The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
11/01 Hour 3- Texans Insider DJ Bien-Aime Reacts to Texans/Jets
At Sprouts Farmers Market, we're all about fresh, healthy, and delicious. That's why you'll find the season's best organic produce hand-picked and waiting for you in the center of our store. We bring in local farm fresh fruits and veggies bursting with flavor. Come on in to discover everyday favorites like juicy berries and crisp greens, but also unique peak season varieties like moon drop or cotton candy grapes. Visit your neighborhood Sprouts Farmers Market today where fresh produce is always in season. Welcome back to The Killer Bees. On ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Now time to talk Texans with ESPN Texans reporter DJB NMA. Brought to you by Houston powder coders and the Trafking Sports Book at Golden Nugget Lake Charles. Let's go straight out to the HR and P. Guest Slime here joined by a challenge joined out by DJB NMA of ESPN ESPN.com. DJ, how do the Texans fix this offensive line? Eight sacks yesterday, eleven quarterback hits, the pressure rate through the roof for the third week in a row. What's the fix here, if any? I think you kind of hope that Jared Patterson gets back and he can play an upper guard, college of Kansas will be out for the year. Yeah, so you can, you know, put Jerry at a level guard and hope that he can be a little bit better. But I think that the inability to pick up the studs mainly because they're left guards and Jews struggle with it. So we problem for the majority of the year, you know what I'm saying? I don't, like we're already in week one nine, we went to nine games and it's still a problem. I don't think that, um, it's not really going to get fixed right now. I think it's the single small weeks of growing pain, um, and that's going to be that, you know what I'm saying? Like, everybody's having to overconfident faith. I mean, because now, you know, you're seeing Larry, you're encouraging me give up pressures now and check and I'm starting to be going to be a lot this year, but, um, tight into it. It just, it's not like these guys are getting beat, clean on some regular stuff and these even if don't work, like the pressure is going to be media and CJ's facing. It's kind of seen the effects of that. Um, on his game, you know, like he's not as accurate as he was last year, but he's having to like overcome a lot more and have to do way more heavy lifting. And that's just too much for a guy that's 23. But there isn't a question. I'm not really too sure what the fix is outside of, because like maybe you go, you, you go and get a left guard and you trade for one. Maybe you do that. Like, I think you can do that. The one that's like respectable, one that is on, you know, post somebody off a team that isn't, you know, going anywhere, give up that pick and go from there because like, if they don't make a move, right, this team is not getting out around one. I can guarantee that they're not because as the records look bad, but a lot of those bottom AFC South, AFC, you know, teams, but like, let's say it's Cincinnati or let's say it's the Jets or let's say it's, I don't know, uh, the Steelers or the Ravens, because as you're going to, you're going to face a team that's going to have a stout defensive line for the most part. Maybe the Bengals don't, but they can probably overcome that. But let's say around one you, you're seeing the Steelers or around when you're seeing the Ravens or around when you're feeding, I don't know, the Jets or you're seeing the Chargers. Like you're probably going to struggle to put up points in those games and she's going to get hit a lot. And then, you know, you end up going home pretty early because right now this is going to, this isn't a two bowl team. This is a very average team even though it's six and three. Well, DJ, that's where I was going to go in the fact that we've been kicking it around. I'm an adamant and hell bent now that they don't have the internal fix necessary for the overall bigger end result. And I was going to ask you if they go external, you know, is it where you've got this time now? We talked about it to the mini by because you got all these days now. Um, the fact that you could get someone in and start getting them acclimated and get them on like the speed plan to try and get them in there as quick as you can. But I just feel like you've got to find outside help, bring them in to have the best chance to do to avoid what you just got done talking about. Yeah, I agree. I mean, again, like, that's your only hope. Kindly speaking, like the way things look right now, you know, PJ's in fact, 14 times in the last three weeks, you know, he's he's been pressured over 40% of his drawbacks, which is like top three in the league. Like if you look at the list of guys that are ahead of the pressure rate is all guys that either hurt or banged. Right? Um, because like the Sean, it's like, well, leathers, it's, uh, I'm Bill Jones. It's, uh, the two quarterbacks in New England, those are like the top five guys. So I think that, you know, until they fix that, like everything is all whole. Everything. DJB, anime joining us on the HR and P guests line. I can pick up the tone of what you're saying. And I want to ask you this anyways, though, what is your take on the CJ shroud, sophomore slump regression to the mean when it comes to the second year quarterback? Well, when we say regression to the mean, like what, what regression are we talking about? You know what I'm saying? Like, like I was great of a rookie year he had. We got to also remember he took 23 touchdowns, you know, do 4,000 yards, he missed a couple of games for sure. But I wasn't like, he went out there in year one and like do for like 40 touchdowns or through for like almost 5,000 yards. You know what I'm saying? He threw for 41 and 23 touchdowns, had a really good, really good passer rating. Um, maybe good through that interception ratio. Obviously, I'm passing yards for game. But again, like, he's better than he was last year, right? I can say that like he's pretty gotten better. It's totally regret, like regression to the mean, like I don't, I don't even know what maybe maybe the F. Maybe the F. Maybe he was going to say that. Maybe not the regression to the Stroud mean. Maybe the regression to the NFL mean. And I, I agree with you. I think he's a better quarterback in year two than year one. The stats always go to the full product of the offense. And I think it's pretty clear what the issue is offensively. Yeah, exactly. And like, you know, CJ have to overcome a lot