Texans win again, Rockets vs. Nuggets, Nico deserves more love

Monday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton react to Houston's big win over the Cardinals, preview tonight's Rockets-Nuggets game, share their thoughts on the Chiefs' season being over, and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right out of the gate.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Do you ever get tired of me coming in here
and saying it's a victory Monday.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
I get tired of it. Yeah, you don't. I didn't.
I didn't do it well. I covered the game. No
one gets tired.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
I I didn't tailgate. I wasn't wearing any Texans gear.
I do live here, and there's people in my family
because they don't work for sports n see, they're fans.
I'm technically you're a fan. You don't really consider it
my victory Monday. But no, I'm not get annoyed by it.
We're talking about the team. It is a victory Monday.
They are enjoying a victory Monday. You could tell how
fired up they were to see us in the locker

(00:33):
room this morning at ten fifteen a m Oh, the
media is coming in.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Man, what can I tell you? You loved it too,
didn't you?

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Monday after a home game, open locker room is usually unnecessary.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah, because you just were in there.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
If I'm covering the team like i'd like to, and
I'm available to cover the team, I was there yesterday
and most of the guys that I needed talked to.
There might be I mean I could have talked to
a few guys today had they been there, because there
are a few things that were because you're working on
more than just yesterday's game. Yeah, I would have been nice,
but I don't expect them to be there anyway. I
just I'm there because it's open. If it's open, you

(01:14):
will be there. I mean, they build it, for all
I know, somebody could have you know. I mean we
did find out something rather unfortunate, not from the player himself,
although he was in the locker room. I said hello
to Mario Edwards, not knowing that a few minutes from then,
Debikoe Ryans would indicate his season was over. He got
hurt in yesterday's game. He tore a peck, left the game,
and it was very late in the game when it happened,

(01:35):
but he is done for the year. So in back
to back weeks, the Texans have lost one of their
rotational settles, case a starter defensive linement.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, and I'm not trying to minimize it at all,
but good lord, half the NFL was injured seemingly yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, two guys, two big guys yep.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
One guy whose team will be in the playoffs and
the other whose team was eliminated from the playoffs while
he would playing in that football game late in Now
they could have scored on the drive and that certainly
could have changed yesterday's outcome. And as we discussed a
week ago before they played the Chiefs, it was in
fact Gardner Minshew. They came in for Patrick Mahomes late

(02:15):
in the game and he kind of wanted the game
to end the same way it did against the Texans. Well,
why don't I just target Travis Kelcey on our last
and final hope drive. Now, he made a bad throw.
The ball got picked off in this instance because he
threw it right to the defender.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
But that was it.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
There are ten teams on the graphic you will see
for those of you that watch the simulcast beginning at three,
the race for the standings the playoffs in the AFC,
there are ten teams listed and for the first time
since I began making it, because I don't make it
at the beginning of the year, Hey check out the seedings.
Texans are zero and one. They're currently tied for thirteenth

(02:50):
in the AFC, but there are only ten teams eligible
for the AFC playoffs now same thing. On the NFC side,
six teams in each conference have been eliminated, and the
Chiefs are one of them with their loss yesterday to
the Chargers. Obviously, they would have been playing without Mahomes
the rest of the season anyway, but the season with
him turned into a six and eight season, which is remarkable.

(03:13):
The Dolphins make the graphic for the first time, but
I will eliminate them tomorrow if they lose tonight. By
the way, and their chances of making the playoffs are
so outrageously thin. They have to go four and oh
and it's like less than a one percent chance even
if they finished ten and seven they will make the playoffs.
Some good stuff on the scenarios for Houston, though, Yeah,

(03:35):
I saw your I saw that tweet. It's gonna be
a full point. That's pretty out of left field. Just
making people aware that it is a possibility. Well, yeah,
if you want to have the off week and the
number one seed in the AFC and you are a
Texans fan, it is still an available scenario. Stranger things
have happened. It takes a lot. Denver doesn't lose pretty much, ever,

(03:55):
and they now have to lose, would have to lose
three straight times. I've got news for you have to
finish in a three way tie at twelve and five
with themselves and whomever wins the AFC East.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
The big bad Jags, and they're awesome quarterback who's all
of a sudden the transcendent guy that we thought he was. Oh,
I'm sorry they were playing The Jets get like there's
all there's nothing wrong with playing. Well, it's granted we
know the competition, but it's not every day that. I mean,
everybody can't be Ryan Fitzpatrick and have a six touchdown day.
But that's what Trevor Lawrence had yesterday. I was not impressed.

(04:27):
It's the freaking Jets. They're tanking. They're trying to get
their number one pick, they're firing coaches. They're so not
trying to tank. Yeah, but if they're really not, their
roster is what it is. They had a bad quarterback
as the starter when the year began. His backup is worse,
and the third stringer. I don't know if you guys
know this, but he's even worse. So they don't have
a chance to win. Well, yeah, but I was told

(04:49):
they don't have a chance to win because they were
playing the Jags, and they're awesome. They're so hot right now.
Oh my gosh, they are gonna be number one seed.
I don't know where you live that. I don't where
on the on the internet.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Do you live, douve All. I mean, I don't.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
I don't even I don't I know they're winning. I
don't see people freaking out about them winning. All we
knew is their end of season's schedule was a joke,
and it is. Well this week, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown games over.
Let's get the next forty five minutes over with. They
had one game remaining on their schedule, and it is
now the game in front of them. It is the
game against the Broncos. They're gonna finish with a game

(05:24):
against Philip Rivers probably and a game against cam Ward
to close out their season. The Texans. It looks like
we'll also see Philip Rivers. He made it through, not
just made it through, and three it is.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
But for that fat guy, good god.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
I kind of tried to tell you guys this when
he was joking about his way. Oh you look at
him throw the ball at practice, and he's way bigger.
If you guys couldn't tell from his visual at the
podium the very first time we saw him, and it
looked I mean I had to I quote tweeted something
that one of the national reporters was covering their game.
So when Philip Rivers was on the field before the game,

(06:00):
he just shot some video and said, Yeah, Philip Rivers
getting ready for his first start in nineteen thousand years
or sixty five hundred days or whatever it was. And
he's wearing one of those pullover short sleeve windbreakers. He's
got notes about the game in his hand, and he's
older than the rest of the team. In other words,
he's a coach. And he literally is a coach because

(06:23):
his team was watching. Yeah, just not for this team.
He coaches kids, which everybody else that he's a contemporary with,
Like it's funny. I should have played the audio last week.
But Shane Steichen, the head coach of the Colts, was asked,
he goes, have you ever had a player on your
team older than you? And he goes, I coached him

(06:44):
with the Chargers, so you know, people get older together.
He was older than me then, just like he's older
than me now, you moron.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
It was I mean, listen, they played great.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
That was one of the best games in my opinion
the Colts have played all against a good opponent in
a very hostile place. Hey, Seattle, you're trying to win
the number one seed in the NFC. You're playing the
Indianapolis Colts, who are fading fast. How many touchdowns you
think you're gonna score a day against them? I'll give
you a hint. It starts with zero. I'm still they
didn't find the end zone the entire day against the
Colts defense.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
That's one of those games where that's another team the
Texans lost to, and I'm like, come on, man.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well they're not a bad day. They got met with
a team that was clearly a little bit more fired
up than usual. I think that happens in sports. A
ton Philip Rivers is starting for us today.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
We have to do more.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
We've got to do more defensively, We've got to make
it much everywhere on theirs. They didn't have a great
day offensively. Seattle had a better day offensively, but the
six field goals, well, they drove down the field enough
times to kick six field goals. The Colts managed to
get their late credit to Philip Rivers for getting him there,
So we'll walk our way around what happened in the
rest of the NFL today. What really happened was nothing

(07:55):
changed in the AFC standings as it relates to Houston,
other than the possibility that one of the divisions that
wasn't already thought to be decided now certainly isn't because
the Bills went over the Patriots. But the Broncos are
still flying high top theirs. We don't really care who
wins the other division. They're going to be the four
seed and they're not very good. And the Texans just
kept pace with all the teams that they were trailing

(08:16):
by one win. They won, the nine and four Bills won,
the nine and four Chargers won, the nine and four
Jaguars won, so they roughly stayed in all the same positions.
But how the Texans did it, obviously, that's fun to
talk about, because we talked about it right here at
the end of the show on Friday. The Texans need
to go out, take the lead and coast. The Texans
need to score on their opening possession, and after the

(08:38):
Cardinals won the toss elected to defer. Texans ran the
ball on first down and they threw a touchdown on
the second play of the game, twelve yards across the
middle to Nico Collins. He takes it the rest of
the way. We had a fifty seven yard touchdown that
looked awfully easy, smooth, effective, and rhythm driven. It was
the first pass of the game and it already looked
like they were in rhythm. And moments later they had

(09:00):
the ball back because Jamal Hill returned on special teams
and forced a fumble on the first kickoff the Cardinals
got to receive. Texans put it to ten to nothing.
Scored seventeen in the first quarter, which I did look
it up. That's the most points they've ever scored in
a first quarter before. They have done that before, but
they've never scored more than that, and it's been almost

(09:21):
fifteen years. So for the last time the Texans scored seventeen,
they clearly coasted from there. They were in a great position.
Was not the greatest day for your defense, their defense,
and you'll hear Demiko o Ryans acknowledge that it was
the first thing that he was asked about today at
his availability.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
So we'll get into that.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
We'll hear from a bunch of guys in the locker
room was obviously in there yesterday. I'll share here Lassiter
a few other guys about Jawar Jordan, another Nick Cassario
draft pick last year, tried to make the team out
as a late round draft pick, ultimately did not, but
then was brought back on the practice squad and has
been up and down on the practice squad a couple

(09:59):
times over the last couple of seasons. And this is
where he was as the Texans went through the mix
and injury, the Chub signing, the Woody Marks ascension, and
now the subsequent injury to Nick Schubb. They signed Cody
Schrader clein mo off waivers last week and then let
him go before they even got to game day, knowing
they were going to elevate j War Jordan. I'm not

(10:19):
sure if they wanted to see if this would push
him or see if they could find something, but I
did think that was something unexpected and he probably wasn't
gonna see nearly the action that he did if Woody
Marks wasn't done after just fifteen snaps.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Although he might have made the play of the game.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
He might have made the play of the game, and
he might have had the ig deletion of the game.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, I think that what took place away from the
actual coverage of the team yesterday, both in his case
and one other item. It's I mean, I have to
get used to it. You guys are definitely used to it.
The coverage of sports by either people who literally have
no idea what they're talking about, or aren't even media members.
There's random people on social media or some people who

(11:03):
do cover the teams. They are making it. They're making
a lot out of nothing, and they make stories out
of nothing because it benefits them, because that is their
whole basis for what it is that they do.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
But conversely, things are left up for interpretation in order
for that to happen.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
With some of the posts these athletes.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Make sometimes, for sure, cryptic rap lyrics be damned for sure.
It is no question Texans forty the terrible Texans offense,
who scored all of the points or there were no
defensive points in there. Yep, they scored forty points. They
have been at forty or more twice this season over fourteen.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
It's gonna happen again next week. By the way, I.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Don't know that they're gonna do that, because if you
are paying any attention to the Eagles Raiders game yesterday,
And I don't think you needed to, certainly not after
the Eagles went up by any scores, because the Raiders
weren't going to score. But did you happen to kind
of take a look at what the Eagles did to
close out that game. Jalen Hurts played one fourth quarter snap.

(12:05):
He threw a touchdown pass on the opening play of
the fourth quarter, so that was it for him. They
led thirty one to nothing, and they were pretty certain
that's how things were going to end. And the last
time they had the football, which was a drive obviously
he was not a part of, was a seventeen play,
eleven minute and twenty two second drive as they handed

(12:25):
it off the last eleven snaps of that drive to
his Saquon Barkley's backup, just to see how fast they
could get this game over. It was one of the
fastest games in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Sty Texans first quarter of them.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
They didn't even score on that seventeen play drive, kept
running it running. They were at the one yard line
on fourth down and there we don't care. We'reag going
to run it again. If he gets in grade if not,
then we'll run the clock out when they finally get
the ball. But that could have been five hundred to nothing.
Actually had a discussion today in the Texans locker room
with some people non players know about the Raiders. You know,

(13:01):
Gino Smith, I just can't he pick it any good?
Does it matter who plays? Like, yes, it matters. Gino
Smith's having a bad season with a bad team with
a rudderless offense. Kenny Pickett just stinks. He's just a
bad player, So playing against him is a lot easier
than playing against Geno Smith, even if Gino's having a

(13:22):
miserable year. Remember three twenty five next week at NRG
Stadium is when the Texans will kick off. There's games
Thursday and Saturday this weekend. There's college football playoff games
Friday and Saturday this weekend. I know it's the holidays
for everybody else, but I feel like it's the holidays
for us right here on the show A Rockets basketball tonight.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, and this is the greatest it is. And it's
a late game too. You get to stay up Lake kids.
We're gonna hang out after the show.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
I know, I can't wait. I might even have some
barbecue tonight and it's been a while, all right, a
lot to get to and Wex mentioned it defense not
up to standards yesterday. You're gonna hear from head Coat,
which Tomiko Ryan's on that as well as the injury
update that Wex mentioned. That's all coming up in the
next segment on a jam packed Monday Victory Monday edition

(14:10):
of the show.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Every time I hear this song, I think of how
old I am. You know why?

Speaker 3 (14:15):
This is the one where they're on the plane, they're
learning to fly, and not all of them are who
they actually are in real life because the fighters of Fu,
well they are the fighters of Foo. But they look
like there are two of them females in the video.
I don't know, well, they're flight attendant. I don't even
think I've ever seen this video. Oh okay, so what
does it make you think of.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
MTV's going away? So I never will just kidding. They
never played music videos, right.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Oh okay, I'm looking forward to when it goes away.
I didn't know it was still here.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
MTV's as old as I am.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
MTV has long since not been It's reality TV is
like what they should call what what What's does it say,
right behind me?

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Right?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Sports Talk seven ninety and what do we do here?
Talk about sports most of the time.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
What does MTV stand for? Music? And they don't do that?
They used to? They did used to.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
I mean there was a time a name change is
long overdue? Yes, or just getting rid of it?

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Teen mom?

Speaker 3 (15:09):
They do some of that. People they fish for dates.
What was the house that you always watched back in
the day, real world? Yeah, that road rules all the
good stuff.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
So like the Gauntlet.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
So I hear that song and it reminds me that
it came out my freshman semester of college, which it
was twenty years ago this year. So I hate everything
right now. And you're older than me, so you really
hate everything?

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Duh? Look at that, hey, listeners, look at that stray.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Look how I turned a positive or a negative for
me into a positive for me by taking a negative
shot at you.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
That's how people do things. So rude. How do you
don't feel very good today?

Speaker 5 (15:43):
Do you?

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Well, here's one way to make sure it'll feel better.
Tear down others.

Speaker 5 (15:47):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (15:47):
You look tired? Did you get enough sleep? Or are
you just old? Now? No?

Speaker 2 (15:51):
All right, let's jump into things First of all, I'm
very irritated right now because every time the Texans win,
so do the Jags, and we knew this would likely
be the case, with the exception of this upcoming week.
I really do think that the Denver Broncos are going
to win that game. It's in Florida, though, is it not?

Speaker 3 (16:11):
So?

Speaker 2 (16:12):
I just I still think the Broncos defense I don't see.
I'm one of those people that I understand what we're
dealing with.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Mile high.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Okay, that's even better. Maybe it'll snow. That would be
really good for thwarting the awesomeness of Trevor Lawrence. Sunshine
hung firmly planet in cheek. Texans are gonna are going
to be fine either way.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, they're gonna They're gonna be nice to be in
a better position, because I do. I think it always helps.
I would always play for it. Playing at home to
open up the postseason, to me, is always should be
treated as an advantage. And I can't imagine there's any
franchise in the NFL that knows that better than Houston.
That's where all their wings are.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Every Singles won ten games last and people are like, ooh,
the Chargers you're having to go there and they're complaining
about it. At least it's not like this year where
it's going to be the Steelers or maybe the Ravens
and there clearly are not going to be of the
echelon that even Houston was last year when people were
complaining about it.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean, Texans went ten and seven and hosted, and
if these Steelers win tonight, they'll be eight and six.
It's very very similar to me. They'll probably win too.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
I don't know what their schedule is, but I'm sure
they'll win at least two games to make the ten
win Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
It looks that way. They have one more game with
the other team, the Ravens, that are trying to get
there as well. But that's why I'm glad moving forward.
I wished they would have already done it. I still
think that there's a chance they will do it moving forward.
But you're gonna say, like the Chargers are a ten
win team and the Texans are, well, they're gonna be.
I think they're going to be a ten win team.
The odds of the team that's fifth, whether it's the Bills,

(17:49):
Chargers or Texans having a better record, but being asked
to travel to Pittsburgh or Baltimore for that opening round
playoff game. It's pretty much a lock at this point
in time, but the Texans can be anywhere, literally, anywhere
in the seeding ladder is somewhere they could land still
the remainder of this season. I told you earlier that
at twelve and five there is a very small chance
but a scenario that could play out that has them

(18:11):
as a number one seed. You know, twelve and five
could still have them only as a wildcard team, because
obviously the Jaguars could just remain ahead of them. They
could take a nine game winning streak in the postseason
and still just be a wildcard team having to play
a team that obviously has a better record. Now, whether
that team is better than them, we'll see. And the
way the Texans are clearly playing, you don't win six
games in a row by accident. You don't take a

(18:32):
seventeen nothing lead over any team in the NFL by accident.
And the turnovers certainly helped to continue that opening series momentum,
but to open the game the way they did, if
their offense plays like that against a little bit better competition,
because clearly the Cardinals are not very good competition, and
this is like the fifth time in the last few

(18:52):
weeks they've given up, you know, thirty five plus the
Texans need to play offense like that so they can
see we can play offense like that. Just keep scoring.
I'm not I'm in a small group. It seems like
last twenty four hours that is not freaking out about
the red zone.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Still.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
I know you don't want field goals. I mean they
scored forty points. Yeah, you don't know how the game
is gonna play out, so you don't know that you're
gonna keep getting back there. So your first trip to
the red zone yesterday because of the turnover, you only
get a field goal, and there was a couple more
trips where you also only got a field goal, but
you scored on your opening possession without getting into the

(19:32):
red zone. A touchdown you found Nico in the end zone,
and for a red zone touchdown, you found Schultz in
the end zone. For a red zone touchdown. I mean,
they they got down there so much and they did
have some success. And if you can't see that they're
having more success in the red zone, they're just not
paying attention at the beginning of the year, they could
barely even get there. Versus for the red zone or

(19:53):
goal to go situation, they could barely move a football
where they're getting there all the time.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Now we're to the point where they get to the
red zone, but they don't get in in the trip
to the red zone. What I'm saying is they get
in the red zone with a big play or whatever,
and then I get text messages from buddies who are
watching the game and they're like, oh no, because they
didn't go ahead and make up those last twenty yards.
Now it's going to be this mystery as to whether

