The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
10/14 Hour 1 - Texans SMASH the Patriots!
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I believe what do you believe in after the college football weekend and we hit our game balls on Monday. For those around the league that deserve said game balls. Blakers at Texans go into a Foxboro. Yes, they go into Gillette. They dominate. They beat the Patriots by 20. They improved a five in one for just the second time in franchise history. What's your biggest takeaway from that win yesterday? My biggest takeaway is just first and foremost that that was one that they need an easy game that they needed to get. They've been in a lot of tight games this entire year. I think what they were four and all in one score games but they needed a kind of a cake walk game. A game where they got right in a lot of areas and they did. They got right with the offensive line. They got right with the running game. They got right with not having Nico Collins. I just liked the fact that I was never really deeply concerned about the game getting out of hand or being too close and they did what they were supposed to do to a bad football team. That's that's really what my main takeaway is too. Like this is what you're supposed to do. If you're one of the better teams in the NFL. If you're in the upper echelon of top teams in the NFL. If you're a team that has aspirations of making a deep postseason run. This is what you do to bad football teams that are playing rookie quarterbacks. You go in and you come back with a laugh. You go into the opposing stadium and you blow them out. You come away with a 20-point win. You show everybody that we're not going to mess around with this team and yeah. It's a little closer at halftime than you would have liked. We'll get to that in a minute. Do not ignore in victory what you wouldn't defeat. But at the end of the day you win by 20 points. You come home with a 20-point win. Davis Mills was playing snaps late in the game. You're able to sit your starters which credit to DeMico Ryan's learning his lesson by sitting his starters in garbage time. I respect that from DeMico Ryan's learning from his errors learning from his mistakes. I respect that DeMico. But this is what good teams do. You're playing a bad team. You win by 20. You rest your starters late. We were asking people what what they needed to see from the Texans on Sunday and a lot of people say, Hey, I want to see Davis Mills get snaps. Davis Mills got snaps yesterday. This is exactly what they had to do to again prove to everybody that it matters a whole lot. But to prove to everybody that yes they are upper echelon of the NFL. Yeah. And I think that you know if you go just around offense defense special teams and obviously the special teams, the Miss Field goal was was something that you didn't expect to see because the fact that that kind of he's been so good. But defensive standpoint too. We wanted to see the defense events get right. We wanted to see those guys kind of show what they've been you know what they've everybody hoped they would be all season long. And Will Anderson had you know just a massive game. And look Hunter was he had a sack. He looked very good. The defense the interior defensive line looked fairly good throughout the game. So I think that if you go across the board and especially playing without your other corner, all facets of the game looked like that they were better than the Patriots. They did what they were supposed to do to kind of prove that and make sure that that game was never at chance late in the game. If you want to dissect it into to certain elements of the game of where the Texans look good. And I think there's one lead story on both sides of the football and on the defensive side of the football you know it with Will Anderson. We've been waiting for like and Will Anderson's had a bunch of really good games. Don't don't get it twisted. He's had a bunch of really good games but he hasn't had the game that he had yesterday. He had three. He only played 33 snaps in yesterday's game. He played 33 snaps and had a sack on three of those 33 plays. That's insane. Like the ratio for that is out of this world. And then he was doing other things whenever he wasn't sacking the quarterback. He was a havoc. The offensive line was having to pay extra attention to him chipping him tight and all of that stuff. And then he deflects a pass that Eric Murray was able to intercept off the tight ends back. So if you've been waiting around for like the Will Anderson game, the Will Anderson moment where he establishes himself as one of the best defensive ends in the entire NFL. And yes, he did it against the Patriots. Yes, he did it against a rookie quarterback. But this was the Will Anderson game. Oh, we need Will Anderson to stop almost getting to the quarterback. Well, yesterday, he imposed his will Anderson on the game with three sacks, three sacks and 33 snaps is incredible. Yeah, when you talk about, like you said, not just the sacks, but you know, the tipped passes, the tackles for loss, the activity across the entire defensive line, tracking down, running backs, the pressures as well. That was the kind of game that that I think he needed because I think he's been a little frustrated in the fact that he hasn't gotten the kind of results at the end of plays where I think he has been, you know, busting his tail to try and make plays. And I think Hunter needed it too. And I think that that maybe that this is where they start to kind of get off and show more throughout the rest of the season, hopefully. But that was definitely from a pass rush standpoint. We kept saying you don't just want to see pressures. You want to see them get home. We saw them get home yesterday and those times when they got home, they made a difference. Mario Edwards has been suspended for games. Mario Edwards has been suspended for games for violating the NFL substance abuse policy. So I had a good game yesterday. He was all over the place, a little breaking news that are isn't the best of news. Mario Edwards has been suspended for games. Daniko Atre suspended six getting him back this week. He's just going to take the spot of Mario Edwards who's been suspended for four games now. Now I think that you can survive this like you have other defensive tackles. How much Autry plays defensive tackle early downs? