Astros Drop D-Backs Series, Phillies Tonight, Texans Team Captains, Texans-Bills

Tuesday on The Dan Mathews Show, Dan and Josh reacted to the Astros’ series loss to the D-backs, looked ahead to their upcoming clash with the Phillies, examined the Texans’ team captains, and previewed Texans-Bills.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Dan Matthews Show. We back. We back.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
There's no highlights to play. We haven't played since Sunday.
And we are back from the holiday weekend. And with that,
we say away we go. Good morning. Welcome on in.
It is the Dan Matthews Show. Coming your way every
single weekday. Well, most weekdays when you don't have Labor Day.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
But.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
10-2 right here on your home of the Astros and
the Rockets. Sports Talk 790. Strohs getting ready for a
huge series up in Philadelphia. Talk about that here in
just a few as Joe Espada is going to join
us today at 1230. So look forward to being able
to catch up with the skipper of your first place, Strohs.
And also it's game week over there on Kirby Drive

(00:49):
as the Texans getting ready for the Buffalo Bills to
get the 2026 season underway. But an awesome weekend. Hopefully
everybody felt the exact same way as you got tons
of college football this weekend. You got, again, the anticipation
that the NFL season going to fire up. Just wish

(01:09):
the Astros, especially with runners in scoring position, would have
been able to match the moment because it wasn't only
just Saturday where, again, it's one of those losses that
you're like, hmm, should have won that one. Sunday was
the exact same way, too. And that's what was frustrating
about that Diamondbacks series. But onward and upward, you can't

(01:30):
do anything about it now. You still have a two-game
lead on the Texas Rangers. And you're still six up
on the Seattle Mariners. So those are working in your favor.
But now this is when you get into a really,
really tough stretch. Because it's not only this series against
the Phillies. Then you've got a hell of a series

(01:52):
coming up against the Tampa Bay Rays sandwiched in between
a couple of potential playoff teams is a three game
series with the Royals, which their season never really got
on track. And you know how you've played against under
500 teams this year. So that is one when you
come back home and start up the final homestand of
the season that you'd like to be able to take

(02:14):
advantage of this part of your schedule. Because in that
following weekend, you get a first-place ball club, the Atlanta
Braves in town, before you go out on the road
for the final six of the regular season against the
Mariners and then against the A's.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
God, I got to tell you what.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
I do not want this going into that A's four-game
series with the Astros really needing to, at worst, get
a split. Because they, for whatever reason, do not play
well in Sacramento. So it would be nice, it would
be nice... to be able to have business handled before.
And that's what this week can possibly be for you.

(02:51):
As again, you're playing against two playoff teams, the Phillies
who have been one of the better teams in all
of baseball.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
And I understand what's going to come along with that. Well,
they fired their manager.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
And once they fired their manager, that's when they were
able to start playing better baseball. Let's also remember, too,
that the guy that got fired earlier this season replaced
someone else, and then they were able to go on
a run. Just changing managers does not mean that all
of a sudden things are going to turn around for
the better. I get what some of you feel in

(03:24):
terms of that, but two at the same time, this
is a good Phillies team. And that was the thing too,
is that a lot of people knew that they were
a really good team and that they should have been
playing a lot better baseball. And now they have, I mean,
they're 18 games above 500. You go into this series
with them at 81 wins and you right now at 73. So,

(03:47):
I mean, they are a really good ball club and
that's a team also too. That's, chasing another really good
club in the Atlanta Braves. But I mean, it is
one of those where you go up there to Philly.
It is a tough place to play. This is not
going to be an easy series whatsoever. And this is
one of those that coming out of this week, and

(04:09):
I was on with Nate Griffin earlier on Fox 26,
where I'd said, you probably need to split this week.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
I mean, that's what I think.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Conservatively would be a good being able to say, okay,
you know, business was handled. of being able to two
out of three against either of these two teams, I
would prefer that if you were going to say you
can only win one of these series, I would prefer
it to come against Tampa Bay, even though there is

(04:37):
no hope of catching Tampa Bay for the best record
in the American League. But that's also a team that
you're going to need to get through before you get
to the National League side, if indeed you are able
to have a hell of a run during the postseason.
So that's why I would take that. But No sweeps
in either of these. No sweeps whatsoever. You got to,

(04:59):
at the very least, salvage a series. And on top
of it all, too, it is one of those where
this coming series up in Seattle, we're Mariners fans. Because, again,
they're six games back. I can handle Seattle maybe gaining
a game or two on you. But the Rangers right now,

(05:19):
you'd like for them to be able to Go up
there and stub their toe in a huge way. And
hopefully you're able to handle business in between to head
into this weekend a little bit better than what you are.
I mean, you went into the Diamondbacks series three games
up on Texas and you came out of it two
games up because again, you couldn't handle business on Saturday

(05:40):
and Sunday.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
And incredibly frustrating. No question about it.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
But we also have seen how the Astros have responded
whenever they come out of a frustrating series. For the
most part this year, they've been able to get things
back on track. And a way to get it back
on track is go up to Philly, and a guy
that's pitching for you tonight has been really good for you.
You'd love to see Hayden Wisniewski continue these ways. And

(06:06):
you'd like to be able to handle Philly's starter tonight,
which is not going to be Hazel Luzardo or any
of the other really good guys that they have on
their team.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
So.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
I mean, it is high time for you to be
able to try to take advantage of a really tough
part of your schedule. And that's what the Astros are
hoping to be able to do as they get that
series fired up tonight. And again, you can hear that
game right here on Sports Talk 790 as the Astros
fire up the series. You're going to get a couple
of evening games against them. And then you get a

(06:39):
getaway day on that Thursday to be able to get
out of there. But again, Like I said, Hayden Wisniewski
getting the start tonight against Andrew Painter, a young right-hander.
And man, I mean, you see his picture online. This
kid looks like he's like 12 years old. He's 23,
which I mean, I get, but three and eight with
a 5.55 ERA. And I mean, it is a really

(07:00):
good Phillies pitching staff, but two at the same time.
I mean, Josh, me and you have talked about it
numerous times where it seems like the Astros get the
opener of a series.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Then they seemingly are in a good spot.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
And if they get that, then it's one of those
that all you need to do is just take one
of the other two and you're able to get out
of there with a hell of a series win. So
it would be nice to see your new age stopper
for you, Hayden Wisniewski, kind of get things back on track.
And on top of it all too, I mean, just
after we gave kudos to the Astros for being able

(07:34):
to come through with runners in scoring position and actually
being able to propel your team to a win. And
then they did enough offense on Friday night But Saturday
and Sunday, primarily, I would say one guy in particular,
because a couple of huge spots for Jordan Alvarez. And
it's just like, man, like strikeout to end the game
on Saturday and then a huge strikeout on Sunday as well,

(07:58):
where he is human. I mean, he's going to go
through his slumps. He's going to go through just these
rough patches. But it kind of seems like for the
better part of the last month and a half, he's
been pretty human.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
Well, certainly, but it also doesn't help that it stands
out even more because Jeremy Pena, for the past month,
has just been in a terrible slump. Christian Walker hasn't
been good since April. There's just not a lot around him,
so when Jordan doesn't come through, it's really obvious. Well,
and again, I mean, we've also in no uncertain terms

(08:30):
heard before that the Astros play really well against good teams.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
I mean, we've seen that.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
I mean, as we just saw last week, where you
do finish with a winning week, even though it didn't
feel like that, especially the way that you lost it
at Diamondbacks, but you took three out of four from Chicago,
which again, it's one of those that they are in
your league. So, I mean, that part of it's nice
and you dominate the season series and you're still chasing

(08:59):
them for the second best record in the American League.
I mean, at this moment, I believe you are just
a game and a half back of the Chicago White Sox,
who did win the finale of their last series and
now getting ready for one in Pittsburgh against the Pirates. So,
I mean, in addition to watching your own teams, you're
also watching to see what teams like that do, where

(09:21):
it would not only be nice for you to be
able to lock up the division, it'd be nice for
you to be able to lock up being the second
best record in the American League and staying out of
that wildcard round.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 5 (09:32):
And I think if the Astros go, I think you
said it earlier, if they can just kind of split
these games this week, time's starting to run out, especially
on the Mariners.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
They're in deep trouble.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
And then, of course, the Rangers, you're a couple games up,
but they're going to have to outperform you and you
have the tiebreaker.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
This is just who the Astros have been, man.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Every time they kind of show you something, they fall
back to earth a little bit. They're right around a
500 team. But fortunately, this is the year where that'll
get you in.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, I mean, and as I've continued to say too
josh i mean it's not like the rest of the
american league because for whatever reason and yes because i
mean they have the worst records of the playoff contenders
but like i just said i mean cleveland is a
game over 500 chicago is seven games over 500 So

(10:19):
aside from the American League East, it's not like there's
a ton of game breakers out there. I mean, there's
not a lot of these teams outside of the top
three there in the East that you say, oh man,
game busters.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Got to watch out for these guys. Oh, so true.
But the Astros aren't all that either.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
And what's really frustrating for me, I don't know about you,
in this series is they pitch so well. They just
could not get the timely hits and they had their opportunities.
And like you mentioned, Jordan and that was what was unfortunate.
But if we're going to look at a positive from it,
maybe the pitching is starting to come around a little
bit and we can count on that a little more.
I just, they talked about it this morning with Sparky.

(11:00):
They got to get Jeremy Pena going. Well, I mean,
and he is such a huge catalyst for this team.
And I mean, being able to have him going is massive.
There's no question about that. But then, I mean, also too,
I mean, as I just mentioned, Jordan Alvarez, I mean,
the last month in change, which we are now a
full week into September, uh, three home runs out of him.

(11:21):
I mean, there are times where we see Jordan Alvarez
go through a week where he hits three home runs. And,
I mean, this is high time where you kind of
need Jordan to be Jordan. And a huge part of it, too,
is there is a lot of inconsistency for how he's
being approached. But to your point, though, about Jeremy Pena,
I mean, I know that a lot of people don't
subscribe to batting average. 204 in the month of August, 083.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
In the month of September. And, again.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
We're only six games into September, but still, the fact
that in 24 at-bats, you've gotten two hits during that time,
and on top of it all, you've struck out about
a fourth of that time. Seven times he's struck out.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
It's rough.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
And I just pulled up the last 30 days. And
for Jeremy, that includes 23 games. If we could talk
batting average, if people don't like that, we can talk OPS,
OPS 586. And the other one that hurts, too, it's
just Dart and Varshow. Like, Dalton started to show us
a little bit of something, but man, over his last
24 games, he's hitting 180.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
That just.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
Every time we kind of think he's starting to improve
and show you a little something, he falls back off.
So the outfield, you can't trust him. And then I'm
looking at Christian Walker here, last 24 games, hitting 165.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
There is not much here.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
With Jordan, at least I can point to last 25 games,
he's hitting 277. That's not going to kill you. He's
just not Superman right now. But when everybody else is
so below average. It's going to be tough. But we've
also seen they could come out and sweep the Phillies
and then lose the series after that.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
They're just a bipolar team. There's no way around it.
We've seen enough of them this year to know they're
a bipolar team.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well, I mean, here's what I think is as simple
as can be, is that splitting weeks has to be
the absolute must.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
That that is the base level here. You can't have
losing weeks.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
You have losing weeks with what Seattle and Texas have
remaining on their schedule. then you're going to find yourself
in a position going into the final week of the
season that you don't want to have. But for this one,
if you at least get out of here three and
three level ground, then I think you're okay. If you
get out of it four and two, then I think

(13:32):
you're in a very good position coming back home for
that final homestand. Although home has kind of been a
little helter skelter for them lately too.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Well, yeah. And for a lot of the season.

Speaker 5 (13:43):
So I'm just, I'm, cautiously optimistic that they're going to
find a way to get in here. But these first
two games, Wes Neskey and Hunter Brown on the hill,
you really need to try and at least get one
of those to get the series started, right? Because we
got our best friend TBD pitching the third game against
the Phillies. So who knows what that's going to look like?

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Probably be Javier if I had to guess.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Well, and then also too, while we were away, Steven
Okert put on the IL with a hamstring issue. And
we're going to talk about that a little bit later
on in this hour, because I mean, as you mentioned earlier,
The pitching does look like it's getting better for the Astros.
At least they pitched well last week. But, I mean,
you lose a guy like him, that obviously shuffles the
chairs back there in the back end of the bullpen.

(14:27):
So we'll see if the Astros are up to the
task to be able to handle that.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
You want to get in? 713-212-5790.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Again, it's 713-212-5790. As I mentioned, Astros manager Joe Espada
going to join us just a little over a couple
hours from now.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
So look forward to being able to catch up with him.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
For our weekly visit and also to want to get
into a little bit of Texans talk on the show
today because we will start off the 11 o'clock hour
with this D'Amico Ryans.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Boy, he's putting down the gauntlet already, isn't he?

Speaker 2 (14:57):
And we'll see if this side of the ball is
able to match his expectations this year so we'll talk
about that let you hear from him we want to
hear from you 713-212-5790 again it's 713-212-5790 as we are
firing up the week after back from a labor day
weekend but as we just talked about a little bit

(15:19):
here at the end of this segment a couple of
these guys it's a non-negotiable you need them and you
need them now and it's time for them to show
We'll talk about it right here as we continue the
Astros discussion right here on the Dan Matthews Show, Sports
Talk 790.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
This is Joe Espada.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
Listen to the Astros on your radio and on the
free iHeartRadio app. Sports Talk 790 is your home for
Astros baseball.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
This report is brought to you by the Air Specialist
Traffic Center.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yep, you know that's true.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
As we are back in the saddle after a long
weekend away, judging from the roadways out there today too,
I'm guessing that a lot of you kind of the
exact same way. You always know when you're back from
a holiday weekend for that very reason is that the
traffic is a little thicker. You know, there's a few
more honked horns, all of those different things. So we

(16:15):
get it. We get it.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
I mean, look, you're.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
20% of the way to the finish line already because
you had yesterday off. Most of us did. And now
you've got just today, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. And then
the weekend is upon us again. And then it's a
football weekend, which you get the football week started tomorrow night.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
I mean, how about that?

Speaker 4 (16:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Where you get the NFL weekend. An actual NFL game
between the Seahawks and Patriots. But then the Texans are
going to play on Sunday against the Bills. So you
got that working for you. You got really good Strohs
baseball all week where you get a series against a
very good Phillies team. That gets started tonight. And we
will get it fired up with Astros on deck coming your.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Way at 4.30.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
I believe, is when Astros on deck comes your way
today because it's a 540 first pitch up there in Philadelphia.
So you got that to look forward to. 640 local time,
but you get my point. And then the college football
weekend that was. I mean, it was a lot of
fun for some, maybe not so much for others, but
you get even more college football this week. Of course,

(17:24):
all eyes on that Texas-Ohio State game, which I do
have a little bone of contention. with how the preparation
for that game is being handled. So I'll just lay
that out there in the atmosphere and lay it out
for you a little bit more a little bit later
on in the show. And then don't forget Astros manager
Joe Espada going to join us at 1230. So you
got all that to look forward to today here on

(17:46):
the show.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
But 713-212-5790. Again, it's 713-212-5790.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
As I mentioned, me and Josh briefly talked about it.
where this last series against the diamondbacks, two of your
biggest names in the lineup where damn near no shows
for you. So Jeremy Pena gets a hit on Friday night,

(18:11):
goes one for four in that game. Oh, for five
in the following game with a couple of Ks and
then an Oh, for four with a strikeout as well
in that Saturday and that Sunday game. So You get
a combined 0 for 9 with three strikeouts out of
him in those games. And again, these were both games
that you lost closely. You lost it in 10 innings

(18:32):
on Saturday, and then you fell behind 3-1, started to
claw back, gave yourself an opportunity there in the ninth,
and you're not able to come through. And the Astros
lose both of those games. And as I mentioned, too,
24 at-bats in this month. He's got two hits. You
know how many total bases he has in this month?

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Two.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
A single solitary two out of Jeremy Pena. I mean, again, look,
I understand that slumps happen. I understand you go through
a rough patch of the season. He's had injuries that
have derailed part of his season at points, but you
also know that when he's in the lineup, this team
plays so much better. And when he produces in this lineup,
then you know how that result follows too as well.

(19:14):
I mean, again, Josh, like you said, given out the
advanced analytics, the advanced metrics out there, slugging, 083. OBP, 154.
Can't have that out of my leadoff guy. Not out
of a team that is trying to be able to
make a push for the postseason. That has to get better.
And it has to get better quickly. Yeah, I mean,

(19:36):
you're in front of Jordan. You've got to get on
base more often than this. And we've seen it. He's
chasing those sliders again, which has kind of been his
weakness for years. And he cleaned that up a little bit,
but he's kind of fallen back into that trap again.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
But when you just said about chasing those sliders again,
you reminded me of the coach in A.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Days of Confused.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Now, don't go getting soft on me this summer. Chasing
the around. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
Breakdown. Gosh, guys.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
My grandma can run better than that. Love that. Just
what a great role. And that guy played a 70s
coach incredibly well. Randy Floyd, you're in need of a
serious attitude adjustment, son. And I will have that piece
of paper on my desk by the end.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Of the day. What a movie.

Speaker 6 (20:24):
Oh, man.

Speaker 5 (20:24):
The socks pulled up high with those little spandex shorts.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
The bike shorts.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
I mean, all the coaches wore those back in the day.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
You're damn right they did. Yeah, you are absolutely correct
they did. So, I mean, that's the Jeremy Pena side
of things. For Jordan, I mean, it is one of
those where by his standards, and again, by his standards.
I mean, somebody did point out to me over the
weekend that maybe Josh Hader has finally broken the curse

(20:52):
of being named player of the month, player of the week,
pitcher of the month, any of those things. Because, I mean,
it was the very first appearance that he had was
Friday night after he was given such an honor. And
he went out there and promptly got a save for you.
So if that's the case, then that's nice. But Jordan,
ever since being the player of the month in the

(21:12):
month of July, the month of August out of him, 287,
415 for the OBP and 457 for the slug. Two homers,
12 runs batted in. Not terrible. I mean, most people
would say it's a decent enough month. It's not great.

(21:33):
but it's not terrible. And then you get to the
month of September where he's driven in one single solitary
run in six games. And he's 250, 423, and 450. See,
I'm getting a little bit better with the advanced metrics
right there, Josh, because that, kids, is what we call
a slash line for Jordan Alvarez. And his slash line

(21:56):
is a good, even though it's just six games, over
100 points worse than the month that he had in July.
But I mean, the good news is you only have
a couple of weeks left. That's what you have left
in this regular season. I need Jordan to become Jordan again.
I mean, it's just like I said, it was non-negotiable

(22:17):
with Jeremy Pena. It's non-negotiable with Jordan. I mean, he
has to be the guy.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
And I understand that the intentional walks are there. I
get it.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
He's gotten intentionally walked a couple of times in this month,
nine times in the last month. And then the walks
just in general, five times he's gotten a free pass.
So he's almost averaging about a free pass per game.
One way or another, he's going to come up in
a spot and you're going to have Jordan Alvarez being
put on base. Because as I said a couple of

(22:47):
months ago, Josh, why the hell would you pitch to
this guy?

