Payne & Pendergast
Payne and Prendergast December 31,2024
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Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for details. Look around, every car you see is probably on auto trader. New cars, used cars, electric cars. As for flying cars, but we're ready when they are. If you see a car you like, find it on auto trader. That's our kind of thing, auto trader. Sports Radio 610 presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast. We come the eighth time. Thank you for working, man. Let's go. Great day, great day. Oh, give me some juice, baby. Oh, yeah. Hey, what's happening everybody? Happy Tuesday to all of you. Happy New Year's Eve, to all of you. College football playoff gets started back up against tonight. Big things going on in the Texans. Yeah. The Texans play on Sunday, and they are going to be playing their dudes in this game. So you better be ready for a new kickoff on Sports Radio 610. They play NFL games on Sunday now. Okay. It's been my impression that it's Christmas Day, Saturday, Thursday night, Monday night. But Sunday, that's a novelty. Has this schedule, like the recent stretch, messed with you as much as it's messed with me? Yeah, yeah. It's totally thrown me off, man. There were four teams that had really weird stretches because of the three games in 12 days. But I think for people in general, especially, I'm still adjusting to the new playoff system in college football. Yeah. It's a lot. My football, my biological football clock is a little bit off. Yeah. It's a lot, man. I'm like, oh, I'm like a 47-year-old single lady. I don't imagine, I'm desperate. I got to do something. My biological clock's all messed up. It's a ticking. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yup. So, but we're back on noon Sunday, at least for now, until the playoffs roll around, and then we'll, I guarantee you, I guarantee you one thing. We will be back on either a Saturday or Monday kick the following weekend. The Texans will not be playing. I don't, in my opinion, I don't think. 'Cause they're a four versus three. They're guaranteed to be a four versus five game. Yeah. The Monday night game on wildcard weekend, 'cause wildcard round is six games now. The last one played on Monday is a four, it's always going to be a four versus five game, 'cause that game doesn't throw everybody's schedule into disarray at that point of the season. So, you're saying that it's not going to be a Monday night game? I'm saying it could be a Monday night game. The Texans could play on Monday night wildcard round, 'cause they're, the wildcard round game, though, in the wildcard round, the Monday night game is always a four versus five. Oh, it's always, okay, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's understood. All right. So, it actually could be a Monday night game. It could be a Monday night game. Now, we know, if history holds true, it'll be Saturday at 3.30. That's when they've played literally every other wildcard round game. Then there's no, the potential opponents they would play don't, aren't huge enough TV draws that they would skew. Even the Steelers, it's not quite the same as if you were playing the Cowboys or the Giants or other, other teams that get huge ratings but suck at football. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it basically comes down to, do you take the Texans in probably to your point, the Steelers? Or do you take, in the NFC, the winner of the NFC South versus the leftover from the Vikings Lions game? Which, by the way, that Vikings Lions game, this coming Sunday night is about as big a regular season game as you're ever going to see. The winner, the winner of that game, then you've missed it, the Lions won Monday night football last night against the San Francisco 49ers. A game you heard right here on Sports Radio 6th. And if you listen, that game next weekend, it's Sunday night football. They've set the schedule now for next week. And that Sunday night game between the Vikings and the Lions, the winner gets the buy in the one seed and you have to go through their city to get to the Super Bowl. The loser is going on the road for the entire postseason, in all likelihood. The Lions are putting in an interesting situation where they're so banged up, they're so injured, and they could really use that extra week. But does that mean that you play guys who are injured to try to get that extra week? Yes, it's a delicate balance. They played everybody last night. They didn't-- that game was meaningless last night. They didn't need-- they could have lost that game, and the stakes would have still been the same this coming Sunday. It's Dan Campbell, man. Yeah. There's a football game to play, we're going to go play it. There is, man, watching the Broncos game this weekend. You look at the end-- in overtime, it sure felt like Peyton knew for sure that all they needed to do, the clench of playoffs, was to tie that football game. Yep. And it colored his decision-making, and it was-- I was cool with not going for two or whatever. But that final drive in overtime, it looked very much like, hey, we're going to run the clock out, and it blew up in their face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's where-- the part of just being an old school meathead and saying, no, I'm not going to think about the-- not going to think about the playoff scenarios or anything. We're just going to go win this football game. I think that that's why some coaches are almost like kind of psychotically into that level of it, because they know the danger is that you start getting too clever and too cute. Yeah, I mean, Dan Campbell almost-- he would have been a fraud if he didn't play his guys last night, because that's what they built that whole ethos on in Detroit, is biting off the kneecaps, trying every game. That whole thing, of all of a sudden, in week 17, on Monday Night Football, you're playing all the backups. That just-- I don't know if that would have rung-- if that would have rung, right? But so now you got 14 and two-- we're going to have a 14 win team as a five seed. He and the NFC. There's going to be a 14 win team. They got to change this college football playoff system. That doesn't sound right. I don't know, man. They need to play the games on campus, all right? I bet that what they seeded Oregon one, right? Like above the bills. OK, great. Yeah, they did. They did. D'Amico's going to play his guys as it turns out. He met with the media yesterday. That's what he says, yeah. D'Amico Ryan's-- well, I mean, they're going to play. How long they play is, I guess, up for debate. This is-- well, let's see. Let's read into it here. Here's D'Amico Ryan's-- yesterday when he was asked, will you rest your guys now that you're locked into the number one seed? Or number four seed? Yeah, going into this game has-- I mentioned to all our guys that everybody has to be ready to go. And that's where we are. Everybody will be out there playing, and we'll see how the game goes. But for us right now, we got to go play better. And our last outing on the field was not good enough, not representative of who we were, or defensively, offensively. It's not a good representation of our team entirely. So we got to go out. We got to play better football. So the debate online in other places-- because I posted yesterday, Seth, the list of the guys I would rest if I were D'Amico. And that drew a lot of chatter from people. You know, like, no, you can't rest anybody. You got-- they got to go in with momentum. They got to wash this taste out of their mouth. And then there were others who were like, good list. You know, like, I would rest all these guys too. And we can debate where we both stay and on all of that. It sounds like D'Amico, at least for part of this game, is in the wash the taste out of the mouth from the Christmas game? Yeah. That's what it sounds like. But I just-- let's remember, Sean. D'Amico has actually gotten good at the deceptive side of coach speak, right? Remember, hey, listen. Will we have Derek Singley, Shadow and Mari Cooper? No. That's not what we do. Right. This Davey-- This middle is going to start against the Titans. Sure. To his credit-- well, he never actually-- well, the problem wasn't nobody actually asked him that week. Everybody's like, oh, it's going to be your famous middle. Yeah. So D'Amico never even had to give any coach speak. There's one lone voice in Houston that said, hey, what the hell? Nobody-- he's never actually said that Davis Mills is starting. What are you guys on about? Yeah. And was he watching a lot of British stuff? That was you. Yeah. So what do you-- so do you think-- So I don't think-- I don't think CJ plays. You don't think he plays, huh? No. I don't think he does. I think he's banged up. And D'Amico did a good job of not answering that question. Yesterday, when I asked about CJ's injury-- because CJ had-- CJ after the game had said that he was kind of banged up, didn't want to use it as an excuse. But he put that out there. I think that-- I think the smart thing to do is to rest CJ and get him as healthy as possible. Because that-- no, you've had 17 weeks to fix that offense. And you haven't done a damn thing. So let's just get the most important thing as CJ's healthy as possible. I've heard a lot of people like, do you-- you don't want to lose momentum going into the plot. I'm like, what momentum? Lose momentum. Yeah. Yeah. What is the record? Since they started-- what's that? Well, let me cherry pick the worst part of the record to say how many they've won. There are three and five in their last eight games. They were six and two. That's easy enough. You didn't have to cherry pick that. They were six and two through the first eight. They're three and five with a wretched offense. In the last eight, here was D'Amico. Seth just talked about it. He was asked about CJ being banged up. The piece about CJ being banged up is, you know, I think that's real. And that's real for everyone in the league at this time of the year. Everybody is banged up to amount of games. Guys that play, the snaps that they play, like everyone that's banged up, that's what it is. That's NFL football this time of year. You try to manage it as best you can. But it's also we all have to fight through, push through. And a lot of guys are fighting through a lot of things. Not only CJ, but a lot of guys are fighting through. And that's the nature of what we do. And that's, and also shows how resilient these guys are, what they go through, what they battle through that. A lot of people would never know that they're fighting to go out there and see it'll go perform and ask to perform at a high level. Okay. So a lot of coach speaks surrounding the CJ being banged up. Hey, everybody's banged up, which is true. Cody Stu is asked to follow up. Yeah, but is there an injury that's preventing CJ from making plays? I think CJ is asking some plays that he would like back. Again, that's everyone, right? Everyone has had plays that we would all like back and like to play better. And I think CJ would be the first to tell you. You know, he has to play better. And our entire team, you know, rallying around them and playing better as well. They collectively as a team, we all have to play better. And we have an outing like we did versus Baltimore. No one did good enough coaches, players. No one did good enough. So we all, as I asked for guys to look introspectively and see, you know, where we can all get better. Okay. So like not connecting the injury to the performance at all. I think there were a couple of plays in that game where it just, it didn't make any sense. Then when he sailed the ball over Nico's head, there are another couple of errant throws that, and not including the one to Dalton Shultz when he was in the flat. But because that would have been a really impressive play given that he was getting hit as he was throwing it. And yet, I would say like the throw, the interception that he threw, he was on the run. It was kind of a risky throw. It would have been awesome if he had made it, but that was a much worse throw than I think I've seen him make before. Yeah. So I think there's that. But then there are also like, you can't, you got to look at some things too that weren't injuries at all. Like on the RPO, where he took a sack or Damian went out to the right. And like on that play, you got to get rid of it immediately. It's got to be, it's got to be a two-a-tongue-bi-low type play. Because if you don't, you got offensive lineman illegally downfield. And CJ held onto the ball, even though he had both Dalton Shultz and Xavier Hutchinson with windows to throw. But that's one thing, fine. Even if he didn't think they were open, you can't take a sack right there. You got to throw the ball away. It's almost like a screen. And he pals out backwards and runs seven yards even deeper than if he had just taken a sack there. Much less throwing it out of bounds. Like some of this stuff is just, it's bad quarterbacking. And that part of it, is it all tied to the injuries? Is it tied to the pass protection, all of that? But there's like that individual play, whatever the reason's leading up to it. That was a complete bust of a football play. Yeah. So you think CJ sits in this game on Sunday? I think he does. Yeah. I think, I think DeMico's coach speaking out the wazoo. Do you think anybody else sits in this game on Sunday? Like just flat out, flat out just sits. No. I don't think so. Yeah, I think that-- I mean, you asked who's injured right now. I mean, there's guys who I would sit that aren't injured right now. You know, just based on injury history, you know, like Mito. I would say the defensive players, I'd say maybe just make it like you do with practice. Anybody over 30? Anybody 30 or older? Just go ahead and take a break. See, I'm like, I'm the opposite. I'm like, man, sit Will and sit Daniel Hunter and make DeNico Lottery and Jerry Hughes earn their Social Security checks. You know, that's a good-- well, that's a good point. And you're right, though. You can't quite make that blanket statement because you've got depth players and rotational players who are 30 years old. Her room is 30. Yeah. That's an old defensive line room. Yeah. Like, yeah, I was, yeah, rest everybody who's over 30. So Jerry Hughes can play. Right. He's like 53. Yeah, he's over 50. Yeah. Exactly. Anybody over 50 plays. Yep. Yep. OK. It's-- honestly, though, because I do think that CJ does believe that they got to go out and play well, but he's got to make a hard decision with CJ. Yeah. So I think CJ's the only one that-- I would rest a lot of the starters, personally. I'm just-- if I'm going to handicap it, I think CJ rests-- or excuse me, DeMico rests CJ in-- And that's it. Probably. Nobody else unless it's for just genuine injury reasons. Yeah, or if the game's going a certain way, you know? Maybe you have a quicker hook in the game, you know, to get guys out, whether it's, you know-- if you're winning by a lot or losing by a lot. Well, whether or not it's momentum or anything like that, you definitely don't want to have your ass completely handed to you two weeks in a row. That's the dicey part of it. Well, and not by the Titans, either. I mean, there is that element to it. There are a lot of people in that building that want to beat the Titans, you know? It might be better for momentum in psychology and morale if you actually just put nothing but practice squad call-ups out there as much as you can finagle under the rules. And just be like, yeah, we're going to get destroyed. So no harm, right? We know. OK, so no big deal, right? You guys are still good. We still believe in you. Right, right, right. All right, so there's three teams that Texans could play in the wildcard round. The-- we've got the percentages right here as to who they are most likely to play. Who do the people want them to play in the wildcard round? I took a poll. We'll have the results next. Pain and pander gas with you on a New Year's Eve. Oh, oh, it's New Year's Eve. It's the day of the bowl game, too. The Kinder's Texas Bowl is today between Baylor and LSU. I wrote-- I actually wrote two physical checks this morning. And somehow it eluded me. As I wrote down 1231, it didn't occur to me that it's New Year's Eve. Wow. We got to go-- we got to go pop tops or whatever the kids say. I feel very old when it comes to pop and tops. I feel like that's-- can you say-- can you use it? Can you talk about it as an activity, like as a verb? We got to pop some tops? Are you only supposed to say they're pop and tops? I don't know. I haven't used that phrase in my entire life. So I'm the wrong guy to ask. You know, yeah, listen. How's this whiskey taste? I don't know. I'm a T-totaler. I have no idea how it tastes. You don't listen to enough crappy music, Sean. I don't. I don't. I don't. And I'm thinking by kids, I mean, I think that was like for the millennials. That was a popular phrase with them. Yeah. So yeah, if you're going out to the bowl games today, it should be a whole lot of fun. Baylor and LSU. It should be-- that's one of the better non-playoff bowl games, I would say. Do you happen to know who's on the call for this? It's a good question. I bull-- it's Brett Dolan and John Harris. OK. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah, it's because we-- I'm a radio around the TV. On the radio, yeah. We get it. It'll be right here on Sports Radio 610, so yeah. I love Brett. Brett's an awesome guy. I ran into Brett. Where did I run into Brett recently? I like John too, by the way. But I was, you know, John knows that. Oh, I ran into Brett. He was at the Texans game on Christmas day. I ran into Brett. Oh. Yeah, Brett, they're both great. It should be a good call. It'll be right here on our airwaves today. It should be a lot of fun. So the Texans can only play one of three teams in the wildcard round. They want to send their advanced scouts out. They can send them to three places, and they'll be playing one of these teams. The Steelers, who according to playoffstatus.com, there's a 77% chance they would play. It's getting up there. The Chargers, 19%. Somehow, these numbers shifted overnight. I guess maybe the Lions-- maybe there's a ripple effect with the Lions and the Niners that affect these things. I have no idea. And then the Ravens, there's a very, very miniscule chance. Thank God that they would play the Baltimore Ravens 4% chance. I am such a fraud and a hypocrite because everybody that listens closely will remember that last week, I said, hey, I actually would prefer to have the Ravens at home in the first round because that's your best chance at beating the Ravens. So yeah. Dude, no, 31 to 2 thrashing will do that to you. Fine, at least if they have to face the Ravens in the second round on the road, we want to have to witness it in person. Fine, fine. So who do you think the people want to play Seth? There's about 1,000 votes on this poll that I put up yesterday. Who do you think the people would like to play of those three teams? I think of those three teams, look, as much as-- there's a lack of familiarity and recent success with the Chargers, like they haven't been successful until this year. I feel like people feel more like, oh, it's the Chargers? But no, Justin Hermer, ah, no, I know Russell Wilson's name and they've got a good defense. So I think most people would prefer to play the Chargers. Actually, believe it or not, 73% of the people want to play the Pittsburgh Steelers. The hatred for Russell Wilson knows no end. I guess, or the lack of fear of Russell Wilson probably more than anything. A lack of respect. What you know is the kids say that, hey, that's hate as well. That's right. Yeah. They're hating on them. We're hating on them. It is interesting. The percentages of the voting, the voting public, the 1,000 people that voted in my poll, it aligns within just a few percent of what the computers think the opponent is going to be. Like it's 73% want the Steelers. Well, the good news for those people, according to the computers, there's a 77% chance you're going to get your wish. Similarly, the Chargers, 22% of the people, would like to face the Chargers. Well, the computers are like, well, there's like 16% or whatever I said, 19% chance that you're going to get your wish. And then very few people would like to play the Ravens. 