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think this is maybe I mean, he's stuff fully stuff settle. Davis has been in the mix. Heinish has been they've activated his window to return that he's not returned yet. So you actually have some depth there. This isn't the worst news in the world. You rather have Edwards than not have Edwards. But you can you can survive this. I don't know what the substance was. But everybody was saying that, you know, they thought that he was over the hill. And then suddenly he found the fountain of youth this year from training camp on. And he's been effective since he's been out there. Let's hope that had nothing to do with it. But yeah, this, you know, the one thing that you do have to wonder is is we expect Autry to be back, right? But but DJ was telling us. Yeah, there was reports like yesterday after the game though that he's healthy and will be helping. And I think Dameko mentioned it today as press conference, too. Okay, good. Because that's the one thing you don't want to do is lose both have one guy not be able to come back when you're losing a guy that has been good like he was last week. So yeah, look, overall, as much as I questioned what they were doing on the interior defensive line in the offseason because of who they let get away or traded away and they wanted to upgrade from as Dameko and Nick had talked about the offseason. Those guys, they've been holding their own. They've been doing what they're supposed to do. And now hopefully, Autry gives you a kind of a different element that he can bring to the table. This reads different to me than a PED thing for from Mario Edwards because I just pulled it up because it I read this from from Ari on Twitter. Texans NFL league office Texans Edwards suspended four games for violating NFL substances of abuse policy. So four games, not six games. Dineko Audrey got six games. And then you you I pulled up whenever Dineko Audrey got suspended. It says for violating NFL's performance enhancing drug policy for Mario Edwards. It says for violating NFL substances of abuse policy. So I don't think Mario Edwards was doing performance and drugs. I think he just likes a good time. Yeah, this is more what it comes down to drug than it is performance. It's a party in the end zone. There was a lot of touchdowns yesterday. Mario Edwards was crossing the line with the party in the end zone. Maybe that's a good thing because then it wasn't the fact that his performance was. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, I'll take it. It's not for counters. Well, as long as it's not something that happened throughout the year that, you know, becomes habitual, I think we'll take that side of it. The I think it's good in two fronts. One, it's a shorter suspension for games versus six. And then secondly, yeah, it's not his performance that was being enhanced, at least on that list of drugs. I mean, we're trying. We're certainly gatekeeping Mario Edwards here. But yeah, so I don't think this was PED related. It was a little bit of like in a good time for Mario Edwards. So that's interesting there. But back to the game yesterday, Will Anderson was fantastic. The overall line on Will Anderson yesterday, eight sacks, three or I'm sorry, eight tackles, three sacks. He had four tackles for loss. He had the quarterback three times. He deflected the pass that led to the interception yesterday was the Will Anderson game that everybody's been waiting for. Um, so that was really good to see. And then yes, you're right. Daniel Hunter also, you know, sacking Drake May, forcing the fumble really impressed me on that play. Yes, just the, you know, the rush and chopping up the right tackle and juking them and getting around them. But also he brings down May and he had the realization that the ball pop free and he's like trying to crawl for the football. Like it's just showed really good awareness. It didn't matter because he didn't recover the football, but I was impressed by that. Get to the quarterback sack. You strip them. So the ball is loose and then having the presence of mind to like try to at least chase after the ball. I thought that was cool to see. Yeah, I thought both guys in terms of their activity, even when they didn't get sacks or pressures, I thought that there were multiple times when they hit the running back before the running back back got to the line of scrimmage where they were coming completely down the line of scrimmage to help make plays and contribute to plays not necessarily in the passing game. So I thought that both guys really took advantage of whether it was who they were playing or not, but really took advantage of the moment. And I thought they were extremely active all game long. Yeah, defensive line look really good. We'll take your thoughts on it. We got more thoughts on it as well. 713780 ESP and busy show. We won't ignore in victory. We wouldn't defeat. We'll get to some of the areas that we have to be critical of the Texans. We have to do that. Well, great CJ Stratton a little bit later. I believe what do you believe after the college football weekend? Mel bag Monday. Much, much more a Monday edition of the killer B 713 7803776 Ron Twitch Twitch.tv slash ESPN 975 on YouTube at ESPN Houston Twitter, ESPN 975. Blankers at Pac Man Joel. I'm a Jeremy Branham. It is the bees on ESPN 975 and ESPN 925. Hey, guys, a minute for all state siding and windows. They're the best in the business at both siding windows. They do front doors as well, but they are fantastic. And they've been in business for almost 50 years. Family owned and operated. They handle everything the way you would expect from almost a trusted friend. They want to take care of Houstonians. Mary, she takes care of everything at the office. Her brother, he takes care of the estimates that are free, by the way, when he gets out to see what you got going on. And they love ESPN 975 and helping our listeners. They're doing it again right now. They've got 30% off all the windows. They got $2,500 off a complete complete siding job. Those free estimates is how the process starts. 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It's those times when it gets cold, the windows deciding they do exactly what they are supposed to do. Check him out today. Get that free estimate. Just call him 832 204 1936. 832 204 1936 or check out all their products. All state siding and windows.com. ESPN 975. You found the killer bees live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. 7169 409 Josh. So this isn't a Cushing effect question mark. Cushing still working with the team. Cushing is no longer working with the team. You can find him at Little League Ballparks throughout the city though, but no longer working with the team. We do know that Cushing had some some issues in his past. Now Cushing's was PED. This is not PED. This is illegal substance banned by the NFL. And we know that they don't they don't test for marijuana anymore. So guess the drug that Mario Edwards was using. 