Speaker 5 (22:50):
It makes no sense. Look at this just for the
past 30 days. Jeremy Pena hitting under 200. Cam Smith,
under 200. D'Arton Volshow, under 200. Christian Vasquez, under 200.
Christian Walker, under 200. I mean, Trammell, under 200. I mean,
these guys are... They're under the Maldi line. You remember
the Maldi line from back in the day. That is

(23:11):
not going to cut it. These other guys have to
step up, too.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
You're right.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Jordan's not.

Speaker 5 (23:15):
living up to the way he typically plays right now,
but these other guys, they're not even hitting 200.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
It's a disaster. It's a, it's a massive disaster.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
And I mean, you know, we've mentioned Christian Walker numerous
times before, but I mean, that's just exactly it. Like
it is kind of like soon enough where it's a,
you're not yelling at him, but you're also like, Hey man, like, see,
I've said this before and I don't know if I've
ever said it on the air, but Whenever somebody comes
to you, dude to dude, and says, hey, man, it's

(23:45):
usually not going to be what you want to hear.
Or if it's followed up with a comma, look, hey, man, look,
I kind of feel like we got to give the
comma to Christian Walker.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Hey, man, look, like you're needed and you're needed more
than ever.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Whatever has happened, I get that you're frustrated, but it
is also where you can't carry that at bat that
you just had with you to the plate. it's time
for you to kind of have some short memory up
there and get back to being the Christian Walker that
we saw in March and April.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Exactly.

Speaker 5 (24:18):
I think that guy's gone, Dan. I just, and now
I'm starting to look to next year. I'm like, how
do you even go into year three of this contract?
He hasn't done anything since April, anything 95 up in
the zone. Like he just can't catch up.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
I mean, it does seem like there is quite a
book on him of just bust him with the fastball
and well, then you're probably going to have a good shot. And,
I seem to know how his at-bats are going to go.
Fouls off the first pitch, I'm like, not good. Chases,
because we've seen that, and seemingly he likes to chase
that inside pitch, which it's like, not really sure what

(24:53):
you think you're going to do with that, but you
do you to a certain point. You hate to put
it on other guys too, but it is kind of needed.
And I don't think that at this point you can
rely on Carlos Correa is going to come back to
save you. I am curious to hear what reports they've
gotten out of West Palm Beach out of him over

(25:14):
the weekend, because if I'm not mistaken, this will be
the first time that anybody's had a chance to talk
with Joe Espada. And you best believe that's on the
bullet points to be able to try to cover today, too.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Oh, yeah. You got to ask him about that.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
So we will definitely get into that again exactly two
hours from now.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
We're going to be catching up with Joe Espada.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
But, you know, as Josh pointed out in the first segment, though, today,
and I did already have this on the sheet, so
I do want to talk about it is. I mean,
you lose this guy, you're thinking this is not going
to be good, but somebody else is making you feel.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
A little bit better. We'll talk about it right here
as we continue.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
It is the Dan Matthews Show, hanging out with you
on a Tuesday after a holiday weekend. Let's keep it
going here. Sports Talk 790. Joe Sports Talk 790. I'm
the Dan Matthews part of it. He is the young
Joshua Jordan part of it. We come your way every
single weekday 10 to 2 right here on your home
of the Astros and the Rockets Sports Talk 790. Speaking

(26:08):
of the Strohs, huge series getting underway tonight up there
in Philly as we will have Astros on deck coming
your way. 430 is going to be Astros on deck
to get you set for this one. The A-team bringing
that one to you. So You got that to look
forward to. You also have the Texans getting ready for

(26:28):
the Bills on Sunday. Customary Tuesday off day. So they
will start their practice week tomorrow over there at Reliance Stadium.
D'Amico Ryans did meet with the media yesterday, so we'll
have some of that for you a little bit later on.
And otherwise, in the sports world, that's pretty much what's
going on.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
At this moment. You do have NFL football tomorrow. Okay.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
So you got that. You got Seahawks and the Patriots
coming your way. So That's what you have to look
forward to.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
713-212-5790. Jim, I see you right there working in here
in just a second.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
But Steven Okert, of course, over the weekend going on
the IL, he's got a hamstring issue. Didn't seem overly
concerned about it, but clearly it's enough to keep him
from pitching. So at the moment, you look at a
very stretched out, high leverage.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Portion of your bullpen.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
And at least the guys that you trust, no question
about it, you're down to two.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Right now. And that's Josh Hader and Brian Abreu. But
now I got a third one for you.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
And while Steven Okert is out, might I invite you
to continue to embrace HLB, high leverage blue ball. I
am an AJ blue ball believer. I think that most
of you are AJ blue ball believers. this guy continues
to be just absolute nails for you whenever he's on

(27:47):
the mound, whether that's in the middle of a game
and you need a couple of innings to be able
to bridge the gap to those guys, he can do
that for you. But then lately, Joe spot has been
using them as HLB and he's been throwing them out
there to be able to do some good things for you.
And right now, while you're without Steven Okert, I trust
that guy and I want to use that guy as

(28:09):
much as possible. Even though he is your innings leader
and your appearance leader on this team, that's still a
guy that I can trust in those spots.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Bennett Sousa, even though he's looked a little bit better,
not quite there yet.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
And then you just sent down Kyway Dung and you've
brought back Miguel Yolola, which by the way, too, that's
the other part of all of this.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
No more Kyway Dung, okay? Thank you. Yeah, I'm done. Like,
completely done.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
I would much rather see a Limber Santa or Miguel
Yola for the rest of the way. Those guys have
earned the right to be up here. I'm tired of
shepherding them back and forth. No more Kyway Dung. That
experiment is over with. And it ended last week, I think,
when he beamed the guy with the 0-2 pitch and
then gave up three runs in that inning.

Speaker 5 (28:57):
After that, it has been pretty much, I can't count
on that guy. No, and unfortunately, Brian King is hard
to count on him as well.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
I mean, as I've said, as painful as it is
to admit it, I think that the best days of
Brian King and an Astros union are behind him.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
And that does happen.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Look, I mean, it's one of those that you get
guys that are incredibly effective.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
They're able to get out. And then the league gets
a book on them.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
And then it's up to you to be able to
try to make those adjustments to get back to getting
people out again. And it's just been something that's been
pretty tough because I was willing to at least say
with King, after the Rangers series in Arlington, where he
had rough appearances in that one, that it was just a, okay.
maybe the Rangers have his number like that. That might

(29:42):
be what the case is, but it clearly lingered and
it has lingered with King for some time. So much
to the point that you've had to do exactly what
I was just talking about with Santa and with Miguel Yola,
that you've had to send them back and forth.

Speaker 5 (29:56):
I just, I'm with you. Let's, let's use those guys.
They've looked really good in their limited time. So it's, Hey,
sometimes that happens during the course of a baseball season.
Somebody doesn't have it and you have to have somebody
else step up. Those guys have really good stuff. So
I could see them being very effective. I would like
to at least give them the opportunity.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
I would like to be pleasantly surprised with general effectiveness
from them as opposed to any of the other guys
that I just mentioned, because I know what I get
with those guys. I could be pleasantly surprised with these guys.
So I'd like for the Astros to start going that
route a little bit more. Yeah, you know what to expect. Disappointment, heartbreak.
I knew this was about to happen. That's the worst

(30:37):
when you're like, oh, he's coming in. He's about to
give up a few runs. You don't ever want to
have the feeling of, hey, how's this going to go? No,
it's a crapshoot. Like, not out of the bullpen. You
don't want that. And seemingly, that's what you've been getting
out of that group.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
713-212-5790.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Before we....

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Hit the final segment of Hour 1. Let's hit the
phone lines. Jim wants to get in.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Good morning, Jim. How are you doing?

Speaker 6 (31:00):
Doing good. Can I talk LSU football?

Speaker 1 (31:03):
With me, you are always allowed to talk LSU football.
You know this.

Speaker 6 (31:08):
Okay, good. I think the quote, the NFL players, I mean,
playing at LSU has totally been spun out of proportion.
And I would say that 95% of the fan base...
out there doesn't understand, like, oh, they're getting NFL players?

(31:28):
They're not getting NFL players and it's a special situation.

Speaker 7 (31:34):
Correct?

Speaker 1 (31:36):
No, it is.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
I mean, because these guys went to try to get
into the NFL with the understanding that their eligibility was done.
And it was after the fact that they found out, well,
hold on, you know, you actually might still be able
to play part of this five and five.

Speaker 6 (31:52):
So, I think most people don't understand what happened. The
NCAA made the ruling in May. The draft was in April.
There's probably 10 guys, maybe. And the pool of NFL
players that are coming back to college are like, Six

(32:14):
of them?

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Two of them?

Speaker 6 (32:16):
It's not that big of a deal.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, the other part of this, too, is you know
exactly what it's about. It's about the guy that is
supposedly going to benefit from these guys coming back.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
That's all this is about. If this were.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Eli Drinkwitz, or if this were, I don't know, Willie Stein,
isn't that the Kentucky coach? Nobody's talking about this.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Nobody cares.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
But it's the fact that it's Lane Kiffin, and you
think he's trying to circumvent the rules. That's what it's
all about, is it's basically just stick it to Lane.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
That's what it's all about.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
Yeah, Paul Feinbaum, like, totally drilled them. You know, Dog
and Kiffin, you know, the quote NFL players, and Feinbaum
knows it's, they're, they're, they're not being honest with their.

Speaker 8 (33:01):
Criticisms.

Speaker 6 (33:02):
I don't think.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Well, I mean, it is, it is a lot of
convenient talking points. That's for sure. And we're, we're up
against the break, Jim. It's good to hear from you, man.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
I mean, it's a lot of convenient talking points, but
two at the same time, I mean, that's what it's
all about. It's who is conveniently pinata bowl, if that's
even a word.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
And Lane's one of those people.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
I mean, Lane is Urban Meyer was, I mean, Dabo
Sweeney is to a certain point. And there are other
people that seemingly they can't do any wrong. And okay,
that's fine. And look, I am not going to sit
here and tell you that Lane Kiffin does himself any favors.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
He doesn't whatsoever. So that's a huge part of this.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
But I mean, two at the same time, he didn't
help himself on Saturday night when he's walking away from
Holly row and saying, imagine if we had NFL players,
he gets it. He understands what he's doing at a
certain point. And then on top of it all too,
then the locker room video gets out of him dressing
down his guys, getting after him. which I would have
to believe that was because I'll give you a good examples.

(34:08):
When I was in Georgia, it was always thought that
the leaked audio from the Georgia locker room was always
intentionally that Kirby was like, Oh yeah, put that out there.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Put that out there. And I think that lane probably
did the exact same thing. So it's all a TV
show to a certain point. I've told you all that
about college football, especially the college football playoff. But again,
I mean, you want to make villains and you want
to make the people who you think are righteous and
all of this. And Lane Kiffin is one of those
people that is a villain. And I get all of that.

(34:40):
And as a matter of fact, boy, I'll tell you what,
that's the reason why I took Jim's call. is because
it leads us into the jump-off. Because the jump-off today is,
I don't do politics very often on this show, but
I feel like that the comparison is warranted for this one.
So it's a special one-off of this on the jump-off.
We'll do that right here as we continue. Close out
the 10 o'clock hour. Again, it is the Dan Matthews

(35:02):
Show here on Tuesday, Sports Talk 790. Hey, it's Robert
Ford from the Astros broadcast team.

Speaker 8 (35:10):
Catch every Astros game on Sports Talk 790 and the
iHeartRadio app, home.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Of your Astros.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
This report is brought to you by the Air Specialist
Traffic Center. Astros manager Joe Spada going to join us
a little over an hour and a half from now
for his weekly visit as his club gets ready for the.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Phillies up in Philadelphia.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
4.30, Astros on deck coming your way to get you
set as it'll be Hayden Wisniewski getting the starting ball
against Andrew Painter for the Phils. And again, we'll have
that for you right here on Sports Talk 790. It's
an off day for the Texans. They will get back
on the practice field tomorrow to get you set for
the Buffalo Bills. But 713-212-5790 is the number to get in.

(35:54):
And we usually close out the 10 o'clock hour with this,
and we'll continue to do that here. As the college
football weekend that once was, well, that's what we use
today to jump off. All right, so if you're watching
this weekend, outside of a couple of games, there wasn't

(36:16):
really any sexy matchup out there.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
I mean, Auburn and Baylor was pretty good.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Man, that Baylor guy, which, by the way, shout out
to Paramount Sports Lee Sterling for calling that one of
saying take Baylor plus the points. And they were a
yard away from being able to win that one outright.
I mean, I thought at first glance there when the
tight end caught that ball, I was like, oh, he's in.
I was like, how are you saying he's not in?
And then sure enough, see the replay, and it's like, nope, nope,

(36:44):
stopped his momentum. So you had that game. You had,
let's see, what else? What were some other, I mean,
you had Ole Miss, Louisville. And I'm conveniently leaving out
the game that I was at, LSU, because that was
a bloodletting. Like that was a funeral at a certain point.
Like it got to the point where, you know, you

(37:05):
get the interception to start the game and you're kind
of like, oh boy, okay. Maybe people were all right.
Maybe Clemson might be back. They might be setting themselves
up to it. Put LSU kind of through the motions here.
And then LSU showed you pretty quickly. The pick six happened.
That game was over. That's one of those that you
know certain moments. And I think it was before that

(37:28):
or right after that. Then Clemson has to take the
time out because they can't hear. That atmosphere was unbelievable
on Saturday night. So if it came through on the TV,
if you stayed up late enough to watch it, because
I mean, I know that that was also part of it, too.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
We're 840.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
And probably because you're so jacked up for the game.
And I mean, in that atmosphere there, any of you
that were out there for it, you would know exactly
what I'm talking about. Because for example, if you're an
LSU fan, you know about Victory Hill. Josh, when I
tell you and everybody else out there, there were 20,000
at least people right there. I've never, ever seen a

(38:06):
crowd like that. And I mean, just the entire atmosphere
all around it. I've been to two of their national championships, 07,
and then the most recent one against Clemson in 2020
to close out the 2019 season. I've never seen an
atmosphere like I saw this weekend. And obviously, go ahead.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
I was going to say that's saying something.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Well, and then obviously, too, I mean, a huge part
of it was the Lane Kiffin era because, I mean,
Lane does bring a lot of the pizzazz with it where,
I mean, you know, he's got Theo Vaughn out there.
I found out for the first time this weekend who
Brooks Nader is. And now I know who Brooks Nader is.
And then, of course, Libby Dunn, part of it all, which,
by the way, if you follow me on social media,

(38:48):
you would see that I got a picture with one
Theo Vaughn. We're walking in and my cousin goes, dude,
look to your right. And sure enough, Theo Vaughn. And
I was like, well, of course, I've got to get
a picture with real world road rules royalty for sure.
A lot of people don't know that Theo was on
road rules. He was on semester at sea.

Speaker 7 (39:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Which I know that, which I did as I took.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
And, you know, you can kind of tell as I'm
taking the selfie that I'm saying something to him.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
And I said, road rules for life. And he didn't
really react.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
It was probably just like, all right, dude, let's just
get this picture and let me get in here and
get out of this crowd. Because the theo did look
a little stressed but with lane kiffin and you know
just somebody called in and we were talking about that
a little bit it dawned on me this weekend what
lane kiffin is and i said there's a political comparison
here he's donald trump And I understand how certain people

(39:41):
feel about him. And I'm not going to get into
policies and all of the other things. That's not where
I'm going at. I'm just going at it from just
general characteristics. Because think about it. The current president of
the United States, he loves, good or bad, you talking
about him. And that he is out in the public spotlight.

(40:02):
And he will definitely say and do things that will
really upset some people. And then, of course, he will
say and do things that have people who are ready
to ride and die for him, which wouldn't necessarily recommend
you doing that for either of these people. But regardless,
they draw strong reactions out of people. So that's what
cracks me up is when Lane says what he says

(40:24):
to Holly Rowe, As he's walking off the field where
he goes, can you imagine if we had pro players?
And I understand, too, what the amendment to the lawsuit
that the SEC filed against them, which apparently they are
threatening expulsion, which all this is going to eventually be
is that both sides will cooler heads will prevail in this.

(40:47):
LSU is not getting kicked out of the SEC. Lane
Kiffin's not going to take it to that point because
eventually those in power at LSU are going to be like, dude,
we're not playing these people.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
If we have to pay them, if we have to
do whatever it is, we're not getting kicked out of
the SEC.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
That's just not happening.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
But it's again, all of it where he goes on
college game day and people were apparently upset about how
Pat McAfee handled them.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
I mean, it's you either like someone or you don't.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
And a lot of your minds are made up about
Lane Kiffin.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
You're not going to like him. That's fine. I'm not
going to convince you.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
But what I also don't need are people who jump
at me on social media about my fandom that has
gone way beyond Lane Kiffin and will stay that way.
You know nothing about my character. You know nothing about
me just in general. Who I root for does not
affect what I am as a person. So like you
can go ahead and cut that high horse BS out

(41:45):
right now because it's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
You're upset.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
You don't like Lane Kiffin. That's your business. I don't
care at a certain point. I love LSU. I love
seeing everything that they did this weekend. And it's fun
to be excited about my school again, but at least
the school that I grew up rooting for, because most
of you know, I did not go to school there.
So yes, I guess by some of yours definition, I
am a t-shirt fan. But it's two at the same time.

(42:09):
I mean, he's going to do all of this with
these celebrities at games. I mean, that's what also cracked
me up, too. Get these celebrities out of here.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Why?

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Recruits love it. Kids love it. People didn't like when
USC was doing all their stuff, when Pete Carroll would
have Snoop Dogg and Will Ferrell and whoever else on
the sidelines hanging out.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
But who loved it?

Speaker 2 (42:33):
The players. And what were the players doing? Winning national titles.
People want to be a part of something. Lane understands that.
He gets that. And also too, like I said, I
don't think it's any coincidence that that video made its
way out there.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
So yeah, look, I get it. Again, he's not for everybody.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
And I'm sure if he didn't coach at LSU, I
probably wouldn't be that much of a fan of him.
I'm not even necessarily a huge fan of him. I'm
a fan of the school. I want the school to
do well. And if he is the vehicle to help
my school do well, then I'm going to root for
him and I'm going to hope for the best for him.
But I also understand, too, that sports needs villains. I mean,
we see it here in Houston. What LSU is kind

(43:12):
of dealing with right now is a lot what we've
dealt with here in this town with 2017. So, I mean,
to a certain point, I think you can kind of
understand it. And it is also, too, don't ever apologize
for your fandom. If somebody wants to judge you because
of your fandom, they're losers.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
100%.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
They are losers.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Because they just don't like that you root for a
certain team, and then they want to try to take
it somewhere else, because most people are not smart enough
to actually be able to have a decent enough conversation
with you about it.

