- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean dive into their big takeaways and how they're feeling on the heels of the Texans getting back to a .500 record after the win in Tennessee.
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00:00I have to admit, I didn't get to watch KHOU last night.
00:04Yeah.
00:04I'm assuming you were on KHOU last night.
00:06Yeah, Brandon was on with us, too.
00:09And you guys do a thing at the beginning of the show.
00:11Typically, I'm a regular watcher.
00:12I just didn't get to watch it last night.
00:14You do a thing at the beginning of each show, which I think is a good gimmick,
00:18where you have a board with a bunch of emojis on it.
00:21Right.
00:21And you pick, and they all obviously express a different emotion,
00:25anywhere from extreme sadness to extreme happiness and everything in between.
00:28I mean, which emoji did you pick last night?
00:31I picked the emoji that I guess is because we only have eight to choose from.
00:36Right.
00:36Mine was a little bit of befuddlement.
00:40And it's because of my conflicted internal state.
00:46I keep reminding myself that, hey, they've just gone 2-0 with a backup quarterback.
00:50There is an element to this offense, and I think a lot of the fans share this sentiment with me.
00:56You're happy that they're winning games with the backup quarterback.
01:02But because the offense was so scattershot and inconsistent in the first half of the season,
01:08you don't accept that, okay, well, theoretically, when the starting quarterback gets back,
01:15it should be even better because it just doesn't feel like you can rely on certain things.
01:19So I'm trying to figure all that out, Sean.
01:22You know what I'm trying to be?
01:23I'm trying to not be a spoiled SOB.
01:26And yet I feel like I am a little bit of a spoiled SOB.
01:28But I have that right because they're a 500 football team,
01:31and the standards are still higher than 500 football for this football team.
01:34Yeah, no question.
01:36The reason I ask is because I felt relief at the end of that game.
01:41And I think in watching the end of that game and the last-second field goal,
01:49overall jubilant last-second field goals that I've seen the Texans have,
01:52I think they – looking at D'Amico Ryan's walking out to the middle of the field
01:56to shake hands with people, that looked like a guy who was relieved after that game,
02:01not ecstatic after that game.
02:03There are a few people that got angry with me on my live stream,
02:06politely angry with me because they disagree with me.
02:08But you and I are both at a point where I feel like we hold the defense
02:13to such a high standard that 13 points, it's – for me, it's not good enough.
02:21Like this defense needs to be all-time if they're going to prop up the offense.
02:26And what I get nervous about are some of these late fourth-quarter collapses
02:32by the defense, and that was a classic one yesterday.
02:34Because we've seen this multiple times this year where the defense plays
02:37like one of the greatest defenses ever until the very last one or two drives,
02:42and then all of a sudden you let a long scramble.
02:44Your very, very good young cornerback Kamari Lasseter lets a tight end sneak past him.
02:49These little things that keep teams around when they're capable of being just a flat-out,
02:56you know, early 2000s Buccaneers or Baltimore Ravens-type defense
03:01that can go out and win a game all on their own.
03:03Well, especially against a team like you were playing yesterday,
03:06you know, where you're dominating them all day.
03:07And then, yeah, you give up – that's the third straight game they've given up
03:10a huge scramble on the last drive of the game.
03:13Yeah.
03:13And fortunately it only came back to bite them one time,
03:16and that was against Bo Nix.
03:17But Trevor Lawrence had one last week, and Cam Ward had one yesterday,
03:20and then he dropped that dime into Okonkwo that set up the touchdown.
03:24And it goes back to that Tampa game where, man,
03:28that would have been playoff-caliber teams at this point
03:31if you had just kept the quarterback from scrambling on that 4th and 10.
03:35Yeah.
03:35So, yeah, I'm going to hold the Texans' defense to a higher standard
03:39than I hold their offense.
03:40Is it fair?
03:41No.
03:41But that's the reality is that they – as good as the Texans' defense is,
03:48they're capable of more.
03:49Yeah.
03:49And so people continue to get upset with me for, I think,
03:53being a tough parent to that defense of the Texans.
03:57Makes sense.
03:58So overriding emotion for me was relief.
04:00I just put in my phone relief as a word on a text to myself
04:04to see which emoji popped up.
04:06It's this smiling emoji with, like, a sweat.
04:10Oh, the one drop of sweat on your brow.
04:13Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:13Do you guys have that one available on KTOU?
04:16No, I don't think we do.
04:17Okay, well, I'm never coming on the show then.
04:18Okay.
04:19It's one of the long things.
04:22It's really – I almost didn't sign my last contract with KTOU.
04:26I get to choose –
04:26Because Jason Bristol and I battled over that.
04:28I get to choose the eight emojis that go up on the whiteboard.
04:31Yeah, yeah.
