have said
something to us, we would have stopped.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
So aj Hinch smashing the television that you're using twice,
wasn't them trying to say, hey, knock it off, Carlos.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
A level of semantics we could have with this is outrageous.
I didn't say the worst.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
This is the part of baseball that is so grotesque,
and it's just annoying because it just comes off as
a bunch of dorks writing about it and a bunch
of non accountable meatheads, you know, participating in it.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
There's what these two parties are.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
There's a real chance, a very very good chance, based
on what has been made public, that Carlos Beltron will
reach the threshold seventy five per centity.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Will get voted in.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
And he was a great player there's also a real
chance that nobody else will. So Jeff Kent, who got
voted in by the Players committee Astro's Great and Carlos
BELTRND through the vote Astro's Great may be the two
players in this Hall of Fame class only. And I
am very curious how that will be handled, because you

(57:04):
don't have enough other buffers, Like there's not a Pedro
Martinez and another superstar and this other superstar to take
some of the limelight away and have people writing articles
about them, and there's nobody else to write about. When
they've covered the Hall of Fame, they will have to
focus on this, and we're probably gonna get a lot
more people on the negative side, redrumming up things that,

(57:25):
as you're describing this article, untrue.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
But this is so even for what he's trying to do,
which we've both just now described, I think perfectly.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
That's what It's a vehicle. It's so nice. This is
what voters do. It was cruel, listen to this man.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
It was cruel that Beltron lost his managerial job. He
was out of the game other than broadcasting until twenty
twenty three, when the Mets hired him as a special
assistant in the front office. They just didn't want him
on the field with former Mets manager Buck Showalter even
forbidden to interview him for a coaching job. And then
another last quote from Beltron, we grow from moments that

(58:03):
are tough in life. A lot of times, when you're
going through a big storm, you think that storm will
never pass, but it will pass. Time heals you made
the storm.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
Do you think it's fair to say, as I brought
up earlier, that as an individual player, comparing him to Korea, Bregman,
Reddick Altuve, any of them just pure individual did you
get punished? I think all the Astros players were punished
in a different way. They were punished by We're making
it harder for you to win, because we're punishing your

(58:34):
team with draft picks. We're making it harder for you
to be appreciated because, especially the way Rob Manford brought
it up, he basically ensured that everybody would boo them
unmercifully forever, even though, as Bob writes in this article,
why are we booing them well because we skapevoted them
because we didn't want everybody thinking every other team did it.
My point is the individual player, like what Alex Bregman

(58:57):
was not individually punished, or was Altuvi or any of
the other players I mentioned, And there wasn't a call
for punishment in the statement they made, the release that
they issued. There there was an actual punishment from the
Mets for Carlos Beltron, the only player who was actually
individually punished.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
And Alex Cora as a manager for a year, Yes,
suspend it.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
And obviously here in Houston, both the manager and the
but those were not player in the scandal.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
I always like to bring this up because it gets
conveniently ignored, especially by the idiots that root for the
Yankees and the Dodgers for example. Oh no, the player, yes,
because your player rep and your player rep. And every
player rep voted for that when it was collectively bargained
to be as such. They got in exchange for telling
the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help

(59:44):
them whoever they pray to. They got it immunity. That's
what they was in this is everybody voted on it.
And oh, by the way, a lot of those guys
that voted on this knew their teams were doing, which
at least in this that's the one part of this
article that he gets right was going on all around
major League Baseball, but this scapegoat thing and then asking

(01:00:04):
us to shed tears for poor Carlos Beltry give me
a break. And the fact that it's Bob Nightingale. I mean,
don't you have some trade or some signing to screw
up on your Twitter account today? Isn't he Arson Judge?
Or was that somebody else? That was John Hayman?

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Right? Yes, I just he's such a oh man.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
There are so many unlikable characters in Major League Baseball
per capita. I know I have my hate list for
every sport. This guy takes the cake though.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
This is so irresponsible of an art. It's just propaganda.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
What is he?

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
What do we Russia communism here? He likes Carlos? He sucks.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
There you have it the at on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Did I say I'll spoiled Carsons?

Speaker 8 (01:00:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
His elementary school is uh, They're like, hey, where are
your Texans gear on on Friday? And they wore they
were on Monday this week and he had a nice
crisp blue, very very dark blue c J Stroud jersey.
Well they're doing it again because the Texans won. Only

(01:01:12):
it's tomorrow because they will have played the game by
the time they all get back to school on Monday.
And he says, and I quote, can I get something new?
He wanted something new to wear, and so.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Just give, give, want, want, want more and more and more.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
And so instead of me telling him where he could
stick that idea and put your jersey back on clause it,
I went and got him a.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
New hoodie today. Here you go.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
I'm such I'm the worst man. I really, I'm not
as bad as Bob Nightingale, but I'm pretty bad.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
Head coach of the New England Patriots met with the
media yesterday about the upcoming game between the Texans and
the Patriots, and as usual, the first question from Karen
as they did the story about their relationship earlier this year,
is a relationship with the media. I mean her question
was rather simple point and a good one and gave
a very good answer. Her question was, is this the

(01:02:04):
Is this the best defense you guys will have faced?

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:02:07):
Yeah, you know. I mean they have great talent, great scheme,
they play hard and respect how hard they play, and
they're just not only talented, but they have a play
demeanor that I can appreciate. You know, play to the football,
and they chase football, and you know they get a
lot of hats at the football, and they create turnovers,
and they play physical, very very simple.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
He didn't go too far. He didn't try to blow smoke.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
He didn't do coach speak like I mean, it's going
to take all we have just about. He has total
faith in his team, and I didn't even think you
can hear it in his extremely respectful, factual answer. Yeah,
they're the best defense we've faced. Of course they are.
And this is the kind of I think he's almost
saying it without saying this is kind of what you
expect as you advance. I mean, you you might catch

(01:02:53):
a team that's pretty bad at one or the other.
And Texas don't have an unbelievable offense, and Bills don't
have an unbelievable defense. Probably a little bit better than
some people think. Patriots are pretty good at both. Arguably
one of the best offenses. Again relatives to who they've played,
maybe not, but a relative to the league.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
Absolutely. He plays on your schedule and they massacred it.
They were in a number one scoring team in the AFC.
They also are coming off a game where they scored
fewer points on offense than the Texans offense did. They
played a better defense. Chargers defense is better than the Steelers.
Chargers defense showed that sacking Drake May five times, preventing
them from finding the end zone until the fourth quarter,

(01:03:31):
hit only scoring sixteen points, creating two Drake May turnovers
with an interception and a fumble. He also fumbled one
other time additionally that his team recovered. There were a
lot of things to not like about their offensive performance,
just like there were some things to not like about
the Texans offensive performance. And I think the as I
said leading into how Vrabel's talking about the Texans, I

(01:03:54):
think it's fair to say the Texans are playing a
team that's better at everything. The Texans are playing a
Patriots team that have a better special teams than the Steelers,
a better defense than the Steelers, a better offense than
the Steelers, a team that won four more games now
five than the Steelers. Exactly, the challenge is greater. There
were things that Texans did that make it very easy

(01:04:14):
to say, well, yeah, if they do this again, they're
not going to win. If they make the mistakes that
they did in this most recent win, they are not
going to win because the expectation that you repeat your
defensive prowess weekly. We can just go back to the
last two years. The team they played in the opening
round was the Chargers and the Browns, followed by games
against the Ravens and the Chiefs. Well, the Ravens and

(01:04:38):
the Chiefs, like the Patriots, are this year, much much
much better than your wild card opponent, regardless of location.
The Texan scored five touchdowns in three games against Joe Flacco,
Justin Herbert, and Aaron Rodgers. When those three players were
on the field, the Texans scored five touchdowns. They followed

(01:05:00):
that up by scoring zero touchdowns against Lamar Jackson and
Pat Mahomes. I suspect they will score zero touchdowns against
Drake May because it's just not normal to score touchdowns defensively.
Texas only did it three times during a seventeen game
regular season. They managed to do it five times in
three wild card games under Demiko Rans and then no
times in the games that followed. They're playing better teams,

(01:05:21):
They're playing teams more capable of handling certain things. I'm
not saying they're going to have some terrible performance, but
the expectation for it. It's unlikely they're going to have
to outscore them with their offense. Only that should be
the expectation. I bet it was the expectation last week too,
and honestly they did. They outscored him seventeen to six.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
But I don't think I mean, and I'm not saying
that the Patriots defense is awful or even average, but
I just don't.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
I don't look at it as much. I don't look at.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
It as much of a chore scoring against them as
I would have last week against the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
You should my opinion, though, because they're to me, they're
they're What the Steelers did is a cloud cover for
what their defense actually does. I got all these good
pass rushers for their front seven guys, or elite pass
rustlers or run stuffers, whatever combination. When you're talking about
Hayward and Herbig and Watt and high Smith, they're awesome,
but they don't stop you. Scoring on them was easy

(01:06:22):
all year. Moving the ball against them was easy all year.
That's not the case with this defense. This defense, what
do we have to soften the statement with? Yeah, but
who they play and statistics are all we're going off
okay with like, I'm telling you the Patriots defense did
this and did that, but I'm also saying I should

(01:06:42):
take a step back from it because they were doing
it against justin fields. Forgetting how they played other crappy
teams that could move the ball against any forget.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
Who they played for a second. Where did they rank
middle of the pack? So no, no, no, And where
did they rank in what? What do you want? What
do you want me to say? Their defense? Again? I
don't even know how to answer that, because what were
they ranked? Let's just keep it simple, second ranked defense.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
You know, the Patriots allowed the fourth fewest points in
the NFL. Texans were second. They allowed eighteen more yards
than the Texans did. They allowed three more touchdowns than
the Texans did.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
So then why are the Texans getting all this attention
in the Patriots. It's all about Drake.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
May because I think people want to recognize that it
was a little bit easier for the Patriots to pile
up these statistics with the schedule that they had, which
is true exactly. I think they're actually good. I think
Williams is a good player. I doubt Chason's going to
have another two sac game obviously, having Christian Gonzales back
and it looks like that's going to be the case,