71 three 780 three seven seven six. What drug do you think Mario Edwards has been banned for? What's the favorite? What's the killer be favorite? We want to go there? Not knowing the exact list of what is banned other than you know, marijuana is not I'm going to go with a little bit of Percocet. Percocet. No, I'm going to go a little burger sugar. Yeah, that's the way I would lean. Yeah, I think it's I think that's the easy choice. I mean, we're going to be wrong. It's probably the betting favorite. Maybe maybe it's a wrong fool. Maybe it's a wrong test. You know, we shouldn't be throwing out these words about Mario Edwards. That's I didn't want to. But at the same time, we didn't say it might be the betting favorite. Yeah, I mean, he did just positive. We do that. What drug did Mario Edwards test positive four seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. You don't get this stuff at the flagship. No, I guarantee you there is zero chance right now that the Baytown baddie in the the show are are asking you the listener seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. What drug Mario Edwards tested positive for? Because they're saving the protections radio. Johnny and Vandy handle that. Oh, yeah. And they're going to dive deep into that. Yeah, I guarantee you that's not at the radio. Two hours of that tonight. Guess the drug seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. Let's go out to the HRMP listener line. Chad, what drug do you think it was? I'm going to go with Adderall. Oh, is that banned? Is Adderall banned? Oh, I think so. Why? Appreciate the call, Chad. That's that's probably a really good guess. If it is indeed bad, how is Adderall banned? What is one with ADHD supposed to do? Like, you're true. But I think that there are medical exceptions, but I think I've heard in the past, I believe. And maybe I'm. I think Joel. No, I think you're right, Joel. I think it is banned unless, like you said, you have a medical exception. Really? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that add or something as silly as Adderall would be on the banned substance list. But wouldn't that be performance enhancing? I thought that would be too. I think that would be performance enhancing. Yeah, I don't think that would be a substances of abuse policy. Okay. All right. Yeah, I mean, you know what I mean? Well, I mean, if they say that it kind of really focuses you and dials you in and you don't have anything, then yeah, I guess it would be performance enhancing. This is whenever we need an intern to, uh, okay, I pulled it up here. Here are some things. Oh, no, it does include Adderall. Adderall does it. Is it is on this? So even if you have ADD? Well, I don't know of that, but it says the substances tested for that would be under this one cocaine synthetic marijuana. Oh, so you can do the real stuff. Just not the synthetic one. You can do the organic. Yeah, they want you to, you know, Whole Foods big deal in 2024. The process, marijuana amphetamines, including Adderall, PCP. Naturally. That would be a tough one to play football on, I think. Opioids, opiates. So, you know, you're, you know, you're run of the mill, oops. MDMA, which is ecstasy and molly. So those are, those would be more of the party drugs. Apparently they were called MDMA. Apparently Richard Sherman about a decade ago said half the league was doing Adderall. So maybe that was something the NFL cracked down upon between now and then. I wonder why, though, like it seems like Adderall is pretty innocent. I know it was big in baseball, amphetamines and Adderall and the greenies and all that to get up for the day game after the night game here. I also want to say that for a while there, guys were that were on other things, too, but guys were using it so that because they would like, they would never sleep. And so they were using it like in for team meetings and things so that they could refocus and like be awake. Yeah, for sure. For sure. That's that. I mean, that's the main purpose of it. I'm not saying guys that were on other things that were like going on all nighters and things. Little upper downer type of situation. I don't know what side of the Adderall would be. Like, I guess that beat up her because that kind of gets your focus and you're kind of wired. Yeah. Have you ever done it? It would be a PD if it was if it was a downer. I took an Adderall once in high school. It was a work. Oh, yeah. I took it like in the like around 10 or 11 a.m. I think there was like a test or something and I was trying to be laser at my focus was through the roof. Really? Yeah, but it was probably too much. Probably too much like if I if I was on Adderall now, I would be intense hardcore, like go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Like it really it had a big effect on how long does it show? I mean, you know, like when they probably a few hours or five hours, but is it longer than that? Maybe about six hours or so. Maybe about six hours. Like, if you want to get some stuff done, though, I would highly recommend. Is this a random live feed. I would have to get stuff done. I would highly recommend that but I do have ADHD. So like it might affect me different than college campuses. Like that's with tests and cramming and all that. For sure. It's massive. Yeah. It took a suit of fed and tested positive for meth. Meth isn't suit of fed. Yeah, there's a reason why they only they take your license when that when you buy stuff like that and limit to you to buying it forever, so often just because yeah, you can use that to make meth. Adderall is just amphetamines that is all but it is illegal. It is illegal. Adderall can give you energy. It like hypes you up. Yeah. Thank you. I see. It's what I was saying. Apparently, someone texted and says it is Adderall confirmed. So okay. There goes our fun on which which illegal substance Mario Edwards used that got him on the four game suspension list. Texas had opioids and then Aaron Mid County said booger sugar slash Columbia and espresso. Okay. All right. Let's get to the as much fun as we can have with Mario Edwards here. We haven't got to the lead store on the offensive side. The return of Joe Mixon, you bring back Joe and Damian Pierce for that. I mean, Damian Pierce was pretty good. The return of Joe Mixon and the running game all of a sudden looked very good yesterday. It did. And you know, it's encouraging that it was the entire offensive line. I think we kind of knew that again, you're playing a team that's not the greatest defensive line. But at the same time, the fact that you had multiple backs that were able to break off big runs and look very positive makes it look fantastic in the past game in the running game. And what I liked is what we talked about last week at the end of the week. We don't need to see Joe Mixon on a hell bent yet every carry that you possibly can play every series kind of situation. They did a really good job of kind of making sure that he didn't do too much in terms of too many carries. But when he touched it, the impact was fantastic. His shake was back. They even mentioned it on the telecast about, you know, even and it was on one where it was just a straightaway run that the ankle didn't look like it was bothering. What was really more noticeable was when he was, you know, cutting and hitting the hole and then changing directions, he looked fantastic. I thought it was it was great to see the return of Joe Mixon. You can see how much impact he has to this offense in the running game. I will hesitate because the Patriots defense is not very good. And people were arguing on to it. Oh, they're pretty good. No, they're not. It's like, if you think the Patriots are good defensively, you still think that they're the bill Belichick defenses