- 2 weeks ago
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00:00This team, how do you go from your worst game of the year with 15 days to prepare to, I
00:08think, I know by scoring margin, it was their third highest scoring margin.
00:13Of their three wins, it was the closest of the three wins.
00:17But I would submit, given the opponent, given the circumstances yesterday, I mean, you had
00:20to have that win yesterday, and the fact that San Francisco, on their two scores that they
00:26did get, they needed a huge mistake on special teams by the Texans at the end of the half,
00:32and then they had to make a third and 17 down near the goal line.
00:35Like, they needed, they needed some somewhat outlier type things to happen, even just to
00:40get on the scoreboard.
00:41How do you go 15 days and throw up your worst performance, and then you get basically like
00:46four days with bad sleep to throw up your best performance?
00:49And it's simple.
00:51It's because it's, it's not about the preparation.
00:54It's about the matchups.
00:54And the Texans have shown that when they have matchups where they can give CJ time in pass
01:01protection, and I know Casario told us, but Casario was claiming that pass protection
01:08wasn't an issue.
01:10It's an issue when it's an issue.
01:12And in the games where CJ is afforded time, and yesterday, I'll credit Nick Caley and the
01:19offensive staff for having Blake Fisher out on the field for 26 or 28 snaps as an inline
01:25tight end.
01:26That was the most he's had all season.
01:28Yeah, as an inline tight end.
01:30And they were going against a, look, I'm not, overall, the sum total of it, yes, injuries
01:34aren't an excuse at this time of year.
01:36The Texans had their two top wide receivers out.
01:38I'm not making an excuse, but it created a matchup where the 49ers didn't have guys that
01:44were going to win consistently in pass protection, especially with the extra body, the extra heavy
01:49bodies on the field.
01:50So, um, when CJ has time to operate and, and, you know, and yes, I understand CJ is part of
01:57the pass protection and getting the calls right and everything, but it was that kind of a day
02:01where if he can slice and dice and carve offenses or defenses up, um, it's just, it's a matter
02:09of getting the protection right.
02:11And the whole part about having Blake Fisher out there, it's, it's just a classic 80, 20
02:17principle of, all right, 20% of these things are causing 80% of your problems, or at least
02:23that's one way to interpret the 80, 20 principle and pass protection is, is part of that 20%.
02:31Run blocking is another part of it.
02:33Slap an extra fatty out there and make it easier to pass protect, make it, make it more
02:39physical in the run game, especially when you only have one viable tight end on the roster.
02:43A.J. can do with one less receiving option out on the field because he can find the guys
02:51if he has time to do it.
02:52He's upright.
02:53If he has time to do it, he can find the guys when you've got five receiving threats out
02:57there, but he's got no time.
02:59It's all for not.
03:00So I think that's, it's really about that.
03:03It's not about the preparation.
03:05It's about the actual matchups.
03:07And so the offensive line continues to be a concern,
03:11even though I give them credit for that performance yesterday,
03:14but versus the better defenses, they've got to keep making improvement.
03:19They've got to keep getting better.
03:20Blake Fisher being on the field I think is one solution.
03:23Sometimes it's not the ideal solution,
03:26but you have to do what you can with the resources you have.
03:29Can I just tell you something?
03:31That's a really good answer.
03:32I wish I had just turned to you yesterday while you were sitting next to me
03:36in the press box and said,
03:38hey, why are they playing so much better on four days of prep instead of 15 days?
03:42I had mentioned it to you a couple times during the game,
03:44but you were scribbling in your notes.
03:46I carried it around with me all day long.
03:49Sorry, you and I both get hyper-focused on our own things sometimes.
03:54Yeah, that's a really good answer, the matchups.
03:58Yeah.
03:59And I'm not trying to take away from the win or anything.
04:02This is where we are with the Texans right now.
04:04There's some teams that the offense matches up well against.
04:08They're going to destroy them.
04:10They destroy them.
04:11And that shows you, I think, that's probably our best indicator of, yes,
04:17everything good about CJ is still there.
04:19The potential and his ceiling is still very, very, very hard sometimes when things are so
04:27unstable around a quarterback to figure out what's his fault, what does he need to do better?
04:33You know, it's just the clock and the timing and the rhythm in his head starts to get screwed up
04:37when you've got all of these things working against you.
04:40I think these games versus the good matchups show that, yeah, there's a lot of quarterbacks
04:46that would go out under those same circumstances and not nearly be as efficient and methodical.
04:52And what did he end up with, a 75% completion?
04:54He was, I was just going to say, he was 30 of 39, which I think is 77%.
04:59Yeah.
04:59And he missed a few.
