00:00C.J. Stroud's great. What did you grade C.J. Stroud at yesterday? 713-572-4610.
00:09YouTube and Twitch, you can jump in on that. C.J. Stroud, 22 of 29, 260, three touchdowns,
00:16no picks, quarterback rating of 137.1. You're great, Clint. I know you were really impressed
00:23by what you saw. Yeah, I was really impressed. I gave him an A. I don't think you could have
00:27done any more. The only thing that could have made this performance better is if the game
00:31ever got tight, and he was one of those Superman moments that we saw him do early in his career
00:37a few times here. I reserve the A-pluses for those kind of outings. This was a game that
00:42was never close, but part of the reason it wasn't close is because from jump, C.J. Stroud
00:46was dealing. The first tight window throw to Nico Collins on the long touchdown, I think
00:52he made even a couple of the incompletions were really good throws, great placement on
00:56balls. He spread the ball around to a lot of different players. Him and Dalton Schultz,
01:02the chemistry has obviously been there for a long time, but it looks like even at a higher
01:06clip right now, I think he's feeling things in the pocket and moving really well. He's
01:12getting through his progressions quick and checking the football down, staying out of
01:15trouble. And really, like I said before, this is a game where the only way this is even a
01:21game, you know, whether you viewed it that way from the beginning or you looked up and
01:26it was 17-0, you go, okay, what kind of brand of quarterback do you want to play the rest
01:29of the way? The only way that the Cardinals would have gotten back into it was if ultimately
01:38the offense messed the bed or the quarterback all of a sudden started turning the football
01:42over, taking a bunch of risks, sack, fumbles, things of that nature. And so he obviously was
01:47aware in the moment and handled his business. So I got to give C.J. Stroud an A for what
01:52he did yesterday. It was really impressive.
01:54Ray coming in with a B. Champ Slice gives him an A. Text line, solid B+. Text line also
02:02saying, sounded like old buddy was listening to, Dave was listening to Janet Jackson is what
02:10that sounded like. Let's go back and listen. I know Tyler has a look in his eye. I'm not
02:15sure. I couldn't hear it. I couldn't catch it. It was so quick on him. Sound like maybe
02:21a little Janet Jackson. Shout out to Janet. Courtney told me her dad took her. That was
02:28her first concert. Velvet rope. Dad felt like her dad wanted to go more for himself. That
02:35was when Janet used to bring people up on the stage. I don't know if anybody out there remembers
02:40that. Anyway, Derwin, C.J. and A. I want to, when I first looked at it, Clint, I wanted
02:49to say, man, this, this might be the best game C.J. has played. You talk about opponent
02:53and everything. I'm in between A minus B plus. I want to go A minus because no turnovers in
03:03the three touchdowns. But I got to put some of that on the leader of the offense, which
03:11he is on the field, that they're kicking five field goals. I don't love that. And they still
03:21are having pre-snap, procedural, weird, didn't check in to the officials stuff that's taken
03:30away. Big plays are set in the back. Like Nico Collins, hell, he had, they had put the graphic
03:36up and everything in the stadium that he'd gone over a thousand yards and missed a big
03:40play there. Hell, C.J. may have been over 300 yards in this game. And I'm not saying it's
03:45completely him. Blake Fisher doesn't check in, I guess, well enough. But they, that is
03:50still becoming a deal. They're having too many of the, I think somebody lined up offsides
03:55again yesterday, where they're like, they're just having too many of those penalties and
04:00him being the leader of the offense out there is, is, is just dings for me. So kind of him
04:06being the leader of the offense and not just on him, but kicking five field goals in the
04:10game and, and, and many of them inside of the red zone. And then just the weird penalties
04:16that they're starting to have many of it pre-snap that's costing them yards that they've got
04:22to, we keep hearing that every week. We got to, we got to figure that out. They've got
04:26to clean that up some. So I, that that's why I go a minus or it looked like a damn near
04:32a plus type of performance. Yeah, man, I, I got, um, you know, I, I just, it was one of
04:39those outings where, boy, you can, it, you can just, not only if it's real or not, but,
04:44but you can see growth. You know what I mean? Like, like it's, it's, it's Arizona. They were,
04:49they were obviously were a rough, a rough defense. Um, but, but, but man, it can just see growth
04:54and how he's handling this offense in particular. Um, and so that, that's just a huge plus man.