more and teams now have, you know, their entire book on the Bobby Foley like to do. I think that that matters a lot. Um, you know, again, like this has had, this has been an issue with all the Shanahan offenses. Outside of, I guess outside of like Kevin O'Connell, I guess, but even even over McVeigh guy, you know, tend to be part of that tree, but still more on McVeigh guy. They've all had issues with like, you know, throw a lot of too high at them. Things of that nature. Um, because like so much of their, so much of their passing attack centers over thrown over the middle of the field, like so much of it centers over that. You know what I'm saying? Um, so teams finally figured it out. And no, I think another thing too. Um, like I think all the fair criticism that is towards your struggles is I think, because you know, last year, I remember it early on, like he wasn't, and he, he was create, but um, that wasn't what he was trying to do. I think this year, like one, once he finally can create a little bit in the NFL, I think that's like his default mechanism. Oh, it's not there. Let me just try to make something happen. And it's something that obviously offers a line, but there's totally a time where he just has to go one, two, the three, or one, two, get the ball out and keep the job a lot to still trying to create the home run play, you know? And I think that he's kind of the faulted to that sometimes and that's a led to, you know, the, um, not inefficiencies, but like the stalling of offense. Cause you can't, no quarterback. I thought of patching my homes and even him to an extent. They can't live in that. And Lamar, like those are the only two guys I actually legitimately live on off schedule stuff, the entire game and your office, they still be effective, you know, because like as much pressure as CJ face yesterday, it's time to throw with three points. His time of throw was three point six, three. It doesn't matter what your old line is. You can have the lines online. If your time of throw was three point six, three, you're going to face pressure. You know what I'm saying? So they're playing a time where he could have just dumped it down, got rid of any, any admitted to that, he can get the ball off after, you know, he can go through his reads better. And I think it's like a combination of a lot of things, but to your original question, I do think he did better quarterback. You know, as last year, I don't think there's been as a quote, a regression for the mean, he's just having to carry more so it looks different. DJ, I'm curious your thoughts. First half, Joe Nixon, once again, just an absolute dog. I mean, just the shoulder, the whole load was doing everything, looking phenomenal yet another game. And then in the second half, seven carries 15 yards. And he seemed to be diplomatic, but also probably a little disappointed that they didn't kind of stick with the run game more. What were your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think the Jets made their adjustments to stopping the run. And Bobby didn't adjust to the adjustment. I mean, I think that's been, I think that's been the Texans entire issues as a coaching staff from offense to defense is they can't adjust to the adjustments, you know, like, like they're, they're not a good second half team or offense and defense. And a lot of it is because they don't adjust to the adjustments, right? Once teams have an idea, okay, this side of playing is what we're going to do now, they don't adjust to it. You know, again, like this week, they get, you know, yesterday, gave 21 points against the bills. They gave 17 points in the second half against even the bears. The bears are able to make it a game. The Packers were able to score them in the second half, you know. So I think that's been the issue. You know what I'm saying is they don't adjust to the adjusted teams make because they're very much a team like, Oh, we're just going to execute you. We're just fine. But sometimes you got to change the execution plan. Yeah, I ran the numbers on that. The Texans are plus one on the year being a six and three team. They're plus 41 in the first half and they're minus 40 in the second half. Yeah. And I think exactly. And they've only won one second half all years against New England. I think they won that one by plus 13. So you get rid of that. They're about 53 in the second half. It's crazy. Yeah. It's super crazy. A trade deadline on Tuesday, DJ. Your best guess. Do the Texans make a move to three? What are you thinking? Yeah, I think they make a move on the whole line to get some help there. I don't think that you can keep, you know, going with status quo. You're going to have to get going to get somebody in there that can make a move. You know, some players are kind of waiting for that now, you know, they're, you know, hoping for that now at this point because it's like. Unfortunately, this is just kind of their reality now. You know, I'm saying like they can't, they can't pass a lot. And they, um, because it's really enough to compete with the best of the best teams. You know what I'm saying? Like if they don't make a move, right, they could be staring at six and five because they got, yeah, because of next two games part and time game, the next two games are lions and then the Cowboys. And now you started five on one. Now you're looking at six and five. You know what I'm saying? These two games are very vital because, you know, a lot, a lot of NFL teams, like vibes, I know it's like a cliche, but that's really a very, very important thing is the vibes, the team is filling in. Yes, they're the vibes. They're not good. Like they fell out of the, that's the game. They let get away. That was a lot of disappointments. And if they don't make moves or they don't include or they don't want to wait to fix that, then now they, you know, they can start to snowball, you know. So the last thing you want is for them to be like the Jacksonville Jaguars last year or, you know, the Miami Dolphins last year where you have these big leagues in the division and they end up blowing it, you know? So our contingency titans a couple of years back that the Jaguar they was feeling. And I don't think a team is going to steal it from the Texans in the division, but, you know, again, they made a lot of money to be a legitimate two-ball contender. And if they don't, you know, get passed around one, then this year, this year is an absolute failure. Sorry. I don't think, I don't think for all the moves that they made, the people that they got rid of, try to upgrade. And if you don't get further than