The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
11/11 Hour 1 - Where Does the Collapse Against Detroit Rank for All-Time Texans Losses?
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They have a prime time stand-alone game, their chance to show the rest of the NFL world that they are contenders. They look really good in the first half and they looked really bad in the second half. As the Texans blow a big lead, fall to the Detroit Lions. Everybody's unhappy about how the Houston Texans performed, especially in the second half. One of your biggest takeaways from this one yesterday, Blankers. Well, I tell two halves for sure and I think that, you know, when you look at it, you'd love to say that, hey, they figured a lot of things out, but at least in the first half, they look much better. The fact that the offensive line was able to give C.J. some time. The fact that he was able to kind of feel like he looked like he settled in a little bit more, felt a little bit more comfortable in the pocket. They capitalized on a lot of the turnovers. The score right before the first half was fantastic. But what we were all waiting to, after we evaluated the offensive line, it was, what are they going to do in the second half? How are they going to do what they need to do and kind of get off the Schneider? And instead of getting off the Schneider, they got firmly planted on it even even worse and even more solidified. A place on that crapper where they completely crapped the bed yet again, they didn't score any points. They didn't put any touchdowns up for the four straight game. And, you know, there was an inability to run the football all night long. And that's something that as much as Joe Nixon has tried to shoulder everything for this team offensively while they were working out the past game. It's another game where if you have one, you don't have the other. The run game was not good. And the second half, CJ made some pretty critical mistakes. Yeah, the run game thing is interesting to me because yes, the Texans didn't run well in this game. But they've run pretty stinking well when Joe Nixon is healthy. When they've had Joe Nixon, they've had some really good running game. So I don't know if this team has an issue running the football. Now doing both, I think, I think that you're right there. And the offense is dreadful. Like the offense is a major disappointment. The second half, the fact that they haven't scored a touchdown in four straight games, the point differential. And look, this is a full team thing too. I know that Sloak is getting a lot of a lot of the blame. And he should. Like I'm not trying to stand for Sloak here. I'm not telling you to swing your disdain to the other side of the ball. Sloak deserves a lot of brain, a lot of blame. And I'm not telling you to switch that blame whatsoever. But the Houston Texans as a football team are plus 57 on the year in the first half. They have outscored opponents in the first half by 57. They've been outscored in the second half by 59 points. That's dreadful. And that's both sides of the football. Well, is it 90% Sloak? I don't know what your ratio is, but that's just bad. Like you're not going to win many games whenever you're getting beat in the second half like that. Again, they have trouble adjusting. Like I don't know what the issue is. Bobby Sloak, I think Bobby Sloak draws him a pretty good game plan during the week. I don't think he adjusts to the wrinkles that are being thrown to him in the middle of a game. I think the second half without a touchdown in the last four games speaks to that. I think the fact that the Texans are minus 59 is a team in the second half and point differential speaks to that. But Demico has some of those same mistakes too. And Demico will be the first one to admit to you that he's not really a huge scheme guy. Yeah, he's going to have a scheme. You have to as a coordinator. But he also tells you that he believes in execution. He believes in doing what they do well. So you have a pretty stinking good idea of what the Houston Texans are going to do to you. And you see in the second half where teams have been able to get to the Houston Texans defense. Yeah, no, you know, to the point on the running game. Look, I'm not saying the running game has been awful all year long. I'm just saying last night I watched the week before against Green Bay where this Detroit defense hasn't given up 100 yard Russia in quite a while. But Josh Jacobs had 13 carries for 95 yards in the first half. He was running rough shot all over the lions. Joe Nixon could not find a whole edge wise to get through. And when he went whenever he tried to get out to the edges, the safeties did a hell of a job coming up. The corners were covering very well and containing the edges. And they did a great job bottling up the run. And that's what we know is one of the game plans for the Texans. That's why in the second half, you know, when you make adjustments, you realize, hey, look, we talked about it. Even if you don't have a running game and those games when mixing didn't play, you can basically reenact what are handing off to a running back can be with short passes with kind of moving things around. I thought that they basically stayed very stale and very predictable offensively and, you know, to the point on the offense. It's just one of those things where it's never clicking where both sides are working at the same time. But I think that the mistakes to me were very bothersome because of the second half because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out when you're getting out scored as badly as you are in the second half. But like for the last four games, you've just been completely inept after, especially last night, putting a lot of points on the board and really looking good at the end of the half with that drive to where you just start going, hey, we can figure it out. Why can't you? What are the other things that you're not doing that are leading to this kind of lack of success for half the football game? Because for the first half of the football game, there's a lot of people saying, well, this is the Super Bowl caliber team that we were looking for. Okay, sure. But the reason why teams are good enough to go to a Super Bowl is because they can put two halves together because they can adjust at halftime because they could do the things necessary to make sure that when the defense throws something different at you or tries to take something away, you do something to put a wrinkle in to make sure that they have something else to deal with. Yeah, and maybe just simply consistency and that's kind of the same thing, right? Like you play really well in the first half really, really poorly in the second half, you lack consistency. My biggest takeaway is I still feel that the Houston Texans, they're sealing, talking about their potential. I still feel it's really high. Like the Detroit Lions are one of the best teams in the NFL. The Detroit Lions have been whooping up on teams left and right. The Detroit Lions, I think, were one of the only few teams in the NFL that were top five in DVOA in offense and on defense. And the Houston Texans whooped them in the first half. Yes, it was at home. Yes, they had the benefit of turnovers, but you have to go out and get those turnovers. You have to create those plays that lead to tip balls and then you have to convert it when it's popping in the air. So in the first half, I was like, okay, this is a team that can beat anybody when they're playing their A game. I don't think they can play their C game and beat, you know, the top five teams in the NFL. But when the Houston Texans