- 6 weeks ago
Seth and Sean discuss why the Texans can't afford to take the Cardinals (or any opponent) lightly as the playoff race tightens up.
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00:00The playoff picture, I mean, right now you're just, you're slugging it out through the rest of the season with very little room, very little room for error.
00:10Right now the Chargers have one more win than you and you get to face them, but that's a critical game.
00:16This Cardinals game versus notable Texans killer Jacoby Brissett is a really big deal.
00:22And the Texans, the Texans haven't been playing well enough that you can say, oh, they can take any opponent lightly or they're just going to breeze through this game.
00:30They've got issues on offense still.
00:33And the defense has been incredible, absolutely incredible.
00:36But this is going to be a very harrowing four weeks to come.
00:40You needed a last-second field goal to beat the Tennessee Titans a few weeks ago.
00:47You were 6-0 at halftime with the Titans at home earlier this season.
00:51You're absolutely right.
00:53When you're mediocre at best on one side of the football, especially the offensive side of the football,
00:59you have no license to take anybody lightly.
01:02You don't.
01:03And I don't think they are.
01:04I think D'Amico and this team, that was a tough road to get back to 8-5, man.
01:11It was an incredibly hard road to get back to 8-5.
01:14You can't blow it in 60 minutes this Sunday.
01:18You lose this game to Arizona and you give back everything that you had worked for the last five games.
01:23Yeah, I don't think anybody on the team or in the fan base has any illusions about it.
01:28I don't think you're sitting there looking at this win streak and thinking,
01:31yep, the unbeatable force, it is the Houston Texans.
01:34D'Amico, who gets kind of prickly when you ask him about how bad they are at executing at the end of the first half,
01:43just flat-out came out yesterday and said, yeah, we need more urgency.
01:46We've got to be able to get in and out of the huddle, get up to the line, make our adjustments, and go.
01:51He's had a different tone the last few weeks about the offense.
01:57That was one of the frustrating things about D'Amico.
01:59You and I would talk about this all the time, how the defense has been elite this year,
02:04but it's largely been good since D'Amico got here.
02:07It's been, for the last two years, last year and this year especially,
02:10it's been clearly the better side of the football.
02:13You could have won a Super Bowl with last year's defense easily.
02:16That's a Super Bowl-caliber defense.
02:18No question. No question.
02:19And yet, in press conferences, D'Amico would do that thing that parents do
02:23where the A student gets treated tougher publicly than the C-plus student.
02:28C-plus is being kind to the offense last year, but you know what I mean.
02:31He would really soft-play the offense.
02:34He's not doing that this year.
02:36And if I'm Nick Caley, I'm hearing that and going, look, man,
02:38I don't feel like my side of the football's performance is necessarily tied
02:44to how far this team goes in the playoffs.
02:46I think, honestly, I wonder how much of that simply has to do also with the fact
02:50that D'Amico's more involved with the offense this year.
02:52Yeah.
02:53That he's more hands-on with it.
02:55And he was trying to be the good coach and give the offensive coordinator
03:00and that side of the ball their, you know, a little bit of latitude,
03:03not micromanage them.
03:04But now that he's actually over there and he's telling guys the same things,
03:08the same way he coaches the defense, everybody,
03:10all these people that worry that D'Amico isn't tough enough on his players,
03:14you listen to the players themselves and they're like,
03:16D'Amico's a pain in the ass to play for.
03:17It's just, it's a lot harder to be held to high standards than it is to have a coach
03:22who just yells at you randomly about weird stuff.
03:24Yes.
03:25That's the second one is just annoying.
03:26The first one is actual work.
03:28Yep.
03:28And I think with D'Amico spending more time with the offense,
03:30he's probably a lot more, he gets more frustrated when they're not executing
03:35what he's working on, what he's working with on them.
03:38Okay.
03:39Working on with them.
03:40Yes.
03:40The, okay.
03:41So I'm thinking in my mind after you said that, I'm like, boy,
03:44what would a bombshell be in the midst of this season that is trending
03:47in the right direction with a schedule that's very fortuitous?
