Payne & Pendergast
Will the starters play this week?
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Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey. 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, I had like 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 know, I'm just desperate. I got to do something. My biological clock's all messed up. It's a ticking. Yeah, yep, but we're back on noon Sunday, at least for now, until the playoffs roll around, and then 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, because they're a four versus, they're guaranteed to be a four versus five game. Yeah. The Monday night game on wildcard weekend, because wildcard, 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, because 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, because the wildcard round game, in the wildcard round, the Monday night game is always a four versus five. Oh, it's always that? Okay, okay, let's understand. Yeah, it's always a four. 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 6. Dan, 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. So that's Dan Campbell, man. 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, and over time, it sure felt like Peyton knew for sure that all they needed to do, the clench of playoffs, was to tie that football game. And it colored his decision making, and 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'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. Hit 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. Okay, great. Yeah, they did. They did. DeMico's going to play his guys as it turns out. He met with the media yesterday. That's what he says, yeah. DeMico 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 DeMico 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? 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, 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. So the debate online and other places, because I posted yesterday, Seth, the list of the guys I would rest if I were DeMico. Yeah. 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've 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, you know, where we both stand on all of that. It sounds like DeMico, 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, um, let's remember, Sean, DeMico has actually gotten good at the center side of coach speak, right? Remember, hey, listen, well, will we have Derek Stingley, Shadow and Mari Cooper? No, that's not what we do. Right. Um, Dave Mille's going to start against the Titans. Sure. To his credit. Well, he never actually, well, the problem was nobody actually asked him that, that week. Everyone's like, oh, I guess it's going to be your famous Mille. So DeMico never even had to give any coach speak. There's one lone voice in Houston is that, hey, what the hell? Nobody. He's never actually said that Davis Mille's is starting. What are you guys on about? Yeah. And was he watching a lot of British stuff? That was you. Yeah. Um, 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 DeMico did a good job of not answering that question yesterday when asked about CJ's injury or because 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 often, 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 plumb, like what momentum? Lose momentum. Yeah. What is the record since they started, what's it? 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. Yeah. You don't have to cherry pick that. Yeah. They were six and two through the first eight. They're three and five with a wretched offense in the last eight. Here was DeMico. 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. 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 year. And 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 is 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 has 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 collected me 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 Schultz 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. 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 Damien 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 Schultz 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 bails out backwards and runs seven yards even deeper than if he had just taken a sack there, much less thrown 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 reasons 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 D'Amico's coach speaking out the wazoo. Do you think anybody else sits in this game on Sunday? Like just flat out the flat out just sits. No, I don't think so. Yeah, I think that, I mean, there's you ask 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 me. 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 get a break. See, I'm like, I'm the opposite. I'm like, man, sit Will and sit Daniel Hunter and make, make Danica 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. You know, that's an old defensive line. Yeah. Yeah, 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. Oh, anybody over 50 plays? Yeah. Yep. Okay. 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 is 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, to make a rest CJ and probably nobody else unless it's for just genuine injury reason. 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, under the rules. And just be like, yeah, we're going to get destroyed. So no harm, right? We know, like, okay, 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 the Texans could play in the wild card 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 wild card round? I took a poll, we'll have the results now. 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. I installed these and then got some from my mom too. You fly across the country to do the install. Nope. Blinds.com can do it all. All she had to do was pick what she wanted. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure in install. Look at you, Hall of Fame's son. Oh, I just picked the winning team. 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Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Get a Head Start on 2025 with CNBC's Big January. The hottest tech event. CES from Las Vegas. The data. The numbers. The jobs report. And meet the future of biotech and pharma at JPM Healthcare. 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. But teacher, when are we ever going to use math in the real world? With Kelly Blue Book My Wallet on AutoTrader, you don't have to. At least not car math. Hit the road with confidence knowing exactly what you're going to pay each month for your car. AutoTrader. Next. Pain and Pendergas with you on a New Year's Eve. Oh, oh, it's New Year's Eve. 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 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 pop tops or whatever the kids say. Yeah. I feel very old when it comes to pop and tops. I feel like that's, can you say it? Can you use it? Can you talk about it as an activity like as a verb? Like we got to pop some tops? Or 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, you don't 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. Yeah. I don't. I don't. And I'm thinking by kids, I mean, I think that was like for the millennials. Yeah. 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? Um, it's a good question. It's Brett Dolan and John Harris. OK. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah, it's because we-- I'm a leader on the TV. On the radio. Yeah, we get it. It'll be right here on Sports Radio 610, Seth. 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, if 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%. Some of 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. And dude, I don't care anymore. No, a 31 to 2 thrashing will do that to you. Fine, at least if they have to face the Ravens on the second round on the road, we won't have to witness it in person. Fine, fine. So who do you think the people want to play, Seth? There's about a thousand 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 Herbert? 