The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
09/09 Hour 1 - How High is the Texans Ceiling After BIG Week 1 Win?
ESPN 97-5, KFNC 97-9 HD-2, Montville, D. Euston, a gal media station. The Killer Beast! ESPN 97-5 and 92-5 proudly present, the Killer Beast. Definitely a fan of the Killer Beast. Don't sweat the technique. Now from a Veritex community bank studios, bring you the fastest three hours in Houston's sports radio. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. What a big town. Hey, how are we doing? He's blank. I am Branham. It's Brian behind the glass. And it is a Monday edition of the Killer Beast on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. It is a day after a Houston Texans road victory. A busy show plan, our normal mailbag Monday at 430. It will be hot and heavy with everything that was happening around the NFL. Everything that happened in college football with the Astros still have 19 games to play. 4-1/2 game leads, so we're not going to ignore the Astros like Pormorin. Accused a lot of ESPN 97-5 hosts of ignoring the Astros on Twitter yesterday. Shocking Pormorin was pointing fingers and worried about details later. Yeah, he doesn't, he never stirs things up Pormorin, he never, he never does that. But we'll start, of course, with the Houston Texans going on the road, beating a playoff caliber team, in my opinion. And I know it was a two-point game, but it felt like a convincing victory for the Houston Texans yesterday. We'll get to everything, but Blankers, your main takeaway from the win. I mean, first and foremost, when you look at, we talked about it, but we thought that how explosive this offense could be. And no matter how much you heard people questioning, well, what happens if CJ has a sophomore slumper? Is he going to be the same kind of player? When you give him the weapons that he had, that's one thing. When Joe Mixon plays the way he does, that's a totally different scenario, because now you're taking it up another notch in terms of having not just a running back thing give you carries here or there, get some positive yards so that the passing game can continue. When you run for a buck 60 and you do the things the way Joe Mixon looked like he was doing them, running over people, blocking people and just knocking them down and looking like, you know, the youngest best version of himself, you're talking about an offense that could be as explosive as any team in the league. And that's exciting. Yeah, he was, I mean, he looked like he packed a punch, but we knew that about Joe Mixon, but the offensive line doing its thing. I thought the offensive line played really well, actually. We'll get to some of the things that we're not going to ignore in victory, what we wouldn't defeat. Maybe that offensive line comes up, but you don't have 400 plus yards of offense and then run the way that they did without good offensive line play. Now, is it perfect from first snap to, you know, to all the way to the very end? No, and it's never going to be if we're being completely honest, but you don't have that sort of offensive production, especially on the ground, if your offensive line was poor. I thought they played okay. Yeah, I thought that it was a tale of two different offensive lines. I think you can look at the offensive line in past protection, but you can look at the offensive line running the football and what you saw was a lot of domination. That's not a, that's not a slouchy defensive line that Indianapolis has. With Buckner and some of the guys that they have up front, but the fact is, is that the offensive line of the Texans was pretty much opening holes and having their way when they, whichever direction they were going. And that was something that as a Texans fan, you love to see because with all the musical chairs and makeshift offensive lines of a year ago, watching that line be dominant in the run game was really enjoyable to watch because it opened holes that, look, Pierce came in for a couple of runs. He got positive yards. Yeah, he looked okay. No, he didn't, they didn't use them very much, but he looked okay. And to me, it's like, just be cohesive, like avoid injury. And I think that this offensive line has a pretty high potential. I don't want to put a number on it, but I think it has the potential to be an above average offensive line. I think it has a potential to be maybe a top third offensive line even. My takeaway is that I think the Colts are good. I think the Colts are a good football team. I think they're going to be in the playoff hunt. I have two teams from the AFC South making the playoffs, the second one being the Colts. So the fact that you go on the road, and I didn't have the Texans to win this game. I thought they were going to lose a tight contested game, and they almost did, but I thought the Colts were going to win this one. So I had the Texans at 10 and seven losing this one. Now the fact that you win this, maybe that flips things to 11 and six. I was really impressed with what I saw. And I'm not, I'm not a guy that's easy to impress. Like I'm usually pretty critical. I'm usually, some would say, yeah, a dog. They would say that about me. Some might even say that I'm negative, but they know nothing about me whenever they say that. I was impressed with what I saw with the Texans that did, yesterday, could they have beaten the Chiefs in an AFC Championship game? No, they couldn't have, 'cause they left some points on the board. I didn't think they played a perfect game. They had to miscue in the end of the first half. But what I saw was a team that has the potential to at some point, if they get to their ceiling, compete with the Kansas City Chiefs. - You're right, Jeremy. And I think that the biggest thing about that is because it's week one, that's what makes this so exciting, is because you did leave meat on the bone. You did make mistakes that are correctable. You did learn some things along the way, but you have a whole season to kind of fine-tune those things. But what you saw in the meantime was a team that's capable of scoring points, a team that's capable of running and passing the football, a team that has defensive weapons as well that can do some things. And so you think that you don't want to peak in week one anyway. A lot of times, and you think about a year ago, week one against Baltimore, that was a massive struggle. And yeah, you could see some positives, but for the most part, that was, there's a whole lot of work that has to be done and that you got to get to work right away. Here, you're looking at it going as good as this game was because of the shortcomings and the mistakes and some of the things that happened, you know they can get better. And that's what's really encouraging about this first game is because you got a W, but you learn some things along the way that can make you better in the long road when, conceivably, you will play the Chiefs later on down the road. - Yeah, and my biggest takeaway on top of that too is that this was a two-point game. Two-point game. Texas could have easily won that game yesterday by two possessions. If that was a 14-point Texan win yesterday, would not have surprised me. Now, that's good and bad because the good part of that is, I felt like they pretty much dominated that game with the exception of some very critical plays. But yeah, I thought it could have been a two-possession game, not a two-point game. And I leave feeling very impressed with the Texans yesterday. And the other thing too, when they needed it, they got it, especially offensively. You look at the way they ended that game. The