- 23 hours ago
ITL breaks down whether the Texans’ recent O-line improvement got exposed against the Chiefs on Sunday.
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00:00Am I right to go here, John Lopez, dating back to the Kansas City game
00:04where, I don't know if you remember, the Texans beat the Kansas City Chiefs 20-10.
00:08I just wanted to say that.
00:09Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.
00:10Yeah, just in case you don't recall, the Texans beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
00:15Just want to make sure that that –
00:17On Sunday night.
00:18Sunday night football.
00:19No Letterman, Jack.
00:20Cold outside.
00:20Yeah.
00:21Kicking field goals.
00:22Yeah.
00:23There was a missed field goal.
00:24Mm-hmm.
00:25And it was from the Kansas City Chiefs side.
00:26I just want to make sure that we're all the same.
00:27We're good.
00:28We all remember this, right?
00:30It is.
00:30Within that game, though, did the O-line improvement that we've seen noticed from the Texans' offensive line
00:36where they've gotten the five that they needed together and the cohesion had been there,
00:40did they get exposed a little bit?
00:42How so?
00:43Well, I think that one of the things that I go to is –
00:46Well, first and foremost, you just saw Chris Jones go crazy.
00:48I feel like, yeah, that's almost a one-off because he's that good.
00:52Right.
00:52That's one of those things where you go, he's that good.
00:54That's like saying, Miles Garrett went off.
00:56Right.
00:56Yeah.
00:57Although you think about it and you go, hey, what happens in the playoffs if not we get rid of the bad teams and it's just good teams?
01:04And right now, looking at the AFC playoffs, and I have not done this ahead of time, so this is just stream of consciousness, right?
01:09The teams in the AFC playoffs, the Broncos, we've seen them, and they've got good pass rushers, maybe not individually good pass rushers,
01:16but they have good pass rushers.
01:17You've played them.
01:18The Patriots' pass rushers, who am I thinking of there?
01:23Well, just a good defense also, kind of like the Broncos.
01:26Yeah, it's a solid defense.
01:27I'm not going to lie about that, but I'm trying to think individual pass rushers, like Cable Von Chason, I guess.
01:34Yeah, there aren't necessarily guys that I go – Harold Landry, well, I probably need to give him his credit.
01:38But the Jacksonville Jags, we know them.
01:40You know, they've got the Josh Hines Allen that, oddly enough, did not really impact the games that you played versus them.
01:47Who else do you have in that that is still vying?
01:50Yeah, like I don't know necessarily that there's a lot of individuals that are of the same magnitude.
01:55Pittsburgh Steelers, TJ Watt, if they make it.
01:57The Ravens don't necessarily have.
01:59The Chargers, is Khalil Mack still doing that same thing to you?
02:02The Bills don't really have anybody, especially without Ed Oliver.
02:05When is he supposed to be back?
02:06I do not recall.
02:07Off the top of my head, I really can't tell you.
02:09But, okay, so maybe that's not it.
02:12One of the things that Steve Spagnuolo absolutely tore you up with, you know, very unique and frequent blitzing.
02:19And that is something where I wonder, yes, Steve Spagnuolo is particular in his desire to blitz a lot.
02:27Is that some level of blueprint or book out on this offensive line that teams that are coming, especially as the Texans become more of a team that people go,
02:38all right, we need to make sure we beat them, that they will take heed of and maybe heat you up in that way.
02:43So you're talking about blitzes, blitzing teams.
02:45I feel as if that might be the only way to get to the Texans.
02:53You know, Ed Ingram did not have a particularly good game.
02:55No.
02:56Surprisingly.
02:57Because, again, coming into that game, if you were to ask me who's been the best offensive lineman for the Texans,
03:02yes, I would give praise to Ariante Aresri as a rookie coming and holding down that spot.
03:05Of course you've got to give Titus Howard his love for being good in all three different spots that he's played this year.
03:11But I'd probably say Ed Ingram, especially because what they want to do is be a little bit of road graders and go forward.
03:16Ed Ingram did that really well, except not in this game.
03:19Not in this game.
03:20And I hadn't really thought about this until you mentioned it before the show.
03:23You know, what you're talking about is did they get exposed?
03:26Did they get exposed to unique pressures?
03:29And I think that is fair based on what the Chiefs did.
03:33As you mentioned, Spagnuolo is one of those next-level type coordinators.
03:36But the other part of that that is significant is you're going to be playing very good defenses.
03:41Very good defensive coordinators.
03:43And we absolutely should start talking about, you know, the teams you're going to face in the postseason
03:47because it looks like you're going to make the postseason.
03:49And what they will see on film.