4.6% are like, yeah, let's go. Give it to me one more time. Give me the Castor Oil. Let's go. Yeah. One of the big things that I would look at, too, is the fact that the-- I think the Chargers have a better run defense in the Steelers. I like the Steelers have a better overall defense. But I don't-- the teams that have good run defenses, like the Titans, even though they're a bad team, that just completely stymies everything the Texans want to do. And there's-- so I mean, neither of those defenses, I don't feel great about either of them. But you might have your best opportunity for success against the Chargers. I respect Justin Herbert Moore as a quarterback. But I kind of-- like, at some point, you're going to score points versus these teams. And I don't know if they have a chance versus the Steelers. Yeah, I don't know either. So I did pros and cons of each of these from a Texans perspective. I kind of like did the whole like, all right, this is good. This is a green column. This is good. There's a red column. Well, this sucks. Pros of playing the Steelers via the Texans, you mentioned Russell Wilson. He's the least threatening, I would say, of the three starting quarterbacks on these teams. Like he's the least scary. Did you know the last time the Steelers won a playoff game was in 2016 when they-- that was the year Brock Osweiler, was the quarterback of the Houston Texans. How long ago does that feel? That's the last time they won a playoff game, was in 2016. It's been almost a decade for all the credit that Mike Tomlin gets for having a team that never finishes-- like literally on his watch, never finishes below 500. They're always at least 500, or they're a winning team. He's not won a playoff game in nine years or eight years, I guess. Yeah, that's wild. So that's the pros. They haven't had a lot of recent success. The cons, as you mentioned, the defense. Two cons, I think, with the Steelers. The defense and the optics at NRG Stadium that day or night, whenever it is they play. Like the Steelers fans are going to invade NRG Stadium. Yeah, like the Steelers might be one of those unfortunate situations where the home team has to go to a silent counter because it's-- and this Texans offensive line, although they've actually somehow weirdly-- like even though you never-- they have made some improvements along the way, as we get it going on, in terms of communication and things like that. I'll take your word for it. Yeah. But that part-- I mean, they still can't run the ball at all versus good runs versus good defense. And I think that's where, again, when I go to the Chargers, it's kind of a-- I think both of these-- they're both good defenses. And the Chargers just-- but I don't fear the Chargers at home nearly as much as the Steelers for that crowd dynamic. Yeah, I agree. They're like to me to meet-- yeah, the pros. So the defense-- you get a better version of the Steelers' defense if they've got home field advantage on the road. Yeah, and you're not going to get that with the Chargers. No, you're not going to get that. Yeah, that's-- yeah, the big pros of playing the Chargers is, for one, I mean, they talk about the Steelers' lack of success in the playoffs in the last eight years. The Chargers are just one of those cursed franchises that any time they get close to something good, something bad happens. They had a 27-nothing lead over the Jags in the playoffs two years ago, and that's what led to Brandon Staley getting-- eventually, that was the impetus-- that was the beginning of the end for Brandon Staley. It's an underrated reason to hire Jim Harbaugh as your head coach, because Jim Harbaugh kind of cured a lot of the curses and vexes of Michigan football. Yes. And in the year in which he won a national championship, he did it while also getting caught doing something else at other programs that might have doomed. So it was like the exact-- they completely 100% reversed the curse. So the Chargers need some kind of mojo like that, and Harbaugh is just the weirdo to do it. That's the-- very, very weird. That's exactly what I wrote in my notes. I'm like, Jim Harbaugh-- cons if you're the Texans. Jim Harbaugh is their head coach. And if there's a head coach who can weirdo his way out of all the Charger weirdness, it's Jim Harbaugh. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I also think too, just purely from a football standpoint, like all these big chunk plays that have been the Achilles heel for the Texans this year, Justin Herbert's capable of generating a couple of those. So it's hard, Russell Wilson and George Pickens, just as a duo that's been kind of the hinge point for their offense a lot this year. Yeah, this is my pros and cons for facing the Baltimore Ravens. Pros, they kicked your ass so badly on Christmas Day, maybe they'll come in overconfident. Cons, everything else, I can find no good reason to want to face the Baltimore Ravens anymore. You know, Daniel Hunter, when you listen to the audio, I don't think it nearly sounded like he was calling out the coaches the way it read in the transcript. But Daniel Hunter said they need a game plan better in a game like that versus the Ravens. There is something to be said for man when you've got to play a team that's so vicious with the option, because of the running back and the quarterback and their ability to run. And then also the RPO element of it. Like, it's a nightmare. It's a nightmare, because that offense can beat you every different way. It's really tough in a short week to get your defensive ends and linebackers really on board with exactly how you're going to play everything. But that's not enough of an excuse. Especially now the offense, the offense has no excuse because they went out and played not that much different than they played all year, just a little bit worse. Tell me what you think of this text. Give us Baltimore, give us Baltimore in the first round, beating anyone else would feel like false hope. - Oh, okay, that's a good point. I don't, okay, all right, maybe this guy's talking me back into wantin' Baltimore in the first round again. - For that reason, why? 'Cause who cares how you feel about a win? Like, it's a win onto the next round, you know? - It's gotta like, if your kid's not that good at sports and you're going to a tournament, you're just kinda like, all right, let's just get this over with. I gotta go, I got some Netflix to watch. - Right. - Let's go ahead and let's go out. I hope this team gets rolled up in the first, 'cause they're not doin' anything anyway. - I don't wanna dismiss it. It is an interesting point. Like, that is the one team. Like, if they beat the Chargers or beat the Steelers, you're gonna, in all likely, I mean, you're gonna go, probably go to Kansas City. It would, it would, in the second round, to pay unless there's some upsets. You're probably gonna go to Kansas City. Which, by the way, I feel better about playing them than I do. I know Kansas City people are gonna be like, oh, you're talkin' trash about the two times-- - Oh, they're so sensitive. I can't-- - Super sensitive. - They're absurdly sensitive these days up in Kansas. - They're the least scary of the three teams that Texans could travel to, in the playoffs, in my opinion. The Chiefs, the Ravens, and the Bills. And so, when I say least scary, in terms of like getting embarrassed, you know, like, the, I mean, we just saw, they played the Chiefs up there two weeks ago, or whatever it was. - The, and yet, they also look over the last couple weeks, like a team that's just, the Chiefs look like they're hitting their stride, and might become yet again, that dominant force in the playoffs. But, I think that's important to remember. It's that, all right, I don't think it has to give you false hope. The problem is, like, obviously, you lost a game to the Chiefs. It wasn't as close as the score looked, but you've been able to play some good teams to, within a score this year. And the defense, at times, has been just outright a force, versus teams like the Lions and the Bills at home. So, the problem is that the Ravens are just a particularly bad matchup for them. - Yes, yeah. - And it's obviously color and our perception of the team right now. The offense, I don't feel good about at all. But, getting a playoff victory for lots of reasons. I just, yeah, I've turned into that meek and timid soul, that I've given up hope on a deep playoff run, but I'd just like to have at least a home playoff victory, please. - Yeah, yeah. - That's all I'd like. - I agree, I agree. All right, often running on a, on a two, what is it, Tuesday, right? Yeah, it's two. - Three years, Eve, Sean. - I know, dude, I'm not even joking. Like, this- - We're top poppin'. - playoff schedule, or not playoff, the regular season schedule's got me so messed up. It's a Tuesday, so good to be with you on a Tuesday. Appreciate you guys getting up with us here. A New Year's Eve. Headlines up next, Texans get a guy back, and there's a new one in the house. DeMico Ryan spoke on both of those, you'll hear from him coming up next. - Pain and penderghast with today's headlines. - Headlines, by the way, Ross Tucker joins us at the top of the hour. So we'll talk, he's on the call for the Texans and the Titans on Sunday with CBS. - And also, quick news item. Yeah, I've been informed that pop-and-tops is not a phrase that anybody uses for anything. - At all, yeah. - It's a pop-and-bottle, so okay, I feel better about that. - Yeah. - For some reason in my mind, I thought I had heard that, and I was like, I've never heard that sling before, okay? - And if it ain't on Urban Dictionary, nobody's using it, nobody. - Well, other than like the kids who are, like it's so cool that it's not even on anywhere on the internet, yeah. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know, the only thing I found on Urban Dictionary is top-popping is when a girl's boobs start to fall out of her shirt or socks. - Okay, well, that ain't the worst thing in the world. I mean, that's, you know, that happens. - Or a top-pop is when your buttocks are clenched so tight that your fart escapes at the top of your butt track. - Okay, okay, interesting sensation, yeah. - So we're gonna be topping pops tonight, Sean. We're gonna eat a bunch of beans, and then we'll go top-popping. - Top-popping, and go find some chicks who are top-popping as well, yeah. - You have to wind your butt even tighter than it already is. Let's get to the headlines. - Let's get to the headlines. All right, D'Mico Ryan's met with the media yesterday. Hey, how's it feel to get Aziz Al Shire back from his three-game suspension? - Yeah, it's really great giving the Aziz back. We've missed him over these past three weeks. It's missed his presence, his leadership, missed, you know, his play-making ability on the field, so, you know, we're excited to get him back out there, let him knock some of the rust off. - Yeah, and knock some titans into the dirt in the process. - Yeah, I kind of, in my five-day long football depression, where I was trying to process things emotionally, I kind of forgot about Aziz Al Shire. - Yeah. - And he's going to play, I don't think it, he was only in Tennessee for a year. I don't think he's probably got a great amount of animosity, except that guys like Aziz can drum up some animosity. - Of course not. - Yeah, you drum up the disrespect. You can create that chip that you place firmly on your shoulder. - I can't believe you're minimizing the necessity of being in Tennessee for a full calendar year. Well, that wouldn't be enough to drum up some, just general anger of having to be in Tennessee for a year. - That's a good point, that's a really good point. - It's a year, man, it's like a jail sentence. D'Mico Ryan's also asked about the newest use in Texan yesterday. Deontae Johnson, who was wearing jersey number 82 and was out of practice yesterday. - With Deontae adding him to our team, a guy who has talent, he's done it at a high level for other teams. He's bounced around a little bit here, and as I mentioned to him, of course it's a clean slate starting with me. It really doesn't matter what is happening in the past or what the narrative is about you come here and everything is a fresh start. And so we'll see how he can help us, what he can add to our team and on the field and off the field. - And I think one thing about the Texans is on two levels, one, they'll give guys a clean slate if they've had issues in the past or what have you. Stuff on Diggs is a good example of that. But it's also like on an injury front. Cam Acres, hey, that was kind of a little bit of a risk, but low risk, high reward. And they ended up, God, I wish Cam Acres was still on the scene. They ended up at least getting some draft compensation back for them, I suppose. So with the clean slate part of it, the one thing that Deontae Johnson can provide that this offense really, really needs right now is just speed. I just end going back and watching the offense, man. It's all these little things that accumulate. You know what, if your offense can't provide you that extra eighth of a second of pass protection, but then also all the routes are a half step slower than they should be, everything's disjointed in a mess. And there was a lot of that against the Ravens. So just getting speed out there on the field, I think that's really important headed in the playoffs. Give Deontae Johnson a boatload of reps and just get him integrated as fast as possible. - Fast as possible, man. They need his difference making out there for sure. Monday Night Football last night, a game that had zero meaning because the Lions are facing the Vikings this coming Sunday for the number one overall seed in the NFC. And it didn't matter if they won or lost last night, but as his classic Dan Campbell played all of his guys, Jared Garth played the whole game and the Lions win. 40 to 34 in San Francisco or in Santa Clara, I guess technically over the San Francisco 49ers whose season continues to slide into the toilet. So that'll be fun. There's only a few things that are left to play for in the regular season across the league. The AFC North has not been decided yet. The NFC North has not been decided yet either. And that's what'll be determined between the Vikings and the Lions on Sunday Night Football this coming week. A game you'll hear on Sports Radio 610. I guess the other division too that is up for grabs is the NFC South with Tampa Bay and Atlanta. And I guess if there's a Texans tie to that, the winner of that game will be on the Texans schedule next year. They'll face the champion of the NFC South as their 17th variable game next year. And it'll be an NRG Stadium. So if you'd rather face the Falcons than root against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. - I don't know if this is big on social media or not, but it's just something that caught my eye last night because of this game, a play, and because Ricky Piersall, the rookie tight end got a lot of action that for two consecutive years, a receiver that CJ Sprout has really loved in the draft has been shot. I don't know what kind of SoCal stuff is going on here, but it's weird, man. It's weird. Ricky Piersall, remember Ricky Piersall got drafted in. And CJ was like, oh, man, I wanted him. I love that guy. - He reacted like he curled up into a ball on the couch for like five seconds over. - He was, yeah, if it weren't for the kind words of his dear friend, Michael Parsons, he wouldn't have gotten, yeah. - He wanted a receiver, so yeah. - Something the monitor young wide receivers. - Right, right. - You don't want CJ coming out publicly in support of you in the draft. - Oh, there'll be gun play. College football playoff resumes tonight. The Fiesta Bowl, Penn State, and Boise State will be played tonight, three games tomorrow. Tomorrow is a great college football day. You've got bowl games in the morning, and then you've got the three playoff games which are being played in bowl settings, including the University of Texas playing early. They're the early game against, oh my God, who are they facing? Arizona State, they're facing Arizona State, and then the midday game is Oregon and Ohio State and the Rose Bowl, and then Notre Dame and Georgia in the Sugar Bowl at night. So, should be some fun quarter final action in college football playoff. - Yeah, and if you watch the game tonight, that's where, or if you listen tonight, Brett Dolan and John Harris will be on the call, and I always, John's one of those, John's one of those color commentators that I like listening to 'cause he teaches me things. - Yeah, he's good. - Congrats, awesome. - Yep, yes, that's talking about the Kinder's Texas Bowl right there. It's actually at 2.30. So, that's an afternoon game today. So, you can hear me. - I always get nervous. - So, I was gonna let you say the Kinder's Texas Bowl 'cause I couldn't remember the sponsor. - That's okay. - So. - That's okay. There you go, those are your headlines for today. We got Ross Tucker coming up. So, let's jump out here and we'll bring on Ross. Ross is on the call. He was also on the call the last time the Texans played the Titans. That didn't go as planned. He's on the call again on CBS this week, and he's our Odyssey NFL Insider, Ross Tucker, and he joins us next. Now, let's get right into it on the line. Our Odyssey NFL Insider, Ross Tucker, joins us each and every Tuesday at this time. Insider calls brought to you by Hellman's Real Man A's. May your game day be delicious. Ross, great to talk to you. The news coming down yesterday. You get another crack at Texans Titans again this season. My friend, we're excited about this. - Hey, I'm excited. Any time I get a chance to call an NFL game. And yeah, I guess I'm especially excited to do the rematch. You know, it's so funny 'cause anytime you do a divisional game, you go back and you watch the first one, obviously. Thankfully, I already did that one. I already called that one. So I'm very familiar with that. Although, I don't know, on some level, both teams are decently different since then. It's gonna be a really interesting game. I mean, Brian Callahan came out yesterday, the head coach of the Titans, and said that they're gonna play both quarterbacks. - Right. - Will Levitt and Mason Rudolph? So I'm kinda fascinated. - How come you're not? - Yeah. - Well, I'm kinda fascinated to just hear, like, how the logistics of that work. Can we alternate plays or series? Like, what are we gonna do here? And then for the Texans, I don't know, I saw a bunch of quotes from D'Amico Ryan saying that they're gonna play their guys, that the servers are gonna play. So I guess we'll see how much or how that works, but I'm fired up about it. - That's where, yeah, and we're here. You know, D'Amico's actually, he's gotten better and better at the deceptive part of being a head coach, and he's had a couple of pretty good, like, coach-speak lies. Last year during going into the playoffs, he said, "Hey, Derek, singly, we just don't..." He's not gonna travel with Amari Cooper, that's just not what we do. And then boom, there he did it. So I guess he spoke in generalities about CJ yesterday, but CJ himself, after the game last week, said that he was kinda banged up. And I'm wondering, Ross, not whether you think D'Amico will play CJ or not, but should he play CJ or not? - That's a really interesting one. What I don't like about questions like that is I don't really know what the injury is. You know what I mean, like, you know, Seth, and I'm sure you were the injuries you had, and me, you can appreciate this. If I knew what the injury was, and I knew number one, whether or not he could make it worse, or number two, whether or not it would clearly be better if he didn't play and was able to arrest it, which would be extended time since they played on Christmas, right? So if I knew either one of those answers, I think I could answer it a lot better. I don't think you can or should feel good about the way that the Texans are playing right now, in particular on offense, in particular since Tank Del got hurt against the Chiefs. I think that's a problem. But you ask any player this time of year, and Seth, I'm guessing you'd be the same. If you ask me, hey, Ross, you know, like, would you rather be a little bit stronger or a little bit faster or longer arms? Like, this time of year, I would say, can you just let me feel a little bit better? Like, can I feel a little bit better when I go out there? 'Cause everybody has like, you know, your elbow or your wrist or your ankle sprain, like, whatever it is, it's just such a, it's a much, much better feeling as a player when you go out there. And that thing, whatever that thing is, is not bothering you as much. It's a, hence the popularity of Tor it all. That's a, you hop on, you hop on the T train, if that's a. Okay, now Ross, you've seen this offense operate. And, you know, I know that you had some questions about CJ last time after the Tennessee game. What, like, at this point in the season, and I don't expect to have a clear answer on this, 'cause we've been struggling with it all year long, like, how much of it is the offense versus the play calling versus just CJ himself, in terms of divvying up the blame for the meek offensive performance. - Yeah, that's a great question. Nobody ever likes this answer, and I get it. I don't really like the answer either, but it does feel like it's a combination of all those things. You know, like, the offensive line, well documented has had their issues. I think there are certainly situations where it feels like Sloak could put them in a better position. You know, I know it's been well documented that they have this affinity to run on early down-and-distance that has not been nearly as productive as they would like it to be, or need it to be, quite frankly. And so I understand the frustration there. But then also, you know, CJ's shroud, he's missing throws that it feels like he didn't miss last year that are really tough to explain. I mean, really tough to kind of wrap your head around, but that's the reality, I feel like, of where he's at right now. So, I don't know, I guess if he was playing better and getting the ball out even quicker, I think the offensive line would look a little bit better. I think it would help the run game. I think Sloak's calls would look better. So, right or wrong, I think, if we're gonna heap as much praise on CJ as we did last year for how fantastic he was, I think we have to also acknowledge that they need him to play better than he's playing this year. - Yeah, no question. Ross Tucker's our Odyssey NFL Insider. Insider calls brought to you by Hellman's Real Manays. You can purchase Hellman's at your local Walmart, Kroger, or grocery store to add extra deliciousness and creamy flavor to your game day dishes this football season. So, Ross, the Texans are locked in as the four seed, and they can only play one of three teams. The heavy favorite, according to the computers, is that they'll be playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, but there's still a decent chance they could play the Chargers. There's a minuscule chance that they could play the Ravens. If you're the Texans or you're a Texans fan, which of those three teams do you most want to see at NRG Stadium in the wildcard route? - I'm kind of surprised I'm saying this, but the Steelers, you know, you don't want to see the Ravens, you just watch that movie. - Yes. - Okay, so you don't want to see the Ravens. I think you can make an argument for the Chargers or the Steelers. I don't know though, you guys know on NFL Network on Saturday, I did the Chargers Patriots game, and that's two games in a row where the Chargers look really good. And I just think Herbert is a significantly better quarterback than what you're getting from Rosa Wilson. The Steelers are a bad way right now. You know, really both sides of the ball, they're giving up over 30 points, like three games in a row. They're not scoring at all, they're kind of like in-fighting, they're calling each other out. Like, there's a lot of bad stuff going on. I feel like right now with the... with the stealer, I think that's who you want to play. I think you want to hopefully catch them while the bad stuff is still going on. - Aziz Alshire comes back and Ross... We got so tired. We were so hardcore into playing the victim for a few days after the Aziz Alshire. - Oh, it's such a clutch off-season pickup, Dave. I know, right? I was worried we'd be bringing back the same team. - Oh no, I meant those blackout motorized shades. MVP of the room. Blinds.