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. Lack of respect. Which, you know, us kids say that hate, that's hate as well, you know? That's right, you kids. Yeah, they're hating on them. We're hating on them. It is interesting. The percentages of the voting, the voting public, you know, the thousand 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 this, you know, 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 caster oil. Let's go." Yeah. You know, 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 than 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 have 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. I, so I, like I did pros and cons of each of these from a Texans perspective. I kind of like, you know, 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, your Brock Osweiler was the quarterback of the Houston Texans. How long ago does that feel? They, 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, but like literally on his watch, never finishes below 500. They're always at least 500 or they're a winning team. He, he's not want to play off game in, 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, 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 have, it might be one of those unfortunate situations where the home team has to go to a silent cow. Yes. Because it's a, and this, this Texans offensive line, although they've actually somehow weirdly, like, even though you never believe, they have made some improvements along with you as we get going on. Yeah. In terms of communication and things like that. I'll take your word for it. Yeah. So, but that part, I mean, they still can't run the ball at all versus good run versus good defense. And I think that's where, again, when I go to the Chargers, it's kind of a, I think both these, they're both good defenses. And the Chargers just, I don't, 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 the, to me, to me, yeah, the pros. So the defense, like you get, 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, we 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 anytime they get close to something good, something bad happens. They lost, 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, you know, that was the beginning of the end for Brandon Staley. It's an underrated reason to sign to hire Jim Harbaugh as your head coach, because, you know, Jim Harbaugh kind of, you know, 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, while also getting caught doing something else at other programs that might have doomed. So it was like the exact, they completely 100% reverse the curse. So the Chargers need some kind of mojo like that, and Harbaugh is just the weirdo to do it. That's 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. Yes. Good job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I also think too, like just purely from a football standpoint, like all these big chunk plays that have, you know, that have been the Achilles heel for the Texans this year, Justin Herbert's capable of generating a couple of those. Ah, but so is it's hard Russell Wilson and George Pickens just as a duo. Yeah, 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. Like, I can find no good reason to want to face the Baltimore Ravens. Anymore there, you know, Daniel Hunter, you know, 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 I, but it'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 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 wanting Baltimore. For that reason, why? Who cares how you feel about a win? Like it's a win onto the next round, you know, it's kind of like if your kid's not that good at sports and you're going to a tournament, it's just kind of like, all right, let's just get this over with. I gotta go. I got some Netflix to watch. Right. Let's go ahead. Let's go out. I hope this team gets rolled up in the first because they're not doing anything. Anyway, I don't want to 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 going to, in all likely, I mean, you're going to go probably go to Kansas City. It would, it would, in the second round, depending unless there's some upsets, you're probably going to go to Kansas City, which by the way, I feel better about playing them than I do. I know, I know Kansas City people are going to be like, oh, you're talking trash about the two times. Oh, they're so sensitive. I can't. They're certainly 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, and the Bills. And so when I say least scary in terms of like getting embarrassed, you know, like, like the, I mean, we just saw they played the Chiefs up there two weeks ago or whatever it was. The chief, and yet they also look over the last couple of 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's, 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 I, the problem is the Ravens are just a particularly bad matchup for them. 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 I getting a playoff victory for lots of reasons. I just, yeah, I'm, I've turned into that meek and timid soul that I've given up. I've given up hope on a deep playoff run, but I'd just like to have at least a home playoff victory. Yeah. Yeah. That's all I'd like. I agree. I agree. All right. I'm often running on a, on a, what is it? Tuesday, right? Yeah. It's two. I mean, New Year's Eve show. I know, New Year. I'm not even joking. Like this, top popping playoff schedule or not playoff, the regular season schedules got me so messed up. It's a Tuesday. And so good to be with you on a Tuesday. Appreciate you guys getting up with us here on 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 pender gas 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 a quick news item. I've been informed that pop and tops is not a phrase that anybody uses for anything at all. 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 that it's not even on anywhere on the internet. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, the only I found on urban dictionary is top pop and is when a girl's boobs start to fall out of her shirt. Okay. Well, that's that ain't the worst thing in the world. I mean, that's, you know, that happens for a top pop is when your buttocks are clenched so tight that your fart escapes at the top of your butt crack. Okay. Interesting sensation. Yeah. So we're going to be topping pops tonight, Sean. We're going to eat a bunch of beans. And then we'll go top pop 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 headline. Let's get to headlines. All right. Dameko Ryan's met with the media yesterday. Hey, how's it feel to get Aziz al Shire back from his three game suspension? It's really really great giving the Aziz back. We've missed him over these past three weeks, just missed his presence, his leadership, missed, you know, his play making ability on the field. So, and we're excited to get him back out there, let him knock some of the rust off. Yeah. And not got no silly 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, how 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 drop just general anger of having to be in Tennessee for a year. That's a good point. That's a really good point to you, man. It's like a jail sentence. Dameko Ryan's also asked about the newest Houston Texan yesterday. Deontae Johnson, who was wearing Jersey number 82 and was out of practice yesterday. With Deontae adding them to our team, a guy who has talent, he's done it 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 has 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. And I think one thing about the Texans is that 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 digs 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 him, 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 then 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 past 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, 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. As fast as possible, man, they need his, 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 is classic Dan Campbell played all of his guys, Jared, 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 who season continues to slide into the toilet. So that'll be fun. This, this, there's only a few things that are left to, 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 two that is, 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 at 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 Pearsall, the rookie tight end, got, got a lot of action. That for two consecutive years, a receiver that, that TJ Strout has really loved in the draft has been shot. That's a, that's a, I don't know what kind of so-cale stuff is going on here, but it's weird, man. It's weird. Because Ricky Pearsall, remember Ricky Pearsall got drafted in, and TJ 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, if it weren't for the kind words of his dear friend, Michael Parsons, you wouldn't have gotten. Yeah. He wanted Ricky Pearsall. Yeah. Something to monitor young wide receivers. 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 in the Rose Bowl and then Notre Dame and Georgia in the in the sugar bowl at night. So should be some fun quarter final action in college, college football playoff. Yeah. And if you watch the game tonight, that's where 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 because he teaches me things. Yeah, he's good. Brett's awesome. Yep. Yes. That's talking about the Kinder's Texas Bowl right there. It's actually a 230. So that's an afternoon game today. So you can hear. I always get nervous. I was going to let you say the Kinder's Texas Bowl because I couldn't remember the sponsor. That's okay. So that's okay. Um, 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.
Hour 1- Hear from Demeco, today's headlines and Texans wild card opponents