The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
09/16 Hour 3 - Good, Bad, & The Ugly
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From the Astros weekend, sweeping the series at Anaheim. What was your good? What was your bad? Let's start with the good. 713-780-3776, what you got? Look, there's plenty to be talking about, and there's plenty of guys in the offensive lineup. I'm going to start with a guy that I'm starting to believe in more and more in the fact that from a pitching perspective, I think that we might have kind of lost a little trust. In in Blanco, and the fact that Blanco looks like he's getting stronger, and he's starting to pitch longer into games, but he's continually putting up goose eggs. That was a hell of a good start. I said we're going to watch these guys closely. I said you got to put Blanco in the mix with Verlander and Arageti. What I've seen, one trip through now with all three guys getting their first of their possibly last starts as we go forward to a towards the end of the regular season. I love what I saw at a Blanco. Yeah, Blanco was fantastic. Now, one of the things whenever you look at the pitchers in this series, the Angels' offense is brutal. I'll give that my ugly. The Angels' offense. So, you kind of have to create it on a curve. Now, I think Blanco's stuff was very good. To me, it wasn't so much the line score of Blanco. Yes, the shutout, it was six shutout innings. So, yes, the line score was good. But what impressed me about Blanco was the stuff looked good. Like, the Vilo was good. He looked sharp with his breaking stuff. The change-up was getting swing and miss. The command wasn't awful at times like we see from an El Blanco. So, it wasn't so much. Because I don't think you can grade starting pitchers with the line score they have against the Angels. But it was the stuff for Blanco. And the opposite for that was Verlander. Like, Verlander was the bad that I had. His line score was fine. Like, it was the two runs over five innings. The line score was fine. But, 92-93. Walks the first two hitters. Like, Verlander. So, like, throughout the line score when you talk about Blanco, looked good. Throughout the line score when you talk about Verlander, looked washed up and old. The Walks were minimal for Blanco. The pitch count was better. He was, I think he was more competitive counts than kind of wasting pitches. From a Verlander perspective, yeah, you can say he's better if you mean that he instead of walking the bases loaded, he walked to the first two guys. Those are the kind of things when you look at that kind of an outing. That's still part of spring training to me. I know because that's what he said. He's still in spring training mode. Well, that's a mid-spring training start for me because he still gave up runs. He still didn't look sharp. He didn't look like who you need him to look like at the end of the season. And I don't know how much more patience you can have when you have a guy like Eric Yeti that looks better. But more so, because of a guy like Blanco, who looks like he's starting to get back into first half of the season form. Where if his arm is strong enough, his stuff is good enough, he's your guy. Yeah, I would have Verlander six of six. Yep. I agree. Sorry to hurt villains, but once the regular season's done, I think Justin Verlander, who I've called the greatest starting pitcher in Houston Astro history, and I still believe that when the regular season's done, we've seen the last of Justin Verlander's Astro as an Astro. No question. I don't think he's going to be on the playoff roster, and I don't think he's going to be back with the Astros. I don't think unless Crane does something stupid again, I don't think that there's anything that tells you he's worth whatever he's going to want and that they don't want to take the risk that they're going to do this whole song and dance another year where we don't know if he's healthy or not, and you can't trust whether, even if he is, he's going to be good enough. And yeah, they'd love to have Kakuchi back, and I think that's going to be pretty much a long shot because of the fact that he's looked so good. But I think that they realize that they have enough that they don't need Justin Verlander, and I think discomfort's coming. I do too. Yeah. There's going to be a mysterious injury or some kind of discomfort. He's not going to be available just to save face one last time and not embarrass JV, but I don't think he's pitching for the Astros in the playoffs. And ever again, right. I agree. Never again. I think I don't even know if it's going to be a mysterious injury. I think they just might go back to the well and say it's the neck. It's the neck again. Yeah. It's the old neck for Verlander. Yeah. The line score was better. Two runs, five innings, but no swing and miss. Trouble with the zone, Vilo down. I didn't think it was encouraging for Verlander. What else you got? No, I love the fact that, you know, L2, they continues to do what he's doing, but Jordan is, you know, hammering baseballs still too. The top of the lineup was really good with those two guys in it. I love the fact that in a series that they know that they got to have, they stepped up big because your best players have to. And so I'll credit those two guys right off the top. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go to Kyle Tucker. I'll go throw him in there next. I really like the way that Kyle Tucker looked. Like I had been pretty critical of what I've seen from Tucker. Like even at the plate, like I think at the plate, in rightfully so. Like he's been three months, like we shouldn't expect him to step into the box against big league pitching and be like knocking the cover off the baseball. But like I was even questioned like his fluidity, like running the bases, immediately being pinch ran for whenever he was walked. Like he looked uncomfortable. And again, rightfully so. In the angel series, like it was Kyle Tucker. Like the first night when he started in right field for the first time on Friday, like getting to that foul ball and catching it, look fluid. Obviously the pinch hit home run on Saturday. He said it was the best swing he took. He was back in the outfield yesterday. He's looking good in the box. He's looking kind of normal in right