- 5 weeks ago
Seth and Sean talk about the lack of that old school fear they used to have when the Texans were heading to Foxboro, and why they don't feel that way this season.
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00:00Text page is all now all stories of people that guns pulled on them before.
00:04Oh, yeah, that's good.
00:05That's the tangent this show went to at seven o'clock.
00:08That's what the Texans defense is doing to Drake May.
00:10That's true.
00:11Nice kid.
00:12Nice kid.
00:13JJ.
00:13Good basketball player in high school.
00:15Let's see how he does when he's got a gun pulled to his head.
00:18That's what JJ Watt said.
00:20JJ Watt said that they're velociraptors with rifles.
00:25Yeah.
00:25That's a gun last I checked.
00:27Oh, no, machine guns, which is definitely a gun.
00:29Literally a gun.
00:30Literally it says gun right there.
00:31It's got gun in the title.
00:33Of course, I call it.
00:33It is.
00:34It's really, it's going to be fun.
00:36It's where it, just like it happens in college football sometimes, you can't blame a team
00:42for its bad schedule.
00:43It is what it is.
00:44But they've done everything that you would want your team to do if they've got one of
00:48the easiest schedules in the history of football that you take care of business.
00:52And the Patriots have done that.
00:53And yet they haven't faced the challenge quite like the Texans defense.
00:57So, um, uh, now, I mean, they face the Bills defense.
01:02The Bills have a respectable defense.
01:04They, they lost at home.
01:06Sure.
01:07Yeah.
01:07But that was long ago.
01:08No, it was a month ago.
01:09Yeah.
01:09So, uh, but, but since then they beat up on teams like the jets and the dolphins, you know,
01:14they've really showed what they're made of.
01:16So, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:19I, I don't fear the, every other time they've gone up there in the playoffs, I have feared
01:24the Patriots.
01:24I mean, honestly, you'd really be an idiot to fear the Patriots.
01:27Yeah.
01:27Like you'd really be an idiot.
01:28You'd have to just genuinely have just succumbed to all the propaganda coming out of New England.
01:34Now, should you respect them?
01:35A hundred percent?
01:36Yes.
01:36Yeah.
01:36They're a very good football team.
01:38They, they, they, they, they took care of business versus the chargers last week and,
01:43uh, whatever the hell that offensive line is for the chargers.
01:46Hey, the Texans, Texans had a hard time taking care of the chargers just a few weeks ago.
01:50Um, but, uh, no, they're a very good football team, but there's not, I'm just, I keep trying
01:55to find reasons to fear them.
01:57Yeah.
01:57And I just haven't, I've only watched four or five complete games so far and I'm still
02:01waiting for that moment where I see what I'm supposed to be scared of.
02:04And I just don't, I don't get it.
02:05What's the juiciest reunion this Sunday for you between these two teams?
02:10I think honestly, okay.
02:12So we've got Nick Cayley is the offensive coordinator, was a tight ends coach, et cetera, et cetera.
02:18Let's start at the, we got Nick Casario who's going back there.
02:21So we got Casario, we got Cayley, we got Cole Popovich, who used to work there and is now
02:26the offensive line.
02:26We've got two offensive linemen that start for the Texans with new England, uh, you know,
02:31some new England DNA in there, Jake Andrews and Trent Brown, Miles Bryant.
02:36Spent some time.
02:36Those are the only ones off the top of my head.
02:38There may be others I'm missing here.
02:40And then on the other side, Mike Vrabel has a little bit of history here back on Bill O'Brien's
02:45staff.
02:46Um, Stefan Diggs has probably as juicy a half a season as you could get.
02:51Um, and then now, now Daryl Taylor, who's been a Patriot for nearly 24 hours now.
02:57Right.
02:57Yeah.
02:57Uh, and he's got the keys to the organization up there.
03:01And, uh, yeah, the, I think, I guess Josh McDaniels doesn't have the Texans, uh, side
03:08of it, but it's, that's the one.
03:11Oh, he's got the brother, brother side of it though.
03:13That's true.
03:14Ben McDaniels is brother with the Texans forever.
03:16Now, um, I think the juiciest part is probably variable.
03:21I think variable, honestly, you know, you're going to made an argument that, uh, that,
03:26you know, Hey, at one point, yeah, I wish the Texans had hired variable as the head coach.
