The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
12/03 Hour 3 - The Rockets Are the Best Team in Houston!
[MUSIC] I participated McDonald's for a limited time. [MUSIC] Don't sweat technique. [MUSIC] You're back with a killer V's on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. That's the best team, best pro team in Houston, 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-7-6. Get there in a second. Chad, good batter, ugly, a game with James. It's never pouring. Also, both defenses are well regarded and got destroyed. Denver won't last long in the playoffs with that kind of a defensive performance. Yeah, but wasn't it anomaly? We'll see. Another texture taking you to task-blinkers. But Texans are closer to Jacksonville, laughing face emoji, laughing face emoji. I guess because you said they would be Denver. I'm just, look, I don't like what I've seen, but I think if I saw the two teams and they're going to be a playoff team, would I still believe that the Texans have the talent? It's because of the fact that they're not living up to their expectations and playing consistent football on both sides at the same time. The complimentary football just hasn't been there all year. I believe that the roster's full of talent. They're just not doing it. It's getting later in the year. But I think that a rookie quarterback in a playoff game, to me, in a hostile environment, I think Texans would win that football game. Football game. I know, man. Yeah. Who was that? I forgot. Just some cars on my mind. Was it? D, D didn't do that with Joel, right? No, that was the car. There was a guy like D came at me one day like that. I love those. Those are so entertaining in both ways. I know this isn't Melbag Monday, but how many star league players do you need to be? Or do you need on an NFL team to be great salary cap in mind? See, I don't think that you need a lot of star players. Like you look at Kansas City. Mahomes is a star. Is Travis Kelsey a star at this stage of his career? The way he's playing this year, it's hard to say that he's a star, right? But I think that we also have seen that he didn't play a great regular season last year, and then he was huge in the playoffs. Yeah, he was huge in the playoffs. Like that's why I'm on the fence. I think the key to was like when we talk about how many star players before they're paid like a star player, right? Because you had Mahomes before he was paid like he's getting paid now that allowed you to get so many other star players because you'd have to pay him $500 million a year. Yeah. Alex's Travis Swift. Taylor Swift might be a star. I would only say that the chiefs had two, maybe three stars. If we're not counting Harrison Butker, Mahomes last year, I don't think any of their running backs were stars. Their receivers are not stars, but she rice is good, but not a star. Travis Kelsey's fading. He might not be a star. Chris Jones is definitely a star. Yeah. Was it about? How about Snead? Was Snead a star last year? He was. He was close. Yeah, he was close. He was getting free agency. Yeah, he was. I think you could argue two as as few as two, but I also think you can argue as many as five. Last year. Are we missing someone on the front seven of Kansas City? I mean, we said Jones, but aside their linebackers aren't like world beaters. No, they got Karloff to straighten. Yeah. Karloff to solid, but not a star. I was thinking about it. Yeah. I think somewhere between two or five. I don't think like I don't think you need a bunch of stars to win at all. I think you need a well-built roster, especially in the NFL, or like you're as good as your weakest link. Maybe not the weakest guy. Maybe not 53, but maybe like player number 20, 21, 22 in your starting lineup, but you have to have the quarterback almost be a star and the quarterback's not a star. You need to be really good everywhere else. Yeah. It's like the Jimmy Johnson old philosophy of you got to have a quarterback and the defense and then the coaching. And I think that when you look at it, you can have defenses that don't have the big names, but they play like better than average at their position. But you're right. You're a quarterback. I think that's where you can have skill positions galore, but if you don't have a guy throwing you the football that can get you the football, Devante Adams, like, you know, is an example when he before he left the Raiders, you got to have a guy that gets you the football. If you're a skilled position player, the quarterback's the most important position on the field. A texture says the Justin Reed best safety in the NFL. That's probably a little too far. I don't know if I would call Justin. Kicker star. I'm a safety position. He's the best kicker. I'm a safety position. You're right about that. He says McDuffey is a star. Maybe so. Uh, wasn't CJ or rookie quarterback in a hostile environment last year? No, I mean, not, not the game that they want to own, like, Austin Baltimore. Yeah. Yeah. In the game that they won, he wasn't in a hostile environment. You got to have an old line. You do have to see, you have to have a good old line, but they don't have to be stars. Like you could have an old line full of a bunch of guys that you don't know their name, but they play to like the 10th best offensive line in the league. You can get by with that, but they have to be like, they have to be good as a unit. It's almost like you have to have a name at quarterback, but you don't have to have names like in the trenches. You just have guys that do their jobs and you're going to be fine. If you can stop the run in the trenches, if you have some kind of a pass rush, if your offensive line just stays together, like you said, then it's up to the three or four guys that you're paying big money to to do their jobs. I would argue what who you have at quarterback changes what the rest of the team looks like. If you have panel homes, I think you can get Bible only having one other star. If you have James Winston, you better have a superstar to every other position. So who your quarterback is, I think influences the question. All right. I think that the Rockets are the best pro team in Houston right now. The Astros. I don't think the windows closing on the Houston Astros, but the Astros just had their earliest playoff exit in quite some time. Didn't win a playoff series. They were two and Q didn't win a playoff game. The Houston Texans are playing well, playing well, I mean, the AF, maybe not playing well, but they're the AFC South leaders. They're going to make the playoffs for the second year in a row, but not in the elite of the AFC, whereas the Houston