- 5 weeks ago
Seth and Sean dive into the chess match between DeMeco and Steichen this Sunday in Texans-Colts and what impact a win or loss could have on the Texans' playoff chances.
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00:00It's a big one coming up on Sunday. How are you feeling, man?
00:02I feel good. I feel good about the... I was on in Indianapolis yesterday,
00:07and I was kind of pleasantly surprised by how many questions I got about,
00:13like, hey, from an outsider's perspective, does it look like the Colts are doomed?
00:17And I said, yeah, no, no, you guys, you look great. You're doing fine.
00:23It is funny. Those out-of-market interviews, and I think when we have people on,
00:30from outside, we don't do it all that much, but we do it from time to time, you and I.
00:34But you and I do quite a few of them the other way, like vice versa,
00:38like you did in Indy yesterday, as you said.
00:41We don't like to bring in outsiders all that much, but other places are all about,
00:44like, yeah, let's bring them on in.
00:45But other places love to bring us in.
00:48But what I was going to say was, it's funny that half the interview is, you know,
00:55like, hey, tell us about your team, but the other half does tend to be like,
00:59so what do you think of us?
01:01How do I look in these jeans?
01:02How do I look in these jeans?
01:04Yeah.
01:04Yeah, it is.
01:05And I think we probably do it, too.
01:07Like, hey, what's, you know, in Nashville, what's the impression of, you know,
01:10C.J. Stroud or whatever?
01:11It's funny.
01:12Like, it's a 50-50 thing.
01:14I said, well, one issue is that Daniel Jones is going to start looking like a sack of bones
01:19and organs because he's not getting protection.
01:23He's getting destroyed these past few weeks.
01:27He wasn't sacked at all versus the Chiefs, but in the three games prior to the Chiefs,
01:32he was sacked 12 times and was just constantly under pressure.
01:38He's now got this fibula issue, and we don't know what that's all about.
01:42He didn't look all that great when he was running in the game last week.
01:45But the Chiefs were blitzing him like crazy, and he was trying to get rid of the ball as fast as possible.
01:52And that vaunted aerial attack just hasn't been the same since he's been under a whole lot of duress.
01:58So it's a weakened team.
02:01They are, in the first part of the season, they averaged 33 points a game.
02:05In the last three weeks, they've averaged 23 points a game.
02:09Two of those performances against the Chiefs and the Bills, those are the losses.
02:15The Chiefs and the Steelers.
02:16Excuse me, the Chiefs and the Steelers.
02:18The Chiefs and the Steelers, thank you.
02:20Those are teams that blitz a lot more than the Texans do.
02:23It'll be interesting to see just how blitz-heavy the Texans go in this game because that's kind of in the recipe.
02:30And especially on first down, force them to pass the ball because they do not like to run the ball versus a loaded box.
02:39And it's kind of nice to see because really the true test of whether you're a genuinely great rushing team is can you actually run the ball versus a loaded box.
02:50The Colts do not do it well.
02:52They tend to get tackled for a loss or stuffed at the line of scrimmage.
02:56So the cat and mouse between Steichen and Matt Burke and D'Amico Ryans is going to be really interesting.
03:03Yeah, it should be.
03:04I'm looking at the Texans.
03:06I'm pulling up the Texans schedule here just to re-trigger my memory on how running backs have done against the Texans.
03:13The only one I can really remember getting off against the Texans was sort of the combination of Tampa Bay's Bucky Irving and Rashad White in week two.
03:23Other than that, you know, the Texans have faced Travis Etienne a couple of times.
03:26They've held him relatively in check.
03:29Well, I can tell you they've held of the top backs that they've faced, they've held all of them to below their season averages, except for I haven't checked James Cook.
03:37The problem with James Cook is that one 45-yard run was really bogus.
03:42And look, it happens, but they got away, the Bills got away with a couple of really egregious holds on that.
03:49But as far as how the defense played on that play, it was a tackle for a loss.
03:55Dylan Horton destroyed the offensive tackle but got held, and it should have been a tackle for a loss.
04:01It ends up being a 45-yard run or so.
04:04So by and large, they took James Cook out of the game.
