The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
11/22 Hour 3- DJ Bien Aime Joins the Guys at Twin Peaks
"Your child's first step is a big step towards their future. With first step by college invest, every Colorado child born or adopted on or after January 1, 2020 will receive a free $115 contribution to their college invest college savings account. Plus, we'll match a percentage of your contributions in the coming years helping you save even more. Enroll today and start your child off on the right foot. Visit ColoradoFirststep.org to get started, and claim your $115 now. Welcome back to The Killer Bees on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Now time to talk Texans with ESPN Texans reporter DJB NMA. Brought to you by Houston powder coders and the trafficking sports book at Golden Nugget Lake Charles. Back on the bees. Because we have two in the books, one to go, final hour of the show, and always a good time to catch up on a Friday, Friday, got to get down on Friday. My good friend DJB NMA and the fact that the Texans playing a home game after getting one of the, I'll say three, if not four wins in a row that DJ had predicted against a lesser than team like the Dallas Cowboys, Brian and I have already had this argument. We have it. We have the proof. DJ, they did what they were supposed to do. But a lot of people, including myself, still looking at it from the perspective, and I heard you with Paul earlier in the week, but still looking at it from the perspective of, was it perfect? No. Was it more the defense than the offense? I personally felt like yes. But at the end of the day, you got what you were supposed to get. Now you're taking out another team that you're supposed to be. You've got some injuries, but overall, from your perspective, is this a game where they take a whole lot from the Dallas game or they just say, hey, we did what we need to do. Now we need to make sure when we focus on Tennessee that this is another team that we should stomp. Yeah. So I mean, the MECO doesn't necessarily look at it like, oh, this is a team that we should stomp because he kind of respects all the teams in the league. So I don't necessarily think they're going to view it like we should blow these guys out. I think the way he's going to view it is we just need to execute and then whatever happens, we should be able to win this game. The MECO still strikes me as a guy that, you know, they just want to win. They don't really care for style points. And there's not really, you know, what happened against the Cowboys is just the Cowboys. I think the defensive, there's a lot of that that you can copy and implement, but I think in this week, they're going to have to do a much better job on 30 downs. The Titans have one of the best 30 down defenses in the league. I think they're actually third best in the league on allowing teams to convert 32% of their third downs. They can do some funky stuff on third downs. They only rush four, like 75% on third downs, but they're usually going to have a bunch of guys up on the line of scrimmage at least once every three, third downs. They're roughly around 30%. And they're going to drop people out and have to lay blizzes, stunts, all those things. So the communication is going to get tested immediately this week. And they're going to have to be on the same page to be able to handle some of the third downs. Talk to some of the generalized overall themes in the next segment, but let's talk about some of those matchups because for all the shortcomings of the offensive Tennessee, you mentioned it. Their defensive line is staunch. We talked about it. I mean, the middle of that line has a ton of beef and they could do a ton of damage. 98 is destructive on that team. He is a beast. And we know that the Texans have struggled with their offensive line specifically their inside internal offensive linemen, how does that map out of the Texans survive in that matchup against a very disruptive rough the front? How do they survive? That's me tough because, you know, one thing that I've learned is it's if you say you have a right tackle, that tackle, that is not so good or it's not he's going to get some unfavorable matchup, there's ways you can help mitigate that, whether you have a tight end chipping or we have a running back chipping. However, when a guy isn't that good on the interior going against a legitimate all pro top of defensive tackle, it's hard to scheme around that. All you can do is try to just slide protect, slide over to his side, you know, slide over to the juicer slide. But the thing is when you're overemphasizing that you're going to have a lot of scenarios where they kind of counter and send blitzes and send pressures that kind of counter your slide that can have people come in and free. We saw what the Jets did. I mean when Williams was a guy that they just flat out said I dare you to try and stop him however you can. He was going to wreak havoc and I think Tennessee could do something like that. Yeah, yeah, I could absolutely see something like that so they're going to have to come out a really good