00:00Would you rather that or would you rather dig into my anxiety?
00:03Because that is what I have on tap for you here.
00:05Not fully.
00:07How long you got?
00:08Yeah, we're not getting into all the anxieties that I have
00:10because I'm not paying you guys by the hour.
00:13So that would be irresponsible of me to dump that on you.
00:15Yeah, we ain't your damn therapist.
00:16That's right.
00:17That's right.
00:17Figgy, I saw this.
00:19He was mentioning this on the pre-show.
00:22And I was legitimately like, oh, this is going to be fun.
00:24We're talking about Reggie's anxiety?
00:26No, we're not doing all that.
00:27It's not a podcast.
00:28We're still doing a radio, a sports talk radio show here.
00:31I'm not good enough.
00:31We got to deal with this after the show.
00:35That's right.
00:36That's right.
00:36That is just for you guys.
00:38That's special for Figgy and Lopez.
00:40But no, I think the football anxiety of this because, again, I'm starting
00:45and I think a lot of people feel pretty good about this matchup
00:48between the Texans and the Colts,
00:50even with the Colts being four-and-a-half-point favorites headed into this thing.
00:54But in particular, there are some things that are probably not issues,
00:59but kind of what if they are?
01:00That's how my brain seems to work at times.
01:02So I wanted to kind of delve into these.
01:03Let's talk this out a little bit.
01:04And one of those, actually, I'll take this from the text line
01:07because somebody asked, are we sure that CJ is playing?
01:10Because technically, CJ Stroud and Jaylen Petrie are out of the protocol.
01:14Now, there is reporting that they will be practicing today.
01:16And if you're not familiar, there's like five phases of returning to participation
01:21from the concussion protocol.
01:23It's symptom-limited activity, which I imagine we've probably crossed that threshold.
01:27Aerobic exercise, which I feel like we've probably crossed that threshold
01:30because they were both at practice last week.
01:33Football-specific exercise, I imagine practice is probably somewhere in there.
01:38Club-based non-contact training drills, which I imagine they would have had to done
01:42to probably get before they got to practice.
01:44Because full football activity and clearance is the final stage.
01:47And I think that that's probably where we are.
01:49So I'm guessing that, you know, with, and this is, again, shot in the dark
01:52or, like, maybe not entirely in the dark, but, like, educated guess
01:55is probably the way that I'd put this, is it feels like both of those guys
01:59and, obviously, I was about to say most importantly, but maybe not most importantly,
02:03CJ Stroud, but both of them should have an opportunity to
02:07or probably will be cleared, I imagine, once we get done with practice today.
02:10And we probably will know by the end of today's show.
02:14They are on the field, I believe, 12.45.
02:16If I remember that correctly, 12.30, 12.45, we'll be getting reports.
02:20We'll let you know.
02:21But, I mean, to be fair, it's not official yet.
02:24It's not official yet.
02:25It kind of makes you nervous a little bit.
02:27Yeah, I was going to say, 15 seconds.
02:28I'm not, not a lot of time.
02:30This is a speed round.
02:31What if?
02:32What if CJ and Petrie aren't ready?
02:34Oh, boy.
02:35That's my answer.
02:36That's my answer.
02:37Because it's not so much about not having confidence in Davis Mills.
02:41He's earned that.
02:42My anxiety would be about just how bad this head injury was.
02:48Gotcha.
02:48Fair.
02:49Because if you go four weeks, that's bad by any gauge.
02:54What's the longest somebody had missed over a concussion like this?
02:57There have been athletes, players, and I've talked to some,
03:00usually after the fact, they don't say it during the season,
03:03where they say, all year long, I was in a fog.
03:05Like, all year, I just felt like I was in a fog.
03:08And usually that's like a third, like, we've had a lot of concussions
03:12that lead to that place usually.
03:13But has anyone missed, I guess, this many games over,
03:18just because of a concussion like this?
03:20I can't put it.
03:21Like four games?
03:22I can't off the top of my head tell you yes,
03:25but I feel like the answer is yes.
03:27Yeah, I'd have to go and double check.
03:29It would be rare if it has happened, which I think points to what you said.
03:32So that would be my, you know, it's not about football at all.
03:35It's like, oh, boy.
03:36Yeah.
03:36Yeah.
03:36Yeah, so honestly, I truly do believe that he's going to be fine.
03:40I think that we'll see that.
03:41Him and Petrie, we'll see them clear today.
03:43That is my guess.
03:44All right, so let's dive into the real here.
03:47Let us start with, did you see the news yesterday
03:49that Daniel Jones, the little injury that he seemingly was able to sustain
03:55from that Kansas City game, it might be a little bit more
03:57than what we had previously thought.
03:59Shane Steichen yesterday asked Daniel Jones,
04:02who was clearly a little bit hobbled.
04:04He said he has a fibula injury.
04:05All I got for you is he's got a fibula, and that's it.
04:07I'm not going to get into specifics, but he's out there.
04:12He's playing.
04:12He's practicing, and he's good to go.
04:14And I know you're thinking, Reggie, why would you have anxiety over that?
04:17That feels like, oh, that's blood in the water.
04:21I, you know, not super football guy, right?
04:24I'm not the smartest football guy in the world.
04:25So I would go, I imagine teams would want to blitz that.
04:29Hasn't blitzing kind of been one of the few places
04:32where the Texans' defense is actually, like, kind of relieved pressure
04:34in weird ways?
04:35Yeah, yeah.
04:36No, I hear you on this one 100%.
04:38First on the injury, when someone says it's a fibula,
04:42can it be anything but a hairline fracture?
04:45Is there any other injury?
04:46I don't know.
04:47Like, sometimes they talk about, like, bone bruises or whatever,
04:49but I don't know.
