- 11 months ago
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00:00The texter said to me, Sean, have you heard the good news?
00:03Play my music.
00:05We'll take it, man.
00:06A win in Baltimore, getting on the plane, getting on that bird, coming home with a W.
00:11And a W where they did more than enough, I think, in terms of boxes checked.
00:16I mean, whatever perfect scenario you could have written up for this game with a healthy Texans team against a banged-up Ravens team,
00:22I think they exceeded it yesterday.
00:24They scored on their first eight possessions.
00:26The defense, other than a 56-yard bust to Zay Flowers, played practically a perfect game.
00:32No turnovers.
00:33Got out healthy.
00:35That was about as good a Sunday, and I will say this, Seth Payne.
00:38I think that is as good a coaching job as D'Amico Ryans has done since he's been the Texans head coach.
00:44Sometimes the good coaching jobs are against better teams when you make in-game decisions.
00:49That he had this team that focused and that dialed in when they could have just kind of laid off a little bit because of all these injuries.
00:56I thought that was just a perfect day yesterday.
00:58I thought, yeah, in terms of it's not like an in-game decision-making thing or anything out of the head coach.
01:03It's having a coach prepared for a game that, look, if you go in and win that game 6-3,
01:10you're not going to feel so hot going into the bye week.
01:12I think that you're going in against an incredibly beleaguered Ravens squad that was already struggling on defense.
01:18So what would a good team do in that situation?
01:21Do what other good teams have done, like the Bills and the Chiefs, if they are indeed a good team.
01:29Just put up 37-plus points against them, which is what teams have been doing against the Ravens.
01:33So they did that.
01:34And, I mean, you can qualify it all you want and say, well, what's it really mean or whatever.
01:39I don't care right now other than that the abyss, that it looked like the team might be staring into at one point
01:46as the offense was near the bottom of just about every statistical category.
01:50If the offense were genuinely that bad, they would have gone in and scored 10 points.
01:56They would have done what the Ravens did a few weeks ago.
01:58They would have just, or excuse me, the Browns.
02:02Like, you wouldn't have scored points.
02:04So they did that, and the most encouraging part of it was that opening drive
02:09because CJ got the ball to seven different ball carriers, either as runners or as receivers on that first drive.
02:16British Brooks got involved.
02:18Nick Caley was pulling out his entire playbook, and they were executing it properly.
02:23That part was really good to see.
02:25But the only time I was a little bit nervous was on that first defensive drive
02:29when the Ravens ran 11 or 12 plays, they end up settling for a field goal.
02:34But my concern going into that game was that the Texans were going to be so focused on stopping Derrick Henry
02:40that Cooper Rush ends up looking like an all-pro quarterback.
02:44And Cooper Rush, to his credit, made a couple of really nice, tight window clutch throws on that opening drive
02:50as the Texans were focused on Derrick Henry.
02:52But they found the right balance, and A, shut Derrick Henry down,
02:57and B, they intercepted Cooper Rush three times.
03:01Yeah, Petrie had two.
03:05Lasseter had two.
03:06I just saw a video before we started.
03:08Lasseter wasn't even supposed to be in on that play.
03:10Sarge was interviewing Aziz Alshair, and I guess Lasseter had a cramp or something.
03:14Or there was a guy who had a cramp, so Lasseter came back into the game for one play and gets a pick.
03:20And Rashad Bateman just quits on the play.
03:22Just stops.
03:23Yeah.
03:24I mean, that was a classic.
03:26At first, I thought, well, Cooper Rush is just, I'll credit him for just flinging it up there
03:31in a desperation moment, I suppose.
03:33No.
03:34He had what he thought was a good chance of throwing it to Rashad Bateman.
03:38He looked pissed, too.
03:39He just stopped.
03:40They showed Cooper Rush afterwards.
03:42He looked angry.
03:43That was the kind of game for the Ravens that gets a head coach fired.
03:46I mean, that looked like a classic, oh, the team has quit.
03:49But, I mean, so many weird things happened in the second half where it just looked like,
03:54okay, this is a team that's out of control.
03:56Well, it was almost, too, that's where I love, like, watching the broadcast.
