The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
10/15 Hour 2 - What Are the Greatest Loopholes in the History of Sports?
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Like, dropping off to Navell Hewitt right now is not great. The Angelo Ross from Camari Lasseter, not great. There is some depth in the defensive line, although if you lose a defensive in, now with Autry, maybe it's not as great, but whenever you went from Anderson and Danil Hunter to Jerry Hughes, Dylan Horton, that wasn't fantastic, but I guess you can do the same thing offensively, like Laramie Tunsel to Blake Fisher. I don't know if one side's ahead of the other. It depends on the position. It's case by case, position by position. Yeah, because we talk about the impact certain players have. I know that DJ will tell you that next to the quarterback, the second most impactful player on the entire roster is Laramie Tunsel guarding the backside of your franchise. So if he's out, then Blake Fisher we've already seen is a less than, and how much of a less than can affect the entire squad as opposed to, look, when Christian Harris was out, we thought it was going to be a massive loss, and then all of a sudden, here comes Henry Toto. Yeah. Now you're hoping he's okay to play because you're right after that, no matter how much the Heisman Trophy winner thinks that they're fine, even if Toto misses, I think that it's a pretty big drop. Yeah. It's positioned by position. I'm not going to say one side's better than the other when it comes to the depth. Can you touch on the DVOA? It's just a, it's a computer metric that establishes where you are relative to the average in the NFL. It's kind of like a war in baseball. I would say that's the best thing, although it's more team centric than individual centric offense or defense, Brian, somebody's calling as I went to. I'm sorry. We'll get to Brian in a second. Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESPN HRMP listener line, but yeah, I would have the defense through six weeks ahead of the offense. I feel like the offense has a bigger upside than the defense offense playing closer to its floor. Defense playing closer to its ceiling, although I think the defense still has room to grow, though. Like you mentioned they're getting some pieces back. I think Harris can take this to another level, although I've been impressed by Totoo. Yep. And then Autry in what he brings to the depth, I think is going to be pretty bad too. That's the thing too. Then if you get Harris back, Totoo proves that you've got depth at linebacker that we weren't sure that you had. The bigger thing is the continuity aspect on the offensive line, whether it's tonsil or Howard or someone in between. The fact is it's not just one guy doing the job of a guy that's out. It's also how does he fit in and have that same chemistry and that communication with the rest of the guys on the offensive line? Because that's so important across the line for getting the actual job done. Mm hmm. What do you think, Brian? Offense defense so far through six weeks. I definitely lean defense. I agree with your point that the offense has a higher ceiling. Like if they get everybody back, they get clicking, they go overcome some of the things they had in the slow start because they didn't play a lot in the preseason, then their level to me is higher. But the defense right now and the way I kind of look of it is like which side of the ball of their five wins is winning more of these games. To me, you know, you look at the, I mean, the first game against the Colts, you could probably attribute to the office, especially the running game. But after that, you know, the Bears game, this last week, it gets the Patriots, although they didn't have to get an offense game as well. More of these games so far, I see the defense of making more impact of plays that lead to winning than the offensive side. So I would go with an edge to the defense, but I do think the offense could overtake them within a few games. Yeah, I would agree that I think that the Patriots game was the first one where I'm like, yeah, the offense was flat out better than the defense of all the games that they've played so far this year. And they've played some good complimentary foot, football at times. Who was the win prior to the Patriots? Were you? Was it was Jacksonville? Bills was the previous game. Yes. The bills game. You're right. It was the, like you got good complimentary football on the final three plays of the game, you know, like the offense doesn't score because Bobby Sloex throwing the ball, not running the ball leads an intentional grounding. You get a really good punt, defense forces of three and out, and then you're able to get the one play two yard dump off. Yeah. And I think that a lot of times too, it gets lost in the shuffle because you all are complimenting each other when you're clicking on the same page and the offense, you know, we know has been less than because they were missing mix in and they were missing pieces or the fact that Schultz hasn't played expectation from a defensive standpoint, as much as you just said about what happened in the New England game, it was just a one, it was basically a one man wrecking crew with a little help here and there as opposed to what we've seen off season long, which is the interior defensive linemen are stopping the run and they're getting penetration into the backfield. The defense, maybe the edge rushes aren't getting sacks, but they're, they're getting into the backfield and they're helping the secondary and then overall, as a unit, they're keeping points off the board. They're taking it to another level. The Patriots game was just Will Anderson and then a couple of help help. Maybe he had to know Hunter had a sack too, but I guess the other way I look at it kind of goes along what I was saying, but you've had guys like Caleb Williams who broke out almost immediately after that Texans game. I was obviously Josh Allen has been a great quarterback over his career in the Texans defense. I know Jeremy slightly, at least slightly disagrees with that, at least, but at least in the regular season, he's the guy that puts up good stats, we hold him to an historically bad game, only nine completions, Caleb Williams is awful because he can't get the ball off he immediately breaks out after that and has had like three great games in a row. The Texans defense through these first six games other than Sam Darnold, unfortunately, are holding these quarterbacks they're facing to, to levels that they haven't, you know, the levels way below that they've been that they produced that before. So I think that is a compliment and a feather in the cap of the Texans defense. But I think that's the other thing too. Now when you look at the fact, you're still going to face Lamar, you're still going to face Mahomes, you're still going to face golf, you're still going to face quarterbacks better than what you've already faced so far. That's going to put a whole lot more strain on the defense. Golf better than Allen. Depends what you're looking for. Yeah, I mean, from an