The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
11/14 Hour 1 - What’s the Likelihood That Nico Collins Will Save the Texans Offense?
(speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music) (speaking in foreign language) ESPN 97.5 and 92.5 proudly present the killer bees. - It's definitely a fan of the killer bees. - Don't sweat the technique. Now from a Veritex Community Bank Studios, bring you the fastest three hours in Houston sports radio. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. - What a big town, hey, how are we doing? - He is blank. I am Branham, Brian behind the glass, and it is a Thursday edition of the killer bees on ESPN 97.5, ESPN 92.5. Today's gonna be a fun show. I think it's gonna be a fun show today. Lots to talk about. A guy who I don't know how to pronounce his name yet. He's gonna be joining us at 3.15. My best guest is Syed Yusuf. What do you think? - He's close. - You think it's pretty close? - I think it's pretty close. - He's the cowboy beat writer. We'll ask him before he comes. We're a pro. We'll ask him before he comes on the air. What his name is? We're not gonna ask him at 3. We'll ask him at 3.5. - Hey buddy, thanks for coming on. What's your name? - What's your name? - How do you pronounce- - I know his name. I just don't know how to say his name. At least Sterling will be joining us later on. He's gonna hand you winners. Cause that's all he does. He wins a lot of games. Adam Ronis, get you ready for your fantasy football weekend. It is a Thursday. So we'll bad take Boulevard. How dare people question the ceiling of D'Amico Ryan's? He have to have this conversation. We have to have that conversation. But we begin with some hoops. I was at the Pertita Center yesterday, left a little early as all of you know. Cougars bouncing back nicely as they get the victory over Louisiana, improved two in one, 91-45 win. And then across town, across town, you had the Houston Rockets doing their thing. Beating the Clippers 111 to 103, Rockets improved to eight and four. And they kind of keep this momentum. They're keeping it rolling the Houston Rockets are. - No, they really are. Jeremy, I think that the best is still yet to come. That's what I like about this team is that we talked about this as they've been kind of stacking some of these wins. They're beating some good teams. But the production is kind of spread out. The balance is there. We're in the past, you didn't see a lot of the balance. Now you're seeing four and five guys on average getting double figures and more. They're sharing the basketball. They're doing things to make you lock in and want to watch Rockets basketball because it's entertaining. But when they have to, they're able to play defense. And the overall play that you're getting from guys like Eason and Thompson right now and the defense that they provide just is allowing them to kind of start seeing where they can take it to the next level. Even regardless of what production you're gonna get from Alpe and Jalen and everybody else. - I love the terror twins. Like Todd's mentioned it already. The terror twins are fun to watch. The nicknames catching on. I love those guys. I love watching him in Thompson be a factor really without scoring. I know he scored a decent amount yesterday. I know he knocked down two threes and was asking Vanessa Richardson after the game if that was his career high. But he beat you another, he scored 18 yesterday, but he beat you in other ways than scoring. He beat you with his rebounding. He beat you with his defense. He beat you with stills and then getting out in transition. Tori Eason is just a flat out dog. Like Tori Eason is just the dude that you want to have on your team. I love the terror twins. Right now they're my favorite two players on this team. And it's not even close quite frankly. - No, I mean, look, I had a lot of high aspirations for what I thought of men Thompson could be. And regardless of what position he played, if it was possible for him to fall in line with guys that have been able to find a jump shot once they got into the league, he has all the tools. He has the reach, he has the speed. He can handle the ball. You know, he's unbelievably versatile on the defensive side of the ball. His rebounding is really above average in my book. And now he's starting to knock down shots and you're like, my goodness, if he can be a force spotting up the ball or at least just be consistent hitting spot up shots, the fact that he will have all defenses just on their heels trying to figure out what he's going to do means that his upside might be higher than almost anybody on this team. - Kawhi Leonard upside. If you ask him, he may have Doka. - That's right. - He may have Doka thinks he's got a little Kawhi Leonard in him. - That might be a bit high. - Are you coming a little closer to my side that a Mint Thompson will be the best Houston rocket by the end of the year? - Did you say that? - Gosh, I'm a trash him with the Killer Bs, Tuesdays at 4.30. - I think there's a legit chance. - Yes. - And I think that is because of the fact that the shots coming around. And because last year was supposed to be just a year of just him getting accustomed to, you know, real life in the NBA and probably not playing a lot of minutes and you saw him continually get better and better and better. Now you're seeing a guy that you're looking at him going, this kid might be starting pretty soon and you might be able to do a whole lot with him in terms of the positions he can play because his ball handling got better, his shot is improving and yet he's still rebounding and in transition, even transitions, he's tough to stop. - Yeah. - You think the best two players in the Rockets are coming off the bench? - I think it's quite possible. I think it's quite possible. I think that as much as you can say, look, Jalen's had his games, he's leading the team and scoring. Alfie's had his games recently, he's getting double doubles. But when you look at the fact that no one is calling plays for these two guys. No one is saying, hey, here's the ball, go get me a bucket. Yet they're getting you double doubles. They're getting you 18 and 10s and they're playing both ends of the floor to where they're wreaking havoc on a game defensively before they even touch the rock offensively. - Yeah, I'm not gonna go as far to say that they're the two best players right now, but I think that they're right on the hills and you could argue that maybe it's Alfie's in good. You could argue that maybe it's Jalen Green some nights, but Tari and Amen are very much in that conversation. There's not a huge gap. And Nick, if you wanna make that argument, the Tari and Amen are the best two players right now, look, that's fine by me. I thought Amen had a very good chance of being the best player on the Rockets by the end of the year. So these two have brought an extra dimension to this team. I really don't want either one of them to start though. Like I like that they're coming off the bench and going up a lot of times against the second unit and changing the game with