- 1 week ago
Seth and Sean discuss if the national hype surrounding the Texans combined with the lack of bulletin board material could be a problem.
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00:00Texans are getting a lot of love. They have been for a while during this winning streak,
00:04but it is really hard to find people that think the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to win this game.
00:10Yeah, I would say within Pittsburgh as well. I don't even know. I don't just from, you know,
00:15I'm not watching. I'm not on social media. A whole bunch of back and forth between Texans fans and
00:22Steelers fans. There's not even that going on. You know, you look over to the East Coast and
00:28New England versus Jacksonville fans. It's a, or excuse me, Buffalo versus Jacksonville fans.
00:35And it's heated right now. Is it really? Oh yeah. Well, those are a couple of smaller market teams
00:41that always have a chip on their shoulder about not big bills fans, even though they've had a bunch
00:46of national attention still have a, they have an underdog mentality. And then Jaguars fans also
00:51have an underdog mentality. So they're, they've really been going at it. Yeah. I'm glad you brought
00:56that up because it plays into what we're going to talk about here in a few minutes before we get
00:59to the bulletin board. Some of the things that are being said in the last 24 hours around the
01:05country about the Houston Texans and this matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is Dan Orlovsky
01:10of ESPN yesterday saying, this is a bad matchup for Pittsburgh. Houston's defense is ridiculous.
01:17We had to do the, the, we not had to, we got to do the voting for the NFL awards and first and second
01:22team, all pros. I struggled to not put six or seven guys on their defense on the first two teams.
01:28That's that good. And so one of the things that Pittsburgh has thrived on offensively this year
01:33is yards after the catch because they get the ball out so quickly. Aaron knows exactly what you're in.
01:38He's going to get the ball to playmakers in space and yards after the catch. It's one of the best
01:43defenses in football and everything, but certainly defending yards after the catch. It's one of the
01:47best tackling defenses in football. And so that's the big challenge is the thing that Pittsburgh
01:52loves to do. And it's really kind of kept them afloat this year. Offensively is the thing that
01:57Houston like dominates with the one thing that if you watch teams have some success against Houston
02:06defensively this year, you have to take shots down the field. You're not going to hit a ton.
02:11You have to, and it's just not something that Pittsburgh does. So I think it's a pretty
02:16significant challenge. Yeah. The dump off, you know, the last two weeks with no DK Metcalf,
02:21they have been hammering Jalen Warren and Gainwell, Gainwell, especially in the passing game,
02:27flat screens, things like that. Those are both, I would say, very kind of slippery tackle breaking
02:34running backs for their size. Getting DK Metcalf, I think adjust the calculus a little bit.
02:39Yeah, a hundred percent, you know, that, and again, though, the Steelers haven't been great at
02:46getting those downfield shots. Aaron Rodgers is a little bit like Ben Roethlisberger was in his
02:51later years where he can set up the deep shot by being bad at the deep shot that, okay, because
02:57they're going to, they're going to nickel and dime you and pepper you with all these short passes,
03:01but they lull you into it. And then all of a sudden, lo and behold, there we go. I mean,
03:07he's, he's throwing the ball way better than Ben Roethlisberger was in his last couple of years,
03:10but the, uh, the, the fact that the fact that the Texans have improved their tackling so much
03:20and that the run after the catch isn't the problem that it used to be, it still could rear its ugly
03:25head. If the field conditions are sloppy, because that's when they, they can't fly in there and swarm
03:30as effectively. You don't get as many shots on a guy immediately after he, after he catches the ball,
03:35when receivers enter the kill zone, be as vicious. And as your footing is solid,
03:42that's where the weather elements, I mean, this is the, this is the story anytime in a, if, if
03:47weather conditions are bad, that field conditions can really even the tables and, and Pittsburgh
03:54obviously has a lot more experience playing in bad weather than the Texans do.
03:57I'm looking at the weather in Pittsburgh over the next few days, Friday and Saturday,
04:01it's actually supposed to be up in the sixties during the day, but there's a, like an 80% chance
04:06of rain both of those days. I'm guessing they're going to keep the field covered. Although from
04:10what you're saying, Seth, maybe they should just, eh, I forgot to cover the field.
04:14A little gamesmanship there. Yeah. Yeah. Notre Dame used to do that back when they weren't getting
04:19nearly as fast to players as they're getting right now. They will let the grass grow a couple more
04:24inches. It's slow USC down and things like that. Yeah. Well, as an old John Madden thing, John Madden
04:30used to run the sprinklers, you know, he had big, heavy offensive linemen. He'd run the sprinklers the
04:35night before the game, no precipitation. Sunday Monday is supposed to be nice Monday. It's,
04:40It's partly cloudy, low of 26, high of 38.
