- 16 hours ago
Seth and Sean talk about just how bad CJ Stroud was in the Texans' playoff loss to the Patriots yesterday.
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00:00I just want to tell everybody that if you've come to this show for a show that tells C.J. Stroud,
00:07puts their arm around him and tells him how much they love him, you've walked into the wrong room
00:13today. I'm just going to tell you that right now. You have walked into the wrong room.
00:18The Texans squandered what I think objectively, Seth, was their best chance to get to a Super Bowl
00:25when you consider the defense they have, the rest of the playoff field, and the fact that
00:30the Denver Broncos are going to be starting a backup quarterback in the AFC title game.
00:35This is the biggest opportunity that this organization has squandered in its 24-season history yesterday.
00:42That was horrendous. That was absolutely unacceptable, and it's because it happened two weeks in a row.
00:49So this is C.J. Stroud got dragged to a playoff victory against the Steelers, and then he managed
00:56to finally let the anchor take hold in the rocky bottom and pull the entire ship down with him.
01:03And he doesn't, yes, he doesn't have the supporting cast he should. You know who else doesn't have a
01:07supporting cast he should? Many other quarterbacks who don't play as horrendously as C.J. Stroud has
01:11the last couple weeks. And, I mean, there were times in that game where they would have been better
01:16off just kneeling on the ball, doing Cade Stover tush pushes. I honestly thought that at one point.
01:24What's the downside to just having Cade Stover do a tush push every single play? And then every now
01:29and then pop out and maybe make a little pass or something. Because I bet he could hit a wide
01:33open receiver. C.J. couldn't. And it made me even angrier that C.J. made some really nice throws in that
01:40game as well. But then also just made some mind-bogglingly awful throws. And then he would
01:46sulk off to the sideline. And then he would sit with his just, I hate talking about body language,
01:53but my God, man, what the hell? How many, three people independently texted me yesterday,
02:00not Texans fans, asking me about the moping behavior of C.J. Stroud.
02:04That's a thing right there. We're moping. So these are almost like independent neurologists
02:10of moping. They're not somebody. The mopes, Sean. They're not Texans-employed mope evaluators.
02:16No. They're not Sports Radio 610 mope evaluators. We've watched every mope all season long. So
02:23we're desensitized. We've grown accustomed to it. We've grown accustomed to it. There's two things we
02:26know in Houston. Moping quarterbacks and not having timeouts at the end of a half. Yeah. Inhumidity.
02:31The three things. Inhumidity. Yeah. Not having timeout. Okay. And we'll get to D'Amico's not off
02:37the hook either. I don't, this was the decision to punt at the end of the game. We'll get to that.
02:42But the opportunity squandered. D'Amico Ryan's, here's the thing before we get to D'Amico Ryan's
02:49warning. We're going to probably be a little all over the place today. Um, with a very, we're going to be
02:56all over the place with a hyper focus on the opportunity. The Texans blew yesterday and what
03:01happens now with CJ Stroud. I can't believe this is where we are with the franchise quarterback,
03:06but the Texans defense should be going to Denver this weekend. The defense should be going to Denver
03:13to play in the AFC title game. One perfect yesterday. But when you hold a team to three
03:18for 14 on third down, less than 250 yards, you force three turnovers. You should be going,
03:24you should be going to the AFC title game. And they're not, they lost by 12. They lost by 12
03:29in a game where their quarterback threw an awful pick six that you heard coming into the show
03:35and where they turned it over two times in field goal range. I'll add it up. That's 13 points at a
03:40minimum. And you lost by 12. So, so here was D'Amico Ryan's after the game yesterday.
