Waiting On Mahomes, Texans Ready For Opportunity and SayWhat?!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams series,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A team.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
We get things underway here on the A Team on
a Tuesday afternoon Wednesday for the Texans as they play
on Saturday. Wex and AC normally no AC this week.
Ross gonna hang with us for the next couple of hours.
I hope you guys enjoyed the first four of his day.
I'm sure the next two will be equally as spectacular, exciting, informative,

(00:38):
and hilarious. Dan Matthews of course here with us as
per usual, and we have quite a few things to discuss.
The Texans are in fact on the practice field as
we speak, in preparation for the Kansas City Chiefs. I
imagine the Chiefs, the Ravens, Steelers, and the Texans will
be on the practice field this week and doing next
to nothing on the practice field this week because they

(01:00):
prepare for a game on Saturday and then again coming
up the following Wednesday. Those four teams have three games
in eleven days. Those teams all have something to play for,
but in fact, all but one of them has already
clinched a playoff berth, and the Pittsburgh Steelers can add
to their playoff berth a division title if they win

(01:20):
the game this weekend over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Texans
will have a little bit more intel on who they
might play after this weekend's games that involve those teams.
The seven teams inside the AFC playoff picture are almost
assuredly going to remain the seven teams over the next
couple of weeks. They've actually been in position for more
than a month, and the two teams or three chasing

(01:41):
them still sit at six wins. Texans have a lot
to do with that, having beaten the Colts twice and
just coming off of a victory against the Miami Dolphins.
So we'll get in a little bit of what's going
on with the Texans. Joe Mixon's participation this week following
another hip drop tackle injury, although this one not quite
as extreme and not quite as easy to see from

(02:03):
both the game officials and those that will be reviewing
it for a totally meaningless fine after the fact, and
everybody else involved with both teams quite obviously, the Pat
Mahomes situation sits pretty high on everyone's list of will
he or won't he play this Saturday against the Texans.
Carson Wentz is their backup. He did see action late
in last week's game. The last time he was a
good NFL quarterback, it didn't matter to the Texans because

(02:25):
they were embarrassing. So it's been a while for Carson
Wentz to have impacted a good team on the win
and loss front in a good way. If that is
in fact the route that they have to take. Always
some more interesting conversation about your astros considering the major
move this offseason still doesn't concern retaining Alex Bregman or
seeing him sign elsewhere, but rather Kyle Tucker's gonna be

(02:47):
wearing Cubs colors. And even though there were two segments
of gut feelings in the last show, and I even
participated in one of them, I actually had a gut
feeling that I did not reveal, so I don't know.
I'm not calling for a third in so gut feelings.
And today is not Wednesday, so we're not bit stealing.
We're fitting nicely, but just because I brought them up,

(03:08):
and we welcome your conversation on all of these topics, since,
in addition to several more seven one three, two, one, two, five,
seven ninety. My gut feeling is we will see Kyle
Tucker finish higher in the MVP race than we ever have,
in fact, top three as a Chicago cub in his
contracts as high as five. I don't think he's been

(03:29):
nearly that high. Okay, I think he He's got to
go with five ballots, and this has drawn some consideration, I.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Think in twenty three.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
I mean, it's about gonna be health.

Speaker 5 (03:42):
Of course, as long as he didn't get the worst
shin brus in human history and miss.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
All the games as he did last year. I mean,
he was pretty good.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
We've they We've seen the numbers put up about him
and Juan Soto and the ops plus and I understand
like he was above it, but also Soda did for
one hundred and fifty seven games.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Kyle Tunker did it for seventy difference.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
But when he did come back off the injury, he
was still very good, still a plus offensive player. I
think Uh seemed to the kind of not lack of
days ago, maybe slacked off a little bit with the
effort in right field, but I thought the effort would
had ticked back up last year.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, so again, back to those of you that were
listening over the final hour of the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross, Ross was one for one in stating facts,
which I said, I don't think so, and he's now
two for two. Kyle Tucker finished fifth in the twenty
twenty three MVP voting. It was a year where nobody
got a first place vote except the winner, which is awesome.
Show Heyo Tony, but yeah, right behind Julio Rodriguez. And

(04:37):
if you just take a glance at the twenty twenty
four National League MVP voting, he's now playing in a
league with show Heo, Toddy, Oh Boy and Moi and
onon Soto.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
I don't know if he's finishing top three. Now that
you mentioned it, you're just spelling your own gut.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Feeling, because here's who did finish top three last year. Actually,
I'll give you the top five and you'll rebelieve I
could be true.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Joel Tani won the award. He got all thirty first
place in there. Probably the Door finished second, okay, Catel
Marte finished third, Okay, Marcella Marcelo Zuna finished four, and
William Contreres finished fifth.

Speaker 5 (05:13):
All right, top top five seems very very attainable. Top
three maybe as well.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
We will see, and we're not We're called Tucker fans.
We like Kyle.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
I'm wishing as long as he's not playing the Astros.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
That won't happen at dyke In Park until late July.
I don't need to say yet, I apologize minute made Park.
I don't have to say it till January.

Speaker 6 (05:33):
We're just Dike.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Get it slapped up on there?

Speaker 7 (05:35):
Now?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
Did they take out the oranges? What's going on up there?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well, if they have taken out the oranges, I bet
you they're trying to do their best to keep that
under wraps.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, okay, are they putting in BTUs?

Speaker 8 (05:44):
Like?

Speaker 3 (05:44):
What is one put for? What? What does a b
to you look like?

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, if you ask the Yankees, they would say, please
don't put air that's blowing in from the Yeah, because
that could hurt our ability to hit home runner.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yes, big time. I don't know. I don't know if
they've done and that.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I'm sure some of the signage that we can't see
has been replaced.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
But yeah, icicles, how about icicles in the in the train?

Speaker 2 (06:08):
As long as the ballpark is comfortable, which I'm sure
it will be, we should be good.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
It depends.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, Tucker and the Cubs visit twenty seventh through the
twenty ninth. Soto and the Mets visit to open the season.
That's the Astros opening day home series. It is their
regular season opener. Three games with the Mets and Sodo
and whatever it is the Astros end up looking like.
And one last huge set the table item. It's for
all the marbles. Tonight in Las Vegas, NBA Cup champion

(06:38):
will be crowned.

Speaker 5 (06:39):
I don't even know who's I know it's the Thunder obviously,
I know that one. Hold on, don't tell me. I
have no idea who won between the Hawks and the Bucks,
and I guess it was the Bucks.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Of course, Rock is still off until Thursday. They'll welcome
in the worst team in the Western Conference, the New Orleans.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
Pelicans, Milwaukee and Oklahoma City for the NBA Cup Final,
just as the NBA wanted.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
I mean, we mock that, and you just did. The
reality is this is what this is. They should have
figured out a way over the last five years to
make Giannisana Dakoupo and Shay Gilders Alexander more in the limelight,
more marketable. These are two of the five best players
in the NBA to day. They're going to be first
team All NBA players. They're playing for this thing that
they've created in season, and they're still not in the

(07:21):
limelight nearly as often as they should be. I mean,
OKC is a total afterthought. I get it for the
market that they are, but for the caliber of play
you see from their team, for the caliber of play
you see from this player. These are the players that
are going to be your league for the next ten years,
at least one of them. In Shay's case, he's got
another five to eight years of excellence. Well, the players
you're still marketing Steph and Lebron don't, so something's gonna

(07:45):
have to change. But yes, that is out there. Obviously,
we're talking a little bit more on the football side.
Probably need to get into a little bit of what
is coming this weekend on the football side, around a
spectacular Saturday of two NFL games, all featuring AFC playoff
teams most likely, Well, we got three other games going
on on Saturday as well, at eleven o'clock, three o'clock,
at seven o'clock the second, third, and fourth quarterfinal games

(08:09):
or opening round games of the college football Playoff. Notre
Dame in Indiana get the Friday night game and the
other three games go off that day. Longhorn Football here
on Sports Talk seven to ninety with their three o'clock
kick and largest separation according to Vegas between themselves and
their opponents still at about eleven and a half. I believe,

(08:29):
as I saw this morning, I will not be there
for that game, but I will be enjoying a lot
of Saturday football because of this treat like you and
Brian Bogasevic talked about. He spent two hours on the
Bat Thomas Show with Ross and he said, from a
fan perspective, what I think everybody still believes, like, look
at what we get. Yeah, we get eleven playoff games.

(08:50):
We get a full day of in bowl game season.
These games are matter, the winner matters. The competitive nature
of these games will be so much higher than the
coach for the team in the New Orleans Bowl or
whatever bowl saying, I sure hope we have enough players.
I sure hope not everybody's declared or in the transfer portal,
like the transfer portal takes players off your team. And

(09:12):
even though you get commitments from transfer portal players coming
onto your team, they're not coming on to your team.
They're in your program, but they're not playing any football
for you until this season is over. So we've already
seen one team have to say thanks but no thanks
after they already said yes to their bowl game. And
you know what team was that, Marshall, Marshall, Okay, Lewis Fintech,

(09:33):
I'm sure was really prepared to see a huge way. Hey, hey,
I know you guys left for vacation. We got a
football game. Can you come on back to campus and
start practicing football game? I mean, come on, it's silly.
I get some kind of payout right, Yes, I'm sure
the players swag that they will get after they stopped
playing football for the last ten days or twenty days
or whatever will get as file and some beats by
Dre headphones or something. A reasonable answer is only accepted. Oh,

(09:57):
what would you truly want if you were a twenty
one year old, minimal nil earning college football player in
your college football bowl game?

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Swag bag cash? Straight up? Yeah? I mean yeah, needs
a reasonable amount.

Speaker 5 (10:11):
Okay, that's a great question. How many are on the roster.
Probably not if we're going ninety per players.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Oh yeah, Gee had hundred thousand dollars to them all equally.
I guess, right, are two hundred thousand dollars to cover
both teams?

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah? I guess so, Gap, that sounds reasonable.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
I don't want to run through a shopping spree at
the you know, the pop up shop they set for you,
set up for you there.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
When I was in college, Samsung, I had like three
books in my in my bank accountant. I thought I
was a billionaire man. Geez, well, it doesn't go as
far as it used to.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
I suppose probably not.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Many of these players also do benefit from the same
type of deal that their team has. There's nil deals
for every single player on the team, as well as individuals.
But uh, the thought at hand certainly revolves around what
is going to happen on Saturday. Texans clinch their division
title the past Sunday after the extremely ill advised at
Ni Mitchell pass to Anthony Richardson did not reach its target,

(11:08):
Jonathan Taylor's ill advised football drop before he reached the
end zone, and because of the Colts loss and the
magic number sitting at one at the time. The Texans
are eight time AFC South Division champions.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yes you don't think they're contenders.

Speaker 5 (11:23):
Doesn't matter, Brian, Let's go back to back ANC South champs.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
The wording of that is exactly what we're heading into
next segment with because getting a gauge on how you
guys really see this is something I'm very interested in.
Its seven one three two one two five seven nine.
He used the word contender. There's a very clear, truthful,
factual way to take that term. But I also encourage
you to take your liberties with what exactly it means.

(11:48):
We come back talk a little Texans football here on
the A Team.

Speaker 9 (11:52):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (11:56):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexeler on
Sports Talk set at ninety doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Brian eighteen continues Tuesday afternoon edition of the program wex
here with you, Ross with you hanging out for the
next couple of hours, AC on vacation, Dan Matthews as
well seven to one three two one two five seven ninety.
Of course, those of you listening on Sports Talk seven nine,

(12:23):
you can fire that up. You can also do the
same via the iHeartRadio app. By the way, if you
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Speaker 8 (12:43):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
If you're not listening to us here on Sports Talk
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to eighteen on a Tuesday here on Sports Talk seven

(13:04):
to ninety, the word contender was thrown around. The truthful
sense of that word is quite obvious. When the regular
season comes to a conclusion, there will be fourteen contenders
in eighteen teams planning their draft strategy. Fourteen teams make
the playoffs if you have a reasonable quarterback, if you

(13:26):
didn't back your way in by winning a bad division
with a terrible record and terrible football. Hexans have absolved
themselves from that comment because they will have a good
record and they will have won the division, not because
the other three teams are awful, even though they are,
then I would consider you a contender now they're on
levels that's fair. Had a conversation with Chris Gordy about

(13:49):
this yesterday when he was filling in the quarterback. Quality
of play of your quarterback kind of goes a long
way towards that. Unless you have an unbelievable Chicago Bears,
like eighty five team Ravens all time great defensive team,
you probably can't overcome Trent Dilfer or some completely incapable
quarterback in the playoffs. And I don't think we'll have

(14:10):
any of those to begin with. But there's probably a
pretty good hierarchy of who's going out there, and the
Texans are going to be right there in the middle
of it. There's Josh Allen, There's Lamar Jackson, There's Pat Mahomes,
then there's c. J. Stroud, and then there's the other
three quarterbacks, possibly the three wild card quarterbacks. Don't know

(14:30):
that yet, Russell Wilson, bow Nicks, and Justin Herbert. If
you look at Justin Herbert this year, for those that
fancy him as an elite quarterback. You certainly can't say
that about how their offense is playing this year, and
he's a part of it.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
I certainly think CJ.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Stroud has had at least a comparable season to him,
and it was better than him a year ago with
probably the same guys out there with him. Contender if
you're gonna win in the playoffs just one time. There's
only eight teams left, right yes, okay? So can I
not call you a contender if you're in the elite eight?

Speaker 5 (15:07):
I would say to me, contender means maybe one of
the three best teams in your conference, or one of
the three favorite teams in your concert. I'm talking about
like tier one contender. Sure, if we want to get
down to the semantics of it, getting into the playoffs
does make you a contender. But I don't think moving
it this way and a neutral field, how many teams
would be a.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Favorite ahead of the Texans right now?

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Chiefs, the top three would, in the bottom three would not.
Steelers should not be favored. Charged you don't think.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
The Steelers would be favored on a neutral field of
the Texans, I do not.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
I mean you probably have a line on Vegas life
more than I do, just so if the season is gone,
I don't think they would be.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
I will say I was shocked to see the Steelers
six point dogs to the Ravens, but that's on the
road and they already beat the probably about a pick
up so very much.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Three teams.

Speaker 5 (15:52):
If you're fourth, I mean you need all those You
don't necessarily need all those teams to lose.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
It'll be depending on how you take care of your
own business.

Speaker 5 (15:59):
But I would say the Texans are in the second
tier of the AFC.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
That's fair top of the second tiers where I would
put them. You might not have said that, but I would.
They're the fourth best team in the AFC in my opinion,
or team with the fourth most likely chance to reach
the playoffs because teams five, six, and seven will all
be playing on the road unless it's Baltimore, and this
game this weekend between the Steelers and Ravens is a
huge game could possibly swing it. Even if the Ravens
win on Saturday, they won't technically move past the Steelers,

(16:25):
they will be tied with them. They will split their
two games season series, but at that point in the season,
the Steelers will still have the tiebreaker. If the Ravens
lose to the Steelers, the division race is over. Steelers
clinched the division where they win over the Ravens, and
thus the top four seeds would be in. It's just
a matter of where they slot in Chiefs, Bills, Steelers,

(16:47):
and Texans, and the Texans would obviously remain at least
one win behind the Steelers if they don't win themselves,
they'd beat two wins behind every team with two weeks
to go, and I'm not sure if all the tie
breakers would then be out the window, they potentially would
only even be able to catch one team, So they
almost and potentially could be locked in to the four

(17:07):
seed heading into their final two games of the season.
But contender status, I don't even care about the NFC
because it's not relevant to whether or not the Texans
are consent contenders because once you face in the NFC
team you're in the super Bowl, You're clearly you're a contender.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
You'll have to win one game at that point.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
So kind of taking that to the Texans history, this
will be their eighth division championship. They have won a
couple of games. With Bill O'Brien, they won a game
with Demiko Rans. They've won a couple of games with
Gary Kubiak. They have reached the second round of the postseason.
They've been among the last eight team standing. Would you
have called any of those eight teams a shaw led team,

(17:42):
a DeShawn led team, a contender.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
I would have.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
Said now when they when they were twelve and one
and then they lost those three games, I didn't. I
didn't feel like they were contenders for the Super Bowl.
I didnt feel they were gonna make it. No, I
didn't know they were going to win again. I didn't
think they were gonna win three more games.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
They traveled to Kansas City, I'm excuse me, to New
England for that playoffs.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Shawn lot in time.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
No, No, twice they did it with shop Okay, they
did it well. They traveled to Baltimore with TJ Yates.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
That team did not feel like a contender.

Speaker 5 (18:10):
When they got out scored fifty one to seven after
getting up twenty four to zero.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
No, they didn't feel like contender. I was shocked. I
was shocked that they were winning that game as much
as they were.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
I mean, I'm gonna I'm sure everybody heard me. Then,
as they I'll reiterate now one hundred percent. I thought
they were a contender, not when it was zero zero,
when they were on the road, when they were traveling there,
I thought they were a contender. I definitely went overboard,
I'm sure in my mind. I don't know if I
made it clear, but yeah, you're up twenty four to nothing.
Of course you're thinking about welcoming in your opponent to

(18:41):
NRG Stadium for the AFC title game, which was all
in front of them. If they take care of business
from leading twenty four to nothing, Surely many people thought
you would. Calling them a contender at that point seems
almost obvious. Calling them a contender before the game. Maybe
you didn't feel that way. But I also get to
the math of there's only eight teams left. I feel
like you've you've earned the right to be called a contentment.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
And now they can't beat anybody too, I mean, can
the Texans upset? As I mentioned, you know, the teams
that would be favored against something, you would all be
one score spreads against all those teams. And I pulled
up there's a guy named Ben Baldwin who puts up
the market derived rankings, and he does have the Steelers
ahead of the Texans, but by point one point according
to the Vegas market, so it'd be probably about a pick.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
And you probably have to wonder what will they think
of the Steelers based on how these next three weeks
go and last week as well. He puts them out
on Wednesdays, so it'd be a tomorrow. They played the
Eagles last week. They just beaten soundly twenty seven thirteen.
They have this raven Steelers game is this weekend and
then they have the Chiefs after that on Christmas Day.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
To me the.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
Word and we're just getting into the word and what
it means. I feel confident in this team's ability to
make the Super Bowl, and I don't feel super confident
that it's just the way that I feel about the
Texans because of their shortcomings mostly offensively. This defense can
play with anybody. This defense shut Josh Allen, who's over

(20:01):
there gooding six seven touchdowns set and all those records.
He went nine for thirty and look like rookie Josh
Allen against this Texans defense. They were great. They were
fantastic in that game. There was also Week five and
now the Bills have a better record and in theory
if you did play them in the playoffs. Do I
think the Texans can go on the road and win
win in Buffalo? I don't think they will. I don't

(20:23):
think they would do I think they can go on
the road and win in Kansas City against a fully
healthy Chiefs team.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
I don't think they could.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, they're running on a pretty sizable hot streak offensively,
eight consecutive games with at least thirty points. The Texans
caught them when they were coming off of a game
with ten points. They scored thirty total points in back
to back games against the Texans. Yes, absolutely so. He's
working without Stefan Diggs, Josh Allen, he's working his first

(20:52):
full season with Joe Brady as OC. They've added Kean Coleman.
They've now added even more with Amari Cooper and other
younger players that they're not a tremendous amount built with,
and they've gotten better. Like we know the Texans beat
him twenty three to twenty. We know what Josh Allen
did in Week five. Now Vegas it up for me.
What's the line on a neutral field between the Body

(21:13):
Bills Texans.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Probably like three and a half. You don't think they'd
be favored by a significant amount.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
Do you think it'd be the Bills by more than that?
I don't think so. I think it'd be three and
a half four Probably.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
A lot of money coming on the Bills, I think
if that were the case. Yeah, they're just a better
team now and that's what separates them as clear contenders
and the Texans. Who have you wondering are the Texans
any better than they were in Week five?