04:43So it's going to be – you're going to get a cold one,
04:45but it doesn't look like they're going to get any elements.
04:47Yeah.
04:48No rain or snow.
04:49So Friermuth, the tight end, is the guy that a lot of people following
04:53or covering the Pittsburgh Steelers have been frustrated
04:56that he hasn't been more involved this year.
04:59And, you know, and then the same old boat with Aaron Rodgers is that, man,
05:03it doesn't always seem like he's running the offense exactly the way you'd prefer
05:07to run the offense.
05:08And he's taking some of his hired – he's picking his favorites
05:13and going to those guys even when other guys are wide open.
05:16But Friermuth is a guy to watch, especially the Cardinals game
05:22when Trey McBride went off.
05:23Friermuth isn't as good as Trey McBride, but, man,
05:26the Texans had a really hard time with Trey McBride.
05:28Friermuth – and Friermuth had some good moments in the game last week
05:33that that might be – that's a guy that could be a sneaky appearance.
05:38Yeah, he did.
05:38The thing that makes me optimistic about the Texans and what Arlovsky said there
05:43about attacking downfield is in that Ravens game,
05:47they couldn't get anything downfield with Kyle Hamilton in the game.
05:51And Kyle Hamilton goes out with a concussion,
05:53and then all of a sudden it's like the dam opened up there for them.
05:56Friermuth got that big hit you're talking about.
05:57The one big hit they got on the Austin touchdown, the cornerback slipped and fell,
06:02which plays to your concern about the fields.
06:04Yeah, that's where the field conditions come in again.
06:05Yeah, you take the extreme strength of the Texans is obviously the defense,
06:08and one of the things that makes them so extremely good is just how fast
06:12and violent and vicious they are.
06:14If the field conditions affect that at all,
06:16that's going to tip the scales back towards the Steelers a little bit.
06:20A few more from the ESPN guys.
06:21Here's Ryan Clark saying just flat out the Texans' defense tries to hurt you.
06:25They don't just tackle.
06:27Like, they try to hurt you.
06:28Yeah.
06:29The physicality, the pursuit to the ball, the way they corral is so different.
06:35Yeah.
06:36And he's not even saying it's dirty either.
06:38He's like, they are physical.
06:41There's an article in Go Long TD right now by Tyler Dunn.
06:45Yeah.
06:46I think the first part of it is not behind a paywall.
06:49Then you have to read the second part of it.
06:51But, man, there's a whole lot in there about just how violent and physical these guys are.
06:55It's a good article, man.
06:56One of my favorite quotes from this,
07:00Toa Toa praises the team's unbreakable bond with head coach D'Amico Ryan's quote,
07:04when you have a leader who'd literally go out and die for you,
07:07you would do the same for him, unquote.
07:10Which, come again?
07:12Give Toa Toa the chance to sanitize this outlandish claim,
07:15and he doubles down 100%.
07:18He'd die on the field.
07:21God, I wish that article came out before we had Toa Toa on the postgame show.
07:24Toa Toa said, you're going to have to cart us off.
07:27We're going to do everything we can to get a win.
07:29Dude, how hard is it to find guys like that?
07:32Well, to find an entire defensive room full of them.
07:37That's what I mean.
07:38That's the whole thing.
07:39It's not hard to find a few of them.
07:40It's hard to stock up the entire bank with them.
07:46And on defense, they've certainly done.
07:48They've got more guys like that on offense now, too.
07:51I think, and honestly, I think they've got way more guys with that mentality.
07:56I don't know if the skill level or the physical potential is there yet.
08:01And that is going to maybe take another year or two.
08:04But I think they've got much more of the right mentality on offense right now.
08:08It's just a matter of just you've got to also have that tied to really good football players.
08:13It feels like it's easier to display that on defense than it is on offense as well.
08:18Yeah.
08:18You know, just that, just taking guys' heads off.
08:21I mean, you guys tackle it.
08:22No, yeah, and it's really it.
08:23It's a difference between on defense, it's like a heavy metal band.
08:26Yeah.
08:27On offense, it's got to be a little bit more like, you know, just good old classic rock.
08:32A little smooth jazz mixed in with some classic rock.
08:34Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:36That was Ryan Clark.
08:37Here's Marcus Spears saying sorry for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
08:41Guys, listen, we're going to be there for Monday night.