field again. I think that they, I think Kyle Tucker took a big step forward in like our perception of what Kyle Tucker's going to be the rest of the way. You mentioned the pinch hit thing that stuck out to me is if he's still got lingering pain and discomfort, you don't call on that guy to pinch it in the ninth inning of a game because you're probably stiff and you're not planning on playing. And there's no reason to get ramped up real quick for one at bat. He must have been feeling okay. If a spot I called his number in that situation, then he delivers big. He gives you the first bomb. He has looked more like himself and I'm happy for it because that's exciting again, knowing that you could add the real Kyle Tucker to the top of that lineup. Yeah, that was, that was good. Good bad ugly. Um, Peña and, and yiner continue to come up with key situations too. When Altuve and or Jordon aren't doing things, um, they continue to do some things. And again, that when you talk about pressing the right magic buttons, Jason Hayward to come with a three for three game and a big bomb and, and, and just deliver offense for you yesterday was huge. Yeah, he's a, I looked up his numbers today because, uh, because of the big game yesterday, 29 played appearances. So it's super small sample, 269 average. Okay. Not bad. 321 on base. Okay. Five 38 slugging. His OPS with the Astros is over 800. That's great. That's, I mean, in, in you, you and you were picking them up, like this isn't a long term play. Right. This is, let's give them 30 to 50 played appearances before the end of the year because we want a left-handed bat and we want a guy, you know, in case, you know, while Kyle Tucker was still gone, just in case Kyle Tucker doesn't, you know, get back to 100 percent form, the pickup has worked. The gamble pickup has worked. I was like, you can even go one further and say, Hey, Dan or Brown tip of the cap. That's where I was going because of the fact that if you would have told me, no, I don't care. As much as you know that, you know, look, Hayward keeps himself in good shape. He's always had a good arm, been a decent defensive outfielder and better. A really good offensive outfielder. Who'd have thought that the combination of gamble and Hayward would have done anything close to what they've been able to contribute since they've been Astros because they both been huge for this team. Big pickups by Dana Brown. I think Braggie should get one too for the fact that he stepped up big when you needed him to. He had the bomb. He had the, the, with guys on base that was, that was key for them. He had a multiple hit game there. The last good that I have, and then we'll get to a few of the textures, 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, 3, 7, 7, 6, Josh Miller. Thank you, Josh Miller, for standing up for your pitcher. What was a terrible call yesterday? Yes, the guy got hurt. You feel bad for the guy getting hurt, but he obviously swung the bat. How do you miss that on your appeal whenever you go down to the third base umpire? If he would have hit it, it would have been a double, terrible call. And Josh Miller lost his mind, and I am glad that he lost his mind. I got ejected from that game. And he wasn't your average Joe Espada. He wasn't hiding his, what he was saying by covering his mouth. He let his, he let his feelings be known. And if he was going to get tossed, he was going to get every dollar's worth. And he did. And he stuck up for what was right. And that was a horrible, horrible call. A lot of people were confused on that, but when it hits a batter, the play is dead. The play is dead. So when it hit his hand, the play is over at that point. So that it ricocheted and hit the bat that did not matter. Some people are like, oh, it should be in a foul ball because it hit the bat. No, as soon as it hits a player, it is done. It's a dead ball, but did he swing? Did he go? Obviously. Obviously. So it should have been, it should have been a swinging strike. Dead ball hits the player, strike out, move on. We've seen it this year during the Astro season. We've seen that exact call being been made that a guy was hit, but he was swinging and they ruled it a strike out. Yeah. I think I might be wrong, but I thought it was Braggman. I've seen it before. I'm like a back foot breaking ball. Yeah, but I thought it was Braggman as well, where he got hit. There was no doubt, but he went through the zone and they rang him up. And that is the right call to be made. And that's brutal that you let that get away and good on Josh Miller for being able to put this down. They missed it. And you didn't see when the umpire ejected him, like made the gesture for the ejection. But whenever Josh Miller said a very specific word, you knew the moment that it happened. He was dropping plenty of expletives. And like I said, he got his money worth and I loved it. And the fact that he knew once he was already gone, then he might as well just keep on going. You got a 10 out of 10 on that joke, the average Joe joke from 69 to 70. He said average Joe 10 10 joke for blankers, unbelievable. Good from five seven. He was kind of a bad guy until you finished it like that. Five seven nine eight. Good Astros got a sweet bad Mariners also got a sweet. You know, the Rangers, not three or four, right? Because then they lose on Thursday. Yeah, the Thursday night game that they lost ugly was Verlander. My good is the return of Brian. A brain use velocity. Let's go. That's from Ocho. He's not a hundo now. That was big six nine two seven with Crane be open to a Roger Clemens type deal for JV. I hope not. I don't want it. I don't want it. Yeah, I don't care about when he gets to travel and when he doesn't know that other BS. I care about the fact that he's starting to look more washed than like a guy chasing 300 wins. I want to I want to coach you back. I do too. Hopefully, hopefully the Astros can, you know, give them a contract that he would accept. I am I am fearful that he's pricing himself out, but I do want him back. Here's the thing where people read and critically give up three runs. Okay, guess what? Watch the whole game. Watch how he's pitching. Pictures are going to give up runs. It's just part of the deal. Yeah, you get spoiled because of the pictures we've had here, especially rotational guys that end up pitching like really, really good, giving him middle runs. He gave up a couple runs. He still gave you a quality start. He's that capable of a pitcher now that he's been an astro. Yeah. You got to love what you've seen. I was annoyed with the walking the eight hole nine hole that led to that two run ending. That that to me was the bigger crime in the home run. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I think that sometimes that he kind of reverts back where he gets stuck in a rut where he just can't find the zone and he doesn't throw anything that he knows he can straight. He wants to kind of finish that pitch. Yeah, he keeps throwing it and he can't locate. Yeah, you can't walk the eight nine for the angels, especially with a lead. The good astro sweep, the bad JV, the ugly Caleb Ferguson, let that man go. Yeah, that was not a good performance by him yesterday. Forced them to use Hader, which is like my tater to be fresh for the San Diego series. But Ferguson was poor. Taylor Scott's been badly to those were my two beds. Yeah, he's been badly. Yeah, between Ferguson and Taylor Scott. Those were my two beds because that's not what you expected from Taylor Scott. That's not the first half Taylor Scott. Taylor Scott has thrown a lot of innings and it's taken a lot of toll on him. And I think that right now he's got a little bit of a tired arm. But you know, I've always been pretty critical of Caleb Ferguson. He didn't do me any favors for changing my attitude based on what I saw. Yeah, I leave that guy off the playoff roster too. All right, seven one three seven eight zero ESPN HRNP listener line. Let's grade shroud's performance from yesterday's game. Some people critical, some people happy with what they saw. What did you think from CJ shroud yesterday seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. It is the bees on ESPN 97 five and ESPN 92 five. ESPN 97 five coming to you live from the Veritex community bank studios. It's the killer bees on ESPN 97 five and 92 five. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. If you love great deals and eating even better restaurants, we have great news for you. Houston restaurant week has been extended through September 30th. ESPN 97 five is a proud partner for Houston restaurant weeks in 2024. It's time to raise some money for the Houston food bank for you. It's simple. Dine out do good. Choose from over 400 restaurants to visit for lunch or dinner. Select from their prefix menus and a portion of the proceeds goes to the Houston food bank. Plus you're supporting local restaurants. Go to Houston's restaurant weeks.com. That's Houston restaurant weeks.com to find all the participating restaurants. That didn't seem like forever ago. The Astros cut Jose Abreu. Yes. Like it feels like years ago, doesn't it? It really does. But it feels like no matter when they did it, that it's actually turned out. Like if you're him, how are you feeling right now looking going? I'm not there anymore. They're winning. They're going to win the division. They're going to go into the playoffs. People are favoring them. Maybe it was me because I'd hate to be on the outside looking in going. I mean, at least I got my money, but yeah, that sucks. I mean, it's a pretty big indicator that he wasn't picked up by anybody. I wonder if he'll get picked up for spring training invite next year. I doubt it. 1029. Why can't we see more of Whitley? He's with AAA right now. Yeah, they send him back down. I wouldn't mind seeing more of him. I think he's going to be a factor in this bullpen though for the future. I think he's very much going to be in their bullpen plans going forward. If Ortt can be a part of it because of his fastball, then Whitley can too. And I think that you can't find those guys every day. When you find a guy that can top out and get triple digits and very, very close to it. If you're not, there's a spot for you if you can control it. Yeah. All right. 713780ESP, an HRMP listener line. 7137803776. That's great. CJ Shroud, first, let's do the Shroud versus Caleb Williams. Pretty unanimous. I think that CJ Shroud easily won the fight against Caleb Williams. Yeah, to me, it's a technical knockout because I think that both defenses are good. I think the Texans defense was better than good. They basically knocked him around and showed him a few things to where, yes, CJ had to face pass rush. CJ showed that the experience pays off and the fact that he is a very, very smart quarterback as well as talented. So for me, it's a technical knockout. Yeah, I'll go 10-9. I think Caleb Williams is going to be fine. Like Caleb Williams is going to be fine. Caleb Williams is going to be a good quarterback in the NFL. I think there was things he was doing yesterday. They kind of shown that a little bit too. Yes, his accuracy was a bit, you know, off. He got sacked seven times, was pressured 36 times or whatever it was. Will Anderson and Danil Hunter, he's going to have nightmares with them, starring his lead characters and those nightmares. He even mentioned after the game how bruised up he was. You're not going to have to play that defensive line every week in the NFL. Yes, everybody's going to be good, but you're not going to have to face those two defensive ends. I listened to the Eber Flus press conference on the way in today. He was like, look, he said that Danil Hunter and Will Anderson are both top 10 edge rushers in the NFL. They were phenomenal. They were so dominant and disruptive that I think that they didn't get enough credit because a couple of the sacks got away from them and Anderson was pissed at one. The other one where Hunter ended up with a handful of jersey that was ripping, but he couldn't bring him down. Like they were in on so many plays and off the edge were so destructive. I don't think they got enough credit for what they did last night. Yeah, so I think Caleb, I think Caleb's going to be fine. I think he's still going to be a really good quarterback in the NFL. I'm not going to put a whole lot of stock in week two of his rookie year, but CJ Stroud was the winner 10-9 in that one yesterday. Now, I thought Stroud overall is going to be like break down his game. To me, he was a tele two halves. In the first half, I thought he was outstanding. I thought he was