Rockets are in the elite of the Western Conference. They're a top two seed, not only are they are top two seed, but they beat the number one team in the Western Conference the last time that they played against Oklahoma City. I believe and I don't move like a slow moving ship. I believe that the Houston Rockets have jumped the Astros and they've jumped the Texans as being the best professional team in the city of Houston. Slow your roll buddy. I don't think they're there yet. I think that, look, they're fun to watch right now where they're sitting is a fantastic position to be in and they are coming together as a team, which is fantastic because if you're a basketball fan, you've been waiting for this, but I think that the fact that the Texans are going to win the division, the fact that the Astros have a legit chance as they do every year with the teams that are in there, they should be favored to win their division yet again. And I think that depending on how the offseason pans out for them, they could still legitimately be talking about right now, we're talking about right now as currently constructed. We're not talking about the off. We're not talking about in three months. Okay, but we don't know what's going to happen if fragments going to be part of the team or not. But I still think that there's enough there from a talent perspective with the pitch with all the players they still have on their roster. They should still win their division. Okay. They were the what? Third best team in the American league. Yeah. Third best record in the American league. Texans lead their division. Granted, they have the fourth best record in the AFC, but it's a second in the Western Conference right now. The Astros aren't playing. And because of the fact that you've got the Texans going to win their division, but you're right in terms of the conference, but they're also almost done with their season as opposed to the Rockets, which aren't even to the halfway point. So when you look at it, I think in totality of the seasons coming up, the seasons they're currently in and the season and the seasons are currently in, I would say that they're not there yet. I would say that it's easy to say that they're second, the second best team in the West. That's great. But that you don't get anything for that until you finish the season with that. No, I mean, a lot of this is projection for sure. Like you're right. Like you, the Rockets need to finish out the season and see where they are. I believe that the Rockets have more of a chance to go deeper in the playoffs than the Texans. Like I think the Texans are the, I think the Texans ceilings the division round. I don't think they'll go further than the division round. I think the Rockets have a shot and a better shot at getting to the Western Conference finals than the Texans do to have to get to the AFC Championship. I don't. I just don't. I don't think they're there yet. I think that, you know, again, we don't even know how these guys are going to react when they get to their first chance of a feeling what the playoffs are like. But because they're probably going to play a very experienced and a higher seated team, I think that it would be tough for them. And I think that the Texans still have enough talent on their roster if they can get the consistency issues fixed to where they can compete to get to at least where they were a year ago. 713 780 ESP and 8 8 3 5, Brandon crowning the Rockets to the best team in Texas before Christmas day is nasty work. Not what I said. They're the best team in Texas. I said they're the best pro team in the city of Houston. Let's get facts straight. They are important. With their texture right now, they are wait a few weeks and we'll see. So the wait and see approach. I'm not taking the wait and see approach. I'm making the proclamation right now. 4 6 3 1. I forgot we played at home talking about the Texans. I just remember everyone picking the Browns. Go ahead and mark that. Tell blankers. Sorry for coming for him. So texture wanted me to really the message blank for coming at you. 713 780 ESP. Let's go out to the HRNP listener line Antonio. What do you think about this? I think the Rockets. Whoa. Hey. Whoa. What's up Antonio? You're in the hive. OK. I believe the the Texans are really the best team in Houston right now. They've been holding down first place regardless of the injuries like losing digs and mix in and Nico and even Anderson Jr. They're still in first place. You know, everybody lost to the bottom feeders a week ago. Everybody, including, you know, you can go down the whole NFL. So it's like Dallas beating the Redskins or the commanders from the Texans losing to the Titans. Those type of games are going to happen, but the Rockets are not in first place. They play real good right now, but they haven't beat anybody in first place. They beat Oklahoma City. They beat Oklahoma City the last time that they played the last time they were on the floor. They beat the number one team in the Western Conference and yes, the Rockets are higher in their conference than the Texans are in their conference. Right. But anyway, and then the Astros. Well, it's not. It's not worry about facts. Yeah, we don't worry about that. He gave you the Gilbert anyway. But anyway, appreciate the call. Tony has got Gilbert. Yeah, they haven't beaten anybody. Anyway, they play their last game in the first place in Oklahoma City and they won that game. Now anyway, they had some heroic anyways. It wasn't a check button there. I'm going to try that from now on. Anyway, that's not a bad idea. Like, I mean, no, anybody who argues nowadays, how often do they really paying attention to the other person or paying attention? It's my counter to your. Yeah, you should. I'm just going to go. Anyway, it's a good counter. It's not bad. Pretty good. Another texture says Lakers, sons, wolves, nuggets, warriors, yes, low down, sir. Lakers are washed. Like you're starting to fall off. I was, I was with the one who used to use like, I will, I'd be with you maybe on the wolves, but not the Lakers. Wolves are weird because they're not playing anywhere near there. They're not. I still believe they have a higher level, but yeah, I listened to an argument in favor of the rockets on versus the wolves, but not the Lakers. They also, I mean, they had some roster turnover, right? Like they made it straight. Anthony Edwards ever became available for the rocket, so he's on my pipe dream. There's no way they're ever going to let that dude Minnesota's a weird franchise. Like if he wants to pull a honest and start saying you force a trade, that's one thing, but