03:51Like this is, this is about as good a schedule over the final four games
03:55as you could ask for if you're an ascending playoff team.
03:58You've got two teams that look like they've cashed their chips in and the
04:01Cardinals and the Raiders, you got them both at home.
04:03So this isn't me looking past them.
04:05This is just the reality of the situation.
04:07You have a chargers team that look, I watched that game last night.
04:10That is a, that's a gettable game in Los Angeles.
04:13The Texans, whatever the Texans game has been over the last five weeks,
04:17that beats whatever the chargers were putting on the field last night
04:21against the Eagles.
04:21That's where you go in three weeks to play.
04:24And, and then you play the Colts who might be starting Philip Rivers
04:27quarterback in 18 and that game's at home.
04:30So it's about as good.
04:31Okay.
04:31So, so this, this would be, this would be the bombshell.
04:34What if D'Amico pulled a Dan Campbell and took over play calling of the
04:38offense?
04:39Oh yeah.
04:40Oh boy.
04:41I don't, I'm, I'm, I don't, I don't think that'll happen.
04:46Right.
04:46But the tone, his tone is one that is not happy with this offense.
04:50The biggest realistic bombshell would be just swapping out Davis Mills for CJ
04:54Stroud.
04:54That's the, did I say realistic?
04:56I don't know if that realistic isn't the right word.
04:59CJ's healthy.
04:59I don't think that's realistic.
05:00Yeah.
05:00Yeah.
05:01But, but I think, and honestly, the way CJ and C and Davis Mills have been
05:07operating over the past six weeks or so, I think pre-snap, it's largely
05:10similar.
05:11The biggest difference is always just, all right, what kind of a defense are
05:15they facing?
05:15When Davis was able to get the ball out of his hands quickly and there were
05:18options early in the down, then Davis was really, really good.
05:22When he had to move on to his second or third read, that's where things got
05:25hairy.
05:25And when they, the, the Texans offense going up against the chiefs defense,
05:30I think they did a good job of taking away the options early in the down.
05:34CJ and Davis have both, they both have been getting rid of the ball faster than
05:39they ever have before.
05:41Well, CJ especially, I'd have to check Davis in various schemes.
05:44Um, but the ball's been coming out quick, like in the top quarter of the
05:48league.
05:49It's just, there's two things.
05:51One, if it's a defense, it's good at taking away those first options.
05:53And two, if there's a tough interior defensive lineman, this, this offense has,
06:00has really, they struggled against the Titans when Jeffrey Simmons and Tavondre
06:04Sweat were both in there.
06:06They, they had a really, really hard time with that.
06:08And likewise, when Jeffrey, when, um, when, uh, when, when they faced a tough
06:14defensive lineman this last week and Chris Jones, his Jones kind of ruined their
06:18night.
06:19He just threw a huge monkey wrench into everything.
06:21It's funny.
06:21You bring up Davis.
06:22I think as long as CJ is healthy, there's, there's zero chance he gets swapped out.
06:26Um, it's an interesting conversation though.
06:29And it, this goes into, I think some of the things we were saying after the bills
06:32game.
06:32And the reason I bring up the bills game, CJ was 16 of 31 for a little over 200 yards
06:37in, in, in, in a touchdown, no turnovers in this chiefs game.
06:42And I think there's people looking at his game going, all right.
06:44I mean, he only had three completions in the second half.
06:46I mean, what, what, what's going on here?
06:48Davis Mills was 16 of 30 for 153, almost an identical completion and attempt line
06:56for less yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, 35 yards in the second half of that bills
07:03game.
07:03Like it, the bills game in the chiefs game from a quarterback perspective looked
07:07virtually identical on the box score.
07:09The difference is that I think CJ made a few throws in that, in that chiefs game that
07:15Davis Mills just doesn't make.
07:16I like, I don't think Davis Mills escapes.
07:18Chris Jones has three guys beating down on him and throws a missile to Jaden Higgins to
07:23keep a touchdown drive.
07:24I don't know.
07:25Davis had some, Davis had some clutch throws at the ends of those victories though, as
07:29well.
07:30He, he, he, he did.