offensive standpoint with the weapons that he has, he can be. I mean, Josh Allen's a better finisher. I don't think anyone would say Josh Allen. But that's a thing. As a defense, I'm facing the entire offense. I don't know. I really don't know. Like, yes, Josh Allen's like capable of winning an MVP. Yes, Josh Allen's going to put up great regular seat. He tried to give away the game. He almost even put the ball on the ground in the red zone on a careless play. You didn't see that play? Like he's rolling out of the pocket and just kind of like throws the ball on the ground, fortunate his team recovered. Even yesterday he was trying to give the game away for touchdowns, the game morning, first down, first. He's great statistically. I have zero argument that he's great statistic zero argument that he's great statistically. But they are. Jared Gough also puts up some numbers and has been to a Super Bowl and his his offense as a whole. The defense isn't stopping just the quarterback. It's the fact that what Jared Gough's offense is better than the bills right now. The bills just had to go out and try trade for a wide receiver one. You already got a Mon Ross a Brownie. You got LaPorta. You got two running backs. You've got an unbelievable offensive line to where going forward, the defense is going to be challenged by that entire offense, not just Jared Gough. I think it depends on your type of offense though. Like if you're trying to look for a like a hero quarterback, yes, give me Josh Allen over Jared Gough. If you have a bunch of really good pieces and it's about staying on time, it's staying ahead of the chains. It's putting the ball where it needs to go. You're going to take care of the ball. You're not going to have careless turnovers. I'd rather have golf. I'd rather have golf than Allen. If I had the offense built around me, but if you need a hero quarterback, obviously the answer is Josh Allen. Yeah, I think that the pieces matter. And that's why I think that when you talk about what the defense still has to face on the schedule, I think the offense can score on anybody. I think the offense is going to be effective and it's the big thing is this mix and healthy. You're going to get Schultz more involved. I still think and I think a week ago against Buffalo, he got a little bit more involved. But he obviously has to, he's got a whole, he's got to have some want to. But overall, I think the offense is going to put up a points when you get Nico back against whoever they face and that will continue to be the mainstay. From a defensive perspective, you've got to take it up another level no matter where you are because the competition greatly increases. Yeah. Yeah. If I have a, if I have a bunch of really good skill guys, I'd rather have Jared Gough than Josh Allen because he, Jared Gough is going to keep a game safe whereas Josh Allen could single handedly lose a game for you. I can't, I mean, for the line offense, you really have down the golf lose games. I think I think not to the, not to the, to the level, Josh Allen could take the Detroit offense to another level. Oh, I don't know about that. Well, because look what they've done with a different offensive coordinator with a more run heavy, they've been able to keep him from turning the football over as opposed to, as opposed to a guy that's maybe golf is the, is the supreme game manager. Whereas I think Josh Allen, I think Josh Allen though, in that offense with all those weapons around him and that offensive line and his ability to run, I think he could take Detroit's offense to another level. So much about that offense though, is about being precise, about being accurate and Allen's not precise and Allen's not accurate whereas Jared Gough is regular season quarterback. You want stats? Give me Josh Allen. You go into precise accuracy, get, you know, spread the ball around, take care of the football. It's Jared Gough for me. Yes, Josh Allen has a better chance of winning an MVP. All right. Film do not lie. Some things that, that I, that I noticed watching the film back today and I only bring up CJ Stroud because can't switch all his bags and clamors for more CJ Stroud talk. Definitely going to be in the MVP race. I firmly believe that his accuracy, his command, fantastic stats are going to be there too for CJ Stroud. Like he's going to be amongst the leaders watching the interception back. I can't put that on Dalton Schultz and yes Dalton Schultz is in my dog house, but I can't put that on Dalton Schultz. I, I can't tell if the guy that's covering him touches the football. I don't know if he deflects it. Do y'all think he deflected it? I thought that he did, I thought that, I thought the throw was a little late. I thought that CJ was, had a whole bunch of choices to make, he had to make a quick choice. He made the throw. Could he have made a better throw? Yes. But I did think that the defender got in there, the help coming from the left side got in there in time to get the hand on the football and it just took a very uncharacteristic, but unfortunate bounce for a Texas. Yeah. I, I, watching that play back where CJ Stroud aired is leaving the pocket. He had more time in the pocket than he thought. And if he stays in the pocket, I think he delivers a much better throw, probably a touchdown. I think that he should have stayed in the pocket a half beat longer than he did. He abandoned the pocket. You got a little happy footed on that specific play, but Stroud played incredibly well. There was one play in particular where the Texans had six guys to block five and the bills had three free rushers, three free rushers. The interior offensive line still worries me, but Stroud hit Joe mixing his hot route and they still had a 20 yard gain. So Stroud is belling out his offensive line. The offensive line still worries me. Juice didn't play very well in this game. We didn't talk about this yesterday. How about juice for getting the snap count and snapping into CJ Stroud before he was ready. Could have been, could have been a disaster. Deep in their own territory, Stroud jumps on it, but I, I'd forgotten about that until watching that back. Because you could tell CJ tries not to dip his teammates in the grease, but he, just like the one that Schultz dropped, you could see on CJ's face, he's doing his best to not show it. But that kind of frustrated him. I noticed on the all 22 that whenever Schultz dropped that out, breaking around on third and five or whatever, that Stroud kind of like, well, he showed it. Yeah, I'm saying he fought himself because he wanted to show a lot more, but he definitely showed his, he was a little upset with that. I didn't pick that up on the, the TV copy, but he would, he was not happy about that play. A good luck defending Tengdell in man coverage. That's not a matchup. You're going to win very often. Toa Toa stood out to me. He's playing really well. I'm really curious now he's going to be out this week more than likely because he's in the protocol and Christian Harris still isn't back, but I'm curious at full health what they do with that linebacker unit. I wonder if they