November 14, 2024 • 10 mins
NFL Network analyst Isaiah Stanback joins The A-Team to preview the Texans-Cowboys on Monday Night Football. He gives his observations for what he's seeing that is contributing to CJ Stroud's struggles. Plus, he thinks the Texans offensive issues are a "perfect storm," that is being pushed mostly by the poor play of the offensive line.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Isaiah standback on the phone lines to talk all things. Well,
let's just put it this way. It's gonna be Texans
and Cowboys, but there are a number of subplots, as
per usual in the NFL season. He is of course
on the NFL network Good Morning Football. You've seen him
in a lot of different places. And Isaiah, this is
not exactly the it's not the the luster that we
(00:22):
thought we would have on this matchup going in, especially
when one of the quarterbacks starting this game is named
Cooper Rush.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, that's not the showdown that everybody was hoping for.
We've been waiting on the Digs versus Diggs matchup. That's
not gonna happen either, you know, dag versus Stroud, that's
not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I think the only thing that we could truly look
forward to is going to be the podcast bros.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know, CJ. Stroud and Michael Parkson is going ahead
to head. I'm looking forward to seeing that for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, we kind of revisited that audio from from the draft,
and then of course what what CJ had to say
about Micah just today, as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I kind of I boiled it down in the last
segment and it was very, very, very simplistic. So I
know it's not this easy, but do you feel like,
in some senses, whoever gets the better of the other
in this particular matchup, their team has the best chance
to win, you know what.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I wish it was that simplistic, but that's not going
to be the case.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I think that obviously coming into this game, the Texans
have the far more stronger team in terms.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Of being a complete unit right now.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Dallas obviously has a couple pieces here and there, but
the Texans defense is freaking solid right now. The Cowboys
don't have any aspect of their game outside of their
special teams right now that they could really rest their
head on.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
It's clear that the Texans are the better team going
into this But there's been a lot of consternation in
Houston the last couple of weeks about the way the
Texans have performed, obviously choking a game that they had
in the bag on Sunday Night Football against the Lions.
What have you made overall of the Texans these last
couple of weeks, and specifically they haven't scored a touchdown
(01:58):
in the second half of the game since Week six
against the Patriots, what in your and as you look
at this team, why do you think they are sputtering
and just shutting down in the second half of games?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
The call of how it is the offensive line is
not playing well. Uh, that's where it starts, and it
starts and ends right now. For the Houston Texans offensive
line is looking very confused. As you watched the film,
They're easily flustered. Their communication is not on point, they're
not passing off different stunts and and shifts. They're they're
just missing all kinds of assignments up front and that's
causing havoc obviously in the in the backfield and messing
(02:33):
things up for CJ. Stroud, he's unable to really set
and settle his feet. You're starting to see him starting
to get a little bit lack of days, lack the
days ago in terms of his technique. So therefore he's
starting to have a lot more interceptions because he's not
following through, doesn't have the velocity that he once did.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
But then you also look at it from the standpoint.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That this offense is very clear that this offense needs
Nico Collins and Obviously, I know there's there's a skepticism
right now that he may or may not be coming
back for this game. But with that, this, without Nico Collins,
this offense is lost. Everything truly relies on his ability
to be a complimentary player to take down. Obviously, then
(03:10):
you also miss the presence of Stefan Diggs. So both
of those guys being out, you know, all of a sudden,
you know, taking Delle becomes your number one receiver, and
I don't think that he's necessarily ready for that right now.
He's a really he's a solid deep threat, he's a
good route runner, but he not really for that workload.
And really, now you're just leaning on the solid running
(03:31):
game of mixing and if that's not cooking for you,
then what do you really have?
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Yeah, I was about to ask, We've known for we've
known the whole season that this offensive line can't pass block.
But Joe Mixon, Joe Mixon has still had a ton
of success running the football, did not have that on
Sunday against the Lions. How much of that was the
offensive line couldn't run block? How much of that was
the Lions defensive front And how much do they need
Joe Mixon to be Joe Mixon, to take some pressure
(03:59):
off of CJ. Stroud and take some pressure off of
this receiving core that's been depleted.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, Joe Mixon has had a lot of success and
obviously the Office of Lines created some holes for him there.