plan and then again, honestly, Juice is just going to play really well. Jared Patterson is going to play really well when they both double team him. Obviously, up sweat at one of the other spots, he's going to do his thing. Shaq is going to have to step up, you know, we don't have to really worry too much about the edges. I think Laramie and Titus should be able to handle Landry, I think they should be able to handle him, but it's really going to come down to how they can mitigate interior pressure. And if they struggle with that, it's going to be a long, it's going to be another game that comes down to the fourth quarter. DJ, we talked about this earlier in the week, the workload being put on Joe Mixon. I mean, obviously, he missed three games, so you wouldn't get to this pace. It's a good point. But like you look at his, his, just, just the carries, not even factoring his passing game work, but 17 game sees that we did the math. What he's doing right now would multiply out to 363 carries, just an absurd amount for like the modern day, what usually is a running back by committee. Right. He's concerned about Damien Pearce and Daray not being able to take some of that workload off a little bit of an older back, or what is your thought on that whole situation with how they handle Mixon's workload. That's a good question. I would say I didn't even arrive Mixon until through the end of the season. I think that that's going to be that because he's just so valuable. The offense kind of craters a little bit when he's not out there, just because you know, Damien can't just have the vision that Joe has the alusiveness, the shiftiness, because it's funny, like Joe is just as much a power back as Damien, but he's way louder on his feet. He's way quicker. Joe's really a complete running back. So I think they just want to ride that out. I think it could be a problem next year, right, because a lot of guys when they get 300 plus carries unless your name is Derek Henry, a lot of them fall off of a cliff, then very next year we see that we'll leave you on bell. We saw the list goes on and on with guys that get 300 carries plus the next year. You know, it looks kind of, I think Najee Harris had like 400 touches his rookie year and he hasn't been the same since his rookie year. So I think that that's a problem you got to worry about next year. I think this year it'll be fun, honestly, but you know, they don't really have anybody else that can go to to mitigate some of that. You're going to go to Damien and you're going to go to Gary. You're talking about it from the standpoint of you let Cam go and it was for a roster spot or whatever, but at least Cam showed you signs that in short doses, he could spell Joe because it's one thing to say, I totally agree. You want to minimize how many carries he's getting simply because he is older, but at the same time, what you saw was maybe what one series for Pierce last week and Dari is only basically used on past downs to where you know how valuable Joe's been. You know, like you mentioned, that he's a little bit older too and he's got a lot of wear on him because he's getting a lot of usage, but you can't afford to take your foot off the pedal because you really don't have anything but a behind him that can do what he does. Yeah, I mean, I kind of view Cam's stint a little overrated, he'd have a lot of yards out there and I think they noticed it too because there were a lot of times where he couldn't, because again, like it's not, and there's no fault of his, right, like, torn ache, you know, torn Achilles on both, I mean, on the same leg, so he just didn't have the same explosive as vertically, obviously he still has some stuff laterally, but in something vertically, he just didn't have it anymore, which is why they, you know, I made sense for them when Pierce came back to just ride it out with him, but again, back to your point, I think there's a problem that's where right next year, I think this year, it kind of made up their mind, they're going to just ride with Joe, they're going to be the bell cow, and then they'll deal with whatever repercussion next year. DJ, it feels like the CJ, CJ Stroud sophomore slot narrative has been picking up steam, we even heard the Titans coaches being asked about it in their own press conferences in Nashville. I mean, here look, we all see like the reasons why some of the numbers have dropped off into line has been a problem, Nico's been hurt, what have you seen in CJ last year versus this year, because obviously the numbers are down, but how would, what would you attribute that to? You know, a lot of it starts with the fact that he's seen much, you know, he's seen the second most dropbacks against too high, he's right behind Joe Burrow, that's all the person he's behind, comes with dropbacks. So when he's seen too high, he's thrown like five touchdowns, five interceptions, and it's completed percentages in that high, and I think a lot of that stems from what Bob, you know, teams having a better beat on what Bobby wants to do, right, and like what I've noticed from this system, Miami system, and