(01:07:44):
makes a humongous difference.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
But I don't they're.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
Probably regarded if you really looked at him and tried
to not say statistically they're ranked here, they're probably somewhere
between nine and fourteen, nine and twelve somewhere, maybe slightly
on the front side of the top ten, maybe slightly
on the outside, because I can't only trust the statistics
because there's too many there's too many games that just

(01:08:11):
don't have any relevance here. Last week's game has relevance.
But even that game, you have to soften the stance. Yeah,
but they were playing the Chargers offensive line. The Chargers
offensive line can't stop anybody. Everybody got to Justin Herbert.
He was sacked more than any other quarterback in the
NFL this year. So of course the Patriots had one
of their most productive days up front. But yeah, they

(01:08:34):
held them the three points in a playoff game.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
It's there. I gotta give them a little respect, all right,
I'll give them a little Hey, you wanna you wanna
get mad about a breakdown of how the Texans were built.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
Ooh, it's my segment. Yeah, to get mad, Yeah, fly
off the handle.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Well, I don't think you're gonna yell at a guy
who we basically played in every hour of the show.
Oh yeah, I'll just nippick. We like Dan Rolofsky, we
don't like Dan Well, I don't like Bob Nightingale. I'm
not gonna speak for WEX, but yeah, Dani Rolofski brought
down how this rapid rebuild, which that part is accurate,
all went down and there are some inaccuracies, as he
pointed to the chart that you won't be able to see,

(01:09:09):
but you'll be able to follow along as he talks
about how Nick Cassario rapidly turned this Texans team around
in time for this twenty twenty six postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
That's next.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
Quick update from the Texans on the injury report, which
essentially I gave you already because I went to practice.
There was absolutely no change from yesterday. Everything that was
there yesterday was the same today. Four players did not practice,
did he go Autry, Trent Brown, Nico Collins, Justin Watson.
The latter two due to the concussion protocol knee and
ankle injury for Autry and Brown, respectively everybody that was

(01:09:41):
limited yesterday, saying today none of them are a concern
to miss the game, and full participants for three other
players for injuries that also will not have them sideline
the Patriots. There was a significant change, and we brought
this up earlier as well, since their practice report of
reporters on site indicated his mind had two players in
the concussion protocol that were limited yesterday. That's a reserve

(01:10:05):
running back Torel Jennings and starting cornerback Christian Gonzales. Gonzalez
is a fantastic player. Both of them were full participants today,
while remaining in protocol likely means they are on their
way out of protocol should the symptoms subside completely. And
obviously these two practices having been completed now allow them
the opportunity to exit the protocol if all over other

(01:10:26):
steps and usually the preceding steps have been completed, so
they're in a very good position to do that. Very
good news for any player suffering concussion to recover a
and recover quickly. Hopefully that means it was mild at
that worst for both of them. Obviously, it's a little
bit different situation for both Watson and Collins Texans at
eight receivers practicing today, which is their number of players

(01:10:48):
is normally ten because they have three others on the
practice squad, so all eight of them were out there.
I don't know that anybody will be elevated. If there
were to be an elevation, it's probably Jared Wayne. They
have played with an inactive praction and burial for weeks.
He would obviously be a consideration because two wide receivers
are likely going to be out for this upcoming game.
You called it a rapid return to excellence for the

(01:11:11):
Houston Texans. Nick Cassario was brought into a team that
had Deshaun Watson as their starting quarterbacks. Things seemed like
they'd be pretty good. Obviously, they did not believe that
to be the case, and they were probably right, especially
with outgoing head coach Bill O'Brien turning in a four
win season that he didn't even last but four games in.
Ended up going four and twelve that year, four of

(01:11:34):
those wins coming with Romeo Crenell at the controls. Nick
Casseio brought in his own guy to run the team.
Coach Keully hired Dave Cully to run things and then
then that was nipped in the butt after one season,
which probably met their expectations, they decided to give him
all of his money so that they could then make

(01:11:55):
Lovey Smith the head coach. Now they provided Nick and
the personnel staff for coach Cully and coach Smith with
virtually no talent, and when they did give them talent
in the form of Derek Stingley Junior, Lovey Smith made
sure that wouldn't be wouldn't matter at all because he
would utilize him in a manner that no head coach
with any worth I think, especially one with a defensive

(01:12:16):
mind like Lovey should have ever had him playing the
way that they did. And then he got hurt also,
and then they decided it was time to start building
a franchise. Truly began with the acquisitions that year, but
those acquisitions began with the trade that took place prior
to the draft and prior to the off season, of
the Deshaun Watson trade, which netted them additional assets which

(01:12:38):
allowed them to not only draft correctly, that's one part
of it, but have the abundance of draft picks to
maneuver your way around the draft too, hopefully draft even
more correctly. So we'll let Dan Orlovski, again dominating the
airwaves here on Sports Talk seven ninety this week, take
you through the rest of it, because they spent an
entire segment on it on one of the programs.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
He is.

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
Paid by ESPN to help monitor and deliver good information.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
Full graphic. Here's how they built the Texans. He runs
through it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
Here's what he did to say, Hey, Nick Cassaria, you've
done an awesome, awesome job.

Speaker 9 (01:13:13):
I think it's one of the better rebuilds in modern
NFL history. And if you go back to twenty twenty one, Okay,
they hired Nick Cassire as their general manager. They draft
Nicole Collins. That's the only guy that hits. They're bad
that year. They fired their coach, David Kelly. Twenty two,
they trade in March to Shan Watson. They drafted Stingley
and Jalen Petrie. They were bad again. They fired their coach,
Lovey Smith.

Speaker 7 (01:13:32):
Then you go to twenty twenty three. They hired Demico
Ryans in January.

Speaker 9 (01:13:35):
Right, since then, this is an absolute rocket.

Speaker 7 (01:13:39):
Ship when it comes to player acquisition and success. Three
years ago.

Speaker 9 (01:13:42):
Since then, in twenty three, they go Stroud Anderson Tankdll,
Henry to Oto, Zader Hutchinson, and then free agency Dalton
schultzon Sheldon Rinkins. The following year in twenty four, they
had lasser Lake Fisher, who's their sixth offensive lineman, Kayln Bullock,
Kates over tight end and fre agency Hunter Autrey and
Derek Barnett.

Speaker 7 (01:14:00):
And then this year Asisha Shaiir, Jayden.

Speaker 9 (01:14:03):
Higgins, Urserine who's a free agent by the way, Noel
Marx and Christian.

Speaker 7 (01:14:07):
Kirk in a trade.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
Do the math.

Speaker 9 (01:14:09):
In the last three years, this team's basically added twenty starters.

Speaker 7 (01:14:14):
We only played with twenty two. A couple injuries changed out.

Speaker 9 (01:14:16):
But to fact that Nick Casserio and let's be honest, Houston,
three years ago, four years ago, they were a little
bit of a.

Speaker 7 (01:14:24):
Disaster with a lot of the things that were.

Speaker 9 (01:14:26):
Going on in conversation off the field, let.

Speaker 7 (01:14:28):
Alone being terrible in twenty one and twenty.

Speaker 9 (01:14:31):
Two from a football team perspective, it's amazing.

Speaker 7 (01:14:33):
Ever since that twenty twenty three January when they hired.

Speaker 9 (01:14:36):
Demico Ryans, it has become a rocket ship and now
they're legit Subowl contenders. It's been a three year just
one of the more impressive rebooks we've seen in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
What's wrong with that?

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
He was fine even with the all shaiir goof right,
because last year was not as last year was his
first year, not this year.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Right, He was fine up until they drafted twenty starters.
You only play twenty two and that's a bit much.
I mean, come on, you really think there's ten starters
on offense, ten starters on defense, all brought in the
last two years, Like, did you even look at the
board you were working off of. I don't know what
kind of offense Dan Orlowski thinks the Texans are running,

(01:15:16):
but you would think CJ. Stroud would have somebody to
throw to with Tank Dell, Xavier Hutchinson, Dalton Schultz, Cade Stover,
Christian Kirk, Jalen Knowle, and Jaden Higgins all starting alongside
c J. Stroud, you'd think you'd have, you know, with
eight other wide receivers tight ends out there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
That's not even to mention what he marks.

Speaker 3 (01:15:36):
They can't all be starters, dude, And you didn't have
to say it that way to make it sound like
that way. Starting caliber players. That's much better starting capable
players because that's true, but you didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
You didn't draft.

Speaker 3 (01:15:48):
That's kind of the whole point of why we've pushed
back just a little bit on Nick, because you run
through this entire list and you're still talking about all
these additions that they've made to turn them into this winner.
One starting offensive lineman was drafted by Nick Cassario.

Speaker 2 (01:16:07):
That's a very well, well, he didn't have a big
enough board.

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
I guess to add ed Ingram and Jake Andrews, which
were acquisitions this offseason. I mean, I'm not trying to
be too critical because there's no reason to be critical.
That's what people hate about the media, so I won't
do it. What he's saying, the point is absolutely correct.
He's probably not getting enough credit for it. I wonder
what the future holds, and a few people have started

(01:16:30):
to talk about that before this season has even ended.
Because it's going to be difficult, not impossible. It's going
to be difficult to pay everybody in the NFL, in
my opinion, especially because voideers exist. It's the biggest best
loophole gms have at their disposal.

Speaker 2 (01:16:46):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:16:46):
If you want to pay to keep your players here,
you can, You absolutely can. The quarterback contract is the
trickiest of all for every other domino that falls. But
you can always find a way because they wrote the
rules that way. It's kicking the can down the road
is like the greatest thing ever in the NFL. And
every GM does it and eventually they get fired and

(01:17:08):
oh my god, well what was this GM gonna do
with all this stuff? This is gonna kill him. I
don't know how you got That's why Nick got all
this credit for what he did initially. Yeah, look he
cleaned all this up. You gave him two years to lose.
Every GM could do what he did, every one of them,
and if they didn't, they should be fired. What he
did after that, that's the hard part. That was the
easy part. What he has created here. They're overwhelmingly talented.