But in that the Trey Lions game, Aaron Glenn came
in and had one job to do and that was
takeaway to run and he was able to be successful
in that regard and forced CJ. Stroud to put the
ball in the air and really put it in the
hands and not only Strout, but put it in the
hands of this offensive line to say, Okay, this is
what you guys don't do well, I'm going to force
(04:25):
you guys to figure it out. If you don't figure
it out, then we're gonna be the benefactors of it.
And that's exactly what you saw there. You know, they're
just in terms of the pass blocking you, if you're
not getting your running game going, then they're forced a
pass blocking Right now, they're the second worst in the league.
They're only behind the Chicago Bears. You know, only only
Caleb Williams has taken more sacks than CJ.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Stroud this year. And that's saying something.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Isaiah Stanback joining us here from the NFL Network on
Sports Talk seven ninety Yeah, and that's it's a very
very difficult question to answer because there's so many literally
there's moving parts. But how do you address an offensive
line on the fly? I know you really can't. I mean,
the course of an NFL season, you're gonna go through injuries,
You're gonna go through ups and downs and all that
kind of stuff. But if you haven't gotten this put
(05:10):
in place before a season, it's really hard to truly
address it, in my opinion. And then even after this season,
it's not like you can just you know, draft four
or five guys in the draft and just make sure
that you know twenty twenty five is gonna be a
better year. So how how do you go about doing this?
As a guy who you know has obviously been around
the NFL as long as you have, man.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
You know what, during during the season, all you can
do is have a you know, as many walkthroughs as
you possibly can. You know, the offensive line moves as
one unit. Those five guys are in are hip to hip,
they have to move in unisons. It is a dance
and if if one if one note is off, and
then everything's off. You know, so if you have one line,
if you have stunts on the d line where the
tackle goes out, a defensive end comes in and if
(05:54):
your center or guard is chasing one guy going out,
then all of a sudden, you have two or three
guys blocking one person and that create that creates an issue.
You know, your quarterback loses trust. And as soon as
your quarterback loses trust, then you start seeing, you know,
the quarterbacks start being a little bit unsettled with their footwork.
You start seeing more interceptions because they're no follow through.
You start seeing their their eyes go to the rush
instead of going downfield to their open receivers. And I
(06:17):
think you're starting to see a little of that start
to creep in now with CJ. Shroud because he's starting
to do things that are uncharacteristic. So in terms of
what you can do during the season, walk throughs, walk throughs,
walk walkthroughs, you know, they're obviously they're the PA has
a lot of restraints now in terms of how much
time you guys can spend together as a practice. But
this is when you got to take it beyond what
that what they allow at the practice facility.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You gotta go home. You gotta go watch film together
as a unit.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You guys gotta spend time together, watch movies, go bowling,
whatever you can do to try to become more of
a unit, because right now you're playing like five, you know,
five fingers instead of just one fist.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Texans and Cowboys Monday Night. Obviously there's always drama around
the Dallas Cowboys, like goes without saying, yeah, Isaiah is
they are fascinating to me for all or right and
wrong reasons. I guess like, if you're if you're the Cowboys,
how bad of a spot are you actually in? When
you consider that they finally did invest in their quarterback.
(07:11):
And I don't think that Dak pres Prescott's a bad quarterback,
but I also don't know that he can lead them
to a super Bowl. And that was kind of that,
that's that NFL purgatory. You don't necessarily want to be
in with your quarterback because you're it's an investment, just
like anything else. And the second part of this is,
I know I'm giving you a lot here, but the
second part of it is how much are you rooting
for maybe a Texans win just so you can see
(07:32):
Jerry Jones's meltdown after this one?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
You know, just the first portion. In regards to Dak Prescott.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I think Dak Prescott is a very terrible quarterback, you know,
but I do believe that all the pieces need to
be in place, and unfortunately this year the pieces were
not in place. The offensive line you thought was going
to be solid. You invested their first round draft picks
at that position. Those guys haven't haven't produced for you.
