November 29, 2024 • 18 mins
Houston Texans radio and TV analyst John Harris gives insight to the Texans offensive issues and defensive successes through 12 weeks with Senior Reporter J.P. Shadrick on Countdown to Kickoff. Harris opens up about his connections in Jacksonville, working with HC DeMeco Ryans and what it means to play and work in the AFC South.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Texans Jaguars Week from Houston, Texans dot Com.
Texans Radio sideline reporter and analyst John Harris is with us.
Hey here we are. Nice to see a Happy Thanksgiving
to you. What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Happy Thanksgiving to you too, JP man, it's good to
see you. This trip is always a fun one for me,
no matter what happens on the field, because I get
back and get to see some of my guys I
coached many, many years ago, just on the other side
of the banks of the Saint Jolen's River at Episcopall
High School. So it's always kind of weird. I'm ware
of my Texans logo because you know, when the Jaguars
(00:33):
started as an organization, you know, you know, the Oilers
went away, and so I was like, all right, well,
I'm in Jacksonville. Let's let's jump on the Jacksonville train.
So I've been a Jacksonville fan for a long time,
of course, until I got with the Texans, and then
I had to hate them because that's just AFC South Dynamics,
you know.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, I know I'm aware of what years were you
at Episcopal.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I got there in nineteen ninety four and I was
the junior high coach, and then I took over. I
did a stint at Bishop Kenny, I did a stint
in bowls, and then I got back to Episcopal became
the head varsity coach in nineteen ninety eight. So you know,
it's been a long time when the number at the
beginning of that year is at nineteen, so as long
as a long time ago. So I was there for
(01:15):
three years. We got to the playoffs for the first
time in school history my third year. So I always
had that little feather in my feather in my cap,
so to speak. But I love I love Jacksonville. I
love everything about the city. It was good to myself.
My wife and I met there, we met at Episcopal.
We had our first son there. So Jacksonville always strikes
(01:35):
at that the heartstrings so very much. That makes this
a fun trip. You had a tough trip because we
love Jacksonville. We love Jacksonville so much.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
John Harris with us from Texans Radio. Well, it's not
only been good for you personally, of course, away from
the field. For the Texans. On the field, nine out
of the last ten road games against the Jaguars have
been wins for the Texans. One of those was whenum
in London of course, the rest here at Jacksonville. Why
is that, Why is it all of a sudden that
the Texans come here and play well. There's been some
(02:09):
good teams and not so good teams with the Jaguars.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of the same
way when you know, the Colts come to do Vault County.
The Colts get spanked for whatever reason. I mean, I
don't know, it's it's an odd one. I think it's
just as matched up at times where the Texans you know,
have played well in some of those games, and they've
had some good teams over the years. But there's that
(02:34):
lull that we had that you know, from twenty twenty
through twenty two where you know, we caught the Jaguars
at the wrong time. For the Jaguars, you know, we
weren't a very good team, but the Jags weren't very
good even in you know, and in twenty two they
really hit the hot streak after we played them in Jacksonville.
(02:55):
So I don't know if there's anything that really, you know,
any i'm a reason to it, but it's probably similar
to the Colts. You know, Colts go down there. Duval
kind of like, oh man, the Texans go down there
and like, Okay, we're good, we'll win, We'll be okay.
But look, there's nobody in this building right now, considering
the way we played last few weeks that is going, oh,
we're going down there, we got a guaranteed victory. Like no, no,
(03:19):
not at all. There might have been a few of
those going into last week against the Tennessee Titans, but
those people have either shut up, left the building or
have been muted, so they don't have anything to say.
We we all had an idea like, this is a
division game, this is gonna be tough, but I think
it was probably even tougher than we thought because Will
Levis did play pretty well and that was that was
(03:43):
not what he did the two times we faced them
in twenty twenty three. He played pretty well, he hit
some deep shots and that kept them in the game,
and then we just couldn't do anything offensively in the
second half. So this team, this organization in this building,
the people in this building no going down to going
over to Jacksonville after the Jags coming off of bye week.