especially in that market, I mean, that's their KG for the next 18 years. They're not going to let him go. Eventually they did. Yes, but I'm just saying, for the foreseeable future in his prime, they're not letting him go. Has the ownership changed yet? It's not official. They're still trying to complete the sale. The anyways, pipe. I mean, I said pipe dream. I don't think it's very realistic. I said pipe dream. The other one would be Deere and Fox. How do you feel about that? I don't know. You don't want Deere and Fox? I don't. I don't know if he's the best player. Yeah, I like me some Deere and I see better than Jalen Green. Yes, there you go. It's an upgrade. But do I think that he is? I'm not sold that he is a Max player in this league. I think he's really good. I think he's really now from a salary perspective. Look, a lot of guys, I don't think are Max players like Dylan Brooks, the contract he's getting. That's another story. I think that Deere and Fox is a really good player. Do I think Deere and Fox is the kind of guy that's one of your two or three best players to build the championship team around? I'm not sold on it yet. Deere and Fox average in 27 and a half. He had 26 and a half last year. He averaged 25 three years ago. He averaged 23 four years ago. He averaged 25 five years ago. Like, I think this rocket seems really good, obviously. I think where they can upgrade is a perimeter score. Now, I like what you're saying in terms of from the age range of fitting in with the rest of the guys you have left. He's fit. 26 years old. Yeah, he fits. Like, I think that the rockets for them to take the next level, and I've been a Jalen Green defender because I think it is important to allow for the development to occur. Like, I don't want to trade Jalen Green for Jimmy Butler. But if I could trade Jimmy Jalen Green and draft picks for Deere and Fox, you're better in your back court. You have a way better score. He's instantly your best perimeter score. If that's all I'm giving up to get him, I think you're under selling his scoring ability. I think that he would be a good fit because he's definitely better than Jalen Green. Yeah, I'm not trading. I'm not tearing it all down for Deere and Fox. I'm trying to look for an upgrade of the two. No, yeah, I think that if you could do if he could play the one, he can, but you currently have a one. Now, he could be the heir apparent to family. I was going to say then because to make the salaries work, too, guys have to go in the process. But I would say that the long term plan isn't going to be Fred Van Vliet at that contract and Dylan Brooks. No, if you can get a Deere and Fox and all you're giving up of your core nucleus of youth is is Jalen. I'm all about that in draft. I mean, they would have to be like willing to tear it down or quitting on Deere and Fox stuff like that. But again, I said pipe drink like he somebody that I'm monitoring because I think he's better than Jalen Green. When we talked about it previously, it was like, I wasn't in on some of the spider Mitchell and some of the other guys because of the fact that they were older and they didn't fit with kind of being able to blend in with the guys you already got. I think Deere and Fox could blend in easily with the young talent that you have. Yeah. And again, I'm looking for an upgrade at the two like I I've defended Jalen Green. I don't think that you're winning an NBA championship with Jalen Green is your best perimeter score. I think that you're going to have to upgrade. That's why I know that you can't be traded yet. But I think you're eventually going to have to upgrade that position because he is a he's a he's just too inconsistent. He's he gets up a ton of shots, but even as a score, it takes too many shots sometimes to get him the points that he gets. Whereas you got to have some efficiency with it. It's hard to believe that Sacramento broke up Halliburton and and Fox. I understand some bonuses been good for Sacramento. But boy, if you had those two guys in today's NBA and built around them with some bigs and other guys, you can find other bigs. Yeah, well, I think you can find perimeter scoring then like a really good big who gives you a triple double every night. But that really big guy does the big the days of the big being able to carry you there besides a guy like Joker. I think that having those two guys in the back court and saying you can't double both of them. And you can find some guys to rebound and do some other things. Hi, the Rockets are for real. People are not used to them winning. That's why it's so hard to believe. Wolves are not last year's wolves. They're like 10th. Yeah, but I think they're are going to figure it out. He's not better than green. Don't break up this core doing so I think it's pretty clear the deer and Fox. He's definitely better than Jalen and I've defended Jalen green. Fox is a point guard. I rather have we have defensively. Yes, I understand he's a point guard, but I think he's more than capable of playing the two. No way he wants to say right now. Trade book, Brooks and green for far. I like I like Dylan Brooks. Do I think he's overpaid? Yes. Do I think he's really important to this team? Also, yes, I don't I'm not a huge believer in plus minus, but I saw that the the shin they use that plus minus metric the other day. The best plus minuses in the NBA. They show their top 10 Dylan Brooks and Fred Vane bleeder in the top 10 and plus minus that's kind of crazy. It is. I think that when you look at it from my perspective, it's just about you need guys that are big brothers to these young guys. You see the camaraderie right now of this team. You see in the post game interviews with Vanessa and the way that these guys are also tightly knit that that means something because there are so many disconnects in the NBA these days with egos and personal goals and and contracts and things like that. These guys are super tight right now and they have no idea what they're going what what you know, anything supposed to be worrying them. Yeah, they just go about their business and they got a coach that keeps them kind of in line to where it's fun to watch. And there is a very high ceiling for this team. Yeah, their culture is really good too. So like if you do eventually make a trade at some point, I do think that one thing that you have to keep in mind is you don't want to bring anybody in that could break down their culture. I think that is paramount. I do think that I'm with you on that one. Defensively is the way that the Rockets win. No to Fox, whoever we get has to be a two way player. Booker is hopefully going to be available this