you did the year before, yeah, it'd be absolute failure. DJ, where are we on the injuries as it relates to one, Will Anderson Jr., it looked nasty, but do we, or do we assume, because he went back in the game that we might have avoided a multiple-week injury? And then with Aziz El-Shahir being a guy that I think that they've sorely missed and you need back and even a Christian Harris, where are we on those three guys? So I think, you know, Christian Harris, Samuel, Samuel, Matthew Chang, you're there. I think that Aziz should be back against the lions. And I think that, Will, did you get you went back in the game? That's not necessarily, I don't know if they're mean much, because Joe makes him went back into the game again, bears, and he and them missing the weeks. Grant, I don't think this was a hit-top injury. It was just more like, he got a little bit going up, but I think he'll miss next week though. Yeah, it didn't look great. And he does have a history of the ankles too, and even Aziz, Aziz went back into the game with the knee, and then he missed a couple of games too. DJ, thanks for stopping by. Great stuff, as usual, and enjoy the mini buy. I hope you get a weekend. Yeah, I'm gonna get the shirt and get that. DJ B and me, ESPN, ESPN.com. DJ doesn't think so. I don't think so. But what do you think? Have you seen regression from CJ Stroud 713 7803776? It is the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. You'll never see regression if you use HR and P with your business. It'll always be on the up and up. The arrow will always be trending in the right direction if you have HR and P in your life. My colleague, you have H class of 1990. Go Cougs has been protecting the interest of businesses for nearly 25 years. Chris Fisher over there. You're gonna love the people of HR and P. I've had the pleasure of knowing them from a few years now, and they are the best. HR and P provides comprehensive human capital management services, including HR compliance, benefits administration and payroll. You want to help with any of those areas or all of those areas, call HR and P. That way, you can stop spending your time doing the things you don't like and start spending your time on the things that you do. HR and P is going to work with you to customize a plan for whatever you need. There's nothing cookie cutter about HR and P. You need a little help, a lot of help, anything in between HR and P is going to create a plan for what you and your business needs. Their customer service touched on it a little bit earlier. Second to none, you'll never talk to a stranger. You're always going to talk to someone familiar with you, familiar with your company. They care about their jobs, and they care about you. I can speak to that customer service. We use HR and P here at GOW. Anytime I have a question, quick response, easy to understand. Let HR and P take on the demands of human resources, eliminate your HR burdens so you can get back to growing your business. Give them a call, 281-880-6525. Let them customize a plan for you, 281-880-6525, or check them out at HRP.net, that's HRP.net. You're back with the Killer B's on ESPN 97-5 and 92-5, live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. As C.J. Stroud recress, hear a lot of that chatter, sophomore slumple great, Stroud. Two people love doing that now. C.J. Stroud, yesterday, not his best game, pressure rate really high. He's been pressured, his top three games in his career in terms of pressure rate had been in each of the last three games. It is embarrassing. He mentioned that the offense was embarrassing yesterday. I feel bad for C.J. Stroud in ways that he has zero time to throw. He's being pressured all the time, it seems. He was 11 for 30 yesterday, 191 yards, no touchdowns, no picks, quarterback rating of 59.2, a QBR, 27-7, did have the fumble in the red zone. How would you assess Stroud's performance yesterday, and do you think he's regressed in your two? Look, I don't think it was great. I mean, when you are running for your life on every play, I think that there is a buffer in there, and I think people need to slow down. I think that, yeah, there were some throws that were missed. The one that really comes to mind is the metche crossing pattern right in front of the goal line late in the game when I thought they had a chance to get a touchdown there. And it was timing as well that I thought might have been a little bit off. But I think that overall, when we start talking about the fact that he doesn't have the ability to even get through all of his progressions, that he's got kind of PTSD that he knows in his internal clock that he's about to get just rocketed from somewhere on a direction he wasn't expecting, that things are going to change. But I think overall, we've seen throughout the season, the offensive line play has been horrible, and yet he's been pulling miracles out in some of the ways that he's still being able to make plays. I give Marcus Stroud a lot of credit on ESPN a couple of days ago because everybody was on this narrative about how he's taken a step back, and he's not the same guy, and maybe he's slumping. And he was like, go back and look at the tape and watch the film and just look at how many throws that he's making off script, off balance, running out of the pocket that we talked about leading guys open before they even turn around to see if they're getting to the point where CJ is looking at them, and give the guy more credit than criticism for the fact that he's dealing with just a horse bleep situation in front of it. Yeah, I don't know if I love doing the whole credit criticism thing. Like, I kind of just like, hey, call it like I see it, and I'm probably more of a cynic than a guy who, you know, dishes out compliments. But I think there's two very different ways to look at this. The whole has he regressed? No, I don't think CJ Stroud's regressed. I do think CJ Stroud's a better quarterback today than he was November 1st, 2023. DJ mentioned how he's more of a playmaker. Now, now some of that's out of necessity because the offensive lines are atrocious, but he also, he was talking about this in the preseason. He wants to be a little bit more of a playmaker with his legs. Now, I want him that's a very, you know, fine line because you need to be careful as a quarterback. And when you're a franchise quarterback, you have to make sure that you were safe at all times. You can't, you can't miss two, three games, and all of a sudden you go to Davis Mills. So you have to be very careful doing that. I have confidence in CJ Stroud going forward. There's very