(01:17:31):
There's eleven starters on defense. Seven of them are drawing
All Pro votes because they're awesome. The fantastic four in
the secondary, the three guys in the front seven with Anderson,
Danielle Hunter, and Aziz al Shire all drawing Pro Bowl
All Pro recognition this year from the voters. Nick Cassio's
flowers not merely delivered strong enough, hard enough. This segment

(01:17:54):
we'll do it again to start the four o'clock.

Speaker 1 (01:17:56):
Hour, The Age Straight Up four o'clock Aaron, Houston, Texas.
It is the A team Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network. He's WEX I may see. Josh Jordan
is our producer. We are going to continue to discuss
the Houston Texans. But I got you past something you
don't like mint chocolate chip ice cream as a flavor.

Speaker 3 (01:18:20):
Ice cream is awesome. Yes, let's put that out there, right.
So there's probably a lot of flavors you'll eat. There's
a lot of good ones out there. It's just not
very hot on the list.

Speaker 1 (01:18:30):
So yeah, I should probably retract. It's not that you
dislike it, it's that everything is better.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
That's your quote, And I would probably say, I can't
remember the last time we've been down to the last
carton of ice cream in the freezer and it's mint chocolate,
because there's always something else in there, and I'll lead that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
The reason I bring this up is because after I
got past the initial shock of that horrific statement, I mean,
the only thing that work on the show today, I
got it. The only thing worse on the show today
was Bob Nightingale's article. But then this guy with a
straight face, you know it's it's Girl Scout season, Girl
Scout Cookie season better.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
And I said, wait a second.

Speaker 1 (01:19:08):
If you don't like mint chocolate chip ice cream, you
probably don't like thin mints. Oh those are great, mind blow,
Well like cookies, but it's the same flavor, but it's
not all that flavor.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
It's more minty. No, the cookies are mentier. I don't
know about that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
The ice cream backs it off a little bit because
there's more of the ice cream.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
I know this is kind of not fair. But what
color are thin mints? Would pick one up? What color they're?
The color of the chocolate and mint chocolate chip ice cream?
And what color is the ice cream? Yeah's minty, it's green,
So I think it's when you make the cookie. It's
chocolate covered color. What if you both would it be better?

(01:19:53):
Or how about this? Put thin mints in your mint
chocolate chip ice cream? Well, they do make mint chocolate
chip Girls Scout, not inspired, but literal Girl Scout cookie
ice cream.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
They do. Yeah, mint mint than mint ice cream. I
guarantee you it's out there, and it's not called mint
chocolate chip. No, I mean it's from there. They're branded.
They really.

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
I'm sure some company that makes ice cream got together
with them.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
So some big shot over at the ice cream I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
Not to hear to bag on any particular flavor of
ice cream, mint, chocolate, chip or not. I like, I
kind of like almost all the ice cream. You know,
the ice cream I really don't want, and it has
been in our freezerful of time mocachino, so yeah, it's
but you can be fooled by that too well. I mean,
if you don't show me what the name of the

(01:20:41):
flavor is and I hold my nose and I just
put it in the bowl, I guess I'm eating chocolate
ice cream.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
This is where I wish you liked coffee, because there's
nothing better than getting whatever kind.

Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
Because it's a different lemon lemon ice cream? You don't
like lemon?

Speaker 5 (01:20:54):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
Did you try it? I don't want it. It's gross.

Speaker 3 (01:20:56):
Did you try bluebells? Yes, it's it's not like lemon
lemon part of your cooking shirt. I can deal with that.
Lemon juice and a drink.

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
Sure, I don't. I'm not about lemon again. I'll eat it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:11):
Everything else is better, I thought a sour puss like
you would love that. No, I can be one. I
don't have to like eating eating the flavor. I describe
Adam Wexler's style of hosting a sports talk show, Well,
if you just bite directly into a lemon.

Speaker 3 (01:21:26):
It's a pretty pretty popular thing to see the kids
do on the socials. You know, all those babies eating
lemons for the first time. And is this a TikTok trend. Well,
it's not really a trend, but you know, it's comedy.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
All right. To me, it wouldn't have been as big
of an issue until you said the.

Speaker 1 (01:21:40):
Part about the Girl Scout flavor that is essentially the
cookie version of that ice cream.

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
Such a contradictory thing to do. Can't believe you, all right,
I do. I'll probably we won't get to the thing
I wanted to get to here, because it's just it's
kind of a minutia, and we've done enough of that
this segment. I will say this. We've talked about.

Speaker 1 (01:22:03):
The Texans defense and the Patriots offense and how they're
you know, being pumped up in every which way. I
do think that what has been said by the Texans
side of things leading up to this is interesting or
of note, because at the end of the day, I
think the Texans defense as a unit. In fact, you

(01:22:23):
saw that video on the sideline of Lassiter.

Speaker 2 (01:22:27):
The Fantastic four.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
Yes, and Stingley said about as much as I thought
he'd say, By the way.

Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
I sent a message to somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
It's a Kaylen Bullock and Jalen Petrie a talking to
their social media videographers. So they're obviously shooting a postgame video.
They've come over, they're all hyped and you know, you know,
we like that we're talking about this. Then they had
to speed up the video because Kaylen had to help
Jalen Petrie get his guardian helmet off and it was stuck.
And then then they have Kamari come over, and then
Sting's got a water ball with him. He comes over,

(01:22:55):
and Kaln's going on and on and Petri's going on
and on. Then Kamari takes over. You guys, this guy
did the sting No catches Petri. All these TFLs book
to the house and he puts his mask on and
mask up, and the whole time every one of them's like,
I gotta say something, I gotta say something. I gotta
say something, and sting is just sitting there, watching, listening,
participating because he's standing there. And then as soon as

(01:23:17):
Lassiter's finished, Stingley just takes a drink of water.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:23:22):
That's his whole involvement in all of this stuff. And
it's so on Brand's sting.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
Because he's a he's an assassin. He loves those guys.
They're boys, they're all they all love each other.

Speaker 3 (01:23:33):
And if Kaylin and Kamara together, it's awesome, non stop
chatter comedy. It's a comedy duo. Petree's the same way,
and sting just isn't.

Speaker 2 (01:23:42):
About as much activity as ball's thrown his way this year.
He just doesn't say anything. It's awesome, all right, it's great.

Speaker 1 (01:23:47):
I hope he has a pick six in this game
against Drake May, and uh so does Damika Ryan's and
Kaylen Bullock, both of which we're talking about what they're
going to be up against on on Sunday afternoon, and
let's start with Demiko as this Texans defense versus Drake
May should be a lot of fun to watch. This
would be a cut one of Ryan's from yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
We're gonna take him a minute to get it. I
know you might be able to play a faster I
don't know who. There's another rundown said, hold on, let
me look. Oh yeah, I miss labeled. This is my fault.
It's cut three. Oh man, Well, I promise it's gonna
be worth the wait, not a chance. Don't let me
wet blanket that right out of the gate.

Speaker 1 (01:24:32):
The the combination of me mislabeling this and then the
audio equipment failing us. Of course, right now, at this
exact moment is just second to nine when it comes
to life Radio Ryan's yesterday cut three.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
On what on may? Oh Drake? May you want to
hear his thoughts? On Drake? May I mean one of
you play it at some point?

Speaker 10 (01:24:57):
Drake is doing a doing a really good job of
not making bad decisions with the football. He's doing a
really good job of utilizing, you know, where his playmakers
are open. He's getting those guys to football. And I
think Josh is calling it really well for him to
give him, you know, easy plays to make good decisions.
And where he's taking that next step is his ability

(01:25:17):
to escape the pocket. I think it's really doesn't get
talked about much, but he his athletic ability, his ability
to escape the pocket has been really clutch for them.
He's made some big runs to really hurt a lot
of defenses, so we have to be conscious of that.
But he's making good decisions. Good young player, has a
really bright future. Can throw the ball at all three
levels of the field very well.

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
So who knew that in AFC that's wide open this
year that the running quarterback the Texans would be most
concerned about in the second round of the postseason would
not be Lamar Jackson, but rather Drake May. It's funny.
We were just talking to Josh c. He came in
here to talk about Rockets upcoming tonight. He's our network

(01:26:00):
and he said, I said, how do you feel about
the game. Because he's a huge football fan, he said,
I think you need to keep Drake May in the pocket.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
He sounds like the Miko. I think Josh works for
the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:26:10):
Lamar Jackson and Drake May have the same number of
touchdowns rushing as from when Drake May entered the league.
Both have six. He's run for eight hundred and seventy
f one yards. We talked about those numbers yesterday. A
little over four hundred each year obviously played a little
bit more. This year ran for sixty six yards in
their most recent game, their playoff game. It mattered a
lot because of how much how many other things that

(01:26:32):
weren't really going swimming, lag rowing all that well. He
threw for two hundred and sixty eight yards also, but
there were instances where he needed to do something with
his legs, needed to make it happen because he can.
As you head into this next weekend in the NFL
the divisional round games, the leading rusher in the NFL

(01:26:53):
that's still playing is what he marks, followed by Drake
May of the remaining six teams who play it. Obviously
Denver's team and Seattle's team is rushed for zero yards.
But from last week that advanced to this week, those
those two guys that game the most yards what he
had one hundred and twelve five point nine a pop.

(01:27:13):
Drake had sixty six yards on ten scrambles, if you will,
for sixty six yards.

Speaker 1 (01:27:20):
And people in New England would have you believe that
because the Chargers is the top five defense, that he
should be able to have that kind of success this
week against the Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
In fact, they're already saying it these people.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
I don't know if I don't feel like the Texans
ever played a quarterback like that this year, unless I'm
just forgetting Josh Allen has the test density two.