05:00And then you look at the box score was solid. The scoreboard was off the charts. So yeah, man,
05:04it was a good one for CJ. Yeah. How much, I guess I want to kind of get
05:09there as I see some other people, B minus too many field goals. Um, uh, uh, CJ had the
05:16runner loved the CJ runner late pass, uh, for touchdowns. Texans still have concerning issues
05:24being able to score touchdowns in the red zone. Dingham for some points there. How much of that
05:28do you, do you lay at his feet? The issues in the red zone, the issues with just shooting
05:37themselves in the foot? Well, I mean, not all of it. I mean, I, I look, I think you're
05:44either coaching or you're allowing it, but I do think that there is a, you know, there's
05:49the, the communication piece that we've harped a lot on is, you know, we've, we've, you know,
05:53we've always viewed it as like, Oh, we're pointing out the mic and pointing out the pressure
05:57and sliding it this way or sliding it that way. And a, a big part of it is, as I said last
06:02week is to be able to, to spit out and communicate the offense in a consumable way in the huddle
06:09when there's not a lot of noise. I mean, when there, when there's a lot of noise and, uh,
06:13you know, that, that, I think that, that could be a problem that's really slowing them down
06:17in the red zone. Cause plays get kind of wordy down there in a sense of how you want to move
06:21guys around. They're not able to just line up and go, Hey man, we're going to run power.
06:24We're going to run short yardage goal line power right behind Trent Brown. You know, they're
06:28just not able to do that. So, um, I do wonder if, if the amount that they're asking CJ Stroud
06:34to communicate in the huddle or in the moment may be a little bit extensive. So, um, but
06:39again, I said last week, that's not a CJ Stroud problem. That's a, that's a Nick Kaley CJ.
06:43They got to find a sweet spot. They got to find what they can, what they can execute and,
06:47and, and get communicated and, and, and make sure they're getting out of the huddle early
06:51enough. Yeah. Um, text line coming in, um, uh, B minus too many field goals again. It's
06:59hard for me to go over a B when you're playing a team as bad as the Cardinals and you have
07:03to settle for five field goals. Listen, I, listen, I, I told you, I don't, I thought it
07:09was too many field goals, but the, like the opponent, there's a part of it, but you know,
07:14Clint, you go out there and you, especially where this offense has been to put together that
07:20type of performance at many times looking the way they did to be able to hit plays and
07:25to be able to do things really like right now with this offense and some of their struggles,
07:30like the opponent to me is I'm not about to just completely throw that in the trash.
07:35It's not like this offense is just like a juggernaut. We're like, you have these, these
07:39certain expectations. I mean, yeah, the Cardinals are a struggle, but I mean, let's just be honest,
07:44man. How many of y'all had them getting 40 in the game? I did not. Right. Like, you know,
07:48I mean, they kicked five field goals, but you know, five field goals don't get you 40. They
07:53got, you know, he threw three touchdown passes, even if it was against the Cardinals. So,
07:57you know, I don't, I like, I can't get over a B that's, you know, that's, that's, that's fine.
08:02Yeah, that's fine. Text line coming in, just win baby field, field goals are part of the game.
08:06Yeah. Yeah. And then, and many times with this defense, that can, that can probably potentially
08:13be enough, but you just don't want to, you don't want to, you don't want to live on that. Again,
08:17big, big performance though. Two 63 touchdowns, no picks. You'll take that all day long in a game
08:25from your quarterback, CJ Stroud. A's over here for the, for the most part. And many of you on the
08:31text line the same way. All right.
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