whenever they were winning Super Bowls. They came into yesterday's game 24th and yards given up and they were 27th in defensive DVOA. It is dropped even further today. So the Patriots aren't good defensively. That said, I am encouraged about the running attack. It is looked much better or look much better yesterday. And I think that like the biggest tell was also the Damien Pierce looked all right. Like even if you take away the big run, the Damien Pierce had yesterday, that long touchdown run of 54 yards, even Damien Pierce looked better than he had looked before the injury. So you can see that the offensive line is slowly, I'm not even going to say but surely, but slowly trying to and starting to figure some things out. Yeah, when you watch Pierce, it was like early on, it looked like the same old Damien Pierce. It was like he was just running straight into the line where the hole was supposed to be. If it wasn't there, he just didn't look like he was kind of using any shiftiness or delaying a little bit. And then all of a sudden, it's like a light went on a couple series in. And then suddenly he didn't have to hit the only hole that was there. He was creating other opportunities. Then he broke off the big run because that one where it was like a first down and he ran it right right up the back of the guard and then jumped. And it's like, you're not trying to get like a short-yarded situation. I don't know what the hell that was. But later in the game, he looked a lot more fun. I thought that was mixing. You talking about the play where they jumped? He's got it in Pierce. Okay, I just did it. Nixon did it at the goal line. Pierce did it like on first and 10. Yeah, he like the offensive lineman's legs like pick them up in the air. And yeah, it was the only thing. The only answer I had to the Damien Pierce, because that was really funny. I think that he is just a bull in a china shop. Like he just he just runs. Yeah, he's just so aggressive and in your face and intense. That's just kind of who he is. He plays with his hair on fire. And that's what I was talking about. But I think that something clicked with him later in the game where it looked like he had that kind of positive. Like if it wasn't there, he kind of took a quick, you know, jab step and stopped a minute and then was able to create some positive yardage. We know like on the one where the CJ dumped it off because he was under duress and he was behind the line of scrimmage on a screen pass. But he's so strong and he keeps his legs going that he got it like a yard and a half. You know, he can get that. It's just that sometimes he's so hell bent on the hole has to be here. I have to go there. And I thought later in the game, he kind of relaxed a little bit. I was listening to the press conferences today. And they had three players, which the three players that they gave the media were like guys that they normally don't. They gave him Damien Pierce. They gave him to Vel Hewitt because he played a little bit yesterday. And then Caitlin Bullock, who people are still mispronouncing his last name, which I'm on a crusade to fix that because I am a roadblock for justice. But yeah, they said that Damien Pierce is like his philosophy and that what they're trying to get him to do more of is run through the smoke. Like it might not look like there's a hole there, but like this is what you're supposed to do. Just do it. Just trust it. Be instinctive. Like stop thinking a whole lot. And look, one game isn't enough to like change the conversation we've been having for a year plus now with Damien Pierce, because last year he was not good with this running scheme. He was not good at finding holes. He didn't look like he was he didn't look like he was decisive with his where he was cutting and the holes that he was running into. I did think he was better at it yesterday. Like let's see that going forward. Let's see it against better defenses. But I was encouraged like it did look better than what we saw even in the first couple or the first game before he got the injury. Yeah, no, that's that was the biggest thing to me is that you can tell he's fully healthy. But I think that maybe he's finally understanding like systematically, there is a different way that can work for him. And by the end of the game, I felt a lot because early in the game, I was like, Oh man, I know that everybody loves to sing his praises. I'm just not seeing it. And then by the end of the game, I was like, Okay, well, you know, maybe there's a chance that you have, you know, more than two running backs, you have all four running backs that are capable of helping you. But you've got another guy to add to the mix that can do some things to be effective when you don't want to overplay Joe mix and right away. And spell him because Cam really was an afterthought until the end of the game. I think you touched it twice and they were all on garbage. You got two carriers minus one yard every time that you show they showed either one of the running backs going over to the sidelines. Cam was sitting there with like a park on just, you know, raw, raw on them on, but he did look like he was even going to play till the garbage. Cam acres is death at this point. And I'm okay with that. And like credit to the Texans too for making that call because, you know, we weren't the only ones saying it. It seemed like 70% of the city was. Cam acres is RB number two. No, I'm good. I'm good. Cam acres behind the fourth running back. And I think the key to was when Dari touched the ball. Yeah, we know he can pass block. We know he can catch some balls in the past game, but they gave him a couple carries and he was he was not bad. I mean, he that shows you more to the offensive line that there were holes to be had. He got positive yardage that he can actually a couple of times a game, you know, kind of give you a change of pace. And I do I think I do put a lot of what happened yesterday to the offensive line, not to take credit away from the running backs. But I don't know if you guys notice this too, but early in the game, the running game wasn't working. There was several times early in the first quarter where they were running up guys backs, getting stuff before they got to the line of scrimmage. But some were late second half or early third quarter, it clicked and then the run game just exploded and dominated the Patriots the rest of the game. It feels like the offensive line finally was able to impose their will. Yeah, I don't think that they were like bad though. I would agree that it that it improved and it got better. But even like whenever it was slow early in the game, I thought was still an improvement over where it's been. Yeah, I agree with that. I think that in a lot of cases, mixing, you know, he's all hyped up, he might even be a guy that early in the game was like too jacked up trying to hit the hole too quickly. And he got kind of backed up. But I think that the line when you go back and look at it and see the kind of holes that they were opening up and even the tight ends when they were chipping and when they were coming in motion and they were doing what they needed to do aside from one tight end that I'm sure we're going to get to even him. He was at least putting his body in between the runner and a defender. But I thought that the blocking overall was pretty solid all day. And the full back, Kendra Green. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I agree. It was the full back. The DJB anime was eluding to offensive lineman. But it wasn't offensive. There you go. It was Dalton Schultz's full back one. His days were short. He was limited. He was benched as full back one for Kendra Green. Whatever works. He might be benched other places and he keeps playing. He's playing. I don't know about that. I don't know what you can go to. But boy, he's he's frustrating as hell to watch. 7 1 3 7 8 0 ESPN. The Texans did take their foot off the gas yesterday. But there's something that I liked about it. Tell you what that was. We'll take your we'll get your input on yesterday's game as well. 7 1 3 7 8 0 3 7 7 6. The HRP listener line. It is the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 92 5. One more game tonight in week six. And then you have a full slate of games coming up in week seven. So it's me to tell you about my favorite sports book and casino and that's bet us.com. That's where you need to be making your plays is bet us.com. Football is into the thick of their season. And it's time to get in on the action. If you have not already, maybe your money is already out on one of the other places. That's why you should get on bet us because you can get a 125 percent sign up bonus in your first three deposits. 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Broadcasting live from the Veritex community bank studios. 3367. I once cleaned my whole apartment and all my shoes while I'm at a roll. I was after studying all night for an early AM final. Not bad at all. I already added myself to be in trouble. 713780 ESP and HRMP listener line. Here's the encouraging thing that I liked from yesterday's game. Despite the Texans taking their foot off the gas in the second quarter. Certainly not a good quarter. We'll get to some of that in a little bit. What I liked about it was two things really. I really like their response after it. Like there's a lot of times whenever a team in that situation, it's like, okay, 14, nothing. We're up. It's time to get complacent, take our foot off the gas. Uh oh, it's 14, seven at the half. Uh oh, they've tied the game. Uh oh, they're in front. And then it's like, uh oh, we're boarding the plane with a loss. Like they, like, okay, we didn't play well in the second quarter. We got to come out our hair on fire again and then, you know, make a statement. They did that. They ended up winning by 20. So I was encouraged by, yes, I don't want to see the let down in the second quarter, but I was really encouraged by the response to what was a bad quarter. And then the other thing was, I like that they learned that lesson in victory. Like so many times you learn that lesson, you know, a young team early in the season, you learn the lesson of we have to, you know, Dameko talked about it today, not scoreboard watch. You know, it can't be that we're up 14, nothing and human nature sets in or letting our foot off the gas. We can't watch the scoreboard. It's about winning every single play. A coach speak, I get it, but that, that is true. So I like that they learned the lesson despite winning the game by 20. Yeah, I think the big thing too, and we're going to continue to see this progression, progression as they go forward to hopefully that it continues. But we talked about the fact that they kind of got stagnant at halftime of a lot of games. They didn't make a lot of in-game adjustments and things just kind of went south or weren't as good as it was, no matter how bad it was getting in the end of the first half, second half, they just didn't look very good. They came out of the gates the second half and they just made two statements on defense. They just basically said, nope, not today. We're not going to let that happen. And the next thing you know, they, you know, they're turning the ball over, they're getting in the backfield, they're shutting down the Patriots and letting them know not today, not, not against us. Yeah. Yeah. So I was, I was encouraged by that. That was, uh, that was something like a positive that I took from a negative because so many times you have a negative and it's like, oh, no, now it starts to snowball. Now it starts to avalanche and that's never good. So I, I was encouraged by that. Uh, the penalties, four penalties, 38 yards. Look, every crew's going to officiate games differently. Like a four penalty game with this crew might have been a seven penalty game with somebody else might have been a one penalty game with somebody else, but you can't really factor that in. Uh, they got away with one that was very egregious, the face mask on Antonio Gibson, which was right before a turnover. Uh, I think it might have been the, uh, the will, uh, the Daniel Hunter, a strip sack that forced the fumble, the very clear face mask that they got away with. So it could have very easily been five penalties. There was one that looked to me like the, the Texans were offside. Like they were in the neutral zone when the ball was snapped. So it could have very easily been six penalties there. Uh, but any, the injury results really all that matters. And whenever you have a four penalty game for 38 yards, when you have been one of the most penalized teams in the NFL, I tip my cap. I say that's a job. Well done. I think the other thing was is that the majority of the penalties when they were stacking and racking tons of them were on the offensive line and the fact that we were talking about defensive penalties and a taunting penalty that was total BS, uh, after the dig's touchdown instead of talking about the offensive line. So that in a nutshell, coupled with the fact that the offensive line was really good, especially in the run game, gives you hope that yes, it took a couple of weeks, but that they addressed it, that they are done with it and that going forward, we're not going to see the same kind of mistakes on the offensive line. The defensive penalties, they're going to happen. You know, you're going to have these kinds of things from aggressive play. Um, there was two on Murray back to back. I think that they were where you look at them again and you're like, the hands to the face was questionable. Yeah, there was the first one he probably earned. But overall, they were on the defensive side, not where they were stacking them up, you know, for the majority of the season on the offensive line. Yeah. So I was, I was encouraged by the penalties. And then the last note that I have, Kalen Bullock looks like the real deal. Looks like the real deal to me. Texans found him in the third round. You know, the, the intercepted pass, like right spot, right time, like you didn't make this tremendous play, but hey, you got