Tyler Guidan has been in and out with injury. He's
been in and out in terms of playing time. You've
been shuffling around off as a lineman when you never
(08:01):
thought that you'd be in a position. Zach Martin, you know,
the all Pro all time you know, will be the
first ballot Hall of Famer. He's having the worst season
of his entire career. So your old line is not
playing well. You have a running back by committee when
there's no committee because the running game has been inefficient
u in its entirety, So you have had no running
game for a quarterback who historically has been really good
(08:23):
with play actions. So if you don't have that aspect
of his game. Then you're missing a big portion of
what Dak Prescott is. And then you know, you couple
that that had interceptions and all of a sudden he's injured.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
He's out for the year. So that just didn't go
your way.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
In terms of Jerry Jones, and and there obviously had
a lot of problems.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Right now. They have Cody that hasn't really produced. It
is not playing well.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
He's paid, you know, forty million dollars for a quarterback
who went out there almost you know, six games or
whatever and then got hurt.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
It's not good. It's not good. Theory is not in
the good position right now.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And yet I can almost guarantee you that EF game
result of the loss for the Dallas Cowboys, it's going
to get really ugly in that building.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And you see probably not the first person if you
want to see.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
We've talked on this show today kind of about Bobby Slowick,
the Texans offensive coordinator, getting a ton of heat in Houston.
You know, I got the statue a little bit earlier.
They haven't scored a second half touchdown since Week six. Oh,
when you watch their scheme, what do you see from
their scheme and how much is can we blame Bobby
(09:34):
Slowick for their offensive Is the offensive line that bad
that it is inhibiting his play calling? Or do you
see something with their scheme that you would change or
you would adapt to get this offense a little bit
more consistent from one half to the next.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know what, honestly, right now, it's a perfect storm
right now.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
The offensive line is that bad right now, and that's
unfortunate obviously for CJ.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Stroud and the production of this offense.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
It's very easy and apparent how to this defensive line,
how to attack this offensive line right now with your
defensive line, this is a team in the Houston Texas
that you don't even have to blitz to get pressure,
and that is terrible for an offense right now. You
want to you want to feel as if a teams
has to expose themselves in terms of blitzing in order
(10:18):
to get a list of some kind of pressure, and
that's just not the case right now. You just need
four defensive linemen who can run stemps and and take
care of their assignments, and you're probably gonna get pressure
on CJ.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Stroud.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I don't think that that's the entire picture, though, because
when he has made good play calls and guys have
come open, Stroud has either taken it for granted or
he's just gotten lazy in his technique and he's loft
to the balls. You can go back and look a
lot of his interceptions this year. Most of them are
balls that are just drifting in the air.
Isaiah standback on the phone lines to talk all things. Well,
let's just put it this way. It's gonna be Texans
and Cowboys, but there are a number of subplots, as
per usual in the NFL season. He is of course
on the NFL network Good Morning Football. You've seen him
in a lot of different places. And Isaiah, this is
not exactly the it's not the the luster that we
(00:22):
thought we would have on this matchup going in, especially
when one of the quarterbacks starting this game is named
Cooper Rush.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, that's not the showdown that everybody was hoping for.
We've been waiting on the Digs versus Diggs matchup. That's
not gonna happen either, you know, dag versus Stroud, that's
not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I think the only thing that we could truly look
forward to is going to be the podcast bros.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know, CJ. Stroud and Michael Parkson is going ahead
to head. I'm looking forward to seeing that for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, we kind of revisited that audio from from the draft,
and then of course what what CJ had to say
about Micah just today, as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I kind of I boiled it down in the last
segment and it was very, very, very simplistic. So I
know it's not this easy, but do you feel like,
in some senses, whoever gets the better of the other
in this particular matchup, their team has the best chance
to win, you know what.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I wish it was that simplistic, but that's not going
to be the case.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I think that obviously coming into this game, the Texans
have the far more stronger team in terms.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Of being a complete unit right now.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Dallas obviously has a couple pieces here and there, but
the Texans defense is freaking solid right now. The Cowboys
don't have any aspect of their game outside of their
special teams right now that they could really rest their
head on.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
It's clear that the Texans are the better team going
into this But there's been a lot of consternation in
Houston the last couple of weeks about the way the
Texans have performed, obviously choking a game that they had
in the bag on Sunday Night Football against the Lions.