04:00You have J.J. Watt on the telecast yesterday.
04:02And it's almost like you guys as players, it's like a dog whistle.
04:08You know, like, you guys probably see things that the regular people don't see in teams that
04:13look like they've quit.
04:14But, and it's one thing to be a seriously less talented football team out there.
04:19I mean, the Baltimore Ravens had, like, a preseason depth chart out there yesterday.
04:24Let's call it what it is.
04:25Even J.J. even said at one point on the broadcast, this feels like the second half of a preseason game.
04:31But you could tell there was a moment in the first half, I think it was when the Texans
04:35went up 24-3.
04:38And J.J., you could tell by J.J.'s tone, this wasn't just, like, a throwaway line.
04:42Like, boy, they really look like they've quit out here.
04:45He was saying, like, this is not, these are not the Baltimore Ravens that I recognize.
04:50And you could tell he didn't mean it in terms of, like, okay, well, this guy's playing instead
04:55of Roquan Smith, and this guy's playing instead of Marlon Humphrey, and Cooper Rush is quarterbacking.
05:00You could tell he meant, you could tell what he meant was, this is a team that doesn't look
05:05like they're trying, or they don't bring that same.
05:09And the one thing about the Ravens you could count on was all 53 guys brought the same
05:13ethos to the stadium.
05:14And yesterday, man, like, it was, once it got to be, like, 17-3, I felt zero danger
05:20in that game at all.
05:21Well, I think the fact of the matter was there were very few actual Ravens out there on the
05:25field.
05:26The guys that you've paid because you think that, yeah, these guys are Ravens, all six
05:33of the top paid guys on the team weren't out there on the field.
05:35The moment for me was in the second half when, okay, A, Jalen Knoll gets his touchdown and
05:41does the Ray Lewis dance, which, truth be told, not a huge fan of that, but whatever.
05:47But then, B, Jair Alexander, noted weirdo, and he's been on the team for all of three
05:54minutes.
05:54He's the guy that comes and tries to steal the ball from him.
05:57So, okay, he's the defender of the Ravens' way or something.
06:00Played one game before that.
06:02What's that?
06:02He had played one game as a Raven before that.
06:04And none of the other Ravens care.
06:05I'm not saying that the Ravens should have been out there, you know, creating a brawl
06:09or something.
06:09But then, on the very next series, you've got an actual Raven and Mark Andrews bobbling
06:17the ball and letting it go for an interception to Jalen Petrie.
06:20It was just, the wheels were completely off the wagon at that point.
06:23Yeah, no question.
06:24So, getting a win in ball, look, I think that's the big thing in terms of the big picture,
06:30historical with the franchise, getting a win this season and being 2-3.
06:33I never thought I'd feel great about being 2-3 going into a bye week, but when you start
06:380-3, I guess you'll take 2-3.
06:41To me, the big thing as far as the, like, between the lines, feeling good, like, this
06:45is, you know, this is two games, basically five straight quarters of C.J. Stroud looking
06:50like 2023 C.J. Stroud again.
06:52Looking really comfortable, looking confident.
06:55I think yesterday, one of the big things for me, and again, it's against the banged-up
06:59defense, but on some of the play action early on, where he's got his back turned to the
07:04defense, and he's got to turn around and just feel comfortable knowing and seeing what the
07:09coverage is, he was just unleashing it to Nico Collins.
07:12And they talked, J.J. talked about that on the broadcast, some of those in-breaking
07:16routes that you want to be able to feast on, give Nico Collins a chance for run after the
07:21catch.
07:22That was really good.
07:22The biggest thing I've seen from Kaylee over the last couple weeks that's really
07:28satisfying, because it might give a hint at, okay, there is a plan here, and it's all
07:34coming together, is a lot of the deception in the backfield, the jet sweeps, some of the
07:39things that look like zone read, all that stuff.
07:42You've got to jet sweep the Nico Collins in that game.
07:45That stuff sets up other stuff, and as you start to get a lot of film out there, and I
07:52think that Kaylee was probably thinking that during this game, even as it's a blowout,
07:55is that, man, put as much of this stuff on film as possible, because it's more that defenses
08:00have to defend and think about.