San Francisco system, all those guys, you know, with that against that Shana Ka Shana hand system, they're all seen too high because they know these guys love to tack over the middle of the field, their interior offensive lines aren't as strong. So if you go a lot of too high, cover two, quarter quarter half, cover six, whatever with cloud, whatever you want to do, you know, the windows where you can attack, it takes a little bit more time to get to those spots, and if your interior of your offensive line is weak, you can run some of your stunts, run some of your games, be able to get to the quarterback and move them off to the spot, and I think I have to go check down. Obviously CJ is still, you know, trying to fire some of those, some of those passes and it hasn't worked, but he like, you know, like, I remember the one interception against the bills, like that wasn't on see, that's more on the bills, knowing exactly what was calling when they called it a play action and, you know, Terrell was able to jump right into the window and intercept it, you know what I'm saying? So I would say a lot of his, you know, I think he's actually a better quarterback this year than his last year did, you know, if you had a CJ from last year in this situation the Texans probably have, they probably got four wins, honestly, four or five wins. Let's just be real. I mean, any quarterback that has experienced the amount of pressure that he's experienced this season, there's going to be a different quarterback, it's easy to say a sophomore slump as kind of like the quick out for the sermons synopsis of what happened, but that's only because, sure, his numbers aren't going to look like one of the best rookie seasons and simply if it wasn't a rookie season, one of the better seasons the quarterback could have and now suddenly his numbers are lower, but it's because he's getting the crap kicked out of him and he's running for his life on almost every play. Absolutely, absolutely. So I think it's pretty clear, like, why the numbers aren't where they are, but if you're watching the film, like, it's super obvious he's a better quarterback than anyone, because he wasn't creating like he was, like, he has this year, like, last year, he wasn't creating like this, like, at all, like, he wasn't able to like, there are times he was able to mitigate a little bit, but you saw it towards the end of the season where you got better at that. This year from the jump, he's been able to create off schedule consistently, it's just like, at a certain point, you really want your quarterback to have to create three to five plays max. There's just some games he doesn't create, like, 15, like, he just came here to try to create something like 15, 20 times, that's not sustainable, right? If you could, like, get that back to, like, the three to five, six range, then you, you know, then you'll be okay, but I think, you know, again, and he's just like, yeah, four games without me, I forget about Nico and two and a half games without Nico and Steph. No quarterback surviving that. Right. DJ, I think last week, I saw that Nico Collins was about, what, about a 47, 50% snap percentage. You seem to ease him back at all, but you get the sense in the building that he's back full goal, that he would get back to pre injury levels or worse, he at this week. I think that's still like, you know, it's gonna be a, you know, a little bit of a regression. They're not gonna go full throttle, mainly because, like, he's too valuable. Like, if he re-aggimates it, you're probably looking at another, what, three weeks. And now you're possibly, you might get him back for the, not the Miami game, but the possible, the Chiefs game, and that's, that's towards the later in the season, like, we've seen enough now that no Nico, the passing offense is going to crater. Because you got to think about, like, three of, see, actually, all three, CJ's three worst games of his career, statistically, from a yard's throwing standpoint, Nico didn't play. The Packers game, 86 yards, Nico didn't play. The Jets game this year, Nico didn't play when he had the lowest complete percentage ever. The game where he got concussed, even in that game, he was on pace, you know, that's gonna be the worst game of his rookie year. Nico didn't play in that. Well, he played, he played the first play, heard his calf, and he was done for us at the game. So, you, you know, you can't be silly at this point. Yes, you can still use them, but you have other guys that you could trust on and rely on for, you know, for spot duty, but you still got to be able to have Nico when it matters most, which is towards the end of the season. All right, we're gonna continue with DJB-NMA as we continue on getting you ready for the Texans and the Titans this weekend. We'll step away for a quick break. Come back with a whole lot more. It is the Killer B's on ESPN 97-5 and 9 at 2-5 FM. You are listening to the Killer B's on ESPN 97-5 and 92-5. Broadcasting live from a mobile Veritex Community Bank Studios, located at Twin Peaks at 59 in Curvy, presented by Doseckeys. The man is