03:51I mean, you know, that is something that every team still does significantly.
03:56Like, what did they do?
03:57How did they get there?
03:58Now, that's something that I think is absolutely concern, might be a little bit much,
04:04but maybe one of those spots that they're going to try to pick at.
04:06You know, blitzing the Texans with unique blitz.
04:07And the thing, the reason that, at least in that place I might go, actually maybe not,
04:13is when you look at the teams that blitz the most, at least, coming into the point of the season,
04:19it's either, there's not a lot of teams that I'm super concerned about possibly seeing.
04:24The Vikings have the most, have the highest blitz rate in all the years.
04:27No surprise there.
04:28Brian Flores likes doing that.
04:29NFC.
04:30Falcons, NFC, Kansas City Chiefs.
04:32You just saw them, and you might have been one of the larger reasons that they might not make the playoff.
04:38Yeah.
04:38Right?
04:38The New York Jets.
04:40You won't see them.
04:41Miami Dolphins.
04:42Again.
04:43Pittsburgh Steelers is a little interesting.
04:45They do like blitzing.
04:47And obviously, as I mentioned, you talk about an individual who might be able to replicate that level of Chris Jones-ian performance.
04:53T.J. Watt is one of those names you think of.
04:55All right.
04:55Put a pin in that one.
04:58Broncos?
04:59Okay.
05:00Fair enough.
05:00But Bucs, Lions, Bears, Saints, Browns, Jags are the next closest at 13.
05:06My point is, one, you're definitely not seeing those through the remainder of the season.
05:10Through the remainder of the season, you don't have teams that are going to blitz you, at least not habitually, in the way that they've gone about it.
05:16And maybe there's a couple of teams that are inclined towards that and have that within their repertoire that you might see in the playoffs.
05:23But we've seen teams, even this year, go from they don't blitz a lot to that team we're blitzing.
05:29And finding success.
05:30And that's one of the things that I go, oh, is that going to be a thing where the particular types of blitzes that you might need to use against this offensive line have been demonstrated?
05:37I think that's fair.
05:38I also think it's fair to say, what about the teams you might face again and what they're learning about what they did that worked and didn't work?
05:45See, I think that's the other side of this.
05:46You've played the Bills and you worked them.
05:49Still came down to the very end, but you worked them.
05:51And they're going to look at, if you face the Bills again, they're going to make those adjustments on how they try to pressure the quarterback.
05:58You've faced the Jaguars twice.
06:00You've faced them again at some point.
06:02They're going to look at how they can maybe tweak what they did.
06:05You've played the Broncos.
06:07They're going to look, if you face them again, they're going to look at, okay, how can we change it?
06:10So I think it comes down to, as I said, the unique blitz options, packages, whatever you want to call them, that they're going to bring are going to be like something you haven't seen before.
06:19Maybe like something you saw from Steve Spagnuolo.
06:22On the text line from the 713, they said it didn't just expose the offensive line, but CJ pre-snap have to hard count to slow down elites like Jones.
06:29We talked a little bit about that earlier.
06:31Y'all clown me about the statistics, and I think I get it.
06:34But within there, having that varied time before you snap makes the defense have to pause, have to think about what you're doing here, and maybe that can help slow things down.
06:45I would like to see them implement those things.
06:47For that reason, the opportunity to maybe get yourself some more tools that could help CJ pre-snap, making sure to diagnose these things and pick them up, because that's another thing.
06:56As much as the book might be out that way for defenses to know, I think there's also a book internally where if you self-scout appropriately, you should be able to see them and go, okay, now how do we batten up the hatches?
07:08How do we help secure that so that that doesn't happen again?
07:12And hopefully they're able to do that, especially against a number of teams, at least down the stretch, and maybe in the playoffs, that aren't inclined to do that.
07:19And I think a lot of teams are going to look at this Texan squad and say, all right, what can we pick at?
07:25I mean, I think it's pretty obvious.
07:26You know, you blitz up the middle.
07:28You make Jake Andrews block you.
07:29Texter said Jake Andrews, well, he said he's the worst, but he hasn't had a good season, that's for sure.
07:35He said he gets ragdolled.
07:37I think if you're an opposing team, you're like, that's the mark.
07:41That's the mark.
07:42That's where we play the games.
07:43Texans have had a few issues earlier in the year, a lot of issues earlier in the year, in the stunts and the crosses and all that stuff, and the games they play up front.
07:53I think if you blitz, you can blitz up the middle and make Jake Andrews make a play.
07:57So I think that, no, it is.
07:58I'm not going to say exposed.
08:00Yeah, and I wouldn't either.
08:01But I think there are things that they're going to try to do that they haven't done before.