08:01That's great, yep.
08:01And as long as guys are executing it properly, and not properly, and all of that, then man,
08:08you really start to build up a catalog of plays and deception that you can use.
08:13One of the most promising things for me on the day was that despite using a plethora
08:18of different ball carriers and a plethora of rookies, they had four penalties on the
08:22day.
08:23And I think if they had tried to run that same playbook with those same players in week
08:27one or week two, there would have been 29 pre-snap penalties.
08:31It would have been a disaster.
08:32That part of it, that's independent of what the defense is showing you, or at least more
08:37so.
08:37That's just guys knowing what they're supposed to be doing and executing it properly.
08:41That was really gratifying to see.
08:43I agree.
08:44I agree.
08:44Yeah, I think you can't separate Stroud and Kaley in this.
08:47It was great to see CJ look as comfortable as he did, look super comfortable all day.
08:51And then Nick Kaley, Nick Kaley called a game where the Texans didn't punt until Davis Mills
08:56came in.
08:57I mean, it's hard to criticize anything they did offensively yesterday at all.
09:01Here was D'Amico Ryans on what does this performance yesterday say about Nick Kaley?
09:07Kaley's done a great job.
09:08I mean, it didn't show the first weeks because we didn't execute well.
09:14We came out today and guys executed.
09:16We run our offense the right way.
09:18We run our defense.
09:19Our special teams, you know, when we do it the right way, it's what we're capable of
09:22doing.
09:23We just have to stay the course, everybody, and continue to get better.
09:25That's coaches, that's players, everybody.
09:28And we're all in this together.
09:29We're all growing.
09:30We're all getting better as the season continues to go along.
09:33Yeah, I mean, British Brooks having two carries in the game was really cool.
09:39In short yardage, and they were both for first downs.
09:43I loved the second one I loved because the Ravens had just scored to make it 34-10, and
09:49the Texans had fourth and short on their own side of the 50-yard line.
09:53And D'Amico was like, we're going for it.
09:55You know, we're going to keep the ball.
09:57Well, they have been good in short-yarded situations over the last few weeks.
10:01You know, that QB sneak with CJ a couple times against the Titans worked out pretty well.
10:05Yeah, and British Brooks just didn't just, you know, plow up into the line and get the
10:09first down by half a yard.
10:11He had two carries for 15 yards.
10:12Like, he was, he was, and again, that's something they haven't used, like British Brooks
10:17carrying the ball as a fullback.
10:19Yet another thing that the defense needs to be mindful of, you know, when they play the
10:24Seahawks in a couple weeks, Seth, and it's fourth and one.
10:26And British Brooks is on the field.
10:27That's one more thing that the Seahawks need to pay attention to in those situations.
10:31I think the Jalen Knoll also, this is what I was wondering about Jalen Knoll.
10:35And of the three rookies, of the three rookie skill position players that you're watching,
10:41Woody Marks and Jaden Higgins had made more of an impact so far.
10:45The thing that I was most excited about was that Jalen Knoll right off the bat with that
10:49kick return, he looked comfortable, confident, and assertive there.
10:52It had gone to a point where even on the punt returns especially, it looked like
10:56Jalen Knoll was just really overly thinking things.
11:00He had been running laterally these last few games, looking kind of hesitant.
11:04And D'Amico a few weeks ago, actually during training camp, had talked about how he's had
11:08to tell Jalen Knoll, hey, don't think so much.
11:10Just go.
11:11Just go.
11:12And that's a struggle that rookies, especially conscientious rookies, face sometimes is that,
11:17man, you want to do everything right, and you're really, you're just thinking all the
11:20time, and it slows you down.
11:22I think we saw more of that shot out of a cannon game.
11:26Getting the touchdown, obviously, is hopefully going to be a big confidence booster for him.
11:30So you go into the bye week, and you really can take and look at what the rookies have
11:34done for you, what can you continue to emphasize, where can they improve.
11:39It's a perfectly timed bye week.
11:41As miserable as the bye week was last year, this is the exact opposite.
11:44I think this is the perfect time to really sit down and think, all right, good.