03:47Hey, what's missed to get, to get to new, I was told we were going to try to get to
03:51new heights this year. Yeah. We got to play better football. It's not any secrets. We got to protect
03:57the ball. We got to play better football when we get in this moment for the past three years,
04:01we have not played well, haven't protected the ball well, and we have not executed well in this
04:07moment. So it's not a, it's not a magical elixir. It's going to happen to get past the divisional
04:12round. It's, it's still football and you got to go out and you got to execute football really
04:18well in these moments. And we have not done that. And thought about that. Yeah. Look, Sean,
04:23I'm glad you brought up the Broncos. If all of a sudden they had a surprise rule change and you're
04:28allowed to make trades in the playoffs and Sean Payton were to call up D'Amico Ryan's, I wonder
04:33how that conversation would go. Like, yeah, boy. And D'Amico would tell, you know, Sean that he loves
04:38him and all that. And, uh, I don't know if they've ever even met and that, uh, what can
04:44I do for you? And, uh, Sean Payton might say, well, you know, our defense hasn't been actually
04:49as consistent as I would like them to be. Could you offer me up some of your defensive
04:53players? And D'Amico would say, no, no, no, no, no, no. How about, how about the quarterback?
04:56I hear you're going to start Jared Stidham this week and Sean and hang up the phone. Yeah. I'll
05:02roll the, I'll roll the dice with CJ Stroud in altitude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
05:08No, thank you. Yeah. Potentially bad weather conditions. No, no. To him, it would be a road
05:15environment because he's not familiar with it. I just, what the hell, man? Dude, this
05:20is, it's so unacceptable. It is so ridiculously unacceptable. I like CJ Stroud. I, I think
05:30there's something broken and something wrong with CJ Stroud. And I think a lot of it coincides
05:36with whatever his mindset has been since the concussion this year, the, his, his reluctance
05:41to run, including yesterday, even on that eight yard run or whatever it was, 11 yard
05:46run, it looked like a grudging 11 yards and dropping his eyes in the pocket, staring at
05:54the rush. But that pick six, that pick six is, that's not even a rookie mistake. The
06:01were you, what on earth are you doing on that pick six? What on God's green earth? Well,
06:07are you doing just throwing the ball up in the air with a guy on your person? There was
06:13that defender was touching fabric as he's deciding to just hurl it up in the air. I mean, that
06:19was unforgivable. That is unexplainable. Well, that is, that's, it's irredeemable. I don't
06:27understand what the hell, what was going on in his head yesterday. That, that play. And
06:31there's a reason we bumped in with that. That to me was, that was the game because you, you
06:36were, it was in the second quarter. You're up 10, seven. You just gone on a short drive
06:41to get the only touchdown of the game. Christian Kirk, making a really nice catch, uh, next
06:46to the pylon there. And you get up 10, seven and the defense had started to figure some things
06:52out, you know, that the, the first touchdown drive, not good. You gave up, you know, Derek
06:56Singley gave up contain on the outside there to Ramondre Stevenson. That was bad. Fourth
07:00and one, uh, you know, they got pop Douglas matched up on Kalen Bullock who got a finger
07:05on the ball, but Douglas is able to catch it. No help. You know, we know what happened on
07:10that touchdown, but the Texans started to look like the Texans again. And you, you were
07:16up 10, seven defense gets you the ball back at your own 25 and the crowd is now out of
07:21the game. The crowd has settled in the crowd is realizing, all right, these guys just punched
07:25back, you know, and they've, you know, Dave, Drake may looks messy. And so if I'm a new
07:30England fan, I'm pretty nervous at that point. And then that happens the pick six and the
07:35place is haywire. The rest, the rest of the night, the rest is, they had them, they smelled
07:41blood and they could see that CJ was just a mess. It was, uh, I, he needs a sports psychologist
07:49or something this off season. Uh, there is something that they've got to get right about
07:53him because there's just, it's, it's either you fix it or you're not the guy, man. There's
08:00no way in hell. I mean, I don't even, I've had so many people ask me, are the Texans still
08:03going to think about giving him an extension? If David, if David Mulligata calls and suggests
08:09that CJ Stroud needs or deserves, uh, uh, an extension based on what he's done in the last
08:16two years, hell no, hell no. I do. I will not live in to a tongue of Ioloville. No,
08:21to a tongue of Ioloville is not the place for me. Now I will not spend $250 million to purchase
08:27a house. I looked at property into a tongue of Ioloville. I looked at property in Kyler
08:31Ville. Uh, I'm still skeptical of Trevor Lawrenceville. Yeah. Trevor Ville. Yeah.
