The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
09/23 Hour 1 - Texans Got Dominated in Minnesota, What's Our Concern Level?
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[MUSIC PLAYING] Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, how are we doing? He's blank. I am Branham. It is Brian behind the glass. And it is a Monday edition of The Killer Bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. Got its football happen over the weekend. Josh Hader blew a save. He were on Alvarez, destroyed his knee by sliding into second base. And the Houston Texans get embarrassed. And embarrassed in Minnesota. Following by 27 points, the largest margin of defeat in the D'Amico Ryan's era. Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays. Who? Who has the case of the Mondays? Define. Who has the case of the Mondays? All the Texans fans. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people have a case of the Mondays. I'm OK. I'm all right. I'm not too, like, depressed with this loss. It wasn't very good. It wasn't very pretty. I don't even know where to begin. For me, Blankers, I think the Texans never felt comfortable. Like, even from the moment that game was kicked off, first offensive series, they felt uncomfortable. And then it was just like a tidal wave of skull momentum the rest of the way. You had opportunities to break the momentum. Whether it was like, you know, score in the first half. Whether it's get a stop at the start of the second half. You scored a touchdown to make it a 14 point game with about four minutes left to go in the third quarter. Get a stop and a score there. All of a sudden it's a one possession game with about 10 minutes left to play. It never felt like the Texans got comfortable in the game. Throwing all the penalties, throwing the turnovers, throwing the momentum. And that every time they had a chance to do that, they just couldn't. Yeah, no. And I think that a majority of the penalties happened on third down. A lot of times after a completion where it looked like they were finally building some momentum. I had someone come up to me this morning and tell me they knew it was going to be jinxed in an awful day for the Texans when they had to do the re-kick of the kickoff so that they could get the big Viking horn blow off. Which one? There was two. Like they had a re-kick in each half. Right. I know. But they said to start the game, evidently the kickoff happened too soon because before, before the kickoff, they're supposed to do that. And they didn't do it so they redid it for that. I don't think that's why they redid it. I think they redid it for TV. I think the kicker just, I think the young kicker just, they said, jumped the gun. In the referee he thought signaled and they didn't. But regardless, I mean, look, you're right. They did not look good. I did not feel good about it the entire game. I kept hoping that they would do something different. I thought from the second half standpoint, I thought they'd come out and adjust. The fact that they were giving such a pad to Justin Jefferson all day long was, I mean, unbelievable to me because of the fact you were just letting him run free, get full momentum, get wide open. Darnold had all day, CJ didn't. I was constantly concerned about the fact that he was just under duress seemingly all afternoon. They couldn't do anything right. And you look at the offensive line and you would think, well, probably, you know, you would assume guys were out. Guys weren't out. That was just a really, really bad performance overall. And the line was terrible. Yeah, they couldn't do wrong, right? In addition to that, I feel like they were outcoached. If you look at the matchup between Kevin O'Connell and DeMico Ryan yesterday, Kevin O'Connell won that by a landslide. I like Kevin O'Connell, by the way. I think he's a really good coach. I wasn't pressed listening to him all week long and after the game yesterday. But he easily outcoached DeMico Ryan's. One of the big questions we had with Derek Stingley travel. No, no, Derek Stingley didn't travel. How are they defend Justin Jefferson? You mentioned the free releases. Justin Jefferson in the first half did to the Texans what Amari Cooper did at the Texans last year in the regular season. I wonder if DeMico was a little stubborn because, like, you go back to that Amari Cooper game. He refused to travel Derek Stingley in the regular season. Did it for one series when Stephen Nelson had to leave the game with an injury. Then when Nelson came back, he went back to not following Stingley and shadowing Amari Cooper. Then in the playoffs, he switched it up. Yesterday, he didn't do that. He used Derek Stingley on one half of the field. He used Kamari Laster on one side of the field. And then they were allowing Justin Jefferson. And you heard the broadcasters, Charles Johnson, or Robinson, talking about the entire game. They're allowing him free releases, free releases, free releases. And whenever you're going up against arguably the best receiver in the NFL, that is a recipe for disaster. Yeah, it really is. And I think you mentioned it. You just have to wonder at a certain point, like why didn't you just do what you did in the playoffs when it worked? When you know how good of a corner that you have and when you know how good of a receiver Justin Jefferson is and Addison's out, just do what you have to do to take him out of the equation. It's the old Belichick philosophy of take away your biggest weapon or what you do best and then make you do something else to beat me. And they just seemed to not do that all game long and it was frustrating because of the fact that Jefferson was getting whatever he wanted. Aaron Jones, on the other hand, too, for a defense that we were all feeling so very good about because of how they had played so far. They were getting run over. They were getting passed over and they just weren't getting any pressure on Sam Darnold to where they could get anything off-kilter for the Viking. Yeah, I thought it was sporadic. I thought at times you got a little bit of pressure, like Tim Settle, of all people, had a couple of sacks, but it just wasn't consistent enough. And even whenever you did create a little bit of pressure, Sam Darnold of all people was able to make some off-script plays, like the first touchdown to Jefferson. That was off-script. He was running out of the pocket. Justin Jefferson broke loose because Eric Murray slipped in the end zone, fell down. Justin Jefferson was as wide open as you could get. And then on the other side of the ball, the matchup between Bobby Slowick and Brian Flores, I'm not sure which side the Texans lost more. They lost Amiko Ryan's Kevin O'Connell. No doubt. They lost Bobby Slowick, Brian Flores. I don't know which side of the ball they lost worse. I would guess offensively because John Grinnard feasted on the Houston Texans. When the Texans offense was on the field, John Grinnard was easily the best player on the field. And Bobby Slowick is freaking using Kate Stover to try to block John Grinnard, which is a slap in the face to John Grinnard. John Grinnard has to feel disrespected by the Houston Texans, right? They had preliminary contract negotiations, but never gave them an offer. They signed Old Man, Danil Hunter instead of bringing back John Grinnard who had a career year. And then they're using Kate Stover, a rookie tied in to try to block them. I bet you John Grinnard in that moment felt like the Houston Texans were spitting in his face. Well, he actually said it after the game that he was, I'll disrespect, but I don't think he's disrespectful. The exact quote first play of the game to try to block me with a rook. Grinnard told the