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Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast take a critical look at Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans' decision making and whether it is too conservative.
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00:00All right, Payton Pendergast with you.
00:01Here was D'Amico Ryans.
00:03We just talked about this in the previous segment.
00:06This was D'Amico Ryans being asked yesterday.
00:08It is Monday, media availability.
00:10Hey, you're 0-2.
00:11Is this a must-win situation for you guys?
00:15It's critical for us to go execute better, play better football.
00:19When you do the things that winning teams do,
00:22then you'll put yourself in position to win a game, right?
00:25I don't think there's any week that's not a must-win week for me in the NFL.
00:31Every game is important, right?
00:33You only get so many opportunities, right?
00:35And you have to make sure you capitalize on opportunities as you get
00:39or they'll be few and few in between.
00:42So you got to find a way, right?
00:44Every week, they're all important.
00:45There is not one game that wasn't important.
00:48Just like these first two were very important.
00:50We didn't play well enough to win them.
00:52So the next one is equally as important as the first two.
00:55I get his answer.
00:56Some are more important than others just based on the tiebreakers
00:59and the standings and things.
01:00Your AFC games are more important than your NFC games, probably.
01:04But I get what he's saying there.
01:05I thought it was a really good answer just in terms of like,
01:08no, we're not putting – we're not going to work harder this week
01:12because it's the Colts.
01:13I think that's – when you ask a coach like, how crucial is this game,
01:19I don't know what the expectation is.
01:21Like all of a sudden they're just going to work harder this week.
01:23Like they work hard every week, you know?
01:26So that's the thing for me.
01:28I really – I like that answer.
01:30And the other thing that gets hammered home too is you realize, man,
01:33there are only 17 of these things.
01:35Right, yeah.
01:35That's what makes the missed opportunity at the end of that Buffalo game
01:39so painful.
01:40Yeah.
01:41On average, these things are worth about one-seventeenth of your whole season.
01:44That's good math.
01:45I'm going to double-check you on that.
01:46We're going to have Sterling do something here.
01:49Okay.
01:49We're going to have him create a drop for the first time because there was a point
01:53in that where D'Amico said something, but it sounded like something else.
01:56I'll stop you when we get to it.
01:58Okay.
01:58It's critical for us to go execute better, play better football.
02:02When you do the things that winning teams do,
02:05then you'll put yourself in position to win a game.
02:08Right on.
02:09There we go.
02:10Right on.
02:10He said, right, ah, and then he was moving.
02:13He said, ah, but it sounds like right on.
02:15I like D'Amico saying right on.
02:17Right on.
02:17Yeah, yeah.
02:18Oh, yeah.
02:18Like, yeah, if you just parse that.
02:20Do the kids say right on, Sterling?
02:22Yeah.
02:24Every now and then.
02:25Not really.
02:25I'm bringing it back.
02:26Me and D'Amico.
02:27Oh, yeah.
02:28Hell yeah.
02:28Right on.
02:29Yeah.
02:29That's what you're supposed to answer.
02:31Hey, do the kids say that?
02:32Right on.
02:33Right on.
02:34Yeah.
02:34Yep, yep.
02:36So, this is a big game for both of these teams, though, man.
02:39No, it is.
02:400-2 versus 0-2 here.
02:41Look, and yeah, 0-3.
02:43We know we're very well-versed in how hard it is to make the playoffs after starting 0-3
02:47because the Texans have done it twice, once each with each of their last, well, I almost
02:52said each of their last two head coaches.
02:53They had like seven in between D'Amico and Bill O'Brien.
02:58But you get the gist of it.
02:59Yeah, yeah.
03:00We know what you're doing.
03:00Yeah, yeah.
03:01The ones that felt like full-time head coaches.
03:03Right on.
03:04Yeah.
03:04Right on.
03:05Yeah.
03:05Okay, play it again?
03:06I don't think there's.
03:07Oh, no.
03:08I know.
03:09Yeah.
03:09We'll get it.
03:10We'll get it.
03:12So, ironically, not this 0-3 last year, but the previous one you're talking about with
03:17Bill O'Brien, first win of the season in Indianapolis against the Colts, which started
03:23a nine-game winning streak.
03:24The Colts, if I'm not mistaken, were also winless going into that game.
03:27I think both, and I think both teams ended up making the playoffs that year.
03:31In fact, they did because the Colts, in the only win in the Chris Ballard era, beat the
03:36Texans in a wild card game here at NRG Stadium that year.
03:40So, they both got off to slow starts that year in 2018, and they played each other in
03:45week three, and the Texans won that game in overtime.
03:47That was the game that Frank Reich decided to show, like, hey, there's a new sheriff in
03:52town.