Speaker 6 (43:42):
713-212-5790.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Again, it's 713-212-5790. Let's get into a little bit of Texans.
We need to cleanse the palate a little bit, and
that's something that's going to help cleanse the palate, because
D'Amico Ryan's laying down the gauntlet in a huge way
when it comes to his team this season. We'll talk
about that here as we start the 11 o'clock hour
on a Tuesday, Sports Talk 790. is upon us here

(44:04):
on a Tuesday appreciate everybody who jumps aboard with us
every single weekday here on sports talk 790 is like
most of you got a nice little Monday off which
boy I'll tell you what it was needed especially after
this weekend I don't go as hard as I used
to I mean that's that that's really something that you

(44:24):
know as you get a little bit older you realize
that you don't bounce back like you used to so
then you're just kind of like okay like There's no
need to really, you know, try to go to 11
with this thing, but still the drive back all of that.
And yesterday, like it was one of those where I
was using it as a lazy day, laundry, all that
kind of stuff. So back on track is this is

(44:45):
a Monday for a lot of us out there. So
we appreciate you all hopping in with us here on
a short week as the Astros getting ready for the
Phillies and they will get that coverage started at four
30 with Astros on deck. It'll be Hayden Wisniewski getting
the start tonight against Andrew Painter for the Phils. You
also have the Texans getting ready for the Bills on Sunday.

(45:08):
And that preparation is going to start in earnest tomorrow
with them getting on the practice field. But also, too,
whenever you're on the practice field, you've got to have
two sides of the football out there. Offense, defense going
against each other, especially two scout teams getting you ready
for Josh Allen, DJ Moore, James Cook. That really good
Bills offense. And then also, too, where you've got a

(45:30):
pretty good defense, too, on the other side, which Jim
Schwartz leading that group. But in terms of the offense
and defense for either side of the ball, well, D'Amico
Ryan's yesterday meeting with the media for the first time
to get the week underway. And one of the things
he was asked was about the defense and about them
being a driving force for this team this year. I

(45:52):
want you to listen to his response to that because
in certain ways, some people would say, well, yeah, no kidding.
But in other ways, some people, like me, would say, ooh,
he is setting the expectations for the season.

Speaker 7 (46:05):
I think our defense can definitely be one of the
best defenses in the league. And that's the goal every year.
We line up. We talk in the meetings about it.
We don't shy away from it. We expect to go
out and play well.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
And now.

Speaker 7 (46:20):
You got to go do it. But our guys, they've
done it before, right? That just doesn't automatically happen. You
got to go improve it on Sundays. But our guys
are up for any challenge, any given week versus any offense.
So I expect our defense, again, to be the strength
of our team. And I expect our offense to come
right along with us, right? For us to be a

(46:42):
good team and make it where we want to go,
we got to have great defense and we got to
have great offense, right? We both got to complement each other.
And that's what you need to have a great team.
And that's what I'm preaching to our guys, not just
about the defense being great. Our offense needs to be
great as well. So that'll be the key for us
this year.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Now, I know that some people out there might wonder
a couple of different things. Number one, are they capable
of doing so? I think they are. The other is,
do you really need that to be the case? Because
you just won 12 games last year with, at times,
a very inconsistent offense, an awful run game. and at
times an inconsistent and sometimes detrimental to your team quarterback, which,

(47:22):
of course, that was the case in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
But overall, he's not wrong. He's 100% not wrong.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
You can't go through an entire season and think that
what you were able to do last year is going
to translate to this year.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
We've been warned about such before.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Nick Casario, for example, coming out of the 2023 season
and everybody speaking positively about this team saying, And I
remembered him at the combine that year in 2024 saying, well,
you know, you also need to look at how many
close games we were able to eke out and win.
I mean, yes, we won 10 games.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Feel really good about it, but we're playing a lot
better of a schedule this year and we can't play
that way and be able to get to where we
want to go. And it was a little touch and
go in 2024. If you remember where you start off
the season two and oh, but then you went through
a little bit of a rough stretch there at the
end of September and into October and and had to
kind of battle a scrap and claw your way back

(48:16):
in later on in the season. And then last year,
I mean, kind of a little bit of the same way,
starting off 0-3 and then being able to rattle off
12 of your next 14 was a nice way to
be able to finish off the season. But still, it
kind of underscored what you knew about that team is
that without Joe Mixon, your run game was going to
be damn near non-existent, which it kind of was. Thank

(48:39):
you to Woody Marks and the collection of other guys
who were able to make it somewhat sustainable for you.
But then you found out pretty quickly that, okay, it's
all pretty much on CJ at this point. And this offseason,
as I will continue to say about CJ Stroud and
the Texans, is if nothing else, Nick Casario has signaled

(49:00):
to him and to the fan base, look, in the past,
you want to blame CJ Stroud. You couldn't really blame
him fully because look at the offensive line he was
dealing with. Look at the lack of the running game
that he was dealing with last year in the playoffs.
I understand you don't want to see four interceptions, but
he lost his two best receivers, one of them that
you already knew wasn't going to play and then the

(49:22):
other one Dalton Schultz who went out on the very
first drive of the game that threw him off and
then we saw obviously how the rest of the game
went it was not good so now for him this
season It's kind of looking at CJ Stroud and saying, man,
if you don't turn the football over or at least
don't get careless with the football, then we can really

(49:42):
enjoy some nice times around here. But that's what the
problem can become. If he is getting aggressive with the
football and it's putting it in harm's way, then these
are the situations that you run into. I don't think
that D'Amico Ryan said what he just said right there,
expecting for this offense to be a top 10 offense
this year. I mean, I don't know exactly where they

(50:02):
finished last year in all the major categories, but if
I had to guess, it was probably pretty middle of
the pack. It was nothing necessarily stunning. You weren't going
to lead the league in passing offense. You definitely weren't
going to lead the league in rushing offense. And we
saw how poor they were in red zone and goal-to-go
situations last season, where you saw Kaimi Fairbairn come out
and kick a lot of times. I think that's another

(50:24):
offshoot of what D'Amico Ryans is saying right there of, hey,
we're in the red zone.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
It needs to be six.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
At the very least, we can do it a handful
of times of having Kaimi Fairbairn come out there and
kick basically an extra point. But we'd like for him
to be able to line up for an extra point
for one. And instead of, hey, we stalled out on
the four yard line. All right, send Fairbairn out there.
Here's a 21 yarder that he could probably kick with
his left foot and knock it through the uprights. And

(50:52):
he's able to do that. And you get three points
out of it. I mean, I understand that all the
points do stack up. But two, at the same time,
I mean, that's the job of the offense this year,
finish off those drives. In a way that you wanted
to make sure that you were able to do that
was going out and getting David Montgomery this offseason, trading
for him. Because Montgomery, as I've told you before, is

(51:12):
incredibly good in red zone and in short yardage situations.
Those are both areas that this team was incredibly poor
at last year. And then a lot of people want
to blame it on CJ Stroud, which it's like, how's
that on the quarterback? I'm kind of failing to see
how that's on him. And then on top of it all,
one second, on top of it all, it is also

(51:34):
two where you look at the amount of third and
longs that he's been in in the last couple of seasons.
You tell me a quarterback out there that's going to
be good in those situations, Josh Jordan.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Look, I get all that.

Speaker 5 (51:46):
I think the important thing to remember with this defense,
as good as they are, they're a little susceptible to
the big play. And we've seen that happen in the
regular season. We saw it happen, Stingley getting beat in
the playoffs. And when that stuff happens, you are going
to need your quarterback and you are going to need
to score touchdowns because not every game you're going to
hold the opposing team to 10 or 14 points. Sometimes

(52:08):
your offense has to step up and save the day.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Well, and it's also too, I mean, it's, Why do
you want to live that way, I think, is kind
of the response to what you just brought up. Because, yeah,
it is one of those where your defense did win
games for you last year. That's not anything that's necessarily
earth-shattering for me to say or for people to hear.

(52:31):
But two, at the same time, I mean, wouldn't the
offense want to come out of a game saying, handle
it ours.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
We did what we needed to do.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
Of course.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
They're just.

Speaker 5 (52:42):
they're not there yet. Maybe they will be this year,
but we saw it last year. That, that was not
a good offense. It hasn't really been one since CJ's
rookie year. So it's going to be tough now that
I think the Higgins injury is a big deal. But
to your point, if David Montgomery is what you think
he is, and the offensive line has improved and they
can actually run the ball, that should unlock a lot
of things for CJ play action passes. Defenses will actually

(53:03):
have to respect you in the run game. And then
maybe you can get behind him. I, We're about to
find out. We're going to find out just here in
a few days.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
I'm so excited. Football season's almost here. This offense, they
have to be better.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Well, and then on top of it all, too, is
because somebody did bring this point up to me once
where they were like, you know, there were years that
Peyton Manning didn't have a really good rushing offense. And
I'm like, you're comparing them to a Hall of Fame quarterback. Like,
why do we do this? I mean, it's just like,
it always cracks me up whenever... Somebody has an individual
comparison to someone, you know, Brady made receivers better. It

(53:36):
also helped that he had a damn polar bear playing
tight end and Rob Gronkowski.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
And then also to another hall of famer named Randy Moss,
like this whole notion that Tom Brady was throwing to
a bunch of steps is just not true whatsoever. He
was throwing to really good receivers all throughout his career.
Dion branch was a good receiver. I'm trying to think
who else that he had during those times. He had
good players to throw to as well.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Yeah, he did.

Speaker 5 (54:02):
But look at Deion Branch. He went to the Seahawks
and was a big nothing there. Then he ended up
coming back to the Patriots. So early in his career,
not a ton of talent. But as they went along
and added Randy Moss and Wes Welker became a thing.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
And then eventually Julian Edelman.

Speaker 6 (54:17):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (54:17):
And of course, Aaron Hernandez to go along with Gronk.
He had some talent, Dan, for sure.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
Hey, don't you leave out young Danny Amendola. All right.
There you go.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
I mean, he's got family with ears on us. I
don't want to upset the Amendolas. I spend a lot
of time up in the woodlands. I don't need to
be looking over my shoulder for somebody to be like, hey, hey, hey,
you didn't talk enough about Danny A. And if that's
the case, then I'm going to be like, look, I did.
It was young Josh Jordan that didn't back me up
on it. I'll take all the smoke.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
That's fine.

Speaker 5 (54:46):
I don't mind if the Amendola clan's after me. But
he also had a good run game a lot of
those years of Corey Dillon and even Maroney for a
small period of time.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
They could run the football in New England.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Well, and it's also too, I mean, it was an
evolution of that offense because, I mean, the first couple
of Super Bowls they won, nobody talked about the quarterback play.
I mean, of course they talked about it because you
got pretty boy Tom Brady playing, but that was a
team that was incredibly predicated on defense. That's what they were.
And again, like I said about the offense, don't turn

(55:16):
the football over. Bill Belichick was in so many ways
telling them, Hey, you turn this football over.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
We're going to have problems. If you don't, then we're
going to be great.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
It was probably about year five or six in the
league is when Tom Brady started to become where you're like, oh, okay.

Speaker 4 (55:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
This, this guy can do things too.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
And I think that's why you're seeing D'Amico and Casario
looking at this roster and seeing some comparisons to those
New England teams where, hey, Tom didn't have to do
everything early on. We had a really good defense. We
had a great kicker in Vinatieri. So there are some similarities.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
Well, who knew?

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Bob McNair's dream is finally becoming a reality. You finally
become the New England Patriots. I mean, remember that for
the longest time? Even before that with Bob, where it
was hiring people from up there, where it was Gary Kubiak.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Hey, this guy spent time with them with the Denver Broncos.
Stop hiring people from Denver.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
Oh, hey, it's day three of the draft. Oh, surprise.
This guy's out of Colorado State.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Weird.

Speaker 5 (56:15):
We never see things like that. It's a copycat league,
and even it goes back to then, you can see
it now. Everybody's trying to copy what the Rams are doing.
That's just the NFL.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Well, that's why I've said, too, that if this offense
does take a massive step forward this year, look for
Nick Caley to start getting head coaching looks.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
I think that that will happen.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
He could either go from possibly getting fired here or
being promoted to being a head coach somewhere else. That's
the NFL for you. That's the interesting thing and the
interesting way to look at it. All right, so the
Texans making a major announcement yesterday. And at least in
this case, it shows that the balance of power is clear.
We will talk about that here as we continue. It

(56:54):
is the Dan Matthews show hanging out with you after
a holiday weekend. You want to get in 713-212-5790. Again,
it's 713-212-5790. You can do so. Favorite of me and
Jeff Blum. You know how to cut to the core
of me, young Josh Shorten. You're a good man. You
ever go see Chevelle play in person? They set the

(57:15):
band up interesting where they've got the drummer to the
far stage left. They've got the other guitarist in the middle.
And then they've got the lead singer that is like
all the way to the left. But I mean, he
is center stage. So it's an interesting setup. They put
on a good show.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
They really do.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
I've never seen him live. Oh, I've seen him live
now twice. As a matter of fact, the most recent BuzzFest.
Shout out to Elliot, Rod, Alex, the whole crew over there.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
They treated me well.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
It's always great to be able to see those great
acts play. But it's also, too, hopefully great to see,
and in this case, hear, good Astros baseball tonight as
they will be taking on the Phillies. And we'll get
things started with Astros on deck coming your way at 4.30
right here on your home of the Astros, Sports Talk 790.
You also have the Texans getting ready for the Bills

(58:03):
on Sunday. They will get back on the practice field tomorrow.
And according to reports, the SEC threatening expulsion. against lsu
so we'll see how that all plays out 713-212-5790 against
713-212-5790 oh by the way too um over uh the
uh three out of the last uh four days of

(58:25):
this week right here because it is a short show
we're going to be giving away astros tickets because we
are having listener appreciation night at the ballpark next week
and hopefully you can join us i'll be out there
i'm assuming young josh jordan you're going to be out
there A lot of us going to be out there.
So definitely always look forward and love having a chance
to meet up with y'all. So I'm going to give

(58:46):
you all an opportunity to win today. And we're going
to do it in the one o'clock hour. And I'm
going to have a code word that I'm going to
give you right now. And I'll remind you of it
a couple more times. So on the one o'clock hour,
when I prompt you to call to win some of
those Astros tickets, you need to drop the code word Boudin.
Boudin is the code word. That's what we're going to

(59:06):
use today. So we'll do that in the one o'clock hour.
Make sure you're listening. and be able to have a
chance to be able to come join us to watch
the Astros next week and see if we're still watching
a first place ball club after this tough stretch they
have against the Phillies and the Rays. So yes, today's
code word is Boudin. So hit us with that one,
and you're coming to see the Astros with us. 713-212-5790

(59:30):
is the number to get in. So the Texans announced
their captains yesterday, and I don't think that it's necessarily
a surprise for the four that are going to be
having the C patches on their jerseys. But maybe it
is a little bit surprising for the balance of how
this group is divvied up because I don't think anybody
was surprised by Will Anderson Jr. being a captain, as

(59:52):
I've told you all numerous times. He is the unquestioned
just overall leader of this team. I think that that's
pretty simple to see. As I've said it numerous times before,
you need a quote on something, you go to Will
Anderson Jr. Seemingly, he's the guy that's breaking down the
guys out of the huddle. All of those different things.
And he is one of the vocal leaders on this team.

(01:00:14):
I mean, he's a guy that clearly, too, coming into
the league, played at a proud program, played for national titles,
and came in here with that expectation of not only himself,
but also of his teammates to be able to kind
of meet a standard. And you hear D'Amico Ryans talk
about standards all the time. Will Anderson Jr. backs him
up on that. And he is trying to be able

(01:00:34):
to match what he did last season and be even
better than he was last season. And that's something that
he's talked about with Miles Garrett and also just the
buildup to this year.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
So he's not a surprise.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
I don't think even necessarily it was surprising that Aziz
Alshayer was named a captain last Because, I mean, you
see what he means to this team with not only
being the green dot out there, which of course, you know,
you watch games on Sundays. You see there's one player
out there that's got the green dot, which means that
they are the ones getting the calls. They're the ones
that are kind of setting up the defense. And Aziz

(01:01:05):
Alshair is a very important part to this team. So
that's not a shock either. Wasn't necessarily a shock. Maybe
it was to some that CJ Stroud was named the captain.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
You should want that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
You should absolutely want that to be the case, that
your quarterback is your captain. Because if not, then it
is kind of a question of, okay, is this guy
doing enough to be able to get his guys in line?
Is he doing enough to be able to kind of
set the standard for everybody else? And you do want
offensive representation. Because a lot of times for captain naming players, teams,

(01:01:39):
you will have whatever side of the ball is a
lot more productive than the other. We'll probably dominate it,
which it shouldn't necessarily surprise people that three of them
are the defensive side of the ball because D'Amico Ryans
can say what he wants, but we all know that
the tone is set with the defense on this team.
It would be a pleasant surprise to be able to

(01:01:59):
get much better offense this year out of that group,
but That's what's going to drive the bus for this team.
That's what's going to get them hopefully to heights that
they've never been to before, which is at least reaching
the AFC championship. Jalen Petrie for me was a little
bit of a surprise and not because of his play
on the field, not because of how he handles himself.
Both of those incredibly good. I just was a little

(01:02:22):
surprised that maybe Derek Stingley Jr. Now, again, not the
most vocal guy. As a matter of fact, I think
that Derek Stanley Jr., if he didn't have to talk ever,
would be cool with it. Kamari Lassiter, same deal there.
But Jalen Petrie is also a guy last year that,
despite doing some really good things as a safety, then
moving him to the star position, blossomed, became an even

(01:02:44):
better player. In some ways, became the best version of
himself on the field. And he's a guy that a
lot of the guys really admire for how he plays
the game, how hard he plays it. I mean, even
to the point too where concussions, plural, have been an
issue with him that now he's got that deal with
Guardian Cap. But that was one that was nice to

(01:03:04):
see because I kind of feel like in a way
for D'Amico, it's a little bit of homegrown leadership. Like
it's almost kind of like a leadership academy here of
being able to have guys that can grow within your
system and then become one of the guys in that
locker room that everybody's looking to. I mean, he is
one of the I guess you could say in a
weird way, one of the more veteran guys in that group,

(01:03:26):
because still is a pretty young team.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Now they're starting to kind of round out of that
just a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
But I mean, you think about it too, of the
group that I just mentioned right there, three fourths of
it are guys that are barely even four years into
their careers. I mean, We'll see what happens with CJ Stroud.
Probably going to be looking to next offseason for that.
And then Jalen Petrie has already been extended. And Aziz Alshayer,

(01:03:52):
we know exactly what he's counted on to be here
because D'Amico Ryans has not been shy about saying what
Aziz Alshayer means to this team. But the balance of
power is very clear. It is a defensive football team. Now,
that doesn't mean that the offense can just say, now
we score a handful of points, we're going to be
just fine. I mean, that's why D'Amico Ryans is trying

(01:04:12):
to make sure that what is the perceived weakness of
this team is no longer a reason why you're not
able to reach the next level, because your offense was
the reason that you did not make it to the
next round of the playoffs last year. That was 100% it.
And you could obviously say, and for that game, it
is all fair that, yes, C.J. Stroud was a massive

(01:04:32):
part of that. But then also, too, I don't think
it's any coincidence this offseason of why you've had contract
extension talks with C.J. Stroud because of the way he
handled himself and how he's gone through this offseason and
the ownership that he's taken of it. And also, too,
in some ways, not really beating himself up about it.