it, right? So you have to give them credit for picking off the pass. That was probably more on like a bad throw by Drake May than it was this brilliant play by Kalen Bullock and then Bullock again, right spot, right time on the fumble recovery after Aziz al Shire punched it out. Great play by Aziz al Shire, but I'm very comfortable with Kalen Bullock being one of my starting safeties. I would go as far to say that like I still, he's going to have some missed assignments. He's going to have some buzz. He is a rookie. I think he's their most talented safety. Like at this stage of their career, I think it's pretty easy. Yeah, he's more talented than Murray and Jimmy Ward at this stage whenever he's not heard, he's old, right? No, I completely agree with that because of the fact that he's still getting better too. And when you look at it, the one thing that I really liked that I noticed was he brought the wood. I mean, he likes to tackle, he'll put his nose in there. And there's a couple of times he made some really loud, impactful hits. And you're like, wow, was that a linebacker? No, that was Bullock shooting through and putting his pads on somebody to where a lot of safeties, you know, depending on, you know, strong versus free safety, that you question, you know, how much do they really want to put their nose in and hit people? He seems to really like to hit people and he can do it. Yeah, I'm a fan. I'm a fan. I like what the Texans did in this draft. You know, last summer, I think he's been really good for a second rounder. You go back to whenever he was drafted, Oh, he's not fast enough. He's going to play, you know, inside, he's not going to be a boundary corner. He's been the boundary corner for every single snap prior to yesterday's game. And then Bullock, you find him in the third round. He's arguably your best safety already. So credit to Casario for finding them and then credit to the defensive coaching staff and Dimeko for coaching them up and being ready. And then if you want to just talk about the draft specifically, but a fisher that was supposed to be a work in progress that we're really going to see next year, he's been called the duty because of injury on both sides. Yeah, he started out pretty rough, but at least he's been serviceable to where they see a guy that had enough talent that maybe they can develop that he can become better and better in the next year or so. Yeah, 713 780 ESPN. Let's go out to the HR MP listener line angel from Dayton. You're in the hive with the beast. Hey, hey, guys, I just had a quick question for you guys. Last week, heard y'all talk about the tech things and the potential going either two and two with Niko Collins being out after yesterday's dominating win. How do y'all see them going now? Four and no. Three and one, two and two, or like DMACC thought that's week one and three. Thank you. Angel appreciate the call. Look, I don't think that I don't think that that this changed my opinion at all because of the fact that you played a team you were supposed to be. I think the two teams that are really going to be the barometer for you are going to be the game next week against Green Bay and then the game against the Jets to see because I expect you to win the other two games. So those are the games that would really kind of change. I'm hoping they go two and two. I believe they can go two and two. I would love to see them go three and one. I think that because of the fact that you are playing a team next week that a lot like you a lot of people had high expectations for at the start of the year and also because of the fact that they're in the same division as a team that throttled you when you and is the only blemish on your schedule. I think for both teams, this is from a Green Bay perspective, how good how good have they become since they lost to Philadelphia and they can they can they show what they can do. And then from more specifically from a Texas standpoint, you're playing a team that in the NFC was looked at to be somewhat of a playoff team. Now, show me what you've learned from the Minnesota game and show you show me how much more improvements you've made since Minnesota. It doesn't really change a whole lot whenever you're looking at the four games that Nico Collins is going to be, you know, on the IR, the minimum game he's going to face, other than you banked it. Like you banked the one. You thought that like, you know, in Brian's case, you're going one in three that it was an automatic win or you're going to, you know, that was the easy one. But now you have it banked like you've stored it. Now you're one and oh, now you're looking at the next three games. And you were probably already there, but it wasn't a guarantee. There's always a 10% chance that somebody's bluffing said the great Dan Harrington. It doesn't change my mind. I think I thought minimum two and two. I think there's a chance they can go three and one. So I'm right there. The Colts defense is atrocious. I don't think the offense has dropped off a whole lot, even though Nico Collins could arguably be the best receiver in the NFL. That said, you do have to throw in the caveat that the Patriots defense is not good. Yeah, no. And I think the key going forward too is just like we were talking about the same way we saw a get right game yesterday. We want to see now that against the better an opponent, you can still carry over a lot of this stuff. You can still run the football. Your offensive line can do what it needs to do. No penalties and be able to keep CJ upright and open up holes for your running game. The defense because you're not just playing the Patriots. Can you still get home? Can you still, you know, get in the backfield? Can you make things happen? Those are the progressions now against a better team that will make me feel better about the fact that I really, I'm comfortable saying I think they should go three and one in this four game stretch. But that will change my opinion. I'd love to see two and two and I'd be okay with it. Brian one and three. What do you feel about that? I have changed a little bit. I not on the board on Borbajola as far as three and one, but I do now think the Colts game is a win. As you said, Jeremy, the Colts defense is just gross at this point. It doesn't seem like Jonathan Taylor is any closer to getting back. So I think the Texans win that game. I'm still kind of skeptical on how they do against Green Bay and the Jets, especially since both are on the road. But I think this Texans team, even without the explosiveness of Nico, which to me was the big difference I saw in the offense, just the down the field stuff, I think they can beat the Colts even without him. Yeah, the down the field stuff, I think you're going to be you're going to throw a lot of that out the window whenever you take a 14 nothing. That's part of it. So like the game script, I'm not saying that it's going to be there, but I'm saying I don't know if it's not there. If you if you can't say I'm 100% like we've seen these guys be explosive in the past, maybe not