Is It Time To Question Everything With The Texans?

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After the Texans' 31-2 loss to the Ravens on Christmas Day, Payne and Pendergast wonder if it's time to question everything with this Houston team. Can you trust anything about it?

Transcript

00:00This is the, these are not the fun ones, man, because this is where you're questioning the

00:04overall direction of everything right now. This is low point of the Demeco Ryan's era.

00:10There wasn't necessarily a turning point in a game in which no points would be scored

00:14by the Texans offense. It was more of a, I was trying to figure out when did I run out

00:18of pep talks for myself? I think it might've been when they, when they didn't score down

00:24from the four yard line and Greg Olson we'll play the audio later because I just, I went

00:29back and I watched the condensed TV this morning. Cause I, and I, I'm going to go back

00:35and watch the whole broadcast because I like Greg Olson a lot in the Netflix broadcast

00:39to see how they did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Boy, I'll relive all of this at least three

00:43times in the next 48 hours. So the, the thing that, and I'm at, by the way, we've got John

00:49Harrison tomorrow filling in for you and I'm excited to have John's perspective on a lot

00:53of this. I think when they, when, after the incompletion of matchy on third down from

01:00the four yard line that Greg Olson said, I just, you know, I'd like to see some crossers

01:07or some meshes here, something to help guys get open because in that situation on that

01:13play, they're running just a bunch of guys across the board who aren't especially great

01:17at creating separation and man coverage and all just lined up trying to get separation

01:23in about like a five yard area in the most condensed part of the field.

01:29That was almost like the perfect summation, everything. Cause part of it too, not to excuse

01:34Bobby Sloak or anybody else, but part of it comes into because while you certainly don't

01:38have a team that can just mash it in, you know, your play action is rendered moot because

01:44nobody respects the Texans run game whatsoever. But, but yes, there are some things you can

01:49do from a play calling standpoint. They just looked just inept and unable to compete yesterday.

01:54That was where I realized, all right, there I, my pep talks are gone. The defense,

01:59you know, we're going to talk a lot about CJ Stroud and the offense for the rest of the

02:03season and on into the off season, especially, but the defense come out the way they did

02:09really unaware. I was really disappointed in the defensive tackles, you know, and I probably,

02:13I, I brother-in-law the defensive line a little too much maybe cause I've got a natural sympathy

02:19for him, man, the Ravens credit to them for a game plan that said, Hey, these defensive linemen

02:24play a hyper-aggressive style of football. And we're just going to exploit that. And in the

02:28defensive tackles obliged, they were running upfield unaware. And it's just that, Hey,

02:34I didn't know you could block me from that direction. It was ugly, man. It was ugly all

02:38around. It was bad. I, um, I guess technically I tapped out, you know, I, I do take copious notes

02:44during the game and I, you know, I pride myself on taking notes all the way to the final gun,

02:50you know, just the, the, the two columns, one for each half, each possession down in distance,

02:55you know, the key play circle. I'm got the 31 to two on that very easy. Mark Andrews touchdown

03:01where literally I'm just typing touchdown coming dot, dot, dot. And then Mark Andrews,

03:05like you just know, like this Ravens team, you just know it's coming. And I just wrote

03:10about a third of the way down the second half column. Hope y'all enjoyed the Beyonce concert

03:16because, uh, because unless something, uh, noteworthy happens, this is the end of the

03:21Pender notes for tonight. Thanks for ruining Thanksgiving and Christmas giving and retro

03:26actively. Oh, they did ruin Thanksgiving by losing to the Titans the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

03:31Yeah. So they at home, you want to funk for four days at home. It's kind of did actually. Yeah.

03:37Um, they ruined Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and that's unforgivable.

03:41Another thing that bothers me to major eating holidays. The thing that bothers me the most

03:45is that this is a team that the two opportunities they've had to play on just the four days of rest

03:52this year, the Thursday night game versus the jets and now versus the Ravens. They were just

03:57complete no-shows that they, they just flat out. We're not ready compared to another NFL team on

04:05short rest to come out and play a football game. Like I've, I feel it's hard for me not to look at

04:10it and just, and wonder, all right, what about the core DNA of this team is not on the same level or

04:16caliber of, of other NFL teams like the jets? Yeah. Well, I think it, I think it, it's a great

04:23point. What was the season last season was noon, Sunday, noon, Sunday, noon, Sunday, noon, Sunday,

04:29and you get into a routine and there are certain things about last season's Texans exhilarating as

04:35it was them going 10 and seven, making the playoffs, winning a playoff game. I'm not trying

04:39to diminish that at all, but there is something to be said for playing a schedule where maybe the

04:43third best quarterback you played was Baker Mayfield last year. And you played noon, Sunday,

04:49every game until week 18, where they put you on in primetime against the Colton. You won that game

04:53to their credit, the step up in weight class this season. And they may wind up with the same record

05:00as they did last year, 10 and seven, but we know the truth with this team right now.

05:05And the truth is not in the nine and eight or 10 and seven that they will call 10 and seven.