Speaker 3 (21:38):
They look exactly the same. They're not getting better.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Their defense has had a really really good week off
of an off week at home against a very methodical,
has to be on time quarterback, although he's been very
successful doing that.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
Yes, they have been scoring a lot of points.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
They were the fifth highest scoring team since to his return.
They scored ten they scored twelve points. It was incredible performance.
But they win all their games the same way now
that they won them at the beginning of the year. Hey,
here's the twenty three to twenty win. Here's a twenty
to twelve win, here's a twenty four to twenty win.
Are the Texans any better now late in the season
year two of most everybody here than they were at

(22:14):
the beginning of the season. That's question number two in
our number one about your Houston Texans how you feeling
type of question about the Texans now versus maybe how
you felt at the.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Beginning of the season.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Remember the Texans they were five and one at one
point this season, good times, and now they're nine and five.
Are they really any better now than they once were
when they're beating up on Buffalo back in Week five
at NRG Stadium. We comment on that and welcome yours
as well as we continue here on the eight team.

Speaker 9 (22:44):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (22:49):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexelwerth on Sports.

Speaker 9 (22:53):
Talk seven ninety. Did you all see this?

Speaker 3 (22:58):
And we should be putting out between five and posts?

Speaker 8 (23:01):
Okay, four hundred people were arrested for things that they
said on social media.

Speaker 11 (23:05):
History repeats itself type and you'll succeed. Never doubt that
you're the one too, Pus go one building.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
You're the best.

Speaker 11 (23:17):
X.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Nothing's gonna ever top.

Speaker 11 (23:19):
You know, you're the best X post I ever seen day.
You know you're the best of X breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Gotta say you're a lot more receptive to that than Gordy,
was that was your first time hearing Best.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Of X intro? I never How long has this been around?
I don't really, I'm gonna be honest.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Oh crap, but just for the last couple of weeks.
Consider the fact that okay, out of the country, Yes, okay.
You know, that's another hour of content to produce for
our listeners and throngs of fans, and so we deliver
them the Best of X.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
All right. Didn't like that?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
No, he just he said it was good, but he
did not have as much of an emotional reaction like you.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Where do we submit to the Grammys? Is it too late?

Speaker 2 (24:09):
I actually think I could do better, but I'm not
going to re record anytime soon.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Ye fine.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Best of X allows us to kind of canvass the
social media landscape. It's not under exclusive to the X platform,
but more often than not, that's where we derive this from.
And if you know what I'm looking for and Best
of X, then you probably know what today's installment is.
We always get great audio and people pull clips from stuff,
and we got another three and a half hours to
fill those usually fit in there.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Maybe say what maybe what's up with that? Who knows?

Speaker 2 (24:39):
But when you have a nice little back and forth beef,
especially when it's a public figure on both sides, that's
usually what reaches us in the heart the most best
of X I take you to Yesterday, almost twenty four
hours ago, Adam Schefter hit the X platform with his
comments about what might be happening with former Pro Bowl

(25:02):
quarterback Mike Vick and Sacramento State. They're in discussions. Sacramento
State plans to move up to FBS. They're building a
new stadium. They've got over fifty million in nil. Sacramento
State would build an experienced coaching staff around VIC. He's
in line with that new frontier of college football, and
he said Vic's already confirmed that he has spoken with

(25:25):
Norfolk State also about their job. So Schefty, he's got sources,
he talks to agents, he talks to people, and this
is what he posts on X platform almost one full
day ago. It's met with a quote tweet, which was
awesome because I knew it would get a response. It
comes from college basketball coach and radio host one person,

(25:50):
Doug gottlieb oh Oh. He quote tweets Chefty and says,
Jesus Schefty, edit what agents tell you zero point zero
percent chance Sack state has fifty million in NIL. I
told you this was two very well known public figures
and both were in on this beef, which means for

(26:11):
the best of XS. Adam Schefter had a response, the
Sack twelve is leading schools and ANIL efforts. They already
announced they reached their initial goal of raising fifty million
in ANIL funds to strengthen the school's case for an
invite to the PAC twelve or Mountain West Conference. That's
the end of his post, and I didn't think much

(26:31):
of it until he added a second reply to mister Gottlieb,
and he started it the same way Doug started his own.
If you recall Jesus Shefty, Adam Schefter starts his final
quote sweet this way or a response and Jesus Doug
a seven game losing streak and last place in the
Horizon League, less time on social media and more time

(26:55):
in the gym, and he posted a screen cap of
the standings of the earth.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
Are you serious? This is fun right? This is what
what we're here for.

Speaker 12 (27:07):
I miss this?

Speaker 3 (27:08):
How did I miss this? I've I've been in the
country since yesterday.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
It was met with a lot of responses. Also, God,
someone chimes in Adam Schefter guilty of.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
Assault me a dead body? Probably there's been a murder.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Uh tony ways in it says it's not piling on
if it was expected.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Hmm, man, you've got a gift of shack.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Dunking on David Robinson with the caption chefyon x on
a random Monday night.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
I prefer the Sean Kemp duck or no Scottie pipping
over Patrick Ewing. That's one of my favors of all time.
That's probably my favorite dunk of all time. Actually, there's
some really good responses to it. But yes, that was
a that was an ex platform fatality.

Speaker 13 (27:52):
Yes, Jesus Doug seven post in the standings too, that's
what makes it perfect.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yes, the oh, my initial season of basketball coaching and
with this team has been not disappointing to only basically
one person, and that's Doug, who the leading scorer in
the country plays for his team, or did, and he
decided he wasn't playing the way he wants him to play,
so he benched him for a game. Things are going
quite well. I'm sorry I'm retweeting this. It's good isn't it?

(28:26):
This is incredible, but yes, we live.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
This is one of the reasons that I stay on
that that god forsaken hell site that is known as X.
There is mostly a waste of time and an ocean
of stupidity.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
So if you ever happened to come across anything, we'd
love for you to send it along you guys out
there as well, and we can fit it in here
on best of X. On any given day, like I said,
usually around two thirty each and every day here on
the A team we find stuff there. One other item,
since I really have a full allotment of say what
for today? Bill Belichick took the coaching job at North Carolina. Yes,

(29:02):
Tom Brady does NFL football analysis on a weekly basis,
so clearly he was on the broadcast for the game
this weekend along with KB Kevin Burkhart and during play
Kevin Burkhart, as I posted the audio there in Sports Audio,
he asked him about this assignment now, this new job
for his former head coach, and I thought his response

(29:24):
was fairly interesting. What did Brady have to say about
a head coach of the North Carolina char Hills as
we will call him moving forward? Chapel Bill. Nothing outrageous,
But what did Brady say about the new head coach
in North Carolina.

Speaker 14 (29:38):
Kind of blew me away when I heard the news.
I didn't think that was an opportunity he was looking at.
But they're getting obviously tremendous coach and being in that
locker room with him, Fred Dick for as many years,
those guys are going to play very hard.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
He's going to coach him well, and it's a great.

Speaker 14 (29:52):
Benefit for all those players who are going to that
program because they're getting the best coach that this pro
NFL has ever seen.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Now he's at a college level. Give me a little
feel for the Bill. Recruiting is going to be like,
give me a little feel of the phone call. The
thing is, he's not the warmest and fuzziest of all time,
so that is pretty obvious.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
He was joking later on in the conversation about their
first Super Bowl win together. You win the Super Bowl,
you win the MVP, you reluctantly appear at the next
morning after MVP press conference. The coach and the MVP
have a press conference after a night of wild late
night drinking and celebrating. So they were in the limo

(30:31):
together after their first Super Bowl win and on their
way to that press conference, Brad he was recollecting and
he said, yeah, you know he we're in the limo
and he says to me, you know, Tommy, you had
a pretty good year. And he saying, that's about as
warm and fuzzy as he gets. When we went on
to win a few super Bowls after that, I was
pretty good. But I think that's the viewpoint we all

(30:51):
believe we'll get if we see it happen when he
goes to recruit players and he is actually the final
voice and the the last man there. We know how
college recruiting works. He's not going to be in everybody's
living room. He's not going to be visiting all of
these kids. It's not quite like I'm sure many of
you have seen the film about Michael o'er The blind Side,

(31:14):
and they were pleased cameos from the real Houston Nutt,
the real Nick Saban, the real Philip Folmer, all visiting
and spending time in there their living room trying to
recruit young Michael. Now, yes, coaches will still visit many
many players individually. Most of their staff will do the

(31:35):
heavy lifting recruiting, but he might have to be the
closer on a few guys.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yes, he's gonna be like, come get your swag on
at HEWNC.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
You think it's ridiculous for me to suggest the days
of him talking like that at press conferences are over
because he's just spent an entire.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
Be a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Gregarious as it were, Weekly guest on the McAfee show,
co hosts on Inside the NFL.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Weekly guest on the Man Personality. I think he'd been
great on the Maning Cast.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
He's phenomen we knew I knew he would be because
this is what he likes to do. He's talking about football. Well,
it's isn't that what he's going to be doing? I
know these press conferences in New England were always dreadful
because of how he treated them. Is he going to
do the same thing at press conferences with North Carolina?
Or will we get the much more entertaining version we've
seen for the past eight months?

Speaker 5 (32:24):
Punk kids from the school newspaper asking him a bunch
of questions, why aren't they aspiring journalists? Why are they kids?
They're punk kids. We were all punk kids when we
were twenty one. I was a punk kid. Well, guess
who also a punk kid?

Speaker 2 (32:37):
I mean, national reporters will certainly be there at the
beginning of the season.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
That's true. Is it going to be bullying them? Like? Uh,
who was the guy? Was it was it Saban? Or
who was it was it Less Miles? Somebody was bullying
the this?

Speaker 8 (32:51):
Ah?

Speaker 3 (32:53):
How long ago was this? This is recently now? Maybe
it was? I can't remember. This is recent.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yes, he will probably bully somebody in his own special way.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
Like this guy, the kid from the school newspaper, like
had to issue an apology even though what they said
was factually correct.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
I can't remember what that one.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
We'll think about one other aspect of college football versus
pro He's going to talk after wins on the field
with sideline reporters. He's potentially going to talk at halftime
if that's a part of that particular broadcast. He wasn't
doing that as an NFL head coach. He would have
his cooling off period before he would then visit the
media at the podium.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Oh, I found one, but it wasn't what I was
looking for.

Speaker 5 (33:30):
Jim Schlosnagel bullying the reporter from from jests Eggs that
was fun.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
There was a nut I can't at.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
The time he was coaching Texas A and M, but
very soon after he's the coach.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Come on, man, why would you ask that stupid question?
All right?

Speaker 5 (33:44):
Anyways, here we are at Texas Longhorns in Austin.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Presented this before Best of X and will welcome Troy
and Larry and a few others in on the other
side about the Texans. That wraps up Best of X
here on the A Team, But we ask are the
Texans better than they were at the beginning of this
second season for Jamiico, Will Anderson and CJ Stroud.

Speaker 9 (34:08):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (34:12):
We now returned to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexworth on Sports.

Speaker 9 (34:17):
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
The A team continues raws in for ac Wexing day
in here with you and you guys on the phones
as well. Talked quite a bit about the Houston Texans
quite obviously as they have just wrapped up their very
brief practice for this afternoon here from Demiico, Ryans and CJ.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Stroud.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
Shortly Yes, on a Tuesday, they bump up everything by
one day Tuesday Wednesday Thursday. They'll spend a little bit
of time on the practice field, and Friday they will
travel to Kansas City take on the Kansas City Chiefs,
the first of the two games coming up this Saturday
in the NFL. NFL also announced the shuffling of some
games games for Week seventeen, a triple header on Saturday

(35:03):
for the NFL. There's no playoff college football action next Saturday,
so of course the NFL taking that over with three
games there. The incredibly entertaining Atlanta Falcons have been flexed
into Sunday Night Football, taking on the Commanders in Week seventeen.
I guess last night was all that the network needed

(35:25):
to see, to see how phenomenally exciting they can put
a game in front of you, so much so that
they just really didn't even want to put the win
away until very very very very late against very very
very bad football team on the other side.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
But they won.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Nonetheless, Kirk Cousins almost had one hundred and fifty yards passing,
but not quite. You did throw a touchdown, now, I
would not likely bring it up before we get to
Troy here. Talking about the Texans. The fifteen week fantasy
football regular seasons came to a conclusion last week. I
did not have an opportunity to advance the postseason in

(36:06):
our league, but I did have a chance to have
a say in how it all shook out, because last
week I lost a game on the very very very
last game that was involved by a very very very
small margin. Otherwise I probably would have been the I
think I would have landed the four seed.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
But in another league, I was actually in that position.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Going into a game, three teams were likely going to
finish nine and six for the third and fourth spot,
meaning one team would be out. I didn't know all
the tiebreakers involved, but I had Justin Jefferson and Kyle Pitts.
He had Jordan Addison and the Vikings kicker. It was
basically a dead heat going in and I'm the lead
changed hands minimum twelve times.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
And when Justin Jefferson made his last reception, I took
a one point lead. And this was obviously super late
in a game. They were up by twenty one points,
but when the Bear scored went for t and missed,
it was still a two score game. Under a few
minutes to go in Minnesota said yeah, we got it.
We gotta need this forty six yard field goal, which
was good, which handed me an l which ended my season.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
Hmmm, the thriller victory found out? Are you going to
take your ball, go home and wine and cry and
quit the league?

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Not only I found out today even had I won,
I would have lost the tiebreaker. I would have been
the team that was out anyway. And no, I'm not
going to take my ball and go home, Nor am
I going to demand that. You say, And this twelve
teams is too many. You gotta get down to ten.
So there's players on the waiver wire.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
That's ridiculous. It's been twelve team league. It's prestigious, every
team is good. It's completely becomes a crapshoot in a
ten team league, in my opinion, I'm in a few
ten team leagues.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
I don't mind. But uh uh, if you're not gonna
say his name, I will.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
Adam Watser's talking about Adam Clinton complaining he's leaving the league.
Matt Thomas is complaining he wants to leave the league.
And now Brian Lima, for whatever reason, he set every
single player. I'm like, bro, we have penalties for low points.
I don't know if you knew this, I said several
emails Apparently they all went over his head. He intent
only took time out of his day because there's not

(38:03):
one button you can press on the ESPN app and
it says bench all my players. He literally went player
by player by player and benched all his players to
get zero point zero points this weekend.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
It was disappointing. You know, he wants to quit the league.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
We'll give some cool off period before the year. Beans
asked the question amongst those in the room and you
guys out there, are the Texans different now? Are they
better now? Have they made improvements? Are they streaking towards
the playoffs? Have you seen any evidence of such? Troy
is ready to join us on that conversation here on
the A team. What do you got for us today?

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Troy?

Speaker 9 (38:35):
Thank you guys. Happy holidays to you and everybody else.

Speaker 15 (38:38):
I think the Texans are the same team at the
beginning of the season.

Speaker 9 (38:41):
If you think about it.

Speaker 15 (38:42):
They've had offensive line problems from game one. C. J.
Strong got sacked four game four times. Today game they
barely beat the Coats, they win, they barely beat the Bears,
they win.

Speaker 9 (38:52):
Minnesota handles them. That's the only team that.

Speaker 15 (38:54):
Really destroyed them. Every game has been close. It's tough
to win this league, but the Tech have found a
way to win games. They lost some games that you
think they could have won, like the Green Bay game,
and they should have won a Detroit game. But they've
played one of the toughest schedules of the league this year.
Last year they had won the easiest schedules of the league,
and they lost the teams we thought they should have.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
Never lost to Carolina and Atlanta last year.

Speaker 15 (39:15):
So I think they're the same team that they've been
at the beginning of the season. You want to be
playing your best football going into the playoffs. The main
thing is getting into the playoffs. They got there right there,
they're in right now. They need to show well against
the Chiefs. Against Baltimore and Tennessee is a rival. Games
always gonna be tough, but I think I mean and
on top of that, they've had injuries.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
Christian Harris hadn't been on the team.

Speaker 9 (39:38):
Other than last year.

Speaker 15 (39:39):
First last week, first game he played Steve far Digs.
He's out after what the third week he gets out.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
For the season.

Speaker 15 (39:47):
And they had I think Lester missed some starts because
he was injured. So I think the Texas have. I mean, yeah,
would you like to see a couple of more wins.
But I think they're They're right where I thought they
would be because of their schedule they had wasn't the
hardest schedules in the league. And on top of that,
they weren't surprising anybody last year. They surprised everybody this year.

(40:08):
You got bore tape on CJ. Stroup. It's not like
he's playing bad. Is that that teams? They're playing good
teams now and he's not destroying everybody like he was
last year.

Speaker 9 (40:17):
He's still playing well.

Speaker 15 (40:18):
So I think that again, I'll say that a couple
of times. I think they're right where they were at
the beginning of the season. And I'm really judged to
see what they're gonna do with these next two games. Now,
if Buffalo, I mean, if Baltimore handles them and Kansas
City hands them, then that'd be very disappointed. But if
they find a way to beat Kansas City or Baltimore,
I think that I'm not saying they.

Speaker 9 (40:39):
Can't tell you what.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
It is a perfect place for us to take that
into the next hour as we must hit or break here.
But all points taken into consideration.

Speaker 9 (40:48):
Next the A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Ninety let me tell you about moving tickets. You can't
go to the game anymore. Ifuse you got tickets, you
want your money. We'll go ahead and download Quick as
q U I c K A S y ST. You
find it on the App Store, you find it on
the Google Play Store, and they're gonna help you make
the most of your game day tickets. You download the app,
you list your tickets. It's hassle free. They simplify the
resale process. You get the money, you get to go

(41:14):
back to enjoying the games, the sports. It's quick Assist
your ticket everywhere.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams series,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A Team.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
The A Team here on a Tuesday afternoon, wex here
with you. AC's vacation continues Ross vi Real here in
studio with us for the next hour. Of course, Dan
Matthews here, as he always is, got a lot of
things to get to this afternoon, wrapped up the last
hour with an excellent analysis of the Houston Texans to
this point in the season from Troy three.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Remaining in this season. Kansas City is next.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Baltimore follows in an extremely important game against the Tennessee Titans.
Texas will have revenge on their minds. I would say
it's pretty likely the Texans won't have much to play for,
but there's still the opportunity to shift their seed. They
are currently the four seed. Each of the three teams
ahead of them is clinched a playoff berth but all
only Pittsburgh has not yet clinched their division. That could

(42:24):
come as early as Saturday when they take on the Ravens,
the team that already has a win over the Buffalo Bills.
And if you look at the three teams ahead of
the Texans and the win column, that's the only one
they've played thus far, so they're one to zero against
teams in the AFC with a better record than they are.
I came back in Week five, they went over the
Buffalo Bills. Troy brought up the two losses that shouldn't

(42:47):
have been in his mind a year ago, losing to
Carolina and Atlanta, both on last playfield goals, both on
the road, and both against teams that were awful last year,
neither of whom got good quarterback play all season long form,
either day Esman Ritter or Bryce Young. Unfortunately, this year's
Texans team has two very similar losses to that too.