digs at this stage of his career, but tank Dell can be explosive. And we're saying they're not explosive mixing in a 59 year run. And did Amy appears at a 54 yard run now against the bad defense? The the Jets too, like when you play the Jets, I don't know what they're going to be. Like are they going like right now they're a dumpster fire. It could get worse. It could get worse in New York or are they going to fix everything in a short period of time? Because like the Jets ones probably the wild card when you're talking about the record in the four games that Nico Collins is guaranteed to miss because you just don't really know what the Jets are going to be at that time because they've they've gone through so much because they fired their coach. They have a lot of new play pieces players. Aaron Rodgers coming off the injury and they've been really stinking bad so far. But at the same time we've talked about this too when there's a coaching change made that first week can be the one where the team just feels like there's a new blood and infused into the locker room and everybody comes together and they could beat Buffalo. They could be tied for first place. But really what it's going to be what what is going to define them is going after that game, regardless of the outcome, if they have another letdown, if they continue to be a bad offensive team that just is trying to rely on their defense, then they may never come close to being the team that a lot of people thought they'd be at the start of the year. Whereas Green Bay whether you believe they're you know can compete for the NFC and a Super Bowl or you just believe that they're a playoff team, there's enough talent on that team to where that's going to be a really good barometer for you to say okay against a much better team than the Patriots if we're still able to because I don't think you have to have a guy that just necessarily you go deep right away. But I think if they continue to do this with the running game, they get chunks. If they continue to make sure that with tank and with Nick with digs that they're getting good significant yardage at a certain time, the safeties are going to start to come up. They're going to start trying to take away those kind of in between routes. That's when you can maybe take the top off the defense and see one of those two guys, if not both of them, can get behind the defense. I mean, take had a lot of big plays last year. I think that he's capable of the big play. I really don't have much doubt that he's capable of a big play. Dalton Schultz almost called a 13 30 yard touchdown pass yesterday too. So like I think that it's there. Obviously, it takes a hit whenever it's not Niko because Niko is one of the maybe one of the best at it. I think who you're playing from a secondary standpoint and how they play you also plays into it. Now the green base guy could safeties and they've got one of the best corners in the NFL. So it's going to be interesting against that level of defense. What that it what those receivers are able to do. I'm doing my notes. You'll have anything anything else you want to add before we get to the negative side of the show? I think a lot of my notes are on the negative side. I think the big thing for me just is the fact that tank. We see what kind of weapon he he was last year and he can be again. I think that is everything was sorting out offensively and then he was hurt that you look at it and say that tank was underutilized so far this season. But you can see tank whether Niko's in or out is a weapon that they have to make sure is part of every game plan. He's so dynamic in so many ways. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a obvious. I'm a big tank guy. Go kooks. I do not ignore in victory what you wouldn't defeat. What do you not ignore from yesterday's win that you wouldn't ignore if the Texans were to lose 713 780 ESPN HR be loosener line 713 780376. It's the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 95. You're logged in with a killer bees on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5 live from the Faraday text community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branagh. Do not ignore in victory what you wouldn't in defeat 713 78037776. What are some things for the Texans 20 point win yesterday on the road Fox Pro first time they've ever done that. What are things that you're not ignoring in victory what you wouldn't defeat 713 7803776. It is the bees on ESPN 97 5 ESPN 92 5 blinkers. One of the first things and Jeremy, I'll let you after you watch the all 22 try to validate this further. But one of the things that note that I noticed watching the game a couple of times was that as good as Petri and Murray are on the line of scrimmage and as good as they are aggressively with being able to wreak havoc and hit hard and do things that both guys have struggled. They struggle and coverage mightily and whether it's the slot receivers or the tight ends that they seem to get whatever they want. And if you have got a more accurate quarterback that they can really exploit that in the Texans defense. And that's something that I'm going to really be kind of watching when they play a better team like Green Bay is the fact that Green Bay loves to utilize the tight end. They've got a multitude of receivers that especially the guys in the slot that you have to pay attention to. And I'm curious on the coverage with both those guys involved. Yeah, they're they're specifically when they play man. That's when they're that's where they can get beat, especially I think without last or two, maybe that second corner spot. But the Patriots don't really have the boundary receivers that can that can beat you with one very notable exception from yesterday's game. But no, they scare me in coverage too. I don't think Petri's a very good coverage guy. Now he can get by whenever you're facing slots or average. DiMario Douglas is somebody that I do like. I think I've mentioned that on the on the show in the past. Like he's somebody who has caught my eye. I think that he would be much better. Obviously in a much better offense. I'm really curious to see what he does with Drake May. Like get a big game yesterday. Now, was that the Drake May boost? Was that the fact that he's being covered by Jalen Petri? Probably a combination of them both. Eric Murray got got beat really bad on on just a little drag over the middle of the field. Petri one time bit on play action on a first and goal. And then left I think it was Hunter Henry wide open on a busted coverage there. But no, I'm with you. I think that the secondary, especially those two and maybe corner number two, depending on who's playing at the time and who you're playing. Those are those are areas where I'd need to see if the Texans can excel in because I'm not sure that they've played a quarterback yet that has exposed them for that. Like they've had a couple of busted coverages and allowed big plays like Brian Thomas had the big play, but it was never consistent. Trevor Lawrence didn't beat you