(01:04:52):
I mean, I think he's come to terms with it.
I think that it still burns him. But two, at
the same time, I think he also realizes there's no
use in still continuing to go through it in my mind.
What's done is done. Now it's time for a new season.
And a way that you can show people that you're
ready for the next season is to show up in

(01:05:12):
shape and to show up kind of a changed man.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
And from what I understand, that has been the case
with C.J. Stroud.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
Now it's just going to be a question of, does
the production get back to what it was in 2023?
But in terms of the way he handled himself this offseason,
it doesn't shock me whatsoever that he was named a captain.
And again, these are things that you want to see
out of players like him.

Speaker 7 (01:05:35):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
Now it's up to him of, do you put that
in the past and do you start to get some
of that praise back for you? Because I mean, again,
we kind of saw this slide with CJ a little
bit when people want to point to him trying to
give sound advice to Caleb Williams and saying, Oh, who's
this guy to give sound advice like that? It's like, well,
he's a guy that's played a year in this league

(01:05:57):
and has one rookie of the year in this league
and played really well. So Yeah, I would think that
if there's somebody that can be able to man-to-man speak
to him about it and say, hey, man, stop taking
the hits, then it would be C.J.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Stroud.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
I had no problem with it. It's not a reason
of how his last two years have gone. I understand
that people want to point to convenient excuses. That's nothing more.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Than what it is.

Speaker 5 (01:06:19):
Well, I think with D'Amico, if he would have not
named CJ a captain, that would have been a story.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
You know what I mean? I think D'Amico is smart
to know that.

Speaker 5 (01:06:26):
He's going to do it anyway, but everybody would be
talking about, why isn't your quarterback a leader? And with
the other guys on defense, makes total sense. You know
what I think of when I think of those defensive players, Anderson, Alshire,
and Petrie? Those are your enforcers. Think of the hit
on Rashi Rice from Petrie. Think of the illegal hit
on Trevor Lawrence from Alshire. And we know who Will
Anderson is. These are the enforcers. D'Amico picked these guys

(01:06:47):
for a reason.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Well, and a guy that's going to be seeing all
three of those guys on the field on Sunday is
in a situation right now where it's not a must
win per se, but I feel like he needs it
a lot more than the Texans need it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Talk about it right here as we continue.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
It is a Dan Matthews show hanging out with you
on a Tuesday as we continue the Texans conversation. Texans fans,
where are you at? I mean, we're fired up for
the week. It's a game week here. We're ready to
go for the season. Definitely want to hear from you. Again,
it's 713-212-5790. Again, it's 713-212-5790 as we continue here on
the Dan Matthews Show, Sports Talk 790. It is the

(01:07:26):
Dan Matthews Show, hanging out with you here on a Tuesday.
Welcome back from the long weekend as we get you
set for the Strohs and the Phillies coming your way
a little bit later on this evening. 4.30, Astros on deck.
We'll get you set up for that one as Hayden
Wisniewski taking the ball, and you can hear it all
right here on Sports Talk 790. You also have the

(01:07:47):
Texans getting back on the practice field tomorrow as they
will fire up their preparation for the Buffalo Bills coming
up on Sunday. And don't forget, Joe Espada going to
join us coming up at 12.30. 713-212-5790. Again, it's 713-212-5790.
And Josh Allen has not had an easy time against

(01:08:11):
the Texans. As a matter of fact, including the playoffs
throughout his career, he is 1-4. And he's got the
losses a couple of years ago, last year as well,
where last year he was 24-34 for Texas. just over
250 yards in that game. But he did throw a

(01:08:31):
couple of interceptions, including the one late that would lose
the game for him. His only win that he has
against the Texans was here in Houston. And that was
back in 2021 that he was able to beat him.
Goes for 248 that day, a couple of tutties. and
also an interception that day. He's only thrown interceptions twice
against the Texans, but you want to be able to

(01:08:53):
start the season off 1-0. You want to continue to
prolong that for him, where if nothing else, then it
continues to be something that kind of hangs over his
head because we do this all the time with any
quarterback out there. I mean, my God, we even kind
of did it with Tom Brady. Well, can you really
consider him to be the best of all time? He
lost A handful of Super Bowls, well, he also won

(01:09:15):
more than anybody else. So if you're going to say that,
then you got to say the other thing is too.
All in fairness, okay? But Josh Allen, I mean, he
is kind of in that group of quarterbacks at this
point where I would say that him and Lamar Jackson
are both in the same category of, yes, they're great.
They are the elites of the game at the moment,

(01:09:35):
but it is the kind of, yeah, but that starts
to creep in. Like with Lamar, we know what it is.
It's the playoffs. that he's not been able to necessarily
have people say oh yeah no primetime performer that's a
guy that's able to make things happen because a couple
of years ago losing the afc championship game last year
of course hurt for most of the year coach gets

(01:09:56):
fired now you got a new coach and a lot
of people believing that the ravens are going to be
back to being the ravens and lamar jackson's going to
be a huge part of that but for josh allen
it's going to be the talking point all week As
he takes questions from the media probably tomorrow up there
in Buffalo, it's going to be, yeah, these guys have
made it hard on you. I'm assuming that if they

(01:10:17):
still do conference calls with opposing players, that Josh Allen
will probably be it. And I'm sure that somebody here
on the call is going to ask him about not
being able to beat the Texans. That is something that
he's dealing with. So it is where the Texans, you
do definitely want to start the season off 1-0. But
it is also going to be one of those that

(01:10:38):
the burden of proof is more on him than it
is on you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
You've proven you can beat him. You've proven you can
beat this team.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
And starting off the season 0-1 as opposed to 1-0
makes you feel a little bit different. I mean, last year,
you had a team that started off the season 0-3.
I don't envision that the Texans are going to start
this season off 0-3. You got a couple of really
tough ones right out the gate, but two at the
same time. It is where I think if you get
through this Buffalo Cincinnati stretch one in one, then you're

(01:11:07):
set up perfectly to be able to make a run
after that. You got Dallas the following week. Then you've
got is it Tennessee week four? I'm trying to remember
who's week four, but you've got a part of your
schedule that you really feel like that you can make
a nice little decent run here. Close out the month
of September, go into October and then set yourself up
for November and with an opportunity of being five and one,

(01:11:29):
six and one, somewhere around there as you turn the
calendar and you turn the page on the calendar to
get to that point. So with Allen, I mean, it
is something that it's not only going to be from
everything leading up to this game, as we have the broadcast.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
Crew on Sunday, that's going to be talked about with
them too as well.

Speaker 2 (01:11:49):
He's one and four against the Texans, where he also
too lost in the playoffs against them. Remember, it was
back in 2020. And the Texans were able to come
back and win that game. But aside from that, I mean,
it is one of those where you look at these
last two years and the Texans have been able to
handle him pretty easily. And as the week goes on, obviously,
we'll continue to dive even further into this matchup. But

(01:12:12):
last year, the plan was pretty simple for the Texans.
Limit James Cook. You do that and you make this
guy one-dimensional, you're going to set your defense up to
be able to tee off against him. And they did
exactly that because Josh Allen last year was sacked defensively.
eight times by the Texans defense. I don't envision that
they're going to be sacking him eight times in this game,

(01:12:34):
but I also do envision that you take away the
run and you have him where only so many footballs
can go to DJ Moore.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
After that, who are you going to go to? Khalil Shakir?

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Yep. I mean, is Keon Coleman going to finally be
what people think Keon Coleman can be?

Speaker 5 (01:12:49):
I think Dalton Kincaid can give you some trouble. Tied
ends have messed with the Texans.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
A little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Okay, so Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox. I mean, those
are going to be the guys that are getting after you.
I just I think that first and foremost, if you're
able to do that, then you set him up to
be kind of playing on his heels a little bit.
And if he's doing that, then that plays right into
your defense if you're able to set yourself up for that.
And that's what the Texans are hoping they can be
able to do because, I mean, again, you'd like to

(01:13:16):
be able to start the season off 1-0. That would
be a really nice thing because I really, truly think
that the game the week following is going to be
a lot tougher of a proposition than this one is.
You're a better team than Buffalo is. And if you
play as such, then you should be able to win
this game. But, I mean, you also are going to
have a very motivated quarterback because he wants to start

(01:13:37):
the season off 1-0. He wants to also be able
to get to the point of being able to be
a team that can make a run for the AFC2
as well. I mean, that's what these two weeks, I think,
kind of signify. And I'd much rather be a much
better football team in November and December than to be
able to look back and say, oh, yeah, handled those

(01:13:58):
guys in September. September's nice. September sets you up for
the season. So, September also means he's completely healthy. When
you played him last year, it was week 12.

Speaker 5 (01:14:08):
So you do have a fully rested, fully healthy Josh Allen.
And he's going to be fired up for this, man.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
We all are fired up, too, to see how this
game looks on Sunday. But of course, as I mentioned,
the Texans going to get back on the practice field tomorrow.
Speaking of huge games, some people, they handle them in
a different way. But the one way I don't want
it handled is the way that this person is doing it.
We'll talk about it right here as we continue in
the 11 o'clock hour. It is a Dan Matthews show

(01:14:35):
hanging out with you on a Tuesday. Sports Talks True.
As we keep it going here on a Tuesday after
a long holiday weekend. Hopefully everybody had a good and
safe Labor Day weekend. As we're back at it, talking
tons of Astros. They get ready for the Phillies a
little bit later on this evening. 4.30, Astros on deck,
going to get you set up for that. And you

(01:14:57):
also have, don't forget, 40 minutes from now, Joe Espada
going to join us for his weekly visit. So look
forward to being able to talk with him before a
huge series ahead. And you also have the Texans getting
back on the practice field tomorrow to start up their
preparation for the Bills on Sunday to start up the
NFL season. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90 is the number to get in.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
So it is one of those things that, you know,
I understand that teams like to be able to kind
of keep everything even keel. You know, you don't get
too high. You don't get too low. You play a
game that you were hoping to win and perform a
lot better in. then you don't want to be so
discouraged that it takes you out of being able to

(01:15:44):
win a future game.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
Okay, fine. I get all of that. But I've said
it before.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
That one of the most annoying things to hear, and
this happens in football all the time, is it's a
big game because it's the next game.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
And my feelings don't change on that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
Whenever I hear a coach or a player say something
like that, which is one of the most tired, dumb
lines out there possibly because A, you're kidding yourself, but
also B, you don't get fired up for playing Tennessee
Martin as opposed to playing against Alabama or somebody like that.
And the reason why I bring this up is because

(01:16:21):
Mondays are always, even with the holiday, when usually college
programs will meet with the media and And I know
that Texas did it. I know that we've been talking
a lot about Lane Kiffin and LSU, and they met
with the media yesterday. Well, so Texas is going to
be taking on Ohio State on Saturday. I think we
can all agree that's a pretty big game, right?

Speaker 6 (01:16:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
I mean, it's both top five teams, both teams that
a lot of people believe either of them could be
holding up whatever you call the golden trophy from the
college football playoff at the end of the season. So
I appreciate when I hear things like this from March Manning,
I'm excited to get to play Ohio state. This is
why you come play at a school like Texas to

(01:17:05):
play in these big time games.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
We're excited.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
Okay, good.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
Arch, you get it because yes. What was he going
to say? And that's, that's the other thing is too.
And you, and you see this all the time in
college of, you know, well, we're really focused on week
one against Northwestern state and, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:24):
Okay. Like you're going to play the first half and
then you're going to be out of it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
All right. So like I get it to a certain point,
but two at the same time, if you got a
much high profiled game the following week, you're going to
have a little bit more juice for that one than
you're going to have for this one, which by the way, too,
did you see that arch Manning tripped and fell coming
out of the tunnel? Cause I mean, that's some of
these teams, you know, you got the smoke going all
of that. So you don't really see where you're running.

(01:17:50):
And it's kind of like, I guess the best way
to describe it is if you've ever taken part in
a fun run at the beginning of it, where like,
if you're kind of in the middle of the pack,
it's kind of hard to get going because, you know,
you got a bunch of legs and feet right in
front of you. So you don't want to step on
somebody in front of you and then you lose your
footing and you fall down. So, you know, it takes
you a minute to kind of get going. Okay, fine.

(01:18:10):
You know, get all of that. But then Lance Jackson,
who plays defense for Texas, says things like this. I
definitely feel like it's just another game.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
I understand what he's doing. I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
I mean, I understand that you don't want to make
it a lot bigger than it really is. But two,
at the same time, when you're playing games like this,
it's okay to say that you're fired up for it
because we all know that you're more fired up for it.
They had no problem with Texas State on Sunday. None whatsoever.
And I don't think any of us necessarily thought they

(01:18:46):
were going to have trouble. I mean, I agreed with
Lee Sterling. when he said that probably 29 and a
half is a little rich for my blood for believing
that they're going to be able to beat them by
30 plus.

Speaker 1 (01:18:57):
Oh, they beat them by 30 plus.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
They hung 52 more on them than Texas State was
able to get against them. But Jackson continues, we're going
to prepare like we did last week for Texas State.
You kind of treat it like last week. We're going
to treat it like this week is like next week
and then the week after that. And you don't really
look at an opposing team and be like, I may

(01:19:19):
practice harder this week. You can say what you want, but.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
Come on, man. Yeah, you do. All right. So like what?
Are you going to approach playing against? I don't know.
Throw out a random... Directional school, Josh.

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
I mean, just, just name anyone Northwestern.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:19:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
I mean, big 10 opponent.

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
So, I mean, you know, it's, it's one of those
conference against conference, but like to your point, Stephen F.

Speaker 1 (01:19:48):
Austin, nothing against the Jacks. Love the Jacks. My mom's
a lumberjack.

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
So, you know, I mean, every school has its value,
but you're really going to tell me that when you're
getting prepared for like a national title game, which again,
it is week two.

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
So you could conceivably lose this game.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
And while Texas fans want retribution from last year, it's
one of those that, you know, that conference play is
in front of you and that there's still a larger
margin of error that you're going to have to try
not to force your way up against, but that you
still are very much in the, in the running to
make the college football playoff. But, I mean, I will

(01:20:27):
say this, winning games like this early on in the season,
it definitely does set your season off on a path.
I say it all the time, that special 2019 LSU season,
if they went to Austin and they lost, that team
would have been nowhere near what they became that year.
I truly believe that. I think that that was a
confidence builder for them. And I think coming out of that,
they said, yeah, this team's probably going to be in

(01:20:49):
the running to make the college football playoff at the
end of the year, which Texas wasn't. But still, at
the time, you thought coming off of the Sugar Bowl
win the year before that it was going to be
a much better performing team. That's not necessarily on them.
But you go there and you win a closely contested game. So, yeah,
being able to win a game like this does matter.
For sure it does. And, I mean, you're allowed to

(01:21:11):
be able to have human moments with it. in a
human moment, I believe, is saying, yeah, we're fired up
to play these guys. They beat us last year. We
want to beat them this year. And Ohio State probably
feels the exact same way. We want to beat them again.
Big 10 against SEC. We want to show these guys
we know how to play in the Big 10. And
that we are every bit of what we're being hyped

(01:21:32):
up to be. I can understand it. Everybody wants to
handle it a certain way. You can't tell people how
to feel in a certain way about getting ready for
a game because while Jackson might say that out loud,
I think in some ways he's saying it because he
doesn't want to create a distraction, which is fine. You
don't want to be bulletin board material, but also at

(01:21:53):
the same time, if you just say, yeah, we want
to win this game.

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
I mean, absolutely. We do.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
They beat us last year. Then I don't think that
that's creating a distraction because Ohio State wouldn't be taken
off guard by that. They'd be like, well, we feel
the exact same way. So we're hoping that we're able
to make good on it and be incredibly good and
be able to win. So these are all things that
we get to look forward to as the college football
weekend ramps up for us. You get this one on

(01:22:19):
Saturday night. And then, of course, you get the NFL
action on Sunday. Man, elite time of year, elite time
of year. Always look forward to it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
7-1-3, 2-1-2, 5-7-9.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Again, it's 7-1-3, 2-1-2, 5-7-9. We've had important stretches of
this Astros season, but this one is the one that
trumps them all.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
We'll talk about it right here as we continue.

Speaker 2 (01:22:41):
It is the Dan Matthews Show, hanging out with you
on a Tuesday, Sports Talk 790. Back in the fold,
Dan Matthews, Joshua Jordan, hanging out with you here. It's
about 30 minutes from now. Astros manager Joe Espada going
to hop on with us. as we will have him
up for his weekly visits and his club tonight, taking
on the Phillies up in Philadelphia, four 30 Astros on deck.

Speaker 1 (01:23:05):
Get you set up for that one.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
And you also have the Texans getting back on the
practice field tomorrow to get ready for the Buffalo bills
on Sunday. as it gets the NFL season underway. Sub one, three, two, one, two, five,
seven 90 is the number to get in. So talking
about this all throughout the show today, and that is

(01:23:27):
the Astros coming off the weekend. That was, which it
seems like Josh, we've had a lot of these weekends
where we come out of it saying, Hmm, Yeah, you know,
a little left to be desired there. And with the
most recent series against the Diamondbacks, that was pretty much
the case because you would have liked to have gotten
one of those last two games, especially to the Saturday

(01:23:50):
game that you were leading, then gave up said lead,
go to extra innings, you lose in extras, and then
The last inning there, a huge spot for Jordan Alvarez
and he strikes out swinging and you're not feeling much
better about it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:04):
So you lose that game. Okay, fine.

Speaker 2 (01:24:06):
Then fast forward to Sunday against the Diamondbacks where you're
down 3-1. You score a run in the eighth. Then
you got an opportunity there in the ninth and you're unable.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
To come through. You lose that game. It's frustrating. It's annoying.