(43:07):
AFC teams that are absolutely embarrassing beat the Texans this year.
Halloween Knight, New York Jets beat the Texans, and they
seriously outplayed him that night. Remember they had a Jonathan
Taylor like play when mal Corley decided to run into
the end zone without the football for no reason. And

(43:27):
then they came home a couple weeks later and lost
to the Titans. Those two teams have seven wins combined.
The Texans have nine, so they'd be in really really
good position and quite honestly should be undefeated against the
AFC to this point. And then the idea that they
have a harder schedule this year, It's definitely true one

(43:51):
because they played the NFC North three playoff teams, three
really good playoff teams, and the Texans were losers to
all three. But he also have to temper that statement.
The two first place teams that the Texans draw on
their schedule because they were also a first place team,
they haven't played them yet. Those are their next two games.

(44:11):
The Baltimore Ravens and Christmas Day a week from tomorrow,
and the Kansas City Chiefs the game coming up this Saturday.
So this difficult schedule, which again is it's accurate for
the full boat of their seventeen games, well, two of
the games that are the reason it's awful and difficult,
they haven't played them yet and they're nine and five.

Speaker 5 (44:29):
Well, and they're coming up, and I think we can
point to the thing is if we just look in
at a vacuum and we're looking at the Houston Texans
and what they've done in the season, I think there's
absolutely those things that you pointed out that we can
look at and say, this is why I think this
team isn't very good. But I think we can do
that with just the way the state of the NFL

(44:50):
is probably to a lesser extent with other teams. But
how are the Detroit Lions feeling about their defense right now?
How are the Buffalo Bills feeling about their defense right now?
Are they feeling about their pass catchers? How are the
Buffalo Bills feeling about that? You they came and played
the Texans in Houston and Josh Allen went nine for
thirty and it looked like a rookie. So yes, if

(45:11):
we look at just the Texans, if we look and
we zoom in and it's one team, I can poke
holes absolutely in the Texans.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
But I don't. There's not a perfect team out there.

Speaker 5 (45:20):
There's not a team out there that that is just
running rough shot through everyone. We could talk about the
Ravens and the bad losses. They've had to teams like
the Raiders and to the Cleveland Browns in the last
second on a touchdown as well, and then they've had
some tough tests against the Steelers and the and the
Eagles and they've lost those games. So yes, the Texans
aren't perfect. Yes, they've lost some games we've expected to

(45:42):
them win, been in close games, all that type of stuff.
And even the Chiefs have only lost one game. They're
in They're in a field goal game with the Panthers.
They're in a field goal game with the Raiders. This is
the NFL. You add it up all at the end
of the season, the Texans are AFC South champions, They're
going to the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
Are they perfect?

Speaker 16 (46:01):
No?

Speaker 5 (46:01):
But you have a defense that is a borderline dominant,
however you want to describe it, and then you have CJ.
Stroud and maybe this offensive line gets better and more
cohesive in the.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Next three weeks. You can beat anyone. Can you lose anyone?

Speaker 8 (46:15):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (46:16):
Can you beat anyone? Yes, that's the NFL.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
You feel pretty confident that what they've been doing the
last eight games from a takeaway standpoint twenty five takeaways
over that eight game stretch, that there's not really your
reason to expect it to stop. Even though they're playing
Lamar Jackson's team. Maybe Pat Mahomes team will get an
update from Pat himself coming up momentarily.

Speaker 5 (46:39):
Defensive nerds, I mean, I'm sorry, numbers nerds, of which
I'm a fan of. Numbers nerds will tell you that
turnovers aren't necessarily predictive and they aren't necessarily going to
be something that you can count on and be sustainable,
certainly year to year and also week to week, especially
with the nature of fumbles. Was it the end of

(47:00):
the Lions game where the Texan did force like two
fumbles and they weren't able to recover any of them,
Like if fumbles can bounce either way. Interceptions may be
a bit of a different one because you're talking about
disguising coverages and all that type of stuff. Pressuring the question,
I would say pressure in the quarterback right and getting
those fumble stacks like you did against Tua, so to
an extent, yes, but also I don't necessarily think that

(47:23):
it's something that they can continually. I would say you
can't count on it. Counting on turnovers to win you games,
I think is foolish.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Yeah, the same team with roughly the same personnel. Obviously,
you look at some injuries here and there. Christian Harris
wasn't there at the beginning of the year. Jalen Petrie
was now. The reverse is true at this point in
the season. But the first five weeks of football this year,
when the Texans went four and one, it got one
turnover against the Colts, two against Caleb Williams, and the
Bears went three straight weeks with none zero takeaways. Five

(47:57):
games into the season, Texans were near the bottom of
the league in takeaways. Even with good defensive play, they
had three. Now they have twenty eight. Because they've gotten
twenty five takeaways in an eight game stretch, all but twice,
they've turned the other team over twice. In three different cases,
they've turned the other team over four times, and that

(48:17):
came against a rookie making his first ever start, Drake
may an MVP candidate at the time, Jared Goff, who
only has five other interceptions all year, he threw five
against your team. And Tua, who had thrown one pick
in seven games since his return. He had three picks
and a fumble. So they have clearly done it against

(48:39):
a variety of different offenses, a variety different quarterbacks, a
variety of different caliber offensive lines. Heck, Jordan Love's team
turned the ball over three times. They haven't won all
these games, clearly. When they've had this massive turnover influx.
That's what gives me pause on all of this stuff.
And I said eight games, it's over a nine games.

(49:00):
They've played fourteen games. They're only five and four with
this massive massive turnover edge where they're plus sixteen, they're
five and four.

Speaker 5 (49:11):
Yeah, that's that's crazy. But they've also been turning the
ball over themselves. And of course what CJ. Strout have
like nine picks this year. So and also when it
comes to the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
They've turned it over nine times in those games, okay,
and they've gotten how many.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
They're plus nineteen. If I said it or excume Yeah,
I said it right there. Plus sixteen. That's insane. They
should be undefeated over that stretch. That's ridiculous that they've
lost two games while being a plus three.

Speaker 5 (49:36):
So it depends on I guess what we're talking about
going forward. As far as if we're talking about the playoffs.
If Pat Mahomes is fully healthy, I don't expect him
to be turning the If you look at his touchdown
to interception ratio in his career in the playoffs, it's very, very,
very very highly in the positive.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
Now.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
Lamar Jackson has had some issues turning the ball over
in the playoffs and having some duds in play off games,
but this year he's got thirty four touchdowns and three interceptions.
Josh Allen, it can be turnover prone, and when he
has to go hero mode, which he clearly does have
to do with the Buffalo Bills, he can be prone
to turning the ball over a little bit. But to me, again,

(50:16):
if you look at the everything that you brought up
just now, it kind of tells you that that doesn't
always matter to the bottom line.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
It doesn't guarantee you anything.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
Really, it's something that you obviously want to win the
turnover battle week to week, but it's not something that's predictive,
and I think there is enough of a luck factor
involved that it's not something at all that we should
be counting on.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
When it comes to the Texans defense, it.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Just sends us back to the same thing we've discussed
all season long, because it's been the same issue all
season long. If you had a reasonably good offense, they're
at best middle of the pack, Yes you have, you'd
go seven and two over that name stretch. You'd be
twelve and three at this point in the season, potentially
either or twelve and two or thirteen or eleven and
three somewhere in that area. There are a lot of
reasons why they are where they are, and almost all

(50:58):
of them are on the offensive side of the football.
Almost all of them are related to the five players
that are on their offensive line, which again changed this
past week when you heard the news over the weekend
that Titus Howard. Aaron Wilson reported that Titus Howard was
going to bounce back inside as he has done way
too many times in his career, and they were going
to start Blake Fisher at right tackle. He'd not played

(51:18):
right tackle this year because the only snaps that were
needed were those afforded him by Laramie Tunsell, missing a handful.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
They were going to had he played someone Titus missed
some time.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Couple of snaps played right tackle last year with Joe
Alt on the other side at Notre Dame, so it
wasn't foreign to him. But what did you think initially
when you heard this was their their decision with Juice
Scruggs not being able to go.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
Titus Howard had not been really good as a guard.
I thought he did well enough on Sunday, but I
was a little surprised that they moved him in there.
And really from all accounts, I mean, Blake Fisher did
give up the one pressure where he just got completely
blown by and I can't remember who it was on
the edge for Chop Robinson. Yeah, Chop Robinson couldpletely blew
by him on the edge. But outside of that, I

(52:02):
thought he was really good. Not having like watched the
game over or anything like that. At least I didn't
hear him getting call his number called a bunch like
early in the year. I thought he was a disaster.
I think he was a lot better on Sunday. But
I was surprised to see that the shuffling was going
to happen with Titus Howard and we know the juice
s grugs supposed to miss another game, So is that
going to be the plan they're going to try to

(52:22):
stick with it? To me, continuity matters the most, whether
you're gonna if you're gonna be shuffling Titus Howard, a
Juice grug, Jared Patterson, whatever you don't be doing at
a bunch, which of course they only having to do
it because of injury. But if you can get the
guys in the same roles, I think that's when you'll
see more cohesion.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
You the Titus Howard out for the game against Buffalo,
Blake Fisher had those snaps for him. Those are his
snaps that right tackle earlier this year. When you consider
what we thought was an option last week, which quite
possibly could be an option this week. Curious about your
opinion on that when we come back. The Texans opened
the practice window for Christian Harris last week, activated him,

(53:00):
and he played nearly every snap.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
He was very good.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
They opened the practice when you window for Kenyon Green
did not activate him, so it remains open. Will they
have a change in their plans for this week with
that option potentially available to them.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
We'll discuss that.

Speaker 9 (53:16):
Next the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (53:22):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler on
Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
Ninety continuing the Tuesday afternoon conversation here on the eighteen
Ross and for Ac wex and day in here with you.
Appreciate those of you joining us via the social media options,
and of course they're on the phones at Sports RV
at Dan Matthews hou or right here with me at
Adam J. Wexler seven one three two one two five

(53:49):
seven ninety times for the head coach and the quarterback
to meet with the media following practice today will dep
in on a little of what they had to say
in some long standing relationships between tomko Ryans and the
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. It's interesting stuff there.
Pat Mahomes also visited with the media earlier today. We
definitely could enter into a game of believe it or

(54:12):
not regarding what he had to say exactly today.

Speaker 3 (54:16):
Maybe the opportunity.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Now to get into that did leave you with one
quick question though, before we get to Pat Mahomes. The
Texans saw some options on their offensive line during practice
last week, had a little bit of Zach Thomas working there,
and had a little bit of Kenyon Green working there
in the open guard spot vacated by the injured Juice Scruggs,

(54:38):
And according to the players I talked to after the game,
basically was this is what we looked at throughout the week,
and we've evaluated it and think, well, we'd rather see
Titus Howard move inside and put Blake Fisher on the
field and have our what presumed.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
And I believe them, I believe in it.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Their five best offensive linemen were the five players that
started on Sunday afternoon against the Dolphins. So if Kenyon
Green is health and you've heard what they've said about him,
I was a little surprised he was able to get
back to practicing, thinking back to what Tamiko said during
the season, what he said last week when he returned
to practice, and taking into account how they performed against

(55:13):
the Dolphins defensive line, now how they might perform if
they're the same five against the Chiefs defensive line. Do
you anticipate them activating and starting Kenyan Green guard and
sliding Titus Howard back out to his tackle position.

Speaker 5 (55:30):
Now, it seems to me it's kind of two different conversations.
Should they activate specifically and start him?

Speaker 3 (55:41):
No, No, Kenyan Green shouldn't.

Speaker 5 (55:44):
Be anywhere near the starting lineup for offensive line for
the Texans.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Will they. I guess that question.

Speaker 5 (55:53):
Can be answered by just I mean wondering how much
do they believe in Kenyan Green, Because at least at
the start of the season, where he was horrible week
after week after week after week, and we kept on
wondering if he was going to be replaced. He was
eventually replaced by Jared Patterson, who then quickly got a concussion,
so we had to be put back in. I gotta

(56:15):
think they may activate him for depth, but I got
to think he's not back in the starting lineup for
the rest of the season.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
I think we can hope Ross is right, and I
do think that what you said is what they will
do and should do if he's healthy. I do think
he provides them at least as good of an option
unless they care about Zach Thomas's positional flexibility. Zach did
not play very many snaps. He was their tackle eligible
performer and he if I'm not mistaken for those six snaps,

(56:47):
I didn't really study him super hard, but I certainly
noticed him.

Speaker 3 (56:50):
He was awful. Was he out on routes?

Speaker 2 (56:52):
He's he just I mean, I think you can with
harder maybe if you play baseball, But on one particular play,
I mean, like, what did they send him out there
to do? Because he certainly didn't accomplish anyone. But it's just,
and I doubt that. I don't know that Kenyon takes
that particular role between him and Nick Broker and Kendrick Green,
who I mean, I don't know how hard you can

(57:13):
tell a player on your team you hate him harder
than the Texans have told Kendrick Green that by everybody
they're playing in front of them, everybody picking up a
guy from New England, he's in front of you. Kenyan
Green got benched, and then the player who replaced him
got hurt like you just described, and they go back
to the player who got benched.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
He's still available.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
He does his customary bike riding during games at times.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
To stay loose.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
He is part their special Teams kicking unit, but beyond that,
he just doesn't play offensive line for them. He has
lined up as a blocker, and maybe that provides them something.
But if you didn't see anything just overtly bad from
the five players that were on the field Sunday, why
would you make a change.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
I don't see why they would.

Speaker 5 (57:59):
And as we're kind of talking about in the last segment,
I mean, it's not rocket science. When an offensive line
is going to be at their best, it's going to
because there's chemistry, there's cohesion. They're on the same page,
playing the same roles and picking up blitzes and looking
at the looks and all that type of stuff. Like
Titus Howard playing next to Laramie Tunzel completely changes the
complexion of.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
The of the offensive line.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
It completely changes the chemistry of those guys having to
be on the same page, same thing, when when it
was Kenyon Green going in and out and all those
guys now on the right side would play Fisher and
now with Shaq Mason. So if they're going to continue
to build and get better and you're satisfied with what
happened on Sunday, I just don't see why why a
change would be made.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
I wouldn't think it.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
We will see, and we'll obviously get a little bit
of a practice update. Just keep in mind today's, Tomorrow's
and Thursday's practice will be limited at best, and quite honestly,
I would imagine they might even be described as this
is an estimation of who would participate if this was
a true and genuine practice. Wanted to get to a
little of what Number fifteen had to say. He played

(59:00):
for the Kansas City Chiefs. He's usually their starting quarterbacks.
Name is Pat Mahomes. He was hurt in their game
last week, a team day high ankle sprain, and he
acknowledged that is in fact his injury. Talked about how
it wasn't quite as bad as the one everyone wants
to point to, the playoff one. We're so familiar with that,
with what he was still able to do. But a
couple of things from Homes today. Initially, how he feels

(59:22):
about the progress for his ankle.

Speaker 16 (59:23):
I think it's done good with the treatment and the
work that we've gotten in. I mean, obviously it's a
short amount of time, but I thought we had a
good day yesterday, and we had a good work after
the game as well.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Good day yesterday the day after the game, rehab work
and no field work. It's not really testing it to
that degree. He continued with the obvious. Well, we're going
to practice, so because they spoke before practice, and I'll
see how it feels.

Speaker 16 (59:51):
I'll get to work at practice and try to push
it to see where I can get to. But at
the end of the day, I'm not going to put
our team in a bad position. So if I feel
like I can play and go out there and win
a football game, I'll play. And if I don't feel
like that's the best case scenario, I'll like guys like
Carson play. I mean, he's a guy that's won in
this league as well. So it's just about pushing it
this week, seeing where I'm at and making the best decision.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
Then guys like Carson is.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
He insinuating they could play multiple backup quarterbacks against the Texans.
The only other quarterback on the roster is Carson Wentz.
They do carry a third quarterback on the practice squad
could be active. But the bigger question is what about
what they're looking at. They've got three games left, They've

(01:00:36):
got a two game lead, they do not have the tiebreaker,
and I'm sure that somewhere on a whiteboard that they
don't want anybody to see for bulletin board material. The
Bill's schedule is listed somewhere inside the Chiefs building. If
the Bills lose a game the rest of the season,
it would be extreme, shocking, surprising. With a pair of
games against the Patriots in a game against the Jets.
So there are if you care about the one seed,

(01:00:59):
and I would assume the Chiefs do how much or
when does Pat mahomes sit play All those things have
to be in consideration. They've got a game Saturday, They've
got a game Wednesday, three games in eleven days. They're
about set to go into the second of those three games.
He did comment on whether or not there was a
feeling of having to play against the Texans.

Speaker 16 (01:01:19):
Obnestly, we put ourselves in a good position to where
I guess I wouldn't say it was dire that I play.
I mean, it's something where it's not like in the
AFC Championship game, where we're playing to get to this world.
I mean, we have a little bit of a room
to kind of spare. By the end of the day,
we're trying to win. We're trying to win the football game,
and I'm a competitor. I want to go out there
and play. So I'll push myself to get to the

(01:01:40):
best place possible over these next few days and we'll
be able to make a decision.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Then two things to comment on, Yes, A, do you
believe him or not? And B my gut feeling stands.
I believe Patrick Mahomes will play Saturday against the Texans.

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
I believe he is going to try and push himself.
But I also believe leave. And this is just me.
I don't even know. I can't see his face listening
to the audio. I don't see body language.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
We've had a little bit of it on the old
tube in here, and maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:02:10):
I'm just what is it called chic choice support bias,
I've already supported. I've already chosen that I don't think
he's gonna play. It sounds like he's kind of down.
It sounds like they're I'm gonna stick with it that
he's not gonna play.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
And I'll also go with this that the.

Speaker 5 (01:02:26):
Line while it moved from Texans two and a half
to one. And if we subscribe to the theory that
Vegas knows, which it seems like a lot of time
Vegas does, knows that the total is still thirty nine
and a half. Texans still favored in this game. I'm
gonna stick with Pat Mahomes not playing in this one.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
When it's determined.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Let's say Thursday they actually are, Yeah, Thursday, they actually
list him as out. What do you think a one
and a half point Texan's favorite line goes to before kickoff?

Speaker 5 (01:02:56):
I might go to where it opened at two and
a half, probably somewhere around there. I mean, I still
think you think it would be shocking if the Texans
getting field goal games with everybody they lost to the
freaking Titans, they can go on the road at Arrowhead
and lose that game with Carson Wentz abbs of freaking lowly.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
With as good as that Chiefs defense.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Is, that Chiefs defense is very good, you could definitely
make the argument that the Texans defense is as quality
as theirs. They're certainly one of the best in the league.
They do create a tremendous amount of pressures. The numbers
for this week are now out with the two Monday
night games having been played. Number one in the NFL
still in pass rush win rate as I pronounce it,

(01:03:36):
that's it's Daniel Hunter.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
Still. He's been there for much of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
He's number one in the NFL and quarterback pressures, he's
a half sack back of being number one in sacks,
and Will Anderson's right there with him. Also, they're the
only team in the NFL with a pair of players
with double digit sacks, and all the other measurables are
in that same category. Pressures, disruptions, et cetera. That's what
whomever is taking snaps for the Chiefs is up against

(01:04:02):
in this game, and it will matter, and they will
be able to force them out of things that they're
comfortable with. It's just a matter of do they still
find a way to do what they've done almost every
single week this year. Yeah, it's close, but we've got
thirteen wins in fourteen tries. We're the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (01:04:22):
If you can buy Astro's gear on it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
You can hear us on it listen live for free
on any smart device.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
The eighteen. This is Tuesday. This is Adam wex So
that is ros virial in for Adam Clinton. Appreciate those
of you watching us and listening to us. Of course,
you can watch us via simulcast on Space City Home Network,
and of course listen to us on the iHeartRadio app
Sports Talk seven to ninety on your radio Doll's new
and improved iHeartRadio app. By the way, it's basically like

(01:05:03):
a radio in the palm of your hand. New and
improved so a live radio dial presets the ability to
see lyrics, so you can well, I mean, if you
are like a parody singer, you would want to know
the lyrics that you could then rewrite the song to
like I do.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
You can see the lyrics right there for you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Playlist podcasts, The Matt Thomas Show with Ross, the Sean
Salisbury Show, and of course the eight Team. You can
catch me a podcast right there on the new and
improved iHeart Radio app. Tamiko Ryans and c J Stroud
met with the media following today's brief practice. Earlier today,
we'll get you a little bit from CJ coming up
in a little bit. We just heard from Pat Mahomes

(01:05:42):
and it sounded like we believed what he said about
his high ankle sprain as he was taken down in
the late stages of their uninspiring but typical win over
the Cleveland Browns. Browns are awful, Winston performed as such,
and they won twenty one to seven and rolled on
with their thirteen wins in fourteen tries season. Debiko Ryans

(01:06:02):
talking about Kansas City early in his press conference, this
is could be considered a measuring stick game. Certainly if
Patrick Mahomes is out there, I don't think it matters
because you're this deep into the season. The result is
the only thing it matters. He's excited to play Kansas City.