right. That is our plan today on a Friday. We are at Twin Peaks right here off of Curvy in 59, DJB-NMA. Very gracious enough to join us in person, do two segments with us with Jeremy out. Jeremy's out getting ready to call some Cougs basketball before the weekend. So, we're gonna talk some Texans footballs. We continue to talk about everything leading up to this game against the Tennessee Titans here on Sunday. DJ, curious your thoughts, but Sneed is out. You mentioned Nico, but to get that entire passing game kind of, I think we felt like we've seen progress, but maybe we feel like we want to see more tank. We want to see more of the overall. We still met you ahead moments, but maybe the combination of a lesser team with their best corner and ball sets you up to kind of take that next step back for your passing game? Yeah, but I mean, the Titans, they've been without need for some time. I mean, they had the best pass defense in terms of yards per game at. They allow 164 passing yards per game. Are they too overall in defense team defense that I'm not too sure about no passing defense there. They're up there, but I wouldn't be surprised. Like, you know, they've been playing really, really good football. I would say that this would be a tough one. They can find ways to get, you know, tank going and things of that nature, Parker get a little bit more creative in a passing game to get them creative. I got to get them more all, you know, probably get them out of press situations, get more free releases, free access so he can, he can eat off of that because, you know, this year, the book is kind of out on him. If you press them, you can kind of remove them. Get them off the spot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, um, so far this year, I think he's been pressed on 79 routes and he has like eight catches or it's like eight, it's like eight catches, like 84 yards in a touchdown. So like, that's a lot of reps against press and obviously he hasn't had as much success against it. Where last year you had a lot more clean free access and I think if you can get them clean free access, he can be pretty, you know, back to what we saw last year. But because Titans again, like guys are going out the window on the outside because the Titans press, especially outside the numbers are like 41% of like third downs, third most in NFL and then, you know, that goes to some single high looks without it doing like, you know, man, or they go cover three or matching that cover three. So, you know, the guys are going to have to, you know, I have to get something where instead of letting him start from a standstill position on one of the outside positions, that's something where you let him kind of go in motion and then let him get into his route off the motion to avoid some of that. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's actually a good idea. I think that's a good idea. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. Yeah. The ticket tank is more like here. All right. All right. All right. Here you go. You know what I'm saying? You know, because even on that third down, right? It's like third and one against the Cowboys. They've been running it well. And instead of running the ball, they throw the outrothe tank. It gets broken up. And it's like, y'all could have just run the ball, right? You know what I mean? You can still run that play on the very next down. Yeah. Exactly. Couple downs behind you. So, at times, it feels like, you know, they're over-exerting them. So, I'm trying to get tank involved, which I understand. They got to do a better way of just making it flow better. You know. And, you know, making it easier. Like the Jets game, it felt more within the flow. And they got to just find ways to do that. Because I do think that the way it's looking right now, teams are not scared to play man covers against Texans. Right? I think that's very clear. They're not scared to play man covers against Texans. So, they're going to have to find ways to consistently, you know, to eat against that. To make them have to go back to just playing a bunch of zones. If not, a dig is gone. At that point, you could really play man against the Texans and be okay. I don't know how good it'll look. But you could be okay. Like, you got confidence and not be afraid of doing that. And I think that they got to, because the Detroit game, obviously, no Nico, but that whole second half for the most part, they just went man coverage. DJ, I know the Titans defense, as you guys were talking. There's a long paper on the stats. A pretty good defense. But you look at their last three row games. I mean, obviously, the Lions put up 52 on them. The Bills put up 34, Chargers put up 27. It feels like even though they're a pretty good defense on paper, they look like they're beatable. How do you see the Texans doing against this Titans defense? I think this should still have some to say. I think it's like 24 points. I think CJ could throw for close to 300 yards. I think he'll still have an effective game. I do think, you know, it's kind of oranges to apples, that comparison, because