Speaker 3 (01:27:44):
As the year went on, because his offensive line was
a curse word justin Herbert was running as frequently and
in a similar manner to that, And I think you
could compare those two. I don't think there's any one
in LA that wants that from Herbert. They want it
because he can, but they don't want it really as
a part of his game. And I don't think they're

(01:28:05):
turned off by it at all in New England right
now for what Drake may can do for them. And
this is a player I mentioned. It's his first start
ever was last year against the Texans. He ran for
thirty eight yards in that game. He was doing the
things then that showed you he's probably going to continue
to do things. He does it every week, some weeks
more than others, but there's very few games where he

(01:28:25):
doesn't do it at all. He's going to do it
against the Texans if they let him. He's going to
attempt to do it against the Texans. They've let almost
every other quarterback do it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
That's why I'm asking, I don't he's going to run
for who. I don't know, whatever the number is, I'd
take the over. Who did they let do it?

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
Baker to beat them might not have had fifty yards
on the game we play at the end of the game,
Bo nicks to beat them, same thing. They both did it.
That's why they lost both games eighteen to fifteen. You
don't let him scramble for thirty three yards. They don't
kick the game winning field goal.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
I still say most I still say a big part
of them losing the game to Denver is because they
didn't have CJ for George. But he was talking about yes, yeah, no,
I know, but I just I think people like it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
Sounds like people.

Speaker 1 (01:29:15):
Think he's gonna be like Bo Jackson against them, relatively.

Speaker 2 (01:29:19):
Taking it to this level everybody else does. All right,
we'll continue with this topic next.

Speaker 1 (01:29:25):
As a matter of fact, we'll get Kaylen Bullock's thoughts
on Drake May. We're also going to get Kamari Lassiter
addressing the aforementioned Guardian cap.

Speaker 2 (01:29:34):
The Jalen Peatree downs every single week.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
The City Home Network early start time for the Rockets
and Thunder tonight six thirty tip as opposed to the
usual seven for a home game. It doesn't matter though
they're at home, which is something they have not done
a lot of this season. I just hope it's competitive tonight.
That's all I want. I do not want the Thunder
to come in here and just moll wap them. That

(01:30:00):
would put me in a very bad move for tomorrow's show.

Speaker 2 (01:30:04):
Then I hope for it too. That's the only reason why.
I mean, I would like the Rocks to get a dub,
but this is more important.

Speaker 1 (01:30:11):
They owe them, man, they owe them. How many free
throws is SGA get tonight? Nope, you got to give
me a number eleven? Really, all right? You might as
well give me the score that they're going to win by.

Speaker 2 (01:30:28):
They favored. Of course, they're favored. They're favored every time
they play, Ye.

Speaker 3 (01:30:35):
Are favored. Yeah, So you think I'm calling for the upset?
Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
I mean, I would hope you would think the Rockets
have a fighting chance at home since they lost, they
do have a fighting chance. Okay, how many you know what?
I don't remember this. Did he have that many on
Opening night? Do they have more I feel like you
had more.

Speaker 2 (01:30:55):
Again, you're only concerned with the free throws. Well, of
course i am.

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
He scored four fewer points than the leading scorer in
the game. He had thirty five, Alpi had thirty nine.
Is that so bad?

Speaker 8 (01:31:06):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:31:06):
What was the determining basket in that game? Came off
his fingertips? Really? Where was he fifteen feet away? Was
he defended exactly? No, exactly? So it was an uncontested
jump shot. That wasn't him jumping. It was a free
throw earned earned. Huh yeah, how did he earn it
when he shoved the other guy?

Speaker 3 (01:31:27):
I mean, on that particular fact, I'd have to go
back and look at that one.

Speaker 1 (01:31:31):
Oh man, he You know what, the thunder fans really
are lucky that.

Speaker 2 (01:31:37):
Denny Avian and h Luca exist.

Speaker 3 (01:31:40):
I would actually hope for a repeat free throw performance
from Shay.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
How many was it? Well, he took fourteen, but he
only made ten. But his misses were crucial.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
He had thirty four points the other night against the Spurs,
and he had thirteen trips to the foul line.

Speaker 2 (01:31:55):
He made eleven of them.

Speaker 1 (01:31:58):
It's just not it's if you go to the foul line.
Because Jordan went to the foul line all the time.
But if you're doing it as you are, you're earning,
as you say it, these trips to the foul line
because you're fouling the defender every single time, or a
nine out of ten times.

Speaker 3 (01:32:14):
A foul merchant looking for fouls. That's that's what foul
merchant to me means. And maybe Denny or Luca is
really guilty of that. I really don't think Shay is
a free throw merchant. I guess this is actually the
proper churn he's he's fouling the other person like he's
committing a foul.

Speaker 2 (01:32:31):
It's not a free throw merchant. It's the official fouling.

Speaker 3 (01:32:33):
You, and it's this is more Maddox Glavin stuff. If
you're gonna tell me that I can keep doing this,
and you're gonna keep rewarding me, then I'm going to
keep doing this. This is not a strike. This is
not over the plate. There's no reason for the other
the batter standing there. Why would he want to swing
at that. That is not a good pitch to hit.
It's not a good pitch, period, But you keep calling

(01:32:55):
it a strike, So I'm going to keep throwing it.
So if I can keep pushing off on players, if
I can create the contact by having my arm extended,
which gives them zero legal guarding position because they're not
allowed to do anything, then I'm going to keep doing it.
This is what actually the players and the coaches are
most miffed at. And Jalen Brown is another player that

(01:33:17):
got fined for criticizing officials within the week. And the
word he keeps.

Speaker 2 (01:33:20):
Using the first game though, wasn't it.

Speaker 5 (01:33:22):
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:33:23):
I don't know which game it was, to be honest
with you.

Speaker 3 (01:33:25):
It's consistency, and it's there are there's data that actually
supports what he's saying if you just go strictly off
fouls that are being called the number and the free
throws that are being attempted because you were here. Obviously
we were all here when the beginning of the season
and the NBA happened. Okay, final score of this run
of the middle game one forty four to one thirty four,
and they went one thirty seven to one thirty one.

(01:33:46):
And here's a forty point game, and here's a fifty
point game because people were going to the free throw
line way way too much for what I think the
NBA wants their league to be and guess what happened
in season during this last month. Well, players stopped getting
the fouls called that they were getting two months ago.
The rules didn't change, but how they wanted the league

(01:34:07):
to officiate it did. And there's not a memo to
the league or we're gonna do this, or you're gonna
need to be aware of that. They just started doing
things a little differently. It does happen all the time,
but it was so far out of whack in one
direction for a lot of these reasons. We're referencing a
lot of early season games that we're just enough already
nobody wants to see this kind of basketball, but it's
it's something that there's no consistency with it, so it's

(01:34:30):
gonna make everybody mad, well very mad enough to get
fined over it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:34):
Like I'm always in here complaining about something just just
in this is the show. But when I really what
got my attention is what you're talking about. It's not
just players are one thing, but the other night against Avia,
like you could see you could clearly read email, which,
by the way, do you consider ema Udoka an excuse?

Speaker 2 (01:34:54):
Guy?

Speaker 1 (01:34:54):
I don't the next time he makes one will be
the first. So if he's sitting there saying that's BS.

Speaker 2 (01:35:00):
I sh'd say someone was starstruck. That's not an excuse,
that's a fact. Zach Zarba was that night. Get it together, man,
you're an NBA official back like you want their autograph.

Speaker 3 (01:35:09):
He had a bad crew that night, Zach. Yeah, but
he was part of the reason it was bad too.
He was trying to, I think, compensate for them by saying, well,
maybe if we're all bad, they won't notice.

Speaker 1 (01:35:19):
Well, you're right, they were two G leaguers at best,
but no, like when you can see during the course
of a game. And by the way, he was exactly
right on this particular play he said that's BS and
he didn't say B or S.

Speaker 2 (01:35:32):
It wasn't even Wednesday at four thirty. I know, like
he was like, that's not a foul. What obviously like
it was?

Speaker 1 (01:35:39):
It was created contact where the defender has no prayer
of doing anything because you're fouling him.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
You're initiating the contact.

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
And you said you just said, you know, the foul
stopped getting called that way. This is not unprecedented. We
know about it right here in Houston they actually changed
the rules because of something James Harden was doing. If
James Harden wasn't fouling other players, and I don't really
think he was, I think he was just manipulating the
typical course of action in a defender being on him

(01:36:10):
at any point in the floor, then Sga, who is
fouling the opposition. That's absolutely got to be looked at
this offseason and changes have to be made as to
how officials. You always hear that term, Well, they're looking
at this this season of all the other season, Yeah,
point of emphasis. What about all the other seasons you
did not make it a point of emphasis? Why did
you not do it?

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
Then? Like, if it's a foul, it's a foul, and
if it's an offensive foul, it's an offensive foul. I
guarantee you if Sga gets three offensive fouls in the
first half tonight, he'll change the way he's playing. Two
of the top twenty eight attempts and free throws per
game this year will be on the court tonight. Rockets.
Kevin Durant is twenty eighth and Shay is fourth.

Speaker 1 (01:36:52):
Wait, he has another player in front of him now, Luca, Yes,
the euro trash that plays for Portland.

Speaker 3 (01:36:59):
Yes again, and for the second day in a row,
he makes a appearance on the show Lebron Though he
makes an appearance every day, yesterday's four segment worthy appearance
on the show Be Honest.

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
Oh he was four segments yesterday. Yes, I thought it
was just three too many. Yeah. Well, and he doesn't
make free throws very well, does he?

Speaker 3 (01:37:21):
Sixty five percent of them go in For a big man,
that's not actually a bad number. That's awful and embarrassing.

Speaker 1 (01:37:27):
It is awful for a normal player, but for a
big man's it's run of the mill.

Speaker 3 (01:37:32):
Oh you're but you're better than shock at this? Come on, yeah,
was the best awful exactly, So don't give him this.
You're giving you an excuse hate him for.

Speaker 2 (01:37:43):
Then what they always say about that?