07:31I'm, I'm, I'm merely talking about the physical tools.
07:33Right.
07:34Right.
07:34Yeah.
07:34Yeah.
07:35I don't know.
07:36I mean, he also, yeah, that's, I mean, you might do it in a different style, but neither
07:40of the quarterbacks have been all that impressive this year.
07:43Yeah.
07:43Um, I look, you're plus three.
07:45It's yet another game where you're plus three in the turnover margin and you score
07:4810 points.
07:49Yeah.
07:49When the defense is gifting you all of these opportunities and you have short fields to
07:53work with, it just speaks to the, the, the, the razor's edge that you're on.
07:58Texans don't take the ball away three times in that game.
08:01They get destroyed.
08:02Like it just, when you say, when you say they scored 10 points, you mean they only earned
08:0710 points?
08:08Yeah.
08:08What's that?
08:09You said, you said they, they were plus three on turnover.
08:11They only, they only win by 10 points.
08:12They only win by 10.
08:13Okay.
08:13They win.
08:13They only score 20 points.
08:14They win by 10.
08:15I got you.
08:16Like it, you're plus three.
08:18And one of those, you know, one of those scores is on a very, very short field.
08:22It's just, yeah.
08:23That's what I thought you meant.
08:24I thought you meant like they had 10 that were on normal drives and 10 that were on room
08:28service.
08:28Um, yeah, no, you got to score more points.
08:31There's no question.
08:31I just think it's funny.
08:32Like Davis in the Buffalo game had an almost identical game to what CJ had in Kansas city.
08:37And CJ was on the road and all that is, is just what we were saying after the Buffalo
08:42game, which is yeah.
08:43By backup quarterback standards, that's a really nice game by Davis Mills.
08:47CJ is judged by another set of rules.
08:49He's a starting quarterback.
08:50Who's going to get paid.
08:51I know people get super sensitive about it.
08:54So let's remove the names from it and just talk about the passing offense in general.
08:58You know, it's, it's been a bad passing offense and you can blame neither guy.
09:01You can blame CJ Stroud.
09:03You can blame Davis Mills.
09:04You can blame the offensive line, whatever the case may be.
09:08It's just, it's not a good passing off.
09:10It's not a rushing offense.
09:11Yeah.
09:11Um, the Texter says Davis is better in the red zone.
09:15They're, they're both, they're both subpar in the red zone.
09:17Texans were two for four in the red zone this time around.
09:19I would sign up for 50% in the red zone for the rest of the year, including the postseason
09:24right now.
09:25I would sign up for that without knowing what's behind door number two.
09:28I know it's, that's, is 50% above average for red zone?
09:33What's the average?
09:33You, you pulled up the median.
09:35We talked about this yesterday.
09:36The average is, I think it's around 55 to 60%.
09:39Okay.
09:39I'd sign up.
09:40The Texans are second to last right now.
09:41They're second to last.
09:43They were, they were two for four the other night.
09:44I would sign up for two for four in every game the rest of the year, blindly with this
09:48defense.
09:48Anywhere between 55 to like 62% in the last, uh, last five years.
09:54Yeah, I would sign up for 50 in a heartbeat right now and, and not even think about it
09:58for the rest of the year, you know?
09:59Uh, so, um, yeah, so the, the Texans didn't get any favors done for them last night by the
10:05Eagles.
10:05The Chargers win last night.
10:07We're officially in scoreboard watching season.
10:08We can do that now.
10:09The Texans are inside.
10:11They're inside the, uh, the playoffs.
10:13Um, I was thinking about this yesterday, Jonathan Alexander's question before the Chiefs game
10:19about, is it, was this, he was asking going into the game, was this a regular season game
10:24in Texans history?
10:26And now that they've won, can we look at it and say, is this the biggest regular season
10:31win in Texans history?
10:33I think there's a case to be made.
10:35It's definitely the biggest one in the D'Amico Ryan's era.
10:37Maybe mathematically it's not, cause it's not week 18, like that Colts game was a couple
10:42of years ago.
10:42Like that got you into the playoffs.
