Astros Win The Series But Lose The Lead Sitting #2 In AL West, Texans vs Buccaneers Tonight!

Astros Win The Series But Lose The Lead Sitting #2 In AL West, Texans vs Buccaneers Tonight!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross hen a.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
M straight up here on Sports Talk seven you hello
and welcome in that to a Monday edition of The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Around me.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Fitch on the way and.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
That's at high in the air and deep down the
right field line, and if it stays fair, it's gone.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
And that is a fair ball and a home run.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Going and feel back the one a softly hit right side.
As it's bobbled by Dubon. He won't get it out
anywhere or un scores as Kim comes home to make
it two to one.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Braves a drowna sorro no to moo.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
No t mo, and that is lined in the left
center and down for a base hit. The PROFI scores
Olsen around third. He will score into third base goes
a Kunya. Ozzie Albs drives in two with a single
and the Braves lead four to two.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
People run in circles.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
It's a very very.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:44):
Here's the pits pulled right field and well inside the
foul poll.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
It is and it's gone. Sandy laone.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
First hit with the Braves, first home run, say.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Three pitch on the way, pain, you pops it up
right out in front of home plate. Leone comes out
in front of the plate and said Olsen comes in,
makes the catch, and that is the ballgame.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
No one, no one. Well the Seattle Mariners, please lose
a game nine in a row. The Seattle Mariners have won.
It really didn't go that poorly for the Astros. Over
the weekend against the Braves, you won two out of three.

(02:44):
But here they sit in the second place for the
first time since the beginning of June, and the Astros
do not control their own destiny in the American League West. Hello,
and welcome into a Monday edition or the Mad Thomas
Show without Matt Thomas with Me Ross with being joined

(03:07):
by Chris Gordy somewhere along the way, also joined by
Adam Wexer, but solo right now. Seven to one three
two one two five seven ninety is the phone number
if you would like to get in seven to one
three two one two five seven nine. You could also
send tweets to at sports RV if you'd like to
get in that way. Producer Jonathan Allen is here hanging

(03:28):
out for the duration. Appreciate him and appreciate him for
the open. How are you doing, Jonathan, everything? Okay, I'm
having a blessed weekend. That was a good uh oh right,
really you know that was well? You had a blessed
weekend from er Valdez did not. Neither did arch Manning.
But we'll get to that in a second. So, yes,
there is a big college football weekend we can talk about.
You got the Texans versus the Buccaneers tonight as well.

(03:52):
We can get in on that. That will be the
early Monday night game. It is a doubleheader. It is
your Houston Texans at NRG Stadium, six o'clock kickoff the
early game. Chargers Raiders will be the later game, so
we can talk about that. I don't know Canelo Crawford.
I don't know how much interest anybody has in that.

(04:12):
Are you much of a boxing fan, Jonathan?

Speaker 7 (04:15):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (04:15):
I you know, I'm not big on boxing, but I
do always watch the big games.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Okay, so you watch the big fight over the weekend. Yeah,
of course, Okay, you weren't falling asleep. Yeah you're young.
That bad boy didn't start till about eleven forty five.
I've watched all the I don't know what you call it.
You watched all the prelims they were Yeah, there were
actually some pretty good fights that they put together on Netflix.
And then I thought it wasn't like an all time
great fight, but Canelo Crawford was a pretty good fight.

(04:40):
So yeah, okay, you know what, maybe we'll have to
spend a couple of minutes on that as well. For
my boxing peeps, Uh, I do like to talk a
little bit of boxing, and it was an interesting fight,
and uh, go ahead and check the records. Uh, your
boy told you twice last week. Terrence Crawford by decision.
I'm just saying I learned from the best. I am
gonna break my arm padding myself on the back, but

(05:01):
I called that one. But anyways, we can talk some boxing,
we can talk some college football, we can talk some NFL.
But we also are going to talk about your Houston Astros.
A big week coming up. We'll get to the race
in just a second, but the Rangers in town two
nights and it's gonna be a tough one. You got
Jason Alexander versus Jack Lder. I mean Merril Kelly carved

(05:23):
up the Astros for the Rangers recently. He is pitching
for them tomorrow. And then you got to Graham on
Wednesday versus undecided. So not feeling super great about the Ashros.
And we've been talking about this the last couple of weeks,
but how it kind of just doesn't feel like their year.
They've been in this malaise. They have been for the
last fifty five or so games, just not great. They

(05:46):
have won three of their last five. They did take
two out of three over the Braves over the weekend.
The Bats busted out in a big way on Friday
for eleven runs. Then they followed that up with six
runs in the first three innings against the Atlanta Braves
on Saturday. And you're feeling good and they didn't even
use Brian a bray you in Saturday, so you're giving
him a couple of days off. Everything's lining up. You

(06:10):
got from or Valdez against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday,
and then he just quite frankly does what he's been
doing lately. I mean, I've been defending the guy all
year talking about how, you know, hey, it's a little overblown.
He gives up some runs and it's not necessarily like
he completely blew up, which I think you could say
that yesterday. Really, I mean to me, when he's blowing up, well,

(06:33):
when he's intentionally crossing up his catcher and then like
throwing a bunch of wild pitches and stuff like that,
then we can call that a blow up. But it's
just semantics at this point. The bottom line is the
runs were scratched across just four innings, six hits, five
earned runs, four walks, a couple of strikeouts. For fromer Valdez.

(06:53):
It's not good enough. I think that's like six out
of the last seven times he's come out there, he's
given up four runs or more. And down the stretch
for a guy who had been so good for his
his era was hovering around like two point four or
so before this stretch started. He'd been really good, even
with the occasional blow up, and that just hasn't been

(07:15):
the case down the stretch. I don't know if he's
getting tired or if it's fatigue or what, because he
can look sharp, the curve ball can look really good,
and he looks like he's locking in. Early in this game,
he gave up the home run. Then he I think
he gave up like a chop single or something like that,
and then he kind of settled in. You're sitting there saying, oh,
is everything going to be okay? And everything was okay

(07:35):
first and second inning, but then there in the fifth
the wheels completely came apart, and then he had to
be pulled out of the game. For Enio Delos Santos,
even giving up five runs in four plus innings isn't
necessarily a death now, but the offense wasn't good enough yesterday.
I guess can we say, can we give them a
pass because they were good the two previous days? I

(07:57):
don't know either way. They lose eight to three, and
the Seattle Mariners just are unrelenting at this point. Credit
to them. They've won nine in a row. They've been good.
And the Astros, who have been kind of trying to
get things together over the weekend. I'm not saying it's
too little, too late, because there's still a lot of
baseball left, but the Mariners are rightful American League West

(08:21):
leaders at this moment. They have a better run differential,
they've been better down the stretch, and they're taking care
of business and the Astros have been scuffling about for
far too long. If you could could take care of
business against some of those Rangers games where it was
very close and you had a lot of runners in
scoring position opportunities. Same thing that Angel series a couple

(08:42):
of weeks ago as well. You'd be in a better spot.
You'd be either tight or ahead in the American League West,
and they just have not gotten it done consistently enough.
Twelve games left now in the season for the Astros.
The good news is the guys that you're battling with
in the American League West, they're coming to your house

(09:03):
three with the Rangers now day off on Thursday, a
huge three game set with the Mariners coming up this weekend,
and then you got us offt Landing at the end
of the year, which we've talked about how this sets
up well for the Astros. You get to go head
to head with the guys that you're trying to knock
out of the American League West, and then you get
six games on the road against the A's who are

(09:24):
playing out the string and the Angels, who are probably
booking their flights to kant Kum. So go out there,
get it done. Win the American League West. It can
still be done. That's where the Astros are right now,
and with all the issues that they've had all year long.
Like you actually, when you hear Jason Alexander is starting tonight,

(09:45):
you're like, yes, that guy that was DFA from the
A's should be nice for the Astros tonight. Good battle,
Like it's Jack Lighter. It's crazy where we've come and
where we've been. And we kind of always say this
when it's an Astro season. What if I had talk
to you in spring training and said this, this and this,
but this one is like one of the more doozies
you go time travel to spring training. You're really gonna

(10:06):
have to sit somebody down and explain everything that has
gone wrong this season. They're still eighty one sixty nine
and they could still win the American League West. But
how you feeling about your Houston Astros right now? Let
me know seven one three two one two five seven
ninety the phone number seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. As I said, we've got your Houston

(10:29):
Texans in action tonight against the Buccaneers. Can the CJ.
Stroud of two years ago against the Buccaneers play in
this game? The guy that threw for like four hundred
and seventy yards and five touchdowns, and we were like,
this is the the greatest quarterback in Texans history already,
and then now it's been eh from last year and

(10:51):
a so so start in Week one against the La Rams.
So a bounce back night from c J. Stroud and
the Texans offense would be nice. As I mentioned, there
was a big college football weekend. You got Canelo Crawford stuff.
We can talk about eating guy. You guys want to
get to here on a Monday, you can do that
seven to one three two one two five seven ninety
the phone number seven one three two one two five

(11:12):
seven ninety. Chris Gordy will be joining me in a
little bit. Adam Wexler later on as well. We got
our normal Monday bits to tell the truth. We got
news at noon, a lot of good stuff. It is
the Matt Thomas Show without Matt Thomas. He is at
the NBA what are they calling at the broadcast meeting,
So he'll be out today, tomorrow and Wednesday, but I'm
hanging out. You guys can get in here on The

(11:33):
Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas, with you
until two o'clock here on Sports Talk seven ninety ten
eighteen in the am here on Sports Talk seven ninety
Rosby Real with you, Matt Thomas, not Chris Gordy along
in the fold, and a little bit. Jonathan Allen is here.
You can get in co host for a couple of
minutes if you'd like. It's seven to one three two

(11:55):
one two five seven ninety seven one three two one
two five. I have seven ninety I didn't even mention
that jose L Tuove leaving the game on Saturday when
the Astros were up six and nothing. He was replaced
by Ramon Urius. And you're sitting there saying, Okay, is
this just like they're just getting him off his feet
because this thing is probably over. Nope, it turns out

(12:17):
he's got foot soreness and he is day today. Dana
Brown doesn't think it will be an extended absence. Actually,
let's go and hear from him. This is from Dana
Brown yesterday on with the Astros Radio Network about jose
Al Tuove. Actually this isn't working, So there we go

(12:40):
as it happened. What percentage of the time does the
computers work on a Monday here on the here on
sports STO message up, I think I got it now.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
Yeah, they definitely come in bunches. You see that one
he hit the right field. That's when I know he's
going good. You know, hit that line drive the opposite way,
and you know that got me fired up because I
know that's when he's locked in. And so I think
these two days, uh, you know, give him a little
bit of a break. He kind of started to feel
it a little bit. I think he started to feel
the timing and so he should come back and still

(13:10):
be the same.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
All right, Well, there you go. Hopefully he'll come back soon.
It sounds like they're not super worried about Jose al
Twov and getting him off his feet. Didn't start the
game yesterday, I didn't play the game yesterday, And we'll
see what happens with he when he comes back. And
it's it's been that kind of season for the Astros
where Jose al Twov he's slumping for a month. He
gets a couple of hits and a home run, and

(13:33):
then the next day, the next day he gets a
hit and then he hurts his foot and he's out
for a couple of days. It's just not feeling like
it's there here. Seven one three, two, one two five
seven ninety is the phone number if you would like
to get in. As I mentioned, you can send some
tweets to at Sports RV and you know what, go

(13:53):
ahead and follow me on Instagram if you don't mind.
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you just do me a solid and follow me on
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I would really appreciate it. It's a nice picture of
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(14:15):
which he does. It's also probably because you're next to
me and my gray beard. But that's okay, Jonathan, all right.
As I said, phone lines open seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. Dave in Austin is first
up here on the phone lines. So the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. What's up Dave?

Speaker 9 (14:33):
Hey, what's up Ross? How you doing?

Speaker 7 (14:35):
Man?

Speaker 2 (14:35):
I'm doing pretty good? What you got.

Speaker 7 (14:38):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Man?

Speaker 10 (14:38):
Well?

Speaker 7 (14:39):
So c J.

Speaker 9 (14:40):
Stroud, you know, had a great rookie season, but and
I know he gets hit and shacked a lot, and
we all talked about his O line, but I really
think there's a couple things wrong, and one of them
is that he just isn't making decisions very fast. He's
not scanning the field, he's not making his reads.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
He's too slow.

Speaker 9 (15:01):
Not only is to smile, like making the reads and
getting that ball out. They need to fire it out quick.
They need to do quick step passes. They need to
get in line with their offensive coordinator. And I mean
at the new offensive coordinator. He looks so boring. He
looks like the other offensive coordinator. I mean, can you
imagine our defense held us in the game against the Rams.

(15:22):
They get down to the red zone with a chance
to win the game. You have the game in reach
to win and CJ's like, okay, coach, what's the play called?

Speaker 2 (15:31):
What you got?

Speaker 9 (15:32):
And they're like, we want to go to a goomba walle.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
I'm sorry, did you say goomble walle?

Speaker 11 (15:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (15:39):
I did.

Speaker 9 (15:40):
You don't want to go to Nico Collins, one of
the best receivers we have? No what about Nick Chubb?
He actually ran the ball pretty good up the middle. No,
we don't want to do him either what about what
he marks Higgins.

Speaker 5 (15:53):
Any of our picks?

Speaker 9 (15:54):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 13 (15:54):
No, what about me?

Speaker 9 (15:55):
I can run? No, we've seen you run and you
look slower than David Mills. Sorry, man, you can't scramble.
We want to hand. We want you to throw the
ball to a Goomblewalle and he can dive and fumble.
Uh that's what we got our play call.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
Hey, well, first of all, it probably wasn't the complete
play design just for Dara Gumbowalle. Just because that's where
the ball ends up doesn't mean it's like, hey, it's
it's Dario guombo Walle time. But also if they if
he didn't fumble that ball, they still would have bring
in a pretty good down and distant situation. Correct, I'd
have to pull back up the play by play. I'm
not sure. But anyways, David doesn't even matter about that.

(16:30):
But yeah, it doesn't even matter about that. What's happening
with Nick. The reason you're you're saying the offensive coordinator
coordinator Nick Kyley looks boring is because everybody looks boring
when your offensive line can't hold anybody, and the opposing defense,
first of all, is one of the best defensive lines
in football top three according to Pro Football Focus. And
then they're they're wrecking your offensive line. So and you've

(16:52):
got no run game with Nick Chubb, who really didn't
get going until what you mentioned in the fourth quarter.
And that's when they were just playing soft coverage as
far as the run game because it was the fourth
quarter and and the Texans needed a touchdown.

Speaker 9 (17:08):
Yeah that's right, man, you know just too. I mean,
you have to have a scrambling quarterback or a quarterback
that can run. And CJ is just too slow. He
looks terrible. He can't run the ball. I don't think
he's it. I think we should move on from him.
And if I'm a new coordinator in the league and
this is my first NFL game and I have a
chance to win, I'm not going with undrafted round pick.

Speaker 7 (17:30):
Man.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
I like, I don't care what you said. I like
Dario goodbal No, hang your head on that guy, Okay,
I'm not saying you hang your hat. Yeah it was
first intent. I'll pull it up first in ten seven
yard game with under two minutes to go. So yeah,
you would have been in a second three. It would
have been in a nice situation. They like Dario Goodbally
in those two minute drill situations. He's good pets, catching

(17:52):
passes out of the backfield, good pass protector. They clearly
like him as a third down guys. They continue to
keep him on the team. Unfortunately, it was a perfect
punch by Landmann and then it was recovered by the Rams.
It was just I don't know, man, just one of
those games I stick.

Speaker 9 (18:08):
I would stick with Nico Collins or some weapons that
you know are are if your first time offensive coordinator,
make it easier yourself, man, go go with the good guys.
Don't don't try the goomba wale.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, I appreciate that, Dave, thank you for getting in.
It's just easier said than done. I mean, we can
all sit there and say, why doesn't Nico Collins get
twelve catches for one hundred and fifty yards every single game?
Because guess what, the Los Angeles Rams know that Nico
Collins is your only real threat on the field as well,
so he's going to be either bracketed or in zone

(18:39):
coverages where guys are every single person is keing in
on him and trying to limit how effective he is.
And then of course you can say, well, they know
that about Pukinakua. He had ten catches, and that's true.
So it's just not as easy as as you think,
especially when you're when you have no offensive line and

(19:02):
you have no run game. It's near impossible. That's why
I'm not super optimistic about the start of this Texan season.
If and when, until we hear something about Joe Mixon
coming back, Unless Nick Chubb can get in some kind
of rhythm, or this offensive line can play a lot
better and gel a lot better, it's gonna be a struggle.

(19:24):
It is. You're gonna see basically what you saw, maybe
not to that extreme level of a fourteen to nine game,
but these are gonna be grinds of games in my opinion,
until proven otherwise, until we just see a game where
everybody's firing and all cylinders on offense and they're busting

(19:44):
out for like twenty seven points or thirty points, I'm
going to operate under the assumption that the Texans are
going to grind out a bad run game. They're gonna
try to piece together a pass game without a good
offensive line and win with defense. It's basically what we

(20:06):
saw down the stretch last year. They did not score
a lot of points. If you go and look at
the back half of the game, a back half of
the season. Now, they tried to retool. They signed Cam Robinson,
they drafted Arianta Ursery, they reshuffled the offensive line, and
now we want one weekend. They've got a bunch of injuries.

(20:27):
I'm just not picturing the world where CJ. Stroud starts
to light the world on fire. Now he could, as
I said, we pointed to that game twenty twenty three.
Doesn't it feel like we're in a different world. Try
to think back to what you were feeling about c J.
Stroud in the Houston Texans when he comes down in

(20:50):
an impossible situation and what was it like forty seconds
left in the clock or something like that, needing a
touchdown and then boom that touchdown down the scene to
Tank Dell to get the victory in that game against
the Buccaneers four hundred and seventy some odd yards and
five touchdowns of where you were thinking like this, dude's

(21:11):
the truth. That's when the I don't want to say
light bulb completely went on, but that was when he
was like there was just no doubt about it. CJ.
Shroud was that dude in that situation when he came
out and won that game for the Texans. And then
it's just been a whole bunch of men for a
last year and now one weekend to this year. One

(21:35):
week doesn't mean everything, but you gather more data as
they play more games. And right now what we have
to go on is the Texans offense is sputtering, to
say the least. Hopefully they can turn things around at
home tonight, extra day arrest on a Monday night, get

(21:56):
things going. They are favored in this game, maybe they
can get a victory. Tell me what you think. Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety is the
phone number you want to get in seven one three
two one two five seven ninety again. Tweets at sports RV,
Instagram at Sports RV as well. It is the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He will be

(22:18):
back on Thursday. Chris Gordy should be joining shortly. We
got to tell the Truth coming up at eleven thirty
and you seven one three two one two five seven
ninety Jack, Welcome back, Jake. The fan Club would like
to welcome Jake Myers back. To the Astros lineup. Oh snap, Now,

(22:41):
of course I was wrong when I said that he
would get four hits in the Toronto series.