Speaker 1 (01:37:45):
Right, Well, they're missing free throws because it would be
like if you were to take a tennis ball and
try to shoot it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
Learn.

Speaker 3 (01:37:50):
Does Wenby have small hands? I don't know, he's regular
seven footer hands. He probably has small hands, though, I mean,
come on, he can make them Yao. You just said
can make them? Why can't he? Why are you giving
him an excuse? He's not good at it. Why can't
he make threes because he's not good at it? It's
okay to be bad at something, even be a good player.
He is a bad three point shooter. Russell Westbrook an
awful three point shooter, except when he plays a rocky, honest,

(01:38:12):
awful free throw shooter. You'd get ten points a game
if you can make more of him, but he can't.
Like foul A Janis is almost a strategy, which goes
back to why this is so excruciating with SGA rockety,
he can't hit them tonight? Yeah, almost ninety percent, but
not as good as KD.

Speaker 1 (01:38:31):
The thing about him is though he is a likable guy,
otherwise he's not. He carries himself well. I have every
reason to root for a guy like SGA, but I can't.

Speaker 2 (01:38:39):
That's fine. No one's asking you to good let no
one's asking you too. Why would we do that?

Speaker 1 (01:38:45):
That would be a bad idea? All right again? Texans
New England Kamari Lassiter actually was asked about Jalen Peatree's
Guardian cap, and honestly, what did you say about? Like
Nico Collins should start wearing this because of what he's
starting to deal with more and more too late.

Speaker 3 (01:39:07):
And I don't mean that harshly. I mean what I
said yesterday. What are any of these players waiting for?
I guarantee you they have a reason that they believe
and their team believes, and I guess the doctors believe
is a sound reason. It's uncomfortable, it's heavy. I don't
like how it looks our logos not prominently enough to display.

Speaker 2 (01:39:25):
Whatever your reasons are.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
Well, I don't know what many of these players, every
wide receiver, every defensive back, every running back. I mean
when should I stop? Why they should all? Here's this.
Do you wear a knee brace? Do you wear shoulder
pads and they're only protecting your knee and your shoulder?
Do you sleep on a pillow at night? This is

(01:39:46):
protecting your brain?

Speaker 9 (01:39:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:39:48):
Eh, I don't dispute it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:51):
All right, we'll continue here on a Thursday edition of
the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety signature segment is next.

Speaker 2 (01:39:57):
What's up with that? What's up with that? What's up
with that? What's up?

Speaker 7 (01:40:07):
I say up?

Speaker 2 (01:40:12):
Who's that?

Speaker 3 (01:40:15):
Time to make your way to Toyta Center If you're
ac so, we'll take you the rest of the way
and we'll also have Rockets launchpad for you. It is Thursday,
so it's time for our signature segment.

Speaker 2 (01:40:25):
What's up with that?

Speaker 3 (01:40:27):
The second most recent coach firing in the NFL was
John Harbaugh. Mike Tomlin, well, technically the last coach firing,
because well, coach Tomlin wasn't fired, I should say coach
departure was Coach Harbaugh and coach Tomlin.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Made it nine openings. We're back to eight.

Speaker 3 (01:40:46):
Tomlin's not likely to fill any of them, but we're
back to eight, not yet officially. The amount of bickering
going on over the hiring of John Harbaugh in New
York to be the new Giants head coach is kind
of funny. Happens a lot happens a lot in the
off season for baseball, with all the breaking news. He
had it first, he was on it and on a

(01:41:06):
sniping back and forth. But reports that John Harball was
going to be the next Giants coach, well, the deal's
not official yet. Whether they're working towards a deal, they're
in constant communication, negotiating for a conclusion. He's already hiring
a staff. He's the coach of the New York Giants.
You can media in New York or national media by

(01:41:27):
all means, I'm sure it will enhance your the view
that your boss has of you if you stand up
for yourself with the other media members or ESPN or
NFL network will love you even more if you demand
everybody respect that you had this part of the story
that every single person had, that covers the team had.
But this tiny detail that is of no significance, keep on,

(01:41:47):
keep it on. But that is Domino number one. This
as soon as he got let go, he was the
best coach available, and he would have his choosing of
where he wanted to go. And I think we should
find it interesting where he chose to go best situation
that was available to him was not the best situation
available to everybody else, because the Baltimore situation is excellent.

(01:42:10):
I don't know about how long you'll be there, how
long Lamar Jackson will be great, but I do know
you're walking into a team that has the best chance
to individually be great. There's probably a little competition in
the division, a little, but not much. Cincinnati kept their
head coach despite having a terrible season and injury problems
with quarterback. Cleveland's looking for a new head coach Pittsburgh
now looking for a head coach, and they beat you

(01:42:32):
because of a field goal on the last play of
the game to win the division, very winnable division, and
that's all it takes to get to the playoffs in
the NFL. His situation now is in New York. Chose
to hitch his wagon with a lot of power. He's
obviously capable and will be allowed to kind of put
his staff together any which way he sees fit. Joe

(01:42:54):
Shane the remaining GM, He's already on the hot seat.
If Harbor doesn't force him out at his own timeline, well,
then if things don't go well, he's not getting fired.
Joe Shane's getting fired, and he'll be able to guide
them in their GM search to whomever he wants. He
is also saying yes to the Jackson Dart era, and

(01:43:15):
I think it's pretty interesting considering the style of play
he has, and I know rookies aren't supposed to win
no matter how much they play. He played a ton
this year, even with his injuries, even with his propensity
for taking on unnecessary hits and the concussions that go
along with it. But they didn't win pretty much at all.
This year, well, the very end room their draft position

(01:43:35):
just a little bit. They're in a division with Philadelphia,
who's going to be firing Nick Stiriani next year.

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
They're in a.

Speaker 3 (01:43:42):
Division with the Commanders. Probably aren't that tied to Dan Quinn.
His future is totally tied to Jadeen Daniels. If Jaden
Daniels is healthy, they have a chance to win. I
think if Jayden Daniels is not, they're going to lose,
just like they did this year. And the Cowboys I
don't think shot and really in any danger. But he's
already had to be the head coach one year in

(01:44:06):
looking for a new DC. I don't think it's wrong
to fire him, but it's usually not good when you're
the new head coach and one year in with you
the new DC. Granted, I don't really think it was
his guy. And that's a little bit different about what's
going on in Dallas, because there aren't really If Jimmy
Johnson's not your head coach, if Bill Parcel's is not
your head coach, even with Mike McCarthy as head coach,
Jerry Jones has so much say over all that goes

(01:44:28):
on there. I don't really think he's in danger. But
can you win in New York quickly if you're the Giants? Yes,
Molique Neighbors missed almost the entire season. I think Cam
Skataboo is somebody you can consider a top plus player
on your offense. And I'd feel pretty good about Jackson
Dart the football player, the quarterback. I would feel exceptionally

(01:44:53):
like Mike McDaniel in Miami with Tua about him as
a healthy football player. I can't believe they paid to
it for that reason alone. He's gonna get hurt again.
It's almost a guarantee because of his concussion history, and
the same is true for Dart.

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
May be worse.

Speaker 3 (01:45:13):
Tua would keep getting hurt because he doesn't know how
to get tackled. He didn't know how to get out
of harm's way. He was putting himself in dangerous positions
as a thrower. Dart's putting himself in difficult positions and
troubling physical position because he thinks he's a running back.
He thinks he's as big as the guys that are
hitting him, or as capable of taking hits as anybody

(01:45:33):
else on his offense. And that's not good for your
quarterback Anthony Richardson is humongous and he shouldn't be putting
himself in that position. Cam Newton humongous, and he and
the Panthers said, well, we're gonna take advantage of it
to your personal detriment. You're gonna pile a bunch of

(01:45:54):
yards or just score a bunch of touchdowns. You're gonna
be arguably the most capable short yardage play quarterback or
running back in the entire league.

Speaker 2 (01:46:03):
So we might as well use while we have it.

Speaker 3 (01:46:05):
Guess why Cam Newton's not a ten to twelve fourteen
year quarterback. You're honestly looking at the same thing with
a much smaller, less capable of taking those hits, Jackson Dart.
So that's a little bit of a risk for coach Harbaugh.
But I think this situation, if you look at all
the other ones around the league and kind of look
at the openings, what might make sense and where you
can really have your say, I don't think there's much

(01:46:27):
maybe not even much argument for there being a better one.
And all the other head coaching interviews that consistently gone,
I mean, I don't know when Titans, when the Titans
are gonna stop and I feel like I want to
rip them for it, but you shouldn't gonna. They're gonna
interview fifteen sixteen twenty coaches, most of whom have head
coaching experience, But why not. It's not like you're clueless,

(01:46:49):
which I think is the viewpoint everybody has because it's
the Titans, and maybe it's even true. But you can't
interview head coaches when you have one. You can't bring
all these guys and their eye ideas about your team,
about the NFL, about whatever you want to ask him
about unless you need one. So take advantage of it.
I'm all for it. Actually, interview all the guys you want.

(01:47:11):
You might find the guy, and then you just tell him, Look,
this is our only opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:47:17):
You're our guy.

Speaker 3 (01:47:17):
We already have these three other interviews set up and
we just want to hear what they have to say.
And I feel bad for them. Now, don't say anything.
We're gonna bring him in anyway. This will be over
in forty eight hours, and then we'll bring you back
for our second interview. Well, we'll make a big parade
of it. You're our guy, We're hiring you. You're the man.
Don't go on any other interviews. Don't say anything about this.

(01:47:37):
Trust me, here's the contract. Don't sign it, don't make
don't let your agent leaked word. Take advantage of the
opportunity to do it now. It is amazing and I
think it probably inevitable, and we just weren't paying attention.
I know I wasn't paying attention. You got all these
coaches getting fired after one year. You had all these
coaching openings, nine of them this Now take that back three, four,

(01:48:02):
five years and add it all up. Everybody that's getting
interviewed practically is a former NFL head coach now because
there's so many of them, because they're getting cycled through
so fast. And I think we're gonna see this nine
opening cycle. More than half of the head coaching hirings
this cycle will be coaches that have been head coaches before.

