The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
09/11 Hour 2 - Joe Mixon The Most Talented Texans RB Ever Or Just Good Scheme Fit?
This is ESPN 97-5, brought to you by Zada Jewelers, KFNC, and 979-HD2, Montpelvue, Houston. Don't sweat the technique! Coming to you live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, it's the Killer B's. On ESPN 97-5 and 92-5. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. One of the books, two to go, second hour of the show. It's Brian McDonald, it's myself, Joel Blank. And we are now happy to be joined by Cole Thompson, the managing editor of Texans Wire. You can find him on X@Mr. That's MR, Cole Thompson. Cole, always a pleasure to have you on and kick it around. We're going to talk with you for the next couple of segments, talking to football, starting with your favorite professional football team at the moment, the Houston Texans. We were just talking about the fact that the glass half full of the glass half empty. Paul Gallant says, "Well, if you played a different team, the Texans might not have been so lucky, and they got to win." If you look at what we saw, I think collectively, the offense looked really, really good. And you saw enough from this team to believe they're only going to get better. I would agree with that. I think the main thing you have to look at is imagine what this offense could have been last year if they had a rushing attack. And now you have that with Joe Nixon. I think that people kind of forget that when you get a guy that's used to playing in this style of offense, because if it's the same brand underneath Zack Taylor, all comes from the Shanahan coaching style mechanisms, you're going to get consistency. And I think that's the biggest blessing is that you didn't have a guy last year in Devin Singletier, you could trust. You didn't have a guy named Damien Pierce, you could trust. Neither were an ideal fit for what Bobby Sloake wants to run. You got that in Joe Nixon. And this is consistent, a guy that can move and set you up for second and manageable. Second and short, second and long, even if you have to. And then, of course, you throw in a guy like Stefan Diggs, who's still just getting used to the offense, but gets in the end zone twice. And by the way, screw it, Nico Collins is down there somewhere for a massive gain. You heard C.J. Shroud today say, this guy is the limit for Nico Collins. I see no flaws in this game. And that's even to mention Tank Dell, and then also Dalton Shultz, who are really good on third down. Kengan Green, we don't talk about him enough and how he played in this game. Really good game, especially run blocking, highest pass pro grade of any interior offensive lineman last week. So everything that you're seeing is just correctable with the fundamentals and mistakes. And it's only going to get better because of its live reps. But the follow up on that, because I know B-Mac wants to get in here. Joe Nixon, you mentioned it. That's one week. Yeah. The sustainability of a veteran running back, been in the league quite a while. There's, you know, how much do you continue to use them? Do you expect these kind of results week, a weekend, week out? Or is this one where you just take it a week at a time? I think you got to take it a week at a time. But the question is, what do you do if you have to turn to somebody else? You know, last week, can makers and active? Might be question. Why? Why are you having a guy that impressed and showed you he can work in this offense and also has played in this offense? Why are you keeping him on the sidelines when he can be that difference maker? And he's shown you when fully healthy, that's a dude you want on the football field. And it's going to take a lot of pressure off of Nixon. I love 159 rushing yards. I love the fact that he had 30 carries in a game. But 30 carries throughout a 17 game period is 264 carries. And make no mistake, when you look at the numbers, Nixon during his time when he was in Cincinnati averaged 243 carries per season. But that's not sustainable when you're 29, about to turn 30. Like the big 3-0 is the ultimate turning point for running backs. And people nowadays are saying running backs don't matter. Well, if you play to be 30, you lasted longer than most people expect. This is year eight for a guy. So I want to be able to see that consistency on the ground. If it is Damian Pierce, it's Damian Pierce, if it's Cam Acres, it's Cam Acres. Cole Thompson joining us, he's the managing editor of Texans Wire. Let's stick with Joe Nixon for one more here, Cole, because the hot takes really start to popping off on other stations around town calling Joe Nixon the most talented running back in Texas history, which, hello, Ariane Foster, that's a bit of a hot take. But like, I mean, he is to me a perfect scheme fit for the system. We saw how explosive he was, how easily he found the cut back lanes, and made the best of the blocks so that the offensive line give him. Like, where would you put it? I think we all agree, Ariane Foster is the best running back in Texas history. But after that, I think there is a conversation that Joe Nixon might be second. Where would you put Joe Nixon? Name me three other running backs that were consistently playing for the Houston Texans before Ariane Foster arrived. Do so. Yep, okay, I'm going to count down five. Don't, Dominic Williams, Steve Sree, David Johnson. Okay, there we go. See exactly. What was the guy with two names from LSU? Dominic Williams. Dominic Davis and the Dominic Williams. I think he was really good for the Texans. I think you were talking about Alfred Blue. We got to talk about him. That's great. Alfred Blue sucks. I think what you have to realize is the fact that mixing can also be effective in the passing game only ups his ante. I mean, this was a guy that finished with the most total yards of scrimmage in week one by any player. So if he stays healthy, he's here for the next four years. He's had a three-year $27 million extension that doesn't get again until 2025. That is going to be the X factor. That is going to be the bell cow running back. That is going to be the guy that they expect to be the long-term answer next to CJ Stroud. He could finish number two all time by the Texans history. And it's a good thing. And what's really interesting is that you see people in Cincinnati kind of reacting to what type of player Joe Nixon was, especially now that he won AFC Player of the Week. He also won FedEx Ground Player of the Week. And everyone seems to be very hyped up because of they realize he was there through the dark times of Cincinnati. Then he gets to go ahead and go to a Super Bowl. Now he gets to be on a team that feels like it's Super Bowl man-made. And so they feel very happy that he is at least going through a situation where he gets to be that same X factor, that bell cow. For a mosquitoeset standpoint, he's number two all time for me already. One game in. One game now. It's one game. It's one game. Let's wait to get to game. Let's week nine. Let's get to week nine. And then we can have a better feel because again, it's 30 carries against a very good Colts front. But also when you think about it, it's also the Colts and you found a way to beat in the bliving. Well, the good news is that you mentioned it. He's happy. He's