05:01He was 30 of 39.
05:02He probably had at least two or three throws.
05:04He'd like that back.
05:05That's where, that's the part early in the game.
05:08This happened with CJ a few times where early in the game, he's had a few bad throws,
05:13which every single quarterback in the history of football has.
05:16Every hall of fame quarterback has some bad throws, but then when you pile on some more
05:21bad throws or some interceptions or, uh, you know, just the pressures and sacks and
05:26everything, those, those bad throws, those misfires really start to weigh heavily in you.
05:30So this game, and then I think the Titans game would be the other one I'm thinking of
05:34where you're like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe you missed that throw.
05:37Oh my gosh, I can't believe you missed that throw.
05:38And then all of a sudden you look up and he was like 17 for 20 or whatever.
05:43So it's, you're going to have those misfires.
05:46It's the sum total of what are you doing?
05:48And he was very, very accurate.
05:50Um, that that's, that's what I take from that game.
05:52I'm, I'm excited about the victory versus a good football team.
05:55That's it.
05:56And I don't make any excuses on either side for injuries.
05:58Both those teams had some very significant injuries.
06:02It's that man, when you are right in the, the surroundings are right for CJ, he doesn't
06:10just put in, he doesn't put in a Mac Jones type of performance, right?
06:13Mac Jones has been winning games, but it's not like he's just been just destroying people.
06:19Um, that's a, that was, that was a vintage.
06:22Hey, this is the quarterback of the future.
06:24Yeah.
06:24Yeah.
06:24That's a great way to put it.
06:25Yeah.
06:26He had some vintage CJ type of vintage.
06:28He's his third year, but you know what I mean?
06:30Like he had some elite throw.
06:31I mean the, the throw to Jalen, Noel for 44 yards, dropping it in the bucket.
06:35That's an elite throw dude, the, the touchdown to Xavier Hutchinson, it might've been on channel
06:4011 last night when you guys were on where I saw where you guys showed replays of some
06:44of these and at least somewhere I saw the replay of that Xavier Hutchinson touchdown from
06:51like sort of an all 22 behind CJ type of view, you know, the, the, the end zone view of it
06:56from behind.
06:57It looks like a video game throw coming off of his hands.
07:00Like, it looks like, it looks like something that AI generated coming off his hands.
07:05Like it was a laser, like a laser, like off to the, you know, just, it was Sean, he had
07:11one in the Seattle game when he was under duress where he just, he flipped it with a flick of
07:17the wrist.
07:17And I want to say that one was to Hutchinson as well.
07:20Uh, I can't remember.
07:21Um, but it was just, it was a perfectly, it was a perfect touch throw when under duress and
07:28he made it look so easy and that's the part that man, it's, it's hard to find that.
07:33And it's a matter of with quarterback, it's always how consistently can you do it?
07:36Um, but again, going back to the, the circumstances around him, they, it wasn't great circumstances
07:42in the Seattle.
07:43It was really hard to end up yesterday.
07:47The thing I thought one of the really encouraging things though, too, was when he was pressured,
07:51when it wasn't a perfect pocket, he looked very comfortable.
07:55Yeah, stepping up in the pocket yesterday on the broadcast, I went back and I watched
07:59the first half of the broadcast.
08:01Uh, I try to, cause you know, they give us information that we don't get sitting up in
08:05the press box, but Moose Johnson was talking about their meeting with CJ and I'm, I'm happy
08:10to hear that CJ told them, I gotta, I gotta be better on first and second down on some of
08:16these easy throws and some of the, you know, they didn't use the, the, you know, any of
08:21the old cliches about don't go broke, taking a profit, take what the defense gives you whatever.
08:25But I think that's what they're hinting at.
08:26And you go back and you look at the third downs.
08:28I went and, um, never trust my arithmetic, but I think the average third down was third
08:33and six in this game, which is a very, very manageable, very achievable third down as
08:38opposed to some of these games where it's been like third and 10 or third and 11 or third
08:42and 12 on average.
08:43Yeah, I thought, well, and, and not getting any, not getting sacked in the game helped
08:47that for sure.
08:48There were no sacks allowed by the offensive line.
08:50And I would say that's a combination too, with CJ, you know, the zero sacks, kudos to
08:54the offensive line, kudos to CJ for, to your point, when things are breaking down, he was
08:59stepping up in the pocket and getting rid of the ball.
09:01Even times where they did get into bad down and distance situations because they did have
09:05eight penalties, you know, they weren't all on offense, but, but most of them were, um,
09:09they worked their way back into manageable down and distance.
09:12It's like there was, and D'Amico brought this point up in the post game.