few quarterbacks in the NFL. I rather have than CJ Stroud. Stroud's still doing a lot of really, really good things. Now, if we're talking about assessing his play in one specific game yesterday, and we always grade Stroud, I would give Stroud an F minus. I thought Stroud was really bad yesterday. Now, some of those things are out of his hands. Like you have pressure rate at 54%, whatever it was, that is going to make life difficult. Quinn and Williams is just going right around Kenyon Green without much of a fight. That's going to make things very difficult for you. And I do think that that pressure is getting to Stroud, like he's uncomfortable, which is the point of an offense. A defense needs to make a quarterback's life very difficult. And the Jets were able to do that yesterday. But you can see how Stroud's missing targets left and right. He mints, he mints tanked down a very easy outbreaking route. He missed John Metche for what could have been the go ahead touchdown over through him. He mentioned he missed John Metche in the second quarter for what would have been a chunk play, maybe even an explosive throws it over his head. He's in the red zone with the football, and he fumbles it. That cannot happen. I don't care if you're getting pressured 89% of the time. You're in the red zone. You know, it's going to be a low scoring game with these two defenses. You have to protect the ball. I got knocked out of his head. You have to protect the ball. It cost you three points. It cost you three points. Even if you just take the sack there and you kick the field goal, it costs you three points. You have to protect the ball in that spot. So I don't think Stroud played well yesterday. I think there are a lot of variables that lead into him not playing very well yesterday. And not very much of them are his talent, quite frankly. But his performance as a quarterback yesterday, being the leader in the micro of this offense was poor. Look, I'm giving him credit for not regressing. I'm giving him credit for the standpoint of he's still your franchise quarterback, and he's still better than most in this league. I'm saying that to your point, I can't say that that fumble, his own lineman is running into him. I understand you got to be more protected in the ball. But at the same time, you already know what you've been dealing with all game to your point that he should cover it up. But at that point in the play, as he's trying to possibly step up in the pocket and your own guy gets you, I can't, he lost the ball. I'm not going to be as critical of on that play. Did he miss some throws? Yes, he certainly did. Stroud was putting the ball. I think it was Titus. Stroud was pushing the ball into Titus, trying to keep his balance kind of, you know, he's navigating traffic and he has the ball right there on Titus, like kind of a little bit of pressure. Like he's pushing him kind of in the back with the football. And then Titus, I don't know if he's just kind of trying to make the block or whatever happened. He, he's able to extend away from Stroud. And then Stroud kind of slips the left hand and the ball falls out. Yes, it's in traffic. Yes, his offensive lineman's right there. But as a quarterback in traffic, whenever you need points and you're in the red zone, you can't fumble the football there, like take the sack, take the sack at nine sacks. If you'd had nine sacks yesterday, one more being on that play, you get three more points in a couple of times he did take the sack and it took him out of field goal range. So completely, too. I think, I don't remember any time they got taken a field range. They made one kick deeper that that kind of missed. I think there was another one that that I recall where they were, it was going to be a longer field goal. And he tried that where he starts to kind of blind roll backwards and realized trying to get to the, to the weak side, blind side. And instead, a defender was there. And then he kind of tried to turn back the other way and he got tackled in the middle of the field. And it went from a field goal situation to a punt situation. Now all their punts came from pretty deep in their own territory. Their first drive, they punted from their own 43, never got into jets territory. They fumbled on their second drive, which is the play that we're talking about. They punted on their third drive. They didn't get the ball past their own 20. They punted on their fourth drive. I didn't get the ball past their own 25 miss field goal into half and second half, they went field goal, miss field goal, field goal. So maybe it was that I think it was the miss field goal. Yeah, it was potentially there. But look, I think it goes back to what we used to see with John Watson, but from a different perspective, to Sean Watson was always trying to make the highlight play. He didn't know better. He was just always trying to extend the play. I think CJ feels like he has to be able to do because he's had some success in the past doing it. He has to try and make every play. And that's where he's going to get his head ripped off. And that's where he's going to hurt you sometimes as much as he could possibly help you because it's just not there. And he's running for his life too much. He's usually the opposite of that though. But I think that lately he feels like he's got to try and do more because he's dealing with less and obviously digs this out. And he's been, you know, his receiving course has been limited to some degree. But overall, because of the fact that he's running for his life on almost every play to that he's trying to extend plays were sometimes to your point. But is that a positive? I think it can be. I think it depends on the situation. Yeah. Like I don't think that you need to be sitting in traffic and exposing the football whenever you're in your own. I'm talking about the fun, the fumble perspective. I'm talking just overall in general. I think he's trying to do too much right now. I think he's he's always been able to do more and going off script and kind of getting out of the pocket. He's been he's had a ton of success doing. But now I feel like he has to do it on almost every play. And it's getting him in more a lot more trouble. I think I think he's kind of in his own head a little bit too with the pressure. It's like I that's why I think he's misfiring more than he normally misfires. I think that's why he's been more inaccurate than he's certainly capable of. I think that that all is playing a role. And that's why I think it's very important to separate these conversations into two separate things. I don't think