play a little bit more for three. I kind of doubt it. Are you good with him playing special teams late in a blowout game? Nope. Yeah. This one I'm torn on because they don't have tons of bodies and he's plays all the special team, you know, packages, but that one was a little curious. It's like, can you find somebody else because in Rito, a Toa, more than, more than likely is going to miss Sunday's game against Green Bay because he was on a special teams package up by 20. Yeah, that's one. You have to identify levels in terms of guys are going to protect and because of the depth alone and the fact that he's been playing so well and you can't afford to lose him. I wouldn't have had him out there. Maybe Neville Hewitt could also have done that and then just flip right over and finish the game on defense. But yeah, that's definitely one where when you pointed it out, it's like, yeah, he should not have been on that. Yeah, that one's one that I wonder if there's anybody else that could play there because Toa Toa is not like an elite starter to where it's like, okay, you can't sub him out completely or at least like the entire rest of the game, but he's on these on punt coverage up by 20 with under four minutes left to be able to say, that's a guy that, well, we don't expect it in that, but it's okay. He can be out. I've been crying too much about that. I feel like I can't cry about it too much, but at least they were better with everybody else. Yeah, he did take out his. He took it all my meat holes. Daniel Ross wasn't as good on film as I thought live. To be honest, busting zone coverage led to a big play over the middle. I took a really poor angle and a pass to a back out of the backfield. I'm worried about him against an offense that actually is good. I'm worried about him against a quarterback that is actually good, not a rookie quarterback. And then Jalen Petrie, I thought was terrible, quite frankly. I thought he was really, really bad of freelancing on a couple of plays. He was guessing a lot of times on pass run. One time he was successful guessing the run play and got a TFL. And then you might remember he bit on a play action guessing run play that allowed Hunter Henry to be wide open the flat for an easy touchdown, totally Jalen Petrie trying to guess the play there. Of course, I brought this up yesterday too, where he didn't push tomorrow Douglas out of bounds in the first half led to seven points because you push him out of bounds there. The Patriots are going to give up on trying to score. And then he was terrible in coverage like you brought up yesterday one on one in coverage against tomorrow. Douglas was a mismatch. It was like the greatest heavyweight fighter in the world against Butterbean. It was bad. Douglas abused Jalen Petrie in the slot. I really wonder what the Texans think of him, you know, behind closed walls. I think that they behind closed doors. I think they're frustrated because of the fact that they see how good he can be in the box and he can be around the line of scrimmage. But then they're also frustrated by the fact that if he has that kind of nose for the football and he can play that part of the game so well, why can he not cover no matter where I don't think he's good at covering. And I think that that's the biggest thing and can you fix that because we knew last year as a safety, he took bad angles and he let guys get behind him and he was bad in coverage. And now he's exposing himself in a different way in the fact that he cannot guard in past coverage the way you expect the guy playing his position to guard. Yeah. And look, the Texans, they inherited him, well, Demico inherited him, right? So Demico inherited him. Maybe he's not a Demico guy. I don't know. I don't want to put that out in the world. But we do know that they moved him away from the safety position, play nickel. And we know that he can't cover. We also know that next year's- They also drafted a safety. They drafted a safety. And next year is Jalen Petrie's final year of his rookie deal. I think Jalen Petrie's next year is his final year at the Texans. I don't think that they love Jalen Petrie. I'm just just watching the film, knowing that they moved him from safety to nickel, knowing he can't cover. I don't think he's a Demico guy. Like he always talks about being sticky and coverage and stuff like that. I don't think he's sticky and coverage. He talks about being like, you know, high IQ and I'm not Jalen Petrie is very smart, but Jalen Petrie will guess a lot. And I don't think that Demico really likes that. That's the case too. Don't be surprised to be traded in the off season before he gets to the final year, simply because of the fact so many teams talk about what stands out on film when he makes those hits. Yeah, I don't know if he has a whole lot of value though, because the other teams are going to see, like one, he only has a year left on his deal, and then two, he's not great in coverage. Like what's his position? I think he's kind of a positionless player. And that's the thing. But player, I'm just saying from the standpoint, teams notice what stands out on film about his hitting ability and stuff. Yeah, but they'll notice the negatives too. They'll probably do the deeper dive, but at the same time, do they feel like their system is more advantageous for a guy that plays the way he plays? I don't know. But it is quite the possibility because when you watch and you watch as carefully and you watch it even more carefully than I do, but to watch the game twice, Murray was not great in coverage. No, he was bad too. But Petrie was awful. Murray's a safety though. And Petrie's a nickel corner, like, yes, he played safety, but he's playing nickel corner this year. I think Petrie's no is, I don't think Petrie will be a Texan after next season. I think he'll play out the contract, the little hit free agency, they won't resign him. Another guy that's not being resigned by Houston organization, Gary Pettis, everybody's losing their mind about Gary Pettis being let go. Everybody's losing their mind about these minor league coaches being let go. Does this concern you? 713-780-3776. It's the B's on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. Hey, I got to tell you about my favorite sports book and casino. It's a pleasure of mine to tell you. It's an honor to tell you about Bette US, Bette US.com is the very best. Football is in the thick of their season. So you'd be getting in on the action. You should have already done it if you have not, well, you need to. I endorse one sports book and casino. That's Bette US. You want a game plan to win this season, then check out Bette US. They went large for you this season with a huge offer. That's right. 