What have you made overall of the Texans these last
couple of weeks, and specifically they haven't scored a touchdown
(01:58):
in the second half of the game since Week six
against the Patriots, what in your and as you look
at this team, why do you think they are sputtering
and just shutting down in the second half of games?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
The call of how it is the offensive line is
not playing well. Uh, that's where it starts, and it
starts and ends right now. For the Houston Texans offensive
line is looking very confused. As you watched the film,
They're easily flustered. Their communication is not on point, they're
not passing off different stunts and and shifts. They're they're
just missing all kinds of assignments up front and that's
causing havoc obviously in the in the backfield and messing
(02:33):
things up for CJ. Stroud, he's unable to really set
and settle his feet. You're starting to see him starting
to get a little bit lack of days, lack the
days ago in terms of his technique. So therefore he's
starting to have a lot more interceptions because he's not
following through, doesn't have the velocity that he once did.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
But then you also look at it from the standpoint.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That this offense is very clear that this offense needs
Nico Collins and Obviously, I know there's there's a skepticism
right now that he may or may not be coming
back for this game. But with that, this, without Nico Collins,
this offense is lost. Everything truly relies on his ability
to be a complimentary player to take down. Obviously, then
(03:10):
you also miss the presence of Stefan Diggs. So both
of those guys being out, you know, all of a sudden,
you know, taking Delle becomes your number one receiver, and
I don't think that he's necessarily ready for that right now.
He's a really he's a solid deep threat, he's a
good route runner, but he not really for that workload.
And really, now you're just leaning on the solid running
(03:31):
game of mixing and if that's not cooking for you,
then what do you really have?
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Yeah, I was about to ask, We've known for we've
known the whole season that this offensive line can't pass block.
But Joe Mixon, Joe Mixon has still had a ton
of success running the football, did not have that on
Sunday against the Lions. How much of that was the
offensive line couldn't run block? How much of that was
the Lions defensive front And how much do they need
Joe Mixon to be Joe Mixon, to take some pressure
(03:59):
off of CJ. Stroud and take some pressure off of
this receiving core that's been depleted.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, Joe Mixon has had a lot of success and
obviously the Office of Lines created some holes for him there.
But in that the Trey Lions game, Aaron Glenn came
in and had one job to do and that was
takeaway to run and he was able to be successful
in that regard and forced CJ. Stroud to put the
ball in the air and really put it in the
hands and not only Strout, but put it in the
hands of this offensive line to say, Okay, this is
what you guys don't do well, I'm going to force
(04:25):
you guys to figure it out. If you don't figure
it out, then we're gonna be the benefactors of it.
And that's exactly what you saw there. You know, they're
just in terms of the pass blocking you, if you're
not getting your running game going, then they're forced a
pass blocking Right now, they're the second worst in the league.
They're only behind the Chicago Bears. You know, only only
Caleb Williams has taken more sacks than CJ.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Stroud this year. And that's saying something.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Isaiah Stanback joining us here from the NFL Network on
Sports Talk seven ninety Yeah, and that's it's a very
very difficult question to answer because there's so many literally
there's moving parts. But how do you address an offensive
line on the fly? I know you really can't. I mean,
the course of an NFL season, you're gonna go through injuries,
You're gonna go through ups and downs and all that
kind of stuff. But if you haven't gotten this put
(05:10):
in place before a season, it's really hard to truly
address it, in my opinion. And then even after this season,
it's not like you can just you know, draft four
or five guys in the draft and just make sure
that you know twenty twenty five is gonna be a
better year. So how how do you go about doing this?
As a guy who you know has obviously been around
the NFL as long as you have, man.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
You know what, during during the season, all you can
do is have a you know, as many walkthroughs as
you possibly can. You know, the offensive line moves as
one unit. Those five guys are in are hip to hip,
they have to move in unisons. It is a dance
and if if one if one note is off, and
then everything's off. You know, so if you have one line,
if you have stunts on the d line where the
tackle goes out, a defensive end comes in and if
(05:54):
your center or guard is chasing one guy going out,
then all of a sudden, you have two or three
guys blocking one person and that create that creates an issue.
You know, your quarterback loses trust. And as soon as
your quarterback loses trust, then you start seeing, you know,
the quarterbacks start being a little bit unsettled with their footwork.
You start seeing more interceptions because they're no follow through.