09:15There was nothing really torpedoing their offense yesterday, you know?
09:18And eight penalties isn't that far out of whack.
09:20It was six and a half is the average number of penalties, five and a half or six and a
09:24half, whatever it is.
09:26Yeah.
09:26I'll tell you what the difference, uh, I'll tell you the whole story about everything
09:30though.
09:30You mean Laramie, defensive Laramie?
09:32Yeah.
09:32But that's the thing.
09:33That's, that might explain in a nutshell, the difference between Laramie and Will Anderson,
09:37when Larry Tunsil would be doing it, it's still, it's, you're just, it's
09:42coming from a guy where you're just like, this is not my kind of guy.
09:46Will does it.
09:48And it's a little L2 Vian, you know, like L2 V.
09:51Yeah.
09:52Okay.
09:52I like that.
09:53Where you're like, ah, I mean, but he, he provides so much and he's the right kind of
09:57guy.
09:57Good job.
09:58This is my kind of guy.
09:59Good job.
09:59You're on a heater this morning.
10:00That's a much better.
10:01I like that analogy a whole lot better.
10:03Write that down in my notebook.
10:05I, um, I thought this might've been CJ Stroud's best game as a Texan.
10:10And I know that he's probably played in more important games.
10:12He definitely has.
10:13He's played in more important games than the playoffs.
10:15He's played in more important games in a week eight matchup with the 49ers.
10:19Um, he's had better statistical games in terms of overall yards.
10:24Um, I thought just given the circumstances surrounding this game, he, the, now the stats
10:29were there.
10:30He was super efficient.
10:3130 of 39, 318 yards, couple of touchdowns.
10:34He had that pick at the end of the half, which could have been a disaster.
10:37Um, nine of 16 on third down.
10:40That's a big one to me, you know, to your point, being in third and somewhat manageable
10:43probably helped that they were just, he was, he was taking that little slant on second
10:48and second and medium and third and medium all day long.
10:52But I thought given, given, certainly given the absences of Nico Collins and Christian
10:56Kirk, that you're operating once Braxton Berrios was out, he was operating with a receiving
11:00core that had a combined 51 catches in the NFL.
11:06The thing we didn't know about CJ, he's never played a game before yesterday without Nico
11:10or Tank or Steph or some good receivers out there.
11:13Can he be the guy that takes just a ragtag group and elevates them?
11:17And yesterday against a good defense, he did that.
11:20So I thought the absences, I thought the stakes of the game again, it's week eight, but if
11:23you lose that game, you're two and five and boy, what are we talking about this morning?
11:27If they're two and five going into a game against Denver, who looked unstoppable yesterday.
11:31And then the last thing Seth though, is Seth is it.
11:35If I would argue that this is his best game was just, he was in control the whole game.
11:40Like just, he had a great feel, whether it was in the pocket, like you were just talking
11:44about or at the line of scrimmage, I thought even when they were getting out of the huddle
11:48late, he was, you know, like he was, he was changing plays.
11:51He'd like, there were, there were no delay games.
11:53There were no plays I felt were rushed.
11:55Even though there were plays that I'm going, okay, three, two, one.
11:59I just thought he had the whole package yesterday.
12:01The funny thing to me was, and it's a, I know people get into needless debates about certain
12:06things.
12:06And because, because CJ hit a few deep shots, I saw people saying, yeah, no, see, it doesn't
12:12need to be death by a thousand paper cuts.
12:14It can be, it was in the middle of a 12 play drive, but like it all, it all works together.
12:21It's the, and this is a problem.
12:23An addiction to the deep shot is like an addiction to a drug.
12:27It fuels you for a little while, but at some point, if you haven't been eating your 2,500
12:32calories a day, you're going to all fall apart.
12:35And sometimes this, this lust for the deep shot, um, it, it creates, it creates, um,
12:42it, it creates problems.
12:46And often, so that was the, the really exciting thing for, I know both you and I sit in the
12:51press box was you kept showing me the number of plays per drive on as the, as the time of
12:56possession was so lopsided in the first half, 25 minutes to five.
13:00It was 24 and a half minutes to five and a half minutes.
13:02Goodness.
13:03It ended up being about 40 to 20, I think.
13:06Yeah.
13:06Um, yeah, like that's, that's the thing.
13:09And especially when you can keep that defense fresh and keep those pass rushers fresh, that's
13:14when everything starts to snowball because those, they, those guys in the third and fourth
13:19quarter are, are not fatigued whatsoever that, and you can close out games until that last
13:24drive that was fueled by a special teams, two special teams mistakes, the last drive of
13:28the first half, the last drive of the first half.