offseason. I don't watch the Kings every single game. I don't know how Fox is defensively. If anybody does, let us know. I need a knockdown shooter. Well, I don't disagree with that. Dear and Fox, the better shooter than Jalen Green. Jalen Green is far too inconsistent. Jailers only going to get better under EMA. This is the coach you needed. I agree with that. I agree with both of those things. I think Jalen will get better under EMA. I think that that EMA is the coach that Jalen Green needs. My fear is that Jalen Green's never going to be a consistent enough shooter to be a consistent score. Yeah, look, I think there's two things in what the comments were. That is, I think that the true identity of this team right now, because Jalen Green is so inconsistent, because you're getting, it's not a bad thing. You're getting all these contributions and have all these guys averaging double figures. You don't have one true go to guy. Unless it's in good. It can be, and they do run everything through him for the most part offensively. But that's why I'm saying, because there's so many guys and you really can't identify one guy as the man, I think that their identity right now, which is taking them all these places is defense, because we've said that Jalen and Shendoon are finally starting to understand the defensive side and switches and all the different things that they need to do. And you've got three above average defenders at any given time you can put on the floor when you and Fred, people don't realize Fred is highly regarded as a defender. But when you put Brooks out there with with Tari and with men Thompson, that's stifling defense. Yeah, yeah, their defense is really good. Now the closure aspect of it's interesting. Rockets played a night, by the way, late night game against a four against your fox. Oh, yeah, we'll have a chance to watch his defense. There you go. There you go. See if he's a good defender report back tomorrow. All right, 713-780-ESP and HRMP listener line film. Do not. What do we learn? Watching the film. It is the bees on ESPN 97.5 at ESPN 92.5. ESPN 97.5 I assumed you knew. Live in the paratex community bank studios, it's the killer bees. Now back to Joel and Jeremy. It is the bees ESPN 97.5, ESPN 92.5. What did we learn? Watching film posturing. It's what I'm doing. Posturing whenever I do the film study, like your Jeremy Branham make everybody think that you know ball. Why was Joe so quick to say no to? You want to be like random? No. Trying to film study like your Jeremy Branham. No, no. That's insulting how quick and loud that no was Blankers. Stand up for me. I've noticed multiple times. He actually kind of takes stuff that we kind of came up with there. And then he actually likes to crap on us more than he ever did when he was on the show and joining life. Well, you know, we're influencers. I'm just saying we're influencers, one, Blankers. And then two, you always, you always are mean to the ones that you love the most. It's what it is. I think something like that. I think I think Joel's calling like internet fake tough. Blankers, I love you. I mean to you all the time. I think it is a perfect case. I think the first part is false. But the second part is true. I love you. I have your back with everything. Now I am naturally mean though. That is true. Um, Sassy and sassy. Thank you. D. Um, I noticed you notice how much the Texans juice come already last year in the nickel. They use it's like three or four times. It wasn't a ton. They were doing it third and long. They're using Jeff Hakuna's the outside corner. I tell you what, I really liked what I saw from Kamari Lasseter in the nickel. Now, I don't think you can do it because of the personnel. Well, I was going to ask you, you liked him in the nickel, assuming that you don't, can he hit like peach? I think he can. Do you? He's a hitter. He's a hitter. Now, Petrie's next level. He used to be a safety. I mean, that is a drop off from Petrie to Lasseter. But last year's a corner that's willing to hit last year's a corner that's willing to tackle is he as good as Petrie? No. Is he better than the tackling you're getting from nickel corners around the league? Yes. So that, that's where I would say, look, then the other thing is, do you have a better option outside? No. And that's the thing. Maybe later on or maybe as you get down the road, maybe you can do what initially they thought they might do and make them your nickel corner. But for now, I don't think you have a better option outside. So you can't do it. And the fact is, I don't think he shies away from tackles. I just don't know that the physicality of the way Petrie plays or the hitting that you know, that a lot of times that Demico expects to get out of his nickel is something that you want with a guy that does so much for you in coverage the way Lasseter does. Yeah, I'm, I'm with you on that. You don't have the personnel, I think, to do it. I, if you wanted to draft another corner, I thought about that. If you want to sign a corner that's capable and as much as they play nickel, I really don't even think it's a next year move because Jalen Petrie's under contract for another year. But next year is the final year of Jalen Petrie under contract. I think it's more of a two year move. In two years, Camari Lasseter, your nickel corner, love him on the outside. I love him inside. And again, you play in nickel 98% of the time. He's not coming off the field. It could be Jeremy. It could be the same way that you drafted Fisher this year with the primitive strike to think about if you want to cut Howard in a year and move on from him, you have that ability or because with the contract status, it's the same thing. You might see in a year's time, they go get another corner and they just basically say, Hey, look, we can do this. We can shuffle some guys around and we can be a better defensive unit for it. Just saying, look, look to see if Camari Lasseter in two years is not their nickel. Jalen Petrie next year, final year of the deal. Maybe don't pay him. Maybe instead, you bumped last or inside and maybe you're either drafting. I kind of prefer the drafting a corner because they're hitting on these dudes that are on the defensive side of the ball. Christian Harris, that was a win. Camari Lasseter has been a win in his rookie year. Caitlin Bullock is their best safety. That's a win. I would love for them to use a second, third round pick on a tool. Tools turned out to be way better than it thought. I didn't think he was going to be good this year. I didn't either. And I think that the other thing when you think about this from the perspective of what