08:36Trevor Lawrenceville is in the hurricane, uh, path, you know, that's right. Yeah. It's nice
08:41at times. I've seen a half season out of Trevor Lawrence before with a new offensive coordinator
08:46and been fooled and do. Oh, if that buck stops here, this idiotic trend of paying mid quarterbacks
08:55after three years, just because they're quarterbacks, it ends here. Yeah. I'll go full Jerry Jones
09:01on this, except we've got more reason to do it than Jerry Jones ever did. My goodness, dude,
09:07unacceptable. They have given extensions after three years to guys who are dogs, guys who fight
09:12guys, who are everything you want in a football player. And CJ Stroud is not everything you want
09:17in a quarterback, right? Not, not, not, not even close. Well, I'll make a comparison. Well,
09:21before I do this, let's hear from CJ Stroud, just to contextualize here to the voice of the guy
09:26we're talking about right now. Hey CJ, why, why all these uncharacteristic turnovers? I mean,
09:31I think just trying to make plays, you know, trying to, you know, push the football down the field and,
09:35you know, um, you know, put our team in position to score. Um, so my intent is never to get to do
09:41that, you know, and sometimes it just doesn't go your way. And, you know, that, that happened today
09:46and I'll take full responsibility. You know, I, um, something I'm going to learn from is just,
09:50you know, ball security, everything, especially, you know, the way our defense has played all year.
09:54Um, and it's something that I've done a pretty good job of, you know, to this point. So, um, I'm going
10:00to continue to, you know, get better in that area. And, you know, I'm not happy with myself when it comes
10:04to that, because I mean, I'm giving, you know, points and opportunities away from our team. And
10:08we have so many great players on our team, great, you know, you know, offense, defense, special teams,
10:14and the way our defense played all year, just, I'm just very, you know, uh, I'm not, I'm not happy
10:18with, you know, with that. Okay. He was incorrect in one, one thing he said there and using the word
10:23today. In this playoffs, CJ Stroud became the first coral era to have five or more fumbles and five or more
10:33interceptions in a single playoffs. Yeah. And the other guys that did it, uh, Terry Bradshaw and
10:38Staubach, Roger Staubach did it in years in which their teams went to the Superbowl. So I presume it
10:43was in more than two games. Also in an era when, um, quarterbacks, quarterbacks would throw a one
10:48to one touchdown to interception ratio. And it was like, cool. Hall of Fame. The ball security is that
10:54much more important and valued now that it just, it's not just yesterday. It's the entire,
11:01this entire playoff series, the two game, the two games in the playoffs. That's all you get this
11:06year. Texans fans. I know you're not accustomed to that. Yeah. This is CJ's off season is going to
11:13be a huge topic and the contract, which I'm, I'm in a hundred percent lockstep with you on,
11:20on that Seth. He should not get a contract. He shouldn't get a contract. That's a market
11:24contract. Now they want to do something to, you know, sort of, you know, smooth out the fourth
11:30and fifth year and do something like the Packers did with Jordan love, you know, kind of take care
11:34of him, but not to a $60 million level. Like I look, anything's on the table for me, quarterback wise,
11:40including moving on from CJ Stroud. If it's a solution, it still keeps you in the playoff and
11:46Superbowl conversation. I'm open to anything really right now in this morning. He, he turned
11:51the ball over four times in the first half. I mean, it probably should have flipped over to Davis
11:56Mills at halftime. We can talk about that. As long as we're talking about what the future looks like,
12:01I want to frame it. I thought about this driving in this morning because the Texans have been in this
12:05situation before as a team with a dent, John Watson and Deshaun Watson after his third year was the
12:16quarterback of a team that blew a 24 nothing lead in this very same round of the playoffs.