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. - Hard to install? - No, it was easy. Even you could do it. - Nice. 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Check out the MX golf tournament from California, inauguration day, and the meeting of world leaders in Davos. Plus the first Fed decision of the year. Get ahead of the game. Listen to CNBC on the Odyssey app. - The incident that I kind of just never wanted to talk about it again, but he's back. And for this, Texans team to make a deep playoff, well, I shouldn't say a deep playoff run anymore, just to have at least, let's say win a couple of games in the playoffs. I feel like it's got to be led by the defense, and yet the defense has also shown some warts over the last couple of weeks. Where do you look at the Texans defense right now? - You know what, I was disappointed by the performance against the Ravens. Really disappointing. I thought they were pretty good against the Chiefs. I thought they were fine. The week before, I think, was the week where Stingley had the multiple picks, right? - The Dolphins. - That was the Dolphins. - Yeah, the Dolphins. - Yeah. I was really disappointed by the Ravens game. You know, they did not look like they belonged. That was way too easy. I'm not exactly sure what happened there. I mean, certainly give the Ravens offense a lot of credit. They deserve it, but that was an ugly performance by the Texans defensively. Now, the good news is, playing against the Titans, you would expect the Texans to, you know, be able to get some confidence going and be able to stifle the Titans. Although, you know, they had trouble with them in that last game I did. When I hung out with you, Sean on Thursday night or whatever it was. I mean, they, you know, Will Levitt's kind of lit 'em up. I mean, with some big plays. So this should be a confidence building game for them, you know, for the, for the Texans defense heading into the playoffs. I think it probably will, but man, can you imagine, like if Mason Rudolph and Levitt light 'em up, it'd be the exact opposite. - Yeah, no question. Ross Tucker, our Odyssey NFL insider joining us. Hey, Ross, before we get you out of here, what's your excitement level for the Sunday night game this week? Lions Vikings, two 14 win teams and the loser is gonna be the five seed in the NFC. It's wild. - Very, very excited. It's funny, I was just thinking about this too. Like, there's a really good chance that the Eagles, who you guys know I do a lot of stuff with them, that the Eagles will end up playing the seven seed will be the 12 and five Green Bay Packers. Remember how much everybody was freaking out when they extended the playoffs to 17s? Like, oh my gosh, you're gonna have all of these eight win teams in and nine and eight. It's gonna be horrible. I mean, it's kind of the opposite. I mean, it's great. Like, it would be real bad. Can you imagine if we only had six playoff teams and the 12 and five Packers? - Wild. - Who, like, could theoretically, when the Super Bowl didn't get in? I mean, so that's what I think is interesting. And I bring that up, because I think we really overweighted, unfortunately, I think we've overweighted the number one seed. - Yes. - I mean, like, that to me is ridiculous that now when you get home to the advantage, you're the only team that gets a buy. I mean, you get to play nobody when the Vikings or whoever loses that game has to play a road game, even though they have basically the same record. And then the Eagles have to play a really good Packers team. Just doesn't seem like that's the way it should be to me. - Yeah, and I hate that the only solution for that. I'm with you on that Ross, that that number one seed carries so much weight. And the only solution I think is to expand the playoffs even more and have eight teams, so that there is no buy anymore. And I hate that 'cause it waters down the regular season. - Yeah, I don't know that we have a good solution. I almost want to do it like on a case-by-case basis every year. - Yes. - But okay, yeah, let's do an eight seed this year. - Exactly. - But then other years be like, no, no, no, no, we're not doing it, they're not in. But can you imagine like an eight seed this year, you know, like in the AFC, whoever that would be, you know, like the Bengals, that'd be awesome. - Yeah. - You know, like, like the bank, can you imagine we had eight seed Bengals at the cheat? - Yeah. - So in the wildcard round, that would be awesome. - It would, it would, it'd be amazing. - Ross Tucker, our Odyssey NFL Insider, Insider Calls brought to you by Hellman's Real and Mayonnaise. May your game day be delicious. Hey, Ross, we look forward to hearing you on the call this weekend, we'll talk to you next Tuesday. - Yeah, I can't wait, thanks so much, guys. - All right, you got it. See you, happy new year. Happy new year to our good friend, Ross Tucker. - I forgot he had to leave early today. And I was, when he brought up, you know, how much work he does with the Eagles. Oh, I just, I gotta, I gotta start talking to more people about Nick Sirianni, he fascinates me. The Sirianni, it seems like there's a weekly report of him either getting into it with a position coach or a tight end or whoever it might be, it's fascinating up there. - It's amazing. - On the A.J. Brown's got discontent with the quarterback and yet there they are. - For different reasons, but the Texans remind me a little bit of the Eagles last year at about this time. Like the Eagles were a playoff team. They, now they started 10 and one last season. The Texans started six and two, you know, and got off to a good start. And for different reasons, again, like you were, like you were just talking about Seth, there was a lot of infighting going on with the Eagles at the end of the season last year. They had, he made some bad hires. You know, as his, the follow up to Jonathan Gannon and Shane Steichen, those two, he, they had Matt Patricia at one point. - They switched coordinators and it was the opposite of what the Bills had done with their offensive coordinator. They, it was a doubt, I don't know if it was a downgrade, but it wasn't the solution. Yeah, their defense was falling apart. - Falling apart. So there were a lot of negative feelings, even though it was a playoff team, a lot of negative feelings around the team. And it got into turned around. And I think the lesson in that is, well, they went and got Vic Fangio and they went and got Kellen Moore. And those have been two pretty good hires at coordinator. - Yeah. - And I think the Texans are gonna be in the market for at least one coordinator. And as you mentioned yesterday, I can't remember we talked about this on the air or off the air, but you know, I think there's an argument to be made that maybe, you know, Demico should see play calling duty on defense to whether it's Matt Burke or somebody else as the D.C. - Robert Sallop. - You brought up Robert Sallop's name yesterday. Yeah, like that would be a really good hire. I think if this season ends the way it's looking like it's gonna end, which is best case, they go on the road and get beat in the division around. Like that's the ceiling for this team it feels like right now. I'm, I am here to be wrong about that. I am very much here to be wrong about that. But that's what this feels like right now that that's the most this team can accomplish, which they've accomplished seven other times in the last decade and a half. There's gonna be some hard questions that need to be answered in the building over there. You know, as far as structure of the staff. - Yeah, there's a. - Makeup of the staff. Yeah. - Whether it's, whether it's a change, a coordinator or an offensive line coach or whatever it might be. And you're right on both sides of the ball because it's both Matt Burke and Demico Ryan's defense. But you know, Demico's obviously very heavily involved in the defense. It might be that hey, he really likes Matt Burke, but maybe you trust Robert Sallamore, which would allow Demico to be more of a genuine overseer of the entire team and be able to like allocate his resources necessarily. So, and that doesn't even get into the, okay, are you making changes on the offensive side of the ball? But yeah, structurally something, something's gotta be different. 'Cause the Eagles are also a great example, Sean. Of like, there's only thing that has, people need to understand sometimes that even the best dynasties still have serious dysfunction on some levels because it's an organization composed of hundreds of people. So, you're always gonna have some level of dysfunction. But man, you know what? You know what overcomes a lot of that dysfunction? Doing things well on the football field. - You're winning, yes. - Yeah, yeah. Like the Patriots were dysfunctional as hell. Yeah, the ballot checks a sociopathic madman, but they were really good at football. And ultimately that's what makes the difference. - Yeah. - It's a problem where people sometimes fall into the spell of trying to emulate everything a successful person does, because no, there's some things that that person does that they only get away with, because they're so good at the other stuff. Their strengths are so strong. So when you try to, and that's what happened to all these Belichick proteges, they think they gotta try to imitate everything Belichick does. Like no, unless you are, as much of a football genius as Belichick is, you cannot get away with that same stuff. - You're absolutely right. - Lean hard into the football stuff, and whatever your weaknesses are, it won't be as big a deal. - Yup. So the Texans and the Titans play on Sunday, noon kick here on Sports Radio 610. Seth and I have you for Texans countdown at 9 a.m., final game of the regular season. And I would say, like if we're putting a to do list together for this game, like what are the Texans looking to accomplish in this game, I would say at the very top of the list, even if it's Davis Mills at quarterback, is to cobble something positive together offensively. 'Cause there's a whole lot more than just CJ Stroud. - Yeah. - That's wrong with this offense right now. It would be nice. I would be even more encouraged if the offense actually were able to accomplish some things with Davis Mills at quarterback, because he's not nearly the threat that CJ Stroud is. And wow, they're doing this with Davis Mills at quarterback. But I think specifically the offensive line, whether it's protection, running the football, we'll see how much Joe Mixon plays in this game. But maybe getting somebody established as a guy, whether it's Daria Gumbowale or Damian Pierce or JJ Taylor, whoever. Somebody establishing somebody who can take six or seven carries worth of heat off of Joe Mixon, if he needs. - Right, and then how do they use Deontae Johnson? And can he get integrated into the scheme? All of that, that really matters. The thing I worry about with the Titans, if you're hoping to go get something going offensively, one of the things that's really, really brought out the worst in the Texans offense this year is good rushing defenses. And the last time the Texans played the Titans, the Texans knew what the challenge was. Those offensive linemen were not all of a sudden surprised by the physicality of the Titans defensive front. Those guys are still there. And the Texans have had 17 weeks to show that they're somebody different than who they are. I look at Tevandre Sweat, Sean, who's as much water buffalo as he is human being, and much like any wild beast, the first time they taste something, they're very cautious. They're not quite sure if they wanted to devour it right away. And I feel like Tevandre Sweat's gotten a taste for the Texans and CJ Stroud. I worry about Jeffrey Simmons and Tevandre Sweat versus anybody who's playing on the interior offense. - Totally agree, totally agree. And Tevandre Sweat, since that game has proven he can, he's a menace with the football in his hands. - Oh, that's right. - Scooping, scooping right, wasn't a scooping score, but he had a nice run back at three hits. - He had a really nice run back at a stiff arm in there, didn't he? - Yeah, yeah. - Or did somebody just bounce off of him, whatever it was, doesn't matter. - Yeah, probably more. - I think, yeah, and now remember how he swatted Shaq Mason away? Like it was a leaf off his windshield. Now he might be facing Kendrick Green, who's like 70% the size of Shaq Mason. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think getting some going offensively. Here was Demico Ryan's yesterday on the importance of playing better to get some momentum going off of that Raven's loss. - Yeah, I want to see our guys go out and just gain that confidence. Just from doing ball the right way. And you gain confidence by there. You want to have that confidence. You want to be playing your best ball at this point of the year. And so that's what I want our guys to feel. And we're Tennessee's a tough matchup. Again, they got us here earlier in the year. Really tough matchup for us. So we know we have to play our best ball versus them divisional opponent. It's always tough matchup. And so we have our work cut out for us. I want to see our guys go out and just play the right way and gain some confidence going into the postseason. - So you've said you don't think CJ is going to play that this is maybe another example of Demico getting better at the-- - The line. - The coach is touching. - Yeah, he's already done it multiple times before. I get, I really hate it whenever I see headlines that say things like Texans will play their starters. Like no, you got to say coach says that the Texans will play their starters. Because we don't know, coaches, this is the exact kind of stuff that coaches lie about. And it's not bad lying, it's just gamesmanship. And somebody might say, well, okay, well, if they're going to rest a bunch of starters, why bother with a gamesmanship? Because there's a balance. And he doesn't, he does want to win the football game. But the harsh reality is you got to look at all right, what matters most for actually winning the first round in the playoffs. And if CJ Stroud is that banged up, and it would be nice if he actually were that banged up because it would be an explanation for some of his errant passes this year. - Yes. - That, you know, Ross Tucker asked the question a few minutes ago, he said, okay, I guess the other question is how much can he actually recover over the course of just one week? And that's the big gray area we don't know. But let's say something hypothetically, like it was a separated shoulder, that can calm down a lot with complete rest over the course of a week or two. Maybe it's like, I don't think it's ribs, but let's say it was ribs, bruised ribs or something, or a cracked rib, that can calm down a lot over the course of a week. So whatever the nature of the injury or injuries are, because all quarterbacks have injuries of some sort at this time of year, that's where I do think that's, you've had 17 weeks to get competent on offense. The only thing that can really you can pray for right now is your quarterback goes on a heater in the playoffs. And the best chance for that isn't by timing or anything else you guys have been doing in practice for 17 weeks, it's CJ's health. - It's health, yeah, he'll, he'll have, if he doesn't play in this game, CJ Stroud, that is, he will have had, depending on what day the Texans play that weekend, anywhere from 17 to 19 days off. And in between starts, that's where the Wednesday game against the Ravens helps out, that's four or five extra days of rest that he wouldn't have gotten had they played that game on a Sunday, so that's, I'm with you. If I were, if I were DeMico, I put this list together yesterday and got a lot of reaction to it. There are six guys that I would not play in this game. And CJ's definitely one of them. Like he says he's banged up, that's good enough for me. The other five would be Joe Mixon. If for no other reason, then you gotta find out if any of these other guys are able to carry the rock if something happens to Joe Mixon, like, I don't know if, I don't know if people know this, but the second leading ball carrier on the Texans in terms of rushing attempts on this team is CJ Stroud, who's got 52 rushing attempts. You know, that includes kneel downs at the end of games, whatever. The next, the next most prolific carrier of the football on this team isn't on this team anymore. He's on the Minnesota Vikings. Cam Acres has the second most carries of any running back on the roster. He had 40 carries. Damian Pierce isn't even the third leading running back when it comes to carries. That's Dario Gumbowale. Damian Pierce has 21 carries. Cam Acres has double that as a Texan, and he hasn't been a Texan since, like, week four. - I think honestly that Damian Pierce might be the best evidence that we have that maybe Nick Casario wants to make a change on the offensive coaching staff, because I know, look, I talked to somebody from another NFL turn training camp, team during training camp that just loves Damian Pierce, loves Damian Pierce, and I think that Casario still sees the upside in Damian Pierce. And when you have, when man, with Pep Hamilton as the offensive coordinator, boy, Damian Pierce looked like a machine versus with a bunch of personnel around him that wasn't any better than what he has now. And I think that he starts to look at, OK, how are we coaching on the offensive line? How are the plays being called? Why is Damian Pierce not able to adapt to this offense when you also have a whole lot of other guys that don't seem to be playing up to their potential in this offense? - Yeah. - The fact that Damian Pierce is still on this roster despite my skepticism, I don't, I did not think he looked good in training camp really on it. - Yeah, there's no evidence that he's come around in this system. - The first couple of weeks of training camp, I thought he looked good athletically and everything, but his training camp went on, in both the games and in practice, I felt like there's something missing with Damian Pierce that the fact that Nick still seems to be very much a fan of Damian Pierce probably spells doom for at least one member of the coaching staff. - Yeah, I would say, so I would sit and mix in, even though mixing only needs seven, mixing needs seven yards to get to 1,000 yards, and according to Texans cap, he's got a $250,000 incentive if he gets 134 yards in this game, so I don't know if that factors in at all. Like I would not want Joe mixing getting enough carries in this game to get 134 yards. If they want to start him great, if they want him to play, they want him to get 1,000 yards, cool, whatever. - I mean, there's a lot of games where he's averaged like 1.5 yards per carry, but still gotten over, except for his 170 yard run. So he can get 130 yards. We know he can do it quickly, maybe that's what you, hopefully he get bus off a 130 yards touchdown. - He's lined up in the aisle, in the inside section. - Yeah, but maybe a good first quarter and then put him on ice. - Yeah, yeah. I would sit Niko Collins in this game. If you lose Niko Collins, you're sunk sunk at wide receipt. You know what I mean? - I'll tell you what, honestly, Sean? - Yeah, if you lose Niko Collins, you're done for. Especially versus a team in the play. Whichever team you face in the first three rounds, they have a good defense. You know, ironically enough, I think the Ravens, well, the Ravens on the sum total of the season might be the worst of those three defensively, but they've played really well defensively the last few weeks. - Yeah, we saw. - But if you go, so this is a thing. What are the Texans way better at scoring in the first half compared to scoring in the second half? So Bobby Sloeg's pretty good at dialing up a gadget play in the first half. - Yeah. - And that's the answer is that you get the taste of success. They've scored, they've been very good at scoring on their first drive. - Yeah. - That's been a weird thing about an offense that's otherwise Morabund. So yeah, go on, run your script and then bench everybody. And there's a good chance that you can go out saying, "Hey, look, we had a 14-point lead and we wouldn't have won that game." Just pretend, yeah. - I think there's a decent chance they treat this game like a preseason game. You know, that they do play their guys, like the main guys, just the first quarter, maybe the second quarter. I think like any things in play, as you point out, we can't take the MECO of face value on these quotes about all our guys are gonna play. He didn't say how much they're gonna play. He did allude to the fact that we'll see how the game goes. So I think there's, I think everything's in play. I would sit mixing, I would sit NICO, I would sit both of the edge rushers. Similar to NICO on offense, like if you lose the Neil Hunter and/or Will Anderson, like that is a huge hole in the best thing you have going for you, which is those two guys, you know? - By the way, that's always a nice, that's a nice little, like there should be a badge for it. They're kind of like in the military, you get a badge for sending to a certain level. I think they should, if you're a guy that gets rested for the final regular season game, it does feel nice. - Yeah. - This is kind of like, oh, I'm a made man. - It should be a patch of just like a bubble wrap. Like, you know what I mean? - Yeah. (laughs) - It should be just like a-- The ugliest patch ever. - A square of bubble wrap on your jersey. Like, wow, you're one of those guys that gets put in bubble wrap for weekend. - I've got marksmanship, I've got, I did advanced weapons training, and I was protected in a week 18 game. - That's what this bubble wrap is right here. - Yeah, right over your purple heart. - So I would sit both of those guys. I would sit Derek Stingley Jr. for sure, that he's made it through this whole season healthy, you know, like is a huge, that's a big step for Stingley. He's missed 14, coming into this season, he'd missed 14 out of a possible 34 games. He's been, man, he's been a rock at that corner spot for them. I would rest him and CJ, those would be my last two. - So, you said Stingley and it just Stingley, okay. - Just