00:00It is official. Turn up the music, Byron. There we go. Houston Texans set to play Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley
00:07Stadium in NFL London game on October the 18th. The game will start at 830 a.m. Central Time. It'll
00:14be on the NFL Network as part of the 2026 NFL London games, multiple games. The only international venue that's
00:21getting multiple or city that's getting multiple games is London. This one will be at Wembley Stadium on October the
00:2818th.
00:28The really, really big winner here is that you, me, and everybody else in Houston sports media doesn't have to
00:35look like schmucks for buying in hook, line, and sinker on the leak a couple days ago that it was
00:42going to be the Texans versus the Jaguars in London.
00:45Now, don't get me wrong. We'll look like schmucks at some other point during the show.
00:48We'll find many other ways to look like schmucks, but this isn't one of them. Not today.
00:52We don't die today, Sean, or at least not right this moment.
00:56So the biggest thing is this is where my initial knee-jerk reaction was like a lot of people when
01:03I found out about this potentially a couple days ago, which was, oh, man, that's a really important game to
01:09go over and throw that wrinkle into it, where a lot of times these London games just end up being
01:15extra sloppy.
01:16Guys are playing at 830 a.m. by their body clock, all of that.
01:20Jacksonville has more experience doing all of this.
01:23This is the thing to remember.
01:24This is a home game for the Jaguars.
01:27So you're playing Jacksonville in London as opposed to in their modified stadium this year in Jacksonville.
01:36They don't have as much of a noise advantage in the classic home field advantage when the Jaguars play in
01:42London.
01:43They do have an advantage in terms of just having done it so many times.
01:46So do they withstand the travel better?
01:48Do they, you know, they've got more guys on their team that have had to do the early start, all
01:51that.
01:52Perhaps.
01:52But I don't think the advantage they have by playing in London is larger or as large as the advantage
02:00they would have by playing in Jacksonville.
02:03Yeah, let's examine both of those because I think that's purely from a handicapping the game standpoint, that's the big
02:10thing here is what does this mean now for this game?
02:12Given the fact that the Texans are favored to win the division, I don't know if people know that.
02:15The Texans are the favorites to win the AFC South this year, even though the Jags won it last year.
02:20Texans are plus 125, so about, you know, a little less than a coin flip to win the division.
02:26Jags are number two, obviously.
02:28I think you could argue that the game at Jacksonville, at least on paper right now, is the most important
02:32game in the division this year.
02:34The chance for the second-place team on the odds board to upset the first-place team, the best chance
02:39to do that would be in their home stadium or, you know, away from NRG Stadium.
02:44This was John Lopez yesterday on In the Loop, kind of echoing what Seth just said.
02:49The concern about the Jags' experience in traveling over to London to play games.
02:55Because not only, you know, have all the young players here never done this, the Jags do it every year,
03:01twice a year.
03:02Right, right.
03:02You know, and that's a division game against the team that won the division.
03:06So I started thinking, like, you know what?
03:08This isn't like, ah, go to London, beat the Jags.
03:11You know?
03:11I mean, it could be.
03:13Like a given, you know?
03:15A given.
03:16They do it once or twice a year.
03:18They're used to it.
03:19They have their system down.
03:20They have where they, you know, practice and all that down.
03:23Everything for the Texans is going to be brand new.
03:24Okay, so that's Lopez's concern.
03:27And we should point out, reportedly, the Jags are already going to be in London for week five to play
03:34the Eagles.
03:35So they'll be settled in.
03:37Does the jet lag and everything, the jet lag should improve, theoretically, the more time they're there.
03:42But also, just being in a foreign country tends to wear you down a little bit.
03:44Yeah, I think there's a balance sheet with that, too.
03:46I think there's good and bad with being out of your house all week.
03:49I spent three days in Vancouver, Canada, and I am ready to get back to that.
03:54Right.
03:54I'm not completely lying there.
03:57Of course.
03:57Everything's just a little bit different.
03:59Something about your own bed, man.
04:01I need to see something in miles per hour just once.
04:04Absolutely.
04:04But I think that, again, all of that is true, what John says.
04:11But I think you've got to look at the sum total of it, which is that this was going to
04:16be an away game for the Texans.
04:18It's now, instead of being played in Jacksonville, it's being played in London.
