The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
12/04 Hour 2 - Where's Our Confidence with Texans OC Bobby Slowik?
"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." "Don't sweat the technique." "You're locked in with a killer bees on ESPN 97-5 and 92-5, life in the Ferratex Community Bank Studios. Here's Joel Blanket, Jeremy Branham." "Where are you at on Bobby Sloeach? We'll get to that in a couple of minutes, 7-1-3-7-8-0-3-7-7-6. First though, let's go out to the HR&P listener line, Wes has some things to say about the rocket announcers. Look what we started. Wes, you're in the hive with the bees, it's up, Wes. "Hey guys, will you enjoy the show, make my drive. Get me free of my drive, we just say that. Listen to the rocket, since I came over from San Diego, and nothing forced me more than to hear Homer's, and you know, I like to hear him some more. He was hard to tolerate, but yeah, I don't want to hear something that I'm watching. I've been watching the game for a few years, and it just, you know, I don't want to hear a guy just every single call go, you know, against the rocket so it's not fair, just like when Rick Berry was here. But I love Rick Berry, but he never committed a foul, I mean, ever, and as far as that hit this Sunday, I'm a Texas fan, but I played football, I mean, not professionally, but that was the dirty hit, and it just, you know, I'm not going to whiten, it just was the dirty hit, and, but I think a lot of fans, I don't know if they're not educated enough or watching the sports, but I just don't want to hear it. It's boring. It's a game. As you see it, I understand if you're a cowboy fan, you got to call it like Jerry wants you to call the game, but, you know, I just really hear, you know, here, here, here's the truth, you know. I appreciate it. I appreciate it, Wes. I think you luck out in the fact that watching your favorite football team, you get the national announcers, so at least you're not, then from your personal perspective, Wes, you're getting what you want. You're getting supposedly non-biased analysis and content from announcers that aren't associated with the team. From a rocket's perspective, I think that, you know, you look across the league, look at like Tommy Heintzen forever doing Celtics games, Tommy points, every time that he went off and was busted on officials and given, you know, players, Tommy points for going at officials and barking at, you know, bad calls and doing things the way he was doing. He was beloved and just, they loved him even more because of those kinds of things. It's a fine line. I mean, from, from my personal perspective, when I did this, the minute the game's got on NBA TV and lead pass and all those things, we were supposed to tell all of our announcers middle of the road. You got to, you got to hype up the other team as much as you. That's never going to happen. Yeah. I'm okay if a announcers call it with like an excitement level towards their team, like I expect them to be like, yeah, when the rocket's do something and then no, when the other team does something, it's the accuracy of like officiating where it crosses the line for me. You'll get calls on that now. Or like Holland Jester, he was talking so much about Alpeach and Goon's hands, which I'm not saying is bad hands, but it's like, oh, he's showing him these great hands where it was really his footwork that was impressive on a specific play. So it's like, yeah, you're not wrong that his hands are good, but on that particular play, I was more fascinated by his footwork than like that he dribbled the basketball. Right. Right. And I think that a lot of times now, especially with the internet, now quickly, you can pull up and access highlights and stats. You have to be on your a game and I think that that's where everybody can be called the task, but you know, we've we've had different management staffs that would say, hey, I don't ever want to hear you say an exciting thing about any player on the other team. And then we've had the lead come down and say, if you mentioned an official, we're going to talk to you the first time and then you're just going to be ramifications. Yep. Yep. Seven one three seven eight zero ESPN. What about Fox's availability? I think he's pretty reliable in terms of health. I think he's had, I think he's had one year in the last like three years, we play 50 games, but other than that, it's been like above 70. I guess I could look this up real quick, but I just clicked off his name and I'm feeling the lazy bones. I'm not feeling lazy bones. My computer's having some issues today for whatever reason. Dear and Fox last three years, games played, not counting this year, he played 74 last year. Good. Eight games missed. 