(20:19):
or not they'll get in. But yesterday, for the most part,
they did and even when they did have to settle
for field goals, Like the last time the Texans kicked
a field goal yesterday, they should have. It should have
been a touchdown. It was off the hands, and just
that stuff is gonna happen. But it's which one you
wouldn't I believe the last time they went I believe
the last Kyami fairbearn field goal.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Like that pass to Sneiko in the corner off to
the left.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
That was never going to be in bounds because of
where he put.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
It terrible play call in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Oh yeah, I knew you would say a low, low,
low percentage play even though you're involving your very good
quarterback and your elite long wide receiver the Texans and
that play.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Not a fan, Yeah, I'm still not. I'm still not
a huge Nick Kaylee fan.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Well I'm not, and I'm glad it came up here
because it was surely going to come up at some point.
You run sixty five seventy plays in a game, and
that's right where they were yesterday. I'll say it again,
Nick Keylee had another good day. It's a great game
plan I think they put They dialed up plays that
should work. Everything's not going to work all the time.
This is the NFL. There is another team. You also
have to realize what you're talking about, that he's drawing

(21:31):
up a play, they're coming up with a game plan,
they're working on these plays all week, and then they're
taking them to the game.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Well, he's not on the field.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
He's zero of the eleven players that have to do
their job and execute that play. And he's not the
guy going off sides, and he's not the guy missing
his block. And he's not the guy who actually forgot
where he was supposed to go, and we just say, oh,
that's a bad play caller. That's this, that and the other. Now,
I do think in this particular instance, when you snap
into the quarterback, he takes a one step drop and
throws a fade to your singled up elite receiver. Nobody

(22:01):
didn't execute except for CJ. He just didn't throw a
good ball. I just think he doesn't throw a good
ball very often on that play, so I wouldn't call
it very often. Texans executed well for the most part yesterday,
And like I said, I think they can find job.
I think their play, I think their play designed for
the most part, and there are a few plays and
I will bring them up that if they think that's

(22:22):
a play they want to run again, will they better
work on it a lot in practice. It's not going
to work against better teams because they did not execute
it very well. But to score on their first five possessions,
they scored on eight of their ten possessions to get
out of the gate. Tommy Townsend was only used to
punt once. And remember one of those non scores was
the end of the half. Which they aggressively attacked with

(22:42):
their timeouts successfully to have a field goal opportunity at
the end.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Of the half. It just got blocked, that's all. Yes,
it did, all right, and that doesn't happen very often.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
But well, the number one field goal kicking team in
the league stayed there. Nobody has more field in your Texans.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
That's it's it's just not as much fun.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Okay, when we come back Best of X, I mean
a billion different choices and maybe we'll get to more
than one. But I thought it was somewhat hilarious and
maybe a little bit sad that things went down the
way they did in Kansas City yesterday. Not because I
feel bad for the chiefs Now, I'm talking about what

(23:24):
was said afterward, and you're gonna hear from that person
and what he said and what happened surrounding what he
said on the fly on live television, if you will.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
And that's next. In the Best of X, four.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Hundred people were arrested for things that they said on
social media.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
History repeats itself type Anuels succeed.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
Never doubt that you're the one who plus will go
one building.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
You're the best of X.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Nothing's gonna ever top.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
You know you're the best of X post an every
single day. You know you're the y of X breaking
the entire Internet.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
It's time once again for the best of X. Here
on Sports Talk seven ninety. It is the A team.
It's a Monday edition of the program, And as we
do each and every day, whether it's a Monday after
a Texans game or not, we go to the mean
streets of social media.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Lots of times X in this time for example.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
But really, if if it's on social media of any kind,
doesn't matter the platform, and we like it, we will
get to it now. This to me was one of
the more sad aspects of the Kansas City Chief's demise,
and as it was Patrick mahomes demise.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
We'll get to that in a little bit.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
But have you ever have you ever been so dialed
into something work related or otherwise that you're just not
really even aware of everything?

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Like this is my life every day?

Speaker 2 (25:01):
For example, I'm just not at all aware of things
the way I used to be because I got too
much going on floating around in my head. And I
think that might have been what happened to Chris Jones yesterday.
You agree or disagree because you know what I'm you
know what this SoundBite is going to be before we
play it.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Of course I haven't heard it. Oh you haven't.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Okay, Well, this is what it sounds like when you
don't know that you've been eliminated from the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
So still have a fighting chance? Are we out of
the playoffs? Who are Okay?

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Which reporter had the audio ready to go? That's pretty
that's being well aware of your situation. Hey, maybe if
one of the guys that comes to the podium doesn't
know they're out of the playoffs, I can play this
as soon as he we tell him and he doesn't
know about it.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
By the way, that's not the choice I would have
gone with. There's two that I will.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Where's his reaction?

Speaker 2 (25:54):
The first one would be where you lose on the
price is right that Matt Thomas plays on his show
all the time because in another life he wants to
be a game show host. And the second one would
be the music that was playing from Santos and Johnny
in La Bamba when Bob is walking across the bridge
after Richie's died spoiler alert, he dies in a plane crash.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Spoiler alert from the movie Loabamba from Out Richie seven.
In the movie Richie Vallens dies and in real life
he died to spoiler alert if you haven't seen the
music died. He dies in the movie Buddy Holly dies too.
In case you're wondering Gary also in the movie Gary Busey.
That wasn't Buddy Holly, was it the Buddy Holly Story

(26:32):
starring Gary Busey? Different movie?

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Gosh, are you serious? Yes? Many am? I just finding
out about this very old movie? Did he was?

Speaker 3 (26:40):
He like Gary Busey was thin? But Gary Busey and Entourage?

Speaker 2 (26:45):
How about Gary Busey in anything else besides the movie
you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
So this goes to show you every once in a
while under siege also dressed as a lady.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
That's two of our three segments.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
It goes to show you when we ask them about
her and we think they're telling us an untruth about.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
It, they don't.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
See and read and hear everything. Coaches have a hard
time saying that because they have a staff of people
making sure they're aware of things which they've asked them
to do. Players don't If Stone Cold Jones doesn't go
on his Instagram account, or it doesn't go on social media,
or isn't scrolling on his phone on very very heavy
NFL scenarios for the playoff sites, It's very possible. He

(27:27):
and Andy Reid and Steve Spagnolo and Travis Kelcey and
Pat Mahomes and Rashid Rice didn't really talk about it
much this week. They already know we stink we're six
and six up now we're six and seven. They know
what the playoff picture is. That that's the thing. They
know it in their mind. Well, we can't make the
playoffs unless we start winning. But they don't know definitively

(27:50):
clearly that if we lose this game, we're we're playing
right now, our postseason chances are one hundred percent eliminated.
That was not stressed to them a meeting, unless he
was asleep during the meeting. It wasn't on the whiteboard
before they got out there. It was a non item
of discussion. It was not a point of emphasis for
the coaching staff or the players, even amongst themselves, even

(28:12):
in locker room talk that I was looking at the
playoff machine the other day and it says if we
don't win this game, we're out.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
So we got to win today. They gotta win anyway.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
And that's also part of the All the teams that
have been eliminated and there's six of them in each
conference now, they're probably not going zero and twelve or
whatever it can be. If they're playing each other each
week the rest of the year. They have pride, they're
playing for contracts. They nobody wants to put in the
physical work they're putting in during the week or on

(28:43):
a game day to lose. But I'm not really that
surprised that somebody, unfortunately found out at the podium after
a hard day's work that coming up three point shy
against the Chargers, trying to win late with your backup
quarterback because Pat Mahomes at that time probably they felt
like he'd likely torn his acl but didn't know that
for a fact, Well, you're already eliminated for the playoffs

(29:06):
because you just lost.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Well, it makes you wonder if you would have played
harder that he didn't. It doesn't make me wonder. That's
kind of what I'm explaining.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
They don't play harder because like the Chiefs have been
going through this all year, Like do you think the
Texans started playing harder against the Ravens and Titans when
they were owing three and then one and three. You
think they started playing harder after CJ got hurt. Well,
maybe I know when you're different, but I know harder
because Davis Mills was out there. These are different things

(29:34):
playing harder because we're up against it. It's more about
coming through with the plays. Maybe you otherwise wouldn't. Maybe
there's a little more focus. They're playing hard. I think
they're they're trying to make plays, They're you know, not
giving up at the end of a play, they're finishing tackles.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
I don't know. Maybe every team's not the same, but there.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Are teams that will just mail it in because of
any number of reasons. You start owing three and that
becomes oh to five, or the head coaches lost the locker,
or a quarterback does get hurt and now you're I mean,
the Bengals are not in a good place right now.
I don't know what's going on there, but it's not good.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Every team that's in that spot that you're describing are bad.
They're bad football teams. Like the reason the Texans didn't
pack it in is because they're not one of them.
They're not a bad football team, then they don't have
the bad coach. No, oh, can are the Texans gonna
lose three games this year? When the year started? If
I asked everyone that question, the one hundred percent of
the people would say yes. I don't think anybody figured
they wouldn't lose their first three, even looking at the schedule.

(30:27):
I don't think people thought they would lose their first three.
They just happened to it. It's like a baseball player, who, Okay,
it's April fifteenth and Jordan Alvarez is hitting one twenty
five because he has twenty five at bats.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Because his hands broke, And if he's.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Hitting one twenty five over twenty five at bats in July,
you barely even notice because he's got two months of
hitting three hundred. Well, there's no other season they started
ozing three. What if the Texans started eight and two
and dropped to eight and five. What if the Texans
were the Colts, Because that's literally what they've done.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
The Texans would never be the Colts because the Texans
are actually a good football team, and the Colts aren't.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
The Texans like the team they played yesterday. Even though
the Cardinals keep losing outfitted themselves with a backup quarterback
they figured they could win with, and the Cardinals did.
They just aren't. It's not his fault, I said going
into the game. This guy's leading the NFL in passing yards.
And then he threw for another three hundred more points
against the Texans than anybody else had lately. They there's

(31:23):
a lot of things to take out of yesterday's game
that I know what will happen and wish will not happen.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
What would this offense be like with McBride at tight end?
By the way, Holy cow, what's wrong with what Dalton
did yesterday? It's fine, it's the same. It's not null
it is it's not otherworldly. Well, it was their offense.
Dalton Schultz has never been referred to as the Texans offense.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
No, we'd get into both of those things.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
What happened yesterday that was not a good thing for
everybody else from the Texans yesterday, and a lot of
more stuff that could have fit in here with best
of X. But really the last opportunity for probably quite
some time for us to mention Stone Cold Jones here
on the show, so we did.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Before we get to how this kind of affects the
Houston Texans. Would you like to hear someone who I
actually like and respect in the NFL broadcasting world who
is completely tone deaf to the rest of America.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Okay, see, so I set that up and made you intrigued.
All right, take it away at rich Eisen, Just what
I want to say on this front.

Speaker 6 (32:27):
With the Kansas City Chiefs not making the playoffs first
time of the Mahomes era, you're gonna miss them. You're
gonna miss the Kansas City Chiefs when the AFC Playoffs
are hitting.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
You're gonna miss the buzz. You're gonna miss the pizzazz.

Speaker 6 (32:41):
You're gonna miss Mahomes versus filling the blank. You're gonna
miss Mahomes versus filling the blank with no time left.
You're gonna miss something. The AFC playoffs will have less
juice to it without the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
And one day, oh, you choose fatigers out the same.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
Fatigers out there. We'll admit it. You might have to
go high and register Leake's one flunder. The Chiefs are good,
look people are.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
That's enough of that.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
We don't need a need the other guy, I hope
and I think that was tongue in cheek. I don't know.
I don't agree with any of that, not even a
little bit. And it's the same as, oh, well, the
NFL is better when the Cowboys are good, the NBA
is better when the Lakers are good. I don't ever
subscribe to any of that, least of all in the NFL,

(33:38):
which you know obviously celebrates all of the time that
it's a league of parody. That's why a small market
team like the Chiefs, who hadn't won anything since any time,
anytime soon was It was a feel good at the beginning,
and Patrick Mahomes at first when he came onto the
scene because people were tired of Tom Brady. People were

(34:00):
tired of Tom Brady with the Patriots for sure, and
then we're like, oh my gosh, you won another one
with a different franchise. That is something I've never subscribed to.
Just like I don't see would anybody with a straight
face say that Major League Baseball is better with the
Yankees when they're good?

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Why? What? What?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
I would love to hear what makes any of these teams,
and the Chiefs have become one of them. Nobody missed
the Astros this last postseason. Except for Astros fans. They're
sick of them.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
And the Astros are much more like the Chiefs than
the Rakiss or Dodgers or anybody else. But I was
just set teams that people say that about as a
random team that landed the best player in the NFL
and won a lot of football because of it, over
and over and over again and dominated the league. This
isn't a major market team that drives the league. This
isn't a a team that's been a perennial winner over

(34:50):
and over and over and year after year and decade
after decade.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
They run the league. They are a huge draw, they
are a big deal.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
It's just a random team that happened to fall into
Andy Reid and fall into Patrick Mahomes. And I'm not
getting into how they acquired him or sign him or
chose to be the next team for Andy Reid.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
That's not what I mean.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I just mean there's nothing else other than they're popular,
they're important, they matter, they bring eyeballs for just that reason.
And then to say what he said, as if we're
missing out on that is dis ingenuous. We're not going
to get that. If he would have said this weeks ago,
I might have listened to it a little bit more like,

(35:29):
we're not missing Pat Mahomes in the playoffs because he
got hurt. We're missing Pat Mahomes in the playoffs because
he and his team are not good enough to provide
all of those things you think we're going to miss.
Mahomes magic has existed for a long period of time,
and during that entire period of time, they were likely
Super Bowl champions. They were contenders for the Super Bowl.

(35:51):
They were the elite of the elite. They were favorites
to win it. They were in a small group of
teams you thought they're going to win it this year.
Not the twenty two twenty five Chiefs. The twenty twenty
five Chiefs where well, if Pat Mahomes can drag this
team to the postseason, I think they have a chance. Well, yeah,
because they're one of the twelve team or one of
the fourteen teams, I should say they have a chance.

(36:12):
I'm sure the Chiefs with Pat Mahomes in twenty twenty
five is gonna have magic in the wildcard round on
the road, and then magic in the divisional round on
the road, and then magic in the conference title game.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
On the road and then they'll be in the super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
That's so it's almost impossible to look at what they've
done on the football field this year and say, yeah,
that's what I think we're gonna see. We're gonna be
sorry that we're missing it. You're gonna be sorry that
you're missing the twenty twenty four Chiefs, the twenty three
two one Chiefs, they're gone already.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
They didn't just leave us.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
The elimination from the playoffs is not what got us here.
What got us here is Chiefs just start good this year.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah, it's as simple as that. I mean it's not.
And you know, it's funny. You talk about them being
one of seven and one score games this year, and
they were I think undefeated in those types of games.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Fifteen game winning streak when the year began. In one
score games.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, I never felt like they were that good last year.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
They just came out ahead in those games.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Hence they're exorbitant and fraudulent, I would say record even
though they went to this rule, and.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
We've talked about this before, I think totally differently about
the one score game thing, and the numbers probably are
not on my side a lot of teams. One year
they're good, the next year they're not. The good teams
are almost always going to have a good record in
one score games, Because I mean, I'm can't be any
more obvious how I'm laying this out. It's not a
fluke that this year fifty to fifty they won them all.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
That's not a fluke.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
They spent over a year winning every single one of
their one score game.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
The difference between the Texans in that scenario.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
What's the differen between the Chiefs last year and the
Chiefs this year. They're not good anymore. That's they're not
losing them by a coin fault. They're losing them because
they're not good. They're not capable of winning them anymore.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Isn't there something to the adage they shouldn't be in
so many one score games last year because they are good,
because they have Mahomes, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
No, because we talked about it a lot, their offense
wasn't as good and Kelsey was a shadow like if
their defense played the twenty twenty five season like their
defense played the twenty twenty four season, there's no way
they'd be eliminated from the playoffs, their offense has gotten
a little bit worse, their defense has gotten significantly less effective.
By the way, him tearing his ACL in December mid

(38:33):
December not good for next year. Yeah, the timing on
that he took to social media not long after the game.
Michael Parsons today has taken to social media now a
day after his game, where both of them and the
timing of their respective ACL injuries obviously puts a lot
into question. On Parsons side, it is the techtbook path

(38:54):
to making money in the NFL. One oh one why
he and his agents operated the way they did heading
into this offseason and into the season with the Cowboys,
give me my guaranteed money I play in the NFL.
I have to have it. I've earned it and I'm
not playing without it, And he got it. The Cowboys
wouldn't do it, so he went somewhere that would and
now he has it, not knowing what his very next

(39:16):
season will look like and probably possibly this.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Season after that.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
You never know how a guy will react and how
the true timing of when he returns to form. I
think it's more on a players side, non quarterback. I
feel a little more confident that when Mahomes returns, he
will play like Mahomes.

Speaker 7 (39:34):
Well.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
I also think that though, if you had to choose,
and this is kind of like choosing between burning to
death and drowning, you would rather an acl than an Achilles,
regardless of which of those positions, but especially Michael Parsons.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, unfortunate for the league.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
I would say in this regard to still looking at
what Rich said, we want the best players in the playoffs.
We want them to earn their way in, but we
certainly want to see the best players at their best
at the most important time. He has been among the best.
He's gonna receive zero row MVP votes this year. His
team is not in that group.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
Did the Texans discover a new weapon? Yesterday? We'll discuss
next hour the A team.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety, It's Space City Home Network,
Texans forty, Arizona Cardinals twenty. I'll be honest with you,
WEX as we get into our number two here, we've
talked about this game and a lot of NFL conversation.
After a weird, wild and wacky week in the NFL,
I was a little disappointed that they were giving up

(40:32):
twenty points.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
I got spoiled. I got a little got a little jaded.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
I thought, for the rest of time this Texans defense
was going to hold teams to the teams and less,
especially a team like the Arizona Cardinals. And I still
think they're going to do it next week against the
Vegas Raiders with whoever they're going to run out there
at quarterback. But credit where it's due, especially to McBride.

(40:56):
Their tight end is something else, and he's I mean,
the one man wrecking crew was their offense basically yesterday,
and credit to Jacoby Brissette for finding him so many times.
But at the end of the day, when you score
the way the Texans did on the very first play
of their offensive game, and then you force a fumble

(41:17):
on the very first special teams play and you're able
to tack on a field goal even if you would
have liked a touchdown, the tone was set and they
never really looked back, even if Arizona made it slightly
more interesting than it needed to be.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Yeah, I was over from the very beginning. This is
unfortunately for the Cardinals textbook football. Their last six weeks
have been the exact same thing, you know, especially four
of those games and we brought it up during the week.
They're three division games, forty four to twenty two blowout,
forty one to twenty two blowout, forty five to seventeen blowout.
Then they played the Texans, who are just like the
ten win Niners and the Rams who would sit at

(41:51):
the top of the league in the NFC. Same thing
with Seattle, They're all the same. And the Texans did
the same thing. They beat him forty to twenty and
Wilson at one hundred eighty five yards in one of
those games, and mcbrideut one hundred and twenty seven yards
in one of those games, and Wilson at one hundred
and forty two yards in one of those games, and
McBride out one hundred and thirty four yards, and yesterday's
game and they scored twenty, twenty two, twenty two, and seventeen.