you need to do and how you need to go about it in being smart, I mean, you've got you've got so much skill on that side. The Petrie is a guy that right now is my biggest concern is that all this national media attention to is drawing all these coaches and saying, if I want a thumping defense that we were talking about, if you want a guy that wants to bring what you know, he's going to get so much extra money on the open market, the Texans aren't going to be willing to be are going to be able to compete with that. I think they're going to end up letting him walk unless they sign him early and they may be over commit because I think teams are going to throw big money at him. I also wonder if they don't love his coverage. Like I don't disagree with that. We've seen it enough. We've watched enough of these games over and over again to realize as good as he is up in the box, he's not very good in coverage, but teams that are looking for that big thumping type guy are going to overpay you. Yeah, I don't think the Texans are going to want to give him the money that he is capable of getting in for agents. I don't think he would get overpaid. We saw what happened to the safety. I know he's playing nickel corner. So maybe that's a positional difference there, but we saw what happened with the safety market. This last offseason, how long it took guys like Justin Simmons to get on teams. I don't know that a safety who safety slash nickel corner who can't cover and man coverage on the crossers that we've seen him get burned on repeatedly gets a big contract that would take the tax. Still young enough though, like Simmons was some Simmons is a little older. Yeah, he had a resume. He also got seven and a half million. Yeah, I think that I think I think I think someone's going to be into one year deal. Yeah, it was a one year deal. Like it wasn't this massive contract in the safety market was down to your point, but it's still like you're going to pay Jay in the Petrie eight, nine, 10 million. And I think that the main point that you brought up is that he's playing nickel corner now. And I think that those are more expensive than safety. Sure. That could change the math if they think he can cover. And I think that it's not that you're hiding him, but I think that he does a better job covering out of the nickel than he would be. We saw him just completely get used as a safety. Yeah, what do you think? I mean, he gets used a lot of times and coverage. He does. That's why I wonder if like the Texans aren't going to value him at eight, nine, 10 million dollars a year. I think that's what I'm saying. Someone else is going to pay him and be enamored with him more than what the Texans already know. Next year is the final year of Petrie's deal. Chances that he is back and resigned to a second contract. Let's put, let's put our name on it. Percentage chance. 40%. I'm at 25. I think I'm at 25, too. I thought Joe was going to be a lot lower. Yeah, I just think that 40 is not like him, but I think it's less than 50%. I just didn't know for how far I was going to go. I think they're going to move Kamari Lassar inside in two years. That's my hot tank. That's my way in the future hot. I think Kamari Lassar will be their nickel corner. I think they're going to draft another outside corner. We'll see how that marked that down. Two years down the road. A lot of people were upset with the pass rush or questioning where the pass rush was for the Texans. I actually thought it was okay. I think Jacksonville's game plan was very much let's get rid of the football quickly. Let's not let the game rikers wreck the game. They're also Jacksonville. One of the things that they do pretty well is actually preventing sacks. They're top 10 in preventing sacks. And again, their game plan was get rid of the football quickly and the text still had pressure too. Like they, their pressure influenced the game. Like Mack Jones had that chance for a deep ball that he kind of underthrew. Daniel Hunter was right in his face. Did you see Autry a lot? Yeah, no, not a lot. He played a lot. He played like I think 35 40% of the time. I was a little surprised by that. I thought with as impactful as he has been of late that I was a little disappointed. I didn't see more of Autry and he didn't stand out more when he was on the steel. I think he's been banged up though. And I wonder if it was one of those like we have a two possession lead. Let's kind of let's kind of like ease him. I'm not necessarily easy with him. Don't get him re injured and re aggravate injuries. Because I think to your point with Jacksonville, they also knew coming in. Lawrence was touch and go based on that shoulder. And so the last thing they could afford to do is put him in harm's way with the pass rush that the Texans have proven whether they get home or not, they're going to get hits on him and they're going to get close to him. And so they had to get it out of his hands quickly. And then they use him as a rollout and he decided to run on his own. CJ Stroud had a bad first half. Bad first half. The film told me he had a bad first half. There was stuff that was there. You're pointing about Dalton Schultz first drive. You're 100% right. Third and long. That's when he missed him on the safety belt. Yeah. He was he was in the flag. Oh, yeah. That's what I was I was bad about. Yeah. Yeah. That was that's an easy dumb down, gets you five yards, kick the field goal. Right. And said took the sack, took him out of field going bad, bad thing there. Both sacks were on CJ Stroud. That one. And then there was another one that was like an inside the tin where Dalton Schultz pops free wide open and CJ Stroud like he bells out a beat or two too early when he didn't have to. He waits another beat or two. It's an easy touchdown. Instead he bells out and then eventually takes a sack. I just felt like he all game. He was hanging on to it too long thinking that something else was going to be there instead of just taking the sure thing that was going to keep you with momentum going forward. Yeah. He was a but the second half he played really well. So it was like a tell to has for him. I thought the offensive line was actually really good. I thought they protected really well now defense and who you're playing matters Jacksonville not known for their defense. But the offensive line protected well. I thought Laramie Tunzel looked fantastic. Like he doesn't look like he's hobbling anymore. Like he looked earlier in the year with that ankle. He's getting out to block on screens. He's getting to the second level in the in the run block game. Tunzel looked really good. The one that he