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You have people losing their minds about this. You have people losing their minds about the Astros and not bringing back about a lot of their minor league coaches as well. Does this concern you from a big picture perspective when it comes to the Astros? Not at all. Not at all. I mean, look, Gary Pettis had a nice run here. Gary Pettis was a guy that we questioned from time to time about when he didn't send guys. But I think more so, this is Joe Espada came in and his first year he didn't want to rock the boat too much. And I don't even know how much control he had over the situation in his first year at manager. But at a certain point, I think you have to give your manager, your skipper the chance to bring in guys that he wants to work with. And we don't know all the details in the behind the scenes. But if they decided to make a change at third base coach, so be it. It's kind of like similar with the minor league coaches. If Dana, while getting his feet wet and understanding that once they took over the space Cowboys and the way that they want to run their minor league system and they feel like no matter what the results were last year, that going forward, these are the kind of instructional type guys or the more fit to do the kind of things and work on the kind of things that Dana believes in type guys, that's part of what happens from year to year within any baseball franchise. And I don't have a problem with any of it. No, I think that everybody's making a big deal about this for nothing. It's much to do about nothing. Love Gary Pettis for what he's done with the Astros has been a big part of the golden era of the Houston Astros, but it was also time with Gary Pettis. Like he used to have the nickname of windmill rightfully. So there were times this year where he like got aggressive the other way, though, or like there were clear waves that he's holding runners up. Gary Pettis did not have a good year. If we're if we're evaluating a person for their performance within their role, Gary Pettis did not have a good season. Now as Gary Pettis, the reason the Astros were ousted in the wildcard round, of course not. But I also don't think that they're making Gary Pettis out to be the scapegoat for what was a lack of dasical season, a lack luster season considering the standard the Astros have built for themselves, but it was time it was time with Gary Pettis and then the minor league coaching stuff. Oh, no, the Astros organizational chaos. What are they doing? Don't you all remember that Jeff Luna came in in your clean house? Jeff Luna fired everybody and probably shouldn't have, but Jeff Luna came in fired everybody got rid of all human scouts, almost all human scouts and we're like all analytical computers and built the stinking golden era. Like when you're bringing in a general manager eventually at some point, they're going to make moves within the organization that back up what they're trying to do philosophically within the organization. If you're going to hire Dana Brown to be the general manager, then you need to allow Dana Brown the freedom to bring in the coaching staff at the minor league level who he chooses. So I think everybody's flipping out about all of this and it's it's way too much. It's not a big deal. I forget who on our airways was talking about the fact that they think Dana Brown is going to choose third base coach. I don't I don't think this is I think this is where you let your skipper choose the coaches that he feels most comfortable with to do the job that we're asking him to do. I think you're totally right. I think that I agree the same way that Dana Brown's going to choose the minor league managers and the coaches in the minor league system because he is a talent evaluator and this is something that he specializes in. And that's what you want is your farm system lines up the way it's run on a day to day basis with the way that you outline you want your farm system to run. But I think that unlike what I dealt with in the NBA where Daryl Morrie startled suddenly picking assistant coaches for an NBA head coach, which is unheard of and creates a whole lot less than chemistry within the locker room, I don't think that the Astros are built the same way. I think this is where a spot is going to be have the freedom to pick his guys. And if you're upset because Gary Pettis a year ago was had an offer from Ron Washington and the Angels and it didn't. The assistant coach is normally on a year to year deal. Gary Pettis, if he wants another job, probably has enough friends in the business, he'll get another job. I mean, he chose to stay in Houston, like he was the one that made that decision. There was a headline. I think it was, I don't want to say the website because I don't know if it's that website specifically, but it's the headline was bizarre Astros, minor league coaching purge hints at organizational dysfunction. Come on. Come on with that headline. This isn't bizarre bizarre Astros, minor league coaching purge hints at organizational dysfunction. Dana Brown's new at the general manager position. He didn't have the first full off season was hired late in the process. Last season was his first off season, really is the full off season as the general manager. He's going into his second off season. This is normal that a general manager is going to change his minor league coaching staff around to back up what he wants to do philosophically. The third base coach thing like Dana Brown in a spot I might meet with that, but I ultimately agree with you that it will be a spot his decision. I actually, I actually know who it's going to be. I know who the third base coach is going to be. It's going to be Jeff Bagwell, Jeff Bagwell is tired of the city saying that he's the general manager. He's tired of everybody blaming him for a Jose Ibrahim and Rafael Monteiro, Jeff Bagwell was tired of Gary Pettis waving runners around third and being thrown out. He was tired of Gary Pettis stopping runners at third base with two down. Jeff Bagwell told Jim Crane enough is enough. I'm going to be the third base coach. How do you feel about the fact that you're never going to see your runner sent again? No, come on. Bagwell's arm cannot move in a direction to send anybody who's going to completely be living on the stop side because he can't rate wave a guy in. Obviously I'm kidding. I was doing it for clicks. My guess though is they move Dave Clark from first to third and they just hire our first base coach. I think so. Yeah, I think so. That's my heart. That spot is choice. I believe so. Yeah. I know they brought him in. I was just trying to think of the fact that was he brought in after they gave a spot of the job? Yeah. I don't think that they brought him in before. Yeah, I don't. I just don't recall because he's kind of more an older old school guy. I think he's going to be your third base coach. I think they're going to probably just promote somebody that's already on the dugout or something. Maybe. Yeah, because I can't see it again. If they're making all these changes in the minor league level, I'm not sure. I'm sure a spot on those guys that you know that he's played with that he knows from the past that he has a list of guys that he'd love to coach with that he could find to be first base. Do you don't like the Bagwell idea? No. Well, Coach, when Bagwell doesn't like it either because he doesn't remember he was the hitting coach for a while and didn't like having to be there all the time. That's way too much work for Jeff Bagwell. You kidding me? All right. 