chronic was he left the locker room. They tried to block me with a rookie tied in. It's disrespectful. I ain't never seen that double negative, but you pay him for sacks, not for his grand. And they did it multiple times. They used them another time outside of left tackle to try and do it. It was just like, what are you trying to set yourself up for a massive disaster on multiple plays? And I think that to your question, I think they lost both in a landslide. I would lean on the fact that we talked all week about how good Brian Flores was as a defensive coordinator, regardless of anything else that's happened with him with head coaching opportunities. He proved just how good he can be defensively with the weapons that he has. Almost every ex Texan was doing something all over the football field, but he had guys coming from all different angles. He had that push up the middle, constantly showing just how vulnerable the inside part of the offensive line was on almost every dropback. CJ felt a push coming right up in his face that he had to move out of the way of. And I thought Brian Flores was genius in the way he moved his defense around. Yeah, that was, it was a mismatch on both sides of the football. And that was very, very disappointing to see. Bernard was outstanding. I think it's time it's only been one game. I think Irv Smith gives you a better option as tied in number two for the Houston Texans than Kate Stover. Kate Stover, his look better as a fullback than he has it tied in. Yeah, I think you're right. I think that if you want to use him as your replacement at fullback when they do get the running game going like they used with mixing in week one, then that's fine. But I think that he is a rookie and, you know, they knew when they drafted him. That he had worked to do and he got worked. I mean, he needs to learn some things and really kind of get settled in in the NFL in a lot of ways before you rely on him that heavily. And to be honest, Jeremy, one of the things that I really was annoyed by all day was the tight end position period because I think Dalton Schultz looked, looked disinterested. Dalton Schultz didn't show me a lot of effort. The one ball that Charles Davis, I think mentioned it, but I went back and I rewound it like two or three times going, "That ball, I love the way that CJ threads the ball with touch over the top of the first layer. The defense and drops it in." Dalton Schultz was open with a linebacker behind him and he alligator armed it. He could have caught that football if he just gave a little more effort. There was a couple of them. That one stood out to me too. I thought I was like, "Dude, go make a play." Yes. I thought it was a really good place ball. And Schultz just kind of nonchalantly went up for it. He had another one on the sideline where he kind of went at it. And then he had the very near fumble. Right. Right. He looked like he had a whole lot of don't want to and it's like they took care of you. You've got this really good football team that everybody keeps talking about in a positive light. You're a big part of that if you just play your game and it looked like he didn't give a rat's ass what he did on the football field or how much effort he gave. Yeah. He didn't get Kate Stoverd by John Grinard, but there was another play. I think it was John Grinard, not exactly sure which defensive lineman it was, but I'm pretty sure it was John Grinard. Well, he didn't get blown up like Stover, but he got pushed right into CJ Stroud. Like it wasn't as big a highlight play, but it was equally ineffective. Where he basically was the one who got to CJ Stroud and created the pressure because he was being driven backwards. Yeah. I thought Schultz played incredibly poorly yesterday. I thought there was bad complimentary football in this one too. Like mentioned it a little bit ago. The Texans for as bad as they played were within 14 with 345 left in the third. Like they had a chance with 345 left in the third as bad as they played. What happens after that touchdown, which you know, the Texans actually moved the ball a little bit here and there. Like, yes, they were just terrorized by penalties. I thought that they moved it somewhat okay considering what the score was, that they only scored one touchdown. Like they actually moved it at times pretty good with the exception of scoring points. You missed a field goal. You had some penalties as soon as you got across to the Viking side of the field, et cetera, et cetera. But you pulled to within 14 the first time that you get into the end zone. What happens immediately after that? You've got 200 kicks the ball out of bounds, setting up the Vikings for good field position. They then go on a drive that lasts about five, six minutes, get a field goal out of it. And just like that, it's a three possession game. Like you had an opportunity there, complimentary football, go get a three and out. Get the football with, you know, right at the start of the fourth quarter or a little bit of time left in the third quarter. And you have an opportunity to go score and maybe make it a one possession game with 10, 12 minutes left to play. Nope, kick it out of bounds, allow a scoring drive that allows the Vikings to immediately take it to three possession yet again. Yeah. And just put in then the fourth quarter after that was just a debacle, the fourth down they had to try and go for that they had no chance of getting. They just like once they entered the fourth quarter, the game was already over and it was because of the fact this was still Sam Darnell. He made a couple of passes. He made it a backhanded push pass that somehow not only got through, but it looked like it could have gotten broken up, but it was caught. He made that stupid little pass to Aaron Jones with defenders all over in the area that it was ruled incomplete, but that could have, you could have tried to do something there. It's Sam Darnell. I mean, you look at his whole career, if you just put pressure on him, you should be able to do something to him and they just couldn't get home. They couldn't do anything to kind of change the momentum once Minnesota got the ball back. See, I think they created more pressure than you're giving them credit for. I just feel like they were able to handle it. I think they were able to handle it. I think Sam Darnell at times was pretty good at improvising. He moved better than I give him credit for because he was more athletic than I give him credit for. He was able to kind of scramble around, get out of the pocket, gain some yardage. You're writing that a couple times I was watching Will Anderson. He was close to getting home. I thought Hunter had a couple of chances to get home. But overall, that's not the same defense I saw the first two weeks of the season. And I think credit to the Vikings in terms of their offensive line, too, and the way that they were able to run the football because Aaron Jones looked pretty damn good, too. It went over a hundo pretty easy, pretty easy game for the Vikings, who maybe they're better than we think. Maybe the Vikings are better than we think. The defense certainly is pretty good. All right, seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESPN. We'll look at every angle of this game. How did CJ Stroud perform, worst performance in the Demico Ryan's era? Melbag Monday will get into, I believe, what do you believe after the college football weekend? We're going to have to have the Laramie Tunsel conversation. Lance kind of went scorched earth on Laramie Tunsel a little bit earlier today. And then there's something that I feel like nobody's talking about. It was something that Demico Ryan's did yesterday that we'll get to as well. You were on Alvarez, the walking glass man injured, hopefully, you know, knocking on wood that it's decent news. Steve Sparks seems to think that it's decent news. Hopefully Steve Sparks is right. I saw some tweets yesterday. I saw some tweets yesterday saying that it was uncharacteristic for the amount of times the Houston Texans were penalized yesterday. Is that an accurate statement? I did a deep dive. And also the question I have for you are the Texans and undisciplined football team. Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, ESPN, HRP listener line. We're on the Twitch Twitch.tv/espn975 on the YouTube at ESPN Houston on the Twitter at ESPN 975. Blankers at Pac-Man Joel, Brian's at sack by BMAC Ahmed, Jeremy Branham. It is the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. Look, basketball season's right around the corner. Practices will be starting soon at the college level. They're going to be starting pretty soon at the professional level. Some guys are just up and retiring. 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Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. I paid up my bets. Blankers and I had a bet. I think you were out one day. Were you out one day last week, Brian? Was that the week before? No, I think I was here every day last week. Oh, you're out so much. I came from Cal. We made that bet last week. We're seven and a half penalties. Over under. I took the under. Lost miserably. So I paid up the bet. We did. I don't like to. Although I owe you on the Yordon one too. You won that one. Even though he did get hurt. So Dameko's talking about the penalties here. Hope it was worth it, Joel. Hope it was worth it. I knew it was the bet. I knew that was going to be the end result. Yeah. No, he wasn't playing an outfield when he got hurt. Eleven penalties 88 yards for the Houston Tech Congestiate. Laramie Tunso I think had all of these. We'll talk about Laramie Tunso later. Pre-snapped penalties offensively. You had some big penalties defensively. Like we mentioned that, you know, you could have had a complimentary stop. Daniel Hunter got called for a roughing the pass. Which I actually thought was a bad call. He got blocked in the feet of the quarterback. I thought he got pushed into him. And then you had the Petrie pass interference in the second half as well. I actually thought that was a good call. I know. I didn't think he had to do it. Yeah, definitely not. Yeah. I think that was on him. It was stupid stupidity in the fact that you didn't have to put your hands on him. I don't think it was catchable and I thought he was in a good enough position. He didn't have to do it. I'm a little worried that Petrie can't cover without using his hands. I think that might be true. We saw it last year a lot too. And I think that was the biggest concern. I love the fact that you moved into the slot. My biggest concern was coverage. We know he likes to get in the box. He likes to stick his nose in there and make tackles. But he had a lot of issues covering last year at safety and deep balls and such and angles. He's got to do it still and it doesn't look great. So I saw some tweets yesterday saying that the Texans getting penalized is uncharacteristic for a D'Amico Ryan's team. They had double digit penalties last week. They had 11 penalties yesterday. So I was like, is that uncharacteristic for a D'Amico Ryan's team? Is that accurate that the Houston Texans are a team that do not get penalized? Take a guess where the Houston Texans ranked last year in penalties in the NFL. Just total amount of penalties called for teams in the NFL. Just take a guess with the Houston Texans ended up. Not even close. Not even close. They were in the top half but not even close to 12. Not even close to 12. 19. If you say 11, you would have won. No. It's the top half. I guess I didn't hear that. They were fourth. They were the fourth most penalized team last year. They were one penalty away from being tied for second. Jets were the most 124 Browns and Cowboys tied for second at 115. The Texans were at 114. So the Texans were the fourth most penalized team last year in the NFL. One penalty away from being tied for second. So the idea that D'Amico Ryan's teams are it's uncharacteristic that they're being penalized so much. According to what according to what they were what they were one of the most penalized teams in the NFL last year. Okay. What about this year? What about 2024? Yes. It's only three weeks. You can't draw a conclusion for the entire season based on three games. Yes. There are still some Monday night football games to Monday night football games to be played tonight. So perhaps one of these four teams that are playing on Monday night or a couple of these teams that are playing on Monday night will pass the Texans. The Texans are currently third. They're third in the NFL with 28 penalties behind the Ravens at 31 behind the Browns at 29. So the Texans were fourth last year. They are currently third this year. And what world is it uncharacteristic for a D'Amico Ryan's team to be a team that's committing tons of penalties? I would say it's the opposite. I would say this is the norm. It's more of something that I don't think people focused enough time on because the team had success last year because they got off to the start that they got this year. When you looked at it and you and I talked about it a week ago, I was already concerned. And I'm shocked that Dallas wasn't number one last year because seemingly getting those games as much as we did too, they were constantly in double digits. I guess I didn't watch enough Jets games, but I was shocked that Dallas wasn't number one because McCarthy looked like and rightfully so. It looks like a guy that doesn't have control or he's not doing enough because from that aspect of it because it never went away. It never stopped. It never slowed down. That was my concern coming out of last week was the fact that when you get that many penalties, that's not just, oh, one of those refereeing crews that were focused on, you know, a point of emphasis and or a few penalties here and there. That was bad. And I put it to a level of concern where it needed to be fixed. I'm not sure how quickly they can fix it. Now it really needs to be a point of emphasis for them. Don't you shouldn't it always be though? Yes, it should be, but different people coach differently, I guess. But at the same time, because this, I heard Paul and Joe talking about tonsils penalties over the last since 2019 or something like that, it's 40, 40 penalties tonsils had for moving on the offensive line. And the whole offensive line was not good, but I mean, you would think the offensive line coaches are working with this offensive line also going into that building and we talked about it how many times it's a loud place to play. You need to be prepared for that, whether it's, you know, depending on what count you use and how you're going to go about your business, but you have to already anticipate the fact that you'll get false starts if you're not completely prepared for a building that's going to be that rock is loud with a roof on it. But it's an issue that they have to work on. I just don't know how quick they're going to be able to fix it. Yeah, I think this is a characteristic of a Demico Ryan's team. I think the proof is in the pudding and some, some coaches are okay with penalties more than others. It's like, okay, we want to be it now the pre snap stuff is where it's frustrating. But some, some coaches, like especially defensive coaches, it's like, okay, we can live with a passenger interference every now and then because we want to err on the side of being a physical team. We want to