00:00There's a lot of things that have led to 3-5 for the Texans, but ultimately, the thing that might end up deciding their season or putting the nail in the coffin on their season might be this play right here from yesterday.
00:13No one motioning around. Here's Stroud taking the snap. Here's the pressure. CJ scrambling forward. CJ wants to run, and he slides back at the 31. He got tagged, and here comes the flag.
00:22I guess Stroud has stood people over from the Texans' sideline, the medical people, because Stroud took a tremendous hit here.
00:31That was brutal, and it wasn't Singleton making a hit. It was Chris Abrams' drain with the tag on CJ as he was going down.
00:40That was nasty, and Stroud is getting a long look here.
00:44There is some, not pushing and shoving, but a lot of talking and close contact between Texans, O-Lyman, and the Denver Broncos, because that was late and unnecessary.
00:57Okay, so we'll adjudicate the hit in just a second.
01:00Adjudication!
01:02Adjudication!
01:02Yep, we'll do that in just a second, because they ultimately picked up the flag on this play.
01:07Booth review.
01:07Booth review.
01:08They picked up the flag.
01:09It was not helmet to helmet, but CJ's head hit the turf, I mean, with tremendous force.
01:15Obviously, it forced him out of the game.
01:17Now, he got up, gave a thumbs up.
01:20You could tell by the way he was walking that there was definitely something going on.
01:23He was not moving well.
01:26And we should point out that post-game, there were pictures posted on the Instagram for his foundation with him and his mom,
01:33saying that, hey, thanks for all the prayers.
01:34CJ's going to be okay.
01:35But he is now in the concussion protocol.
01:38So we'll get to the hit itself in just a second, but we should point out, Seth,
01:41this is the second time now CJ's been concussed in two years.
01:46Last time he was concussed, it was in the, I believe, third or fourth quarter of the Jets game in week 14 of his rookie year.
01:52He missed the next two games after that, which were a win at Tennessee and then a loss, a blowout loss, to the Cleveland Browns.
02:01We don't know what the situation is.
02:03And as we don't see it again, I would doubt it.
02:06That was a tremendous hit.
02:09But if they, let's pretend it's 2023 for a second.
02:12If they've got to win home against Jacksonville and at Tennessee the next two games, how do you feel about Davis Mills playing in those two games?
02:22I feel like, for one, those defenses aren't as good as Denver's, so there's that.
02:29Jags are at home.
02:30Chargers struggled to put away the Titans yesterday, didn't they?
02:33Yeah, I can't go off of anything the Chargers did.
02:35They were like 17 to 14 until the fourth quarter.
02:39I would say they got a shot at going one and one in these next two games.
02:44I know they're favored versus the Jaguars.
02:46I wonder how much that's going to move as people start to realize that Davis Mills is probably going to be the quarterback.
02:51The look ahead line, which is before CJ was hurt, the look ahead line was three, Texans three.
02:58It's down to one and a half Texans.
03:00I think that thing could keep going.
03:01I don't think CJ Stroud's only worth a point and a half, but they're probably playing the middle right now because they don't know if CJ's going to play.
03:06Yeah, I think that, look, Davis Mills will be better than he was this game.
03:11For one, he'll have a full week of preparation.
03:13I wish I could say I trusted that Nick Caley will figure out the best way to get the best out of Davis Mills, but I cannot say that in good faith or at least without somebody paying me off or something.
03:24So it's just, no, I don't, I don't feel good at all about them winning the next two games with Davis Mills or Graham Mertz.
03:33I don't think, I don't know why people scoffed at me when I suggested Graham Mertz yesterday.
03:37We don't know what he's been doing.
03:38Last time I saw him, he's lighting it up.
03:40I think it's the emergency quarterback.
03:43...back emails, I think, for him to be able to come in.
03:47I think there's rules around Mertz being able to play, right?
03:49Yes, I'm talking about yesterday.
03:50Yeah, yeah, I'm not talking about yesterday.
03:52I'm talking about in the next two games.
03:53Oh, moving forward.
03:54Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:54I thought you were talking about yesterday.
03:55No.
03:55Sorry about that.
03:57Here was D'Amico Ryan.
03:58So that's, so, yeah, I mean, like, you're three and five.
04:02You got no rule.
04:03You're like these, you got three, you're three and five.
04:05And these are, I think, if you're trying to creep back into the playoff hunt, these are two of the four games.
04:12I think you and I kind of went through this exercise.
04:14You have to win these two games.
04:16You have to.
04:16The other thing, too, is as far as the Texans still being favored, even though it might be Davis Mills, is that they, I think people expect that the defense is going to play really well at NRG Stadium.
04:25Of course.
04:26And I think they will.
04:28But they can't keep, you can't keep putting them out there after three and out, three and out, three and out.
04:34I mean, how many times this season do we have to watch the defense out there under extreme stress the entire second half, trying to maintain a narrow lead or keep the, you know, the deficit from getting larger?
04:47It's just, you can't count on forced turnovers or whatever else, but it's, yeah, like if the Texans can win 13 to seven, sure.
04:56Yeah.
04:56I want to get to the hit in a second, but you brought this up and I'm curious.
05:00I mean, you've been on teams here where the defense was keeping a completely inept offense in games.
05:06Yeah.
05:07We sucked as a team though.
05:08Yeah.
05:08You did know this, but here's where I'm going with this.
05:10Is there, is there muttering going on right now on the defensive side of the ball?
05:15Is there like these guys are pretty, it's, it depends.