713 780 ESPN. What do you cash in? What do you trash in? Cash them or trash them with the bees. 713 7803776. It is the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. ESPN 97.5. Prepare for overreaction on my mark. It's that time of the week where overreactions are welcome. He stayed Muhammad Ali was the greatest of all time, but he never fought Cash's Clay. What was he afraid of? Boom. It's Cash them. That is so good. That's exactly right. Or trash them. This is your hot date. Hm. Seems like an overreaction. With a killer bee. Give us a hot spoonful of your opinion. What is your Cash from retrasion 713 780 ESPN blakers what you got? I got a couple. The first one. Still one at a time. Thank you. The first one related to what we were talking about earlier. Actually, I'd like to see him doing both at once looking at the schedule. I could do that. Looking at the schedule. I think the Jets are still going to make the playoffs as a wildcard team in the AFC, no matter how good the AFC is. I'm cashing it. I'm cashing it. And everything I said about Woody John, well, that's going to be true. But I've said if they make the playoffs that I will recant what I said about firing Salah and I'll say it was a good decision. So I'm going to cash it. I'm going to cash it. The Jets get in. I think they're going to end up with nine wins and it's squeaked their way into the final wildcard spot. Maybe even 10. Yeah. Make it a double cash. I'm passionate as well. I think the division race is over Buffalo now two games up and they took the game on the road. So I think Buffalo definitely takes the AFC East from them. But I do think the Jets squeak in as a playoff or as a yeah as a wildcard team because obviously I was high on Denver and different went out and laid a neck against the Chargers. Obviously the Dolphins have fallen off because of injuries, things out of their control. So yeah, I think the Jets get to nine wins to get one of the final playoff spots. I'll cash it as well. The Dolphins ain't dead either. No, they're not dead either. Question on that too. Why is it that tool with his history of concussions doesn't wear the cap? That's a personal choice. Fashion. That's what I think too. But I mean, if you truly with the contract and everything and you're truly worried about your dome piece as much as he's had injuries, he should be wearing that thing every day when he comes back in a couple of weeks. I don't think he's going to do it. I think I think from a from a look standpoint, he won't do it. He should. I'm with you. I feel like you should be required to do it after like I think that's true. I think you're going to like my cash of trash. Oh, a men Thompson is more of a power forward than a point guard. Doesn't have a shot that I want from a guard. Most of his buckets come around the rim. Frankly, a lot of his buckets last season came off of offensive rebounds. Yes, he can guard one through four on the defensive end. But because of his shot and because where he scores, I think he's more of a power forward than a point guard. I'm going to trash it because I think that we've seen a point guards in this league that can't shoot. Ray John Rondo, Russell Westbrook got it up to like 30% though, Ben Simmons. I don't want to see ever again because he's just a tragedy of whatever he's doing with his career. But I think that you also might be pleasantly surprised with the men Thompson the more you see of them because they keep telling me that his shot has gotten greatly improved. I watched that preseason game the other day, like he airballed a three. So I think I just think he's got to play a four even in a stretch for system. I think he would have to bulk up a little bit more. And I think they love his ball handling his playmaking the way he sees the floor. So I think he's I think he's a little careless with the ball. I think he's capable of making good passes. I think he's a little sloppy with it. I think they like it and they think it's only going to get better. Power forward. I'm going to catch this we saw a man Thompson play some center down the stretch last year went after after she didn't went down and they had to go small ball and I look obviously probably going to see less of that if everyone is healthy. If Stephen Adams and should do her health, you're probably not going to see a lot of a lot of a man at the in the post. But with his length and his size, yeah, like you said, the questionable jump shot. I don't see a reason why you couldn't play him in some situations. I mean, it's positionless as the NBA's become. I don't see why you couldn't play him sometimes at a power for it. I mean, it won't be a true power for how Chuck Hayes is a power for it. What? Six five. Chuck was a center. Okay. Furthering point. Very different types of players. Chuck was thick. But I do think in this, I do think in this sort of NBA, I mean, Thompson can play some power for it because maybe he does. Maybe he's not strong enough, as you said, Joel, to guard someone down the post. But how many? But even if he's not, how many teams have, I mean, other than, you know, Joe Kitchen and being and getting those guys were sinners, but how many teams have power for us with imposing back to the basket games that would be challenging a man, Thompson to guard them in that way. I don't think there's a lot for him to guard. Denver's got Aaron. Murray would be tough. Murray or Gordon rather. He'd be tough. Yeah. Yeah. But the kids, I mean, how many? Not many. Just a couple. I agree with you. It's my take. That's the argument. He's an unbelievable rebounder. Yes. He's got his knack around the basket on both sides. He gets rebounds. He can't shoot. He can't shoot. I think his wingspan is actually longer than Jabari. He's got a couple of. I'm sorry. And I hate to discriminate. I like my guards to be able to shoot. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I like guards. I can shoot the rock. I don't think developing a shot is like a quarterback developing accuracy. The NFL was pretty much only been Josh Allen, and even that's kind of questionable. We've seen guys like Amari Stauter, Meyer, and a few others where he came into the league. Yeah. Jason kid to the comments of the league and they can't shoot a lick and they develop it over the career. I hope that I hope he does. Because right now it ain't it. No. It ain't it. All right. What do you cash your trash, Brian? I'm going to double down on something I said. I don't know how long ago. Maybe a few weeks, but Eric Henry's not fit for the Baltimore offense. No, that that take is dead. That take goes up in the round as far as one of worst takes of the year that we might see that one in December. No, I'm doubling down on the idea that the. The Cowboys are going to snowball and just completely flame out and I'm going to put them now at six wins. I was curious what their schedule looked like coming out of the by because at least they have an off week to maybe regroup, maybe make a trade, although two other teams already beat them to the punch, adding