Speaker 12 (01:06:18):
For us, we're.

Speaker 17 (01:06:18):
Excited to go and compete against a really good football team.
It's been good for a really long time.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
So for us, just.

Speaker 17 (01:06:25):
Go out and play good football. You know, we don't
make it bigger than what it is. It's our next game.
We understand the success that they've had and they've they've
earned it, like they've been really good. No matter if
it's defense, offense, special teams, whatever it takes to win
football games, they find a way to win in the
fourth quarter. So I'm excited for this matchup, Excited to

(01:06:45):
see our guys go out and compete.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Twelve seasons of Andy Reid coaching the Kansas City Chiefs
twelve the first three seasons with Alex Smith, they finished
second all three seasons, made the postseason twice, they turn
things over two years later, two more years of Alex,
and now these last seven with Mahomes. All of those

(01:07:08):
nine seasons, the last two with Alex, these seven with Mahomes,
they've won the division. They've already won the division again.
This year they might produce the best record that they've
ever had. They're thirteen and one. They have a couple
of fourteen win seasons, one with a sixteen game schedule,
one with a seventeen game schedule, and quite obviously, they've
won three Super Bowls and are trying to do something

(01:07:28):
nobody's ever done before in the NFL, win three consecutive
Super Bowls. Quick look back in your mind. Three the
last five super Bowl champions are the Chiefs. They've been
to the conference title game all six of the previous
six seasons. They've even been to an additional Super Bowl,
which they did not win. How do they stack up

(01:07:50):
the twenty twenty four Chiefs versus the previous six that
four Super Bowl visits, six trips to the conference championships
and three wins.

Speaker 5 (01:08:01):
Yeah, I guess I would have to go up and
down the teams, But I'm gonna say Initially, my thought
is this isn't the strongest one. I think they're more
built on defense. And this is because you know, you've
lost guys like Tyreek Hill. I mean, Isaiah Pacheco is
a good running back, but he's not extremely special. Travis
Kelcey is their best pass catcher right now, and he's

(01:08:21):
not extremely mobile. They're gonna win with defense, close games
and Patrick Mahomes making some magic. So even though they're
to me thirteen and one and they might end up
with the best record, I mean, they're so vulnerable. They
just to me, they probably don't stack up to a
couple of those teams that there were Super Bowl winners,
certainly ones with Tyreek Hill and more of a prime
Travis Kelcey.

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
Again, I could probably hit you with the points per
game and it might do a little better, but this
is so alarming, I'll just go with this. The first
of those six consecutive conference title game appearances, they spent
the regular season of just sixteen games, scoring five hundred
and sixty five points. Okay, they have three hundred and
twenty nine points so far this year.

Speaker 5 (01:09:01):
Okay, now, even with one extra game and three to
be played, I don't think they're going to get up
to that level. I don't think they're scoring two hundred
points in the next three weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
They had a top six scoring offense six consecutive years,
but last year they were fifteenth, this year their twelfth.
No time during those six years I just mentioned, did
they have a top five defense or even a top
ten defense in yards or top five in points each
of the last two years they have. They were second
last year, their fifth, this year. They are clearly everything

(01:09:32):
is there right in front of everybody's face.

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
They are totally different. It's almost a one to eighty.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
They can beat you by making plays on offense, but
they're not going to beat you because you can't stop
their offense.

Speaker 3 (01:09:45):
That's what they used to be.

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
Right, They're just not imposing their will offensively as much.
And because of the things that we mentioned that I
think they had a stronger offensive line back in those years,
and then the.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
Super Bowl they had to reach up. They said, this
offensive line is now.

Speaker 5 (01:10:00):
Both tackles, starting tackles were hurt in that Super Bowl
against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Tom Brady.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
Got in next, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith and everything
was fine.

Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
Yeah, well, yeah, so they've they've retooled, they're more of it.
I think of them more as a defensive team, and
they're just gonna they're gonna find kind of what Demiko
Ryan's kind of said there. They find a way to win,
whether it's offense, whether it's defense, whether it's special teams,
blocking kicks, whatever. They're very well coached with Andy Reid,
and I don't think it's an accident. I saw this
was like a graphic a couple of weeks ago. It

(01:10:31):
was like quarterbacks with the best records in one score games.
It was everybody you could think of, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady,
Pat Mahomes in that basically in that category with win
percentage in one score games. Pat Mahomes, He's that dude.
He's one of the greatest of all time to me
at this point, probably inarguably top five or six, whatever

(01:10:52):
you want to put them, if you were getting Johnny
you or I don't know, Sid Luckman in the mix
or whatever, But I mean Patrick Mahomes all time.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
Great.

Speaker 5 (01:11:00):
We'll see if he plays this week. I'll stick with
saying that he's not going to. We'll see, Yeah, we
will see. Eight and four uh, that can't be right.
Seven and four, I believe, is what the Texans record
is in one score games this year.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
Obviously all with c J. Stroud. The two lopsided.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Wins eleven games, yeah, A two lopsided wins against Cooper
Rush and Drake may Hey win wins, yeah, and one
lopsided loss against Sam Darnold and the Vikings. The other
games have all been relatively close, and they would all
categorize as one score games.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
The last game was an eight point margin. That is
a one score game. Yes, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
The Chiefs have been in a few and remember last year.
So if you're at seven and four this year, that's good.
It's not unreal, but it's it's good. Seven times out
of eleven that's pretty good. It's it's really similar to
what they were a year ago when they just they
won a lot of close games.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
They must not be good.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
Well, if you're gonna tell me, Pat mahomes is, it's
not a fluke. And I know that record is a
little bit higher, it's a little more top shelf, but
the Texans win a significant majority of their one score games.

Speaker 3 (01:12:05):
It's not a fluke. I think we're on the same page.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
C J.

Speaker 3 (01:12:08):
Stroud.

Speaker 5 (01:12:09):
Oh, it's also by the way they they play not
to lose when they give up, so they're up three
scores and then Demiko Ryans then then and Bobby Slogan
they run three times in punt. The other team comes
back to make it a one score game, even though
they're probably never in danger.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
Seven and three last year, seven and four this year,
So fourteen and seven over the last two seasons, thirteen
and seven with CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
Because one of those was a case Keenum victory. Yeah,
that's true. He beat the Titans last case go brother,
Yeah he won that.

Speaker 5 (01:12:39):
What they score like nineteen points in that game or
something like that for nineteen points, Okay, So yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:12:43):
He'll get a playoff sheer again this year. That's good.
I'm happy. I'm on board with it. We'll hear a
little bit more from Demiico Ryans.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
You mentioned Andy Reid, one of the greatest coaches ever,
a relationship of course between those two Demiico Ryans and
Andy Reid. A couple of other things from both Tomiico
and c J. Stroud still to come. A couple reminders
along the way today, especially when as we get to
the five o'clock hour.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
I mentioned this yesterday. I need two more winners today.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
Later on this show in the five o'clock hour, I'll
set you up with a pair of tickets to go
see the Cougars play basketball Wednesday night, and one of
our four winners from yesterday and today.

Speaker 3 (01:13:15):
It gets an upgrade. Sit courtside with the yours, truly.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:13:24):
Yet is write this to Triloje Bubbie get into bad boom.
We rolling with the A team.

Speaker 17 (01:13:28):
Adam Westland, Adam Clinton right now, let's go.

Speaker 18 (01:13:31):
Two Adams for the price one on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Figure there would be a major move made in the
near future that has happened a former Let's see what
I'm trying to determine how to describe him. I almost
want to sit on this news for another thirty three
minutes till it's four to twenty in the afternoon. Yeah,
you go ahead and tell the people that the New

(01:13:59):
York Yankees have added a very significant offensive contributor to
their lineup.

Speaker 5 (01:14:06):
Per reports, it's codes. Hey man, Aaron, they stole that
MVP from you, bro. Unbelievable man, what they did? Cheaters, man,
bunch of cheaters. Yeah, codes will fit right in with
the Yankees.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Corney reports Cody Bellinger has been traded away from Kyle
Tucker's team to Garrett Cole's team.

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
Yes, and now he is a New York Yankee.

Speaker 5 (01:14:33):
Jeff Passon Cody Bellinger and cash go to the Yankees
for right handed reliever Cody Potit.

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
That's it seems light.

Speaker 5 (01:14:44):
That seems very light. I guess they wanted out how
much cash did end up going over there?

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Then he had a nice little option on his contract
which he chose to exercise. I believe that's interesting to
say the least. That's additional payroll, even though there's there's
some money.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
Involved one Cody for another. Are they they're out? This
is it?

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
They don't need anything else. They're out of the Alex
Bregman sweepstakes?

Speaker 15 (01:15:13):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:15:16):
Maybe maybe that is that is convincing.

Speaker 5 (01:15:19):
Maybe not, I would say they would still be Let's
I mean, I guess so, I mean any cash that
they sent, well, you're picking up let's see what is it?
I was pulling up Cody Bellinger? Is it twenty seven
and a half million? That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
Okay, So I don't know where they put that they're
twenty seven million. Yes, that's a lot of money option
for the following.

Speaker 5 (01:15:38):
All right, so Alex Bregman, you are a Boston Red Sock.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
They spirl zero dollars on one Sodo. It gets correct
two and eighteen million dollars to Max Freed.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
They already have Stanton, Judge and Cole as three hundred
million dollar contract players. Yes, and now they're adding for
this year seven and a half or so on their payroll.

Speaker 3 (01:16:03):
They can spend more money. Go ahead, I mean it's
the Yankees. We replaced one Soda with just one offensive player.
I would never count them out. I wouldn't either know.
We joke a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
I don't think this means they're out by any means,
but they are adding a player who's probably there. I
wouldn't imagine they anticipate twenty five home runs from Cody
Bellinger probably, and he immediately is the best outfielder on
their roster, no matter where they put him.

Speaker 3 (01:16:31):
Yes, ye defensively yes.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
And Aaron Judge, despite the he dropped the ball in
the very important swing the season into over mode the
New York Yankees when he and Garrett Cole combined to say, ah,
there's five nothing leads for the Birds.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
Get us out of here. Let's end this thing today tonight.
And they did.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
Yeah, he's their best defensive outfielder and one Soda is
a terrible defensive outfielder. But Bellinger should if I mean,
if I were the Yankees, I would bat him in
the very same spot I put Wan Soto. The best
way to get the most out of him really is
to bat him in front of Aaron Judge.

Speaker 5 (01:17:08):
Ah, I guess I'd have to look at well. I mean,
I have Cody's Bellingers on base third three twenty five
last year.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
It's not he's not one so too in any way
and that, but he did nobody is. He did cut
his strikeout numbers down tremendously over the last two years.

Speaker 5 (01:17:23):
Yeah, I mean he was up to Yeah, how did
he have an ops plus of forty four and eighty
one and then he bounced back to one thirty nine,
one eleven.

Speaker 14 (01:17:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
The twenty one and twenty two seasons were outrageous. It
was almost like, well, I guess that's it. That's an
unplay He was an unplayable comodity. Yes, And then the
last two years he's been perfectly fine, sing pretty good. Yeah,
helped the Yankees ops plus and probably about one twenty three,
one twenty four the last two years and ops of

(01:17:52):
well into the eight hundreds.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
That's a pretty good ad. You're good. Whoever your terrible
leadoff hitter is.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
Yeah, Cody Bellinger, Yes, Aaron Judge, Gione Carlo for ninety
nine games, He'll send the other sixty three.

Speaker 3 (01:18:07):
Andy Bolpi. You're good.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
You just need people to fill out the rest of
your roster. Hmmm, you don't need a third baseman.

Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
You're good. Wait wait a minute, wait, wait wait? Was
it you who had a gut feeling.

Speaker 5 (01:18:19):
I did have a gut feeling it was going to
be the Yankees for Alex Bragman, Yes, who picked up.
I also had a gut feeling that Pat Mahomes is
going to play, and we got some news on that.

Speaker 3 (01:18:27):
I don't think that's going to happen either. I mean
said that it was.

Speaker 5 (01:18:30):
I said he wasn't going to play, and I think
I'm going to be wrong there based on what we
just saw recently with that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:35):
Yeah, we heard a little bit from Mahomes. They did
also the Chiefs now that they have practiced. I released
their injury report and he's on it. He's listed as
a full participant. Yes, so that's you know, it seems
like reasonably good news if you want him to play,
I know you want to be both right and not
see him play against the Texas.

Speaker 5 (01:18:55):
That'd be great if I could hit that trifecta, I
mean not trifecta, if I could hit the exacta. What
is it not the quinella? Which one's the quanella? Which
one's the We'll go with the exacta.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
And he's a He's a human He's not running on
a track. He's not trying to.

Speaker 5 (01:19:08):
Okay, he's a human being. But uh yeah, I mean
I guess he And that's of course the other factor
of this that I don't know how severely he was
hurt with the ankle injury. There was no real reason
at the end of that game to put him back
in so sounds like it's pretty mild if he was
a full participant in practice today, which is what he
and rap report is reporting.

Speaker 2 (01:19:26):
Yeah, and they're in a not an enviable position. It's
the best position they could have hoped for without a
win against Buffalo. If they'd beaten Buffalo, earlier this year,
they they'd be over, they'd be the number one seed,
that would be all wrapped up.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
They'd also be undefeated.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
So then we could ask that really awesome question, should
they play their play, Should they go for the unprecedented
seventeen and o season? But now we don't have to No,
but with a two game lead, the idea that the
Bills aren't going to lose again, and they probably will not.
They can't even put him away this week. If both
teams win, they would go into next Wednesday's game for

(01:19:58):
them and the weekend game for the Bills to try
to at least ensure they get the number one seed.
And you know, just taking yourself inside their thought process,
they did. They were eleven and six last year, they
played road playoff games. Last year, they won the Super
Bowl last year.

Speaker 3 (01:20:12):
They're not afraid of it. They know they can win
doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:15):
They've also played a Buffalo team this year that beat them,
and likely your path now would go through Buffalo. How
much would you weigh into that when you're trying to decide, again,
we don't know the true health, but when you're trying
to decide, when do I stop playing him or do
I play him at all.

Speaker 5 (01:20:30):
Yeah, I mean it obviously depends on how I mean,
how close he is to playing. And if you're this
early in the week and he's listed as a full
participant in practice, participant in practice, sounds like he's pretty close.
And funny enough, we were talking about the Vegas spread
went it's already moved. It's already moved three and a
half points. It went from Texans minus one to Kansas
City minus two and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
So a full participant in a light practice, first practice
of the week has moved it.

Speaker 3 (01:20:56):
You said, it's to three and a half. Two and
a half, Yeah, three and a half point move.

Speaker 5 (01:21:00):
It's gone from Texans minus one to Kansas City minus
two and a half. The total has already gone up
two points. It went from thirty nine and a half
to forty one and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
Now and if minutes hypothetically and maybe you want to
play with mt Bucks, what would you do with them?

Speaker 3 (01:21:15):
Based on that information? Chiefs in the over got feeling
right now.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Do you have cold weather concerns for your warm weather Texans?
Not necessarily, I don't think so. As long as it's
not awful, fine, I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
Yeah, it's fine. I think it would be fine. I feel
the same way.

Speaker 5 (01:21:38):
I don't factor I don't think it would factor in
too much. I guess I can go up and down
the roster and see where everybody's from. Well, yeah, I
mean that's kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:21:44):
Is silly. It's can you throw the play in Ohio? Yeah?
I believe it will be cold.

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
I don't believe they're anticipating, at least as of Tuesday,
snow afternoon Saturday in Kansas City, not currently on the
on the radar, there pretty huge game before we get
to Sunday Broncos Chargers. That's the Thursday night game goes
a long way towards determining which of those teams gets
a better scene or even if they both get in.
Of course, Saturday's games we've talked a lot about. We

(01:22:11):
will continue doing that. John Alexander will also join US
beat writer for the Texans. Coming up later this hour.

Speaker 9 (01:22:18):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (01:22:25):
Two.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
Lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams series.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
Two hours in two hours still to come here on
the A Team Adam Wexler here with you. Adam Clinton
on vacation. Dan Matthews also with you and appreciate Ross
View Reale hanging with us in extra two hours today
spend an hour of my time with him on The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross he put in full six.

Speaker 3 (01:22:58):
I've got another couple to go.

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
John Alexander, the beat writer for the Houston Texans over
the Houston Chronicle, wrapping up his work over at their
facility from earlier today. A couple of visits with a
couple of players at the podium, a little locker room
availability practice, and he will be joining us here in
studio a little bit later on this hour, hopefully in
the next fifteen to twenty minutes, so likely sometime next segment.

(01:23:23):
We'll definitely get into what's the story with a few
players a little bit of a question mark around them
for where the Texans coming up this week, Joe Mixon
among them, and we'll see what the injury report looks
like and get a chance to hear a little bit
from what CJ. Stroud had to say today and give
you a little bit more of what Demiko was discussing today.
Just gave you the news from the Chiefs that a

(01:23:43):
full participant is how Pat Mahomes was listed at their
practice today.

Speaker 3 (01:23:48):
You also heard him say that the ankle injury was
not as bad as.

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
Some previous issues he's had, and I think that was
also kind of the feeling coming out of the game,
based on what they saw after there was no reason
for him to go back into the game. He also
described the fact of what is on the line here
versus what might be on the line later on in
the season when they're playing postseason football, as he has
in the past, playing through an injury like that one

(01:24:12):
that was probably more severe. They want to win, He
wants to play, They want the number one seed. They'd
love to finish sixteen and one. Not the end of
the world though, if they don't and get to the
playoffs with a healthy, healthy Pat Mahomes at quarterback. A
team without a healthy Pat Mahomes at quarterback doesn't really
matter what their record is or where they're playing. That's
the biggest hit to their chances they could possibly take.