Speaker 5 (22:48):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
He got one hit in the first game, went over
four all four times with runners in the scoring position,
and then got sat in the third game. But he
gets However, if we push you back a series, he
got six hits against Atlanta zavages up to three ten,
baby wondering how it was gonna be when he came back.
Just to be honest, you know, some of the batted

(23:08):
ball luck was very good for Jake Myers. The fan
club was a little worried. We shouldn't have been. He's
looking good hitting three ten. Unfortunately, didn't make a diving
catch in the field yesterday. But that's okay. All's well.
Not all's well. That ends well, but it didn't affect
the outcome of the game. Astros lose eight to three
in the finale of the series in Atlanta, and now

(23:30):
they're one game back of the Seattle Mariners in the
American League West. Look at you folks getting in on
the phones. I do appreciate you. So let's go ahead
and get after it with you folks. Seven to one,
three two one two five seven ninety is the phone
number here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross Without
Matt Thomas, Kyle in Ahetown has been holding along us.

Speaker 14 (23:48):
What's up cow, what's up bruss Man?

Speaker 2 (23:51):
I know, you know, always calling about our longhoint man
that we don't we don't have to talk about that.
We don't talk about that.

Speaker 14 (23:58):
That was a tough watch, Ony, But the good thing
is to be with one more of these so called
cupcake games and see two we got And ideally, of
course Arch needs to play better. Hopefully this game he
got this easy way to say it, his figures figures.

Speaker 15 (24:14):
Out to the ball.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, it's kind of important for a quarterback, especially when
you've got like a bunch of wide open throws and
you just like are fireing the ball into the dirt.
It's not good.

Speaker 14 (24:25):
Yeah, Ideally this week he plays better and we get
to see at least with what Caldwell and hopefully you
can get kJ Lacy in there a little bitsy what
he's got, just to see what they have just in case.
But in that boarda games lined up to be uh
quite the showdown of quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
But play the other Yeah, Lay looks terrible.

Speaker 14 (24:47):
I still have hopeing Arch.

Speaker 13 (24:48):
I mean, that's thet see what he got.

Speaker 14 (24:50):
He hasn't really played football since high school, so it's
gonna take time.

Speaker 12 (24:54):
Sat.

Speaker 14 (24:54):
I still believe in him, so we'll see hook them
all right.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Thank you, Kyle, appreciate it. Yeah. Look, I'm not going
to say that that Arch Manning's career is over and
I'm giving up on him or anything like that, but
he has looked progressively worse every week. That is problematic.
He looked okay against Ohio State, You're like, hey, he's
on the road, it's the shoe, it's it's a really
difficult Ohio State defense. You can forgive that. Then the

(25:20):
San Jose State won. He misses a deep ball early,
and then he throws four touchdowns in the first half,
and you're feeling a little bit better. Even though he
missed some throws. There were some some causes for concern
in that game. And then the game against UTEP. I mean,
he was five for sixteen with a bad pick, Like
just a bad decision. I can live with bad decisions
for a quarterback that's really starting his first year. But

(25:44):
the inaccuracy, that's that's where I get concerned because that's
not something weak to weak that is just going to improve.
You would think, I mean, you could hope, but I mean,
as you know, and you've seen throughout the years a
lot of times, inaccurate quarterbacks just don't all of a
sudden wake up the next week and they're they're making
every single throw. Maybe it can happen. Maybe it is

(26:05):
some injury that he's managing. But if he's managing injury,
then then why is he out there against UTEP in
Sam Houston State. So that that's what we have to
sit here and wonder. And I don't have that answer
right now. But if you're watching arch Manning, the the

(26:27):
low light package was huge. They were playing it on
a loop and it's like they were just collecting almost
every time he throw was ten incompletions in a row
at one point eleven to twenty five, one hundred and
fourteen yards, one touchdown, one interception against UTEP where your
forty point favorites. That's not ideal and it could just

(26:51):
very well be. Now we'll see again, it's early. He
can get better. This is his first year starting, but
he has a third year quarterback. We have to remember
that and There are already questions that I addressed on
this show in anywhere and on Twitter or wherever that
I talked about, like if arch Manning is this all world,
can't miss, no doubt about it quarterback, he would have
been playing against ahead of Quinn. You weers in his

(27:13):
second year. You were saying that when he played that
bad this last game of you tip. I was like, wow,
Ross really did call this. I don't say that what
you did. You were the only ones saying like he
might be bad.

Speaker 16 (27:22):
Guys.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I don't want to be right on that.
I wanted to be really wrong. Uh So we'll see. Yeah,
that's that's what I'm saying. Hey, look, five star quarterbacks
are no guarantee. Garrett Gilbert says, hello, if you remember
him for Texas Longhorns fan fans, he's going against Malachai Nelson,
who was he was the five five star quarterback the

(27:45):
same year as arch Manning. He committed to USC. He
was supposed to be this can't miss quarterback and now
he's at UTEP and he's not good. And same thing
for uh Nico Yama. Liiava was the number two quarterback
when arch Manning was the number one quarterback. He's all
full at UCLA just because you're a five star quarterback,
even if you stripped the name Manning off that because

(28:05):
some people are putting that on the on the prognosticators
and like a he was only hyped up because his name, well,
malachite Nelson is to my knowledge, doesn't come from a
big football pass throwing family. And he was five star,
so yeah, sure we can put maybies. There was some
hype for because of the Manning, because of the Manning name,
but a lot of his high school highlights were very good,

(28:27):
when of course we know that the competition wasn't very good.
But five star quarterbacks, no matter what their name their
last name is, don't always work out. Quinn Ewers was
this five star, no doubt about it, can't miss quarterback
as well. He was good, he wasn't great. He was
a seventh round pick, no guarantees with five stars and well,

(28:52):
as of this moment, Arch Manning looking a little shaky
for the Texas Longhords. John and Fresno next up here
on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross What's up John?

Speaker 15 (29:03):
They was going on, Matt, Hey, you know we had
that seven good good goess man. You know, we had
that seven game lead here about halfway through the season,
and we had a lot of injuries, a lot of pitches,
a lot of UH players, regular players was out and
we took what we had.

Speaker 7 (29:21):
Even though they was young.

Speaker 13 (29:22):
We took what we had and.

Speaker 15 (29:24):
Everybody became in some stars teenya uh.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
We had uh Miles.

Speaker 15 (29:29):
And Smith and then we had some pishes look like Gospel,
a lot of pitches.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Nobody really hurt us.

Speaker 13 (29:36):
I think our.

Speaker 15 (29:36):
Fire mills is that we let it at the at
the UH, at the mean, at the All Star break,
at the tread deadline, we didn't really.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Go and get where we needed.

Speaker 15 (29:46):
But we won the world championship. We went and got
burn La. He came in and and got us to
a world championship. We didn't go get to where we needed.
We need pitching, starting pitching, and yes, stay, we went
and got you know, some players, some did nobody else
want and brought them in here and they not producing.
And I think everything that's confused. I wondered some I

(30:08):
wonder sometimes just my wheel taking, how bad is Jim
Crane want? Because you know, with winning come paying money.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
You no, you're good, You're good two thirty of I
just don't get it. I just don't get you sometimes.

Speaker 15 (30:22):
I just I just said, man, I just keep the
one hundred. The Millers are doing what they're supposed to do.
They win, and game we losing game that we had
to work somewhere.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
He didn't just say, I'm in the family business. Yeah,
It's like I'm going there do suction and don't care.

Speaker 15 (30:37):
Okay, guys, I'm just saying, don't be surprised if we
if we don't, if we lose, we already that game
behind and I can't see us coming out of it.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
I got come out, I look great. I don't feel great.
Do you mean let me look at this package? All
you young up? He called me Matt, so I wanted
to play some Matt drops. You can confused a lot
of people out there. That's a shame. All right, Hey,
Gordy's here, what's up?

Speaker 3 (31:06):
What's happening?

Speaker 5 (31:07):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Not a whole lot. We're gonna take a break. Let's see.
The Astros are out of first place. The Texans offense
continues to probably be in disarray. We'll see if they
can get anything going. Arch Manning didn't look good over
the weekend. The University of Houston Cougar's won.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, big one can almost.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Sell out for them at TDECU Stadium. Eh, there's no
Rockets news to speak of. And that's all I got
right now.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yeah, today's an interesting day because I just gotta checking
the pulse on the Houston streets. Ross, you got a
lot of folks that are worried about the Astros, very concerned.
I mean, I said it the last two weeks. This
upcoming series, you need to treat it like these two series.
You need to treat it like playoffs games. Basically, you
got six playoff games this week. If you take care

(31:55):
of business, you were in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Must win the games coming.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
Out drop two out of three, two out of three.
Guess what your asses out of the playoffs. So depend
on what Boston US do. But it's uh, you gotta
treat it. You gotta treat it. Very important. But you
got that, and then you got optimism for the Texans.
Everybody's excited. Okay, you lose the first one on the
road of the Rams, no harm, no foul, But we
got a home game tonight against the Bucks. Baby, So

(32:20):
it's it's interesting, but a little pressure to Ross is
those colts up in Indie. They're two and out of
the gates.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Uh is Daniel Jones. Good, we'll talk about that all right.
We got to talk about a lot of different stuff
going on. Uh those you on hold, we see you.
We'll get to you next as well. So Gordy is
here hanging out until one o'clock. Adam Wexler will join me.
Then we got news at noon. We got to tell
the truth anything I'll want to get to as well.
Seven one three two, one two five seven ninety seven
one three, two, one two five seven ninety sending the

(32:49):
forty nine and the am here on Sports Talk seven
ninety to tell the truth. I'm whipping up one truth
in three lies, halfway through my list right now, coming
up at eleven thirty. That'd be fun with Chris Gordy
and the Jonathan Allen. Matt Thomas is out. He is
at the NBA broadcast meetings. I don't think that means

(33:10):
he's doing it. It sounds a lot more important than it is.
He's probably just schmoozing out there in New York. And
that's fine.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
A lot of schmoozing.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
That's okay, all right. In the meantime, you guys can
get in seven one three, two, one two five, seven ninety.
A lot of Houston sports to talk about today on
a Monday, with the Astros having the Texas Rangers in town. Uh,
I've been asking this and I do this all the time.
I guess how we feeling, Chris Gordy. I mean, look,

(33:37):
you took two out of three against the Brave's not bad.
But the Marriags just won't lose. They've won nine in
a row.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Right, that's the that's the crappy part. And the Rangers
finally lost they had won what six in a row
primer yesterday, So yeah, it's a little compounded because look,
we were for a couple of weeks there when the
Askers are struggling, the Mariners are struggling, so it didn't
really matter. But you got to treat these playoff games.
I did post on our social media earlier ross are

(34:02):
the Asters gonna slide completely out of the playoffs. Let's
take a look at some of the responses.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Oh no, okay, Rudy says, with only.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
One good starter one. Veronica says absolutely wow. Jason says
it was a good ten year run. But I think
we missed the playoffs this year by a game or two,
with Seattle taking the division.

Speaker 7 (34:24):
They do.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Do people know they can still win the wild card?

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Johnny says, gotta get Valdez out of their rotation, send
him to sugar Land.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Oh, he's got no options.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Defend the House Rangers and Mariners for a week that
decides the stros fate. Gotta win every series this point.
Ford hopefully Pardes will be back. Is that the latest rumor.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
That he might be able to contribute? Yes, I am
still not super optimistic about it. And to what level
you can use him? I mean, you don't need somebody
to dh but uh, well you know what, here's Dana
Brown from yesterday. Let me go ahead, and well, actually
the computer's been messing out. Give me a second.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
Charles says, yes, hopefully. I'd rather than miss the playoffs
then get swept in the first round. Team needs to
rebuild and the window is closed, you know, rather than
miss the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
But you can't guarantee they're gonna get swept. Shout you
buy mess up. You never say I want I don't
want my team to not make the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
And also in a wildcart series, anything when you're two
in barbecue.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
We call that a sweep. I mean it's kind of
a uh it's like a mini sweep.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah, it's it's like a gentleman sweep Friday Wednesday afternoon
when Colorado comes to town, and we call that a
serious sweep. That's always weird.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Dana Brown says Estich Praatus could come back against Seattle.

Speaker 6 (35:44):
Yeah, I mean we're kind of targeting potentially him coming back.
Maybe a long chat, but we're targeting it. Uh, you know,
the Seattle series.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
All right.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
We do have to have to keep in mind, Dana
Brown is are always optimistic and for him to say
it's a long shot, but we're targeting that. So so
take this with a grain of salt.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
I'm sorry, continue that would also be like acid, Dana, Dana,
what do you think this lottery jackpots up to a billion?

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
You know, I'm hopeful I got a winning ticket.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
In my head, is a long shot, but I'm a
billionaire now.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
Because he's actually starting to swing the bat. You know,
probably if you come back and he'd probably be d
h that type of thing. But he's you know, taking
some ground balls and he's running a little bit and uh,
of course he's hitting and he's hitting live VP, which
is you know, that's really big so and and getting
that bat back would be huge because he's the he's

(36:37):
that guy that sees a lot of pitches, that's the
tempo of the lineup, irritates the pitchers on the opposition.
And so you know, we we welcome him back, and
but we're we're hoping, we're very hopeful that he can
get back for that Seattle series. But that's kind of
like what we're targeting. Uh, there's nothing nutched in stone,
but you know, we'd be we'd be excited to get

(36:59):
him back at that point.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
I think this is the urgency of the situation. They're
kind of forcing it a little bit, you know what
I mean, Like I think in a normal situation, No,
look you're done. We'll see it's spring training.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
I mean, he's still gonna have to in theory, if
he gets on base, he's gonna have to run the bases, right.
I don't know, man, you.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
You pull him for Zach Cole every time he gets
on base.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Hey, I don't even talk about Zach Cole, the goat baby.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Shoot. I was getting text from a buddy on Friday night.
That I mean he was headed for the Hall of Fame.
It was nuts.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Uh yeah, since I mean, what was it three for
four with a home three hits Friday, seas he hits
a home run.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
No hits on Saturday. Did walk a walk though, so
he reached the base and then yesterday a hit and
a walk.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
So ten abs, five strikeouts kind of talked about.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
But also some power four hundred driven in four so
you give him, give him a little something. I mean
that home run went one hundred and fourteen off the bat. Yeah,
I'm gonna tell you, I'm ninety nine percent sure. Alex
Bregman and Josel Twovey have never hit a ball one
fourteen in their career, So I mean there's some pop
in that bat, a little bit of a shot in
the arm. It's twenty five years old. Who was the guy?

(38:11):
Remember when we played the Rangers in the ALCS and
then called was it Evan Carter?

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Carter?

Speaker 3 (38:16):
Yeah, the shot like just called up and he just
got d well for them.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Somebody brought that name up last week, like, hey, maybe
he can be Evan Carter.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Well.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Also, Evan Carter was a top five prospect in all
of baseball and Zach Cole is twenty five years old
in your number nineteen prospects. But hey, shot in the
arm is a shot in the arm. Take whatever we
can get. So it's it's been nice to see that.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
From this al mceue was a low prospect at one time.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Okay, there's been a lot of guys who've been low
prospects who contributed. I'm just saying, like, let's not get
excited as as much as we maybe would for a
guy who was a top five prospect in baseball, even
though I can't recall the last time the Astros had
one of those, Boy, who is the last as sure
it'll be a top five prospect in baseball?

Speaker 3 (38:55):
Kyle Tucker, Oh, you mean like in all of baseball? Yeah,
some of their high picks. Yeah, like Korea, Tucker B.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Bradman was up there. I don't know, all right, Kenneth
and Orange real quick? What's up, Kenneth, Yeah, I.

Speaker 11 (39:08):
Was gonna come in about it. Well, and I want
to ask again with a question with these Texans. Now,
we look at what we got, man, We got this
face reality and just a sad reality, man, because we
got a rookie play call caller. We got a patchwork
offensive line, and I can't put too much blame on TJ. CJ.

(39:32):
And and it just said, man, is that I just
hope you don't end up like Matt shrab Man, you know.
And that's that's just about the bottom of mine, thank you.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
I hope he doesn't end up like Matt Schwab either,
or oh and Daniel or Kevin Walters. Yep, all right, Well, anyways,
I hadn't heard that in a while.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
I look it up. Twenty nineteen, the Astros had the
number seventh prospect all of baseball? Do you know who
that was?

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Twenty nineteen? Number seven?

Speaker 3 (40:03):
I actual say the number seven and number eight, number
eight was Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Kyle Tucker and yourd On Alvarez.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Number seven in all of baseball twenty nineteen, Tarrek Fisher,
Forest Whitley, Forrest Whitley.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
That's right, Okay, well.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Do not forget the legend. Yikes.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
All right, anyway, on that note, we're going to take
a quick break, you know what. We do have to
talk about this. Where are we at on? CJ. Stroud?
Not that he's going to end up like Matt Schwab,
but if we look at that game from two years
ago against the Buccaneers, he looked like he was on
the fast track to like a Hall of Fame career.
Since then, not necessarily, since then, he was still good
the rest of that season, but last year and the

(40:42):
start of this year not feeling so good. Where are
you on CJ. Stroud? We want to hear from you
at seven to one three two one two five seven
ninety seven to one three two one two five seven
ninety and we'll talk about it. Start our number two
of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross Here on Sports
Talk seven ninety is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

(41:05):
Hour number two of the Matt Thomas Show with USS
without Matt Thomas. He'll be back on Thursday. Chris Gordy
hanging out well? Have TJ. Reeves Buccaneers Radio sideline reporter.
I believe it's Reeves. We'll get a confirmation on that
in a little bit. He is coming up in the
next segment talk a little bit of Texans and Buccaneers.