got a full back slash tight end that's blocking for him. He loves the line. He loves being in an environment where again, he's in a winning situation. So at least he's happy too. So you think going forward, hopefully you get the similar results on the flip side of being happy. Not so happy. If you're looking at it, we mentioned in conversations right after the game on Monday, we were talking about the fact that, hey, look, as good as they were in run blocking, past blocking had a little to be desired in terms of especially early in the game. We talked about the deep balls. We talked about some of the defensive issues, linebacker and or when you're looking at what they were doing. If you were to say your biggest concern coming out of week one for the Houston Texans, what would it be? Explosive plays. Just on defense. Now for the offensive line, I would say definitely the false start penalties to where you're looking at it, where it's now third and six to third and 11. The last thing you want to do is put yourself in a situation where you're at midfield and now you have to punt and you don't want to punt, where maybe you can go for it on fourth down because it is a fourth and one. But that was kind of the case. Kanging green. Again, really good game. Solid performance. Why was the third and 11? False start. Again, you have to also accept at this point. Larry Tonso is a pro bowl caliber left tackle who is going to finish with 13 false start penalties in a regular season at this point, it is a common dread. Death taxes number 78 getting flagged at least once per game for a five yard backup. So to me, it's one of those things where if you accept that, then everything else is correctable. I thought that it was a really good game plan by two scrubs in the run blocking. I thought he was actually the biggest blessing and disguise for the run blocking back in his natural center position. There's a cohesive balance of having these guys owl out in the football field for the first time. And also remember, you didn't have LT for the entire training camp. He got a few reps in a practice, but for most of the time, he was not playing during the preseason. And the reason why is because you look at the backup tackle situation, it's not ready to go to Blake Fisher. Blake Fisher, maybe the long term answer and it was so mind boggling, you know, when you think about this guys, they were all saying, and so many fans, why are we taking a left tackle prospect in round two? Larry Tonso is going into a contract year next year and Titus Howard has not been able to stay healthy. You do the math on needing a needing a right tackle for the long term future. That's just it. But I feel like that if you can get more protection and just be able to give strout a little bit more time, it's only going to get better. But you also have a freaking phenom at quarterback that just makes acrobatic plays that nobody can even imagine. Like you heard Tank Dell on Monday say I didn't even imagine he could do something like that when he's staying course falling down to one knee. I've all still fixate on Brevin Jordan. Oh, I'm just going to go ahead and make an easy pass for our first down. Like when you have a quarterback like that, sometimes you just have it better than most. Cole Thompson joining us. You can find him on Twitter at Mr. Cole Thompson. Let's flip to the other line, Cole, because obviously they've invested a ton in the defensive line. Obviously first round pick with Will Anderson. He's spending the money on the Nail Hunter. He's spending the money on the Niko Autry. Although obviously he hasn't been able to play for the Texans yet because of the suspension. I think a lot of people sometimes point out, hey, you know, Hunter didn't get a sack. Will Anderson didn't get a sack. People sometimes fixate on sacks. It gets a guy like Anthony Richardson, you can't get too far passing, you got to maintain your lanes. You can't let them run. So I don't really worry about sacks in a game plan against a running quarterback like that. But what do you think of the performance of the defensive line? Jonathan Taylor, for the first time in three games, rushed for 48 yards. He rushed for under a triple digit marker next to his name. I feel really good about this defensive line. The other thing I feel really good about that people don't seem to pay attention to is you got two interior defensive line sacks from Foley, Fodikovsky and Mario Edwards, Jr. And the one thing that you know about D'Mico Ryan's defenses, he likes having smaller body defensive tackles that can bulrush up the middle and add that extra pressure. You have that now. You also still have a veteran and Jerry Hughes that can be that third down guy. You have Derek Barnett who came in last year and played extremely well and you feel like that once you get back to Niko Autry, now you have a guy like Mario Edwards that can also interchange in with him, play defensive end, play defensive tackle, third down plays. Maybe you shift both of them inside. They can be bulrushers, Foley, Fodikovsky moves to not only a run support guy, but the fact of the matter is is that there are few hyper extensive athletes built like Anthony Richardson that can just find ways to take small little creases and turn them into substantial gates. But at the same time, you have to realize that for most of the second and third quarter, it was an obsolete run game, a few first downs here and there, but for the most part, it was a very quiet afternoon for Anthony Richardson. And then when he finally got pressured, look at that. Kaelen Bullen comes up with a big sex. Miss coverage back lane that opened up for Richardson that got him some of those yards, but you mentioned the defensive line before we kind of switch gears. I'm curious on settle. Is that a guy that we can still rely on that could be a contributor? Yeah, I think in run support, I think when you're looking at like a third in one situation, second and short, that's a guy that will win lower percent of gravity, work his way into the backfield, be able to get that tackle behind the line of scrimmage, sets you up for third and uncomfortable. The thing that I think you're going into this week that you want to do, especially against a young quarterback, like Kayla Williams, is put him in third and uncomfortable, whatever that may be, third and seven, third and 11, if it's third and three, but you know that you don't have a run game. So you have to pass. That's fine because you got a young cornerback in Kamari last year that will get better and you have an all pro caliber cornerback and Derek stingley on the opposing side plus Kaelen Bullock, which is awesome and covered. So if you take that deep shot down the field, isn't it kind of funny that you're going to have a guy that was a former teammate of Kaelen Williams at USC now knowing how he's going to go through his progression. I actually am calling it right now. Kaelen Bullock is going to get an interception in this game on Sunday. Ooh. All right. And then no Roma Dunes. So at least, you know, from a coverage standpoint, you got one less big time receiver to worry about. Yep. And you also have to make sure that you get the middle of the field taken away, which you can because Jalen Peachy has at least looked better when playing in the nickel position