What does the BIG Picture Look Like for the Texans?

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

Sean and Seth lay out 2 important things to consider and look at the big picture now that the Texans are 7-5.

Transcript

00:00Two huge things to consider now that the Texans are 7-5.

00:05The biggest one, the most important one, big picture, beyond next week.

00:09We'll get to next week in a second when the Texans travel to Kansas City

00:12to face the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football.

00:15Looking at the standings in the AFC right now,

00:18especially if you're a franchise, Seth, that has never been to an AFC title game,

00:22where the stated goal in the offseason was to take this franchise to new heights.

00:29New heights, like a podcast.

00:31That would be a great name for a podcast.

00:34D'Amico said that in his exact words,

00:37we've got to get to at least the AFC title game this year.

00:40And look, 7-5, they've still got a lot of work to do.

00:42They're not in the playoffs right now.

00:44They're the king of that right-hand column on the playoff graphic on the broadcast

00:48where it says in the hunt at the top of it.

00:51They're the king of the in the hunt right now.

00:52I do like it when that graphic has you on the right instead of down below.

00:56So, you know, the graphic that has the bubble teams beneath.

01:01They're like, come on, what are we, substandard?

01:03Oh, yeah.

01:04I got you.

01:05Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:06Yeah, put us – yeah, come on, man.

01:08I like the vertical thing too.

01:10The one on the NFL.com has the Texans down.

01:12It's just one column with all the teams that are right now in the playoffs,

01:17the top seven teams.

01:18And the Bills, who have – I seem to recall – my memory's not so hot these days.

01:22But the Texans do have a one-on-one head-to-head win versus the Bills.

01:27But the Bills do have eight wins.

01:29So the Bills are 8-4.

01:30They're the seventh seed.

01:31And the Texans are 7-5 just above the Steelers and the Chiefs.

01:35Yeah, Texans still got to take care of a lot of business here down the stretch.

01:38But they look very capable of doing it.

01:40And they're getting a lot of love for their defense right now

01:42because the defense is the catalyst for actually winning games here.

01:46So that's been nice.

01:47But if you look at the AFC, man, I mean, you come into the season

01:52and everybody's gaga over four quarterbacks.

01:55Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, and Joe Burrow.

01:59Those are the top four quarterbacks on most of the rankings out there,

02:03the power rankings before the season.

02:05Right now, there's two of them that are on the outside looking in,

02:09Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes.

02:11Lamar Jackson's team is still teetering.

02:13They're only inside the playoff rope right now

02:16because the division stinks.

02:17So they're leading the AFC North.

02:19And Josh Allen, if they had lost to Pittsburgh yesterday,

02:22they'd be on the outside looking in because they'd have been tied with the Texans.

02:25And to your point, Seth, the Texans have the head-to-head against them.

02:28The division leaders right now in the AFC are the New England Patriots

02:34with a quarterback who's never played a playoff game.

02:36The Jacksonville Jaguars, who have Trevor Lawrence as their quarterback,

02:40who I still say stinks.

02:43The Denver Broncos, who needed every bit of luck to beat the Washington Commanders last night

02:49on Sunday Night Football.

02:51They've got Bo Nix.

02:52He's 0-1 in the postseason.

02:55C.J. Stroud, those three of those four division,

02:57and then Baltimore leads the AFC North at 6-6.

03:01Drake May, Trevor Lawrence, Bo Nix are all leading their division right now.

03:05C.J. Stroud has twice as many playoff wins as all three of those guys combined.

03:10And I know I'm using two versus one.

03:12Like, it's a small sample size for all these guys.

03:14My point is that this is a very gettable AFC right now.

03:18Man, if you can just be the hot team that gets inside the velvet ropes in the postseason,

03:23especially with a good defense if you have to travel,

03:27man, the Texans need to take care of business these last five games.

03:30If you look at, honestly, you look at the AFC where it's just so muddled.

03:34I mean, the AFC North, God knows what goes on in that division.

03:39But the two teams at the pinnacle right now are the Broncos,

03:43the team that it's too easy to say if C.J. Stroud is healthy, they win that game.

03:48It was very much on display the issues the Texans had in the red zone

03:51while C.J. Stroud was still in that game.

03:54But you slugged it out with the Broncos, lost by one score at the end.

03:58And then you've got the Patriots beneath them who really haven't played anybody.

04:02So the Patriots are impressive, giving credit for what they're doing.

04:05But I don't look at the Patriots and look at them as some unbeatable force.

04:09So it's just, it really right now is just on the difficulty of finishing out these last five weeks

04:16after you've already gone 7-2 over the last nine games of just, of continuing this trend.

04:23I mean, you've got, it's just slugfest after slugfest these last three weeks, obviously.

04:28But this Chiefs game, this is, you can gain a lot of ground on a lot of people

04:33with head-to-heads and everything else.

04:34Yes, yeah.

04:35And I want to get to the Chiefs in a second, but I'm glad you laid it out that way.

04:38So the standings right now, so Denver is one, as you just said.

04:42New England is two.

04:44Jacksonville is three.

04:45That means if you're one of the three wildcard teams, you're going to go on the road to face

04:50either Drake May or either Bo Nair, who has never won a playoff game,

04:57Drake May, who's never played in a playoff game, or Trevor Lawrence,

05:01who I still don't think is a very good quarterback.

05:03And you're traveling to Jacksonville to face a team that I think is not as good

05:07as their record would indicate.

05:09Those are the top three teams.

05:10Just get inside the playoffs, man.

05:13And you can go win if those are the teams.

05:18No, take that back, because the Denver Broncos would have a bye.