(41:28):
And we were talking about in the last segment, Gordy,
c J. Stroud, how much you know we talk about
this and Joe Burrow is the name that we bring up,
but he got hurt yesterday with a guy who has
a bad offensive line but still finds a way to produce.
Also doesn't hurt that he has Jamar Chase and T
Higgins and the pass catches that they have over there,
But he got hurt yesterday, and it kind of just

(41:50):
does kind of bring the comparisons here in Houston of
a quarterback who has played well, who even that year
that c J. Stroud was playing incredible. He got comparisons
to Joe Burrow for what he was doing as far
as being aware of where the opposing defenses are going
to be and making throws under duress and stuff like that.
But since then, he says, talked about we've we've talked

(42:11):
about a sophomore slump, and then Week one wasn't very good.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Yeah, I'm I'm not. I can't sit here and just
worry about injuries for CJ.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Strod.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
I need them to go out and perform it. I'm
a little bit more on the optimistic side of I'm
looking at their this lens ross. There were a bunch
of teams that went on the road in Week one
and lost their opener and then came back home in
Week two and got to win. Cowboys did it yesterday,
the Lions did it yesterday. Who else did it? Ravens.

(42:41):
They went on the road week one loss and then
came back home one yesterday. So I'm just looking at uh,
I'm looking at to say.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Week league.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Yeah, it's a week to week league. But there were
teams Vikings looked great and that come back against Chicago
last week. Last night they put out a big dud
against the Falcons. So this week. The NFL changes week
to week so much. I am expecting, like just expectations fornight.
I expect the Texas are gonna play very well against

(43:11):
the Bucks. I think they're gonna I think the offense
will execute. I think they're gonna score points. I think
they think that's gonna be great. I think they look
very different from Week one this week.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Yeah, forty two and a half is the total, so
not super high open at forty five and a half,
it went down and then the Texans up to two
and a half point favorites against Tampa Bay Buccaneers tonight.
It's it's just one of those things, like you said,
week to week where typically play well.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
On primetime too, don't they.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
See not on Christmas last year or.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
The or Halloween, remember the Jets game.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Or the playoffs, So I don't know about this. Typically
play good on national television, that's not sure.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
I mean like a Monday Night or Play nine game
at NRGAL.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Sometimes it's probably hit or miss. I mean, it's also
about the opponent. And basically what Vegas is saying is
this should be around a twenty three to twenty game.
That's what they have it at. That's you can look
when you look at the total for those who don't know,
and then you look at the spread theres and basically
an applied result. The implied result in this game is

(44:16):
twenty two and a half to twenty Texans win. That
feels about right. I mean, if we're predicting the score,
if I think the Texans are going to win, and
we know that Kymie Fairburn Texans MVP is going to
be booting a lot of field goals because that's just
what he does, twenty three to twenty feels about the
way that we would script the Texans to win this game.
But I'm worried about the offense. And again I'm worried

(44:40):
about a good defensive coach. Like Todd Bowles, where you
don't have to respect the run game and you know
that Nico Collins is going to be their number one
option and then you might have to turn to some
other places to try and figure some things out.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yeah, I just don't want to fall into that you've
fallen zero and two. This thing could get ugly real quick.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah. I want to say, Yeah, the Chiefs are zero
and two for the first time in like ten years,
and they always bring out the numbers like teams that
go oh and two they only make the playoffs. Sure
you're you know, they don't make the playoffs eighty five
percent of the time or whatever.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
And look, I feel different if you have Patrick Mahomes.
I still would like my chances with this team. I
don't know if they can fall they can come back
from O two.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Uh, I think they could, just because of the way
that the schedule is.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
Hey, the schedule for them three of the next four
on the road.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
Jaguars is winnable, Titans at home is winnable.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
At Ravens, that one, let's move on at Seahawks. That's
always a tough place to tough.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Place to play, but the Seahawks, it's not like their
world beaters. But they had a good win this week, right,
Niners and Broncos at home. The two after that, Seahawks
beat the Steelers on the road. They have physical them
and it was a close one against the Niners. You
know what.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
This is Broncos lost to the Colts. But that defense
scares me a lot. That defense is gonna wreck the
Houston Texans offensive line if they don't have their bleep
together by that Broncos game. Yeah, it's gonna be bad.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
Let's pin this one as a must win tonight.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Ross all right, must win the game for the Houston
tex Shut stop. Okay, whatever, if you want to just
use the semantics of it, it's a very important game.
It'd be nice to have it. The Buccaneers aren't very good,
It's not like they're bad, but you can be better
than the Buccaneers. You're favored in this game, and you

(46:35):
need to come up with a victory at home with
hopefully a raucous NRG crowd. But I'm not even necessarily
banking on that. It's early, it's six o'clock, we're Houston, Texas.
There's not a whole lot of reason for optimism and
enthusiasm about this teach. You're button well, you know how
long we've been saying that, Gordy. We've been saying that since,

(46:55):
I mean you were you were probably in school in
Baton Rouge or New Orleans.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Which which what did I crew? Did we get? Because
there's two Monday night games tonight, I don't know. I
assume we get buck Aikman.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
I think, so what's the other one? Raiders?

Speaker 3 (47:08):
Chargers Raiders.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Both of those are kind of Oh.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
I just saw the assignments for next week Texans at Jags, Sparrodida, Sparro.
Adam Archiletta.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yep, spirit that sounds like that's got Spirodida, said Adam
Archiletta written.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
All over it, and on the sidelines A didy Kinkobwa.
I think it's out bless you say.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
All right?

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Seven one, So you didn't get jim nantz Tony Romo.
Next week? You ain't getting that getting eye an Eagle
JJ Watt.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
To five seven ninety Ray in Miami. Let's talk some Texans.
What's up?

Speaker 5 (47:45):
Ray?

Speaker 7 (47:47):
Hey? Guys tell you John all right?

Speaker 17 (47:51):
First, I want to speak to this guy that's always
kicking out that shows game. I'll listen on the ihead
app down in every tour and I listen to everything
until first pitch. I think I'm about to listen to
the game, and the guy boots you out and he
says you're not in the area to listen to the game.
Sometimes the game goes all the way through, but eighty

(48:14):
percent of the time they kick me out. I don't
know why the our hearts. It's a Major League game.
I know why I can't live. You're in Miami, Yes, Aventura,
and they.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Are outside of the listening the listening area. That's why
you have to If you want to do that, you
got to pay. Well, it's all about your though, but
you're not supposed to. It's it's your it's about your
location services on your app, and sometimes if it's not
turned on, it might sneak through. You're supposed to go
subscribe at the MLB app and pay pay to get

(48:44):
the radio broadcast.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
Of the games. That's out of our control, bab.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
We can only stream it to the listening area around Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma,
and Louisiana.

Speaker 17 (48:54):
Okay, okay, I'm a Texas take about the Texans. I
feel like as an Eastern Texas fan, and we should
have a right to not believe in them. We shouldn't
be forced to believe in the testing. I think j
Stroud is going to end up turning into a joke.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
I think a joke.

Speaker 17 (49:11):
I think no, does hear me out?

Speaker 11 (49:13):
I think Nko is going to.

Speaker 17 (49:15):
End up turning to reach. They can't give me the ball?
So can you get me out of here? Because our quarterback,
let's just be honest, our quarterback number seven is a statue.
He can't roll out and I've never seen people lose
fifty yards every sack. Why does he drop back so
deep and get sacked. I don't have confidence in this

(49:37):
guy anymore. He was a one hit wonder, our own
people one hit wonders.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Yeah you can't, it's that your belief. But look, okay,
remember that.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Play that he made anything.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
He wasn't a statue in that play that he made
against the Chargers of the playoffs where he was running
for his life and then made a great deep strike
to Xavier Hutchinson, like, he can make plays. And you're right,
he does lose a lot of yards sometimes on sacks,
and that's because he believes he can make plays and
sometimes he needs to know where he just needs to
fall down and give up on the play, which he
doesn't do. But I mean to say that he's gonna

(50:10):
be just a guy. I'm just not there yet.

Speaker 17 (50:12):
Ray, and I understand that we had a thriller and
we beat them with a touchdown at them in last second.
But if Mike Evans and Mayfield are living and breathing tonight,
they're a beating at Easton Texans.

Speaker 11 (50:26):
I hate to say it, but he's.

Speaker 17 (50:27):
Gonna put up unbelievable numbers on us tonight. The secondary
not gonna be to keep up with Mike Evans is
to come on, Let's just be honest.

Speaker 13 (50:36):
The old line in the D line.

Speaker 17 (50:38):
Is not gonna dominate up front. And I think we're
gonna get embarrassed tonight, I honestly do. We're gonna get
embarrassed on National Time.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
All right.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
I'm hanging up on you, Ray, You're bringing me down.
I appreciate you like that's uh, that's what the most
possible love I can put on a hang up on somebody.
I'm putting that on you.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
Ray.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
You just bring me down. It's not making me feel
good about this. We're gonna get blown out. Two and
a half point favorite.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
What I don't like about that too, is it turns
people into well, that's my take, and so now I
hope it happens because I want my take to be right,
as opposed to just being a fan and going, I
hope I'm wrong. Let's yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Yeah, some people just root to be right more than
they want to root for their actual team. We see
that a lot with Alprin Shingoon and Jalen Green. We've
spent twenty.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Years praying for a franchise quarterback. You thought you had
one Deshaun turned out to be a creeper, but then
you got one in in CJ. Stroud, and he's the
real deal. He's a total package. And it feels like
some people out there want him to fail.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Yeah, I mean, and I think that's a lot of
fandom in twenty twenty five anyways, is rooting for people
to fail. I think a lot of that's happening with
Arch Manning. But I digress. But anyways, I'm rooting for CJ. Stroud.
I want to call me crazy. I live in Houston, Texas.
I root for the Houston teams and I want them
to succeed. So that's That's what I want to see

(51:59):
from CJS. I want to see not necessarily the guy
that played the Buccaneers two years ago went for four
to seventy and five touchdowns, but at least some competency,
some accuracy, some confidence to where he's not just seeing
ghosts and running away as soon as the ball is snapped.
And unfortunately a lot of that has been the offensive
line that he has had to work with.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
But this is look, they tried to fix it in
the offseason. They did what they thought they the best
they could. It is what it is. You're not gonna
miraculously say, you gotta work with what you have.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yeah, I'm curious to see how everything has configured tonight
for the Texans against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All Right, TJ.
Reeves is the Buccaneers sideline reporter. He will join us next.
We're talking some Houston Texans and some Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
We got to tell the truth. Coming up news at
noon as well, jam packed show without Matt Thomas. It
is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross with Chris Gordy

(52:53):
and Jonathan Allen. Back in a minute with some more
Bucks and Texans talk. Yes, but Matt Thomas is out
rossby real with you. Chris Gordy here as well Jonathan
Allen producing on a Monday night football Monday in Houston, Texas.

(53:13):
Your Houston Texans taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now
please to be joined by TJ Reeves at Bucks Buck
sideline guy on Twitter. Appreciate the time, TJ. I want
to take you in a time machine, TJ to two
twenty twenty three. There was this team called the Tampa

(53:35):
Bay Buccaneers.

Speaker 7 (53:36):
Start with that.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Yes we have to start with that, Yes we do,
because we.

Speaker 7 (53:39):
Have to start with something else. But you could start
with that at your show.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Go because I just I just want to hear something
from you. What were you thinking?

Speaker 7 (53:47):
I had to go in that locker room, live live
after that I was about to talk about Okay, I
always it was exactly like you would think it would be.
As I'm getting one death stare after another of don't
come anywhere near me with that microphone. We'll continue. I
hate to derail the beginning of the interview. Continue.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
That's okay. At least NFL players aren't intimidating at all,
so you're totally fine. Yes, But I just want to
know what was going through your mind about how good CJ.
Stroud was in those moments, and then how do we
get to where we are right now with CJ. Stroud
in Houston where some people we literally had a call
last segment saying that he's a nobody, right.

Speaker 7 (54:25):
Of course, because all the callers you know, have a
genior assistant stand that I digress so well. Remember in
the circumstance, this was a lot like what the Buccaneers
did to the Falcons last week, except it was two
years ago. Baker Mayfield, let us not forget, got the
Buccaneers in the end zone in the final minute of
that game with the go ahead touchdown pass to Kate Otton,

(54:46):
and the sideline guy that you're talking to you right
now as I go third person says, you know, I
like that because we're going to get a happy post
game show. This is a wild win here for Baker,
for Mike Evans, for the Bucks, only to have Stroud
do what he did, and he was tremendous in the
clutch in the final minute in.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
That game, and over and over.

Speaker 7 (55:04):
Again he has demonstrated, especially with the game on the line,
that he can get things done now. I understand there's
gonna be criticism when you when you play poorly, but
are we seriously are you writing him off?

Speaker 15 (55:17):
Now?

Speaker 7 (55:18):
Why would you be writing him off that he's not
the guy after one game of this year? Now it
is a big stage. Let's see what this looks like tonight.
But that's silly. That's silly to me, just from the
talent that I saw two years ago, that's there. You
guys would know better to me, better than me about this,

(55:39):
But this, I mean, this should be a highly entertaining game.
I don't think it's unfair to say that the Texans
are desperate, are desperate to get a win. They don't
want to be zero to two home opener for you guys.
I still haven't figured out yet how the Buccaneers have
won the division four years in a row and won
playoff games and they're on the road for the first
two games. I don't I don't ever recall, like Kansas

(55:59):
City and Philadelphia and the Patriots when they used to
win ever having to open up with the first two
on the road after they had one and one and one.
But I digress. Nonetheless, we are here, and let's see
what this looks like. Tonight against the Texans, well.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
The Saints, Panthers and Falcon Sucking its certainly helped Tampa
Bay win that division a lot. But I digress.

Speaker 7 (56:19):
You are are you familiar with the AFC East for
the twenty year run of Tom Brady? Oh yeah, talking
about sucking divisions.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
I wanted to flip to the other side because Baker Mayfield.
I mean, look, everybody deserves the second chance, and we've
seen this across the NFL over the years. Some guys
just need a different change of scenery and it has
worked since ever since he stepped foot there in Tampa,
he's been fantastic for them. But I go back to
Week one, DJ, I mean, they were very fortunate to

(56:48):
get out of Atlanta with that victory. I still don't
know how they want it because you look at the
numbers and Baker seventeen to thirty two for one sixty seven.
The leading rusher was Baker Mayfield with thirty nine yards.
Bucky Irving got claw. But how did they get that win?
And is it just a tribute to gutting it out
anyway somehow, some way?

Speaker 7 (57:07):
That's it the last part of what you said, because
they took advantage of the opportunities, they scored touchdowns when
they had to, including in the red zone on three occasions.
And look, I mean, one other thing that we can
get into for this game is the Buts are without
one of the best tackles in football, if not the

(57:28):
best tackle in football, Tristan Wurks. He didn't play in
the game last week. He is not going to play tonight.
They hoped to have him back after a knee procedure
done in June. They hoped to have him back for
the home opener next weekend against the Jets. So that's
advantaged Texans tonight for Will Allen coming off the end.
But what it did is the Buccaneers had to shuffle

(57:48):
the left side of the line. They elected to move
the center, Graham Barton, out to left cackle. He had
played left tackle at Duke his last two years in
the ACC greatest center last year, different position obviously, Well,
they moved into left tackle for this game because they
worked on it in training camp and liked what he
could do. They moved the left guard to the center,

(58:10):
and they plugged a brand new left guard in. So
three positions were different on the offensive line and that
affected some things. But they held up pretty well in
the hostile loud environment, not being able to hear the
audibles and that kind of stuff. And it's going to
be loud again tonight and they are going to go
with that same offensive line set for this game tonight.

(58:31):
So I think it's admirable they drove right down the
field in the final minute in Atlanta to retake the
lead and then hold the Falcons off on the missfield
goal at the very end that could have tied it.
So anyway, you don't apologize for road wins. You boys
know this. You don't apologize for road wins. And the
Bucks did gut it out, and I would look for
Mayfield to have a better night tonight. We'll see against

(58:53):
the Houston defense. But I think they figured some things
out here after Week one. Remember the bucket near starters
basically didn't play the entire preseason, so week one, I
don't know what the case was for the Texans. You
guys can educate me. So Week one is almost like
a full scale dress rehearsal preseason game as a regular
season game because you haven't been playing. It's like a

(59:15):
rehearsal for the next sixteen weeks. So let's see if
the Bucks are better than not in that regard.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Yeah, I was a limited snaps for the Texan and
the preseasons as well, but I think mirrored in what
you're talking about is the Texans shuffling a lot of
their offensive line and going up a pretty formidable defensive line.
How did you feel about the defensive performance of the
Buccaneers in Week one and how they can follow it
up this week?

Speaker 7 (59:40):
All right? So it was not great. I'm not going
to sit here and tell you that it was great.
They were decent. They got to stop when they had
two at the end, all right. So on the defensive line.
The addition that you want to pay attention to is
Hassan Reddick. Reddick the former Philadelphia Eagle. Reddick who had
the nightmare hold out with the Jets last year and
he only played half the season on the one year

(01:00:02):
deal and then they allowed him to leave. So he
has signed a cap friendly, incentive laden deal with the
Bucks and he's an outstanding edge rusher. Let's see if
he makes a difference. He got in for a sack
on Michael Pennix last week. We're looking for this guy
to be something like a ten twelve stack guy on
this defensive line, and if he can be it's going
to help. You got two guys in the middle, Vita

(01:00:24):
Vea who is as big as a school building at
defensive tackle and is a Pro Bowl caliber player, next
to a number one pick in Elijah Canty out of pit.
That one to two on the defensive line that will
be problems for the Texans and the run game. And
then the Buccaneers are strong in the middle of the
defense with Levonte David future Hall of Fame caliber linebacker

(01:00:47):
here that is not a lot of the NFL across
the board knows about. But the guys had eleven one
hundred tackle seasons in his career. And then a guy
from your area in angouin Winfield junior at safety, Pro
Bowl caliber safety in the middle of the defense will
knock your block off and he's also excellent in coverage.
So the Bucks are strong in the middle of this
defense to night against against the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
Yeah, that was the one guy that worries me in
that secondary because there's always something about those hometown guys
when they come back here and they're on another team,
they like to show up and show out. And Antoine
Winfield Junior's certainly been one of those that's he's been great,
I mean ever since he he fell to them in
the second round twenty twenty, he's been a stalwart on
that secondary and just one of those guys that worries
me if I'm CJ. Stroud and the Texans offense. But

(01:01:32):
is it as simple as say this TJ with two
pretty good defenses. I mean, like, if the Texans can
hold the Bucks under I don't say twenty points, like
they have a pretty good chance of winning this winning
this one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
I think that, yeah, that's fair.