are playing their A plus game, I think that they can beat anybody in the NFL. And the first half to me proved that because it wasn't even a perfect first half. You weren't converting touchdowns whenever you were getting into the red zone. You weren't scoring every single time that you got a turnover. You had a busted play in coverage when Henry Toowo, a bit on a play action that led to the easy touchdown by Sam Laporta. So what a perfect first half. I thought the Texans played like their B plus A minus game and they're whooping up on Detroit. So I still think that the Houston Texans have a very high potential. I still think that their potential is very, very good. If I were to put it on a scale of one to 10, I think their potential is a 10. I think their floor is about a five. I think the Texans for most of the year have played to about a six. They haven't played anywhere close to their potential over 60 minutes of football at all. They've really only played close to their potential. Maybe for two halves of football the entire year, first half yesterday against Detroit was there. But they've been this team that has played close to their floor all year. Most of that is because they haven't been what we thought they were going to be offensively. I still think they can be very good. Slowick's going to have to, you know, change some things. Slowick's going to have to change a lot of people's opinions of him. CJ Sprout, I still think, yes, he had a terrible second half yesterday. I still think that CJ Sprout is top five potential quarterback in the NFL. You're getting Nico Collins back. Tank Dell has emerged these last couple of weeks since the digs injury. Joe Mixon is really good. You're changing things up on your offensive line. So I still believe that this team has incredible potential. The problem that I see in the biggest takeaway is that they've played nowhere close to their potential on a consistent level or I trust that they can get to that potential on a consistent level. Yeah. My two biggest takeaway specifically looking at the team as a whole is their defense is really good. And you just got time talking about offensively what they're going to do. But they're going to get Mario Edwards back. You know, they're going to get Will Anderson Jr. back. You don't know if they're going to get Christian Harris back. But if you do, that's just another feather in the cap of a team that has gotten a lot deeper. We talked about being able to like have a deep enough roster that when injuries happen, you can adapt. Their defense is really good and they have a lot of talent on that defense. They're going to get some guys back. But they're capable of doing something to a team like the Detroit Lions, which has been running rough shot on the league scoring points. So you know that they have some talent on defense and the defense can really do some things to wreak havoc on whoever they're playing. Offensively, my biggest takeaway is CJ owns, he has to own it. He did own it and CJ did not play his best football specifically in the second half. But what you saw throughout that game and you saw the passes that he's capable of making when you give him any time at all and his ability to kind of move the pocket, he still is one of the best quarterbacks in this league. He still is a guy I have total confidence in. I look at that guy and there's not a single thing in me that says he's going to suddenly crap the better become way lesser than what we thought he was going to be and what a lot of people jumped on board after last year. He just had a one of the, I wouldn't say a perfect season, but he had one of those seasons last year where everything that possibly could have gone right for him went right. We talked about from an interception standpoint that he probably should have had, you know, a lot more interceptions or several more interceptions that he did. But everything kind of fell in place. This year, not everything has fallen into place. There are times when he makes bad plays. He is human. He's going to make those plays. We know specifically to the ball to tank. If he doesn't put so much air under that ball, that's a slam dunk touchdown and he owned that. He knows. But at the same time, he still made a lot of good plays, a lot of good throws. And some of the guys dropped balls that hit him between the numbers too, to where I believe the defense is really, really good. I believe that C.J. Stroud is still really, really good. And to your point, I think this team can play with most teams in the NFL, but I'm not sure if they're ever going to take it to a level where they're going to get a chance to do that. I think they can when they play their best, I don't think that they can whenever they're not their best, like you look at Kansas City, Kansas City is a team that really hasn't played their best all year and they're undefeated. They beat Denver yesterday on kind of, you know, the game winning field goal block was that flooky? I don't know. You got to give credit to the special teams, drawing up a field goal block and then going out and blocking it. Like Kansas City's one game's the entire year playing a C plus B minus game. Like is Kansas City play their best game? I don't think so. The Houston Texans can't do that. The Houston Texans can't play a C plus B minus game and beat the best teams in the NFL. The Texans have to be their very best in order to contend with Kansas City, Baltimore, Cincinnati. Maybe you could say that they played their game against Buffalo in which they should have beaten Buffalo by more than that score indicated. I thought they were close to an A game yesterday in the first half, but they can't, they can't show up like Kansas City and play a B minus game and beat some of the better teams in the NFL. They're not capable of doing that. And then they haven't played to that ceiling as much as you would have expected them to play. I think that's why everybody was bullish on the start of the year. Okay, we have these pieces. We have where if at all clicks, we have a chance to be a really good team. And I still think that they do. The time, the problem is that the time is running out and they haven't shown us enough of that for us to have the confidence that they're going to be able to figure that out. And you're right, the defensive side's what I'm most bullish about. Like you have a defense that gets pressure on the quarterback as much as they do with their defensive line and they were doing it yesterday without Willie Anderson. That gives you hope and belief that the Texans can, like, can begin any game that they play in. The Detroit Lions have one of the best offenses in the NFL. Jared Goff has been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the NFL this year. Whether it's taking care of the football, whether it's completion percentage. And the Houston Texans made his life miserable yesterday. So that's why my biggest takeaway is, like, I still think that this team has the potential to be really good. I still think that the potential is very high on this team. I just can't trust them anymore because it's been this long and they haven't done it enough. And that's the thing where I'm at, too, is the fact that they're not the Chiefs. They're not a team that's been there, done that, done it again and continue to find a way to do it. And then when they play the better teams, they elevate to another level. We need to start seeing the fact that there's going to be a game when it all comes together. When the defense plays like they've been playing, when you get the offense, both running game and passing game, to be able to come together. And because you just keep being fed answers