00:00Closing down our time on Radio Row presented by LaCour 43.
00:05Here's Paul Gallant and T-Mill on Sports Radio 610.
00:14Hello and welcome aboard a special radio edition of The Drive on this Friday.
00:21Friday, gotta get down on Friday, February 6th, 2026.
00:26Yes, it is me, that obnoxious guy that used to do nights here.
00:32Paul Gallant, we've got a Tyler Milner in the house.
00:35I did not expect to be welcomed back with some voice guy action.
00:41And I'm not going to lie, it gives me a little bit of extra energy on this Friday.
00:45And in case you couldn't tell, on cup of coffee number 6,
00:48like I am Mike Rabel sniffing down C4.
00:50Or verbal.
00:51I am ready to go.
00:53Yes, it's Mike Verbal now, Tyler.
00:54Yeah, the verbal, the coach of the year, verbal.
00:58We did not get to go to San Francisco.
01:01Wah, wah, wah.
01:03I know Tyler's not that thrilled about it.
01:05No.
01:06Personally, I'm okay with it.
01:08The city of San Francisco does not exactly like me.
01:11Go look up an SFGate article from early last year in the midst of Rockets and Warriors.
01:16But the Super Bowl is on Sunday.
01:20It's Super Bowl 60.
01:21It's the team I grew up rooting for against a team that I used to cover.
01:25It's going to be really interesting.
01:27As has been these last two weeks.
01:31Super Bowl week.
01:33The Bill 2 Super Bowl week.
01:35It's an interesting time for 30 NFL fan bases because just about everyone, except for maybe Jets, are looking at themselves in the mirror and wondering, perhaps seeing as if they are Scott Stapp.
01:51What if?
01:52What if?
01:53What if?
01:54What if?
01:54What if?
01:55What if?
01:56What if?
01:57Oh, God.
01:58It's so good.
01:58I can't wait until they're at Rodeo.
01:59That just turned me on, Paul.
02:01I know we don't know each other super well, but I like to be completely transparent.
02:04That just turned me on.
02:05Listen, it's Friday, baby.
02:06Let's get freaky.
02:08What if?
02:09What if?
02:10What if?
02:11What if?
02:11Now, eventually, I will have to get back on topic.
02:13And that might have been the first reason I was canned from 610 all those years back.
02:17Because I couldn't stay on topic, but I cannot wait to see Creed at the Rodeo.
02:21But 30 NFL fan bases this time of year are thinking to themselves, what if?
02:27What if?
02:28Why the hell aren't we in this game?
02:29And I know that a lot of you guys have been feeling that way.
02:33I don't know if I entirely agree with you guys feeling that way.
02:38Because, yeah, hey, you hung in that game despite four interceptions by CJ Stroud against the New England Patriots.
02:46And Bo Nix would have been up next.
02:48And you could have been in the Super Bowl against a Sam Darnold Seahawks team that hasn't really been tested at least defensively by other teams' defenses in these playoffs.
02:58I think you'd feel pretty good about going up against he who once saw ghosts, Mr. Mono himself.
03:05But let's entertain this idea.
03:09What if?
03:11What if?
03:12What if?
03:13What if?
03:14What if?
03:16As we think about what could have been, what are you seeing and hearing that actually could happen that would have had the Texans in this spot?
03:23And I know a lot of people are going to say, how about CJ Stroud throw three interceptions?
03:27Maybe two?
03:29Could he give us that?
03:31And I also want to hear what you're seeing and hearing that is delusional.
03:35I'm seeing and hearing a lot of delusion.
03:40Some of it's coming from the actual Texans themselves at this moment in time.
03:43The Sports Radio 610 gang had a lot of awesome folks on during Radio Row and Nick Casario, as he always does, joined Payne and Pendergast.
03:54And he was asked early on in that interview about CJ Stroud's performance against the New England Patriots, four interceptions in the first half.
04:04Here is what Casario had to say about that.
04:08Yeah, I mean, you said it.
04:09I mean, and I think it's true.
04:10When you look kind of when he came back, he played really clean, efficient football over the course of how many games there was.
04:16And then offensively, I mean, 12 turnovers on a year, second fewest or the least in the organization's history.
04:22So a couple of those plays, I mean, we're just probably trying to do too much, sort of make a play.
04:26And then sometimes it leads to a bad result.
04:29So in the end, okay, what happened, happened.
04:32We've got to figure out a way to just mitigate that as best we can.
04:35And then, you know, we just got to move on.