With the talent the Jags have in the building, our
(04:04):
guys are preparing for a fistfight. There's no question about that,
no matter what the records are.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
John, what's going on on the offensive side with the
CJ Stroud and they've got mixing back. He wasn't here
in the first meeting. Nico Collins went off in that game. Statistically,
they had to rally late and win the game. They
did it. What's been going on the last few weeks
with CJ? Where is he?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well? CJ said it as presser after the game. He
just said it point blank to the media. He said,
I'm just not playing well right now. And I think
there's how I say this. I don't think there's as
much truth to that statement as he wants it to believe.
He threw a couple interceptions. I think the first interception
he threw was more in the receiver than it was
(04:49):
on him. Second one was all him. But he's the
kind of guy that is going to internalize the offense's issues.
I know the talk nationally after the game was, oh,
CJ Stroud sophomore slump all this, and I really was
upset because I was like, CJ's really made some good
throws and made some good throws in that game and
really did some good things that we're accustomed to seeing.
(05:14):
And so I went back and I watched every single
throw and I'm like, man, people are missing the boat
on this. He did make a couple of kind of
non cjlight throws, but I don't buy this whole sophomore
slump thing. I think the sophomore slump has come about,
if you want to say that, in large part because
the protection just hasn't been where it's needed to be.
(05:34):
And I know that you know Trevor has gone through
that at times where he's had some struggles, and you
could attribute some of those to the offensive line not
playing as well as it probably should have in front
of him. I think what's been the Texans issue is
that offensive line has made CJ basically go through quarterback hell.
(05:55):
I mean, he drops and as soon as he gets
his back foot, he's having to run or throw way
or do something kind of going to hero ball mode
just to get the ball off. And that's a shame
because receivers have been open, he just hasn't had that time.
He's gotten sped up a little bit because that pressure
is getting to him. Similar pressures have been a monster
(06:16):
our guys have not picked it up. So we've not
had an offensive line that's played exceptionally well in front
of him consistently enough to keep CJ on track. And
of course he's also being compared to the standard as
a rookie where he was one of the greatest rookie
seasons of all time. So there's been some things, you know,
some hills and valleys for him. You know, we missed
Nico for about five weeks, you know, been without Diggs
(06:39):
since the Colts win about three or four weeks ago.
So trying to manage life without them, trying to just
manage life with you know, Joe, with Joe being back,
and Joe's been really good. But in the two games
that we lost here, the offensive line opened no holes
against Detroit, opened no holes against the Tennessee Titans. So
(07:00):
Joe being back is great. But if there's nowhere to
run then and the Jaguars are gonna make it very difficult,
I think, against this offensive line to give them holes
to run, and then we go back to Okay, well,
we can't run the ball, how do we move the football.
We're gonna have to throw it. Okay, CJ is gonna
have to CJ is going to have to throw it
(07:21):
forty forty five times to win the game. And now
that's putting a lot of pressure on the offensive line
that is not really held up as well as it
should have and should in this game. So I think
that's really kind of at the crux of where this
offense is. It started off well to a degree, but
second half issues, second half issues have been just huge.
(07:43):
In fact, I had a buddy of mine it just
tweeted at some point on Tuesday morning, he said the
number of touchdowns of Texans have scored in the second
half since New England and that was week five, Week five,
Week six, Week six one, Jimmy Ward one, Derek Barnett
won Texans offense. Well, the first two guys are defensive players,
(08:06):
so we just haven't been able to put the ball
in the end zone in the second half. And you know,
going into week thirteen, thirteen straight games, think team's probably
will fatigue, will beat up. So we got to go
down there and you'll find every ounce of energy get
this win before hopefully get this win before we go
into the bye week. But it's not it's not gonna
be easy, and it's definitely not the team that I
(08:27):
wanted to face going into a buy, them coming out
of a buy and playing at their place, right.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
John Harris with US Texans Radio. Defensively, Will and Anderson's
been hurt a bunch of the year. Came back last week,
couple of sacks. They were all over Levis in the
first half, obviously, but Danil Hunter has been playing well.
Seems like statistically, where are they on the defensive side.