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
Now you go on the road where in a, in
some ways, kind of a similar feeling to when you
went to New York that time and you come out
of it where you were able to have one of
your better weeks that you've had in some time.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
I mean, because the Astros.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
Coming out of that New York week where they went
to Yankee Stadium, take two out of three. Then go
to Shea or Citi Field.

Speaker 1 (01:24:47):
Now it's Citi Field.

Speaker 2 (01:24:48):
But facing the Mets and you take two out of
three after a disappointing one on that Saturday. But for
the Astros now heading into the series against the Phillies
and then later on this week against Tampa Bay, the
expectations are very clear. You cannot have a losing week.
You cannot drop both of these series and God forbid

(01:25:08):
you absolutely cannot get swept in either of these series
because you also at the same time have a Mariners
team who's not completely out of it. They're not playing
good baseball, but still one really good series in a
bad one by you and they are very much in
this thing and you want to try to avoid them
being very much in this thing entering into the final

(01:25:30):
week of the season when you got to go up
there and play them for two games. You'd like to
have them knocked out of it at a certain point,
but also too, that's not going to take the juice
out of that series anymore because if the Mariners aren't
in it, they definitely don't want to see you in it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
They would like to be in the.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
Playoffs, but if they can knock the Astros out, they
definitely would have that as a feather in their cap.
So you want to avoid situations like that. So tonight
you get Hayden Wisniewski going and this guy has been
as consistent as the day is long since he's come back.
He's been one of the few Tommy John guys that
actually has been really good for you.

Speaker 1 (01:26:06):
You need it again tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
You really would like to see Hayden Wisniewski be able
to set the tone in this series.

Speaker 1 (01:26:11):
Come out of there with a win.

Speaker 2 (01:26:13):
The offense has been really pretty pedestrian this last month
and a half. Now's the time where you need to
start seeing guys step up. I mean, we've been calling
for it for the longest time, but it's especially needed now.
where you need to have guys named Jordan Alvarez, Jeremy Pena,
not wear 0 for 9s, and kind of set it

(01:26:37):
up for the rest of this offense that has not
been great. Christian Walker, as we talked about a little
bit earlier, has not been good since the month of April.
That needs to change. You've got to be able to
find some way to be able to factor. He did
have an RBI single last week. That's great. But you
know what I need out of Christian Walker? I need
a few more baseballs going over an outfield wall in
fair territory. I need some huge hits with runners in

(01:27:00):
scoring position. Isak Paredes, same deal there. I mean, you
can even throw Dalton Varshow in there. I've said, ideally
Dalton Varsha would be a six, seven hole hitter for you.
But right now you got to count on them as
being a middle of the order type of guy and
you need them to come through in those spots. And
just when you kind of felt like coming out of
that white socks series, that maybe that group had found

(01:27:21):
an extra gear to kind of get back into the
swing of things and being able to help you win. Well,
then the same problems propped up again against Arizona. So
You find yourself in this situation where you would like
to be four or five games in front of the
Rangers at this point, but because of your offense, looking
the way they have for about the last six weeks,

(01:27:43):
that's why you find yourself in a scrap and claw
situation at this moment. And a way that you can
make yourself feel even better about your chances of not
only getting to the postseason, but maybe being able to
win a postseason series is is being able to take
two out of three in one of these two series.
It would be amazing to do it in both, but

(01:28:05):
as I've said, I will take a 500 week out
of this team. You got the Rangers and the Mariners
playing against each other. As I've continued to say, I
think that we're rooting for the Mariners this weekend, or
at least this week, because it would be nice for
you to be able to take two out of three,
them take two out of three, and add on to
that lead over the Rangers in the West. That would

(01:28:27):
be nice to see. And that is something that could
possibly be at your disposal. But two, at the same time,
I mean, it kind of underscores what I've said all along.
You can't at a certain point keep going about your life. of, well,
they all lost. So we're all good. No, you got
to win ball games. You got to win series. That's
the most important part of this right now. You've put

(01:28:47):
together a couple of winning weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:28:50):
Like that's what's needed in order to be able to
get you into the post season. And in this case
right here against this stretch, I would take a two
out of three and one and salvaging in the other.
If you're able to do that, then I think you're
still on a good path. If you're two and four
at the end of this week or even much worse,
then you are probably in dire straits at that point.

(01:29:11):
And that's what the Astros want to avoid. This team
has played with its back against the wall numerous times
this year, but this is where the intensity ramps up.
As I've said all along, you're in postseason baseball right now.
These will be postseason level matchups that you're going to
be playing in these next six games. So How do
you really be able to build up that confidence handling

(01:29:34):
business in these games? Because tonight you've got a guy
that is gettable in Andrew Painter. And I know we've
said that before, and it seems like it doesn't matter
with this Astros offense at a certain.

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
Point, but you know what? Dang it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
It would be nice for you to finally be able
to get somebody that's gettable and not have them go
seven shutty against you.

Speaker 1 (01:29:53):
So set the tone early in this one.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
Said Hayden Wisniewski up with an opportunity to be able
to go out there and pitch like he has been
pitching because this has been a guy that's been giving
you six, seven innings when he heads out to the mound.
And I understand that you don't want to necessarily put
that on the starter at all times, but pitching was
not an issue for you this weekend. You lost two
out of three because you couldn't get a hit with
runners in scoring position. You couldn't put together a productive at-bat.

(01:30:19):
That's gone on for too long. I mean, seriously, it's
gone on for way too long at a certain point.
Soon enough, you got to put the past in the
past and you got to come through. You either step
up or you don't. I've said it before. It's pass fail.
Did you pass the class or did you fail it?
It's really that simple. And in certain spots, yes, a
three run homer would be nice, but you know what

(01:30:40):
would also be nice? You being able to get the
guy home one way or the other. And we've seen
sacrifice flies, but then you also do need to be
able to parlay it into a three run homer.

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
That would be nice to see.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
This would be a good series to have somebody be
able to do something like that because you are in
the postseason right now.

Speaker 1 (01:30:59):
That is what this time of year is.

Speaker 2 (01:31:02):
And we've seen the Astros be able to kind of
coast into the final weeks of the season. For the
last probably about four years, you've not had that luxury.
And 2023 was kind of the first year that we
had that. And remember how we all felt heading into
that final weekend of not only going to Seattle, but
then also to going to Arizona and saying, hmm, you

(01:31:23):
got to win this one, too. Otherwise, you're not going
to win the AL West. And luckily, you're able to
go there and you're able to sweep. And Seattle helped
you out on the final day to get you into
the postseason as the AOS champs. You'd like to be
able to avoid being in that situation yet again, because
another thing that I've also pointed out is you're a
game and a half back of the Chicago White Sox
for the second spot in the American League. All of

(01:31:45):
your goals are still attainable. It's now, do you handle
the business that you need to handle in order to
be able to enjoy reaching those goals?

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
And the Astros absolutely can.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
But I've said the words high time numerous times, and
it still seems like that's not necessarily catching. Now, it's
not necessarily like they're in the batter's box and being like, well,
we don't want to disappoint Dan Matthews. But at the
same time, though, too, it's you're kind of living on
a tightrope with the way that you are with runners
in scoring position right now. And soon enough, what happens

(01:32:18):
if you walk enough tightropes, you're going to fall.

Speaker 7 (01:32:21):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:32:22):
Get to the other side any way that you can.
I'd like for you to have a nice bridge in
a way that you can build yourself a bridge is
doing exactly that. The guys that I'm supposed to count
on in this lineup coming through, this is a series
where that needs to happen. Tampa Bay, same deal there.
But be able to get out of this week no
worse than a 500 ball club. And if you do that,

(01:32:44):
I think this team wins the AL West. But if
you get out of it, 1-5, 2-4, even worse, then
you're not a postseason baseball team.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
You failed the test. It's as simple as that. 713-212-5790.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
Conroe James, see you right there. Squeeze you in. You
want to join them again at 713-212-5790. So we continue
the Astros discussion. And speaking of the Astros, too, I mean,
a couple of those guys that kind of were a
little bit of a bone of contention for us this weekend,
and really for the most recent weeks, well... Now is
the time for them to really be able to carry

(01:33:17):
this team. We've seen them do it before. Need them
to do it again. As we continue here, it is
the Dan Matthews Show. Hanging out with you on a Tuesday,
Sports Talk 790. Yep, hanging out with you here on
a Tuesday. Appreciate everybody who makes us who we are.
As the Strohs getting ready to take on the Phillies.
Huge series up there in Philadelphia. Three-gamer gets started tonight.

(01:33:39):
Aiden Wisniewski taking the ball against Phillies righty Andrew Painter,
and we'll get it started at 4.30 with Astros on deck.
Joe Espada going to join us in about 10 minutes.
And you also have the Texans getting on the practice
field tomorrow to get ready for the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
713-212-5790 is the number to get in. Let's bring in
Conroe James, wants to talk some Strohs. Good morning, or

(01:34:02):
actually good afternoon, Conroe James.

Speaker 6 (01:34:05):
Good afternoon.

Speaker 8 (01:34:06):
Boy, I love me some Astros, and you really summed
it up really, really perfectly. Now, here are two things
that I noticed about the Astros. Number one, they don't
play small ball very well. It was a glaring... difference
between us and Colorado. Colorado's a boring team to watch

(01:34:26):
because they play small ball, but by God, they move
people around bases. There were numerous times that we could
have done a sacrifice fly, but no, we have to
swing for the fences, okay? The second thing is our
discipline at the plate. I've never seen such poor performance

(01:34:48):
of people swinging at balls that were grossly out of
the strike zone. They needed a golf club. And what
makes it even worse, it's on national TV. It's embarrassing.
So I wish you would ask Espada those two things
because it's obvious to you, it's obvious to me. We
need to do better than 500 if we're going to

(01:35:09):
win the division.

Speaker 6 (01:35:12):
And I'm out.

Speaker 1 (01:35:13):
I appreciate the call, James.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
I mean, got plenty of things to ask Joe Espada.

Speaker 1 (01:35:18):
Don't worry. All the pertinence are going to be handled.

Speaker 2 (01:35:21):
But you're not going to find any disagreement from me
over these at-bats that we've seen the last six weeks. Because,
I mean, it's been numerous times where you've had opportunities
and it's, hey, just put a ball in play. I mean,
that's seriously all we need right here is just put
a ball in play. The best I can do is
an infield pop-up.

Speaker 1 (01:35:40):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:35:41):
I mean, you did put the ball in play, just
not exactly what we were asking for. Or it's a
couple of times that we've seen it, Dalton Varshow of
chasing pitches and swinging at strike three. You strike out
either looking or swinging, you give yourself no opportunity. The
only opportunity you have from that is if luckily the
ball ticks away from the catcher and they can't throw

(01:36:02):
you out at first base and run scores. That's about
the only way that that happens. And that's a very
rare way. So you've got that. And then on top
of it all too, where, as I mentioned, even about
your Don Alvarez and Jeremy Pena this weekend, I can't
have over nines out of Jeremy Pena. I can't have
him hitting Oh 83 with a one, one 54 on

(01:36:25):
base percentage and an Oh 83 slugging percentage.

Speaker 1 (01:36:29):
Like that's not going to help you win. And again,
It is one of.

Speaker 2 (01:36:33):
Those where we've talked about it numerous times that this
is a lineup that has two really good hitters and
probably about two or three guys that you can count on.
But in terms of prolonged production, you're probably not going
to be able to get it out of them.

Speaker 1 (01:36:46):
And that would be.

Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
Jose Altuve, Isak Paredes, and Christian Walker. And if you
want to say four with Dalton Varshow, okay, fine. And
Cam Smith had been swinging a good bat, but as
the calendar has changed to August and September, that has
not been the case as much. And you're seeing it
too with how he's being used at this moment. If
there's a righty on the mound, chances are it's going

(01:37:09):
to be a Lamont Wade Jr. or Taylor Trammell playing
out in right field. So, I mean, it's even getting
to that point, too, where you're like, we can't play
him every single day because we're just not getting it
from him offensively.

Speaker 1 (01:37:20):
But guess where I don't want to live? Putting it
all on Cam Smith.

Speaker 2 (01:37:24):
Because I think in some ways, because of how futile
your offense has been from three through six in your order,
that's where the pressure starts to mount on guys like him.
And Yiner Diaz has swung a much better bat. As
a matter of fact, it's been a pleasant surprise to
see Yiner Diaz kind of make this turn with his
offensive season. So... That part of it's nice. But again,

(01:37:45):
Giner Diaz is a guy batting 7th, 8th, or 9th
in my order. I need the guys before him to
be able to get it going. And then, as we
even talked about with Jordan Alvarez, I mean, just looking
at it these last couple of games, where he hits
the home run on Sunday, that's nice.

Speaker 1 (01:38:00):
But again, I mean, it's one of.

Speaker 2 (01:38:02):
Those that I've talked about before of your production, singles
and solo home runs.

Speaker 1 (01:38:06):
I need more.

Speaker 2 (01:38:07):
I need when you got a couple of guys on base,
you know what? You have permission to hit a three-run homer.
Somebody does. And it'd be nice for you to be
able to take that permission slip, get it signed and
turn it in and actually be able to hit the
three run Homer, because that's how you win those huge
spots that you have in October.

Speaker 1 (01:38:24):
You leave guys on base.

Speaker 2 (01:38:26):
You look back at it and say, we're down to
one because we haven't handled business at the playoffs. that's
the way that this all shakes out so be able
to get whatever the slump the bad juju is whatever
it is get it out of the way now because
it's been well past time for this group to get
going And really, for the most part, even though Jordan

(01:38:49):
Alvarez hit 287 last month with an OBP of 415
and 457, we haven't seen Jordan be the Jordan that
we saw earlier in the season for the last about
month and change. Because the power has ticked down. He
hit two home runs in August. He's hit one through
six games now. You really need to see him get

(01:39:10):
on a heater. He needs to become that guy again.
It needs to become where he's swinging it so well
that you're going to have him be an automatic IBB,
intentional base on balls. That's what you would like to
see him be able to break into here in this
Phillies series. There would be nothing better than tonight. Jeremy
Pena gets on base, Jordan Alvarez puts one into the

(01:39:31):
right field bleachers, and you have a 2-0 lead in
the first inning. I would love to see that. It
would be amazing to be able to see that. You know,
Josh Jordan, I've called a Jordan home run before, and
it actually paid off.

Speaker 1 (01:39:42):
So there you go. Jordan first inning, two-run homer. I
see that.

Speaker 2 (01:39:45):
I feel really good. about heading into the rest of
this game. And it's not to say that if you
get skunked in the first inning, that's going to be
the trend for the rest of the night. But soon enough,
I mean, we've talked about it with Joe Espada. We've
talked about it with whoever from the Astros before. They
understand that they've had their rough patches. But two, I mean,
everything you've done to this point, you got a two-game

(01:40:05):
lead in the division. You've got an opportunity to be
able to put together a really good week against some
really good teams.

Speaker 1 (01:40:12):
This is when it is especially needed right now. This
is the time.

Speaker 2 (01:40:18):
And we'll talk that getting ready for this series and
also to try to get an update on Carlos Correa,
much more with the skipper of the Astros, Joe Espada.

Speaker 1 (01:40:26):
He joins us next as we have him in for
his weekly visit.

Speaker 2 (01:40:29):
As we continue here, it is the Dan Matthews show
sports talk, seven 90, seven 90 Astros getting ready for
a huge series against the Phillies up in Philadelphia. as
Hayden Wisniewski going to make the start tonight. We'll get
it started at 4.30 with Astros on deck. And a
man who can talk that and much more is the
manager of the Houston Astros, Joe Espada, joins us every
single week here on the show. Joe, it's great to

(01:40:51):
catch up with you again. So obviously a rough finish
to that series against the Diamondbacks. You get an off
day yesterday. Just where do you feel like the team
is heading into this series against the Phillies in a
really tough stretch for you guys?

Speaker 4 (01:41:04):
Yeah, we had a really good 13-game stretch there going
8-5 against some really good teams. I thought we played
really well. An off-day much needed, and now we've got
two big series, one against the Phillies and once against
the Rays. I think we're in a really good spot.

Speaker 1 (01:41:18):
We rested.

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
Hopefully we go out there today and set the tone
early and get going.

Speaker 2 (01:41:24):
So I've talked about it before with you where, I mean,
you've mentioned addressing it with the team about, you know,
knowing exactly what the moment is and trying to be
able to reach that moment. But I'm probably guessing too,
that you don't want to push that button all that often. So,
I mean, you've got a pretty good feeling that these
guys understand what they're up against up in Philly and
then also in Tampa.

Speaker 4 (01:41:45):
Yes, I think so. I think we, We have played
really good baseball the last two weeks. I don't think
it needs to be addressed anymore that we have talked
about it for the last month.

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
I think every game matters.

Speaker 4 (01:41:59):
I think they know exactly what it feels like to
play here in Philly. We play some really good big
games here in Philly, like World Series games. They know
what's at stake, so I expect them to go out
there and play good ball.

Speaker 2 (01:42:10):
And then, I mean, tons of guys in that clubhouse
who know what this time of year is like, and
then obviously the month following, what it's like.

Speaker 1 (01:42:17):
I mean, how much do you rely on those guys
to kind of drive the bus? Well, 100%.

Speaker 4 (01:42:22):
It's their clubhouse. They understand what it takes. The young
players lean on them. Our veterans lean on those young players.
So the conversations are going on right now in the clubhouse.
Some of those guys went out to dinner last night
in their off day. So they know there's some urgency,
and I'm excited to see them continue to play hard

(01:42:45):
and get a good push here towards the end.

Speaker 2 (01:42:48):
Astros manager Joe Espada joins us every single week here
on the Dan Matthews Show Sports Talk 790. You've got
a pretty good one to get your series going, too,
as well with Hayden Wisniewski so far to this point.
Have you been pleasantly surprised by the production that he's
given you, especially coming off Tommy John?

Speaker 4 (01:43:05):
Well, you know, we know that usually when pitchers come
out of Tommy John, it does take them some time
to get going. But I'm not surprised about, you know,
his performance and his success. He's a really good pitcher.
When we see him, when he's healthy, he is really efficient.
He throws a ton of strikes. He can create swing
and miss. He's got the weapons to be top of
the order starter. So we are excited that he's feeling good,

(01:43:28):
that he's throwing the ball well. It's a pretty good
lineup here in Philly. Mixing, throwing strikes early is very important.
There's a ton of contact. There's some guys that can run.
So I'm excited that he's the one that's going to
get us going since he's been one of the guys
that's really been a force for us the last month,
month and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:43:46):
And obviously you've been using A.J. Blueball a lot more
in high leverage spots. I mean, just kind of speak
to a testament to his season and what he's been
able to do to put himself in that position.