04:32Bristol said, we don't have the budget, Payne.
04:34Yeah, that's right.
04:34And I said, listen, Bristol, you get your ass in gear, all right?
04:37Oh, yeah.
04:38It was one of the all-time great labor negotiations.
04:40People talk about it all over the place.
04:42Bristol versus Payne.
04:43I brought in my old former – my Cornell brethren there, J.C. Tretter.
04:49Oh, yeah, Tretter.
04:50Yeah, Tretter came in and did it.
04:51He went to the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
04:53Got the job done for you.
04:54Yeah, and former NFLPA president.
04:56Yeah, they did a bang-up job there.
04:58Yeah, sure did.
05:01They went from the fourth best union in all of the big major league sports.
05:11Now, overall, the defense was really good yesterday,
05:14and I think holding them to a higher standard.
05:15As you said, you and I both do that.
05:18If we're going to dig into this game from a positive perspective,
05:23and they win the game to go 5-5,
05:26the Davis Mills throw to Nico Collins on third and 16.
05:29If this team goes on to do anything this year –
05:33and look, they've got seven games left.
05:35They're probably going to need to win at least five of them
05:37in order to be in the hunt for the postseason,
05:39the way the AFC is shaping up right now.
05:41If they go on to do that, they're going to look back at the –
05:44we are going to look back at the fourth quarter of that Jacksonville game,
05:47several plays Davis Mills made, and we're going to look back at this play.
05:51We got it, Ben, right here.
05:54Third and 16.
05:55The Titans had just tied the game up at 13.
05:59Little surprise they didn't go for two.
06:00Little surprise.
06:01Just their one and eight on the season.
06:02I was a little surprised that they kicked the extra point.
06:04But then the Texans begin marching back down the field.
06:09They've got a third and 16 on their own side of the 50,
06:13and their offense is not doing anything at this point, and this happens.
06:17It's third and 16 for the Houston 42.
06:19Marks in the backfield.
06:20Mills in the gun.
06:21Here's the snap.
06:22Davis firing downfield, and he's got Nico Collins on the sideline at the 40.
06:26Toe tapper.
06:28They say catch.
06:30Yes.
06:31What a clutch reception by Nico Collins.
06:34Get to the line of scrimmage and run a play.
06:36Snap this football at the 41-yard line.
06:38Oh, he's definitely in.
06:39Yeah, we're good.
06:40Yeah, and that was the right idea.
06:43Like, we weren't sure if he got both feet in, and then you see the replay,
06:46and he easily got both feet in.
06:49It was a classic just Mills Red cover two, and he put it there in the honey hole.
06:55That's what they call it.
06:56I know it sounds weird, but that's what they call it.
06:58Yeah.
06:58Between the safety and the corner.
07:00And it was a – boy, last week we wondered whether Davis Mills was forcing it to Nico
07:05Collins too much.
07:07Yesterday, he was 9 for 10 throwing it to Nico Collins, and the vast majority of them
07:12were for over 10 air yards.
07:15It was – that was a great connection between those two yesterday.
07:19They were doing that thing that we scream at them to do when the offense is bogged down,
07:23and it seems like they're getting too cute, which is throw the slant to Nico.
07:27Yeah.
07:28Throw the slant to Nico.
07:29They did it.
07:30The drive where they scored the touch, their only touchdown, they came out in the second
07:35half.
07:35That was their first drive of the second half, and they came out three for three to Nico
07:39Collins, including the touchdown at the end.
07:42And the other throws were like inward slants to him.
07:47I'll tell you what, that final drive for me, and I haven't been able to – once I watch
07:51the All-22, I'll confirm this or not, but this is why big run-stuffing defensive tackles
07:56don't get drafted in the first round hardly ever again, unless they also have a pass rushing
08:00element to it.
08:01Devondre Sweat, as far as I could tell, wasn't on the field on that drive, and all of a sudden
08:06the Texans were able to run the ball.
08:07Yeah.
08:07And they were able to kind of dice them up, because you got your pass rushers out there,
08:11and there were a couple of key runs on that drive that really, really mattered, but where
08:16they really had not been able to run the ball consistently at all up to that point.
08:20Were you – okay, were you surprised at the way Mike McCoy was handling the clock at the
08:26end of the game after the Nico play?
08:31He didn't –
08:32Once they got into field goal range, yeah.
08:34He started using them with under 30 seconds left, and all that was doing was stopping
08:40– for the Texans that had no timeouts left, all it was doing was stopping the clock for
08:43the Texans to then run Woody Marks two more times.
08:46Right, yeah.
08:47To get eight or ten more yards, and allow a backup kicker who had boinked one off the
08:52upright from 31 earlier in the game to get eight or ten yards closer.