They're taking the ball away some it feels like where
does this frank Defensively, can this group maybe carry the
(08:58):
load while the offense fit use it out well?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
To this point, they've carried the load. I feel bad
for them that they should have never lost to the
Troit game. I mean put it this way. In fact,
our good buddy Drew Dory, who you know, JP, He
sent me an email he said, we picked off Detroit
five times and lost. We sacked Will Levis eight times,
had two turnovers and to pick six and lost to
(09:24):
the Titans. So this defense, and I've seen some good
ones here in Houston, but I think from front to back,
back to front, it's as good a defense as I've
seen here. Because for a lot of those years we
had good defenses. We had JJ Watt and it was
JJ doing the solo singing, and then everybody else was
(09:46):
you know, you know, it was Gladys Knight and the Pips. Basically,
this group is you know, it's it's everybody getting a
shot at the mic. This is like Wu Tang. Everybody
gets a shot with bars. You know, everybody gets to
spit some bars and away you go. But it's really
starting to evolve into Danielle Hunter being dominating, I mean dominating.
He JP was as good as I've seen a Texans
(10:09):
defensive end, pass rusher ever the last two weeks against
Dallas and then against Tennessee ever. I mean, he's phenomenal.
It's one of the best free agent signings we've ever had.
Will's now getting back into the fold. We're getting some
good play from guys that maybe weren't expecting. On the interior.
We will miss Jalen Petrie. That will hurt. Jalen was
(10:32):
kind of a chess piece. They would use him a nickel,
they'd move him around. He played with linebacker. He blitz,
he drop, he'd cover, he tackle, physical presence. We're gonna
miss him. He's gonna be out with a shoulder injury,
So that's gonna be a big one and how we
kind of adapt to that going forward is gonna be tough.
So don't know what his progress is gonna be going forward,
but I know he's gonna definitely miss this game and
(10:53):
we'll miss him. But Derek Stingley has turned into arguably
the best corner in the league. He's phenomenal. But they
also last week gave up some deep shots and if
it does have an achilles heel, and you know this,
it's the deep shots they you know, we gave up
your feud to Jacksonville and that was a killer, and
(11:14):
it really was what gave Jacksonville life, and it is
what gave Will Levis and Tennessee life the other day,
just giving up those deep shots. So got to keep
the ball in front, rallied the football. It's as fast
and as quick a defense as I can remember seeing
here in Houston. And I know people will say, well,
you know, he gave up points, and you know, but
if you look at what they've done, you know, the
(11:36):
Jacks just saw Jared Goff the other day and that
was a week after we had played him. We picked
them off five times and he completed fifty percent of
his passes. In fact, Levis is the only guy that
completed over sixty percent of his passes this year against
the Texans at Energy Stadium, and he did it with ease, really,
and he did it with the deep ball. And so
that doesn't worry me a little bit because Trevor did
(11:58):
miss some deep balls got behind us, and whether it's
Trevor or Mack, we don't know, but I got a
feel and they're gonna try to exploit us with the
deep ball again. Because if we do have an achilles
heal on defense, that's it. Beyond that, the only achilles
hee we have is that the offense hasn't been picking
up its side of the side of the bargain, and
that the defense has got to be out there for
an extending amount of plays that can't happen. That's got
(12:20):
to like even itself out and get to a point
where we were in Week one where against the colt
we had like thirty four to thirty five minutes of
time possession. The other day we had twenty four minutes.