Speaker 2 (01:48:23):
We'll keep it tally for.

Speaker 3 (01:48:24):
You back here on the A team a few more
seconds before you transition to Rockets basketball, I'll have the
Rockets launch bad for you, getting you set for Rockets
and thundered a little bit earlier. Tip tonight National Television
will have it for you. We obviously have it for
you right here, your home for Rockets Basketball, Sports Talk

(01:48:44):
seven to ninety. A little bit after six thirty, they'll
tip it off, so Rockets Countdown will begin at six
ACNMT will have that for you over at Toyota Center.

Speaker 2 (01:48:52):
I'll be back with you on Rockets Basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:48:54):
Tomorrow evening another National TV selection and the second game
of a doublehead, so we'll be on even later Tomorrow night,
an eight thirty tip against Minnesota. Three of the next
four games for the Rockets are against three of the
few teams ahead of them in the Western Conference standings.
Tonight with OKC, Tomorrow with Minnesota, and the Tuesday finale
to the five game homestand when the San Antonio Spurs

(01:49:16):
come to town. Got the Pels on Sunday after the
Texans game. Two o'clock kickoff for the Texans, six o'clock
tip off for the Houston Rockets on Sunday, so it'd
be a fun day. We only had a brief conversation
about baseball today and that was all about the upcoming
announcement for the Hall of Fame. Tuesday of next week,

(01:49:36):
they'll make the announcement on who has been selected for
induction into the Hall of Fame from the voters it's
possible it's only Carlos Beltron. It's possible Andrew Jones joins,
but it's pretty likely nobody else is really in the
running based on some of the returns. Ryan Tibodau always
puts together is Hall of Fame tracker, and that's how
it's tracking. Although he's got a very very small number

(01:49:58):
of the total votes tabulated to date, and usually a
lot of them come in over the next three, four,
five days, so that'll change a little bit. But Andy
Pettitt's probably going to come up short again. And I
know they're not currently on the ballot, so I hope
this doesn't confuse people. So Andy Pettitt continues to get
more and more support each year he's on the ballot,

(01:50:19):
and he's probably gonna finish fifty five, fifty eight, sixty
percent this year. And there's zero question on whether or
not he used illegal substances performance enhancing substances to pitch
Major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:50:36):
He's said he has.

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
He gave us his reasons for why he used HGH,
et cetera, and he viewed it more as I was
only trying to get healthy so I could get back
to pitching. It doesn't really matter why you're using it.
It's not legal to use it. But he admitted it,
he said it, he talked about it. He wasn't really
even admitting to it so much like we think you did, well,

(01:50:58):
yeah I did, he just matter actually kind of said it.
And so Roger Clemens has denied being involved in the
use of all this stuff, and obviously it was a
much bigger deal and got him yelling at people, got
rusty hard in defending him. He got him going back
and forth with maca macname and all that stuff. So
we know that Andy used, and we think we know

(01:51:19):
that Roger used. He's just said he hasn't. So why
are you voting for one of them and not the other?
And why is the one you're voting for not as good?
I don't understand that, And that's what we're gonna continue
to see. Clements has dropped off the ball because he's
ten years on it and he never got closed to induction.
And Pettitt has got more a couple more years left

(01:51:40):
to see if he can. And I really just don't
understand it. I Mean, they're not even in the same
league when it comes to pitching. I think everybody knows that,
and Roger Clemens is one of the I don't know
fifteen best people to ever pick up a baseball and
throw it at the major league level.

Speaker 2 (01:51:53):
You can now debate why that was.

Speaker 3 (01:51:55):
And if you think that matters, I mean, that's fine,
But then you can't also voting for a lesser player,
much much lesser player and longtime teammate, nice guy. I
don't understand that at all. Is it because you like
him and you don't like Roger, because that's sure what
it sounds like, and that's a pretty awful way to
do things. And is it because you think the integrity

(01:52:16):
of somebody who's acknowledged it and somebody who won't. And
again that means where I don't know if you have
enough proof to say he did. I don't really understand that.
I could use a help on a few things here
and there. Maybe that's one of them, but I don't
think any pettit's going to get in. So all we'll
have to, I guess, discuss or complain about if it's
worthy of complaining about.

Speaker 2 (01:52:36):
Is why do they vote totals go the way that
they do.

Speaker 3 (01:52:39):
How does someone who gets and I'm not necessarily saying him,
but there's other on about like Andrew Jones, for instance,
how does the voting public voting groups public's a bad
word because they're baseball writers Associated of America earned the
right to vote by covering baseball for ten plus years.
How do they view Andrew Jones' career For two consecutive

(01:52:59):
first two years on the ballot, and seven percent of
the voter say yes, Andrew Jones is a Hall of Famer,
and ninety two to ninety three percent of the voters
say no, Andrew Jones is not a Hall of Fame
baseball player. But because he's on the ballot again and
again and again and again and again. This is nine
times on the ballot. Two years he got less than

(01:53:22):
eight percent of the vote. Last year he got sixty
six percent of the vote, same old thing every year.

Speaker 2 (01:53:29):
He didn't play any more games.

Speaker 3 (01:53:31):
The statistics haven't changed so dramatically with what people have
access to. We actually didn't pay attention to a lot
of the ops and advanced numbers that we have now,
but they've been available throughout his entire time on the ballot.
Just makes no sense if the voting panelists have changed

(01:53:53):
quite a bit, but not enough to see this kind
of change just the way things are, and there's guys
that will turn it about with four play on it.
And I look at him like that sounds about right.
We want this to I think we want this to
be an exclusive club. We want this to mean excellence
beyond excellence. Not you were really really good for a
long time. And I think there are a lot of

(01:54:14):
players who are getting a lot of support that were
just really good for a long time, not the elite players,
not constantly in the top five for MVP voting, meeting.
These are the five best players in the game right now,
and you're one of them in your league, So one
of the top ten. That's a Hall of Fame player.
Maybe don't always have to finish there, but never almost
never finishing there is That's a tough one. Andrew Jones

(01:54:35):
an elite defensive player. I will say there is a
good reason to overlook some of his far less than
Hall of Fame credentials as an offensive player, because he
was so good defensively it should matter. It does impact games. Heck,
if we're talking about how much Jake Myers impacts games,
I think you can at least do the same for
Andrew Jones. Who I think most would consider markedly better

(01:54:56):
chase down balls similarly, but Jake's not throwing any buddy out,
and obviously Andrew Jones could do that, just one particular player.
It's not a very good ballot. And it amazes me
how many people's ballots are being turned in with ten
spots filled. There are definitely not ten Hall of Fame
caliber players on the twenty twenty six Hall of Fame ballot,

(01:55:17):
and there's I just keep seeing them over and over again,
all ten spots are filled, and then they get into
this lame argument later why I didn't put him in
this year because I had too many other spots. I
had to give it to somebody else. Next year he'll
get it, and our next year he'll get it. Man,
figure out the difference between a Hall of Fame player
and a really good player. At some point, just a
little bit of a a not important super rant only

(01:55:40):
other thing on baseball is probably worthy of getting into
it at some point. Is what is happening with Kyle
Tucker y had Alex Bregman introduced in Chicago today head
the whole family out there. Honestly, I can't imagine having
a career where You've gotten to play in Houston and
win two titles, You've got to play in Boston. Now
you're getting to play in Chicago. I mean Boston and

(01:56:02):
Chicago from a fan standpoint and the love of baseball.
For a guy like that to play both of those
two cities, get paid forty million dollars to do it
in Boston for one year and now get a guaranteed
one hundred and seventy five with deferrals to do it
for five years in Chicago. Just killing it, absolutely killing it.
A love would have loved for him to be a
permanent Houston astro, and I think his legacy and the

(01:56:23):
popularity would have been through the roof. Also, wouldn't have
had to change his number, which he is now doing.
Nic Nico Horner is number two. He's gonna wear number
three for the Chicago Cubs.

Speaker 2 (01:56:34):
Is there a.

Speaker 3 (01:56:35):
Team really willing to give fifty million dollars a year
to Kyle Tucker? And is that team the New York
Mets kind of looks that way.

Speaker 4 (01:56:45):
Beware the A team On Sports Talk seven ninety, all.

Speaker 2 (01:56:53):
Right, let's do what we're supposed to do.

Speaker 3 (01:56:54):
Let's talk some football here on the eight Team Football
at five here on the program.

Speaker 2 (01:56:59):
It is Thursday.

Speaker 3 (01:57:00):
We are two days out from the NFL playoffs resuming
with the doubleheader on Saturday, and of course, the very
much anticipated seventh trip to the divisional round for the
Houston Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:57:12):
They have not won any of these.

Speaker 3 (01:57:13):
Six previous games, two of those losses coming in the
CJ Stroud Demiko Rans Will Anderson era. Two more of
those losses coming against the New England Patriots prior to
this era of Texans football. Also, prior to this era
of Patriots football, Mike Vrabel wasn't the head coach then,
Derek May obviously wasn't the quarterback then, and most of

(01:57:33):
the other things have changed. Wanted to get more into that,
and there were a couple of things I pointed out
earlier in the week and on social media, and we're
somewhat of a talking point about this particular game as
it relates to familiarity now. Demiko Ryans obviously has been
with this team as their head coach for just three years.
Mike Vrabel has been with their team as a head

(01:57:56):
coach just this one year. They know a little bit
about each other from the time spent in Tennessee. The
last year in Tennessee for coach Rabel, was the first
year for Demiko here in Houston. And I think because
of the manner in which their careers and then into
coaching and a couple of stops they made, I think
they're pretty familiar with how each does things. I think
there's a tremendous amount of respect for both of them.