Colts had all three time outs. They were down two, two minutes and 14 seconds left. The Texans didn't let them touch the football again. Like that is the signs of a winning team, not a perfect game, but the signs of a winning team when the other defense has two 14 to go, all three time outs. They know you're gonna run the football, you run it down their throats and they don't touch the football again. That's impressive. That on top of the fact that that laser that CJ threw and the fact that Nico brought it in the way he did, I don't know how many teams are gonna want that to happen and how many teams are gonna believe that guys on either end of that play are gonna make it to that level because that wasn't just an easy play on either end. And the fact that you got the dogs, you got the guys that are so damn good that they executed that play. Like it looked a lot easier than it really was. You're like, "Hey man, this team can do whatever it wants, "when it wants to do it right now "because of everybody that they have on the football field." That's a fantastic feeling in week one 'cause I think it's only gonna get better. - That was one of my other notes too. Nico Collins is a big time catch maker. And like we've kind of been in this, I don't wanna call it purgatory 'cause purgatory sounds very mid, but it's like the distinction of where Nico is relative to the rest of the NFL wide receivers. Like we don't think he's in the tier of Tyreek Hill, CD Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, but we think he could potentially be in that very next tier with the potential of maybe someday jumping to that tier, and I don't know where he ranks relative to the rest of the NFL. But what I do know, that guy is a big time catch maker. You mentioned the third down in the final drive that pretty much sealed the deal. How about the deep ball leaping over double coverage earlier in the game? Like that guy, he might not be tier one wide receiver in the NFL, underrated, sure, underpaid, potentially because of when Nick Casario signed him, but he is a big time catch maker and there's no doubt about that in my mind. - The high point ball, and I've always said that the one thing that I've always given Nico a lot of credit for is because of the big body, it's one thing, but the fact that he knows how to high point a football, but he goes up with double coverage on him and just completely outjumps the other two defenders, hands high, pulls that thing down, he's so damn strong. And then when you see the combination of, it's not just high pointing, it's the ability to catch the football, it's the ability to do the catch on the sideline, that I think that there's so much untapped even after the season he had a year ago to prove to everyone that not only is he, the receiver of a year ago plus, but he could actually get better as he spends more time with CJ in this offense and that's a positive as well. - The offense, I thought, was fantastic. Could have scored more, obviously. I think they settled for three a little bit too much, not to say that they should have went for it on four down more. DeMico should have been a little bit more at not saying that at all, but you score on six of your 10 possessions, that's highly effective. We mentioned the over 400 yards, 4-17, over 200 on the ground, 2-13. They also had the ball twice as much as the Colts. Like, that's pretty helpful. They had the ball 40 minutes to the Colts, 20 minutes. They had the football 2/3 of that game yesterday. That's incredible. - Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I think that when you think about, when we were talking about when the three of us were kicking this thing around before it got started, about the importance of the running game, but just from the standpoint of like you were just mentioning, the fact that you can control the clock. You can do whatever you wanna do for three, three quarters, whatever, but when you start establishing the run, now you're just knocking minutes off the clock with every dominating drive and possession you put together. If you get points out of it at the end too, it's gonna make it a mountain to climb for any team that you're playing against because it's just gonna keep building and you're just gonna keep hitting them with different things. And the fact that, you know, you can use Schultz, but Schultz was obviously, I think, more relied upon last year when you didn't have the compliment you have now. But you add a running game that's this good, and then you put all those guys together and give slow at the opportunity to keep defenses off balance and to keep doing what, basically, whatever he wants. That's gonna be a really fun offense to watch as the season progresses because depending on what the defense is trying to do, the counter might be something that just basically never gives the football back to the other team. - Yeah, I think you have every club in the bag. - I really do. Like, the fact that you have Mixon's running ability, and is he gonna have 120 yards every single game? No, of course not. But you have that club in your bag, 159 yards, I sold him short. You have, obviously, Nico Tank digs in the bag. You have tight ends that I think you trust that you can go to, Schultz, for sure. Brevin Jordan's been a little inconsistent in his career, but I thought he played well yesterday. Stover being used as a full bag. I thought was fine in the plays that he was in the game, especially as that lead blocker. So Slowick has the clubs in the bag. And, look, I think that the point of an offense is to score points, right? Like, let's keep it simple, stupid. This isn't rocket science. Let's not overcomplicate it. Whenever you have the football, what are you trying to do? You're trying to score. You're trying to score. And when an offense scores six of their 10 possessions in week one, I think that's highly impressive. And then, let's keep in mind too, well, two of those possessions were productive possessions. The final possession at the end of the first half, like, that should have been a scoring possession. So now you're looking at seven out of 10 possessions, which you should have scored, and we'll get into that later. And in the final possession, you bled the clock. You kept the cult from getting the football again. So, yes, they only scored, and I shouldn't say only, yes, they scored on six of their 10 possessions, but they had impressive possessions eight of their 10 times. That's an 80% efficiency rating. Like, that to me, especially in week one, shows you how good this offense can be, that you had eight productive drives on the 10 times that you touched the football. And just, he kept keeping the defense off balance when he would mix it up, and he would do the gadget play where, you know, everybody's expecting, maybe he's gonna continue with the pass, then he would hit the run, then he would hit the gadget play and the end around. And suddenly, you know, the defense is wondering what's coming at me next. And because he has all these weapons to kind of rotate in and out, we talked about the fact that numbers overall aren't gonna be really huge for one individual in the passing game, but they're all gonna have their opportunities. And then, when mixing is doing what he's doing, and you're right, next week, the Bears and their defense, probably gonna be a little bit more hyper-focused on the run. That should provide you more opportunities for Schultz, for the receivers, and it'll open up something else. And that's the beauty of a slowick, who knows, hey, if they're gonna come in, watch and tape, knowing that we