bothered me on though was the one where where Alan got home where it just looked like he kind of half-assed it. It just didn't look like he stayed connected. There are times whenever he does that where like he he allows his his block or like his rusher to get by him and he's like yeah kind of quit on the play which is annoying. I agree with you on that. They picked up the stunts better too. Something that I noticed and after the first one. Yeah. The first one he came he came just untouched again and I was like oh no. Here we go again. Same. Yeah. The very first play from scrimmage offensively you allowed a free rusher on a stunt but after that they were like almost perfect. Like it was kind of I was actually pretty dang bullish on how the offensive line played. I'm trying to temper that excitement based on the opponent. It's the jags and where they rank. But I was actually really pleased with the offensive line. Now I need to temper that because it's Jacksonville and then I was very interested or very intrigued rather that when Aziz was ejected it was almost all in the ville Hewitt. Like it's almost that like Devin White wasn't even on the team. I don't understand that because he got he got on the field and actually had showed he still had some speed when he when they first were throwing him out there and I thought they threw him out there way sooner than I would have thought he was going to be on the field. And now he's basically kind of just been an afterthought again. I don't know if he's this popped on film for you but he would also got lined up through motion I think but on Brian Thomas Jr. on the one of the touchdowns in the second half which I know we've talked about this in past the Lions game where I came or what linebacker I'm on Ross a Brown they got they got lined up on him by through motion. But that's been a problem for the Texans all year. I think yours toe a toe was a toe a toe. I think yeah that sounds right. If Neville if Neville Hewitt has to play a lot against Miami it terrifies. Oh my god. Yeah. They're gonna motion guys into the slot to try to get a matched up on linebackers. I'm interested to see how they handle that with a wide and and Hewitt in that game. And then the last one that I have is the Mac Jones maybe the most arrogant bad quarterback ever. Like he just carries himself with this arrogant body language and he's terrible. He also was like on he's like on high speed. It's like he's constantly he does the Mahomes thing only faster. It's like Phillips like next play and this and this and it's whatever. And then he's talking mess. Yeah. He was talking that talent on a missed hit by Murray I think it was where it was like bro slow down. He wasn't even if he hit you it wasn't going to be even close. And he was talking and I was like just get back in your huddle. Yeah. He's uh he annoyed me this game. He really annoyed me in this game. Like it caught my attention on how much he annoyed me. It was like Drew lock vibes at Missouri. Like it was like you dude you can't be behaving this way. You suck. You're a bad quarterback. You can't carry yourself like you're good. I guess you want that from your quarterback right to have the guy drafted before him that went to play it played at Memphis I think. Oh that was packed in Lynch packed in Lynch that when he got drafted had the white sunglasses on and and then had that kind of vibe. Yeah that annoyed the hell out. He was two seasons in the league and he was gone. I will say this John. I think first round. I think Mac Jones will have a long career as a backup in the league. I think so too. I think you can still throw the football fairly well season. It's easy to forget but you got a really good rookie season. You got to carry yourself like case. You can't carry yourself like case. You can't carry yourself like case. You can't carry yourself like you're the best quarterback in the world whenever you're not even top 50. All right. Who's in your dog house seven one three seven eight zero ESP and it's the B's ESPN 97 five and ESPN 92 five never in your dog houses HR and P human resources and payroll. Great people over there. My colleague cougar owns it. Chris Fisher over there. Love the people at HR and P and business owners. You're going to love them too. And you're also going to love the services they provide whether it's HR compliance benefits administration payroll onboarding doesn't matter. HRP is going to help you in one of those things or all of those things. No boxes with HR and P. Doesn't matter how small doesn't matter how big HR and P completely customizes a plan for what you and your business needs. You have a problem. You have an issue. You want to take a little bit off your plate HRP is going to find a way to help and they do it in a way that unique technology meets service. They have the best tech. You'll love that. But you're going to love their service guaranteed fulfillment. You'll never talk to a stranger. You'll be talking to someone who knows you and knows your business needs. Give them a call at 2818806525. Let HRP customize the plan for you. 28188065 or check them out at HRP.net. That's HRP.net. We're listening to ESPN 97.5. We're taking a break. Okay. That's cool. You're back with a killer bees on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5 live in the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. Who's in your dog house? 713-780-ESP-N. Blankers what you got? I'm going to start with one of our favorite targets. The commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred, you are a joke. If you get this whole this whole golden bat rule that they're contemplating to have any player at any time have won it back whenever the manager feels like it is an absolute travesty and you're trying to gimmick baseball. I think it's ridiculous and they get stupid and I think Rob Manfred should be fired yet again. Yeah, I'm not a huge Robert Manfred fan. He's done some very gimmicky things to the game. Very gimmicky things to the game and this is another Roger Clements was blasting. I saw that. Clements had the best example of all. You have bases loaded nobody out, no tiny out. You strike him out and you're telling me the manager can put him right back in the box and let him bat again? Like this is so stupid. This is baseball. That's actually beyond video game level. Like you can't even do that in a video game. I thought it was a joke. I saw Josh Reddick was killing it and everybody would start all the former players and players were starting to chime in. I'm going this has to be like someone bit on something but nope. There it is. Hey, there's a lot of buzz around this. Kill