that CJ Stroud has regressed. Do I think he's playing up to his potential? No. Well, why don't you think he's playing up to his potential? I think it's because of the misdoings of his offensive line, not really anything that he's doing, although he is missing some place. So like, what do I think of the forecast of CJ Stroud? What do I think about his potential still very high? But what do I think of his game yesterday? I think very poorly. What would you give his grade for yesterday? Yeah, I was, I was in the D range. Yeah, just because of the fact that there were throws that he missed, there was whether it was because he was pressured or not, there were throws that he could have made. And I think the two to Metchi are very key in the fact that I think he could have made both of those throws. I think he should have made both of those throws. So I can't, and then the way that the game went, the fact that they lost, the fact that their offense was just so bad. He got the one big chunk play late to tankers, numbers would have been significantly worse. So I'm in the D range. Yeah, that was a 50 yarder to tank. So you're looking at 140 yard game looking like almost another green bag game with just a little more yards. I mean, it very much looks like the Josh Allen game, whatever you play. It looks like Anthony Richardson. It looks like an Anthony Richard gets in game from last week. It's a good thing that CJ Stroud didn't take himself out of this game. They might have benched him for the veteran Davis Mills going forward and been the permanent quarterback. King on the on the Twitch says that the slowick hasn't changed concepts to quicker plays nor to running a well timed screen. I agree. I agree. I agree completely. I think slowick's doing a bad job too. When it comes to knowing that this offensive line has restraints, I think Bobby slowick is rightfully getting a lot of criticism this season. And I think even when you talk about the fact what over the last three games they haven't scored a touchdown in the second half. The fact that when you're looking at the fact they haven't made adjustments from from first half to second half in almost every game this season, the fact that when mixing was running the ball and it was working and you knew the Jets kind of overcompensated, you weren't adjusting accordingly. I think that that has to be called out as well. 0 7 3 5. I don't think in my opinion, there's any regression. I do believe if they don't do something on the old line and they could potentially affect his entire career. Either by severe injury or I've seen PTSD among quarterbacks to where their pocket presence is no longer the same. And we've seen it in this city. 6 3 0 2 CJ Shroud has not regressed. I think expectations might have been a tad bit lofty based off of last season. The defenses have a chance to look at a full season's worth of film on them. See, I don't put a whole lot of validity there. I think if CJ Shroud had the Detroit lion offensive line that he is looking like an MVP candidate, I think the talent is obviously still there. But his performance is restricted because the offensive line is atrocious. Like it's DJ was thrown out a bunch of numbers there. But if a quarterback, all things equal, center is paribus, a quarterback has seven seconds to throw versus two seconds to throw, which quarterback is going to have more success? Like we over complicate this a lot of times. Yes, CJ could be a lot more accurate. A lot of times it's because he doesn't have that time. And again, if you're doing that over and over and over and over again, it's going to mess you up. Like it is going to make you a little bit out of sync, out of rhythm. Your groove is gone. Stella needs to get his groove back 7 9 7 6 CJ isn't slumping, but trying to survive since Kenny Green needs to not be in the NFL. Sloak isn't helping him either with the unmodified play calling. I think it's a good text. Might be a blessing in the skies. It doesn't say disguise. It says might be a blessing in the skies, but green being done for the year, Texas need to bring someone to replace them. Who else would y'all say needs to be replaced on the line? We need some dogs on that line that is willing to fight for shot. I agree with that. Now, like the only guy that I'm benching those left guard, you're not now if you want to move juice scrubs out of center to left guard. And then when Jared Patterson comes back to center, I'm cool there. But in terms of like taking the entire player out of the offensive line, I mean, I think that the injury caused that, but you're not taking Laramie out. You're not taking juice out. You may be move him, but you're not taking him out. You're not taking out Shaq Mason, and you're not taking outside his Howard, right? No, you're not. And and I think as much as we you can be critical from a certain play aspect, that would be ridiculous to do that because those guys have been at least been there and done that. I think of the three, Shaq's probably played the worst of the three. But I think that all three are guys that you're going to count on to be in those positions and you hope that there's more continuity and communication with guys that you can get to try to fill in at guard and possibly center. Yeah, zero nine seven nine years mad because DJ son, you random. Did he send me? I didn't hear that. What does that mean? I don't, I'm not sure. Maybe he called me son. Oh, I don't worry. I did like he was my daddy. Yeah, I didn't catch that. I didn't catch that one either. I didn't catch that one zero nine seven. I provide some context zero nine seven nine. I'd appreciate it. All right, seven one three seven eight zero ESP and HRP listener line timed out for busy money where we have been handing you out some winners. We're up one hundred and twenty dollars a year today. Do you want to win money? If you do, well, listen to busy money next. It is the bees on ESPN 97 five and ESPN 92 five. Hey, for we go to the break a word for Stella Rosa wines. The weekends about to get get here and get going and you're about to unwind. You're going to be watching some games this weekend, maybe some having some people over or maybe you're going to somebody's house to watch some games and you know that regardless of what the food is being served that you like to have the same kind of choices that you make with what you're going to eat at a place or when they come to your house, give your guests or when you are a guest, the choice of an extra added menu item from a beverage standpoint. Yeah, there's going to probably be beer and hard alcohol, but try some Stella