11:47What can we build on from here?
11:48That's funny, because my very first thought in the postgame was the exact opposite of
11:52that.
11:52I'm like, they finally got a little momentum going offensively.
11:55I'd rather they play a game next week and keep this thing kind of rolling a little.
11:59You can argue either way, obviously, but I'm like, man, I don't want to, we've had five
12:03straight quarters of elite offensive football from this team.
12:06I don't want this thing to cool off for a week.
12:10I'll tell you what, I mean, my first thought after the game, this is how it always goes usually,
12:13is, okay, man, the pass rush, pass rush wasn't really getting there.
12:17You go back and watch, and for one, I mean, credit to Cooper Rush, Cooper made some really
12:22nice throws with, at times, three or more bodies collapsing on him.
12:29And you look at Cooper Rush and you think, okay, they don't have to use a mush rush or
12:34a disciplined pass rush to keep him in the pocket, all of that.
12:37What they did have to do, though, was stay home and play a little bit more conservatively
12:42as a defensive line to stop Derrick Henry.
12:45So guys weren't firing off the ball quite the same as they usually do in a game where
12:50they might just be thinking, get in the backfield, get in the backfield, get in the backfield.
12:54They played really disciplined football.
12:56That takes a little pepper off your pass rush.
12:58But then you also look at it, and I mean, because of the game flow, Will Anderson had 22
13:03snaps in the game, Daniel Hunter, that's it.
13:07I hadn't looked at the snap counts.
13:08Oh, my God.
13:09Wow.
13:10And Will Anderson came real close to a couple sacks.
13:12The one he missed, and then Mario Edwards ended up cleaning it up, and then Will had the
13:17other one in the second half that he was super close on.
13:20So anytime you might not get a lot of sacks, but you cause three interceptions in a game,
13:26that's partly to a quarterback being uncomfortable.
13:29So I felt a lot better about that after re-watching.
13:32Here was, they held Derrick Henry to 15 carries for 33 yards.
13:35The big wish that you and I had was that this looked like the 2023 version of Derrick Henry
13:40when he was with the Titans going against the Texans, and they just completely shut him
13:44down.
13:44That's what they did yesterday.
13:46That box score yesterday looked a lot like the 2023 box scores that Derrick Henry had
13:50when Lamar Jackson was not his teammate back then either.
13:53Here was D'Amico yesterday on the Texans stopping the run.
13:56Yeah, for us defensively, that was our main goal.
13:58We knew we had to stop the run.
13:59We knew Derrick Henry would get more touches.
14:02He would try to get more opportunities, and our guys did a really nice job starting up
14:06front with our defensive line.
14:08Our tackles played really well.
14:10Our ends set the edge, and we tackled really well.
14:13Really got to watch the film, but just watching it from the sideline, I felt us tackled much
14:18better as a team.
14:19It was multiple guys at the ball every single time they ran the ball, so I'm very proud of
14:24us just, and as we go throughout the season, the one thing I implore our team about is
14:28just, let's just get better.
14:30Like, each and every week, let's just get a little bit better each and every week, and
14:34our team will continue to get stronger.
14:36Swarm plus form tackling.
14:38Yeah.
14:38That's a pleasant development.
14:40Jalen Petrie especially, really, like, you can see him emphasizing, really wrapping up
14:44a lot of these.
14:46And again, going back and watching, and my immediate impression after the game versus
14:50going back and re-watching a time or two, some of my frustration with the missed tackles,
14:56there were some missed tackles in the game that were valid, and you should be frustrated
15:00over them, but some of them, it was just Zay Flowers.
15:03Oh my gosh, dude, he is crazy.
15:07With his ability to jump back, it's not even a jump cut.
15:12It's like a disappearing act.
15:13And there were a couple times down, that one drive where, you know, they got down to
15:19third and short.
15:20I mean, the Texans defense, to their credit, they got duped by Zay Flowers on a hop back,
15:26but then they rallied and ended up tackling, tackling really at where his previous forward
15:31progress was, after he had duped three guys out of their shoes.
15:34Yep.
15:34And on non-missed tackles, but just like incredible display of athleticism by Zay Flowers.
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