their energy off the bench. Yesterday, I thought the minutes distribution was the best. I think Amen is better than Jabari and Amen can play one through four. I think Tari, Ethan's better than Jabari. I think I like Tari the most at the four, quite frankly. He can play the three, but I like the most at the four. I'd rather have both of those guys get more minutes than Jabari. I don't care if they're starting. I care that if they're finishing and if they're playing more minutes. Yesterday, Jabari played 21 minutes. Tari played 26 and Amen played 34. Perfect. - Yep, this is the Sam Kissell philosophy. It doesn't matter if they start, it's if they finish. And in most games, they're finishing because their, to your prediction of Amen could be the best player on this team by the end of the year. Well, then I firmly believe that there is a better than average chance that these two guys can be the best two players on your team by the end of the year because of the fact that how many different ways they affect the game. They don't have to start, but they finish. They can guard multiple positions on the floor. You don't want to see them in transition because they can finish on you in a multitude of different ways. And that is a scary proposition when you're playing any team in this league with as up tempo as the teams play. This is a really, really good sign for the Rockets. - Yeah, I wish that last night was in an IT game because they won. And you know how much I care about in an IT banner. I want the Rockets to win that in BA banner, the NBA and IT banner. It means a lot. - It's Harry's mom tweet. - Know what you say. - What they're playing harden. He might be the greatest point ever, but you need to be able to come back. This is a, this is a, she thought it was a cup game. She's like, this is a cup game. You need to go at him hard. We need to hear you and we need to win. - Well, how much are the players getting if they win? Like 500 grand? - I think he's playing it's a mill. - Is it a mill? - I think so. - There you go. Like they care. - Yeah, and mom care too. - If you're, if you put a hundred million or whatever, if it's somewhere between 500 million to a million, they care, they want to win. That's why I love the NBA Cup, man. The NIT brings intrigue and stakes to NBA basketball in the middle of November. I was a little worried when James Harden got off to that heart start. It was a little worried that James Harden was going to come in and just terrorize the Rockets when he had 12 in the first quarter. I think he hit his first four threes or four of his first five. I was a little worried, little worried that Harden was going to terrorize his former team, but they were able to chill out on that. Now, you know what point of contention, when it comes to Houston Rockets is Jalen Green's shooting. So you want an update on what Jalen Green's shooting? - Sure. - Jalen Green from the field is shooting at 39%. That's overall from the floor, 39%. It's low. - It is. - Like you need that to be in the 40s or something. He's a career 42% shooter. He shot 42% last year. I think that number of the 40s, especially when a lot of his shots come at the rim. Like yes, they're contested. Yes, they're whenever he's driving with his full force and his full tenacity, he's going to finish it a little bit better than that. You got to shoot 40% at least, at least 40%. - You're right, by the way. 500,000 per player. - That's what I thought. - Yeah, I didn't know if it happened. - Thank you for saying that those magic words. - I have no problem. - You know how to bring a smile to my face. - I have no problem saying that. No, I think that when you look at Jalen Green, the things that are still frustrating are, and it's one of the reasons why when we went, you know, back and forth on should you, or should you have not have given him the contract when you did, we still see the same things. He is a high volume shooter. That's not going to change. He is a high volume shooter. Now, you'd like him to be a high volume shooter that makes more shots, fine, but he's still leading the team and scoring. He's a scorer that takes a high volume of shots. You're going to have to deal with sometimes, that fourth quarter was frustrating because I thought Tyloo waved the white flag. I thought it was, he was just basically saying, "Go ahead, take this." - Do you think he waved the white flag, or do you think he was frustrated with his starters? - It might have been a combination of both. - Yeah. - Because he knows he's going to play him again. He knows if maybe he, you know, he sits them down, that they're going to be rested, they can come back, they'll get the second game of the two game set here, but also maybe it was the fact that he wasn't getting a lot of production. And don't get me started on the Kawhi Leonard part of this 'cause that's just an absolute travesty. - Hey, is Van Gundy always on the bench with them? - Yeah. - I didn't know if he was like-- - They had him start of the year. - I didn't realize he was traveling with him though. - Yeah, so he was vice president of basketball operations for the Celtics. And I was very shocked when the Clippers hired him in the off-season and said, "We want you to be a full-time assistant." 'Cause it was awkward. It was just weird for me to see like, Tyloo is getting ready to run the huddle and Van Gundy's kind of like throwing things on the seats or doing things, grabbing a clip where I'm going, "Wow, that's weird." - I knew that he was on there, like in their organization, but I didn't realize he was on the bench assistant. - Yeah. - He's their number one assistant now, I believe. - That's cool to see. I really like Jeff Van Gundy. I would recommend that he shave it all off though. Like he's hanging on there a little bit. - Well, you know no matter how bald you go on the top and up and in the front, you're never going to lose the hair on the sides in the back of your head. I'm just letting you know. - I like that, that was well done. Yeah, but he should go ahead and shave off that 20%. Or call Dr. Linville, one of the two. - Yeah, I'm surprised he's not, I mean, maybe this is him getting back into looking for a head coaching job in a year because, you know, he coached USA basketball and now he's, this seems like a pretty big step down for a guy that went from, you know, big time broadcaster to VP of basketball for the Celtics and now he's an assistant coach. The only reason why you do this is if you want to get back in the game. And I think that's a legit possibility. I like the fact that from a Rockets perspective, the way they closed as bad as they kind of look when they let that second unit kind of for the Clippers kind of get back into it, they found a way to close with different options 'cause I was going to say you have to live with the fact that Jalen's sometimes going to pull that three and he airballed it. And you're like, and then of course he's saying he got fouled but when you look at it, there's no, he didn't get fouled. - I don't think he got fouled. - Just a bad shot from a very deep distance. But