(01:24:35):
Where they're playing with Mahomes, Kansas City or somewhere else.
As long as Mahomes is out there, they have a
really good pop opportunity. Whether they're in Buffalo in Houston,
which is not even a possibility anymore. So I will
scratch that they're at thirteen to one. The Texans only
have nine wins. They cannot catch them. Texans can catch
either of the other two teams still, and that they

(01:24:58):
are only three games back of the Bills. Mathematically they
could catch them for the number two seed, but that's
not going to happen even if the Texans go three
and I do not think the Bills will help them
out by losing multiple times in order for the Texans
to catch them. Even if they're tied, the Texans do
have the tiebreaker in the fact that they've beaten them.
The Steelers, though a very very different story. The Steelers

(01:25:19):
and Ravens a very very different story. There's so many
different matchups that are still on the schedule for those
two teams and even the wild card teams that are
impactful for all of them the rest of the way,
other than the Steelers getting a victory on Saturday, which
cleans up some of that Steelers victory over the Ravens
on Saturday gives the Steelers the division title. That game

(01:25:42):
is in Baltimore, and Baltimore lost to the Steelers already.
That's why it is a clinching scenario for Pittsburgh, two
game lead, two games to play, won both games against them,
case closed, they would win the division. Texans, with a
win of their own, would stay just a game behind
the Steelers. Some other tie breaking scenarios would play out
over the final two weeks. But it's also about where

(01:26:04):
are the Texans matched up against for that opening round
you're gonna have to get through Baltimore? Possibly, would you
prefer if that game is here? Regardless, we'll go ahead
and just do what you.

Speaker 3 (01:26:16):
Need to do beat them.

Speaker 2 (01:26:18):
If you beat Baltimore, the idea that the Texans and
Ravens are playing in Baltimore is almost zero, almost zero.
If they meet in the playoffs at any point, it
wouldn't guarantee that the Ravens are a wildcard team, and
it wouldn't guarantee that they can't win their division, but
it would increase the chances tremendously that if in fact
you met at some point in the postseason, you're gonna

(01:26:40):
do it in Houston, whether you've passed them as a
division winner and you're three and they're four, or your
three or four and they just happen to be a
team coming through as a wildcard team or eventually maybe
even a wildcard winner. And when you look at what remains,
Texans have Chiefs, Ravens, Titans, Titans. Obviously they have no
impact of their own other than where they're going to draft,

(01:27:03):
and there's still two teams with two wins, one fewer
than Tennessee has. The Ravens finish their season with the
game obviously Saturday against the Steelers. They come here to
take on Houston, and then they finish up with the
going Nowhere Browns. Steelers lost to the Eagles last week
and this is an extremely difficult final four, maybe the

(01:27:24):
most difficult in the league. They lost at the Eagles.
Obviously this Saturday, they're going to Baltimore. They do close
with two home games, but if the Chiefs haven't clinched
and Mahomes is available to play, well, that's their opponent
in Week seventeen, and the Chiefs, if they have somebody
to play for, will probably beat the Steelers in my opinion,
in that game, and then based on how things shake

(01:27:45):
out for the Chargers and the Broncos, the final game
of the season for the Steelers against the Bengals could be.
With the Bengals still alive for the postseason, the Bengals
are only six and eight, but if the Bengals win
their final three games, the Browns, the Broncos, and that
Steelers game I mentioned, that game could mean something to Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:28:07):
Not out of the question.

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
The Pittsburgh Steelers finished the season l L L L,
and all of a sudden, they are in the wildcard
group and Baltimore has won the division, or they are
the four seed of the division winners. Again, losing to
Baltimore as one of those el's probably means Baltimore would
win the division. But even after this week, other than
the clinching scenario for the Steelers of their division, that

(01:28:30):
would mean all four division winners have been put in place.
It's just a matter of where they finish in the seating.
We would know all those things after this week, and
there's a bunch of other clinching scenarios for another five
or six teams, but it's not likely we're gonna know
much about who's five, who's six, who's seven. Obviously, the
Texans will play either five or six as a division champion.

(01:28:51):
At three or four, yes, outside outside, outside, chance of
finishing second and landing the worst of the qualified wild
card teams. But that's all we know at this point
in time. Mentioned the Texans hit the podium today and
open up their locker room as they usually do throughout
the week. Demiko Ryans and CJ Stroud at the podium

(01:29:13):
this week mentioned we hear a little bit more from Demico.
We'll save a little bit of time here and get
to CJ later. We were talking about the offensive line.
Ross and I there as a possibility that Kenyan Green
could be activated this week, could come off of ir
if healthy, certainly would open the door for them to
make a change on the offensive line, and Ross and
I agree that would seem unwise based on the performance

(01:29:36):
of the five that they had out there this last week.
I do think the Chiefs Chiefs are more challenging than
the Dolphins. I do think Syler and Robinson are probably
pretty underrated on the Dolphins defensive line. Because the Dolphins
only have twenty eight sacks this year, four of which
came Sunday against the Texans. They're among the fewest the
team with the fewest sacks on the season. As a defense,

(01:29:57):
it's a little bit different story with a top five
defense that the chief spring obviously Chris Jones, Carlaftus and
the others that are on their front, but Titus Howard
moved to the inside played left guard. This is what
Demiko Ryans had to say about the fit for Titus
sliding inside and for.

Speaker 3 (01:30:14):
Titus moving inside.

Speaker 17 (01:30:15):
You first off is, you know, thankful to him for
making that move and transition. As you mentioned, he's been
in there before, so it's not totally new to him.
Just things happened a lot quicker on the inside than
the outside.

Speaker 8 (01:30:28):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:30:29):
You know, Titus has that power in size to.

Speaker 17 (01:30:31):
Handle the big rushers on the inside, so he's you know,
I think he's a really good fit for being in there.
Is just understanding how quickly those games and things happen.
Where you have a little more space on the outside,
you have more space, a little bit more time in
the inside, just have to have quicker reaction time.

Speaker 2 (01:30:50):
Seemed like all those things were in place, and I
don't think it was a perfect day. The last sack
of the game when the Texans tried to put the
game away on offense on third down and called a
pass play knowing that the obviously the clock is a
factor there. I liked the fact that they tried to
win the game with that play. You succeed, you convert
on third down, the game's over. You win the game

(01:31:10):
with that play call if it works. I didn't really
have much of a chance to work considering I think,
and I watched it a few times. One of their
offensive linemen made their block, Laramie Tunsel made his block,
and the other four players saw multiple Dolphins get through
rather easily, and obviously the play was blown up and

(01:31:31):
that was the fourth sack of the game.

Speaker 3 (01:31:32):
It did not work out very well.

Speaker 2 (01:31:34):
I don't think there was a rash of miscommunications. What's
hurt the Texans interier more than anything else all year
is games and stunts put together by defensive coordinators and
executed by their front four.

Speaker 3 (01:31:45):
They were full by it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
A couple of times or a couple of instances where
a player came almost completely unblocked. But for the most part,
if you graded off of this game versus their previous thirteen,
or maybe against their previous four after the Patterson and
Scrugs Mason trio of interior alignment was put in place,
it wasn't much different. It wasn't back to when they

(01:32:06):
were at their worst, when they were playing weekly with CJ.
Stroud facings forty four percent pressures forty seven percent pressures
an eight SAT game. They've played much better than that
recently and again over the course of the game against
the Dolphins. Just you know, watch it as an unfolded
or if you've gone back and watched it the I

(01:32:27):
would say at the least the majority of the dropbacks,
the pass plays, he had time. He had time to
scan the field, he had time to time to go
through second and third reads. He also was able to
buy time. Both of the touchdown passes to Nico Collins
were plays where he was on the move after initially
having time in the pocket and then obviously realizing that

(01:32:48):
only for so long can these guys hold on to
these blocks and keep guys from the pocket, he was
able to move quite freely. I thought throughout most of
the game. Ran into a couple of hits, but there's
only so many places go. One of those hits was
not even a sack. When he was able to strength
his way through would be sacked and made the completion
of Tank Dell on that third and three. So all

(01:33:09):
things considered, if there was only a pass fail to
be offered on the Texans offensive line on a weekly basis.

Speaker 3 (01:33:17):
They passed.

Speaker 2 (01:33:18):
They passed against the Dolphins, and most of the games played,
probably since the Kenyan Green exit due to injury permanently
before he's now returned from he's at his practice window.
But most of those games I think they've been passes.
They were heavy, heavy fails. When your head coach is
coming out after games or during the week and saying

(01:33:40):
we've got to be able to operate, well, yeah, they
could not operate their offense because their offensive line just
simply was not able to provide him time to throw
a CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:33:50):
Strada regression. We can talk about it all you want.

Speaker 2 (01:33:52):
But if you don't have any time to throw, that's
an offensive regression and a major issue which hopefully the
team has pushed past. We'll see, and again I don't
think they're likely to make a significant change on the
offensive line, even if there is an available Kenyan Green.
We shall see, and hopefully the injury report will shed
a little bit of light on that. Much more still coming.

(01:34:15):
Little bit of Astros talk coming.

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
Up the A team on Sports Talk StepN ninety back
to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler the eighteam.

Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
It's a Tuesday afternoon edition of the eighteen wex here
with you Dan as well John Alexander of the Chronicle
covering the Texans who would be with us shortly? Plenty
of conversation about that football team that's headed to Kansas
City for the game against the Chiefs. With that line
shifting in the Chiefs favor earlier this afternoon, if you
had not heard Pat Mahomes listed as a full participant,

(01:34:57):
that was enough for Vegas lodsmakers to shift them into
favorite status about a three and a half point shift,
so a slight favorite Kansas City Chiefs heading into this weekend.
I mentioned as we hit the break little Astros commentary
for this segment off of the news Cody Bellinger is

(01:35:17):
no longer a Chicago Cubs outfield or a report from
Jeff Passon and now others that he's headed to the
New York Yankees to help their offense and defense seem
like there was much coming in return a right handed
pitcher heading back to the Chicago Cubs. It does save
the Cubs some money because of the near thirty million
dollars that Cody Bellinger was set to make and the

(01:35:40):
seventeen twenty million dollars maybe that Kyle Tucker will make
on the last year of club control arbitration, if that's
where they're headed, although reportedly he's willing to listen to
the Chicago Cubs about a possible contract extension.

Speaker 3 (01:35:56):
Saw that report earlier today.

Speaker 2 (01:35:58):
Kyle Tucker, coupled, days after the Astros made it official
traded him to the Chicago Cubs, has hit social media
thanking the Houston fans. He writes on Instagram at k
Tuck Underscore thirty. Thank you Houston for all the love
and support you've shown me and my family over the years.
Having had the opportunity to play in front of you

(01:36:19):
alongside my teammates has been some of the best times
of my life and I appreciate everything you have given us,
Signed King Tuck, Thank you Houston. In the video with
a montage of some of his finest work, some of
his very very underrated Bat flips. Bat flips in disgust
sometimes and if Bat doesn't go his way, probably not

(01:36:42):
a part of this video, but Bat flips when he's
had a good, long, meaningful at bat, and he tosses
the toothpick away that he was using to hook up
his teammates with a big hit. Astros have posted their
response to it, King Tuck Forever, and that pretty much
does it on the Kyle Tucker era until June twenty seventh,

(01:37:04):
when hopefully a healthy Tucker not looking for the Astros
to lose but be.

Speaker 3 (01:37:08):
Nice if he was able to play.

Speaker 2 (01:37:10):
We've seen George Springer come back to Houston in a
little bit different shape with the Blue Jays on occasion.
But Kyle Tucker and the Chicago Cubs will make their
first and only visit to dyke In Park, which it
will be called at that time June twenty seventh, twenty eighth,
and twenty ninth of the upcoming season, neighborhood of halfway
through the season, be very interesting to see where those

(01:37:33):
two teams sit in their respective standings. I would bet
you both teams are in very similar situations. I think
the Astros will be in a fight for the division,
probably on the outside looking in if they were in
a wild card position of claiming one of those spots.
I think the Cubs will probably be pretty similar. The

(01:37:53):
Cubs were in the wildcard race most of the year.
They made a couple of other moves, and obviously this
is the big one. If you were listening earlier on
the Sho Show, I said something that might not come true.

Speaker 3 (01:38:02):
That's why it's a good feeling.

Speaker 2 (01:38:04):
Kyle Tucker to finish in the top three in the
National League in MVP voting, playing his possible one and
only season with Chicago. If Shoheo Tani also gets back
on the mound this year, he's probably gonna win the
MVP again. He won it without pitching last year, and
he was unbelievable in an unbelievable lineup where he's got

(01:38:25):
Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts in his lineup and both
batting behind him. I assume Dave Roberts would do the
same again this year. Yes, a heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy favorite.
Juan Soto back in the National League. He's a New
York met If I told you those are the top
three finishers for America or National League MVP, I.

Speaker 3 (01:38:45):
Could see it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:46):
A bunch of other National leaguers that probably have a
say in it, especially those that finished in the top
five through ten last year.

Speaker 3 (01:38:53):
But that's a bold prediction. All for it would love
to see it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:56):
He is not an astro for one of those reasons,
then he wants to go out there and show that
he's worth a lot of money. I would be really, really,
really really surprised if this is the player the Cubs
designed to go pretty far outside their comfort zone and sign.
I know they've had a couple of long term deals,
but I don't think anything like this before. Despite how

(01:39:18):
much money the ownership group essentially has always had, no
matter which ownership group it's been, they don't usually get
into the stratosphere and they're not usually in play for
players that they know are gonna be stars and they
have to let go or that they need to be
in the market for.

Speaker 3 (01:39:33):
We shall see.

Speaker 2 (01:39:34):
But getting a contract signed for seven hundred and sixty
five million is Scott Boris did with Juan Soto. The
numbers aren't that far apart. He's not twice as good
as Kyle Tucker, not even close.

Speaker 3 (01:39:47):
I don't know how.

Speaker 2 (01:39:48):
Many teams would be bidding, so it does impact what
the winning bidder would offer Kyle Tucker. But if it
starts with a three, that sounds right. If it starts
with a four, it's still probably believable. In the nine
figure range. Three hundred million dollar player, Bryce Harper, like Trout,
Trey Turner, you know, Corey Seeger three hundred and twenty

(01:40:10):
five million over ten years. Isn' Kyle Tucker as good
as those players? And these are a couple of years
ago that each one of those contracts I mentioned was signed.
He's a better player than gian Carlo Stanton, and probably,
in my opinion, was when Stanton got that deal from
the Marlins, a big home run hitter, pretty much awful
and everything else, and that's been the story of his
entire career. He got three hundred million dollars. He's not

(01:40:33):
Iron Judge, He's not Won Soto, he's not Shoheo Tani. Offensively.
That list of who he's not offensively probably has only
one more player on it, and that's the player he's
leaving here in Houston, yard On Alvarez. Alvarez would be
considered a better offensive player than Tucker, but he's probably
not gonna play much defense this year, So in terms

(01:40:53):
of how you can help your team, I don't expect
jord On Alvarez to have anywhere near the number of
starts he had in the outfield this year. In year one,
with Joe Aspata. I didn't really have a problem with it.
I always thought he could have and probably should have
played more. But after another year of wondering when the
next injury is coming and what's the next thing that's
gonna put him on the sidelines, I think they're probably

(01:41:15):
past that. And this year, of almost every year they've
been in this situation, they're.

Speaker 3 (01:41:20):
The least equipped to handle that.

Speaker 2 (01:41:23):
Playing him at DH nearly every day is not a
good thing for the Astros. They don't have a single
outfielder right now. If Jordan's not in the outfield, who's
in left, Ratio, who's in center?

Speaker 3 (01:41:39):
Jake, who's in right? Chazz?

Speaker 2 (01:41:42):
Those are bodies, Those are Astros, Those are players under contract.
But if that's your starting and regular outfield or any
extended period.

Speaker 3 (01:41:52):
Of time, it's one of the worst outfields in baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:41:54):
Chas McCormick would have to go back to the pre
twenty twenty three version, and even that wouldn't carry what
you like have offensively with the other du Mauricio Dubon
is extremely valuable, but not as an everyday player, but
much more so as a guy who fills in all
the gaps comes through when necessary useful off of the
bench because of his ability to control his bats the

(01:42:14):
way he does, and at some point the hope on
Jake Myers will be determined one way or the other.
The Astros keep hoping that there's more there. Offensively, he's
a deserved finalist for centerfield Gold Glove in the American League.
He's awesome out in the field, even with a way
below average arm, just an elite fielder of the baseball
in center field, one of the best, clearly. But he

(01:42:37):
can't hit. He does not hit with any regularity. He's
got too many downturns. He strikes out a little bit
too much, and that in your everyday lineup can be problematic,
to say the least. The Astros certainly shouldn't be done.
They don't have to be spending big and I don't
even know that there's many players they would really be
in for other than Alex Bragman, who is still unsigned.

(01:42:57):
Still don't really believe there's been any real conversation or
thoughts about making Pete Alnzo on Astro have not heard
anything of any consequence about them being in on Christian Walker,
even though it makes sense. Hurt a little bit more
of a rumble than a report of the Astros and
Anthony Santander being potential mates at some point in the

(01:43:17):
very near future, but definitely something that probably, I again
think all this stuff we should be clearing itself up
in the very near future. I think the Cody Bellinger
deal might impact the Yankees thinking, which then impacts the
Bregmant situation. If they're true bidders for Alex Bregman, they
can go ahead and finish off their off season and

(01:43:38):
just take care of business, sign Alex Bregman and move
on or acknowledged to Scott Boris that there's a threshold
for them, and then go ahead and call it a
day and have the Tigers, the Astros, the Red Sox,
and maybe a mystery team Cubs, Diamondbacks, somebody like that
is the kind of last remaining standing Philadelphia probably worth
mentioning as a mystery team as well, And then you

(01:43:59):
can get down to, Okay, the Astros did not resign Bregmant,
what is it that they're going to do. A team
that trades Kyle Tucker does not resign Alex Bregman. Probably
not big on competing a whole lot this year, but
that's if they don't do anything else. So hopefully that
is not the case and that's not what we're doing.

(01:44:21):
We'll see if that is, in fact, how it plays out.
Their first game isn't for a while, if you didn't notice,
it's many many many months away before they even get
to spring training or obviously get involved with what's going
to be taking place this upcoming regular season went again
the Mets visit the Astros to open up the season
and get a full report on what's going down with

(01:44:42):
the Texans as they report for practice earlier today, light
as it might be, would expect the Wednesday and Thursday
practice to probably be very very similar to that as
they prepare for the second game in three days on Saturday,
and then the third game in three days coming up
the following Wednesday, just after Santa Claus has gone back

(01:45:03):
up through the chimney and gone on to the next house.
Hopefully for you and yours, we'll do all that with
John Alexander. He joins us in studio next to talk
a little Texans, of course, the Texans beat writer for
the Houston Chronicle. He joins us next here in studio,
live and alive here on the.

Speaker 9 (01:45:19):
Eighteen the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:45:25):
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Speaker 9 (01:45:33):
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Speaker 19 (01:46:30):
Hey, it's Craig Afford four Great listen to the Home
of the Rockets on yours smart speaker.

Speaker 1 (01:46:36):
Just ask hey Google play Sports Talk seven ninety on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 18 (01:46:42):
This is Adam and Adamsweekly chumped through mind barckling moments
that make you Goday, What what?

Speaker 5 (01:46:52):
What? Tag?

Speaker 10 (01:46:55):
Tag?

Speaker 1 (01:46:55):
What is dear?

Speaker 10 (01:46:56):
What are you talking about? Man?

Speaker 3 (01:46:57):
On a Tuesday?

Speaker 9 (01:47:00):
Did I tell you?

Speaker 10 (01:47:02):
Now?

Speaker 9 (01:47:02):
Say what?

Speaker 2 (01:47:05):
Before we get to our signature segment, which is say
what here on Sports Talk seven ninety, have to welcome
in our guests, John Alexander, who I'm sure sees the well.

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
Dan is taking care of it for you. Turn the
mike on for you. It's good you're on.