03:30Uh, instead of very, you know, instead of various other scenarios, um, you know, back
03:35in the day, not before people were saying that two weeks into Vrabel's career in Tennessee,
03:40because remember the Texans went up to Tennessee in week two in 2018.
03:46And they, that was when the Texans were thought to be a, you know, rising team and Vrabel had
03:52Blaine Gabbert as his quarterback and beat the Texans that day.
03:55And there were people like, well, that's the guy we should have kept.
03:58We should have fired O'Brien kept Rick Smith and promoted Mike Vrabel.
04:01That's what they should have done.
04:02I think I'm going to say Trent Brown is my most interesting Trent Brown and Cole Popovich.
04:05And then also Jake Andrews, obviously.
04:08Yeah.
04:08But I think that Cole Popovich is a guy that people up in new England, it sounded like, uh,
04:12a couple of different former players have talked glowingly about Cole Popovich and, uh,
04:18what a, what a good young offensive line coach he was.
04:22And I think that Cole Popovich without still having a really good offensive line to brag
04:29about has made this offensive line way better.
04:32And with a less talented on paper, at least group of offensive linemen, he's doing it with
04:39less talented players.
04:41Then he stabilized that offensive line and the run game against the Steelers was really the
04:48huge revelation in that game and improvement that you didn't, man, I was saying all week
04:52before last week, there's still room for improvement with the Texans offensive line and with the
04:56run game, but I just don't know if we're going to see it until the 2026 regular season and
05:01it showed up.
05:02So I think Cole Popovich and what he's been able to do in stabilizing that, that offensive
05:05line, Trent Brown is a guy that people up in new England are laughing about that.
05:09That's our starting right tackle.
05:11And yet he's been part of stabilizing it.
05:13At least, yeah, that's, um, that's the most intriguing, but it might be the X factor in
05:18this game.
05:18It could be because the Patriots run defense has been very hot and cold.
05:22They've had some really good performances.
05:23They've had other performances where they look like trash.
05:26Uh, some of it's injury related, but Cole Popovich is a big part of like, let's see the trashiest
05:31version of that Patriots rushing defense.
05:33Yep.
05:34Um, yeah.
05:35A pop of it has put a stamp on this offensive line.
05:38Nick Caley is an interesting one.
05:40Seth, I'm, I'm, I'm semi preparing you and we'll get into digs in a second.
05:44Cause obviously that's the biggest name out of all these guys probably is, is Stefan digs.
05:49Um, the, um, I'm semi preparing you for your hit on Boston radio tonight.
05:54If it's the same as the one I had last night, you're going to be hit with an incredulous
05:59host that Jake Andrews and Trent Brown are part of the starting offensive line for an NFL
06:04team right now.
06:05Yeah.
06:05And I had to explain to them what you just did, which is Jake Andrews hasn't been bad.
06:09He's improved throughout the year.
06:10I think he seems to have a rapport with CJ Stroud and the Texans are undefeated with
06:16Trent Brown in the starting lineup at right tackle.
06:19I, you know, I don't know that there's direct correlation, statistical facts.
06:23That was a, yeah.
06:25Kaylee is the interesting one.
06:26Kaylee is the interesting one because at least the show I was on last night, they are very,
06:31very fond of Nick Caley.
06:33And so I had to explain to them that it's been up and down with Nick Kaylee this year.
06:37Now he's coming off his best performance as the offensive coordinator for this team.
06:42But in the slow start for this team, there were a lot of people that wanted Nick Kaylee
06:46gone.
06:47Right.
06:47Right.
06:48And, uh, Kaylee for him, a lot of the challenge has really been figuring out what they can and
06:53cannot do.
06:54And I think that's been the challenge that CJ Stroud has managed pretty well this year as
06:58well as understanding what are the limitations of, uh, of this team right now.
07:03What do we need to get better at?
07:04What should we be working on?
07:06All of that.
07:07And in an offense where you're asking the quarterback to do a lot more at the line of scrimmage,
07:14it's going to be herky jerky.
07:15It doesn't get adopted immediately.
07:17You don't just all of a sudden, you know, change the name of the offensive coordinator and
07:22you look like you're Tom Brady at its peak.
07:24So they made progress there.
07:26I think that's probably the biggest thing is Kaylee looks like a, some of the things
07:34that he's been working on all season long have really started to click, especially in
07:39the run game.
07:39Um, and then be trying to dial up the easy stuff for CJ Stroud when he needs to being selective.