04:07The Texans have done a really good job, especially when they focus on – if they go into this game and they say,
04:12you know what, we're more worried about Jonathan Taylor than we are Daniel Jones, especially on first down,
04:17then the Texans will do a good job versus John Taylor.
04:20Cook had 17 carries for 116 yards, so it's probably over his season average.
04:24But you're right, the long was 45 on that one play you're talking about, and that was probably a little bit bogus.
04:30So, yeah, I think the head of the snake is Jonathan Taylor in this thing.
04:36Daniel Jones is hobbling around on some fibula calf injury, but if they can do – if the Texans can do to Jonathan Taylor
04:42what the Chiefs did to Jonathan Taylor last week, the Texans will win this football game on Sunday.
04:46The Colts are – they're reeling, man.
04:48They really are – they've had a rough few weeks, and they just don't look at all like the team that they look like
04:55in the first half of the season where they're on pace to be an historically great offense.
04:59Daniel Jones is coming back down to earth, and I'll remind everybody they traded a bunch of draft picks
05:05to get Sauce Gardner because, hey, this is the year.
05:08If Daniel – Sean, the Texans can do so much for my morale this holiday season,
05:13which we all know we're all at great risk for depression during the holidays.
05:17They could be like my personal Prozac.
05:21If they beat the Colts, A, that's awesome.
05:24B, ascend in the playoff probability rankings.
05:28You know I love playing with those little toys.
05:31And C, remind everybody that the Colts went all in on season,
05:37pushed all the chips to the center of the table because, hey,
05:40they'd found lightning in a bottle with Daniel Jones.
05:42They'd trade a bunch of picks for Sauce Gardner.
05:46And it might turn out they don't have the quarterback they thought they did.
05:50It might all collapse into dust and with scarce resources to go out and get another quarterback.
05:56The day they traded for Sauce Gardner, I remember tweeting it five minutes later.
06:00I'm like, this is a huge bet on Daniel Jones.
06:03You don't trade two first-round picks for a guy who you haven't even started paying $30 million a year yet
06:09unless you feel like you've got a chance to do something in the season in which you're doing it.
06:14I know Jerry Jones went and – okay, let me back up.
06:17I know Jerry Jones traded for Quentin Williams that very same day.
06:21And people were like, what are you doing?
06:23And there were people explaining it like, well, this is really a trade for 26 and 27.
06:26Quentin Williams has kind of turned that defense around, actually.
06:28The Quentin Williams trade thus far has worked out better than the Sauce Gardner trade has for the Indianapolis Colts.
06:34It was a bet on Daniel Jones.
06:36If you're not solidified at quarterback and you're trading multiple first-round picks for guys that aren't quarterbacks –
06:43Yeah, like this is why they were getting D-pluses for that trade.
06:48It was a major, major, major risk because if the quarterback starts failing, none of the other stuff really matters.
06:55It's been beautiful.
06:56I mean, since that trade, they've played Atlanta.
07:01The 4-7 Atlanta Falcons, currently 4-7.
07:04They defeated Atlanta in overtime.
07:06Yeah.
07:07And then they lost – they had the bye week and then they had the Kansas City game, which they lost in overtime.
07:13Yeah.
07:14That so far, ever since they made that trade for Sauce Gardner, they really haven't looked like all that potent football team.
07:20No, no.
07:21And there's so many – there are so many matchups in this game that are juicy.
07:26And I'm excited for Nico versus Sauce.
07:28Very excited.
07:28The Sauce Gardner one is – ironically enough, as I'm laughing at that – the Sauce Gardner versus Nico Collins matchup.
07:36And Sauce, you know, plays both sides of the field.
07:39Do they trust Sauce Gardner to go one-on-one versus Nico Collins?
07:44And if so, can the Texans' pass protection hold up and can C.J. Stroud get a couple of deep strikes to Nico Collins versus Sauce Gardner?
07:54That's got the makings of a Thanksgiving classic, Sean.
07:58It does.
07:58It does.
07:58And Nico's had big games in that stadium, man, the last two years.
08:02Yes, he owns that stadium.
08:02He owns that stadium.