So the offense has got to start helping the defense
a little bit. This defensive unit is incredible but you're
going to week thirteen, You're going into a stretch after
the buy where you play Miami, Kansas City, Baltimore and
(12:43):
then you go to Tennessee. Man defense is only gonna
be able to do so much. The offense is really
second half in particular. Got to start picking it up
for this team.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Everyone have thought I would have heard gladst Night and
the Pips and Wu Tang in one answer, and that's
I mean, you're all over the man up there the
midnight train to South Georgia, if you will, North Florida
coming up for the Texans. Final thought, how do you
like dealing with the Miko Ryans.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I love the man, I absolutely, I love him. I
love everything about him. I think he's got his finger
on the pulse of this team and knows how everybody
in this organization moves ticks. I mean, he's a he's
a positive guy by nature. He obviously played linebacker here
(13:30):
for the Texans. His wife is from north of Houston,
so Houston really kind of spoke to him. I mean,
we couldn't we couldn't have gotten it better. I know
he's been frustrated lately because he just hasn't gotten quite
the play from especially his offensive line that he really
wants his defensive line. He was a little upset with
(13:52):
the old semi high standard. You know. Tony Pollard had
such a good first half against us. But he's the
guy that everything fell into place. We had had Nick
Cassario here, and Nick was doing a great job. But
when we when Demiko was hired to team with Nick,
and then you started making a few free agent signings,
(14:15):
and then obviously the draft of twenty three where you
get C. J. Stroud and Will Anderson Junior. It's like, Okay,
the peace are being put together. Those guys work really
really well together, and it's been really fun to be
around both of them. They're extremely competitive, but they're positive.
I love working with him. I love working with Demiko.
It's been great a lot this year because we know
(14:35):
I get a halftime interview with him. We've only trailed
at halftime twice. Once was the Minnesota game where everything
was sideways, and then the other day it was the
other Daygains Tennessee. I never expected it, but he's always
gracious with his time. He's always very thankful. He knows
I have a job to do. You know, we have
a job to do. He allows us to do it
and be a positive light. Whereas there have been other
(14:58):
head coaches that I've been in here that I even knew.
I was a teammate in college of a guy and
it was, you know, the direct opposite. So dealing with
you know, to meet go on a daily basis. You
see him in a hallway. Oh, I'll tell you a
great story about the meeko. So during pre season I
(15:19):
got a chance to go up and do games in
the booth for our preseason TV and so we didn't
do the first game because that was the Hall of
Fame game. So we went to Pittsburgh. So we spent
a week up in Ohio, then we went to Pittsburgh.
So we all get off the bus as we drive
to Pittsburgh and we're going for production meeting. And I
don't know if he knew who I was calling a game,
but I was in there with the team, you know,
(15:40):
And so we just do production meeting, no big deal.
So after the game, I was still going to do
all my radio stuff, which is number one to get
a postgame interview with him. After the game, so I
leave the TV booth, I go down do our interview.
I get done and the first thing he says to
me is, hey, man, how is the booth? And I
was like, wow, I mean, I never would have thought
(16:02):
that registered, but he just I'm like, I said the coach,
I said, I kept it clean, which is good, which
is a rarity for me. And I made sure not
to criticize anything you did tonight. His chuckle. But the
fact that he remembered that I thought was really cool
and that he was really excited about it for me,
And then we did production meetings for the next two
(16:23):
preseason games, and so it was this is really cool
that he just he remembered that he thought that was
a really cool thing, and you know, thought of me,
and just the big old smile lights up the room.
So he and Nick Asario, the McNair family made a
lot of changes. You know, they're the reason that we're
in this position to be better than we were through
twenty through twenty twenty through twenty twenty two. We just
(16:45):
have to now the boulders up there. We got it,
you know, it's that push over the top because of
the team's in the NFC South since I don't know
twenty I don't know, since two thousand. But since Dacy South,
you know, came to existence, all three teams in the
division that aren't Houston have gone to AFC Championship game.
Even though we won the most division titles. I think
(17:06):
since twenty eleven, we have not been to an AFC
Championship game. So that's got to change. We got to
get to that point. I think we're moving in that direction,
but losing a game to the Jacksonville Jaguars is not
something that anybody will be happy about for sure. So
I know Demiko, when I asked him on Monday, I said,
(17:28):
you know, got twenty four hour rule for wins and losses, right,
but this one seems to sting a little bit, And
he's like, yeah, it should, and he goes, I'm hoping
that it stings all these guys, and I'm gonna be
reminding him of it during the week that we don't
want that feeling again after Sunday. So hopefully that message
gets sent, Hopefully it gets received, and we can go
to Jacksonville and you know, go toe to toe with
(17:49):
Heinz Allen and Trayvon Walker and hold our own.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
John great stuff as always, and I'll wish you the
best of luck after this week.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, absolutely same goes JP. I appreciate it, brother, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I
It is Texans Jaguars Week from Houston, Texans dot Com.
