Cynthia Frelund on The A-Team: Joe Mixon Is The Key To A Texans Win

Cynthia Frelund from NFL Network joins The A-Team for a preview of the Texans-Packers game on Sunday. Cynthia likes the Texans chances to win this game, if these two factors go their way. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pleasure to be joined by our guests from the NFL Network,
Cynthia Freeland also from her YouTube page The Numbers Game Show.
Certainly a lot of focus there, Cynthia, appreciate the time
here and a lot of chatter here from us and
in Green Bay about this quarterback matchup. One of my
favorite things to talk about in the NFL. Two guys
will never be on the field at the same time,
but that is the battle that we talk about. What

(00:22):
are the things numbers wise and the four starts for
Jordan Love that kind of stand out to you as
he gets set to take on a five to one
football team.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, the most the most relevant one for this matchup
is how much Jordan loves passer rating erodes when he's
under pressure versus when he has a clean pocket to
operate from. It is the biggest downgrade in the league
through this many games. Obviously, I know he was out
for a couple of them. However, it's a trend that
has continued from last season too, so it's not too
small the sample size to say that it's true. So

(00:54):
if you if you can affect the quarterback, if you
can get those pressures on him, he's more likely to
do something wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Walkee would be good for the other team quite clearly,
a four and two football team, a five to one
football team, and even though it's at lambeau Field, does
not appear the seventy degree weather will be much of
a factor. Do you view this Packers team? It seems
like all the numbers say yes. Do you view this
Packers team, especially with Love back in the saddle, as
an explosive offense, one of the league's better offense, more

(01:21):
balanced offenses, and a huge challenge for the Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
You know, I have the Texans winning this game spoiler alert,
But I think it's not because I that the offense is.
I think they're balanced, sure, but if you can get
them imbalanced, meaning if you can affect Josh Jacob those
times when he hasn't worked out well, has been really
hard for them to come back from so stopping to run,

(01:46):
getting pressure on Jordan Love, all things that it's listen,
all the Houston Texans has to do to win this
game is not beat themselves with penalties. That is the key.
If they want to have a billion penalties, It's going
to be really hard to beat this game. But to
beat this team, but if they can keep it clean
and play their sort of football. I think, especially with
Joe Mixon healthy, it's going to be an easy way
to target a team that sure has the most turnovers

(02:09):
on defense, but they also allow the most yacked, so
that is a plus right there.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Appreciate you getting both Walkie and yak in here. And
while your voice is throwing me off a little bit,
you sound a lot like Debiko Ryans. Don't beat yourselves.
He's been saying it since they were the most penalized
team in the league for several weeks. They've gone in
the right direction, trending in the right direction, just eleven
penalties the last couple of weeks. Flip it over to
their side.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
C J.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Stroud, the numbers have certainly been in his favor since
the beginning of his rookie season last year, and for
our point of view that it doesn't seem like anything
has changed and all things are still putting him towards
the top of the list and best quarterbacks in this league.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, quarterbacking is interesting because there's this thing that happens
with the good players and it's like it's like chess,
right Like, so CJ. Stroud comes out of the gate,
just absolutely crushing and then defenses have to respect him then,
so now you're seeing the rebound after the defensive switch
that really, you know, created game plan to stop the
particular things that he does so well. So you're seeing

(03:09):
him go from like quarterback, you know, one hundred. We
saw him go to two hundred last year. Now we're
like in quarterback four hundred level if it was college, right,
So you're seeing some of that adjustment. And maybe fantasy
owners of DJ Strout aren't like the most thrilled they've
ever been because it's not like four hundred yards and
three touchdowns every single game, but actual fat fans and
actual people who are watching the actual game are seeing

(03:31):
that this. I mean even the arm angles are incredible
getting things out that you're like, wow, he's really anticipating, Well,
he knows what he's doing. He's adjusting the speech based
on the route. No Nico Collins, not no problem, but
you know, a good ability to adjust even without your
true number one.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Cynthia Frielan joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
from the NFL Network. Of course, you're a numbers person.
That's what you're known for, and so we were talking
about this probably before last week's game, because we knew
that Nico Collins was going to be out and he's
going to be out for the foreseeable future at least
four games, and so all the pressure falls on you know,

(04:07):
Stefan Diggs and to a lesser extent, maybe Tankedll just
receivers in general. What have you seen from Stefan Diggs?
Because if you had told me before last week's game,
you're gonna sit down and compare numbers between he and
Nico Collins the way we did, and have Bobby Slowick
have them so evenly and perfectly distributed as far as

(04:28):
they're catches and the amount of big plays. It was
actually staggering when I finally sat down to look at it.
Has he been everything you hoped he would be to
see in the Texans offense here? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Absolutely. I Mean the thing that's really interesting about Stefan
Diggs is when you watch where he operates us like
going back you know, you can go back to Minnesota,
even you know the stuff he had prior to the Bill.
You watch like there are certain abilities his ability to
like earn separation and I think it not just create it.
He's earning it like it. It could have been a

(05:04):
tight catch by another receiver, but he just makes that
little juke move and is two or three more feet
yards away from someone right like that. He's really good
at his body control and the ability to kind of
anticipate and move out of the way. And as he's gotten,
you more older. What I hate calling someone old that
don't think it's a bad thing. But as he's gotten,