a wide receiver. But you look at their schedule coming out of the by and it is I mean, brutal is an understatement. They're on the road at the 49ers or first game out. To that is Falcons Eagles Texans at commanders giants. Okay. There's maybe a win. Bingles Panthers. That's a win. Bucks Eagles commanders. There's like two give me wins the rest of the way. I don't think they get past six wins. They flame out and miss the playoffs by several good passion. I did the same thing. You did. I started looking at schedule and their schedule is brutal and their team's not good enough to play with some of the other teams that you mentioned to say, Oh, well, the Bengals are a little down right now. All those offense alone alone is going to just whoop up on them. And they got a whole lot of, I don't care right now in their locker room too. And I think the, I think they're imploding. I think that this is only going to get worse for Dallas the rest of the way. I trash it. Jerry Jones going to follow a couple of radio host and they're going to figure it all out. He's going to fire a couple of jabronis on the flagship and then Dallas going to start winning some football games. Isn't it obvious? What's your second cash? We're trashable. It's like a cash and a trash and BMAC's not going to like Georgia's going to go into Austin this weekend. It's a kind of their microphone. I didn't know the second part of that. I didn't hear what you said. Texas will lose to Georgia. Yeah. Okay. I mean, it's, it's not the craziest take. I, I'm going to, I'm obviously going to trash because trash, but I mean if Georgia want to wouldn't shock me, um, I'm calling the game, so I can't, no, I'm going to, I'm going to trash it. I think Texas wins. You're calling me? No, I think, I think Texas wins. I think they'd be Georgia. Brian's going to trash it because yeah, because probably street. Uh, Alex, uh, Alpe will get paid cash or trash Alpe shin goons going to get paid by who? I think it'll be the rocket. Yeah. My question. I think the rockets will pay. I think they're going to be an offer. I don't think it might not be the kind of offer that he's, that he and his Asian are expecting. I think the rockets will be the one that pays his next contract will be with the rockets. Now he might sign an offer sheet with somebody else, but the rockets will match it. I'll cash it because the fact that I don't think they'll let him walk for nothing, but I think he has to find that offer to get the kind of money he's looking for. Otherwise he will have a really good offer. I think he's expecting a great offer. I don't think he'll get paid this off season though. Like I don't think it'll come until next off season and I'm concluding the off season being this training camp before the start of the NBA season. The only way that he'll sign a contract extension before opening night in the NBA is if it's team friendly. I don't think, no, I'm from a rocket's perspective. It makes no sense for the rockets who signed up to a max deal prior to the NBA season tipping off. I'm just losing him at all. I think there's no sense for the rockets to do it yet. Yeah, I think from the flip side. You're probably right. Yeah, that he'd only sign it if he got a max deal. And that's probably why there's not going to be a contract done. That's right. I think we just had the negotiations in real life between Alpe in the rockets. $5,798 cash or trash, Mike McCarthy will be fired before the end of the season. Jerry doesn't like to do it. I think I thought he would already have done it going into the bye week for the Cowboys. So if he didn't do it already, he won't do it till the end of the year. And then because the contract expires, he doesn't have to do it. He just walks away. So I will trash it. I'm going to try to do it. It's going to be radio host. Trash fired up there, B-Mac trashed, it's Brandon T, cash or trash, the rockets will have at least one player make the all-star team this year. I am going to, I'm going to cash it. I think Alpe makes it this year because he stays healthy. I'm going to cash it too. Now I think it was healthy before the all-star game last year. He got screwed, but there was a lot of good players. I don't know if he got screwed. I couldn't have picked somebody that he got snubbed over, but it usually takes people like multiple years before they really believe in a guy. So I think that's the reason Alpe makes it this year. Yeah, I think that, and they're also looking at the fact that they want exposure for Houston now because of the fact that everybody's talking about the young pieces coming together. But I think everything will align this year and Alpe will make the all-star team. Cash or trash, Jalen will have a big leap this year. I'm going to trash that. I just, trash, I just don't think it's going to be the kind of leap that every, a big leap? No. Will we see improvements? Yes. I think that there'll be more attention to detail. They'll be better. He'll be better on the defensive end. He's still, based on what I've seen so far in preseason, he still has free reign and takes too many bad shots that he doesn't make that I just, I don't think it's going to be a big leap. They like him a lot. He made a Doka was talking about how much of a hard worker Jalen is and a grinder that he is. So I think he's shot too inconsistent to be the guy that makes that huge leap. I think Jalen might be like the odd guy out of- I agree with that. I want to, I want to like Jalen. I do like Jalen, but the consistency from him isn't where I think they need him to be, especially if they're given the big contract because he's in the same contract length as Alpe shin goon. So if he, if they let him test free agency and some stupid team offers him the max, I don't think the Rockets off. I don't think the Rockets match that. You do the same cash to trash he just, just did with Alpe and I'll trash it because he's going to, if he gets the money and his next contract is going to be with somebody else. Yeah, if it's a max, I agree. And I think somebody stupid enough and desperate enough for free agency to do it. I think you're right. I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that Jalen becomes more consistent because I do think he has the potential. He just, he is not allowed it to be consistent enough yet. Maybe you're 200 or you may, it's different. I hope, I hope so. I hope so because the Rockets, they need them to be that guy. Like if they want to be this playoff team, you know, start building this window of leading to a championship contender, it's a lot easier to get there if Jalen greens that guy. Oh, it really is. Right. And if he's not, not that it's going to set you back a ton, but it definitely is a step back because of where you took him and where those picks are supposed to turn into prime time players. Yeah. Three last one, three, two, eight, three, cash or trash. Bregman re-signs with the Astros. I'm going to cash it. Well, I believe there's a way and I believe they're going to find that way. I'm going to trash it. I think these days are done with the Astros. Right. I got to trash it. I just, I think