Speaker 7 (01:01:47):
And it was a I mean it was a low scoring,
back and forth game in Atlanta, and obviously Houston lost
what was at fourteen to nine in a close game
against the Rams. So I don't know the I mean,
the game that you're referring to two years ago was
in the thirties, right was what thirty seven, thirty one
or whatever ended up being. So I don't know that
it will be that kind of game tonight. I look
for Mike Evans. He had a good game, not a

(01:02:09):
great game last week. Mike Evans could be a big
deal with Houston try to double team him and this
rookie that you haven't asked me about a Mecca Abuka
from Ohio State round. Okay, So there you go, and
scrat will be the first one to tell you that
guy comes out of the room with Marvin Harrison Junior
and Garrett Wilson and Jackson Smith and Jigba and all

(01:02:30):
of those are NFL contributors. And I know it's only
one game, but fellas, he did not look like a
rookie at all last week. And yes, there may be
some ups and downs in this rookie season, but he
looks ready to go, and he's a weapon. And the
Buccaneers again have two backs in the backfield that are
weapons that can both catch the ball, so Baker doesn't

(01:02:50):
have a shortage of people to get the ball to.
Let's see if he can get it to them tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Well, you also haven't mentioned the Texans best offensive weapon.
That would be kicker Kymie Fairbairn.

Speaker 7 (01:03:01):
Well, he's been a weapon. You remember what happened in
the game two years ago though when he got hurt.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
Right, Yeah, Darry Goballey is still on the roster, so
he's ready to her again.

Speaker 7 (01:03:14):
By the way, that's a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer. And
the truth is, I'm standing there in that game two
years ago at halftime when Fairbary had gotten hurt, and
so they come out of the locker room and suddenly
Darray is trying twenty five and thirty yard field goals
and I'm like, that's not an accident. They're not screwing
around two or three minutes before the second half kickoff.

(01:03:35):
That's because they're gonna have him kick extra points. And
sure enough, that's what happened in the second half. And again,
that guy's a former Buccaneer running back from back seven
eight years ago, still around in the league. So wild
twist on that. Who had that on the Bengo card
that Darry was a kicker, but he was a couple
of years ago against the Bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Well, Kymie Fairburn's back and you should be scared. TJ.
Buccaneers radio sideline reporter TJ. Reeves appreciate the time. How
do you feel this playing out before we let you go?

Speaker 7 (01:04:05):
Well, obviously I do the postgame show, so I want
a Buccaneer win. I'm gonna say that every week on
this stuff. I'm looking forward to whether the Buccaneer defense
could do a better job of getting after CJ. Stroud
and Todd Bowles loves the blitz with that. That'll be
a factor in this game. Let's see should be entertaining
it again. If the Buccaneers get this two road wins

(01:04:25):
to start the season, you talk about playing with house money,
that would be the case.

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
TJ Reeves Buccaneers Radio Sideline, appreciate the time, and I
hope you lose.

Speaker 7 (01:04:37):
The feeling is mutual. Boy's be well on Monday.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
All right, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. TJ. Reeves,
appreciate the time from him breaking down Buccaneers and Texans.
You want to talk some Bucks and Texans, you can
do that. Seven to one three two one two five
seven ninety is your phone number, seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. But when we come back,
it's time for to tell the truth. A money to

(01:05:00):
day staple here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
Oh God, I do, how's my feeble attempt at Matt
Thomas impression. Hey guys, welcome back to the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross. Matt is out, Gordy is here, But
the show goes on with staple segments like to tell

(01:05:22):
the truth where today I will be giving you four opinions.
Write this down, guys, four opinions. I believe one. I
have it on my Google doc highlighted. I will show you.
I'm not touching it, hands are up, and then I
will show it to Gordy or I can. Oh, hold on,
I won't show you. Oh you didn't see that, did you? Okay, good,

(01:05:45):
I'm an idiot. All right, I got four opinions. I
only believe one of them. Here we go. Can you
tell the truth? Only one? Only one truth? One truth
and three lives, folks. Here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross. All Right, guys, I understand they took two

(01:06:07):
out of three against the Braves over the weekend, but
the Mariners will not lose. You look at these probables
as well. I mean you're talking about Jack Lder, Merril, Kelly,
Jake de Grom. I'm not feeling good about this series.
I'm certainly not feeling good about how they match up
against the Mariners. Frober continues to be bad. You only

(01:06:29):
have one reliable starting pitcher. Bullpen is shaky as well.
Lineup has just not been consistent. It hurts me to
say the Astros finished third in the American League West.
I know Astros third in the American League West. At

(01:06:51):
his opinion Number one opinion Number two Frober Valdez. There's
been a lot of talk about him signing a long
term contract elsewhere in the offseat. He's just not been
good enough. He has been inconsistent, he's been giving up
a bunch of runs. He's lost himself a lot of
money in this offseason. I don't think he signs a

(01:07:11):
long term deal anywhere. I don't think he takes the
Astros qualifying offer. I don't think he comes back to
the Astros, even though they could desperately need a starting
pitcher on a one year deal, so it could be
with the Astros. But I think overall he's gonna sign
a one year prove it deal in the off season.

(01:07:32):
Probably not in Houston, Texas. I will say not in Houston, Texas.
From er Valdez, one year proved deal. The way that
he's pitched, he's pitched himself out of a long term contract,
one year deal for him in the off season, not
with the Houston Astros. Number three. This also hurts me, man.
You know what, who came up with these opinions. This sucks.

(01:07:59):
Arch Manning is gonna been at some point this season
Texas long words, there's look, he's gotten progressively worse. Against
Ohio State, he was okay, then he looked hurt against
San Jose State. Then you're even the more of a
favorite they get the worse he looks. Maybe they'll be
okay at Florida, but you got big games with Oklahoma.

(01:08:22):
Vanderbilt is no gimme on the road against Georgia, Arkansas,
A and M. At some point. I'm not saying he's
gonna be benched for good. At some point, though, like
the way that Arch came in for quinn Ewers last year,
Arch is gonna be benched because he has looked that
poor for the Texas Longhorns this season. Now, I'm not

(01:08:43):
saying not due to injury. If he is benched due
to injury, that doesn't count. I'm saying benched due to
poor play at some point this season, Arch Manning. That's
number three, number four. I know it was a bad
week one. I know it's a sophomore slump in twenty
twenty four for CJ. Stroud, But by the end of

(01:09:07):
the year, Ray and Miami who called us other people
who are doubting c J. Stroud. He will answer the questions.
I'm not saying he'll have one hundred percent of the
backing of everyone, but there will be little doubt that
c J. Stroud is the franchise quarterback for the Houston
Texas and co Collins is going to continue to be good.
Jaden's and Jalen's and all those guys, one of them

(01:09:29):
is gonna emerge. He's gonna have enough weapons, and c J.
Stroud will have the full backing of Houston as the
franchise quarterback of the Houston Texas by when seasons in
by the season's end, okay, okay, okay. To recap four opinions,
I only believe one. Astros finished third in the West

(01:09:53):
from Erveldez sends a one year proven deal in the offseason,
but not in Houston. Arch Manning is benched at on
point for Texas, not for injury, and by the end
of the year, CJ. Stroud will have the full backing
as the Houston Texans franchise quarterback. I only believe one.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
Folks, So start with the first. You said the Mariners
will not just not lose and the Ashers will finish
third in Al West. I don't think you believe that.
I think you are a believer in the Astros them
getting his home stand against the Rangers and the Mariners.
I think you think the Astros will.

Speaker 8 (01:10:33):
Jonathan No, I'll completely agreeing with Gordy and onto the
Arch manning. He's looked that bad, so I it's been
really bad. You start against you teb is a problem.

Speaker 3 (01:10:45):
Well, let me come back to this second number two
Fromer doesn't get a long term deal anywhere. We'll sign
a one year, prove it deal. Not crazy, but people,
we get to the offseason and teams get stupid. So
I think somebody is going to be stupid and give
him a three year, four year deal.

Speaker 8 (01:11:00):
I think one year is a little too low, especially
how he's played there.

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
In believable though Arch will be Ben's at some point,
they don't have a better option behind him. Matthew Caldwell
came over.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
From Troy Troy legend. What do you have thirteen touchdowns,
eight picks last year Troy.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
It was not good. They just said, this isn't a
Quinn you weres Arch situation. There's nobody better behind him.
Trey Owens. So they're riding with Arts no matter what.
And then the last one little doubt c J. Strauds,
the franchise quarterback of Texas. I mean that I'm kind
of in that camp right now, so to me, that's
the most believable. So I'm gonna go with four, although

(01:11:37):
it wouldn't shock me if it's two. What are you
gonna go with? Jonathan?

Speaker 8 (01:11:41):
Four is a good pig, but I think a one
year proven there for fran Very.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
I'm going with you. I'm going with all right? Which
one is highlighted? Gordy four? Gordy four is correct? You
ever thought it?

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
Smile? When I said the Fromber.

Speaker 8 (01:12:01):
Things, I was like, that was a good trift though.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
Those are good? Okay, thank you. I appreciate you that, Jonathan.
All right, we got to take quick break. David, we
see you on hold. Anybody wants to get in. Yeah,
your prediction Texans versus Buccaneers. How is it going to
play out? You also want to talk some astros as
they have a huge series coming up tonight against Texas Rangers.
It's a big sports Monday here in Houston, Texas. We're

(01:12:26):
talking about on the Matt Thomas Show with ross at
seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
to one three two one two five seven ninety Brian
on Twitter bringing up and I had neglected to mention
the whole show. That's my bad fighting Texas hogeys. That
was a thrilling win on the road. Yeah, over Notre Dame.

(01:12:49):
Was it forty one to forty was the final?

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
Yeah, I'm a little I'll say this about the Iies.
They're three and ozero. It was a great win. They
got a bye week this week, are ready. I'm a
lord about the defense though, like that Mike, that's Mike
Elko's calling card. And so then they give up because
they give a bunch of yards and points to utass
State and UTSA the first two weeks and then I'm
going to give up the under Dame forty. Yes, so again,

(01:13:15):
great win, Gutty. And the offense has been awesome, Marcel Reid,
like they didn't run the football great because the passing
game has been so good. The additions of Mario Craver
and who's the other game casey concepts, you know, and
they've been awesome. Craver had a two hundred yard game.
But I'm just worried can A and M continue to
win with a passing game and not dominant defense.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Yeah, I'm supposed to go to Texas in A and M.
Preseason I was, I was like, it's gonna be nice,
good wig, big win over the Aggies. Now I'm like,
oh no, Yeah, it's in Austin. Supposed to go to
the game with my brother, So I'm gonna go no
matter what, even if the Longhorns are like fourteen point
underdogs or something like that in the game. Got to
support your squad. But I'm not as feeling as confident

(01:13:58):
as I was, say preseason then I now, But big
win for the Aggies. They got another big one coming
up this week at home against the Auburn Taggers.

Speaker 3 (01:14:05):
No, that's next week.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
I'm sorry, that's next week.

Speaker 3 (01:14:07):
They gotta buye.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
Okay, Auburn has to go to open week, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Auburn's three and oh they've played like South Alabama and
like a bunch of nobodies. They did be Baylor in
Week one, but they have they have to go to
Oklahoma this weekend. That's like one of the big marquee games,
and then first A and M the next week. Like
that's that's a pretty rough stress.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
Such is life in the SEC. Texan's playing the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers tonight. You guys want to get in we're
talking about it's seven one three two one two five
seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven
Y go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
I want to bring this up real quick. Do you remember?
Do you remember an epic Peach Bowl between Georgia and
Ohio State in the playoff semifinal on.

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
New Year's Uh? Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:14:49):
Just to remind you, was Stetson Bennett making the big
plays for Georgia. Their wide receiver Brock Bowers was awesome
in that game. Lad mcconkee, play in that game of
just these are guys that are now in the NFL
doing their thing. But for the Ohio State Buckeyes that night,
it was CJ. Stroud throwing for three hundred and forty
eight yards four touchdowns. His leading receiver that night a

(01:15:12):
Mecca Abuka who will be playing tonight for the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Ohio State is Marvin Harrison was.

Speaker 3 (01:15:18):
Second in receiving yards that night.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Straight up wide receiver factory Ohio State, as as TJ.
Reeves brought up, their tight end was Kate Stover. Kate, Well,
he's got a broke. Yeah he's not. He's not doing
much of anything, but just got a Jackson with Jackson
Smith and Jiggle wasn't in that game? Was he in
the year before? I think they went to the NFL
before or after? He had a pretty big day yesterday

(01:15:43):
I think for the Seahawks at least he had one
big catch.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
Yeah. But it's just funny because we remember that game
because it was like, oh, that was the game that
really I mean Stroud people already knew him, but that
was the game and we had that's a top five picking.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
That was the coming out party and that's what everybody said. Hey,
if the tape from the Georgia game is the real CJ. Stroud,
then he's going to be a star. Well, he was
a star in his first year, not so much in
his second year. Will he emerge and solidify himself as
the franchise quarterback for the Houston Texans? I have said, yes,
I do think so, But tonight will be As T J.

(01:16:17):
Reaves was bringing up, like, did this defensive line for
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It's no joke. Yeah, you went
up against one of the best defensive lines in football,
but like vitave eats in the middle there. He mentioned
the son Reddick has been very good for them.

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
I can remember previewing last time he Stevens played and
how worried to worry about Vitavea.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
Yeah, Vitave has just been a beast for like ever
he's I mean that defense where they when they won
the Super Bowl Tom Brady who only threw for like
two hundred and thirty yards in that game. People forget
that was because they won that game because of that
Buccaneers defense, like they were dominant.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
Oh and that Georgia went over House State guy who
had a tackle in that game, Kamari Lesser.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
Okay, now Texan, well, well they all got to perform tonight.
That'd be nice. How do you feel about Baker Mayfield?

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
It's great story. I mean he's been.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Yeah, but I mean on the field, how scared of
you are? Are are you of Baker may He's.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
Pretty He's turned out to be pretty good. I was
one of those doubting him, and then even when he
had me the great run they were Tampa, it was like, oh,
this is Cinderella and it's gonna clock Sin strike midnight.
I think he's just a damn good quarterback. It's their system.
Back to back four thousand yards passing seasons, forty one
touchdowns last year.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
Yeah, that's gonna go down this year.

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
But even as good as Week one he wasn't he
wasn't that great. Still three touchdowns, so well, I'm not downing.
I'm not gonna say all he stucks. He should kill him.

Speaker 2 (01:17:36):
He won me a Fantasy championship last year, so we'll
always have a He'll always have a spot in my heart.
I appreciate you, Baker Mayfield. David in Vegas holding alongest
here on the Matt Thomas Show with rossll That Matt Thomas.
What's up David?

Speaker 12 (01:17:48):
Hey, y Gory. You know, so I was looking for
an angle to bet the game that I detect this game,
and I just I don't really like betty. I don't
need to bet the game because I've got plenty of
rudy interest. But under feels good, David, you don't like
the under well, you know, under feels good and almost
every I don't like that against the Texas, and I

(01:18:09):
don't feel good enough about the bet form. So total
is a good way to go and you look at
the Texans and the way they're constructed right now, and
it because I under always makes sense with that defense
and with that bad offensive line. But you know, everybody
in the world sort of knows that, and I don't
really feel like I got an edge plan that angle. Also,
there are a couple other problems. First of all, overs
have just been romping this weekend. I don't know if

(01:18:30):
you've noticed that. They're like ten and four after going
only four and twelve the opening weekend. Everything went under
the opening weekend. There's also the last one, the last
two teams time. Last time these two teams met, they
scored seventy six points between them. So I'm not nuts
about betting the under on this thing. But there's a
prop better. You kind of alluded to this earlier when

(01:18:50):
you were joking about Tommy Fairbairn being the most valuable Texan.
You can bet over two and a half field goals
for the Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
No, I mean, David, given.

Speaker 12 (01:19:04):
They will give you two to one ons for that,
you get plus two hundred, you get plus two hundred
for over two and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
Let's go to the bank.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
I'm trigger.

Speaker 4 (01:19:15):
I pulled it.

Speaker 12 (01:19:16):
Already, if you can find a place to get.

Speaker 6 (01:19:17):
Down on that.

Speaker 12 (01:19:18):
All right for the day, all right, thank you being
every every time I've made a prediction for something specific
to bet on on the Matt Thomas program. I think
I'm like, oh and five ten years.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
You know that's fine. I forgive you, David, thanks a lot,
appreciate it. We got to hit the top of the hour.
Thank you for getting in. Yeah, two and a half.
I mean that feels about right. That feels like money.
Keymy Fairburn hit that in the first half last week,
and I just I just think it's going to be
a low scoring game this one. I don't necessarily have

(01:19:49):
have entered a full on prediction of the game, but
I do think the Texans are gonna win. I think
somewhere on like twenty to seventeen something like that win
for the Texans, maybe even when Kymie Fairband with the
late although that's two field goals, all right, fine, nineteen
nineteen to sixteen, Yeah, Houston, Texas. I feel like that's
pretty strong somewhere around there.

Speaker 3 (01:20:10):
All Right.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
We got to take a top of the our break,
our number three of the Matt time, it's already done.
Our number three. Where has the show gone, it's blown by.
You want to get in you can seven one three
two one two five seven ninety. Is the phone number
seven one three two one two five seven ninety. The
News at Noon is next on The Matt Thomas Show
with Ross.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
Is The Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
Our number three of The Matt Thomas Show with Ross
Without Matt Thomas. He is out at the broadcaster meetings
for the NBA Rocket season coming up in just a
month in change. But we are in the thick of
an American League West Division race. Also, Texans and Buccaneers
will all be part Hews at noon here on Sports

(01:21:02):
Talk seven ninety. Well, that's right, Chris Gordy, I do
have the news to bring you as we will discuss
the Astros starting a big series against the Texas Rangers tonight.
Jack Lighter versus Jason Alexander seven to ten, first pitch
here on Sports Talk seven ninety. But they lost yesterday
to the Atlanta Braves eight to three. From er Valdez,

(01:21:24):
how we feeling just four innings, pitched six hits, five
earned runs, four walks. It was a disaster fifth inning
for him as he walked the first three hitters then
he gave up a single that scored a couple of runs.
Then he gave up another single, and then he was
promptly pulled with a game at five to two. Did

(01:21:48):
not record an out there in the fifth.

Speaker 3 (01:21:51):
Yeah, we can't blame it on, saysar salads Are He's
not even.

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
Up here, so you know. I mean, also, it's funny
that like unfortunately it was like full count walk, full
count walk. The first one was on four pitches, which
was concerning, but he just he couldn't find the strike zone.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
I mean, a thing that sucks about this. Fromer in May,
any area of two thirty six, Frober in June one
seventy four, Fromber in August two sixteen and three starts
at September Ross he has an area of seven eighty eight.
You're going the wrong way. Fromber. We would have been
fined a few pitched like this in June. In September.