05:19I don't think on this team that it would be too severe.
05:24It's like, I mean, reality, I guess I'm more asking when you were a player, did that go on?
05:28Yes.
05:28I mean, it did at times, but not, no.
05:31Cause when I was, I was on really good defenses in Jackson, we also had a really good offense.
05:35Um, and, uh, and when it was here, when the only times we had a good defense was early
05:40on and we knew what the deal was with the offense.
05:43We had six rookies.
05:44Gotcha.
05:44Expansion team.
05:45So it wasn't, I don't think that was really as much of a factor.
05:48Yeah.
05:48This is, there's a team with super bowl or at least playoff expectations.
05:52I think that there's still probably right now where the defense is telling themselves,
05:55like, listen, we got to win this game.
05:56We got to figure out like, Hey, Danico Autry, can you block a kick?
05:59Sure.
06:00Uh, I'll do that for you.
06:01The very first one.
06:02I'll block the 14th.
06:03Got it out of the way.
06:04Or punt in my career.
06:05He's amazing.
06:06So as far as the concussion, um, and the actual hit, I'm, I can't, I gotta be a hundred.
06:11I can't be a hypocrite here.
06:13What I would want them, how I want them to call that play is exactly the way they called
06:19it yesterday.
06:20And there was a play earlier this season where Joe Flacco got hit as he was sliding and
06:25the defensive back was flagged.
06:26Initially, the booth looked at it, saw that, that he, the, the defensive back hit his torso
06:31and they picked up the flag and I thought that's good.
06:36That's, that's right.
06:37The quarterback has to take responsibility for himself when he's sliding and with no
06:41contact up around the head or neck, I can't, it will like, and when you, when you slow
06:45it down, just like it was with Aziz Alshire last year, when you slow it down, it's very
06:51easy to say, Oh, he had plenty of time to pull up.
06:54He had plenty of time to make that decision.
06:56CJ was doing what Trevor Lawrence was doing, which was he's close to that first down marker,
07:00trying to get as much yardage as possible before he slides.
07:02And giving himself up has to be sure that if he's giving himself up for his own safety,
07:09he's got to give himself up before anybody's got a chance to hit him.
07:12Yeah.
07:12That was the second worst part of it.
07:13The worst part, obviously it was CJ leaving the game.
07:15The second worst part, he didn't even get the first down.
07:18Yeah.
07:18It was fourth and two after that.
07:20It was here.
07:21Let's play D'Amico on this.
07:22Cause I'm curious if you agree with him.
07:24This is D'Amico.
07:24What did he see on the CJ Stroud injury play?
07:27CJ scrambled.
07:28Of course he tried to, he slid and the guy, you know, came up and hit.
07:32As I see his unnecessary roughness.
07:35He hit the quarterback when he's sliding and giving himself up.
07:38If I'm incorrect on the rules, I've seen that happen multiple times, you know, with our guys.
07:44And we get the penalty, but for some reason it just didn't, didn't happen there.
07:49So we'll look at the film and see, you know, what actually happened there.
07:54We're good, Ben.
07:55This is what we asked for.
07:56This is like, yes, he has seen places.
07:59He's seen when people get flagged for that.
08:01Texans have gotten flagged for that.
08:03What we asked for is for them to give a little bit of the benefit of the doubt to the defense.
08:09D'Amico's asked for it.
08:10I've asked for it.
08:11I talked to Moose Johnson about it at the Superbowl.
08:13And actually like I, I gave him, he told me, you know what?
08:18You're making some good points from the defensive perspective.
08:21And Moose Johnson was on a committee that was reviewing exactly how to, how to officiate that play.
08:26And that's what I, I asked for the play to be ruled that way too, because I thought it would benefit defensive players in the Texans specifically.
08:35Um, so you can take last year with Aziz Alshire and talk up and down about how he shouldn't have gotten flagged or he shouldn't have gotten his spine.
08:44And it's just calling it differently this year.
08:46Yeah, it sucks.
08:46I've seen, I've seen it in games.
08:48They're calling it differently.
08:48And it sucks that it happened to CJ Stroud, but they're calling it differently.
08:52But CJ, just as I say to all quarterbacks, if you're going to slide feet first, especially do it early.
08:57It's, you got to take responsibility for it and, and, and you got to take care of yourself, you know?
09:03And I think partly on that though, too, is he had, um, he had Singleton, the linebacker in front of him.
09:09And I think that's what CJ was looking at more than anything.
09:11Abrams drain came from a little bit behind him.
09:14Yeah.
09:14Yeah.
09:14And I think he just didn't, that's, so I'm not saying that, like, I don't think he intended to, to necessarily make it as close as it was.
09:21I just don't think he necessarily realized what a threat Abrams drain was.
09:26Yeah.
09:26Yeah.
09:26Like Singleton was the Aziz Alshire in terms of the point of view in that situation for CJ.
09:32And there, look, there's still going to be some dumb luck involved with it.
09:34Cause if Abrams, if Abrams drain takes a little bit of a different angle or something, maybe does hit CJ in the head.
09:39Yeah.
09:40Yeah.
09:40Yeah.
09:40It's a bang, bang thing, man.
09:42And it's at, at, from the press box at full speed, I'm like, oh, that's an Aziz play right there.
09:47But then you, you know, you go frame by frame and it's very, very different.
09:50I would just say, man, slide head first.
09:52Yeah.
09:52You know, like you don't get as much yardage, but slide head first.
09:55You get fewer concussions.
09:56Your head is on the ground immediately and away from danger.
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