ran the football as efficiently as we did, they're gonna try and stop the run. That's gonna open up more on the outside. We're gonna have more opportunities in the passing game. - All right, more to take away from this game. We'll get to more of our views from it. We'll take your views as well. 713-780-ESP, and it's a busy Monday. We will not ignore in victory what we wouldn't defeat. Gotta get to that tons, tons of headline news around the NFL we'll get to. It's a Monday, so good bad and ugly coming up as well. Mel bag Monday. And then, of course, week one, NFL hot takes, because why wouldn't we? 713-780-ESP, and we'll take your views. Twitch.tv/espn97-5, we're on YouTube at ESP in Houston, Twitter at ESPn-975. Linkers at Pac-Man Joel, Brian's at Psych by BMAC. I'm at Jeremy Branimer, off and running on a Monday. It is the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. - ESPN 97-5. (upbeat music) - Broadcasting live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, it's the Killer Bees with Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. - On ESPN 97-5 and 92-5. - We will not ignore in victory what we wouldn't defeat coming up a little bit later in the program, but reacting to game one from the Houston Texans season, 2004 season game that I think they were gonna win, but they're gonna lose a tough tight one, but they pulled it off, got the victory. 2585, Mixon's running style reminded me of Aryan Foster, his patience in allowing the whole to develop his outstanding. I don't wanna put the Foster label on him just yet, but that's the main takeaway that I had for Mixon is that the one thing that I was most impressed with wasn't the fact that he has a good punch, but his vision. I thought his vision was very good. - Yeah, I thought to the fact that I didn't expect a Joel Mixon that was this aggressive and physical. I think that it's one thing where he's getting extra yards, but even in past block coverage, when he's picking up guys coming in and he is leveling them, and when he is going and laying the wood to somebody and delivering blows instead of taking them when he's running, that was really positive as well, but yeah, this is the perfect kind of back with his style that fits this kind of system as opposed to what we've been talking about with Pierce. - Yeah, 713-780-ESP-N-3283, the way Niko balled out, CJ S3, or belled out CJ S3 today. I don't know if he bailed him out. I mean, one good catch on the long throw, that was a bit under thrown. It was a bit under thrown, but it wasn't a bad throw, a bit under thrown. And then the one on, I mean, the third down conversion with under two minutes that pretty much sealed the deal, they still needed one more first down. I didn't think that that was a bell out. Like that ball could only be in one spot and Shroud put it in that one spot. - Yeah, I thought that he couldn't put as much as he would have liked to on that football, but that ball, in most cases, like you said, if that ball isn't put where it absolutely had to be so that only his guy could catch it, that's gonna get picked off because it's floating, because it was more like there was not a tight spiral on it where he was throwing it on a line. He was on the dead run, trying to run for his life, bailed himself out, made a throw, perfect spot, right spot, right time, Nico right there as well makes, does a great job afterwards, catching the ball. But I mean, that's kind of more of a credit to the offense instead of saying which guy gets more credit for that play. - Yeah, 7-1-3-7-8-0 ESPN. Let's talk about the Demico aggression/being conservative. I thought it was odd, that first series, going for it fourth and one from the Colts 44, which that's perfectly fine. Like I go for it every single time there, but then he didn't go for it fourth and one from the Colts 33. - I just, I didn't understand it either. I was scratching my temple going, "Wait a minute, "I mean, if we're gonna do this, "then go ahead and do this." We've seen like the Jonathan Ganon approach that was way over the top, the top at times in going for things, but all of a sudden now, you're gonna go one way, one time, and it seemed like I thought they were rolling. I was like, "Oh, they're gonna go for this again," and then he kicks the field goal. - Yeah, so that was interesting to me. Maybe the tell there is that he wants the points and like, "Hey, I'm going to get points here," 'cause that's the difference. I mean, you're not kicking a field goal from the Colts 44, you're kicking the field goal from the Colts 33, and Fair Bear made it. And in the second half, they had almost the identical situation. They had fourth and two at the Colts 33, and then again, kick the field goal. So maybe that's the tell there for Demico, although I think that at times, he's kind of like Dusty Baker and goes based off of vibes, 'cause that could have been the tell on those two or three, if you're looking at the fourth and one for the Colts 44, but then late in the game, went fourth, fourth and goal at the two. So like, he was willing to go for the touchdown, but not the field goal. So if we're trying to figure out the pattern here, and last year he was pretty inconsistent with this two, maybe it's, he wants to get the points, guaranteed points, and the only exception to that is if he feels he can score a touchdown. - Yeah, I think it's more, I would liken it to more of Papa's belly with Dusty. - Me too. - Means it's Miko's abs, 'cause I think whatever's in Miko's abs is exactly what he's gonna do. It's what he's feeling at the moment, because I mean, fair bearing proof to you. He was dropping them with ease from 50. He was gonna give you the points. And it just, you're talking about situations where if it goes haywire now, and you don't get points in the second half, late in the game, when you're in the red zone, that's when you're like, "Eesh." I understand if it's like the 30, 35 yard line where you're like, "Okay, they still got a long field if we don't get this." - Yeah. - But you don't want to leave points on the board in the red zone. - Yeah, and I'm good, I'm good going off vibes there for the record. Like the whole like book, like book a lot of times doesn't factor in like how the game flow is going, what your offense is doing, what your defense is doing, what the other team's offense and defense, like that isn't always accounted for. So I'm perfectly fine if Demico wants to base it based on how his abs are filling in that moment for the record. I just thought he was curious how it was a little bit inconsistent, but maybe we have the tells there. Bullock and Murray at the safety spot next to the old Wiley veteran. They both played 25 snaps apiece. So they had the exact same amount of plays. I thought that Bullock looked better than Murray did. Murray had the nice play on the two point conversion. Bullock had the interception. Murray took a terrible angle on that one touchdown over the middle that was, you know, catching run into the end zone. I think right now they're in a work share. 