Speaker 2 (01:47:20):
John Alexander of the Houston Chronicle joining us here in studio.
Gonna spend a couple of segments with us. We'll get
to say what. Like I said momentarily but briefly, as
you get into the middle of this stretch of three
games for the Texans, what it seemed like life was
like over at the Texans facility this afternoon.

Speaker 20 (01:47:39):
Yeah, you know, they're playing this game with only six
days of rest, which is a little bit less normal
and they're gonna be playing against, you know, one of
the better teams in the league. Can't say Chiefs, who
have thirteen and one record, and you know they're trying
to get their bodies right. You know, Joe Mason was
a top conversation because he obviously suffered that that ankle
injury from the hip drop tackle Jordan Brooks. But he

(01:48:01):
says he's going to play. And I think that's the
biggest team because I think when you look at what
the Texans and how they build their offense, the focal
point of their offense, that identity is a running game
and it's through Joe Mixon and the fact that he's
going to play is a really good time because this
is a game that I believe is a litmus test
for the Texans because the Chiefs obviously will be in

(01:48:22):
the playoffs and there'll be a team that Texan probably
have to face in January.

Speaker 2 (01:48:25):
If you're unfamiliar with Joe Mixon's work this year away
from NRG Stadium where they will be Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium,
he ran for one hundred yards against the Jaguars and
had a touchdown they were in Dallas. Before that, he
ran for one hundred and nine yards, had three touchdowns.
There are the Jets on Halloween Nights, he ran for

(01:48:45):
one hundred and six yards and had a touchdown. They
were in Green Bay. Before that, he ran for one
hundred and fifteen yards, had two touchdowns. They were in
New England. He ran four one hundred and two yards,
he had a touchdown. And they were in Indianapolis to
open up the season. He ran for one hundred and
fIF fifty nine yards and a touchdown. I could have
just told you he's run for one hundred yards or
more and at a rushing touchdown in every road game

(01:49:06):
he's ever played as a Houston Texan. That's essentially what
I'm telling you as they head into Kansas City this weekend.

Speaker 6 (01:49:13):
It's a real good observation.

Speaker 20 (01:49:15):
I didn't even realize that he just loves to play
at other people's home stadiums.

Speaker 6 (01:49:20):
Though.

Speaker 3 (01:49:20):
Yeah, they need him for sure, big time.

Speaker 2 (01:49:22):
So we want again to say what here, and then
we'll dive back into all the texts and stuff as
you spend a little time with us, say what is
just anything that's out there publicly social media, coaches, players,
whatever happens in the world of sports that you kind
of think about, Well, that's an interesting way to do things.
The Detroit Lions have been sitting atop the NFC for
quite some time. Their loss this past weekend, not only

(01:49:46):
the loss of the game, but their loss of another
three players to I are and possibly all three for
the remainder of the season, and the fact that the
Minnesota Vikings just won't go away. They haven't clinched much
of anything other than the postseason at this point in time.
They're head coach who should be more famous for the
work he's doing as their head coach on Sundays and

(01:50:08):
Mondays and Thursdays and Saturdays. He's still pretty popular for
what he says when he's at the podium or when
he makes a radio appearance, which he did earlier today.
Cut it up into four parts so we could set
it all up and enjoy it as much as possible,
talking about their situation, not being too concerned, using his
typical fiery censored now language. Here's some of what Dan

(01:50:33):
Campbell had to say on Detroit radio.

Speaker 8 (01:50:35):
You know what happens is, you know, you win eleven
in a row, you know, and you lose and then
a sky falls and I hate to say it, but
we're not going to be able to win eleven in
a row again for the rest of the season.

Speaker 9 (01:50:46):
We're just not going to.

Speaker 8 (01:50:47):
Be able to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:50:48):
Pretty soft setup from Dan. Everything sounds normal. He's being
very clear and literal. We don't have eleven games left
on the schedule. We can't win eleven in a row again.
I mean, they scored four forty two points. They just
had an eleven game winning streak. It's not all bad.
Jared Goff threw for four hundred and ninety four yards
and five touchdowns. Emma Rossa ain't Brown has had an

(01:51:09):
awesome season and he was incredible despite the fumble in
their game on Sunday, losing probably to the only team
that could have matched that, and they were playing for
behind most of the game. So I don't think he
truly believes the sky is falling, and I think everybody
will follow along with him with how well things have gone.

Speaker 3 (01:51:25):
He continued with.

Speaker 8 (01:51:26):
This, You know what happens is you get used to
eating file and I'm talking to all of us and
everything's good, life's good, you know, and but you forgot
what it was like when he had nothing in the
ah of molded bread, you know, and it was just fine,
and it gave you everything he needed.

Speaker 3 (01:51:42):
I didn't realize moldy bread would give you everything you needed.
It sounds like it's not giving you anything but illness.

Speaker 6 (01:51:48):
I don't want to have multi bread.

Speaker 2 (01:51:49):
But do you think they were into that? We're all
eating the Fallet's meaning we're kind of buying into how
awesome everyone's telling us we are, or why shouldn't they
We won eleven games in a row.

Speaker 20 (01:52:04):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, Dan Kimbell is great.
He's probably one of the greatest motivators. But they've been
great all season long, and unfortunately they've got hit by
the injury book.

Speaker 6 (01:52:15):
But I don't know what done.

Speaker 2 (01:52:16):
He wasn't done yet. Don't worry, there's one more. Dan
Campbell continuing on with this stream of consciousness.

Speaker 8 (01:52:22):
Sometimes you got to get punched in the mouth and
remember what it used to be like to really appreciate
where you are. And we'll do that. And so we
got a bad taste in our mouth. We got kicked
around the other day, we lost a few guys, and
you know what, it's exactly what we needed. This is
exactly what we needed. So we're gonna bounce back. We're
gonna respond. We got guys that are going about to
have an unbelievable opportunity here, and we will play the

(01:52:44):
game anyway needed to win. We still got a good offense.
We got plenty of defensive players. I can go round
them off right now. We're gonna put the best eleven
on the field. We're gonna freaking cut it loose.

Speaker 2 (01:52:55):
Sounds more like Dan's getting amped up again, like something
might be coming. He's not worried. We're not worried. It's
just what we needed needed to get punched in the mouth.
And the very first thing he mentioned was remember how
it used to be. Dan Campbell's first year, they had
their fourth consecutive season of finishing last in the division.
The last time they won the division before last year's

(01:53:18):
division championship was nineteen ninety three, nine years before the
Texans were even a franchise. The last time they won
a playoff game was two years prior to that. They
obviously won in the playoffs last year made it to
the conference side of the game, So a little quick
reminder that's what it used to be like. The franchise
known for only one thing, well two one losing and

(01:53:40):
two losing so much that the all time greatest players
in team history quit, Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson. He
closed with this final thought for the radio listeners.

Speaker 8 (01:53:52):
I don't give a craft that we got a win
by one point. For the rest of the year, That's
what we're gonna do, and I'm gonna be happy about it.
We come out of the game with fifty yards of
total offense and we win by one, You're going to
see smiles on my face, I promise you, all right.
If it's the other way defensively, we give up seven
hundred yards and we win by one point, you're going
to see a smile from my ear to ear, all right,

(01:54:14):
I can promise you. So we're gonna find a way
and we're gonna get it done.

Speaker 2 (01:54:19):
Players appreciate an authentic coach. He is that, Oh absolutely,
I respect it. He is Detroit, digging thing you can't
have but respect that. So there's thirty one other coaches
in the NFL. Most of them are authentic. Also, Demiko
is not ever going to do that in front of

(01:54:39):
the media on the microphone at the podium during a
radio interview here on this station. He's not, but that's
not him. Yeah, what if anything equates to because we
do now see pretty much every team when they win.
We see what they are like in the locker room
after the game. Dan Campbell and Dimiico Ryans in the
locker room after a win. Very very similar, very similar.

(01:55:02):
Dimiko is great with pointing out good things, calling on
guys to come up there. Couldn't quite get Derek Stingley
Junior to make a speech after he gave him a
game ball after their two interception performance and they'll win.
This last week will continue with this conversation. We'll actually
hear from Dimiico, hear from CJ, and John will share
more about what Joe Mixon had to say about.

Speaker 3 (01:55:22):
Yeah, this Saturday against the Chiefs, I'll tell you what's up.

Speaker 9 (01:55:28):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 21 (01:55:32):
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Speaker 3 (01:56:17):
Hey, this is Killer b Craig Vigia houck a Cree
thousand hit Plump.

Speaker 7 (01:56:21):
You've got Killer AI's in the afternoon though they have
three thousand less hits.

Speaker 3 (01:56:25):
Oh, we're having some fun.

Speaker 7 (01:56:27):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wesler on Sports Talk, continuing.

Speaker 2 (01:56:38):
The conversation here on the A team on a Tuesday afternoon,
a Wednesday for the Houston Texans as they have a
short week, so Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday is their normal Wednesday
Thursday Friday. As we get back into the conversation with
John Alexander's here in studio with us. As we continue
with talking about the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:56:58):
It was day one.

Speaker 2 (01:56:59):
You of course were over there for it, a day
where the podium visits include Demiko Ryans and CJ Stroud.

Speaker 3 (01:57:05):
They're from CJ in a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:57:06):
Most notably, I think seeing Joe Mixon attend practice as
light a day as it might be a padless and brief.

Speaker 3 (01:57:14):
That was one thing.

Speaker 2 (01:57:15):
He did share his thoughts on his availability for the
game on Saturday with you and the assembled media.

Speaker 6 (01:57:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:57:22):
So, I mean, I think that's the biggest thing, right
whether Joe Mixon is going to play and whether Patrick
Mahomes is going to play for the Chiefs. But Joe
Maxon said he's going to be out there. You know,
he didn't do much today, try to get into mental space,
but he's going to play through it because they feel
like these are important games for them.

Speaker 6 (01:57:39):
This is playoff football.

Speaker 20 (01:57:41):
They're going against two of the best teams the next
two weeks in the NFL, and they want to kind
of continue to prove really to themselves that they're good
enough to go far. Deep in December, asked Demiko Ryans
about it how important this game was, and he has
no question about whether he wants his started to play.

Speaker 6 (01:58:00):
So Jills is gonna, you know, fight through it.

Speaker 3 (01:58:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58:03):
I hope they're not in rest of these guys mode
just because they've locked up a division title. They aren't
locked into the four seed. They have an outside chance,
remote chance of being the two seed. They need a
little help from two awful football teams to have the
Bills lose multiple times, with them playing two games against
the Pats and a game against the Bills. Joe Mixon
in his own words about his availability for Saturday against

(01:58:26):
the Chiefs, this is what he.

Speaker 22 (01:58:27):
Said, started playing football right now, Like I mean, I
got a beat here. I'm a beat there. You know
what I'm saying. I'm bet here for my teammates and
obviously for myself. Man, So I just gotta do whatever
I can. Like I said, retech Or to tag recovery
today tomorrow, Friday, and you know, obviously we got the
game on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:58:48):
Hopefully all that is true.

Speaker 2 (01:58:49):
He sounded very upbeat about it, and I don't think
he was lip service with what he had to say.
It sounded like, yeah, I got to take care of it,
but I'm gonna go give it a go and I
should be fine. Fact that he returned to the game,
he missed two snaps, the final two snaps of that
possession before they punted they immediately got the ball back
and we're in the ren zone and out on the field.

Speaker 6 (01:59:08):
He came.

Speaker 20 (01:59:09):
Yeah, And that's what gave, you know, the Texans' optimism,
the fact that he finished the game. You know, even
though it will be a little bit of an issue,
it's not going to prevent him from playing. I even
asked Miko about it Monday and he said that, you know,
Joe would be good, so expect him to go.

Speaker 6 (01:59:27):
They feel like this is an important game for them.

Speaker 2 (01:59:29):
Now to the issue of what's happened in the other games.
Twenty three yards on twelve carries on Sunday, twenty two
yards on fourteen carries and they're loss to the Titans.
Forty six yards on twenty five carries and they're lost
to the Lions. Those are his last three home games
over the last five weeks. Where do you see the
problems in getting him going? Because it's not him. He

(01:59:54):
doesn't forget how to run one week, he doesn't run
less hard one week. I think the answer is kind
of obvious, but the particulars of it may not be.

Speaker 20 (02:00:02):
Yeah, I think it's a combination of things, to be
honest with you, I thought that the Titans had a
really good run defense, and you couple with the fact
that the Texans were making some adjustments on the offensive line.
Even this week they had new offensive line configuration. I
think they've struggled a little bit to run the ball
consistently because of the offensive line. The Dolphins are good

(02:00:22):
run stopping team too, And you know, having said that,
I think when the Texans when they mess up, usually
the next game, They've shown improvement throughout the year. They've
been a good bounce back team, and I think they
could potentially bounce back against the Chiefs. I don't know
that Joe Maxon will have some one hundred yard game,
but I think he'll definitely be more efficient than twenty

(02:00:43):
something yards because the Texans know that in order for
them to have success, they got to run the football well.
When Joe runs for one hundred yards, they're five and two.
When he doesn't, I think the directly it's something like
two and two. So they got to get him going.

Speaker 2 (02:00:57):
Yeah, the games missed obviously were part of the reasons
and why that did not add up to fourteen, But yeah,
five and two record. The two losses with one hundred
yards rushing or more came in a game at Green
Bay where you lost on the last play of the
game on a field goal, and the other one was
one of the worst Texans games of the season in
my opinion. Actually the worst because of the competition was
the Jets, and the Texans lost twenty one to thirteen,

(02:01:20):
despite the fact that Mixon did run for over one
hundred yards and did have a rushing touchdown. What you
think of the configuration, how they performed the new five
manter offensive line with Titus Howard for the first time
this year but not first time in his career sliding
inside to guard and a start at tackle for the
second time this year for Blake Fisher.

Speaker 20 (02:01:40):
I thought it was pretty good for the most fart
but it's really hard to fully judge because the Dolphins
haven't been a good team as far as their edge rush.
They've been a good team up the middle. But you
saw CJ. He wasn't under a pressure a lot, and
I think you see that statistically. I think this was
the third third best game as far as him have
and being pressured. You know, Titus obviously is one of

(02:02:03):
your better blockers, is one of your bet better five blockers,
you know. I thought all along that the Texts should
get their best five guys out there now. Titus obviously
doesn't like playing guard as much, but he's gonna do
whatever the team needs him to do, and they needed.

Speaker 6 (02:02:16):
Him at this point.

Speaker 20 (02:02:17):
They they he is definitely a better option than Kenyan
Green and Zach Thomas, who's never started in a game.
We saw what happened with Kenyan. I think he needs
a little bit more development, and to me, he's the
best option they have out there right now.

Speaker 2 (02:02:31):
How close to zero percent would you put at the
chances of Kenyan Green being activated this week and starting.

Speaker 6 (02:02:40):
Probably as close as possible.

Speaker 20 (02:02:41):
I like that, you know, I think to me it
makes a little bit more sense that, you know, I
think the Texans really only activated him if they absolutely
need him, because you know, they're they're playing a fine
line with their activations obviously, but you know.

Speaker 3 (02:03:01):
He just he didn't.

Speaker 20 (02:03:02):
I don't think he had shown enough when he was playing,
and obviously he has to get healthy, but obviously hadn't
shown enough yet in practice to to say like you
should start him absolutely over. Titus hour that left guard
plus Juice Scruggs, is expected to come back in after
this week and play against the Ravens, So, you know,

(02:03:23):
I think they feel comfortable with that lineup how it
is pretended right.

Speaker 2 (02:03:26):
Now, ended up going into the game with only two
tight ends, the elevated IRV Smith Junior and Dalton Schultz
because of the emergency appendectomy for Cad Stover. All things
went well with that, all things considered, full recovery is expected.
But what does that mean for the Texans Saturday and
most likely on Wednesday. Do you anticipate them going into

(02:03:46):
the game again with just two tight ends.

Speaker 20 (02:03:48):
Yeah, they might have to elevate IRV Smith again, and
I think, you know, you might see Andrew Beck even
be elevated as an extra emergency guy because Schultz had
that shoulder injury that he suffered against the Dolphins early.
He returned to the game and played through it and
wasn't on the injury part today. But they'll probably end

(02:04:10):
up elevating earth Smith again, which will be his third activation,
and Andrew Beck. So just to make sure that they
have enough bodies because right now it doesn't appear that
Kate Stover will be ready. He misspracticed Tuesday. He could
practice Wednesday, and that with turning things. But I think
resid right now you'll probably see earth Smith be caught
up again.

Speaker 2 (02:04:30):
Yeah, most likely to me, with that being his third elevation.
They can't afford to not have earth Smith as a
textan the rest of the year, so a roster move
his some short either before the game or immediately after
the game to prevent him from being exposed would need
to be made. So they can't go into the games
with one tight end. Two is even iffy for the
way they like to play. I have a couple of

(02:04:50):
fullbacks on that practice squad. Andrew Beck has won and
Troy Harston the other. Both have played significant time for
the Texans over the years. That is the five o'clock hour,
but Jogs and are still with us. Imagine that he's
going to be with us for football at five, which is.

Speaker 1 (02:05:04):
Next the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety football.

Speaker 3 (02:05:11):
What goes great with football?

Speaker 2 (02:05:12):
How about ice cold refreshing bud Lights football season? After all,
that means it's tailgates season, So make sure that cooler
is full of the ice cold refreshing bud Light. Being
the bud Light is the official sponsor Bissell Beer sponsor
of the NFL, you can go ahead and get your
official Houston Texans. Bud Light cans in tow for your
tailgates for whatever you've got going on, your traditions with family, friends,

(02:05:34):
your brisket, and your bud Light. Bud Light Easy to Sunday,
Easy to enjoy.

Speaker 1 (02:05:41):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham Talking Your Teams series,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler R.

Speaker 9 (02:05:52):
The A Team.

Speaker 15 (02:05:53):
A team.

Speaker 2 (02:06:00):
Has arrived here on the A Team and we welcome back.
Welcome you back into the show. Those of you listening
on iHeartRadio via the app Sports Talk seven ninety. Of course,
those you catch us via simulcast on Space City Home Network,
those of you can see John Alexander, the Houston Chronicle
is here with us in studio. It covers the Houston Texans.
We'll be in Kansas City at Arrowhead along with Pat Mahomes.

Speaker 3 (02:06:23):
It looks like, based on the.

Speaker 2 (02:06:25):
Comments that he made today and the injury report, at
the very least, get into that, and of course get
into a couple of things said by the Texans since
their last victory over the Miami Dolphins twenty to twelve
this past Sunday, coupled with the Colts lost to the Broncos,
in dramatic, delicious fashion that won the Texans their eighth
division crown. There's already room for a banner up at

(02:06:46):
Energy Stadium for that hopefully very unimportant accomplishment moving forward. Essentially,
those are the only accomplishments of any kind for this
team in their brief history. I'm sure they'd like to
do a little bit more than hang championship banners from
the AFC South, but that's.

Speaker 3 (02:07:03):
What they have for now.

Speaker 2 (02:07:04):
Texans injury report for today did Joe Mixon not injury related?

Speaker 3 (02:07:12):
Practicing on a limited basis?

