Why We're Concerned about WHO is Picking the Texans to Win

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

Seth and Sean talk about why some of the people picking the Texans to win on Monday night has them a little worried.

Transcript

00:00I saw the, I haven't watched the video yet, Seth, those NFL.com videos that come out that

00:05preview the games that have the really funny guy in them. I haven't watched the video, but

00:09there have been people that do that little screen grab thing at the end where they show all 10 of

00:14the NFL network experts and what their prediction is on the game. And it's really easy to kind of

00:19visualize because they got the logos for each of the picks and things like that. And nine of the

00:2410 NFL.com experts are picking the Houston Texans to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. The only one that

00:31isn't is Daniel Jeremiah. He's picking the Steelers 17. Jeremiah is against us. Oh, he's against us.

00:38And an obvious Catholic to your point. Clearly. Yes. Yeah. Jeremiah, one of the most level-headed

00:48and likable guys in sports media. I now despise him. I'm going to DM him. No, I think I have his

00:54phone number. I'm going to text him. I bet you do have his phone number. It's even more hateful

00:57when you actually text the guy. I'm going to text him and ask him what the hell he's been.

01:03Daniel Jeremiah, a notoriously sober and even-keeled individual, has obviously himself

01:09become a crackhead that John Lopez might find himself peeing on at some point. Right. That's

01:14right. No, you're right, though, because for a long time, those NFL networks, they would

01:19be choosing against the Texans very aggressively. Clean sweep against the Bills. Yeah. Clean sweep

01:27against the Chiefs. That same panel of 10 people all picked the Chiefs to beat the Texans

01:33and all picked the Bills. And Josh Allen, who we know is basically Josh Rosen, when he comes

01:39here to NRG Stadium, they all picked the Bills on that Thursday night game this week. Yeah.

01:43So I'm a little terrified right now. It's offensive when you have a unanimous selection like that

01:50in a game that, as objectively as possible, you look at it and you say, well, the line

01:55is three points. Yeah. Okay. I question, what does all the group think going on here? It's

02:01not like it's a huge upset to pick the Steelers or the Texans. Yeah. So we distrust their near

02:08unanimous opinion that the Texans are going to win this game. Very much. It is. The Steelers

02:12are a really annoying team in that they are like, they're, they're doing a lot of things

02:18just adequately. Okay. They're not a horrible football team. They're not one of the best

02:25teams in the league, but on any given Sunday, it's a, yes, they could, they could go toe

02:30to toe with anybody. And Aaron Rogers, again, he's, is one of the, he's a, he's an adequate

02:34quarterback this year. He's nothing close to what he used to be, but he got 24 touchdowns

02:39and seven interceptions. He's not pushing the ball downfield or anything, but they're

02:44taking care of the football, et cetera, et cetera. So a lot of things you could say that

02:47there's similar to the Texans offense. Um, the, the biggest difference in this game is

02:52simply the Texans defense of the four major units on the field, the two offenses and the

02:57two defenses is one of the very best, uh, in the league. And nobody, none of these other

03:03platoons can match what the Texans defense does. But as we know, that makes for some tight

03:08football games, he, uh, he's a major upgrade over what they had last year. Remember they

03:12made the playoffs last year, but it was with Russell Wilson at quarterback and Russell Wilson

03:16was terrible. It was Justin Wilson, just falling apart in December. And then at various points,

03:24you know, down the stretch, they were 10 and three and they finished 10 and seven last year.

03:27So they finished 10 and seven this year, but I think it is a, I think it is a different 10

03:31and seven Steeler team this year. Still one. That's not getting a lot of respect though. Like

03:35we said, nine of the 10 people who, uh, pick for the NFL network are picking this, the Texans

03:41to win this game. They're, they're not alone. It's really hard to find people. It's, it's

03:45hard to find people picking the Steelers in this game. And it's, and it's hard to find people

03:50that don't think the Texans are just going to completely dominate on the defensive side

03:53of the ball, which is a little strange because they haven't been dominant defensively for, for

04:00about a month now. And they've been good, but they haven't been dominant defensively.

04:03Well, you know, one thing that when you look around the league and you, in December, there's

04:06always going to be teams that have a curious performance here or there. And, and it's easy

04:11to point to injuries because of it. And with the Texans, you can very easily point to injuries

04:16on the defense in the last couple of weeks, especially versus the chargers. Well, versus

04:22the Raiders, you had the Z's Alshire out versus the chargers, just Kamari Lassiter going

04:27out for a couple of series ended up being a really big deal. Last week you play nothing.

04:33You know, you play a smattering of starters in the second half on defense, start on offense

04:40in the second half. And it's very easy to see why there was a little bit of a relapse

04:45or a relaxation by the defense in the last few weeks of the season. So the big question

04:50is just, all right, with, I don't, I don't worry about the Texans defense as long as they

04:55have their, all their starters back. Most notably from the last few weeks of the season,

04:59Aziz Alshire and Kamari Lassiter. One of the real big questions is just that safety position

05:05opposite Kalen Bullock. That's the, I mean, and that's been an issue all year. I say issue

05:11in air quotes because they've been a top three defense without a steady safety next to Kalen

05:18Bullock, but it's still, it's an unknown. You know, Kayvon Wallace was cut. He started the

05:24last two games. He's signed back to the practice squad so they could elevate him again.