he's going to ask for something north of what they're willing to give both both in years and the length of the contract. If you were willing to do something like four years, a hundred, four years, 120, they would sign up, but he, I think he could get and will ask for North way north. That's the key. He can ask for it, but he's going to give it to him. If he does re-sign with the Astros, I don't think it's going to be until like February. I definitely get to be late because he's going to exhaust the resources of trying to get a team in the market to over pay him. Yeah. All right. Dan Lanning admitted that the 12 guys on the field was by design, which makes me really like him because that's a genius. But what are the great loopholes and sports that we've seen teams, players utilize kind of bush league, but helps them out. 713-780-3776. What are the great loopholes that we've seen in sports history? What's the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5? ESPN 97-5. You found the killer bees live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Planken, Jeremy Brannen. What are the great loopholes in sports? 713-780-3776, no, not Landry Locker. Dan Lanning, we were wondering this, did he have 12 guys on the field on purpose? Dan Lanning, whether he's lying or not, that's for you to determine. But Dan Lanning says that they work on situations and that that was intentional having 12 guys on the field, which if that is true, hats off to Dan Lanning, you're the man. I like you way more today than I did prior to this week because I think that it's a shrewd cunning, winning move. Kind of bush-like sure, but your job is to win football games and you want a football game that helped you. Similar to that, what are the great loopholes that we've seen in sports history? 713-780-3776. What do you have, Michael? I think one of the first ones comes to mind is the way James Harden used the loophole for not only the Eurostep, but the sidestep three where everybody thinks he travels. He just took advantage of the way the rule is called and what the rule actually is to his unbelievable advantage in terms of the way he was able to capitalize and score a ton with it. It looks like we could do an entire segment of just James Harden loopholes. No doubt. He kind of reinvented a lot of things, especially getting to the free throw line two and then like pairing him and Maury together where you had like your three true results, three pointer free throws and shots in the paint, like they were perfect for each other. It was a perfect storm. Yeah. Yeah, because he basically, you know, Steve Kerr finally had to admit it after as much as he drove Kurt Nuts. Kerr always said he was traveling. Kerr always said that he can't do that. So the rule says you can and he just exploited it better than anybody else. And it's the same thing he did from the step back to the sidestep three and everybody's always taking three steps. But if they're using it on the gather and he's allowed to do it, he does it better than anybody else. Jay on Twitter says the call talker getting into a rundown to avoid the review of you leaving early on the tag up from third. Remember that? That was very, very good. Pretty loophole-y. Similar to that when you see this a lot in college football, more so than the NFL, although you could do it in the NFL too. When the offense subs, the defense has the chance to match the sub and they don't let you snap the football until the subs match. And you're seeing now coaches and teams, they tell their players to go off very slowly, which is genius. Which is genius. You have a lot of times where teams are having to take time outs to avoid delay of games. That's another loophole now with the allowing the subs to come off on the field. I think that the greatest loophole in sports history that had the most impact than any other sport was no PED testing during the steroid era in baseball. You have Barry Ball, you have Mark McGuire, you have Sammy Sosa, you have all these guys, certainly not the Killer B's, not the Killer B's. You had no PED testing during the steroid era and I think that that was the biggest loophole in sports history. Did the most impact over anything else you could possibly mention. I got a long list of these, but I think that that's right. I think the other one that I think is a loophole that other teams use was the hack-a-shack. Oh, no doubt. That was on my list. They had to correct it. Multiple teams just said, well, if this isn't against the rules, we're going to wear this thing out. Eventually they did change the rule. Yep. You still see it though. You still see it. It's not completely gone. Elam ending is the one that kind of, you know, kind of prevents the hack-a-shack, not that the NBA would ever go to the Elam ending, but the Elam ending, it makes the hack-a-shack pretty irrelevant, especially the way that he used to be written the rule. What do you got, Brian? The one that came to mind to me in the world of boxing, I don't know if you guys watched this fight, but you see this sometimes when guys break up and the ref tries to, he gets the separation. There's supposed to be a clean break, but some guys take advantage when guys aren't paying attention out of the clean break. There's a famous example between Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz, where there was a foul, they brought him together, the judge warned him, he tried to give him a clean break, and classic example, you always protect yourself at all times, number one rule in combat sports. Victor Ortiz tried to dap Floyd up, say, "Hey, my bad, didn't mean to foul you there." As soon as Victor Ortiz put his hands down, Floyd clocked him three times, knocked him out, and the fight was over, so yeah, that was the one that stood out to me. I mean, Victor Ortiz was doing something sportsman, it's something we've seen, but the number one rule, protect yourself all times, Floyd saw right away, saw his hands down, and knocked him out. Yeah, that was, I remember, I was watching that by live, that was, that was something, there was a lot of controversy with that one. Triple zero two, lineman falling down, preventing, pretending to be injured, that's all players really good. Yeah, it is. What about like, when teams are running the hurry up, and you know, they run, they complete the play, they're trying to get up, trying to get to the line, trying to spike it or whatever, and obviously the lineman are laying on people slow to get up, and just kind of causing, causing delay and havoc. Yep, you want to talk about a franchise changing one, that the league had to change the rule on. It's the Larry Bird rule in draft, when the Celtics drafted bird, when he still had a year left at Indiana State, got his rights, got a, got a sure fire lottery pick and higher than that, and it changed their franchise. There was something, there was something similar in the NFL with Bernie Kosar, they drafted him like in the supplemental draft, and it kind of like they had to rewrite some rules there too. I was reading that in prepping for this 686 zero says, for able, doing that thing against the