Are the Chiefs trying to get inside Houston’s head for an edge?

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

the Texans aren’t the only team with suddenly shaky special teams heading into Sunday. Are the Chiefs trying to get inside Houston’s head for an edge?

Transcript

00:00And we're gearing up for a big-time game that has the possibility of being

00:04demptive, right, of being restorative to the soul of these Houston Texans

00:09after the last five games versus the Kansas City Chiefs.

00:12Not quite gone the way that you want to.

00:13You know, I never put pen to paper.

00:15It is five.

00:16Five of them.

00:16Five.

00:17Five of them things.

00:18Last five dating back to the—

00:19It's kind of a low-key rivalry, even though they haven't done their part.

00:23Yeah, again, again, the old thing about rivalry is only going one way, so on.

00:29But they want it badly.

00:30Yeah.

00:31Look, I imagine that they want it pretty bad.

00:34Even though I don't think they'll let us in on it, do you believe that, like,

00:37when it comes to the organization?

00:39Because I know—

00:40Heck yeah.

00:41Highest levels.

00:42I've talked—

00:42Cal, Hannah.

00:43I've had text exchanges I could show you.

00:45Okay.

00:45All right.

00:46Okay.

00:46Because they're not going to let on.

00:48I think that's the way.

00:49Although, you look over at the Kansas City side, it seems like they might be in

00:53on the rivalry aspect of it.

00:54Special teams is an interesting portion of this game.

00:57Frank Ross, I thought his—did you see his availability yesterday?

01:00Oh, yeah.

01:01He was feeling it.

01:02Yeah.

01:02Even for Frank Ross standards.

01:04Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:04I mean, yeah.

01:05He's always amped up.

01:07I thought that the—you know, I appreciated him being—you know, putting it all on him.

01:10He's like, look, man, coaching-wise, it's always going to be on the coach when you talk

01:13about those special teams things.

01:15But they do need to get things right.

01:16I think that they've been leaky at times.

01:18Yeah.

01:18Or not quite the way that places that they wanted to be.

01:21Kicking field goals, obviously, in the special teams domain is going to be interesting here

01:25because one of the things that we tend to believe is that Kaimi Fairbairn in the cold.

01:28Yeah.

01:29Those K-balls, it doesn't quite work out in the ways that you typically want.

01:33It seems like the Kansas City special teams coordinator is also trying to add into the

01:38rivalry in special teams fashion.

01:40It does.

01:40Because, you know, I guess he was kind of—well, you tell me.

01:45Was he kind of trying to Jedi mind trick the Houston Texans when he talked about this?

01:50I'll tell you one thing that I do like is the cold weather.

01:54That makes it feel like playoff weather, and it just feels like that's natural and normal

01:57for us.

01:58And at practice yesterday, it really felt good being out there with the cold weather.

02:02I think that's going to help us.

02:04A couple more.

02:05Speaking of that, Dave, because of the changes in the league conditions, does that change that?

02:10Is that the markation line?

02:12Yeah, I mean, I always talk about the cold weather as, like, return season, and, you

02:17know, I think that helps.

02:18I mean, guys don't want to run down there and tackle in the cold weather.

02:21I mean, a lot of guys don't, you know, but I just think it gives you an advantage, a

02:27mental advantage if you had success in that kind of environment, and we have.

02:33Hmm.

02:34Feels natural for us.

02:36A lot of guys don't like to go down and tackle in the cold weather.

02:38It gives us an advantage.

02:40Is that trying to get into the Texans a little bit?

02:43I mean, I imagine that he's trying.

02:45I don't think that it's going to work, because if there's anybody who's talking about the

02:48mental side of this and the physicality, I feel like the Houston Texans aren't the

02:52team that you go.

02:53They don't have the mental feel for this.

02:55They struggled.

02:56They have struggled, but it's not been for lack of physicality.

03:00Yeah.

03:00It's just been placement, right?

03:02Where they are, yeah.