04:50I feel like they would have diagnosed it as a bone bruise.
04:52Yeah, like, when I heard that, I was like, well, I've never heard
04:55of a sprained fibula.
04:57You know, it's got to be, like, a hairline, right?
05:00Or stress or something like that?
05:01Yeah, that's, I mean, I think stress fracture is what Seth was kind of
05:04talking about, a possibility of that.
05:06So, like, the anxiety here is just, does it feel like they would be able
05:10to capitalize this, and could this possibly lead them to maybe taking
05:14a false step in a way that actually isn't as beneficial as one would hope?
05:17A lot of times the answer is, do they want you to do?
05:20Well, I think the Colts want you to blitz.
05:24I think they would.
05:26Because, first of all, the Texans have been smoked most recently
05:29against Buffalo when they blitz.
05:32When they rush four, they crush you.
05:34They take your soul.
05:36Because they have the coverage that helps the pass rush a little bit,
05:39and they don't need much help.
05:41When you blitz, there's always a free runner somewhere.
05:44Now, how smart of a quarterback are you facing?
05:46Is it going to be Josh Allen?
05:47Like, what was that dump off?
05:48Was it to?
05:49Khalil Shakir.
05:49Yeah, Shakir.
05:50Off of the orbit motion that he reversed.
05:52Right, right.
05:53I think the Colts want you to blitz, so I'd rather you not blitz.
05:56Yeah, I'd be interested in seeing how they handle it.
05:59Honestly, just in general, I don't know that I'd want a lot of blitzing.
06:03I feel like you could probably get home.
06:05And, to be fair, I feel like Daniel Jones is getting the football at least faster
06:09than Josh Allen.
06:10Josh Allen, they were actively five-man protection.
06:13We don't let you.
06:14And I think that that's because they want five men in routes
06:16because they don't have the talent, so they need to have the numbers.
06:19And they were just like, we're going to trust Josh Allen to get out of this.
06:22That worked out well for him.
06:23I don't know that any other team is going about it that way.
06:25I think that you probably can afford to – and not saying that you just blitz not at all.
06:29I think you're going to have to mix it in.
06:31But I don't know that I want to see this Texas team, especially when they get out
06:36and completely double-mug the line and they send a bunch of –
06:39I don't think I want any of those, really.
06:41I agree with you.
06:42I'd rather they just let those dogs hunt up front, you know,
06:45and have another guy in coverage.
06:47And then one more for you here as you just welcome to my anxiety
06:51as I make things that probably aren't issues into little bits of issues for myself.
06:57This one is probably the biggest – actually might be an issue.
06:59Jonathan Taylor, very good at running the football.
07:01Are you familiar with this gentleman?
07:02Have you heard of his work?
07:04Very much so.
07:04Yeah, yeah.
07:05He's good at running the football, probably going to be Offensive Player of the Year.
07:07I think some of us believe that he should have an opportunity to MVP,
07:10neither here nor there.
07:12He is really fast.
07:14He's also really strong.
07:15Those things add up to he breaks tackles and he gets yards.
07:18I think FTN has a stat.
07:21That's how I start a lot of sentences.
07:22That is win yards, which they categorize it as that
07:27because it's yards after broken tackles, yards after forcing missed tackles, right?
07:34He is one of – actually, I think he's the best at win yards per rush.
07:39Does that not bode kind of weird with the Texans team
07:43that has had a penchant for missing tackles at times?
07:45Absolutely.
07:46If you had to ask me which one of your anxieties is most valid
07:50and most shared by people like me and Texas fans, that's it.
07:55Jonathan Taylor is the key to the game without question.
08:00Talk about C.J. Stroud.
08:01Talk about anything else.
08:03Jonathan Taylor and his success is the key to the game.
08:06And if you're missing tackles, it gets a lot easier.
08:08Yeah, and I think that's why this ends up being –
08:10honestly, the whole segment was built around this,
08:12and I was like, let's pepper in some other things that I was thinking about as well.
08:15But this is the one.
08:17And I believe that this team actually, funny enough,
08:20has been better at when it comes to not allowing a lot of yards
08:24off of missed tackles per se.
08:26And I think that's where the swarm comes in,
08:28making sure that you have secondary, tertiary guys coming up
08:30and rallying to the football.
08:31I think that that's going to be very important in this game
08:33is obviously stopping Jonathan Taylor,
08:36but not just stopping Jonathan Taylor in the way of
08:38we got to get to that first one.
08:39Everybody got to be in on getting to that football very, very quickly
08:42because the likelihood is he's going to bounce off of some people.
08:45And he's so much better after the first one.
08:47If you're not sure on the first tackle,
08:49then his speed and everything else starts getting into the mix.
08:53And, yeah, he's anxiety.
08:55Shout-out to y'all also getting into a little bit of the anxiety here.
08:583-4-6, need to watch Tyler Warren, dude's beast.
09:01They have not had too much trouble statistically with tight ends.
09:05However, Jalen Petrie just coming back off of his time off.
09:10And I don't know how many people were super confident
09:11about Jalen Petrie in tight end coverage anyways.
09:13No, and then, yeah, Tyler Warren, that's another really good one.
09:16I'm glad they brought that up.
09:17That's probably the second big stop you have to have.
09:21But funny enough, shout-out to B. Scott,
09:23who will be joining us here in a little bit.
09:25Steven Holder, who covers the culture for ESPN,
09:28make note, Daniel Jones versus Blitzes was really good
09:31versus the Blitz in the early weeks.
09:33Since week nine, he's been 22nd of qualifying quarterbacks.
09:37I'd still rather not.
09:39I think I still would as well.
09:41But, you know, hey, we'll see how that goes.
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