05:21So you'd either be facing the Patriots, the Jacksonville Jaguars,

05:26or either the Steelers or the Ravens on the road,

05:29who are not nearly the teams that they've been in years past.

05:32And that's if you don't win the division.

05:34But the Jaguars have a one-game lead on the Texans right now.

05:39They face the Colts this week.

05:42Then the Jaguars have the Jets at home.

05:45But then they face the Broncos, and they face the Colts again before they finish the season

05:50with the Titans.

05:50So this next five weeks is going to be tense as hell.

05:57It's going to be as tense as I was that entire game yesterday.

05:59Yesterday.

06:00I was very uncomfortable watching that game.

06:02Yeah.

06:02Were you?

06:03I was.

06:04Well, yeah, the offense in the first half was doing a lot of the same stuff

06:09they were doing when they were 0-3.

06:10Yeah.

06:11It was the procedural stuff and all of these.

06:13I mean, CJ's interception was ugly.

06:15Yep.

06:16It just didn't.

06:17That first half was not pleasant at all.

06:19Even on the touchdown drive where things started to click,

06:22they were still hurting themselves.

06:24Yes, they were.

06:25They had some negative plays.

06:26It was a negative play, then a big play, then a negative play, then a big play.

06:30So, yeah, I was really uncomfortable in the first half.

06:33The other thing that I want to make sure we touch on here,

06:36so the first thing is the AFC is gettable.

06:38I mean, this is a winnable AFC for anybody that gets into the postseason,

06:42which is fun.

06:42But this coming Sunday, the Texans will be America's team.

06:48The Texans are America's team this week,

06:50not only because they've played so well the last four weeks.

06:52They're getting all kinds of love from everybody based on how this defense is playing.

06:56The Texans can put the stake into the heart of the Chiefs dynasty this Sunday

07:03on Sunday Night Football.

07:04And I don't think there's anybody outside of Kansas City who doesn't want to see that.

07:08I don't think there's anybody outside of Kansas City who's saying,

07:11you know what I want to see?

07:12The Chiefs in the Super Bowl again this year.

07:15Yeah.

07:15Everybody's sick and tired of the Chiefs.

07:16I know Nate Burleson is going to lecture us, Seth, on wanting to see greatness.

07:21Yeah.

07:22But sorry, Nate.

07:22Yeah, Nate Burleson, who admonished America for wanting to see somebody

07:28other than the Chiefs win a Super Bowl, that you should just sit and enjoy it.

07:33He basically said, you sit in the corner and watch.

07:36Yes.

07:36You know, that's what he was trying to do to America.

07:39And I will not stand for it.

07:40I will not see America treated that way.

07:42No.

07:43You're a good American that way.

07:45I say that all the time.

07:46Yeah.

07:46This was the football night in America crew last night on Sunday Night Football

07:51saying this is Chris Sims and others saying the Texans are dangerous.

07:54I want to ask you guys, I'm getting a little shades of the Houston Texans

07:58like 2015 Broncos, 2013 Seahawks.

08:02What do you think about them if they get in the playoffs?

08:05They're just so darn good up front.

08:08They just make it so hard on you to run the football.

08:11They affect the quarterback.

08:12It's just kind of pressure throughout.

08:14I'm not going to say they're the 2015 Broncos quite yet.

08:17Yeah.

08:17They're playing awfully well, though.

08:18And they look like they might take over this AFC South with the Colts slipping a little bit.

08:22Right.

08:23They might get a whole field game, too.

08:25We'll see.

08:26That was Jason Garrett and Jason McCourty, or one of the McCourty's, whichever McCourty is on NBC.

08:30Credit to Bill Cowher in the postgame on CBS.

08:33I know you weren't able to watch, but he did refer to the Texans as the Houston Oilers.

08:36I saw that.

08:37We hadn't started the postgame yet.

08:39I saw that.

08:41What am I going to do, criticize the old guy?

08:43No.

08:45I'll make that mistake every now and then.

08:47Right.

08:47Not with the Texans and the Oilers, but 100% with the, I called them the Oakland Raiders last week.

08:54At one point, I know I've thrown in a few San Diego Chargers this season already.

08:58They'll always be San Diego to me.

09:00But at least those are the same team names.

09:02Yeah.

09:02Going straight back to a completely different franchise is something else.

09:06Not just a different franchise, one that the Texans abjectly hate.

09:09Yeah.

09:09That's funny.

09:11But are you with me on that?

09:12The Texans being America's team this week?

09:15America's team.

09:15They can throw the bucket of water on the Wicked Witch that is the Kansas City Chiefs.

09:20I will say, Sean, I've tried to get my toe cautiously back into social media a little bit more these days.

09:27Were you aware that there are a lot of people out there that aren't big Aziz Alshire fans?

09:32You know, come to think of it, Seth.

09:34It's true.

09:34Now that you mention it.

09:35It really is true.

09:36I was aghast at the number of people who expressed joy at him getting injured and leaving the game for a little bit.

09:43Joy at him getting injured and then I saw one that had the replay of the play where he kind of back-suplexed the guy yesterday.

09:49Yeah, it was a running back.

09:50It wasn't a quarterback.

09:51Yeah.

09:51So, and the caption was, the weekly Aziz Alshire should go to prison play.

09:57And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

09:59Awful.

10:00Just the hatred in people's hearts this time of year.

10:02He's a good guy, man.

10:03It's the holidays, man.

10:04Yeah, it's the holidays.

10:06Aziz Alshire goes out and Jonathan Taylor starts gashing the Texans.

10:11I got nervous there.

10:13I did, too.

10:13That was a hairy moment with Aziz Alshire off the field.

10:15I did, too.

10:16Yeah, concussion protocol, but he got back in there, so that was good.

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