the way Alpe was able to finish, the way guys were able to kind of reel it back in when they needed to, that's the kind of, again, the kind of growth you're looking for for this young team. - Yeah, I like that the offensive possession where Alpe had that thunderous dunk and then he came back on the other side and blocked the shot. I can't remember who the layup was. The attacker for the Clippers became back and blocked and let out a loud roar, a loud Turkish roar. One more on Jalen Green, his three point shooting percentage. Because we set his field goal percentage, we'd like that in the 40s. Right now it's at 39%, it's actually 385 from rounding up. His three point percentage, 35%. - Okay, that's what I was gonna say. - Jalen Green. So, field goal percentage is not where I wanted. I want that in the 40s. Preferably, I like it at like 42% quite honestly. Give me that, give me that to like 42. I'm okay with the 35%, three point percentage with Jalen. - I can live with the 35% as well. I think that when you're starting to throw the numbers like over 40%, that's when Jalen has to have the realization that everybody in this league wants to look like and show off that they're a shooter, that they can shoot. But his ability to get to the basket and finish in a variety of ways because of his hang time and athleticism, I don't think he realizes how quickly his percentage could go way up. 'Cause most of the time he gets fouled, that doesn't count against it. If you get the N1, it gets a plus to improve your shooting percentage. And you can boost it in a short period of time. - Yeah, and he is shooting the free throws at the highest clip that he's ever shot at in his life at 86%. So, that's like, hey, he's putting in the work there. I do appreciate that. I do admire that he's giving you effort defensively. So, he's kinda turning it into a pretty good defensive player. He had seven rebounds yesterday. So, he's doing other things than scoring. He dished out five assists. So, he's doing other things than scoring. So, those are the things I'd like to see. But that, I want to fill a goal percentage around 42%. - Sure. - Three point percentage around 35. And we're gonna look at that because that's the thing that's going to hold Jalen Green back. Like if Jalen Green surpasses those shooting numbers, I think he can be a 25 point per game score. - I think the other stat you gotta watch and it was bad two games ago against the wizards, but it was better last night, which is his turnovers. Because a lot of times he gets a little careless with the ball and I think they all do. I think that when they get out on the break, they're constantly overpassing or trying to do too much on the break. And there again, if he just realizes, hey, instead of trying to make that, you know, super tight pass or, you know, try to do something that's gonna make SportsCenter, just go to the basket and finish 'cause he's hard to stop. - Yeah, he's hard to stop, but he's not finishing at the rim. - No, and he's also turning the ball over, which was like six, I think, in the Washington game. - He's a little better, yeah. - Last night he had three. - Yeah, he was, I can live with three. - Oh, for sure. - I can live with three. I start to have a little bit of struggles with that. I don't love that a whole lot. - Based on the volume of how many times he has the ball in his hands, yeah, I'll live with three, but six is a little too much. - I like this team though, man. Like they're a fun team. They don't have a weak spot on the team. Like even the backup bigs, like whether it's Jock Landale's night or whether it's Steven Adams' night. I like what both of them are giving you right now. Reed Shepherd's still kind of very rookie, very green, but at least he's the threat of a shot, you know? - But that's where I would say their weakness is still. - I would agree. - Until he develops, you still need shooting because, you know, Fred's been awful. - And Dylan, but he got a lot. Yeah, Jabari has been the worst, dare I say the worst player on this team right now. - Do you know that, you know I'm in Thompson's three point, shooting is better than Jabari's this? - Yeah. - That's unheard of. - No, it's ridiculous. And that kind of lends itself to what I said. Jabari has been the worst player on this team so far because other guys contribute in a variety of different ways. And Jabari seems like it's about Jabari. And when it's not about Jabari, he just goes into a trance where he can't shoot and he can't do anything to help the team. And that's got to change because they're going to need him as the season rolls on because of his versatility. - 3, 4, 5, 1, I feel like sometimes we forget the Jalen's 22 feel like he's been in the league forever. Yeah, he's still super young. I mean, it's his fourth year. He kind of has been in the league forever. But that's what I like though, is that we, like you can kind of eliminate the two Steven Silas years because those are kind of lost years as a player in his development. But he made a Doka first year, Jalen Green last year, kind of, you know, breaking in a wild horse. This year, you see improvements in his game. That's why I'm, I've been patient with Jalen Green 'cause you have seen that improvement. He made a Doka says good things about him. So I'm willing to, I'm willing to be little slow with my takes on Jalen Green. - Yeah, I will. - I'm willing to allow him to develop. - Now that he is where he's going to be, you know what you're going to do with him for the next couple of years. Now you'll live with it a little bit more and you hope that you continue to see these growth spurts when he matures and starts making better decisions or shoots the ball better, does all those things. But in the meantime, he's still leading you in scoring and he's creating opportunities for himself and the team. - And he's not a liability on the defensive side of the ball. So I appreciate that. - Oh, he's getting better. - All right, let's talk some cowboy Texas in Monday night football. Syed, you, Seth, I'm guessing. He is the beat writer for the Athletic for the Cowboys. We'll discuss all things Cowboys, Texans, when we come back. It is the B's on ESPN 97.5, ESPN 97.5, ESPN 95, you can find us on Twitch.tv/espn97.5, YouTube and ESPN Houston. Also on Twitter, ESPN 9.7.5. Blankers at Pac-Man Joel, Brian at sack by BMAC, I'm at Jeremy Brandon. We are the killer B's, ESPN 97.5, ESPN 92.5. (upbeat music) - ESPN. - ESPN 97.5. (upbeat music) - You're back with the killer B's on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Life in the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. - Let's go straight out to the HRMP guest line. Sad Houston, Cowboy beat writer for the Athletic. Host of one star, Cowboys podcast, joining us now. Sad, thank you for taking a few minutes, hanging out with the killer B's. What's going on with this, the Dak Prescott situation? How come they haven't put them on the IR yet? And what does the position look like the rest of the year? Why go with Cooper Rush and not with LabDance Lance? - Yeah, you know, there's a