(42:13):
They've done this many weeks over. They cannot run the
football and they fall behind and they have to stop
running the football. So they're going to get theirs. And
I mentioned that on a rare walking in with WEX
yesterday to NRG Stadium. I said, at point blank, McBride
and Wilson are gonna get theirs today. They're gonna chew
up yards all afternoon. I just don't think they're gonna

(42:34):
score enough points to beat The Texans were set through
three touchdown passes, two to McBride and one to Wilson.
They had like seventy eight percent of their receiving yards
just these two, and it's their same formula. They're difficult covers,
but most of what McBride is doing on his way
to a well over one thousand yard season. He leads
the NFL in receptions. He's been in the end zone
ten times, including twice yesterday. He's not running behind the defense.

(42:58):
He's running through the short porsche of the defense. He's
catching dump offfs to the side. He's catching a little
quick cross. The touchdown pass was the one play I
thought they did a nice job of eliminating the rest
of the game. And I don't know if the Cardinals
were looking for it as much as they could have been,
but catching him on a seam route or catching him
over the middle where he could catch and run with it,
rather than being near the sidelines on nearly every other

(43:19):
thing that they did with him, there was an opportunity
for much more. And that's why he got the touchdown.
I don't think the Texans were okay with anything that happened,
and okay with letting those two guys get theirs as
long as they kept them off the board. But this
is a pretty special case, and I don't know if
it's just happenstance coincidence. The two most productive tight ends

(43:40):
in the NFL per game because Bowers has missed some time,
are the two tight ends that they're gonna face this
past week McBride and this next week Brock Bowers. And
they're on two of the worst teams in the NFL,
like absolute awful teams, point blank, no matter what, they
just bad at football. I don't think Cardinals are a
bad offense, and I alluded to this last segment. I

(44:00):
am hopeful that it's not going to be a copycat league,
and maybe the three teams the Texans see and then
their postseason foes that they get won't be able to
copy this. The Cardinals played the Texans defense unlike everybody
else they've seen recently, in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
No fear.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
They were unafraid of the Texans defense. They weren't afraid
of getting sacked. They weren't afraid that they wouldn't be
able to block Hunter and Anderson or anybody else. They
weren't afraid of being blitzed, and they definitely weren't afraid
of throwing the football against the number one rated pass
defense in the NFL, and a team had not given
up two hundred yards since the first three weeks of
the season, hadn't given up two hundred and twenty five
yards passing in any game this season. They attacked the

(44:39):
whole game with the pass game and had two guys
they could get open all game, even against Lassiter instingly
before he left the game and everybody else.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
Most teams don't do that.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
And I hope nobody's looking at what the Cardinals offense
tried to do and how they attacked them with no
fear and said we should try that too, And now
they might make more mistakes because remember the turnovers the
Texans had in the game. They got a red zone
turnover when Kamari Laster looked like the intended target. He
was basically playing wide receiver. That's a sensational play he

(45:11):
made on an errant throw, but he had to make
a brilliant play that you usually only see a wide
receiver make in the back of the end zone to
catch that, and the other one took place on special teams.
So they played unafraid. They played aggressively in their passing
game and it really only cost them that one time
in the red zone.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Well, the red zone is also a sticking point these
days with the Texans, not maybe as much as it
used to be in recent weeks. But Dmiko Ryans did
talk about that earlier today when he met with the media.
The red zone offense from yesterday's game and a forty
to twenty win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Speaker 8 (45:48):
First thing, when we get into the red zone, we
got to eliminate going backwards. So where we are in
the red zone, got to make sure we're targeting the
right people in the run game, make sure we get
a hat on the hat when we are trying to
run a football. It starts there just being on our assignments,
knowing what we're supposed to do, and you know, from
operational stampoint, we got to be able to execute.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Like it's just overall's offense.

Speaker 8 (46:10):
It's not okay just to get into the red zone,
like we want to be able to score touchdown. So
there's still a lot left out there for us offensively
as well.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
The very first time you saw the Woody Marks direct snap,
I'm gonna call it that touchdown. Did you think it
was planned or do you think it might have been planning,
just wasn't executed properly as opposed to that was a
bad snap.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
When I first saw it again, it's live and I'm
eight floors up, so I'm not watching it on TV.
I'm actually watching it happen. Nothing about it looked like
it was intentional, because you don't do that in the
NFL at that point in the game. It's it's a
trick play because we've seen it at the college level,
a quarterback run up under center.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
He actually popped.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
Up on his tippy toes so the snap could get
more easily fired through his legs to a waiting player
behind him.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
The snap looked wildly.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
The snap hit the ground, the snap looked like it
went off CJ's fingers, and even I'm talking about it
live then when I saw the replay, because it's automatic
replays when you're the game, because the TV is about
eight seconds behind live action, so it's awesome. Yeah, nothing
about it looked intentional either. Especially with CJ's reaction, because
CJ didn't look like, Okay, as part of the play,

(47:15):
we need you to, you know, pretend like you're the
second baseman and you got to jump up in the
air like the ball went over your head and fool
the guy and then you go tag him. He didn't
look like he was even acting that was real. He
was like, what what did you do?

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Jake? The center and what's happening behind me? Oh? What
he's got? Oh what he's in the end zone. He
just fluent.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
It looked very unintentional, but I wasn't certain until heard
from Debiko after the game, heard from CJ after the game,
and I was talking Matt Young covering the game yesterday
for the Chronicles, talking with Jake Andrews about it, and
I was right there with him, and he was describing it,
unsure of what had been said about it already, like

(47:56):
I don't really want to tell you what happened if
I don't really have to already been determined by Demiko
and CJ. That was that was not the intended design
of the play. And he was pretty honest about it.
He didn't feel CJ. He didn't feel his hands. He
didn't feel his presence, his body, his literally he did
not feel him.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
That everything he normally would have properly executed.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Hejy's not here, so I have to shot gun snap
it to him because he's not on top of my backside. Well,
so that's what he did, and was talking about hands.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yeah, talk about salvaging that kind of situation, and then
speaking of which, of course what he marks didn't finish
that game.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
I don't know what it looks like for him this
upcoming week.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
It's gonna be one of those things we monitor on
the injury report every single day leading up to the game.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
Probably gonna look like it has the last couple of weeks.
Being again being at the game. After he came out
of the game, he went into the medical tent. He
came out pretty quickly and started jogging on the sidelines,
went back over to the sidelines to to try to,
you know, figure things out he was doing. He was
talking with the staff for a very very long period
of time, and then ultimately he just stayed on the

(49:03):
sidelines for the remainder of the first half without his helmet.
But when you don't go back to the back when
you're not gonna play in the game. That basically means, well,
you don't need there's no treatment they want to give
you immediately to get you ready for next week, and
there's nothing they have to look at to get a
better idea of how severe this injury is. They feel
like we'd prefer you not to play, but you're gonna

(49:25):
hang here in case you do. That's what I thought, anyway,
And he did the same thing in the second half,
and then he said exactly that after the game, and
then Jamiko said the same. He would have been asked
to play if Jordan was unable to and Dary was
unable to, and then British Brooks was also unable to.
He was just kept out there on the sidelines. He
needn't have his helmet for most of the rest of

(49:46):
the game, but he was there in case. So that
likely means seven days from now plus three hours and
twenty five minutes when they kick off against the Raiders.
I would I expect to see what he Mark's starting
for the Texans, but.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
For whatever reason, he can't, and it is against the Raiders.
I didn't hate what I saw Juwar Jordan.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
I didn't either, and I was glad I was able
to at least fire this one off before the game started,
and I didn't know how it would play out. I
knew he would not be looked at initially for any
good reason. And usually the reasons you do get a
look are because somebody in front of you has gone down.
Nick Chubb went down. That's why Juwar Jordan was elevated
to begin with. And then when Woody Marx went down.
And you consider who the other three running backs are

(50:28):
that I mentioned, You know, Darry's not a number one back.
British Brooks is a full back. This is the position
that Jaar plays. He's a lead tailback. He is a
first and second down and I do think also third
down tailback.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
He is the guy. I'm glad they went too.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
But just before the game started, I did mention, I
wonder if we will get an opportunity. I said, very
curious to see if there'll be any opportunities for Jawar
Jordan to tote the rock today the active running backs
or Marx, Darre Jordan, and Brooks. He has the quickest
feet of the group, also the lightest, and it's to
be his NFL debut if he gets on the field.

(51:02):
All those things played out, you could see his shiftiness.
He actually ran very hard even in the red zone,
making himself smaller to bounce off of two tacklers to
gain five yards. He obviously is very good in space.
Even as he'll tell you a little later on the show,
it because it's tiring to play for a long period
of time in pads when you haven't done it in
a very long period of time like he has. But

(51:23):
credit to him for being ready, and honestly, go back
to the twenty twenty four draft. He's another one of
the Texans selections. He's a fine and I know it
was for one week. I know it was against the Cardinals,
all that kind of stuff, but let's see. Let's see
what happens with this kid.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
By the way, next week, Speaking of the Texans, it's
probably the most important weekend of the entire Texan season until,
of course, the next one.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
But we will explain next the A team on Sports
Talk seven ninety Monday.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Edition of the eight Team Sports Talk seven ninety, Space
City Home Network. Whatx Ac Josh Jordan with you. We're
taking until six o'clock tonight. Rockets basketball coming up a
little bit later, Actually a lot later two games with
Denver this week, then they'll have a game with New
Orleans in between.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
But this is a six.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Game holiday road trip that for the most part, with
the exception of that New Orleans game, is going to
be out west. They'll be in LA on Christmas night.
They'll be in LA two days prior against the Clippers.
So a whole lot of travel coming up for your Rockets,
and not a bunch of days off in between, although
there will be another three.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Days off after this game, right I'm trying to remember.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Then the fifteenth, they are off again until the eighteenth.
They played back to backs Saturday and Sunday, and then
every other day until they get to the game on
the twenty ninth. We'll play on the thirty first. Could
have just backed that game up one more day and
it would have been fine. Play on New Year's Day.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Yeah, So let's get back to the Texans, and let's
get back specifically to this upcoming.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Will be just one quick note. Okay, there's a reasonably
good chance that number seventeen returns tonight for the Houston Rockets.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
And for those of you who aren't familiar with the
numbers on this roster, because you're just getting back into
paying attention to the team now that they have Kevin Durant.
You haven't been paying attention in recent years now that
you know that they've actually were good last year, but
now they got Kevin Durant. You know, now it's a
hot ticket. I'm being mean to some people out there,
but it's true and you guys know it. That would

(53:27):
be who Tarry Easton, Tarry Easton.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
It was mentioned by Emey that they thought maybe there
was a chance he would return for the opening game
of this road trip and has gone through some of
their workouts. Currently listed as questionable for tonight's game with
that right oblique strainth so a little bit before tip off,
we should learn about that.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Obviously.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
I'll share that with you tonight between seven thirty and
eight should I have that information, which I believe I will,
and then AC and MT will handle business after.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
That and Dorian and Phinney. Smith's right around the corner
because it's almost January.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Yeah, last time I was out there one of the
practice days last week, he was working out quite a
bit after practice. Get a side field, Nope, over at
the Texans Rockets facility.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
It's just two regular fields.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
I don't think we they differentiate what we're allowed to
talk about, shoot and otherwise comment on. But we don't
really see much of their We see none of their
team work, but we see a lot of drill work
after like Alpi's working with a group of assistant coaches
on a bunch of post moves, and Josha Kogi and
Aaron hollidayir having a three point competition, and Steven Adams
is joking with Jabari Smith Junior, and Men Thompson and

(54:34):
Kevin Durant are at what end of the floor working
on a couple of things. And then after most of
that was complete, Dorian Finney Smith was working with about
five or six coaches, you know, step up jumpers, catch
and shoot jumpers, you know, the off the break jump shots,
and then a lot of footwork defensively, you know, testing
a lot of the side to side movements and things
like that, which I'm sure he's way beyond the testing phase,

(54:57):
but it looked pretty good to me.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Yeah, he cannot get him and Tari back soon enough.
And if you get Tari back for this game tonight,
that's just one more defender of I'd call him an
elite defender. Considering the minutes he plays and that he's
off the bench, all things considered, in the grand scheme
of Rockets World, I think he's an elite defender in
the I.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Feel like I would add six points to the Rockets
total anytime he plays because of the three created steel
fast break dunks. When he's on the courts, good good number.
He will make it happen. He will change the pace
of the game. And it's not even when the Rockets
are Oh man, they got off to a bad start.
They're down eighteen to eleven, Get Tari out there. The

(55:39):
Rockets are up twenty to ten, Get Tari out there.
Usually like build on this. He brings something to the table.
And that's what's unique about any individual player. There's something
that they have that this team needs, and they're made
up tremendously well built, tremendously well built to withstand two
players that plays similar spot in Finney Smith and Tarry
Easton that they've been out for as long as they

(56:01):
each have. Obviously, Phinney Smith hasn't played at all, and
they headed into tonight's game with the same number of
losses as Denver. Denver's eighteen and six the Rockets are
sixteen and six, basically been one of the five or
six best records in the league since the first two
games of the year.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
And you didn't have Tari Easton the first time you
played Denver, which was basically like the Thunder game to
a standstill, and you just didn't make plays down the
stretch in a very very close loss.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
Definitely right there. A one twelve, one h nine loss
in Houston a four game season series with the Nuggets.
So if you've played one game in Houston, that obviously
means all three remaining games are in Denver.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
So dumb. It doesn't happen often, and it did happen
this year. Rockets get the Clippers three times in Houston
versus one time in LA, and they'll get that LA
game with the Clippers as part of this road trip. Yeah,
a lot of LA.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
I didn't was it last season or maybe the season
before where they've spent an extended time in LA over Christmas?

Speaker 3 (56:56):
I'd have to I can't recall, but most trips to
LA the last probably four or five years now, it's
an extended you're trying to play either one team twice
or both of the LA teams and usually it's part
of a longer West coast trip, which is exactly what
this one is.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Okay, I know that it's the Raiders and the Texans
have to They have to hold up there into the bargain,
so to speak. This is it if the Texans are
gonna win the division. I feel strongly that the Jags
have to get their clocks cleaned in Denver this weekend because.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
I don't think they're going.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
They probably will find a way because they're the Jags
and they always do this. Maybe they'll find a way
to lose one of those games they shouldn't to Titans
and Colts right after this. That's right, Texans also have
the Colts. But Philip Rivers was game the funniest thing.
That would be the funniest thing. Texans win, the Jags lose,
and then just to make sure they seal it up,

(57:50):
Philip Rivers beats the Jacksonville Jaguars two weeks from now.
But first things first, this Denver team, unlike the Patriot yesterday,
they can kind of quiet all the naysayers. Not that
there are naysayers, but I just think that people look
at Denver maybe the way they were looking at the
Texans for a while there. Well, they've got an elite defense,

(58:11):
but this offense can't score that many points.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
Well, against the Broncos in Denver yesterday, they opened the
game fumbling the ball in their opening possession, punting on
their second possession, got the ball to start the second quarter,
and it went like this after that touchdown, touchdown, end
of half punt, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, and they won. And
they made a very good Packers team and doing so. Yeah, Oh,
bow knicks terrible, bow knicks terrible. I can't believe they're

(58:35):
winning with him twenty three or thirty four, three hundred
and two yards, four touchdowns, he was not sacked.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Now? Is that.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Denver and Sean Payton and coaching and it's the end
of the year and things are kind of coming together
more or is that also Packers defense isn't as good
as we thought it was going to be this year
or is it a combination.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
They've had some pretty good moments and obviously the timing
of the loss of Mike Parsons plays into it a
little bit. Bottom line is there are days where if
books like this sounds ridiculous, they're twelve and two, they've
won every game for eleven straight opportunities. And what if
bo Knicks was playing passing the ball better all year,

(59:19):
would they be fourteen or oh? Like, I don't know
what to think because he hasn't passed the ball like
this in very many games, but he did in this one.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
And the sack number.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
I know somebody that's covered the Broncos for a while
mentioned this yesterday. And if you look at who's been
starting on the offensive line for Denver this year with
Knicks and last year with Nicks, and then the year
before with Russell Wilson, all while Sean Payton's been there.
Remember the Russell Wilson era with Sean Payton and Denver,
it was a festival of scrambles, sacks, and terrible plays

(59:50):
in the backfield. They have three of the same five
guys in the offensive line room. I do think the
two that they've replaced are a little bit better, but
the other three guys are exactly the same. Noted in
their opinion, sacks ought to be considered a quarterback stat
much more than a team stat or an offensive line
stat because Russell Wilson was quote unquote running for his

(01:00:14):
life and Boon Knicks is going week after week after
week getting sacked once or twice or none. He's number
one in the NFL and fewest times sacked. All they
did was change quarterbacks. They didn't change their blocking scheme,
they didn't change their offense, and they didn't change their
offensive line. What changed is bone Knicks, actually crazy as
it sounds, is more capable of operating the offense properly

(01:00:37):
and making quicker better decisions than Russell Wilson, which was
leading to terrible offense with the same group. Not every
individual player, but the groups I just mentioned. He was
awful here. That was just a terrible football game.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
Texans didn't score a touchdown, kicked a bunch of field goals,
led most of the game by the way, but just
found a way to to the Broncos kicked the field goal.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
With the touchdowns late, they went for two on one
and ultimately gave them that opportunity to have a tie game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
They got it tied at fifteen and Bonnicks threw for
seventy three yards.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
Well, what did he do at the end of the
game With his feet He outran the Texans for the
necessary yardage to win the football game. He got a
humongous run late in that game. Just to give the
numbers on it. Bon Knicks are Russell Wilson thirty games
as a Bronco one hundred sacks taken. Bo Knicks thirty
one games as a Bronco first thirty one NFL games period,

(01:01:32):
forty sacks taken roughly the same group, sixty fewer sacks
too fewer per game, let alone the hits. He's not
taking the positive plays he's making by not taking them,
he's He's remarkably good for a young player in avoiding
those disaster plays. That's what young quarterbacks are supposed to
fall prey to, and he doesn't. Yeah, they're They're three

(01:01:54):
point favorites as of today against the Jags in Denver
for Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
I have no idea how this game is gonna go.
Like I think it'll be low scoring. They're also undefeated
at home, but I I mean I have Well, I'm
not asking you to pick whether it's over under. I
wait for that until Friday. That's over and by over
I mean it's over and done, not over under. I
am done with that stupid little non you need to

(01:02:20):
on it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
What do you mean? Whatever you think? Do the opposite?