08:45I don't think the Steelers are a threat.
08:46I'm actually terrified for them.
08:48Because two weeks ago, I saw them only score six points against the Cleveland Browns.
08:52And this Houston Texans team, I never thought I would say this, is I don't think you want
08:58to play against them as an offense.
09:01Like, this is one of those situations where Aaron Rodgers last night took over the football
09:06game and did a phenomenal job.
09:08But we wasn't writing home about the Baltimore Ravens defense.
09:11We haven't wrote home about them all season long.
09:14This is a different animal.
09:15And the only reason I say that they're not a threat is because when you look at the game
09:19last night, it was still balls flying over the secondary head.
09:24Derrick Henry still was making explosive runs.
09:26And you saw the deficiencies that have shown up all season long.
09:31Now, getting DK back is unbelievably timely for what they're about to face against the
09:38Houston Texans.
09:40And the secondary, at times, you can win back there with time and ability, hopefully.
09:44That's the problem against Houston.
09:46You just don't have time.
09:47So, whatever game plan Aaron Rodgers comes up with, because, yes, I'm saying Aaron Rodgers,
09:53a lot of that I thought in the fourth quarter was on him.
09:55He's going to have to come up with the best one he's ever come up with in his life, playing
10:00against the Houston Texans front.
10:03I ain't even talking about the back end.
10:04The front alone, you better come up with the best game plan you ever came up with.
10:08I think one of the exciting things about the Texans versus any team is always the existence
10:16of the kill zone, that when he got over the middle, out in the flat, that they're going
10:23to take a hit.
10:24Oh, and there was a drop the other day that one of our listeners pointed out to me.
10:30For the life of me, I can't remember.
10:32But it was a dropped ball that looked like, man, that guy was well aware of the kill zone.
10:36The Rasheed Rice, that Rasheed Rice, that Jalen Petrie hit on Rasheed Rice.
10:41That was a Michael Pittman drop, by the way.
10:43That's right, the Michael Pittman drop.
10:45Yeah, evidence of the kill zone.
10:46A total kill zone drop, yes.
10:49But I think the fact that that happened on national television was some of the best advertising
10:54the Texans defense could get, and the fact that it was just shared on social media over
10:58and over and over again.
11:00You'll never find an offensive player to admit to being scared or nervous or anything.
11:04But those, man, Travis Kelsey, Travis Kelsey on the final play of that Chiefs game, that
11:10it was a bad pass.
11:12I think 98 times out of 100, he pulls that ball in and catches it at least.
11:18I agree.
11:18But he had Aziz Alshire bearing down on him.
11:20Yep.
11:21And then Miles Bryan ends up being the one who delivered the hit.
11:24Aziz gets the interception.
11:25But that's right there in the kill zone.
11:27Yep.
11:28And it's on their minds, man.
11:30They know that they're facing a bunch of savage barbarians.
11:33Yeah, that's exactly it.
11:35They're freaking Huns, man.
11:36Yeah, they are.
11:37They are.
11:38They do weird.
11:39It's like they don't just capture you and kill you.
11:41They disembowel you and put your head on a spike.
11:45Yeah, and I think there's something about that group that probably likes going on the
11:48road and doing it, too.
11:49You know, like, we're going to do it in front of your family.
11:53Yeah.
11:53That's what the real savages do.
11:54Yeah.
11:55EJ Speed in that Tyler Dunn article, you know, did the classic, don't get it wrong.
12:00We're not trying to hurt anybody.
12:02Okay, cool.
12:03Yeah.
12:03Wink, wink.
12:06What the hell?
12:07You don't want to hurt anybody with an illegal hit.
12:10Right.
12:10You want to, by the rules of the game, hurt him.
12:13It's just like, you never hit somebody as hard as you can thinking, oh, I hope he doesn't
12:20feel any pain on this play.
12:21Nobody's calling them a dirty team in all this stuff, you know?
12:25What's that?
12:25Nobody's calling them a dirty team.
12:26All these cuts that we play and all this video that pops up.
12:29Yeah.
12:30They're clean hits.
12:30Nobody's calling them a dirty team.
12:32Last one here, and then I want to get to the bulletin board question that I have.
12:35Here's Ben Solak of ESPN saying that the Texans can run the AFC this year.
12:41I think that the Texans can run the AFC even from the wild card spot.
12:44To me, that's kind of the storm clouds been gathering on the horizon here for the last several
12:48weeks as they've gotten better and better.
12:50It's not the strongest AFC field like we've talked about.