03:52We're not going for ties.
03:54We're going for wins.
03:55And he went for it on fourth down on his own side of the field in overtime in a tie
03:59game.
04:00Didn't get it.
04:00And two plays later, the Texans win on a Kaimi Fairbairn field goal.
04:03Right on.
04:04Yeah.
04:04That's right, D'Amico.
04:05Right on.
04:06Right on, man.
04:07That's what's going to happen this time around.
04:09The fun thing about this one is that, man, like, the defense right now, the thing that
04:14would concern me versus the Colts is that without Henry Toa Toa in there, it's the run
04:20defense.
04:21It wasn't like that was a major issue or the thing that killed the Texans in that game
04:25defensively.
04:26It was the big plays.
04:27But they were kind of soft up the middle in the run, and that's on the defensive tackles
04:32and on the linebackers.
04:34And Jake Hansen just isn't the same physical presence as Henry Toa Toa.
04:37So that's a, that's like for an offense in the Colts, it's driven by Jonathan Taylor.
04:42That's the big challenge this week.
04:44Absolutely.
04:45So D'Amico made some decisions in that game on Sunday that were, that were questionable.
04:50We'll get to the, to me, the biggest questionable coming from the head coach in a second.
04:55That would be the decision to kick a long field goal instead of going for it on fourth and
04:58one, but early in the game, and maybe this drove that second decision, the results of
05:03this play, but on a fourth and two inches in, um, in, uh, Bengal territory, uh, the
05:10Texans decided to run it into the teeth of the Bengals defense and it did not go well.
05:16D'Amico said, Hey, that, that was the right call.
05:17We just didn't execute.
05:18Our short yard is play call was the right play.
05:21Uh, when you don't block their best player, you don't stay on 97 and the play is not going
05:25to work.
05:26Okay.
05:27Do you agree with that?
05:28Having had a chance to look at it again?
05:30I don't know if it was the right call executed poorly.
05:34Uh, well, it was definitely executed poorly.
05:36It could have been the right call.
05:37I think they could have gotten the yardage.
05:39Uh, it's, um, Brown had just sealed off, but that's the problem.
05:43I don't know if, I mean, Dexter Lawrence might still make that play or disrupt things.
05:47If just, even if it was blocked properly, uh, cause he was destroying those guys that thoroughly,
05:52but it's, it was a better call than it looked on paper and it was, I mean, and this is
05:58the
05:58classic, that particular call.
06:01You're wondering why are they asking Keelan Rutledge to make that block?
06:04And the short answer is because they weren't actually asking him.
06:07It was supposed to be a double team, but that comes back to, all right, Nick Haley, Cole
06:14Popovich, the coaching, the execution on the offense.
06:17If, if we're going to be keep, if we're going to continue to go with this strategy of having
06:21lunch pal guys on the offensive line, at the very least, can you get the blocking right?
06:26At the very least, can you execute the plays you're supposed to be?
06:29It felt like last year where you couldn't even judge the offensive line because they were
06:33so often out of position that they, they weren't even in position to win the physical
06:37battle.
06:37That's exactly what happened on that play.
06:39They just, they're not running the actual play.
06:41Cole Popovich has gotten very little heat through these first two games.
06:45I think the, I, this, this is the question I would have is exactly why, exactly why did
06:53they not try to attack the edges at all in the run game?
06:58And also just what, like, as it, is it looked like, all right, there were some run games that
07:04looked less off or one plays that looked less awful than the others.
07:07And it did, it did look at least like you could get positive yards or four yards or so
07:14if you just ran duo, which is just what they were leaning into last year, just mashing
07:18the defensive tackles with double teams and trying to get some kind of yardage.
07:22But it also didn't look like they were just about to bounce something on those plays either.
07:26No.
07:26So I have a hard time.
07:28My, my question is the overall strategy of like how limited they were in their rush attempts
07:33in terms of what they were trying to do.
07:35And yeah, I guess maybe overestimating what their offensive lineman can do.
07:39Some of those zone runs, like Wyatt Teller had a reasonable block to make and just flat
07:44out couldn't get there versus Dexter Lawrence.
07:46So the point where he could even put up a fight.
07:48Yep.
07:48Okay.
07:49So the other decision that was made in this game in a fourth down short yardage situation
07:55may have been impacted by how the first one ended.
07:57We, you know, we just went through that one, the fourth and two inches that they got stuffed
08:01in the backfield.
08:02David Montgomery gets stuffed.
08:03They turn the ball over on downs and the Bengals get the ball back there.
08:07Um, later in the game, in the third quarter, the Texans had a fourth and one from the Bengals
08:1440 yard line.
08:15So the choices there are, there's really three choices.