(05:24):
you know, more experience in the league, he's been able
to anticipate things even better. And if there's one kind
of thing he knows, that's what's playing at Lambeau's like,
so I'm not so worried about him, you know, having
to adjust to the feeling of being at lambeau Field.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
I usually talk about the players in the league as
they continue to stay way younger than me each year.
That's usually a safe way to say this. Cynthia Frieland
joining us here from the NFL Network, right here on
Sports Talk seven to ninety on the A team away
from the numbers, because there's no way to quantify this.
What was your you know, you talked to obviously, all
the shows that you're on, all the people that you're with,

(05:59):
all the ex players, analysts, everything like that from from
their point of view. From your point of view national level,
what were the expectations of what Steph Diggs would mean
to the Texans? Would he help them take the next step?
And how much of what we have been told about
him and his other stops kind of you know, waight
into your thinking and others as you kind of looked
at what he'd be here as a Texan.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
I feel like I have a little bit better of
an assessment of who he is. I spent pre season
with the Bills for a number of years, and I
had nothing but great experiences with him firsthand. I you know,
he's not the guy that's gonna come over and you know,
talk to you and give you these like quotes that
are going to be you know, amazing retweeted type of things.

(06:45):
But you know, he plays catch with fans ahead of
the game. He's his own quiet more. I want to
call him an introvert. I don't know if that's the
right word, but you know, he does it his own way,
and I think sometimes that can be portrayed in ways
where you know, media likes to tell story and I
don't know, he doesn't maybe fit their narrative as well.
But every experience I've had with him is engaged. It's like,

(07:09):
look you in the eye, talk to you from the heart.
You know. Maybe he doesn't want to public speak, fine,
you know, but he plays, like I said, playing catch
with the fancy, he cares a whole lot, And when
I watch him on the field, he cares a whole lot.
He kind of carries over. He's the same guy there
as every route. So you know, of course we're all
we all want to win. We all, you know, get
into positions where we want something to be the way

(07:31):
that accentuates our positive Everyone in every profession could say that.
So my expectations, especially with Deniko Ryans, who I have
all the respects in the world for, are like, you know,
player As a player, I think that they would get
more out of him getting him in a situation where
he has a head coach that he can really relate to.
As you know, he and Sean mcdermoy maybe didn't have

(07:51):
as much in common as he does with Deniko Ryans.
So I was expecting a lot and I continue to
expect a lot from him. He's a great player and
it's it's going to be fun to see him light
it up at LAMBA.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
You know, it's interesting because there is so much turnover
just on the average every offseason in the NFL, regardless
of whatever team you're talking about. But I don't know
if there was as much going into a season for
a team that had as much expected from them as
the Texans. When you think about Stefan Diggs was one
of just several key additions. The other one on the
offensive side of things is Joe Mixon and when he's

(08:24):
been out there, obviously again going back to the numbers,
he's been fantastic. But it's such a small sample size.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Are you with me?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Because I think going into this game, he's going to be,
in one way or another, the key to any sort
of Texans victory.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
You know, I'm looking at this and I think he
you know, I go on shows and talk about this
all the time, right, I think he absolutely is the
key to the victory for two reasons. One, we talked
about penalties and things where you're beating yourself up. You know,
a really good way not to beat yourself up staying
ahead of the chains, like stay ahead of the stick,
don't get in weird downs and instances don't be in

(09:00):
first and twenty like that stinks, right, That's how about
we say, and you know second and six, right, maybe
that's not sexy, but second and six is a great
place to be. It gives you a lot of options
with the playbook. It gives you the full d J.
Strouds unlocked code of cheat code, whatever you want to
whatever you want to call it. But I look at
this opportunity to use Joe Mixon to kind of leverage

(09:23):
some of the things that we've seen. You know, again,
I talk about quarterback four hundred level helping to navigate defense.
Reading defenses is all about, you know, deciding how what
they're giving you, where your best options are, and who
your best matchup is. So the more information you have
with the top players, the more Joe Mixon's presence can

(09:44):
give you a clue if it's manner zone, it can
give you a clue of if you know it's a
corner blitz or whatever. You know, I'm making things up,
but you know, it's like the more clues you can get,
the better matchup you can get. The better of your
opportunity to you know, connect with your receiver is or
even just run the football all.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Right, we're almost out the door here. But you already
mentioned you're taking the Texans real quickly. I feel like
that's because there's some number that's telling you why you're
taking the Texans.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
What is it? Yeah, I mean the number. I mean
I told you that pressure rate. And also when the
Houston Texans get pressure, which they do at the highest
rate in the league, they allow the lowest passer rating,
which means they're getting back up. Now I understand, I'd
really like it if last that are we're playing. That
would make me feel better. And I don't love the
injury report. There are a few key pieces missing that

(10:29):
I would really prefer we're playing. However, I don't think
that the key components that would really drive a huge
problem for this Green Bay offense are missing. I think
they're going to show up big, and I think there's
some mismatches along the offensive line for the Packers that
this defense can really exploit. I think it's going to
be if you like pressure, I think it's going to
be a really fun matchup for defensive pressure from.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
The Texans front sounds phenomenal. We're looking forward to really
appreciate time. Cynthia Freeland NFL Network and a numbers game
show on the YouTube channel appreciate it.