73 the year before that and then 59 the year before that. Okay. That was the COVID. No, he's been in the league forever. He's been in the leagues in 17 18 this is his eighth year in the league. Wow. He went he went 73 81 51 58 59 then 73 74 the last two years. So three, four years ago, only 50 games, which that's not great. No, but look, he's a Houston kid. It would be a hell of a story. Monty McNair who was Darryl's assistant with the Rockets is their general manager. I think Monty knows enough about talent and you know, at the time he had the chance to make a choice between him and Halliburton and chose Fox. I don't think that Sacramento would be dumb enough to let dear and Fox leave, but if he's ever on the block, he's the kind of guy that we've been talking about. Like, don't just trade a superstar for the sake of getting a superstar trade for one that blends and meshes and is going to enhance the rest of your roster and he would be that kind of guy. 4 5 1 5. I like Craig, but Ryan is mediocre. I think Craig's fantastic. I think Craig's one of the, the very best in the league. You hired Craig, right? I did. You saw the promise and the, uh, the potential at a young Craig Ackerman. The reason that you hired me, he went about that pregnant pause. Come on. That was, that was a, that was a blank stare for sure. Um, no, I hired Craig as an intern two weeks after I got the job and, and, and could not be more proud of the fact that he is, you know, continued to grow and he got his reps off the comments and the Thunder Bears and, and now, you know, replacing War L when War L was tired and doing all he's doing. He's fantastic. Look, I think Vanessa does a great job. She does. She does really good job. Vanessa does fantastic job. I mean, overall, it's a really good crew. I just think there's a weak link. Well, you know what, I think back to, because I was, Mario Ellie was trying to get in there late in the process and they thought that Mario needed more seasoning at the time, but they had Doug Gottlieb on their list and I was like, Oh boy, do you know that did you background check? He was being seriously considered. He was the final. I think he was final. I think he was final too. He was final. Oh my God. Okay. I'm glad we got Ryan Hollins then. It was Ryan Hollins. Doug Gottlieb. What was the final two? There was, yeah, there's one more. I'm trying to remember who it was. Say your, say your sights. Yeah. There was four, right? There was a final three and then eventually they made the deal and Mario became part of the telecast anyway. I don't think Mario's great on the studio. I know these are boy. Sorry. No, no, no, no. I don't think he's great on color. I think he's better in the studio. Mario's good in studio. And you know, there's things that, you know, he didn't have a broadcast background, but he was willing to work at it. He would go into Dallas to one day camps and everything trying to get better. It's kind of his delivery. Yeah. Because he's got a very slow deep. Yeah. You know, monotone. It's just like, you know, you kind of, yeah. But it's escaping me. There was one other candidate at the time, but there were, there were down to three. Was he rocket related? Oh, I know it was. I don't know his name, but there was a coach that was an assistant coach in Brooklyn that had ties to Houston, grew up in coach in Houston for a while that had done some college games on the East Coast. And it was him and Gottlieb in Hollins were the final three. Hmm. Yeah. Not a great list. You would think with the, I mean, with the Rockets history, yeah, you can find somebody someone, right? Yeah. Bobby Sloeck, Nick Cocario talked yesterday and it was, I mean, his comments about his ease. Al Shire obviously grabbed the headlines. But Sarge asked Nick Cocario if there could be, if there could be some shared play calling down the stretch, the answer to the last part is absolutely not like Bobby Sloe is a great coordinator. He's done a great job. He's a great coach and, you know, we're going to, you know, we've done a lot of good things offensively and I would say as far as the second half goes, in the end, it just comes down to execution. So the other team makes more plays than you do then like they're going to win. So can we do a better job? I'm like, yeah, sure, like do better on first down. All right. Put ourselves in second and manageable, which is certain manageable. Take care of the football. So in the end, this league is all about execution. It's about doing a little things about control and field position. Yeah. I don't really understand. I don't know what shared play calling looks like quite frankly, but I think Bobby Sloeic sends the message that no, Bobby Sloeic is their guy. I think the answer to your question, if you don't know what it looks like, if you want to guess, yeah, would be like Andy Reid when he let naggy or some of his assistant coaches and coordinators call the plays, but then at certain plays, times he would come in and say we're going to go with this play. Yeah. That's the kind of do that here with Gary and Kyle, but both of those are offensive head coaches. Like, I don't know what it looks like. I like this staff. McCarthy's known to do it his whole career McCarthy would turn over play calling and then he would start to take it back gradually and then take it full back when things went wrong. To me, that makes sense because you're kind of grooming the eventual play caller. Like to me, it would make sense if Demico Ryan's is a good spot with, with Burke and he's like, Hey, Burke, you're going to call some non critical downs. He actually did that in the preseason. Matt Burke called the preseason. Demico didn't call the preseason. You see, maybe what Janahan, McVay did that with the Rams, do McVay let a guy be a head coach. Yes, he did. So like you see that grooming, but you don't usually see a team that has a defense. Offensive minded head coach that then has shared offensive play calling. I don't think I've ever seen that in my life. I think it's a ludicrous question at this point in the season anyway, but I just think it's a ridiculous scenario to try and say at this point in