we're talking about the Lions and the Bills. Granted, the Texans almost beat the Lions. But they beat the Bills. But they beat them, they're up mainly because of their defense. Because the defense are making a lot of plays. But I do think the Texans should win by at least 10, because they should be able to open one more level. It's like, I don't see many scenarios of, "Well, love is being able to do enough." Because who's, I mean, no DeAndre Alkins. I think Peaches should be fine against Toddl Boyd. And if they let's thinly follow Calvin Ridley, Calvin won't get open unless he runs an in-breaking route. If he's running anything outside the numbers, I'll break it right, or out down the field. He's not going to get open. He doesn't do well against press. And he's just not as fast as he was in his career. I happen to all of us. So, you know, I think that- Do you think the Texans, because that was something that last year, they seemed like the Texans were hesitant at times to do. The let's thinly follow. They obviously let them do it in the rematch against the Marty Cooper and the playoff game against the Browns. Obviously, they didn't see the Lamb this last week. Do you think- Well, it's been a topic this week, too, at the press conferences. So, I mean, he told me that, like, he follows a lot. It just gets magnified if it's a bigger matchup. So, apparently, I guess the lines, he kind of followed Jamo in situations where it looked like they might try to go deep. So, he followed Jamo to an extent. Obviously, he followed CD, he followed DJ Moore. He said he even followed in a Patriots game. That I didn't even notice, but he followed even in the Patriots game. So, he for sure is going to- I would suspect he's going to follow against the- Ridley? Yeah, I would suspect. Because I think, you know, if you take him away like that. That's crazy to me, though, because you would think, "Yeah, I know Jamo can beat you deep, but I'm off St. Brown. He's your best receiver." Yeah, I think the difference is if you go in the slot, you give away what you're doing on defense. Because if he's in the slot- because it's different if he's in the slot, because if he was in the slot against the Vontay, you have Reese Hall on the outside, and I think Petri are lying back with over there. That's a little different because you can still run what you want to run. And not completely give it away. If there's a receiver on the outside, you have Stingley in the slot. It's very clear that you're going man coverage. So, it's easier to call plays against if you know exactly what they're in. All right, let's talk about some of the injuries because we know that Will is practiced all week. That's a good sign. The bad sign to me is Autry played his tail off last game. He's been playing really, really well. He doesn't practice the majority of the week. I don't think he's practiced yet. I was hoping that was just let him time to heal, but we'll set him loose again on Sunday. But to me, it seems like they're leaning like Will's back, and we're going to sit Autry. Yeah, I think if I had a guess, it'd probably be, that'd probably sit Autry and play, you know, obviously Will's going to play, but you know, let him come back next week. It doesn't seem like anything serious where, fully, I've seen him in a booth. So, I don't know, but it could be for cautionary reasons. And that was just to take pressure off of it, but I don't anticipate to see Foley, probably next week either. Wow, so two more weeks on Foley. Yeah, yeah. And of course, the International Man of Mysteries Christian Harris. No one wants to put a timetable on it, but Nick and Demico are talking like he still will be back. At some point, we heard week 15, but at this point, he is the Kyle Tucker of the NFL in the Houston sports scene. Yeah, and it's like how effective will Christian Harris be if he came back in week 15, week 16? We're going to be honest about that. Like, if you missed that much time, you haven't played, you haven't played in a football game since January of 2024, and now we're about to be in December of 2024. That means what? You haven't played in like 11 months? Like, how effective do you think he would actually be? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Especially when this game is so predicated off of athleticism and things of that nature, you come out for injury that sidelines you for basically what? Four months? Because you remember he got hurt in July, and then he ended up coming back in August and then got basically had to be helped off the field during, in the install period. So, yeah, I don't, obviously I would love him to come back, and he seems to be in good spirits, but it's like at a certain point, you just kind of got to let him, you know, you know, you're keeping open, but if he misses, him missing 12, 13 weeks, 14 weeks, him coming back in week 15, like, you're going to have a more, I mean, especially when your first three opponents back will be the Dolphins, Ravens, and Chiefs. That's what I'm saying. That's going to be some physical games, like, I thought you get somebody hurt again, you