Texans Radio sideline reporter and analyst John Harris is with us.
Hey here we are. Nice to see a Happy Thanksgiving
to you. What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Happy Thanksgiving to you too, JP man, it's good to
see you. This trip is always a fun one for me,
no matter what happens on the field, because I get
back and get to see some of my guys I
coached many, many years ago, just on the other side
of the banks of the Saint Jolen's River at Episcopall
High School. So it's always kind of weird. I'm ware
of my Texans logo because you know, when the Jaguars
(00:33):
started as an organization, you know, you know, the Oilers
went away, and so I was like, all right, well,
I'm in Jacksonville. Let's let's jump on the Jacksonville train.
So I've been a Jacksonville fan for a long time,
of course, until I got with the Texans, and then
I had to hate them because that's just AFC South Dynamics,
you know.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, I know I'm aware of what years were you
at Episcopal.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I got there in nineteen ninety four and I was
the junior high coach, and then I took over. I
did a stint at Bishop Kenny, I did a stint
in bowls, and then I got back to Episcopal became
the head varsity coach in nineteen ninety eight. So you know,
it's been a long time when the number at the
beginning of that year is at nineteen, so as long
as a long time ago. So I was there for
(01:15):
three years. We got to the playoffs for the first
time in school history my third year. So I always
had that little feather in my feather in my cap,
so to speak. But I love I love Jacksonville. I
love everything about the city. It was good to myself.
My wife and I met there, we met at Episcopal.
We had our first son there. So Jacksonville always strikes
(01:35):
at that the heartstrings so very much. That makes this
a fun trip. You had a tough trip because we
love Jacksonville. We love Jacksonville so much.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
John Harris with us from Texans Radio. Well, it's not
only been good for you personally, of course, away from
the field. For the Texans. On the field, nine out
of the last ten road games against the Jaguars have
been wins for the Texans. One of those was whenum
in London of course, the rest here at Jacksonville. Why
is that, Why is it all of a sudden that
the Texans come here and play well. There's been some
(02:09):
good teams and not so good teams with the Jaguars.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of the same
way when you know, the Colts come to do Vault County.
The Colts get spanked for whatever reason. I mean, I
don't know, it's it's an odd one. I think it's
just as matched up at times where the Texans you know,
have played well in some of those games, and they've
had some good teams over the years. But there's that
(02:34):
lull that we had that you know, from twenty twenty
through twenty two where you know, we caught the Jaguars
at the wrong time. For the Jaguars, you know, we
weren't a very good team, but the Jags weren't very
good even in you know, and in twenty two they
really hit the hot streak after we played them in Jacksonville.
(02:55):
So I don't know if there's anything that really, you know,
any i'm a reason to it, but it's probably similar
to the Colts. You know, Colts go down there. Duval
kind of like, oh man, the Texans go down there
and like, Okay, we're good, we'll win, We'll be okay.
But look, there's nobody in this building right now, considering
the way we played last few weeks that is going, oh,
we're going down there, we got a guaranteed victory. Like no, no,
(03:19):
not at all. There might have been a few of
those going into last week against the Tennessee Titans, but
those people have either shut up, left the building or
have been muted, so they don't have anything to say.
We we all had an idea like, this is a
division game, this is gonna be tough, but I think
it was probably even tougher than we thought because Will
Levis did play pretty well and that was that was
(03:43):
not what he did the two times we faced them
in twenty twenty three. He played pretty well, he hit
some deep shots and that kept them in the game,
and then we just couldn't do anything offensively in the
second half. So this team, this organization in this building,
the people in this building no going down to going
over to Jacksonville after the Jags coming off of bye week.