Stingley, although, although, although, I do think there are guys that you at least, like, Lasseter would be a guy to have a conversation about, you know, that's one I would debate and just, I mean, look, it's only a 48-man roster on game day. You know, like, you've got to play some of these guys. You have no idea. - No, no, no. - And by the way, the offensive line would play every snap, the starters, they wouldn't come out. Laramie, you ain't resting if I'm the head coach. All of them were playing. - I think with CJ, and I heard Ryan Fitzpatrick talking about this the other day on Andrew Whitworth's podcast. He talked about how, you know, at one point in his career, he had a rib injury and he played and fought, he was like, nope, I'm not gonna, I gotta be out there. I gotta be the guy. I gotta, my teammates are depending on me. And, you know, looking back on it, you realize this, okay, I probably made the bad decision there. Like, you know, like, ultimately, it was, I was hurting the team. And that's the tough part with quarterback. And it's different than, like, say with a pitcher, 'cause with pitchers, you got four other starting pitchers. With a quarterback, there's a sense of duty and obligation, I think, and CJ, it might be a hard discussion between Demico and CJ, where Demico wants to bench CJ. CJ really doesn't want to get benched, and Demico's got to really, you know, first try to soft talk, give him the soft sell, but then maybe just put his hand down and say, "No, we need to get you healthy." That's the best thing for the team right now. - I mean, Demico talked about momentum and wanting to get the taste out of their mouths. I think CJ is at the very top of that list of guys. I don't think CJ wants this to be how his regular season ends. - Right, and yet, and yet, it doesn't matter what he wants, like, ultimately, the best thing for him. I'm reading this book, it's a really good book, called Blood Red Snow, and it's a memoir of an East German soldier from the Russian front in World War II, and it was kind of dicey-shawn there outside of Stalingrad, and the first time, this guy ends up being a highly decorated soldier, and it's cool, because it's just from a soldier's perspective, there's none of the politics or anything like that, and the first time he gets shot or hit with shrapnel, it's that he's getting, he and one of his fellow soldiers are getting trucked away out of the battle, and I think he encapsulated it perfectly. The feeling that we've all felt it sometime, obviously, never to this degree, but he had desperately wanted to get out of there for three months, and that's all he could dream about was getting out of there, but they're both sobbing as they're leaving because they're leaving behind their friends that are in still a really, really bad situation, so that's an extreme version of it, but my mind goes back to football, and it's a similar feeling, a lesser version of it, where a guy like CJ is, the best thing for him might be to go in the convalescent troop for a week, but he desperately does not want to abandon everybody. - Right, no, and I think that's how he's wired. It's been a complicated couple weeks with CJ 'cause of the optics of the tanked L injury, and the open crying during the injury, and Joe Mixon having to talk to him and whatnot, and yet, I think CJ is one of the toughest players I've ever rooted for, like he is supremely physically tough, like he takes a pounding behind this offensive line, and he gets up every single time, so I'm with you, that's a really good analogy, like there is probably a big part of CJ that almost feels like guilty wearing street clothes, and we think-- - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - No, this had, so the blood red snow, it's a really good memoir, so. I'd say World War I, it's World War II. - Oh, I didn't hear which war-- - Big difference there. Okay, it was World War II. - Okay, there you go. If you rest CJ, this is a text message, if you rest CJ, how will he build chemistry with Deontay Johnson in game situations? - He won't, but it's, again, it's some of all parts, like you're, yeah, you miss out on that, but how capable is he of forming chemistry if he can't make the throws that we know he's, you know, can typically make? It just, you just, you gotta, it's a, yeah, you gotta weigh it all together, and I think for right now, CJ's helped, if it's something that can be improved with a week off, that's of paramount importance right now. - Text message, DP, will get 20 carries and have 100 yards against the Titans, then more skepticism will set in on Bobby Slowick. - Okay, so if, not to me, go, if Damien, if Damien Pierce has a big game on Sunday, what are we saying on Monday when we come in? Like, what's the narrative around? - If Damien Pierce has a really good game? - Damien Pierce has a good game against the Titans, like, okay, should he, are we like, man, why hasn't he been getting carries all along? Are we saying? - Yeah, yeah, it would be something along those lines, it's not gonna feel good or right. - Right. - Nobody, and we'll probably all be screaming at each other about it, but for, no, it feels bad for this reason. No, it feels bad for this reason. I would love to see it just for Damien because as much as I just, there's something that's not meshing right now with his offense, you know, I love the guy as a personality, the way he plays football, all of that, I love him. So yeah, it's very conflicted. I wouldn't know how to take it. Let's hope we cross that bridge when we come through. - That would be, yes. - Hopefully, that's a bridge we have to cross. - I agree with you, I hope it is-- - Those are good problems to have. - It would be a great problem to have, no question about that, but yeah, that was just, that was wild to me, man, when I was looking up the numbers yesterday, 'cause Niko's in a similar situation to Joe Mixon in that if Niko gets 32 more yards, he gets a thousand yard season. If both these guys would have thousand yard seasons and have really earned them, given the amount of time that they missed, you know, Mixon missed three games with that ankle injury. He'll have earned that thousand yards just based on the line he's running behind. Like that's a thousand, and I feel like 955 of those were all Joe Mixon doing Joe Mixon things. - Yeah, which is also, I mean-- - Niko missed five and a half games, and he might have a thousand yards this year. - Well, I think that's, you know, Mixon though too, is also in a little bit of the same boat for as CJ is when trying to figure out what's going on, 'cause I mean, Mixon sometimes at times is too much going for the home run, instead of just hitting it and getting four yards, and then anything after that is a bonus. There's times where he's not making the right read, and then you go into that same like, okay, but is it because he's rarely seeing a good picture in front of him? Is he pressing all of that? It's just hard to say, it's hard, but it's just not right. The sum total of it is that the offense is not operating right on any level right now. - All right, Peyton Pendergast with you on a Tuesday. All right, so week 17 fully in the books. What is left to be played for in week 18? Not so much with the Texans, but around the league. What are the games you need to dial into this weekend based on the playoff situation right now? There actually is a Texans tie to one of the divisional races over in the NFC, and we'll tell you what that is coming up next. - All right, we got the Petticast coming up at the top of the hour, Tuesday Petticast. So be ready for that. Lot of Petties to get to, and we want to hear yours, seven, one, three, five, seven, two, four, six, 10. So here's where we're at, here's where the NFL sits, heading into week 18. There are still three divisions that have yet to be decided. Texans are fortunate, they're one of five teams to have clinched their division. So at least they've got clarity. It's not, I don't think the four seed was what everybody was planning for at the beginning of the season, but here we are. In the playoffs, four seed, home game, and we wait and see who the Texans opponent is. That is something that is still to be determined that is Texans related. Seth, the three divisions that are still up for grabs, AFC North, which Baltimore is in the driver's seat for right now, they play on Saturday at 3.30, Baltimore and Cleveland, and then I think the assumption is that a lot of people assume Baltimore's going to win, and then if that's the case, then the subsequent Pittsburgh Cincinnati game really only has seating ramifications for the Steelers as a wildcard team, but big ramifications for Cincinnati, who's one of a couple of teams, them and the Dolphins are still in the hunt for that last wildcard spot. If they're fortunate enough to see Denver lose to Kansas City's backups, then Miami and Cincinnati kind of enter the chat here as a possible seven seed in the AFC. - Yeah. - There's still some things going on in the AFC right now. - The Baltimore or Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Chargers conundrum, I think. I feel like I want to see the Chargers whereas the majority of your poll respondents would rather see the Steelers. The Chargers, for one, I think people just in general, if you have to take a straw poll of like, who do you trust more as a quarterback? Justin Herbert or Russell Wilson. Right now people just trust Justin Herbert a lot more, but they were in a lull offensively until the last couple of weeks. They seem to have found their stride. Yes, I respect Justin Herbert as more of an overall threat, but what I fear with this Texans defense is the ability of Russell Wilson to connect with George Pickens just twice in a game. And that's the part that makes me nervous and because that's been one of the Achilles heel for this Texans offense, but both of them, it's almost a wash for me. The other big aspects of something you brought up, the Steelers might end up having a home-filled advantage when they're on defense because Steelers fans travel so well and people are not all that bullish locally right now about the Texans. - Yeah, I don't feel great about either matchup for totally different reasons. That is not insignificant, like the crowd aspect of it. Like that's the biggest thing that spooks me about the Steelers. Like I know they have a good defense. Like you're gonna, all these teams, they're good teams at this stage, so they all have good aspects to them and the Steelers defenses what they kind of hang their hat on, but yeah, I'm a little spooked by that crowd and there is the element with the Chargers, even with Jim Harbaugh as the head coach at this stage of the Harbaugh rebuild here with the Chargers, he's done an amazing job. Like he should be in the conversation for coach of the year, I think, in the conversation. I don't think you should win it, but he should be in the conversation. There's still an element to me like, okay, well, there's still the Chargers. You know, he hasn't exercised all the demons quite yet. You know, and plus they only have like 100 fans nationwide. You know, so there, it will be a Texans crowd that's probably not nearly as hyped as they were for last season's wildcard round game where it's like, holy smokes, we're getting a home game. You know, we didn't even know we were getting a home game until literally week 18, you know. - Okay, this is where you and I come into play because as much as we can and assist in the matter, the Steelers would be easier. It would be easier to drum up hatred for the Steelers than the Chargers. Chargers, it's almost like we gotta go through whole education process before we even get to the level of hating them. - Yes. - Really easy, especially for Oilers fans from back in the day. Really easy to hate the Steelers. So it's a double edged sword because you're, yeah, you're gonna have a lot of Steelers fans in attendance, but in terms of just really, really, really wanting to beat your team and being emotionally engaged in it for the Texans fans who are there, the Steelers might be a better bet than the Chargers. In terms of getting everybody back on board. - Yeah, I can see that and they're a little more like emotional connection there in an angry kind of way. That was also the game where in CJ's rookie year where Vandermere told all the Steelers fans to get out. - Get out. - Get out. - Yeah, it's actually a hockey in there. I don't know if you see it in there Byron, but Vandy yelling, "Get out to all the Steelers fans." Was, that was a moment. And that was the game too that CJ himself and others in the organization point to as like, okay, wow, he's arrived. You know, like they played that game against the Steelers. It's crazy. Go back and find the box score for that game. Like the extended one where they list all the starters and go see who the starting offensive line was that day. Laramie missed that game. That was Austin Deculus. Was your starting left tag? - Yeah. Well, that's where, you know, that's where again, when we go back to with the Texans and all the issues. There's something people will say a lot of time is, all right, well, obviously yes, the players are to blame ultimately for their poor performances. But it's important to remember though too, that of A, the Texans have spent money and resources and draft picks on offensive line. But there's plenty of really good solid offensive lines that don't have big names or anything. Remember the Broncos? The Broncos are a lot like the Texans and the way their offensive line is composed. They've got a couple of high paid offensive tackles. Then they've got a Ben Powers, I don't think he was a marquee free agent, right? It was like, he was like, he was a free agent signing. But then they, Woddenberg, their center was a fifth round pick in 2022. Quinn Menner's, the right guard was a third round pick in 2021, they're just a good unit. And they play it, they play as a cohesive unit. It's, there's plenty of teams that don't have marquee talent across the board at Offensive Line. They'd have credible office. The Baltimore Ravens, they get, it's an easier, like the bar is lowered because Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry make the offensive line look good a lot. But they don't, they don't have, you know, a plethora of huge names or whatever. They've scrapped it together with guys that are, that some of them are just kind of emergency replacements, but they get the job done. - Yeah, they, Ronnie Stanley at left tackle, Linderbaum the center, like are the marquee guys. And the rest of the guys are just dudes. Yeah, they're just guys. So, so that's the AFC. The NFC picture is really interesting to me because there's still two divisions to be decided. The NFC South and the NFC North and the NFC North, it's not just the division that's at stake here. The winner of the game between the Vikings and the Lions, it will be the number one seed in the NFC and deservedly so. To me, the story about that game is whoever the loser is, whoever the loser of that game is, is gonna go on the road to face the winner of the NFC South. They're gonna go to either Tampa or Atlanta. - Yeah. - As a 14 and three football team to be the five seed in the NFC playoffs. - Tampa scares the crap out of me. - Yeah. - So, you just, I did not watch much of Pennics at all. Did you, did you get to see much of them either? - I didn't get to see much of them either. No, I didn't get to see much of them either. - I don't want to go watch that game. Okay, I gotta find some cut-ups. - Yeah. Oh Atlanta? Yeah, you don't, yeah, I wouldn't want to watch that game either. Yeah, 'cause they played Sunday night against the commanders. I did not watch that game. - You know what though, but I do want to watch the commanders. Okay, that's what I'm watching. There we go. - Oh, all right, Seth. - I gotta go back and watch. I still haven't watched JJ's color commentary on the chief's game. So I'm gonna, I might go back and watch that. You know what I'll do sometimes is, 'cause I like to watch TV broadcast. You get all the info and everything, themes of the game. But I watch it at double speed, which is, yeah, you gotta do it, you gotta do it in intervals. You gotta sit down for 10 minutes and watch it at double speed and then take a break. Just like you're running with, you know, you're doing interval work on the track. - Do you listen to a lot of podcasts? - Not as much as I used to, but... - Do you listen to podcasts at an advanced speed when you listen to it? - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, usually it depends. If it's something that's more conversational, I like to hear the natural pace of the conversation. - Yeah. - I find if I listen to too many podcasts at 1.5 speed or like audio books I got to the point where I was listening to some of them at like two and a half or three acts. - Wow. Okay, that's... If I listen to something for info or to get a general education, I'll listen to like audio books, a non-fiction audio book really fast. Anything, the more conversational it is, the more I want it to be just at normal pace. - I'm one and a half. - There's your answer. It depends. - Well, no, I'm one and a half on everything on podcasts. It's just a... - No matter what. - No matter what. Even conversational ones. - But if it's something that's supposed to be funny, the problem is that it messes up the timing. - A little... I don't know. I'm still cool with when things are funny. I still laugh at them at 1.5 speed. - I've noticed because I have a tendency to sometimes start talking faster than my brain can operate or at least it's trying to keep up with all the different directions my brain is going. - Right. - If I listen too much or like exclusively at 1.5 plus speed, I start really talking way too fast. I get hurried and everything. I've got... You've got a nice laid back personality to begin with. I'm way too hyper. So I've got to be careful on how much it's kind of like an alcoholic having just one beer. It's like, "Well, no, it's different for me than it is for other people." - Yeah. - I've got to be careful about how much I imbibe. - I get it. No, I get it. What's funny is one of the podcasts, one of my favorite podcasts is a wrestling podcast that a friend of mine, it's Bruce Prichard's podcast. He's one of the creative guys with WWE. And I've been listening to his... It's him and a host that just go back and forth on different things that happen in the history of WWE. episodes about that. I listen to it at 1.5 speed. But I talk to Bruce on a regular basis or Amy and I are up in Connecticut. We go out with him and his wife and it's really hard to like sit and have a conversation with him because I'm so used to listening him every week at 1.5 speed. - Yeah. - In my mind, I'm like, "God, what's wrong with Bruce?" - Get to the point. - He's really slow, like, "Is anything wrong with him?" He's just, "Wow, he ain't just catching up to him." - I'm sure there's a study for this that like, what percentage of people do listen mostly at a higher speed on podcasts? Because over time, that's going to seep into, because people, I mean, like, so many people listen to podcasts now, it's going to seep into the way people speak in everyday life, I think. - Ooh, man, there's it. - In the way people listen. - Yeah. - So some of the advice people give about public speaking, I wonder if some of it's antiquated because forever it's the advice is you got to slow down, but now we're in this world where social media especially, they'll, they hammer it to you that like, those first two minutes especially, fast pace, hit it hard, get people's attention, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine. - Yeah. - Like at some point, people kind of get trained for that. - Oh, man. - And I think they tune out when they start hearing somebody speak slowly. - Oh, man. - The Falcons commanders game is getting some love on the text page. It's getting a thumbs up. - Okay. - Go ahead and watch it, Seth. - You did. - Jane Daniels was my household duties for that. - There you go for the commanders and the Falcons. - Sorry about it, Brandy. - By the way, the winner of that division, Bucks or Falcons, is on the text and schedule next year. Whoever wins that game, the Texans will have a home game against them. So there's that. All right, pain and pender gas with you heading into the eight o'clock hour, eight o'clock Tuesday, get your petties ready, send them in, 713, 572, 416, 10, petty cast, people getting petty, me and Seth getting petty. That's coming up next. - Yeah. - I think for this petty cast, I think you're going to enjoy this. Some good audio here. We do it every Tuesday. We highlight other people's pettiness. - Yeah. - We highlight our own pettiness. We encourage you to text in things you're petty about, 713, 572, 416, 10. - You know what we should do. - Hmm. - Oh, never mind. I was going to say, pay homage to Tom Petty who died this year, but he died, um, uh, eight years ago. So there we go. - Oh, he's still paying. - For some reason I felt like Tom Petty died this year, uh, and I always get him confused with OJ Simpson. I guess that's the thing. - A lot of people do. - So our IPO, J Simpson. - Yeah. Yeah. OJ Simpson and Tom Petty. - Or Tom Petty. - Either one. - Either one. Yeah. No, I totally get him mixed up. Yep. Um, so I'm actually going to start Seth with one of my own petties here and it's, and it's our core. It's with our quarterback. It's with C.J. Stroud who, who I love. He's the quarterback of the future here. He's awesome. Great dude. Great teammate. Um, but, but, uh, I don't need C.J. This, this video has resurfaced over the last several weeks. - Oh yeah. - C.J. Stroud on the sofa there with the million dollars worth of game podcast. He and Tank were on it. - Yeah. - And C.J. listed his top five quarterbacks coming off of 2023 and here's, here is the list. - Oh no, I'm tripping. Let me go. I'm tripping. So look. Final five. I know what I'm doing. My own, Lamar, myself, Dak, do we be, uh, not, he ain't really paying attention to our players. And then it hurts. Dak, Dak, Dak, Dak, that, that, that, that boy. Y'all not going to say that because he ain't, he ain't one of these. - Okay. We, Byron, we don't need any more of this. They're, they're going to argue over Dak for like 30 seconds. - Bill's, Bill's fans, uh, I'm guessing they've been putting that up a lot. The, the... - Little