err on the side of being a team who's sticky and coverage. We want to err on the side of getting to the quarterback. So there are some philosophies that we can live with some penalties. But whenever you're fourth in the league and you're currently third in the league, yes, a small sample, you cannot tell me that it's uncharacteristic of the Houston Texans to be penalized so much because the fact is it's not true. They are a team that gets penalized a ton. I'm curious too, like how many of those are offensive penalties because to me, those are wearing tonsils. That's what I'm saying because I mean, you can look up, I mean, tonsil has nine right now, doesn't he? But I would be curious because even last yesterday during the game, they said between the Vikings and Texans, obviously the Texas had a lot more than the Vikings. They said every penalty through the first, I think 10 calls were all on the offense that they didn't have a defensive penalty. It might have been until the Petri PI that they didn't have a defensive penalty in the game. But to me, it seems like the majority of the Texas penalties seem to come from the offensive side of the football. Yeah. I mean, you get a good amount defensively though. I mean, you just look at the game. Yeah, I'm just saying. You had you had Daniel Hunter yesterday, there was probably I can't I can't give any more off the top of my head. That's too there. You said Hunter and Petri. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to think other than that. I can't really think of any, but but the fact is, is because we see tonsil do it, I think it's averaging a penalty every game and a half, but it seems like it's been more lately, but it's not just him. I mean, Howard had one last week. Can you tell us nine on the year for what it's worth and green and Howard and you, you know, you just look at it and you're like, I don't know if it's an offensive line coaching thing too. I think you're under something there. There has to be something done to focus clearly on the snap counts, the buildings you're playing in and be as prepared as you can possibly be so that this isn't happening anymore. And look, we've talked about this before. You know, damn well, that the officials came into the teams and met with the teams pre-season and prior to pre-season and said point of emphasis this year, we are not going to let this whole chief's offensive line thing go anymore where you're basically tilted halfway into the backfield already with an angle to slow down the defensive ends. You knew it. We saw it from week one on the helmet of the other line and have to be in line with the belt line of the center, tonsil just kept doing it. Yeah. And Demico was, I can't remember if it was today or yesterday, but Demico was asked about, you know, the referees talking to you and that's something that they went around to all of these teams and they told them, like, these are the point of emphasis this year. Whenever I used to cover the Texans, I was in one of the referee briefings, like they brought in the media. Here are the things we are looking for this year. And they've made it very clear that that's the stuff that they're looking for this year. And I can understand the player frustrations where it's been a little bit gray, like there are times when they line up probably off the line that they're getting away with and there's other times they're lining up in the same exact spot and they're being penalized for it. The truth of the matter is they probably should have been penalized for it both times. It is a point of emphasis. And I think that what the players need to start doing, like if it happens one time, it's like, okay, ticky tack, they're not going to allow us to get away with it today. Okay. I can deal with one. It's kind of one of the, you know, fool me, want shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. But the moment that it happens one time, why aren't you looking to the line judge and be like, Hey, am I on receivers doing every single play, a receiver doesn't every single play? Why wouldn't you after you've been penalized for it one time either go talk to the official or secondly, every single time that you're lining up, point to the official and let him know, Hey, am I on? And they're going to give you an answer. And at that point, you're putting the on the onus on him because now it's he has to give me an answer in this moment. And now I know before the snap of the football. So for this to happen to a single player multiple times, I think is laziness. The other thing too, is that you mentioned it, the message is sent with the first one that gets called, especially when you know, no one really was anticipating that there was a hold or anything else. It's kind of like that's the message sent. Hey, look, this crew, they're going to be focused on that. We knew Monday night, I think it was in week one, they were going to on national TV. They were going to make that a big deal. And we saw it right away because when you look at the replay, the offensive line wasn't doing anything other than they had done all of last season, but you're right, you should be checking it. The officials are there. They're not going to sit there and like, you know, turn the other cheek to you. And the receivers do it all the time. You've got to be willing to care about your craft enough that you accept the fact that, Hey, for me, until you, you know, you go to a certain point on the line, but until you get set, you can look, you can ask, and if you talk to them prior to that, all it takes is a head nod or you take it ahead. Yeah, that's to me, and a lot of people, oh, they're not calling it a, they're not calling it fairly. No, it's all, it's your job. You get one, you get one, the, the, whatever ad-hocculi son name is, he was the one that was on the season opener with Baltimore and Kansas City. His crew calls it a lot, but in fairness to the officials, if they're not calling it, they're being docked by the league, which could potentially cost them post season assignment. So I don't blame the officials for being sticklers on it. If they're going to be graded based on how they're officiating that play. So you get one. Okay, this crew's not going to allow us to get away with it. You get one, Larametunzel, you get one Titus Howard. You get one, really the tack was the little ones that are in question here. And in the moment it happens once I need you to either a, have a conversation with the officials today, where do I need to line up? Or b, talk to the line judge before every single snap, not doing so. I think it's a little bit of a lack of accountability. And then the whole, like yesterday with the penalties and look, I think the Texans are a heavily penalized team. The idea that, oh, it's uncharacteristic. They get penalized. No, it's not. No, it's not. They were fourth in the league last year. But specifically in that game yesterday, the penalties wiped off three 15 yard gains or more 15 yard gain CJ to Nico, a race 17 yard gain CJ to Hutchinson, Oh, race 15 yard gain CJ to Tangdell, oh, race. That's how like, like, we just had a texture saying, you know, the penalties you look at at 11 penalties, 88 yards, that's not too bad considering 8.8 yards per penalty. But then you look at the sunk cost of it. Yeah, it might be 11 for 88. That isn't look as bad because you're like thinking 11 penalties should be over 100 yards. But look when it took away, it took away 17 yard gains. It took away a 15 yard gain that Dorels drives, Dorels drives. Yeah, because the, the when is the most important thing, not the yards you're penalized, because if you're already sitting behind the chains at third and seven, third and eight, now you're