that he does when he's playing deep back cover. There you go. We're not going to get a second guess. And go to a second topic because we need some SEC football next, Cole's going to stay with us. We got another segment to go with him. So stay right where you are. We're going to continue to roll on. This is the Killer B's on ESPN 97 5 and 9 at 25 FM. ESPN 97 5. Coming to you live from the Veritex Community Bank studios. It's the Killer B's on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. Branham out today. It's me and B-Mac joined by Cole Thompson. We would kick it around in terms of the Texans point of view and everything that he does and gives to you as the managing editor of Texans Wire. But little did you know that he's also the host for SEC on Filtered. If you did good on you, again, someone that you should follow for all your football needs at Mr. Cole Thompson. Let's get into some SEC stuff Cole. You are the expert there. We know that we've got teams that everybody cares about in this state as it relates to the conference. As you look at the hot topics around and Georgia still looks like that they are going to be the big dog, so to speak, yet again, but let's talk about the fact that you've got some local teams that are going in different directions that are trying to get, you know, one continue to keep it going in the case of B-Macs horns or the case where A&M looked like for all that they were going to do under Elko, they couldn't move the football. They didn't look very good and you're wondering what they could truly be. I'm going to start with you stay calm. You sit back there and don't say a dang thing yet because I hate that I have to do this. Texas is built for the SEC. That's number one. And the bottom line is that when you look at last year now after the performance they put on in the big house, they were masquerading as a big 12 team last year. And by the way, B-Mac, you can chime in on this. When we talk about Red River, you throw that game out, nobody knows what's going to happen. It doesn't matter how good either side is, someone can come away with the dub, 59. Exactly. So my point is, is that that's one of those games where I'm not going to go put too much stock into. But Texas is built to win in the SEC because of the way that Steve Sarkeesian has attacked the transfer portal. But more importantly, they're recruiting on the offensive line. Go look at that entire offensive line unit and tell me where they last played football. I'll tell you what, it's not like Colorado that's just bringing in players from every single critic and cranny across the country. So it's being developed from the high school level, and they're setting a standard. Cam Williams is the weak point of your team. And by the way, a weak point is saying he's a B type of player. Meanwhile, you got four starters returning. And last week, everyone was talking about how you go up to Ann Arbor, you play in a big time environment, the largest stadium in college football, and there's some people out there saying, oh, well, you know, what if we make this a physical football game? If we have a big 10 bully football performance, well, the bullies were Texas because the Texas had the bigger offensive lineman, Texas had the bigger defensive lineman, Texas had the better linebackers, but they haven't stopped paying attention to speed. And everyone on this roster has a role. They know what each person represents. Isaiah Bond is a vertical threat. Silas Borden is a vertical thread. Matthew Golden is a touchdown machine inside the red zone. Gunter Helm is a third down mover of the sticks. You got young players acting like veterans at the running back position. So Texas to me, you tell me that I get to go put them up against Georgia. I think it goes down to the wire. You tell me that I got to go put them against Ohio State. I put them down to the wire. You tell me I got to go put them up against Alabama. They went into Nick Saban's house last year and disrespected the go. So I mean, I have to sit here as an Alabama grad and go tip of the cap to you, Steve Sarkeesian. But believe it, before we get Brian too excited here and he needs a break, I watched Michigan play the week before and they looked awful. They were awful. So as much as I was impressed by Texas, I also want to say Michigan's not the team that won the national championship. No, but that's the beauty of it, Joel, is that we talk about this all the time that, oh, we bring back the national championship. Well, well, the trophy is down on the football field with you when you're playing like the trophy is just in a trophy case. They lost a lot. And I think that the big thing is is that the performance you saw on Saturday is more someone indication that this is a year where you're going to have to rebuild the foundation. But it doesn't mean you're going to be one of those teams that ends up going seven and five or eight and four. I still think that you could see Michigan hold its own, go nine and three, maybe find a way to get an upset win over Oregon. The big question now is if you are Ryan Day and you lose this game, how are you not firing at the resume? Because this should be one of those times where there are no questions. Ohio State should win this game and they should win outright. He can't survive another loss to Michigan, right? They've lost three in a row. If you lose, if you lose to Michigan for the fourth time in a row to this Michigan team, that's the problem. It's this. He's not going to lose though. I mean, when you look at how loaded they are with you, I'm with you. I'm just saying hypothetically, I mean, you bring it up. He's got to win this game. If he doesn't win this game for the row to this Michigan team, I don't know how you survive. Be back. Do me a favor though. Just humor me for a second. This is a coach that has been to the college football playoff twice, been to a national championship, has been to a big 10 title game, albeit 2020. He has nine career losses and they're saying you're not good enough to be an Ohio State said coach. What do you say to the next guy that comes in? You just fired a dude who had 10 losses. Here's the problem. Cole, you're putting rationality into the conversation. Listen, nothing ration about college football fans and in the hiring and firing processes. The beauty that I will say covering both sports is I could have a rational conversation with an NFL fan. I can do no such thing in college football. There is no such thing as a rational fanatic that arrives on Saturday afternoon. No, there's certainly not. Cole Thompson joining us. You can find him on Twitter at Mr. Cole Thompson. He's a host for SEC and filtered. So yeah, getting back to the Longhorns future national champions, you look at that schedule. Right now I had to do this to you, Cole, I'm sorry. Right now Georgia, they put out the line. There are minus one favorite at Austin. So I mean, that's the obvious if you're looking at the Texas schedule, obviously they could still get into the playoff with one win because of the 12 team playoff, but when you look at the Texas schedule, other than Georgia, what what presents to you the toughest, toughest roadblock on their way to getting into the playoff. Can I just say you TSA only because if you remember what happened wrong, okay, hang on, hang on. What did you do last year? Let's bring this back up. Yeah, okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It was you. You went and you played a blue blood school in their backyard and won by double digits. Who was hanging around in the fourth quarter? I know and the same thing happened with rice in the opener last year. So they've had those moments. I I'm not going to I'm not going to dispute that what I what I will say because I think the most popular answer to my question would be OU. No, I mean, I know, but I tell me if I'm wrong, Cole, my answer is actually at Arkansas. It's at Arkansas. Okay. It is at Arkansas. I just applied to be scared of that game. You 100% are justified. Remember what happened to what was three years ago? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You want to be all happy in mind. You want to be all high and mighty to get to bring you back down to reality 2021. That was a game to where Texas was ill prepared because they went in too confident thinking that they were going to hold their own against an Arkansas team that has failed to deliver. Well, by Betrino is back in the building and whether or not we want to make a motorcycle joke inserted here. That's fine and dandy. But what I look at is they found a way to shoot themselves in the foot last week against Oklahoma State. When you go back and look at the numbers, this was a game that Oklahoma State did not win. It was a game that Arkansas lost and speaking of games, we got to talk about Texas A&M because if this is a game where I personally think you're not going to see Florida win the football game or you're not going to see Texas A&M win the football game. What you're going to see is one of these two teams lose the football game in the swamp environment. Do you believe in Connor Wigman? I believe that Connor Wigman is still a quarterback that can be successful. My question is, will he be successful with Colin Kline as the offensive coordinator? And I think it's very fair to say so because of look at the style of quarterbacks that he worked with at Kansas State, mobility, the ability to just get quick strikes out, not a lot of deep shots. I feel like that Marcel Reed, the backup who has won the job and according to Mike Elko today during the teleconference for the SEC coaches, has proven he is the QB2. That's a guy that fits the system more for Kline, but there has to be a reason why you bench Wigman. And honestly, when you look at last week's game against McNeese, yeah, you feel good about the direction that he's going in because again, you were playing against a very elite defense against Notre Dame, which found a way to find a way to fumble the bag in South Bend, Indiana against NIU. But still it's a great secondary, you had 125 passing yards against McNeese. That's not a winning formula when you go into the swamp. But you also got to believe that right now it looks like the one that got away is playing at Georgia Tech because I mean, Hank's King looks like a guy that if they had him at the helm with everything else that they got, that would be a different situation and could have been against Notre Dame. The crazy part is is that you wonder what was the problem with Hank's King? Was it him just being in Chimbo's offense? Was it him working with Chimbo's style of coordination? If you get him would buy a patrino, does that end up saving Chimbo's job? So sometimes you got to fall on the sword and just be thankful that you go ahead and move off of a terrible situation and $77 million later, you're biting yourself at the keyster. But still, at this point you feel a lot better with Mike Elko leading the charge, but it did cost you a quarterback that right now also has a shot at potentially leading this scene to an ACC title game. So I can't let you get away without asking you a question about Alabama. Yep. So Joel and Jeremy and I talked about this on Monday during our college football wrap-up. I know the final score looked fine, but it was 14-13 going to the fourth quarter. What's going on with your Crimson Tide? They're a beautiful franchise. There's just going to be dominating when they have to play you in the SEC Championship. Now I'm glad that you brought that up because if there are so many people that don't believe me when I said on the preview show for SEC Unfiltered, I believe that USF is one of those sneaky group of five schools you have to watch to make it to the college football playoff. Because of Alex Goldish is a really good coordinator when it comes to offensive skills. More importantly, he has gotten his team prepared to be able to say, "Oh, we got to go play Alabama." No, no, no, no, no, no. Alabama has to play USF. So when they decided to go for the fuel goal instead of taking a fourth down conversion and trying to get that touchdown, it was kind of a waving of the white flag and going, "Okay, we impressed. Go ahead and just score 21 on us." Alabama doesn't have the depth. That's the problem with this team of Kalen to board. They feel really good at the front heavy part. Ryan Williams should be winning Homecoming King instead, he's going to be beating the brakes off of the Wisconsin Badgers League then, "Oh, please, the 16 and a half point line is just being very nice to Wisconsin." Hey, I told you during the break, Wisconsin's terrible, they ain't beating anybody. But I do think that when you look at this team, the offensive line, the starting five is really solid. The starting five on the defensive front is really solid. They don't have the depth right now. They're building it. I think that's a good step in the right direction for Kalen to board. But they are a team where if you're trusting your backups after the liver, in years past, it just felt like, "Oh, we're implementing a five-star underneath Nick Saban." That's not the team this year, but in a few years, it could be that way. I honestly think that this is going to be the weakest Kalen to board-led roster we have seen in a hot minute and still, they're probably 10 and two at worst and that's good enough to get you in the college football playoff. You guys may not like to hear this, but that script day carries a lot of weight and so do ratings when it comes to getting 12 teams in the dance. Yeah, I just feel like he has to prove that he can recruit somewhat the way Saban did and they'll be just fine because he's won everywhere he's gone. He's a really good forward-thinking head coach, and I think that they're going to get it right. But it's like so many coaches. It's one thing to say, "We got our guy." Now, as we mentioned, fickle at Wisconsin, you got your guy, but you got to take a smash mouth, drive it into your gut running game and say, "Now I'm going to try it in a couple of years. I need a couple of years if I'm going to switch to a more modernized passing game," and that takes time and you're going to take else. The other part is just like, "It's Phil Lungo's offense and you're still feeling like you're running Paul Chris's system," which that's the weird part for me. You go out, you make a hire that you feel like is going to upgrade your passing attack, and it's pedestrian at best right now in Camp Randall. I mean, that's just my personal belief, but so far when you look at the 2025 rankings, Alabama, they're not playing second fiddle. It's like you woke up on