lot going on, but I think with Dak Prescott, it's just an inevitability. I don't think that they're in a situation where they really need to create that. Rochester's far right now, they're not in any rush, but inevitably he will end up on IR. But in terms of going with Cooper Rush, right now they believe that they, at least internally, I know we all have different views on the team right now from the outside, but internally, they still believe they have a chance. And so Cooper Rush, they believe, gives them the best chance to win. He went four and one with the team a couple of years ago, a very different Cowboys team. That was a much better team than they are this year. Obviously they were three and five even with Dak this year. So they just believe that Cooper gives them the best chance to win. And there's not really any upside, I guess playing Trey Lance at this point, because Dak Prescott did find that contract extension right before the season started. So even if Trey Lance balls out and, you know, shows you a lot, he's an unrestricted free agent, he's probably going to leave anyway. So I think that's why they're sticking with Rush. I said, how you get to the bottom of what's going on right now? Mike Parsons, Mike McCarthy. It seems like Mike McCarthy's dead man walking. Mike Parsons is the one guy of the big three that was, you know, wanting to get that extension done that hasn't gotten one done yet. Does this affect him in any way? And is it basically that Mike McCarthy is what we all seem to think he is, which is a goner at the end of the year? - Yeah, so on two of those different things. Number one, Mike Parsons, he actually did not want to get a contract done last year. He was very clear about that. You know, like he's been lying to get paid, but he made it very clear to us last year, going back to OTA's and then he camp that he really wanted to play out this year because he felt with the trajectory that he was on. And, you know, if he hadn't gotten hurt, who knows how it goes? But he felt that he could really raise his stock and he wanted to play out another year and, you know, boost his value as much as possible. So I only say that to say that there's not really any animosity between Micah and the front office. They were kind of on the same page of waiting to get that extension done. But on the tone of Mike McCarthy, you're absolutely right. Like I think, you know, he's done at the end of the year. It would take a miracle. And for anybody thinking that, like, you know, he was dealt a bad hand this year with the injuries at Dak and all that stuff. It's important to remember that they were three and five with Jack Prescott at quarterback. And also, you know, yeah, there were three straight 12 win seasons, but that packer's debacle has come up unprompted from Jerry's mouth multiple times throughout this year. And I don't think anybody's forgetting that real quick. - We were kicking around yesterday. I think that Jerry Jones likes to hire and you would know this better than me. He likes to hire two different types of coaches. And it kind of depends in the mood that he's in. Whether it's a splashy name, like he's done that with Parcells in the past. And then somebody he can control, like a Dave Campo, maybe McCarthy? Right now, Jason Garrett comes to mind, who do you think would be on his short list if he did make a coaching change this off season? - Yeah, it's really interesting because you're right. I mean, even the Parcells hired, I mean, that was mostly because you wanted to get a new stadium built. And so, I feel like, you know, he needed a quick turnaround on that. But, you know, a lot of people obviously mentioned the name of Bill Belichick. I don't think it's completely out of the question because Jerry has expressed so much mutual respect going back. I mean, shoot, I can even remember going all the way back to 2018-19 of him talking about, you know, Bill and him having this conversation of if there's ever a tire, if there's ever an opening. So I don't think that's completely out of the realm. Mike Brable is another guy. I just have a hard time seeing Jerry Jones going after the hot shot, offensive coordinator, first time head coach. It just doesn't seem to be his type of thing. It seems like he's more of the type of guy who would want to hire someone who's been there, done that kind of the way that he did with McCarthy. So to that extent, I would really think that it's someone like, someone that's on the couch right now, whether that's Belichick or Brable or someone else like that. - So how do we go forward looking at this Cowboys roster and try to figure out Jerry saying he's in go for it mode and that he doesn't go for it. And then knowing that the best running back on the market, Derek Henry, who lives in Dallas in the off-season said that that was basically his first choice and then Jerry had to go. And of course, from a Jerry perspective, even the whole radio debacle, like are the fans clamoring for a new general manager as well? And how does this team possibly go forward with Jerry pulling the strings and the team playing so much less than what it was expected? - I've been in Dallas the last 27 years and I can tell you for just about two thirds of that time fans have been clamoring for a new GM. That's something that's like, it's all this talk radio segment that we have here in Dallas, which is Jerry, the owner needs to fire Jerry, the GM. And that's just always been the case. I don't think that's a recent development, but I do think that it has definitely picked up team with a lot of the recent comments and a lot of his, like you said, the radio stuff, all of that stuff, it's kind of piled on and added up, but that's never going to happen. Like anything that the Cowboys do, they have to, it has to be under the premise of Jerry is going to be the GM and he is going to be over the football operations and whatever improvements happen are going to happen under those circumstances. - Being joined on the HRNP guest line by Sad Yusef covers the Dallas Cowboys for the athletic, also hosts of one star Cowboys podcast. I love the drama, Sad, I'm a bit messy, you might say. So I love the whole Jerry Jones. I want to fire these radio hosts. All of that, I'm sure it was ratings gold. I wish Cal McNair threatened to fire me. His handle bar mustache would be a great time. What is the aftermath of that though? What would have been the falling out of all of that? - Well, I think Jerry definitely loses a lot of, I guess, favor, you could call it in the court of public opinion, but you have to remember who you're talking about here. This is Jerry Jones, like this is someone who, as long as you're talking about him, as long as he's on ESPN, get up, and as long as he's being talked about on first stage and all those other things. Like, that's, you know, it's a win for Jerry. It doesn't matter if it's a negative press. Jerry is the type of person who literally, he told us, actually, I think I was the one that asked the question this year in training camp. And he mentioned that, you know, he will go out of his