great. He had the touchdown pass to Nico, which the anticipation on that throw against the defense that he was seeing, phenomenal. Placing it in the window that he had to against the zone defense, phenomenal. Now, Nico Collins, like the yards after the catch is what made it a touchdown, but an excellent throw from CJ Stroud. He had the sideline throw to digs later or another phenomenal throw. And that was the one two where he was the layered throw. And the final one in the first half that I thought was a phenomenal elite throw was the escaping the pressure. Whenever you had the guy kind of free rusher come off the end and it was like, "Okay, well, he's dead meat." Somehow was able to roll to the right, got away from it, and then was able to find Nico Collins on the sideline. So in the first half, he made three elite throws. All the off-script plays seem to be something on-script with him, because it's one thing to say that he alludes the rush. At the one that you're talking about where he turned and got to the right, he had two separate pass-rushers on taking dead aim at him. One linebacker with a whole hell of a lot of speed was about to close on his feet, and yet not only did he get escape ability to the right side, but then he was able to make the right play to the receiver that wasn't going to be in a harm's way of putting a ball where it could get picked off. That's just another level that I think that most a lot of quarterbacks don't have that he doesn't get enough credit for. Yeah. But his ability to do that was on a different level yesterday. Yeah, a second half, a lot of people were critical of him. I didn't think he was poor in the second half. I thought that he didn't get a whole lot of help from the offensive line. The Bears saw something that they really thought that they could attack in the interior, Kenny and Green, Jared Patterson, Shaq Mason. They were getting pressure with four guys a lot of the times. They were stunting the interior offensive line. And that was a problem we noticed last week, was that the Texans interior offensive line with Drew Scruggs at center. Let's keep in mind, Jared Patterson was starting his first game this year. They were running stunts and forcing the Texans to try to pass off blocking assignments. And for the second week in a row, they were struggling very much with that. Ibra Flus is a defensive coach. Ibra Flus calls the defensive plays. And he had to have picked up on that against the Colts. That the Texans interior offensive line was struggling, passing off blocking assignments because he was going to that well over and over and over again. And it was extremely successful. So it gave the Texans no time to throw. CJ Shroud was having to duck for cover before he could even think about throwing. And you could play, I mean, if an offense is failing, you can always pin some blame to the quarterback. So you could say that Shroud wasn't good in the second half. I would be okay with that. But I thought he was really good in the first half. Yeah, he was. And I think that to your point, the interior rush is what was concerning. And I started pointing the finger at Patterson. I thought that that was maybe the bigger key because of juice being out with the success that juice had last week. And that we talked about it going into the game last night, that that really sucks, that line who had no continuity a year ago in week one really looked dominant because of the continuity. And you're already substituting some guy in. But the internal pass rush in the interior defensive line was a problem for the Texans all night. Yeah, it really was. So a couple of texts on what they thought of Stroud, no turnover, no complaints. I'm good with that. Take care of the football. It's key to success in the NFL. A pessimistic Chad settling for a field goal before the half of enough time to take a shot in the end zone was ridiculously conservative coaching. You're shaking your head. No, agree. Could not disagree more. I thought that they might try and get more yards, but with no time outs left, there's no way in hell. You're going to try and take a shot with nine seconds left and run the risk of maybe completing a pass that's close and not coming out with any points. I thought that they might go for a quick hit for about four, five, six yards, especially after the penalty. The penalty of tons. It was the one that screwed them there, right? Also screwed them because it went from like inside of like a 51 52. It went to about a 59 and I was like, I thought they might chip off five or six yards and get out of bounds. And that's when they boxed them in. Yeah, there's no way they're going for a touchdown. Yeah, I tend to agree with that. Repeatedly running acres up the middle leading to a fumble. Fumble was ridiculously conservative coaching. I agree it was, but that was the time to be ridiculously conservative. You're trying to run time. You're moving the football. It's working. You're inside the five yard line. You're going to take your chances with at the very worst, you're still running clock, but at the best, there's going to be a small enough opening to get someone either closer or into the end zone. I just thought he did a hell, a really terrible job of hanging onto the football play. Yeah, I agree. To me, that was obvious run, run, run. And that was first and goal. Like he says, play action would have gotten a touchdown. Okay, maybe they were doing that on second and third down offensive line. Stupid penalties were horrible. Titus Howard was terrible. Don't disagree with that. Blake Fisher starting right tackle by week eight. Possible. More possible this week than it was a week ago. There's a building case that's continuing to go in the wrong direction. If you are one, Titus Howard, this game should have been a blowout, says Chad. I think it should have been a multi possession win. I think it should have been in week one too. 4661 when do we worry about the Texans inability to score touchdowns? Lots of field goals through two weeks. Okay, it's two weeks in. I think that they're still getting their their sea legs underneath them. As good as they've looked, I think they can get better. And I think that's Bobby Sloak as well. I'm not worried about that because like you mentioned, when you're scoring on 80% of your drives, no