25 snaps apiece. I think we progressively see Bullock slowly, but surely take over that position. - Well, I think that the reason why that would be is because of the fact that, you know, Bullock as a rookie has already showed you enough that again, here's another guy much like the microcosm of what we were talking about with the team. Here's another guy that looks like there's a massive upside to a guy that has a rookie in his first NFL game, played the minutes and made you look for the most part, like you had a guy you're gonna rely on for years to come. So I think that's great. The fact that Murray was able to hold his own was able to make the play that you mentioned and a couple of others where you're like, okay, he's not hurting us that, you know, for the long haul, he's capable. I think that Jimmy Ward's health is gonna be really hyper important as well. But I think that yeah, over time, it's Bullock's position to lose. I think that he is going, if he continues to get better and showed what he showed this week alone, forget the pick 'cause that was a little bit flooky. But yeah, he made the play. I think the big thing is, is by mid-season Bullock's probably gonna have a lot of, most of the minutes. - I think Bullock could have had a second interception too. Late in the game, when Toa Toa batted that ball down. - Oh yeah. - I think Bullock would have picked that ball off. At least he would have had a really good chance to do it. What'd you think of the defensive line? Mario Edwards had that motor sack where he destroyed Anthony Richardson and plowed his head into the ground. If any of you have said that I like violence way too much, if you like that play, then you can never get onto me again. But how did you think the interior of the defensive line played? - I thought the fact that you had a guy that had run rough shot over you in the past and pretty much had his way with you more times than not in Taylor. I thought that, and you knew that they had a running offensive scheme set up for a quarterback like Richardson. I thought that they held their own. Yeah, you were gonna get gashed at times. Yeah, if you missed the one gap or you left the gap open by overcommitting to the left side and Richardson was able to get through it, that's gonna happen, that's the quarterback. But I think overall the way they handled Taylor and the fact that we had questions about, from the off season on where they said they wanted to upgrade the defensive, middle of the defensive line from a standpoint where we thought they had two reasonably good guys there. I was pleased what they were, look, Foley made his presence felt, that was huge. The fact that you got, look, we didn't know, we thought Edwards was on his down, the back nine of his career. And suddenly here's a guy that all we could hear about in camp was he looks really good. I'm like, yeah, but come on, he's just kind of long in the tooth. Well, I'll tell you what, I don't know how they didn't get penalized on that, the way how to keep tacked the NFL calls those things. But that was an awesome sack. Yeah, so you can never get mad at me again for choosing five minutes when it comes to a quarterback. Yeah, I thought it could've been penalized too though. I'm with you on the helmet, came off. I was like, yeah, that's the kind of, that's the kicker, like, am I on the fence with it? Oh, I've got to do it then. The referee's normally looking at that stuff. Kind of driving him into the ground. I mean, he's headed hard. I don't know how he didn't get conc- I would have died if I was him. And that sack that he had to, just a motor play, like he came around the edge after he was initially blocked and then made the play. And then the Foley sack, look, Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson, I thought deserved credit there. And like a lot of people are, well, you know, these guys didn't get a lot of pressure. Well, it's that type of game. Like the entire purpose for a defensive end against Anthony Richardson's basically to set the edge and don't let him get around you. And that Foley sack was a great example of that. Anderson and Daniel Hunter kind of get around the tackle was a bit force Richardson to step into the pocket and then boom, Foley's there for the sack. - That was, that was a team sack. You're totally right. The thing that I get frustrated with is I caught it from some guys this morning that they were like, I mean, you pay all this money for Hunter and you got Will Anderson as the defense rookie of the year and they didn't do anything yesterday. I said, go back and look at the tape. Go back and watch how many times they were doubled, how much extra, extra pressure they were putting and how many double teams, especially Will Anderson was getting and Hunter. And then like you said, look at the Foley sack and look at the fact that that was all made possible by the fact that they both contained their edges, put pressure on the outside, forced them into the middle and then that's where the contact came for the sack. - Yeah, I thought that was a good play by the defensive ends and it was that type of game. Like you're not gonna get tons of sacks on Anthony Richardson from your edges. Like it's team football. You have to be so gap sound, you can't let them get around the edge. Yeah, I don't put too much stock and Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson stats in that game. - And you know what Jeremy? I think the blueprint is kind of for D'Amico and obviously as it involves Caesario by getting the personnel, that they're just going to be deeper than most teams on the defensive front so that they can continue to rotate fresh bodies that can wreak havoc. 'Cause I think when you get the full compliment of defensive lineman in, when you work in a settle with Edwards with and when Autry comes back to both do it on the outside to spell those guys and contribute on the inside. I think they're just gonna keep rotating fresh bodies that are gonna have a full tank of gas and they are gonna go as hard as they can and then the next guy up and the next guy up and they're just gonna continually just kind of wear you down that way. - We also gotta give love to Kaimi Fairbairn. - That's really good. - Perfect, long field goals three for three, made both of his extra points. Fairbairn fantastic for the game. - Well look, and look around the league. Look at how many teams that had really substantial drives and really had game changing plays or game deciding outcomes because their kickers couldn't kick the ball through the goal post. And you're talking about a guy, yes he's indoors. You're talking about a guy that was easily knocking him home from 50 plus. That's a huge weapon to have in your arsenal and the really good teams that have good kickers, that's a big advantage. And Friday night's game is a perfect game. Green Bay left so many points on the table and they went, they've gone this like the third kicker now and they can't find anybody to consistently put it through. That was a, that was part of the reason why they came up short at the end of the day. They left 20 points out there or missed opportunities. Fair bearing on the other hand, you just basically, if you're D'Amico, you're gonna feel more and more comfortable going, I mean, I think I got a pretty good wind situation here if I decided to kick it 'cause he's pretty consistent. - Yeah, I think they trust him from like 53 into, like I feel like they think he's automatic from 53 yards or in. All right, what else, what did I miss? - I think, I think the biggest thing to me that we're gonna get into is just the fact that as good as everybody was and we talked about while the offense had a ceiling, I think from a defensive perspective, look, 2-0, 2-0 gave me more than I thought he was gonna give me, filling in. I thought he was all over the football field. We know he has his limitations athletically, but I thought he did a really admirable job was all over the place. I think the back end of the secondary, something that we're gonna continue to watch, we're gonna continue to hope they get better. And even the corners. I mean, Stingley had his moments where he made great plays. Stingley also had a