04:37So, you know, in the second half of that game, you know, move the ball a little bit, made some progress.
04:41So, I mean, that's unfortunately, it happened kind of bunches.
04:45But, I mean, that's the way it goes sometimes.
04:47I'm not moving on, though.
04:48I'm not moving on.
04:49I saw Patrick Creighton at Area 45 coming up at 6 o'clock.
04:52I saw Patrick say today, like, when are you going to leave CJ Stroud alone?
04:56And I'm paraphrasing a little bit.
04:58That's not happening.
04:59It's not happening from your boy.
05:01But I feel looking at that four interception performance, the way you heard Casario describe it there,
05:09with a bit of bleep happens.
05:14I don't really like that.
05:16It wasn't just the Patriots game.
05:18It was the Steelers game, too.
05:21And sure, it's a new offense, but he had a full season to get there.
05:26By the end of the year.
05:27Okay, Dalton Schultz, who feels like he lost the game for the Texans, more from him later.
05:32He wasn't there for most of that game.
05:34You had no Nico Collins.
05:36But it just feels like there's a lot of, in the building,
05:40hey, let's just not turn it over four times next time around.
05:45And I mean, yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
05:47But I'm of the belief that had the Texans advance to the AFC Championship game and played against the Denver Broncos with all that powder that came down at the end of that game,
05:59I feel like Stroud would have had that same performance he'd had the two weeks before, even if he had the entire cast of characters around him.
06:06That's where I'm at.
06:07I no longer believe in him.
06:09He could always be brought back into the light and putting a henna tattoo on him as a game manager.
06:16I look at this year, and sure, you could say, okay, well, bleep happens.
06:21Sometimes you throw four interceptions in a game.
06:23Do you throw four interceptions in a game when you're in a playoffs that has no Kansas City Chiefs,
06:31and no Patrick Mahomes, and no Lamar Jackson, and no Joe Burrow?
06:36That ain't going to happen next time around.
06:38At least one of those guys is going to be back in the playoffs next year, if not all three.
06:42It's going to make it tougher for that awesome defense of yours to actually get the team to the conference championship game,
06:49let alone the Super Bowl.
06:50And are you saying to yourself that either four times in a row, because the call is a Super Bowl.
06:57It's not to get to the AFC Championship game.
06:59Four times in a row can CJ Stroud keep it.
07:01You play to win the game.
07:02Indeed, you do, Herm Edwards, behind the glass.
07:04Or do you get it three times in a row?
07:07Best case scenario, say you get home field advantage of the AFC,
07:10which is probably going to be very difficult to do,
07:12because we all think that the AFC, when healthy at the very least, is a pretty loaded conference.
07:18It feels a little delusional the way that they are looking at this game,
07:23and then their actions are also showing a little bit of delusion here.
07:28Zero notable changes on the offensive coaching staff.
07:31Oh, the tight end coach?
07:32Okay, cool.
07:34Tight end coach probably should have been gone already.
07:37But I like Gerard Johnson.
07:39He's back next season?
07:41Cliff Kingsbury was available until a couple minutes ago.
07:45Two hours ago, yeah.
07:45Right.
07:46Like, Cliff Kingsbury is now with the Los Angeles Rams, and he is taking a gig as an offensive assistant.
07:50I'm not saying I needed Nick Caley gone, but, I mean, shoot, would Cliff Kingsbury have been interested in being a quarterback coach for a year with C.J. Stroud?
07:58Was that an option you could have explored?
08:01I just get the vibe that, yeah, we were really injured.
08:03We might see Joe Mixon next year.
08:05Dalton Schultz should be healthy.
08:06Nico Collins should be healthy.
08:08The offensive line should stay healthy for much of the year.
08:11And the offense is going to be one year more learned with an offensive coordinator now in his second year.
08:16They are banking on a lot of things improving, and listen, every organization should trust their process, and I'm not saying that the Texans are a disaster like the Jets.
08:23Two shots at the Jets in the first segment.
08:24Hell yeah.
08:26What I am saying is it just feels a little bit delusional to be looking at yourself in the mirror and saying,
08:34we're just going to roll everything back into next year, and it's all going to be the same.
08:39I'm seeing a little bit of a delusion, too.
08:41Now, this is largely from the fan base, and I'm not going to tell you how to fan.
08:46If you want to find a way to get yourself excited and optimistic for next season, especially if you've got a pretty low season ticket prices,
08:52I'm not going to tell you anything otherwise, okay?
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