way to quote, unquote, turn it up whenever he feels like things are getting a little flat. So you have to remember that, yeah, Jerry might look bad and, you know, Jerry's getting bashed by everyone in the court of public opinion, but this is a team that's so boring that you always, Jerry, you always have to think about, okay, what is the marketing part of this? And, you know, even, and that extends to the football thing, too, you have to earlier about Koopa Rush, right? And I think right now they're going with Koopa Rush, I think if the Cowboys start to get flexed out of some of these front-time ganks, they're ending things, you could see them go to Trey Lance, and it's not because Trey Lance will give them a better chance to win. It's because Jerry needs to jolt something and change something up so that people can start talking about the Cowboys again. So a lot of that is just a bedrock of all this. So when he asks about the fallout, like, yeah, Jerry loses a little bit of favor in the court of public opinion, but, you know, I've done interviews with other people in the past, they're like, oh, it sucks that you're covering this, you know, losing team. And I'm like, the reality is like, you know, I got up to the press box after last game and they got their butt kicked by the Philadelphia Eagles and anything related to the game was like number 10 on my list to write about because Jerry's going off about the sun and Mike has talked about Mike McCarthy and there's just always something going on. So that's the thing, the Cowboys thing is they don't want to be boring and that starts with Jerry. - I'm telling you, from the radio perspective, you need a curtain sponsor and you need a divorce lawyer because like you said, I mean, between the sunshine coming through the windows and the messy divorce coming between McCarthy and the Cowboys, you got plenty to talk about, but as it relates to the game itself, this looked like at the start of the year this was going to be a big game. Of course, in the state of Texas, it's a big game whenever these two teams square off, but at the start of the season, these two teams had very high aspirations for the playoffs and so much more. Now we're at a point where it has a lot less luster than it did at the start of the year. Texas trying to get right, it seems like from what you're talking about, the Cowboys still seem to think there's a chance they could get right too. How do you see this game turning out now? - Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think the line is like eight or something and I would be right around that point. I think Houston is by far like easily the better team than Dallas Cowboys. There's no question, but I have watched enough Texans games to see that they do end up sometimes playing with their food and you guys would know a lot more, obviously well on the Houston side of this, but I do think that, you know, Micah Parsons could have a big game because the offensive line is struggling there with what they have going on. And I, you know, I was talking to a few people in Houston recently and, you know, with Mike McCarthy's tenure coming to an end most likely after this year, I remember last year during the cycle, Bobby Slowick was getting a lot of love in the rumor mill and things like that. And it seems right now, he's just trying to get his job, you know, in line in Houston with what's going on. So, you know, going back, there's been a lot of interesting games between the Cowboys and the Texans going all the way back to the Texans winning their inaugural game to, you know, whatever else, you know, the game down in Houston that was the overtime win when Deshawn Watson was quarterback. I think that was one of their last games and one of the last two. So I do think that, you know, the Houston Texans will win the game. I just think I don't know that it'll be as big of a blowout. I would say, you know, I picked the Houston Texans to win by 10 points, which is kind of what I'm seeing right now. - Do you want Bobby Slowick? You can, you can have him. - Yeah, how are you living there? - Yeah, that's about what I've heard from a lot of people down in Houston as well. But yeah, he's lost a lot of momentum and he'll be, he'll be lucky enough to keep his job in Houston, you know, after this year, let alone get a coaching job elsewhere. But, you know, I was a big Bobby Slowick fan with the way that he changed things around. And last year, and CJ shot as a rookie, but I do know they've been struggling. I know they've had injuries and I know Nico Collins might be coming back and hopefully for the interstate, that changes things. But it's definitely good stuff. But I'll tell you, one thing that's come up a lot in the Cowboys locker room the last two, three days, there is a lot of respect for Demico Ryan for that defense that the Texans have going on there. So I think that has become the focal point for the Cowboys. - Sad, we appreciate the time. Maybe someday Houston will get a beat rider from the Athletic for their Houston football team. We appreciate it though. - Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me guys. - And sad use of joining a Cowboy beat rider for the Athletic and host of one star Cowboys podcast. 71370ESP and he mentioned Nico Collins mentioned the possibility of him being back. I think we can all read the writing on the wall. I think he was probably available this last Sunday if they absolutely needed him. If it was a playoff game, Demico mentioned, which is very unlike Demico, very unlike Demico. He mentioned early in the week. Yeah, we think Nico is going to practice this week. He was at practice today. Nico Collins will be playing next Monday night against the Arlington Cowboys. But what's the likelihood that Nico will actually save this Houston Texans offense? 713703776, it's the B's on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. HRP can save you a lot of trouble if you're a business owner. They might even save your business quite frankly. My colleague, U of H class of 1990, go Cougs, Chris Fisher, all the fine people at HRP. They have the best people at HRP. It's what makes them so successful. They've been protecting the interest of businesses for nearly 25 years. It's because they have good people there. 