Groundhog's Day and instead of Bill Murray being there, you recast it with, I don't know, maybe it's Paul Rutt. Like that's how it feels at this point. It's just the new story, Groundhog Day 2, they couldn't get the finances going, so instead, "All right, we're just going to go and recast you." Well, there you go, Cole. We really appreciate you coming in. That's a hell of a comparison. And an allergy. Thank you, Cole. P.M.E.K loves that stuff because he's the big movie guy left with us. The family, we don't get to the movies as much. P.M.E.K goes by himself. Of course he does. So do I. Okay, well, that's weird on both of you. Whatever. I don't care. By the way, Upset of the Week. Upset of the Week. I'm calling it now. South Carolina goes against the dub over Brian Kelly. He has never lost LSU in 11 a.m. kick. It's going to happen this week. I know he's a great athlete, but I don't care. Williams Price Stadium is the most under-appreciated atmosphere in all of college football, and you will see "Cock Nation" rise up. Whoa! Let's start it. All right. When on that note. We'll get into more trouble. Yeah, Brian. You do that. And we'll get to a break. We appreciate Cole Thompson. He's the managing editor of Texans Wire host for SEC on Filter. Please follow the man @Mr. Cole Thompson. We've got more to get into. And we're going to get into it next as we continue to spin the wheel on Texans talk. Garrett Williams, aka Houston Stressons on Twitter, is going to join us next, and we're going to kick it around and have some fun. Stay tuned for the second half of the show. Coming up right now on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Before we go to the break, look, my good friend Largo is a big fan of this. And I need to tell you all about the fact that if you are looking for answers, if you have issues, especially like hair loss, I'm telling you about my good friend Doc Lindeville. He is phenomenal at helping so many people in so many ways. He's got plastic surgery. He's got Botox. He's got spot treatments, but the things that he's really, really an expert that I have personal experience on, the PRP treatments, you've heard about in athletics, PRP treatments also work with your hair, and also the neograph procedure. You get one, you get the other, you get both depending on where your hair is at when you get a free consultation with Doc and his staff. Normally it costs people 150 bucks when they walk in off the street. You listen to me, you want to talk to him, all you got to do is go to 975hair.com right now, you get a free consultation, save the 150 bucks and just ask questions, get answers and have them explain how everything goes, how everything works. That's what I did. I got a free consultation and Doc told me, hey, look, you're never going to lose the hair on the sides and the back of your head, no matter how bald you go in other areas. So he essentially takes some of that hair, repurposes it where you need it most. That's the entire neograph procedure. 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Broadcasting live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Hey, we are pleased to be joined by another guest as we've got 90 in the books and 90 still to go second half of the show and as we go to the second half out of halftime here at Williams, AKA Houston Stresson is on Twitter. He is a great follow. I was just saying that I read his stuff frequently at Texans commenter on X. You need to follow him, especially if you're a fan of the Texans. He's got everything that you need to know. We're going to play a little game. We're going to have you in on a weekly basis. Going to have some fun. Joel, I appreciate you guys having me on a big fan of what you guys do and as I say on my Twitter, are you busing or are you stressing? I'm definitely blessing today. Yeah. I appreciate you guys having me on. No doubt about it, man. You and I were talking about it during the break that we were really the fact that we've come so much full circle in less and a little over a year's time. The fact that a little more than a year ago, we were talking about we were questioning Kalamik Nair. We were questioning his competency, what he was doing. We were never, never quit. We were talking about where this team was going, when were we going to start winning games again. And now a little over a year later, we got the right coach. We got the right quarterback. We got a playoff appearance and a playoff win and a division title. And now we got a win in week one. So we're going to have some fun and talk about a positive Texas team. Yeah, finally. And you know, I've been telling all my friends on social media. It's been a long time coming and we deserve every bit of this. So I've been enjoying every bit of good news. So you know, soak it up. We absolutely enjoy it. All right. So a blessing or stress and you're going to you're going to present us with some things you're either blessed or stressed about and we'll kick it around. What do you want to start with, Garrett? I could barely hear him, but where do you want to start with? If you were saying we're going to play blessing or stressing, what do we what topic would he kicked around first that we're either that we're even stressing about or that you are not so worried about? Yeah. So, you know, when I find out we were doing the segment, I went to my audience on Twitter and asked them and one person Shane Dawson, if he was shot, that's a weird name on Instagram said, are we blessing or stressing about the past blocking? I am going to say that I am blessing. I know that a lot of fans watch the game and might have thought initially that the past blocking was not up to par up to snuff, but I'm still blessing for a couple of reasons. One, it's week one. You got rust to the environment in Indianapolis was a rockets environment. So the pressures that I did see a majority of them were you could tell miscommunication errors. It wasn't from a lack of skill. It was guys just coming free. So I'm still blessing on the past pro and I think will be good to go come next week. Yeah. I think I leave blessing as well. Like I was I was stressed during the game. I mean, whenever they would get to CJ, how he's having to throw passes off his knees to while he's slipping on the turf. I was a little stressed in the moment, but I mean, Kidney Green had a great pass blocking grade from PFF, which is something we're obviously concerned about coming to the season. Obviously, Larry me tons. So there's no questions there and really the only thing is the thing where they struggled in past pro, which we talked about earlier in the week, wasn't other than the one time Titus Howard got pushing in the shroud. It wasn't that like they're getting manhandled, something like you would fear not being able to be fixed just because they're out manned. It was more getting confused by the pickups on the on the twists and the stunts, which you hope is coachable and correctable. So I will say, I will say blessing, see, I'm blessing as well simply because of the fact that one, you mentioned one of the things, which was I needed to see what Kenyon Green was going to be and I needed to see if he was going to be serviceable at all, specifically because we already know he was supposed to be a good run blocker because that's what he specialized in at