07:47And when they try to take their shots downfield, remember early in the year that Jaguars game,
07:52especially in week three, they tried to dial up some shot plays and they couldn't even
07:57protect in max protection.
07:59They had eight guys in block.
08:01And they couldn't, and they couldn't hold up.
08:05It was bad.
08:05It was just, it was a haphazard mess.
08:07They've done a better job of just being really careful about when they take their shots.
08:12And CJ that CJ's included in that CJ's had to learn.
08:15All right.
08:16When can I wait for Nico Collins to clear his route?
08:19And when do I need to just throw the ball?
08:21Cause it's first and 10 in the second quarter.
08:23And there's an easy reception in front of me.
08:26That's, that's come a long, long way.
08:27And it's still, it still has a lot of improving to do, but they've made a lot of progress in
08:31that.
08:31Here was D'Amico Ryan's yesterday asked about Stefan.
08:35Diggs is going to be a big story in this game with his, you know, brief history with
08:40the Texans to go with the fact that he's been one of the Patriots best players this year.
08:44He's their leading receiver.
08:45He had a really good season.
08:47Here is D'Amico Ryan's on Stefan Diggs.
08:49With our, with our secondary group, our guys are just always eager to go out and get better.
08:54No matter who they're going against our guys is they're competitive guys.
08:59Steph has done a great job there in new England, making some plays for them being very quarterback
09:04friendly, which Steph has done, you know, his entire career, run a lot of, a lot of option
09:08choice routes.
09:09And, you know, he's very explosive after he catches the football.
09:12So another guy we got to make sure we're have eyes on and make sure we're doing a great
09:17job of tackling and covering him really well.
09:20Steph's got probably more experience than almost anybody in the NFL, not on the Texans and going
09:26against the Texans secondary because of the training camp and eight weeks worth of practice
09:31that he had last year.
09:32Yeah. And, uh, and also just his, his understanding of exactly how that defense operates, but
09:38Vrabel's got that too.
09:40I mean, there's, there's a lot of things about the guy that it's, as people have pointed out
09:45multiple times, it's not necessarily hard to figure out.
09:48It's how to get them to screw up in it.
09:50And what can you throw at them where maybe they forget their rules or they try to jump
09:55around or whatever it might be.
09:56The times the Texans have been weak in past defense has been largely because of blown
10:01coverages or guys guessing wrong on a route, whatever it might be.
10:06And I think that Josh McDaniels is going to be really good at figuring out how to replicate
10:12those scenarios. And especially if it's Jalen Reed or whoever else is playing next to Kalen
10:19Bullock, they're going to put stress on that guy. They're going to be running people through
10:23zones that they're going to be hitting double moves and everything. And they'll, they'll probably
10:27have some success at some point, you know, creating a dilemma in coverage. If, if Drake
10:34may has time to throw the football.
10:35Yeah. You got to get at him, man.
10:37Yeah. Yeah. So that's the, I mean, this, it all comes back to man, Daniel Hunter and
10:42Will Anderson present a lot of problems for quarterbacks and trying to dial up anything
10:46downfield and the Texans, when it's not a downfield shot, great. You're going to, I see a lot of
10:51people in the Patriots world saying, well, you know, okay, you know how you take, you
10:55know, you take the, the heat off of Drake may get rid of the ball quickly. Oh my God,
11:00please. Yeah. Please get rid of the ball quickly. Yeah, please. Yes. That's exactly what you want.
11:05Yes. Please. Let me see Jalen Petrie get five tackles.
11:09I was just going to say, Seth, you know, you know who wanted to do that? Aaron Rogers.
11:12Right. Yeah. Please, please get rid of the ball quickly. Yes. That's exactly what they want
11:18you to do. Yep. That's your key to victory doing it.
11:21Exactly. Good luck. Good take. Good luck. Good take. Welcome to take a mania. Here's
11:29CJ Stroud yesterday on his time with Stefan Diggs last season. Yeah. Steph is one of the
11:34best teams I've ever had in my career, in my life. He's been amazing to my life, you
11:38know, not just on the field, but off as well. I think he's, you know, super, you know, teammate
11:45oriented. He wants to be around the guys. He wants to, you know, do stuff for the guys.