the season with everything this far down the line that you're suddenly going to try and do shared play calling. The only thing that you have is a bi week to try and play with. But other than that, there may even even with that, I should say, it makes zero sense to me to try and do something like that right now. And the question that I wanted to pose and ask 713780 ESPN isn't, should they act or sack Bobby? I think that's, I agree with you. I think it's ridiculous and not even worth the question. Mine is where are you at with Bobby now? Because it's been, it hasn't even really been the ebbs and flows. It's kind of just been the bad whenever we talk about the criticism that Bobby Slowick has faced. Where are we at on Bobby Slowick right now, 713 780 or 3776? Where are you at with it? I still like him. I think, I think that, look, we, it's a blessing and a curse when this team kind of makes the progress it made in a year's time last year. And so he was the apple of everybody's eye because of this big jump and how quickly this team turned it around and what they were able to start doing with their new quarterback. And you take some lumps. Your offensive line has been really, really bad. And now suddenly Bobby Slowick needs to be fired. I think that you get too caught up sometimes and making knee jerk decisions and you end up regretting the fact that you've got a really good young football mind that has a pretty good grasp on offenses in today's NFL that makes some mistakes. And I think that it doesn't mean that you can't bring in help. You can't do other things to kind of enhance the offense and the off season. But I'm not by any means saying if Bobby Slowick doesn't get a head coaching job next year or that you should pull the plug on Bobby Slowick as your OC. Yeah, I think he'll be back. I'm kind of probably like at a five when it comes to slow. Like I'm okay. Over the moon with Bobby like I was last year, but I'm also not firing him in the off season because I don't think he'll be a head coach next year. Texture have you all noticed that Slowick stopped wearing a hat. What's up with that? I think it's just superstition coaches will tell you they're not superstitious, but they're all a little stitches. Oh, they are. They're all a little. Sure. Where are you at with with slowing? Little stitches. Yeah, I'm probably about a four or five. I'm not going to lose sleep of some other team poaches them, but I think he's an overall good play caller, but whether it be last year with some of the full back dives and throws the full back that I could done without her this year, what we talked about in the full or in the Dallas Cowboys game where he randomly started going up tempo with the lead and throwing the ball for no reason when they when they had the big leader, some moments where I don't love his play calling, but I don't think he's been a huge negative. Yeah, kind of middle of the last year was a lot of short yardage, third down fourth down calls that we questioned full back. It's like I get into back, maybe he's a little more athletic than the average full back, but yeah, I was done with the full back dives, but I think this year was it was a lot too where when when they get into a rhythm and they start really developing a drive and he'll throw the the the gadget play in there. The absolute reverse. Yes. That was I think maybe the Colts game. I think that might have been, but it's just yeah, there's the random moments where he gets way too cute and then it's or the the they had the half back pass a few games to go to. So I was just, yeah, he baffles me a time. He does get some he does get cutesy when you say poached, though, you mean as a head coach because you don't see. Yeah. Okay. No, I don't see. So no seats. Oh, what do you think the chances of him being a head coach next year are 10 10 15% I don't know higher than 10. I was going to be like a five. Yeah, I would go no higher than 10%. That star has lost some some shine. Yep. Key from LA Bobby's not to blame. The Texas got to be better on both sides of the ball until they learn how to close a game. They play off. Triple B short. You're right. You're right. Keep from LA. They'll be where the Rams probably won't be. The only thing when you look at it, where you can take it, not necessarily a shot, but you can have constructive criticism of a guy like Bobby Sloake is when your offensive line is playing, it's absolute worst. You can change the the the the formations and the way that you get into your offense so that you buy some more time for your quarterback or you get the ball out of his hands a lot quicker and for streaks there when they offensive line was that it's worse. We didn't see that. Yeah. Seven one three seven eight zero ESPN yesterday, the college football committee, they unveiled their most recent rankings. I think they gave us a lot of information. What did the newest ranking tell us? And are there any questions left on what can happen the head of the college football playoff in a couple of weeks seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six. It's the B's ESPN 97 five ESPN 92 five ESPN 97 five coming to you live from the Veritex Community Bank studios. It's the killer B's on ESPN 97 five and 92 five. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham, Blankers, Branham B's ESPN 97 five ESPN 92 five. What do the college football committee tell us with their college football rankings yesterday seven one three seven eight zero ESPN. What do you got Blankers? I think the only thing it told me is that there's really I think really we're only watching one spot where it might be determined. I think so. Like the, um, I forget the name of the committee chair, but he flat out said that if you're not playing this weekend, you're not going to be effected. So the whole Alabama Miami Ole Miss South Carolina conversation that's been settled, right? Yeah. If he tells us that whoever, anybody who's not playing any team that's not playing will not be impacted by not playing. Well, that last spot has been has been told like you've told us that Alabama's ahead of Miami there are 11, Miami's 12, Ole Miss is 13 South Carolina's 14. I think that Miami Ole Miss and South Carolina have been eliminated from the 12 team playoff. I think there's no question about it. And that was the exact quote I was going to go to when he said that those things aren't going to change where those ranked teams and where they sit currently, you know, except for the fact that you're looking at one possible outcome that may flip. I, I just think that it's already been predetermined. And I, I would have guessed that Alabama's going to be in it and it's going to come down to the one spot with SMU. So the, what I think in 7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 0, ESPN, if there's more, a conversation about this that maybe I'm not seeing, I believe that the only debate that is left is if Clemson beats SMU, Clemson could potentially steal the last spot if SMU is still in. So the question is, if Clemson beats SMU, is SMU getting in? Because it'd come down to SMU and in Alabama at this point. Yeah, it's, I've heard so many different comments on this too. And, and you know, on one, what's the guy that used to coach at Florida that's now on ESPN? Mullen Mullen, Mullen was on with McAfee this morning. And he went on this long list of strength of schedule and the competition and your wins and your losses. And then said, and now I'm going to make myself look like an idiot because I still believe that if SMU loses, they should still be in. So that would kick Alabama out. Yeah. Alabama would be would be out in that scenario. I just don't see that scenario happening. I, two things that I have, two takes on this one, I believe the committee has proven to us time and time again that they like name brands. Blue Bloods. Yep. I think that Alabama would get in over SMU should they lose to Clemson. Secondly, I think Alabama should get in over SMU if SMU loses to Clemson. Between SMU, Miami and Clemson, what is their best non conference win? SMU didn't even play Miami. Like who did that? What everybody was waiting to see? What is SMU's best win? Yeah. I mean, their most signature game was the close loss, the BYU at home. So I have two takes when it comes to the like outside three, I guess, because Alabama SMU of SMU loses to Clemson. I'm voting in Alabama. I love SMU story where they told all of college football, screw you will pay our way into the ACC will play for free. And then we're going to go show you that we can play with the big boys and they've played with the big boys. I respect the heck out of what SMU has done. They were being mocked and ridiculed. Look at these losers going to the ACC and not taking any of the money. And then what have they done? They have put themselves in position to make the college football playoff. They went and stole Andy infield from USC. Like I respect the heck out of what SMU is doing. If SMU loses to Clemson and their best win is probably TCU. No, I mean, they've got I'm talking about non conference because like to me, they beat Louisville cool. Louisville or TCU is their best. It's 18th in the country. I mean, that's okay. But it's the ACC overrated. So like you have to look at non conference. In my opinion, I know I'm just saying they're not without top 25 wins. And it's in two of them are obviously in conference with Louisville and Pittsburgh. Well, if you if you're comparing top wins, they don't have better wins than Alabama beat Georgia. That's the biggest one that better wins in Alabama. You could say, well, you know, that has losses. Sure. Yeah, one, yeah, one fewer wins. I would go Alabama over SMU of SMU loses. Secondly, I think that the ACC is overrated. All of these, like the Miami AD came out. We deserve to be reconsidered in how like, what have you done Miami that you should be in over Alabama? No, Miami's out. They don't have my mind is even my home. Hold on a second. Miami doesn't have a top 25 win. And think about the wins that they do have. And I guess they were on several of them where you're like, you're getting by by the seat of your pants. Well, I don't care about it at the time. Actually, Louisville is not ranked currently. So they don't have a top 25 win. Okay, I don't care about it at the time. Because if you beat Florida State in week one, they were a top five program in the country. You didn't beat a top five team. I always, I think it's so stupid. Well, if you beat a top five team, whenever they're now one in 10, that wasn't a top five team in the country. It should be about where they finish. Miami Louisville dropped out of the rankings. Miami does not have a top 25 victory. They do not have a top 25 victory. I personally think that the ACC is overrated. You said pit pit's not in the top 25 either. Okay, I'm worth the time. It was a bit at the time. There's only four