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
No, because whatever your instincts are, and then do the earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
This year it was whatever I think was happening. Now
it's whatever I think the opposite does happen. Stupid stone
cold locks. All right, WEX delivered, and I mean a big,
big way yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
We'll explain next the do I ever.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
In the last ten seconds basically the last commercial that
was playing into that bump, There was a gift delivered
for my wife at the front door, and I texted
her because I just saw the picture and I know
that she has a camera that she constantly stalks at
our front door. I said, do not touch that package.
It just got dropped off. I have to get my

(01:03:08):
step daughter to go out there and now hide it
because it got delivered while I'm here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
First world problems and that normal.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
You have the house at twelve something and return at
almost seven twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
I don't know the last time I've left the house.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Depending, I don't assume you only come directly here sometimes. Yeah,
Somedays Thursdays are seven of the daylight hours quote unquote.
You're not there odds of a package getting delivered unless
you've been very specific about please deliver the package at
this time. And yes you need to going back, and
yes you need to place it here, and yes you
need to send me the picture.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Well, I listen, I used to get stuff delivered to
the station that were Christmas presents, just for this sort
of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
Camer name.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
You would send stuff to her workplace, knowing that her
workplace is a place she never is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
Yes, yes, what are you talking about? She's always here.
What are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
But it was like then we moved over here and
the system is just not as trustworthy.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
You know what I mean. I'm sorry to hear that.
It's fine. I've not experienced those issues.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
Every once in a while, called at the house during
the holidays when we have an extra resident, see if
she can maybe help us out.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Go out to the front. There's package at the door.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
I mean, I would have had to think about the
holidays and gift giving and buy one and get it
delivered for that to happen.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
So it doesn't happen very often.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
I said, don't. I said, do not touch that package
at the front door. And I got a thumbs up emoji,
and I said, don't even look at it. Because the
thing is, some of these things tell you what they
are and I think this does.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
I'm looking at it right, like, is the packaging shaped
like a guitar or something?

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
No, she already has one of those. I mean from me, right,
that was a long time ago. It's just that's the
way it goes this time of year. All right, here's
the deal. Yesterday, I was just sitting there minding my
own business, getting ready for the game to start, and,
as is usually the case, check out social media take

(01:05:01):
one more quick scan before I kind of settle into
not tweeting about the game. I mean, why would I
let I let my co host handle those types of things.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
Yeah, I'm in there, after all, I might as well
do some work.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
And I get a I get a notification that I've
been tagged in a tweet from at Adam J.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Wexler. That's me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
And it's a video, which is even more of a
treat because that never happens hardly, and it says making
Adam Clanton happy, it's what I'm here for. So per
his request on the A team, time to indulge in
a Voodoo donut before kickoff here at NRG Stadium for
Texans Cardinals.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
And the best part about this is the way you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
Filmed it. It was a reveal. You're in the shot.
It's a selfie shot. You're at your spot in the
press box before the game's about to start at NRG Stadium.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
And then here it comes from below the camera, a
huge Homer variety.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Donut from the Voodoo Donut case, which I'm assuming when
you got it out of there was spinning around and
just kind of taunting you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Oh there it is, man.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Okay, So my first question, somebody got it for you.
There's an intending I.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Just happened to arrive at the spinning Voodoo donut display
when they were being replaced with fresh Voodoo donuts.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
So not only did you get the Homer which is,
by the way, a strawberry and sprinkled iced donut that's
the size of your head, you got a fresh one.
My question, my only question, it's all I care about.
Did you finish the whole thing? I did finish the
whole thing. I wouldn't take it if I wasn't planning
on doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
Did you feel like absolute garbage afterward?

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
No? I think our listeners are aware of this. Over
the years, We've had plenty of food discussions. Not huge
donut guy. I was sweet in general, right, But I
don't dislike them. I just don't normally like I don't
especially Texans. They're feeding us these unbelievable meals. I don't
need all the sweets, even though maybe I'll have a
cookie or something to not eat the halftime meal because

(01:07:11):
you know, I'm trying not to go crazy. But yeah,
the food's there, it's so good to begin with. I
don't I don't have time for that, so how okay?
But as you read very well from my post, yeah,
it was brought up on the show. I was forced
to do it because if you asked me to do something,
I will do it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
We have it not everything. Sometimes it takes you several
years to watch movies that I tell you.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
Well, now that I've knocked off Training Day and now
I've knocked off eating a donut at Texans, a huge donut.
What's next? Can you imagine what's your next?

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
Demand? Could you imagine eating that donut while watching Training Day? Oh?
What a perfect day? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
Prior to the donut, I had a couple of breakfast tacos,
some chicken, Oh my god, cauliflowers. They served baked potatoes,
dropped a little Queso on that and I enjoyed that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
How did you not fall asleep during the first half?
I would have.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
I get there a little bit before ten thirty, bang
out the inactive list duel, walking in with Wex, set
my station up, get my meal for the day, which
I eat between ten fifty and eleven thirty, and then
I settle in for the rest of the afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
I mean, it's a far cry from when I was
going to every single home game like you do. I mean,
I remember because it was last year for the playoff game.
Maybe it wasn't even that year. Maybe it was the
year before the Cleveland game. I was definitely at. I
don't even remember was I was I there for the
Chargers game last year. I can't remember. It's just unbelievable
what they have up there. And it's not like it's

(01:08:39):
just limited to the press box. You can get that
Homer Voodoo donut anywhere in the stadium, I believe because
Voodoo is like a partnership with them.

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
I've added a lot of awesome vendors in and around
the grounds.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
I'll tell you watching.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
So I went for the battle Red Night, the Thursday
night game against Buffalo, and I had some I don't know,
they were just Buffalo tenders. I guess it's good they
got good stuff there. What matters, though, is the product
on the field. And I'm thinking, okay, you disposed of
the Ravens even though it's not real because he didn't

(01:09:15):
play that day. Lamar Jackson didn't play, So I know,
we like to talk about the fact that the Texans
have taken out the Ravens, the Chiefs, and the Bills
all in the same season, two of those games on
the road, but you weren't playing Lamar Jackson. Not that
I would think this defense wouldn't have a good time
of trying to get after him. But he does do
the one thing that scares me with this defense, and

(01:09:36):
that's use his legs. But it is a lot of people,
and we're gonna hear from some of them throughout the
rest of the show. A lot of people are starting
to say that thing that gets me kind of leary.
They're starting to like the Texans are becoming a darling
going into the postseason. I suppose this is the time
of year you want to be hearing that kind of stuff,

(01:09:57):
as opposed to like when people were saying it about
the cold, it's in October. Whether they're peaking way too soon,
everybody knew they were. You could look at their schedule
and see this was coming. You just didn't know the
injuries would catch up.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
The only thing that's next is, oh my gosh, should
they lose before they get there? I mean, you don't
want to take a nine game winning streak into the postseason,
or or how about this? So yesterday was great for
the Patriots now that I don't have to worry about
Oh my god, thank god we lost the game. All
the pressure super important. We would have clinched the division
that we want it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
Same when you're talking about playing once a week, it's
just not the same.

Speaker 3 (01:10:27):
Well, yeah, I don't think there's a whole lot to it.
It's not a concern of mine. Are they peaking too soon?
They're playing good football, and I've been playing good football
for an exceptionally long period of time, winning nine out
of their last eleven games. I don't even think they
played quote unquote bad football to open the season. They
weren't making enough plays. It wasn't a good enough day,
full day of football, enough of good sixty minutes of football.

(01:10:49):
But they clearly were keeping the other teams from telling
them go away. They could have won all three of
those games with what you see on the scoreboard. And
obviously they've they've been in every game since then. They're
the team that's been had a chance to win every
game they've played, not the other team. I also wouldn't
look too much. I wouldn't dismiss the Baltimore win in
the way that you did, only to say, like Kansas City, Baltimore,

(01:11:11):
ain't Baltimore, not the Baltimore everybody's used to Their win
yesterday was it was twenty four to nothing. But oh
my gosh, just a gift from Joe Burrow throwing a
touchdown pass to two different Ravens on the same play.
Kind of we'll get into the rest of the NFL. Obviously,
we've not spent nearly enough time on the Texans, so
we'll hear from some of them as we continue here

(01:11:32):
this afternoon, continuing on a victory Monday edition of The
A Team.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
Wex say, see Josh Jordan with you real quick before
we get into some Rockets conversation again. And I didn't
put this on the rundown, Josh, but I want to
play Demiko cut eight from today. We were talking about
Juwar Jordan and whether.

Speaker 9 (01:11:55):
Or not.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
I say that Texans discover a secret weapon. He's not
a secret weapon. They drafted him, they went and found him,
however you want to say it. He was on the roster,
he was an option for yesterday's game, and the way
it went down, he was thrust into that game, so
kind of like what we were talking about earlier, wex
the next obvious question is and it's you know this,

(01:12:18):
this depends on what he marks his health. Are we
going to see more touches for this kid? And this
is what Demiko Ryans had to say about that a
few hours ago.

Speaker 8 (01:12:27):
We'll cross that bridge when it gets there. But I
was just I think more so for right now in
this game on yesterday, it's just you know, giving Jawar
his praise for what he was able to accomplish. I
thought he did an outstanding job again of taking advantage
of the opportunity that was presented to him, and he
did a great job of you know, gaining over one

(01:12:48):
hundred yards rushing, making some explosive runs for us. So
it's just a credit to Juwar for right now. When
we will deal with the other issue. You know when
we when we get there, but for right now now,
credit to Jawar.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
For everyone that goes to bed early so they can
wake up early the next day following a Texans game
to get my eagerly anticipated snap count report twenty eight.
That was the only he was only on the field
for twenty eight snaps Jawar Jordan after the Woody Marks injury,
and then splitting a little bit of that time with
Daria Gunbalwally, who obviously had a much bigger role in

(01:13:23):
the game, just like Jeward did, because their lead running
back left the game and their number two running back
was not active for the game. But in those twenty
eight snaps they put him to work. He obviously was
out there to block when asked, but more often than
not during those snaps he was not asked to block
because he had the football fifteen carries on twenty eight snaps,

(01:13:44):
a pair of targets on those twenty eight snaps. He
caught both of those passes, one of which went for
a fourteen yard gain, a very important fourteen yard gain
out in the flat that he made more of, which
is why it was nice to see them using that
option in this game, maybe more than any in any
other he had a fifty yard run. Well, he also
had fifty one yards on his other fourteen carries. He

(01:14:05):
had a really good day. It was a very nice find,
for sure. And this is why I think, you know,
teams that kind of run out of talent, you shouldn't
not anymore. The advent of the practice squad a few
years ago, even when it was just eight players.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
Was it's very helpful.

Speaker 3 (01:14:21):
It's sixteen or in the Texans case, seventeen because they
have the international player exemption. That's seventeen extra players that
practice every week with you at whatever positions you deem necessary.
As seventeen players who you can work scout team with you.
That's what I got for most of the guys in
the locker room after the game. Defensively, we've been watching
him do this all the time. Offensive players similarly with

(01:14:42):
him running behind them, or this isn't shocking to us?

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
I might they get amused when they see all of
us talk about people like this.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
You know what this probably happened with Aaron Foster. Well,
say all knew what he was.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
Like, and I don't, I would say, I want them
to say that, Yeah, I know the answer already. But
I want to hear it in their words and what
they I don't see it, but I know it's true,
and that's part of what one of the reasons why
I tweeted that or posted it on X right before
the game.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
I've seen him for two years now. I saw him
in camp.

Speaker 3 (01:15:10):
He was one of the few players that stood out
at Rookie Mini Caamp in twenty twenty four, and I
was looking back at old posts that that I had.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
He was different. He is.

Speaker 3 (01:15:18):
To look at the Texans stable of running backs, he
doesn't play like them, He's not built like them. He
is a different type of player. And I think teams
that are outfitted in a way that allows them to
have different body types, different skill sets, different things that
you know, if they really want all these guys active,
there's going to be a spot for any one of
these guys any given week. But if not, if Nick
Chubb is healthy next week and what he marks is

(01:15:39):
healthy next week, I mean you do run out of space.
I don't think they're going to carry four running backs
plus British Brooks who play special teams for them, unless
they want Jawar also returning kicks, which, by the way,
I'd have to go back and look, and I meant
to try to determine that today I just haven't. I
don't know how many games the Texans have lined up

(01:16:00):
only one kick returner, not two guys side by side
Jaleno on the left and Trummell on Smith on the
right or vice versa. But Noel was the only one back,
meaning he's returning it or it's not getting returned, and
he's clearly their best return man himself. By taking the
second player off the field, and the Cardinals either couldn't

(01:16:22):
kick it far enough away from him or just settled
on kicking it to him, he set the Texans up
on the opening drive of the game, and then he
set them up again later in the game. He's been
outrageously good as a return many both punts and kicks.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
Okay, I'm with you now, though, Why isn't he lining
up in the slot?

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
Why isn't he well in this game? Specifically because they
didn't use it? They that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:16:44):
This was the most snaps by both snaps literal and
percentage that cad Stover's ever played in an NFL game. They
had he and dult Schultz on the field more than
they've ever had before during their two years together. Here
by design, they had twenty six snaps for Blake Fisher
when he reported. He reported that time, and Demiko said

(01:17:05):
as much. And it was pretty easy for us to
see after the play that I don't know why they
called it. I'm not sure what made them look that
direct touchdown. Well, they he did what he was supposed
to do up until the point that somehow the referee decided,
way way after the play that he hadn't reported properly.
I mean, the guy's been tackle eligible reporting excessively for

(01:17:29):
about six weeks now. He's not going to just randomly
forget to do it well.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
And he had and he didn't. Impression and body mannerisms
like what do you want me to do? But that's
what every guy does, even when he's called for an
obvious penalty, because that's when.

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
Your coach gets in your face and screams at you
know what he did it wrong, which he didn't do,
but yeah, it would have been it would have been
nice not to have that. They didn't have a ton
of penalties. We played that Demiko sound bite earlier where
he said, we need to not go backwards when they're
in the red zone. Well they did it again yesterday.
They got it to the red zone on an eleven
yard carry from Woody Marx after the turnover, and then

(01:18:05):
the very next play, first and ten, their first snap
of the entire game in the red zone at the
eleven yard line, they pitched it to whatdy marks and
they lost two yards. It wasn't a penalty, it wasn't
a pre snap issue. They just had a play that
not only didn't work, it set them back, and two
poor plays later they kicked a short field goal.

Speaker 2 (01:18:23):
Yeah, it was underwhelming, for sure, and it's frustrating.

Speaker 3 (01:18:26):
To go up two scores where they would remain the
rest of the game.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
Well, once it looked like the Cardinals had something cooking
on offense and you're like, all right, this might actually
be a little bit of a dog fight for whatever reason,
and then the defense the very next possession put an
end to that, and we're like, no, no, no, this is
who we are. You're not going to score here and
you're not going to drive here as a matter of fact.
So that was good to see, But yeah, it was
kind of weird. What is this twenty points stuff?

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
All of a sudden, the seventeen in the first quarter.
They're sitting on twenty three attempting to get more on
that last field goal of the first half, a second
forty point game. And while the defense impacted it and
their field position certainly impacted it, they scored a billion
times if they had the ball, they scored pretty much
every time yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
There is one thing, as it pertains to the defense,
and because you were in the locker room, that I
wanted to ask you about when we come back for
the start of the four o'clock hour plus, could Houston
actually grab the number one overall seed. The crazier things
have happened. We'll explain next work. It is the eighteen
WEX over there ac right here, Josh Jordan with you.

(01:19:29):
We take it until six o'clock tonight. You remember in
the first hour when you were talking about fake.

Speaker 7 (01:19:36):
News and people who probably these people probably shouldn't be
in the locker room, they shouldn't even be credentialed. Let's
face it, they're terrible people, terrible for this country and terrible,
terrible ter But.

Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
You remember those people you're talking about, right, those people,
some of them are also in the internetville. Yeah, just real,
absolute literal randoms and I don't even remember where I
saw this yesterday. I'm assuming that this person, oh I
know who said it. Will Conkle said this. The reason

(01:20:08):
I bring that up.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
I don't know if he was trying to get clicks
or whatever he's trying to do, but.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
He made it a point to mention. And you probably knew.

Speaker 3 (01:20:17):
This, Uh yeah, rather Unfortunately, Yes, that Will Anderson Junior
left without speaking to the media. That tweet probably doesn't
occur if I didn't inform him of that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
Oh, I didn't mean to do this. By the way,
I didn't know this.

Speaker 3 (01:20:32):
Maybe he would have asked somebody else, but I was
I went over to Will. A couple other people did
as well, Aaron Wilson among them. As he was finishing.
You know, there's a probably we kind of know each player,
how they like to do things, their routine. Yes, and
so it was getting to the time where if he
was available, we'd be shortly. But he said, I'm not
talking today, and I said, no problem.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
I'm going to be able to.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
Kick everything I need, as I think most everybody else
in the media will not. Everybody's going to talk to
him anyway, And I just went about the rest of
my afternoon. Didn't think anything of it until it was
brought to my attention what you just said. Now that
that was put out there in that way, and it
obviously received a lot of attention for in my opinion,
no good reason should he In my opinion, after every

(01:21:18):
game he's not hurt, Yes, one hundred percent, without question,
because who he is. He is one of the best
players on a very good football team with hopefully the
kind of coverage they'd like to get. Good batter Otherwise,
your performance individually, team's performance, whatever the reason, if it's
not injury related, or there isn't a prior engagement that
is unfortunately now pressing because of the time of the game,

(01:21:40):
whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Yeah, I think it's pretty standard to just speak.

Speaker 3 (01:21:45):
There was a huge deal a week ago in Kansas
City when an extremely prominent player chose not to speak
to the media, and in that case, he was also
heavily involved in how the outcome played out, and was
Travis Kelsey. He'd a little bit further into his career
and very familiar with what he needs. He also probably
gets more heat because it's almost as if you could say, well,

(01:22:05):
he just was gonna save it so people that have
to hear from Momo's podcast, which is another element of
where we are in sports media today, because it is
a big deal if Travis Kelsey doesn't talk and then
the first time you hear from him, which everybody in
the country, including those in Kansas City, they go to
his podcast to get it, which is great for him.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Are you surprised he didn't get fools that, No, because
it's in light of the podcast aspect of it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
No, really not.

Speaker 3 (01:22:29):
And in Will's case, I mean he's in his third year,
he's Yeah, he's obviously very good with the media. He
obviously pays a lot of attention I think to what
we're asking him, and it's really good back and forth.
A player who I'm sure will be a well, I'm
not sure what the good Guy award the media award
given in each city for how the player deals with
the media. CJ has received it before and he's definitely

(01:22:51):
he just didn't talk yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:22:52):
There. I think there have been a couple instances.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
I think the other games have been on the road
less media and he has not talked. But just like
the quarterback doesn't have the option unless they're hurt, they
go to the podium players of that cat like I didn't.
Did anybody post that Daniel Hunter didn't talk yesterday?

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
No, well if he did, If they did, I didn't
see it, but no, because the reason I thought there's
no reason to right and the reason I think this
is this goes to what you were talking about is
and this isn't. I'm not blaming Will for this. He's
just one that that posted it. Oh the Will in
the media. Yeah, exactly, Sorry, I'm being for being for
real Will's Will Conkle posts this. Then somebody responded to

(01:23:32):
Will Conkle's posts with I believe and I could I
could be misremembering because I'm me, but.

Speaker 1 (01:23:40):
Well, what's going on in that locker room?

