00:00On Sports Radio 610, here's The Drive with Sterner and Hugh Gley.
00:07Yeah, I think we moved the ball really well.
00:09Even the first quarter, we just, you know, I had the intentional ground in and missed a couple reads.
00:15You know, and I think, you know, there was a couple of those, you know, in every aspect.
00:21And I think at the end of the day we overcame it, and that's a good thing.
00:25But we've got to get those things fixed, you know, if we want to go win in the playoffs.
00:27And, you know, I'm aware of that, and I think our coaches are, and I know our, you know, everybody is here.
00:32So we're going to get those things fixed, and, you know, but at the end of the day it's all about finishing and getting wins.
00:37And I think the way we ended this game is a testament to how our season's kind of gone.
00:41A lot of up and down, you know, but I think if you just stay faithful, you stay faithful, you have faith when it's easy.
00:48You know, but when it gets a little hard, you know, who has the real faith.
00:50And the work that we've put in, I think, you know, we trust in one another, you know, to get the job done.
00:54All right, that was C.J. Stroud talking about their performance yesterday.
01:01Offensively spoke about himself a little bit there, as well as they win that game against the Colts.
01:08But he played a half.
01:09He played a half.
01:10There was no Nico Collins out there for him as well.
01:14No Trent Brown, as he didn't play.
01:16But most everybody else was there until the second half, and then they pulled him and others in the run game as well.
01:25But he went 14 of 23 in this game against the Colts.
01:29Clint, 169, one touchdown, had a 97.9 quarterback rating, two rushes, and one resulted in a touchdown on that kind of misplay,
01:40missed assignment, missed handoff in the red zone where he was able to turn that into a touchdown.
01:47713-5724-610, YouTube and Twitch, what was the grade for you on C.J. Stroud?
01:54What did you think about his performance yesterday?
01:56I'm going to go with a B- on limited play, right?
02:00I mean, look, it's hard to be super critical when there's six possessions and five of them you score on.
02:07Five of them end in points, right?
02:10You know, you look at kind of how some of the drives stalled that ended up being field goals.
02:15One of them was, lays it like directly at the feet of C.J. Stroud with the grounding penalty.
02:22You know, but when you look at third and 16 field goal, two-yard drive thanks to the defense.
02:29One, the touchdown pass was a good little drive, the touchdown pass to Higgins, right?
02:34Then you run out of time on the last one and you kick a field goal.
02:36So, I mean, there's really only one drive there that stalled and didn't end in points.
02:41So, it's really hard to be critical in those situations.
02:43But the grounding, obviously, is an issue.
02:46And then you look at the botched play from the one or two-yard line.
02:51We can all laugh and joke about, ha-ha, Tommy Togiai got a touchdown or he missed it.
02:57He ended up getting it anyway.
02:57But the reality of it is when you're in a playoff game and you botch a play at the two-yard line, it can lose a ball game, right?
03:11And C.J. Stroud in the postgame presser said, you know, we didn't rep this much or whatever.
03:16There was some kind of like soft layup excuse of we didn't rep this much.
03:20We ripped it and walked through, I think.
03:22Like, Gerard Johnson told me not to skip out from underneath the center and I, for some reason, just by habit, I skipped out so I got too deep.
03:30Like, all of these kind of, again, soft layup excuses of why the play was botched is, look, again, it's funny because you win.
03:38It's a game you only played half the game, yada, yada, yada.
03:40But that kind of stuff has been an ongoing issue with this team.
03:44Struggles inside the 10-yard line, struggles punching it in.
03:49We've seen balls snap between the quarterback's legs and picked up and scored a touchdown.
03:54And we he-he-ha-ha because Woody Marks picked it up.
03:56In reality, that crap can't happen inside the five-yard line, right?
04:00That loses playoff games inside the five-yard line.
04:03And so, I got to, I guess, consider that when talking about the grade for C.J.
04:09So, I'm going to go B-minus just on a couple of decisions that were, I think, were subpar in the limited time that he played.
04:17So, overall, I think it was a pretty good job.
04:20I'm not worried about C.J.
04:21I think it's a pretty good job of moving the football, scoring points, taking care of the football once again.
04:27But, you know, in the playoffs, every single play matters even more.
04:33Everything's magnified times 10.
04:35And, you know, those little things like that are the grounding penalties that end up in a third and 24.
04:41Yeah.
04:41He mentioned that himself.
04:43Yeah.
04:43He heard there.
04:43Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:44I think those are decisions and execution that's got to improve.
04:49Yeah.
04:50713-5724-16, YouTube and Twitch.
04:53C.J. Stroud is great.