it. Yeah, this feels like it feels like he's trying to think of things that are good for TV. That's not that I'm defending it in the slide. It's just one of the dumbest suggestions I've ever heard but this feels like his thought process is all it'd be great for TV if in the biggest moment we can have the best universe of the best picture. High drama. Yeah, that's what this I think that's what this thought is. You know what it reminds me of? Do you remember the Rockin Jock softball and MTV? Yeah, that's what it reminds me of. Hey, we're down a bunch of runs. Let's get the eight run ball. Remember they had the eight run softball and they did the basketball game too where they had like the like the 10 point ball or whatever. That's what it reminds me of. That's what Robert Manford's turning majorly baseball into Rockin Jock softball and MTV. Because the first thing I thought about was well when the NFL tried to do the kickoff everybody said it was gimmicky. Any even close to this kind of crap. I had my buddies were talking about it in the group chat and I wasn't keeping up with what was going on yesterday. I thought they were talking about like select baseball and then I was like oh majorly baseball is doing this. What are we? What are we doing here Robert Manford? You're a joke. I'm in my doghouse John and Lance. They were calling me a contrarian from my opinion on the ZZ outshire. Which by the way I ran a poll about the sensationalism of a ZZ outshire. 90% said I was in the right. So that's not very contrarian. John and Lance gotta say. Just throw this crap out there. No no that's not what it was. 90% of people agreed with me. You're the contrarian. Mostly Lance not John. Please don't give me fire. What do you got Brian? Conference title games. I hate them. I hate them in college basketball. I hate them in college football. You play you know 33 games in college basketball or whatever you play. You know 12 in college football but then let one game over over do what in the entire season did. I hate it. Especially like we talked about earlier if something like this costs SMU a playoff spot where they've been the better team to Clemson all year. I hate conference title games. I really hated basketball but I agree with you in both sports. Like you have to have more weight in the fact that your body of work for an entire season is almost getting to where it's insignificant where you can put all that on tape all that on paper all those wins in the win column and then because you don't win your conference championship game you get sent home. Yeah it's not like that in most power leagues though like most power leagues who's in the well I guess only two of them. SEC and big ten they're both in. ACC may be. Like for Texas and Georgia they have nothing to play. Well I have I. Right but if we let the regular season settle that we wouldn't have the extra game where these players could go out and get hurt and now they're hurt going to play off when we shouldn't be playing this game. I think they should cancel the conference championship games and add a conference game for everybody. I'd be fine with that. Everybody so there's an extra week to the regular season and that way too you don't have these weird okay like there's gonna be an SEC team that doesn't play in the SEC championship and they're gonna go into the playoff with one last game. It's kind of it's kind of weird. Uh you have any others? Yeah I've got Shannon Sharpe. Shannon Sharpe on multiple different runs but Shannon Sharpe went out and tried to kill Joe Burrow and said he had to do more for Cincinnati to win football games. And I mean Dan Orlowski did his damnedest to try and get him to understand how good Joe Burrow's been playing over the last five six games. He literally has if you just took out the wins and losses of his team and just looked at his statistics and put it up against everybody else. He has like four interceptions and like 20 some touchdowns and like all these yards and Shannon Sharpe is saying I mean I'm in trouble if I do is the imitation but at the same time the that Patrick Mahomes would have had to win more football games and Joe Burrow should be to blame for this. It's like what are you talking about? Yeah that's a bad take. Uh my next one is the Harris County toll road association. They're taking over for text tag. Do you know why I joined text tag? Because I was fed up with the Harris County toll road authority wherever they are and now they bought them out and they're overseeing my account again. I'm not happy about this. I didn't know you hit the option. No you you used to have the option. You could be a Harris County you could have text tag. I didn't realize the text tag to me superior but they've been bought out. I had to go back to the inferior product again not happy. I didn't even give that a fun. I was like who knew? Yeah I didn't even give that a thought. Uh snail mail. I don't know why like there's no reason I should get correspondence or bills for any sort of company in 2024. That's not through a text alert or an email something like that. There's I don't know why especially for all these companies we're all sign up for the you know the paperless billing everything electronic and they still send you tons of crap through the mail and then they get mad like well you didn't see art. No I barely check my mail. It's all trash or repetitive stuff that I should have already gotten through my email. I we should be done in 2024 with paper mail. It's basically electronic. I'm on autopay on everything but I wonder if this like is more legality because it's very easy to delete an email. The easy to not look at your mail. It's not as easy like that. There's more work involved there. But like the it's the municipalities are the ones that are behind the times when you try and get them on autopay because we tried to do that with the the uh our water bill and we'll get a you're you're running up close to being delinquent on your water bill. We're like we asked you to just bill autopay bill us and they can't do it. I know I've run into that several times not only with autopay but you say you'll check the box for paperless billing and then they still send you the bills through the mail. It clutters my mailbox. When we go to the mailbox once every week or so. Yeah we don't do it very often either. Yeah seriously. Oh so yeah my neighborhood still has the mailbox is at the house. I can't really. Oh really. We had a group. Yeah. Alex says John McLean is in his dog house. Textor says my dog house should be on death row in the federal penitentiary and is the Z's out of Shire. I'm not going to read the rest of the