12:53That Texans defensive unit is a unit that can absolutely win three games in a row.
12:56They get an easy start, right, with getting the Steelers as the four seed.
12:59It's obviously not, you know, want to look ahead of the game.
13:01The Steelers have legitimate stuff.
13:02But in general, like, catching that four seed in both conferences is a big deal.
13:06So the Texans, to me, are, like, very viable to run out of the five seed in the AFC, which
13:09is not something we typically see a wild card team making it all the way through.
13:12That's what makes Sunday so fun, Seth, is that we're going to get the other two AFC games
13:18on Sunday.
13:20The early game is an AFC.
13:21I forget.
13:22The early game, I think, is that Jacksonville-Buffalo game that you talked about.
13:25It's got a lot of pepper on it right now between those two fan bases.
13:27And then the night game is the Chargers in New England, poor Chargers getting sent up
13:33to play at night up in New England all the way across country, although no negative body
13:37clock for them, at least.
13:38They're playing at 5 o'clock their body time, at least, as opposed to 9 a.m.
13:43in the morning.
13:44But as a Texan fan, getting to sit on Sunday and watch those two games is going to be so
13:50fun because the Texans could play, if they win, if they beat the Steelers, it can be anywhere
13:57from the Broncos to the Patriots to the Jags to even the Bills if the Chargers are able
14:02to pull off the upset as well.
14:04There are so many, as a five-seed, there are so many scenarios that can play out.
14:10And you're going to know, going into that game, what the situation is the following
14:14week if you're in that game.
14:14Yeah, that's fun.
14:15Yeah, that's a good one.
14:17You don't have to scoreboard watch.
14:19None of that.
14:20You don't have to wait to find out.
14:22What do you feel about the Monday night dynamic for this week?
14:25Do you think, because Tomlin yesterday, there was a clip floating around on social media
14:31where it said, oh, Tomlin's excited that he found out it was a Monday night game because
14:35of their 23-0 on Monday night games in the last 23 games or whatever it is.
14:40The actual clip, the point he makes was he's glad it's a Monday night game because it'll
14:44give him an extra day to rest up and heal.
14:47And I think, I feel like both teams, obviously, at this point in the year are going to benefit
14:54from having an extra day of rest.
14:57Yeah.
14:57I think the Texans, defensively especially, we know the difference in that defense when
15:02there's Kamari Lasseter on the field versus when he's not.
15:05Yeah.
15:05It's just, it's night and day.
15:07So Kamari Lasseter being as healthy as possible.
15:09Derek Stingley's been working through this oblique injury.
15:11Like, I don't know which team benefits more, but I think the Texans have a much better
15:17chance of being the peak version.
15:20I totally agree with you.
15:20I'm all for the Monday night game.
15:22If it were the Texans of two years ago, the first year of D'Amico Ryans and CJ Stroud,
15:27I would have actually been nervous for that because that was a team that played all Sunday
15:31noon games the entire year.
15:33So they hadn't really been able to flesh out the dynamic of playing a four-day week or a
15:38six-day week or a 10-day week, the de facto bi-week you get from a Thursday night game,
15:43all of those things.
15:44So I would have been more nervous a couple of years ago about it.
15:48This time around, I'm with Seth on this one.
15:50I think the extra day of rest is really, really good.
15:53This is a Texans team that's played all sorts of different primetime scenarios and Thursday
15:58scenarios and whatnot over the course of the last two seasons.
16:02So I'm not too worried about it.
16:05I like the Monday night dynamic.
16:06I, I'm not overly concerned about the Steelers and their 23 straight Monday night wins.
16:12It's an impressive feat.
16:13There's no doubt about that.
16:14Um, but I'm not, I'm not super concerned.
16:17I like the fact that, that they're playing on Monday night.
16:19I like the fact that they get the big stage.
16:21I think it's a team that's performed well on some big stages here over the last eight
16:26to 10 weeks here.
16:27So, um, so I think it's going to be really, really good.
16:29So the Texans are getting a lot of love nationally right now, as we just played Dan Orlovsky,
16:34bad matchup for Pittsburgh, Ryan Clark, this Texans defense tries to hurt you.
16:38Marcus Spears feels bad, actually feels bad for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
16:43Ben Solak, the Texans can run the AFC.
16:46My thing is that the Texans, if you're somebody, if you're a head coach who likes bulletin board
16:53material for your team, if you're a head coach that likes bulletin board material for your
16:57team, because we know those coaches.
17:00Liam Cohen, I think is addicted to bulletin board material.
