Payne & Pendergast
Pro and Cons for the Texans potential Wild Card opponents
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With the sharpest rides, Denver's trusted name in pre-O vehicles. The sharpest rides, affordable, sexy, sharp. - Staying in 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 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 gotta go. I, we gotta go pop tops or whatever the kids say. - Yeah. - I feel very old when it comes to popping 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 gotta pop some tops, or you're only supposed to say they're popping 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. - How's this whiskey taste? I don't know. I'm a tea totaler. I have no idea how it tastes. - You don't listen to enough crappy music, Sean. - I don't. - Yeah. - 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. I'd, J, it's Brett Dolan and John Harris. Okay. - Oh good. - Yeah, yeah. - I'm a leader on the TV. - On the radio. - On the radio. - It'll be right here on Sports Radio 610 stuff. 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. 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. - That's getting up there. - The Chargers, 19%. Somehow these numbers shifted overnight. I don't know, you know, 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%, 4% chance. - I am such a fraud in 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. - I don't care anymore. - No, a 31 to two thrashing will do that to you. - Fine, at least if they have to face the Ravens in 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. - Oh, really? - 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. - Right, lack of respect, which, you know, is the chaos kids say that, hey, 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 gonna 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 gonna get your wish. Similarly, the Chargers, 22% of the people would like to face the Chargers. The computers are like, well, there's like 16 or whatever. I said, 19% chance that you're gonna 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. 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 wanna 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 kinda, like at some point, you're gonna 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. So I, like I did pros and cons of each of these from a Texans perspective. I kinda 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 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. - Okay, so that's with bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, ketchup, and hold the pickles. - You know what you like. You wouldn't order your burger just any way. Why should your sports talk be any different? With chapters on the Free Odyssey app, you can choose the topics that matter to you most, whether it's reactions, matchup previews, injury updates, or team news, quickly find what you really care about. Your football talk, your wing. Download the Free Odyssey app and start listening today. - I'm gonna invade NRG Stadium. - Yeah, like the Steelers might have, might be one of those unfortunate situations where the home team has to go to a silent cow. - Yes. - Because it's, and this Texans offensive line, although they've actually somehow weirdly, like even though you've never believed, they have made some improvements along the way. - You say so, 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 of 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, to me, to me, yeah, the pros. - So the defense, like you get a better version of the Steelers defense if they've got home field advantage on the road. - No question, yeah. - And you're not gonna get that with the Chargers. - No, you're not gonna 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 anytime 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, 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 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% reverse the curse. So the Chargers need some kind of mojo like that, and Harbaugh's just the weirdo to do it. - That's the yeah. - 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's 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, 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. - 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 over confident, cons, everything else, like, I can find no good reason to want to face the Baltimore Ravens. - Anymore. - 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 'cause 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 gonna 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 wanting Baltimore in the first time 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, it's just kinda like, all right, let's just get this over without gonna 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 doing 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 likelihood, I mean, you're gonna go probably go to Kansas City. It would, it would, in the second round, 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 talking 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 the Texans could travel to in the playoffs, in my opinion. The Chiefs, the Ravens, and the, and the Bills. When I say least scary, in terms of like getting embarrassed, you know, like, the, I mean, we just saw it. 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 I, 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 for this. - Yeah, yeah. - That's all I'd like. - I agree, I agree. All right, off and running on a, what is it? Tuesday, right? Yeah, it's Tuesday. - I mean, I'm- - It's the New Year's Eve show. - I know, New Year. I'm not even joking. - We're top poppin'. - playoff schedule, or not playoff, the regular season schedule's got me so messed up. It's a Tuesday. And so, good to be with you on a Tuesday. I 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.
Who do you want to the Texans to play in the Wild Card round?