08:04Agreed.
08:04And I wouldn't either, but it was one of those things where I go, oh, okay, this does not match up quite with what we felt like we were doing.
08:10And it's mostly that third quarter.
08:12The third quarter is where it got really egregious with the adjustments.
08:15Would you agree with the sentiment that's coming in right now on the Tex line that the Texans made the appropriate adjustments in the fourth quarter in order to kind of balance that thing back out?
08:25I guess yes, but it was also the C.J. Stroud quarter.
08:29It was also him off script, and maybe that's part of the adjustment.
08:33And then them really just deciding to run the ball for two or three yards.
08:35And then running the ball.
08:36And D'Amico talked about it on the coach's show yesterday.
08:40He said what he said last week.
08:41Like, we're not going to have a lot of success very often, but we're going to keep at it.
08:46And when they kept at it, they started to get some bigger – actually, it was Casario.
08:49They're going to get some bigger chunks, bigger being six or eight yards.
08:52Yeah.
08:52Yeah, and that's why I think running the football is going to be necessary.
08:57The particular way that they go about using more personnel or bigger personnel, you referenced a stat that, funny enough, you can't find right now.
09:06But I will take your word for it, the idea that Blake Fisher, when he's coming in in these jumbo packages, is actually producing it away by some metric that is not as good as if you just used a regular tight end.
09:20With the return of Kate Stover, do the Texans need to lessen or maybe even stop their usage of the jumbo package?
09:26My answer is yes, but I don't see them doing it.
09:30They used him again a lot.
09:31They did.
09:31Against the Chiefs.
09:33I think they just believe he's a lineman.
09:36Put him at tight end.
09:37He will help.
09:38And you can double-team maybe some of these edges and ends and stuff a little better.
09:42But the numbers haven't – I mean, the numbers are there that you're better off just putting a tight end there, or you have been.
09:49Now, to be fair, there's – when you have a regular tight end there, it's probably – tight end there, it's probably more of a running down.
09:56So when you pass, you're probably going to have some play action anyway and face a little bit less pressure.
10:01But, you know, Blake Fisher has not been the big plus that you thought he would be.
10:06And to be fair – damn it.
10:09He was of great value when you started using it.
10:13I don't think that just because it was useful early does not mean inherently that it continues to be of use to you.
10:19It's going to be something that at least I continue to keep my eye on.
10:22And I don't know if how it works versus the Cardinals should be necessarily the way that you make your decision on utilizing it.
10:29But that is an interesting thing, and I will want to look at that more, what the Blake Fisher jumbo sets versus maybe having Cade Stover in as that tight to block.
10:39Now, there are instances where they'll do the jumbo set and then tack Cade Stover on right next to him, and it's just like, all right, well, now you have the big body and Cade Stover to do that.
10:47But in theory, at least, if you have Cade Stover, you have the threat of throwing the football, although they haven't really thrown the football to Cade Stover either.
10:54They have not.
10:54They've tried, and he's dropped it, and that's why they stopped.
10:57Fair.
10:58And with this Cardinals defense, one of the things, and this is something that we're going to talk about here at 1 p.m.
11:04with Tyler Drake from Arizona Sports who's going to be joining us.
11:07Walter Nolan is starting to play a lot better.
11:10Well, he's starting to play.
11:11Yeah.
11:11He had had some injuries that he's dealing with.
11:13But he's made some plays.
11:15I've seen some things from the Cardinals side that are saying, and he's an interior that can go outside, kind of move around, pressure, et cetera.
11:24So, you know, that's going to be one of the things you have to watch.
11:26Yeah.
11:27The O-line improvement, I think ultimately what the game versus Kansas City did for him is, oh, yeah, you just can't take this for granted.
11:33And I hope that also Nick Haley took that because at times it felt like, especially in the first half, oh, well, we can open this thing up.
11:40And the way that I talked about it with a group of my friends was, all right, yes, you don't have a lemon anymore, but I don't think that means you can just open this thing up to 100 on the highway.
11:50Oh, God, no.
11:51And I don't know if that was the equivalent of opening up to 100 on the highway, but it did feel like they were starting to feel like, oh, man, the offensive line is better and we could just, no, it's still going to need certain protecting.
12:01And so I think that is the thing that was exposed for me, not necessarily that the offensive line improvement was exposed of itself.
12:08All right, you're in the loop here on Sports Radio 610, and I didn't even come back to the idea of CJ pre-snap.
12:13I do want to see like some of that operation because operation was, you know, a word, a watch word in this game.
12:19I do want to see that continue to improve.
12:21And so I'm interested in watching this game to see how much better or if it does become better as it goes.
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