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
Because you saw this deleted tweet or this deleted ig
post from Woody Marks, and I thought to myself, oh.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
My gosh, like this is so stupid. This is all
about that, and that's all I was talking about earlier.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
You know, the door has been opened, and people that
really don't have any idea what's going on with the
team with the locker they're just people. They follow the team,
they care about the team, or they are on social
media and they care about that I couldn't tell you
what is all behind it, but what's going on with
this team? I think I can tell them with some
pretty informed opinion. Nothing, right, I mean absolutely positively nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:24:15):
I'm not in the locker room all the time. And
I thought that, well, since you.

Speaker 3 (01:24:18):
Brought it up a couple times, it really didn't explain
it to people. What is the deleted tweet post you're
talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Uh, you know what, I'm gonna have to actually go
back and look at the exact phrasing, but it was
there was no picture, no image, no nothing, and it
was just text from what he marks. Basically I'm paraphrasing
saying he didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:24:38):
Understand there was an emoji.

Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
Well, yeah there was that, but I'm talking about the
majority of the screen's black.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
It says, just don't understand and face palm emoji.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
Yeah, like the same face palm emoji I gave you
today on my text.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
Then yes, what did I respond with?

Speaker 5 (01:24:51):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
Bigger one?

Speaker 2 (01:24:52):
Because if you only put the emoji, and you can
put up to three, it will be bigger than one.

Speaker 1 (01:24:57):
The tennis sentence.

Speaker 3 (01:24:59):
It can be take in a number of ways. And
who is the first to maybe get it seen? Often
impacts how it is treated if there's a caption with it,
you know, I don't know if this was the absolute
first person to grab it. It just was a person
and non just a regular person who's on social media
with virtually no following, but then people will see it.
A wood he posted this on ig Salty about Juir

(01:25:21):
Jordan's hundred yard game stop getting hurt, and Jordan would
have never gotten the chance to get in. Like, is
this person who posted that in Woody's inner circle? Is
she the I'm only going off the picture could be
a man, but the pictures of a woman. Is this
person his social media liaison? Like it's outrageously speculative, right. Granted,

(01:25:47):
if it's posted people are they could do whatever they want,
but when it comes from it's it's not someone doing
any reporting on the team.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
So anybody that cares, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:25:55):
I keep I say this all the time, and I
know everybody clearly doesn't think like I do.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
I've been in there, I was talking.

Speaker 3 (01:26:01):
I was there when I did not have any questions
for Woody, but I was there when he was doing
his round of interviews and didn't notice anything about him
other than what he said he didn't seem ticked off
that about anything. I don't even want to bring it
ticked off that what then a teammate helped them win
a football game.

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
Seriously, this is what people think.

Speaker 2 (01:26:18):
And again, this is a guy who I started the
season what fourth string maybe third string behind Joe Mixon
who really wasn't never the first strings and Nick Chibb.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
Never been on the field, and with Joe Mixon and
of course British Brooks.

Speaker 2 (01:26:31):
Of course, now I'm joking, but it's like, if he
doesn't post that, you don't have that issue. This is
why I'm sorry if I were the owner of a team,
and I realize there are you know, formalities, there are
league rules, and it depends on what league you're talking about.
So I, you know, let's just say I'm an NFL owner.

(01:26:52):
Though nobody's on social media, nobody ever during the season, now,
outside of the season, whatever you want. But for those
eighteen nineteen twenty one however, many games end up being
on the schedule weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:27:05):
No, I totally disagree. I know you do. Why a
lot of people do.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
Like so let's take all this for like the worst
case scenario. You think things like this for a nine
to five football team on a six game winning streak.

Speaker 1 (01:27:17):
They won nine out of eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:27:19):
You think anything that took place on social media from
the media standpoint or the deleted post standpoint, is a distraction?

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
Well no, and see, since you brought up the D word,
that is absolutely why I would not want anybody to
do that. And this is the furthest thing from that example.
I want it to be very clear. I'm not saying
that I think what Woody Marks first tweeted or posted
and then deleted as a distraction. What I'm saying is
it absolutely can be. For example, just since we brought

(01:27:50):
it up, did you see what happened with one of
the best players in the NFL on the NFC side
of things earlier this week, Pokin Nakua. It's a policy
that you don't have your phone on during the locker
room time. Yeah, well there's and there's a reason for that.
But again it's all to me under the same umbrella. Well,
this is we.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
Don't want you live, ig, live or anything else from
inside our locker room right, postgame, post practice anything. Now, occasionally,
from a comical standpoint, you might get a player, hey,
so pulling a prank or social creative people on the
social side, they do certain things, but like looks totally different.

Speaker 2 (01:28:26):
Look at Joe mix and again I'm not saying this
is a distraction. I'm not using the on the X platform.
Again during the end, did you see like when he
and Ian Rapaport or whoever it was and he was
going back and forth like that's and I still don't
think that was a distraction.

Speaker 3 (01:28:38):
I totally like, again, you could deal with all these
things that the teams that end up having them as
distractions aren't good enough to overcome it. What maybe I
don't want to have to overcome anything. That's your point.
Why bother, Why should I sit here and argue Joe
Burrow come it? It shouldn't happen.

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
What if Joe Burrow went full James Harden right now,
which by the way, is what he's kind of saying
on his actual comments, right.

Speaker 1 (01:28:58):
He doesn't need to go to social media.

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
But what if he did that, because again, the social
media aspect is such that it does leave that mystery,
Like you could say that in a podium if you're
Joe Burrow, and then somebody can follow up a question
and then he's got to answer it or not answer it,
but at least you can decipher with body language and
facial express if he just puts, I've got a lot
of things going on on and off the field right now. Boom,

(01:29:20):
that's the tweet.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
That's going to start a firestorm if your quarterback does that.

Speaker 3 (01:29:24):
That's why I'm saying, why can't I assume that what
he posted this on ig again, if it's actual, I mean,
you never know. Just don't understand face Paul emoji. Maybe
they were out of somebody, like in the food traces.
Maybe he just doesn't understand why every week he goes
to the sidelines with a minor injury by me, right,
why can't I get past it?

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
And I bet that's what it was actually about.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
Could be a number and I bet you somebody got
to him and said, hey, this could be taken fifty
different ways, and that could be a giant D word.

Speaker 1 (01:29:53):
So maybe just delete that. Who knows?

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
Again, I think it's almost always gets blown out of
proportion outside the building and is treated is a very
very small thing, if treated at all inside the building.
They just, like I said, all those superlatives about how
the team is playing. I don't think any of these
small things which probably I don't know if they're addressed
or not.

Speaker 1 (01:30:13):
I just don't think much of it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:14):
I really don't think the team does either, think about
what we were doing with Chris Jones earlier, like they're
not even dealing with the actual math of whether or
not we should tell our team that if we don't
win today and this happens because you don't want to
get you're not going to have a meeting and say, well,
by the way, guys, if we don't win today and
this team doesn't tie, and these two teams don't play
a you know, you don't really just play football, just

(01:30:36):
go win the game, because all the other stuff doesn't matter.
Outside noise, that's all this is what do they do
with it? They block it out.

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
All right. A lot of CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:30:44):
Stroud coming up, both on where the Texans stand with
their offense and specifically on a guy that I think
should get a whole lot more love than he already
does across the NFL. We'll explain next the A team
on Sports Talks. I told her specifically, don't touch the box,

(01:31:05):
and she went outside, looked at the box, to pick
the box up, and brought it inside.

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
I go, I want to send it back. Am I
wrong for this?

Speaker 8 (01:31:15):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:31:16):
I want to send it back? Just trying to keep
the porch pirates away. It's okay, nobody's gonna mess with
our porch, I promise. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
What if that where a present you had gotten me
and I told you, hey, just don't touch it until
Brooklyn gets home and can hide it rules. And then
I went out there exactly, that's it right there. So
that's what's wrong with marriage. The rules are different.

Speaker 1 (01:31:37):
It's fine. It's a double standard. Everything's a double standard.
Just do the right thing. I'm gonna send it back now.
Maybe she doesn't even want it. She does, that's what's
going to be great about sending it back. I'm a
terrible person, don't you know that. Don't threaten her? Well,
I told her don't touch it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:54):
She doesn't have to listen to everything you say. She
does because she's a control freak, and I know her.
She's a type A.

Speaker 3 (01:32:00):
She's controlling the situation it is now. In that situation
is her Christmas present.

Speaker 2 (01:32:05):
She doesn't need to see it Christmas, just the one
the other day I got her something she wasn't even
like expecting. I know she doesn't like it, right, And
I go, yeah, because I'm not that guy, And I go,
do you want to know what it is?

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
No, it's Christmas.

Speaker 7 (01:32:17):
I don't want to hear about it until the.

Speaker 2 (01:32:18):
Day of Yet today sounds like she's on South Park. Hey,
could you not look outside until Brooklyn gets home?

Speaker 8 (01:32:27):
And could.

Speaker 1 (01:32:29):
Yeah? Exactly just leave it out there, because.

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
Unfortunately it's one of those stupid boxes that says here's
what it is all over the outside of it instead
of it being a gift.

Speaker 3 (01:32:39):
It wasn't promoted as a and it will come in
a discreet box.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
It's not a sex shop present. What do they always say,
discreet packaging, pacy? Exactly, Well, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
Not from me and my friend Eve or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (01:32:58):
You know how many times I've heard that, Well it
comes withy, where's Eve? And I look at him and
I'm like, you're an idiot.

Speaker 3 (01:33:05):
I never came up in life, did it? What meeting
a girl whose name was Eve that maybe you were
interested in.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
There's one person I ever met whose name was Eve.

Speaker 2 (01:33:15):
She was a female wrestler and we took a picture
together and she smelled like cotton candy.

Speaker 1 (01:33:22):
Did you caption the picture? Properly. Hm, I'm sure I
got a lot of traction, big fan. That's good.

Speaker 2 (01:33:29):
She was at John Cena's match this past week and
she was sitting next to Trish Stratis.

Speaker 1 (01:33:33):
Is this what happened at John Cena's match this last weekend?

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
Boom? There is a podcast that I listened to Yesterday's
Chief's game, you know, the end of the Pat Mahomes era.

Speaker 1 (01:33:47):
People he didn't he didn't retire.

Speaker 3 (01:33:49):
Did people boo Roger Goodell at the Chiefs game like
they booed Triple H at John Cena's final match? Well,
Roger Goodell doesn't right. NFL even mocked that they script
at all.

Speaker 2 (01:34:02):
You know, there was this podcast that I still listen
to it every now and again, but now that Bruce
is back in, it's Bruce Pritchard something to rustle and
he would get the they look back at, you know,
years and years ago, and Conrad the host of the
podcast would always ask the same question, who booked this
bleep that was Saturday Night's.

Speaker 1 (01:34:23):
Main event with John Cena's last.

Speaker 3 (01:34:25):
Match, Like it would be blasphemous but accurate if I said, Wow,
John Cena's last match and he quit.

Speaker 2 (01:34:34):
Well, he's always said, you know, never tap out, never quit, hustle, loyalty, respect,
all his mantras, and it was the way he tapped out,
looking basically at the camera.

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
Hi, guys, I haven't seen that picture. I haven't seen
that screen gap.

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
And I've heard people, you know, decipher it as saying,
well he was actually he wasn't quitting.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
He was letting go.

Speaker 3 (01:34:57):
Know what he's doing is what I said last week,
which is what not his last match?

Speaker 1 (01:35:03):
That's not true. I really like.

Speaker 3 (01:35:06):
Strong each of the Friday the thirteenth movies. Oh, his
finger just twitched. What do they do each time Motley
Crue goes on tour? This is the last time for real?
And they say for real on the poster there? What
are you're lying? How many straight concert tours have they done?

(01:35:26):
Whether it's been titled for the last time?

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
Well, it should go around bloated Vince Neil, that's what
it should be called.

Speaker 1 (01:35:32):
I don't want to see that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:34):
Him and Axel just need to stop or get ozimpic
or whatever you gotta do.

Speaker 1 (01:35:38):
Like is the performance eight Vince Neil? He sort of
still sounds good, you mean, like Vince Neil? Eight Vince Neil?

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
And then another ten. Vince Neils, all right, so it's
a buffet events. His career came to a conclusion. Pat
Mahomes season came to a conclusion, and the Texans continued
on their path towards the postseason. Upwards of ninety five
percent the this team is headed to the postseason. There
are only three games remaining. They should just rest their starters.

Speaker 3 (01:36:04):
The team that was closest to them in the standings
that could bump them out of that spot obviously lost yesterday.
That was the Indianapolis Colts. There's only two other teams
even in the running.

Speaker 1 (01:36:13):
They've beaten.

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
One of them, the Baltimore Ravens, who's likely passed to
the postseason, is only as a division titleist, and the
other team is the Dolphins, who have six wins. Everybody
else has been eliminated. So the idea that the Texans
at some point are going to be among the eliminated,
it's very very very unlikely. The Raiders game this weekend
helps to promote that. I do not believe there's any

(01:36:37):
scenario that clinches a playoff berth just by winning now
a win with some other things, and we should after
tonight's game. I hope tomorrow sometime early the NFL comes
out with their scenarios, but quite honestly, there's some people
in the Twitter sphere social media sphere that do it
even faster than they do. There will be a bunch
of clinching scenarios for a bunch of different teams. You

(01:36:58):
just had two teams able to do that this weekend.
Texans will finish with just the last road game, which
is now Saturday. As you recall, last week they announced
they'll play the Chargers on Saturday, so after the Raiders game,
they have a short week, but then going into their finale,
they have a slightly longer week before they see what's
on the line against the Colts. Quite honestly, they might

(01:37:18):
not be much, if anything on the line. A win
over the Chargers would have them tied depending on how
the other two results go. But if the Chargers lose
this week and next well, the Texans win this week
and next well, they would finish ahead of the Chargers
no matter how they perform in Week eighteen and the
potentially the same could be true with the other wild

(01:37:41):
card team. More than likely, though the Texans run towards
the division title is going to remain alive for quite
some time. But specific to you yesterday's activities and what
took place on the field.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
Let's hear from CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:37:53):
Stroud, Texans quarterback, a couple of different things he got
into once he hit the podium.

Speaker 1 (01:37:59):
Their offense yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:38:01):
Among all the things that people bring up after a win,
I'm glad they want to clean it up and all
but red zone this and goal to go of that
and you know, could how many more points and kicking
so many field goals. They averaged six point three yards
of play yesterday. They have averaged more than six point
three to three, to be exact, it's the most they've
averaged in a game all season long. I know they
were playing the Cardinals, but there are things you should

(01:38:23):
be happy about what you're seeing with how they're playing,
because there are other good defenses that this will play
out well against. Also, but specifically CJ. Stroud talking about
the balance on the Texans offense and they're forty to
twenty win.

Speaker 1 (01:38:37):
Oh oh no, come on now, Oh.

Speaker 9 (01:38:42):
Yeah, I think you know that was a goal of ours,
you know, coming out the case week. You know it
is just you know, not leaving anything out there, you know,
in the run or pass game, and I think, you know,
in practice, you know, we communicated a bunch and then
it went to the game and it you know, it
went over to the game and we executed at a high level.

Speaker 1 (01:38:56):
So I think it goes back to our preparation. I
thought we did a good job.

Speaker 3 (01:39:01):
Brought this up yesterday on the socials about what the
Texans did on the ground yesterday obviously their first one
hundred yard rushing individual rushing game of the season. And
I also noted, you know who the last player to
rush for one hundred yards in a Texans game was
before yesterday?

Speaker 1 (01:39:17):
Mixing? Nope, was it this season? Nope? Mixing didn't rush
for one hundred yards last year. Yes he did, he
just wasn't the most recent one to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
I don't know the season finale last year one hundred
and seventy six yards including a Damian Peeryard touchdown right.

Speaker 2 (01:39:34):
Jamian Pierce against the tight That is correct, But one
hundred and forty three yards rushing for the Texans then
include some intended short yardage plays.

Speaker 3 (01:39:43):
They did another Stover carry which unfortunately was wiped out,
had a CJ. Stroud carry intentional sneak. Both of which worked.
And honestly, I don't really view the Texans as these
aren't tush pushes to me. Basically, the individual was making
the play. Kate Stover's taking the snap and he's finding

(01:40:03):
the hole and he's trying to run through it. He's
not waiting for the players behind him to push him.
I would like CJ. Strott to do a little bit
more than watch, but he stays on the field. He's
always lined up out. Why it does take one defender
out of the situation. But one hundred and forty three
yards that the Texans had in yesterday's game, They've rushed
for more than that only twice all year. They did

(01:40:25):
have good balance yesterday and his individual numbers. Talking about
CJ's individual numbers, I thought it was the best game
of his best game of the season. He was accurate,
extremely accurate. Not from a completion percentage standpoint.

Speaker 1 (01:40:40):
His first how many passes, well, he.

Speaker 3 (01:40:41):
Was nine of eleven, and I think one of them
was an intentional throwaway. But he's hitting guys like Nico
Collins isn't doesn't have to score on that opening play,
but he gets to score because of where the ball was.
He catches it right where he doesn't have to do
anything but keep on going, run through that immediate contact,
and take it the rest of the way. And most
of the throws on that afternoon were the very same way.

(01:41:03):
Whether it was guys in the flat that got the
ball and could immediately look upfield or other players that
were able to catch and run. It is much more
than completion percentage. I just thought his decision making was
very good, the timing of his decisions were good, what
to do with the football, making his way through the progressions,
all of that. Yes, again, they played the Cardinals, I
am aware, but you got to play good offense against

(01:41:26):
somebody before you really think you can be a good offense.
A lot of afternoon here on the A team, wex
say Ce and Josh tried to deliver an award winning
style our signature segment and on a Monday, that means
we delivered the good, the bad, the ugly. From last
we spoke, which was Friday afternoon, in advance of a

(01:41:46):
little bit of Rockets basketball from the night before, we
got a host of college football stories.

Speaker 1 (01:41:53):
Heisman Trophy was handed out.

Speaker 3 (01:41:55):
We got a bunch of college football to look forward
to now, including the playoffs this week and TeX's bawl
now two weeks out, NFL slate from this past weekend,
the return to the NFL for Grandpa Rivers, and anything
else it might have taken place over the weekend. Maybe
you are fired up and you think it's good, bad,
or ugly that Adolas Garcia was given ten million dollars

(01:42:16):
to play baseball for a National League team earlier today.

Speaker 1 (01:42:20):
But it's up to you, guys. I have the ugly,
so I will wait my turn. Ac. You will do
the same.

Speaker 3 (01:42:25):
You have the bad, and Josh gets to open things
up this Monday afternoon. Most of the things seem like
they are good, you know, like we like to have
them here. We're very positive on this show. But Josh,
what's the good?

Speaker 10 (01:42:38):
Keep it super simple here, guys. Not only did the
Texans win, they won by twenty. They put forty points
on the board without the defense having a score, So
for me, very good for the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:42:48):
Yeah, Texans have clearly been led by their defense. And
I was talking to a couple of players yesterday, one
of them specifically noting that and kind of around the
question I had asked them. Talking to Aziz al Shair,
you know, how much does it help having the offense
put you in the position that they did right out

(01:43:09):
of the gate. Remember, the Texans received the ball after
the Cardinals won the toss and they deferred to the
second half. Texans got the football and two plays later
they'd scored a touchdown hadn't eve been a minute gone
off the clock, and then the special teams forced to
turn over, So a few minutes after that, three minutes
into the game, they were up two scores. So too,
Josh is good with the offense helping the defense, as

(01:43:31):
he's al Schier said, the following offense.