08:03He might as well be wearing the clown mask as he walks into the stadium the way T.Y. Hilton did when he walked into NRG Stadium.
08:09Oh, I like where you're –
08:11A lot of years ago.
08:12Your head's on that one.
08:13I like that a lot.
08:14Yeah, it's basically –
08:14Does Nico even own a clown mask?
08:16It's Nico Oil Stadium.
08:17That's what it is.
08:18All right?
08:19It's Nico Oil Stadium.
08:20He had the nine catches for almost 200 yards in Week 18 two years ago.
08:25And then they played in the opener last year there.
08:27And he had a huge game.
08:28Remember the deep shot down the field early in the game between – he goes up between two guys and goes and gets it.
08:34So Nico's had big games in that stadium the last couple of years.
08:37Here are the playoff ramifications according to MRCASEB.com.
08:46MRCASEB.com, I guess, is what that is.
08:48Playoff leverage.
08:49If the Texans were to win this game, they all of a sudden, for the first time probably since Week 1,
08:57would be back above 50% for chances of making the playoffs.
09:01They'd take their playoff chances to 63% according to MRCASEB.com.
09:06If they lose, it falls to 26%.
09:10Ooh.
09:10So this is a big swing game.
09:12Look, when you start out 0-3, they're all big swing games.
09:15My athletic playoff, Victor, is a little bit more cynical.
09:21If the Texans win this game, it puts them at a 56% chance of making the playoffs.
09:27If they lose, 24% chance of making the playoffs.
09:30Okay, so a little bit more pessimistic, the athletic.
09:32I think the big thing here, though, is a lot of that, though, is –
09:37I think it's a bigger swing than either of those numbers just because a Texans win on the road versus the Colts,
09:43given the way the Colts have been playing.
09:46And their defense doesn't look as dominant as they did early in the season either
09:49when they don't have that offense on the other side of them.
09:51Yeah.
09:52I think it's a more of a – it's a changing of the guard midseason about who the hot teams are
09:58and who the teams are that are on the decline.
10:00This would be four in a row for the Texans.
10:04It would be two games above .500.
10:07And it would be beating the team that previously looked like the unstoppable force.
10:11And, meanwhile, the Colts will have lost three of their last four.
10:17It's more than just whatever the statistics would indicate on that.
10:21Okay, I'm going to pop – I'm going to throw this at you at 6.11 in the morning here.
10:25Let's assume that both games are competitive.
10:27Okay, there's no blowouts.
10:28At the Colts, at the Chiefs, or the next two games, which one would you rather win?
10:33If you could pick one to win, which one would it be?
10:35I think I – you know what?
10:36I'm ashamed of how meek I was last week when I was thinking, well, you should probably want the Colts to beat the Chiefs
10:42because the Colts have probably already sealed the – ah!
10:44What a coward that – what a coward take that was.
10:47No, I want the division, Sean.
10:48Okay.
10:49So I say beat the Colts.
10:50Okay.
10:51I want the division.
10:52Yeah.
10:53Defend the South.
10:55Defend the South.
10:56I – I'm with you.
11:00Boy, I tell you what, though.
11:02You would get a lot of monkeys off your back by winning a primetime night game in December at Arrowhead Stadium.
11:08You know, like the – and – and –
11:10Ooh.
11:10And at the same time, you would solidify your – you know, at least your playoff hopes.
11:15It is beating the Chiefs and losing to the Colts does a little bit more for you for your chances of making the playoffs.
11:23Making the playoffs.
11:23Obviously.
11:24Because the Wild Card is –
11:25Yeah, it makes it more about the Wild Card.
11:27Yep.
11:27But I want my cake, and I want to eat it, too, alongside a whole bunch of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.
11:33Mm-hmm.
11:33You know?
11:34I want my pumpkin – I want to have my pumpkin pie and eat it, too, Sean.
11:38Right, right, right.
11:39This time of year.
11:39With that pumpkin spice whipped cream that I discovered the existence of last week.
11:43Did you pick some up for the holiday season?
11:45I didn't.
11:46I can't be trusted with Cool Whip in the house.
11:48Cool Whip.
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