Rosa wines. They're served chilled and they go with just about anything that you're serving from the all natural fruit that they're using their fruit flavoring to all the different spices that compliment it so well. It's going to complement whatever foods on the menu and because it has just the right amount of alcohol, you're going to be able to pace yourself and enjoy Stella Rosa wines throughout the day or night. Check them out today. They're available at all your local retailers. That means your liquor stores as well as your grocery stores and they come in a variety of different flavors. You're going to love the way they taste. You're going to love them even more when they complement the food that you're consuming. I encourage you today to get out to your local retailer and get yourself some Stella Rosa wines when you're getting you ready for your next party or get together. And always, I tell you, get a couple bottles, but please celebrate responsibly. Do these guys have any idea what they're doing? Probably not, but that won't stop them from making picks. This is busy money. Oh, we've been killing it. We've been killing it, boy, Skye. Well, not last week. We were one and three last week. We didn't lose $60. But we're up year to date. If you've been playing all the killer bees picks, we're probably even if you kind of the big, but we don't use the big here. We got the benefit of not having big $1,120 our payroll or our bankroll rather. We opened up with $1,000 or plus 120 on the year. Yours truly commanding first place lead in busy money is commanding. Can we just at least get to the headline that you can't crap on me this week? Because I'm no longer in the cellar. Well, let me talk about myself first, nine and five on the year, four games above 500. Branham dominating. Blankers is now in second place. He's moved up the podium. He's now silver medalist, seven, six and one, and in dead last in a slump. He's been awful as of late Brian McDonald, who is seven and seven on the year. Babes, do you want to be his advocate this week? He already put the games in that he wants. But yeah, do you want to be his voice? Yeah, I want to associate yourself with that loser. He's not really associating. He's more speaking for him. Yeah, I'm just standing in for him. But yeah, I'm going to be on use of some degree to listen to what you say, Sean. I know it's a big shoes to fill, but I'll try to be his voice. All right. So blankers, first game, which one are you selling to us? First game to me is the Washington commanders at the Giants in New York, because I just believe that coming off the hype and all of the the ending that was the Hail Mary, the commanders are playing good football. And look, Jaden Daniels is unbelievable. He's in the MVP conversation and the Giants are not and the Giants are making play calls that make you scratch your head and looking at guys that they're playing and making you scratch your head and looking at their offensive line and trying to figure out what they're trying to do. I think they're in disarray. I think that Washington is going to go in there and have their way. I see Washington winning by at least a touchdown. The Giants are getting four at home. Yeah, I didn't like this game. Home divisional rival getting points. I don't really love the way the commanders played last week, either. It was an ugly game. Yeah, it was an ugly game. They rallied. I don't know how healthy Daniels is. I know we played through that last game. I thought long and hard about this game almost played the giant side. I ended up not playing it at all. The reason I didn't play the giant side are for all the reasons you just said to us. Like, I don't want to put my money on the Giants, but this game spooked me. Sorry for the late Halloween plan. I am out on this game. How do you feel about this one, Mapes? Yeah, I don't I don't love this one because. Screw you both. Oh, sorry. Because of what you bitchen with it just being a divisional game. The last we're already into the point of the season where these teams have played before. And when they played Washington did not score a touchdown. Now they won, but they did not score a touchdown. So that makes me a little uneasy as far as playing a side. What was the final score in that game? I think it was 18 to 15. Gross. Something weird. Gross. All right, first game I'm going to sell to you. I'm on the Jamis Winston train. The Browns would be undefeated if they had the wisdom of Winston playing the entire season. I think they're going to ride that momentum. They're a home dog at the dog pound against the Chargers. The Browns are getting a point and a half against the Chargers. I think Cleveland's even with the Chargers. Now that they've made the move, I think they're going to continue to stay hot behind one Jamis Winston. I don't like this one. I got the other side of this. I like the Chargers. I think the Chargers are way better than I thought they were going to be at the start of the year. And I think Herbert is showing that without the talent that he's had in the past at skill positions, though he has some talent. I think that they've been better than advertised. I think the Chargers are going to go in there and definitely win the football game. If you want to say by a field goal, so be it still covers the spread. But I like the Chargers side of this. This one's tough because I do want to believe in the Jamis bump. I really do. But I'm worried that it was a one game bump and now the clock's kind of struck midnight and it's turning back into a pumpkin. I mean, even last game, I think there's three just passes that Jamis Winston threw directly into the chest of Raven's defenders. Obviously, the last one to Kyle Hamilton. That's why Kisserra didn't draft him. But the last one dropped by Hamilton. So this one is another one where I don't feel confident enough to put my name on. How much should we give stock to me because I'm in first place? The silence is deafening. Yeah, it's of deference. It sounds like I should just be, how much do you want to, you should, whenever it should be like a parent, like, you know, jump, how high. I want to bet the Browns how much that's what should be happening here. Is that how kids treat their parents? No, no, no, parents to their kids. Like whenever you're saying like, Hey, listen to whatever I say and then the jump, you say how high. So whenever I because I'm the leader here in busy money, whenever I say, let's bet this side of a game, the response that I need to hear is how much now you're not know what you need and what you get are two different. Yeah, you're