Speaker 11 (01:43:33):
Doesn't put up forty and that could be a good
ball game. So, I mean, that's a good offense. You know,
they got some really good dynamic players and Persette is
really good at just taking the deep shots but also
like being just methodical downfield, taking what you give them.
So I've got a lot of respect for that offense
and those players in that team. But I think just
what you saw today was just us staying together, playing

(01:43:57):
together and finding a different way to win another ball.

Speaker 3 (01:44:01):
Haven't had too many games like that that was a
different way to win. The offense scoring forty made what
the defense, and their head coach said today was a
game not up to their standard. Jacoby Rossett went into
the game with more yards passing since becoming the starter
than anybody else in the NFL, and he's still there.
He's the only quarterback in the NFL since early October

(01:44:23):
averaging over three hundred yards passing per game. He got
less than that against Houston, but he obviously had some success.
The one interception against the three touchdowns, and again, twenty
points doesn't sound like much, but it's more than the
Texans on average allowed. They will go into next week
once again the number one defense and points allowed and
the number one defense in yards allowed, which is a

(01:44:45):
combination that almost always spells seasonal success. I don't think
a team's ever finished there, at least not in the
last forty years with those two distinctions and missed the postseason.
And the Texans aren't going to do the miss the
postseason part.

Speaker 1 (01:44:59):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:44:59):
The only thing is will they end up first in
both as we get there.

Speaker 1 (01:45:02):
What's the bad?

Speaker 2 (01:45:03):
Well, the Chiefs are going to miss the postseason, and
that's not bad for everybody else, bad.

Speaker 1 (01:45:06):
For the league. It's bad for everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:45:10):
We're gonna miss the juice that they bring, the buzz
that they bring to the postseason.

Speaker 1 (01:45:14):
Signed Rich eisen Patrick.

Speaker 4 (01:45:15):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:45:17):
Travis Kelsey's gonna retire after this year, right, I think
a lot of science point to that.

Speaker 1 (01:45:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:45:23):
I think it's getting harder physically. I think it's harder
for him to play at a level he thinks as
a respectable.

Speaker 2 (01:45:27):
So all of this is not necessarily bad for anybody else,
especially in the AFC, But all of this is bad
if you're a Chiefs fan, because they had an offensive
line that was in shambles going into this game, actually
was going into the Texans game, and you had a
injury on the first snap of the game, right second
snap of the game yesterday, you had another offensive lineman

(01:45:50):
go down. Then, with what was it, twenty seconds remaining
in the game, you lose Mahomes And it's like, all right,
if that were an injury to I don't know, his
ankle or something like that, all right, well maybe he
doesn't play the rest of the.

Speaker 3 (01:46:01):
Prison, rip off his jacket and yell at Andy Reid
to say, I'm going back in this game.

Speaker 1 (01:46:05):
Probably this isn't this isn't fair.

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
But in addition to the fact that I don't think
he's going to be back to start next season.

Speaker 1 (01:46:12):
I just did the math. Ain't mathing.

Speaker 3 (01:46:14):
I mean, everybody's different quarterbacks are also different than what
they need to go play.

Speaker 1 (01:46:19):
But December fifteenth is December fifteenth.

Speaker 3 (01:46:22):
But six to eight months from now is before next
season begins. You can recover from it. I'm not saying
he will.

Speaker 2 (01:46:29):
Yeah, And I mean, look, it's like Fred van Vliet
when he got that injury, it was like, well, that
sucks because he's probably gonna be good eight months from now,
but that's when the season's over. But I just think that,
say he does come back, I don't know. I don't
know what he'll be. And when he gets back to
that team, it's not gonna have a Travis Kelcey. And

(01:46:49):
even if these linemen all get back to one hundred
percent this offseason, they weren't good this year.

Speaker 3 (01:46:55):
Yeah, Josh Simmons will be in a second year, Tray
Smith and Creed Humphrey is still very good and both
under contract, they can be good.

Speaker 2 (01:47:02):
And on top of being a piece of crap human
being Rashi Rice, I mean, when he wasn't being thrown
hospital balls by Mahomes, he looked tentative out there because
of said hospital balls.

Speaker 1 (01:47:15):
So what's the bad? This is all great, Yeah, so
what's the bad. It's just bad for the Chiefs and
they're spoiled, rotten fan base.

Speaker 2 (01:47:22):
That by the way, them and okay se competing for
the most insufferable. We complain when we don't get fouls
called for, you know, our team. I just I've got
in laws that are Chiefs diehards because they're from there.

Speaker 1 (01:47:37):
I get all that. Like yesterday was Teresa's cousin's birthday.

Speaker 2 (01:47:40):
Were close to her, Christina, and I said, hey, happy birthday,
and she was liketerday, Christina, not Christina.

Speaker 1 (01:47:47):
No, No, that's that's not That's not a name. That's
made up.

Speaker 2 (01:47:50):
You know that, right, Yes, If your name is Christina
and you're listening to us right now, you have a
made up name.

Speaker 1 (01:47:55):
It's not real.

Speaker 3 (01:47:55):
You get my wife's name, right, If we invite you
over our house, you dumb?

Speaker 1 (01:48:00):
Are you? What's that? Christina? Which one was that? The
other guys? That's right?

Speaker 3 (01:48:08):
So the Chiefs got the ball back with five twenty
left in the game on what turned out to be
their final drive at the two minute warning. The first
play out of the two minute warning, as they had
just gotten into Chargers territory on that incomplete pass, That's
where Mahomes went down A few plays of Minshew later,
a first down gained from Minshew later, but with twenty
seconds left, attempting to find Travis Kelcey, he threw the

(01:48:31):
game ceiling interception and the Chiefs are eliminated from postseason possibility.
One thing on Travis Kelcey is probably not well known.
Just in the AFC, Nico Collins is one of only
five players with more receiving yards than Travis Kelcey this year.

Speaker 1 (01:48:49):
In this conference, he.

Speaker 3 (01:48:51):
Has almost eight hundred yards receiving. He could still have a,
whether you care about it, a thousand yard season. He's
been better than last year, but he's had moments where
it looks like he's significantly worse. He cut his hair
in the he cut his I mean, he had a
bad haircut. He needed a haircut.

Speaker 1 (01:49:07):
That's why he played bad last year. That's why he
played bad.

Speaker 2 (01:49:09):
The only time he played good was in the postseason
game when the Texans didn't cover him.

Speaker 1 (01:49:12):
I think what he cut this year is why he's
played better this year.

Speaker 2 (01:49:16):
His weight, oh, I thought it was you were going
to say, appearances by the broom he's engaged to.

Speaker 3 (01:49:21):
Oh, he doesn't control that. If she wants to come
to the game and hide in the suite, and that's
her prerogative.

Speaker 1 (01:49:26):
She was hiding in the suite last weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:49:28):
Yeah, if I told you that the ugly was delivered
throughout the evenings Saturday night and again throughout the day
via an apology Sunday, I bet you already know what
the ugly was from this weekend. It has a little
bit to do with being a very obvious super sore

(01:49:50):
loser keyword being sore. We'll come back and tell you
all about it.

Speaker 1 (01:49:56):
Should I say what I think the ugly is?

Speaker 2 (01:50:00):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:50:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:50:01):
I did not have a chance to get to the
ugly because both Ac and Josh produced wonderful comment worthy
items for the good and the bad, and we had
a lot of conversation about each. The bad was, of course,
the Chiefs, which is good for everybody else unless you
think the league will fall apart without the mighty Mighty
Mahomes and the magic that they bring with them the postseason.

(01:50:22):
And the good was also good for Houston. It was
the Texans dropping a forty Burger on the Arizona Cardinals
taking the early lead and crushing their ninth victory of
the season, and they're sixth in a row. So what
do you think the ugly is? Which I will then divulge.
You can't say that it was what we were just
talking about. Oh okay, So you just asked if you
could say it, and then you re routed and said

(01:50:43):
you can't. Well, it's just it's awful. The ugly is
not quite as awful. It was actually probably something a
lot of people could see coming because it would already
being talked about for the last several months leading up
to this very good season of college football came to
a regular season and conference title game conclusion over the weekend,

(01:51:05):
plus the Army Navy game, we have the playoffs to
look forward to back as part of the stone called Locks.
Friday night's game and the trio of games that come Saturday.
You must make one selection from one of those four games.
You can choose all of them if you want, but
also the Texans game. We'll get there on Friday, but
Saturday night, I was actually making my way back from

(01:51:27):
a college town that is not participating in the playoffs.
They will be participating in the postseason. They've got a
bowl game against the team formerly coached by Sharon Moore
coming up on the thirty first. They'll be enjoying chee
its while they get there. But we're going to be
in the car when the clock got almost to seven
o'clock Central time, when the announcement would be made for

(01:51:48):
the winner of the twenty twenty five Heisman Trophy Award.
And very unsurprisingly and the voters overwhelmingly got it correct.
In my opinion this year, I didn't think it was
a very wrong pool of candidates to begin with, but
pretty obvious by the end of the season who, in
my opinion, was the most deserving offensive player, and most
often that is the player who wins it. With all

(01:52:08):
due respect to Jacob Rodriguez, I actually thought he should
have garnered a little bit more support than finishing fifth
and drawing seventeen first place votes. But Ohio State's Hohum
quarterback finished fourth, Jeremiah Love, the best running back in
the country, finished third, and Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback of
the only undefeated team in the country, won the Heisman Trophy.

(01:52:30):
I skipped who finished second because he could not be
doing things worse.

Speaker 1 (01:52:36):
He's really good.

Speaker 3 (01:52:38):
At making plays on the football field, and almost everything
else he's involved with is wrong, is ill conceived.

Speaker 1 (01:52:46):
He get a bad idea to give me an NFL quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:52:49):
I mean, he's making it hard for people to look
past what you can't look what do you want your
quarterback leadership?

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
Do you want? Well? I can't.

Speaker 3 (01:52:58):
I almost said the guy's name here, but I want
to save it, like we're gonna get to Diego Pavia.
But I was about to compare him to another quarterback, Josh.
Were you watching the ceremony as it was being broadcast, mask,
I was not, so we were watching it in the
car on the way because my daughter was curious who
would win.

Speaker 1 (01:53:17):
I was curious.

Speaker 3 (01:53:18):
The speech is always good, and Mendoza absolutely killed his speech.
It was great, and he'd hit on everything that he
should have. But just before that, they put a montage
together and had it narrated by a former Heisman Trophy winner.
And then when that piece was done, the moderator, the
show host Chris Fowler, thanked the Heisman Trophy winner for

(01:53:38):
putting that together. Johnny Manziel, great job on that piece,
and at the very beginning of the piece. It was
right there on the screen, narrated by Baker Mayfield, who
obviously wasn't there, And so I immediately went to the
X platform, like he just goofed, right. He just thanked
Johnny Manziel, who had nothing to do with that piece

(01:54:00):
they put together, because he thought he was the narrator
of it and somehow didn't get the information. But that's
not the ugly so Diego Pavia does not win. He loses,
and what does he do. He goes to social media
first to tell the voters that he's not very happy
with him. And if I said he used one letter

(01:54:21):
followed by the voters, what one letter do you think
was in front of the voters?

Speaker 1 (01:54:27):
F correct? That was posted on an ig story.

Speaker 3 (01:54:31):
Then he went out to his post Heisman Trophy party
for every runner up I guess has one, uh this kind.
He decided to make sure that somebody that was in
charge of the roving video board, those of you that
party all the time you go to the club, you
get the special treatment, you get the bottle service. There's
somebody walking around with an easily changeable marquee that's handheld,

(01:54:52):
and this one was digital. And he decided to put
the words two words. Indiana was the second word and
the full word starts with F was the first word.
So let's wear Fernando Mendoza go so just over the top,
out of nowhere, totally unnecessary. You don't get it your
I don't know what names you want to call them,
but I'll refrain.

Speaker 1 (01:55:11):
Delta, Brahma, you use them.

Speaker 3 (01:55:13):
So what is inevitably the next move you make after
those things happen on Saturday night?

Speaker 1 (01:55:19):
What do you do next? A public apology on social media?
You do? You do that?

Speaker 3 (01:55:24):
And yesterday evening he was there on the socials. He
went to the X platform to all by himself, with
nobody else's advice or helpful handwriting.

Speaker 1 (01:55:35):
He wrote this all by himself, and it's straight from
the heart.

Speaker 3 (01:55:37):
Being a part of the Heisman ceremony last night as
a finalist was such an honor. As a competitor, just
like and everything else I do, I wanted to win.
To be so close to my dream and come up
short was painful. I didn't handle those emotions well at
all and did not represent myself the way I wanted to.
I have much love and respect for the Heisman voters
and the selection process, and I apologize for being disrespectful.
It was a mistake and I am sorry. I could continue,

(01:56:01):
but nobody cares. I think he's gotten to the point.

Speaker 1 (01:56:04):
Nobody believes I say, I.

Speaker 3 (01:56:06):
Have the I have much love and respect for the
Heisman voters who not more than twenty four hours ago,
I had a message for them and what they should
do right.

Speaker 1 (01:56:16):
And again, this is why, when if this is so,
it's like him.

Speaker 3 (01:56:22):
Easy to not dude, do you not have you may
be you just might not get it. I'm not saying
he's a bad person, but he clearly doesn't get it.
Aren't there anybody? I mean, I know there's all these
stories about his brothers and his family, and they've become
a huge deal, and when it's fun, everyone loves talking
about it. But there's no this is he hasn't done anything.

(01:56:42):
I don't believe that gets to the level of he's
about to head down that same path of lawbreaking and
bad lifestyle choices that Johnny did. But he doesn't have
the He has the same issue. Nobody around him is helping,
or nobody around him realizes he's big enough problem that
we need other people here to get him back.

Speaker 5 (01:57:04):
On track.

Speaker 3 (01:57:05):
Can you remember last or a couple of excitement and
celebrity status.

Speaker 2 (01:57:09):
Remember where I was saying that my people, my people
not be on social media. If I owned a team, yeah,
you would take their phones away. No, they can use
their phones. But if youtheless on social media? Used for
telephone calls, that's right, telephone calls with a rotary dial.

Speaker 3 (01:57:25):
That's what you'd call it if it was a telephone. Yes, okay,
So no social media for your team's players because some
people can't handle it. Why should we be punished for
the other people because so we take it to where
it actually matters. Okay, he made some more mistakes and
he apologized for him.

Speaker 1 (01:57:41):
Does this matter?

Speaker 3 (01:57:42):
Do the NFL gms care if he's truly considered a
top flight prospect?

Speaker 1 (01:57:46):
Is this part of are you going to get it?

Speaker 3 (01:57:48):
And whatever he's going to say to them, all the
things he's going to get that right, He's not going
to go to these meetings and meet with NFL scouts
and meet with gms and owners and say, I can't
believe I even let somebody talk me into him.

Speaker 1 (01:57:59):
A I meant what I did. I don't like the
voters double down.

Speaker 3 (01:58:03):
He's gonna say all the he's gonna sound right, Oh,
this guy's got it together or he's heid all that stuff.
I don't think it's too impactful because we're not Oh
my god, I can't believe what Diego Pavia just did. Well,
were not in shock as usual. If the talent outweighs
the baggage, it won't matter. But I would love to

(01:58:23):
hear some of his combine interviews when he sits down
or pre drafted.

Speaker 1 (01:58:28):
Him on hard knocks, be with the team that interviews him. Please,
Oh my.

Speaker 2 (01:58:31):
Gosh, Yeah, this is not good look for him. Devin ninety,
what a wild weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:58:37):
Yeah, that was a pretty unfortunate weekend obviously on that front,
which we may get to a little bit later. Football
at five here as we get into the five o'clock
hour here on the program, a bunch of stuff we
haven't even gotten to yet with the Texans, not only
from what they had to say about the game. And
I still don't know that we've given enough discussion to
two things in particular, one of them being the play

(01:58:58):
of Juwar Jordan in general, and the other is the
play itself. We've discussed it, and I hadn't heard from
any of the Texans talking about it, thought we could
do that.

Speaker 1 (01:59:09):
Here.

Speaker 3 (01:59:10):
The Texans scored on their opening possession on the fifty
seven yard touchdown from CJ. Stroud to Nico Collins on
his way to one thousand yards. He actually got to
one thousand yards twice in the game on Sunday. The
first time was when Blake Fisher allegedly did not report properly,
so they took his twenty eight yard catch off the board,
calling Fisher for an illegal formation because of his inability

(01:59:33):
to make sure the referee could do his job right.

Speaker 2 (01:59:35):
You think it'd be funny if they were able to
review that. We'd like to challenge whether or not he
reported eligible. Well, they basically had a conference about it,
so I don't know. It would be nice if you could,
because but then you'd have to have somebody saying, no,
look he did it right here. Well, I didn't acknowledge it,
so I'm right, it's basically what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:59:51):
This was a very NBA thing.

Speaker 2 (01:59:53):
You know, I'm always complimenting NFL officials, NBA referees. There's
three of them on each court, right, they are routinely
the only three people in the building to not see
things when everyone else saw it, obviously, but I digress.

Speaker 3 (02:00:07):
Does happen quite a bit. But yeah, so that was
their first touchdown. They obviously got the field goal to
go up ten to nothing, and then they tied their
all time record for most points in a first quarter,
had been done twice previously, but points to sixteen before
the point after, and obviously it was made by Camie Fairbairn.
That particular touchdown was not often seen in the NFL.

(02:00:31):
I'll read it to you as it appears on the
official game book C J.

Speaker 1 (02:00:37):
Stroud.

Speaker 3 (02:00:37):
Fumbles aborted at Arizona. Two were covered by Woody Marks
at Arizona seven Woody Marks for seven yards touchdown. Now,
I actually got a few people responding to me on
the X platform that clearly have a Woody Marx on
their fantasy football team as they hope to arrive in

(02:00:57):
the postseason because they noticed it, and I'm not sure
they got to make sure their league handles it the
right way. But Woody Marks picked up the fumble and
advanced it for a touchdown. The Texans had zero rushing
touchdowns in yesterday's game. It is not according to the
NFL rules, UH determined to be a rushing touchdown? Is

(02:01:22):
a fumble recovery for a touchdown, which is not a
rushing touchdown?

Speaker 1 (02:01:28):
What is it a score touchdown? Right? It does? What
just happened? Correct? It had to be rushed?

Speaker 3 (02:01:35):
Well what it will what it will show up as
when you look in a different part of the Texans,
say season stats, is where it would show up. So
in that category you can look up where everybody all
the points this year and all the categories touchdowns, rushes, passes, returns,
point after field goals, and two point conversions.

Speaker 1 (02:01:55):
Are in DM for random.

Speaker 3 (02:01:58):
Well, I'm going to look back and I'm try to
think of who might actually have this. I think it's
the first time it's happened in Texans history.

Speaker 1 (02:02:06):
I could be wrong.