couple of moments where you're like, was that really him on that play that gave that up? So I think there's things that we have to be cognizant of on the defense getting better too, but the good news is they did what they had to do against an Indianapolis team that is very run heavy. They got him into those late situations where they had to pass. He proved that he's not the most accurate passer in the world, both in the first half and the second half. And I think they held up very well. - Yeah, we won't ignore it in victory when we went into defeat in a little bit. Brian, did you have anything else to add on to the game react? - Yeah, I just thought that of all the things that typically go unnoticed, C.J. Stroud's not one of them. Like we obviously spend most of the off season, most of the end season talking about the good and rarely the bad of C.J. Stroud 'cause there's not a lot of bad. But I thought yesterday, the really only kind of glaring spot other than the deep coverage problems, which we'll talk about in a little bit, was occasionally the pass protection broke down. And I was just continually amazed for a guy in the second year how well he handled those moments. His poise in the moments where the pass protection wasn't perfect. He was able to, on one play, escape the pocket, roll to his right, and throw across his body to Nico Collins, who was standing in the middle of the field and make that big completion and get the first down. And there was another play where the snap was at his feet. He went down to one knee and still was able to complete the pass to, I think it was one of the tight ends. I don't remember exactly who it was. But he's got a pass rush in his face, a good pass rush in his face. He's on one knee and he's still completing passes. - Was the one where he slipped on the logo? - Yeah, I guess it was that one. Yeah, you're right. It wasn't a bad snap, he slipped on the logo. - But I mean, just the poise from a second year guy in the leaps he's taken from an already great rookie season, he continues to maze me every week. - Yeah, he's really stinking good. I was thinking of King of Twitch, when I was re-watching the game this morning, 'cause King of Twitch is the Texan Hader and a CJ Stroud Hader. And it's like, all I can relay is what I see. You know what I mean? And whenever I see CJ Stroud, I see a top three, top five quarterback in the NFL. Like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that me seeing that and then relaying that message upsets you. But that's what I see, that's what I see. - To me, it's what Brian's talking about. The fact that he has the poise of like a five, five year veteran in the fact that nothing seems to really fluster him, but when the moment is big, he performs at a higher level. He doesn't let it get the best of him. And that's so rare for anyone and a lot of guys don't have that kind of it factor. He's got it and he had it when he was a rookie. - Yeah, he's good. He is really good. - You see that they let JJ interview him before the game, before he went into the locker room for the final time, which most quarterbacks are like, absolutely not. And he just handled that and answered questions and was relaxed and said, now I'm gonna go listen to my music, talk to my guys and be ready to play. And it's like, damn, that's pretty impressive how calm he is. - Yeah, I didn't see the interview. I'd heard that it happened, but I didn't actually witness it. Tyler and Conroe, how concerned about CJ's misses, should we be? - What? - Well, he did make a couple of errand throws that we can get to here a little bit, but I mean, I thought you found it. - The only one why I would criticize Stroud for is when he took pressure and that he just tossed it over the sideline, but didn't get it out of bounds. And it was nearly a pick, but they were able to overrule it because the defender's foot was out of bounds. That was a Will Lovers type panic play that Stroud can not make. Luckily, it didn't matter because the defender was out of bounds, but if you're gonna nitpick CJ, that was a bad decision. - There was another one that I'll tell you on the other side. 7-8-1-9, is this the beginning of the Bobby Sloeck farewell? Well, probably. - Yeah, sure is. - But you're on Johnson's capable. - Unless he wants to pull your boy Johnson in Detroit and just decide to change his mind. - Which I'm okay with that too. Okay with that too. 4-4-8-8, CJ completed a first down pass from his knees, Branham. Exactly, tell it to king of Twitch. All right, 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6. Sometimes we get called negative. Sometimes people say we're glass half full. So in honor of that, we will not ignore in victory what you wouldn't in defeat. Well, were some things the Texans could have been better at yesterday despite winning by two on the road against the playoff caliber team. 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6. It's the Beast on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. - ESPN 97-5. (upbeat music) - You're back with the Killer B's on ESPN 97-5 and 92-5. Live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. - I can't ignore in victory what you wouldn't in defeat. You have to be very truthful. I mean, they're doing it, they're watching film, areas to clean up, and yes, yesterday's win was big, but they couldn't have won an AFC Championship game yesterday. They have the potential to do it, but they got to clean up the bad. And what was that bad? 7-1-3-7-8-0-ES-P-N, 5-7-7-4, CJ Miss Tank under throw would have been a touchdown. He entered through Nico once too. Like those are, I mean, those are low percentage plays. The other one that I thought that Stroud made a poor play on was the other one that was intercepted. It was flat out intercepted, and they called it back because there was a defensive hold. And Stroud didn't know. Stroud didn't know that there was a flag in the secondary. You know how I know that? Because CJ Stroud went after the guy who intercepted the pass with all of his might. And if he knew that it was a defensive penalty, he would not have done that. So I thought Stroud was careless with the ball twice. That interception that he threw that was called back because of the defensive holding and the one y'all mentioned earlier, which he had that issue early last year, you remember, where he would just kind of fling the ball up in the air, and it's like, dude, throw it into the fifth row. Well, I would also say that, you know, you can say that he's living right when those things happen. But last year, he was living right all season 'cause we kept saying, look, the interception total is very low. But there have been several throws in several games where you're like, he got away with one, or they dropped it, or a penalty bailed him, or something happened. And here we are in week one talking about a couple of plays where, yeah, that could have been costly. You look at it on the flip side, Richardson would love to have that ball back in the red zone that Bullock intercepted, and that, you know, that can be a difference maker too. He's living right right now. - Well, one nine seven zero, Stroud could have easily had three picks. Five eight nine five, if Richardson had any accuracy, they lose wide open, deep cults multiple times. Don't you think to make a game plan for that though? - Yes. - Like if Richardson had any accuracy, cool. If I had a million dollars, like, that's part of the game plan was playing to where Anthony Richardson had to be accurate. Why is that part of the game plan? Because Anthony Richardson is not accurate. - That's the