08:56I'm like, what – you're not getting – he started using them with 29 seconds left.
09:00I'm like, why – you're not going to get the ball back here in good position.
09:03The biggest thing that it was really annoying, too, though, was because it was after they
09:07didn't go for two on the tying touchdown, where they could have gone ahead.
09:12That would have been an aggressive move, and then all of a sudden they're conserving time
09:15for just some kind of a deep shot or something at the end of the game.
09:18I don't know.
09:19It didn't make a whole lot of sense.
09:20Yeah, you got all three timeouts.
09:21If you're of mind to use them at all, start using them as soon as you possibly can.
09:25He starts using them with 20-something seconds left.
09:27I'm like, all right, if you want us to run a play for five more yards.
09:31I mean, if he had just not touched his timeouts, if he had just said, you know what,
09:34we're going to back away, we're going to let the clock burn out, we're going to see
09:37if this kicker fails, and that's it, then the Texans probably would have been kicking
09:40from, like, ten yards further.
09:43Yeah.
09:43But he's stopping the clock, and they're like, all right, let's run another couple plays here.
09:46The other reason I was kind of befuddled after this game was just the thing we really
09:51can't ignore in victory is the game management stuff.
09:54I have no idea why they challenged that Christian Kirk reception.
09:58I don't either.
09:58Where everybody for the past ten years, remember we had, like, a two- or three-year-long debate
10:03about what a catch is, and people had to slowly learn, okay, if you don't hold on, it's not
10:10a catch.
10:10Yeah.
10:10That was classic textbook.
10:12We've all come to an agreement on this, and all of a sudden the Texans are challenging
10:15that like they're the Dallas Cowboys in 2012 or something.
10:19You could see the ball roll away on the original.
10:22You didn't even have to watch the replay.
10:23The original TV copy, the original televising of that catch, you saw the ball roll away
10:30afterwards.
10:30And then later on, on the Jaden Higgins catch down at the goal line, A, it might have been
10:36a touchdown, and B, even if it wasn't, the spot was horrific.
10:40I could tell immediately when they spotted it.
10:43I'm like, what the guy?
10:44The guy was like, it was like he was spotting it where Jaden Higgins' foot was instead of
10:48where the ball was.
10:48Right.
10:49It was awful.
10:50Yeah.
10:50And they didn't challenge that.
10:51And ultimately, they scored a touchdown anyway, but that was bad.
10:55Yeah.
10:55You know, they won the game.
10:57No, that was, D'Amico didn't have a good game management game, I thought, between those
11:00two.
11:01And I didn't understand them taking the ball, winning the coin toss.
11:04You have the number one defense in the league going against the worst offense.
11:07And your offense bore itself out.
11:10They got shut out by the Titans in the first half.
11:13Your offense is not good.
11:14And the thought is, hey, let's put our offense on the field first and forego the possibility
11:19of getting an extra possession in the game by deferring.
11:22That made no sense to me.
11:23The only thing about that that I'm wondering is, I'm still trying to figure out and sort
11:26out, as is the league, I think, on exactly how the new kickoff rules are kind of changing
11:30things.
11:31Maybe.
11:31So when it becomes a, if you're thinking it's going to be a field position game, you take
11:34that.
11:35I don't know.
11:35I think the tendencies and trends are starting to change on a lot of the initial coin toss
11:43decisions.
11:44Maybe.
11:44Maybe.
11:44I just think if you defer, there's a percentage of extra possession in the game if you close
11:51out the first half and start the ball in the second half.
11:53That's neither here nor there.
11:55They won it 16-13 yesterday.
11:57What did you think of the offensive line yesterday?
12:00I mean, at the end of the day, it still all goes back to the offseason.
12:05So Ed Ingram is still injured, so he can't be out there.
12:08I feel good about Ed Ingram.
12:09But your best option at right guard isn't one of the two guys that you spent the entire
12:15season rotating at left guard.
12:18It's to move Titus Howard down to guard and then have a guy that just, you know, frankly,
12:24Trent Brown can't move all that well.
12:26Yeah.
12:27He looks kind of scarily unhealthy while he's out there, too.
12:30But he doesn't move all that well.
12:32He's heavy.
12:32And it's not because, so he starts at right tackle not because I think they feel awesome
12:37about him at right tackle, but because they understand that they're awful on the interior.
12:43And when you're going against Tavondre Sweat and Jeffrey Simmons, you go back to that old
12:47dynamic we've seen all year long.
12:49Man, if you're going up against really tough physical defensive linemen, you guys are going
12:52to have a hard time playing your preferred brand of football.
12:56They want to be tough and big and physical in the middle there.
12:59But they just, they're not as tough and physical as guys like Tavondre Sweat and Jeffrey Simmons.