A&M. But the fact that he was so good in week one also gives me a lot of positive vibes that he's just going to get better. And on the flip side, when tonsil doesn't play and it's hardly practicing in the in training camp and in the preseason, he's only going to get back to form even with Titus Howard, regardless of what you feel long term, Titus Howard with more reps is going to get better. Overall, two struggles, first game at center two, I'm looking at these guys, the younger guys are going to get better, the veterans are going to get back to form and they still got Joe mixing 159 yards rushing and mixing looked phenomenal picking up in past protection. So I think that it's only going to get better for this line. So I'm blessing on that. Dari and Pierce too. And I would say something we didn't mention was, you know, that turf there was kind of a joke. And I think it really was factor. You could tell the lineman and quarterback was slipping. So I'm glad to hear that we're all in the same. Yeah, Joe, mexica had more than 159 because he slipped on a few big runs too. And don't get it twisted. It wasn't just the turf. It was the fact that the paint on the turf caused CJ to fall on that one, so it was extra slippery because of that. Yeah. And I don't know how much y'all looked into it, but I saw like it was some new experiment they were doing was like some organic coconut. Yes. Yeah. I mean, he was talking about it. Instead of the little black pellets, the rubber underneath the turf, it is. It's like coconut blended something or other that was really funky and slippery. And so I don't know. I think they tried to say they did that just to try to find a new solution, but I don't know if it's some environmental friendly thing, but whatever it was, I mean, I'm sure their fans aren't too happy to. I mean, because it affected both teams. It's known to dabble with environmentally friendly things every now and then. What else you got for us? Yeah. So another listener, Bradley Hannah on X said, Damien Pierce, we didn't see a lot from him, but from what we saw was very nice and impactful. He said, the whole Houston O line just looked great, letting both backs average 5.3 yards per carry. He said, I also worked with the guys at nine seven five earlier this summer. It's a great business up there. Can't wait to tune in. So what's the kind of listeners that we love? Uh, look, I, we talked a little about this a little bit. I didn't see a lot of Damien Pierce, but what I saw, I liked because he got positive yardage. And so I'm blessing on this because of the fact that as much as I liked what I saw of Cam Acres and I thought Cam Acres was a guy, no matter what the depth chart said, sometimes they just do that for aesthetics. I thought he would be active in play. He didn't. But now as we talk about an older running back that was so productive and Joe Nixon, I think as we go on through the season, you're going to see the systems that use for different, uh, different versions of the game, like once in the first half, once in the second half, you'll have a series for each for Pierce to kind of give mix in a spell. If he does what he did against Andy and he's able to get positive yardage, I'm totally fine with it. I'm encouraged with riding him as the backup running back. I hate to ride the fence on this one, but it's kind of what I feel on it because I mean, certainly the results are blessing. I mean, he only had three carries, but he still showed, uh, some explosion. I thought he looked great when he actually had the ball in his hands, uh, looked explosive like his rookie year, but what we saw on his runs or like what I would like to see to feel great about Damien Pierce is him being able to run the zone play, find the cut lane, make the cut and not run into the back of his offensive lineman like he did so much last year, like not being able to find the hole and what we saw in his three runs was he was just hitting the whole running straight ahead full speed and he looked explosive doing it. But I think we still have to answer the question, can he truly fit in the scheme like Joe mix and did, you know, press the hole and cut back? I don't, I don't think we really saw that from Damien Pierce in this limited action on Sunday. Yeah. So I'm, I'm definitely blessing on Damien Pierce. I mean, we all know from the preseason, we're all watching. There was a stark difference between watching him and the rest of the backs. Not only can makers, but all the other guys that were trying to make the team. So, but you know, it is a couple of things to remember in that situation. One, it was a small sample size and two, a preseason game is very disjointed. You got a mix match of different level of guys, ones and twos. So, you know, it's, it's hard, you know, we're all prisoners of the moment. So it's, it's hard to keep that in mind to remember big picture, but again, that this, you know, although he looked good, this is still a limited sample size. The first run, it seemed like it was kind of up the gut, a gap run where he can run straight downhill, but the second one was more of the outside zone, which he did well on. He did do great in past pro, but I just think in general, as a whole, I am big time bussing on the run game. I know mixing obviously is a stud and take it to the next level, but I think the offensive line is not getting, getting enough credit and they're, and they're rolling. Let's get one more in here before you get out of here. Okay. Yeah. So this one, I'll go Astros, Justin Verlander, blessing or stressing. I hate to say it right now. I'm stressing. He's been a great pitcher for us over the years, but lately since he came back from his injury, I don't know. Right now, I heard y'all on the radio coming up here, he's potentially on the bubble for the playoff roster. Is he coming at the bullpen? I'm stressing at the moment. Hopefully he figures it out. I don't know what you guys think about JV. Oh, I'm very much stressing and if you heard the earlier conversation, I'm sure you would have guessed that would be my reaction. Yeah, you mentioned it since he came off the engine list and the two rehab starts in the minors. The four starts, he's had the majors. We saw the blow up against Cincinnati, where he walked the bases loaded, couldn't get out of the, well, he got, he went past the first inning, but he got rocked in the first inning. Then his last starts, he gives up, he gives up home runs, he gives up eight runs before he gets out of the game. His ERA and those four starts as well over six or seven, I'm stressed out right now. I know he can hit 97, which is great, but he seems to have no idea where the ball is going. His command, especially with this fastball is not great and he's getting hammered. But I'm very stressing right now with just a fair manner. And if you heard, like you said, B-Mac, you heard our comments previously in the show. That's where I'm at as well. And the fact that I don't care about the back of the baseball card, what I really care about is that this is a guy that was so heavily relied upon in the past when you got to the postseason that the expectations have changed so drastically that we're not talking about a guy that can be an ace. We're not talking about a guy that can actually give you a quality start. You're talking about a guy where