11:49He wants to be, you know, one of the captains in the room. And I think, I don't
11:53know if he's a captain or not. I'm sure he is. But, you know, he's, he's one of the
11:57best teams I've ever had. So he's brought that swag there, you know, and he got the
12:01guys rolling around him. But, you know, we'll always be a brother of mine, always be a
12:05friend. And I'm just, you know, excited to see his career, you know, go where it's
12:08gone. And, you know, for him to get paid like he did is dope to see. So, you know, I think,
12:13you know, he has a lot of great ball ahead of him. But, you know, yeah. So, it's
12:16always be a brother of mine.
12:17What did you think when Diggs got that contract from the Patriots last offseason,
12:20Seth?
12:21I thought it made sense just in that it was a gamble for the Patriots, but the
12:25Patriots also really needed receiving help.
12:27Yeah.
12:28And they needed a, like, as we saw here, and I'm imagining, again, we opened this
12:33segment up talking about some of the common ties between the Patriots and the
12:36Texans. I'm sure that some people from the Patriots called, I'm sure Josh
12:41McDaniels called up his brother, Ben McDaniels.
12:43100%.
12:43And asked, like, so how was he? You know, how was he in the locker room? How was
12:48he with your younger players and everything? And I'm guessing Ben
12:51McDaniels gave a really good review of him.
12:53Yeah.
12:53So, for the Patriots, it made sense because they desperately needed a deeper
12:57wide receiver room, and they probably really wanted some veteran tutors.
13:03I think they've probably gotten that out of them. They've had more drama off the
13:06field with Stephon Diggs to an extreme degree than the Texans did. But the
13:10not that the Texans didn't have off-field drama with them, but the, I think it
13:15made sense. It was, I thought it was aggressive and I thought ultimately, all
13:19right, they're probably not going to get the dollar value for him, but it was
13:21exact. It was a smart move by him. They look best offense in football or one of
13:26the best offenses.
13:26Sure. Sure. And he had a great year and he had a great individual year. I think
13:29it was three years, 69 million bucks. There wasn't a ton of guaranteed money.
13:33I thought I'm with you. I thought it was an appropriate risk for the Patriots to
13:36take. And it turned out it was, it worked out really well. Yeah. If Josh
13:40McDaniels talked to Ben McDaniels, it's one of two things. Either Ben McDaniels
13:45gave a good report on Stephon Diggs and Josh respects his opinion. And he's like,
13:49yeah, we should go ahead and do this. Or Ben McDaniels gave a bad report on
13:55Stephon Diggs, but Josh McDaniels thinks his brother's an idiot.
13:58Or he's like, yeah, brother was trying to pull the Jedi mind trick.
14:01Oh yeah. Okie doke on him. Yeah. Yeah. It's like guys, you know, I talked to Ben and
14:06he thinks Steph's an a-hole, but Ben's an idiot. Don't worry about it. Let's go
14:09ahead and sign the guy. Yeah. Um, here's Diggs himself yesterday on the Texans
14:14pass defense.
14:15It's going to be another test for us. I mean, like I said, it's one of the best
14:18defenses, if not the best defense in the league, um, man to man coverage. That's what
14:22you want as a, as a receiver. You know what you get it. You know what you're seeing
14:25is man versus man. So, uh, it's going to be a, it's going to be huge for us to run
14:29routes the right way and, um, be available for the quarterback. It's going to be a lot
14:33of contested catches and things like that. So just play what you see the same game
14:37you've been playing and, you know, make those plays for the quarterback so he can
14:40get comfortable back there. You know, might not. That'd be the tell. If Diggs is the
14:45one dropping it in the kill zone, that would be, that would be fun. That was, uh, he's
14:51slippery though. He's hard to get a good hit on. Yeah. It's hard to get a good
14:54lick on. And he's also capable of just, you know, creating space for himself and
14:58everything, the stuff over the middle of the field. And especially when the, you
15:02know, when they are playing zone and there's going to be opportunities over
15:08the middle of the field and on quick routes to step on Diggs, it's the tackle
15:12after the catch that you really got to worry about. But it's not like Diggs has
15:16had a really good year, you know, and like in terms of average yards per catch
15:19and everything, he's not what he was at his peak. He's more back down into that,
15:23you know, 11 point, I think he's 11.9 yards per catch this season. Um, the,
15:28he's not going to take the top off the defense necessarily or consistently,
15:31but he can give you that steady threat, uh, especially in key and critical
15:36situations. Yeah, dude, he's an intermediate route terror. Like that's
15:39where he hurts you.
15:40He hurts you.
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