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I just mentioned anytime I have a question, I emailed them, fire one off, quick response, very easy to understand, very thankful. We'll use HRP here at Gal Media. Let HRP take on the demands of human resources and eliminate your HR burden so you can get back to growing your business. Give them a call right now. They'd be happy to help you. 281-880-6525, let HRP customize a plan for you. 281-880-6525, or check them out at HRP.net. That's HRP.net. - Warning, warning. You're listening to ESPN 97.5. You're listening to the killer bees with Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. - On ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. - Broadcasting live for the Peritex community bank studios. - I might be a little distracted, come four o'clock, so just a little heads up there. - Oh, 713-780 ESPN. Negro Collins, expected to be back. - After a break? - No, no, there's a high-profile recruit that is making his announcement. - Oh! - That's four o'clock today. - No boots. - You're assuming that's what I wanted to-- - Oh, I'm not a goose! (yelling) - Corey said, yeah, so if that happens at four. Corey is a Cowboys fan. I don't know if anybody who wants McCarthy back heck. Most don't want him to begin with. That's a good point. Most did not want him to begin with. - I warned him. - So, Negro Collins, we all expect him to play Monday. He was a practice today. There was reports from Aaron Wilson, which, you know, there was reports from Aaron Wilson that he could have played Sunday with the team. You know, wanted to be cautious. The whole Dusty Baker theory. Give 'em one more game after they tell you that they're ready to be back, which I'm actually okay with. Texans are gonna be a playoff team, so I was all right with it. But we expect him to play. The question now becomes, what's the likelihood that Nico will actually save this offense? 7-1-3-7-8-0-E-S-P-N. What do you think, Blakers? - Yeah, we kinda touched on a little bit of this yesterday in the fact that he's gonna have an impact. There's no doubt. And I think the offense will be more productive when you add a guy that was leading the NFL in receiving when he was before he got hurt. Naturally, you're gonna have an upward trend. But overall, I just feel like he can only do so much because of the fact that the offensive line has been so bad. So I think that he's going to, there will be an uptick because of the fact that now these two guys, when it relates to him and Tank, are gonna go back to where they were last year when they both really were excelling. And they know exactly the roles they're gonna play. And I think that the distribution will be better for Tank as well as the fact that I don't expect Nico to miss a beat. He'll be back to where he was. The bigger question to me is can they block long enough for him to do the things that he was doing, even at the start of the year, getting deep, getting behind the defense, doing the kind of things with the longer patterns where it takes time for that play to develop. And you've got to be able to have an offensive line that can hold their blocks and keep CJ upright. That's what concerns me the most about limiting how far this offense can go with Nico. - Yeah, see, obviously it helps. There's no way that Nico Collins coming back does not help. Good players make his surrounding cast better. Now usually you hear that from quarterbacks, things like that. But is it a surprise that Sam Darnold's having his best season whenever he has Justin Jefferson to throw the football to? Probably not. And how can a wide receiver make the life of an offensive line easier? Well, now the defense has to, they have to defend Nico Collins. Maybe you're spending more attention there. Maybe you're a little less likely to send extra guys on the blitz, probably not. But maybe, maybe a few times a game. But how about the short game? How about the quick game? How about those elements of the passing game that you have to be a little bit more mindful that you have Nico Collins and Tengdell out there as opposed to Tengdell and a revolving door of Xavier Hutchinson. John Metch, you played well in Robert Woods. So whenever you add that type of talent, that type of skill to your wide receivers, I do think that it makes life slightly easier for the offensive line. Yes, the offensive line's gonna be the ultimate. Do the Texans hit their upside offensively like we thought that they would? I think there's a decent chance that Nico can save this offense. And when I say save this offense, I'm not saying that they're gonna be the best offense going forward the rest of the year. But can they be a top 10 offense, currently 15th? I think it's in, I think it's in play. I think it's plausible. One thing that I also find interesting, like you look at the games that Nico Collins has missed this year and the scoring's not bad. He missed the game against the Patriots. He scored 41 points. Okay, the Texans offense can score 41. Now it was the Patriots. You do have to factor that in. He missed the Green Bay game. They scored 22 points. He missed the indie game. They scored 23, missed the Jets game 13, missed the Lions game 23. If you look at just the scoring production, the only one where you're like, oh, Nico could have really helped is the Jets. Like if you're scoring over 20 points, it's, you're fine. You're doing pretty good without your top wide receiver. The thing that I find interesting though, and I haven't heard many people actually bring this up, your best receivers, Nico Collins, your best running back by far is Joe Mixon. Your best two skill players are Joe Mixon and Nico Collins. Stefan Diggs was big for you. I wouldn't put Stefan Diggs higher on that chart than Nico Collins or Joe Mixon. Do you realize Nico Collins and Joe Mixon have only played one game together full game this year? They've only played one full game this season. And that was the opener against the Colts. Joe Mixon got hurt in game number two. By the time Joe Mixon came back was against the New England Patriots. That was the first game that Nico Collins missed. So you've, and yes, they played in week two together, but Joe Mixon got hurt early in that game and only carried the ball nine times. Joe Mixon and Nico Collins, your top two skill players, have only played one full game together all year long. - I brought this up over a week ago, I think, but it was more in correlation to the fact that the offense from the receiving and the passing game and the running game have never clicked. I didn't realize, and I forgot about the fact that yes, obviously in the opener, they played together. I didn't even think they played together at all this season to where maybe that's part of the reason why we haven't seen the full compliment work together at the same time and everything clicking. But that has to be a factor because I think to your question, the bigger thing too is the fact that you have Joe Mixon, he's not going away. If Nico's involved now and you have to respect Nico more and there's a little bit more attention from a defensive perspective, whether Joe's in the passing game or the running game, again, it's still correlated to the offensive line, but as long as there's a way to get him some kind of a hole or get him to the edge with at least one extra block if needed, there's a good chance between those two guys, your offense is going to be taken up to another level. You're right, top 10 is easily within reach if those two guys are with you for the rest of the way because you still have an above average quarterback as well and there's still other weapons like Tank, like Dalton Schultz when he wants to play and other guys to where you can still see this offense really take it to another level. So I'm encouraged by that, but as much as it's the skill positions that we're talking about, the main thing to me still comes back to, it's all