(01:22:29):
We need you clicking on all cylinders, and he's just
not doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
He's normally been in an eggseter obviously just has been
shaky down the stretch. But Joe Spotta lining up his
rotation to where it's gonna be Hunter Ron and Frober Valdez.
It looks like Friday and Saturday with the Mariners in
town this weekend? How we feeling?

Speaker 3 (01:22:49):
I mean, he still is like on paper, he's still
supposed to be one of your best pitchers, so like
we need him to be good, but like what's the
confidence level? Not right?

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
All right? Well we'll see how that goes again. Astros
Texas Rangers seven to ten. First pitch at six pm.
As it is a big sports night here in Houston,
you will have the Houston Texans facing off against Tampa
Bay Buccaneers. We had talked about this. Forty two and
a half point favorites are the Texans. Forty two and
a half is the total? Now, if you want to

(01:23:23):
look at the Texans opponent last week, that was the
Los Angeles Rams. They had a very good week on
the road against the Tennessee Titans, as they got a
victory there by double digits. So do you find a
little bit more solid and how bad the Texans looked
in Week one that the Rams went on the road
and effectively dominated the Titans with a thirty three to

(01:23:44):
nineteen victory.

Speaker 3 (01:23:46):
Yeah, I mean I said a lot losing Week one
at the Rams. There's no shame in that. But that's
why I say, like tonight, yeah, this has to be
your offense has to look better at home and the
comforts of your own home primetime football home crowd should
be rocking like this is this is just one if
I'll be look win or lose. If the offense doesn't

(01:24:09):
look good and they struggled and strong get sacked five times,
you have some major concerns coming out of this. You
should look better at home.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
Yeah. Yeah, Is it a must win game, Gordy.

Speaker 3 (01:24:21):
I mean you don't want to following two. I mean
that doesn't boat will.

Speaker 2 (01:24:25):
For any week two. It's not a must win game.

Speaker 3 (01:24:27):
Freaking Colts are two and oh want that running away
with the division already well.

Speaker 2 (01:24:31):
Unfortunately, some bad news from Adam Schefter. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback
Joe Burrow lsu legend needs toe surgery that will sideline
him a minimum three months. Burrow so faring the turf
toe injury in the first half of Cincinnati's game Sunday
against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Bengals still won that game

(01:24:54):
with Jake Browning as their quarterback. Correct, yeahah thirty one,
twenty seven Bengals were still able to get the victory. Honestly,
Jake browning in some spots starts, hasn't looked horrible. Now,
he did throw three picks, and of course he is
no Joe Burrow. But Jamar Chase still had a big
game fourteen catches for one hundred and sixty five yards
and a touchdown, and they were able to get to

(01:25:15):
win against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Speaker 3 (01:25:17):
But I mean that three months basically puts him out
to what mid December.

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
Basically three months from now would be December fifteenth.

Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
Yes, can they can they keep their head above water?

Speaker 2 (01:25:29):
I don't know. I mean and starts good? Yeah, Look
you've banked two wins.

Speaker 3 (01:25:33):
You go, can you find seven more wins without Joe?
I don't know yet three months to get six or
seven wins and then when Burrow comes back. Maybe, But
it is funny because remember was that last year year
before they started like oh and three or oh and
four with Burrow? You know, so it's like, this is

(01:25:54):
funny how it works.

Speaker 12 (01:25:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:25:55):
Jake Brown has been good. We'll see what happens there
big college football. We and also, you know what, let's
get some LSU. New news for you. Peyton Houston, coveted
quarterback gonna stay home, commits to LSU. How happy are you, Gordy?

Speaker 3 (01:26:10):
I saw that. Somebody said they listed him as six
foot tall. Somebody else said, no, he is. He is
five to ten. Like Day basically said his favorite player
is Kyler Murray because he's built like Kyler Murray. So
that's not gaging, never getting urt. Like twenty twenty six.
Signing day is in the first week of December this year,

(01:26:31):
a kid signing for twenty twenty seven, you know how
far off that is. The kid's gonna decommit seven more
times before then, so there's no reason to get excited.

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
College football action Texas A and M with a big
win over Notre Dame on the road in a thriller,
you also have LSU now three and zero as they defeated.
Is dj lagway that bad? Or is the led LSU
defense just that good?

Speaker 3 (01:26:54):
A little bit of both, but I think that I
think that way LSU defense looked pretty good. It was
discouraging though, because that dominant win Week one over Clemson
and then to see Clemson look like crap the last
two weeks. You're like oh, how good was that win?
But it is what it is. He kind of I
think LSU is pretty good. I think A and M's
pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
I Georgia, Georgia huge.

Speaker 3 (01:27:15):
Win for them. I think Texas is gonna be fine
because of the defense. We need Arch to get his
head out of this. Okay, what did I tell you
before the season?

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
What did you tell me?

Speaker 3 (01:27:28):
I said, this is gonna be an up and down
roller coaster season for Arch. I think Texas will lose
three games, they won't make the playoffs, but it's gonna
set up for twenty twenty six where he is the
preseason favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
Fourth year. The preseason this year we were just.

Speaker 3 (01:27:44):
We're ahead of the game. We were a little too
far ahead.

Speaker 15 (01:27:46):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
If that happens, you can be one year early on somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:27:50):
He's gonna arride just on Tome next.

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
Now I'm sad. Three by the way, how about well,
these things aren't going the way u c l A
is for For u c l A head coach Deshaun
Foster has already been fired. They're oh in three what did.

Speaker 3 (01:28:11):
They ask him aout media days and he like bumbled through.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
I didn't see that, but Deshaun Foster a u c
l A head coach already. Oh and three and now
you were telling me this earlier, Gordy, there are odds
already for the next U c l A head coach.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
Yeah, John Gruden is the Jan Grusso. Virginia Tech also
fired Britt Key probably whatever his name is now Key's
at Georgia Tech. Whatever the George Virginia Tech guy is,
they fired him. But John John Gruden, the latest Vegas odds,
is the favorite to land either the u c l
A or Virginia Tech. Jellners, No way, you can't. He's

(01:28:51):
never coasting college.

Speaker 2 (01:28:54):
I would be shocked.

Speaker 3 (01:28:55):
Hey, Mike, And who'd you say, uh, for which one
U c l A? Yes, who did I tell you?
I forgot already?

Speaker 2 (01:29:02):
I believe it was coach Prime? Oh, Dion, Yeah, Coach
Prime going to LA. I mean that makes sense on
its face, but not for U c l A. Look,
it's probably around and you're the college football expert. Can
U see LA be turned around like they they've never
got only been a power.

Speaker 3 (01:29:17):
You gotta get recruits. USC he's getting all the recruits
right now. If you can go in there and get
on a cruise, right Yeah, but look at what Dion's
doing in Colorado, Like I think he I think you
say he might actually be a better fit for him.

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
Well, yeah, they Well they got their asses beat by
the Cougars. Didn't even mention the University of Houston Cougar's
congratulations to.

Speaker 3 (01:29:33):
Them on her freaking Wegman, he's been great.

Speaker 2 (01:29:35):
Man, he's the goat in front of thirty seven thousand
RACKUS fans at tv ECU stage.

Speaker 3 (01:29:42):
I talked to some people. Are there are Cole Thompson
was there?

Speaker 2 (01:29:45):
Was he?

Speaker 3 (01:29:45):
He he called a free ticket. He couldn't even know
he was. They're covering in a credential, but he uh,
he called me. He couldn't even get to the parking
lot like an hour.

Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
Well they always have parking issues.

Speaker 3 (01:29:56):
An hour before kickoff because you know, there's just so
many people there. So great job by coach Fritz. What
first time three and no since I want to say
twenty seventeen, something like that. So this thing, keep it
on the Kougs. Man, they're gonna get They get a
bye week this week, then they get they have to
go to Oregon State next week. Now, going to Carvallis

(01:30:17):
is typically tough, but this Oregon State Team stakes. They
should go win that one and guess what sets the
table Ross for a monster matchup against Texas Tech coming
up in a couple of weeks. That's here in Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:30:29):
That is here. I've been invited to go to that
game and Tailgates I might be doing that extend the
plus a neutral party. Okay, we'll see what I can do.
I'll see what I can do. All right, We're gonna
take quick break here. That was the news at noon
here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Couple all on hold
that promise. We'll get to you next at seven one
three two one two five seven ninety Gordy hanging out

(01:30:49):
until one o'clock. Adam Weser will hang out then and
then you guys on the phones at seven one to three,
two one two five seven ninety bore twelve twenty pm
here on Sports Talk seven to ninety cross be a
rail with you on the Matt Toms Show with Ross.

(01:31:11):
He is out. He'll be back Thursday at the broadcaster
meetings for the NBA. He'll be back then. In the meantime,
Chris Gordy is hanging out. Appreciate him. Adam Wesher will
be hanging out. We'll get a cast of characters. I mean,
it just takes so many people to fill Matt's shoes.
So we's coming up at one o'clock. Cordy hanging out. Now,
you guys can get in if you want. Seven one

(01:31:32):
three two, one two five seven ninety seven one three two,
one two five seven ninety So able to watch a
lot of NFL football yesterday, and it's funny like like,
for example, when the Astros can't knock get any runs
and then you watch other teams play and then they're
knocking in runs and getting clutch hits with runns in
scoring position, it makes you upset. That's kind of what

(01:31:55):
was happening to me yesterday. It's like these other teams
are coming up with big third downs, they're making plays,
they're not having any sacks. And I know it's one
week right now on the road against very good Rams defense,
but I just watching a lot of teams as we
had who was a David in Vegas was mentioning a
lot of the games going over this week. I mean

(01:32:15):
it was like pinball machine scoring happening in a lot
of games over the weekend. As far as the NFL.
I mean Patriots, Dolphins, had a bunch of points, Jaguars, Bengals,
You see that Giants Cowboys game. That game was nuts.
Russell Wilson was thrown for four hundred and fifty yards
and three touchdowns in that game. A lot of poor

(01:32:36):
and a lot of times you can have that happen
with a lot of unders. In Week one, as TJ. Reeves,
we had the Buccaneers sideline report of bringing it up
like they don't play guys in week they don't play
guys in the preseason anymore. So guys got a little
getting into a little bit of a better rhythm. So
that's what we're hoping for tonight is a better rhythm
at home, able to make some more adjustments and be

(01:32:57):
able to hear your own guys offensively and score some
points and put some points on the board. That's the
only thing that's going to really raise my confidence about
the Texans this for the rest of the season. Not
that they're all rested on tonight, but seeing some points
on the board be nice.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
Yeah, And that's that was more of the frustrating part
Week one. We know the Rams have a good defense,
but to only score nine you know, I think you're
if you're on the defense, if you want Will Anderson
Junior and daneil Hunter and those guys, you're going. Guys,
we held Matthew Stafford the Rams to freaking fourteen points.
I think you can help us out here a little bit. CJ. Stroud,

(01:33:31):
all these weapons you got on offense, could you help
us out a little bit? So, you know, look, it
kind of seems like this. Look at look at the
games last year Ross some of those games they played,
they beat the Bears nineteen to thirteen. They basically lived
in the twenties all of last year. There was a
lot of twenty four to twenty type wins, you know,
So like that's what I'm expecting tonight is.

Speaker 2 (01:33:52):
Some the way they can kind of just piece it together.
And when they were in a lot of one score games, I.

Speaker 3 (01:33:56):
Would love coup for them to touch thirty points offense.
But how many times did they do that last year?
I think once against Dallas, once in New England. I
think that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:09):
And I think in the in one or both of
those games they had defensive touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (01:34:14):
Yeah, it's just how this team has built. They are.
Defense is the strength and it's crazy to say. Because
of how good Stroud was his rookie season, we all thought, oh,
he's already a top ten quarterback, and then last year
kind of took a little bit of a step back
and Wome maybe not. And I get it, it's the
offensive line. There's a lot of people out there. Oh
you can't, hey know on CJ because the old light sticks.

(01:34:34):
CJ made some questionable decisions last year.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
I wonder, let's talk about the run game, cause Nick Chubb,
now he was able to get a little bit going
in the end of the game last week, but again
that was also you needed a touchdown on demand. Rams
are playing a little bit back on their back foot
and they were a little bit soft in the middle.
As far as the run game and it going there,
do you think we see any of more of what

(01:34:59):
he Marx or Damian Pierce to try to get some
kind of spark going in the run game for.

Speaker 3 (01:35:03):
That, I mean, yeah, get the screen game going a
little bit, Get get those guys out out in space,
because there's not much room to run in the A
gap E gap. I mean it's you know, Chuck's still
averaged close to five yards of carry at CJ obviously
tuck and tucked and ran a couple times. And that's
what he's just gonna have to do when it's when

(01:35:24):
there's open space. If it's first inten CJ rolls out
and everybody's covered and there's open space to get four,
just take it. Take what the defense has given you,
because you know, makes second down more manageable.

Speaker 2 (01:35:36):
I think especially it felt like in the second half
of last year he wasn't doing that as much. I
honestly don't believe he was at one hundred percent. I mean,
just the way that he was basically since that Jets
game where he was just getting mulled and he was
limping all over the place. I just didn't have a
super high confidence among him on the move. But that's
how that's how he was looking so good in that
playoff win against the Chargers. As he was making plays
with his feet, he was taken off and he talked

(01:35:58):
about that I need to go ahead, be more decisive
when I see something in front of me that I
can go ahead and run and just take those yards,
take those eight to ten yards and then get slide.
Don't take a big hit. You don't have to be
Josh Allen the Lamar Jackson. Just just take those yards
and take what the defense is giving. You, make some
plays with your feet and keep the chains moving. I
do think it's pretty crazy. I mean Chubb's longest run

(01:36:20):
was a thirteen yard run. Ogan vill Waly had a
seven yard run.

Speaker 3 (01:36:24):
Tamian Pierce three carries, his longest run was two wood
he marks three carries. His longest run was two.

Speaker 2 (01:36:31):
Yeah, I mean, obviously you can also have situations we'd
have to like break down run by run where sometimes
things are perfectly blocked or something. You know, we used
to do that well with like Ben Tait and Harriet Foster. Whoever, Like, hey,
the Yords PreCure is higher for this guy. You gotta
do with this guy. It's not always that easy necessarily,
But yeah, if somebody's getting a lot of opportunities and
you're never seeing much of anything happen, then that's a concern.

(01:36:54):
And what the hell's going on with Joe Mixon?

Speaker 3 (01:36:57):
We still haven't got it update right.

Speaker 2 (01:36:59):
Does the fact that they haven't really signed anybody or
made a trade for anybody make you think that that
maybe it's not going to be an extended like a
year long absence, like some people are thinking respectable.

Speaker 3 (01:37:08):
I think that's how you got Chubb. You got chubbed
because they knew, oh, he's going to be sidelined for
a bit.

Speaker 2 (01:37:16):
Yeah, but you got a guy who's whose knees are
about forty five years old.

Speaker 3 (01:37:20):
Would it shock you though, Chubb went out there tonight
and had a big game.

Speaker 2 (01:37:23):
Yes, it's one hundred yards one hundred yards on how
many carries? Twenty five? No, if he gets one hundred
yards on sixteen carries, I would know I would be
doing that exactly. I mean, can he pile up some volume?
I think so. Yeah, And he's a good veteran guy.

Speaker 9 (01:37:37):
But you.

Speaker 2 (01:37:40):
Need special players in the NFL, like players. You just
can't defend players where it's like, you know what, there's
nothing we could do there. That's what wins games more consistently,
and Texans don't really have anybody doing that, certainly not
in the game.

Speaker 3 (01:37:52):
I just think, though, if we're gonna sit here a
bitch about the offensive line, I just there's nothing you
can do about it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:57):
Again, this is what they can get better. Yeah, they
can play it, gather more and they can get better
that way. But other than that, not feeling great. All right,
seven one three, two one two five, seven ninety is
the phone number those you on hold, we'll get to
you next. We're gonna say quick bottom of the hour break.
It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross some Texans
and Buccaneers talk. Coming with you guys on the phones

(01:38:17):
after this quick break. All right, twelve thirty two Here
on Sports Talk seven ninety Matt Thomas Show with Ross
without Mant Thomas. It is a Texans Buccaneers Monday. It
is an Astros Rangers Monday as well. Talking about this
during the break. As of right now, the American League
playoff picture has the Astros as the six seed, last

(01:38:41):
team in. They're two games ahead of the Rangers, two
and a half ahead of the Cleveland Guardians, and they
would be going on the road to take on the Mariners.
How we're feeling, Yeah, I wouldn't feel good about that me.

Speaker 3 (01:39:00):
And then again, I mean, you're gonna you're about to
play them, so we'll see what you look like.

Speaker 2 (01:39:03):
It would piss me off to just have those Mariners
fans happy. I don't know why. I just hate Mariners
fans because they're the worst.

Speaker 3 (01:39:09):
You know, what they want though, I mean right now,
the four versus five is Yankees Red Sox. They want
that more than anything. Well, of course for a wild
card series, but yeah, Astros would have to go to Seattle.
The the tough part is, Okay, you're a game back of Boston,
You're what two and a half behind the Yankees?

Speaker 2 (01:39:28):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (01:39:30):
Yet in the American League West, you're one game back
in Seattle.

Speaker 2 (01:39:33):
Yeah, win the division.

Speaker 3 (01:39:34):
I mean I think the mo is still you want
to win this division.

Speaker 2 (01:39:37):
Win the division, get the series at home.

Speaker 3 (01:39:38):
Yeah, beact basically guarantees you'll be here.

Speaker 2 (01:39:40):
It's all laid out in front of you. Beat the Rangers,
win the Rangers series, win the Mariners series, and then
beat the bad A's and the bad Angels. That's it. Yeah,
it's that easy. Just go ahead and do it. Seven
one three, two, one two, five, seven ninety Here on
Sports Talk seven to ninety, Renfros holding longest, what's up? Renfro?

Speaker 13 (01:39:58):
Hey, what's going on?

Speaker 6 (01:39:59):
Guys?

Speaker 13 (01:40:00):
Look here, Guardan, I just want you to answer this
question for mc guardy. You know, I'm I'm looking at
how could the Texas get a I mean, you know,
Texas had a first year officer coordinator with Bobby, and
then they come back shun him or let him go,
and they come back with another officeive coordinator who was

(01:40:21):
never called the game. And this is this is from
my understanding, never called the game. It's his first time
showing up to be an officer coordinator. So how can
all expectations be very high of an offensive scheme, our
offense when we got two guys who I thought they
should care aboubb it for what They let him go
far if he took the least to the playoffs for

(01:40:44):
two straight years. But now we come back with a
guy were having trouble offensive line. We come back with
a new guy who still got to do just as
much as Bobby did up probably even better. And you
starting from scratch all over again, starting with someone who
has never called the game.