know. It seems like Devin White's being worked into the defense more and more. Henry Toa Toa snaps have gone down a little bit. I haven't seen him, I mean, you talked about athleticism. I mean, a few linebackers are more athletic than Devin White. Haven't you seen him fit in with the defense? Yeah, I mean, again, like, this, it feels like an easy fit, because he doesn't have to think as much and he can just kind of, whatever gap is open to shoot through it. So he's been solid early on, especially considering the fact that he just got here like last month, and he's still learning guys' names, you know, and he's still been able to be pretty effective in his small role. Curious to see if this is going to be a continuing trend of him, you know, of him being playing over Henry Toa Toa, or is this is more of a one-off? You know what's funny to me, DJ? It's like the positive and the negative. You hear all week that it seems like Patterson is now their center, and they're saying they're getting into their stuff quicker, and they're reading things a lot quicker, and he's getting a lot of praise. At the same time, you drafted him in the sixth round. The guy you drafted in the same draft in the second round was then a guy that, if you just want to read into it, wasn't doing great at center, and he hasn't been outstanding at left guard, so what does that say about both? It seems like it's Patterson maybe long, the rest of this year at center, but he's definitely going to have probably, if he's not in competition, he'll have that job again next year, and Juice looks like he might just be relegated to being a backup. So I remember during the Cowboys game, a NFL exec texted me about, you know, the Texas Interior Office line. He was like, "Interral line stinks." And then, you know, we talked about Juice, and he said, "It's funny, I like to come out as a late round pick, saw him as a high-level backup, not a starter, scouts had him buried as a free agent." The second round was nuts. Wow, yeah. They had him great as a free agent. That is big right there. Yeah, one team, yeah, one exact guy told me that. Yeah, like, and I remember my homeboy, he called me, he was like, he played in the league, he, you know, covered stuff for, like, CPU. Like, I can't believe the Texans took him in the second round, like, Jared Patterson might be better than him. So, like, yeah, so, like, it's been a decent amount of people that have told me, like, he's like, "Hey, Juice might not be here," you know what I'm saying? And, like, it's looking like they might be right, you know? That's crazy, because you think about it, as much as you should be getting a lot of praise and credit for making Patterson in the sixth round, he saved your bacon if Juice is that bad as a second round pick. Right, that's what I'm saying, like, like, it's kind of insane that Jared might be better than Juice, and Juice was the second rounder, you know? So, I mean, that's an interesting evaluation for them, but, you know, I've had most people tell me, like, that wasn't a day to a pick. And they think they traded up for him, too, but it wasn't like he felt him, they traded up for him. Another chance they probably could have gotten in the fourth, you know, put your fourth round, fifth round, or something like that, 'cause, I mean, it's not like he's playing... He's never had a game where he played like a second rounder. No doubt, no doubt. Well, you play like a first rounder every week for us. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. I try. We will look forward to catching up with you again next week. Have a great weekend and enjoy staying at home and being able to see the Texans and the Titans and all the love you blew. [ Laughter ] DJ BNMA! He covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. We're going to take a break. Before we do that, I'm going to tell you about my bookie, my bookie.ag's place. I always tell you, you need to be. 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Getting ready for the Texans and the Titans this weekend at NRG. And it's funny because we've looked all season long, Brian, at the fact that it's the Texans division to lose, and that they're going to be in any competition as it was a few weeks back. The Colts had the outside shot of getting in. It's amazing to me that as talented a player as Jeffrey Simmons is and how much we've been talking about him in the middle of that defensive line. He is a dominant football player. He doesn't seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes down to the division. Unless he's just hyper loyal to his team. Because he had this to say about if the Titans can win the division. We know what's in front of us. You know how the season been going and we've been just so close to winning games. And right now it's going to be no better out of time to figure it out. It feels like right now we've got five division gamers from us. If I frankly, if we win, then we can win the division. So we've just got to pick game by game and say no other way to do it than other things we can. It's going to send a message to the division this