05:10If they beat the Titans, the truth is not in that record. The truth is in the record over the last

05:15eight games, which is three and five. And the truth is big time in the record against good

05:20teams this year, which is one in five winning teams, even though you've slugged it out with

05:24a couple of them, but you look totally outclassed games. No, you know, the thing is when I say

05:30slug it out, I mean, some of those it's that you, you let it go in the fourth quarter.

05:34That's right. It was, you slugged it out for three quarters with some of the better teams,

05:38but ultimately like what the good teams do is the, in the fourth quarter, the players,

05:45the coaches, everybody have kind of learned something from the previous three quarters

05:49and they go out and execute in the fourth quarter. The Texans have been the exact opposite in that

05:53regard. And then it's like in CJ, we probably, I did this on my live stream last night. We're

05:59eight minutes into it. And I mean, it's a little fit in the room. It's the most obvious thing in

06:06the room. CJ just flat out played awful last night. There was just no excuses there. You can

06:12take various plays and say, okay, well, there's a drop here, a drop there, just way too many easy

06:16passes that CJ misfired on too many times where you could just tell that the rhythm and timing

06:21and everything else was just a little bit off, you know, that throw to Dalton that he missed

06:26when Dalton was wide open in the flat. He's sure he was getting hit at the time, but he also could

06:32have, he could have made that decision a lot earlier. Just knowing what the coverage was and

06:36knowing where the opportunity was, Schultz would have had 30 yards on that play. There's so many,

06:41the misfired, Metchie missed one too, Mixon, all these short easy passes.

06:46The first one was he missed Nico over his head on second down and the Schultz play was the very

06:52next play on third down after that, you know, and obviously CJ took full accountability for it, but

06:57that's, and you know, and he's the, he's the head of the snake, you know, you chop off the head and

07:03the body fails. Like, so that's, he can't have those moments in games like that. You're a hundred

07:09percent. Right? Like this is that, that is, that's the most worrisome thing to come out of this game

07:15for me that they got blown out by the Ravens. I expected that. I said, 31, 17 in my mind,

07:20when I made that prediction, I'm like, probably could be a lot worse. I like, I, I felt going

07:24into this game, a, they were running on fumes and B the Ravens are just, I feel like the Ravens

07:28best game is the best of any team's best game out there. Like they're the team that had bills

07:34included. They're the team that has the most propensity, especially because they're getting

07:38it together on defense now to embarrass you. And they embarrassed the Texans yesterday, but you're

07:43a hundred, right? The most worrisome thing to come out of this game yesterday

07:47is that there was nowhere else to point with the deficiencies in the passing game.

07:53Other than C I mean, there are plenty of places to point, but this was the first time I felt like,

07:58boy, the criticism I've always felt like the criticism CJ has been getting this season has

08:02been a little over the top. Not that he doesn't deserve some blame, but that it's been a little

08:06over the top based on all the stuff going on around him that I don't think is his fault.

08:10This was his fault yesterday. I would say in the last two weeks, especially there are mistakes

08:15he's making that are completely independent of whether it's poor blocking or not. And that's

08:20when he's in situations where he, he cannot take a sack. He's taken sacks or just, there's a play

08:27where it's a, Hey, it's the, it's designed to get the ball out quickly and all right.

08:33The play doesn't work out. So the, the past protection will fail by design on those plays.

08:39And he's taken a sack. Like you just, you gotta get rid of the football. He didn't do that last

08:43year. No, that was the, one of the big, that was one of the big praises of CJ Stroud last year.

08:48Remember last year, like halfway through the season and he hadn't really hit a stride yet,

08:53but he was playing well. Yeah. Remember we were sticking up for him. People pointing to his

08:57completion percentage outside of Houston, people not watching the Texans while he was only completing

09:0158% of his passes. That's because he's throwing at least five or six balls a game away. Right.

09:06He was really sacked by, and that's what was so impressive by rookie standards. He was way

09:12more mature in some of that game management stuff. And, and man, I hate this because it's so easy to

09:19say. And yet sometimes the thing that's easy to say is because it's that I, they spent the entire

09:27off season getting pumped up by rat poison from everybody about how awesome they were going to be.

09:34And, and I'm glad that this happened versus the Ravens because last year at the, after the

09:39divisional round, I said, man, you know what? It's the best, the best thing for this team could

09:44have been that they, they really understood that they were out of their weight class. You know,

09:49they're not ready to play with the big boys yet. And then I think just because you acquire through

09:56free agency or trade weaponry, it almost feels like, Oh, there we are. Oh, now we're over.

10:02That's what we needed. And, and a lot of these guys and CJ Stroud, especially didn't truly

10:07understand how hard it is to win in the NFL and the difficulty level just got amped up that much

10:13higher this year because teams knew that they were a respectable team. They were somebody that

10:18they were going to get the best effort of other teams. It not, not to the point of like a Kansas

10:23city chiefs or anything, but they're just, they're, they are not ready for prime time.

10:27They're not, they're not. And they got one game left to figure a few things out and it's against

10:32the Titans. And I don't know how much you figure out against the Titans, although they did beat you

10:35at home back in week 12.

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