Speaker 7 (01:41:00):
His first game.

Speaker 13 (01:41:01):
If I'm not mistake, it was called. I guess now
whether he get good or not has to be taken.
But we do no one thing. Dolf's the line is
the other way. So what's your opinion on that garden?

Speaker 3 (01:41:12):
Yeah, I mean to keep harping on. He's never called
a game before. He has been he's been coaching football
for twenty years. You know, he's been a tight ends coach,
he's been an offensive assistant. I mean he's he's been
around the game a while. He's a passing game coordinator
with the Rams, so you know, it's not like he's
completely clueless of what he's doing. But this was the
critique too where they hired Bobby Slowick, and I remember

(01:41:32):
talking with Wex at the time. I was like, Okay,
when you have a rookie head coach in Dimiko, do
you really want a rookie OC as well? Is it
better to go get us more seasoned, veteran play caller?
You know the same thing here. Do you want to
go with one of those journeymen OC that bounces from
job to job or do you want to catch a
rising star? And to me, I'm always going to try
to catch a rising star. I'd rather go with a young,

(01:41:56):
up and coming guy that you have a chance to
spark something with. I suppose to one of those old
retreads where you know what you're getting.

Speaker 2 (01:42:03):
I'd rather have somebody who was like what they have
in Washington they have they have Cliff Cliff Kingsbury or
somebody who has failed who is a great play caller,
good schemer, but who has failed as a head coach
and then be good because that's because otherwise you're gonna
get the what you've had so far. Is that what
you said? The young up and coming phenomal that guy's

(01:42:24):
either gonna get hired away, he's gonna get fired. He's
gonna get hired awhere, he's gonna get fired.

Speaker 3 (01:42:27):
Would you rather have Matt Nagy right now? Or you know,
I don't know. I'm just trying to think of like
a guy that does a retread kind of bouncing around,
Like would you rather Matt Nagy or Nick Kyley? I'd
rather Nick Cayley because again it's the guy that he's
been very successful. Uh, last couple stops, Like, let's see
what he can.

Speaker 2 (01:42:46):
Do it about somebody. I'm just trying to pull up
some offensive coordinators, like Zach Robinson's a fired head coach.
He's with the Falcons. Their offense is doing pretty good.
I don't know, Uh, what's Doug Peterson doing these days?
You know what I'm saying, Like somebody who has been
fired and then you could just hire as your defensive
or i mean, offensive coordinator and then you kind of
just don't have to worry about it. By what Wade
Phillips came like at the end of his career, Micha

(01:43:08):
Laflores with the Rams. It's you know, he's he's bounced
around a bunch of different jobs. Yeah, he was never
Matt Lafleur has been the head coach, right, not Mike Lafloor, Right,
He's bounced a.

Speaker 3 (01:43:21):
Bunch of Koobiacs out there in the NFC West.

Speaker 2 (01:43:23):
Yeah, how many Kubiaks are there?

Speaker 3 (01:43:25):
But with the Niners, Clint with the Seahawks, something like
a Cliff Kingsbury would be perfect to me to where
he's like, you know what, I've been a head coach
multiple times and it worked at the league. Like a
lot of them are going with like you know, we
don't have many Schottenheimer's and you know, like it feels
like they're going with a lot of the up and comers.

Speaker 2 (01:43:45):
Josh McDaniels with the Patriots passed in mind on him and.

Speaker 3 (01:43:49):
What you would you rather Josh McDaniels right now, Or
I'll go with Nick.

Speaker 2 (01:43:53):
You'll go with Nick Kayley. But we I mean, we
don't know. Hell'see call Jim Bob Cooters with the Colts
I'm just looking around pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:44:01):
It's getting the most out of Daniel Jones.

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
Chip Kayley. I'm not a huge Greg Roman guy, although
it kind of was when he was when he was
hot with the Ravens.

Speaker 3 (01:44:07):
Joe Brady seems to be working out for the Bills.

Speaker 2 (01:44:10):
Yeah, that's true. Uh, since they fired who did they
fire before him? I can't remember guy that was with it,
Frank Reich or somebody former quarterback? Yeah, some for a
former quarterback. I can't remember who it was. But I mean, look,
if if you're going with the up and coming guy,
it's just going to be a turnstile. He's either gonna
get hired away or oh we'll see how long did
make Ryan, because remember of the year one, it.

Speaker 3 (01:44:31):
Was, oh my god, we're gonna be able to keep Yeah,
he sucks. So it's the same thing with Nick Keley.
Either you know, either he's gonna be gold or he
won't last long. Jason' Conrad, what's.

Speaker 16 (01:44:43):
Up my friends? Real quick on the Astros and now
get to Detexans. Uh, you gotta beat the Rangers because
if I'm not mistaken, they if it does get to
that point, down to the wild card and we don't
take care of business. I believe they have the tiebreaker
and the other team behind them also as a tiebreaker. Sali,

(01:45:07):
We've got to take care of business. Just that's that's
what it is now. Look when it comes to the
Texans in the game this weekend, I pay attention to
the NFC sohouth a lot because I grew up a
Saints fan. And with the Buccaneers, they're if you're gonna
beat them, you gotta beat them through the air because

(01:45:27):
their defense, they run defenses pretty much phenomenal, and they're
gonna force you to, you know, go through the air,
which is gonna probably more than likely force them to
double team Nico Stroud because that's what they do. They
double team you're best player. So they'll probably open up
the door for some of these younger receivers in that

(01:45:49):
corp to either have a big game or either not
have a big game. So it's gonna be fun to
watch this weekend. It's gonna be fun to see what
the younger guys do.

Speaker 2 (01:46:00):
Thanks a lot, Jason. Yeah, And what Jason is talking about, basically,
everybody knows you don't have to respect the run game
right now, you don't have to respect their pass protection.
Nico Collins is their biggest threat, and everybody on both
sides of the field knows that Texans, what can you do?

Speaker 3 (01:46:18):
That's why you really need Joe Mixon back because he
just helped open this absolutely living up last year. And
it's even when there weren't good right.

Speaker 2 (01:46:25):
He has such good vision, change of direction, He's got
a good He's just got like an instinct. He's a
good instinctive runner. Where a lot of his biggest and
best runs were not necessarily him, you know, running for
twenty five yards, it was h oh, normal running back
loses three yards. Joe Mixon turns that into a three
yard game and where you can kind of stay better

(01:46:45):
on schedule offensively, and he can find those creases and
be better as far as a running back than the
other guys that they had. He's a good He's a
really good running back. He's a huge piece of this
offense who is missing.

Speaker 3 (01:47:00):
That's root. I think Chubb's got enough in the tank
he can be productive for you tonight. I think last
week was just you running against a really good defensive
front of the Rams in there.

Speaker 2 (01:47:09):
Well, you're gonna have a pretty good defensive front going
up against you know, going up against this Buccaneers team
as well, and again they're not gonna have to respect
your run game. They're gonna they're gonna dare the Texans
to run, I think, and try to beat them with
their front four and then go from there. Will the
Texans be able to do it? Guess we'll take a
look and find out. Tonight, six o'clock start for the

(01:47:32):
Texans versus the Buccaneers. Seven one three two one two
five seven ninety is the phone number if you want
to get in seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. A couple of you on hold will continue
to get you guys. Adam Weser is gonna join us,
coming up at one o'clock. Chris Gordy is hanging out
as Matt Thomas is out at the NBA, uh, what

(01:47:53):
do you call it? Broadcaster meetings. He'll be back in
a couple of days. In the meantime, we're hanging out
with you folks, Astros and Rangers, seven ten, Texans and Buccaneer.
Six o'clock. It's a big sports night here in Houston, Texas,
and we're talking about it on The Matt Thomas Show
with Ross here on Sports Talk seven night, thank you
steven A or Frank Kellyendo doing steven A.

Speaker 3 (01:48:17):
Kelly Endo does a better steven A than steven A does.

Speaker 2 (01:48:20):
Now, hmm, okay, I'll take your word for it. The ostentatiousness,
the perfunctory whoever he is.

Speaker 3 (01:48:31):
Steven A is like I'll see him on like he's
on Monday on First Take Debate, on the Weekend of Sports,
and then like in the afternoon he's on The View,
and then he's on Fox News, and then he's.

Speaker 2 (01:48:42):
On General Hospital.

Speaker 3 (01:48:43):
He's like, what in the world is he? He Pickolane bro.

Speaker 2 (01:48:49):
I know a lot of people don't like the way
the way that you know, his opinions and all that
type of stuff, but you got it. The man's a
hard worker.

Speaker 3 (01:48:54):
I also will say that I don't know if this
business model for ESPN is going to work in stretching.
You sign somebody to a big deal and then you
stretch them as thin.

Speaker 2 (01:49:03):
As possible as possible.

Speaker 3 (01:49:04):
Okay, Steve and I we're gonna put you on this, this,
and this, and then we need you on the pregame
for the NBA. Then we need you to just I'm
watching Saturday Laura what's your name? Laura Rutledge is in
Batu's Saturday morning sweating or butt off doing SEC Nation,
talking all SEC and college football, and then immediately runs
back up to Bristol to do NFL pregame on Sunday

(01:49:26):
and then just on the sideline on Monday night football, Like,
and then you got Kirk kirb Street jetting over to
the Amazon Thursday night NFL game. Then he's got to
get back to the college town for college game Day
on Saturday morning and then get to the game where
he's calling the game that night in a completely different state.

Speaker 2 (01:49:43):
Well, you know these corporate types, you know, you downsize
and then you give the people left more work.

Speaker 3 (01:49:48):
I just like, can we split his salary in half
and give that salary to somebody else to do the
other jobs?

Speaker 7 (01:49:53):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:49:53):
I don't know, I don't know, man.

Speaker 3 (01:49:55):
Is there just such a limited pool of talent in
this country that only three people can do an job?

Speaker 2 (01:50:00):
Yeah, talk to Mickey Mouse about it. I don't know.
He's been downsize and he's been making some cuts, all right,
seven one.

Speaker 3 (01:50:05):
Three two corso money left out there.

Speaker 2 (01:50:09):
Well, that's true. Uh, they couldn't even weren't they flying
him on Southwest and they have them like stand by
on Southwest for a leak. Corso they've better.

Speaker 3 (01:50:17):
For a backup for McAfee. That guy's gonna have a
heart attack one.

Speaker 2 (01:50:21):
Of these days. He's working all over the place.

Speaker 3 (01:50:23):
Too, gets so beat red in the face.

Speaker 2 (01:50:26):
Y is he gonna be breaking down the NBA too?

Speaker 3 (01:50:29):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (01:50:30):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (01:50:30):
Why not?

Speaker 2 (01:50:31):
All right? Conro Conroe James holding longest here on the
Mount Thomas Show with Ross. What's up? Conroe James?

Speaker 10 (01:50:39):
Hey, long time, no say? And I'm enjoying the show.
So I want you guys educated opinion. Obviously you know
more than me about sports. But I am concerned a
little bit about the mindset of Willie Fritch and our

(01:51:00):
great quarterback Wegman. Okay, so I listened to the press
conference with Willie Fripps. He said, when you're not running
your quarterback, it's ten against eleven. So so obviously he's
looking at the quarterback position not only for passing but
also for attack.

Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
Okay.

Speaker 10 (01:51:21):
With that being said, I watched the game against Colorado
and Wegman has already been injured twice. Okay, I just
got the feeling that he's putting himself in the position
to be injured again. I know, if there's an opening

(01:51:42):
to run, of course you run. But is he a
little bit too reckless with attacking instead of passing. Is
he putting himself in the position to get injured a
third time? And then we're screwed because I think we
can make it to a bold this year. What's your opinion?

Speaker 3 (01:52:07):
I mean, you take what the defense has given you.
I mean, I understand that the injury history concerns, but
he's healthy right now. And like you, guys, take what
the defense is giving you. And sometimes if you roll out.
I mean, seventeen carries into the quarterback is a little
to me, but he had six week one against SFA,
eleven against Rice. That's probably the area you want to

(01:52:28):
live in in terms of carries. But look, they're just
trying to win games. They're three and oh, I mean,
you can worry about what you want. Again, if Fritz
was worried about him getting hurt, they wouldn't be. But
but there's also quarterback runs are there's a difference between
a quarterback runs and he gets hit by three guys
and a quarterback runs and he slides and takes no hit.

Speaker 2 (01:52:49):
Yeah, I also look I mean I had the game on,
but I wasn't super invested in I think the Astros
are playing at that time, so I can't really answer
how much of that was design runs and how much
of that was Connor wa Is just scrambling and going
for going for some runs. I know there were some
design runs. I just don't know how many. But I think, yeah,
that in the nature of college football, especially it's is

(01:53:11):
you can gain an advantage if you have a quarterback
who has some legs, whether it be both scrambling and
with design runs or or with zone reads. And we've
seen that, I mean throughout the last what well really
throughout the last one hundred years of college football if
you want to go like wing tea and stuff like that,
but it can be a weapon. I understand we are

(01:53:31):
worried about Connor Wegman taking a bunch of hits, but
that's just the nature of football in itself.

Speaker 3 (01:53:38):
You have aged, by the way, top fifteen in points
allowed per game and yards allowed per game.

Speaker 2 (01:53:43):
Yeah, defense have been pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:53:45):
It's been good. And again I get it you have
been tested a ton with that CFA and or Ice,
but Colorado is a pretty good program. I get it there.
We've taken a little bit of step back from last year,
but Dion Stile a good coach, so that's a good win.
And when you look at how the schedule sets up.
We mentioned a while ago on the road at Oregon
State at you get a bye week this week, on

(01:54:05):
the road at Oregon State next week. Who stinks Corvallis
is a tough place to play, But they are zero
to three and you get Texas Tech in here.

Speaker 2 (01:54:14):
That's when when you get tested. As of right now too,
not only are the Cougars three and oh, I know
it's like, okay, Vegas doesn't mean anything, but if you
are covering these games, you're exceeding expectations. They were three
and a half point favorites against the Buffaloes. They won
by sixteen. Yeah, they covered the Massapega I believe they covered.
I think it was twelve and a half thirteen against
the Rice against Rice and they completely blew them out.

(01:54:36):
So the question that measure your exceeding expectation.

Speaker 3 (01:54:38):
The question is can you get three more wins? Because
I think that's the you start three and l awesome.
I yes, And honestly they're going to start four to oh,
because I think they should beat Oregon State because they stink.

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
You know, let me relying on that one.

Speaker 3 (01:54:49):
At Oklahoma State is typically a tough place to play,
but Oklahoma State's not what they typically are. They they've
come back down to earth this year, TCU, Baylor, Use
those are all winnable. West Virginia's winnable. So yeah, I
think you beat Oregon State. You only need two more
wins the whole rest of the season to get the
six and six.

Speaker 6 (01:55:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:55:09):
I don't see a line on the game yet because
they get the week off, so it's two weeks away.
But either way, well, I mean absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:55:16):
He's won everywhere he's been and you know, the tough
part is if he gets this program back on track,
wins big these next couple of years, somebody else may
come calling. But it is what it is. Several years
Tom Herman was here, were great.

Speaker 2 (01:55:30):
I mean I don't think really, I think willly Fritz
is gonna I think that's one of the reasons that
they got him because he's sixty five. Like basically they
were looking for another Kelvin Samson, guy with a track record,
who is gonna stay here, who's at a certain age
to where he's just gonna stay and play out the string.

Speaker 3 (01:55:44):
But what if Virginia Tech calls says we'll triple your salary.

Speaker 2 (01:55:47):
Well, is Virginia Tech gonna call a sixty five year old?
That's what I think. That's what the Cougars were banking
on with the higher He's a winner though, that's true.
He's He's definitely won everywhere he's gone. Tim, what's up? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:56:00):
Hi?

Speaker 18 (01:56:01):
This Tim Pierce, Woodland's first time caller. I love your show, guys,
Thank you, Tim. Want to chat about the Astros again?
Certainly you guys nailed how the West was won. When
the next two Series six games, the last two question
I have though was we're not going to get there
without some consistent run production. And what drives me crazy

(01:56:23):
sometimes is a spot is obsession of ord On in
the two hole. I maybe call me a traditionalist, but
why not get the table setter speed up front, put
Gordan back in the cleanup spot where we can knock
some runs in cleanup eight?

Speaker 16 (01:56:35):
Nine?

Speaker 2 (01:56:36):
Yeah, maybe three.

Speaker 18 (01:56:38):
But I'm old school. I mean I'd say four or three,
but the two is not working. He's been there pretty
much every day and we're not scoring runs.

Speaker 5 (01:56:47):
What do you what.

Speaker 2 (01:56:48):
Do you thake on that. We've talked a lot about this, Tim, Yes,
you are being old school. It only matters for the
first inning. Then after after that, I mean, you have
guys at the back of the lineup who can get
on base, and you want your best hitters to get
the most plate appearances. And that's just the way it is.
Aaron Judge bats in the second hole a lot for

(01:57:08):
the Yankees, Alex the red side, Cale schwarberbats second for
the Phillies. Don for the Mess, Juan Philly, Yes, Juan Soto,
Kyle Tucker when he was healthy, was batting second for
the Cubs. I mean, it is just very widespread. You
you have the balance of the opportunity of getting somebody
on base and Jeremy Pania, but then after that first inning,

(01:57:29):
then the lineup just continues to roll over and then
or Jordan Alvarez comes up more with an opportunity of
guys on base. They've crunched the numbers on this a
million times. That's not an accident. Why they continue to
put them out there. It's a I think when when
people focus on that, they focus too much on the
very first inning. I appreciate you guys like that.

Speaker 18 (01:57:51):
I just I was thinking one, two, three was going
to get on more often than eight nine to one.
So yeah, I think anyway, just old school here, just
two has not been working for for thirty games now.

Speaker 2 (01:58:01):
Thanks a lot, Tim, He's been patting. He's been batting
second a lot for the mayor are you batting.

Speaker 3 (01:58:07):
Your catcher second? You know, old school, old school don't
work no more.

Speaker 2 (01:58:12):
Hey, come on, be nice. But I think I saw
the Angels Mike Trout let off yesterday. Mike Trout has
been leading off shootany has been leading off for the Dodgers.
But also I mean they have freaking Mookie Bets and
Freddie Freeman.

Speaker 3 (01:58:25):
So but that still is Like I I watched the
Dodgers a couple of times this year. Shoo Tony hits
the lead off home run. You go, so what it
was a solo shot, you know what I mean? Like,
I think i'd rather.