matter what you do, it's a pretty good percentage to have in your back pocket. I think I'm there with a concern. They do need if they want to look, I'm grading the Texans tough this year. They have deserved and they have earned my tough criticism because I do think they're a team that's capable of going deep into the postseason. So if I think if you're setting the bar way up here, then I'm going to critique you way up there. You know, this was the lovey Smith, David Cully. You're winning seven games in two years. I don't care. Like, I really don't care about breaking down the game and like, who's playing well at right guard and all of like settling for field goals. Like that team was going nowhere. But if you have Super Bowl aspirations, if you have Super Bowl aspirations, then this is the little stuff that would derail you. Like, yeah, you need to end a majority of your scoring drives with touchdowns as opposed to field goals. Now it's week two. So I'm not like losing my mind over it as if it were week 16. Because if it was week 16 and like say it's week 16, week 17, and you're settling for field goals like you've had to do in week one and week two, I would be yelling in this microphone. The Texans, because they don't get into the end zone, are not capable of having a deep playoff run. Maybe you can win a game or two, but like AFC Championship. Uh, that's not happening. And if you can't finish these drives, but it's week one, it is week two. I'm not losing my mind over it yet, but I'm starting to pay attention. Yeah, that's, that's where I'm at. If you want to, if we're past the mid-season point and this is still a problem, then it's a problem right now. And two weeks in, I'm not losing any sleep over it. Yeah, I mean, you, you have the time to correct it. And I do think that the Houston Texans will be better late in the year than they are right now. That's what good coach teams do. Uh, cult fan, cults have to fire every defensive coach we have. Yeah, it's been not a, not a great first two weeks for Colts. Uh, I'm also losing a little bit of my luster for Shane Steichen. Like that my point was going to be, you got Shane Steichen got Shane Steichen to buy the Packers. They took the best of what he's done forever with Jalen Hertz and Richardson. Uh-huh. And thrilled him with it. All they did was quarterback runs running back runs and finding different way to run. And he couldn't stop it. He also, I think he's throwing the ball too much. Well, Richard had what three picks. He's throwing the ball too much at that. And he was the same old thing we were talking about. His accuracy is horrible. Like throw the ball five times, like go run at 95% of the time. Uh, honey glaze, Bran. I'm how many games would David Cully win with this team? With this team? Well, with CJ, it's tough. I, I think he'd still win eight or nine. I think, I was going to say seven or eight. I think he's in the, in the 500 range. They wouldn't swarm though. Nope. It wouldn't swarm a Cully. Two, one, four, five tank down missing an easy catch. There was a walk in touchdown. More than likely a walk in touchdown. Talk about the one up the seam. Yeah. It's not a walk in. That's a sprint in. Yeah. Yeah. He's, the defenders were behind him. The safety was not covering the back. He was, he was in the clear if he catches it. If he, if he catches it in stride, it's a touchdown. Yeah. I think there's a chance where the pass is completed that it's not a touchdown. But yeah, if he catches it in stride, I think it's six. Um, yeah. That would have changed our outlook of, of CJ straddled a little bit too. But what would you grade his performance? Let her go. Uh, I'm, I'm gonna give him a solid B. I think there's room to improve, but you got to win. You still did a lot of really good things. The second half was not good, but it was also not good because of the fact that you was, we were constantly harassed and under pressure. Um, I think that the numbers were good. They were solid. You didn't turn the ball over. You didn't contribute to the loss. So I'm going to give him a solid B. Yeah. I will, um, I'll give him a B plus. I thought he was really good in the first half. Like I thought he was great in the first half. Second half. Man, but I don't put a whole lot of the blame on him. So I'll give him the B plus. And what was your greatest shroud? And we'll get your Texans thoughts in here too. Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six. Also on the other side, Bryce Young, bitch. Is it too soon to call him a bust? Is this Carolina quitting on him? Also the injury bug boy, it is real around the league. It is the B's on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. Hey, for me, go to the break word for my bookie. Mybookie.ag is the place you need to be. If you want to bet on the game tonight, because there's still one NFL game to be played, and you know that there's a lot to be possibly made. If you go to mybookie.ag, it's the Falcons, it's the Eagles, and you can do in-game betting. You can get bet the line and the over-unders before, and so much more. You need to go to mybookie.ag anyway, because it's the place I always tell you to go, because they take care of their customers all the time. They're doing it again right now. 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Coming to you live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, it's the Killer Beans. On E-S-P-N, 97-5 and 92-5. Here's Joel Blanket, Jeremy Branham. Look at that pool. That's a nice little re-joying song there, V-Rut. This is like my heyday. It's like my high school life right here. I don't know who it is. I just know I heard it a lot when I was in high school. Who is it? Red Jump Stepper at us. There we go. I guessed it for a trillion years. What's the song called? Face Down. Face Down? Why is that so funny? Because you just said it was your hey, it was basically your high school life. It's actually released after I graduated. Maybe it's my college life. They continue. I'm not good with naming songs and bands, but I know the song. You know what I'm saying? I'm bad at that. I'm not that's something I'm not very good in. I'd like to think and I claim to know a lot of music and songs and titles and artists. I never went out of clue on that. You never heard that song? Never heard of it. That