sitting at third and 14, third and 15 chances are they're going to run a draw or a quick screen and get the hell out and they're punting as opposed to the fact that you're right on the, when you did have the play run, it negated the fact that you got a first down, you got a chunk play, you got, you kept a drive alive. But then to redo the play after the penalty, in most cases, they just ran the football or they took a short gain and decided to kick it away because they knew it was too deep of a hole to try and dig out of. And they didn't want to take the chance of getting something picked off. Yeah, it's, to me, it's not so much always the penalty yardage. It's okay. What did it do for the drive three different occasions that wiped out a first down on drives that could have ended in points. And now all of a sudden you go from a third and five converting on a 17 yard gain into Vikings territory. Now it's a third and 15 and you're one play away from punting. Yeah. It's just drives. That's the frustration of all of it. And, and, and like I said, for years in the NBA, they did the same stuff. The referees went around to every single camp and they said, this is what we're focusing on. It's a no brainer. We knew it. Everyone in the league that watches football knows it. This is something they are out to change because of the fact that it was getting too egregious with the way the offensive lineman were cheating to get ahead of the defensive rush. So if you know it and then you know early on, they're calling it because I believe five of the 11 penalties were on third downs. That's awful right there in itself because that is a momentum killer for a game. I mean, good, good luck converting, you know, and in some of these, some of these, you were converting, you were converting and they got wiped off. And then all of a sudden you, you're looking at a third down in 10, seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESP and HR and Pete listener line. How much are you concerned about the Texans penalty tracker? Are they an undisciplined football team? And then what's your concern for this Texans offensive line? Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESP and the HR and Pete listener line, it is the bees on ESPN 97 five and ESPN 92 five October Fest is back. Yes. It's that time of year. Fall is around the corner in October Fest is coming soon. Make plans now Saturday, October 5th, Sunday, October 6th for October Fest on the chemo boardwalk. German beer. Yes, please. German food. Yes, please. Live music, cornhole tournament, Stein holding competitions, costume contest and much, much more. It's going to be a great time as it always is. So it's free for you to attend. Walk around. So head out there October 5th and six beer tickets, beer, Stein's food tickets can be purchased at the event or you can do it online today. Beer including Shiner, October Fest, Shiner bug, new Belgium atomic pumpkin, new Belgium voodoo, juicy haze IPA, new Belgium fat tire IPA, blue moon, Belgian white, Yingling October Fest, Miller light Bud light souvenir, Stein's available for purchase now at chemo boardwalk.com while supplies last so get that done now. And the food at October Fest unbelievable schnitzel on a stick. How good is that German beer, brought worse sausage on a stick German potato salad and then the soft pretzel with the beer cheese going to be so good. Get out there Saturday, October 5th live music one to five costume contest at 5 30 live music by big city nights that evening, there'll be a Stein holding competition at six cornhole tournament at six 30 then on Sunday, more live music from noon until four another costume contest live music five to nine, Stein holding competition in a cornhole tournament, it's going to be so much fun. Get out to October Fest Saturday, October 5th Sunday, October 6th, then you can see the full schedule of events and concert lineup at chemoboardwalk.com that's chemoboardwalk.com We want to be a good football team, you have to win in the trenches, it all starts there so O-line and D-line for me do not play well enough today to help us win the game. Coming to you live from the Veritex community bank studios, it's the killer bees on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5, here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham, it's pretty strong from Amico, I didn't feel like our offensive line was good enough to win the game, like that, I don't want to say throwing the team under the bus because it's a very honest statement, they weren't good enough, they weren't good enough on the offensive line, you look at some of these like the blitz numbers and stuff at CJ Stroud, oh they weren't very good at the blitz, I didn't think that he was actually that poor against the blitz, a 16 of 37 dropbacks, highest blitz rate that he's faced in his career, on those plays he was 8 for 15 for 94 yards including a touchdown and interception and a sack, that's not bad against the blitz, it's actually okay. The issues to me, and I went back and watched a condensed game this morning, the all 22 is not out yet again, and then this was my fear going into this game and I thought DJB anime would really broke it like nailed his assessment of what this game was going to look like with Brian Flores, so many times the Vikings are getting to CJ Stroud with a four man rush, how can you consistently and constantly allow an opposing defense to get to the quarterback with a four man rush? The Colts were having success with it in week one, you saw eber flers do it a lot in week two, especially in the second half in which the Texans didn't score a point or the score three points and then yesterday against the Vikings, Brian Flores, yes, he was blitzing a lot that the Texans I thought actually did okay against the blitz. It was more of an issue that the Vikings yet again, another team getting home with a four man rush throwing stunts at the Houston Texans so many times the Vikings are sending four and the Houston Texans, they're five offensive linemen, you have two guys blocking one guy, you have a free rusher with a four man rush for goodness sakes, the stunts, the games exposed again to this Texans offensive line. No question about it and when you look at the amount of money that was paid to put this line together, when you look at the concerns we had even going into training camp and then you look at the fact that early in the season, the Bears are supposedly a good defense. They held their own, but you're right, the second half was a totally different story than the first half. To that point, the Texans really didn't make any adjustments. I thought at some point during the first half, but especially after halftime, they would make adjustments to try and do what they had to do to try and create more time for CJ and be more efficient offensively to give him a little bit more time, even if it was the pistol or doing some things to try and change something with chips and fullbacks, just to give him enough time because there were plays to be had. You saw some of the plays we talked about that were negated by penalties, but overall, this was a line that if you were starting Patterson or you had to get, you know, you had to make a lot of makeshift changes, you would say, okay, that's one of those games. Not the first two games that they had. You didn't expect to see this and the fact that throughout the game, it almost seemingly was getting worse was a problem because CJ was trying to do everything he could to buy himself an extra second or two. Some of the throws that he made while he had guys in his face were really, really good throws that were just either not completed or they didn't get past the sticks, but it's just