Speaker 2 (02:07:13):
That's how they listed it, and John told everybody a
few minutes ago about the status of practice here on
a Tuesday, normally a Wednesday in advance of us. There
was not much going on at practice, to the point
that it was termed a walk through and is merely
an estimation of a player's participation. Six players did not
participate even in that regard, fully fought Acasi, who was

(02:07:34):
done on Sunday after just six plays due to an
ankle injury, John Metchi with a shoulder Mills and cage
stover due to illness, and the foot injury for Juice
Scrugs that left him sidelined last week along with del
Sean Phillips has been a special teamer for this team,
a very very good special teams unit again this season.
Have hardly talked about how important the special teams unit

(02:07:57):
was for the Texans on Sunday and their win. But
the injury reports most notable figure is Pat Mahomes listed
as a full participant. Dude, he has the ankle injury
from last week. So important that listing that. The line
on the game now shows Kansas City as a two
and a half point favorite. Early this week, late Sunday

(02:08:17):
and early Monday, the Texans were two to two and
a half point favorites. They were one and a half
point favorites earlier today when this was released by the Chiefs.
That shifted three and a half to four points in
the favor of the Chiefs.

Speaker 20 (02:08:31):
I mean, that just show so much of an impact
Patrick Mahomes ass. You know, you know, he's a much
better quarterback than Carson Wentz. You know, obviously arguably greceive
He's not having the best year you know that he
could have. I think his receivers are still struggling. But
he is a game changer, and you know, all eyes.

Speaker 6 (02:08:50):
Will be on him.

Speaker 20 (02:08:51):
The Texan is gonna have to disrupt him. They're gonna
have to bring pressure on him and test out that
ankle because obviously he can make things shaken and as
evidence better thirteen to one record.

Speaker 2 (02:09:02):
Yeah, a couple of notes on that before we get
to some of what CJ had to say. The defense
the Chiefs are facing in terms of getting after the quarterback,
creating pressures, being disruptive. Very few defenses in the league
are better than the Houston Texans are at that all
the numbers backing up for their two edge rushers, and
quite clearly a credit due to the personnel staff, Nick

(02:09:23):
Caseario and Demico Ryans, who clearly has a strong say
in what he thinks will fit John. I talked about
this so much leading into this year. I was very
surprised they took their defensive line apart this offseason. They
were very good last year. Yeah, but they clearly, to
Demiko weren't what he wanted them to become. They traded

(02:09:45):
Malie Collins, they let Sheldon Rankins sign for a little
bit more money in Cincinnati. They were still interested, but
obviously didn't reach that level. They let John Gernard go
to the Vikings, where he's been awesome, one of the
five or six best edges in the league this year,
but they also spent the money to get Daniel Hunter
in as his replacement. He's also been awesome. Will Anderson's

(02:10:06):
been great. Denico Autry, after the first six games which
he served as a suspension, has been a great fit.
Mario Edwards Junior, who laid a monster hit on Tua
this past Sunday, hit him in the ribs and he
got right back up and there was no issue. Outside
of the four games he missed due to suspension, he's
been great.

Speaker 3 (02:10:26):
Foley's been great.

Speaker 2 (02:10:27):
And Tim Settle, I mean I could talk about him
every moment of the next three days worth of our shows,
and I still don't think he'd be getting enough credit
for the work he's done. The latest runs stop rate
for interior lineman defensive side d tackles put out today
by ESPN and next Gen Stats, he's six in the NFL.

(02:10:48):
He's been incredible, and he's gotten after the quarterback and
he landed on the football which he had in his
arms after the game this past Sunday on the fumble
that caused by Will.

Speaker 6 (02:10:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (02:10:58):
Absolutely, I think that's a credit to Roy Wright and
Nate Ali, assistant defensive line coach. Just what they've done
with this defensive line is phenomenal. I mean, but that
was you know, Demko's strategy coming in. He thought that
they could be better, he thought, even though you know
us watching didn't think. He thought that they could be

(02:11:18):
better on the defensive line. They knew Denil Hunter was
going to be a free agent, so they thought that
they could upgrade it. And they used the strategy of
building on the outside and then piecing together on the inside.
And they found two players and Tim Sedl and Foley
Podocassi who had played in a similar style system before
that they thought that they could help improve it and

(02:11:39):
give them a boost in Both of those guys. Really,
Tim Settle though have been you know, major factors for
this team, and Mario Edwards too, especially early on, they've
just given up. I think the Texans that even bigger
boots than what they were probably expecting. And I think
that's why you've seen success. And obviously you know what
you're gonna get from Will Anderson junior Daniel Hunter, who
were both playing and at all pro type of levels

(02:12:01):
right now.

Speaker 2 (02:12:02):
Yeah, just to illustrate that he's there with Jeffrey Simmons
and Grover Stewart. These are widely regarded each and every season.
Is among the best interior run stuffers on any defensive
line in the league. That's where Tim Settle settles in
this year. Just a couple other numbers on that same
list for different spots. Pass block win raithed Larmy Tunzel

(02:12:25):
keeps going up. The last probably five six, seven weeks
has been his best football of the season. Also happens
to coincide with limiting the controllable penalties, as he's been
hit by.

Speaker 3 (02:12:37):
Far fewer of those.

Speaker 2 (02:12:39):
He's up to twelfth in that regard, and we brought
up Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson. Number one in the
NFL and win rate among pass rushers from the edge
is daneil Hunter. Number six is Will Anderson, Junior Trey Henderson,
Micah Parsons, Brian Burns, Miles Garrett, and the two Texans
edge rushers. Those are the best six edges in the
NFL in this category. Obviously they're the only team with

(02:13:01):
two of them.

Speaker 20 (02:13:03):
Yeah, I mean, you just don't. You can't double team
these guys. You can't do too many chips because somebody
else is going to get free. And I really, to
be honest with you, believe that's why the Texans are
playing at such a high level. It is why you know,
Derek Stinglely and Kamari Lasster are able to have succest
I mean, I mean, Derek Singley is playing phenomenally.

Speaker 6 (02:13:23):
But it starts with that defensive line.

Speaker 20 (02:13:25):
And the defensive line is stopping to run their shutting,
shutting down run and then they're getting after the quarterback.
And then that's allowing you know, Derek Stingley to play
free and in Kamari lass to be able to get
those picks in those in those past deffections.

Speaker 6 (02:13:38):
So just credit to this defensive line.

Speaker 2 (02:13:40):
So obviously there's a lot of chatter about Derek Stingley
Junior after the game on Sunday, So we'll drift back
to some of those postgame comments as quarterback very early
in his own press conference there after the game about
Derek Stingley for those that didn't hear it, not only
a comment about how awesome he is, but about how
much more awesome he could be.

Speaker 12 (02:13:59):
Things. One of kyme bro is his ball skills and
how he can play the ball in the air is
the best I've ever seen in my life, you know,
Like I'll compare him to Gary Wilson, who I played
with in college, who can just track the ball in
any way and then towerk his body to get to
catch it. So he reminds me of him catching the
ball and honestly him trying to get him a player

(02:14:20):
offense one of these days. I think he's that good
with the ball in his hands. So you know, I'm
really happy for him, and you know, I'm just proud
of him and everything he's doing.

Speaker 2 (02:14:29):
He stole the ball from Tyreek Hill on the game
winning interception.

Speaker 3 (02:14:32):
That was a catch that was.

Speaker 2 (02:14:34):
Not the greatest pass. It was probably a little bit
too inside and maybe a little bit under thrown, but
in a place where his receiver went up over Stingley,
he was higher, his hands were higher.

Speaker 3 (02:14:44):
He caught it with both hands.

Speaker 2 (02:14:46):
Sting's hand was in between the ball and Hill's body
and as he came to the ground he took it
away from him.

Speaker 6 (02:14:53):
Yeah, absolutely, he just ripped it away.

Speaker 20 (02:14:54):
But for him to make that play in that situation,
everybody knew that it was Tyreek Hill one on one
with Eric Singley and Tua was gonna go to his
main guy with Jaylen Watolaw and Derek Stingley was there
with him, step for step, concentration on the ball, took
it away.

Speaker 6 (02:15:09):
You need a closer like that.

Speaker 20 (02:15:11):
And I believe that Derek Singley should be in a
conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.

Speaker 6 (02:15:15):
I mean, definitely all Pro.

Speaker 20 (02:15:16):
He should be all Pro, but he should be in
the conversation because he's played that well, taken on a
lot of great receivers who De Texans have played this season,
from Justin Jefferson to Tyreek Kill, you know Davonte Adams.
He's just you know, lived up to the hype no
matter who he's gone up against.

Speaker 3 (02:15:34):
They haven't done it a ton this year.

Speaker 2 (02:15:35):
And Damiko comment and on the media after the game,
and obviously we had a chance to talk to Kamari
and Derek about it also after the game, having him
just say this is your guy, I'm on him the
rest of the game. When jayalen Watta went out of
the game, they essentially committed to that this is who
you're checking. We know where they're going to go, and
you're our best.

Speaker 3 (02:15:55):
Go get him. And he did.

Speaker 20 (02:15:57):
Yeah, And when you have a lockdown corner like that
that allows you to do so many other things. You
don't have to worry about if your corner is going
to be able to cover somebody, you can send an
extra blitz on a quarterback and rush up his process
because you have the faith. And Singley has just been
doing that consistently all season.

Speaker 3 (02:16:14):
Been incredible.

Speaker 2 (02:16:15):
He had two of the interceptions, Skalen Bullock had the other.
Each of them have five on the season. Kamari Laser
has had a fantastic rookie season. I want to go
a little bit more into finding them in the draft
and what they have done so far this season. Also
a reminder coming up at the top of the next segment,
those of you that were listening yesterday, know that there

(02:16:35):
are two more pairs of tickets for me to give
away to the Cougars basketball game tomorrow night. They are
taking on Toledo, So over it for Tita Center. I
got a pair of tickets for two winners today. Couple
that with our two winners from yesterday, and one of
the four of you winners is gonna get upgraded is
sit courtside with me at the game tomorrow night. Over

(02:16:56):
at for Tita Centers all brought to you by bud Light.
They're the official beer spot answer of University of Houston Athletics.
So hopefully you've been listening throughout this segment and much
of this afternoon. I will ask you something about what
has been said here on the show when we come
back next segment and get you to call in with
an answer, so you'll.

Speaker 3 (02:17:13):
Have a chance to join me out there. Enjoy the basketball,
Enjoy one of the.

Speaker 2 (02:17:16):
Best teams in the country, and no offense to Toledo.
I'm taking the Cougars to beat the Rockets tomorrow night
over at for Tita Center. When we return here on
the show as well, like I said, we will hear
from the team about the secondary and their ability to
take the ball away from the other team like nobody
else in the NFL has done. Over the last nine games,
the Texas have twenty five takeaways, clear and away, the

(02:17:40):
best in the NFL.

Speaker 9 (02:17:43):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:17:47):
Don't go through life with low testosterone.

Speaker 21 (02:17:50):
Instead, go to Men'stclinic dot com because they are celebrating
their tenth anniversary. They are going to absolutely find out
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(02:18:12):
like I do most Thursdays, headed on in there, told
them I'm going out of town next week. Need to uh,
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and they hooked it up like they always do each
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Speaker 9 (02:18:43):
The A Team continues.

Speaker 3 (02:19:04):
Back here on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (02:19:05):
It is a little after five o'clock as promised before
John and I jump back into the Texans conversation wherever
else comes across our desk table. I wanted to give
you a chance to go see the Cougars play Toledo
Hoops for one of the best teams in the country.
Unless you're asking Andy Katz, it doesn't know what he's
talking about. You of h I had two pairs for

(02:19:28):
the game tomorrow night. I had two winners last night,
and among those four winners, after we have them all,
we'll select somebody to get an upgrade to those seats
I just gave you, and you'll sit courtside with me
for the game tomorrow night over for Teita Center Bud
Light making this all happen, the official beer sponsor of
You Have h Athletics. We tell you to call in
at seven one three two seven ninety and we ask

(02:19:50):
you for this and thank you for listening to the show,
because if you've been listening to the show, you know
the answer to this question. Played a little Texan sound
last segment. It was revolving around the conversation John and
I were having about one of his teammates.

Speaker 3 (02:20:05):
Which teammate of CJ.

Speaker 2 (02:20:07):
Stroud's was he just talking about right here on the
A team from something he said postgame Sunday against the Dolphins.
Just call in at seven one three two one two
five seven ninety and tell me which teammate CJ. Stroud
was talking about and as you know me, in these giveaways,
I like to have winners, so I've already narrowed down
your possible guesses. Has to be a teammate of his

(02:20:30):
current teammate, somebody he might talk about in a postgame scenario.
So even if you did us the disservice of not
listening last segment, you might have a chance to win.
So after I know we have two more winners today,
I will couple them with our winners yesterday, and coming
up in the whatever number of minutes it takes to
get there, we will have a winner of the upgraded

(02:20:51):
seats to come join me court side, whether it's later
this segment or right at the top of in case
you missed it, coming up on the other side. So, John,
we were talking about Sting. We can take the fun
part of the conversation. First, CJ's suggestion that he should
play some offense. You think Bobby Slowick and Demico and

(02:21:11):
Nick Cassario are down for something like that.

Speaker 20 (02:21:14):
Why not get him a little package, you know, at
the goal line, have him do something. I don't know
what stings.

Speaker 3 (02:21:20):
I mean.

Speaker 20 (02:21:20):
Sing's obviously a ball hawk, so maybe get him a
little jump ball no, I only say do that against
the Titans.

Speaker 6 (02:21:26):
I don't don't think you should do that.

Speaker 2 (02:21:27):
Against probably advocating for an additional hit of any kind
to Sting or any player. And I've just earlier today
and yesterday and probably every day this week.

Speaker 3 (02:21:40):
We'll keep bringing it up.

Speaker 2 (02:21:42):
There was a nice little gadget play in Shane Steichen's
game plan for the Broncos. It could not have blown
up in his face more beautifully. And I think we'll
save Mitchell's comment the second passer on that play, second
lateral technically on that play. We'll save some of his
comments for tomorrow. But you put packages together, you line

(02:22:03):
up CJ out wide and have a direct snap to
Joe Mixon. You have Joe lined up to throw, you
have Steph lined up to throw a pass. And I
think he made some Steph when this year when he
was given the opportunity to throw the ball, he's made
some good decisions keeping it and running it in himself.

Speaker 20 (02:22:22):
That was a very good decision, I mean, cause that
that mistake Mitchell made against the Coast was just surrendous.
I mean, and then he didn't take responsibility.

Speaker 3 (02:22:34):
That's the sound I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (02:22:35):
But like I said, we will save some of that
for you as we continue to work on getting a winner.

Speaker 3 (02:22:40):
It was. It was pretty remarkable.

Speaker 2 (02:22:42):
I do think Shane Styke is a pretty good offensive coach,
and I don't think it was a horribly timed play.
But you're asking those blockers in front of Anthony Richardson
with a good defensive front and Benito. As much as
people probably don't know who he is, they should. He
keeps making game winning, game changing plays. They just didn't
stay with their block long enough and he was essentially unblocked.

(02:23:04):
And that's a long half the field sideways pass. All
you had to do was walk in front of it,
picked it off and run it in for a touchdown
or what was termed a fumble because it was behind
the line. If you look from the end zone, if
they block Benito, that place gaining minimum thirty yards. It
really was well set up. Almost every other part of

(02:23:26):
it was well executed. But it shows you how important
it is that all parts have to be executed well.
Thus your thoughts on the Texans fake punt, how well
they executed that, how properly timed it was selected, on
when to use it, you know, listening to Mike McDaniel
after the game, he appeared to say they were ready
for it.

Speaker 3 (02:23:46):
They just the other team executed.

Speaker 6 (02:23:48):
He said they were ready for it. It didn't look
like no, it didn't.

Speaker 20 (02:23:51):
I mean, even if MJ didn't hand it off, he
had a lane to run on the left side, it
looked like it was open.

Speaker 6 (02:23:57):
But I mean it was just perfectly executed.

Speaker 20 (02:24:00):
I mean seeing Dylan Horton as a lead blocker was
also amazing, just knowing his entire story, but he had
to keep blocking there and Dari just followed it for
a thirty four our of your game. And I thought
that was one of the more important plays of the
game because it got the offense. You know, they were
able to score two plays later, and it was needed
to keep momentum going. And I think it put him

(02:24:23):
up twenty to six at the time. But that was
just a phenomenal play, phenomenally executed. And I thought, you know,
they caught the Dolphins sleeping at the right time, and
the Texans hadn't had a punt faked all year, so
you know, it's hard to you know, expect the Texans
to do that at that at that point in the game.

Speaker 2 (02:24:42):
Jay Canson another player that was downfield making blocks for him.
And I'm sure you were, like everybody else watching or
in the stadium as you and I were, you definitely thought, oh, yeah,
he fumbled, Dolphins have it total waste Now, it's just
like a regular punt.

Speaker 20 (02:24:57):
Yeah, I definitely thought he until seeing that replay. But
you know, I remember saying out loud with like, yeah, hey,
at least they planted it all the way down there.
But uh, you know, his arm was obviously down and
they took over and in the scorers, So it was
it was a well executed player, and I know, uh,
Frank Ross was was hyped.

Speaker 6 (02:25:19):
I wish we could have interview him right after that play.

Speaker 2 (02:25:21):
Do you think Frank Ross does more for the team,
more for Demiko than maybe meets the eye. He's been
the special teams coordinator through multiple coaches, now he's in
his second year with Demiko.

Speaker 3 (02:25:31):
I asked that for Roles.

Speaker 2 (02:25:33):
We've seen other special teams coordinators play that are super
helpful for their coaches, and I ask it because I've
noticed it too much not to be more curious. And
I should have asked Frank or Demiko when given the
opportunity after they've had changes of possession after a play
like that. A lot of different times during the game,
he's the first person next to Dimiko giving him some

(02:25:55):
piece of information, telling him about something that doesn't necessarily
relate to something Special Teams. It looks like he is
more than just running his unit on game day.

Speaker 6 (02:26:07):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean he plays some role.

Speaker 20 (02:26:09):
I don't know exactly what that is, but he's definitely
the energy guy and he's obviously so obviously the reason
why the Texans kept him when they could have parted
ways with him. I mean, his his units are always
on point. You don't ever have to worry about the
Special Teams unit, and it really is. It's quite remarkable
when you think about everything Special Teams that they have

(02:26:30):
to deal with, the guys who you know, they have
guys like Neville Hewittt and then one day those guys
will be called up to start. So just what he's
been able to do, obviously, he's turned into a trusted
confident for Damiko Ryans to hear it down the stretch.

Speaker 2 (02:26:45):
One day, you're you're asked to start and where the
green dot and do all the communicating and you're on
the field for every single snap. Well, then you're Henry
TOATOA had a chance to talk to him out for
the game, and he was so confident in how he
thought it would go. I asked him, you know, lead
up to this game knowing that you know that was
going to be your new responsibility because of the absence
of al Shire, even with Christian Harris returning. That was

(02:27:07):
the right move for the Texans obviously to give him that.
He sounded almost like, hey man, no problem, and Dimiko
sounded the very same way. That's they made it seem
much easier than it usually would be.

Speaker 20 (02:27:19):
Yeah, well, it was always great when you have experience
doing it. He did it some last year when he
was thrust into the role as a rookie. And you know,
I think Henry, aside from a few past a few
plays that he's messed up on when it comes to
play action, he's played really well in stopping to run,

(02:27:40):
and I think that's given him a lot of confidence.
So when disease was suspended and they trusted him to
where the green dit, I think Henry was playing was
confident that he could perform at the love. I remember
talking to him in training camp and he was saying
the difference between him rookie year in the second year
is that he feels a lot more comfortable in his role,
and that is an import in piece, especially when you're

(02:28:01):
playing inside linebackers.