the next couple of starts are imperative to prove that he's capable of pitching in the playoffs for you at all. And that's what I'd be there. That's what I'm stressing about because that's not what I signed up for when I traded two top prospects to get him. That's not the JV that I've known in the past. The question is, can we find any of any assemblants of what JV used to be for at least the rest of this this playoff run and I'm worried about that. Well, we appreciate you coming in, man. Hey, look, we until you guys all the time that you need to follow Garrett and you need to keep in contact with him because he's got a lot of great things going on. You can follow him at Texans commenter on X and TikTok and YouTube and you can follow him on IG at Houston stressons. That's S-T-R-E-S-S-A-N-S on IG. We're going to do this on a pretty consistent basis week to week. We appreciate you coming in. Good first show, buddy. Yes, sir. Appreciate it, Joel. There you go. Check him out anytime you get a chance. We're going to come back with a lot more coming up on this show. We're going to talk a little bit more about the quarterback of your favorite football team. I'm comfortable saying CJ Sprout is the third best quarterback in the NFL. Have we seen enough? Do we know enough? What have we seen to the other quarterbacks as well? We'll kick that around next. It is the Killer B's on ESPN 97-5 and 92-5 FM. ESPN 97-5. You found the Killer B's live from the Veritex community banks. New studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. Backroll throughout over two, three-hour extract. He has a Killer B's. The hive is alive. His BMAC and I take you up until 6 p.m. Jeremy getting a little R&R today as the voice kind of peed it out on him. If you were listening yesterday and was a no-go today, hopefully he's back tomorrow. But we've been having a great show. And if you missed any of it, you can catch up on it on the website. But we had Cole Thompson in to talk Texans and SEC. We had Houston stressons and our good man, Garrett, come in and talk about some of the blessing and stressons of Houston sports. As we continue to roll on though, BMAC, look, a lot was being taken away from a lot of quarterback play in week one of the NFL. And we kind of kicked it around a little bit yesterday in the fact that numbers are down, 17 quarterbacks through for 200 yards or less. But it also was the cream of the crop where some of the good ones still played obviously very well. We saw CJ play well. My homes played very well. We saw some guys, Josh Allen had four touchdowns played very well. So we saw some guys that did some things. But are you comfortable saying after week one of the regular season that CJ Stroud is the third best quarterback in the league? Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. And I'm not really worried about the league wide numbers being down. I think that's just a product of guys for the most part, aren't playing in the preseason games. And even if they are like CJ did in two games, they're playing for a series or two. So they're just not getting the live reps and rhythm and timing that would come with playing in real games. So it's not shocking to see week one, the numbers be down a little bit. So I think that'll bounce back pretty quickly. But when I look at it, we're basing this off a list from the athletic. They're doing like a quarterback power ranking basically week to week. So going into last week, they have Stroud at number seven. And after this week, moved them up to number three behind only Josh Allen and Patrick from home, so that's kind of the basis of this. In my reaction to it is actually, I wouldn't, I wouldn't mind having him. This is going to sound extremely hot taky, extremely like I'm wearing battle red glasses drinking the home, the home, the, the home pool aid. But I wouldn't mind putting Stroud as high as two in the way I, the one I'm basing that off on and obviously behind my home. So you can't make the argument for Stroud over my homes. And I'm basing that on is like, if I had one game to win, what quarterback would I want? What quarterback would give me the most confidence they could win that one game right now? Not factoring in for veterans like Stafford and Rogers, what they did 10 years ago. Current form right now, who would I have most confidence in to win a game? Mahomes is the only guy I have more confidence in right now than CJ Stroud. I mean, there's certainly arguments there for for Alan Lamar, a borough, although less so after last week, but I would take Stroud as, as two. So I have no problem with this third ranking. See, to me, there's, you know, me, I'm always on the criteria on these things of the criteria matters. To me, it's like, are you, who's your full compliment of people around you, right? I think just from the purely as a quarterback, I would look at Josh Allen and say, Josh Allen, as much as that I know Jeremy is anti Josh Allen in a lot of ways. Josh Allen is a guy that could beat you with his legs. He could beat you with his arm. Yes, he has issues from time from in the past of turning the ball over. He's also performed really, really well in the big games on the big stage when he's done the battles in the back and forth with Mahomes. He can, he won you a game almost all by himself single handedly in the snow year ago. Josh Allen's a guy that to me is in that conversation simply because he hasn't won the big one. He hasn't been able to beat Mahomes. But in the one year, he dueled him to the death until the rules basically took it out of his hands. And I'm not willing to turn the page on him just yet. CJ Stroud has played really, really well in one year. CJ Stroud has a playoff win where he played well, but then CJ Stroud found a Kryptonite against a really good Baltimore team twice in the same year where he couldn't get it done. So I hear what you're saying, but I'm also not going to say that it's just Mahomes and then CJ. I think the conversation is five guys, although burrow to me right now, the current state of Joe burrow has me with more questions than answers. So I can't put him above any of these other guys right now. I don't think Lamar played awful, but I think he'll play better and he played a really good team in Kansas City. Josh Allen played really well. I definitely think that CJ is in the mix with those guys, but I would go Mahomes, Allen, and then CJ and Lamar because Lamar's beaten CJ twice right now, I'm going to just go head to heads and I'd say I'd put CJ forth. I'd put Lamar third, Josh Allen second, I'd put Mahomes one that can change. That's fluid, but that's because of where we are right now. Yeah. It's certainly not unfair. I mean, those two guys have a lot more on their resume than CJ Stroud does, does obviously, but when I'm just kind of looking at this year, I mean, CJ goes on the road and beats a pretty good team with the Colts and he's a big part of it. He's not one of these quarterbacks that threw for 150 yards and relied on the running game was awesome, but he didn't have to have the running game in the defense win a farm. He was great in that game as well. So, and then when you compare it to Josh Allen, Josh Allen was great, but at home against the Cardinals, like that was a game they trailed for at least what the first half, maybe sometime into the third