song was big in my college career. Not my high school career. But yeah, that song was a pool there. Face Down. Did you play that because Bryce Young's face down? You know, I wish I was that far ahead. You should have just owned it. Yes, I did that for sure. That's exactly why I did that random. I did that for that. That's exactly why I did that B's. But yeah, also Deebo Samuel, just you know, Rappaport just tweeted this out. CAF strain will miss a few weeks for Deebo Samuel. So he had a decent game last yesterday, I think. Deebo misses a few weeks every year. Shoulder. Every single year he misses that. This is the injury bug that's going on in the NFL. Toa, Hurt, they say he's not expected to retire though. Isaiah Pacheco breaks his fibula. That's what Tank Del broke last year. And also Charlie Morton when he got that line drive off him in the World Series. Cooper Cup has a high ankle sprain. McVay mentioned today, IR candidate and is expected to miss a significant amount of time. Told you about this. Significant amount of time. Jordan Love. Yeah, Jordan Love. They're in my back next week. I don't, I think they're going to sit them at least one more week because they're playing at Tennessee and they're not fearful of Will Levison company. Yeah, it's going to call. Like the following week they play Minnesota. There's a first round curse though, I think, in the NFL. Like players who were being drafted in fantasy football on the first round, Christian McCaffrey, Dunzo, Tyree Kill got into a little deal with the police. Justin Jefferson had the quad injury. Chase has had the contract and the yelling at the ref. Puka was a first rounder. Puka had it has been placed on the IR. I think I'm missing a couple. Burrow had the injury come. Not a first rounder though. I don't know. He wasn't a first rounder. Oh, Burrow wasn't. So I think maybe, maybe I got them all right. But that's pretty significant. It's a curse. Jermaine Johnson towards Achilles done for the year. That was a big loss for the Jets. Yeah, especially with the whole fact that they're son, son, Rhettick isn't playing. Rhettick's not playing. Their defense doesn't even look like it was a year ago, and their offense isn't anything special. They were in a freaking heavyweight punchers duel with the Titans, and it should never be that way if they're as good as I thought they were going to be. I misread the Jets. I think the Jets are mediocre. And he's already getting showing signs I've seen before. When he puts a ball where it's supposed to be and the guy drops it, he gets really ticked off, and I saw a lot of that. Yeah, I think the Jets will be fighting for that final wild curse. That's probably right. I think the Bills are going to run away with that decision. As much as I thought the Jets would win the division, and the Bills would be the wild card, I think it's reversed. I think it's going to be like a three game divisional lead. Yeah, they look like they have no signs of falling off now that they lost digs and other guys. Poir and several others, and the Jets, they look at disarray. Yeah, and then the Bryce Young news is the big news today. He's been benched. He's been not as even benched in the second year of his professional career after only two games with a new coach. Two games with a new coach who's supposed to, I thought he was brought in to fix Bryce Young. I did too. Like they brought in an offensive-minded canalas who like he fixed Baker Mayfield. He's going to fix Bryce Young. He gets benched two weeks into the canalas. Tenure? No, I didn't see it. It seems like it was his idea too. Bryce's or? No, the canalas. It had to have been. So he explains and says, I saw some things that I didn't like. I went and talked to the other people. He wouldn't say who they were, but I'm sure it's the owner and the GM. But he said, I went and talked to the people that are in on decisions with me in these type of situations, and we decided that it was in our best interest to make a change at quarterback. That's not exactly what the recipe was when he was brought in to kind of fix Bryce Young. You think he's doing it to like, hey, Bryce goes through it on the sidelines and like learn for four weeks? Because the question that I have, if they're doing this two games in a canalasist tenure, they're doing this two games in a rookie season into Bryce Young's career. They're doing it for Andy freaking Dalton. Is this throwing the towel in on Bryce Young? I'm afraid it is. I thought the same thing. I thought, well, look, at least they're not going to be as embarrassed because it's been done before. The Niners pulled the plug on Trey Lance. We've seen the quarterbacks recently, no matter where they were drafted. Mac Jones is one of them. Kenny, two gloves picket is another one where you start realizing, even if you were a first round pick, and I know it's even more difficult because he was the number one overall pick, but that it can be done. And if you just realize he's too short, he just doesn't have what we thought that maybe sooner rather than later. So you can one, do what you need to do to embrace the suck to try and get another pick. But more so than that, figure out who the next guy is going to be. From his perspective, if it is, his best case scenario is playing in Minnesota right now. He's his only hope then is to be another Sam Darnold. Go go someplace where you learn for a couple of years, you back someone up, and then maybe you get a chance in a couple of years. He's so weird for Canales, two games into his tenure to be like, "Okay, Bryce, you're done." I'm wondering though, I think that the only, I'm with you, but I think that there is a small chance where it's like, let's just press the reset button. Like this is so bad, let's start from scratch. We have to completely rebuild all five foot eight of Bryce Young. And so it's, we're going to hit the reset button. We're going to start from scratch. Okay, Bryce, how are we going to start from scratch? Well, now you're going to be quarterback number two. You're going to be watching how we want things to be operating. So you go take this view for a little while, start to kind of rebuild who you are, kind of see how we want things done after we press this reset button. And then in four to six weeks, after you've kind of like, taught yourself