10:43I would still say, uh, in the D'Amico Ryan's era, I think that play-in game was the biggest
10:47one.
10:47Because of the stakes?
10:48This one, I mean, the, that was for the stakes.
10:53Yes.
10:53The stakes were high.
10:55Um, you're on the road.
10:56It's a primetime game.
10:57I think so much of this game was also what's built into it is, Hey, it's the Kansas City
11:02Chiefs.
11:03It's Pat Mahomes.
11:04It's all of that.
11:05But that's a story more about the Chiefs season in general.
11:09Yeah.
11:10That's ultimately what you just did was at the end of the day, you look up and, Oh, we just
11:15beat a losing football team.
11:16Yeah.
11:17It's the, the Chiefs aren't the same team.
11:19And in some respects, you made their defense look better than they have on average all
11:24season long.
11:25So I, there's the, I'm just left wanting after that game.
11:28I'm greedy.
11:29I was so excited about the defense all day yesterday.
11:32And I knew, I knew going into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week, it's slowly going to turn
11:38into, ah, crap, we still, we still got that.
11:41It's like if you get a huge bonus at the end of the year, but, uh, but then you remember
11:45like, Oh yeah, I still do have all that, uh, all that, uh, that, that bone crushing debt
11:50that that's piling up on top of me.
11:53But it was nice to get that bonus.
11:54You're so you're the analogy is that this, Oh, we just realized that this isn't the real
11:59chiefs.
11:59Is that what you're saying?
12:00Like this, that the, the wind, no, no, no, no.
12:02It's not even that it's right.
12:04Yeah.
12:04For one, it's not the real chiefs, but also two, it's, it was more about the defense than
12:08anything else.
12:09Yeah.
12:09I mean, nobody, nobody after that game, look at the national media, anywhere else, nobody
12:13is saying, wow, look at that Texans football team.
12:16Yeah.
12:17They're saying, wow, look at that Texans defense.
12:19Yeah.
12:20Yeah.
12:20Defense is incredible.
12:21That makes sense.
12:22Yep.
12:22That makes sense.
12:23The one, the one thing I would say about the chiefs that we're comparing the wins, cause
12:27I, my answer to Jonathan's question, and this is not just the D'Amico era.
12:32I think that Colts game in 2023 is the answer to the question franchise wise at that time,
12:38because of what it meant, it got you into the post season.
12:42It symbolized that the rebuild was 180 degrees.
12:46You'd flip the script on what you were the year before with Lovie Smith and take it to
12:51the extreme.
12:51David Cully, two years before that, holy crap, we're a playoff team now.
12:55And it only took one year to get back into the playoffs.
12:58I think there's, I think given the fact that you, you, you hadn't been able to, there's a
13:04lot of emotional baggage with the chiefs, more even maybe crazy to say even more so
13:08than with the Colts who are a division rival of yours, the two losses last year, one in
13:13the playoffs, one where you lost tank Dell in that game.
13:15I think that's still sticks with people.
13:17That's not the chiefs fault.
13:18If anything, it's the Texans fault.
13:20It was his own guy that hurt him.
13:21Um, but I think the 24 nothing game, I think there's a lot and what the chiefs have been
13:26league wide.
13:27I mean, they're the three times Superbowl champ over the last few years.
13:30I think there was probably a lot more emotional that went into that game.
13:32And I will say this about the chiefs.
13:34They were five and one at home going into that game.
13:36You know, there were, it was a tale of two chiefs this year.
13:39It's a, and that is one thing that I am trying to remind myself that it's, it's hard to play
13:43football up there.
13:44It's a, it's one of the more difficult environments.
13:47Um, it's interesting, you know, if there's one victory I would take from it, I would say
13:52the Texans were the team that looked like they were less affected by the cold.
13:58I mean, the chiefs are out there making all kinds of stupid errors, getting injured, all
14:03of these things.
14:04Yeah.
14:04The drops, all of these things that did it.
14:06If, if I had to guess, okay, which of these teams plays in the cold more frequently, I
14:11would guess it was the Texans.
14:13I would have too.
14:13If I was just dropped in there and didn't know what cities they were from.
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