04:22London has some advantages there, but I don't think it gives them as much of an advantage.
04:26Austin Lane, who's a former Jaguars defensive lineman who does radio in Jacksonville now, this is exactly what he said,
04:34especially when you start looking at some of the other teams on the Jags' home schedule that they might have
04:40played in London
04:41instead of their divisional foe, the Texans.
04:43I mean, I think that's a huge disadvantage for the Jaguars just because if you look at that home schedule,
04:48what team scares you more right now on paper than the Houston Texans on their home schedule?
04:53I can make an argument and definitely say the Eagles.
04:56I mean, the Patriots, I get to go to the Super Bowl last year, but I think a lot of
05:00people are expecting them to kind of take a step back.
05:02We don't know what Pittsburgh's going to be with their new coaching staff, who their quarterback's even going to be.
05:07Washington, I think, has a lot to prove.
05:09Cleveland's going to Cleveland.
05:10And the Colts don't really have a quarterback.
05:12And, you know, sleeping on the Titans 24-7.
05:14We can make an argument and say that the hardest opponent playing at home is going to be the opponent
05:20that you actually got to play on a neutral field in London.
05:23And I think that sucks if that's going to be the case.
05:26Yeah.
05:26So, I mean, if you look at it from that perspective, and, man, of all the teams on our home
05:31schedule, if you're Jacksonville, if I'm Jacksonville,
05:34I'm saying all the teams on our home schedule and this is the one we're going to go play on
05:38a neutral site.
05:38Yeah.
05:39Thanks a lot.
05:40Boy, I already agreed with the sentiment that I'd rather play that game in London than in Jacksonville,
05:47just based on the environment and the home field advantage, I think it's going to be a greater home field
05:52advantage in an NFL stadium here in the United States.
05:55Even though I'm guessing the crowds get a little rowdy over there, but it'll be a jack.
05:58Well, they get rowdy, but it's only about 25% Jags fans usually.
06:02That's where I was going with that.
06:03Like, it's going to be, like, in Jacksonville, it would be, like, 90% Jags fans there.
06:07So, I agree with that part.
06:09When he lists the other teams on their home schedule, it hammers it home even more why Jags fans are
06:16probably so upset with that.
06:17I mean, the Texans, the Eagles are obviously a very talented football team, but Pittsburgh, eh.
06:24Cleveland, eh.
06:25All the other division teams, Colts, Titans, bleh.
06:30I think the Patriots are backsliding this year, even though they made the Super Bowl last year.
06:34Wow.
06:35No, I get it.
06:37And it's just from the sheer fact that it's a division game against the team that's favored to win the
06:44division.
06:44One of our listeners told me that he was there for the 2019 game.
06:48He felt like the Texans were pretty well represented at that game when the Texans played the Jaguars in London
06:53in 2019.
06:54I would bet they're even better represented at this one because I think Texan fans like this Texans team more
06:59than they liked the 2019 team.
07:02Yeah, I think there's a lot of more bubbling optimism and excitement and a fervor over it.
07:07Yeah.
07:08And I also think it would stand to reason that I think, like we already know, we hear from them
07:12all the time, the people who live in Europe who are Texans fans.
07:17But, like, is that – does it end up actually being almost – if we could get them all concentrated
07:23down in one end zone, that would be cool.
07:25Oh, yeah.
07:25You know me with my organizational abilities.
07:27I'll probably – I'll have a plan for that right this afternoon.
07:30Yeah, I recommend everybody where they should be sitting for this game.
07:35I'm looking at the TV in our studio here, and it's on ESPN, and right now they're listing the nine
07:41international games.
07:43Yeah.
07:44I think nerding on NFL was nine for nine.
07:47Yeah, he was – nerding on NFL, according to the one article I saw, was 235 for 237 in 2024
07:55on the schedule leaks that he had announced that year.
07:58I didn't see one for 2025, but he's somebody – it's got to be driving somebody at the NFL crazy.
08:05Yes.
08:05There's this one random Twitter account out there who's definitely plugged in to either somebody on the broadcasting side of
08:11things or from within the organization itself.
08:14He's spoiling.
08:15Yeah, he's spoiling.
08:16Now, he doesn't have – so I got to – I pulled up the tracker.