With the talent the Jags have in the building, our
(04:04):
guys are preparing for a fistfight. There's no question about that,
no matter what the records are.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
John, what's going on on the offensive side with the
CJ Stroud and they've got mixing back. He wasn't here
in the first meeting. Nico Collins went off in that game. Statistically,
they had to rally late and win the game. They
did it. What's been going on the last few weeks
with CJ? Where is he?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well? CJ said it as presser after the game. He
just said it point blank to the media. He said,
I'm just not playing well right now. And I think
there's how I say this. I don't think there's as
much truth to that statement as he wants it to believe.
He threw a couple interceptions. I think the first interception
he threw was more in the receiver than it was
(04:49):
on him. Second one was all him. But he's the
kind of guy that is going to internalize the offense's issues.
I know the talk nationally after the game was, oh,
CJ Stroud sophomore slump all this, and I really was
upset because I was like, CJ's really made some good
throws and made some good throws in that game and
really did some good things that we're accustomed to seeing.
(05:14):
And so I went back and I watched every single
throw and I'm like, man, people are missing the boat
on this. He did make a couple of kind of
non cjlight throws, but I don't buy this whole sophomore
slump thing. I think the sophomore slump has come about,
if you want to say that, in large part because
the protection just hasn't been where it's needed to be.
(05:34):
And I know that you know Trevor has gone through
that at times where he's had some struggles, and you
could attribute some of those to the offensive line not
playing as well as it probably should have in front
of him. I think what's been the Texans issue is
that offensive line has made CJ basically go through quarterback hell.
(05:55):
I mean, he drops and as soon as he gets
his back foot, he's having to run or throw way
or do something kind of going to hero ball mode
just to get the ball off. And that's a shame
because receivers have been open, he just hasn't had that time.
He's gotten sped up a little bit because that pressure
is getting to him. Similar pressures have been a monster
(06:16):
our guys have not picked it up. So we've not
had an offensive line that's played exceptionally well in front
of him consistently enough to keep CJ on track. And
of course he's also being compared to the standard as
a rookie where he was one of the greatest rookie
seasons of all time. So there's been some things, you know,
some hills and valleys for him. You know, we missed
Nico for about five weeks, you know, been without Diggs
(06:39):
since the Colts win about three or four weeks ago.
So trying to manage life without them, trying to just
manage life with you know, Joe, with Joe being back,
and Joe's been really good. But in the two games
that we lost here, the offensive line opened no holes
against Detroit, opened no holes against the Tennessee Titans. So
(07:00):
Joe being back is great. But if there's nowhere to
run then and the Jaguars are gonna make it very difficult,
I think, against this offensive line to give them holes
to run, and then we go back to Okay, well,
we can't run the ball, how do we move the football.
We're gonna have to throw it. Okay, CJ is gonna
have to CJ is going to have to throw it
(07:21):
forty forty five times to win the game. And now
that's putting a lot of pressure on the offensive line
that is not really held up as well as it
should have and should in this game. So I think
that's really kind of at the crux of where this
offense is. It started off well to a degree, but
second half issues, second half issues have been just huge.
(07:43):
In fact, I had a buddy of mine it just
tweeted at some point on Tuesday morning, he said the
number of touchdowns of Texans have scored in the second
half since New England and that was week five, Week five,
Week six, Week six one, Jimmy Ward one, Derek Barnett
won Texans offense. Well, the first two guys are defensive players,
(08:06):
so we just haven't been able to put the ball
in the end zone in the second half. And you know,
going into week thirteen, thirteen straight games, think team's probably
will fatigue, will beat up. So we got to go
down there and you'll find every ounce of energy get
this win before hopefully get this win before we go
into the bye week. But it's not it's not gonna
be easy, and it's definitely not the team that I
(08:27):
wanted to face going into a buy, them coming out
of a buy and playing at their place, right.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
John Harris with US Texans Radio. Defensively, Will and Anderson's
been hurt a bunch of the year. Came back last week,
couple of sacks. They were all over Levis in the
first half, obviously, but Danil Hunter has been playing well.
Seems like statistically, where are they on the defensive side.