unacceptable for a line that has veteran players on it like you have that's getting paid what they're being paid that looked at on paper at the start of the year and what they did in the first two weeks like a line that could be top half of the league to top 10 ish now looks like anything but that. Yeah. See, I think this is the more I think about this and then you can also factor in the fact that they're not lining up appropriately, you know, the false starts are maybe an entity of itself because it seems to be a Laramie tonsil issue more than like everybody else. But I'm wondering how coached up this offensive line is because I don't think that this offensive line lacks talent. Laramie tonsil post snap is one of the best left tackles in the entire NFL. He is he is if he's not committing a false start or lining up inappropriately. Once the ball is snapped, if he hasn't killed the play with a penalty, he is one of the very best at his position after the snap. Kenyan green might not like Kenyan green might have won in Kyle Hamilton is a first round left guard. A juice scrubs with somebody that you drafted in the second round Shaq Mason's a veteran that's solid tight is Howard not only did you draft him in the first round, you gave him top five right tackle money, which you know, is probably a different conversation for a different day. And if he's overpaid or not, but the offensive line does not lack talent. So why is the offensive line struggling because if you go like the Texan, there's not many plays where the Texans offensive line there five, if they're going man on man, it's just block versus block mono a mono, they usually don't get beat there. There's a few occasions here in there, Kenyan green got beat really bad last week. I'm sure whenever we watch the film, there'll be a few occasions this week, but that happens in the NFL. It isn't so much a mono a mono like mess up. It's not them getting man handled. It's not them losing one on one. Usually it's them passing off coverage. Usually it's communication, usually, Oh, the defensive ends running a stunt and the defensive tackles taking out the right tackle. How are we going to block this? There are so many times when the Texans are blocking one guy with two, the other team sending four guys, yet still somehow getting pressure. That's not a talent issue. That is they're not getting coached upgrade, right? Maybe it's the communication within the offensive line, but I don't think it's a talent problem. It's continuity and communication as the play is developing because as the snap is happening the the tackle is normally committed to getting to the outside. You saw that even the tight end was even on the one play with Bernard or there was another play where you had Stover down on that side too, but they both committed to the outside at the same time and he stunted with a linebacker coming from the outside that decided to kind of spit to turn inside as he started his pass rush and both guys are looking outside and the linebacker comes untouched right up the shoot and all it took was the communication of hey I'm going outside so you start inside and then everybody kind of slides down the line. But we talked about it when it was musical chairs last year and it was a big point of contention for me. It's not just about each single individual being good at their position doing what they do. You can't build continuity when guys were constantly moving down the line when Howard was going from tackle to guard and such. But the thing that Flores did was he was exposing the interior line as well. The tackle struggled, but then he also made to make sure to put a ton of pressure from just various different sources coming in from different angles on the interior line and Shaq didn't look like his normal self and it really had scrubs a lot of times kind of looking like discombobulated like where they coming from next head on a swivel and Kenyon Green is still learning along the way though he's been a lot better and Flores was getting home up the middle which I didn't expect. I knew they had passrushers I didn't expect them to get home as much from the middle. That's where the pressure has been coming from the first three weeks of the year though. Like that's where the pressure came from against the Colts that's where the pressure came from against the Bears. Like I don't know that's a surprise. It's a surprise to me because a lot of times and they tried to do it later in the game but to no avail they they were bringing a good ball a they were bringing sober in to where they were trying to add an extra layer so that there was more congestion in the middle to stop that slow down the rush a little bit. They couldn't slow down what Minnesota was doing no matter which way they were coming from. Yeah it's a it's an issue it's an issue and I don't think the issue is talent though like the issues either could it be some continuity sure. I feel like you're going to look a little bit better though like even if it's not continuity I think it might be a coaching thing I think it might be a coaching thing like so many times the Texans are not passing the assignment they're not passing the coverage. You see Kenny and Green chasing an interior pass rusher because he loses them on a game or a stunt and it's a problem it's a problem it's been a problem every single game though. There's one thing to say that a team uses a certain scheme when they block but there's another thing to say within that scheme there has to be the communication and the understanding of when we see this or we're feeling pressure from there everybody it's like a defense and basketball when you're rotating and you're in and you're sliding and you're covering the next man over the the offensive line similarly has to do that depending on where the pressure is coming from and they have to understand that it just didn't seem like anybody had any kind of continuity on that offensive line to help the helper help the other guy that was trying to pick up the rusher if it was coming from the edge or when the linebacker decided to come straight up the middle and the guys are focused on the outside rush. It was a problem like you said interior it might have been a problem all year it was coming from everywhere and they had they looked like they had no clue. It's a it's an issue it's an issue I think that's the biggest issue right now quite frankly the protection of of of CJ's people picking at the secondary okay I wasn't that concerned about the secondary it just seems like it is the number one most glaring issue yeah you can say tonsil himself but overall as an offensive line they didn't play well and when you look at the tape and you watch the game again you'll realize none of those guys played well yeah I think it's even beyond just the offensive line too I think you can just say pass protection like you look at the couple of examples where Kate Stover was trying to walk or an art or Dalton Schultz was trying to block the entire pass protection was poor the offensive line has played poorly through three games and if it's not a lack of talent what is it you know you throw out continuity could be out there on coaching could be it's not a talent thing though right like you have three first rounders on that offensive line you have a solid veteran you have a second rounder like it's not a talent thing to me no it can't be because of the fact that aside from salaries but you wouldn't committed salaries to guys that you thought were upper echelon guys at their position you brought in an experienced guy like Shaq to fill a need you spent a first round pick on your left guard you did the kind of things that you were supposed to do with a quarterback the