Speaker 4 (01:43:58):
Yeah, for me, it's more about his development than just
the season. He's been building towards this for the last
year and a half, and he's been really good against
both righties and lefties. His stuff just continues to creep
up there, which like below is up. Change-up sliders have
been really good against both righties and lefties. So he's

(01:44:20):
earned his spot in this moment. He can get big
outs in big moments, and I'm going to continue to
rely on him.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
And this weekend, you guys sent Carlos Correa out to
West Palm Beach. Have you been able to get any
updates on how he's looked so far?

Speaker 4 (01:44:36):
Very good. Yes, he looks very good. We're starting to do,
you know, everything on the field. Obviously, like, we're in,
you know, he has cleats on now, so he's running.
He is hitting on the field.

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
He's doing his defense.

Speaker 4 (01:44:51):
He continues to do very, very well. I'm very happy
where he's at right now in his progress. And every
time he comes in, every morning, if he feels better,
we can increase the volume and activities.

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
But so far, so good.

Speaker 4 (01:45:05):
Everything is good.

Speaker 2 (01:45:06):
And I mean, obviously, you want to stay out of hypotheticals,
but I mean, Joe, we both obviously know the player
well enough that he's not going to want to come
back and be a guy that just plays so often.
I mean, he's probably your understanding, too, as well, that
he wants to put himself in position to be an
immediate contributor for you guys.

Speaker 6 (01:45:24):
Yes, of course.

Speaker 4 (01:45:25):
And I expect him when he comes back that he
will be ready to play every day.

Speaker 1 (01:45:29):
There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (01:45:31):
Again, Astros manager Joe Espada joins us every single week
here on the Dan Matthews Show, Sports Talk 790. And
we've talked runners in scoring position situations before. And I mean,
the White Sox series, you guys were able to come
through in those spots. Last couple of games against Arizona,
a little tougher. I mean, is it just kind of
one of those that sometimes baseball can be baseball? It
gets away from you? Or do you kind of feel

(01:45:52):
like that sometimes those bad habits are being crept back into?

Speaker 4 (01:45:56):
No, I think that we faced some really good bullpens
and really good arms in those Arizona Diamondbacks. And I
thought that we were able to get people on base.
We were able to get a big hit. But I
thought the quality of our bats were good. And we
ran into some really good pitchers at the back end
of our bullpen. I thought we gave ourselves a chance. And,

(01:46:17):
you know, that's something that will, will continue to reinforce,
continue to talk to the players about. But for me,
it's nothing that right now raises any levels of concern.
It's just a conversation with these guys just to stay
within themselves and control the things that they can control.

Speaker 2 (01:46:33):
And I mean, you guys have had Brent Strom around
with the organization for a little under two weeks. I mean,
are you already starting to kind of see some of
his tutelage paying off with the guys and the way
they've been performing on the mound?

Speaker 4 (01:46:44):
Yeah, it's just conversations with Charmian and the players. I
think the players... really want to know, you know, the
preparation during a playoff run, right? Like, what do you
see in the dugout? What do you see when I'm
playing catch? Is there anything that I can probably tweak
here to get maybe a little more depth on my
pitch or a little more? Like, that's the type of

(01:47:06):
impact he's having on our guys.

Speaker 1 (01:47:08):
The guys are always picking his brain.

Speaker 4 (01:47:10):
I'm always picking his brain, just making sure that we're
not missing anything when we go over. some of our meetings.
He raises some really good questions and we challenge him
with some new, a few things that we have here
for him. It's been a huge impact. You know, just
the first 10 days that he's been here. So, you know, really,
really excited to have him.

Speaker 2 (01:47:32):
And I mean, when it comes to, you know, player-coach relationship,
I mean, whether you're a hitting coach, pitching coach, whatever
your role is on the team, I mean, a lot
of it I've got to believe is probably, hey, these
guys are pros. They know how to prepare themselves. But
I mean, is it Kind of sometimes that maybe you
can see something and you got to kind of pick
and choose your spots of when to bring it up
or how to bring it up?

Speaker 4 (01:47:53):
Yeah, you have to. That's what we're here for. I
know these guys are veterans. These guys have been around
for a long time, but we still got to coach them.
There's moments that we need to bring some things up
so we can be better at something. These guys have
always been very coachable. That has never been an issue.

Speaker 2 (01:48:10):
To get you out the door on this, again, Astros
manager Joe Espada joins us every single week here. Of course,
talking about what this time of year is, and you guys,
two games up on Texas, six up on the Mariners.
Is it kind of a little bit of you approach
these a little bit like postseason baseball, that you kind
of feel like you're already in it and having to
try to get further in it?

Speaker 4 (01:48:30):
No, definitely we're not in the postseason yet, but you
do treat this game like you are entering a level
of games where every game means something, right? I think
our players understand that. There's more urgency in maybe how
we do things during the game and a little bit

(01:48:55):
more aggressive in certain areas. But we just need to
take one day at a time. I continue to remind
these guys that stay present. We take care of business
today and then we get ready for tomorrow, tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:49:07):
Well, just got to stack those days. That's usually how
you get to those points. Again, he's Astros manager Joe Espada.
He joins us every single week here on the show. Hey, Joe,
good luck in this series, and we look forward to
catching up with you again next week.

Speaker 1 (01:49:20):
All right, fellas.

Speaker 4 (01:49:21):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:49:21):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:49:22):
Astros manager Joe Espada joins us every single week here
on the show, and clearly it's also, too, I mean,
as we've said, where you know exactly what this series is,
but it is also where, as I've continued to go
through it, talking about Just get 500 during this week.

Speaker 1 (01:49:39):
I mean, he's not going to say that.

Speaker 2 (01:49:40):
He's going to say he wants to go 6-0 this week,
and he should say that. But it is also, too,
where you've got the following week back home, and then
you've got the final week where if you're able to
put together winning weeks right now, because that's what it
is about at this point. Sweeping a series is amazing,
but when you're going up against a team like the Phillies,
that's going to be a tall task. Same deal with

(01:50:02):
the Tampa Bay Rays. But being able to get out
of there... with winning a series, you feel even better
about your chances. As I've said, if this team goes
four and two, even better this week, you're winning this division.
Like in my mind, there is no question that you
are a postseason baseball team and that you will be
moving on. And I mean, clearly too, this is when

(01:50:23):
you rely on guys like Jose Altuve and Jordan Alvarez
and Jeremy Pena, the guys in that clubhouse that have
been through this and know that these are tough spots
because Philly is always a tough place to play. I mean,
you found that out in 2022 when you're getting pizza
places who are saying they don't want to take your order.
And then you get people who are prompting for Justin

(01:50:44):
Verlander to go ahead and show them the one finger
salute and not show them that they're number one. So,
I mean, you know that they're going to be rowdy.
They're going to make this a raucous atmosphere, but two
at the same time, the Astros seem to also thrive
on that. If we've ever noticed that, that the booze
can get loud, the, You know what? Altuve chance can

(01:51:04):
be out there and they'll be there. But then that
seemingly is when hearts get ripped out. And that's what
you would like to be able to see in this series.
And it's one of those that it starts tonight. Hayden
Wisniewski getting the ball. You'd love for Hayden Wisniewski to
be able to be able to give you a strong performance.
And I mean, with your bullpen right now without Steven Okert,
you're kind of pitching shorthanded at this spot.

Speaker 1 (01:51:26):
I mean, we've talked about hitters that need to step up.

Speaker 2 (01:51:29):
This is when you need to see Bennett Sousa get
back to being reliable Bennett Sousa. This is when you
need to see maybe even one of the younger guys
that me and Josh talked about, Miguel Yola, and also
Limber Santa earlier. This is when you need to see
maybe even somebody else kind of on the same wavelength
as AJ blue ball, where he's been able to put
himself in a position that seventh inning, you need three

(01:51:52):
key outs. AJ blue ball can get you. You need
them to get you a seventh and the eighth AJ
blue balls gotcha. And the good news is too, is
that with that off day, you're going to have a
rested back into your bullpen. You're going to be needing
to rely on those guys because you need them to
get some huge outs, not only in this series, but
but also two later on in the week when you
take on Tampa Bay because three of these next four series,

(01:52:14):
you were not done any favors by Major League Baseball
the way that they scheduled this and set this up.
So you want to make it to the postseason, you
got to earn your way there. And the Astros trying
to set themselves up with that opportunity.

Speaker 4 (01:52:26):
713-212-5790.

Speaker 1 (01:52:26):
Again, it's 713-212-5790.

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
So I understand that losing this guy might not have
been ideal, but what if I told you you've got
an answer already? We'll talk about it right here as
we continue with the Astros discussion in this noontime hour. Adrian,
see you right there. Work in.

Speaker 1 (01:52:45):
You want to join them? 713-212-5790 as we continue here
on the Dan Matthews Show.

Speaker 2 (01:52:50):
Appreciate Astros manager Joe Espada for jumping on with us
for a few minutes as the Astros get back to
action tonight, taking on the Phillies. They're in Philadelphia, 6 o'clock.
Astros are actually 4.30. Astros on deck. See, you get
in such a habit of saying things, which this one's
going to be just after 5.30.

Speaker 1 (01:53:11):
Local time is when it gets going.

Speaker 2 (01:53:14):
Hayden Wisniewski is going to take the ball on that.
430 Astros on deck to get you set up for
this one. Also, the Texans tomorrow are going to get
back on the practice field to get ready for the Buffalo.

Speaker 1 (01:53:23):
Bills on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:53:25):
713-212-5790 is the number to get in. Adrian wants to
keep the conversation about the Strohs going.

Speaker 1 (01:53:32):
Good afternoon, Adrian.

Speaker 7 (01:53:36):
Hey, Dan.

Speaker 3 (01:53:37):
What's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:53:39):
Everything's good online, man.

Speaker 3 (01:53:40):
Congrats on the TikTok. Awesome, awesome. Congrats on the TikTok.
But you know you're going to have to compete with
Larry there, so I'm on both. You know, I follow
you both, so this ought to be pretty fun. I
ought to get a whole bunch of good sports tips. Joe,
I did not like that answer. I did not like
that answer. You act like y'all can't afford to be

(01:54:03):
playing lax. You act like we got five people in
the lineup that bat over 300. You act like the
bottom of the lineup just drives around runs.

Speaker 1 (01:54:13):
No, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:54:15):
You should be playing like you're on the line because
it is.

Speaker 1 (01:54:21):
You're only two games up.

Speaker 3 (01:54:23):
The Rangers schedule gets easier.

Speaker 1 (01:54:27):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:54:28):
How many games are you in the wild card?

Speaker 1 (01:54:30):
No, I did not like that answer.

Speaker 3 (01:54:33):
And that tells me that this team is If they
cross the finish line, we'll go nowhere. So thank the Lord.
It is football season. And by the way, Rockets, congratulations. Amen.
Let's all say it together.

Speaker 2 (01:54:51):
Amen.

Speaker 3 (01:54:52):
Fred, we need you 100% healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:54:55):
That's all I need to see.

Speaker 3 (01:54:57):
And we'll see if the money was working because my
boy is getting a mid-range jumper. The NBA in trouble.

Speaker 1 (01:55:04):
Dan, as always, peace and great job. I appreciate it, Adrian.
It's always good to hear from you, man.

Speaker 2 (01:55:12):
In terms of just like the intensity, baseball is one
of those sports that if you play with more intensity,
you're going to play worse.

Speaker 1 (01:55:21):
It is the ultimate.

Speaker 2 (01:55:21):
You have to be as loose as possible to be
as successful as possible. And that's what I think is
the cord that Joe Espada is trying to strike there.

Speaker 1 (01:55:31):
It's not lost on him on what this is.

Speaker 2 (01:55:32):
It's not lost on him that if this team doesn't
make it to the postseason, well, then guess what?

Speaker 1 (01:55:37):
Joe Espada is probably not.

Speaker 2 (01:55:38):
Your manager next year because whoever you bring in to
replace Dana Brown as general manager is They're already probably
going to want to have their own guy short of
you promoting from within. I mean, if Charles Cook is
the guy, well, I mean, it sounds like that Jim Crane,
for the most part, has been pleased with the job
that Joe Espada has done. But again, that can always change.

(01:56:01):
Anything is subject to change. Just because you're told you
have a job right now doesn't mean you're going to
keep said job. So he's fighting for his future here
in Houston as much as anyone. But I think that also, too,
what he's trying to do here is to not say, hey,
you know, this is a must-win series because we all
think it is. I've told you that I think that

(01:56:23):
this is an incredibly important series, but I'll even take
it a step further. I think it's an incredibly important
week because, as I've said, if you only salvage a.

Speaker 1 (01:56:32):
Game in Philadelphia.

Speaker 2 (01:56:33):
and then you go to Tampa Bay and you win
two out of three there, I'd much rather beat a
team that's in the American League two out of three
that I'm fighting for playoff positioning with as opposed to
a team in the National League. I mean, that's just me.
And I know that not all of you feel the
same way. I'm sure that if you come out of
this series... losing one of these games that maybe you
should have won, then we're going to feel incredibly disappointed

(01:56:55):
and we're going to talk about it and have all
those same feelings afterwards. I get all of that, but
there's a difference between us and the guys that are
in that clubhouse. The guys that are in that clubhouse,
Jose Altuve understands what he's up against. Jordan Alvarez understands
the same deal. Jeremy Pena, Isak Paredes, Any of those
guys that have put on major league unis and hats
for a really long time, they understand that you lose

(01:57:18):
games and the teams behind you win. Then you put
yourself in a bad spot. You win games and those
teams lose. Then you're in a good spot. But at
a certain point, you can't worry about what they do.
You can only control what you do. And that's why
you hear it all the time, especially in baseball, where
it is a sport of failure. That's the biggest thing
you have to learn when you're a kid. You're going

(01:57:38):
to strike out. You're going to get out. That's going
to happen. But it's one of those that you could
be 0-3 with three strikeouts, and it's a huge spot
in a World Series game, and you hit a three-run homer.
Guess what everybody's going to remember? You hit the three-run homer,
not the fact that you struck out three times leading
up to that point. Because at a certain point, those

(01:57:59):
at-bats don't matter. So that's how they're approaching this right now,
is that, yes, they probably will in this very series
have runners in scoring position, second and third nobody out
bases loaded nobody out any of those things and not
come through but then the key is okay put it
behind you and the next time that you have that

(01:58:20):
opportunity make good on it and that's what we've been
asking for out of this group is that we're not
asking for you, although it would be nice, but we're
not asking for you to put up four or five
runs in an inning.

Speaker 1 (01:58:32):
It would, again, be nice to see that.

Speaker 2 (01:58:35):
But it is also, too, in a certain spot, I mean,
it would be nice to see Jordan Alvarez get back
with two runners on, put one over the wall for
a three-run shot. It would be nice to see Jeremy
Pena not chase the slider and continue to rack up
his strikeouts here in about the last month and change.
All of those things are true. But two, at the
same time, it's about being able to set yourself up

(01:58:59):
in this position. You're in, as Joe Espada said, a
good spot, which you are. It's much better to be
two games up than it is to be two games back.
But it is also, too, where, again, just knowing the
game of baseball and knowing in certain ways how a
lot of those guys in that clubhouse approach this thing,
don't make it bigger than it needs to be. Because
you do that, then you start to press with runners

(01:59:19):
in scoring position. We've seen how that works. Then you
start to lose two or three games in a row
that you really can't afford to lose two or three
games in a row. That's when those things start to
creep up. And baseball is not one of those sports
where emotion is going to carry you. As a matter
of fact, more often than not, emotion is a detriment
to you. And that's what I think he's trying to
kind of set the groundwork for. I mean, it's all

(01:59:42):
the time, especially and even really, I would say that
in football on the offensive side, it's the same deal.
Look at offensive coordinators and quarterback coaches. They're usually really cool,
even keeled guys.

Speaker 1 (01:59:52):
Why is that?

Speaker 2 (01:59:53):
Because they need their guy to be the same way. Now,
that doesn't make you less of a competitor. It just
makes you where you're in a tough spot and you
really need your mental faculties about you to be able
to see it clearly and to be able to think
clearly through those spots and That's the type of guy
you want out there. You want the cool customer where
even when you got 100,000 people yelling at you, you're

(02:00:15):
able to be the one that says, okay, you know what?
You might've gotten me this time, but I'll get you
the next time. And that's how I think you approach
this thing.

Speaker 7 (02:00:24):
713-212-5790.

Speaker 2 (02:00:24):
Again, it's 713-212-5790. The first game of the season is
ahead for the Texans, and D'Amico Ryans is already laying
down the gauntlet.

Speaker 1 (02:00:35):
We'll have that for you here as we get into
the 1 o'clock hour.

Speaker 2 (02:00:38):
As we continue here on a Tuesday edition of Dan
Matthews' show on your home of the Astros and the Rockets,
Sports Talk 790. Yes! Welcome here into the 1 o'clock
hour as we continue here on your home of the
Astros and the Rockets, Sports Talk 790. You got the
Strohs getting ready for a huge series against the Phillies,
and we'll have that for you coming up at 4.30

(02:00:59):
with Astros on deck. You also have the Texans getting
back out on the practice field tomorrow for the Bills
on Sunday, as that'll get the NFL season underway. NFL
football gets started tomorrow night. You get the Seahawks and
Patriots to get the season underway. A little bit later
on this week, you get the Rams and 49ers, too.

(02:01:21):
And I think those are the only ones before we
get to Sunday. I mean, is there a third one, too, that.

Speaker 1 (02:01:27):
I'm missing here?

Speaker 5 (02:01:27):
I'm trying to remember, Josh Jordan. No, just Wednesday is
the one you just mentioned. Thursday, Rams and 49ers. And then,
of course, I think Monday Night Football is Broncos-Chiefs, if
I remember correctly.

Speaker 1 (02:01:39):
Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:01:40):
Which, by the way, Patrick Mahomes has been cleared, and
he is going to play in said game.

Speaker 6 (02:01:45):
So.

Speaker 2 (02:01:45):
You got that to look forward to. 713-212-5790 is the
number to get in on the phone lines. But I'll
tell you what, I get the Matt Thomas, you know,
roughing down lunch really quick because, I mean, just had
to do that, just crushed a sandwich. And I just
remember there would be times where Matt, I think there
was once where he had something that had like jalapenos

(02:02:07):
on it and started to fire him up, which, I mean,
you know, I know that I'm kind of painting an
interesting picture for some people, but like he was like
hiccuping like nobody's business. which luckily I don't have that
going on because it is a fear in this business
that you do have is that like, you're going to
get hit with the hiccups. Like when you're right in
the middle of doing a segment and it's just like,
Oh God, like, please don't do this where you're having

(02:02:29):
to constantly turn on and off your microphone. And then
soon enough, although I've always been told with hiccups, it's
soon as like you forget about it, then you're, you're,
you're golden at that point. Because I understand that hiccups
are a, um, like we, uh, uh, that, eventually we're
able to become what we are, but I guess like
at one point we were fish and then, you know,

(02:02:50):
that you're kind of like, that's like part of like
your fish brain right there.