and excuses that you're not seeing to really come to fruition to where you've seen a complete game offensively, specifically, no matter what you've seen defensively, is bothersome because of the fact you know and we all know when we saw the schedule, it's going to ramp up here in a couple of weeks. You're going to play even a higher level of competition. You'd like to see a lot of this stuff ironing itself out. You'd like to see a game where mixing gives you 100, but they're moving the ball and being able to move the ball effectively because the line holds and the receivers. CJ's got time to get the ball to the receivers. It's just it hasn't happened to this point and that's why I have the doubt within me that says, I believe the potential is extremely high. But I'm starting to doubt whether they're going to be able to put it all together this season to take it to the level that everybody thought at the start of the year. Yeah, they have a lot of hurdles that are preventing them from reaching that potential, but whether it's the offensive line, whether it's Bobby Slowick, whether it's CJ Stroud, whether it's the injuries. There's there's a lot of hurdles that are preventing them from matching that potential. 713-780-ESP. We'll get your thoughts on this with 713-780-3776, the HRMP listener line, Ron Twitch, Twitch.tv/ESP at 97-5 on YouTube at ESPN Houston on Twitter at ESPN 975. Blankers at Pac-Man Joel. I'm a Jeremy Branham. Are we starting to see cracks with this Texans team and the personnel? Melbag Monday coming up at 430, asked to kill her bees whatever you want. And look, the killer bees are always super positive. We're never angry. We're always have a smile on our face. We always see the positive and the sunshine and things. So we will have the power of positivity. Some positives from this game as well later on in the show. 713-780-3776. It's the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. Gotcha. We'll be good to the break. We're at for Vandiford Air. Go to Vandiford Air.com. If you need anybody to do any kind of work around your house, when it comes to air conditioning, heating, dehumidifying systems, repiping, they do so many good things and they do such good work that you're going to want to get in contact with them. But I'm going to tell you the main reasons why I speak for them. It's because they back everything up with guarantees. And everything that they do is centered around giving you the best deal, putting it all in writing and making sure that they back everything that they do so that you're satisfied. That's why I'm telling you about them. 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They're going to give you a written estimate for what it would cost to replace it if it's apart and what it would cost to replace the system. And then whenever you choose whichever of the two that you want to do, everything that they do is guaranteed. From the work their employees do to the temperature that the system achieves to everything in between, they have a guarantee for you. A hundred percent satisfaction guarantee or your money back, you can't beat that. When you're dealing with a service company, it's absolutely wise. Speak for Vandiford Air. Check them out today, Vandifordair.com. But lock this number on your phone. I'm telling you, because you never know when you're going to need it. 281-557-COOL-281-2665-Vandifordair.com. You've found that Killer B's live for the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Here's Joel Blanket, Jeremy Brannon. I think Brian likes these days. Brian has his playlist. Do you have this on your iPad? I sleep hot. No. I pot. That's not even better. No one has life on it before. I pot plays music. I don't use it. Actually, I do use it. Why would you not just use your phone? Well, I use it to play commercials on streaming broadcast. There's a work reason there. That's fine. No, I don't have this on my phone. I do like Johnny Cash, but it's not on my phone. I love Johnny Cash. 7-1-3-7-8-0-E-S-P-N. People have thoughts. As you might expect, 8-7-5-5, this game may be so sick. I want to sleep ticked off. Get rid of Bobby. Bring in someone that can make adjustments in the second half. This is pathetic. So ticked off. Tear them to shreds, Killer B's. I don't think firing the offensive coordinator. I know that people love whatever things are bad. Hey, we got to fire everybody in Clean House. We're mad, so something has to be done. I don't think firing the offensive coordinator is the best thing for the Houston Texans. No, I agree with you. And I think that, again, everybody, you know, drastic times and everybody wants the drastic measures. But there has to be a happy medium, right? I mean, let's also look, they're not going to fire the offensive line coach in the middle of the year. And everybody was calling for his head, too. Slowick also calls some very good plays, and he's got a good rapport with CJ. It's just that things have to be better in the second half. Does that mean that it's not fixable and he has to be fired or that you just have to make a move? No, it doesn't. But you do have the right to ask the questions and be frustrated with what you haven't seen and what they've been unable to do over most of the games this season. We're going to be told in coach speak, they're working on it. But, I mean, at a certain point, it's not being worked on well enough because it's not being fixed. Yeah, you got to look in the mirror. And it should have, I mean, obviously this should be happening all year. I trust that it has. It's just that whatever buttons that have been pressed are not working. Maybe you need to outsource it a little bit. Hey, okay, I got some help on my offensive staff. You know, Gerard Johnson up and comer, Bill Lazer, who's been an offensive coordinator in the past. Hey, help me out a little bit. I'm not too proud to ask for some advice here. 71378 0ESP and 8341 yesterday was disappointing, especially the second half. How can you force five turnovers lose a game? You're blocking a lot better than it has been the last few weeks, but your unblocking went to hell in a hand basket. It is shocking to me that you were plus three and look, sprout through two interceptions, but you were still plus three. You were plus three in the turnover battle and somehow you lost a football game. A football game and say that again, you lost again because we can't forget was it four weeks ago, you're plus three against the Green Bay Packers and lost the football game. That's twice now in a month. They've been plus three and lost the football game. It's a it's unheard of. I want to say what does it go back to like the 40s or something like that when a team would give up five, had five turnovers and won a football game in the NFL. Like it's just it's just not supposed to happen. If you get five turnovers on a team, no matter how good they are, you're supposed to win that football game. That's ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. You're supposed to win those games. I saw DJB Enemy had a stat that it was like the first time that a quarterback has thrown five interceptions and won a game like in the modern era of professional football. Maybe that was it. Yeah. It's it's it's insane. It's insane when you you watch that game a three four one. So you've got a game plan that works well. The first half you come out the second half and your game plan isn't working as well. The third quarter, but in the third quarter, you could make some adjustments and win the fourth quarter, you would think so. Yeah, not the Houston Texans. If the Texans weren't a different division, it would be bad for them. Yeah, probably. I mean, they