fans. - Not in the top five there. - And here's Josh. - Yeah. He's like a Dak above Josh Allen. Um, I, you know what? I've seen that reference to Bunch and in my mind, I was just kind of hoping like I didn't really think hard about it. I was like, ah, it wasn't that bad. Yeah. I don't know. It was just simple as that. He just, uh, he just let out, put him, that, that's again, the recommendation to young athletes is always that A, whenever anybody asks you a power ranking question, just don't answer it at all, but B, if you do answer it, say like, all right, well, I'm not going to put myself like, the other than me, and then that's the way you get around it. And then you don't answer any specifics about that. Uh, you don't, you don't have to answer the power ranking questions. Never answer a power ranking question. - Okay. And if you're listening out there and you're taking SES advice, don't. Don't take SES advice. Power rank things every chance you get. Yes. Yes. Content. - What's more cringy, what's more cringy right this moment, that which was done in fun. - Yeah. - Um, or the, the kind of backhanded pep talk that he gave to Caleb Williams early in the season. - Uh, the, I would say, I would say the pep talk he gave to Caleb Williams. - If Caleb Williams had gone on to be really, really good, it would feel worse, but it's still, it doesn't, it did not, it did not age well. - No, it did. Well, and that, and it was a big topic of conversation literally the day after it happened. This top five that he did on this podcast, we played it last year and I don't remember you or me or a ton of people being cringy at all about it at the time. The thing with CJ at the beginning of the year compared to where you stand now is, man, when you go back and listen to that and him giving the advice to Caleb Williams, it sounds like a seasoned veteran who, you know, certainly wasn't going to go through a sophomore slump. And then he just, he had the classic sophomore slump. Now you can debate about the reasons for it and everything else, but this will be regarded as a huge sophomore slump because it's, it's, he's just not nearly had the same performance as he did last year. - You're, you're, you're absolutely right. Now he, he has a chance in the playoffs here to, you know, if they win a road game in the playoffs and get to the AFC title, that can erase in a lot of people's minds, especially if he's the catalyst for it and it's not winning the turnover battle by four or something like that. He's got an opportunity here. And I will, this will give credit to CJ in the, during the petty cast. I'm going to do this quick. I do think he's handled this year with a lot of maturity, like the, you know, like, I don't, I don't think he's been, you know, like the attitude wise, I think it seems like he's been good. At least everything we see outwardly. But don't do these podcasts in the off season, CJ, where you're listening, you're right, Seth. Like CJ specifically don't do this stuff. All you. - I would rather go on an ayahuasca journey and then, you know, be on any podcast. - All right. Tom Brady, Tom Brady had a chance to watch a Tom Brady commentated game this weekend because the Texans weren't playing their parts of Tom Brady during these broadcasts that are really, really good. The opening to this particular broadcast was not Brady's finest moment. After being asked by Kevin Burkhardt, you know, to kind of break down the two teams real quick, you know, the stand up they do right there, where it's like one of the few shots you get of the announcers as they're, you know, laying out the game for you before kickoff, spoken vague generalities about the Vikings. I'm like, all right. Well, that wasn't, I'm not getting a whole lot off of this. And then he gave this bit of analysis about the Green Bay Packers. - That's a big road challenge. They've got four losses as your Green Bay does, two of them to the Lions. They're a good team. The Eagles, they lost them. They're a good team. And they lost to the, put that loose to the other one. Anyway, they've got a big opportunity today to go on the road and really a litmus test for what they're going to face in two weeks. Can't wait to watch. - Yeah. Yeah. The other team they lost to was the team that they're playing that very game against it. I think I will not be the one to be petty about anybody slipping on a name whatsoever. I will say though that given Tom Brady's reputation for preparedness, the opening comments are usually at least somewhat prepared. You've got bullet points or something. So I'll be, I'll be petty and that like that, that's not the Tom Brady that I was led to believe you would never show up unprepared for an opening drive. So that's the, the part. I can't, I can't skew him for screwing up a name or not remembering something, but that's not the Tom Brady level of preparedness that I've come to love. 37 million he makes. You got to know which four teams they lost to if you're going to bring that up as a point. I wonder if, I wonder if he's trying to be looser and maybe part of that is that, okay, all right, I'm just going to kind of go off the cuff more, which I, which is advice I would give him. And then he would come back to the producer's booth and scream at me. You see that, you want to go out there with no notes, you son of a bitch. Yeah. LFG. Let's go. Throws down a, throws down a random tablet somewhere. Yes. He just grabs a tablet out of somebody hand and throws it down. Some intern. I'm giving a tablet to throw. I need to, I need everybody to see how angry I am. Some interns personal iPad like, I'll buy a new one, kid. It's pictures. Right. Exactly. They're in the cloud. Don't worry about it. Um, Shannon Sharp got big mad at Kirk Herb Street this past week. So here is Kirk Herb Street with, um, Chris Fowler kind of takes a shot at, um, at first take here. This is during, I believe during the Ohio State Tennessee game in the opening round of the college football playoff. God forbid they lose to Oregon and they want to fire again, but that's not reality. I mean, that's the thing. When you hear pundits on this network and other places, talk about that with certainty. Yeah. It's nonsense. Frankly. The public doesn't pull the trigger and get rid of the coach. Now the administrators do and they're, they're behind them. Yeah. First take tried to fire and they thought he was done. So I'll be excited to see what they talk about on Monday after this performance. They had him, they had him out, they're trying to find replacements. Okay. There he is. There he is. He's still got his hat on. He's still coaching. Yeah. Good enough. Ryan Day is who they're talking about. They're the Ohio State head coach. The Ohio State Buckeye, who's probably pretty plugged in up at Ohio State, almost kind of scoffing at first take a little. I think that's at least how Shannon Sharp took it. Here was Shannon Sharp a day later on first take, even I'm going to let it slide. I'm going to be a good teammate. I'm going to let it slide everybody that ESPN because had you not taken the route you taken, I would have lit their ass up. I'm going to let it slide. You know what guys? Congratulations. Ohio State. You won the game with a if we're going to be on the same team, if we're going to work for the same network, don't do that. Kirk, Chris Fowler, I promise you, if you ever mentioned anything, any platform that I'm on again and talking about, I wonder what they're going to say in negativity, I promise you. ESPN ain't got enough bosses to keep me off, y'all, for what I'm going to say. So I'm going to let y'all slide today. I'm going to turn it over to D.O. before I get myself in trouble, but don't play with me. Go ahead, D.O. Okay. D and D.O. We're good. D.O. Is Dan Orlovski there? Okay, I don't know why Shannon Sharp got so offended. Right. It was almost the lack of direct confrontation. It was the way they were kind of, they were speaking very dismissively about first take and basically saying you shouldn't take them seriously. But that also made worse by, I honestly feel like Shannon Sharp would have been less offended if they had said like, Shannon's wrong about this blah, blah, blah, blah, but they wouldn't even do the respect of saying their names. I could see, I could see why Shannon got upset and then especially because it's somebody on your own network. But I do wonder whether ESPN, you know, it's going back to Pat McAfee calling out the ESPN execs and everything. I wonder if they like a little bit of the WWE side of this where it's more, it's clicks, it's views, it's all of that if you can get that kind of drama going. I wonder, I don't know if it's even something that like ESPN would have directed them to do, but they might, they might be like, oh, this will be an interesting development to monitor. And I listen to this, I'm like, okay, what, like, what exactly is Shannon, like, if there is a next time and they do this again, Herb Street and Fowler, like, what is the threat here? Is he just going to light them up verbally? Like, is he going to go beat them up? Like, what, I'm just wondering, like, what the, like, what's the actual threat going on here? It felt, yeah, exactly. Well, we're just, I think it would, I think for Shannon in his mind, it would be he would launch an all out assault against them on, on social media and try to make their, I mean, that's, that's violence these days, is that he would make it as miserable as possible as more Herb Street's getting the tat, like, booed and just screamed at everywhere he goes on college game day. Yup. And I feel like Shannon could pull it off. Yeah. Oh, oh, yeah. For sure. No, Shannon, Shannon, Shannon Sharp has the capacity to be a WWE performer. And it comes to the verbal part of it. I'll tell you what, it honestly kind of reminded me a little bit, just like, yeah, different people have different communication styles. And sometimes it's culturally based and there's, uh, there's an element there of where a Herb Street, uh, it doesn't, it didn't feel like he was really keeping it real. He was like trying to throw shade, uh, you know, instead of just coming right out with it. He was trying to be aggressive, trying to be clever about it versus like, uh, somebody in the locker room is going to be like, no, say what you're, say what you mean to say. Right. Right. Right. Kirk Herb Street. Come on. Be a man about it. Herb Street was passive aggressive. Shannon was threatening to be aggressive aggressive. Yeah. Yeah. I grow up and more of like, um, yeah, type of an environment when they're confronted full force. So they go, Hey, your country club insults. Don't fly here. Yeah. It's, uh, it's always interesting. That's what I was hearing. Yep. Um, petty cast Charles Barkley does not like the city of San Francisco because even when the war is not hate the Warriors fans in San Francisco, but they were amazing in Oakland. Yes. They were, they were tremendous. Even when they were good with Chris Mullen and the harder way in our, in Miss Richmond, they were terrific. Yeah. They were great. And when it, in the wars, what did it good? And when they went, Oakland, they were fantastic. Now I hate them in San Francisco, but that's an armpit of America. But there's certain cities pit of America's differences. Yes. It is. Yes. It is. Yeah. What are you talking about? Yeah, the armpit. What a perfect time to remind you that T and T has the all star game in San Francisco. I'll take Sacramento. Sacramento. San Francisco. San Francisco. San Francisco. I will take Sacramento, California. Leads in Alabama. No. No. San Francisco. The armpit of America. You'll get to say hi at the all star game. It's not even cool. Let me get all my artillery ready. Okay. Walk around there. Charles is there. There's a, can't walk around. Well, yeah, because of the people that I guess, yeah, he's trying to displace San Antone. I apparently, he probably likes going to San Antonio and he's tired of people being angry at him there. Um, though, I will say this about San Francisco, San Francisco has some of the most, uh, little pockets of just, uh, delightful, beautiful places to be of all the Super Bowls that we've gone to. Including New Orleans. Yes. I would. I, the only place I've had to literally dodge poop on the sidewalk, like as, uh, I had to like take a serpentine route to the stadium every day on my walk with San Francisco. Yeah. But there's like literal poop everywhere, not, not great Dane poop. No. It just, it's, it's, it's. Yeah. There was people poop. I, I was on that trip to that was in, I think 2015 season, I think is when that was. And if you remember, we, we stayed at a hotel where if you wanted to not take the serpentine route as you call it, you just go down this alleyway. This alleyway went straight to the convocation center where radio row was. The problem was it was almost like playing a video game where the idea was to step over as many homeless people as you possibly could. If you were, if you were allowed to score points based on the number of homeless people you stepped over, you scored major points walking down that alleyway because there were a ton of them. I was with an acquaintance of mine from another station in another city. But who, you know, this was before, I don't think it was, it was, I think medical marijuana was legal in California at that point, but not recreational. For the first and only time in my life I was part of somebody buying drugs from a stranger on the street and I'm amazed that he pulled it off because I could not have looked more like a rookie cop who was nervous, like who was nervous as hell. I was nervous because I was like, "Hey, what the hell's going on here, man? What are you doing?" So I looked nervous and scared, but with my fresh, clean shave in my physique, I can't believe that that must have been the dumbest drug deal around earth. Obviously I was a cop. There's no way he shouldn't have thought I was a cop. I was so nervous. I looked like, I was definitely a rookie cop and I was still, I was paranoid about it for like two days. I was like, "What is it? What is it? But what is there security footage?" You know, you know the Super Bowl is coming back to San Francisco. And I don't, I can't even buy drugs on the street unless I go to the hard stuff. That's right. That's right. Kids, I didn't smoke any of the marijuana. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. It was like an after school special, Sean. Yeah. And in the after school special, I would have ended up getting taken to juvie and it would have been a cautionary tale about choosing who you can sort with. Yes. That other person's doing quite well, by the way, right? Are they? Are they? Yeah. They were already doing quite well and now they're doing it soundingly well. Do you remember the after school special that had Scott Beow in it? I think, I think it was called like stoned or something like that. Yeah. He made it out like he smoked weed in junior high and it made it seem like he was shooting heroin in the hallways at school. You know what I mean? Yeah. He was the worst kid ever because he was smoking weed. Which back in 1981 or whenever it came out, that was sort of the vibe back then. A lot different now. Text message, CJ's question next year will be ranked the top 15 quarterbacks, not the top five. Success obviously went to his head. Success. Oh, went to his head. Went to his head. Yeah. He said wins you his head. No, no. Maybe a kind of the same thing. Oh, yeah. His head was his head was debut. It's constant battle, man. Yeah. There's nothing harder than handling success. Yeah. Congratulations. I mean, I think people thought that Nick Saban all those years was exaggerating when he called it rap poison when I think in Nick Saban's mind, no, especially in the college age, but really at any age, it's rap poison. It will kill you. It will kill you. It will kill your hopes and expectations and everything else because you just, you lose an edge if you feed into it too much. That'll be the theme of training camp next year. I was thinking about that in the last couple of days. Like, okay, what? Because we remember just how like over the top jubilant training camp was this year. All these new guys, Diggs is here and Daniel Hunter, Joe Mix, and man, this is it, man. This is a new, the Texans are going farther than they've ever gone before because of this group out here on the field. And now the feeling is like they'll be lucky to go as far as they were, as they went before. And I think that's going to be the theme in training camp next year is like, okay, this is, this, this needs to be, we can't, even if they make some big acquisitions, which they, they probably do need to make a couple if they're going to get to where they want to go. I think it's going to, I think, I still think there's going to be a lot of hope and I think there's going to be a lot of people like there were last year. But I do think that there will be a tone with the team that like players, coaches, everybody, like, tamp it back a little bit, you know, compared to last. Yeah. And maybe that's, maybe that's all, there's a kind of things like that happen with your own kids. There's some lessons that they have to learn on their own. And the, the guys who are your really young players, but who are also the leaders of your team need to learn that lesson, not that they would have preferred, not that they would have preferred this, it worked out this way. But that, yeah, I think that, I think that's naturally going to happen. And I don't think, like, I do think CJ makes a conscious effort to try to stay humble. It's just that there's some things that it's, you know, coffin used to drill this into our heads. Like that it did not matter who you were. You always have to have somebody that's a truth teller for you, and that you always have to be on guard for any kind of complacency. That's why coffin was a, the better you were with Coughlin, the more miserable it was. Yeah. Because he was just, he, he did not, man, if you had a big victory, it was going to be a miserable week of practice because he did not want you feeling too good about yourself. Yep. I don't, I don't mind that style at all. All right, pain and pender gas with you. All right, it's, it's New Year's Eve, last day of the year, biggest Houston sports story of 2024. I've got mine, textures in, Seth, I'm curious what you think. I've got six listed here. I'm curious what you think of my, uh, my list of the six biggest stories, Houston sports stories of 2024. We'll do that coming up next. I obtain a pender gas with you, um, biggest sports breakouts during the break. I was bringing up a, like various personal drama of Sean's. I just wanted to get him in a miserable, miserable state of mind that it'd make 2025 a new year. Okay. I feel fine. That's why I was doing that. Other things you brought up, I have callous to now. So I'm good. Oh, yeah. You're emotionally dead inside. Yeah. That's a sweet spot. That's a sweet spot. You know it. You know it. I feel real feelings when there's chemicals available. Yeah. Got that right. Yeah. Um, so, um, the biggest sports story of 2024 Houston sports story in 2024, I kind of, I didn't sit down somewhere and mull over this for three hours. I came up with a cocktail napkin, cocktail napkin list, man. Yeah. So I, I, I jotted down six and I'm open to others on the text page if you want to send it in, uh, seven, one, three, five, seven, two, four, six, ten. I'll count down my six. Okay. Number six, the rocket's resurgence under email, Doka, and that's, that, that may end up higher up the list the further we go, but wait for 2024, we're only a couple months into it, you know, Well, and I guess when I think of, um, either stories, I kind of think of it almost as synonymous with moments or brief periods and time where that's been a nice, steady burn. Yeah. Uh, so it's a, maybe, maybe one of the best overall stories, but I don't think of it as like, oh, the big moment or the big, because it's just, it's been a gradual process over the course of a year and a half. Yep. No doubt. So that's number six for me. Number five, Andre Johnson going into the Hall of Fame, which was widely celebrated as the greatest singular accomplishment for the Texans as a franchise. Yeah. Going into the, like it got celebrated like a, without the parade and whatnot. Like it was, it was the most celebrated thing this franchise has ever had happened outside of a, of a football game, you know, outside of a win. Yeah. And that's another one that's in a game, you know, it happens over the course of multiple months. So it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily feel like as like, oh, that's the big story. No. So it's a really good story. Yeah. Is a, maybe one of my favorite stories, but is that the big, big story? Is it the big, big story? Well, and, and you're right. I mean, it's several pieces too, because the induction ceremony, you know, his speed, it was awesome. Like the whole thing was great. Um, number four, the Aziz Al Shire suspension was a huge story. Sometimes my gauge on stuff like this, Seth is how much are they talking about this stuff on the national shows? Yeah. Aziz Al Shire suspension dominated the airwaves, not just here in Houston, but the national TV debate shows for two or three days. It was the, it was the sports version of Hurricane Harvey. It was, okay, it's a big enough storm that this is on, on the nightly news nationally. There you go. Likewise with Aziz Al Shire, there was crossover there. It was a crossover hit. What? If I, my big, my big barometer is whether my mom texts or emails me about it. There you go. And she did. She wanted to, she wanted to have my mom who yesterday informed my brother that, that, that Peyton and Eli have a nephew who's a college football player. So, she let him know that, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So she's, if she's talking about sports, either of us, it's a big, it's a big story. So she definitely saw something on like the today show or something about Archmanic. About Archmanic. That's great. Did you guys know, um, number, number three, and she asked me about Aziz. Okay. Good. Well, there's your litmus. Number three. And this is again, this isn't a singular moment, but this is just, you know, stories, you know, for me, how I define them is it can be something that's overarching, Bobby Slowick under fire. That's been a topic literally all season long. That's been, that's been the story with the Texans has been the regression of the, of the offense. Not winning another division, not starting the year off six and two. The end season story has been Bobby Slowick. That's a, it's been the end season story. Now this is, I might be able to have a little bit of a hypocrite here. I feel like that's also been a, a slow burn. There was questions, but, but over the course of the season, it's gone from, okay, he's promising, but he's got to be able to show that he can establish a run game. And then as everything is, and the offense has gotten worse and worse and worse as the season's gone along that I'll, I'll bend my own rule that I made up three minutes ago and say that, yeah, it, it feels poignant enough and it feels like a big enough deal that that's up there. That's number three for me. Number two, the Astros ALCS streak ending at seven straight ALCSs was sad, sad, but a big story. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess, boy, I'm really being a fraud now, or maybe it's just evidence that those are bigger stories because that's been, you know, that's been, it's, it feels like that overall story leads to something that every two or three weeks, you're like, oh, Astros haven't been in this position before. Yes. Yeah. And then you've got L2, they just coming out and saying like demanding that they resign Bergman. Yeah. There's been a lot of, I feel like that's provided enough poignant moments that, that's, that's way up there. I thought about the Astros seven and 19 start putting that there, but you're right. Like it's the ALCS, the, the ALCS streak ending and ending is just popcorn fart as it possibly could, getting swept at home by the Detroit Tigers who weren't even in the playoff mix until the last couple of weeks of the season. I thought was, that was kind of 2024 Astros microcosm right there, you know, kind of figure out what your number one is going to be now. Okay. Oh, I know what it is. Okay. You want to guess the, it's got to be the dig straight. It's the dig straight, especially by my, I'm going to go back to the criteria that I previously established. Yeah. Six minutes ago. Yeah. As far as poignancy. Yes. That was one where you, they made that trade and unanimously before we found out all the details of the trade, people thought, Oh, they are not messing around. Right. Oh, even whether you loved it or hated it, that was in an indication that, Oh man, they are, they are seizing the moment and they are going after it. And then, and then that created more and more like that was something to monitor the whole, it was the talk of all summer long and on into training camp. Yeah. That's it. That's the big one. Good job, Sean. Thanks, man. I appreciate that. Yeah. Based on my haphazard is a rapidly shifting criteria. It's okay. I would say that yes, you nailed it. It's our show. We can do whatever we want. Um, the, the, I would say, you know, I, I talked about like, you know, how big a story was it nationally that factors into how big a local story it is. The dig straight was huge. You're absolutely right. It shifted the entire rundown on the TV shows that are on here in the studio, you know, with the breaking news, I would say one of the other criteria, if a fellow host comes in and interrupts the show to tell you about breaking news, then it's pretty damn big. You know, is that how it happened? Yeah. It was, well, Lopez, Lopez poked his head in and did the old, like, point it, pointing it. Yeah. His phone thing. And I looked down. And so then Lopez said, Lopez, come on in, sit down. Cat. It's a weird boy. I'll tell you what, my new criteria that I'm using in terms of biggest Texans stories of all time. Yeah. Um, the DeAndre Hopkins trade must be way above the digs trade, because I remember exactly where I was when I learned about the DeAndre Hopkins trade. Yep. Whereas with the, uh, yeah, I have no memory of Lopez, uh, or any of that. Oh, ain't no one. Now I do. But yeah. I can't, I didn't, I couldn't bring it right up. Yeah. Yeah. It was quite a toss that day. Between it. Oh, between the two. Yeah. Yeah. Like, Oh, you guys get all the breaking news. And this is the biggest breaking news. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Cause we had, yeah, the very abrupt departure. I remember it now. Yeah. Like it was yesterday. Yeah. Uh, pain and pender gas with you. So yeah, what's your text in seven, one, three, five, seven, two, four, six, 10. How did I do on my list? My top six rockets resurgence. Number six, Andre Johnson going into the hall of fame. Number five, Ziz al Shire suspension four, Bobby Slowick under fire three. That was a LCS streak over two step on digstrade number one. Man, that digstrade was huge. And that boy, it was so huge that day and for it to end the way that it did with him just tearing his ACL on this benign non-contact play and week eight, the third quarter against the Colts was just, oh, that's a story that's going to go down in not the annals of history, but the annals of history. It will. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's the people texting in fire, Bobby, or run it back one more year. Uh, what about the Kyle Tucker trade? Someone's asking, okay, where does the Kyle, should the Kyle Tucker trade? Does the Kyle Tucker trade crack that top six, right? Oh, man, I wonder what that's really, but it should have been in the top six. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's, um, I guess by that point, it just felt like there was enough news that leaked out that it wasn't as big a, the, the dig trade was a complete surprise. There hadn't been rumors about it or anything. Um, the Kyle Tucker, Tucker trade was all part of, I guess your number two, the Astros, ALCS streak being over was the, that was the, the Kyle Tucker trade was all a big part of that. Mm hmm. Yeah. Maybe we should have put instead of Astros ALCS streak over the number two story should have been the Kyle Tucker trade. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If I had one to move out of there, I would say, yeah, it feels like a top six story, but so if I had to take one, if I had to take one thing that wraps up all of that, it would be the Kyle Tucker trade. Yep. It wasn't that you let them walk in free agency next year. It's like, all right. The writing's on the wall. Let's, let's pull the band it up. You're doing things that rebuilding teams do. Yeah. Good job listener. Yep. That's good. Yeah. Keep sending them in. Seven, one, three, five, seven, two, four, six, 10. All right, Dana Holgerson, who's now the OC at Nebraska story came out in the Chronicle. This is how you spend your time when you get a, an eight figure buyout from your employer. Yeah. This is going to be our advice to everybody who's in that position. Yes. Coming up next. If you're, if you're in position to get an eight figure buyout, this is the segment for you. This is how you handle it. Yes. If you're getting 14.8 million bucks from your employer to go away, do it the way Dana Holgerson did it. We will tell you exactly what that entails next. Hey, for those of you out there who are planning on getting a 14.8 million dollar buyout from your employer, um, Dana Holgerson, I think is given the blueprint on how to go ahead and spend that money. Uh, if you, if you look in the, uh, Chronicle, there's an article that outlines all the places that Dana Holgerson went with his 14.8 million that he got. And this is a list, man, like this is how you do it, uh, places Dana Holgerson went. Now he's the, by the way, he's the OC at Nebraska now, um, and, uh, he's, he signed a two year deal there, 1.2 million a year. So Houston is off the hook for 2.4 million of the buyout that he is getting, he's getting in chunks here. He didn't get one big cardboard publishers clearing house. Oh, that sucks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, London. Okay. Good. Hey, he'd have a good time in London. It's just, uh, you probably took him a little while to get over the way you want to go down through all of them. Oh, no, no, no, um, do you, you tell me, you want to stop on each of these? Uh, London. No, go ahead. Yeah. London. Yeah. Yeah. London, Bordeaux, Monaco, French Riviera, Paris. That feels like one trip right there, like all the Europe stuff right there. Um, Napa, Malibu, Salt Lake City, Aspen, Atlantis, which I'm assuming is the big resort and the Bahamas that we're talking about here, Bahammar, Jamaica, Cancun. Okay. This is the fun part. Port of I, Arta, Tulum and Cabo. Where's, uh, where's Bahammar? Is that in the Caribbean somewhere? Question. Uh, yeah. I don't, I'm not totally sure. Bye. Definitely. Yeah. It looks, uh, it's a, you know what, when I, it's in the original list, it's like, man, that's a lot of trips, but you're right. That's probably in three big trips where he was just kind of, uh, you know, like most recently island hopping and whatever, he did a European trip earlier in the year. Um, so still an impressive list of destinations. It looks like a, it looks like he went on three cruises where, you know, you'd stop in each one of these ports. Yes. I'm trying to get a Wikipedia on Bahammar here and I'm having a hard time. It may not exist anymore. Maybe it got blown out of the water. It's okay. It, it, it didn't survive. Two things that didn't survive. Dana Holgerson, U of H football and Bahammar, it's a very good chance that you and I missed out on a huge current event, like a hurricane wiping out an entire island nation. Yeah. Okay. It would not surprise me that I missed that in the news. Bahammar is a 1000 acre resort complex on the island of new Providence in the Bahamas. Oh, okay. So it's not yet a, it's a, it's a Bahamian resort like the Atlantis, the Atlantis is a big resort in the Bahamas as well. So he went resort hopping in the Bahamas ball or move, man. And they got a TPC golf course there, designed by Jack Nicklaus. Is he a big golfer? Uh, nice friends with, his friends with Granado, I mean, I almost think that's a prerequisite to be in Granado's inner circle is that you've got to play golf. So I would assume that he's, he's a guy and he's a former athlete too. You know, like football back in the day. So probably so, probably so. Do you, uh, if you had the 14.8 milli, how close would your list look to Dana's where he's got the, he's got the European trip nailed down. Yeah. He's got the domestic stuff with the California coast, along with what looks like a couple of skiing trips to Utah and Aspen. And then he's got all that island living going on. I think I, mine, these days is skewing more towards, if I had unlimited time and just whatever, um, I, I want to hit Asia, I would, I would be hitting various parts of Asia, I think. Yeah. Uh, it's a, it's as, as different, uh, culture in a lot of places than, than I've experienced before. I know how the euros are wired, uh, you know, I, I've, I've been to the islands enough. I need to get me some Asia. Damn it. My dude, you and I are the opposite. I, I don't know that I'd leave the country. I, uh, yeah. I'm not a huge world traveler man. Well, I'd leave the country because I like all these Mexican places that he went and all the, you know, the island stuff, the Bahamas and things like that. I have much to Amy chagrin. I have very little desire to go to Europe or any, you know, to take it. What about your mother land? You don't want to go back to Ireland and impress all of the native Irish people that like, Hey, I'm Irish American, which the Irish people are like, you know, you're just another strange white dude. Get out of my face. Right. Right. I've, I've got a boatload of strange Irish people around here. I don't need one who's, who's family fled when the going was tough. I've got, I've got a t-shirt on that says, I heart Ireland on it. Like you get it. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah. The prodigal son has returned. Yeah. They're like, they're my favorite stories of like people that go over there thinking that somehow they're going to be welcomed with open arms. Like, no, you're just like, yeah, no, I was like, there'll be like somebody coming up to you in Connecticut, when you're at your home, somebody coming in and be into a bar and being like, my grandparents lived here. They were a long time ago. Um, yeah. All right. I still live here. What? I'll tell you who some of the nicest people are that have come across in this job. The guys who do the Irish NFL show, uh, have you ever been on their show before? They, it's a long time ago. Yeah. Really nice guys, man. And they've, uh, you're right though, they're, they're unimpressed when I talk about visiting my homeland and I bring it up on there. Now that you mentioned it, yeah, they're not, uh, they have offered if I come there like, yeah, give us a call. We'll go get a pint with you or something like that. I'm like, I need to be much more celebrated than just a pint when I, when I come home. There's a lot of things too, as far as, uh, yeah, it's, uh, they don't care. They just, it does, it has zero meaning to them. Yeah. Which is a shock sometimes. Yeah. I would, you know what I would do? I would, because I'd have a lot of time on my hands so I could sit down and plan this. And I've always wanted to do this and maybe in retirement someday I'll do it, but you see people do it every year. They do like the 30 ballpark trip. Like do you just, you're gone for like two months and I think, I think it would be so fun like putting that trip together, like a puzzle almost, you know, of putting that trip together, arranging all the transportation tickets and things like that. The Astros had somebody at a game this year that was doing that, like an older couple, a retired couple who were big baseball fans cause I, I could do that. Annie would love doing that cause she loves going to ballparks and things like that. So you know what the brandy and I have started in on hardcore, um, planning on doing this someday in the future, uh, but not actually doing anything about it. I would like to hike the Appalachian Trail, uh, I'd like to, like, and that, that takes some time, um, but just like Dana's trip there, I think you got to figure out where, you got to break it up as an alcohol at some point cause man, it's a, but I, that's a, from when I was a kid, that was always a dream of mine to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. Yeah. But it takes a few months. Right. Is there anything on Dana's list that screams out like actual physical exertion? I guess maybe the skiing, if he went skiing and asked me to assault Lake City, yeah. The rest of this just screams out drinking golf, gambling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. None of the other ones, those other ones are classic tourist destinations. Yes. And, uh, I mean, like even, yeah, even like, even on the European vacation for dough. And so no, this was not a high adventure, like outdoorsy type of vacation. Oh, I don't think he was sleeping on the ground at any point. No. It's what I would expect. Well, Dana Holgerson. And I say that with fondness in my heart. Yeah. He was sleeping on the ground. It wasn't because he was camping. It was. No, no. It was the ground. Yeah. Are we calling hotel room floors, the ground now? Yeah. Yeah. So we're wherever a random place. Yeah. Yes. I fell asleep on the ground. That's a beach. Okay. You passed out. On the beach. Yeah. Uh, Seifare Frank says Dubai conspicuous by its absence on Dana's 14.8 million dollar boondoggle. Yeah. I might have expected Dubai on there possibly. Um, yes. Why would it be, or I thought, I figure, see there, I figure there's some news story that I don't know about. I don't know. I don't know why it's conspicuous that Dubai's not on there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just think. Today, was there a recruiting scandal where they had Dubai was Dubai trying to buy it? Was it was United Arab Emirates where it's trying to buy the, the University of Houston football program? Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. That's made possibly that that overseas money will get into some college football programs. Um, someone say, can you read the list again? I'm going to do this fast. This is the list. The places Dana Holgerson went with his 14 million dollar buyout, London, Bordeaux, Monaco, French Riviera, Paris. That's the Euro trip, Napa, Malibu, Salt Lake City, Aspen. That's the domestic trip, Atlantis, Bahamar to Bahama resorts, Jamaica, Cancun, Port of Iolaum, Cabo San Lucas. So that's the island slash Mexico portion of his, of his run. It's a lot of travel, man. One of our listeners accused us of being, uh, Astros, Kool-Aid drinkers because we didn't have the Kyle Tucker trade itself as one of the biggest stories, which I thought was interesting because like, uh, that's some really, really bad listening there. Uh, if we were Kool-Aid drinkers, we'd be like, yeah, finally they traded away Kyle Tucker. Yeah. No, neither one of us think it's an awesome thing that they had to trade away Kyle Tucker. It was, there were certain reasons that we didn't have it on the top, top list, but it wasn't like we were like, yeah, who cares? We don't need them anyway. Yeah. We put your listening ears on. Damn it. So that you got one more day to get your life right before 2025 starts and now you're just being some sod that can't even listen or see past his own damn bias. I'm miserable about the Astros right now. The text, the text that Seth is talking about. This is in the aftermath of us doing the top Houston sports stories in the previous segment. Why are we all so mad about Tucker being traded? LOL, hashtag Astros, Cool-Aid. That's the text. Yeah. Tell me a Kool-Aid drinker. I have a theory. If you think we're being mad and I think what the textor is saying is like, this should, we should be making a bigger deal out of this like this. Yeah. Oh my God. The Astros like this. The sky is falling this and that. I, I think, I think one of the, maybe the biggest reason why everybody is, I think there's two reasons why people are mad. One, I think there's some people that feel like the Astros did okay. On the trade, you know, they got a, they got a corner infielder who was an all star. They got a pitcher who, I think everybody's excited to run through the Astros car wash and see what he is. And he's from here. And then they got the, the top Cubs prospects and Tucker, I think we'd all conditioned ourselves that Tucker wasn't going to be here long term. I think that's number one. I know that's a lot of things, but collectively that's what I think the number two is, I think there's a lot of Astros fans are like, he sucked in the postseason. You know, like it's, it was a really good player for the Astros. But he was not a guy who had moments like practically every other Astro that's considered part of this golden era had in the postseason, you know. So I think that's, I think that's a lot of it. All right. 713 572 4610, if you want to weigh in, where, what would you do with 14 million bucks? What was the biggest sports story of 2024? We put a lot on your plate, but if you want to text in on either of those, you can 713 572 4610 neck up next power rank, the power rankings. Oh boy, how much damage did that Ravens loss do to the Texans in the eyes of the experts? We'll take a look at it. We'll dig into it next. All right, pain and pender gas. It's nine o'clock on a Tuesday. That means the power rankings are out. And as we do every Tuesday at nine o'clock, we check in and see where the experts think the Texans are. And we do that by ranking the experts. The power rank, the power rankings at nine a.m. There's four of them we use for this exercise in no particular order yet. ESPN.com, the athletic.com CBS sports.com and SI.com sports illustrated. So so let's do this here. We power rank the power ranking starting with number four, the athletic, which Seth has the Texans at number 15. This is about as low as the Texans have been on people's power rankings all season long. They've spent the entire season for the most part hovering at worst, like around 12 or 13 till the last couple of weeks. They've gotten as high as three or four when they were six and two earlier this year. I think both you and I thought it might have been a little bit of fool's gold at that point. Just based on how. Yeah. I mean, they were they were playing like a 500 football team, no matter what the record was over the course of the first half of the season. You know, the point differential would show you that they had scored about the exact same number of points as they had scored against them. I think the fact that some of these places love the advanced stats and like the Texans look better on some of the advanced stats than they actually are in reality, including on defense. I think they're overrated defensively in some ways. But yeah, I like there as much as it feels like, Oh, the Texans suck like no, they're a 500 football team. They play and compete like a 500 football team. They've lose to some bad teams. They beat other mediocre and bad teams. They've only beat one good team all year long and then they've lost to other good teams. So just this last week notwithstanding, it's been like a 500 football team the entire year. And in in that division, that's good enough to clinch the division with three weeks last time of the season, you know, just how it is. The category for the athletic, by the way, the Texans were 13th last week. So they lost to the Ravens, pushed them down two spots with the athletic. The category they do in terms of the topic for each team is what's next. And I don't know if it means what's next after the season or what's next this week or whatever, but for the Texans, I think this applies regardless of whether next means today or in a month, self scouting for the offensive coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Bobby Sloeck did so well in 2023 that he got head coaching interviews in the off season. He might get fired this off season. Houston has dropped from 12th in yards per play and 15th in EPA expected points added per play to 24th and 25th this season. And I think just if I stop right there, there was a period earlier this season where a lot of the stats for the Texans were they've been this bad over the last four weeks or they've been this bad. This the last two months have dragged this offense down so drastically. This