sentence. Textor is that legit the golden and bat? I'm hoping that majorly baseball leaked this to get a feel for what people thought of it. Yeah get the pulse and realize we were dead wrong. Stop thinking about it. I hope that's what's happening here. Why is tech stack better? I think their customer service is way better. I got screwed by Harris County. Like they didn't read my license plate and then all of a sudden here you go. You owe us $250. Well how about you read the license plate right correctly? Snell Bell is in the dog house that doesn't even make sense. LOL. All right car wreck of the day. What is your car wreck of the day? It is the B's on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 95. Hey before we go to the break another word from a good friend Doc Linville. Doc Linville is the best in the business at getting your hair back. If you're experiencing hair loss pattern baldness, don't have hair anymore in certain areas and you'd like to get it back. Doc Linville has the answers. He has the solutions. They work because I've actually done the procedures and I'm here to tell you between the neograft and PRP treatments, you can get your hair back. It's your own hair. It grows the same direction. It's the same color. It's going to be there for the long haul because I had a consultation with Doc and his staff and you can get one free just for listening to me and going to nine seven five hair dot com. People off the street pay 150 bucks for this consultation just to get the information. You get it free of charge with nothing to sign for, nothing to pay for, no commitments to be made just a Q&A session so that you can be better informed. Doc told me a long time ago. He's like, I just want people to realize that this thing works and that the what we do is a game changer. He's like, I'm not trying to make a ton of money off of this. I'm trying to get people to realize if you truly love your hair and miss it when it's gone, I can get it back for you. And I think that's what people need to realize. He has a ton of business, but he has people that are going to him because of word of mouth and people like me telling you from a personal experience that it works. The neograft procedure is like basically taking hair where you're never going to lose it. You're never going to lose the hair on the sides in the back of your head. Didn't know that. He explained it to me. Genetically, it never goes away. Makes sense now. And I think a lot of my friends that have like the Roman wreath around the sides of their head, but are bald up on top, he can take some of that hair and repurposes it like replanting sod and put it where you need it most. Maybe it's your hairline in front like me. Maybe it's a bald spot up on top on back like others. Regardless, he can get it there. He can get it to stay there because 95 to 99% of the follicles that he moves are going to stay and grow and be with you for the long haul. That was what really convinced me. Check him out today because the PRP treatments, you've heard athletes use it for their joints. It's also used in hair. You have hair on your head. It's just not as thick and strong and full and lush like it used to be. When you use the PRP treatments, it's like fertilizing your lawn. That hair gets back to its best days and you see the results. Check him out today. Go to 975hair.com, set up that appointment and tell him Joel Blank, set you by. Yes, Kia. 975. You know what I mean? My body's broken. The ball's coming through. This is the car wreck of the day. I just saw Lance. He's here in the building. I did not tell him he was in my dog house. Also saw Glenn out in the bullpen. He's going to be coming up next soccer matters. MLS Cup final preview. L.A. Galaxy versus the New York Red Bulls have all the markets, the big markets. Houston area native Eric Quill named coach of FC Dallas. I played golf with him actually. Eric Quill flex in there. White pressure may be increasing in the MLS and Liverpool and more. It's going to be a great show with Lynn Davis soccer matters coming up and he told us we're doing a great job today. He was listening on the way in as all of you should be in are. He said we're doing great. Even though we haven't talked about Caitlin Clark. Yeah, that's a sidebar. Yeah. That's a sidebar. That's a sidebar. Soccer matters and Caitlin Clark. Yeah. So soccer matters at six Aggie basketball seven thirty and then in the undercard Brad Gilmore Booker T Hall of Fame late night at eleven whenever the women in children are in bed. All right. What's your car wreck of the day Blankers? I've been meaning to bring this one up for a little bit but based on the fact that and our caller didn't even realize it that the Rockets had a big home game and finally had a good crowd. Rockets fans. Where are you? Get to your home games and support this team. This team is really good. We're talking every day when we talk about the Rockets are all positives and how great they're playing how entertaining they are to watch. Their crowds still suck. Yeah. Houston sports fans are slow. That's a bad look. They wait a while. It's slow. It took the Texas season last year for fans really fought back in. You got to you got to do it. You got to do it for some time. It was November. It was November. December now. I'm going to nominate Joel Blank. He didn't go to work in elevator. Yesterday I'm going down the ramp because we parked on the second floor. The first floor you go all the way down. I'm going down the ramp in my truck and Blankers is walking up the ramp next to me. Why are you walking up the ramp? You don't know what you do. So my wallet was in the console and was upside down and my access card fell out and I saw it and for a split second on cold medicine I was like I don't I just threw it back in the console on coldness. I get on the elevator last night and one I realized I don't have the card and then I try to open the door and it won't let me get back out on our floor. So I had to go all the way down to the ground level to go all the way up the ramp to get to my car and I told them at the time I knew what I told him what I was doing and was honest that I earned this one and I did. I can't believe you blamed on cough medicine. Oh my god I've been hopped up on cold medicine for Dave. Uh what are you dominating here Brian? I'm the second Joel is the car wreck of the day. Does it for us? Thanks to Brian for his hard work. I'm standing next to the car. Joel Blake. I'm Jeremy Brown. Talk to you tomorrow. Glen Davis soccer matters right now. And he is being nine seven five. You're listening to ESPN 97 five. 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