12:22So he was part of a group that was culpable for one of the biggest playoff collapses in the history
12:29of the NFL post season. It was bad there. People were celebrating when Deshaun Watson got his contract
12:37several months later. They, we, we were waiting for it. We wanted it. Deshaun was the guy,
12:43even after being the quarterback, even after being the quarterback of a team that lost at home to the
12:48Colts the year before in the post season, didn't even get to the divisional round. And then in the
12:53only divisional round game he played, they blew a 24 nothing lead. Texan fans wanted Deshaun Watson
12:59to be the guy here. Long-term CJ has been to the divisional round three times and people are ready to
13:04drive him to the airport right now. Well, because he was doing a great job this year of playing like a
13:09Trent Dilfer or something, just managing the game and doing what you need to do to win. Well, you've
13:13got one of the best defenses in the league on the other side of the ball. Deshaun didn't have that.
13:19He had good defenses at times, but nothing like he had this year. What does CJ look like on a team
13:25where they only have a mediocre defense on the other side of them? Is that the quarterback that's
13:29leading you and driving you to a championship? No, this is what's going to happen in the off season.
13:34Texans are going to look at themselves organizationally. They're going to think about the
13:37positives and everything that CJ Stroud can bring. And they're going to say, hey, you know what?
13:41Maybe we could have done last year. Maybe we could have bolstered the offensive line a little bit
13:46more aggressively. I don't know if anybody out there was saying that they should have bolstered
13:53the offensive line more. And they're going to try to put things in place, et cetera, et cetera. But the real
13:59question is really just if he's agitated, I for the life of me cannot imagine that CJ Stroud is going to be
14:06agitating for an extension. I will be shocked. I will be aghast if we start hearing reports
14:12that he's disgruntled or wants an extension or needs to have the assurance.
14:17He was going out of his way to say how much he'd love the organization in his postgame
14:21press conference yesterday. If he puts his money where his mouth is and walks the walk
14:26and does everything that he talks about, as I'm getting life lessons from a 24-year-old every week
14:31in his press conferences, philosophizing, et cetera, et cetera, then he won't be agitating
14:36for a new contract. The Texans go to him and say, hey, we'd like to maybe do this or do that,
14:41but you're not going to get one of these top-tier contract extensions. I'd be open to that,
14:46but it's got to be something the Texans can get out from underneath.
14:49I've told you before, one of the reasons D'Amico is effective as a head coach is because he is a
14:57true believer in his own motivational posters, his propaganda, all of that. Some coaches are
15:03frauds. Some coaches don't live it out. They say one thing and then they do another. D'Amico is not
15:09that guy, but if you're going to be that guy, that consistent guy, you can't treat CJ Stroud
15:15differently than you treat the other guys on your team. And yes, you're going to always treat
15:21the quarterback a little bit differently in some regards, but this is not a guy who has earned an
15:27extension. This has earned the right to put your organization at risk with a contract that doesn't
15:34work out. When we're talking such gaudy numbers at quarterback right now, he's got to prove it.
15:41He's just flat out got to prove it. And yes, there are excuses for him. Um, but at the end of the
15:46day, it's a results business and the results aren't there right now. They are not. They are not. Well
15:50put, uh, Seth Payne, Sean Pendergast with you on a reaction Monday, our final reaction Monday,
15:56unfortunately of the, uh, of the Texans 2025, 26 season here. Um, so we're here for you. Uh,
16:03if you've got thoughts, text in 713-572-4610. A lot of you, even on a holiday today, MLK day today,
16:10happy MLK day for everybody. Um, people are up. And so we want to hear from you, uh, check in with
16:16us. If you're up, we want to hear how you're feeling today. Um, just an awful, awful, one of
16:20the worst days in franchise history yesterday up at Gillette stadium in new England.
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