caliber of CJ to keep him upright protected and give him time and it's not happening right now and look look at they had campin they've gone through like a multitude of offensive line coaches too but at a certain point it's it's not the focus because overall the offense didn't look good enough now that you know that you have weapons and you have a really good offense the fact that you're seeing this kind of offensive line you have to focus on the coaching Chris Shouser offensive line coach is saying first time we've heard Chris throughout his name if you told me that's our offensive line coach I wouldn't have known but now I think a lot of people are going to know and focus I think we got a Chris Shouser problem guys alright 713 780 ESP and HRMP listener line you got to have good offensive line to protect the quarterback but we got a great CJ shroud well how do we give CJ shroud's performance yesterday 713 7803776 it is the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN at a 25 guys before we go to the break a word for my good friend doc Linville on the neo graph procedure PRP treatments and all the things that they can do to get your hair back if you suffer hair loss and you don't think there's anything you can do about it and you're frustrated you just really don't want to look at all the late night and and commercial messages that are out there about foams and sprays and creams and gimmicks and all these things that just don't do what they're supposed to do it just masks the problem so you give up you don't have to all you have to do is get in touch with doc Linville he's right here in the medical center in Houston he is a genius when it comes to getting your hair back he's phenomenal he's local he loves the listeners in Houston that listen to ESP 97 5 he'll give you a free consultation like I had to explain to you exactly how what he can do what they do at the clinic and how they get your hair back and it costs you nothing nothing out of pocket no signing on the dotted line not 150 bucks like it costs people off the street all you got to do is go to 975 hair dot com and book the appointment go in with an open mind let them explain to you what they do ask questions get answers see if it's something you might consider I didn't know anything about it until doc did the consultation with me and he asked me to do it once I did it I was committed that this is what I need to do and I'm really interested in how the results could help me they are they have been phenomenal they have been fantastic if you watch the show Friday if you are at the listener party you saw the fact that my hairline is back my hair is back it's all the same color it grows in the right direction everything is right about it because they are experts and they do a great job check about today go to 975 hair dot com set up that consultation go in open minded and just see if it's something you might consider they're not going to pressure you they're just going to explain to you what they do if you're interested and you have them do it you will be glad you did they're fantastic and I couldn't recommend them enough go to 975 hair dot com right now ESPN 97 5 I assumed you knew you listening to the killer beads with Joel Blanket Jeremy Branham on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5 broadcasting live from the Veritex community bank studios well yesterday felt like for the Houston Texas everything that could go wrong went wrong everything went right for the Vikings they even had a kicker drill the upright from like 55 yards or whatever it was and it bounced in yep bounced in sure did didn't bounce back didn't miss the crossbar luck right in there then you had your kicker miss one who was the AFC special teams player the week you had CJ Stroud get a past deflected on the second play of the game after a holding negated a 15 yard game by the way they get intercepted it was it was one of those days it was one of those days their scheme their game plan was perfect years was not one of those days one of those days I think it goes back to what we were talking about at the end of last week to in the fact that this was not when we looked at the schedule at the start of the year the Vikings team I expected to see and now coming out of this game I was thoroughly impressed with the Minnesota Vikings and I was not expecting to see a Sam Donald run team no matter who else they added and what they were trying to do defensively and offensively to be that good but they looked well coached on both sides of the football they added the right weapons maybe they weren't all headline news game changing names but the guys aside from John Bernard that they added and we knew what Blake Cashman did a year ago but Gruge Hill and Blake Cashman were complimentary pieces that were doing their jobs to the defensive line for the Vikings looks extremely solid and Aaron Jones fits right in on the offensive side when they get Addison back and they get Hawkins in back I mean look that's a team that I never was going to say was going to be in contention for a playoff spot but the way they're playing right now and especially when you get hot early in the season and you start stacking wins that's a team that's got to be very well respected in the NFC I think you look at Arnold you can point to Kevin O'Connell for sure Kevin O'Connell is of all coach and Brian Flores can coach up a defense a Darnell hurts trout who played better yesterday how a great in this it's a no brainer I mean as much as everybody thinks we can be CJ Stroud homers to me it's a no brainer that Sam Darnell played better than CJ Stroud and that's an easy call yeah Darnell now played him Darnell was easily the better quarterback yesterday I'm not a huge stat line when it comes to football but Donald through four touchdowns no picks drought through a touchdown two picks one of them won this fault completely understand but let's take that one away one touchdown one peg versus four touchdowns no picks Darnell was the better quarterback yesterday I would give it a ten eight round quite frankly yeah it was I don't think it was I don't think it was close I think that obviously from an offensive standpoint there was no continuity and there was nothing to speak of in terms of rhythm but Sam Darnell made all the throws he did everything that he had to do he never looked frazzled which I thought you would get him to do I'm with you I think ten eight or a TKO was easily the call for me in the fact that Darnell outplayed him yeah I would also give it a ten eight I mean if part of me wants to grade it on a little bit of a curve because we spent the first three segments of the show talking about how poorly the Texans are coach and how well the Vikings were coach so both quarterbacks weren't working with the same thing so to speak but the results on the field simply it was a ten eight yeah it was clearly Sam Darnell was the better quarterback all right now how do we think Stroud played how would you break down his game look I don't think he played great and the two picks in itself or one pick or however you want to look at it is one thing I just think that it's tough because at a certain point whether you want to call it happy feet or he just kind of had that feeling like it's time to get the hell out of dodge in the pocket on almost every single play a lot of times it's tough to play like that but I just I thought he played average for a guy that's been playing above average since he's been a Houston Texan more times than not I thought he played average and maybe slightly below average I actually think you played better than what he's giving getting credit for I thought he made a lot of really good throws in this game that drop