connected to the fact that if you're not connected with your offensive line, if they're disjointed and we still continue to see from game to game, they either can't pass block or they can't run block, then I'm just not sure how effective they can truly be. - No, there's no doubt about that. That's part of the equation. That is absolutely something that has to be talked about in terms of the Texans offense, hitting where the Texans offense was supposed to be. It's just crazy to think that Mixon and Nico have only played one full game together and in that game they went nuts. Joe Mixon third, and yes, they're playing the Colts defense, which isn't fantastic, but Mixon ran for 159 yards in that game. Nico Collins caught six passes for 117 yards. So having both of those guys on the football field at the same time, I think makes the life of the rest of the offense easier. Is it gonna make the offensive line these like, you know, super humans that all of a sudden turn into a top five offensive line? No, but does this give them a slight edge that makes them from being a bad offensive line that's trying to figure themselves out? Does it give them that slight edge? And then hopefully the confidence at some point to be a middle of the pack offensive line? I think it is in play, especially with the new configuration of the offensive line. - Don't also forget that the way where I think this really excels and the stats will show that is the fact that when CJ leaves the pocket, when he goes off script and leaves the pocket, that's when Nico and CJ are at their best. That's when, unlike some of the timing issues we've seen when CJ starts moving the pocket and starts rolling and getting outside, that there hasn't been the same kind of timing, he has that connection with Nico and he can find Nico and Nico seems to know and have a knack for exactly where he needs to be to kind of get into that hole that's open, to get CJ a safety valve to get rid of it. And I think that's where you'll see a lot of better play as it relates to even if CJ has to move out of the pocket. - They do have that good chemistry, but I mean, it's just normal scramble drill stuff that they're doing. - Right, but they're not a scramble drill. - I mean, tanks had a lot of big, big gains out of it. The missed touchdown opportunity was basically scramble drill. Tengdell's touchdown drop was a scramble drill that happened one, two, three weeks ago. - But there's been a lot too where he rolls, especially to the right side and he's looking and the ball's either behind, Metche and Hutchinson and to some degree even tank to where it's not the same kind of instant connection where you look at and go, man, I mean, they just know where each other is going to be and where they want the football and it seems to work at a very high level. - I think it just 'cause Nico's better than everybody else. I don't think it's the secret recipe of Nico knows where he wants C, like C.J. knows or Nico knows where C.J. wants him. Like they have scramble drill principles. When C.J. sprouts roll in this way, then you go that way depending on where you're at in the field or you go back or you come forward for the ball. 3, 8, 6, 4. - That also relates to the fact that those guys weren't playing those kind of positions very consistently either when Nico was healthy and Diggs was healthy. - It's usually pretty simple on scramble drill though. Like if you're an inverse, if you're like close to the line of scrimmage, you go deep. If you're deep, you come in. If you seem scrambling to right, you get towards the sideline. They're usually pretty rudimentary. I think when you buy time, they're changing directions. They're trying to find where they can just kind of sit down in a hole in the defense. - I mean, if a guy's scrambling to the right, you're not gonna have to run to the left. - Well, so a lot of them he's thrown behind the receiver or the receiver turns one way and he thought they were gonna turn the other. So I don't know how rudimentary it is. - Well, that's usually sitting down in a zone. That's not scramble drill stuff. 3, 8, 6, 4. If he comes back healthy, he can save the teams. Meaning Nico, his yard after the catch makes C.J. look good. Nico should help open up the run game a little more just by having another receiver threat besides tank should. I would also like to see Metchi pick up where he left off last week. That would be awesome. And then thank you guys for here's a testimonial to the Killer B's. Thank you guys for pointing out the positive things because it seems like even when we win, people find all the negative things to talk about, especially John and Lance, Hall of Famers, testimony to the Killer B's. That's what I've always said. We're always the positive show on this station. - If all the people-- - If I take a last minute we start being more negative 'cause they got them into the Hall of Fame. Just ask Joe and Paul about how positive we are. - We're super, super positive and always have-- - Was that about the Rockets or was that about the Texans? - I think it was whenever, I don't know, it was in a weird time. It was during the interview actually. - Oh. - I don't know. It couldn't have been the Texans, I guess. All right, 713-780-ESP-N. Lee Sterling, Paramount Sports, been handing out winners, gonna hand out more winners next. Do you want money? Listen to Lee. It's the B's on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. You're listening to ESPN 97-5. (screaming) You've found that killer B's live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Brannis. - Let's go straight out to the HR and B guest line, joined by our friend, Lee Sterling at Paramount Sports, hands out winners, no one cares about our relationship, nobody cares about our friendship. - All they care about Lee is you making them money. The first game out in the desert, my cougars go to Arizona. Wildcats favored by one, tell me good things here, Lee. - This is the classic, and I mean the classic, two teams going in opposite direction. Arizona, five straight losses and a buy. The Houston could not score in September, including back-to-back shutout losses. But just think that this Arizona team, they just don't show much right here. You push them back, they just don't seem to have enough offense here. I mean, even their star receivers, seems like he's kind of saving himself for the draft. So after the sub, we start Houston's won three or four games here. I think they're gonna win it in the trenches and run the football. I like Houston 23-20. - Yeah. - Lee, another big game with a team that's got big hopes and that's the Brigham Young Cougars. BYU is really trying to stay relevant, want to keep winning, and they're going against the Kansas team that could be kind of pesky. It's only a three-point game. How do you see this playing out? - When you guys told this line, did you do a double take? - A little bit. - Yeah. I thought the line should have come like five, five and a half, six. I mean, Kansas is playing great of late. They had 532 total yards last week. Against Iowa State but if you watch