Speaker 3 (02:02:07):
Imagine Woody Marx has a touchdown rushing receiving and in
the return game now it is listed as a return
touchdown like a kick return touchdown or a pump return touchdown.
Same place you will see Will Anderson's defenses touchdown. Yes,
it's a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and they categorize

(02:02:29):
all of those whether it's the offense, yes, so that's
where it's listed for it. Wow, so hopefully fantasy footballers
didn't get hosed by that or aren't in discussions how
not to. But to the play itself, and I mentioned
earlier we talked to you know, it was addressed by
Demiko Ryans at the podium, It was addressed by c J.
Stroud at the podium, and there's a couple of players

(02:02:50):
in the locker room obviously that needed to discuss it.
But I asked some of the players that were near
to it to kind of get their idea on exactly
what went on. We were in the middle of our
conversation with Titus Howard and uh, you know, he's right
there on the offensive line. He's facing the end zone,
so maybe he does and maybe he doesn't know what
took place behind him.

Speaker 1 (02:03:10):
So I asked him, Jake snapping past CJ to scored,
did you know what was going on?

Speaker 4 (02:03:16):
I actually didn't even know that happened until I was
on sideline. So like when they were like, oh, yeah,
Jake snapped the ball, and I was like, and we
scored still, and I was like, we must have moved
some guys.

Speaker 1 (02:03:25):
Over from that player.

Speaker 4 (02:03:26):
Get over, you know, So you know, that was that
was funny though, But you know, stuff like that happened, man,
and feel like it's they be stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:03:34):
That happened in the game that not you not expecting.

Speaker 4 (02:03:36):
It's like what you're gonna do when they do happen,
You're just gonna complaining about all're gonna make aim play
And those boys made it.

Speaker 1 (02:03:41):
Played on that play. So you know, so what do
you think about because he just picked up what is
a dynamic player? Like, what is a good player? Just
like the Chiefs last week?

Speaker 4 (02:03:49):
My first touchdown when she did dump the ball, he
made a play on his own scored that.

Speaker 1 (02:03:54):
So like you know, he he he thinks fast. You know,
what is it that's good?

Speaker 3 (02:04:01):
The Texans would be tied with any other team that
was perfect in the red zone or in GOLDI Go situations.
If Woody did that and the offensive line did that
on every snap they had it.

Speaker 2 (02:04:13):
Go back.

Speaker 3 (02:04:13):
If you haven't seen it five times, go watch it
in another five times. Watch what Woody does on that
play and watch what the offensive line does. Titus was
exactly right talking about himself and the other guy's up front.
There were holes everywhere and would he just picked up
the ball and launched himself into the end zone. He
basically landed on a defender and carried him into the

(02:04:33):
end zone. And he was in the air from like
the four yard line to five yards deep in the
end zone. It was awesome for a play that was
clearly screwed up.

Speaker 2 (02:04:44):
Did you ca can you still play what is it?
The last five seconds of that? I don't know how
far back it goes when you just play the very end.
About him talking about the play against the Chiefs, Yeah,
can you play that part? Did anybody else hear what
I heard?

Speaker 1 (02:04:57):
He? He thinks fast, that's fine, don't the ball? He
made a play on his own score day, So, like
you know.

Speaker 3 (02:05:06):
So what I think he's talking about that that's the
dump off when CJ had the rush in his face
and threw it off to his left what he was
in the flat and ran it a touchdown.

Speaker 1 (02:05:14):
I think what he's saying is, was that not the
play designed? Like wood?

Speaker 3 (02:05:18):
He's in there too for protection, you know, maybe ultimately
later he just drifted out. He's like that, dude, I
can get enough of this guy to buy enough time
for you to give me the football because I'm going
to be wide open because there's nobody here to me.

Speaker 1 (02:05:31):
That's I was.

Speaker 2 (02:05:33):
I'm I'm almost disappointed because I thought that was a
play call by Kayley. Now I don't watch the game
five times over and do all the all you know,
twenty two and all that kind of stuff like a
lot of you guys do.

Speaker 1 (02:05:44):
I just I can't do it.

Speaker 3 (02:05:45):
But yes, that's exactly what it sounds like. Tight is
right to saying, which is kind of giving it away.
But that's okay. I mean you're not you're not telling
oh my god, they run this play. I don't think
anyone's you know what it looked like.

Speaker 1 (02:05:56):
It looked like.

Speaker 2 (02:05:57):
And again they were on what the ten yard line
something around that area when they were inside the ten
but outside the five. Yeah, well, okay, remember when JJ
used to line up at tight end? Oh yeah, and
he was the first guy I thought of that might
have had all three categories.

Speaker 1 (02:06:10):
But yeah, I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (02:06:11):
But you know what's funny about that is I maybe
you were like this, Like when I would watch games
and he would do that, I'd be like, why how
is he always this open? How do you not know
that if he's lining up on offense, this defensive pass
rusher is lining up at tight end on offense how
do you not know the balls going to him every
single time, because it always did. And there was that

(02:06:34):
one touchdown. I think it was against the Raiders. It
was in the middle of the day, it was very sunny.
He's on the left side of the end zone, and
they were lined up probably more close to the goal line.
It might have been like on the two yard line.
He's wide open, just like what he marks.

Speaker 1 (02:06:46):
Very much so.

Speaker 3 (02:06:47):
The first at the podium to address that play. Of course,
as the head coach Demiko on that particular touchdown.

Speaker 8 (02:06:53):
Of course, just by the time perfectly Ran wanted to
snap it right back. Yeah, we gotta put that one in. No,
it's you know, sometimes the ball has to pounce your
way a little bit. They're a little misk you there
with Jake and CJ and you know, Woody very heads

(02:07:14):
up play. To be able to just get on the ball,
press forward and get in the end zone. Not how
you draw it up, but sometimes when things are going
your way, you need some plays like that to happen.
And so I'm happy we were able to get on
the ball.

Speaker 1 (02:07:26):
Most importantly, I think.

Speaker 2 (02:07:28):
What happened specifically with me was that I was looking
up at the exact moment. I was looking up at
the screen at the exact moment that the ball came back,
and so I thought it was a designed.

Speaker 1 (02:07:41):
You know, direct snap to him.

Speaker 2 (02:07:43):
And I never really I guess I never really looked
at the subsequent replays because I was doing the social
media thing you do, or I was texting with people
like holy cow. So I never really saw anybody's reaction
to that. And that's on me from missing all that.

Speaker 1 (02:07:56):
CJ on the same play.

Speaker 9 (02:07:58):
Yeah, I think, you know, no, I'll probably say a
gun in the huddle or something, and you know, I
went under center and I should have been in the gun,
and then the ball snapped, and you know, Jake still
thought I was, you know, under center, so I mean
in the gun. So you know, I put that on me.
I gotta, you know, be able to communicate. But you know, uh,
at least we got on his own.

Speaker 2 (02:08:16):
Okay, this is even more perplexing. He called shotgun in
the huddle, then lines up under center.

Speaker 1 (02:08:23):
Yes, he's acknowledging that he's the one.

Speaker 2 (02:08:25):
Well, when he's trying to under center, doesn't the center
feel your hands? He also did inside.

Speaker 3 (02:08:31):
He did a bad job of getting all the way
under center, because that's what Jake said to a couple
of people myself included after the game, fascinating me. I
don't I didn't feel him there, so I snapped the
ball via a shotgun snap.

Speaker 2 (02:08:44):
It sounds to me like about fifty things went wrong
and they just lucked out and did this amazing touchdown.

Speaker 1 (02:08:50):
There's no question about it.

Speaker 3 (02:08:51):
And this is, you know, the year that they lost
in every possible way, the four and twelve season with
Deshaun Watson. They had to play very, very, very very
similar to that did. Shaun was in the shotgun and
it was not an ideal snap, but one that he
should have caught late in the game in the fourth quarter,
one score game, in the red zone, inside the five
yard line. They lost the ball because the ball hit

(02:09:13):
the ground and they weren't able to recover it. You know,
I'm not saying the game necessarily changes dramatically. What if
the Cardinals recover the ball, It's only ten to nothing
at that point in time, you've only scored the one touchdown.

Speaker 2 (02:09:25):
I tell you what happens if they recover the ball,
the Texans probably have two points.

Speaker 1 (02:09:29):
Like in the subsequent next snap.

Speaker 3 (02:09:30):
Maybe they didn't sack or even hit Jacoby Brisset a
tremendous amount. You had the one sack early from Audrey,
the one sack later from Daniel Hunter. Aside from poking
will Anderson in the eye, they did a good job.

Speaker 2 (02:09:43):
And that's why he didn't meet with the media. His
eyes hurt, He's I don't it could it absolutely could
have been.

Speaker 1 (02:09:48):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:09:50):
Uh didn't appear that he being in for that snap,
by the way, he definitely don't. And what did they
do on that play?

Speaker 1 (02:09:55):
They scored.

Speaker 3 (02:09:56):
Yeah, that's what he hated it before it happened, and
then I'm sure he hated it. He even more that
he happened to be on the sideline getting some treatment
to try to clean it out or let him see
a little bit better. I initially thought it was maybe
some tire dust up in his eye, but I do
think he was actually poked. So Texans, as Demiko said,
they had a ball bounce their way. Does seem like

(02:10:16):
that happens a lot more often when things are going well,
like when you're riding a five game winning streak, as
the Texans were before they made it six.

Speaker 2 (02:10:25):
Remember when I was talking about how many different talking
heads out there are saying nice things about the Houston Texans. Yeah, well,
Sergeant Slaughters one of them. That's what I like to
call Bill Kawer. I always thought that if he put
on the if he put on the hat and the
I guess the the the aviators is the style of sunglasses,

(02:10:49):
the reflective ones that Sergeant Slaughter used to wear. You
couldn't tell the difference. Same chin, same different, same guy
he was talking about. Not you is the fact that
he likes the Houston Texans. But in light of everything
else that has gone on in the AFC this season,

(02:11:10):
how things kind of could look possibly rosy for your
Houston Texans. Take a listen to what Bill Kauer had
to say.

Speaker 5 (02:11:17):
But this defense Demiico Ryans and CJ. Stroud and all
of a sudden starting to do it. Would he marks
is coming here and giving them a little bit of
a running game right now, some young receivers are starting
to step back.

Speaker 1 (02:11:28):
Every single week.

Speaker 5 (02:11:29):
This is a football team. I watched them against the
Kansas City Chiefs when the Kansas City Chiefs were desperate
on a Sunday night, and I tell you they went
toe to toe with them. That is one football team. Defensively,
you're gonna get in there. I wouldn't want to play them.
I think it's the best defense in football right now,
playing at the highest of levels.

Speaker 2 (02:11:48):
I mean, he's not wrong. The defense yesterday kind of
they had an off day, if you want to call
it that. And I still never worried. I still never
It's it's not because it was Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals.
I feel like that every single week. I mean, I
it is crazy to me how much they seemingly own

(02:12:08):
Josh Allen up to this point. It's just not nothing
makes sense about that.

Speaker 3 (02:12:12):
Yeah, we had our stone cold locks last week, and
I said, when I took the Bills at plus one
and a half and the Patriots at home as underdogs,
they were actually plus one and a half, I said
it wrong, and Josh took the other side. I basically said,
the only reason I'm going with this is because I
can't quite quit Josh Allen. I can't quite believe it's

(02:12:34):
it isn't his time or he isn't the guy that's
gonna go make it happen.

Speaker 1 (02:12:38):
That is kind of what happened.

Speaker 3 (02:12:39):
They were down twenty one to nothing and they came
all the way back, they took the lead, they gave
up another huge run to Travon Henderson who had two
of them in the game, and then they came back again.
They won the game thirty five thirty one on the road.
They kept their hopes for the division title very much alive.
And that's the one other thing that's happening in the
AFC that people want to buy into a little bit.
If there's no Mahomes Ina and there's no Lamar Jackson

(02:13:01):
in the way, and there's no Joe Burrow, like, what's
keeping Josh Allen from having this finally be his year?
But they're saying the same thing about Houston because it's
the same thing that's been in their way. You know,
the Texans have been in the same four teams have
been the last four teams in the AFC back to
back years, and this year C J. Stroud and Josh
Allen could find it for a third straight year. It's

(02:13:25):
possible Lamar Jackson and the Ravens could also be there,
but we now know that Pat Mahomes will not be there.
It's a totally different landscape in the AFC. You know,
the Patriots long winning streak just came to an end
at home, and we'll see how they deal with it.
I guess if you want to call it that. The
final three weeks, they've got the Ravens, the Jets, and
the Dolphins to close it out. So one team that's

(02:13:46):
playing for something. And I'm sure by the final week
of the season, the Dolphins, if they're not eliminated tonight,
will have been eliminated from the postseason. You know, the
Broncos continued their winning streak or a really nice victory
at against the Packers, They've can continued to win every
single week.

Speaker 1 (02:14:02):
Sin's week three.

Speaker 3 (02:14:02):
They're now twelve and two, and we even spent some
of the days saying, well, they're not so far. The
twelve and two team is usually an overwhelming favorite. If
they're at twelve and two fourteen games into the season,
oh yeah, I'm picking the Broncos to win. They're twelve
and two, they're the best team. There's nobody's gonna beat them.
You're not gonna win going through Blank City. Nobody really

(02:14:23):
thinks that. Even though they have a very good defense
and they're obviously playing good football. They have the Jags,
the Chiefs, and the Chargers to close out, and so
again that means the Chargers have the Cowboys, the Texans,
and the Broncos to finish out.

Speaker 1 (02:14:37):
Cowboys did not really do what they needed to do.

Speaker 3 (02:14:39):
They they Cowboy did not quite completely, but well, their
defense still is not good enough to stop JJ McCarthy.
It's played a little bit better in the last couple
of weeks, but obviously that's not a game you'd like
to lose because it's another team that's going nowhere. The
scenarios for the Texans that are realistic and desirable, I

(02:15:00):
do think number two is still in play. You know,
a tiebreaker with the AFC East champ, with the Broncos
being number one likely at twelve and five, is gonna
be in the Texans hands. They can win a tiebreaker
with New England at twelve and five, they can definitely
obviously head up if the Bills win the division, either
they've wanted in a tiebreaker over the Patriots or to

(02:15:21):
flat out I have a better record. If the Texans
and Bills are in a tiebreaker, obviously the head to
head goes to Houston. So finishing with three more wins,
finishing twelve and five, and there's a few other scenarios.
Even with just eleven wins, they could get there. But
now you're talking about a tremendous amount of help and
a bunch of other losses because they're sitting in seventh
and they have fewer wins than everybody that they're chasing.

(02:15:42):
Because they're not chasing the North champion, they're chasing the
two other wild card teams, the Patriots and the Jaguars,
and the rest of the AFC playoff picture. There are
losses that are coming. I don't know, if you ask
me right now, tell me what team in the AFC
is winning out just starting today, Texans go to play

(02:16:02):
the Chargers. The Chargers have games against both the Texans
and the Broncos. The Broncos have games against both the
or all three of these teams, Jags, Chiefs, and Chargers.
I don't know how good the Chiefs are going to be,
but maybe there's some insumat Like I could go through
everybody's schedule and there's something staring them in the face.
Bills host the Eagles that suggests they're not just going
to win out. So if the Texans can, yes, absolutely,

(02:16:27):
a spot much better than seven is in their future.

Speaker 1 (02:16:30):
Yeah, I mean the Chargers game.

Speaker 2 (02:16:33):
It doesn't worry me, but it's the one on the
schedule that's left where I'm like, Okay, that could go
either way, especially because it's on the road. But I
don't know, Man, This to me, the best case scenario
for me personally, of course, seeing as how I've talked
about this all off season and end of the year,
would be not only the Texans win, but that defense

(02:16:55):
makes Justin Herbert look just absolutely abysmal.

Speaker 1 (02:16:59):
Which that's what I mean, that's kind of what you
can do if you have a defense like the Texans. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:17:05):
I think that the Chargers defense is clearly starting to
come around. The way they played against the Eagles, forcing
all those turnovers and most of the game was still
played by Mahomes at quarterback for the Chiefs, and they
just couldn't really do anything. That's how the Chargers were
able to also do very little and still win. They've
won five of their last six games over the last

(02:17:25):
seven weeks or eight weeks, and the only loss or
six of their last seven games. I should say they
were just at four and three earlier this year. They're
now ten to four. The only loss was that's still
hard to figure out total domination that they got handed
to them when the Jaguars ate their lunch.

Speaker 1 (02:17:41):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (02:17:42):
Every other game for the last eight weeks, the Chargers
have one and in every single one of those games,
they've allowed twenty points or less. Just that loss is
the only one that stands out that sounds a lot
like Houston, even though their defense is nowhere near as
individually talent and they haven't had nearly the overall season.
But somebody's gonna have to lose for the Texans to
catch them, and that's the only team they have left

(02:18:03):
on their schedule that they can force that to happen with.
Finishing seven's not the end of the world, probably facing
the AFC East champ, but he could still be facing Jacksonville.
Jacksonville's finish suggests certainly if they win this week. If
they win this week, they're closing out with nothing but victories.
They already have a five game winning streak. If they
go to Denver and win, they're gonna beat the Colts,

(02:18:24):
and they're gonna beat the Titans because it also will
likely have them playing for that number two seed. Will
we get into the point where we're saying, do they
want that seed, because if they get it, then they're
playing the Texans. They'd be better off finishing third so
then they can get the Like, I don't really think
we're gonna get there. I don't think someone's so afraid
of the Texans that they're so unafraid of the Chargers,

(02:18:44):
are unafraid of the Bills, or if the Patriots end
up falling to one of the wild I just don't
I love what the Texans are doing. It's nice to
have something nobody else has, and that is the defense
that they have, certainly not in the opening round of
the playoffs, especially if the Broncos are won. But I
don't think we're gonna be playing those karma games, like
I don't think you want this. I think they intentionally

(02:19:05):
rested guys so they would avoid this. You play what's
you go out and do what you need to do,
and I think everybody in the AFC will play it
that way. By the way, on the NFC side, not
from a playoff standpoint, but the sophomore season, second season
for Jaydeon Daniels, it's over. Did not play yesterday and
they have since decided to hold him out the rest
of the season, so his numbers this year will be bad.

(02:19:27):
His team obviously did not perform very well with or
without him, and I know they've won a couple of
games here recently with Mario Marcus Mariota, but it's almost
a lost second season for a guy who had a
better rookie season than the Oh my god, nobody's ever
done this.

Speaker 1 (02:19:44):
CJ's rookie season was nobody's ever done this.

Speaker 3 (02:19:47):
Jayden's season was better and his second season, for a
lot of reasons, was way worse.

Speaker 1 (02:19:53):
But nobody's gonna talk about how he regressed because he
was he wasn't on the field. I think that's fair.

Speaker 3 (02:19:57):
I don't think he played particularly well, and I'm fine
with giving analysis of that play also, but an overwhelming
majority of people are probably not going to say, well
as he was, he didn't play enough. You know, you
got to give a guy a chance to improve over
the course of the season or just be on the field,
and he wasn't on the field.

Speaker 2 (02:20:14):
Do you have an analysis for his left tackle demanding
more money, Well.