trying to find us. You're trying to sell us now. Well, first place. There you go. There's myself. Become a better sale. First place. Yeah, become a better sale. All right. Well, enjoy your seven, six and one record. That's fine. And you, you're one game ahead of me. No, I'm not bad math. Nine and five is not one game ahead of seven, six and one. The lost column. I'm only one behind you. Bad math. All right, mates. What's the first game you're selling to us? You're red. First one I'm selling is the bills minus seven against the dolphins. They. All right, nothing. Snicker. It's six. It's six. That's seven. You look at the wrong line. At least it wasn't where you put it in there. I like it. I would like I'll take it at seven. The alt line. No, the bills, the dolphins, they again, they've played before. They played with Tua for most of that game and it was an absolute bloody, bloody show about those two teams. Now the bills, I like them better with a Mark Hooper and they are laying six at home. They've again already blew him out on the road. I think this dolphins team is teetering on a little bit of quick watch. Okay, Blankers, how you feel about this one? I think Buffalo is going to win the game, but I think it's a different scenario because of the fact that Tua is playing and when Tua is playing, obviously everybody upgrades on the offense for Miami. That's why it worries me a little bit that the spread is that big. I think Buffalo wins the game. I'm a little leery of that six points. He just told you that he was to have played in the first time that they played whenever Buffalo crushed. Yeah, that's before his dome got rattled around. Yeah, no, no, it's worse. No. Yeah. Well, okay. Andy won't wear that stupid padded helmet. I'm not sure how it's pertinent. I'm okay with that. I think he makes bad his body, his choice. He makes bad. It's fun. I think Buffalo wins. I just don't know if they're going to cover that. Okay. Oh, that's your sarcastic nod. It's just a nod, but no, it's because I don't love the the take, really. I'm actually on your side of this, though, Blankers, that nod might have led you astray. It's a head fake. I think Buffalo wins like by a field goal. I think they win by a touchdown. I'm like, okay, you talk me into it. Talk me into it because Blank gave me a little sass. So I'm going to I want to put a little bit on this game. How about you think in 2025? I don't love this game, but I want to be spike full. Yeah, let's do $20 $20 on last place. Brian's pick proxy by Mapes. Yeah, it still is. All right. Second game, Blankers. Second game for me. Look, it's the Bears and the Cardinals. I thought the Bears played very, very poorly last week. I don't like the fact that their offensive line is completely ginged up right now. And I'm still not completely sold no matter what their record was and how that division plays, how good they are. Arizona's finally starting to figure it out. They're finally getting Marvin Harrison Jr. more involved in the offense. They've won two in a row now, and they're at home. And they're only favored by a point and a half. I think Arizona's going to win the game outright. So I like Arizona this game. I only played three games this week, personally, myself. This was one of them. I like Arizona as well. They're on a heater. I don't know about that. But you're right. The Bears didn't play great. Now they weren't coming back from their Europe games. So that kind of concerns me a little bit. Like two weeks after that, they're usually better. Teams are usually better, but I like Arizona minus one and a half for a small amount. I'm not quite interested on this line, too. Do they? Yeah. Okay. What do you think in 2025? Let's get Mapes input. No, I'm along the same lines as you guys were an animus. This is. Yeah, this is the side. I think we should go at least 30 then. That's fine. All right, 30 dollars. I already typed it in. Well, I didn't type it in. I said, we should get 30 before we agreed with her. I had an idea. I had a pretty good feeling you're going to agree. Body link. Yeah. I mean, he would agree. I agree. It was pretty obvious that you are going to agree. Plus, you know, the delete button exists. It's not that difficult nowadays in 2024 to go back and then input the change. A second game that I'm going to sell Minnesota Vikings against the Colts. Look, Joe Flacko, is he better than Anthony Richardson? Sure. Whatever. He's still a bad quarterback. He threw an interception in every game that he played in last year. I think that might be the case again this year. Joe Flacko is no good. He's going on the road playing a very good Viking defense. I think the Vikings are still a top five, seven team in the NFL. I think the Colts are super mediocre. I think the Vikings win this game by at least a touchdown. Skulls, skull, skull. Yeah, I like the Vikings as well. I like the Vikings because if you're going to look for a defensive coordinator that's been basically winning his match ups weekend week out, then you're looking at the Vikings and you're looking at a guy that that that's going to be able to scheme things to stop Jonathan Taylor. And if you stop Jonathan Taylor and you've got any kind of pass rush at all to get to the statue back there in Joe Flacko, you'll have success. They're at home where they play better too. So I like the Minnesota side of this. Brian Flores seemed like it like personally offended that they benched Anthony Richardson do. It's like they were brothers or something. How he answered that question. He was like, I wish I got to. Yeah, I did feel that way. Like I was I was actually wondering the opposite. I was wondering Brian Flores gets ahead coaching job where he once Anthony Richardson. That's the way I took that. That's interesting. I agree. I agree with you guys on this. This is one that we picked on Glenn George. I was I think the lone one on the Vikings there. Yes. So yes, I agree on really all accounts that Joel mentioned with the I think Brian Flores versus Joe Flacko who Joe Flacko. Great story. Everyone loves them. Yeah. Well, not actually that good debatable. Well, it just feels like the media just loses their mind and gets to play since it's unanimous. Whoa, since I'm in first place and I sold this game, I think it should be a hundred dollar game. I don't like it that much. Soft. How much do you like it? I could go 40. I don't like a hundred soft. All right. Let me use this delete button real quick. Go back and put $40 game. All right. What are you doing here, Mapes? The next one or I guess the second one that I'm selling is the Bengals. This one, they are minus