wouldn't have this cushion. They wouldn't have this sense of confidence that they're going to win the division because they still have a two game lead. They hold the tiebreaker. So it's essentially a three game lead in the division. You swept the season series with the Colts. Yeah. I mean, if you were another division, you would not have the the cushion and you wouldn't have the confidence that you're a playoff team. That's true. Sure. But at the same time, it's great to say that you're a playoff team. But if this fan base and if everybody watching this team this year that had the higher aspirations and believe that for what you did a year ago, you want to make the season successful by going a next step up, that it's not just about making the playoffs. It's not just about getting in. It's about doing it again and doing it a little better. And that's where the deep concern comes from because you're right. They're going to be a playoff team and they should win this division and they should do it somewhat comfortably, you would think. But at the same time, once you get in, how are you going to rectify everything that's been going on? Not just this weekend, but not just Sunday night, but all season long so that you're not just one and done or you win one because you're playing a significantly lesser team at home. And then you end up in the same boat that you were a year ago and you play a significantly better team the next week and you get your doors blown off or you just have no chance. This is a team that's too good with too many talented players on this roster with a defense that's playing extremely well to where you should think that this team is just good enough, making the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess it depends on what is considered a success, you know. It's interesting to it. This is why context matters a lot because if you went into this game and you're like, okay, Nico's not going to play. Will Anderson's not going to play and you lost this game by three? You're like, oh, well, you know, like kind of like no big deal. The Lions were favored. What was the spread end up being three and a half. So Texans covered good teams win great teams cover the Houston Texans are a great team. It's the context. It's this is why context matters. You can't be like, well, would you take a three point debt loss in Sunday's game? No, let me see how the game plays out. Let's see the story unfold context is king 7 1 3 7 8 0 3 7 7 6. Let's head out to the HR&P listener line Lamont. You're in the hive with the bees. It's up Lamont. Hey, what's up, man? You know, something strange me. I'm not even really mad about the loss yesterday. I had my, uh, uh, I Paul to, uh, my abas and my arapods in. And I was just trying to watch again because I knew what was going to happen. We've been living on this edge of these once for games and making it tight. I knew it was going to come back and bite us. I knew it was going to come back and bite us. But now it's given, it's given all of us some reality that we got to be forced to face right now. This team is not as good as we thought they were. They just paper, uh, they just paper champs. And just paper champs and. And I mean, uh, but the best of both worlds because I do believe that the Texas are going to win. AFC South and I do believe that they're going to get to the playoffs. They're going to get to the playoffs. They may win one game. They may win one game and get embarrassed to make a game. Uh, but they got some things. Uh, they have some things they need to really address. Um, you know, at first I was all, it was like, you know, five Bobby, slow it and stuff like that. I don't think they're going to do it, man, but, uh, they can't do it in all season, man. Uh, men call you moves in all season because these paper champs did not what we thought they were. They was reading clips of print clip. And you got all of them, all 22. Well, I'm not going to say all 22 starters, but a lot of them going on. Okay. I said it week. All the night people and stuff like that. Like they didn't want to. They didn't want a Super Bowl. When they want it but we'll see that home and stuff. Uh, it just seemed like a lot of. It's really good that they get embarrassed. The person that didn't, uh, then kept all of this, uh, you know, national media, prime time, and all of this because. I just felt it, man. I just felt it. Uh, and everybody still tips on around the me. So, uh, okay. Okay. Let me back that back with the Bico. I think the Bico is doing his part on the defense, but he's also the overseer of the whole project. I think I think that that OCS are very overrated and they're going to make that up. I'm sorry. Yeah. I think there's a lot to kind of digest there, but the big thing is is I went into this game with low expectations. I went into this game, especially with the injuries on top of it when you're playing a team like Detroit who was playing their best football of the season. I had very low expectations about the Texans winning this football game. But when you saw the first half and you saw the turnovers happen almost immediately and you saw them capitalizing and then you saw CJ had time and you saw the ball being moved and you saw them. Getting some points on the board. You're like, okay, they're in this thing. And so that changes things right then and there. But then you don't lose sight of the fact that from a defensive perspective, but to your point, Lamont, they went out this off season and did a whole lot to make this team better. And you saw guys that make an impact. And I mean, obviously, Al Shire got a lot of the focus from Collinsworth, but we've been talking about Al Shire all year as a guy that quarterbacking this defense is a difference maker. And you see the way the pass rush and rotating the D ends was doing damage and the defensive line was getting penetration. The corners were holding their own. You realize that this defense is one of the better defenses in the NFL. So that's why you want to remain positive and have hope that they're not just a paper champion. But the offense has had problems all year. It hasn't been solved. We don't know when it's going to be solved. And that's why there's so much concern. Yeah, I would even throw in the word if like it's not, it's not, it's not a guarantee of Brian, right? And I think there's a very real chance that it just does not click this year for a variety of reasons 3977 the first half. They look like a Super Bowl winning team to me. I wouldn't go that far, but they look like a team that could compete with anybody in the first half. I will agree. And they were perfect in the first half. They could have converted more in the red zone. They could have not allowed a busted play that led to a sample board of touchdown. But they were good enough to contend against one of the lead big, lead big at the half against one of the best teams in the NFL. Yes, at home, six, three, eight, one, Jekyll and Hyde best described between the halfs. Yes, that was a very much a Jekyll and Hyde thing. 