Speaker 3 (02:20:17):
He did leave yesterday's game with an injury, demanding more money,
or I'm really good, I don't want to play with
one year left on my deal. I'm like every other
player in the NFL. Or because it's Laramie and he
used to play here, we like to make a big
deal out of it. Okay, I mean all he does
is play elite pass blocking left tackle, kind of the

(02:20:39):
second most important part of your offense.

Speaker 1 (02:20:41):
That's all he does. You get paid when you do.
That's they're going to pay him. They didn't. I hope
they didn't trade for him to not pay him.

Speaker 2 (02:20:50):
Second rounder is looking good. It's looking a lot better
with each passing loss. So we'll keep an eye on that. Obviously,
we will keep an eye on things we have not
talked about. Next segment it's called in Case You missed It,
and it's next.

Speaker 1 (02:21:04):
The eighty program.

Speaker 3 (02:21:05):
We hit the halfway points of that final hour of
the program. We try to hit you with some items
we've not yet fully gotten through or gotten through at all,
in a little segment we call in Case you missed It.
In case you missed it, This week, we'll be giving
away tickets to see Monster Energy Ama Supercross. It's coming
up on January thirty first at NRG Stadium. Sounds like

(02:21:27):
it's so far away. That's next month, January thirty first
at NRG Stadium. Tickets are on sale now. Ticketmaster dot
Com got a pair of tickets for that. Also have
a pair of tickets to see Ron White March twenty
seventh Smart Financial Center right there in sugar Land, and
you can get tickets to that should you not win
them here at Smart Financial Center dot Net. Tickets to
both of those events will be given away in the

(02:21:49):
final segment of the show.

Speaker 1 (02:21:50):
As per usual, have.

Speaker 3 (02:21:51):
Some other fun giveaways planned this week. It's the holiday
season after all, so stay tuned for that. But for
the in case you missed it portion this segment, Josh,
what do we have today?

Speaker 10 (02:22:02):
Well, just last segment, Ac was talking about the Commanders
and that draft pick and being excited for this should
make us even more excited. Commanders shutting down Jayden Daniels
for the rest of the year so he can't even
blow their draft picks.

Speaker 1 (02:22:15):
Now.

Speaker 3 (02:22:15):
Well, the Washington football outfit was victorious yesterday and so
they got their fourth win of the year. There are
six teams with fewer than four wins, so somewhere in
that range, probably four, five, six, seven, eight, probably in
the second round is where that pick would come. The
Texans way. The Texans are playing one of the three

(02:22:38):
two win teams on Sunday. They've already helped the Titans
stay at two wins by beating them, and I'm curious
what they'll want to do with Vegas. You know, if
they let them go ahead and grab a win, well,
that would leave just the Giants and Titans with two wins.
The Texans made a deal with Giants on Draft Day

(02:23:00):
last year. We want Jackson Dart and we will give
you a second round pick in the future to give
us that twenty fifth pick, which the Texans did. So
they stand right now to have two picks in the
top thirty three, potentially the first pick of the second round,
maybe from the Giants, and obviously their own first round

(02:23:21):
pick Jackson Dart.

Speaker 1 (02:23:22):
By the way, in case you missed it, he was
in the medical tent again.

Speaker 3 (02:23:28):
This weekend, apparently the fifth time in fourteen games fifteen weeks,
not all of which he's even played in the fifth
time he went through day of game in game concussion
protocol evaluation. They also did not win despite all the like.
Think about these two situations real quick before we continue.

(02:23:49):
There's three two win teams. Tennessee just beat Cleveland a
week ago to get the two wins, so toss them out.
The other two are the Vegas Raiders and the Giants.
They both lost eight in a row, and we talk
about the Raiders like it's a complete bleep show. They
fired their oc you know, you got a under one
hundred yards of offense yesterday, and Pete Carroll's talking about

(02:24:10):
how hard these guys fight. Gino Smith signing looks horrendous.
He's played poorly, and Kenny Pickett's much much worse. And
then we look at the other team with the same record,
and the Giants are like, hey, we found our quarterback
of the future. This era of Giants football is going
to be great. At He's played in almost every one
of these eight games, and they keep losing over and

(02:24:30):
over and over. And I know he's only a rookie,
and I know Scatabo's hurt, and I know Neighbors is hurt.
But the amount of positivity around Jackson Dart, who's the
starting quarterback for a team that's lost eight in row
is two and twelve, does seem a little bit slanted
to how awesome it is. Well, there's nothing awesome happening
in these games.

Speaker 2 (02:24:51):
Yeah, it's They're a quirky team going into twenty twenty
six because they had a lot going for them until injury.
He kinda, but they still weren't The record wasn't good,
That's all I'm saying. And they fired their head coach,
so who they have in the future is a big deal.
They've had a bunch of other coaching changes that we
haven't talked a whole lot about. They fired Brian Cox,

(02:25:12):
one of their defensive assistant coaches, after some things had happened,
and most of the reports suggests the final straw was
under interim head coach by Kafka. They have moved where
the assistant coaches sit on the plane. Used to be
near the front, now they're near the back.

Speaker 3 (02:25:28):
And apparently that was a camel straw backbreaking item with
Brian Cox, and out the door he went. Kafka became
the interim coach and he has made significant changes to
the staff. One other football note, only reason the Jets
lost to the Jaguars yesterday was because all of it
is Steve Wilkes fault, and Aaron Glenn fired him for it.

(02:25:49):
Got to see how that sounds. It sounds terrible. It's
not the only reason they lost. It's clearly not Steve
wilkes fault. They have lost defensive talent throughout the year
playing elsewhere via trades.

Speaker 1 (02:25:58):
They had a bad day.

Speaker 3 (02:26:00):
So Aaron Glenn in his first year with his first
DC said, bye, I'll call the place.

Speaker 1 (02:26:06):
What else do we have? Yeah?

Speaker 10 (02:26:08):
For sure Jackson Dart and what he Mark should be
paying rent in the blue medical ten. I think you
guys are correct about that. Let's get this more injury news.
Philip Rivers to remain the starter for Monday Night Football
versus the forty nine ers. Now Anthony Richardson is getting
close to returning here, he could be back, but Colts,
they're gonna roll with Big Philly time one more time.

Speaker 1 (02:26:27):
Who gives you a better chance to win? Now?

Speaker 3 (02:26:29):
If they're both healthy and they're not in the playoff hunt,
there's no way Philip Rivers plays. You cannot play Philip
Rivers if you have games on your schedule and you
can put Anthony Richardson out there. If you believe Rivers
give you a better chance to win and you have
playoff hopes, fine, you can play Philip Rivers. They're not
eliminated this week. He's going to be the starter again

(02:26:50):
this week. It's going to be another tough game. And
evaluating his performance yesterday, I mean, i'd be totally honest
with you, is kind of watching kind of the numbers unfold,
gone back and watched all the throws that he made.
He played exactly like I thought he would play. You
can't push the ball down the.

Speaker 1 (02:27:08):
Field at all. Everything is underneath.

Speaker 3 (02:27:11):
If you are a running back or a tight end
or a slot receiver, get ready to see the ball
a billion times. And he's probably not gonna make a
lot of bad throws. The throw at the end of
the game is forgivable. They're in a desperate situation. The
only interception, the only turnover that he had, but he
attempted twenty seven passes, eighteen of them were complete, and
they got a grand total of one hundred and twenty
yards off those throws. It's they controlled a little bit

(02:27:34):
of the game doing it that way. They did find
the end zone. They took the lead in the final
minute because he made some really nice throws and put
them in position to attempt the one of the two
successful field goals in the final minute, one was from
fifty six, the other was from sixty keep using those
k balls NFL, You're not changing the game at all.
Career high, but is this he has severe limitations? It

(02:27:58):
is pretty impressive what they did upfront, those yes to
allow dad bod too. Well, all this I thought it
was nonsense. We acted like we both thought it was nonsense.
How can you start him? How can you play him?
This is embarrassing, irresponsible. If nothing embarrassing about that, well win.
It'll be the next apology he owes to somebody for

(02:28:18):
saying something. He's okay to have the wrong opinion. I'm
just not sure why you would phrase it that way.
What else do we have?

Speaker 7 (02:28:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:28:26):
Another one?

Speaker 10 (02:28:27):
An injury update here looks like for Chiefs fans. Good
news for them. It appears that Mahomes is avoided damage
to other ligaments. They're gonna have it looked at next
week in Dallas, so we'll see what those results say.
But hey, if you need him to come back in return,
we hear nine months now for acls being kind of typical.
If he didn't damage anything else and he's a quarterback,
maybe he's back in nine or ten months.

Speaker 2 (02:28:49):
He'll be wearing a brace, very common and if you
even look at it, you look get a flag.

Speaker 3 (02:28:57):
I don't think it does it change your host season
plans at all roster wise. I mean, you're built around him.
You obviously know the situation isn't gonna change with everything else.
To me, I don't think it changes the thing. You
need to either get your offensive line healthy and or
shore it up. You need to probably be shopping for

(02:29:18):
tight ends, and you should probably be shot have been
shopping for running backs. Yeah, I totally agree. Those are
your three priorities. None of those things changed with his injury.
In my opinion, I think you're right on all counts.

Speaker 1 (02:29:29):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (02:29:29):
I mean, how do you feel about their defense? It's decent,
that's stone cold when it wants to be.

Speaker 1 (02:29:33):
Well, yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3 (02:29:35):
Chiefs out of the playoffs for like the tenth time
today on the show Casey, virtually nobody waits for me
to update on a weekly basis is the latest Pro
Bowl Games voting returns. All Texans that were in a
certain spot on the ballot in previous weeks are in
the same spot on the ballot this week. And it

(02:29:55):
is zero concern a little bit of concern about Derek
Stingley Junior, though we haven't brought up up a bunch today,
but he did miss ten snaps in the game yesterday,
including the final drive for the Cardinals. Obviously at that
point in the game that Texans had a twenty point lead.
Might have missed those snaps anyway, But it was deemed
an oblique injury by the Texans yesterday when they put

(02:30:15):
out this so and so was questionable to return, and
that obviously, whether it's exactly the same as not known,
but an oblique injury is what had plagued him earlier
this year. You know, I saw him look like maybe
he couldn't tell if he was wincing or kind of
upset with how the play went on a couple of tackles.

Speaker 1 (02:30:33):
So hopefully it's not too serious.

Speaker 3 (02:30:34):
And according to Demiko On, several players like Woody Marx,
like Nick Chubb who missed the game, and Derek Stingley
Junior would fall in that same boat. Like we've seen
the last couple of weeks, seen a bunch of guys
day to day, seen as several players be limited or
non practice players early in the week, get out on
the field on Friday, and then ultimately playing the game.
You had EJ. Speed and Nick Chubb both as inactives.

(02:30:57):
That meant Christian Harris got a ton of work at
line He's basically saw half his season's worth of work
at linebacker in yesterday's game, barely saw any looks the
rest of the season had mostly been a special teams player.
Looked like he played fine to me. There was one
play that stood out and I'm not sure where what
I'd even make of it, but Naikwon Jones was in

(02:31:17):
at defensive tackle on his side, and Jones is playing
his first game with the Texans. He's probably become more
valuable with now the additional injury to Mario Edwards Junior,
who's out for the year. Liked him settle out for
the year last week, but he went up to the
line and he moved Jones into a new position, like
you're not lined up properly for what we're seeing or
what you need to be and he lined him up,

(02:31:39):
moved him a little bit to his right, which is
exactly where the play went, so he must have seen it,
but he actually got himself blocked out of the play.
He ended up making the tackle, but it was a
successful Cardinals play. It seemed like he diagnosed it just
was unable to finish it off. Don't want to get
too far into this conversation before I allow for our friends,
our listeners, our fans lifeblood to go enjoy themselves, whether

(02:32:02):
it be with Ron White as he performs It's Smart
Financial Center on March follow seventh Hatter Salad in sugar Land.
Tickets available for that It's Smart Financial Center dot net
or tickets to see the Monster Energy AMA Supercross at
a Energy Stadium on January thirty First tickets to be
a ticketmaster dot com got a pair of ticks to
each show. Should you know the answer to this question?

(02:32:24):
And we'll like to call in with it at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety You, as
big listeners to our program today, should know the answer
to this question.

Speaker 1 (02:32:32):
Well.

Speaker 2 (02:32:33):
Earlier we played an audio clip from Bill Kawer, who
I refer to as the Chin. I'm not the only
one that refers to him as that he has a
very distinct appearance. It's maybe not as much as pronounced
as it as it was during his coaching days, but
I made a comparison to a professional wrestler that I

(02:32:56):
thought he looked like, because you know me, I'm a
huge wrestling guy John Cena has already been discussed on
the show today. See I'm throwing them off after this
John Cena, Amy Schumer co star just a lot of movies.
Doesn't have to only be train Wreck. But yeah, which
in a marine before? Which professional wrestler not named John Cena?
Did I compare Bill Cower's distinct appearance to in this

(02:33:20):
hour of the show.

Speaker 1 (02:33:21):
Can I give them a hint? No, because when you
give them the hint, you give them the answer. I
don't think so.

Speaker 2 (02:33:27):
I disagree, But let's see how you screw this up.
Can I give his real name? No, that's a giveaway.

Speaker 6 (02:33:33):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (02:33:33):
Can I say what his character as a wrestler is
inspired by.

Speaker 2 (02:33:37):
No, Okay, I won't, and don't go to any of
his nicknames either. There's no pro wrestling.

Speaker 1 (02:33:48):
Oh Man.

Speaker 3 (02:33:50):
According to a mister Kawer is known for his distinctive
jaw line and intense sideline demeanor, just like this guy.

Speaker 1 (02:33:59):
There you go your hints.

Speaker 2 (02:34:01):
Although he wasn't on the sideline, he was in the fight,
so to speak. He was a combatant and Bill Cowers,
just to coach.

Speaker 3 (02:34:09):
Your comparison to this particular gentleman wrestler is not from
our show only I'll since been known.

Speaker 2 (02:34:17):
I'll give him a hint. He co headlined WrestleMania seven.
Where was that the LA Sports Coliseum. Do you know
the story behind that? Who was the other co headliner?
Terry Bolea, that's all Kgan people. Yeah, they were gonna
have it at the Coliseum USC couldn't fill it up. Well,

(02:34:42):
there's debate, so some people will have you think that
they couldn't fill it up and so they moved it
to the La Sports Colisseum. The official story, according to
Vince McMahon and Bruce Pritchard and people that are pro
Vince at the time was that this particular person that
we are is the answer to our trivia question. He

(02:35:02):
was a turncoat on the USA at the time.

Speaker 1 (02:35:06):
That was his gimmick.

Speaker 2 (02:35:07):
He had turned away from the Stars and Stripes and
had joined forces with a pro Iraq faction during the
Gulf War. His WrestleMania seven was in nineteen ninety one.
Because of course, if the WWEWWF at the time can
make money off of something unfortunate going on in the world.

Speaker 1 (02:35:27):
They will.

Speaker 3 (02:35:28):
According to one of my sources, he wrestled under six
different ring names. Okay, with the answer to this question
being one of them, the last one. He didn't wrestle
as anything else after, did he. I believe he put
a let's see, no, I think that's correct. I think
that is correct.

Speaker 1 (02:35:49):
I don't think he ever went to WCW after he
was a WWF.

Speaker 3 (02:35:53):
He performed as a wrestler wearing a mask at one
time during his career.

Speaker 1 (02:35:58):
Yep, that part of his career destroyed.

Speaker 2 (02:36:01):
And Josh, do we haven't answer to this yet. Maybe
he's taking a phone call. Okay, what was the other
thing you were about to say? That he wrestled as
a masked guy and what else?

Speaker 3 (02:36:14):
I'm trying not to give it away. He told me
not to good, just like whatever else I said. If
you asked me to do it, then I have to
do it.

Speaker 1 (02:36:19):
I'm proudly not to do that. I'm proud of you
for doing.

Speaker 7 (02:36:23):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:36:23):
After the finale of that WrestleMania, which Hogan won by
the way, Terry won the match, he went back to
the back and that's where this person, along with his cronies,
threw a fireball.

Speaker 1 (02:36:36):
In his face. A little known fact there and macauay
Culkin was in attendance that day.

Speaker 3 (02:36:40):
So when we get to the weekend of the NFL
slate in front of us, that matters to Houston. Texas
are at home, and if you thought they were favored
by a lot this past week nine and a half,
which they clearly covered, we have a question about this.
By the way they're favored by more than two touchdowns,
I'd have to go back and look. There probably have
not been four times in team his they've been favored

(02:37:00):
by this much. Fourteen and a half point favorites against
the Raiders in the total. For a line to be
that wide and a totally this low shows you how
bad the Raiders are. It's thirty seven and a half.
The Bills are at the Browns. They are heavy favorites
there as well. Not a very good offensive day for
Cleveland in their loss yesterday. Chargers are at the Cowboys,

(02:37:22):
where they are not currently favored. They're one and a
half point underdogs at the Dallas Cowboys. That's gonna shootout
very well. Could be Cowboys could do the Texans a favor.
Mentioned earlier that the Broncos are hosting the Jaguars. That's
one of the afternoon kickoffs. Like Houston, the Broncos are
a home favorite against the Jags. Currently it sits at

(02:37:43):
a field goal and the Patriots Sunday Night Football, they're
at the Ravens, probably possibly a playoff preview down the road.
They are also not favorites. They're two and a half
point underdogs to the Ravens and Philip Rivers gets to
play on Monday Night Football, hosting the ten and four

(02:38:04):
San Francisco forty nine ers. This is the hardest to believe.
Paid no attention to ten and four team I can remember.
Why do I feel like that's gonna get good ratings?
It probably will. San Francisco is a popular team to
have on very large following.

Speaker 2 (02:38:19):
And then an old fat man is playing quarterback for
the Colts. It's very a freak show, so to speak.

Speaker 3 (02:38:25):
It's pretty important the Colts need to not fall two
games behind the Texans with two games to play.

Speaker 1 (02:38:30):
He would basically eliminate them from the postseason.

Speaker 2 (02:38:32):
I'm assuming, Josh, we do have a winner for the contest.
Oh two winners.

Speaker 1 (02:38:38):
I like it.

Speaker 3 (02:38:39):
So they knew they knew that Bob Remus, Bob Slaughter
the Executioner, Super Destroyer, Mark two and Matt Burns also
saw Sergeant Slaughter as the same wrestler under at different
times in his career.

Speaker 2 (02:38:54):
I wonder how many people agree with my comparison that
he looks like Bill Cower and Bill Cower looks like.

Speaker 1 (02:38:59):
Lots of you're not. It's been said many times over
over the years. Is it not Pukes? That was my
favorites when he would call people pukes. Oh good luck
to him, and now yeah, he's all right, bastard program
If you aren't aware.

Speaker 2 (02:39:14):
Oh I'm aware. He wears the polo with the logo
on it. So we got a nightcap coming up next.
We got Rockets basketball, both of us getting your coverage
underway before Matt Thomas has the call Rockets v. Nuggets
and Tarry Easton may or may not play tonight. We
still don't know for sure, but all of that is
straight ahead. Keep it right here on your home for
Rockets basketball Sports Talk seven ninety