(01:58:18):
It happened to both be former NFL linebackers now not
only coaching in the NFL, but coaching for the team
that most people remember them playing for and that they
played most of their career for. They each had stops elsewhere,
but this is the one they are most known for
and the one that I think pretty safe to say
meant the most to them. Very specific why Vrabel wanted
to go back and why they wanted to have him back,

(01:58:38):
just as it was the same that Demiko Ryans wanted
to come back and they wanted him to come back.
And there have been some pretty positive things said by
both about each other in their meetings with the media
this week in advance of this matchup. Some other things
that we brought up I wanted to get into a
few of those. The coaching familiarity is the first one,
I don't know that this is a big deal to either,

(01:59:00):
but I absolutely believe they will act like it is
when they talk about it, because they want the other
team to still be unsure of exactly what's there. And
it's two different things actually, one's on the coaching side
and one is on the getting information about the coaching side.
The OC for the Patriots, of course, is Josh McDaniels.
We've obviously talked about how many different parts of the

(01:59:22):
Texans organization, football staff, et cetera. Coaching staff is Patriots based,
Patriots born. Where did they learn the ropes as a
coach in the NFL? They learned it in New England?
How many different coaches did that? And specific to Josh McDaniels,
how many specific coaches did that under Josh McDaniels. Well,

(01:59:47):
the count is three, the EXF three offensive coaches who
became coaches with the New England Patriots at the NFL level.
Nick Cayley was a coaching assistant there and then was
the ti end's coach, all under offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
Texans offensive line coach Cole Popovich coaching assistant then to

(02:00:08):
assistant running back coach, then to the co offensive line coach,
all under Josh McDaniels. The Texans new senior offensive assistant
this year Jerry Schaplinsky, coaching assistant and then assistant quarterback
coach under Josh McDaniels. Jerry is now a senior offensive
assistant here in Houston. Frank Ross was also there. He

(02:00:29):
was a scout with the Patriots when McDaniels was the
OC and Nick Kassario was clearly with the Patriots throughout
this entire time. Probably worth noting, and it's not because
he's his brother. Ben McDaniels is on the Texans coaching staff.
Yes he's close to his brother. Yes he knows a
lot about his coaching career. But other than these two

(02:00:49):
important years in Denver when he was on Josh McDaniel's
coaching staff, because Josh McDaniels was the head coach there
in Denver, was an assistant with him there those two years,
probably noteworthy. He was in coaching meetings, he was an
offensive meetings, he was in quarterback meetings. He understands the

(02:01:09):
things that Josh likes to do, and so do these
other coaches. I don't think Ben being his brother has
a whole lot to do with it, because again, if
you're not inside the team, you don't work with the team.
If you're not on the team, if you're not a
coach with him. I mean, yes, you know generically what
he likes to do, but it's not like that, and
they all study the same film. But I do think
there is an element of there's some familiarity, extreme familiarity

(02:01:32):
with Josh McDaniels that was brought to the Q and
a session with coach of Rabel earlier this week. His
thoughts on how that might impact the game or how
it might play in two things.

Speaker 8 (02:01:43):
Well, if they know what Josh is calling, or they
know what we're calling, then they got to jump on us.

Speaker 3 (02:01:50):
He was pretty uninterested in the topic and addressed it
as such, whether they or not they really truly believe that,
and they're going about their preparation in a manner that
suggests they have a jump on us. So we have
to counter that. We have to be prepared for that.
That's part of the gamesmanship of his all of it all.

(02:02:11):
Do the Texans really feel like they have information? You
better believe they do. Do they think the Patriots know
they do? And thus they're gonna do things. Everybody's playing
a guessing game at this point, and I think it's
an interesting factor. I don't think it plays much of
a role in it, because if you know how to
play football and what works best for your team and
the plays you like to run well, either you're going
to use that to your advantage by saying they've seen

(02:02:32):
this look. They've been in meetings with me when I've
presented this look, and they're going to be looking for
this look and expecting this to come out of it,
So let's do this. It works both ways. You might
fool them, but it's not something you normally do. It's
not something maybe you've even practiced often enough to feel
that comfortable doing. Just something to consider. The other thing
to consider is why is Darryl Taylor on the practice

(02:02:53):
squad for the Patriots. He spent the entire season on
the Texans roster, much of it's spent in Unfortunately for Taylor,
and I was not able to play for them down
the stretch. When his time and practice window had evaporated,
they signed him, they put him on the roster, and
then shortly thereafter, when Jalen Reid needed to be put

(02:03:13):
on the roster for the playoff game. That was the
player that they weigh So adding him a player who
spent an entire year in all the defensive meetings he
was in, and obviously playing all the snaps he did
in practice and in training camp against the Texans offense
and what they liked to do, you would think there's
something there. The question was asked about what was the
thought to bringing Taylor into the Patriots.

Speaker 8 (02:03:36):
Well, we had had conversations with him in free agency.
I ended up going somewhere else, and then when he
became available, well, we got together and had a conversation
and were able to bring him in.

Speaker 3 (02:03:48):
Couldn't be more bread and butter with that answer, nuts
and bolts with that answer, it's a football decision. I
actually think it is, so. I don't even think he
had a stretch too far to describe it as such
a player that were interested in free agency?

Speaker 2 (02:04:02):
Can I believe it? Yes?

Speaker 3 (02:04:03):
With their depth of defensive end at edge rusher, I
can absolutely believe it. Did Taylor think there was a
better opportunity here. Do you think his fit in this
defense was one that would be very advantageous for it?

Speaker 2 (02:04:14):
Yeah? I bet you.

Speaker 10 (02:04:15):
He did.

Speaker 3 (02:04:15):
I bet you he figured and I did too. I
thought he would be their number three edge. I thought
he'd spent the year as a rotational defensive end, and
both Barnett and Dylan Horton, who were the actual rotational
defensive end. Especially you're talking about twenty twenty five snaps
a game, and that's what I thought he was brought
here to do.

Speaker 2 (02:04:34):
Just didn't really work out that way. Injuries were part
of it.

Speaker 3 (02:04:37):
And depth chart of other players who just simply gave
the Texans a little bit more when they were out
there were a part of it. So yeah, I think
football wise and the depth that the Patriots have on
edge is in need of support. So not only is
he on their practice squad, I think there's a reasonable
chance we're going to see him elevated for this game
and play a small role, small on field role against

(02:04:58):
the Texans this week. We shall see just a couple
of things that are a little bit behind the behind
the lines of what these two teams are preparing for
this upcoming week. Gave you the injury situation for the
Texans remained unchanged from yesterday. That's probably not super significant
in the case of Denico Autry and Trent Brown. I
still don't have any reasonablieve based on what I believe

(02:05:20):
I know about their situations, they should be good to go.
Role for Denico Autry remain unchanged, playing both inside, probably
the majority on the inside at d tackle, but on
occasion part of a five man line, and Trent Brown's
gonna start and take every snap at right tackle unless
something has changed or something does change. I think that
is still the plan, and hopefully that's the case. It's

(02:05:41):
the best five man group they put out there all year,
Brown and Ursery at tackle, Ingram and Howard at guard,
and obviously Jake Andrews at center. So hopefully they can
put their best five out there and they'll still play
tackle eligible constantly no matter what their starting five looks like.
If they're starting five includes one of you know, Blake Fisher,
let's say, which it won't because Ursery is fine, then

(02:06:02):
they would have to go that route, but they will
still do it. And the other two players that did
not practice today same as yesterday, were unfortunately Nico Collins
and Justin Watson. They're not out of concussion protocol. They've
not seen the field practice field this week. There's only
one more practice day and two days of completed practices
are part of filling completion of the concussion protocol. I

(02:06:23):
don't think until tomorrow's injury report will get anything official
from the Texans, and even then they don't have to
at that point. But I think both of those players
are unavailable for Sunday, and I hope that their individual
concussion situations are not dire for them personally, and hopefully
these symptoms aren't too traumatic, aren't too difficult, aren't something

(02:06:46):
that will stay with them too long football or otherwise.
I mean, there's only a handful of weeks left in
the football season, regardless the game this week, a game
next week, and a super Bowl not long after if
you win, but much more importantly, whether or not this
is something that is affecting them dramatically. We also mentioned
Christian Gonzalez left the field Saturday or excuse me, Sunday

(02:07:07):
night in the Patriots game because he had to get
checked for a concussion, and Mike Vrabel said Monday morning
he was in concussion protocol. He's going to be cleared.
It looks like before game time practice yesterday on limited basis,
no contact practice today listed as a full participant, same
no contact jersey. But that means he's completed his two practices,

(02:07:28):
and likely that also means most of the other stages
have been completed. It's not a guarantee, it's not a definitive,
but it is trending in that direction, which obviously also
means the health of that player is trending in that
direction most importantly.

Speaker 2 (02:07:39):
But these are huge, huge factors.

Speaker 3 (02:07:41):
As you're talking about the number one corner on one side,
you're talking about the number one receiver on the other side.
The Texans have played without Nico Collins a few times
each year twice this year. One was the final game
of the season, so it was really only a half
of the game with the first team offense out there.
But the San Francisco game was the other one that
he missed this year, and it was one of the CJ.
Stroud's finest games of the season. You might be able

(02:08:04):
to argue it was his best game of the season,
not only in who they played against. It's not an
overwhelming defense. It's a very good football team. It's one
of the eight teams still playing football this year. But
CJ going for you know, two hundred and twenty nine
yards a touchdown. Excuse me, three hundred and eighteen yards
that two touchdown game completed, thirty passes, most on the season.