Speaker 1 (02:02:54):
That's like, Hey, I'm out of water. So I'm gasping
for air. So maybe that's what it is. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:03:00):
I heard that from Craig on Southern charm on Bravo.
So I'm not sure how reliable of a source he is,
but we'll, we'll take his word for it.

Speaker 1 (02:03:07):
Sounds like an expert, Dan.

Speaker 2 (02:03:09):
Uh, at making pillows and, uh, being kind of a
clown when it comes to women. But aside from that, um,
not much, I, I don't think that we can count
on him, although he is an attorney.

Speaker 4 (02:03:20):
So.

Speaker 2 (02:03:20):
If you want to trust him with your legal future,
then go ahead and give him a call. Seems like
an all right guy outside of that. 713-212-5790 is the
number to get in. Hey, D'Amico Ryans speaking with the
media yesterday. Josh, we had it earlier. Let's cue it
back up. So this was D'Amico Ryans when he was
asked about his defense and that group being the ones

(02:03:41):
that can set the tone for his team. Listen closely
because he's not just putting it all on the defense.

Speaker 7 (02:03:47):
I think our defense is perfect. can definitely be one
of the best defenses in the league. And that's the
goal every year. Like we line up, we talk in
the meetings about it. Like we don't shy away from it.
We expect to go out and play well. And now
you got to go do it. But our guys, they've
done it before, right? That just doesn't automatically happen. You

(02:04:09):
got to go improve it on Sundays. But our guys
are up for any challenge, any given week versus any offense.
So I expect our defense, again, to be the strength.

Speaker 6 (02:04:19):
Of our team.

Speaker 7 (02:04:20):
And I expect our offense to come right along with us, right?

Speaker 1 (02:04:24):
For us to be a good team.

Speaker 7 (02:04:26):
And make it where we want to go, we got
to have great defense and we got to have great offense, right?
We both got to compliment each other. And that's what
you need to have a great team. And that's what
I'm preaching to our guys, not just about the defense
being great. Our offense needs to be great as well.
So that'd be the key for us this year.

Speaker 1 (02:04:43):
All right, a couple of different things right there.

Speaker 2 (02:04:46):
And one of them is something that I didn't bring
up earlier when we played that audio for you is
the first part that he said about the defense. You
got to go out there and do it because what
it kind of sets up for is the second part
where he brings up the offense. And it's a little
bit of, hey, just because you haven't done it doesn't
mean you can't do it. And I think that's kind

(02:05:07):
of a little bit the encouragement that he's offering to
that side of the football. is that yes, we understand
what people think of you. Oh, you're not a very
good offense. Well, you haven't at times been a good
offense is the way that you look at it. And
I think that that's how you approach it on the
field is you are until you're not, Hey, you can't
win in the post season. Then he went in the

(02:05:27):
post season. Hey, you can't win the big one. Then
you win the big one. Do you get my point here? Like,
it's kind of up to you at a certain point
for you to change the narrative about your team, because
the narrative about the Texans at this point, and we've
done them all, all of the power rankings, all of
the preseason write-ups, whatever it is, it all says the

(02:05:48):
same stuff, stellar defense quarterback. You got to see if
he's able to get back to being the same guy
in 2023. Is he going to turn the football over
a ton? All of those things. And again, It is
up to CJ Stroud to be able to change some
of that narrative because it's not just an offensive thing.

Speaker 1 (02:06:05):
This is a CJ Stroud thing.

Speaker 2 (02:06:07):
I think most people believe that Nico Collins is perfectly
capable of making huge plays. I think that most people
agree that Dalton Schultz is a good, stable tight end.
I think that most people believe that David Montgomery is
a good, serviceable NFL running back. So now it really
just becomes, okay, not only CJ Stroud, but how good

(02:06:27):
is your offensive line? I mean, that's also another group
that kind of needs to have that confidence heading into
this season because that's a group that we believe is
going to be one of the better ones that they've had,
especially the best one that they've had since Nick Casario
and D'Amico Ryans teamed up together because, I mean, it's
hard to argue with the results they've had so far.

(02:06:49):
A couple of 10-win seasons, a 12-winner last year, and
go figure, that that's the one year that you miss
out on winning the AFC South. Jacksonville took it last year.
Now Jacksonville gets to play a first-place schedule. But that's
what the burden of proof is with this team, is
it's not just an offense, it's C.J.

Speaker 8 (02:07:06):
Stroud.

Speaker 2 (02:07:07):
And he's not talking directly to C.J. Stroud, but he's
the one who literally quarterbacks this thing, and he's the
guy that's going to get the props or the blame
if it.

Speaker 1 (02:07:19):
Goes a certain way. Nick Cayley, too.

Speaker 5 (02:07:21):
I think play calling is a big we don't know
at this point because they finally have a competent offensive line,
it looks like, some better skilled players.

Speaker 1 (02:07:30):
CJ coming back, but I thought his quote.

Speaker 5 (02:07:32):
Was interesting the other day about, It's good to have
this pressure.

Speaker 1 (02:07:36):
It's a privilege.

Speaker 5 (02:07:37):
But then he said, I didn't wake up and forget
how to play football. Well, it sure looked like that
in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (02:07:41):
No, and I think that in what you're referencing, too,
by the way, just to give context, is he caught
up with DJ Bien-Aimé of ESPN. And there's a really
good piece that's up on ESPN.com right now where, I mean,
it kind of just shows you the growing confidence that
CJ has, where do you almost get the feeling reading
that and maybe I missed this when I read it

(02:08:02):
Josh that I think he went and saw a mental
coach this offseason.

Speaker 1 (02:08:06):
And I'm not saying that.

Speaker 2 (02:08:07):
He needed it, but I think that he probably did
get some help to kind of like recenter him a
little bit, which it's.

Speaker 1 (02:08:13):
Important to have that.

Speaker 2 (02:08:14):
I mean, look, you might have kind of stubbed your
toe after having success in any part of your life,
but you do need somebody there that can kind of
remind you like, hey, you're still Josh Jordan.

Speaker 1 (02:08:24):
Hey, you're still Dan Matthews.

Speaker 2 (02:08:25):
Like you can be able to get around this and
be an even better person for it.

Speaker 1 (02:08:30):
I think that he did.

Speaker 5 (02:08:32):
And I think we're not going to know that until
he sees a little adversity, right? I think we're going
to have to see that this season when things look
like they're starting to unravel. Can he pull it together
and be that old CJ?

Speaker 2 (02:08:45):
Well, I think that's also a huge part of all
of this where it is at times when things have
not gone well. Like I remember people brought up his
demeanor last year up in New England. I mean, at
a certain point when you've had the game that he's had,
what do you expect him to act like? I mean, seriously,
I mean, you don't even know necessarily how he was

(02:09:05):
feeling where you just get a quick little screenshot. And
I understand the way it looks, but sometimes that's not
telling the full story. But it's at the same time,
I mean, what's he supposed to do when he's thrown
four interceptions? Is he supposed to be Mr. Oh, you know, hey,
everything's great, guys. And I think that most of them
would be like, well, yeah, not necessarily for you. I mean,

(02:09:27):
you can understand it.

Speaker 1 (02:09:28):
You can get it.

Speaker 2 (02:09:28):
You're allowed to have human moments. I say it all
the time. You're allowed to have them. Like we expect
that these guys are robots at a certain point. These
are human beings with real human emotions playing a sport
that we all just happen to be taking a look at.
I mean, I can't remember if it was him or
somebody else talking about playing a entertainment sport. I think
it was CJ that said that. And that was something

(02:09:50):
that I thought was really good perspective for a guy
his age to have. where he was like, I get it. Like,
you know, everybody's looking at me. Everybody wants to make
sure that I am able to live up to a
hype at a certain point. I'm paraphrasing of course, but
like him saying that of getting that the success is
going to bring praise and the struggles are going to
bring criticism.

Speaker 1 (02:10:11):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (02:10:12):
He's got a pretty good grasp of that, of understanding
what he's up against and paying attention to what needs
to be paid attention to and being able to ignore
things that don't.

Speaker 3 (02:10:21):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:10:21):
Look, that's the only way he can handle it. And
He's not wrong. I mean, Peyton Manning's thrown four interceptions
in a playoff game. He's not the only person to
ever have a poor showing. But to your point earlier,
we can't be comparing him to Peyton Manning right now.
He's got to prove that he's a top half of
the league quarterback.

Speaker 1 (02:10:38):
I think that's fair.

Speaker 2 (02:10:39):
No, I mean, and that's what we're expecting him to be.
I mean, because he looked like after his rookie season,
that's where he was headed. And then his second season,
not great. The postseason wasn't great. I mean, I had
actually told, and I truly believe this, that the second half,
really the fourth quarter of that game against Seattle last year,

(02:11:01):
he was starting to become that guy again. Like some
of the throws that he was making in that Monday
night game, I was like, he looks like rookie year,
CJ Stroud. This is fun to see. And I think
that he was on that path. I think that him
getting the concussion against the Broncos might've made him a
little shell shocked, which you can kind of understand at
a certain point, but even getting past that, because some

(02:11:22):
people just think that it's a week or two, you've
got rid of the concussion issues.

Speaker 1 (02:11:26):
You're all good. You're all fine.

Speaker 2 (02:11:28):
That's a bruise on your brain. Like that messes with you.
And I think that it did mess with him for
the rest of the season. Now, Has he been able
to get past that? We'll have to wait and see,
and Sunday will be a good indication if that's the case.
Because if he comes out there on Sunday and he
looks a lot like he did his rookie season, and
the Texans are able to win by two, maybe even
more scores over the Bills, then all the love and

(02:11:49):
praise for C.J.

Speaker 1 (02:11:50):
Stroud is going to be back.

Speaker 2 (02:11:51):
But if there was a key interception and you lose
that game, then everything is going to carry over from
last season.

Speaker 1 (02:11:56):
And it's just.

Speaker 5 (02:11:57):
How does he react to that? And he does have
a little bit of that haywire gene. I think back
to the, remember when they had that huge lead over
the Lions and they come out of halftime, Texans have
the ball and you're like, the only thing he can't
do right here is turn the ball over. And what
does he do immediately? Floats a little ball to the sideline,
gets picked off. right there in Texans own territory. And
then that led to the lions coming back. So he's

(02:12:20):
got to eliminate stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (02:12:22):
Definitely does. And no time like the president to try
to do that. And he's going to get that opportunity
on Sunday when the Texans open up against the Buffalo
bills over there at reliant stadium. Speaking of the Texans, well,
you'll see some guys at midfield for the coin toss.
And at least for those guys are going to be
out there determining heads tails, which actually they won't because
they're the home team. But if they win it, do

(02:12:43):
you want to defer? Do you want to receive? Do
you want to kick it away? All of those things. Well,
those captains were named in the balance of power on
this team. Even with D'Amico Ryan's comments is incredibly clear.
Lay that out for you as we continue. It is
the Dan Matthews show hanging out with you on a Tuesday.
Sports Talk 790. 212-5790 to hit me with that code

(02:13:05):
word to be able to win Astros tickets to our
listener appreciation night. Over there at Dyken Park, that's coming
your way next Tuesday night. So a week from tonight
over there as they take on the Royals and giving
you a chance to win a pair of tickets to
join us there at Dyken Park.

Speaker 1 (02:13:22):
And the code word is Boudin. So Boudin.

Speaker 2 (02:13:25):
So here in a little under 30 minutes, I'm going
to be asking you to give us a call again
at 713-212-5790.

Speaker 1 (02:13:32):
Not right now.

Speaker 2 (02:13:35):
But to give us the code word that I just
gave you. So hopefully you're listening closely. Hopefully you drop
it with Joshua Jordan. And if you do that first.
We're sending you to join us over there at Dyken
Park for the Astros and the Royals. Speaking of the Strohs,
taking on the Phillies tonight up there in Philadelphia. 4.30,
Astros on deck. Going to get you set up for

(02:13:57):
that one. You also have the Texans getting back on
the practice field tomorrow to continue their preparation for the
Bills on Sunday at Reliant Stadium.

Speaker 1 (02:14:07):
713-212-5790 is the number to get in on the phone
lines and call.

Speaker 2 (02:14:13):
Speaking of the Texans, like I said, you know, you're
probably going to have four guys out there for the
coin toss, which, of course, Buffalo being the visiting team,
they get to flip the coin and be able to
say heads or tails, which everybody knows tails never fails.
And of course, if you win, it's always the same. Like,
it's almost kind of to this point. where I almost

(02:14:34):
hope that officials, once the team wins the toss, just
be like, you're deferring, right?

Speaker 1 (02:14:39):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:14:41):
Which end zone do you want them to kick to?
It's kind of like, just save yourself the trouble. Because
nobody outwardly just says, oh, we'll receive. Very rarely do
you see that. It's always, oh, defer until the second half,
because Bill Parcells and all them say you need to
defer and get the ball to start the second half.

Speaker 1 (02:14:59):
Okay. Yeah, sure. Why not?

Speaker 2 (02:15:01):
But anyway, so when you're out there, the captain's going
to be out there. D'Amico Ryan's naming his captains yesterday
and going with three defensive guys, one offensive guy. And
it's not necessarily surprising the first two guys that were
at least named as captains, where you had Willie Anderson Jr.

(02:15:24):
and Aziz Alshayer. I don't think anybody was necessarily surprised
by that. It was a little surprising, maybe in some
people's eyes, to see it be C.J. Stroud, which was
not necessarily to me. By all indications, this offseason, he
was really impressive in terms of the work that not
only he put in individually, but also to taking more

(02:15:46):
of a leadership role on this team. I think in
certain ways, it is a little bit of to reward
being able to kind of turn a corner a little bit.
And it's not to say that CJ ever had any
of those issues. There's nobody in that locker room that's
going to say that he's had any leadership issues or
anything in terms of questions about his work ethic. None

(02:16:07):
of those things. He's been aces across the board in
all of those. But sometimes, though, we all know that
there is the saying in life, it takes what it takes.
And I think that he also kind of realized, OK,
what I've been doing has been working, but it's only
getting me so far. How do I take it further?
I think that that's what he was able to do

(02:16:27):
this offseason. And the team notices it. The teammates notice it. Obviously,
D'Amico Ryans and everybody else in the building notices it.
So will it translate to Sundays?

Speaker 1 (02:16:37):
Who knows?

Speaker 2 (02:16:39):
But Jalen Petrie. was one of the other ones that
was named the captain. And that was a little bit
of a shock to me because I know he just
got here, but if you had said that Reed Blankenship
was a captain now again, just got here.

Speaker 1 (02:16:54):
So maybe that's a huge part of it.

Speaker 2 (02:16:56):
Even two as well, where two of your biggest stars
on this team are the guys up front, both Will
Anderson Jr.

Speaker 1 (02:17:03):
And Daniil Hunter.

Speaker 2 (02:17:04):
I think Daniil Hunter is kind of in the same
category as Derek Stingley Jr., that they're very much not
going to say a whole lot, will lead with my actions,
and that's the way that both of those guys are.
I think if they almost didn't even have to say
a word to anybody, they would be just fine with that.
And it's also, too, in a locker room, you appreciate
guys like that because you know that they're going to

(02:17:26):
show up, they're going to handle their business, they're going
to keep their nose out of other people's business, and
you like the quiet guy. See... There's always a lesson
in life with the quiet guy, both as a teammate,
but also too, if a bar fight or something ever
breaks out, you want the quiet guy on your side,
if that's the case, because the quiet guy is usually

(02:17:48):
that way because they're confident that whatever you think you're
going to bring to the equation in a fight, they
know that they can, and it's not going to go
well for you. I mean, do you think Cortland Finnegan
found that out with Andre Johnson?

Speaker 1 (02:18:01):
Pretty quiet guy.

Speaker 2 (02:18:02):
We found out pretty quickly that Andre Johnson knows how
to throw some pretty good punches and Cortland Finnegan found
that out too.

Speaker 1 (02:18:09):
So just a little, you know, word to.

Speaker 2 (02:18:13):
The wise lesson for you out there that if you're
ever in a situation and the other guy's not saying
very much, well, then know that you're probably going to
be needing a pack of lunch that day. Anyway, just,
I mean, with, with Petrie, he's a guy that has
been able to do some really good things for you.
But I think that last year he kind of took

(02:18:33):
it to another level. Josh, when we were talking about
this a little bit earlier, the move over to the
star position was one that worked aces for him last year.
You need him in the box, he can be in
the box. You need him a little bit off the ball,
he can be off the ball. I think he is
obviously incredibly valuable in terms of being able to track
backs out of the backfield, maybe even two getting after

(02:18:55):
tight ends, as you pointed out, getting after Rashi Rice.
He's somebody that is kind of a roving defender for you,
and he is able to be able to make plays
for you. And we've seen it where he can get
his hands on interceptions and he also can deliver the
bone crushing hit.

Speaker 1 (02:19:11):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:19:11):
I mean, look, he's an ass kicker. That's what Petrie is.
But he's also a guy, to your point, that can cover.
You put him with Will Anderson, and then, of course,
Aziz Alshire. These guys match that D'Amico Ryan's DNA of
what he looks for in a defensive player. I think
it's interesting, too, that he picked a player at each
level of the defense, a lineman, a linebacker, and somebody
that that plays the safety slash corner star, whatever you

(02:19:34):
want to call it, but the secondary, how about that?
So each level of the defense, he has a representative.
And then I think with your quarterback, that's just a
no brainer. As I pointed out earlier, that would be
a big story. If CJ wasn't a leader, you'd have
a million people asking him questions. Why didn't you pick
CJ to be a captain? He's one of your leaders.
So that was just smart. And look, he expects CJ
to take the next step this year. We just, we

(02:19:56):
got to see it. We got to see him just
show some improvement and what's around him seems some improvement there.

Speaker 2 (02:20:01):
With what you just said about Jalen Petrie, it makes
me now wish that the NFL, kind of like Major
League Baseball, had Players Weekend. They don't still do it,
do they? Where they would allow you to have your
Twitter handle on the back of your jersey or whatever
your nickname was.

Speaker 1 (02:20:18):
Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah, I think they've kind
of taken that away.

Speaker 2 (02:20:22):
But if they had it in the NFL for Jalen
Petrie instead of Petrie for No. 5, it.

Speaker 1 (02:20:27):
Would just be ass-kicker. I like it. So you're not wrong.