is where they are for the year. They're a bottom they are a bottom quartile offense by in my mind two of if two of the most important if not the two most important metrics that measure offensive play other than scoring points because I know that's what you're going to say. But yards per play yards per play and EPA per play are big efficiency measurements I think and they're they're horrible at both of those things right now. Yeah, especially when it comes to how routinely can you successfully run the football. Every very rarely is that the case. It's great when they do do it well because Joe Nixon ends up with huge yardage. I got annoyed at somebody on X the other day because he did the thing which I hate much was he's he tried to use an argument based on something I never said which is he said well oh so Bobby Bobby wasn't in that for issue before but now he's an issue this year. That's not what I heard in the off season like no what I said the entire off season was Bobby Sloake was promising he's got to show that he can actually establish a respectable rushing attack not even a league leading rushing back but he's not a he's not a proven commodity as an offensive coordinator that was the big question and like in that regard he still is very much not proven that and then on the other side just in the passing game and with everything else offensive coordinators are just like quarterbacks it's once they start to get once a league has film on you and they start to get to know your tendencies and your strengths and weaknesses it's harder in the second year and like so far it's you could argue about how much Bobby Sloake is to blame or not but there's no way you can argue that he hasn't proven anything positive this year right you can make excuses for him but there's you got to concede that he hasn't shown anything yeah positive or to just show that he's he's built on the promise that he had last year well he doesn't even have good answers when you ask him what they do well like he said explosives and I'm like okay well we're all the explosives have largely been Niko or Joe Nixon being a superhero yes yeah like I said that that a few weeks ago it feels like a feels like a bad high school team that has a couple of future pro football players yeah that's what you know like it's enough that they're that they just win with those guys but they're doing nothing else offensively offensively you're absolutely right yeah alright number three power ranking of the power rankings SI.com which also has the Texans at 15th down four from number 11 last week so the Baltimore Ravens the loss to the Ravens at this juncture in the year you fall four spots that's a pretty big pretty big dip and Connor or says this about the Texans Seth all of the biomarkers in a massive loss to the Ravens in which the offense was shut out we're troubling CJ Stroud again looked frozen against split safety looks the defense was stomped out by Derek Henry Houston's not alone there and that's Connor or saying that not me and Lamar Jackson was allowed to spend more time from snap to throw than at any point this season with no punishment that's pretty damning barring a major identity shift the Texans are looking like a prime candidate to get boat race just as their playoff journey begins yeah as far as what he's talking about CJ reacting to shell coverages and all of that it was it was watching the Bengals and the Texans and that same several day window man Joe burrow was just thrashing the Broncos over the middle in the soft spots in zone it was it was really interesting because the the one starting cornerback there for the Broncos has kind of been it he's been out he's had health issues and when they had to play zone and when he was out of the game man he burrow just thrashed him so I'm watching him thinking all right boy he's pulling the trigger really fast but also you got to concede that man he's also thrown to wide receivers that have been with him for a long time and does it's a more balanced offense there's more the linebackers were actually biting on the play action where were the Texans they they just don't bother the linebackers just kind of sit back and like I'll come up and make a tackle right right because like what am I worried about these guys you know yep all right number two power ranking of the power rankings CBS sports dot com that would be Pete prisco um the Texans are 14 holding steady at number 14 on CBS sports dot com here's what Pete prisco says he's always very brief they got rocked by the Ravens on Christmas day and seem to be limping into the playoffs they are locked in as the fourth seed but they don't look like one actually they do the fourth seed is typically the worst of the four division winners they look like that they what the hell yeah what are you talking about they look every year there's a couple of four seeds that you're like oh they should be the seven seed right right right they look they look they look exactly like a four seed macking I tell ya so 14th on CBS sports dot com I think also though too like yeah okay they don't look like they should be a four seed but the other than the AFC North winner whoever the other the six and seven seed it like they've got their blemishes and flaws sure so it's not I don't think it's it's not as big an insult as prisco I think is kind of presenting are the Texans favored at home against against the Steelers or the Chargers do you think like would they will they be a favorite at NRG say they against the Steelers as you and I have pointed out several times they may not even be the home team I think they'll be favored at home because of how the defense has played versus those two core like you know the Chargers have had some walls offensively it really is just the last couple weeks that they got it going again offensively and then like Russell Wilson has looked like the best version of Russell Wilson and the worst version of Russell Wilson at times this season so I think the I think the Texans will be favored in both those games and it'll be a surprise to a lot of people locally because it feels like they shouldn't be favored to anybody but the yeah the way the way they build the lines and everything I'll be surprised if they're not favored I'll be surprised if they're I'll be surprised if they're not favorites I'll be shocked if they're more than a field goal favorite yeah it's gonna be it'll be they'll need that home field advantage perhaps to get the to get the to get the that three points is gonna be the the crucial factor in them being favored yeah I think if you played either those teams on a neutral field right now if you made the Texans a favorite on a neutral field I think the money would go okay hardcore to Steelers are the Chargers hours hanging like handicapper so yeah and even field either of those yes so it ends up Texans end up being like a one and a half point favorite yeah for either of those games that sounds about right that's exactly what I was thinking one and a half two points for me on that one number one power ranking of the power rankings ESPN calm which has been the most bullish on the Texans throughout their tumultuous last eight weeks they were 10th last week even though they were three and four in their last seven games going into that Ravens game so they fall four spots in the eyes of ESPN this is DJB anime typing this biggest off season contract to watch this is a good category biggest off season contract to watch and DJB anime says Stefan digs says digs proved his value to the Texans on and off the field through the first eight weeks with him CJ Stroud had a QBR of 60.5 that's 10th but since digs towards ACL Stroud has a QBR of 40.4 29th through week 17 so CJ has gone from a top to he was a top 10 quarterback with digs he is in like rookie Bryce young range without digs so with digs it'll be interesting he turns 32 this year this by this year I mean 2025 yeah he turns he turns 32 he's coming off of an ACL I think the Texans would like to have him back the reality the situation is he's a 32 year old coming off of an ACL injury what does that contract look like my fear would be that as much as Stefan digs was a model citizen while he was here is he does he at some point feel disrespected by playing for whichever whatever the Texans think is the the fair price for Stefan digs sometimes it doesn't feel like disrespecting the moment and then you get in all of a sudden you're playing really well I guess that's the only thing I worry about and if it's I don't want to resign a 32 year old wide receiver coming off of a ACL if it means you're turning down drafting a wide receiver or signing a younger free agent so I'm very I'm open to whatever they do with it I just I'm not I'm not hungry to get Stefan digs back on the team yeah I think something that should be pointed out without getting too cap nerdy about it is the Texans we know that the Texans took Stefan digs four-year contract and took all the guaranteed money and basically just made it a one-year deal a one-year $22 million deal for digs they took about 16 million of that and crammed it into avoidable years in the future so there if Stefan digs leaves there is a credit card statement coming due for the Texans of several million dollars that's where I asked so for both parties the Texans it might be worth their while just like the baby give a contract that's a bit more if they can rework it into an extension yeah so they give them a contract maybe it's a bit more than what others would pay but it helps them out with a cap because they can spread it out more short term yeah yeah so that's it's just it's worth noting I mean I think ultimately the biggest thing with digs is how do they feel about the knee at that age you know it's just you also get now this is a thing if you get a compensatory pick back potentially I could see digs going to start ring chasing so maybe goes to a place where he actually plays a lot gets a lot of production and they end up getting a really good compensatory pick out of it yeah maybe so maybe so um text message uh Bobby's slow listening to slow speak at press conferences reminds me of a salesperson BS'ing their sales manager about their pipeline to avoid getting fired I've I've made that comparison several times yeah when somebody's just up there just freestyling and just trying to survive till the next forecast is due you know the way it went I mean he gave an answer about what they looked you know what they did during the bi week and what they were trying to identify and one of it was identifying the strengths on the next question when asked what are those strengths he didn't have an answer at the ready now now he also did say okay maybe I gotta maybe I gotta back on that he prefaced it by saying I don't want to give you all the secrets or anything but I don't know I feel like that's like okay like any if you're good at it other teams are going to know you're good at it yeah I like so that should be the question what are you worried that other what are you really worried that somehow other defensive coordinators are I haven't realized what you're good at doing yeah I don't think that like what are so what are other defenses what are defenses going into a game saying what they're saying is we just got to take away Niko Collins as much as possible yeah yeah and you know we feel pretty good we're gonna be able to stop the run and it's is it's as simple as that like cuz Joe mixing has done some really good things but he's not a steady machine and with this offensive line and with these tight ends blocking for him and with the wide receivers are blocking the same way like the 49ers do when they're good so yeah I think Niko Collins is the only answer maybe the maybe the saddest thing for me about the Texans offense this year from like for me personally like with and I'm gauging kind of my reaction to things that happen this year is that when tanked L went down with the injury and this is before we knew the severity of the injury like this is when we just like okay well tank you know he's hurt he's down is it my first football reaction and obviously my first personal reaction was man I hope he's okay I love tanked L my football reaction like you're processing like what does this mean now like what's this gonna look like my reaction was they weren't gonna win with offense anyways in the postseason you know what I mean like that even with tanked L this is an offense that had sunk to the bottom quarter of the league in offenses so part of me is like all right well I wasn't counting on more than 17 points in a playoff game even with tanked L you know like how much worse can it get you know the thing is if if they were gonna make a run it was gonna have to be something clicking in the passing game in the part where you just wonder what might have been was all right in that Chiefs game that it looked way more like you were hoping it was gonna look all season long and so the tanked L injury I think almost symbolically but also substantively it was taking that away pulling the rug out when man maybe it looks like maybe something is clicking yeah that's true that's a yeah and then and then in that very game you get into the fourth quarter and the better team handles the fourth quarter better than the Texans without tanked L do so I don't them who knows like that's a that's a that's a most positive spin I could put on an otherwise miserable season yeah yeah miserable season offensively yeah yeah yeah absolutely um so yeah man text message three things CJ must fix in the off season pocket clock escapability accuracy that's from cypher Frank also you know the thing is to that he's done it somebody on my YouTube channel and said that CJ needs to learn how to extend the plays better and that's that's actually not an issue like he does pretty well on extended plays now it's not like a high success rate on those to begin with so it doesn't always feel that way but in terms of a EPA on throws attempts that are like over three and a half seconds long it's Josh Allen yeah Lamar Jackson Pat Mahomes and CJ yes CJ does a good job the problem is the times I think he extends them too long at times and that's where making the decision quicker to check down he's gotten better as the season has gone along taking the easy money all of that stuff it's it's not that he can't extend the plays it's that he's a little too dependent on extending the plays he needs to just take the easy money more often yeah man that was number one was number two number one pocket clock to escape ability three accuracy yeah so pocket clock is right like you're saying the number one escape ability I don't know how much you're gonna do with that I think the the thing that I'm more concerned about his pocket movement because I think last year as a rookie he was really good as the season went along it's starting to just you know know when to take just a half step to get out to clear yourself some room to throw and it feels like he's regressed as he's gotten bludgeoned week after week after week I don't know he's got the same feel for it I think those I was having a conversation with a buddy yesterday about CJ and my conclusion I came to is I think those three weeks green Bay indie jets game on Halloween night those three weeks where the pocket the pressure rate was so extreme it was like nearly 60% over the course of those three games and he was getting hammered yeah I think those three games damaged him like not not irreparably damaged him but I in 20 they 2024 damaged him and this is where I'd like it's all interrelated and that's what's so frustrating about trying to figure this stuff out is that the types of pressure that he's getting it's right up the gut like that for that Kyle van noise sack it was you know the protection was right they had the numbers matched up CJ CJ expects to get protection but it's right up the gut and yeah that's what screws your decision making the most that Dalton Schultz the easy opportunity to throw to Dalton Schultz you look at that man literally tells and tells us getting blasted into the backfield at a power rush and the rest of the pocket was there was no place for pocket movement there he was just it was so compressed he had no opportunity to take a side step to the right to clear room because all those guys were getting destroyed and like they if there was if there was a half yardage more space see what CJ was waiting for was a route to clear down field and somebody was coming clear but the pressure was right up in his lap so okay yes that should have been an easy throw to Dalton Schultz but maybe only if he had gotten rid of the ball quicker why did he have to get rid of the ball quicker because Dalton Schultz got hung up in the backfield because Laramie Tunsel was getting destroyed and the rest of the offensive line was getting destroyed as well yep so it's just it's all interrelated and it's it's just all a big mess right now all right pain and pender gas with you on a New Year's Eve Tuesday appreciate you guys hanging with us and tuning in up next the three biggest takeaways from Domingo Ryan's press conference yesterday there are big questions heading into this week 18 matchup with the Titans Domingo gave us answers so we'll have them for you coming up next shot pender gas Seth Payne with you on a New Year's Eve edition of the show Domingo Ryan's met with the media yesterday Texans are off today they're back in practice tomorrow we'll get injury reports tomorrow so we'll start to get some truth here on which guys may be resting due to injury or maybe you know we'll see how Domingo handles this game he was asked about it yesterday here was Domingo Ryan's being asked will you rest guys now that you're locked into the four seed yeah going into this game as I mentioned to all our guys that everybody has to be ready to go and that's where we are everybody will be out there playing and we'll you know we'll see how the game goes but for us right now we got to go play better and our last outing on the field was not good enough not representative of who we were are defensively offensively just it's not a good representation of our team entirely so we got to go out we got to play better football okay so this is where I this is how I read that where with coach speak or lying for gamesmanship or whatever else like like that might go into play coaches just like Domingo Ryan's himself has said various times where he's you know says Derek Singley isn't going to you know follow Amari Cooper you know in the game yeah right like so Domingo's capable of the coach speak like the everything that Domingo said right there is true with the asterisk that like any other NFL game injuries are going to factor into it so I think that he probably I'm guessing that the starters for the most part will play the first quarter I don't think that I think there'll be guys who have injury issues that in any other regular season game it wouldn't have held them out but if they've got something that could get better with rest those guys probably aren't gonna play yeah so I'm like in CJ's child might be chief among them that hey what I mean you know what I'm coach speaking about how everybody be out there everybody who's healthy you know everybody who's not you know like any other NFL game it's just the the bar gets lowered a little bit for what keeps you out of the game yeah I'm a simp my notes for for that cut he's clearly playing everyone and for how long will depend on the game like I just yeah I take to me go at his word man and I don't you're right Sean I admire you and other people who are pure of soul who watch sports year after year after year you know who does this John McLean mm-hmm who should be cynical is all get out and in some ways is sometimes when a coach says like no we're never gonna cut that guy I leave you whatever yeah he'll say yeah he'll say like hey he said he was ever right like they do it all the time yeah I'm never no I'm here for life yeah college coach no no plans on leaving like it and people believe them yeah it's a style it's amazing to me every year as long as you keep doing it I don't know I it's amazing yeah I don't know I don't as long as you know this is how I am and this is how I'm gonna be and you're cool with it that's really all that matter I just feel like I should be taking advantage of you more often I feel like you're easily duped on New Year's resolution hello take advantage of Sean more often everybody who thought Tom Herman was never gonna leave you of age I just want to hold on hold on I want to get I want to get into a pyramid scheme I just a bad liar that that one I did not believe I was not on that but there were a lot of people that did and those are the people that I want to I don't want them to miss out on the money-making opportunity of a lifetime right ah because if they get in now Sean they're gonna boy boy riches beyond their wild beliefs you must believe in me there's only so many spots available for this great investment opportunity oh yeah yeah I got you I got you I can't wait to talk to you after the show ever fall for a pyramid scheme when you're a kid I never did I never did I once printed off a thousand I went I snuck into my mom's office and printed off a thousand pamphlets that you could sell for a how to how to make money in a system that's basically selling pamphlets about how to make money yeah remember remember Don Lapri tiny tiny classified ads yeah that was good so somebody on TV selling you something that will make you rich behind your wildest dreams and you're like well how come you're doing this instead of that that thing that you're talking about because I want to give back that's why I go no no it's because your plan is to get other people into Don Lapri I probably paid like 25 bucks for that pamphlets told me how to make pamphlets and sell them see well that's why you're so giving me sometimes you got to go through some things to get to the level you're at now you know Lee that was your my basically soul I didn't know how much printer it costs back then yeah who knows how much money and printing out all those pamphlets not to mention the staples to put them together you know because you fold it it was a classy affair I wish I could go back and watch the 25 pound paper I took oh my god all right I'm continuing with amico ryan's number two takeaway number one takeaway he says he's playing everyone we'll see what