1509. Hey, B, CJ held the ball too long on several occasions, but slower should make the offense easier for his quarterback. And honestly, he's regressing before our eyes. I would agree to both of those things. Like, I don't know if I would say regress, but he's certainly not as good as he was a year ago. He had some stinkers last year or two though, like the Carolina game, a stinker, the Jets game, although he was concussed, a stinker, like he had some stinkers last year or two. We kind of forget that. Yeah, it's a, it's a very fine line when you want to say he held on to the ball too long because there's also the confidence that he doesn't have the, you know, the CTE with the clock going off in his head that's going, I'm going to get crushed. I got to get out of here. He was actually trying to make plays happen because he had gotten some early protection, but at the same time, he rolled into a lot more trouble in a couple of cases and he did hang on to it longer than he should have. It was just because of the fact that you saw early in the game that the ball was clicking. The timing was there. They were getting, they were getting chunk plays and yardage and they were moving it and it looked like he had more time than he definitely had in the Jets game. You're like, okay, maybe what they did practice in the, in the, switching out of the offensive lineman was going to work. But then as the game progressed, yes, you saw him create some of his own trouble and also the inability to not only run the football, but they got completely away from just letting let it run back chip a little bit dump and just fall out in front of the defensive line, catch a little screen and make it work like a run. They weren't very creative with other ways of trying to get the ball moving 6 1 7 1. How much do you think Bobby's kicking himself now for not going after a head coaching job harder last offseason that hype is dead now. I think that he went after a head coaching job pretty hard. I think he accepted the Houston Texans offensive coordinator rays after he kind of saw the writing on the wall. But yes, things happen quickly in sports and like sometimes the best things that happen are things you're not rooting for. Like a lot of people did not want Bobby Slovak to be a head coach somewhere else in the NFL because they wanted year to a Bobby with CJ Stroud and continuity with the offense. You could even go back to the CJ Stroud conversation. Everybody was ticked off when the Houston Texans beat the Colts in the final week. A few years ago that gave him the second pick and not the first pick that turned out to work really well. So a lot of these things that you're ticked off in the moment, like actually, or even the opposite that you're happy about in the moment flip where the ticked off thing becomes a blessing. And the thing that you're happy about turns out to be a curse. There's no doubt. It's the one have you done for me lately philosophy again where when you're doing things good and the offense is moving and your quarterback looks great, then you are the mastermind behind all of it. I agree with you. I think that he got a lot of interviews, but I whether it was the interview process and what the teams got out of the interviews to say maybe he's not ready yet or the fact that they had other candidates. They had already had their eye on and they were going to go in that direction first. The fact is, is that a lot of people were excited to get slowing back because of the fact that he was such a hot name because of the success they had now because it's, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Everybody's going to jump off that bandwagon and now instead of saying, Hey, the same people probably that said, Hey, I'm glad he's coming back for another year. I'll probably the people saying you should fire. They should fire him and he never should come back in the first place. You have to understand that, you know what, it's very, it's very, the success that you have sometimes in this league can be very flighty and can be passing it in a moment's time, but then it doesn't mean it's going to go away for good. There's going to be bumps in the road and this is one of the big bumps the Texans have to figure out and we have to figure out from a Bobby Slope perspective. Can he do what's necessary to create more balance? Can he get the running beam to click when the passing game is clicking? Can he call the right place? Can he do the right things? Forever in a day, we've been picking apart offensive coordinators with the Houston Texans and slowing, you know, isn't immune from it. It's just he had such a good year last year that everybody thought that he was this, you know, Sean McVay type that was just destined to be a head coach. 713780 ESP and HRP listener line 7137003776. It looked to me like Demico Ryan's was a little annoyed yesterday with the offense. He looked visibly upset by the offense's performance. He even talked about the crowd after the game being subpar. Are we seeing cracks with the Houston Texans 7137803776? It is the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 92 5. I assumed you knew. You listening to the killer bees with Joel Blanket Jeremy Branham on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5. Broadcasting live from a paratex community bank studios, and we started to see cracks within the text and 713780 ESPN yesterday, Demico Ryan's was asked about Strauss performance amongst other things. We'll get to a bunch of it here. And I don't think what Demico Ryan says here is wrong per se. I'm just surprised that he said it. Look, he was asked a question specifically about Stroud. Like he didn't go out of his way to like bring up CJ Stroud. He was asked basically paraphrasing. What did you think of CJ Stroud's performance? And here was Demico's answer to that. It's not good enough turning the football over there, especially red zone or coming out. You know, we talk about getting started in the second half and we talked about being better in the second half, but to come out and turn the ball over the first plate, the second half and to get into red zone. We have points and the turn the ball over as not winning football. Alright, so not wrong at all. He's 100% right. He nailed it with his analysis. I'm surprised he said that though in the sense of like Stroud. Or he wasn't good enough. I'm surprised he said like we weren't good enough. These are the areas that we weren't good enough at. I'm surprised that he kind of made it very direct there. I can understand the surprise. I like it. I like the fact that, you know, whether it's coach and player have a respect level and a good enough relationship or the fact that I think one of the reasons why it was surprising to so many was the fact that, you know, especially in press conferences. Your head coach is not the guy that's going to be given away a whole lot. Whatever he really wants to say he's going to say behind closed doors. He's definitely not going to put it out there on tape for the media to get a whole of. But coming out of that game with the results and probably still staying. I like the fact that he was honest because we all saw it. We all know it. CJ later owned it. But at the same time, I like the fact that a head coach is still the head coach enough to say, Hey, look, I'm going to praise you when you're good. But from an offensive perspective because it's on me first and foremost for how we perform on both sides of the football. And if this team is underperforming in the second half of games, and it's that noticeable and we turn the ball over twice. I'm going to call it like I see it and I respect that. Okay. Yeah, I don't I don't know if I, I dislike it per se. I just I've never really heard D'Amico talk that specifically about a player. Like it seemed a little out of character. Oh, there's definitely there's some truth to that, which is why I'm wondering if we're starting to see some cracks with D'Amico being frustrated with this offense because the defense is way better than the offense. The DVOA, I didn't look at it today, but DVOA for the Houston Texans coming into this game defensively, I think was second offensive. He was the 20th. Like they haven't been good offensively. The defense has put them in position to win games and the