it in the bucket throw to Nico was an elite throw like that was an unbelievable throw I even thought the touchdown was a good play yes it was just like a dump off but you had a fret a free rusher that was right in your face you made a good read you flip it out quickly I thought he handled that incredibly well it's very difficult to play quarterback at a high level in the offensive line played as bad as it did you mentioned the Schultz ball I had that in my notes to when it talking about Stroud I thought he made a beautiful throw - Schultz running right up the seam over the top hit Schultz in the hand Schultz kind of like half measure jump up to try to catch it doesn't make a play the first interception not his fault like you know he took credit for or he took blame for it like I got a side wind it I got to find a window like that's that's a very difficult play for a quarterback he made the right read Tang Del was wide open got tipped got intercepted it's hard for me to put a whole lot of blame on trout for that one even the second interception you're down by 17 with 14 minutes to play it's a third name at your own 32 like trying to make a play in that spot I understand if it was like in the if it was a you're down by three or you're up by three late in the game you're throwing that interception that carries way more value way more weight than being down by 17 with 14 minutes to play I think he got a little bit gun slinger in that moment I don't really care that he did when you're down 17 with 14 minutes to play and it's a third and eight I think he was trying to make a play didn't make a bet didn't make the play kind of made an errand throw I thought trout play better than what people are saying yeah the tough part of it because I agree with you I think he did play better than the stat line which show I mean as we talked about he was not put in a great position by his coaching staff we decided to have Kate Kate Stover trying to block Jonathan Gennard he was not put in a good position by his offensive line he had had a lot of penalties especially there in the tonsil but at the same time this is now a pattern in where we want to lay the blame against is the topic of conversation but we're talking about six quarters now of bad offense football going back to the second half of the Chicago Bears game they're facing two good defenses and this one was on the road so it's it's there's gonna be some excuses made for him but rather it's CJ or the offensive line or the coaching staff that's six quarters now bad offense a football that somehow needs to be addressed yeah so I give it like a B minus first try I thought he was better than what it looked like I think it was an offensive failure I thought he had moments where he looked pretty good I go B minus I'm going to see and I just felt like as much as you guys said I saw at times where you can call it happy feet but I just felt like he felt like rightfully so but every time he dropped back he felt like he was going to feel it almost immediately and he was constantly moving and yes I saw some great there's the one that really impressed me and I believe it was acres coming out of the backfield but he had a guy right up in his face mask and it was a wheel route peeling out to the left side and it was it also had to be a touch pass put out in front of the running back and it was flat out dropped with a guy right on the running back as well where you just look at and go not many quarterbacks can make that throw and it should have been completed but overall because of how high the praises and I've been very quick to praise CJ I just think it was average yeah I think it's still give him a B minus just because I to me CJ still showed in moments where his teammates did their job he wasn't like he was failing when everyone else was doing their job now CJ we hoped was a quarterback who could elevate to the point where he didn't have to have everything perfect around him like a lot of what you would describe for game managers like what you would describe for match shop back in the day that he had to have everything perfect around him I don't think CJ does so you would like to see him elevate even when things break down around him but you guys mentioned you know four or five great throws I still thought we saw lots of special traits from CJ I just don't yeah he didn't feel come to the pocket everything was breaking down his offensive line was breaking down the play calls were breaking down I think it was just one of those days and I would still give him a B minus four one zero two sure there was some good throws mixed in but I agree with the notion that Stroud played below his capacity ability Adrian CJ played his first rookie type game in his second season that's not true he played terribly against Carolina last year he played terribly against the Jets last year although he's probably concussed going into that game another one two five eight five CJ doesn't look the same he's holding out of the ball longer seems to be hesitant in some of his throws he should have four or five picks this year already and they knew the Vikings blitz like crazy yet they still didn't change their game plan there were a lot of long developing routes on obvious blitzing situations which were slower than Stroud yeah no I think that's part of it and again that's where I go back to I thought even if you waited till halftime I thought they were going to make adjustments I thought that they would go to the quick passing game I thought that they might go to you know some of the different ways that they could give CJ an extra second or a little extra half second of time so that some things to develop so that they could get some positive yardage so they could get some momentum and it just never changed on both sides of the football I was expecting more in terms of the adjustments in game that didn't happen but I'm not going to like I'm not crapping on CJ to the point where I like lose faith in him I think it's more so I think overall just like the penalties coaches now as much as we hear coach speak say that's on me I got to do better no you really do I mean this is the week to kind of look in the mirror and realize hey we got two wins in the first two weeks and all with sun shines and rainbows now that you face a little adversity what are you going to do you can't just sit there go well turn the page next game Jacksonville we'll just keep doing the same things there's a lot to work on of course but I'm saying offensively you can't just rest on your laurels we got a lot of talent we got a lot of weapons we just run our system and we're not going to make changes in game when you knew the way Flores was coming at you when you saw the different looks that he was throwing at you and the pressure that he was getting adjust I don't think they made many adjustments for such he says CJ just pointed me yesterday mannerisms during the game was not elite I remember when my homes went off on his team on the sideline during the playoff games against Houston I did not see it yesterday alright seven one three seven eight zero ESPN is this the worst performance in the De Mico Ryan's era it is the bees on ESPN 97 five and ESPN 95 we're listening to ESPN 97 five we're taking a break okay that's cool here in America work isn't trouble we've offshored our manufacturing sent away good jobs and lost so much ability to make things American giant is pushing back against that tide they make high quality clothing for a summer wardrobe you'll love all made right here in the USA support America's workers and get 20% off your first order at American dash giant calm with code staple 20 that's 20% off your first order at American dash giant calm code staple 20