Speaker 2 (02:28:02):
Yeah, it's real quick thinking back to the offseason before
he hit this break, they Christian Harris was here, he
was here. They're both young players under contract, both played
well last year. You've signed Aziz al Shayer, familiar with
the defense, it seemed almost obvious he was headed to
the bench now clearly injury dictated otherwise. But the duo
they've had most of this year with him being a
big party, he's had a great year.

Speaker 20 (02:28:23):
Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna be interested to see what
happens when Aziz comes back and how they'll utilize all
three of those linebackers, like it'll be hard to take,
you know, any one of those guys off the field,
and Demico has largely used Azaz and Henry on the field,
mostly for one hundred percent of the snap. So all

(02:28:44):
three of those guys have played well, and all three
of those guys can be important players for.

Speaker 2 (02:28:47):
Them, very important as they get into these games. There's
two more games without Aziz al Shaier. He will be
eligible to become active again. For the season finale against
the Tennessee Titans, you had Christian Harris playing nearly every
single snap. Early in the game, they took him out
on obvious third down passing situations. Most of the rest
of the game he was simply just out there. A
lot less of Devin White. You obviously have Jimmy Ward

(02:29:11):
sliding into the vacated Jalen Peatree spot. And if you're
another member of the secondary, essentially and literally you played
every single snap of that game that win against the
Miami Dolphins and help them turn over the Dolphins four times.
Speaking of four, we have our four winners. We come
back on the other side to kick off. In case
you missed it, well, select one of you to get

(02:29:32):
the upgrade to come hang out with me court side,
Joyce bud Light enjoy the fact that we're out there
watching the Cougars. We'll do that when we come back
here on the A Team, the A.

Speaker 9 (02:29:42):
Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:29:46):
Before we do that, let me tell you about my
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Speaker 4 (02:30:48):
Hey, it's Robert Ford from the Astros broadcast team. Catch
every Astros game on Sports Talk seven ninety and the
iHeartRadio app, home of your Astros.

Speaker 2 (02:31:01):
All right, it is time here for in case you
missed it. In case you missed it, I found two
more winners to go enjoy U of H Basketball tomorrow night.
One of those two winners now four winners. When we
couple that with the Monday winners, it's gonna get an upgrade.
They're gonna come sit down on the floor court side
with me for Wednesday night's game. As I did last week, Dan,

(02:31:24):
I had asked ac to pick a number one, two, three,
or four as I've placed them in my figurative baseball
cap numbered and I will pick one out based on
which number you select.

Speaker 3 (02:31:38):
What will it be? Let's go Willie Tavaris number one.

Speaker 2 (02:31:41):
Well, congratulations to one of today's winners. That's Kevin Schulders.
He's getting an upgrade. He is moving court side with me.
We'll get you all situated on that and enjoy it.
Look forward to hanging out with you tomorrow seeing the
Cougars take on Toledo, and look forward to hopefully getting
chances to meet each of our four winners. Kevin, Joey, David,

(02:32:05):
and Nigel Congratulations, thanks for playing and big hat tip
of course to Bud Light, the official sponsor of Mischal
Beer of University of Houston Athletics. Making all that happens
my good friends over at Silver Eagle. We'll see out
there tomorrow night. All right, Dan two, In case you
missed it, what do we have?

Speaker 5 (02:32:23):
All Right? So you guys talked about the Cody Bellinger
trade earlier. Well, the Twitter streets are already a buzz.
Are you aware there could already be an awkward situation
the minute that Cody Bellinger steps into the clubhouse. So
Cody Bellinger is married to the former Chase Carter, she
used to date Gen Carlos Stanton, and people have gone

(02:32:44):
back to find old social media posts and said, yeah,
that's gonna be a conversation.

Speaker 2 (02:32:50):
Well, John and I will discuss this briefly. I've got
a few questions to see what John thinks. He's been
in quite a few professional clubhouses or locker rooms, discovered
some hoops, and obviously the Texans currently on the baseball front.
These guys are with each other two hundred plus days
essentially in a row, a lot of flights together, a
lot of hotels together, a lot of time spent on

(02:33:14):
one hundred and sixty two game days together, and training
spring training games, get to the facility maybe two o'clock,
three o'clock. For a seven o'clock game, you're not out
of there till eleven o'clock. You got a roughly eight
hours with these guys. How do you think this will
be received, if at all? Is my second question. My
first question is you think Yankees management was aware of this.

Speaker 20 (02:33:38):
I don't think they were aware of it, but you
know what, honestly, I think guys could get past this.
The more awkward situation was at Los Angeles Lakerers situation
a few years ago, when I think was Scottie Pippen's mom.
She was a teammate with a guy she was dating,

(02:33:58):
and her son were in and him were playing on
the same team.

Speaker 6 (02:34:01):
That's more awkward, But this I think he could get.

Speaker 2 (02:34:03):
So he went with a different Scottie Pippen reference if
for those guys that are unfamiliar. Scottie Pippen was once
married to Larsa Pippen, and she then dated one of
Michael Jordan's son, and I had a lot to say
about what they would do together and how they'd go
about their day. She became semi famous away from Scottie
Pippen for all the reality work that she put in,

(02:34:24):
but it was a fun topic for the other co
host on this show.

Speaker 3 (02:34:28):
I can assure you that.

Speaker 2 (02:34:29):
By the way, if you go ahead and hit the
old Google machine and you type in Cody Bellinger wife,
the first thing that comes up is Cody Bellinger wife
and Stanton. The fourth thing that comes up is Cody
Bellinger wife Giancarlo Stanton. So yeah, interesting Yankees drama. I
believe it. You're probably right, though they'll probably be maybe

(02:34:54):
somebody jokes about it publicly if asked. Otherwise, probably an
unfortunate on issue.

Speaker 5 (02:35:00):
What else, all right, So the college football playoff first
round matchups coming up this weekend. As you and Gordy
talked about yesterday. SMU head coach Rhett Lashley not a
fan of the December transfer portal window, and matter of fact,
he's calling for an end to it, pointing out the
Penn State backup quarterback who just decided to go ahead

(02:35:22):
and enter the transfer portal with the explanation I didn't
really have a choice.

Speaker 3 (02:35:29):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:35:29):
So if deets more than you just said are available,
explain that to me.

Speaker 5 (02:35:34):
So, I mean, they have the December transfer portal window
open because then you have to be enrolled in your
following school before the spring semester starts. So that is
kind of the reason why they have the December transfer
portal window. And he's also just talking about, Look, the
NFL doesn't do free agency during the season, why are
we doing this?

Speaker 2 (02:35:53):
Yeah, he sounds a lot like Coach Trailer. I mentioned
him the other day, UTSA. You know, he was saying,
the reason why this is a problem is because of
the adults. It's not the kids, it's us. It's the
decisions we made. It's the calendar we put together. If
this season extends into December for conference title games, into
December for the billions of bowl games and now the
eleven playoff games, why are you having the it is

(02:36:17):
it is funny. Let's let's put this on you, John,
the NFL season, we got three weeks to go. How
about a free agency opens tomorrow. How does that sound
sound good?

Speaker 20 (02:36:26):
No, that would be absolutely crazy. And yeah, I agree,
you can't blame the players. Uh, it's the situation that
they're in. But you know, the DOULCN room have to
figure out how to fix college football's model because it
is broken in several different ways, and this is one
of them, which is really unfair to teams and players.

Speaker 2 (02:36:47):
Do you think it's realistic to move the date because
one thing that isn't moving is the academic calendar, And Dan,
you brought up the element of being enrolled in transferport
all that as we continue to laughably pretend they're student athletes,
and that's what's most important unless the calendar changes, unless
your twelve game regular season is complete many weeks before

(02:37:11):
it's currently complete. And in light of the fact that
even after the twelve game season, take Texas for example,
they played a thirteenth game conference title game, they have
on their schedule a fourteenth game. They can have on
their schedule three additional games if they keep winning. I
don't know how you would ever be able to line
up a football college football calendar that mirrors the college

(02:37:34):
academic calendar.

Speaker 5 (02:37:36):
The only thing I can think of is, we do
have players who enter the transfer portal during the season.
So I mean, if you want to have them enter
during your season, chances are they're doing that because they've
been benched. They just don't have a agreement with the
coaching staff there.

Speaker 3 (02:37:49):
It's just not a good fit anymore.

Speaker 5 (02:37:50):
So then they decide, all right, fine, those guys are
not even a factor for your program anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:37:55):
But yeah, I mean, I've got to agree.

Speaker 5 (02:37:56):
Like you're trying to get ready for the biggest games
of your coaching career and you have somebody come in
and say, hey, coach, can you sign this?

Speaker 3 (02:38:03):
I'm transferring out what?

Speaker 2 (02:38:06):
And keep in mind the coaches were the ones who
started all this when they would inevitably get to their
eleventh game of their most remarkable coaching job, so before
the end of the regular season even and we'd all
know that their agents are finding them their next job,
the next big domino to fall. And then they get
to the conference title game, which they had already taken
the other job for, and they'd lie and they say
they Then.

Speaker 3 (02:38:25):
They get to their bowl game and they would be
wanting to leave, and.

Speaker 2 (02:38:27):
Then all the other players leave, and then you have
Marshall quitting and saying, we can't even play in our
bowl game because we don't have any players.

Speaker 3 (02:38:33):
What else do we add?

Speaker 5 (02:38:34):
All right, real quick here since we only have a
few seconds left. Congratulations to Michael Vick. Yesterday there were
rumors of him talking with Norfolk State and also a
Sacramento State and all of that name, image and likeness money.

Speaker 3 (02:38:45):
He is now the new head coach at Norfolk State.

Speaker 2 (02:38:48):
Yeah, he had acknowledged that he had had conversations with
Norfolk State in advance of any reports about Sacramento State.
Eddie George very successful, limited work. Deon Sanders super successful,
limited work.

Speaker 3 (02:39:05):
How about Mike Vick? What are you feeling?

Speaker 20 (02:39:06):
I think it's a phenomenal move because he's familiar with
that area, having grown up in that area and having
played at Virginia Tech.

Speaker 6 (02:39:14):
I think he can recruit.

Speaker 20 (02:39:15):
I think he's a great football mind, and I love
it for a SPCU football I'm a APCU football fan
and with the North Carolina Central, so we're gonna be
in the same conference. But so I'm gonna be rooting
for Michael Vick except when he plays the North Carolina
Central Eagles.

Speaker 2 (02:39:27):
Interesting to see if he leans on any Beamer ball
that he learned from Frank or maybe Shane can help
put a staff together. Probably has a little bit of
a hokey feel to it, and the word hoky, I
mean Virginia Tech hoky.

Speaker 3 (02:39:39):
I hope you guys can follow along.

Speaker 1 (02:39:42):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:39:46):
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Speaker 3 (02:40:47):
Hey, it's Craig Ackerman.

Speaker 5 (02:40:49):
Rockets are certainly popping the polypropylate.

Speaker 19 (02:40:52):
Back to the eighteen with Adam Wesler and the Twitter
troll Adam Clinton.

Speaker 3 (02:40:56):
Help me to do it with somebody.

Speaker 21 (02:41:01):
I don't try an I don't look for fights.

Speaker 9 (02:41:07):
Why I get irritated?

Speaker 3 (02:41:09):
Adam and Adam are on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:41:14):
Imagine that second straight show this week without my co
host Adam Clanton, and a second consecutive set of four
hours without any fights. Jonathan Alexander here with us for
the bulk of the last two hours and show. Really
appreciate your time and hopefully everybody learning a thing or
two about your Houston Texans who headed into this weekend
at nine and five taking on the thirteen and one

(02:41:35):
Kansas City Chiefs, and they're fully participating. Quarterback at practice today,
Patrick Mahomes good news on Joe Mixon from him about
how he intends to be out there on Saturday. And
I wouldn't even say plans to give it a go.
It sounds like, yeah, I'm good to go. I'll be
out there and playing as per usual. He's played extremely

(02:41:56):
well this year, as the early returns on what is
a three year everything seems to work out for them.
Texans were clearly in hot pursuit of Saquon Barkley after
signing Devin Singletary the year before, in what was a
very good move. I think adding Barkley would have been
a very good move, but it's pivoting to that option
very late in the free agent running back game, so

(02:42:19):
actually a pretty good move. Bengals kind of opened the
door when they signed Zack Moss, essentially indicating to everybody
that this player would become available, and then Nick orchestrated
a deal with one of his nineteen seventh round picks
and was able to get something done with Cincinnati. All right, John,
Speaking of the draft, they were able to head into

(02:42:40):
the secondary market a couple times early in the draft,
second round with Kamari Lasseter, third round with Kaylin Bullock.
I was in here doing some of our draft coverage
that night. We talked to some people from who'd been
with them in college, had our own thoughts about it,
and thought both of these picks made sense.

Speaker 5 (02:42:57):
Was it sure?

Speaker 3 (02:42:57):
What maybe the ceiling would be?

Speaker 2 (02:43:00):
Erroneously thought, oh, well, last year, he'll fit right in,
he'll be their slot corner this year, and thought Kaylen Bullock,
while slight of frame, did project pretty well as an
NFL safety, knew who they still had with Petrie Ward
and Murray wondered where.

Speaker 3 (02:43:14):
He would fit into things. And the season started.

Speaker 2 (02:43:17):
Last Year's already a starter opposite Stingley and well earned,
and shortly after the beginning of the season, Bullock is
the full time, never stepping off the field, last line
of defense safety. Did you know this was coming at
some point during their development or early in the season.
I don't think we knew this. You knew this on
draft day?

Speaker 20 (02:43:37):
No, definitely not on draft day, But I remember at
OTA's I could tell immediately that Kayln both I'm not
Kaylyn bull Kamari last year was going to be the starter.
I mean he was going up against Stefan Diggs and
having success, like he was shutting down everybody. So you
just kind of knew that he was going to be
the guy, and I tried to tell everybody who would listen,

(02:44:00):
Kayln Bullock. He came on a little bit slower. There
were all obviously questions about his tackling ability. Everybody knew
he was a ball howk he was really skinny, but
he really showed early on in that first preseason game
that he could tackle fors that fumble. And then he
started making picks and you started seeing his playmaking million
he was diving for interceptions out of bounds, and you
knew that he had some ability. And then him and

(02:44:21):
Kamari are best friends and they're everywhere. I wrote a
story about them Sunday's paper, uh, and they really lean
on each other and and and they've been huge major
factors for this Texans defense this season.

Speaker 2 (02:44:33):
Go want to play Something that CJ had to say
about those two earlier today and a very specific question
about something Demiko I think intentionally does with certain players,
and probably these two. This is what CJ had to
say about these two young stars in the making and
the Texan secondary.

Speaker 12 (02:44:49):
Yeah, those are like twins man Like they literally wear
the same clothes, like they kind of wearing the same
shoes the games.

Speaker 3 (02:44:57):
Like, it's funny.

Speaker 12 (02:44:59):
They they're They're definitely two guys with is a lot
of confidence, and they had more confidence I think Will
had at least, I know they had more conference idea
last year and it shows on the field, you know,
So I'm just super happy for them, you know, super
proud of them and just how they post the game
and how they you know, been able to take off running,
you know, and I'm just really excited to see what
they do in their career and hopefully be a part

(02:45:19):
of it for a long time.

Speaker 2 (02:45:20):
It's pretty awesome stuff and sounds very accurate based on
what we can see from from the position we hold
in the media. But I bring up Demiko into this conversation.
I've covered the Texans since they've been a team here,
and no other coach had ever done what he did,
beginning last year with the locker room where players are.
Here's all the offensive players, there's the group of receivers
they're down at one end. There's the quarterbacks, there's running backs.

(02:45:43):
They're all sectioned off in their position groups, essentially, just
as they are the entire rest of the day in
their own position meetings. And Demiko last year and has
done it again this year. He's got certain pockets of
the locker room with certain groups of players. It's not
complete total randomness by any means. It's actually seemingly very calculated.
These two players locker right next to each other.

Speaker 20 (02:46:04):
Yeah, purposely so they can bother each other, they can
hang with each other all day. But you know, Demiko
wanted he's very purposeful about where he puts guys. He
mixed it up last year with having some defensive guys
by offensive guys, and you still see some of that.
But you know, he's very purposeful and strategic about what

(02:46:25):
he who he wants to put together. And I think
that was really necessary for these two young guys who
were trying to come into their own and they can
lean on each other. They've leaned on each other throughout
the ups and downs of their their time here.

Speaker 2 (02:46:37):
So far, very fun guys to talk to. Also, Kamari
could not love Kaylin and Sting more at least apparent
and what he says to us and just in the
in the locker room dynamic, as we describe it here
a little. You walk into the locker room and along
the initial wall that's to your left, Nico Collins. He's
next to Dylan Horton, He's next to John Metchi the third,

(02:47:00):
he's next to Will Anderson Junior. He's next to Jerry
Hughes And these are all multi year textans. So it
was the same setup now for each of these past
two years. Offense defense, offense defense. You got Jerry Hughes,
the godfather of their defensive line, maybe right next to
Will Anderson Junior. This is not a coincident and it
is by design, and I do think it has created

(02:47:23):
helped create. Winning helps more than anything. But there is
a culture they want there and it is a part
of it what they have done inside the Texans locker room.

Speaker 20 (02:47:32):
Absolutely, and I think it brings It's brought camaraderie to
this team. They feel a lot closer to each other.
You get to know people who you might not otherwise
would have gotten to know.

Speaker 6 (02:47:44):
And you know Demico Ryans.

Speaker 20 (02:47:46):
His philosophy is all about togetherness and he believes that
players who are together will play hard for each other,
come come December and November anywhere.

Speaker 3 (02:47:55):
You think we can see that on the field a
little bit like every single play.

Speaker 20 (02:47:58):
Absolutely, absolutely you see him cheering for each other, celebrating
each other. Whenever somebody gets an interception, they're celebrating the
other player. You saw how happy and how excited they
were to see Stingley get the interception.

Speaker 2 (02:48:09):
So absolutely you see them trying to keep up with Demiko,
who make sure, nobody's in his way when he runs
sixty yards down the sidelines. Is bullet goes sixty eight
yards down the sideline.

Speaker 20 (02:48:18):
Demiko Man, Nobody is more excited than that guy when
one of his players makes him play.

Speaker 3 (02:48:23):
Yeah, incredible stuff from that group early on.

Speaker 2 (02:48:25):
Five picks for Kaitln Bullock, Five picks for Derek Stingley Junior.
The Texans are second in the NFL in interceptions with nineteen.
The great majority of them have cover over the last
nine weeks. I mentioned this earlier today. Five games into
the season, even at four and one, the Texans only
had taken the ball away from their opponents three times.

(02:48:46):
Their takeaway numbers have shot through the roof. They've got
a five pick game. They just came off of a
four turnover game. They've obviously won the turnover battle quite
a bit late this season. Over the last nine weeks,
they're a plus sixteen. I'm gonna leave you with this.
How at plus sixteen over a nine week stretch are
they only five and four?

Speaker 6 (02:49:06):
That is crazy.

Speaker 20 (02:49:08):
The offense, you know, went through that rough stretch and
I think you're seeing them improve a little bit. But
they've got to get some consistency with the passing game
and running game, because you know five and four isn't
isn't good enough.

Speaker 2 (02:49:21):
Nine and five is where they're out on the season.
That's John Alexander. You catch all of his work on
the Houston Chronicle covering the Houston Texans speed and of
course on the X platform at John M. Alexander. Always good,
hearing from you great and appreciate you coming in studio
and hanging out absolutely. Thanks for having me be out
at the facility tomorrow seeing what the Texans happen next.

Speaker 3 (02:49:41):
We'll do it all again tomorrow, starting it to

Speaker 9 (02:49:44):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety

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