consistently. In fact, missed a bunch of big throws. Josh Allen was awful against you nine for 30 missed a bunch of big throws Caleb Williams early in his career was not making those throws yet. So they have not faced a team slash quarterback who has exposed their secondary. But I think that it could be coming because they've they've had a bunch of missed opportunities. Quarterbacks playing the Texans for deep deep chunk plays that just were overthrown or under thrown, whatever the case may be. And then they've also had some big plays on just simple drags for Jalen Petri or Murray get beat man to man. So I'm with you on that. I think the big thing to his left floor, he's he's really good in his offensive scheme and game plan when he sees something like that to where Jordan Love doesn't have to be pinpoint accurate. He just has to get the ball to the right guy. And that's something that they have to pay attention to, especially this week. Yeah, and even not even as a for me, not even as a this week thing. Yes, it matters this week, but it's it's more to like how they fare this week is going to kind of help me for my opinion if they're super serious as a deep playoff contender, because if Jordan Love and Jordan Love has tons of weapons, if Jordan Love picks them apart and Lambo, it's like, okay, this secondary, because right now the Texans like third and DVOA, I think they're top three and defensive yards allowed per game. It looks like they have one of the better defenses in the NFL. I don't think they faced a team quarterback that has really beaten them through the air yet. This will be I think the biggest challenge so far, although the Allen challenge could have been big, they handled that well. If they get exposed by Jordan Love, I'm going to change my opinion on how deep of a of a run the Texans could take. And that's that's the key to I think you hit on it is the fact that when you played an above average quarterback in Allen, who played below average, the guys that were supposed to be above average, Trevor Lawrence, what it regards to what you think of him, he's supposed to be an above average quarterback, and he missed deep shots. And then you had all the young guys, it's going to be in this next stretch, starting a stretch where we talked about all year long, the quarterbacks you face probably aren't going to miss those throws like the guys you've played so far, at least not consistently. Like I mean, so many times we've seen that as on a consistent basis where the secondary has allowed those openings to be there, but the quarterbacks the Texans have played have not been able to capitalize on that. And I would push back on the Josh Allen thing a little bit to say, Hey, look, there's a defense that forced him to play bad. There's a defense that forced him to go nine for 30. Like it wasn't Josh Allen against air. I mean, the Texans defense have to be factored into the equation there as well. No doubt. But you were talking about a couple, a deep ball or two that, you know, he's supposed to make those throws. He's supposed to complete those throws for sure. Yeah, in adding to that, I mean, it's not just the quarterback, when you look at a lot of this match ups, the first time you face the Colts, they don't have Josh Downs, you face the Bears, they don't have Keenan Allen, and then obviously the Patriots and the bills are lacking at wide receiver talent, although I do like the Mario Douglas as well. It'll be interesting for so for this Packers match up, especially if they don't have Kamari Lassner back, we'll find out later in the week, but you're facing for the first time, I think the combination of an opponent who only has a quarterback that could beat you, but has more talented wide receivers than you have talented coverage guys in the secondary. Well, I mean, with with Christian Watson, healthy with Jaden Reed, we saw Romeo Dobbs finally show back up. He catches two touchdown passes and obviously the TV on wicks has had a couple big games both this year and last year. This is the first time I think the Texans are facing the challenge of the combination, not only a quarterback that can beat you, but maybe more wide receiver targets and not even throwing in Tucker Kraft at tight end. That's the thing. Then cut great coverage guys you have because, you know, like we talked about, Mary and Petrie, good or great around the box, but if you spread them out for some cover and man, that could be a problem against the Packers. Musgraves out craft. He's been dealing with a growing degree, but he's played and when he plays, he plays extremely well, and they love to utilize the tight end. And then from a running game perspective, Josh Jacobs is tough. So yeah, they're going to be tested in terms of a full complement of skill players next week. My biggest concerns read, because I think that they're fine outside. I think where they can really struggles inside. So reads the one that concerns me the most the how the Texans and still early be talking preview radio on a Monday, but how they play Jordan love will be interesting to me because I think it's, I think it's bad. It's a bad idea, bad game plan if the Texas like we're going to be man to man versus the packer or weapons. But Jordan loves a lot worse against the blitz, then allowing him time and allowing him to pick apart a zone coverage. So it's kind of like you're damned if you do damned if you don't. If you sit there and you blitz and you're running man to man, now you're at the exposure of getting beat by the packer skill set, which are very good. If you don't do that, I think it puts your secondary in a better chance, but Jordan loves going to have more of an opportunity. So I'm one of the things that I'm very looking forward to six days from now is how the Houston Texans defend it, whether they go a lot of zone because they usually are a zone team. They haven't really been the last two weeks because they feel like they could have, you know, gotten pressure on Allen. They don't trust his accuracy gotten pressure on her young quarterback didn't trust his accuracy, which was true for the most part, did allow a couple of explosive plays. I don't know if that's going to be the same game plan with Jordan love. Yeah. And I think you're right. I think that the key to beating Jordan love has been to put pressure on him, to get to him, to give him happy feet or make him make quicker decisions. And that's where you can get to Jordan love. So that's going to mean you're going to and Reid did get hurt. So I don't know what his status is going to be next. I thought it was wicks the one that got hurt. Reid got hurt too. I don't know if it's going to be a lingering thing or he just because I wasn't watching that game is attending. I just know that he had got he came out, but I don't know what the extent will be, but that it is going to be a good test for this entire defense. Yeah. 713 780 ESPN. What are you not ignoring in victory that you wouldn't defeat 713 7803776. It's the B's on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 9225. ESPN 97 5.