Speaker 2 (01:58:36):
You know, if you would have, I would too over
over Mookie Bets. But I mean he gets on base
a lot, So that's what you You just want to put.
The higher on base you have, the more you want
them to come up. And then I'll give other guys.
For example, Christian Walker's leading the team and runs bad
in It's not like he's been some great run producer. Generally,
RBIs are just a function of where you are in

(01:58:56):
the lineup. It doesn't mean like you're uh, you know that.
That's kind of an was talking about old school RBIs
is an old school stat. Has Christian Walker been the
best Ashros hitter this year? Of course not. But he's
leaving them RBIs because he's well. He's been batting clean
up a lot of season. He gets a lot of
opportunities just about getting on base. That's your best chance
to continue to go to four to manufacture runs. Well,

(01:59:18):
he's been good, so I want him at to play more.
That's why I'll put him in the two hole. All right, Gordy,
thanks for hanging out. Appreciate it. You're passing the baton
to Adam Wexer. He is here. Our number four, The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross is coming up. You guys
want to talk about anything, We've been talking a lot
of Astros's been talking a lot of Texans, Buccaneers. Anything.
You want to get to seven one three, two one
two five, seven ninety is the phone number. Seven one

(01:59:41):
three two one two five seven ninety hour number four
The Matt Thomas Show The Ross coming your way after
this quick break is The Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

Speaker 3 (02:00:03):
Out four.

Speaker 2 (02:00:04):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas with
Adam Wexler is here and coming right at you. Sports
Talk seven ninety where the phone lines are open seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven to
one three two one two five seven ninety. You can
also send tweets at sports RV and at Adam J

(02:00:25):
Wexler as well. Uh this continues to happen about jord
On It. People are upset with jord On Alvarez batting
second again. I implore you to watch more baseball than
just the Astros. See where Kyle Schwarber hits. See where
Aaron Judge hits. See where Won Soto hits. See where
the other many of the best. See where cal Rally

(02:00:45):
hits for the Seattle Mariners. Many of the best hitters
in baseball are at the second spot of the lineup.
I'm sorry, I'm just getting frustrated somebody's tweeting me. You're
stepping your whole argument by pointing out the walker leads
the team in RBIs put a real cleanup player in
there who doesn't have a blank batting average? And how
many more runs do they score in games one because
of it? Well, Jrdan's been out for one hundred games,

(02:01:06):
first of all, and again runs batted in. Quite frankly,
it's an overrated stat. Astros aren't paying attention to it.
Many of the more analytic All okay, every every organization
is not paying attention to it much. We get wrapped
up into this whole old school argument about, well, your
best hitter has hit three, and you need a good
clean up guy of four. You want your best hitters

(02:01:28):
getting those plate appearances. How is this so hard for
so many of you to understand?

Speaker 19 (02:01:32):
Here's the top eleven in Homer's out of the two spot,
and good afternoon, Oh hey, Kyle Schwarber, Raphael Devers, Juan Soto,
Bobby Witt, Aaron Judge, Kotel Marte, Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts,
James Wood, Brandon, Lao cal Raley, all but loud because
of Cam and Arrow are the most powerful hitters and

(02:01:52):
arguably the best ops hitters on each of those teams.

Speaker 2 (02:01:55):
Yes, sounds like the best ops like in but you
just sounds like you just ran down the best open
leaders in baseball.

Speaker 19 (02:02:01):
Every one of those players I mentioned, other than Wood
and other than would has an eight to fifty OPS
or better. Okay, well, I don't know just in the
two hole. Now, these guys haven't all bad.

Speaker 2 (02:02:12):
How many different players did you name? I went the
top eleven. That was a tough So that's eleven different organizations.
And then the Astros are putting order on Alvarez second.
Obviously he's not funny showing up there because well he's
missed one hundred games for the Astros. Okay, so we're
talking about many of the best organizations in baseball. How
many of those teams have a better record than the Astros, Well,
a lot of them.

Speaker 19 (02:02:31):
Well, now that the Astros have allowed that opening with
how they've played recently, But all these teams, like we've
talked about all year, especially in the American League, that
I'm saying Toronto or Detroit has a better record still
barely means anything. They're not on pace to win one
oh five or even one oh one. There are a
couple of games ahead of Houston, who's then sixth. There

(02:02:52):
are a couple of games ahead of Texas and Cleveland,
who are in seventh and eighth. It's just not a
humongous number of games. These teams aren't. Nobody's blowing everybody away.
So yeah, today they have a better record they've had
like Toronto and Detroit. The Astras who played like garbage
for two months about fifty sixty games, they've gained like
a game on the Astros, the two best teams in

(02:03:14):
the American League, They've outplayed them by like two or
three games.

Speaker 2 (02:03:17):
That's it.

Speaker 19 (02:03:18):
There's just not much difference between these teams now when
they get to the playoffs. Maybe there will be later
season injuries, other guys who aren't coming back, other guys
who are coming back. I hope the Astros are part
of the six. They are currently six. Hey wex, Hey buddy.

Speaker 2 (02:03:32):
How's it going? Are they going to be part of
the six? I think they have a lot of stuff
to get to in just an hour here, well, I
will manage to get to all of the things I
need to get to. By the way, your on Alvarez
is a nine h two ops player as a two
hole hitter hitting three thirty eight. I think that's a
player you'd like to hit as often as possible other
than batting him lead off again, you get when people

(02:03:54):
talk about him being third, they're fixating on the first inning.
Only like Jake Myer's back in the lineup, he's been
getting some hits, you have. I mean, hey, is Zach
Cole to back end the lineup. He's been getting some
hits over the weekend as well. You get more opportunities
rather than just the first inning, to have more guys
on base. It's it's very simple. Other teams are doing it.
I honestly don't want to talk about it anymore this show.

(02:04:17):
Appreciate y'all. Listen, all right, seven one three two one
two five seven nine of the phone number. A lot
of 'all on hold. We were kind of joking about
this during the break weeks. Is it a must win
game for the Houston Texans tonight against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Speaker 19 (02:04:30):
They need to play good football more than anything else
to give their locker room reason to believe that they're
not stuck in quicksand because all of last year they
played the way that they played in the opener, they
played in one of their two playoff games, the way
they played in the opener in the previous seventeen games,
and there should be progress. You realized, what of your
major issues was your offensive line? Well, I don't care

(02:04:54):
if it's only been one offseason too, you really finally
realized it. They they haven't had a plus offense line
for such a long period of time. You've had the
time to fix it. You've just been very bad at
doing it. And this past year their commitment to doing
it was only off the field. They changed all the
things off the field that they thought made it bad,
and I agreed with every one of them, and I

(02:05:14):
still do. But it doesn't matter a whole lot if
the changes you make on the field are not an upgrade.
And I'm not even talking about Laramie because clearly he's
a more talented player than anybody they have out there,
But that's not the real reason. The real reason is, Okay,
it's fine, go ahead, move on from him, but you
got to put other players in place that are good players,
and they just weren't very committed to doing that this offseason.

(02:05:35):
They were more committed to spending more money on their
other good players. So they finally started saying, well, for
offensive line stinks, why are we paying so much for it?
Let's just not pay for it. They signed Cam Robinson
and that's it. They don't Their offensive line is not
expensive this year. Last year was one of the most
expensive offensive lines. But it's not better until proven. Otherwise

(02:05:57):
they get to run out most of the group they
wanted to tonight, Ingram returning the benched Vikings guard from
last year.

Speaker 2 (02:06:03):
Yeah, well, you know things, That's what I'm saying. That's
where I am right now. I do feel like things
will get better. I don't think they're gonna score nine
points every single game, but it's hard to convince me,
convince myself of that. Nick Chubb is still your running back,
you still got I mean, you're you're swapping things around
the offensive line, and the guys who are there aren't good.
Arianta Urser didn't have a great Week one, and and

(02:06:25):
you're also going up against a formidable front as far
as the as the opposing defensive line. Now you're at home,
so things should be a little bit better and run
more smoothly offensively there. But I'm trying to convince myself
not that we're gonna see some kind of breakout, but
things will be much better and I just don't know
how how that's gonna happen.

Speaker 19 (02:06:43):
Yeah, just a couple of years of sample, so I
don't know how much you want to base it on.
But they've usually played significantly better a week after a
poor offensive game. Not every single time, but over the
last two years now, plus the following a loss following
a subpar offensive game, kind of regardless of a and
obviously they're coming back home for this one, the offense
has been a little bit better. I don't know if

(02:07:04):
anybody cares about a trend like that, because there's the
new OC and it's week two and you're still missing
your slot receiver. You're still missing, you know, another slot receiver,
which was pretty clear in the game against the Rams.
It changed what they had at their disposal because they
were not ready to give that workload to Jalen Nole,
who'd been running as the number two slot all camp.
And that means you're on the field quite a bit.

(02:07:26):
And he was on the field enough for them, but
not enough for me. I don't really want to see
a veteran receiver that's less talented like Justin Watson on
the field unless you're convinced that they can't handle their assignments.
And I don't know if that was part of it.
I didn't expect it to be. But all of those things,

(02:07:47):
only having Nick Chubb instead of Joe Mixon having to
shuffle the offensive line, having both the two of your
three employed slot receivers unavailable to you, they do add up.
But it would be nice if CJ. Stroud left only
one other quarterback in the NFL. Only one other starting
quarterback in the NFL is yet to throw a touchdown pass.

(02:08:07):
Besides CJ.

Speaker 2 (02:08:09):
He's gonna throw one. It's a guarantee. By the way.

Speaker 19 (02:08:11):
The guy who hasn't thrown one is on the best
team in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (02:08:15):
Oh, Okay, who's the bed would that be? Jalen Hurts?
That's correct team.

Speaker 19 (02:08:18):
Every other starting quarterback in the NFL has a touchdown pass. Granted,
CJ and the other three quarterbacks going tonight have only
played once.

Speaker 2 (02:08:25):
Oh, he's got some rushing touchdowns, though.

Speaker 19 (02:08:27):
Jalen has the NFL lead and rushing touchdowns tied at
the top.

Speaker 2 (02:08:31):
How about a eight touchdown for the texanside against the Buccaneers.
Let's go, folks, bold prediction. That would be nice. Well,
I got some more bold prediction. We're gonna take quick
break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Let's
keep it rolling here on the Matt Thomas Show with
Ross with you until two o'clock, at which point we'll
hand off to the wonderful, amazing, entertaining, thrilling a team

(02:08:56):
program with Adam Wexer and Adam Clanton. Got astros on
deck coming your way. It's six o'clock. That'll also be
with the Tech when the Texans will be facing off
against Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Big series for the Stros, Rangers
in town for three. I say, Jack Leider versus Jason,
Alexander Merril, Kelly versus Christian Javier, and Jake de Gram

(02:09:20):
versus TBA. How we feeling?

Speaker 19 (02:09:22):
Yeah, this is an interesting set of games, hopefully with
I mean, this is crazy to say this. So that's righty, righty,
righty coming into town. Yes, So hopefully Zach Cole will
be swinging.

Speaker 2 (02:09:36):
It well hmmmm. I like that.

Speaker 19 (02:09:38):
I expect him to be in the lineup at least
two of the three, if not all three, because while
he's not coming in quite as hot as he was
after his first three at bats, do.

Speaker 2 (02:09:49):
You feel pretty good?

Speaker 19 (02:09:49):
About him standing in the box compared to anybody else
that could be up there, and that includes Hey, Su Sanchez.
Gonna say Cam Smith, like, if you want to get
the left handed bat in there, those are your choices,
do you want? HEYESU Sanchez, both playing the field and
swinging the bat. Where he's been, He's just been terrible
offensively for the ass Let's be really, he has a
five hit game and he's got like twelve other hits.
He's hitting under two hundred as an astro without the

(02:10:11):
five hit game, well under two hundred with no pop.

Speaker 2 (02:10:14):
Is that true?

Speaker 19 (02:10:14):
So I feel like there's probably at least a couple
of opportunities for Zach Cole to be out there.

Speaker 2 (02:10:21):
But that's also at the bottom of the order.

Speaker 19 (02:10:22):
What still has to happen for this team to really, actually,
I think, succeed is the guy's batting near the top.
Will find out about Jose Al two Bay's availability at
some point this afternoon. Doesn't mean their lineup will be
worse or better. He's been in I know he homered.

Speaker 2 (02:10:37):
Hey he started hitting. He's got three hits in two
games and he goes down the foot injury.

Speaker 19 (02:10:41):
That's one more hit than he had in his last
thirty six at bats.

Speaker 2 (02:10:44):
That's what I'm saying. He's heating up and then his
foot gets hurt. Doesn't that feel like very much? Astros.

Speaker 19 (02:10:48):
What seems like is happening, especially lately, is if the
Astros have a good offensive day, then Jordan did nothing.
If the Astros have a bad offensive day, he went
three for four.

Speaker 2 (02:11:00):
Of their four runs, but then they lost eight to four.
That's what it feels like.

Speaker 19 (02:11:03):
Yeah, I mean, I do like the idea that the
Astros manage their way through a nine game road trip
while Seattle was playing the majority of those nine games
at home and the schedule was much more imbalanced before
these final twelve games. The schedule's completely balanced now. The Rangers,
the Astros, and the Mariners have the exact same number
of home games and road games. The Rangers and Mariners
play three of their road games here in Houston. The

(02:11:25):
Astros don't play any of their road games and their
ballparks obviously they go to the other two Al West ballparks.
There's some of the things that play to to me.
I just said this to someone outside. It's not even
that the Astros are back home where they win versus
it's where the Rangers and Mariners are significantly worse. Those
two teams are much better at home than the Astros

(02:11:46):
are at home. Well, if they all have the same record,
that means they're also much worse on the road than
the Astros have been on the road.

Speaker 2 (02:11:52):
So they're coming here.

Speaker 3 (02:11:54):
You just have to.

Speaker 19 (02:11:55):
Obviously, the playoffs begin tonight at Dykin Park, if you
don't think they began last weekend in Atlanta, and the
Astros looked up for it the first two games. Okay,
finally we're tied. Well we're gonna stay tied, and then
we're gonna stay tied. But the Mariners winning streak continue.

Speaker 2 (02:12:09):
Nine in a row for the Mariners, and yeah, I
just keep saying they're either going to get it done
or they're not. They're not gonna really have anybody to blame.
And we can talk about injuries, of course, especially when
the season is over. But it it feels like you
have the upper hand with hosting both of those teams,
as you said, and then it's the A's in the
and the Angels.

Speaker 19 (02:12:26):
I mean, take two series, not asking for a week.
Let's just say you take each series though that means
with the Rangers. If the Rangers had two games to one,
if you beat them two out of three, well, that
means over the final nine games, they would have to
outplay you by three games. Unfortunately, only beating them twice
would allow the Rangers to still win the season series.
They would still own the tie breakers. They would have

(02:12:47):
beaten you seven times, but they would still have to
out win you three times in the last nine games
to tie you, which in that case would give them
the advantage. And if you do the same thing to
the Mariners, you win the season series. You have tied
them with no regard to the other nine games three
before and six after. I would feel pretty good if
the Astros and Mariners were tied when the Mariners leave town,

(02:13:12):
and obviously that means you've won the tiebreaker. I'm not
saying I'd feel awesome, but with six games remaining, with
them needing to outplay you over those six games, even
though they're going at home, going home to face the
Rockies and the Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (02:13:26):
How hard are the Dodgers going to be trying. Let's see,
they're two and a half of them the Padres, so
we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 19 (02:13:32):
And they're pretty much locked into three. If they win
the division, they're not gonna they can't elevate. The a
NL West champion is going to be the three seeds.
They're going to be a wild card hosting team. So
do they care much about whether they're at home or
on the road for the wildcard series? Or are they
setting up whatever rotation they have? Do they give a

(02:13:52):
day off to any of their stars in advance of
a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday game? Who knows all those things
are in play? Let's go Padres, Let's go Royals?

Speaker 2 (02:14:03):
Is that where we are right now? And how about
let's go Astros? How about taking care of your own
business for once we've been I'm doing more rooting against
the Mariners than am for the Astros, who've been losing
a lot of these games lately. Bobby in Memorial, want
to talk to some Stros? What's up? Bobby?

Speaker 5 (02:14:16):
Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I think anybody that's
been watching the Astros for the last six weeks would
say it's a very frustrating venture. The main thing, like
you say, is knock and runs in when men are
in scoring position, and I'm assuming everybody's healthy, which they're not.
I think that if we had a lineup with Pards

(02:14:37):
and PAINI and betting one or two, whichever one you
want to put in you word on in Korea betting
three and four, I think, you know, assuming you know,
like I said, if they're all healthy, I think that
would be good. Because you use the term pass the
baton all the time. We don't pass the baton very well,
but I think those four guys are the best on
the team that passing the baton parates takes a lot

(02:14:59):
of pitches. His Paina is not swinging it balls out
of the strike zone and hitting the right field a
lot more than last year. Jordan draws a lot of
walk and uses both sides of the field. Corey has
gotten a lot of big hits to right fields slightly,
and he's got a better discerning eye. And I think,
you know, just flaving away it balls out of the

(02:15:20):
strike zones one reasons why we're not putting a lot
on runners in base. And I think when we lost Parades,
we were doing really well when he was here, and
when he's not here, it's just it just seems like
there's a clog in the offense. And I'll hang up
and listen and love your show.

Speaker 2 (02:15:36):
Thank you all right, thanks a lot, Bobby, appreciate you
getting in. Yeah, if you can make wave a magic
wand and make paradies healthy, which Dana Brown said, it's
a long shot, but he's targeting.

Speaker 19 (02:15:45):
The Mariners whatever that means. Shocked when he said that.
I don't think it's very likely because of the manner
in which he delivered that line.

Speaker 6 (02:15:52):
Yeah here, uh yeah, I mean we're kind of targeting
potentially him coming back. Maybe a long shot, but we're
targeting it. You know, the Seattle series.

Speaker 2 (02:16:03):
What maybe a long shot, but we're targeting again. Just
put it out there for the Mariners to consider. It's
four days out. Yeah, I guess so maybe he means.

Speaker 19 (02:16:11):
Sunday in the ninth inning at four o'clock. Imagine got
even more time.

Speaker 2 (02:16:15):
Imagine waving a magic wand and you get Paradus back,
you get Josh hayterback, you get who else, You get
a Renel Blanco, Hayden, wesn Esky, Spencer, Hurt Ketty. He
didn't call those long shots, man. I would. I would
be sitting here saying this team's going to the World Series.