thing. I mean, you think about trying to play into the defense's hands. That's what they wanted to do. They wanted to stuff the run enough to put him in either third and long, or specific passing situations and show what he cannot do, whether you wanna say yet. Okay, fine. For those that are glass half full on Anthony Richardson. Okay, he can't do it yet, but in the first half, the third down where he had to throw the out route, and he threw it basically to the popcorn vendor instead of trying to hit his receiver in the hands, and suffer the plays in the second half when you made him throw the quick, get it out of my hands and make sure it's an accurate ball and he couldn't do it. That's what the end objective is for a defensive coordinator. - And a lot of people would point to the deep cover just today being bad, and it wasn't good. But I think that's part of it too. It's like, hey, we have to play a little bit tighter to the box because their running game is elite. With Jonathan Taylor, if anything, I thought that they didn't give him the football enough. We have to be close to the line of scrimmage because Anthony Richardson's running ability is elite. So what are some things that you expose defensively whenever you do that? You expose the deep ball. And there is, look, Anthony Richardson connected on two, really, the touchdown to Alec Pierce, the later deep ball to Alec Pierce. The ball that he threw to Doolen really wasn't a deep pass. It was kind of deep cross, and that he ran the rest of the way. Eric Murray took a really bad angle, but he missed like five others. He had AD Mitchell three times. Oh, double move. The AD Mitchell put on Kamari Lassner was should have been a walk-in touchdown. Three, three times. Sean Watson bad, but he threw it bad enough to where that ball made it to the corner on the white of the line, instead of anywhere near where that would have been a touchdown, or at least give him a chance to catch it. So because of the game plan for the Colts, I think that that's something that they were willing to be a little bit vulnerable in. I don't think that the Texans have deep coverage issues. Now, if this problem continues, then we're gonna have a serious conversation about it. So I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because of the opponent. That said, there was the Jimmy Ward twice. I thought like the first touchdown, like they were trying to blame it on Stingley. That's a meat look like zone coverage, and then you ran over the middle of the field, and Ward was late. And then the second deep pass, like Ward was there. Ward like knocked it down. Like it was actually covered well. It just was pass broken up poorly. - Yeah, I noticed on the first one they were trying to tag Stingley on that one. I was like, can you go back and look at the wide angle from behind quarterback and just see what the back of the defense looked like? 'Cause I'm not gonna put that on Stingley first and foremost. But there were definitely hiccups that they were vulnerable, as you mentioned. The big thing too is one thing you can't take away from Richardson, he's got a fricking cannon. The fact that he threw that ball to Pierce and didn't have a chance to even really wind it up and threw it 65 plus in the air, that's pretty impressive where most secondaries you don't expect the guy to be able to do that. But look, he's got a big arm. - Which is part of the reason why, like as much as the, you could say the deep coverage struggled and for parts of the game it was true, how many quarterbacks in the league could hit that touchdown pass to Pierce? Like on the text and schedule, maybe Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, end of list. - That was so easy. - Was he open, were there some bus? Sure, but very few quarterbacks can make that pass. - How many guys are putting it 65 in the air plus where it's coming down on the goal line from his own, like 30? - It's like Richardson Mahomes an hour. That's about it. - It's about it. And you're like, okay. I dare you, and you had pressure around him that was kind of zeroing in on him. He stepped up and basically without being able to step in just kind of one arm flicked it. - Yeah, that to me was what got lost in the shuffle. Was that he had pressure in his face. I forget, I have it written down here somewhere. But yeah, the detection defensive lineman pushed the offensive, it was Derek Barnett. He pushed the offensive lineman into Anthony Richardson's face. Like there was an offensive lineman basically making contact with Anthony Richardson because Barnett drove him back into his face. He slipped as he was trying to fade away, got his footing and then delivered a dime. Like, it was incredible. And that's why people will like say, Anthony Richardson's gonna be a star, he's gonna be a stud. It's 'cause you see that play, and there's three people on planet Earth that can make that play, he being one of them. The problem is he misses 80 Mitchell four other times where they could have been walking touchdowns. This is the same thing we were talking about when he was at Florida. The Sports Center moment against was it South Carolina where he makes the unbelievable escape play in the backfield, it's all over Sports Center, it's all anybody can talk about. But then go back and watch the rest of the game and his games after that. Watch how many receivers he missed that were wide open. - I don't know how you win with it, really. I don't, like he misses so many targets and critical downs that it's like, man, like. - He kind of struggles with like a lot of inaccurate quarterback struggle with her. Like, and I know I say this as he missed a lot of wide open deep passes. But a lot of guys who struggle with the accuracy could still hit the deep pass, but you try to get them to threat a needle, you know, under 20 and they can't do it. And Anthony Richardson could not hit the intermediate passes with any accuracy. - And the two years. The thing that we always talked about when we were talking about CJ and one of the things he really did well coming out was his touch. A lot of people tell us touches can sometimes be overrated depending on the play. - He tries to rifle the football. Like that first half play that I'm talking about on third down that would have kept a good drive going for them. It was an out route. You didn't have to throw it 100 miles an hour. And you could just see, he tried to load up and put as much as he could on it. And it just sailed on him. It's like, that's where the touch of just realizing, I guess I have to get it out there and beat the back. But all I got to do is put it on the line. I don't have to throw it 100 miles an hour. - Let's hit some more of the Don't Ignoring victory what you wouldn't even defeat. 713-780-ESP-ID. What are you not ignoring in victory what you wouldn't defeat? 713-780-3776. It's the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. - Guys, you hear us talking about it. We know football is back. It's an awesome time of the year. And now you can really cash in. Because I'm telling you about my bookie and my bookie has incredible promotions like a weekly risk free boost on Thursdays where you bet without a sweat. Thursday night game is something you want to watch. You want to put a bet down. If you hit it, you win big. If it doesn't, forget it. My bookie is going to refund your wager on Thursdays. That's incredible. They're also giving away hundreds of thousands of prizes with their super survivor and squares contest. You can join in now for your shot at huge cash rewards. To get started, go to mybookie.ag, use our promo code BET975. 