17:02I think he fabricates and creates bulletin board material.
17:06I can't find bulletin board material for the Texans.
17:10I've, I've never experienced this dynamic.
17:12Seth, last year at this time, we were replaying over and over again, Rex Ryan saying the Chargers
17:17got a bye week.
17:18Yeah.
17:19And the players brought that up after the game too, when they beat the Chargers in that
17:23wildcard, they, Joe Mixon with a cigar, looking into a camera saying, where are you at?
17:28Rex Ryan, where are you at?
17:29Rex Ryan.
17:30I can't find, I think there's bulletin board for all six other AFC teams out there.
17:34Yeah.
17:35I don't think there's any that I can find for the Texans right now.
17:37Even their offense, which has been average at best this year.
17:41I feel like more people are giving benefit of the doubt to the offense than are saying
17:45this is what's going to drag them down.
17:47Yeah.
17:47We've talked about this where sometimes the perception within a city is different than the
17:51perception outside of the city.
17:52And usually it's that you find people within your city defensive about things and everything.
17:59Now I find myself a lot.
18:01I do think that CJ's getting some criticism that I think is undeserved.
18:06But I see people outside of Houston talking about the offenses almost as if that it's a really
18:15good offense or something.
18:16And it just flat out is not.
18:18It's, they've been really good, they've been really good at doing what they need to do
18:22in the fourth quarter.
18:23Yeah.
18:23And that's, and I'm not saying that as a backhanded compliment or anything, but it's an average
18:28offense.
18:29Scoring, et cetera, et cetera.
18:31They're about an average offense.
18:33They're a really bad red zone offense, but for this team, it's enough so far.
18:38But like, yeah, talking about this matchup is almost like the Texans defense is the only
18:44thing that matters.
18:45Yeah.
18:45And I wouldn't even, I would take it even beyond, you're right.
18:48I would take it even beyond this matchup that so many people talking the way Ben Solak is
18:53that like, oh no, they, if they, if you know, they got to go to new England, the Texans
18:57can handle their business.
18:57If they got to go to Denver, they can.
19:00And, and even with those teams, take the Texans out of the equation for the, let's take
19:03the Broncos and the Patriots, the number one and two seeds.
19:07I think, I think there's more bulletin board material for Sean Payton and Mike Vrabel than
19:11there is for D'Amico Ryans right now.
19:13Like the people bringing up with the Broncos, I mean, we've, I know I've said it and I
19:18know, you know, the, the, I mean, you've watched the same Broncos team.
19:21I have, all they do is win close games.
19:23They're fifth in point differential in the AFC.
19:26So there's four teams that have been by that metric more dominant than them.
19:30There, there may be the most lightly regarded one seed that I can remember in a long, long
19:34time, because typically the one seed has been, you know, it's been Mahomes or it's been,
19:39you know, some, some other team.
19:40I know the Titans were the one seed one year.
19:42Maybe they were lightly regarded like this too.
19:44And they rightfully, so they ended up getting knocked off as a one seed.
19:48I think Denver is, is for what their record is this year, bulletin board material.
19:53They've got it.
19:53The Patriots, they had the same record as Denver and people are like, well, they're phony.
19:57They didn't beat anybody this year.
19:59I saw a stat yesterday.
20:00They had the most snaps against bad starters or backup quarterbacks, bad starting quarterbacks
20:08or backup quarterbacks.
20:09This season, the percentage of snaps that the Patriots played was the highest percentage
20:14of any team in the NFL.
20:15So they played bad teams, bad quarterbacks.
20:17And I guarantee to you, Peyton, Nick Vrabel, and we know Liam Cohen, I'm just bringing up
20:23the top three seeds.
20:24These are all teams that are seated ahead of the Texans.
20:27The Jaguars are underdogs at home.
20:29That's all the bulletin board material.
20:31Liam Cohen needs is, is Vegas.
20:33Despite an eight game winning streak where they have been utterly dominant in this eight game
20:38winning streak in terms of point differential.
20:40So I, I, it's just, it is as a Texan fan, this is such a one 80 this time of year for
20:46what we're used to.
20:47The interesting, somebody had a stat yesterday that my knee jerk reaction was like, all right,
20:51great.
20:52Well, but it's, you know what?
20:53It's, I think it's accurate and it's valid to point out.
20:56And it's a good stat.
20:57It's that on the Texans nine game win streak, they've scored 20 or more points in eight of
21:03those nine games.
21:04And, and my first reaction is, all right, 20 points in the NFL isn't all that impressive.