weekend. He and Michael Parsons might want to do a podcast with that kind of thinking. That feels like a race to the bottom for most delusional player in the NFL. I get that Jeffrey Simmons, a veteran in the league, someone who has high expectations for himself. Probably not having a lot of fun in the two and eight seasons. So maybe this is just, let's have my guys back. Let's give ourselves a reason to fight down the stretch and what feels like a lost season for the team. But, I mean, bro, you're four and a half back with what's like 70 games to play. I gave them if they've had their buy yet. But four and a half back if you're on the road in this game where you like, I mean, obviously you're already pretty much out anyway. Obviously you're two and eight, you're four and a half behind. But if you lose the game, you're for sure done. And it's on the road where, I mean, as we talked about with DJ, in the last three road games, the Colts have given up 34, 52 and 27 points. I mean, they begin the doors blown off. So I think this is probably, I mean, we need a coach to speak early in the show. This is, I guess, player speak as a way to keep the team motivated, keep the team playing hard and down the stretch of a meaningless season. But no, you do not have a chance to win the division. It's just crazy. I mean, it's almost because of, like, when we were talking about it, even with Easton, the guy that covers the Titans. Easton, for you, yeah. Yeah. The reality is everybody is very honest with themselves and that this is a rebuild. This is year one, basically. And there's so much more to figure out than what they have solidified to where it's fine. The fans are fine with it. Everybody should be fine with it. I understand the players believe that they should win. But you're right. There's no recipe or detail or things coming down the pike when he says what's in front of them that paints a picture of this team that's a playoff team that could get, with a division, let alone get a wild card. Yeah. No, definitely not. I mean, this team, I mean, obviously, if the team at the front office, if the ownership group, the people charting the path for the season, thought they were still in it, you don't trade DeAndre Hopkins away. And I know DeAndre Hopkins, I mean, I know we had the two touchdown game. I think it was first game for the Chiefs. But overall, the season, he hasn't been super productive. It's basically been like two games. One for the Chiefs and one for the Titans. So if the Titans were truly in the thought process, well, we could still win this division. It's not over yet. You don't trade away DeAndre Hopkins. I was thinking about it from the standpoint, even last season, no matter what you do with Levis and the rest of the offense. And you went and brought in a running back after you let Henry walk. But you had El Shaiir at linebacker. Yeah. You had Autry. Autry, yeah. Playing with Jeffrey Smith. You're like, right there alone. And you went and got Sneed. And you got Sneed. I mean, those are dominant NFL players. Yeah. I mean, obviously, you keep those guys. The defense could have looked a lot better to your point. They still have names. See, Jeffrey Simmons is a good player. Tony Pollard is a name a lot of people know, although he hasn't been super effective this year. Calvin, really, has had big seasons in the past. He's had 10 touchdown seasons, dead thousand yard seasons. So there's some names there. Problem is, I mean, like you mentioned with Jerry Sneed, he's hurt. He's not going to play in this game and will Levis is a turnover machine. So they're starting from a point right now. If you're looking from this point forward and what the Titans could still do in their main or the season, they're starting from a two and eight position in your four and a half back. Look, I get the mindset of a professional athlete always having to be. We can still achieve what we need to achieve because otherwise, I think the standards, if you lift the standards slipping your mind, then everything is going to fall apart in the field. But I mean, at some point, got to be realistic or two and eight. Yeah, no doubt about it. So we'll see what we can see, you know, what what comes of his feeling. But I think that if you look at the way this team looks at this game, not that they're looking past them, but I think it's similar to the cowboy game. Now you just have to go do what you did to the Cowboys, but in my, in my mind, you have to do that with a better showing on offense. Your defense was dominant against Dallas. I thought your offense had a lot to be desired except for Joe mix it. If you can establish the passing game and you can win by two scores or more, I feel like you've done everything you need to do moving forward for your Texans team regardless of how he feels about the Titans. Yeah, and I think, and we talked about this as DJ, but I think the offense is going to look better in this game. I mean, look, the Titans defense, when you look at it on paper on the stat sheet, yeah, it shows that they're way, way up there and some of the defensive rankings, but we talked about