13:30Yep.
13:30Sorry.
13:30Uh, the, the kickoff return to midfield and then Dylan Horton gets a face mask.
13:34So now an offense that, that hadn't done, literally had not done anything all day.
13:40You give them a little bit of life at the Texans, 35 yard line up until that point, the defense,
13:45and that was with a minute to go in the half.
13:47The defense had played 10 plays, 10 plays.
13:50I cited you in the post game show where ultimately I think San Francisco ran 44 plays.
13:56Yeah.
13:57And I cited you saying that feels like a day off.
14:00That's, um, it's funny because a text came up just as you were talking about that.
14:03Let's not ignore in victory.
14:04We collapsed at the very end of the first half on defense.
14:07No, they didn't.
14:08They're like George Kittle caught a touchdown.
14:09It was like a, a stupid throw.
14:11Like it was a, that was credit to Mac Jones and George Kittle on that.
14:16That was a, that was a three play drive.
14:18That was the riskiest of all possible scenarios right there.
14:22Yeah.
14:22Look, you don't collapse when you let it touch them 35 yard line.
14:27That's not a defensive collapse.
14:29That was a special teams collapse.
14:31Yep.
14:31Absolutely.
14:32Um, so I thought that was good.
14:33Here was, uh, here was D'Amico Ryan's on CJ Stroud's performance yesterday.
14:37Yeah, when CJ's locked in, we know when the quarterback is playing well, right?
14:41And CJ plays well and he's upbeat and everybody can see he's going to the right spot with the
14:48football.
14:48He's making great decisions, stepping up, escaping the pocket, converting some runs there, converting
14:54some third downs.
14:55I mean, you just see the entire, the energy, the vibe of our entire sideline just changes,
15:01right?
15:01Because everybody's looking for the quarterback for that leadership.
15:04And it's just about nothing special or nothing grand.
15:07It's just about him just remaining disciplined as a quarterback, uh, doing exactly what he's
15:12supposed to do on every given play.
15:13And when he does that, he makes great decisions.
15:15And with the O-line working the way they work today, that's what you see, man.
15:19One of his best games ever, right?
15:22The way he operated today, it was very clean football and, and I'm proud of where he is.
15:27We just have to continue to stay with this every, every week.
15:30Got the only game ball yesterday, CJ Stroud.
15:32And then he gave a game balls to the offensive line to go over the more dissent within the
15:37locker room.
15:38Him trying to take over coach's job.
15:39Sounds like giving out game balls.
15:41Well, I'll tell you what, D'Amico.
15:44Yeah, no, no, no, no, no.
15:45And you're only giving out one.
15:46I'm giving out six.
15:47Um, so, uh, I, I look, we don't know what goes on behind the scenes.
15:52We just get these little snippets of in the locker room.
15:55I don't think we've seen, I can't remember seeing a, a victorious locker room video where
16:01CJ was getting up and talking to the team the way he was at.
16:06After it was about leadership and things like that.
16:08There was a little bit of, um, there was a little, uh, okay.
16:09So, uh, D'Amico talking about outside noise and everything, it kind of defiant at the podium
16:13yesterday.
16:14We'll have that in the next segment.
16:15Yeah.
16:15Okay.
16:16I've got a, I've got a thought on that.
16:17You do?
16:18Yeah.
16:18And then, um, because that, that, that was, um, uh, yeah, I've got a thought on that.
16:23And then also, uh, we need, we might need to listen to the actual raw version of the
16:27final question to CJ in the press conference, because I, I'm not, it might've been a plant.
16:33I don't know.
16:34He talks about how much he loves Houston.
16:37Yeah.
16:37Yeah.
16:38H town represent.
16:39I felt like one of those moments where somebody was instructed to ask a question.
16:44Yeah.
16:44It's one of the media members, you know, but they've got like a Groucho Marks glasses.
16:48Yeah.
16:48Yeah.
16:49Yeah.
16:49Yeah.
16:49Yeah.
16:50I mean, Hey CJ, I'm curious, which is fine.
16:52People do it.
16:53It's just always funny when it happens.
16:54That's funny.
16:55Okay.
16:55You're such a cynic.
16:56I heard that and I'm like, Oh good.
16:58He likes Houston.
16:58It was almost like there was the last question.
17:00And then all of a sudden at the very end, one more question.
17:02It was like, CJ, how much do the people of Houston mean to you?
17:07Well, last time, the last time they did a one more question with CJ was at his Wednesday
17:11press conference and he stormed off.
17:13Yeah.
17:13I didn't recognize the voice at the time.
17:16Maybe you'll recognize the voice.
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