offense has really led it off the hook 8 7 5 5. I saw the same thing with D'Amico not smiling or celebrating. He did not look like himself. Even with the Texans scored, he wasn't hyped. It's like he knew the Lions can come back if Texans didn't handle business. To me it was more, I noticed it as early as the second drive. When they got it first in goal at the three, Drew Scruggs, the hold, and then you have to settle for a field goal. And you can see D'Amico kind of like roll his eyes like unbelievable. Like here we go again. Here was another one from D'Amico Ryan's after the game. And to me, this is where you can really hear his frustration. He sounded frustration about not getting more points off the five turnovers they had. And I'm proud of the defense for guys going out and getting five turnovers. I think that's a big day for any defense. Well, you know, the thing about turnovers is, you know, what are you doing with those turnovers? And it's getting the points off of the turnovers. That's how you swing the game. And I don't think we got enough points off of the turnovers, but proud of the guys for, you know, that's a really good offense. And our guys play well as down the stretch there. We just let some plays out that, you know, that we have to play better. So to me, some frustration. They're like, I'm proud of my guys defensively. That's what I needed to score more points right away. I took away from at a certain point because last week, remember how, whether he admitted it or not, then with what he was saying and how he said it, he was saying we know that there's a lot out there. We know that there's a lot of criticism right now of this football team. That's almost like basically saying without saying, yeah, I know it's all on me, but my defense played their asses off and my defense was playing really, really good. And on the flip side, the offense, we need to get more points, as if to say, almost going back to the whole, um, Dantoni move where the offense is mine. That's the defensive coordinator's job. He didn't want to go that far to say that's Bobby's fault, and he wouldn't call him out. But at the same time, you could feel it that he would say, Hey, I got enough. My focus is on running this defense and the offense has got to be bad. He wrapped it up there at the end with like some complimentary football stuff, but I was really proud of us defensively. We need to score more off of those turnovers. Those were things that he said. Texan's first interception. They did get a touchdown after that. The second interception led to a field goal. So they were scoring here, but maybe not enough. That's the one that should have been a touchdown, right? No, that's the one they got to the three. That was after the punt. That was after they forced a punt immediately after their first score. Their first two drives, they went interception lines did. They scored a touchdown off that interception. They forced a three and out and then they got down to the three and had a settle for a field goal. The interception that came later, the second interception, they eight play 25 yard drive. It's a nothing. A field goal. The third interception didn't come until that hellmarry. So like nothing you're really doing there off of the interception because it's the end of the half. But then actually there was an interception for that. That was the one by Camari Lasseter whenever he landed at the one yard line, which I don't, I don't know how I thought about that call, by the way. He was touched though. He was touching the end zone. Right. But why did they spot it at the one? Yeah, I'm not sure about that because you could tell that he kind of had the notion. It looked like he wanted to get up and run. Yeah. And then one of the linemen was trying to hold on to him. But at that point, Laporta, I think it was already had touched him to where they were going to call, whatever they were going to call, but I was a little surprised because then they go to break after that. And all of a sudden they said, hey, by the way, it's going to be on the one yard line. I thought, well, if his momentum takes him into the end zone, as long as he stays there, it should be okay. Like his, his knee and his elbow hit. Right. I didn't realize that that means the ball spotted where his knee and his elbow hit. I thought it was the same thing with you that his momentum carried in the end zone. Like it would make sense of his knee and elbow hit after he was like contacted, you know, or if Laporta hit him on the way down. The elbow hit. Okay. He's down at the one or his knee elbow hit. Laporta has his hand on him. Okay. Down at the one, but knee elbow hit. No contact rolls into the end zone. Then gets touched down. Yeah. Imagine if that's a pass play like a play in the corner of the end zone or right on the goal line and the defensive back intercepts it like on the one and his momentum is all with the receiver and they go into the end zone. He's not touched. He goes into the end zone. He puts a knee down. I would think that almost every time they're not going to say that ball is on the one. They say, Oh, he kneeled down. He didn't make any attempt to come out. Balls on the 20 like they went to review though. So it like that must be the call. Like I just, I didn't realize that. Now if you were to catch the ball like that, like say you're going towards the goal line. You catch the ball over your shoulder at like the five yard line. Even if you were to take two steps, both feet in play before you go into the end zone, that'd be a touch back. Right. If you fumble it. What would you say? No, you're like an interception. You make the catch. No, you're saying play that last you're doing, but instead of falling to the ground, he stays on his feet. But like elbow knee were down. So they spotted the ball at the one. What if Lasseter makes the catch one step, two step in, then goes into the end zone and then puts it on a knee. That's always been a touch back. I feel. I don't think so. I think the same. Is it not the momentum thing? Yeah, you're going to tell me that he's going to go into the end zone to Jeremy's situation. You're going to come back down. But what happens if he kneels down? Is the safety? Well, that's the thing is the play was blown dead. So I don't think they can read undo the play. But yeah, there is. There is an element to that that if in Jeremy's description, if the guy, if you catch it, don't fall down and you run into the end zone, take a knee, you got to get out of the end zone. I feel like that's right. If you're establishing, if you're establishing position inside the fight, there's the momentum rule. There's the momentum rule that. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. There's momentum rules been around like my entire life, just googling. But I don't know the difference between being on your feet and then landing elbow knee either way. That's what I don't understand because his momentum. Yes, his knees or in his forearm or whatever is elbow touched, but he's untouched. And his momentum is taking him into the end zone. I don't understand why he can't just kneel down and put the ball goes on the 20. Same like you've seen a hundred interceptions where the guy makes the catch goes into the end zone in the like momentum rule and they put it out to the touch back. Now if you make the attempt, that's a different story. Sure. Here's the NFL rule book. If a defensive player in the field of play intercepts a pass or catches or recovers a fumble backwards pass scrimmage kick free kick or fair catch kick and his original momentum carries him into the end zone where the ball is declared dead in his team's possession. Touch back. That's what that's what I understand what the difference is between last or no elbow knee hitting and then a guy making a catch on his feet and running into the end zone and having momentum. Here's the one thing I have to see the play again. But the only thing that I can think of was their contact at all with with the offensive player as he was catching the ball that they could say constituted contact and then the elbow went down and didn't think so. But maybe I didn't think so either, but that's the only way it would make sense to me because otherwise it should be a touch back. I need someone to explain this rule to me of why Lasseter's put the interception was placed at the one like I am two years old. One of the problems and what you described there in the NFL rule book that was that it's subjective. Like it's up to whoever the referee is making it difficult. It was overturned. So like this this wouldn't have been subjective if it was overturned. It would have to be clear and obvious. Yeah, I get so I messed up them. But I mean if you're if the if the rule is the original momentum takes him into the end zone that's open to interpretation and that can be interpreted by different ways by different refs. Sure, I agree. But in this particular. I'm saying that's the problem in the world in the field. It would have to be clear and obvious to overturn it. I'm watching the play again. I don't think that LaPorta hits it. I don't think LaPorta hits him. Somebody that's way smarter than me explain why Lasseter's rule is different than the momentum rule where a guy can go into the end zone. 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, 3, 7, 7, 6, you're noticing cracks with this team. Also, where does this loss rate in Texans history? 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, 3, 7, 7, 6, it's the BZSP and 97, 5 and ESPN 92, 5. Guys, I want to take a minute for all state windows and siding. If you're looking to give your home a facelift, you can forget about painting or staining by some siding from all state windows and siding all state windows and siding. They got a huge selection of colors. Their products are energy efficient. They're impact resistant from wind and weather protected during hurricane season. Make sure they keep the elements out and the temperatures the way you want them inside your house. All you got to do is set up a free estimate where they come out to you and tell you all the things that they can do to help you at no charge to you by calling 832-204-1936. That's 804. I'm sorry, 832-204-1936. You can go to allstatesidingandwindows.com and see all the products that they and services that they offer. They do front doors. 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[MUSIC] You found that Killer B's live for the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Brannen. OK, I think I found the answer on the last or thing at the one. Google AI, which Google AI has been proven to be wrong at times. Kamari Laster's interception was rolled down to the one yard line because based on the replay review, the football was considered to have touched the ground at the point while he was still in bounds. So when he came down, you know, the ball can't hit the ground. As long as it doesn't move in your hands, it can still be possession. The ball hits. It looked like it hit the goal line to me, but I guess the ball hit just ahead of the goal line. So because the ball hit in play, the ball has to be spotted there. And I guess that trumps the momentum into the end zone. And that would be different than a guy who catches the ball and his feet and carries it into the end zone because the ball obviously doesn't hit outside of the goal line. So that's what Google AI told me. If they're wrong, take it up with Google AI. Alright, 713-780-ESP and HRMP listener line. What is this loss rate in Texans history? You know, it's funny because I was thinking about it and I was watching social media and I know everybody was losing their bleep in mind about it, but I don't think this is anywhere close to doing what they did against Kansas City when Bill O'Brien was calling fake punts and doing it, you know, going for it and doing all the things that he did to blow that big lead in a playoff game. But it's going to sting for a while. I think that it's going to be the five interception game. I think that people are going to refer to it. As you go kind of look at the laurels of history with the Texans and or just Houston football, it's going to stick with people for a while. It's a bad taste that's going to be in your mouth. I just think that what's missing is a lot of the other games you could point to. Most of them were the playoff games or had a little bit more significance. This was a good team in the middle of the season. But I think hopefully people when they get a little bit more time to digest it, aren't going to be as upset with this to say that like this was that devasting. I saw people saying this was like the worst loss the Texans have ever had. It wouldn't even make my top five. I mean, it could be a bad regular season loss. It might be one of their worst regular season losses. And there's been to your point, Brian. There's been plenty of those. Okay. Yeah, for me, it's not anything that is not a postseason loss. Like, how could this loss be worse than any postseason loss you've had in the history of the franchise? It can't be. Those are have far more stakes. Those eliminate your season. Like yesterday was heartbreaking. Sure. It was tough because you had the big lead at the half. You're up by nine. You're up 20. It was a 23 to seven. You're up 16. Yeah. It's 23 seven. Thank you. 23 seven. So it's a 16 point lead. You've lost seven playoff games in franchise history. The loss yesterday that made you to go six and four is in a week 10 is not a bigger loss than any of the playoff losses. So it's nowhere near the top seven at minimum. No, I think this is one of those, though, where people get a little bit more worked up because you had a significant lead because you had the lead you talked about. You had a big double digit lead. You're not supposed to blow those leads. You know that the stats say you're not supposed to lose a game when you're the other posting quarterback throws five interceptions. So people get a little bit more fired up, but you're right. I mean, in the playoff scenarios, mine are if you just never had a chance the whole game. People aren't going to remember that and say it was the same impact as blowing a game. But at the same time, a playoff loss should be way more significant than the fact that you lost the game. I don't care if it was on national TV against a good football team like Detroit. And we tend to fall to six and four. Like, I did see some people on social media too comparing it to the can. They said those are the two worst losses. And what? How? How is that? How is the game yesterday more devastating than losing any of the other six playoff games that you lost? It can't be a six, six, three, eight. This loss ranks up there when they brew. They blew a two score lead with a Kansas City Chiefs. It was greater than a two score lead, wasn't it? Yeah, 24. Nothing. Definitely not. In my opinion, six, eight, six, zero. This loss definitely hurts, but the ultimate goal is to win the division and get to the playoffs. I still like, I feel like if we had a healthy team yesterday, we'd have held the lead in one. So a little bit of, you know, understanding there from six, eight, six, zero, but I don't love the healthy team narrative. Like it's football. Teams are going to be hurt. And the Lions weren't healthy either. Yes. Aiden Hutchinson was also injured in that game. Their left tackle did not start in that game. Like the Lions also had injuries. Yes, you had your injuries, significant players, but so did Detroit. So you can't just go automatically go, well, if we were healthy, we would have won. Well, if they're healthy, they might have beaten you from the start. Yeah, people magnify it too, because of the old national TV and it was a big game and it was at home and everybody was, you know, fired up and it was so impressive what they did in the first half. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't even close to the Kansas City game. I mean, this is more like the one that always sticks in my mind is the Jacksonville game the one year where the Hail Mary at the end of the game where you're supposed to win the game. I forgot about that. And David Girard. David Girard through the football round, shorts caught it. There you go. He's attacking your town. He retweeted me the other day. And the one that kind of, and remember it kind of bounced around on the field to play and then fell into the end zone where it got caught. People lost their mind for a couple of weeks on that one. They remembered it for a short period of time, but oh, they had no idea that there was a lot more heartbreak to come in a lot more significant significant games. I think that's why this one because it's national TV. It's Sunday night football. It's a good opponent. The Texans haven't been playing. Well, we kind of a lot of us expected them to lose yet they played well enough to win. That's why people are ticked off right now. I think it's going to wear off pretty quick prisoner of the moment. You win three in a row. It's like, yeah, you kind of forget about this game. Fight 3 1 5 when the Texans batted the ball down at the end zone of the hands of the Jaguars players. Probably the worst thing that I've seen in the game you were referring to Josh from Seabrook. This loss is not even the worst. It doesn't beat the Sage Rosencopter. This loss is a top five choke job loss. Not as important as a playoff loss, but a huge embarrassment said pessimistic Chad. The loss to the Ravens where if you won, you would have hosted an AFC Championship game at home. I heard two. Was that the case? Was that Jacobi? Was that the JJ Yates game? I would have hosted though. They would know because the Patriots, the Ravens faced the Patriots in the UFC title game. They were not opposed against the Patriots. Didn't Jacobi have a big run back in that game or something? No, he fumbled the ball to call him a game. He fumbled for the Texans and then everybody went to his house. That's right. That's a good point. Like the Jets loss, I think is more embarrassing than losing a Detroit yesterday, but again, context matters and how you blew the lead when you're up by 16 at the half makes you feel very upset. But if you were to look back right now today, which of those two losses is the war. That helped that the Jets got crushed. That was only said. I mean, I think that's the best way to get out of the way. Shout out Brian on his, his pick the other day and busy money. Like that's the more embarrassing loss is to the Jets when you're favored than Detroit were your dogs. If you're sitting there today and you know what you know now about the Jets. Cause everybody was like, Oh, it took a week for Adams to settle in, but this is the move that finally takes them to, you know, accomplishing and being the team we all thought that they were going to be. Then they lay another massive egg yesterday and you're like, Oh my God, you lost to that team. Yeah. Yeah. I think the Jets ones way worse. What is your list, Brian? Yeah. So I put the, there's a 2011 game. They were 10 and four going into the one win Colts, the, the year that Peyton Manning missed the entire year. Texans are 10 and four facing the one win Colts and lost in prime time. Cost them a chance at a buy. Very next year. The Texans were 12 and two with a home game against the Vikings. The Christian Ponder led Vikings lost at home to that Christian Ponder led Vikings team cost themselves a buy that we mentioned the Rose and Copter game. Uh, they were up 17 under five minutes ago and somehow lost the game up 17 with five minutes ago. Of course, the Letterman jacket game will never forget that. And then all the playoff losses, but specifically the two losses to the Chiefs. The, the comeback of 2019 where he blew a 24, nothing lead. And then a 2015 when Brian Warrior was their quarterback lost 30 to nothing in that game involved the white cap play. That was the white cap play. The white cap play. That was also the Hopkins game or Hopkins looked over at the sideline and said, get that guy out of here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 30 to nothing. 30 to nothing. Yeah, that was a, that was a stomping. Yeah. This one's not top 10. No. This one's not. So you didn't even have the Hail Mary game. No, I've forgotten about until the listener brought it up. But yeah, I would put that one ahead of this one. And when we were looking at these morning, but yeah, I would put the, the Hail Mary that got bad at it. The seashore hands ahead of this one. Because I wrote, yeah, because at the same, there were people talking about that for at least another year to like, Oh my God, I can't believe I was watching it once you brought it up Hail Mary. They're getting landed all the time. This loss reminds me a lot of the Saints Texans and 11 says 5, 7, 9, 8 Texans score touchdown of the opening drive and score four field goals through three quarters before fourth quarter collapse became because of games like that. They actually expected the Texans to lose last night. It's in their DNA. Everybody thinks that everybody thinks there is a lot of same old Texans feelings that came out last night. Yeah. And again, I thought they wrote that into this is a Houston sports thing, but there's definitely a feeling and I think a lot of people had that feeling at halftime because I talked to a lot of people that this morning they were like, I went to bed. I thought it was over. I woke up this morning. I go, how did you go to bed? Who do you hang out with? That's a bad fan. You go to bed. What do you mean they went to sleep a couple of my buddies this morning at the gym? Like I went to bed and then I was shocked when I woke up this morning and found out I lost. I go, I couldn't sleep because I know where do you work out the nursing home? Yeah, twice a week because they give you a free coffee at the end of the world. They fell asleep. They're like, yeah, it was over. I couldn't stand watching. One of them is a bear fan. I was like, I could not. How could you fathom going? First of all, you're riding a high if they're beating their ass. Yeah. And second of all, there's that feeling in the back of your head that they could get back. I guess you should say they had to settle for three field goals in the first half. You could already kind of see like, I don't know. I guess it's fair if they're not a Texans fan. I didn't, I didn't really know that that changed. I didn't understand that part of it. Like if they're not a Texan fan. Okay, you fell asleep. I have no problem with that. All right. Were you good with the offensive line configuration whenever they announced the change and how do you think they performed yesterday? 713-780-3776. It's the B's on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. You're listening to ESPN 97-5. We're taking a break. Okay. That's cool. This season, Chevy brings classic pairings, cookies and milk, mistletoe and kisses, and your holiday plans and a new Chevy. 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