on the road last three games are given up big numbers 34, 52, 27 in the last three road games. Well, Jerry Sneed is not in this game and you got Nico back who's going to be getting more and more snaps each week as he works his way back with the hamstring injury. And he also had to factor in what we've seen from CJ Stroud this year. He's been a much better player at home and that was even true as a rookie, but he's been a better player at home than he is on the road. So you have CJ home where he's more comfortable. You got Nico back. They're out there best defensive back. Nico's working his work is working his way back as I mentioned. I don't see a reason why the Texans don't win this game comfortably and have the offense like much more efficient and much more explosive. I would agree. And I think that's why it would be a massive kick in the groin if you lose this game or you don't do those things. I really don't want to do the show Monday if they lose. That's going to be that would be tough stuff. Speaking of tough stuff, we still have car wreck of the day on the horizon. We're going to get to that as we get ready to wrap up the show. We'll take one quick break and we'll come back and put a bow on it right here live from Twin Peaks on Kirby at 59. It is the killer bees on ESPN 97 5 and 95 FM. This is the car wreck of the day. You heard the man. The plan is that we get you the car wreck of the day every time every day at about this time talking about who screwed up who said something or did something you're like, wait, huh? What? We had earlier in the week, Adam Schefter was asked on a podcast, Brian. Where was the weirdest or craziest place? He's ever broken a story. I don't know that you're going to believe this one, especially because it's Adam Schefter, but here's what he had to say. Weirdest place you've broken a story is what? You can hear him thinking about it. He does not want to say it. I can remember being in Denver one time and I was a Disney man. How do I say this? I just spent time with this woman for the first time. Yeah. Okay. Sure. And got a text that Dale Carter was being suspended. I think it was for eight games for substance abuse. And so as I continued to lay there, confirm it, and got the job done, Kevin, and every which way. Unbelievable. That's the greatest episode you ever had. Every which way. We had a model in time and I asked him how many contacts he thinks he has in his phone. He had no idea. Oh, there's no way he can count. It's amazing. Yeah. There's no way he can count. My car wreck of the day, not me. I've got several. But let's start with George Pickens. Okay. Harold wants to fight everyone on the Browns roster. Like the play was still going on. He's trying to fight the Browns to fins back. It feels like it's so weird that Mike Tomlin seems like the tough guy, no nonsense football coach. And yet feels like every single receiver that ends up with the Steelers is just insane. And it is transferred over to George Pickens. So that is one car wreck of the day, Dominique. The other one, we brought this up last week when the idea of this was happening. But it's now been official. The number one overall quarterback prospect for college football that was committed to LSU, that was drawing comparisons to Vince Young, and Michigan was trying to lure him with the promise of like a $10 million NIL bill. Well, it works. He is now going to Michigan. So Brian Kelly. Now is he struggling the SEC six and four and have all Tiger fans super unhappy with them? He now lost his top prospects. Good luck, Brian Kelly. I meant to ask Taylor about that when we had him on, but we were running out of time. That's what I wanted. One of the things I wanted to ask about, especially being an NCAA quarterback, like when Matt Rules said it cost 2.1 to get a good quarterback in college football, well, that anti just went way up. Well, that's the price for good. I mean, if this kid is drawing Vince Young comparisons, the 2.1 might be the price for good. It means it's going to suck in the NFL, right? Yeah. All right. Yeah. That's fair. Just saying. Rookie of the year, pro baller. Uh huh. Sophomore slump, what? Doesn't matter. Okay. Two time pro baller, Joel. Doesn't matter. All right, Brian, what's winning? Uh, I'm going to give it to, uh, I'm going to give it to George Pickett's. You're fighting, trying to fight, fight the defensive back while the place will go on. Come on, man. Much as I want to give it to Shafter, I agree with you. Pickett just got ahead at issues. And the fact that you lost the game like that, and then after that, you even blamed the officials and the weather for a game you should have won, I'll give it to Pickens as well. All right. There you go. He's our winner. You guys, we appreciate you. We're winners when you listen to us. You listen to us all week long. Have a great weekend, everybody. Hope the Texans get a win. We'll talk to you again on Monday. For Brian and age, AJ back at the studio, Joel, have a great weekend. Your child's first step is a big step towards their future. 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