08:18There's go for it.
08:20There's try a field goal, which is what they did from 58 yards.
08:23And I suppose a third choice would be if you wanted to punt, you could punt to field position
08:26game, pin them deep, let your defense go to work, whatever.
08:30I don't think that would have been totally inexcusable, but teams just don't punt from the 40 these
08:35days on fourth and short situations.
08:37They also don't kick 58 yard field goals on fourth and short.
08:40Yeah.
08:41I think, I think 31 other teams are going forward in that situation.
08:44Here was D'Amico Ryan's explanation when he was asked about that yesterday.
08:48Yeah, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't get the yard.
08:50I made a decision on both of those.
08:52I make the decision to go forward or to not go forward.
08:55I decided to kick the field goal, 58 yarder, uh, have all the confidence in the world.
09:00And Kaimi, he made it last week from the same spot and everybody gave him praise.
09:05It's a tough kick.
09:06He didn't make it.
09:07We move on.
09:08We live with the decisions we make.
09:09This is the issue I have.
09:11Cause I know the, look, the analytics say you always go for it in that situation.
09:15The analytics can sometimes, if you're just going off of a blank chart, it's different
09:19than how the team is looking at it.
09:21But the question I have in the interesting thing is, okay, I can accept that if D'Amico just
09:27didn't trust his offense in that situation because of what they've been doing all day
09:30that he decides to kick the field goal.
09:32The problem is you're still, you still need to score another touchdown to, even if you
09:37make it to, to get the lead would have been 10, six at that point.
09:41So you're, so this, this team that had by that had failed four times in the red zone in
09:48that game, what's your confidence level that you're going to be in a better position to
09:52get a touchdown.
09:53You can't come up and, I mean, you could, but there's a good chance you're going to
09:57end up in the same situation and have to kick a field goal or concede a field goal again.
10:00This is my, one of my, you kind of touching on it a little bit, like one of my bigger
10:04concerns
10:04with the offense as it's currently constructed with no Nico Collins out there and with what
10:09looks like they're back to square one, running the football, at least against good defenses.
10:13I don't know if the Colts have a good defense, but it's not a great matchup for the Texans.
10:16You know, it's a little like the Titans were the last couple of years, like probably not
10:19a great defense, but Jeffrey Simmons and back when Tavondre Sweat was on the team, that's
10:23kind of a problem for this particular Texans team.
10:26They've got DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart, the Colts do.
10:29So this is a problem.
10:30The thing for me is, and it felt like this on Sunday against the Bengals is when they
10:35got down into the red zone, obviously they were, they, they were completely unsuccessful
10:39down there.
10:39It feels like the way this team is constructed, their inability to run the football and their
10:44lack of guys that can beat man coverage down there and get open or make plays like Nico
10:49Collins can.
10:49Man, it feels like everything's compressed down there.
10:52Like I'm watching that game on Sunday.
10:54I'm like, I think the only way they're going to score touchdowns offensively is if they
10:58get, if they hit a big play.
11:00Right.
11:00Like if they hit a deep shot to jail and Noel, because when they work their way methodically
11:04down inside the 20, it's everything's gunked up.
11:06Right.
11:07Right.
11:07Yeah.
11:07And that's why, I mean, that's why the inability to run the ball hurts you so much in the red
11:11zone.
11:11Cause there's just not that much space to work with.
11:13Correct.
11:13The other thing though, too, is, I mean, there's like when they get in some of these
11:17short yardage situations, especially on third and one, we're in four down territory.
11:21I mean, or down on the goal line, like play action does exist.
11:25I, when you've established a tendency so much that you're going to run it no matter what,
11:29that in some critical situations or a boot, naked, I mean, you're trying to get a yard.
11:35Yeah.
11:35Yeah.
11:36Well, or the Stover shove and I think the Stover shove, I could see where they're looking
11:40at it and why a teller just doesn't have it anymore physically.
11:43Yeah.
11:44And they're probably thinking like, okay, going versus these big defensive tackles, the
11:49sober shove looks different this year.
11:51Cause we don't have the same guys physically that we had last year.
11:54Yep.
11:54I don't know if Trent Brown's moving as well as he did last year.
11:57I mean, he had some, he had some rough snaps in that game where he looked really just old
12:00and stiff legged.
12:01The last one.
12:02I mean, it's tough on the last one.
12:03Cause everybody knows you're trying to throw the ball or whatever, but that last sack where
12:06Cassius Howell and whoever was lined up over Trent Brown just basically met at CJ.
12:10Like, they, they, like Ursary and Trent Brown both just got just run past, um, gotta be
12:16better this week, man.
12:17Gotta be better this week.
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