03:02Like, maintaining your lane integrity has been the things that allowed the, you know,

03:08two return touchdowns in three weeks.

03:11That was what it was.

03:12Yeah.

03:12I don't think anybody on this, on this, on this, in the special teams are, like, lacking

03:17physicality, right?

03:19Right.

03:19Think about the young man who, you know, had his first go with the Texans, where he's

03:23out here just, like, fumbling and bumbling and stumbling, making sure to get down the

03:26field to go and, you know, have his coverage responsibility.

03:30No, this team, man, like, they do this.

03:33Like, they physically, that's never been a thing that I've questioned with Frank Ross,

03:37is his ability to motivate his guys to go and be physical.

03:40The question just was, are they going to remain gap sound?

03:44And they did a little bit, they did a better job of that this Sunday, and I imagine that

03:48this is another day where they're going to need to keep that in touch.

03:51It is funny because there are people in Kansas City who follow the Chiefs that will tell you,

03:55you know, last year, so many close games that they won.

03:58This year, some close games they're losing.

04:00There are people who will tell you the biggest difference between last year and this year

04:04is the Chiefs special teams.

04:06They have been one of the best special teams in return and coverage and everything for years,

04:12and they've been very average to below average this year.

04:15So, the Texans are not the only ones that have struggled here.

04:17So, maybe he's talking to his own team, too.

04:20You know, we can do this.

04:21It's time for us to, you know, playoff season, as he put it, to get going.

04:26But it is funny because we did hear from Frank Ross about those struggles as well,

04:30and it just kind of, it made it, it's almost like every Friday

04:35because Ross and the coordinators speak on Thursday.

04:39The special teams comes to the forefront because he's asked about all these things.

04:43And this is what he said about the struggles.

04:45For example, to the reference on a range for kickoff, for it to cross the whole season.

04:50But when something does go like that, for it to cross, yeah, first off,

04:54any time there's a mistake, like, it's the coach's fault.

04:57It's the coach's fault, man.

04:58We've got to coach it better.

04:59We've got to coach it better.

04:59We've got to have more population to the football.

05:01We've got to be putting the players in the right seats on the bus to go execute.

05:06And it sounds, maybe it's a silver lining to me, and it's how I try to operate.

05:14Like, never want, you know, we want to play every play perfect across the whole season.

05:20But if something does go like that, you've got to have a chin,

05:22you've got to be able to take it,

05:23and then you've got to make sure at the right time you come out in a win,

05:27thank you, great, okay, let's go learn from it.

05:29And I think we've done that.

05:31We're able to make some adjustments and cover some things up nicely,

05:35I call it a week ago.

05:36So we're thankful to learn from that.

05:39Silver lining is when those things happen that we still get a football team win,

05:43and that's all that matters.

05:44So, yeah, anytime there's something a little shaky,

05:46I'm going to go and work hard to button it up.

05:48Just really, you know, kind of struggling to explain that they're working on it,

05:53number one, but those struggles have been very, very real, very real.

05:56I feel like anytime somebody's like, oh, I'm getting that fixed a week ago,

06:00you can tell it's digging and they crawl.

06:02And for Frank Ross, he was like, no, no, no.

06:05This kills him.

06:06This is fixed a week ago.

06:07This kills him.

06:07And that's why I can only imagine.

06:08I don't know if at that point yesterday he had heard what Dave Tobe had said

06:12over in Kansas City.

06:14I'm sure that just leaves him.

06:16Some guys don't like to tackle in the cold.

06:19Yeah, I bet he went and just had three espresso shots and was like,

06:21let's get to work.

06:23I can only imagine.

06:25Like, the team is working out in NRG today.

06:28I wouldn't be surprised if Frank Ross went and got the special teams guys like,

06:32no, no, no, y'all come with me.

06:35We outside.

06:36They're calling us soft, baby.

06:37Hell no.

06:38And oh, by the way, we have some horrible special teams memories in Kansas City.