seven against against the Vegas Raiders. This is one where you think I think it's a little bit along the lines of what we saw. Last night with the Jets where their season is in utter turmoil. They're falling apart. This is still a veteran group or prideful group and to invite touchdown is all you need against one of the worst teams in the league where if they if they come out flat in this game, Cincinnati does, if they come out flat, their season's over and I don't think their season's over quite yet. They're still actually in the playoff mix as remarkable as that sounds. Yeah, I like this game too. I think Cincinnati's desperate. I think they still have a chance. I think that their offense is good enough to put up points. And I think that Las Vegas, no matter how many raras speeches they get from Max, I want to be there Crosby. It's not going to matter enough to make a difference in this game. I think the worst case scenario is it pushes. I think the best case scenario is Cincinnati wins my closer to nine or 10 points. I have since I win this game by 10. I avoided it personally because of the minus seven. I don't love the minus seven numbers. I don't like crossing over that line historically, but I'm on this side of it. I would just put a governor on how much you guys are going to play on it. I mean, 30? John, do you want to stand on the table to put more than 30? No, 30 is good. All right. $30 on Cincinnati. So we're 20 on Buffalo minus six, 30 bucks on since he minus seven, 30 bucks on Arizona minus 0.5 and 40 bucks on Minnesota minus five. All right, car wreck of the day every Friday, the mean things that have been said on the internet mean tweets. Next, it is the bees on ESPN 97 5 ESPN 95. Oh, tomorrow tomorrow, you have age coming home to take on Kansas state. We're less than 24 hours away from that matchup. Number 17, Kansas state playoff aspirations, Kansas state used in looking for back-to-back wins after the victory over Utah on homecoming last Saturday night. Tomorrow to 30 weather's going to be great. You need to get out the TV. So you stay for the blackout special. You can get your blackout special. Now ticket in a t-shirt for only $30. Go to UH cougars.com slash black UH cougars.com slash black and your ticket and t-shirt for just 30 bucks. Get ready for an afternoon of thrilling plays, hard hitting action, unforgettable moments. You know, nothing beats the pageant tree. The tradition, the roar of the crowd of college football last week was great. Went down to the buzzer game, winning field goal by Jack Martin and opened him half some moments like that again tomorrow. You don't want to miss out in case there are. Head to UH cougars.com slash black UH cougars.com slash black. Pick up that blackout special ticket in a t-shirt for just $30. And if you're coming, which you should, come early. Stop by the Bud Light backyard tailgate area. Enjoy the tasty eats, a cold beverage and all of the tailgate games. Let's show our Cougar Pride and support the team. Come early. Be loud and wear black as we pack TD ECU Stadium. Live in the Veritex community bank studios, it's the killer bees. Now back to Joel and Jeremy. Oh, the mean things that you guys say or other guys say or ladies, 0754. This show sucks. What happened to the Willhouse? Just texted that. They had a reunion in the big apple I saw. I thought they hated each other. Two thirds. Yeah, I don't know what's dead. I thought they were, I thought they were on the mend. Well, that means they're getting better, right? The men. Oh, yeah. All right. 0754. Thanks for that. It's been announced that the Yankee superstar Aaron Judge will be in Times Square this New Year's Eve. He's going to help drop the ball. Aaron Judge. But don't dry. He said that on the Twitch. You got it. You got it from Twitter. Yeah, nothing say. No, nothing. Dray says is original. Right. Well, yeah. Dead. Oh, Kenyan green. Why? Because it's still in your shine. Still in your dad. I wouldn't even go to that level. I think that was, I think that was that bad from dad joke material. That one's like a three. It's a little bit in the I asked so and so for a dollar and he gave me back three quarters towards like, yeah, it's a little standard. I guess what I like about it is that it's pertinent, you know, like it just happened. Yeah, like it's kind of, you know, what's going on in the world. We were asking earlier about all the positives that happened in the Texans game yesterday. Someone said Kenyan green. It's not nice. Someone just texted to and said anything said about Kenyan green on Twitter. Some do was calling him a psalma bin Kenyan. That's kind of messed up. Oh, that's aggressive comparing. I'm doing a terrorist. Yeah. It's a bit harsh. I mean, he's not good at football. You don't have to compare him to a terrorist. Yeah, that's very far. Yeah, very much too far. That's a let's a way over the line. Crossing the line. People say anything on Twitter though, you know. Yeah, that's the internet. When they say we do things the right way, they mean start a cult that was said about Texas, and a little bit earlier based my like that because he's a long way. Yeah, definitely. He's filling in for BMAC in the right spot there for the Texas love. My brother's my brother's an Aggie. He's going to eat him right now. And he was at our little Halloween party yesterday. I was giving him some grief. The yell leaders are what gets me. They do the whole like you're a glass wearing and they do that with like the elbow thing. Like they don't their insults are not very insulting. They're like very they're like a two on a scale of one to 10. But then they do like the little leg kick and the arm thing. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, they're very corny. Yeah. A relative saying to Sean Watson wasn't the Michael Jordan of the NFL. He was the P. Did he play? Was that I think it was uncle. It was uncle Barney. Yeah. Whoever said he played like dog crap is a complete imbecile. That's not very nice. Ryan, whoever recorded that audio has a wake apnea. That was actually the main thing. Yeah, because you could hear you could hear a no, you don't have the wake apnea. But the sound that you played the other day, you could hear the person who is filming breathing. That person had a wake apnea, which I think it was Aaron, wasn't it? Might have been messed up. He didn't want to sell anybody else out. All right, it's going to do it for us. Thanks to Mapes for doing all of Brian's hard work. He's got more days off than pololo. He's blank on Brian and we'll talk to you next week, Houston. Have a great weekend. (explosion)