04:54How do you think he played yesterday?
04:57Yeah, I'll say B-plus.
04:58You know, with him 14-23, you would think, especially with the Colts, there was no Sauce Gardner out there.
05:08I don't believe Tarverius Ward played either.
05:11That's not a team that really plays a lot of tight coverage, right?
05:14There's opening there.
05:15So, you would think the completion percentage would be better than it was.
05:20But, also, I think it is a big deal when you don't got your main dude out there, right?
05:27Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:28No Nico Collins being out there, which, you know, obviously changes the game for him and changes the game for the offense and changes the openings there.
05:38But, you know, I think for a half to get almost 170 yards and he got two total touchdowns, he played well.
05:46Now, I am with you, he, and not just he, but everybody else, but the offense, they are going to have to play better and be more focused, you know, game in and snap in and every drive in the postseason for them to have the success that they want.
06:06But the big deal is, doesn't turn the ball over, got the ball in the end zone, however you talk about it, twice, in a way which has been a struggle for them in the red zone.
06:15So, you know, from that point of view, pretty good.
06:19But he's got to play better.
06:21He's got to hit some throws.
06:22This is now, what, a couple of games here in a row where there have been more misses than you would think from him.
06:30I think here's the deal, man, is I've got zero concern.
06:34If this were a league where you could dictate what kind of defenses you come up against, C.J. Stroud would win the Super Bowl.
06:44I mean, C.J. Stroud is as good as anybody out there.
06:46When there's no pressure looks and it's just a matter of snap the football, process what's going on defensively, coverage-wise, and distribute the football accurately, he can do that.
06:57He said it himself.
06:58He can do that at the second and third level of the field as good as anybody in the league.
07:02And, you know, he's getting significantly better at the patient stuff and underneath.
07:06And this is another game where he hits some – I mean, look, he hits Xavier Hudson in stride a couple of times, and he goes and has big gains.
07:12I mean, I don't want to overlook those things.
07:14The reality of it is C.J. is as good as anybody in the league when it comes to we're going to get zone coverages
07:19or we're going to get man without pressure, however you want to couch it.
07:22You know, you're going to get – you're not going to get a pressure look.
07:25The problem – teams can – when you go through a game and, like, you end up in third and 24 because of a grounding.
07:33The next play you end up – the next drive you end up in third and 16 because of something,
07:36because of an illegal man downfield or something.
07:37And, like, when those things happen, right, and you're having to kick field goals,
07:44then, you know, you're going to end up seeing pressures.
07:49You're going to end up seeing pressures when the game is tight or it's a one-score game
07:54because you've ended up in all these – you've hurt yourself and ended up in field goal situations
07:58instead of sustaining drives.
08:00Now the game is tight.
08:02You're going to see pressures.
08:02And that's the question with C.J. and his offense is executing when they just show pressure,
08:08whether they bring it or not, right, and having answers when they do bring it is one part of it.
08:13But if they just show it and bail and show these exotic looks and bail, then we struggle with it.
08:19And so, you know, if you're going to walk in here and think you're going to play bend, don't break, please,
08:24I wish you would.
08:25I wish you would.
08:27C.J. will tear your ass up and he'll –
08:29You better get pressure.
08:29That's it.
08:30You better find a way to get pressure with four.
08:31You better have Myles Garrett on that one end or T.J. Watt better go off
08:34or Highsmith better go off or, you know, you better –
08:37The reality of it is we're going to see pressure.
08:40The more success – C.J. gets a fast start, you're going to –
08:43what happened against the two touchdowns, the Chargers, the two quick touchdowns against.
08:48All of a sudden, you started seeing some exotic looks up front,
08:51crowd in the line of scrimmage.
08:52That's when we get in trouble.
08:53And you're going to see that.
08:55If they sit back, C.J.'s as good as anybody in the league.
08:58Text line coming in.
08:59C.J., I'll give him a C.
09:00Maybe someone – C.J. is in his head.
09:02Mistakes almost cost this team.
09:04He gets an F.
09:06I think –
09:06What mistakes?
09:08There were some critical calls in the postgame presser last night, too.
09:11Was it?
09:11I just feel like –
09:12And I've not seen the –
09:13To go F?
09:14I've not seen –
09:14No, that's aggressive.
09:15But I'm just –
09:16There were some calls that were critical of C.J.
09:17And I was like, what –
09:19I don't –
09:20Like, I know he missed a couple of throws.
09:22There's just going to be some people right now
09:24that are going to be that way with C.J.
09:26I mean, we got some people on here convinced that –
09:29Talking about Mills 4-1.
09:31There's just going to be some people that –
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