that game clearly, Iowa State from the start of the game, they lost three more players in that game. They were twice, they weren't even lining up on the wide receiver. Didn't have a corner back out there. I just think that Iowa State has got so many problems here. Give Kansas credit. Jane Daniels is playing well. Three total touchdowns last week. Devin Neal, 116 rushing yards in that game. But BYU was playing their bitter rival and they still found a way to win. And they did it with their offense going one for 12 on third down conversions. I just don't think Jake Redfield, Redfield here, who won his first game without a TD pass. That's going to happen again. And it's tough to play BYU at night. That is a tough, tough out at altitude. That crazy crowd. I've been there. It is loud. I like BYU. I think they stand a feeder one more week. They're doing 24. - Well, we all know about the big 12. The mighty, mighty big 12 lead. All right. Switch it over to the NFL. Baltimore Pittsburgh. I believe this is Pittsburgh's first divisional game, which is crazy. Raven's three point favorites against the Steelers. Both teams playing pretty well. What goes on in this one? - Yeah, I don't like that. You know, when you have a team like that, back after their schedule is playing, you're like six of the last eight games against the divisional teams. I mean, I understand they mean more, but you've got to spread it out a little bit more. Give the Steelers credit. They took care of the commanders last week, but they only won by one point. Commanders have a quarterback and really not much else. In the three previous wins, we're against the Giants, Jets and Raiders who have a combined 7 to 22 record. I just feel that Lamar Jackson is almost unstoppable. Pittsburgh, you know, going against the poor offensive line of Washington is one thing. You face Baltimore with a much better offensive line and a quarterback has 24 touchdowns in just two interceptions. They put up over 450 yards of offense in four of the last five games. And this is crazy for some reason. They just played better on the road. They won 10 of the last 13 on the road. And you got to think they won't forget losing twice to Pittsburgh last year. I like Baltimore, 30 to 20. - Lee, maybe, I don't even think maybe. Game of the week coming up this weekend as Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes square off, yet for yet another time. Mahomes great against Buffalo in the playoffs. Not so great in the regular season, but Kansas City Chiefs are undefeated. And the Bills are looking to try and pull the upset. How do you see this one going? - So I went back, I thought it was strange that there were three games where teams, we had teams that had at least, and only actually had two losses at this point in the season, or at least one seven games. First time ever, NFL history, this late in the year, we've seen these kind of matchups in the three games. When we just discussed the Baltimore game, Kansas Pittsburgh, tonight's Washington, Billy game and this game here. Now, the Bills have defeated the Chiefs in four of the last five regular season games. But they're gonna have to do it without maybe a ton of receivers, can't call them out. Murray Cooper and Dalton can K, their start tied in, may not be able to go. I don't like their defense. I don't think they're good at the point of attack. Mine, you had 'em beat. And then they fumble late in that game. So Patrick Mahomes, how good is he? The $100, just 14, three in one. And he's won the last seven straight up here. I just can't go against Kansas City. Their defense is the best in the NFL. You win big games with defense. Kansas City, straight up, 24, 21. Wong King favorite. Three-point game, Harrison Buckner. Gonna be out a little bit, Lee. Something tells me that she's gonna be all right. All right, the big one. Monday night football, Cooper Rush. I'm just kidding. Are the Texans going into Arlington, taking on the Cowboys seven-point road favorites? Can the Texans cover this number? - I think that they came here. I went back and I'm like, you know, I know they played in 2020, 'cause I looked it up. December of 2022, Dallas was a 17-point home favorite when these teams played that. A lot can change in 23 months, but I mean, are you kidding me? A total of 23 and a half, 24 points is just astronomical. Obviously, the status of Nico Collins is very important in this game, but the Texans are allowing only 5.7 yards per attempt to pass through so far. They did pick off Jerigolf 5.10. They're not gonna get five interceptions, but I think all they need is two or three. I think the Dallas offense is just so stuck in the mud here, and I think that they've given up. They know that they're going nowhere. The defense did play hard, but things go bad by halftime. You know, we could see my proportions barking at the coaches. I mean, this is a situation that's gone from bad to worse. I think you should rebound here. This is the perfect opponent at the perfect time. Houston, 28-13. - Lee, you say bad to worse. We talk about good to great, and that's what you've been as we went from October to November. And now we're talking about getting people on board so that they can capitalize. Tell everybody how they get connected with you, and maybe give them a little insight on that free play for the weekend with the horns. - Yep, free play is gonna be Texas playing 13 points, taking on Arkansas. How about this first five callers? They call right now 800-400-9741. We will give them Texas and Arkansas for free. We have a real strong opinion on one side here. Be waiting for your common. If you wanna come on board, normally when we sell these individual games on a Thursday, Friday night, they're $50. I'm gonna do this. If you wanna purchase either day or both, $10 each. Tonight, we call it the $10 Thursday Throwdown. $10 gets you my top play in football tonight. Or tomorrow my $10 Friday fire pick. Get both of them, 20 bucks in the UFC card. We've got a UFC pay-per-view, normally $50 to $75 on that. Three selections in the UFC pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden. 39, just 15 bucks. So you can get the next two nights, 10 bucks each, and Saturday night in the UFC for 15 bucks. 35 bucks, give you a whole weekend of fun. Hopefully we can win it for you. So if you wanna hop on board, just one place. ParamountSports.com. - Love it, Lee. Enjoy your weekend. Lots of fun with football. I am looking forward to that John Jones fight. We'll talk to you next week. - And you guys, take care. - Lee Sterling, Paramount Sports, great deals. Take advantage of that with Lee Sterling. All right, I don't think Drew Scruggs is ever gonna be the center again for the Houston Texans as long as Jared Patterson is around. You think it's true? Cash some attraction? 713-780-ESP, and it's the B's on ESP at 97-5 and ESP at 92-5. - ESPN, 97-5. (speaking in foreign language) - This season, Chevy brings classic pairings. And the first one is the first one to win. And the first one is the first one to win. 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