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New listening to ESPN 97.5. (upbeat music) You are back with a killer bees on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. Donate nor in victory what you wouldn't defeat. 713-780-377-6, 713-780-ESP and HRMP listener line. Is this Twitch character really a shroud doubt or is he just trolling y'all? I can't imagine someone legitimately not thinking CJ is good at football, wheat straw. No, it's real, he just doesn't know ball is the issue. He's not the only one either. I mean, I think poor Marine kind of gets into that every now and then. I think Twitch leads the category. We have the smartest listeners in sports radio. Those that listen to us, we call you the Hive. The Twitchers are not part of that. 9392, can we get British Brooks some love on that massive hit? The British Bulldog. (upbeat music) The funny thing is that's one of those folk hero plays where I mean, that's the only time we really saw him but everybody was talking about it even today. Like, that's what's gonna stick in their mind was that big dude just lowered the boom one. A special team's play. Credit to the Colts player though, he got up like right away. Have a surprise. Well, he's tough. That's what football players do. He's dope. Get up right away. I was surprised though he didn't play one single offensive snap. Like that, that kind of, that took me aback. I expect him to play a little bit, but you know, maybe some full back duty and that went to Kate Stover. So it was a little surprise by that. Yeah, and the fact that in that regard, I thought that, I thought we cam might get a couple of touches. I mean, Cam was MIA. He was inactive. Yeah, that's not fair. He was inactive all together. Look, he was one of the inactives, him and Metche. And we were talking to DJ about the fact that, yeah, we'll see in the passing game, we'll probably see Cam acres and I'm going, I'm not buying him being the fourth running back. Well, I guess he certainly was. Yeah. Well, I think of the dev chart coming into the week, they had him like fifth at running back. No, it was fourth 'cause we were talking about it, but he was like, okay, he's fourth. But maybe that's just for show because we've seen enough to know he might even be the number two back. They didn't even dress. 0 9 7 9, they lost by two. If you bet on the Texans, you lost. The line was two and a half. I was on the Colts. So I got it. I got the best of both worlds. I got a Texans win and Colts plus two and a half. So it worked out for me though, 0 9 7 9. Let's go out to the HRMP listener line 7137037776. Rob, you're in the high for the bees. What's up? Hey guys, appreciate taking my call. I think the Texans are at a good point in time right now where they're very fortunate that the three quarterbacks in their division are all pretty average at best quarterbacks. I think Anthony Richardson is a great value brand version of Cam Newton. Will Levis has not shown anything so far. And Trevor Lawrence just signed a really large extension to be mediocre at best. I think those guys on a particular day could beat you. But over the long term, that's not a group that really strikes fear into you over the long term. Appreciate the call, Rob. Look, I think I would counter that by saying, I don't worry about what anybody else has got as long as I see what the Texans have. If the Texans have CJ Stroud, and I think that we as a show firmly believe CJ Stroud is top five at worst in a lot of cases, but it's only going to get better as one of the best quarterbacks in this league. It doesn't matter who else is on the other side, because you got a guy that just saw it. We just saw him. We just got done talking about from an offensive perspective with an organization that is believing and putting the best weapons around him that is going to show you for years to come that no matter who up he's going up against, you've got more than a puncher's chance to win every game when he's at center. Yeah, I mean, Rob from Southwest, you're disrespecting the second best quarterback from last year's draft class, and Will Levis. No, nothing he said was wrong. Levis looks pretty bad. Trevor Lawrence, I think, is OK. I think he's top 15 NFL quarterback, but he's not top 10. And then I don't like Anthony Richardson. I would love to have him on my fantasy football team. I don't want him on my real football team. I can't believe Shane Steikens dropping him back to pass on fourth and one. Like, what are you doing, Shane Steikens? Know what you got. So I don't think Rob from the Southwest is wrong, but you've got to play the schedule that presents you. Like, you play the division that's in front of you. And look, I think the Texans can capitalize on that. That's fine. That's OK. 0483, I'm not ignoring. How if the Texans lose Joe Mixon, I'm very worried. I don't think we would have won that game if we took him out of the picture. Yeah, I think it's fair. That's fair, but I also think, like we said, you can't just give an even ass Joe Mixon. You can't just give all the credit to just Joe Mixon. He loved the fact that Stover as a fullback was really doing some things. And that offensive line was doing their job, opening up holes, pushing guys around. And so you would hope that there are guys in this league. And we've seen kind of the devaluing of a lot of running backs in terms of big contracts and such. Because if you get the right offensive line and look at Baltimore in his example, when you can open up holes, you can find guys to run through them. Now, you want to question who's going to run through them? And if they're capable of fitting the system, I'll hear that. But I think that we learned a lot about the offensive line in the run game that I wasn't expecting this early. I still think that they're capable of throwing the ball 50 times and winning, though. So I'm with you. Mixon was great yesterday. If he gets hurt, what does it look like? I think it looks like Stroud throws the ball 18 more times. He throws it 50 times. And it's still a winnable game if you're doing that. Now, Mixon gives you the extra element. He gives you the element of ball control. He gives you the red zone ability of scoring touchdowns. But I still think that it's a winnable game without Joe Mixon. Damian Pierce, only three carries. But he ran for 16 yards. He had the same yards per carry as Mixon. That's incredibly encouraging from where he was a year ago, which to me is a testament to the offensive line. For sure. That's what I was just talking about. I mean, the fact that if you can start to establish a really solid unit, like I mentioned, like a Baltimore pass where, yes, you'd like your premier number one back behind them. But you can rotate guys in that are still going to get the four yards a carry when they're doing their jobs like that. Now, do you think 30 carries is sustainable for Mixon at tie to career high? I personally don't. I don't think you can give a little ball 30 times a game. No, I don't either. And I think it's going to be dictated a lot from week to week by what you see defensively. I mean, there's no doubt, like I said earlier, I think the Bears are going to focus on the run. I think that they're going to realize that, look, they established something that the Bears aren't going to allow them to do yet again. And the Bears defense is really good. But I think that they're going to probably try and do a little bit more of a concerted effort to cut down the runs. Therefore, like you said, then you just open it up. Now, maybe you're going to get Dalton Schultz more involved. You're going to get the