Speaker 19 (02:16:30):
I would, unfortunately, look at the number we don't know
about the status of some of those players for March
of twenty twenty six or April or May or June.

Speaker 2 (02:16:39):
I have a magic wand WEX just out.

Speaker 19 (02:16:42):
Of curiosity since a lot of people are bringing it
up and it's been a long standing theme for any team. Offensively,
how many plate appearances do you think the Astros have
in relation to the rest of the league and runners
in scoring position?

Speaker 2 (02:16:54):
Where do you think they Does it.

Speaker 19 (02:16:55):
Seem like they're always on base and they're not getting
them home or have they not really been as good
offensively as everybody else thinks they have?

Speaker 2 (02:17:02):
Their OPS is in the middle. I don't know where
the what the on base percentage is. I'll say they're
fifteenth in baseball.

Speaker 19 (02:17:07):
They're twentieth in plate appearances with runners in scoring positions,
So that right there, Lowers, You're, oh, man, they just
think they're well, they need more opportunities there. Their OPS
with runners in scoring position is twenty second, So both
of the numbers are you're seven to twenty one with
the runners in scoring position. As a team, the top

(02:17:30):
six teams at OPS with runners in scoring position are
all going to the playoffs. So you're saying when you
score more runs, you win more games. Well, when you
come through with the opportunities are right in front of you.
Here's a guy on second, or a guy on second
and third, go ahead and bring them on in.

Speaker 2 (02:17:44):
Yeah, it's just been poor I like the caller was saying,
I mean, it's been a lot of the like the
guys who aren't the Your best hitter is yourd On Alvarez,
he missed one hundred games, Your second best hitter this season,
I would say, I mean, you could argue Jeremy Payne
as well if you'd like. But Es Suck Paradis is
up there as well, and well, his hamstring is off

(02:18:05):
his bone, and they're trying to figure something out to
see if they can play him this weekend. They're targeting,
but it's a long shot. Seattle. I went through the
when I when I I posted it on Twitter the
few days ago, I was actually shocked to see their
top plate appearances al Tuo, Vey, Walker, Diaz, Pennas Smith.

Speaker 5 (02:18:24):
Too.

Speaker 2 (02:18:24):
Got your top two guys are showing age decline. Yanner
Diaz has had a bad year, Jamie Penney has been good,
and then Cam Smith is a rookie that's been your
top five and plate appearances this year brought it up
a few times. That's ID.

Speaker 19 (02:18:34):
It's unfortunate the way things have worked out from a
health standpoint. Some of your least productive everyday players have
been out there the most.

Speaker 2 (02:18:41):
And then it's Paradis du Bond, Carrotini Myers. Paradis has
been hurt. Du Bond's a utility guy that you're not
supposed to play that much. Karten is your backup catcher,
and Jake Myers has missed two months with with calf injuries.
And then there's ord On, then there's your On, and
then it's Correa, right, who's been here a month? Exactly?
What is this? That's crazy that they're even in first place?

(02:19:02):
It just is our second. Sorry God, there's a slip
of the tongue that happened over the weekend on in
my mind, they're finishing first. I still believe WEX. We'll
talk about it when we take quick break here. Anything
you guys want to get to you can seven one
three two one two five seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven ninety I forgot we could

(02:19:23):
get your on site report. WEX. Huh you want it?
So you're at the game in Austin this weekend. Correct,
sure was Now you're were you with your uh your
daughter who goes to uh tens?

Speaker 7 (02:19:39):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (02:19:39):
I was my son as well. And the missis I
hate actually talking to you about your children because I
remember when they were very small. They're still small and
they're just old. Now they're old and it makes me
feel old. But anyway, what about me? You look you
look great, good, same, perfect, You look the same to me?
All right? Fine? Uh so it was warm, but it's

(02:20:01):
a good time.

Speaker 5 (02:20:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:20:03):
People were saying it was like one hundred and forty
degrees on the field. Why do they have turf at
you at ut by the way, it's the University of
Texas at Austin. You should be able to get it's
an open air stadium. You should be able to get
some grass, install it, maintain it is.

Speaker 19 (02:20:20):
What's the Are their injury related things? Or is it
too hot for people to play football?

Speaker 2 (02:20:24):
It's too hot for you to play football and it's
injury related. Get some get some nice grass going on there.
They had it for They had turf for years, of course,
like in the Ricky Williams days. Then they went back
to grass for I don't know, decade plus the mac
Brown era. Then what three four years ago they switched
back to full time turf.

Speaker 19 (02:20:40):
Considering the two and one Longhorn season to date, where
would you place turf or grass on their list of issues?

Speaker 2 (02:20:47):
Number one? Number one? What about number one six? The groundskeeper?
He said their number one. He's he wants his job back. Hey,
maybe they want to play the groundskeeper anyways, Uh hmm.
My concern would be in whatever order you want to
put them in arch Manning's passing accuracy and the offensive line, Yeah,
I would.

Speaker 19 (02:21:05):
I don't want to make it out like their running
game is good, their offensive line is good, or the
receivers are good or healthy for that matter. Yeah, but
none of that stuff matters, honestly until the biggest problem
isn't what it is. He's not playing poorly because they
can't run the football. He's not playing poorly because their
receivers aren't getting open. He's not playing poorly because the

(02:21:26):
offensive line is giving him poor protection. He's playing bad football, period,
under whatever circumstance. If they were blocking great, if they
had receivers were running wide open, which they of course did,
or if their running game was lighting up the other team.
That's not the problem is him. Guys are open and
I cannot believe where some of these throws are going.

(02:21:47):
It's just I am baffled by the play. I'm not
baffled by how badly people missed on their stupid analysis
of him, having never seen him play, and even like
I knew it was gonna happen, even though I try
to give people credit for it, there's now three weeks
of college football. You've seen these top fifteen eighteen teams play.

(02:22:09):
I hope how can you vote Texas where they're being
voted like a.

Speaker 2 (02:22:14):
Just oh, Texas is overraty of the polls? Are you
new here? Come on now?

Speaker 19 (02:22:18):
You remember one at the beginning of the season is
almost fine. Whatever, Ever, you don't know anything about anybody,
Neither do I.

Speaker 2 (02:22:25):
Nobody's seen them play.

Speaker 19 (02:22:26):
Their best game of the season by a lot was
the Ohio State game, and that's embarrassing. Why aren't you
playing good football against teams that should not even be
on the field with you?

Speaker 2 (02:22:36):
And credit to UTEP for being there. This is what
I saw.

Speaker 19 (02:22:40):
UTEP's coaching staff said, this guy cannot throw the football
and we know it, and we're gonna dare him to
do it, and we're gonna load up the box and
they can try to run against us.

Speaker 2 (02:22:50):
And what did Texas say?

Speaker 19 (02:22:52):
This guy cannot throw the football and we're gonna hand
it off all afternoon long because they both knew it well.

Speaker 2 (02:22:59):
The good news he beat a twenty twenty three five
star quarterback.

Speaker 19 (02:23:02):
He did not look like a twenty twenty three five
star quarterback. He looked like somebody who needs to find
a place to play, and he found uteb where the
Nelson well saga to continue.

Speaker 2 (02:23:11):
It's my point is sometimes five stars wash out and
we're not there yet. Necessarily with arch Manning, I would say,
like if we saw week one, I feel like I
could kind of brush it under the rug. It's like, okay,
you're on the road, your first real big start at
the shoe against one of the best defenses. Then it
got worse, and then how how did it? As you've

(02:23:33):
become more of a favorite. You went from an underdog
where he looked okay, not horrible, to where you were
like a thirty seven and a half point favorite. He
looked bad and then at least he threw four touchdowns.
Then you're a forty point favorite. And then he's had
his worst game of the season. Yeah, they regressing. Yeah,
where these passes are going?

Speaker 19 (02:23:50):
Where what he is seeing when he's over there or
when he's going through his progressions. It's it's shocking to
see a quarterback, to any quarterback, not just someone with
that on the back of his jersey or the level
of which he was as a recruit.

Speaker 2 (02:24:02):
It's just bad football.

Speaker 19 (02:24:03):
And I'm not telling you it's over and they've made
a mistake and he's got to be bench. What I'm
saying is this is what he's currently playing like. It's
certainly I'm not I don't know what the next nine
games are gonna look like. I know what the first
three games have looked like. And it's bad. It's really
really bad. There are no excuses that I feel like
listening to because none of that stuff matters to the mistakes,
physical and mental mistakes. And I know Sark got his

(02:24:26):
second opportunity to talk about the three games they've played,
obviously had postgame and he met with the media again today.

Speaker 2 (02:24:31):
Did he mention anything about the bathroom.

Speaker 19 (02:24:33):
He did not mention anything about the bathroom, although I
don't think he was asked about if he's hurt or not.
But he did talk about the idea of moving on
to somebody else Benchi, you know, pulling him out, and
he said if he was making you know, you know,
missing on his reads or making a mentally not where
he needs to be, then maybe that man, maybe that
would compel me. Not word for word, but he's saying

(02:24:53):
he's not doing those things. So I have not given
it a thought at all. And I think that's also
fair for who's behind it and what they're trying to
do and who they're playing. And they have the same
type of opponent this week with Sam Houston State. But
just you know, watching that quarterback play, if you walked
into the stadium and just some random person wearing an
Eli Manning New York Giants jersey sitting one row over
for me in a few seats ahead, and just watched

(02:25:15):
him for the first time, you'd say, man, this guy stinks.

Speaker 6 (02:25:19):
Well.

Speaker 2 (02:25:19):
Also, speaking of sorry, I don't know if you've caught
this because it was you were at the game that
the halftime interview, did you see I've seen it since. Yeah,
He's like, we got to get better at quarterback. I
was like, wow, he is not mincing words I mean,
But it's also at that point he was five for
sixteen with a bad pick. There was a bad decision.

Speaker 19 (02:25:38):
Very bad decision, long play, buying time, cross his body
middle of the end zone. And again from my vantage
point being in the in the stadium.

Speaker 2 (02:25:47):
It was also fourth down though correct, so might as
well throw it to somebody that I agree with. But
my goodness, after all that buying time, this is three.
He basically threw it up for grabs. Their defender was.
It's just he didn't have to make a play. All
he had to do was catch it the ball.

Speaker 19 (02:26:04):
I bet you they won't have a game this year
or maybe in arch Manning's entire career that's left at
Texas where they run the ball fifty five times in
a game. They are both teams knew exactly what their
their game plan had to be, and they just did
it anyway. They weren't successful running the football. They were
getting to force down nearly every series, it seemed like,
because they couldn't do anything offensively, because both teams know

(02:26:27):
the quarterback could not be relied upon to make a throw.
Make a throw, hit a guy who's come out of
the backfield, hit a tight end, you know, five feet
away from you. He bought time on the other end
zone all the way rolls out to his left. He
does have a player inside the five yard line and
he beams it into his feet.

Speaker 2 (02:26:45):
Somehow the player didn't catch it.

Speaker 19 (02:26:48):
I mean, I know it sounds harsh, but he's played very,
very bad foot.

Speaker 2 (02:26:51):
Do you know what's funny? Do you feel like it's
easier to criticize arch man him because he's making seven
eight million dollars a year? Actually I actually feel that way.

Speaker 19 (02:27:00):
Maybe, I mean I would just feel like he's a
professional exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:27:03):
Like you know, you say, you know what, Hey, he's
a kid. He didn't asked for this high Pedden't you
know he's young. You were talking about young person, young
man who is trying to find his way through life.
But it's like he's making eight million dollars a year.
I feel like it makes it. I don't want to say.
I don't know if the word easier say more fair play,
especially criticize his play on the field. If he's getting

(02:27:25):
paid eight million dollars to be out.

Speaker 19 (02:27:28):
There, Yeah, and it's the first time in the three
years he's gotten paid, then he's gotten criticized at all.

Speaker 2 (02:27:32):
He's been there for two years.

Speaker 19 (02:27:34):
Yeah, I'm not saying he's played a lot in two years,
but he's been getting paid to be there for now
his third season.

Speaker 2 (02:27:40):
Yeah. I just find myself inherently wanting to hold back
because like, hey, he's just a college guy. But then
I'm like, wait, he's making eight nine million whatever.

Speaker 19 (02:27:46):
He's a student athlete, yes, yeah, exactly to get his degree.

Speaker 2 (02:27:48):
Like, you know what, I'm going to crush you, but
Arch whatever your name is, Well, no, I'm not going
to crush him. But who feels easier?

Speaker 19 (02:27:55):
Will Archie or arch be the first one to resurrect
the question and joke that follows about him staying for
two years?

Speaker 2 (02:28:04):
Hey he's gonna stay. Looks like he's gonna stay. Oh
I don't know. He could transfer out? Who knows? All right, Well,
his replacement season is already over. D Bell Uh oh
yeah that's right. That guy got hurt.

Speaker 19 (02:28:17):
He had an unexpected minor procedure, as he wrote on
the X platform last night, and he is no longer
playing high school football. He will be on the forty
acres in January.

Speaker 2 (02:28:25):
Minor procedure. Okay, yeah, you know what, hold him out,
hold him out. Yeah, he might get forced out, just
the way that he forced out quin Yours. Bell might
be for quin Yours after never beating him out. Yeah. See,
that was a concern. I brought it up multiple times
in the off season.

Speaker 6 (02:28:41):
He so.

Speaker 2 (02:28:43):
Why couldn't he get past Quinn who we all knew
his mid all right? Anyway? All I mean, come on,
anybody with eyes? All right? Quick break here on the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross Adam Wexer is hanging out.
Appreciate him. Final segment coming up after this short break.

(02:29:04):
Commander's quarterback Jayden Daniels has a knee injury that has
his status for Sunday's game versus the Raiders in question,
says Adam Schefter JJ McCarthy, also not expected to play
versus the Bengals. Vikings are prepping all right, those of
you playing at home. Who is the backup quarterback for

(02:29:25):
the Minnesota Vikings, Yes, you guessed it, Carson Wentz. And
of course they're facing off against the Bengals who have
Joe Burrow who needs toe surgery and he's gonna be
out three months. Jake Browning versus Carson Wentz. Week three,
who you got wix.

Speaker 19 (02:29:44):
I'm gonna go with the better team, which I don't
know that, but I'm gonna I'll go with Jake's team.

Speaker 2 (02:29:54):
Jake versus Carson, Jake and Carson like you're playing ice.

Speaker 19 (02:29:58):
Seriously, the possibility that Jake plays better than Joe Burrow
is lower than the possibility that Carson Wentz plays better
than JJ McCarthy. JJ McCarthy did not look good in
all but one of the eight quarters he's so far
played in, and that one good quarter got them their
one win, or else they'd be going too or Sunday

(02:30:19):
Night football with the field goal Festival, we saw not
a whole lot of fun to watch. He did not
look good, and already the questions of I don't know
if these questions really belong there or not, or it's
just the nature of the NFL. Like Justin Jefferson didn't think,
Oh great, we're gonna be just as good or better
now that we don't have Sam Darnold and we're starting

(02:30:40):
a guy who's never played before. This is gonna be awesome.
He's not learning that over these two games. He knew
that going in Now. Is he more frustrated? Are other
players more frustrated that they've been this inept for all
but one of their eight quarters offensively. I mean, what
are you gonna do? Even if they are this is
who they are? What's the alternative? Donald's not there?

Speaker 7 (02:31:00):
J J.

Speaker 2 (02:31:01):
McCarthy's he's your guy. Carson Wentz. I forgot he was
even in the NFL when I saw he was going
to start on Twitter. Well, that brings me to here,
to Houston. You have some outlets, many outlets have the
Houston Texans as the thirty second best offensive line in football.
Joe Burrow's been hurt a lot, and they basically have

(02:31:22):
never had a good offensive line Cincinnati Bengals. So not
saying that these injuries necessarily raise your concern level, but
when you're trotting out an offensive line that what's a
nice way to say in shambles that has not been
very good? I mean you got to be concerned about
the long term health of your quarterback.

Speaker 19 (02:31:40):
Joe Burrow this year will miss ten to twelve games
probably right, yes, which will be the most games he's
missed in any season. As far as much as he's
hurt so much.

Speaker 2 (02:31:50):
Well, when he didn't, he tear an ACL and missed
a whole season or not.

Speaker 19 (02:31:55):
He just where he got it hurt during that season
was further into the season. He's played at least ten
games every year. He's played at least sixteen games three
of his five years, and does toe hurt because his
line is bad.

Speaker 2 (02:32:06):
I don't know he was getting crunched up over there.

Speaker 19 (02:32:09):
He's also produced three thirty four plus touchdown past seasons.
He threw forty three of them last year. This terrible, terrible,
terrible offensive line in front of him allowed him to
lead the league in completions, attempts, yards, touchdowns, and yards
per game.

Speaker 2 (02:32:24):
He's also been I mean, well, he's also better than
c J.

Speaker 19 (02:32:27):
Stroud, significantly better than c J.

Speaker 2 (02:32:30):
Stroud. He processes faster than c J. Stroud. CJ Stroud
weapons in CJ. Stroud.

Speaker 19 (02:32:37):
I know, would need to put a really nice performance
together tonight to have anybody look at the first two
nights of football in the NFL weeks of football and say, yeah,
this is still one of the guys near the top
of the league. I'm not saying he won't ever be,
but I'm not looking at this season blindly and saying,
oh no, he's out played this guy.

Speaker 2 (02:32:58):
He needs to do. That hasn't happened. We did to
tell the truth earlier on the program at eleven thirty,
and one of the thing that I believed was that
by the end of the season CJ. Stroud will have
re established himself and the confidence in the fan base
will be there that he is QB one for the
Texans going forward.

Speaker 19 (02:33:18):
Like to believe it too, but I feel like the
way this fan base is already with him. When contract
talks happen over the off season, I'll be like, are
we sure we want to do this?

Speaker 2 (02:33:28):
Well, everybody had his back year one. Year one, everybody
was team c J.

Speaker 3 (02:33:33):
Stroud.

Speaker 2 (02:33:33):
I think they should still be on the same team.
We guess we'll find out a little bit. We'll gather
more data tonight at six o'clock. I know who's going
to be on till six o'clock. That would be mister Wexlers.
Thank you for hanging out. I do appreciate it. Thanks
to Let's see, no, Dan Matthews didn't hang out, but
that's okay. I appreciate him still. Chris Gordy did hang
out for a little bit. Jonathan Allen has been here

(02:33:54):
the whole show. Appreciate all of you folks as well
for listening, calling, tweeting, getting involved in the show. I
talked to you at six o'clock for Astros on Deck,
But right now it is Abir Adam the eight team
coming your way here on Sports Talk seven ninety, your
home for your Houston Astros