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00:00it means it's time to talk to our odyssey nfl insider ross tucker insider calls are brought
00:05to you by nationwide for your insurance and financial needs nationwide is on your we go
00:12out to the texas mattress makers hotline now to talk to our good friend ross tucker ross how you
00:16doing this morning i'm doing fantastic texas mattress makers that sounds good you know who's
00:23a big fan of texas mattress makers jj watt unsolicited unsolicited tweeted about them
00:29a couple years ago about how they make their how they made his mattress for him and uh as you
00:35can
00:35imagine it got a lot of reaction i love that i was actually texting with jj yesterday name drop
00:41because sunday i have the bengal steelers for cbs yep and so he called steelers patriot so we were
00:51talking about that and then works out well for my conversation with you guys because i've got the
00:57bengal so uh yeah that's great i love it and listen if texas mattress makers is part of the
01:04reason why i'm on with you guys i'm all in hey i'm all in on texas ross tucker all right
01:09here a little
01:09insider info for you write this name down okay you ready dexter lawrence yes yes yep uh spelled with
01:17an x in dexter uh it's not d-e-c-k dexter it could be that he decks he decks
01:22the texans offensive line
01:23um i'm i'm kidding of course i know you already know dexter lawrence uh what would i tell you ross
01:30if uh if i told you listen my game plan going into this game is to run inside the tackles
01:36as much as
01:37possible uh to try to just establish toughness and show you show that we can we can stand toe to
01:44toe with the big boys how's that going to work out for the texans yeah uh it did not work
01:50out very
01:50well and you know it's interesting um and i'm gonna probably uh make this point on on sunday at some
01:59point i think he had three tackles uh one tackle for loss and one quarterback hit and this probably
02:09drove you nuts seth when you were playing but stats might be as big of a liar i the two
02:17positions
02:18where stats are like the biggest liar are like d tackle and corner you know you're like you know
02:25the other night i'm doing uh lions bills and like you know somebody's like well the dj reed was the
02:31leading tackler for the lions in the last game i'm like yeah that he's a corner that's not good
02:36yeah that could just mean that the guy caught 10 passes in front of him and then he tackled him
02:42and then conversely you have a corner with no stats that was absolutely locked down meanwhile for a d
02:49tackle if you're getting double teamed and not moving off the spot or you're in the backfield or
02:57you're you're getting you're denting the o-line every time and knocking the guard or center back and
03:03and the running back has to cut it back like you could theoretically have an unbelievable game as a
03:09d tackle and not really have a single statistic to show for it yeah you know whether the flip side
03:15of
03:15it though i never bothered me because you do if you have a good run defense you end up getting
03:19a lot
03:20of credit because people will point to you as part of it um but the flip side of it is
03:24that when you're
03:24on a horrible run defense it doesn't matter if every single play goes outside uh they'll uh the people
03:30will be saying well uh their nose tackle isn't fat enough they need to be more ted washington size
03:35so you get blamed for it you get blamed for it on the downside even when it's not your fault
03:39so it
03:40never bothered me about the the whole stat thing that's a good point yeah but anyway that's your
03:46lawrence is good and and i would say you know watching it it's just the bangles that they have some
03:54second string guys that can play yeah i think that that that's a really important thing when you're
04:0055 how and 52 johnson can come in and get stuff done that's that that means a lot well ross
04:08the
04:08dexter lawrence not i mean the stats are the stats as you point out he was so good in that
04:13game he
04:13changed the decision making by to miko ryan's in this game like i'm sure you saw that part it was
04:20in
04:20the second half in the third quarter the texans had a fourth and one at the 40 yard line of
04:23the
04:23bangles and they chose to kick a 58 yard field goal instead of going for it on fourth down because
04:28they'd gotten stuffed by dexter lawrence earlier in the game in the same part of the field
04:35that is a fascinating conversation because i could do the whole segment on just that decision
04:44because the analytics or all of the models would tell you that that is a go situation yes that they
04:55should have gone for that demico should have gone for it and i've also seen a decent amount of data
05:01that would suggest demico is one of the more conservative head coaches in the nfl but does the
05:09model know that dexter lawrence plays for the bangles does the model know that earlier in the
05:15game they got stuffed on it so that that's my issue first of all you know when people talk about
05:22the
05:22quote-unquote analytics that's so misleading because every team has sort of their own proprietary model
05:29based on the the factors that they put in and then also those things are not really dynamic
05:38meaning you try to take into account as many of the variables as they can but it doesn't know that
05:43they got stuffed earlier in the game although you know what to be honest with you they got
05:48stuffed earlier in the game the model would probably be even more encouraging to go for it because if