(02:08:24):
I'm not saying they're better without him. They can they
can absolutely handle it without them. They're absolutely a better
team with him. That should not be the reason you
come up short against the Patriots, that Nico Collins was unavailable,
And I do not believe it will be, especially since
I've already given you my prediction and I don't think
they're coming up short at all. As you know here

(02:08:46):
on the A Team, and we will today wrap things
up a little early so I can slide into rockets
countdown coming up at the bottom of the hour. But
as you know on the A Team, you guys have
been listening long enough. We're years and years into this.
Now we have the opportunity to hook you guys up
with some sweet event tickets, concerts, comedians, auto events, and

(02:09:06):
this is one of those such events. We got tickets
to the Automotive Show and they combined it because the
show has been combined Land and See enthusiasts, this is
for you a four pack of tickets to see the
twenty twenty six Houston Automotive Show tickets to get you
into both the auto show and the boat Show. It's
happening at the end of this month January twenty eighth

(02:09:27):
through February first. It's right there at NRG Center. For
more info and to get tickets, you can go to
Houston Autoshow dot com. You also have the opportunity to
win them right here right now. Because you were listening
to the A team today. Something that took place on
the show, a conversation you will know the answer to
if you heard it. It was pretty obvious, it went
on pretty long time, and one of us was pretty

(02:09:47):
irate about it. In the crosshairs of Adam Clanton probably
should be a whole segment or ten every week on
the show. Somebody was in the crosshairs earlier today, and
I had to do with the astros, and had to
do with the whole fame, and it had to do
with in his mind a writer who was a liar
Clinton's words, I said the other side. We actually pushed

(02:10:08):
this out on social media already if you want to
see what that discussion looked like. But our question for
you is at seven one three, two, one two five
seven ninety what writer was in the crosshairs of Adam
Clinton earlier today on The A Team as he wrote
something about uh the astros as it relates to this
year's Hall of Fame ballot seven one three two one

(02:10:30):
two five seven ninety seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. If you're listening earlier on the show,
you absolutely positively have no question who the answer to
that question is. And we can get you set up
with a four packet tickets to the Automotive Show if
you do seven one three two one two five seven
ninety or because you also follow us, like I said,
if you want to just check out Sports Talk seven

(02:10:51):
ninety on our old X platform, you will see the answer.
Hear the answer literally see and hear it right there
on our social media. We teased a little bit earlier
from inside the Texans locker room and also from his
appearance on Good Morning Football. Wanted to hear from Kamari Laster,
one of the not yet officially nicknamed Fantastic Four. But Kayln,

(02:11:15):
Kamari Laster, Derek Stingley Junior, Jalen Petrie, they're fantastic football
players and I'm absolutely down with calling them the fantastic
four filling their roles tremendously well, drawing All Pro consideration
from the voters. Each one of them made it. Derek
Stingley Junior, He's on the first team. Kamari Laster was
not far from making it, but probably should have been

(02:11:37):
closer to draw some first team recognition. Little first team
recognition for both Bulock and Peatrie, but neither landing among
the slot corner list, and there is a spot for
a slot corner on the All Pro AP All Pro list,
and Kaitlin of course at safety. They've helped this defense
score five times in three wild card games. Bullock the

(02:11:58):
last of those five came this past Monday night when
he picked off Aaron Rodgers and got up off the
ground and returned at fifty yards just scarding Aaron Rodgers
on the way to the end zone. Rogers, as a
quarterback not long for tackling, did at least run in
his direction as he got inside the red zone and
inside the ten yard line. He was there to probably

(02:12:20):
put a little bit more into trying to stop him,
but as he approached we look he basically just put
his left arm out and shoved him aside and kind
of sent the old man out of bounce, maybe out
of the NFL and the process. That was the last
play the Aaron Rodgers was on the field for because
they went to Mason Rudolph after that. It was thirty
to six. He actually was asked about that after the game.
We kind of went into the decision of, you know,

(02:12:41):
putting Mason.

Speaker 2 (02:12:42):
Into the game.

Speaker 3 (02:12:43):
I mean, did you ask, you know, to tell them
to take you out or what went on there? He said,
it was thirty to six. It was a perfect answer
to no, not an unreasonable question. But I think that
gives you all you need to know. He might play again,
probably won't be for Pittsburgh. But let's take that trip
into the mind of Kamari Lassiter. We'll start with what

(02:13:04):
he had to say earlier this week in the Texans
locker room, quite simply about what makes this defense play
the way they do.

Speaker 11 (02:13:13):
There's a thin line between the internal competition. You just
want to see your brother he so, I mean, every
time they make a play, I'm the happiest person along
with the other three guys, just because I know, like, dang,
he just made a play. But then also it's like, ooh,
they just turned me up, and I know he wants
me to go make a play too, So it's just
like it's different teed like, let's see who can go
out there and make the most plays.

Speaker 5 (02:13:31):
And after the game.

Speaker 3 (02:13:33):
We talk about now they did that after the game
literally on the field when we kind of described that
social media video coming from the Texans social media, when
all four of them, Stingley, Petrie, Block and the aforementioned
and the man you heard from Kamari last were all
talking about all these things that took place in that game,
and the numbers from each of them as the advanced

(02:13:53):
stats next gen stats put out there from this game,
that they are everything they're advertised for. But as they
will tell you, as ziz al Shire will tell you,
as Debiko Ryans will tell you, will Daniel you name it,
none of this stuff matters unless you go out and
do it again. None of that stuff matters unless you
prove that to the Patriots, prove that to the NFL
on Sunday afternoon, and then the same thing will apply

(02:14:13):
when they play next Sunday. If they play next Sunday,
same kickoff time at two o'clock for the AFC Championship game.
You got to go out and prove it or all
the numbers behind it don't really matter at all. Lasser
also made an appearance on Good Morning Football earlier today
and got into specifics about Will Anderson daneil Hunter. This
defense obviously feeds off one another, and most specifically, you're

(02:14:35):
going to be able to cover usually for only so long,
no matter how good you are, and the work of
the guys up front, your front seven, your front four,
your edge rushers, they obviously their performance goes a long
way till towards what the secondary might do. And honestly,
because this team is so talented, specifically because the corners
are so talented, it isn't the only reason. And they
do cover very well, it's not only because the defensive

(02:14:58):
line has been doing what they're doing both against the
in the past for situations.

Speaker 2 (02:15:02):
They are legitimately that good.

Speaker 3 (02:15:04):
It's the best cornerback duo in my opinion in the NFL,
and it's the best edge rushing duo in my opinion
in the NFL. It's hard to get one of those
on your team. Somebody's got to have the bed Jets
rushing duo, somebody's got to have the best cornerback duo.
But they're not usually elite, both of them, and they're
not both on the same team, and my estimation they are.

(02:15:24):
This is Kaari Lasser talking about the work being done
up front on the edge by Will Anderson and Daniel Hunter.

Speaker 5 (02:15:30):
I mean they're unstoppable. I mean you look at Will.
Will refuses to be stopped with any play, Like you
watch this tape, you watch me practice, you watch them
from in the building. He's undeniable. And then you mix
him with Daniel. Daniel's got a crazy bag and then
he's a freaking nature Like I was trying to get
his workout regimend a couple months ago, but he wouldn't
tell me. So I want to ask his mom and them,

(02:15:50):
but they wouldn't tell me either. But I mean, you
just mix those guys like you see those guys in
D line, and I mean they just they're one two punt.

Speaker 2 (02:15:58):
I feel like they're unstoppable, Like there's.

Speaker 5 (02:15:59):
No tell them when they can get a sack or
how many secks they can get in the game.

Speaker 2 (02:16:03):
We've said what he said before.

Speaker 3 (02:16:05):
It means a whole lot more when you hear a
player on his team or just a player in general.
In the NFL say it's the bag. Nobody has it
that Daniel Hunter has. He's not like other edge rusher.
He doesn't play the way they play. He does things
they can't do. He does things they won't do. He
does things he's worked on. So he is a unique animal,
the way he rushes, the even the steps that he takes,

(02:16:27):
the moves he puts on. Steelers have a good defensive line,
are good offensive line, They have good tackles, they have
good players. They were a good offensive line this year,
and they're just you know, four or five plays in
a game that he can make just about any player
in the NFL. Any tackle in the NFL he's going
up against, look stupid looks silly have to say in
their own mind, where did this guy go? How did

(02:16:48):
I got not even get a hand on him? With
some of the spin moves he makes. These are unorthodox moves,
and they're also moves and techniques that he's put so
much time and effort into he's been able to perfect
them and can fuse offensive players with what's coming their way.
We've had I think a lot of luck and fortune
here in Houston with who has come through at that position.

(02:17:10):
There's some top level players. But these four in particular,
and five because I'm including Anderson, are very very different.
The three that came before, the two that are here now.
The two that are here now could very easily go
down as the two best edge rushers the Texans have
ever had. You'd be hard pressed to say they aren't already.
The three that preceded them at a high level, I

(02:17:31):
think are pretty noteworthy in that they're so so different.
Mario Williams, JJ, Watt, and Jadevian Clowney. It's a number
one overall pick, a number one overall pick and JJ,
and I know JJ played a lot inside. Heck, Jadavian
played inside here too, because at the time, with who
they had running their defense, they were smart. Every team

(02:17:54):
should be this smart. They're not going to be able
to block them on the interior either. And when we
use both of them in the way that we do
all across the line, he's not only lining up here,
he's not only lining up there, He's lining up all
across the line, and you don't know how to handle
it and having both of those guys on the same
team at the same time when truly they're elite edge rushers,
but are so good with their skills, Jadavian Clowney included

(02:18:18):
that they're just hard to block no matter what's coming.
What ended up with Jadavion's career, he turned out to
be as I don't know, maybe even better at stopping
the run. Even look this year at some of Jadavion's
number as a Cowboy, he one of the most from
a percentage standpoint, one of the most disruptive defensive linemen
in the NFL, again in a smaller role with another

(02:18:40):
new team. But the difference in how they play between
Hunter and Watt and Williams and Anderson and Clowney, it's
amazing and technically they all lined up at the same
position for most of their careers for the very same franchise,
and right now you have two of the best playing
alongside one another, playing on a defense that has not
been disappoint pointed to the point that they shouldn't consider

(02:19:02):
themselves the number one defense in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (02:19:03):
Every day hasn't been a great day.

Speaker 3 (02:19:05):
They need to make sure every day in the playoffs
is a great day, and that's not related to the offense.
If they play great defense, they should win no matter
what offense they have. That's how they see it. Talk
more about that tomorrow. We'll come back next and each
with Rockets launch Pad, getting you ready for the thunder.