08:19He doesn't have that many leaks at all right now.
08:22Yeah.
08:22He had leaked a bunch of these international games.
08:24Yep.
08:24But so far, they've battened the hatches on a lot of these things.
08:29If you're somebody that likes watching it on the broadcast or seeing the Texans' official schedule release video,
08:34if you can just hold your water for 10 hours, you might not find out anything more until the –
08:41Yeah, or just block nerding on NFL.
08:44There's only one – nerding on NFL only has one schedule leak for the Texans, and it's the Jaguars game.
08:50It's this game, yeah.
08:51Yeah.
08:51Yeah, it's this game.
08:52So it's official now.
08:54The Texans are going to be going to London.
08:55Who were they playing the week before?
08:57The Jaguars?
08:58Eagles.
08:58They're playing the Eagles.
08:59Eagles.
08:59He was right on that one as well.
09:01Yep, yep.
09:02Yep, Eagles.
09:03So they lose – wow.
09:04So they lose two home games.
09:07Yeah.
09:08They lose two home games in a year where the AFC only gets eight home games.
09:14You know, this is a year where the – you know, 17 games in a season, this is a season
09:20where the NFC teams are getting the nine home games
09:22and the AFC teams are only getting eight home games.
09:25So they're only getting six games, six true home games, the Jags.
09:29Well, and then also, I mean, you look at the Jaguars for – if there was ever a time where
09:34you're going to have stadium concerns and reshuffling,
09:38it's like as the Jaguars seem to be potentially in some kind of a window here,
09:43they're going to have limited seating at home this year, 42,000, which, you know,
09:49people love to make jokes about the Jaguars stadium not being full and everything.
09:53It's been pretty full as of late.
09:54So – and then next year they're playing in Orlando because of the stadium renovation.
09:59Because of the renovation.
10:00Okay, so that's next year is the Orlando.
10:01See, I thought maybe –
10:02Yeah, this year it's 42,000 people.
10:05Next year it's playing in Orlando.
10:07Well, okay.
10:08I mean, with just 42,000, that might be a better home field advantage in Wembley Stadium for them.
10:14What does Wembley hold?
10:15Wembley's got to hold –
10:16Like 70,000.
10:16Yeah, Wembley's got to hold –
10:17So they're only going to have like 20,000.
10:18People say it's like 25%.
10:20Yeah.
10:20They have 15,000 to 20,000 Jaguars fans.
10:23I'm just thinking of pure noise.
10:23You know, just pure noise.
10:25I would go for – I would go with a 30,000-seat stadium of all home fans.
10:30Over 30,000 people spread around a 70,000-person stadium.
10:35I'm just thinking they might be hooligans, Seth.
10:37They might just be hooligans that like screaming and yelling at things there in England.
10:41Have we ever gotten an answer on this?
10:42Does J.J. Watt have any soccer hooligans in Burnley?
10:46Can we rent them for that particular Sunday?
10:48It's a four-hour train ride from Burnley to London.
10:52And if we could get a good bunch of the hooligans on there to just go down and intimidate some
10:57people, that would be awesome.
10:58J.J. is renting private jets all the time.
11:00Can't he put a bunch of these people on a train?
11:02Can't he rent a full train and get them –
11:03Can't you do this for us, J.J.?
11:05Do something, J.J.
11:06Is this, is this, is it that hard to do?
11:09Ooh, $40 million for Hurricane Harvey, ooh.
11:13They love so as I was doing a little research on just like – I was trying to figure out
11:16exactly what is the –
11:18what home field advantage do teams have or anything, and I was looking at the breakdowns of all of this.
11:24And then I dove into the J.J. Watt side of things.
11:26And, you know, I wasn't going to ask J.J., hey, do people like you over there?
11:30Because, well, I can't trust him.
11:32So it is by American owners of English soccer clubs, J.J. seems to be very – held in very
11:41high regard
11:42because he's not looked at as an absentee guy at all.
11:45He and Kalia go out to the pubs and everything, and he's very much involved.
11:49And they feel like – it seems like the general sentiment over there is that J.J. gets a lot
11:54of respect
11:55for being a guy that's actually, like, really making an effort to not just be there
11:59but also learn the game and everything else.
12:01He's into it, man.
12:02Yeah.
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