05:53it's like you get it 58 percent of the time and you you didn't get it earlier then you're more
05:58likely
05:58to get it now yeah i guess you know what that's the whole part of it though too is that
06:03i mean
06:03there's been kind of a stubborn insistence these last couple years where it feels like sometimes
06:08they're trying the texans are trying to prove to themselves that they're tough enough to do it
06:12to the point where even we as a fan base forget oh wait a second just because it's fourth and
06:18inches
06:18doesn't mean you have to send a running back right up the gut you can qb sneak you can do
06:24the cade
06:24stover push which was very successful especially in the playoffs last year versus two teams that have
06:29big strong defensive linemen the steelers and the patriots kate stover is three for three on tush
06:35pushes um you get you know what sean did you realize this did you know you're allowed to pass
06:40in short yardage situations i heard that they changed that rule teams actually do that sometimes
06:45no it's there's so many times where it's felt and last year they they failed at it multiple times
06:51they're just they want to prove to themselves that they can do it so they're going to run right up
06:55the
06:55gut to the point where they almost forget there's other options there that you can attack the edges
06:59on short yardage there's multiple different things you can do you know um it's interesting
07:08because i in that game i mean there's a lot of positives you know like the the d line came
07:16alive
07:17and i i don't know i can't kill stilly for that first touchdown catch that chase made you know i
07:24mean
07:24that that game felt more like a texans game last year um but clearly they needed the offense to do
07:32more more than they did yeah ross tucker's our odyssey nfl insider nationwide brings them to you
07:38each and every week they're so much more than a great insurance company they're one of america's
07:41largest financial services companies too nationwide is on your side so ross as far as cj stroud goes he
07:50threw for a bunch of yards in this game but didn't get the ball in the end zone you were
07:53there for the
07:54first game of the year with cj against the bills where other than the two turnovers he was outstanding
07:59in between both of those turnovers um where are we with cj stroud now a couple of games into the
08:05season here and especially i we don't know if nico collins is going to miss this game against the
08:10colts this coming weekend obviously they miss nico tremendously on um on sunday but your thoughts
08:16on the texans quarterback two games into what is a pivotal career year for him well let's start with
08:23the nico collins part of it because that that is significant there's just no way around it you know
08:30with the other injuries they've had you know obviously no higgins and tank still not out there
08:35to then not have nico i mean in my mind correct me if i'm wrong but if every receiver was
08:43healthy
08:43it would be nico collins jaden higgins and tank dell out probably right accurate that's correct
08:48tank is a little iffy of a one because it's still just i don't know he might never play football
08:52again
08:53he might i i don't know higgins and collins definitely fit what you're talking about for sure
08:58yeah so i mean they're over three receiver there and they might be oh and three after sunday but by
09:04the
09:04way what a massive game for both these teams coming up the colts and the texans and i mean i
09:10and i know
09:10the texans proved you can come back from oh and three last year but you don't really want to it's
09:16not like one of those things in life where you're like watch me i'll do it again i'll do it
09:20again
09:20right now tradition it's a tradition here ross that's what we do yeah so um i don't know i i
09:29was a little
09:30bit i think what you've seen again is that it's just not i it's just not a good scene still
09:37offensive line when they're in obvious passing downs and that's probably every offensive line
09:43listen the bangles offensive line uh wasn't exactly awesome on sunday either but um you just
09:50want to try to avoid those situations as much as you possibly can uh because even like it'd be like
09:57a
09:57second and six and cj i felt like was under siege um we talked about it but the no nico
10:05makes a big
10:06that i mean so this is like a microcosm i feel like the last couple years for cj they can't
10:14really
10:15run it the receivers are injured and the offensive line uh is is not gonna typically be able to really
10:26hold up under those circumstances in obvious passing downs it felt a lot like that game felt a lot like
10:35the overarching theme for cj stroud over the last couple years and clearly what you know the people
10:43that are the most fervent cj stroud supporters will tell you is like listen they're typically bottom five
10:50run game bottom five wide receiver health and bottom five and a lot of the offensive line metrics
10:58yeah ross the other part of that too is um when it comes to you know the tight ends tight
11:03ends had
11:04some bad snaps uh blocking run blocking and pass blocking this game too and what we're trying to
11:09figure out is this team kept five tight ends on their active roster one of only two or three teams
11:16in the league that would have done that um then they go out and in a game where your top
11:20wide receiver
11:21is injured they were in 11 personnel three wide receivers 91 of the time they barely used their
11:28third and fourth tight ends in the game at all both of those guys had fewer than 10 snaps and
11:33we're just