05:28Could elevate him. Yeah. But nobody knows, you know, Jalen Reed might come back. We just

05:31don't know exactly what's going on right there. Miles Bryant. We should throw his name in there

05:35because that's who Kayvon Wallace replaced at safety when Reed went out with the, the arm

05:40injury. So yet none of the solutions are great, but like you said, they've been playing a high

05:44level of defense that whatever, whatever, whoever is playing that position, you just can't have

05:50big busts like they had in that Colts game. You can't be, you can't be something that takes

05:54these other, you know, nine to 10 high level players that you've got out there. And all

06:00of a sudden completely negates that because you're making bad mistakes, like letting Alec

06:03Pierce run behind you for a wide open touchdown. Can't do that. You know, the, um, if you look

06:08at these two offenses for both the Steelers and the Texans, I mean, they're, they're mediocre

06:13offenses. I think the one difference in the one thing that sets them the Steelers rushing

06:20offense and Gainwell and Warren, that combo of, of running backs running behind that offensive

06:27line. They can do some damage, not necessarily explosive damage or anything, but just steadily

06:33moving the sticks, making Aaron Rogers feel like he can, he can play like an old man that's

06:38taking care of the football and just be selective and taking his shots downfield. Um, the Texans,

06:44I don't think they're going to do much versus the Texans defense, but that does set them apart

06:49a little bit from the way the Texans operate where the, the rushing offense, it, it's been

06:54able to show up when they need it in the fourth quarter, but they can't, they, you can't really

06:59rely on it throughout the entire games consistently. The thing that scares me about both of those

07:04guys is that they, they are pretty good after contact. They're pretty good at breaking tackles.

07:08If the Texans have one of their nights like they had against the Raiders with Ashton

07:13or I'll go all the way back to week two, when they, they made Bucky Irving, you know,

07:19look like, uh, Eric Dickerson, you know, like they, the, the Texans are capable. And especially

07:24if the field conditions aren't great, they're, they're capable of having one of those games

07:29where like tackle tackle. And, and I think gain well and Warren in particular can hurt you

07:35from that standpoint.

07:36No, the one thing they have, they have gotten a lot better this year at yardage after the

07:42catch. The, the Texans were, last time I looked there, I think they were the fourth best defense

07:47in terms of total yards after catch. Um, and you go back to last year in the playoffs and

07:53man, they got destroyed by Travis Kelsey specific, um, with yardage after the catch. And that's,

08:02they've really hemmed that up that article and go long TV talked about the way they practice and

08:07how there's so much more of an emphasis on just actually, even though, you know, they're wearing pads

08:13late in the season in practice, which a lot of teams don't do. And it's not enough just to tag the

08:18guy. You got to thud the guy. Um, but they're still practicing more physically than a lot of teams

08:23do late, late, late in the year. And, and it's shown up, it's shown up in the stats. They've gotten

08:28better at that, but yeah, there's always, they're always capable of a relapse.

08:31Yeah. And I think that article, I read that article took the two hours. It took to recap.

08:36That was a long, it was two articles that were both super long and a great read on the Texans

08:41defense by Tyler Dunn. He go long. TD is his website. It's a, it's a paywall. So you, you know,

08:48you, you, you need to pay to read the whole thing. It's excellent. It's a really good article.

08:52The biggest takeaway for me for all that was the deep dive he did on his ease out Shire and how

08:58important having a healthy as ease out Shire and I'll say healthy physically and healthy mentally

09:05because he went deep. Uh, Tyler Dunn did on the place that Aziz was at psychologically last year

09:12at this time. Cause if you recall this time a year ago, he was public enemy. Number one,

09:16he was defending himself against John Runyon, the head of discipline for the NFL. He was literally

09:21flying to New York to sit down with the league. Aziz was because of how he was being painted as a

09:26super villain after the Trevor Lawrence hit. Um, and he was physically dealing with a lot of stuff

09:32too. They, there was an anecdote in there about how during one of the games they had to drain his

09:35knee at halftime or something like that. Yeah. And Z in that East game, healthy Aziz. And I know

09:43Aziz has been dealing with some things this year though, but he's played healthy this year. He's played

09:48down the stretch. Well, even though he's on the injury report and we'll get our first injury

09:52report too. We should point that out. We'll get our first, uh, press conference of the week from

09:57CJ Stroud. We'll hear from D'Amico Ryans today as well. We haven't heard from him in a couple of days.

10:02I'm assuming he's now had a chance to dig into the Pittsburgh film and we'll have, uh, deep dive

10:07answers on the Steelers. He won't be upset about people wanting to know about the Steelers. Yeah.

10:12So, so that's, so, so I mean today, my point is today is the day this thing gets kicked into high

10:17gear. Like the, the ramp to the, to Monday night really, really starts today, um, over at NRG stadium.

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