06:43You know, from fake punts to missed kicks to missed playoff field goals.

06:48So, this is, you know, we always mention margins.

06:52This is the one that matters, I think, is going to matter the most in this game.

06:56How are you feeling about the range and kicking?

06:59I'm really uncertain.

07:01I'm just uncertain.

07:02You know, the confidence level with Kaimi Fairbairn is high,

07:06except when you look at what he's done in late in seasons and in cold weather.

07:12At least last year.

07:13Well, remember, I think we went to last year and the year before.

07:16Either way, there have been some misses, you know, in these types of environments.

07:20I'd like to think that last year was just kind of a blip.

07:23Like, I hate to use the word because, especially in the context of sports,

07:28it is one of those ultimate no-nos.

07:30It felt like he kind of got the yips a little bit.

07:32It did.

07:32Last year.

07:33It absolutely did.

07:34And I think that that would maybe lean a little bit away from that

07:36because I was a little bit shocked to see over the entirety of his career,

07:39which, to be fair, he's the longest tenured Texan at this point.

07:41And it's a longer career.

07:44He's actually been pretty good in the month of December.

07:47But it feels like when you have the opportunity to play outside

07:50is where it gets a little dicey.

07:52Like, this is where the rest of your team can help your special teams out is,

07:57hey, if you're punching in touchdowns as opposed to, you know,

08:00leaning on Kaimi Fairbairn in those moments.

08:03Not that you don't believe him to be a player capable of leaning on him,

08:06but you can help him out, man.

08:07Like, don't put him in situations where it is entirely his leg that you're

08:10requiring to get you over in this.

08:12Be better in the circumstances in the red zone.

08:15Give him much more makeable field goals if you are having field goal

08:18circumstances.

08:19Like, that's where I think that the rest of the team can help him out quite a bit.

08:22Yeah.

08:228-3-2.

08:23Is he trying to call us soft?

08:25100%.

08:25Yeah?

08:26100%?

08:27Yeah.

08:27Look, you know, both these special teams have struggled,

08:30and I think whichever one has the big play or the most big plays,

08:34I think the team wins the game.

08:35And then, of course, like, he was just talking about the cold in general,

08:38which it sounds like the dudes have their ways of combating it.

08:42Although, I get the Vaseline, like, inherently is supposed to be something

08:45different, like, gives you kind of, like, a barrier.

08:49In my head, tell me if I'm wrong, I'm just like, oh, so moisturizing is the,

08:53you just going to put some lotion on?

08:54Is that, that does it?

08:55Just make sure you moisturize, huh?

08:57Yeah.

08:58Don't get all scaly.

08:59Are we solidified on thinking, who do we say was our cold-weather warrior

09:06that we anticipated?

09:06I think Jake Andrews is going to go shirtless or sleeveless in the pregame.

09:10I think probably was over.

09:12Because he played in Ohio.

09:14Yeah.

09:14We will get images of that.

09:17Yeah, 100% before the game.

09:19And I'm looking forward to all the snapshots of being able to see guys'

09:23breath out there and everything.

09:24That'll be a fun part of it.

09:26How cold is it supposed to be?

09:2720.

09:2820?

09:29Woo.

09:30Yeah.

09:30Glad I'll be watching that from the comfort of a couch rather than out there.

09:34It's a good question, Figgy, because we've been talking about the cold

09:36and having to really.

09:37Yeah, like, if it's 40 degrees cold.

09:40We're good.

09:40But it's not supposed to be precipitation.

09:42No, I don't think so.

09:43Which, hey, that's significant.

09:44Hey, 20 is still 20, though, man.

09:47Yeah, but, I mean, 20 when it's cold, when it's raining sideways

09:50or things of that nature.

09:51Man, it was 50 yesterday.

09:52It changes it.

09:53And I was like, dang.

09:54Yeah.

09:55Yeah, but we soft.

09:56We're soft.

09:56We are soft, by the way.

09:57Football team's not.

09:58Football team's not.

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