You start seeing their their eyes go to the rush
instead of going downfield to their open receivers. And I
(06:17):
think you're starting to see a little of that start
to creep in now with CJ. Shroud because he's starting
to do things that are uncharacteristic. So in terms of
what you can do during the season, walk throughs, walk throughs,
walk walkthroughs, you know, they're obviously they're the PA has
a lot of restraints now in terms of how much
time you guys can spend together as a practice. But
this is when you got to take it beyond what
that what they allow at the practice facility.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You gotta go home. You gotta go watch film together
as a unit.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You guys gotta spend time together, watch movies, go bowling,
whatever you can do to try to become more of
a unit, because right now you're playing like five, you know,
five fingers instead of just one fist.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Texans and Cowboys Monday Night. Obviously there's always drama around
the Dallas Cowboys, like goes without saying, yeah, Isaiah is
they are fascinating to me for all or right and
wrong reasons. I guess like, if you're if you're the Cowboys,
how bad of a spot are you actually in? When
you consider that they finally did invest in their quarterback.
(07:11):
And I don't think that Dak pres Prescott's a bad quarterback,
but I also don't know that he can lead them
to a super Bowl. And that was kind of that,
that's that NFL purgatory. You don't necessarily want to be
in with your quarterback because you're it's an investment, just
like anything else. And the second part of this is,
I know I'm giving you a lot here, but the
second part of it is how much are you rooting
for maybe a Texans win just so you can see
(07:32):
Jerry Jones's meltdown after this one?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
You know, just the first portion. In regards to Dak Prescott.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I think Dak Prescott is a very terrible quarterback, you know,
but I do believe that all the pieces need to
be in place, and unfortunately this year the pieces were
not in place. The offensive line you thought was going
to be solid. You invested their first round draft picks
at that position. Those guys haven't haven't produced for you.
Tyler Guidan has been in and out with injury. He's
been in and out in terms of playing time. You've
been shuffling around off as a lineman when you never
(08:01):
thought that you'd be in a position. Zach Martin, you know,
the all Pro all time you know, will be the
first ballot Hall of Famer. He's having the worst season
of his entire career. So your old line is not
playing well. You have a running back by committee when
there's no committee because the running game has been inefficient
u in its entirety, So you have had no running
game for a quarterback who historically has been really good
(08:23):
with play actions. So if you don't have that aspect
of his game. Then you're missing a big portion of
what Dak Prescott is. And then you know, you couple
that that had interceptions and all of a sudden he's injured.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
He's out for the year. So that just didn't go
your way.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
In terms of Jerry Jones, and and there obviously had
a lot of problems.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Right now. They have Cody that hasn't really produced. It
is not playing well.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
He's paid, you know, forty million dollars for a quarterback
who went out there almost you know, six games or
whatever and then got hurt.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
It's not good. It's not good. Theory is not in
the good position right now.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And yet I can almost guarantee you that EF game
result of the loss for the Dallas Cowboys, it's going
to get really ugly in that building.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And you see probably not the first person if you
want to see.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
We've talked on this show today kind of about Bobby Slowick,
the Texans offensive coordinator, getting a ton of heat in Houston.
You know, I got the statue a little bit earlier.
They haven't scored a second half touchdown since Week six. Oh,
when you watch their scheme, what do you see from
their scheme and how much is can we blame Bobby
(09:34):
Slowick for their offensive Is the offensive line that bad
that it is inhibiting his play calling? Or do you
see something with their scheme that you would change or
you would adapt to get this offense a little bit
more consistent from one half to the next.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know what, honestly, right now, it's a perfect storm
right now.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
The offensive line is that bad right now, and that's
unfortunate obviously for CJ.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Stroud and the production of this offense.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
It's very easy and apparent how to this defensive line,
how to attack this offensive line right now with your
defensive line, this is a team in the Houston Texas
that you don't even have to blitz to get pressure,
and that is terrible for an offense right now. You
want to you want to feel as if a teams
has to expose themselves in terms of blitzing in order
(10:18):
to get a list of some kind of pressure, and
that's just not the case right now. You just need
four defensive linemen who can run stemps and and take
care of their assignments, and you're probably gonna get pressure
on CJ.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Stroud.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I don't think that that's the entire picture, though, because
when he has made good play calls and guys have
come open, Stroud has either taken it for granted or
he's just gotten lazy in his technique and he's loft
to the balls. You can go back and look a
lot of his interceptions this year. Most of them are
balls that are just drifting in the air.
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