13:03If Ed Ingram is back for the Bills game this Thursday, what's the move on the offensive
13:06line?
13:07Where does Titus, Titus is going to be somewhere.
13:08Where does he go?
13:09Oh yeah, Titus will be at right tackle.
13:10Back and right tackle?
13:11Okay.
13:11Okay.
13:12Yeah.
13:12So not over to left guard to go play over there.
13:14Okay.
13:15I don't think so.
13:16I think that, I think you got to put your best players where they have, like.
13:19I'm a hundred percent with you.
13:20I'm a hundred percent with you.
13:21There's a whole notion of put your best five guys out on the, on the court or on the field.
13:25It feels like if, if you had.
13:29I had three really to do nothing but go small ball with three point guards on a basketball
13:33team all the time.
13:33Three of our best players.
13:34Yeah.
13:34Right.
13:35I like, there is a difference between playing tackle and guard and center.
13:38They're not the same position.
13:39Hey, speaking of which, as long as we got a couple minutes here, we got to prop up the
13:42Rockets for last night, man.
13:44No.
13:44That was, I mean.
13:45My goodness.
13:45Well, I mean, so, or the Orlando Magic without Paolo Boncaro.
13:49So it's not, you know, it's, it's not anything they're going to go hang in Springfield or anything
13:52like that.
13:53But they showed, they were trailing that entire game and they were trailing by a bunch
13:57in the second half.
13:57And they, they, uh, they showed some situational guts in that game, man.
14:01They had, uh, and it was a classic night where they were getting all their rebounds, but not
14:05getting points off of their rebounds.
14:07So that's where their MO kind of falls apart a little bit when that doesn't happen.
14:11The, I mean, Shang-Goon, man, he just, he just continues.
14:16I don't want to say surprise you, but the way he's developed and what he's become is
14:21so cool to watch.
14:22And my very favorite moment of that game was at the very end of regulation when Shang-Goon
14:27ties it and they, they show Shang-Goon, he's stone-faced.
14:31Stone-faced.
14:32I meant Thompson, stone-faced.
14:33Yeah.
14:33Like, no, not even any jubilation or anything.
14:36Just like, all right, what's next?
14:37What's next?
14:38What's next?
14:38These are your younger players and there's zero, uh, you know, there's zero about that
14:44moment that feels like, oh, Hey, Hey, we look at what we did.
14:49Let's give us a participation ribbon for tying it.
14:51It is funny, you know, cause now for, I think Shang-Goon's been a good player.
14:55Obviously he was an all-star last year.
14:57He has, I, he's never been this level of go-to guy.
15:01And now you have Kevin Durant on the team.
15:03You know, it's like Shang-Goon's final play by Durant.
15:06Yeah.
15:06Shang-Goon's elevate acquiring that who hadn't made a three the entire game.
15:12Then he makes one to go up 95, 94.
15:14And then he makes the one, he makes the one to tie it at a hundred.
15:17It was 98, 97 and the Rockets are down by one.
15:23They bring the ball up and Durant, all four other guys touch the ball except Durant and
15:28they don't get a good shot out of it.
15:30And then Orlando goes down, gets a bucket to go up three.
15:34The next possession, they just let Durant bring the ball up the floor.
15:37He doesn't pass it to anybody.
15:38He just, he just jab steps the guy that he's, that's guarding him and takes a step back three.
15:42Those are the times, Seth, like the 98, 97 possession, those, thankfully they're few
15:47and far between.
15:48I think this team has managed not having a real point guard pretty well.
15:51I mean, they're eight and three, obviously, or nine and three, whatever the hell they
15:53are.
15:54But that was one of those possessions.
15:55I'm like, all right, Fred Van Vliet would have found a way for Kevin Durant to at least
15:58touch the ball down one with under a minute to go in the game.
16:03And Durant on that final shot, just, you know, waves off Amin and isos it up and boom,
16:08there is your closer right there.
16:09Yeah, it's, it's nice.
16:10Real quick, since we're on the, the, the miracle things that are happening at the ends
16:15of games, right before the show, I was rewatching D'Amico's press conference and in his opening
16:20statement, you know, he says he, he thanks God and does, does all that.
16:25And it was weird because then immediately we played that clip of him in the locker room.
16:28And when he says, he said a guy that's been with us for a couple of weeks, I thought he
16:32said, God's been with us for a couple of weeks.
16:34Like, like, like D'Amico had gone all Job during that, in the first part of the season,
16:40like he had forsaken us, but, but he is back.
16:44Yeah.
16:44Yeah.
16:45That time D'Amico was walking around with a t-shirt with G's over and they were 0-3.
16:51He's been with us.
16:52Yeah.
16:52Eventually.
16:53Yeah.
16:53Finally.
16:54Took him 11 weeks.
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