quarter. It wasn't as impressive as a win for me in, I mean, last time we saw Allen in the playoffs and know he had the overtime heroic game or the game that he should have had a chance to win an overtime against Patrick Mahomes, that's what, three years ago now. That's how we saw them play in the playoffs against the Chiefs, it didn't go very well. They didn't play very well. So, I'm kind of training down for, you know, Allen, where Stroud is training up and then to Lamar, it's tough to make the army because Lamar beat him twice. But I mean, a lot of that is the Ravens defense beating Stroud, not necessarily Lamar, and Lamar, like we saw in the Chiefs game, it's just hard to ever see him being consistent in these big game scenarios when he's still a guy in year, what, six? He was a rookie in 2018. He's still a guy in season six or seven, that he never seems to deliver the ball when his back foot hits on his drop. He's a guy that doesn't find, like Jeremy will say, he doesn't make the easy plays look easy. The back foot hits and he's looking, looking, looking, tapping ball, tapping ball, and if it's not there, he's running. He's still not a guy that I think could consistently make the easy play from the pocket where CJ is, and I think Allen's training a little bit down, I didn't like that they struggled against Arizona. So that's why I would have Stroud above those two, but I can certainly see the argument for the opposite. But here's the thing too, when you're talking about like the opponent matters, it's weird because I saw on Coward show, they were talking about, well, we had Indy rated in the 20s in terms of what kind of team they can be obviously as a show, we have Indy rated a lot higher. You were talking about yesterday that Arizona, you know, might be fighting for a wildcard spot because they've got talent on that team. So I think that factors in. I think that Lamar was playing a really good defense in the Chiefs, but and the thing that worries me the most about Lamar is a year ago, they said he wasn't going to run as much. Now he's lost weight, but he tried to run more and he took some hits and he was dropping some shoulders and he was doing some things you don't want to see a guy like that do either because now you bring injury into the picture. And so that's where from my perspective, I'm curious how much more that he's going to do and if that's going to be a consistent thing with him or that just because they were, he was fired up and he wanted to try and make any play possible against the team like the Chiefs that they're trying to prove they can beat. Yeah, I just, I don't think he could change Lamar. I mean, he was a rookie in 2018. This is year six or seven. I think he is who he is. I think if he was going to be a guy that stopped running and decided to beat guys from the pocket consistently like Mahomes and Shroud do, then he would have done it by now. I think what we've seen is he's this far into his career and like I said, you know, previously he's still a guy that would his back foot hits on his drop. He doesn't seem to know where he wants to go with the ball. He still happened to buy time with his legs. We saw it in the closing moments at that Chiefs game where they let like 30, 40 seconds around at the clock because it took forever for Lamar to make the play to get down there because he has to scramble around, scramble around, wait for Zayflowers or somebody to come open because he doesn't seem to be able to make that quick read, make that quick decision and make the easy play like CJ does. So I wouldn't. I don't think he's going to stop running because it can't stop running. He can't stop running because he's not, he hasn't advanced yet to a place where it sounds crazy. He's a second year quarterback, but he hasn't advanced to where CJ is where the back foot hits. He's ready to make the play. Yeah. I think that the most interesting name on this list of the athletic in this, these rankings of their top 10 is burrow at five because as high as burrow was ranked and I totally get it. I think we all got it as a show. We put burrow in our top three to start the season when you look at what he hasn't done and what, how badly they played, how they lost the game they should have won. And then you look at the fact that he, he's struggling to pick up a Gatorade bottle and people are showing video all over social media where they're questioning like the strength and what his arm truly feels like. That's where the, there's more questions than answers from a standpoint of no one questions that if he has, he's right, he's a hundred percent healthy and he's, he's got all the tools in his tool belt. He can play with anybody, but if this is what we're seeing a Joe burrow and we don't know if it's going to change and when it's going to change and when he gets back to that form, I don't know if I'd have him as high as number six right now. Yeah, it's, it's tough because obviously you know, I've been high on burrow. I've been, I've been carrying the, the, the Kool-Aid for, for, for Joe burrow, this entire office. He needs yourself. He needs your help. Exactly. He needs my help. Yeah, I, I thought Joe burrow was still the guy that we saw going to Arrowhead multiple times and beat Patrick Mahomes, the guy to go, the win into Buffalo in a snowstorm and beat the bills. Go to the Super Bowl and take the Rams down to the wire. I thought he was still that guy, but rather be, you know, you know, Jamar's obviously a little bit, maybe a little bit rusty because he sat out during training camp there missing tee Higgins in the first game. So maybe you can make that excuse, you make the excuse that didn't have Joe mix and although that won't change the season because he's not coming back or it could be that burrows just not right physically. Yeah. I mean, he had the calf injury last year, he had another injury which I'm blanking on at the moment. Obviously he's got a problem right now with this wrist. It might be a point where burrow has just had so many physical ailments that he's just not himself. And if, like if I knew he was healthy, I, I think I would probably put burrow second. I have that much belief in his, his ability, but right now this version of burrow until we see him take a step forward. Yeah. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't think you're wrong. I think I might move him down a few spots. Five might be a little high for this version of Joe burrow. So if you're curious, the athletics top 10 going into week two, Mahomes one, Josh Allen two, CJ three, Lamar four burrow five, then Rogers, Stafford, Dak, Herbert and perdy and we'll keep, we can kind of check back in on these lists from time to time as we continue to move forward. But that's going to wrap up our number two of the three hour extravaganza. We got an hour left on the books and 60 minutes still to go. Lots more on the show bleacher report says that the Texans had five big weaknesses or at least weaknesses that they noticed will let you know what those are. Let you know how we think that list stacks up as opposed to what we think the weaknesses might be. Let us know what you think seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six caller text hit us on social media. It's the final hour of the bees coming up next on ESPN 97 five and out of two five FM.