21:09I think for an, for an average offense where they land, they're just average, you know,
21:16the average number of points scored by an offense is 24 points in a game that they're
21:21consistently at least giving you that performance.
21:23It's not like they've got a bunch of 30 plus performances, but then a bunch of games where
21:29they, they, they only scored seven or 10 points or what have you like that is.
21:33It's saying something that they have that consistency and that as long as the defense,
21:38if you're still, you're going to need an incredible defensive performance to, to run the table
21:44in the playoffs versus good teams, you're going to need, it will be, and we know this defense
21:49is capable of it.
21:50It's just really, really hard to do, but the offense is they're, they're consistent at the
21:56very least.
21:56And they're giving you 20 plus points.
21:59If the defense puts out a superhuman effort, a couple of times, that might be enough.
22:03Yeah, it may be.
22:05It may be at the very least to get to an AFC title game.
22:07It's hard to do four games in a row like that.
22:10Yeah.
22:10But at the very least winning the next couple of games, but this, this Sunday is going to be a
22:15blast, man.
22:16Watch it.
22:16Just getting to sit back and watch these other two AFC games.
22:18And then you go into Monday going, okay.
22:20I mean, there is a possibility they're going into Monday night.
22:23If the chargers are able to upset the Patriots and that's a three and a half point spread.
22:27That is not a big spread.
22:29That's a winnable game for the chargers.
22:31I'm not picking the chargers, but they can win that football game.
22:34And if the bills are able to beat the Jags, which again, I would probably pick the job.
22:38I'd probably take, if I'm getting the Jags as an underdog at home, the way they're playing
22:42right now against the bills, I would probably take the Jags.
22:45So I probably take the Pats and the, and the Jags.
22:47If I had to, if I was betting on those games, but I'll sure as hell be rooting for the bills.
22:51I'm not going to bet on either of those games.
22:52I'll be rooting for the bills and the chargers.
22:54The Texans could be going into the Monday night game against the Steelers playing for the
22:58possibility of a home game in the divisional round, which has never happened for them before.
23:02The one, uh, the, I, Oh, I thought I said, yeah, I sent this to you yesterday that, uh,
23:08the, the line hasn't moved yet, uh, at all, but at least according to, to one book, uh, or
23:14one person, uh, on the, the other night was the, the, the 72% of the money had been bet
23:22on Houston.
23:23Yeah.
23:23And that's the one that made me wonder, like, okay, the line's not moving.
23:26And 80, like 82% of the money is going to Houston actually.
23:33So it's not just that the public versus the sharps or anything that people are looking at
23:38that line and saying, Hey, all right, what am I missing here?
23:43If, uh, if they still haven't moved the line that much, it just, why is the public so overly
23:49ebullient about the Texans chances?
23:50And it might just simply be a combination of not just the offense on the road, but the
23:56offense in, in cold weather conditions.
23:59And CJ Stroud has yet to have a really impressive game in cold weather in the NFL.
24:04Yeah.
24:04And for, take that for whatever it's worth, small sample size, it's only been versus good
24:09defenses.
24:10It's been his cold weather games have basically been the chiefs and the Ravens.
24:14Yeah.
24:15Multiple games against those two teams.
24:17That's it.
24:18And yet he just, he hasn't proven yet that he can have a great NFL performance in cold
24:24weather.
24:24So maybe it's as simple as that.
24:25I love that.
24:26The tweet that you sent me with all those numbers on it, all that data that tells me,
24:30I think Vegas thinks that the Steelers are a very, very live underdog.
24:33Yeah.
24:34They haven't moved that thing to three and a half because of all that money.
24:37And for those, you know, those who haven't seen it, I mean, the numbers are,
24:40they're like set by all different sorts of books and metrics, like 80% of the money
24:45is on the Texans right now.
24:47And then the conspiracy theory starts already.
24:49The guy that tweeted, it says Vegas is not letting the Steelers lose.
24:52They're not letting them lose.
24:54I love that.
24:55I absolutely love that.
24:57Yeah.
24:58I mean, so that's no bulletin board material.
25:00Now we did get a text from somebody, Seth saying, go find Nick Wright's take on this
25:04game.
25:05Oh yeah.
25:06There's some bulletin board material for the Texans.
25:08I have not seen that.
25:09Have you, have you, I guess, I did, I saw it last night and I didn't, I couldn't,
25:14I didn't click on it, but he, he, one of the, yeah, there was one, he had three bullet
25:18points and one of them raised my, raised my hackles a little bit.