Patriots using penalties to waste time, that was a live clock. So the clock was rolling, and he was taking the intentional false starts late and on the letter from Belichick also, yeah, used it and they changed the rule on that. Where if you, if you have multiple penalties in the similar fashion, similar vein, they can call you now for a personal foul, like, or I guess it wouldn't be a personal foul, but it'd be unsportsmanlike conduct or whatever, 15 yard penalty, a couple of people texting and catching a kickoff with one foot in bounds, one foot out of bounds, which gets, it's ruled out of bounds. Yeah. It's like the kickoff out of bounds. You get the ball at the 40 yard line, Tony Levine taught me that move. What else is on your list? I've got from, depending on when you look at it, I think a lot of people will talk about the fact that they didn't know the rule, similar to the one we started with, Manny Machado running the second base in the playoffs this year, the fact that you didn't know the rule and he took full advantage of the rule to know what he could and couldn't do, run on the grass, break up a double play, get his team win in a series because, I mean, in the game because of it. That is a good loophole and it's worth trying, it's worth doing it because it rarely gets called almost ever gets called. If you do get called, you would have, you would have been out anyways. There's really no risk. Yeah. There's no penalty for it. I think the show, Hey, Tony, deferred money thing and how big of a, how big of a discount it is on the luxury tax for the Dodgers, I'm surprised more teams haven't tried to do something similar. I think it's going to be more expensive to them in the long run though, because, well, and also from a player standpoint, you got to have a guy that can, can have the supplemental income of all of his endorsements worldwide. To me, he doesn't need the money ever makes a rule to curb that. I do. It depends on how many teams start trying to do it fair, like if it happened a dozen times, I think they would have already made a rule show here, Tony's just the unicorn and the one, you know, generation player that it happened to, then probably not. Probably not. And it's only a percentage of it. Like I think they're paying like 50, 48 or 58. I can't remember which one, which is a big difference, 48 or 58 of a $70 million per year on average. That's what goes to the luxury tax. It's crazy how big of a discount they get off the luxury tax. I found this one funny. The Edmonton Oilers during the 1984 Stanley Cup, they were playing the Islanders. They put decaf coffee in their locker room instead of regular coffee. They put decaf coffee in their locker room so they wouldn't get the, you know, they wouldn't get the energy. They wouldn't get the boost. Is there a mandatory like because on the road, because there's certain things you can't do like Don Nelson was notorious whenever he came to Houston because not every NBA city like Utah. He put beer in the locker room after game or during games. And Nelly knew that the Rockets always well stocked with beer, the locker room, even during the game. Once a year, Nelly's getting tossed in Houston because he's going to sit in the locker room and drink beer. That's not bad. A couple of textures saying the soccer player is flopping. Yeah. That's the story going. The only way that you get rid of flopping, though, is if you stop rewarding flopping. Why are they flopping? Because you're a rewarding flopping. How do you get rid of flopping? You stop rewarding it. Stop calling it. Only call it if you're a hundred percent sure. Are you going to miss some calls because of it? You absolutely are. But will you eliminate flopping? You absolutely will. That's the only thing it's ever going to fix it. What about the tush push? I don't mind the tush push, but I don't see that I think it used to be illegal, though, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I used to be a legal push. I don't see that was supposed to be an illegal play in the rough. Missed it. And that game gets there today. I'm still talking football. Yeah. Okay. I'm just checking because at the same time, I mean, but from the standpoint more if more teams did it, they might have an issue to have to try and address it again. But the fact that the Eagles just take advantage of how the rule is not that it's not a rule. I mean, breaking the rule and they just do it better than everybody else. Yeah. I don't mind the tush push. Like we have a texture here saying icing the kicker. I don't mind icing the kicker. If you're going to save your time else, yeah, so it's not I don't see it as a loophole. I think it's dumb, but it's not a loophole. What about the snowplow game when they knew the rule that they could bring the plow out and clear off. That's a good one. That's a good one. Leave it to the Patriots to find that loophole do someone asking was Brady's deflated balls a loophole? Uh, that was a that they broke the rules. It was an actual they just just as well. They just flat out broke the rule. So I wouldn't be considered a loophole. They just got away with breaking a rule. I guess Keith says it's the hidden ball trick and baseball count. I guess so. I love that when it works rarely works at the big league level college. It works a lot. Yeah. Well, I don't know. Maybe not anymore. A lot two eight, eight, five opposing benches facing the sun. That's pretty good. One's energy stadium. But how do you get away from that? Someone's got to face someone's got to face the son and it's not going to be the home team unless you had a construction flaw engineer in our team. Yeah, but I mean theirs isn't as bad though because I mean, you want to have the roof. You can shut the roof if you really needed to, but you go to some of these college stadiums and it's like, oh, yeah, they did this so by design or some of them even have like an awning. Some people will have an awning over the home so they can create a little bit of change. Austin stadium in Oregon. But they have a both sides there though. They know. I don't think they do. They not. I think it's just on the press box side that they do that to block the sun. But I don't think they do it on both sides. Yeah. I the one that I think that it's another one of those where you get away with it or not. But remember when Jason kid didn't have any more timeouts? So he spilled his soda on the court to get the timeout. He needed to get a play called veteran move. Very, very sad. He just did it so obvious though. Remember he like, yeah, he got nailed for him because he made it too obvious. But if you kind of inconspicuously try and cover that a little bit, you can get away with that. There's some good ones out there. There's some good ones out there. All right. 713 780 ESPN the demise of Tankdale boy, I was greatly exaggerated, wasn't it? Well, your thoughts on the passing game, the first pad, the first game without Nico Khan, specifically the passing side of things 713 780377 six hits the B's on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 92 5. 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