They're taking the ball away some it feels like where
does this frank Defensively, can this group maybe carry the
(08:58):
load while the offense fit use it out well?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
To this point, they've carried the load. I feel bad
for them that they should have never lost to the
Troit game. I mean put it this way. In fact,
our good buddy Drew Dory, who you know, JP, He
sent me an email he said, we picked off Detroit
five times and lost. We sacked Will Levis eight times,
had two turnovers and to pick six and lost to
(09:24):
the Titans. So this defense, and I've seen some good
ones here in Houston, but I think from front to back,
back to front, it's as good a defense as I've
seen here. Because for a lot of those years we
had good defenses. We had JJ Watt and it was
JJ doing the solo singing, and then everybody else was
(09:46):
you know, you know, it was Gladys Knight and the Pips. Basically,
this group is you know, it's it's everybody getting a
shot at the mic. This is like Wu Tang. Everybody
gets a shot with bars. You know, everybody gets to
spit some bars and away you go. But it's really
starting to evolve into Danielle Hunter being dominating, I mean dominating.
He JP was as good as I've seen a Texans
(10:09):
defensive end, pass rusher ever the last two weeks against
Dallas and then against Tennessee ever. I mean, he's phenomenal.
It's one of the best free agent signings we've ever had.
Will's now getting back into the fold. We're getting some
good play from guys that maybe weren't expecting. On the interior.
We will miss Jalen Petrie. That will hurt. Jalen was
(10:32):
kind of a chess piece. They would use him a nickel,
they'd move him around. He played with linebacker. He blitz,
he drop, he'd cover, he tackle, physical presence. We're gonna
miss him. He's gonna be out with a shoulder injury,
So that's gonna be a big one and how we
kind of adapt to that going forward is gonna be tough.
So don't know what his progress is gonna be going forward,
but I know he's gonna definitely miss this game and
(10:53):
we'll miss him. But Derek Stingley has turned into arguably
the best corner in the league. He's phenomenal. But they
also last week gave up some deep shots and if
it does have an achilles heel, and you know this,
it's the deep shots they you know, we gave up
your feud to Jacksonville and that was a killer, and
(11:14):
it really was what gave Jacksonville life, and it is
what gave Will Levis and Tennessee life the other day,
just giving up those deep shots. So got to keep
the ball in front, rallied the football. It's as fast
and as quick a defense as I can remember seeing
here in Houston. And I know people will say, well,
you know, he gave up points, and you know, but
if you look at what they've done, you know, the
(11:36):
Jacks just saw Jared Goff the other day and that
was a week after we had played him. We picked
them off five times and he completed fifty percent of
his passes. In fact, Levis is the only guy that
completed over sixty percent of his passes this year against
the Texans at Energy Stadium, and he did it with ease, really,
and he did it with the deep ball. And so
that doesn't worry me a little bit because Trevor did
(11:58):
miss some deep balls got behind us, and whether it's
Trevor or Mack, we don't know, but I got a
feel and they're gonna try to exploit us with the
deep ball again. Because if we do have an achilles
heal on defense, that's it. Beyond that, the only achilles
hee we have is that the offense hasn't been picking
up its side of the side of the bargain, and
that the defense has got to be out there for
an extending amount of plays that can't happen. That's got
(12:20):
to like even itself out and get to a point
where we were in Week one where against the colt
we had like thirty four to thirty five minutes of
time possession. The other day we had twenty four minutes.
So the offense has got to start helping the defense
a little bit. This defensive unit is incredible but you're
going to week thirteen, You're going into a stretch after
the buy where you play Miami, Kansas City, Baltimore and
(12:43):
then you go to Tennessee. Man defense is only gonna
be able to do so much. The offense is really
second half in particular. Got to start picking it up
for this team.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Everyone have thought I would have heard gladst Night and
the Pips and Wu Tang in one answer, and that's
I mean, you're all over the man up there the
midnight train to South Georgia, if you will, North Florida
coming up for the Texans. Final thought, how do you
like dealing with the Miko Ryans.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I love the man, I absolutely, I love him. I
love everything about him. I think he's got his finger
on the pulse of this team and knows how everybody
in this organization moves ticks. I mean, he's a he's
a positive guy by nature. He obviously played linebacker here
(13:30):
for the Texans. His wife is from north of Houston,
so Houston really kind of spoke to him. I mean,
we couldn't we couldn't have gotten it better. I know
he's been frustrated lately because he just hasn't gotten quite
the play from especially his offensive line that he really
wants his defensive line. He was a little upset with
(13:52):
the old semi high standard. You know. Tony Pollard had
such a good first half against us. But he's the
guy that everything fell into place. We had had Nick
Cassario here, and Nick was doing a great job. But
when we when Demiko was hired to team with Nick,
and then you started making a few free agent signings,
(14:15):
and then obviously the draft of twenty three where you
get C. J. Stroud and Will Anderson Junior. It's like, Okay,
the peace are being put together. Those guys work really
really well together, and it's been really fun to be
around both of them. They're extremely competitive, but they're positive.