25:23Three bullet points about that game specific about the Steelers Texans game.
25:26Okay.
25:27We'll go back and we'll find it during the break.
25:29We've got lots of show left.
25:30We've got lots of week left.
25:32We like playing Nick Wright audio.
25:33Nick's a friend, except if he's picking the Steelers, then we're not friends anymore.
25:37Sorry, Nick, Cal McNair and Hannah McNair were in studio with us yesterday.
25:41It was a fun conversation.
25:42If you missed it, you can go back and get it on the pain and Pendergast podcast.
25:47It, they were in studio for about 25 minutes at the end of the show yesterday.
25:50We talked about a lot of different things.
25:52We'll play some more audio from them later.
25:54I wanted to play this one here though.
25:55Now, since we're talking about the Texans and the season they're having, how much love
25:58they're getting.
25:58Um, what was it like in the building after the Owen three start?
26:03And Cal said, uh, Cal, Cal dished out what, what the advice he, the advice that he gave
26:08to D'Amico Ryan's, you knew it was there.
26:10You just couldn't believe you were Owen three.
26:11Yeah.
26:11I told coach, this may be the best thing to happen to you.
26:14He said, what?
26:17I said, yeah, if you were three and Oh, you'd think you're a really great team and really
26:21cooking and you've got a lot to work on this team.
26:24And he goes, yeah, we've got a lot to work on and, but, and yet you're one play away.
26:28You're, you're a fumble going into score.
26:31You're a missed tackle to win the game and you get those.
26:35And, and, and, and now you get to really roll your sleeves up, test the metal of your
26:39team and you gotta be better and really get this thing turned around.
26:42This is what hearing that yesterday, what the immediate popped into my mind is all the
26:46people after the Owen three start that were firing everybody, fire this guy, fire that
26:50guy.
26:50The owner was walking up to D'Amico saying this might be the best thing that ever happened to
26:53you.
26:53Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:56And I think like three games into a season, obviously that's really, really heating up
27:02at that point.
27:03Haley and Casario.
27:04Those were the two that were catching.
27:05Because of the state of the offensive line, et cetera, et cetera.
27:08And understandably so you get it.
27:11I think that it is true though, with a coach, like, okay, find me the NFL head coach, good
27:16NFL head coach who isn't miserable about the way his football team is performing.
27:21And you, it's a, it's a very small, it's a, it's an empty room.
27:25Yeah.
27:25Like look at D'Amico.
27:27Like there is, and this is why I said, I get so frustrated when people act like somehow
27:32you and I are too nitpicky because we're not nearly on the same level of what D'Amico is
27:37feeling about his football team.
27:38Yep.
27:38You win nine games in a row, but then you have a few coverage busts.
27:42Your fear as a football coach is, man, these guys are just getting too comfortable.
27:48They just, they're, they're reading their press clippings.
27:50They think, they think that they can just roll in and win.
27:53We got to figure out a way to send the message to these guys that they need to tighten it up.
27:58And it gets harder and harder with each successive win because it just, that, that natural
28:04motivator of wanting to go out and avenge last week's loss isn't there.
28:08So that's where I like D'Amico looked miserable on Monday.
28:12Do you, do you think he did after his ninth straight victory, he looked absolutely miserable
28:17in that press conference.
28:18Okay.
28:18I was so glad when you texted me back because I had watched the press conference live and
28:23then I texted you.
28:24I'm like, man, D'Amico is, he's ornery today and you hadn't watched it yet.
28:29And I was glad you texted me pretty much the same things I was sending to you.
28:35Cause I know you thought there was a chance I might've been overreacting to it.
28:38And I was glad that I was appropriately.
28:41I think the thing where you and I differed was that I think you can speculate as to the
28:47million different reasons that he might've been agitated in that press conference.
28:52And I think you thought that, okay, it's because he's unhappy with the defense and those
28:56big plays allowed because they lost the number one scoring title.
29:00Yeah.
29:00Right.
29:01And I didn't, and I said, that's very possible, but it also could be for myriad other reasons,
29:06including, and I wondered, okay, I wonder if they just either got bad news on an injury
29:11or maybe they've got to cut somebody and they've made that decision.
29:15The next day they did cut cave on wall.
29:17Oh, you know?
29:18So like he's kind of wrestling with that.
29:20Now he's got to go in and talk about the defense to the media.
29:23So it could be, you never know.
29:25Somebody could have something going on in their personal life.
29:27You just, you just flat out don't know.