11:33trying to figure out what what is the purpose of all of this if the strategy was going to be
11:39we're going
11:39to be one of these teams that's tight end heavy and now now your receivers are all injured and we're
11:45still not going to use the tight ends i just i'm i'm going through in my mind all the different
11:50reasons that that might have been maybe they just wanted to try to spread it out to create some
11:53space because of that tough defensive line uh but it just doesn't seem like it doesn't seem like they're
11:59they constructed the roster the way they're actually behaving in games well that's an interesting
12:05point um and i think as you know the game planning stuff is such a week-to-week thing i
12:15don't really
12:15know why they didn't utilize more tight end you know multiple tight end sets i felt like they had
12:21some effectiveness against buffalo with it you'd have to ask nick cayley you know they did score 31
12:27points against buffalo and look pretty darn good offensively and would have scored even more if it
12:33weren't for the the shroud fumbles so um i don't i'm not i'm not going to go too far overboard
12:40on that
12:41part of it yet because it is just one week and i know this is what we do and we
12:45react
12:46significantly to to each week but um i that's one where it would be so fun if they actually told
12:54you
12:55after the game well we thought this corner was really bad so we were going to try to attack him
13:00it didn't work right or we you know mafe and and and uh murphy do such a good job against
13:07tight ends
13:07blocking him that we didn't think it was a good fit like you'll never really know but certainly
13:13by keeping five tight ends and even what they did in week one the expectation is they're going to be
13:19in a lot of multiple tight end sets and you would think with no nico collins that that would only
13:24be
13:24enhanced that you'd only be in more 12 and 13 yeah you know what you know what i'm glad you
13:30kind of
13:31framed it the way you did because i do think that they did some things in attacking the bangles
13:36secondary that should have worked out and did work out if you're looking at it on paper the problem
13:42is you've got backup wide receivers falling down because they're tripping on their own feet when
13:48they would be open you've got wide receivers not adjusting to coverage the right way so it looks
13:52like so cj has a great pass but there's nobody there to catch it um you've got guys letting the
13:58ball bounce off of their hands because they're not nico collins or jaden higgins like all of that part
14:03in terms of scheming things up was pretty good except you forgot that oh these guys don't make
14:08plays i guess that's the frustrating part for me is that you you if you're keeping all these tight
14:13ends i would love to know that you're doing it because you think they can actually make plays
14:17as opposed to just hey that's what they're doing in the league these days
14:22yeah i mean listen moro moro had a nice play i i i think it's not just making plays i
14:29think it's
14:29the the things you can dictate to the defense and what those guys do as blockers you know i'm just
14:39seeing more and more where these dns and you'll appreciate this s they don't look to me like they're
14:47very um used to some of the blocks they're taking on or some of the situations they get put in
14:54when
14:55there's these two tight ends of the same size yes you know they're not they're not overly used to
15:00having like a a whole other body outside of them um and it does yeah no yeah it's psychologically it
15:08can some that's almost like a like a phantom chip block sometimes it's what it's how josh allen got
15:13outside of will anderson that's what they did to him they had two tight ends over to that side
15:17and it's just enough just enough to get that extra six inches of you know space for josh allen to
15:24for
15:24him to scramble that's exactly right and by the way like this is sort of the uh the crux of
15:33it for
15:33the texans the office played well enough to win in week one but the defense didn't and in week two
15:39the
15:39defense played well enough to win but the offense didn't yeah you know my my strategy this week
15:46if i were the texans i would try to have them both do it at the same time that's a
15:50really good idea
15:51that is a really good idea to have both both sides of the ball play well enough to win
15:56in this same game i'm telling you guys right now if that happens you heard it here first
16:01we will win the game no that's good hey ross ross we got news for you the special teams
16:06special teams are atrocious ross what how does that factor into your strategy
16:14oh man ross tucker's our odyssey nfl insider insider calls presented by nationwide for your
16:20insurance and financial needs nationwide is on your side hey ross have a great call on
16:25stealers and bangles we always appreciate the time safe travels to you my friend
16:30that was great see you dude all right thanks that's ross tucker joining us here on the show we
16:34need to i wanted to ask him about caleb williams what was the funniest meme that he saw yesterday
16:39about caleb williams hamstring injury given the the old i might be paralyzed nope i'm not thumbs up
16:45don't worry i had a cramp yeah yeah i'll make it through this i'm gonna go get some electrolytes
16:51in the locker room i might be back i tweeted the video of him getting getting carted off giving the
16:55thumbs up i said this is me after i get soap in my eye and i'm able to flush all
17:00the soap out of my
17:01eyes in the shower yes
17:02yes
17:02yes