I love working with him. I love working with Demiko.
It's been great a lot this year because we know
(14:35):
I get a halftime interview with him. We've only trailed
at halftime twice. Once was the Minnesota game where everything
was sideways, and then the other day it was the
other Daygains Tennessee. I never expected it, but he's always
gracious with his time. He's always very thankful. He knows
I have a job to do. You know, we have
a job to do. He allows us to do it
and be a positive light. Whereas there have been other
(14:58):
head coaches that I've been in here that I even knew.
I was a teammate in college of a guy and
it was, you know, the direct opposite. So dealing with
you know, to meet go on a daily basis. You
see him in a hallway. Oh, I'll tell you a
great story about the meeko. So during pre season I
(15:19):
got a chance to go up and do games in
the booth for our preseason TV and so we didn't
do the first game because that was the Hall of
Fame game. So we went to Pittsburgh. So we spent
a week up in Ohio, then we went to Pittsburgh.
So we all get off the bus as we drive
to Pittsburgh and we're going for production meeting. And I
don't know if he knew who I was calling a game,
but I was in there with the team, you know,
(15:40):
And so we just do production meeting, no big deal.
So after the game, I was still going to do
all my radio stuff, which is number one to get
a postgame interview with him. After the game, so I
leave the TV booth, I go down do our interview.
I get done and the first thing he says to
me is, hey, man, how is the booth? And I
was like, wow, I mean, I never would have thought
(16:02):
that registered, but he just I'm like, I said the coach,
I said, I kept it clean, which is good, which
is a rarity for me. And I made sure not
to criticize anything you did tonight. His chuckle. But the
fact that he remembered that I thought was really cool
and that he was really excited about it for me,
And then we did production meetings for the next two
(16:23):
preseason games, and so it was this is really cool
that he just he remembered that he thought that was
a really cool thing, and you know, thought of me,
and just the big old smile lights up the room.
So he and Nick Asario, the McNair family made a
lot of changes. You know, they're the reason that we're
in this position to be better than we were through
twenty through twenty twenty through twenty twenty two. We just
(16:45):
have to now the boulders up there. We got it,
you know, it's that push over the top because of
the team's in the NFC South since I don't know
twenty I don't know, since two thousand. But since Dacy South,
you know, came to existence, all three teams in the
division that aren't Houston have gone to AFC Championship game.
Even though we won the most division titles. I think
(17:06):
since twenty eleven, we have not been to an AFC
Championship game. So that's got to change. We got to
get to that point. I think we're moving in that direction,
but losing a game to the Jacksonville Jaguars is not
something that anybody will be happy about for sure. So
I know Demiko, when I asked him on Monday, I said,
(17:28):
you know, got twenty four hour rule for wins and losses, right,
but this one seems to sting a little bit, And
he's like, yeah, it should, and he goes, I'm hoping
that it stings all these guys, and I'm gonna be
reminding him of it during the week that we don't
want that feeling again after Sunday. So hopefully that message
gets sent, Hopefully it gets received, and we can go
to Jacksonville and you know, go toe to toe with
(17:49):
Heinz Allen and Trayvon Walker and hold our own.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
John great stuff as always, and I'll wish you the
best of luck after this week.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, absolutely same goes JP. I appreciate it, brother, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I
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