happens number two takeaway no excuses for CJ Stroud he was asked about CJ mentioning after the Ravens game casually mentioning he's a little banged up right now the piece about CJ being banged up is you know I think that's real and that's real for everyone in the league at this time of the year everybody is banged up the amount of games guys that play the snaps that they play like everyone is banged up that's what it is that's NFL football this time of the year you try to manage it as best you can and it's also we all have to fight through push through and a lot of guys are fighting through a lot of things not only CJ but a lot of guys are fighting through and that's the nature of what we do and also shows how resilient these guys are what they go through what they battle through that a lot of people would never know that they're fighting to go out there and see it'll go perform and ask to perform at a high level that's the art of equivocation this coach speak and demico is getting really good at it because the fact of the matter is it's true it is true everybody's banged up so not having to say like CJ is not banged up or CJ is banged up just say hey everybody's banged you can say the same thing about cancer we've all got cancer everybody's got little microscopic you know bits of cells that usually if you immune systems doing the job it sweeps it up immediately it's when it grows out of control so there's different levels of we're all banged up and/or we all have cancer sometimes it's sometimes it gets real bad sometimes it's just like I know my immune system took care of it oh really I got cancer cells floating around in me right now well a little like a little cell yeah and your body just wipes it out okay yeah for various reasons every now and then it's right it does yeah I don't know that's what I read in the pamphlet that I bought you know a scheme in which I was gonna get rich selling cancer pamphlets people yeah so it was in the pamphlet hey you get rich now you get rich selling cancer pamphlets the tobacco industry oh yeah there you go have a pack of cancer pamphlets there's a lot of good advice being told out in this segment last last loan from Damico here three things that we learned from the press conference or that we Damico spoke on the biggest things yesterday number three Deontay Johnson the newest Houston Texan he's got a clean slate in Damico's eyes with Deontay adding them to our team's a guy who has talent he's done it you know at a high level for other teams it's bounced around a little bit here as I mentioned to him of course it's a clean slate starting with me it really doesn't matter what it's happened in the past or what the narrative is about you come here and everything is a fresh start and so we'll see how he can help us what he can add to our team and on the field and off the field okay so there you go Deontay Johnson wearing jersey number 82 yeah somebody earlier asked whether if CJ doesn't play how does he develop a chemistry with Deontay Johnson at game speed my simple answer is to that to that is I don't care because right there's a lot of things that you'd love to have be perfect and ideal CJ's if you identify if you look at one thing that could actually take this offense over the hump if if CJ is indeed injured enough that the cells have turned to cancer I fact check myself on that everybody it's more it's way more complicated in the way I presented it um the surprise I fact check myself during a 30 second cut from Deontay surprise surprise yes I'd heard the cut before um look the identify the one biggest thing that could make the biggest difference if CJ getting marginally healthy is the thing that could improve his play that matters way more than a few targets to Deontay Johnson because you're not gonna it's not like in one game you're gonna all of a sudden have picture perfect chemistry with Deontay Johnson take care of that and practice and walkthroughs and everything else like that CJ's health if hypothetically he is banged up enough that it's bothering him that's the biggest improvement you can make right now to to fix or to be better at things that you haven't been good at for 17 weeks like it's not I don't know what anybody thinks they're gonna accomplish in a quarter of football that they haven't been able to figure out over 17 weeks it's not cutting time yeah you got to do the biggest possible thing to boost you and that would be alright I don't look I almost hope CJ is really really banged up because that would mean that okay maybe a week off really could be the elixir for some of these things yeah we'll find out more tomorrow when they practice man is CJ going to be on the injury report is he truly like is he bet is there a space is he banged up with something specific or is he banged up the way to me go just described it which is a everybody's got a little something going on you know right now I wonder if he does hit the toward all or not it's a it's a big step in a young professional football players life when you when you decide to start getting the toward all shots someone does that's that makes everything feel all right yeah it's not it's not psychological it's not a psychoactive drug at all or anything but it makes you feel like you're you're wearing bubble wrap all over you really it's a yeah not like because the way I first said it almost sounded like Vicodin or something like no no no just physically everything just hurts a little bit less it's not just needs to put the needle like on CJ's chair in front of his locker you know what it actually feels like it feels like somebody put WD-40 in all your joints okay it's just kind of like everything is just loose like yeah more fluid it just when you're at the end of a season most guys are probably on average dealing with like it two and a half injuries of some sort sure and then all the other just normal soreness that you get used to it just makes it all feel all right yeah every season for you or just a few seasons that you did the old always always we're shut perpetually yeah coming off of a surgery or something yeah there's the tea train you line up you line up and just boom boom boom the tea train all right pain and pendergast we shot you're taking your butt I guess I didn't explain that yeah tore it all shot yep all right pain and pendergast with you final segment coming up we'll talk to the guys on in the loop it's New Year's Eve CBS sports.com has New Year's resolutions for each of the 32 NFL teams what is the Texans New Year's resolution that is next all right do you believe in New Year's resolution Seth are you one of the oh I thought you were gonna ask me a much more important question like I like do I believe in either Santa Claus or God or something else like that I was like hey John I just botched the cancer discussion do you really want to go hardcore no this is no do I believe in New Year's resolutions I do I do yes and I've followed through on a few of them what's your normal shelf life for a New Year's resolution like do you do you do you bail like in the past if you have like I'm getting in a past and you bail in the past like a week you know I think over the last few years I've kind of been more realistic about it and I you know I have my habits spreadsheet that I do every day so I actually keep up with them because I I've got a daily checklist of things I have to tick off so like with my like this last year I was gonna lose weight so it's been a I monitored every single day here's this on my daily checklist of things you got a habits checklist a habits checklist yeah we got a spreadsheet that I either I get a red box or a green box on that item on that day and it's month by month so like as the month is going along if I see a lot of red I'm like I gotta get my crap together I'm not really so and by the end of the month they're like oh that's a lot of green okay good job and then I try to improve on it the next week next month yeah I got a list of to-dos so many of them are just they've been sitting on here like the biggest to-do is rewriting this list like every two weeks I'm like all right now I'm gonna do these things I'm gonna yeah I'm gonna collate this and prioritize and yes jealous that you're good at this habits thing man good for you well the other thing that I've done to to try to just manage kind of you know getting overwhelmed with how big your list is I try to do things in groups of threes now okay so I have like I do a little I do a little triads yeah of tasks so I'm like okay I'm gonna attack these three tasks gonna get it done I'm gonna take a break and I'm gonna attack these other three time I'm only allowed to work on tasks ideally I'm only working on one box until that box is complete oh that's really good and that and that's the dopamine I I I completed everything in this little box right here okay yeah just try to I try to break everything down to as small a task as possible so some of these boxes are really one task but it's the three steps that I need to complete in that task yeah my um my New Year's resolution I think is gonna be to try to build my social media a little bit more I've been telling myself I got to do it the last couple years and the the monotune solution last year I think it might have been and and I and I did okay but like I need to like focus on it more hardcore this year more content yeah the people you know what I mean like that kind of thing um I've always found that if you really want to do something incentivize yourself with money and I get and especially if you really want to get a good something make a have a contractual obligation yes like a start hey maybe a good cards player you start start start being a pro full-time gambler you're gonna get way better way fast yes so if you accept the job you're gonna you're gonna get better at it Sean oh you need to go work at Google is what I'm okay or I like what I'm doing you're gonna give up our hours for working for Elon Musk I'll just do what Doug Gottlieb does like apparently you can just host a radio show and still go do another really important job out there you know musk ain't gonna let that fly man you gotta be there 12 hours a day at least you're not gonna be able to work both these jobs musk ain't Wisconsin Green Bay no no no no he's musk yeah um so CBS sports calm has a New Year's resolution for each of the 32 NFL teams I would say this is a good one for the Texans fix the front CJ Strauss accuracy touch and comfortability have all regressed but he's also rushed his process behind a shoddy streaky offensive okay streaky is an interesting word that would imply that there's actually long spells of good play with this line I don't know that that's the case as you pointed out it's gotten better I guess than it was during the really really bad times he says past catching depth would also help but the trenches are vital that's a good New Year's resolution nick if if you're listening if you're listening if you're writing down your New Year's resolutions and by the way Nick Casario seems like the last person who does New Year's resolutions right yeah like Nick wait still January 1st to do some form of self improvement feels like the most opposite Nick Casario thing ever like I think Casario's got a rolling I would guess he's kind of the kind of person's had a rolling five year plan yes or five year set of goals for the last since he was 14 years old yes um but if you're listening Nick this is a good New Year's resolution fix the the the phrasing of all of that talking about the front in the trenches and everything this book I'm reading blood red snow about this German soldier on the Russian front I'm just thinking about what the Texans offensive line would look like in the face of a tank assault boy it'd be well dressed just fleeing backwards across frozen rivers as fast as they possibly could yeah they would be they'd be like you know what they'd be doing they'd be like like tanks would be rolling over their trenches because they were too busy trying to find the highest the height in Russian boot fashion from dead soldiers right they're like oh no go ahead no yeah we're fine we don't need to protect that village all right that guy that guy's got a snazzy pair of fur boots I'm gonna go get those yeah how the wargo our drip was amazing yeah that's how it went I will say this this is um it's gonna be an interesting off season man because this is uh not that Nicusario hasn't had to fix things before he inherited maybe the worst situation that any GM has ever inherited when it came to the cap lack of draft capital your quarterback wanting out and then your quarterback being untratable because of issues off the field um but this is gonna be interesting because this is a very specific thing that needs fixing and and there's and there's I think there's multiple ways to get there and I think you probably don't you probably aren't just deploying one of them like fire the offensive line coach okay you don't stop there that doesn't make all five of these guys great players all of a sudden like I don't you right and yeah and I think that you know the O line propaganda cabal gets together and they've they've you know to get people to try to focus on PFF pass pass great pass protection grades and everything there the way everybody on that offensive line plays including the offensive tackles good at pass protection um but not so great at run blocking uh there's not they there's not a grittiness there there's just there's not a competence as a unit and there's there's nobody really along the offensive line that should be safe the even because even the guys who do have a natural grittiness about him like Shaq Mason checks checks old he's just not the player he used to be um so I a complete total swapping out of the offensive line if it were possible cap wise it doesn't even seem extreme at this point you gotta get you gotta get sworn mentality guys out there or the very least guys who can capably play the complete football not just pass protection but run blocking as well yeah the line needs new leadership you know what I mean like I don't think talent is the issue like there's plenty of physical talent on that offensive line it needs an attitude adjustment the other and I would go to is all as as long as if Bobby slow it doesn't if he remains you're you're just fooling yourself if you think Dalton Schultz is gonna be a driving force behind becoming a great play action football team uh like he just he flat out can't block at all and every now and then he has a nice one but like it's just he's so routinely getting absolutely destroyed that when I talk about the blocking I need to be better about including the tight ends in that the upside is Cade Stover perhaps brevin Jordan doesn't help you out as a blocker if he comes back uh it's just there they've got they've got systemic issues in their level of physicality in the run game yeah Jordan will be back he signed in it's he he that's right yeah that's right yeah he signed he signed a contract there's like a one-year deal I mean so now you've got two guys who are better receivers than they are blockers there's a lot on Cade Stover developing ASAP as a blocker no doubt no doubt um sapph I enjoy a good checklist this is a texture do you have your excel spreadsheet with all of the equations and formulas I've got some equations and for I've got a financial spreadsheet where that's got that's got all the formulas nice spreadsheet I don't I try not to sometimes when you start tracking fitness or calories or anything like that there's a tendency to get like for me at least I get a little too obsessive with it so that's why I went to that red green color system yeah because I can just look at it intuitively know if I'm on track or not I can just glance at it and be like ah that's a lot of red all right snap back at it yeah it's good but on the financial side yeah I got it's fun that to look at the finances I need I need more just knowing exactly where every penny is yeah not because of a lack of discipline on my part more so than that there have been times where I've had fraud that I did not discover until like nine months later and the bank's always a little extra skeptical when that happens like wait a wait a second wait a second you so you're gonna tell me this six thousand dollars in charges was fraudulent and you're reporting it now in March I'm like yes I just you gotta understand my life man yeah it's a mess yeah that's funny um text message is Deontae Johnson playing the whole game or will he be considered a starter and play a half okay well first of all we don't know what Demico is doing with the quote unquote starters yet but let's assume that that there is a quick hook for starters in this game but Deontae Johnson hasn't played a snap as a Houston Texan but considering what he brings to that receiver room you could argue he's in the upper certainly in the upper half of valuable players on this football team I'm gonna put the goal I'd like to see Deontae Johnson get at least 40 snaps in 15 targets I just like I just got even if it's Davis Millstone the ball just get him get him hungry for more get him in like as comfortable as you can and just just try to feed it to Deontae I think that'd be more than he got in his like two months of the ring it out he'll feel so special he will he will he will Sean real quick before we get too far away from the New Year's resolution yeah um it's not enough for you to have this vague goal of like getting more active on social media you need to set some goals I need to set yeah I lean in like an inch like a number of Instagram followers that I gotta get to either that or if you want to just try to focus on the process that will lead to that ultimately it's just like okay a number of posts per day or yeah at least once on each platform that's true that's true not that is something because cereal would do he would focus on the process focus on the process of success to figure out all the things that would make you get a you know a huge increase and then just really dial in on doing those things and that way you're a success that way you're not gone down in the dumps on a day where you don't gain any followers you're like okay yeah but I put out a post and I'm good to go if I keep doing this if I stay after it and follow the process yeah yeah good stuff John Lopez Reggie had a tooler here how many thirst traps a day how many what how many thirst traps a day yeah you mean that he's posting or that he's like a viewing I'd be interested in both no uh what is what are they what are thirst traps yeah I don't even know what a thirst trap this is this is brilliant this is brilliant by him or rather Seth I'm talking directly yeah to Seth here I this is brilliant by Sean to pretend like he does not know to avoid all culpability right like I'm not gonna get myself in trouble if I'm if I'm the guy who's just like what's a thirst trap well I don't know there are people I may know I may know what it is but I don't know the label you know what it is I just said no it's a no I read it's a picture of an attractive person oh oh yeah no yeah specifically designed to try and you know that's the trap aspect of it right specifically designed to try and you know bait people in okay so do you think I need to be shirtless on instagram a little bit more this year is oh do you guys yes for one yes I think there's people that like the bald head I feel like we play that oh there's there everybody's got a fetish like I'm there's somebody this time you know what I mean yeah yeah you do have to do that yeah nobody wants that hey are you guys when you're on I don't go on Facebook often at all apologies to everybody that sent me DMs I'll check them in like six months um but I am also I guess one of the things is I'll get it because I'll get a friend request like a notification and so I look at the friend requests and just whatever um but like you get the friend request really like okay obviously this is um this is obviously a dude pretending to be a woman or whatever like it's like yeah you know like I find you fascinating I'd like to be friends do you guys like but then you see that they're friends with a couple of your guy friends yeah and you're like I'm sorry like my high school teacher is from like oh man oh you fell for this oh yes yes oh man now I'm trying to think like usually when I'm confirming people as friends I'm saying really interesting well I don't know no no I don't confirm off of a off of a DM but oftentimes like I don't I like I my like confirming new friends on Facebook process happens like three times a year like if you have requested friendship with me on Facebook you are sitting in a queue right now that's been sitting there for three months but then I have this burst of activity where I'm like you know what I'm gonna go through and confirm these friends and I often do look and see like how many crossover friends they've got with me but it needs to be okay so I don't feel unless I've got a ton of stupid people that I'm friends with which is definitely a distinct possibility um I don't often do the ones that it's only friends with like two people it's gotta be like you know it's gotta be like if it's a lot of radio host I'm like all right this is a listener yeah you know exactly we can be friends who's the specific mutual because I feel like we all do this where there's like hey mutual friends that if you're mutual friends with them I think that I should follow you no matter the platform do you have like at least in your mind like at least you know okay if I see this person I know that this is a good follow oh like if I see somebody here Sean is on my list okay Sean and and maybe some other listeners okay yeah and then I've got my fishing group yep it's like cat and Scott captain Dean yeah mutual I'm like okay you know that yeah yeah I would say like any like if there's multiple six ten personalities that are friends with somebody then I'll just go ahead and give it to the old confirm yeah yeah also the sometimes some of our listeners that have been longtime listeners you see when you see a few of them even if they don't fall I like it's like oh okay this is one of the one of the tribe now the thing you got to be careful of is if I thought I was already friends with this guy oh yeah it's a yeah it's a you know now now your friends with some bot that's impersonating them yeah yeah exactly
Happy New Year everyone!