29:29I think it's, I don't think we're reading into it to say he definitely looked way more
29:34agitated and in a more dour mood than he usually ever is.
29:41Yeah.
29:42You know, even when things are tough, he's usually like a pretty fun loving guy in there.
29:47As far as the actual scoring title goes, again, this is from that Tyler Dunn article.
29:51Um, you and I kind of argued about, or we, we wondered, okay, how much are they really
29:55thinking about the number one scoring defense or whatever?
29:58Yep.
29:58This is from Tyler Dunn on go long TD in Houston.
30:01At the beginning of the 2025 season, Matt Burke plastered the top scoring defenses in NFL
30:07history up on the board and discuss the legends of the sport.
30:11Uh, and, uh, he's in, and Burke said, let's aim for real stuff.
30:16Doesn't matter what other people outside the building say.
30:18It's what our standard is we're shooting for.
30:22Yeah.
30:22So, yeah, I think, I think it's safe to say that they cared about that number one scoring
30:26defense and they relinquished it in the final game of the season against Riley Leonard.
30:31That's the thing.
30:31If you relinquish it in a meaningful game, then, and I know there was meaning to that game.
30:37And look, I said myself, I was, I was upset that they took the starters out at halftime because
30:41they're because of the five, I feel like the five seed is a better spot than the six seed.
30:45So there was meaning to that game, but it was, it wasn't like two years ago where the
30:50two teams, the winner, the winner stays in and the loser goes home.
30:53If it was a game with those kinds of stakes against a real starting quarterback, not Riley
30:58Leonard, you can excuse that, I suppose.
31:00Yeah.
31:00It's one of the, and honestly though, too, and I wonder with D'Amico, how much of it, he,
31:05how much of the criticism he was, you know, putting on himself, which again, NFL head coaches
31:10are miserable, partly because they're always blaming themselves for every single thing.
31:15Um, I thought, okay, so Dan Gable was a wrestler, uh, one of the all time great wrestlers in
31:20American history, amateur wrestling at the time, amateur, um, he was undefeated in college
31:26wrestling, just destroyed everybody.
31:28Yes.
31:29He'd won three straight national championships.
31:30The final match of his NCAA wrestling career, he got defeated in the finals of the national
31:37tournament, um, by a guy that he had no, no business losing to.
31:42Wow.
31:43And when he talked about it, you know, he's talked, he's done multiple interviews about
31:47it afterwards over the years.
31:48And really it, for him, what he blames is that he, he changed his process that year, that
31:54year going in, there was just all kinds of, they were doing wide world of sports.
31:59It's special and he was still taking it very seriously, but for the first time in his career,
32:04he started, he started thinking about what strategy he should have versus that opponent
32:10and how he might need to alter his game.
32:12And that had never been his process before.
32:14And, uh, you know, and it was something he would do later on and when he would compete
32:18in the Olympics.
32:19But at that point in his career, that was, he, he strayed from what his process was and
32:24he ends up losing the game.
32:25And you got to wonder with D'Amico going into that game, you know, all his instincts
32:29tell him, Nope, we're going into this game.
32:32We're going to win this game.
32:33No matter what, but what happened, they changed the process.
32:37They benched the starters.
32:38They did all these things that were different and without being able to point your finger
32:42to any one thing, it was just, they strayed from the process and it led them to so many
32:47great performances and it's probably driving him insane right now.
32:52Cause they lost that number one scoring title because of it.
32:55Yeah.
32:55Yeah.
32:56Yeah.
32:56Yeah.
32:56And Hey, I w if I had to console him, I would say at least you won the game, right?
33:02You didn't, you didn't compromise anything in terms of the big picture.
33:04Like nobody's, I don't think look at you and be like, Oh yeah.
33:07Oh, I hadn't noticed Sean.
33:09Thanks.
33:10Thanks, Sean.
33:11You want to talk about the Steelers now?
33:13Well, I'm just trying to take a page out of Cal's book and say, Hey D'Amico, this might
33:17be the best thing to ever happen to you.
33:19Losing the scoring title.
33:20I don't know how that would be, but it might be motivationally, you know, like now again,
33:24if that's something the guys really cared about and I imagine they do, um, then that's,
33:29it might as well be a loss in the, in the, in the win loss column, you know, emotionally,
33:34motivationally, all those things.
33:36So it might be the best thing that could have happened to them is that they got that extra
33:39little bit of, man, this isn't who we are.
33:42No, we're going to go out and avenge ourselves.
33:44We're going to take it out on Aaron Rogers.
33:45Yeah.
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