these things, Canales is working on who you're going to be as a quarterback. Two months from now, you get your chance again. And this is your last chance under day, under Canales. I don't think that he's not going to get another chance again in his career. And maybe that is the right way to look at this. But I don't think that they're going to, in the rebuild of breaking him all the way down to rebuild him back up. They could put enough lift in his cleats to make him what he's, he's never going to change, which is he is small. And at least when Canales had a guy like Baker, he had a guy that could escape a little bit, that was sturdy though. He's not tall, but he's sturdy. And he can make all the throws and he can read defenses enough. And he can do the things necessary to be successful. And that's what I'm saying. If Canales saw Baker Mayfield and stuck with him enough to do things with him, something has to tell him right now that what he sees in Bryce Young, ain't it? But I think he has to try to rebuild him though. Cause like you don't have playoff aspirations and you're one with Sam Garland. Sorry or with Andy Dalton, like sorry, you don't. Like if you're not turning to Andy Dalton because you're trying to make a postseason run. So your only hope right now, if you have a franchise quarterback is Bryce Young, I think this move is more directed at how they can make Bryce Young better than it is for the betterment of the team that it is because Andy Dalton's going to lead them to the promised land. I think that this move is a philosophical move of how they can make Bryce Young, the best Bryce Young long term. I think that you might be onto something with that. But I, because I think that what I was going to say is you're basically telling me it's David Carr before he gets to the full David Carr, like he's got, he's got PTSD. He's been beat up a lot. A lot of people say you've never put enough around him that maybe you kind of take all the negativity out of it and all that he's been through and take the stress off for a couple of weeks and then say let's just gradually work you into seeing what you can be. You're ruining all the development and the potential of Bryce Young playing him right now. So let's not ruin that and play him right now. Let's let him kind of have a different vantage point for six weeks and then see what it looks like in six weeks. It's like you have a really talented sixth grade football player and you call them up to the varsity and you know at North Shore where it's like if you have him playing, they're going to ruin him. They're going to ruin him. All the development that player has, all the promise that player has will be completely erased because he's being ruined by the competition that he's facing. And it's weird to talk about a guy who was the first overall pick in this vein, but I think that's what they see. We're like, man, this isn't the Bryce Young we saw in Alabama. This isn't the Bryce Young that we saw that was picked number one overall. He was ruined by the previous regime, the previous staff. He is the development and the promise isn't there and he's not growing at the rate we want because the previous staff ruined him. How can we get that back? Press the hard reset. You almost try to do like the whole Will Smith, like you forget the past and then try to reinvent who he is in six weeks. And I think that the other thing is, is that you know, Andy Dalton's going to do a good enough job of doing what he does best too. And he's going to basically keep, he'll do some things, but he'll keep the losing train going. But at the same time, with that kind of an offensive line, if there is any kind of promise or any kind of hope for him, don't keep throwing him out there to get the hell beat out of him because it's not going to do you any favors to where you can now get him to sit and observe. You can kind of break it all the way down to the studs and say, hey, look, we're going to give you every opportunity to figure it all out and we're going to try and figure it out with you. Because the other thing that was inquisitive that I was thinking about was, would a McDaniel in Miami see enough in him to say, if I needed a guy, if two is going to be out for a significant amount of time, if I gave him an opportunity with all this talent around where he just has to be another version of Brock Purdy or try to be like Brock Purdy and just get the ball in playmaker's hands. Could one, he do better than what I've got? And two, could I get something out of him? But if you're Carolina, after all you gave up for him, you're getting literally less than pennies on the dollar, your Panthers wouldn't trade him for nothing. I think that's why this is a long term move to try to get the most enterprise young. Triple zero two says he's basically the same height as Simone Biles cannot see over the line. But I was probably have better escape ability than Bryce Young does. Bear brother says that trade's looking worse than the Sean Watson trade. That one doesn't look good either. Let's get to our car wreck of the day. What are you nominating for your car wreck of the day? seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. It's the bees on ESPN 97 five and ESPN 92 five. My colleague, you've aged class of 1990. He's been protecting the interest of businesses for nearly 25 years. Go cooks. HRP provides comprehensive human capital management services, including HR compliance, benefits administration and payroll. HRP will also work with you to customize a plan for whatever you need. There's nothing cookie cutter about HRP. If you need a little help, a lot of help, anything in between HRP will create a plan for what you and your business needs. Their customer service second to none. You'll never talk to a stranger on the other side of the line. You'll be calling someone familiar with you and familiar with your company. I can speak to that customer service. Anytime I have a question, always get a quick response. Very easy to understand. Let HRP take on the demands of human resources and eliminate your HR burdens so you can get back to growing your business. Give them a call at 281-880-6525. Let HRP customize a plan for you to 818-80-6525 or check them out at HRP.net. That's HRP.net. ESPN, 975. 