Speaker 2 (02:20:31):
I mean, and that's the thing, too, is it kind
of gets back to what we talked about in the
previous segment, too, where D'Amico Ryans is saying that his
offense like, yeah, hey, it's nice to have a good defense,
but you guys got to bring your element to the equation, too.
But room of truth here, I say this all the time,
you put D'Amico in that room. What does D'Amico want

(02:20:52):
to see? And it's absolutely non-negotiable for him. It's swarming
good defense. So if you're able to get that, then
it feels like that, okay, we've got exactly what we
need out of this group. But at the same time, though,
he understands that what they've been doing, which is really
good defense and just an off offense, is good enough

(02:21:12):
to get them to the second round of the playoffs.
You need a little bit more if you're going to
get to AFC Championship weekend and even beyond. And when
you had Ted Wynn on from The Athletic, remember he
had that article kind of talking about how the Texans
are a modernized version of the Legion of Boom. And
he points out in that article, Jalen Petrie is a
huge part of that because, as we've talked about, he
can cover, but he can also come up and support

(02:21:33):
in the run game. It's hard to find players that
have that kind of versatility. Yeah, no question about it.
And I mean, they've got him. I mean, it's almost,
would you like kind of say that he's like the
cam chancellor of this group?

Speaker 1 (02:21:45):
Yeah, that I could see that. Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:21:47):
I mean, and that's the thing too, is, I mean,
you just kind of, whenever comparisons like that are brought up,
it's okay.

Speaker 1 (02:21:52):
Well then who fits these spots?

Speaker 2 (02:21:53):
I mean, I think that this Texans defense has a
lot better of a pass rush than those Seattle defenses did,
which they still had really good defenses and really good
guys that could get after the quarterback, but, That wasn't
the problem. It was just most of the focus with
that group was on the secondary. Whereas here, I think
it's all three levels that you have that. It's just

(02:22:15):
maybe the sheer numbers that linebacker kind of concerns you
a little bit, but overall, I mean, it's looking at
all of these groups up front, Willie Anderson, Jr. Daniel
Hunter saying the linebacker spot, you trust both of those guys.
And then the secondary, I think that this is one
of the first times that you can trust pretty much
all four guys that you have out there. Although let's

(02:22:35):
just go with a fifth because they're playing nickel for
the most part. And that of course being Jalen Petrie.

Speaker 3 (02:22:41):
Well, yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:22:41):
And he allows you to, to basically keep nickel on
the field. Even when teams are trying to run against you,
you got Petrie there. So it makes it hard to
throw on you as well. So he just gives them
that balance to where D'Amico sets the tone. D'Amico sets
what he's putting on the field. He's not adjusting to
what the offense is putting out there. He's going, you're
going to adjust to what I'm putting out there.

Speaker 2 (02:23:02):
713-212-5790 is the number to get in. If we continue
the Texans conversation, yeah, sure, you want to start the
season off 1-0, but this guy seemingly wants it more.
We'll discuss it right here as we continue on the
Dan Matthews Show, Sports Talk 790. Appreciate everybody who is
joining us and has joined us today. Don't forget, coming

(02:23:25):
up here in about 10 minutes, giving away those first
pair of Astros tickets this week. We're going to have
three sets of them, so Would love to have you
be able to join us at listener appreciation night over
there at Dyken Park. That's coming up next Tuesday as
we'll be out there with a nice group. So hopefully
you can join us and mention that code word that
I mentioned earlier in the show. And you can be

(02:23:46):
able to join us over there at Dyken Park. So
I'll be calling for you here in about 10 minutes
or so. 713-212-5790 is the number to get in. You
got the Astros getting ready for the Phillies tonight up
there in Philadelphia. We had a chance to catch up
with Astros manager Joe Espada a little bit earlier on
in the show. And it's going to be Hayden Wisniewski
getting the starting ball against Andrew Painter for the Phillies

(02:24:10):
and 430 Astros on deck for that. You also have
the Texans getting back on the practice field tomorrow to
get ready for.

Speaker 1 (02:24:16):
The Bills on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (02:24:18):
713-212-5790 is the number to get in. So Josh Allen
has not had a good time when he has faced
the Texans.

Speaker 1 (02:24:27):
At really any point in his career.

Speaker 2 (02:24:29):
I mean, even the one loan meeting that he won
back in 2021, a couple of touchdowns and interception. I mean,
he has thrown three career touchdowns against the Texans and
three Those two of those three came in that game.

Speaker 1 (02:24:44):
The other one.

Speaker 2 (02:24:46):
The three years later visit, which was, of course, two
years ago, Kaimi Fairbairn hitting the walk-off field goal, Texans win,
you're able to get a huge win. And that was also, too,
a very peculiar decision by Sean McDermott, if I'm remembering
correctly in that game, where it was throwing the ball
on third down as opposed to being able to run

(02:25:07):
the ball and chew off a little bit more time,
where at that point it would have probably been sent
D'Amico Ryans into having to use one of his last timeouts.
And you might not be able to be in position
to kick the field goal. Well, they decide to do that.
It hits the ground incomplete. So you're like, Oh, thank God.
We don't have to burn a timeout. And then clearly
it sets you up to be able to win the game.

(02:25:27):
So he hasn't played well against the Texans. His best
statistical game in terms of yards passing came in the
playoff game back in 2020. And you were able to
win that game. I mean, statistics in terms of yards,
it was great. 264. but he was 24 of 46
in that game. Now, completely different defense than what you

(02:25:48):
had in that game. I mean, that's the other part
of it as well. NFL rosters turn over almost every
single year, but you could probably say that this group
that is currently together is for the most part, has
been together for the last couple of years. I mean,
Derek Stingley's been here. You were able to add Kamari Laster.
He was on the field for that. It was his
rookie season. But then you've had Toto. You've had Aziz

(02:26:11):
Alshair both those years. And then, of course, the pass
rushing tandem that you have with Willie Anderson Jr.

Speaker 1 (02:26:17):
And also Daniel Hunter.

Speaker 2 (02:26:18):
Last year, He threw for 253, 24 of 34, not
terrible in terms of the completions, but two picks in
that game, including one of them that ended up losing
you the ball game. And then on top of it
all too, you were able to sack him eight times
last year. And a huge reason for that was that
you were able to stop James Cook. He broke off

(02:26:39):
a nice touchdown run. But aside from that, you didn't
really hear James Cook the rest of the night. And
you were able to get out to a lead. And
then it got to a point where you told your offense,
stay in park because we don't want to give this
guy extra possessions. And if we're able to do that,
then we feel like we're going to be able to
win this game. And sure enough, you did. Because Kalen
Bullock dives in front of a football, intercepts it, and

(02:27:00):
you're able to take knees and you go home happy
because you got a really nice Thursday night football win.

Speaker 1 (02:27:05):
But for Josh Allen.

Speaker 2 (02:27:06):
Quarterbacks have to deal with this all the time of
you can't win this game. You can't do that. You
can't do all these other things. Well, for him, it's
he's going to hear all week. You can't beat the Texans.
You haven't really beaten the Texans. You've done it once
in your career and it wasn't even against this group.
So now you got to prove that you can beat
this group because. How many of the last couple of

(02:27:27):
off seasons, which I guess it would just be those two,
have we been talking about the Texans trying to close
the gap on, say, the Kansas City's, the Buffalo's, the Baltimore's?

Speaker 1 (02:27:37):
Now it seems like at least I have this.

Speaker 2 (02:27:40):
Feeling and maybe some of you feel the exact same
way that we are looking at those teams where they're
looking to the Texans and being like, man, we got
to beat those guys if we want to get where
we're going. Because the Texans are, in all intents and purposes,
an AFC contender. There is no question about that. They've
been in the playoffs every single one of the last years.
Last year was the best chance that you felt like

(02:28:02):
you had to be able to get to the AFC championship.
And that's what hurt is how you lost that game
because it's, man, we throw two less interceptions in this game.
We're probably getting ready to go play the Denver Broncos
the following week. And we saw how that team looked
with Jared Stidham as opposed to Bo Nix. They were
a shell of themselves. New England basically had to do

(02:28:22):
anything possible to be able to lose that game.

Speaker 1 (02:28:24):
And of course they didn't.

Speaker 2 (02:28:25):
And they ended up going to the Super Bowl and
then getting smacked by the Seahawks, which I think most
of us thought was going to end up happening anyway.
But for Josh Allen, I mean, he's kind of in
the same boat as CJ Shroud in terms of he
is thought of as being one of the elite quarterbacks
in the league, which he is. But when it comes
to postseason success, what really can Josh Allen hang his
hat on? I mean, really think about it. He's had

(02:28:48):
to try to be able to contend with Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes for many years has been able to pretty much
run the AFC.

Speaker 1 (02:28:54):
You throw Joe Burrow in there.

Speaker 2 (02:28:56):
Burrow had the one season and he needs to be
able to prove it again where this team can be
good enough to be able to get to the postseason.
So clearly that's on him to be able to try
and prove they made their defensive adjustments and you'll see
them in week two. But for Allen, you got to
feel like that this is something that's kind of hanging
on him right now, that you have not played this

(02:29:17):
team well. You have not been able to get out
of there with a win in a meaningful game. In 2021,
that wasn't meaningful football at all. That was David Culley
coaching that team. And in no uncertain terms, the Texans
were telling you, don't expect competitive football out of us
for a while. And we thought that it was going
to be a lot longer than just a couple of years,

(02:29:38):
because then 2023, we were pleasantly surprised. Where I told
you at the time in 23, if you're playing competitive
football in November and December, you're doing your job. And
clearly the Texans were, because then they end up going
to the playoffs, smacking Cleveland, and then getting smacked the
following week in the second half against the the Baltimore Ravens.
But for Allen, these are things that he's going to

(02:30:00):
have to deal with. And it's also to a defense
that wants to continue to prolong his agony playing at
Reliant Stadium, because it would be nice to be able
to get a win for nothing else other than I'm
talking about the Texans now, other than to be able
to start the season off one and oh, because especially
how you started off last year and you kind of
had to sprint at certain points in the season because

(02:30:22):
it's tough to come back from being oh and three. Well,
the Texans, of course, would like to be able to
completely flip that script this year and win a game
like this. And I think if nothing else, show you
that they have learned from last season and some of
the issues that they had where they lost three really
close games. And you're kind of wondering, all right, are
you still a team that can win close games? And

(02:30:42):
they soon enough showed you, yes, we are. They just
weren't in the beginning part of last season.

Speaker 1 (02:30:47):
That's fine.

Speaker 2 (02:30:48):
But for Allen, I mean, again, it's one of those
that If you shut down the run, he could be
in an absolute same position that he was in last year,
where your defenders are able to just rear back and
tee off on him and get after him all day
and make it really tough on him. Now, they have
made some improvements to their offensive line. They have made
some improvements to the receiver game. A lot of people

(02:31:09):
believe that DJ Moore is going to be a nice
addition to them. Tons of believers in Khalil Shakir, but again,
when it comes to it, who's the better football team
on Sunday?

Speaker 1 (02:31:18):
I still believe the Texans are.

Speaker 2 (02:31:19):
I think the wrong team is favored in this, and
they have been kind of hovering in that one, one
and a half all throughout the week. It's going to
be interesting to see where the sharp money comes in,
but my guess is that it's going to start to
come in on the Texans. I guess we'll have to
wait and see, and like I said, we'll talk with
Lee Sterling a little bit later on in the week
from Paramount Sports, but Feels like that the ones who

(02:31:40):
feel like this is a must for us is one
guy in particular, and that's Josh Allen. And I think
he absolutely does approach this game that way. 713-212-5790.

Speaker 1 (02:31:48):
Again, it's 713-212-5790. All right.

Speaker 2 (02:31:55):
So like I said, giving away those pair of Astros tickets,
I'm going to give you the cue to call.

Speaker 1 (02:31:59):
Please do that.

Speaker 2 (02:32:00):
And then also do want to be able to pay
homage to somebody that we lost, not necessarily locally here
in the area, but still was a pretty big Titan
in the industry. I wanted to share some thoughts on
that before we close out this show today. As we continue,
it is the Dan Matthews Show here on Tuesday, Sports
Talk 790. 1-2-5-7-90 is the number to try to win

(02:32:21):
those Astros tickets.

Speaker 1 (02:32:22):
Hit Josh with the code.

Speaker 2 (02:32:23):
Word that I mentioned earlier, and you're coming to join
us for our listener appreciation night there next Tuesday night.
When the Astros take on the Royals coming up this evening,
the Astros get the Phillies up in Philadelphia. 430 Astros
on deck is going to get you started for that.
And a little bit earlier in the show, we had
Astros manager Joe Espada join us. If you missed that,

(02:32:46):
you can go listen to it on the iHeartRadio app
or on SportsTalk790.

Speaker 1 (02:32:50):
Com.

Speaker 2 (02:32:52):
And you also have the Texans getting ready for the
Bills tomorrow on the practice field.

Speaker 1 (02:32:56):
So hit Josh that code word. You're coming to join us.

Speaker 2 (02:32:59):
7 1 3 2 1 2 5 7 90 is
the number to get in with some last minute thoughts
as the Astros has been a huge topic conversation, huge
week in front of them. So we've been talking that
also to tons of Texans and we'll continue to have
more Texans conversation with, for you, including some guests that
will be joining us all throughout the week, been already

(02:33:20):
working on some people. So definitely looking forward to bringing
some of them on to get us set for Sunday
over at Reliant stadium. But again, I did want to
close things out today by remembering somebody who, it would
be strong for me to call them a good friend,
but they were somebody that was always incredibly kind to me.

(02:33:40):
And for any of you who have Southern Louisiana ties,
you probably know the name Mike Dettillier. And for football fans,
I think you probably know Mike Dettillier. Because he was really,
I think he was the first to come out with
pre-draft guides, like the magazines, going to the Combine, going

(02:34:03):
to the Senior Bowl, doing all that kind of stuff,
the scouting, and putting those scouting books together.

Speaker 1 (02:34:10):
Now we've seen it where Lindy's.

Speaker 2 (02:34:12):
Will have them, Athlon will have them, all these other
major publications. But I think if I'm not mistaken, he
was one of the first to do it. And he,
of course, in recent years, was hosting on WWL there
in New Orleans. Well, he passed away over the weekend,
a battle with pancreatic cancer. And it is just incredibly

(02:34:33):
sad because, like I said, Mike was one of those
people who he was one of the friendliest people.

Speaker 1 (02:34:40):
You'd ever meet.

Speaker 2 (02:34:41):
And he treated you every single time you ran into
him like you were a long-lost friend. or that he
had known you his entire life. I mean, I think
he treated people just like he would treat his own kids.
I mean, that's just the type of person that he was.
And whenever people like him who go about their life,

(02:35:03):
you know, the way that they are, it makes you
feel like even more appreciative that you got to know him.
I mean, there were numerous times where I'd have him
on the show with us and would call him. And
whenever he'd pick up the phone, he would always, Dano,
what's going on? You know, or Dano, how you doing, buddy?

(02:35:24):
You know, just in that that southern Louisiana accent. But
I mean, I think the other thing that was great
about him, too, is that he was truly a renaissance man.
I mean, he was an engineer. by trade and really
just with kind of one of those things that whenever
I talk to people, oh man, I want to do
what you do for a living.

Speaker 1 (02:35:44):
I'm like, go do it. Go do it.

Speaker 2 (02:35:46):
You're an attorney, you're a teacher, you're whatever. I mean,
I tell people all the time, there's never been a
better time to get into doing sports talk or any
type of sports media than right now because of all
of the podcasting opportunities that you can have out there,
YouTube channels, whatever it is, I mean, I even had

(02:36:08):
somebody bring it up to me the other day and
I said, start one, start doing it. Well, I mean,
it was actually a kid that goes to Clemson. I
was talking, you know, just struck up a conversation and
he goes, yeah, I love sports. You know, my girlfriend
tells me all the time, this is what I should
go into, but I'm going into being a CPA. I said,
you can still be a CPA and do this. As
a matter of fact, I mean, as not huge a

(02:36:31):
fan of I am of Mike Florio, I mean, Mike
Florio was an attorney. And then he started pro football talk.
I mean, tons of people who have done other career
paths and you found out that you were actually pretty
good at being able to do this. So go that route.
And Mike Dutillier was one of those people that, I mean,
created a reputation for himself and created such a reputation

(02:36:53):
in terms of his football acumen that teams and colleges
would rely on his expertise. that they would come to
him and be like, Hey, you know, what do you
think of this player? And coaches do that all the time.
I mean, you know, for all of the people who
think that there's this adversarial relationship between the media and coaches,
there can be, but for the most part, it is

(02:37:15):
if you trust someone, well, then absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:37:18):
You're going to trust them.

Speaker 2 (02:37:19):
And in some cases, if you find out there's a
guy like Mike to Tilly, that yeah, he knows what
he's talking about. When he talks football with you, then
you might even kind of have that relationship go that
route to where it's, you know, hey, you know, we're
seeing this you seeing the same thing and like I
said coaches do that all the time where they get
outside opinions on things consultants any of those other people,

(02:37:42):
but just the saddest part of this news to me
is that exactly like I said the way that he
treated people and And in a world that can be
cruel and can be mean, you appreciate people like them
a lot more. And when we lose people like Mike Dettelier,
it kind of makes you say exactly what I said

(02:38:04):
to somebody earlier today is that we lost a really
good one and you wish that there were more of them.
And in certain cases, there can be. I mean, the
way he handled himself and the way he carried himself,
we all have that in us.

Speaker 1 (02:38:16):
Absolutely, we do. And if you're kind, be kind. It
always works out. Trust me, it does.

Speaker 2 (02:38:22):
And I know how people think, oh, you know, people
will take advantage of my kindness as a weakness.

Speaker 1 (02:38:27):
Well, then you know what?

Speaker 2 (02:38:28):
You didn't need those people in your life is really
the simplest way to say it. And I mean, just
appreciate people who are genuinely just themselves. And like, he
was always incredibly gracious with his time. And I mean,
treated you just like he'd known you for years. And
Just seeing that news come down on Sunday was incredibly sad.

(02:38:48):
And I know that if you follow that station over
there in New Orleans, Bobby Hebert does a show with them.
And he, of course, had a really good tribute to
Mike yesterday. And I know there's a lot of people
here in the area that have Southern Louisiana ties.

Speaker 1 (02:39:04):
So clearly you knew who he was.

Speaker 2 (02:39:05):
So I just wanted to take the last few minutes
of the show today to be able to tip the
hat to Mike and say, good job, faithful servant.

Speaker 1 (02:39:12):
Well done. You did it well.

Speaker 2 (02:39:14):
And we wish that we would have had a lot
more time with you, but definitely hope for the best
for his family. And, and, and obviously, you know, issue
our condolences to his family because you know, if you've,
Been around a family member, a friend, anybody that's tried
to battle cancer. It is not a fun thing to

(02:39:35):
try to see somebody go through. But anyway, that's going
to do it for us here on this edition of
the Dan Matthews Show. Like I said, we'll continue to
get you ready for the Texans and Bills. React to
the Astros and the Phillies tonight. The A-team is coming
up next. Adam Wexler, Adam Clanton. He's Josh Jordan. I'm
Dan Matthews. We'll talk to you in 20 hours. Goodbye now.