passing game, more opportunities. But you still have so many weapons that you're not in a bad spot. Tony the handsome, he's still my nickname. He said Texans pass protection. How do you think the Texans held up on that front? That's the biggest issue that I had in terms of overall, if I was going to criticize. I just felt like as good as they were at run blocking, they really got some stuff to clean up on the past blocking. CJ was getting guys, especially in the first half. He was getting inundated with guys in his face and running around and getting to him and sacking him. And I think that they've got some work to do on the on the past protect front. - The one thing that I would say to that is, yes, yes. Like I'm not denying that. I'm not pushing back on that. Like four sacks is too many. He was pressured on 38% of his drawbacks. That's too many. The thing that I would take solace in, and I feel like I'm being a huge homer here, they didn't, like except for the one play where Titus Howard just got driven back and CJ Stroud tripped over Titus Howard's leg, that was the only play where I felt like the offensive line got manhandled. Like it was usually stunts. It was well timed blitzes. There were times where like three Texans were blocking two specific Colts and then another Colt was running free. So I thought it was more scheme stuff, more maybe trading assignment stuff that I think is easily correctable. So I was encouraged that it wasn't just the Colts defensive line, just bulldozing and man handling the Texans offensive line. It was more like scheme. - Yeah, you do wonder though, with some younger guys, especially the interior, 'cause the one that pops the mind as you mentioned, the stunts and the games they're playing up front, the sack by DeForest Buckner, where he was interior and wrapped around it, came absolutely hands-free. No one touched him as he made his way to CJ Stroud. - So some young guys in the middle, like Juice Scruggs, obviously Kenny Green, the year three, but missed all of year two. I hear you and I agree it'd be worse if they were manhandled, but I do worry a little bit about some of the young guys and their ability to, and how quickly they can learn and adapt to those sorts of stunts and games. - Yeah, I think, but that's encouraging to me in the sense that that's correctable. Like if you had to force Buckner just running through every single Houston Texan offensive lineman, that's not really something that's correctable. - So yes, they do need to improve their 100% that, but I think it's more correctable than if they were just getting bull rushed into Bolivian. Shout out Mike Tyson, but you can't have a blow, go ahead. - I think the credit too, 'cause we could be talking about this even more, if not for some of the past pro that you got from mixing. I didn't think Joe mixing was good and was that physical and past protector from the running back position. He picked up some of those loose naked blitzes and stunts that were coming and prevented what could have been a lot more sacks for the Colts. - Well, he has a punch, we know that about him. The block punt, Frank Ross, you're a special teams wizard, man. Like this, you're supposed to be a special teams wizard. Like you've survived coaching staff after coaching staff. You cannot allow a block punt. I know the other teams on scholarship too, but you cannot allow a block punt. Like that's something we're just kind of like glossing over today, I feel like. - Yeah, kind of down in your, especially 'cause it's down in your own end too. - Gifted him seven, gifted him seven. - Yeah, one play later was a touchdown to Taylor. - Yeah, and it was just like, you just saw it and it was basically an overload coming from the left side. And I don't know what they were thinking, but that's one where you just got to get that punt off quickly and live to face another day and see if they can beat you from midfield. - The last one that I have, and probably the most important, unacceptable, what happened at the end of the first half from a Houston Texan standpoint. Could the White Hat, and yes, the White Hat, I think was in over his head? Like he even admitted as such on the in-house microphone, like, "Hey, I got confused, this is what's happening." Now, that play does have a 10 second run off because you have to in that specific spot. So that was officiate eventually, properly. The communication between the White Hat and the Texans, I think was poor. The White Hat said to a poor reporter after the game that he relayed that message to CJ Stroud. That said, that's on the Texans. Like the official does not owe you an explanation. They'll give it to you, like they like to do that. It's one of the things that they teach their officials, but it's not owed to you. You have to know the rule on the Texan sideline, credited to Mika Ryan's immediately saying, "That's our fault." He said it in the postgame, "That's our fault." I saw Bobby Sloeg tapping his chest as he was walking off the field saying, "My fault." So I admire that they own it. But if the Texans would have lost the game by less than three points because of that, that was unacceptable from an NFL sideline. - Yeah, I was very, very critical at the time and I was tweeting about how unacceptable it was. Now, I understand that there's a lot of different variables that we're still trying to get all the information together about what, and I think it starts with the fact that I thought it initially the referee said over the speakers too, that he would start the clock running down at five. He didn't, but he did talk to CJ. - Yeah. - I saw him talking to CJ before he put the ball in play. But you gotta know you don't have any time outs left with five seconds left. Why are you in the shotgun anyway? Because you're not gonna get a playoff quick enough where you're gonna run the risk of running all the clock out before you even try a field goal anyway. At that point, just spike the football and get ready for the field goal. - Brutal. - Yeah, that was the worst part to me that they're actually gonna line up and try to run another play. 'Cause I, like the Texans obviously have to own some of the responsibility for that. But the referee clearly, at least it didn't communicate in stadium over the microphone. A, that the clock was gonna be running at the start of the, at the ready to play whistle, and B, that he'd given the Colts back their timeout. Because if I saw this reaction on Twitter, lots of people's like, well the Colts call timeout. The Colts call timeout. - Yes. - And if you believe that, then obviously the clock wouldn't start at the ready to play whistle. But because it was a referee error in putting the clock at 15 seconds to set up five, they gave the Colts the timeout back, but they did not communicate that at all over the microphone. So I would probably give 60, 70% of the blame to the referees on that one, but certainly between Demico and Bobby and CJ, someone's gotta pick up to be, hey, let's be ready to spike the ball just in case it starts running. - But that's a thing to me. With five seconds left, regardless, you are living way too dangerously if you're gonna try and run another play. - I agree, you do it. - Yeah, that was ridiculous. - Yeah, that was poor, poor by the Texans. Fortunately it didn't cost him a victory, but yeah, that can not happen again. All right, good bad ugly from the Astros weekend, 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6. What do you think was good bad and ugly from the Astros weekend? It's the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. (crowd cheering) ESPN 97-5.