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. Astros are in San Diego for the first of three tonight. Spencer Araghetti, 7-12, 472 ERA. Facing U-Darvish, 5-3-52 ERA. Where's Uli Guriel when you need him? He always did well against U-Darvish. Oops. He did? He always hit him well. Well, he also got a substantial fine and suspension because of what he did about it. No, I knew what I was doing. I know you did too. Where's Uli? Can they crave form for one game? Because I'm facing U-Darvish. Great worries about Spencer Araghetti tonight. Why is that? Because the Padres are a good offensive team. They have a lot of talent. He's going up against a good pitcher on the other side too. And I think that this is not what I needed as an opponent for Araghetti right now. So I think we're really going to have to see what he can truly be. And I'm a little concerned. So what's he going to do tonight? Five and four. I know you're not taking it, but that's what I'm feeling right now. I help him wrong. Do you think they could beat the Padres? Oh, I think they could beat the Padres. No, if Araghetti gives you five and four, are you beating U-Darvish and the Padres tonight? I don't think so. All right, so I can't take it then. I can't take it. I need him to do better than that. I need him to do better than that. He's going to have to do better. I need him to do better than that. I don't feel like he's going to. Yeah, Araghetti versus Darvish tonight, Hunter Brown versus King tomorrow, and then Wednesday, 540 start. Fromber and Dylan Sees. That's a pretty good pitch. It is a really good pitch and match. Dylan Sees quietly has done pretty good to resurrect his career. Yeah, he's done pretty good. All right, let's get to our car record of the day. You all right? My leg is broken, the balls coming through. This is the car wreck of the day. All right. What is your car wreck of the day? 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6. What you got, blinkers? It's the combo platter out of Green Bay, Wisconsin of center Josh Myers, quarterback Malik Willis, and head coach Matt LaFloor. Malik Willis, by the way, for the first time in his NFL career, threw over 100 yards at 1-23, but there was a big third down conversion in which Malik Willis didn't throw the football, and LaFloor asked Malik why he didn't throw it, and he said, because Josh threw up on the ball. I saw that. Why wouldn't he throw it though? He was trying to be like a good teammate? He was like, I was like, that's the first time I've ever heard that LaFloor said, and Malik said, matter of fact, Sean Hockley came over to me and said, we saw your center throwing up on the ball. You want us to take him out next time? And I said, absolutely please do that, because you're talking about a critical situation. It's third down, and I've never had to throw a ball with vomit on it. But why wouldn't he throw the ball? Like he said, a mud ball in golf, you're worried about the slice? I don't know if it's that you thought it was going to be too slippery, or that you were worried that you didn't want to throw it to a receiver. That's what I'm saying. I don't know why the exact reason was, but it was definitely because you puke it on the ball. Like if I had adrenaline in a football game, and you and I, like I was a quarterback, you were my receiver, I would have zero issues throwing you a football ball with puke on it. I would expect it to. No issue whatsoever. I want to nominate Will Levis. Will Levis gifted away three points. Again, his coach, Callahan, saying, what are you doing? It's not above the field I love. My assessment of Will Levis was pretty dang accurate. I say he had tons of potential, sneaky athleticism, huge arm. If he can eliminate the mistakes, he can be really good. He hasn't been able to eliminate the mistakes. Hasn't, I do think Callahan's going to be good for him though. I think you're right, but I think he makes Brett Favre look conservative on the gunslinger approach. Because after he made that play and got lit up by his head coach, you'd think that he'd probably dial it down a little. He threw it a double coverage and got picked off on the very next one. I don't think he's going to be able to escape it. I don't think he's going to be able to make better decisions with the football. He does. He does. That's the biggest hang up on him being a good quarterback in the NFL. 6 9 6 7 A&M been in the SEC for over a decade. Never been ranked number one. Texas has been there for two months and already can claim that over them. It sucks to suck. Sounds like a long word is texting into our show. Quite possibly. That's the biggest. Josh from Seabrook Carrick to the day bears offensive line. Is that Mitch Trabisky? Justin Fields are Caleb Williams and then two Bryce Young. He looks like a mini David Carr. Wait, three Baltimore Ravens for shooting themselves in the foot. All right, what's winning? I think any time that your center throws up on the football, and that's why you say you didn't throw a pass that wins. You think so? That's not the look. You just said it. And he's any professional, whether there's puke on the ball or not. I'm throwing it. Levis like perverbally puked with the throw in the ball. And after the last play, a Jets player puked on TV. No, I will give it. We'll give it to the pukeer. You can win. Win it something today. You want to do co and be or. No, he can correct. He is our car wreck of the day. All right, it's going to do it for us. Thanks to be Rod Boston Rodriguez for doing the hard work. He's blank on Branham. Coming up next, boss and the gloss right here on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 92 5. Talk to you tomorrow Houston. Hey. ESPN 97 5. Owning a rental property sounds like a dream until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. Determine a competitive rent price, market the property, schedule the showing screen, tenants draft the lease at a rent collection, handle maintenance request, maintain communication. Whew, sound complicated? Renner's warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to do list. Qualify tenants, check. Rent collection, check. Maintenance coordination, you got it. Go to runnerswarehouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. Or call 303-974-9444. Because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call runners warehouse.