ranked ACC teams. SMU, Miami, Clemson and then Syracuse is a 22 because they just beat Miami. Miami doesn't have a top 25 victory. SMU doesn't have a top 25 victory. Clemson got hammered by Georgia. And what else did Clemson do? They got beat at home by South Carolina. I think that the ACC is the fourth best conference in college football. I think they were overrating the ACC. Secondly, well, Brian, I'm, you know, of course you're going to stand for the big 12. I believe the big 12 is kind of getting screwed. You just mentioned SMU T BYU. Like that's the SMU's biggest non conference matchup. BYU who's the third best team in the big 12 beat SMU in that game. Look at how many teams are ranked by the big 12 in the top. There's four teams in the top 23. Yet you're not even going to get one of the four bids that are that are going to go to the conference champions that are buys. Like Boise State's at 10. Your best team is at 15. Also did the numbers on this top four teams in the big 12. You currently have Arizona State at 15. You have Iowa State at 16. You have BYU at 18 and you have Colorado at 23. If you look at those four teams against the other power three major conferences in college football, the big 12 is one and O against the SEC, one and one against the big 10 and one and O against the ACC. I feel like the committee's disrespecting the big 12. Of course. The big 12 stand. What are the actual wins now? You said one and I want to get to the SEC. What is what does that match up? I forget what it was. Iowa State beat Iowa. There is that one. BYU beat SMU and SMU is getting off the beat. That's a top 10 win. That was applicable. I'm just saying like if I was if I'm just pulling one out. There was Mississippi State who didn't win an SEC. At the same time though, but if you want to go up and down the big 12 in the SEC, a zero win big 12 team in Oklahoma State, the Arkansas and Arkansas has a big win over one of these big SEC teams that we're talking about. Yeah, Arkansas finished six and six. It wasn't like they're amazing team. Sure. But then he's not wrong. But then you look at lesser than go ahead. I don't think the ACC's lesser than I just don't think that we're good. It feels like cherry picking to say well, but you're also cherry picking when you say Arkansas six and six. They face Mississippi State. The one winner of the SEC was Mrs. I'll give you that. But whatever team in the conference, sure, there is that but you're also cherry picking when you say well Arkansas was six and six in the SEC, but then you see that they beat Tennessee and then you do completely disqualify that against Tennessee. So if you're going to use that that Arkansas is only six and six, well then we should probably dock Tennessee more for losing to a six and 16. Yeah, but again, that's kind of the point. We could play this game with every team. I don't I don't I don't I think you can play with it more in certain leagues than in others. Like I don't think that the Big Ten is a very good non-conference showing. They don't think the ACC has an atrocious non-conference showing. I feel like the Big 12 of the power for conferences, and I'm not even saying that they should be along with the SEC. I know there's a win over Mississippi State that's not impressive. Okay, give me some Big Ten's non-conference victory. Give me the SEC non-conference victory. That's my overall point. But why is the Big 12 getting penalized more than the other leagues? I don't feel like they are. Are you how are you? What do you mean they're not? Which power for team is not in the top four that are getting buys? Okay, so you put. They're getting penalized for what for the shot. The lack of shine on their conference. I was state versus Alabama would be the lowest ranked team in the playoff right now for the SEC. Neutral field. Who's favored? Okay, you want to do the neutral field thing? Who's favored? Neutral field between Alabama and Penn State? I think Alabama there you go. So why are we critical of the Big 12 in the same exact scenario that you present for the Big 10? Yeah, but I think that's all that's part of the equation. We also have to factor in what you actually think of the overall talents of these teams. I don't think people maybe this is wrongly, but I don't think people view Iowa State in Arizona State as good as these other big 10 in Big 12. I have no problem with the big 10 of the SEC by the way. I have no problem saying the big 10 of the SEC or the top two conferences in all the college football. I think the big 10 non-conference is atrocious. I think Indiana would be underdogs against all of these teams. I think the SEC's non-conference is not very good, but I'm going to, I'll give you eye tests with the SEC and the big 10. I have no problem doing that. I'm not putting Oregon and Ohio State below a big 12 team. Same thing with all the SEC teams, quite frankly, but whenever you look at the ACC and you look at their top three teams, SMU is the highest ranked ACC team, right? Who was, who did you say was their big non-conference match up? It was, they lost a whole loss a whole to BYU. They lost to BYU at home. The conversation of ACC versus big 12. I'm with you. Well, that's kind of what I'm saying. I'm willing to ignore the big 10. I think the big 12 in a 20,000 mile view is being underrated. And when you look at it specifically to the ACC, if you look at it specifically ACC and big 12, what has the ACC done that the big 12 hasn't? SMU does not have a top 25 victory. Miami doesn't have a top 25 victory. Clemson doesn't have a top 25 victory. They got hammered by a team that's in the playoff. They got, they got beat at home by a team that just is going to miss the playoff in South Carolina. I think the big 12 should have way more respect than the ACC is. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. And look, we're talking from a big 10 perspective when I've said that and I'm a big 10 guy. The big 10 conference is an embarrassment in terms of who they play and how they play it all year with the exception of the, the very top teams. And even Ohio State, after losing to Michigan, it took, took a, took a knock. But Oregon and Ohio State, I've not been sold on Penn State. Indiana's even farther down the list than that. And when you start comparing conference by conference, Jeremy's not wrong in this. I know, but at the same time, we're talking about, I mean, you guys both agree, if SMU loses the Clemson, they're out. So we're still talking about the ACC getting one team in, big 12 team getting, big 12 getting one team in. I get that big 12, maybe is disrespect in the regard they're not going to get the buy, but how great is the disrespect when both leagues are only getting one team in the gap there? And what the conferences are getting is really not all that different. The gap is between eight and a 15. It's a seven spot gap, but right. But neither conference, both conferences are getting it at one team. And if SMU was either way, you can potentially get to. Yeah, I mean, you guys both said that you thought they wouldn't. So let's, let's play in the high 50 50. I personally would pick Alabama. What do I think the committee will do? I think it's tough to penalize a team that's in a conference championship game. I agree with you. I mean, if the committee today thinks SMU deserves to be higher, I would not penalize them, but we all seem to agree that Alabama would jump them in that in that case. So if we're talking different, I think it's 50 50 with the committee would do. I personally would jump Alabama over SMU. What would the committee do? I'm torn. I think they'll go name brand, but I'm not convinced on that. I know I'm just living in the hypothetical war that does happen. Both both conferences will get one team in and neither one would get a first round buy. The disrespect in the gap is not that great. If Clemson beats SMU. Yes. Right. But what if SMU beats Clemson? Would SMU get a first round buy? They're currently third. Yes. Okay. So they're currently the first round buy. They're currently the three seat in the 12 team bracket. Yeah. Arizona State's 12. Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty, that's a pretty great gap. It is a pretty good gap. But then also, you go back to the eye test as well. Okay. Eye test between SMU and the big 12 champion is what? I mean, with SMU, I mean, they did lose the home of BYU. So it's a tough argument to make. I just, I think this has been overblown. Anyways. All right. Stressing or blessing, blessing or stressing? I mean, what are you blessing? What are you stressing? Our guy Garrett, when we return, it is the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. My colleague, my guy, U of H class of 1990, Chris Fisher, also my guy. 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You're back with a killer bees on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5. Live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. Blessings are stressed and done with Garrett. Blessings are stressed and use them stressons.com on iG and use them stressors. Tekson's commenter on TikTok and on Twitter. How's it going? It'll be a week. It'll be great, man. I kind of missed you guys. I know we missed each other during the break. I had a happy Thanksgiving, so you made up for it. You engaged with others while we were out? Yeah, absolutely I did. I mean, you know, I feel like I engage probably a little too much, but maybe it's good to have you on a Wednesday. I think we're all guilty of that kind of time. Oh, no doubt. I never be with anybody. Never. I don't. I couldn't see Jeremy argument with anybody. No, no, it's always always about sports. It's it. Of course. I don't get anything else but that. I'm a one trick pony. One trick pony. No personal insults. Yeah, it's always about sport. I might tell you you're an idiot about sports, but that's about as far as I'll go. Yeah, me too. Yeah. You too? Yeah. All right. What are we? I just I just matched energy with what I get. You know, that's all what I probably shouldn't start at. All right. What are we what are we blood all started on? I know. I did kind of stir it all up. All right. What are we blessing or stressing? So the first one I got is are we blessing or stressing the fact that we have a bi-week this late? You know, I think it's us and five or six other teams that have it this late, the latest in the season. I get that it's before this gauntlet of as Jeremy has hammered home the point three games in 11 days not 10 days. Everybody's saying 10. I was I was guilty of that. And now I'm on the correct look. I got through to somebody. Christy from the AP asked Nick yesterday about the the gauntlet of three games in 10 days. And I was reading Drew's mailbag today on Houston Texans.com. And he had a fan asked him a question about the gauntlet three games in 10 days and Drew didn't correct them. I was disappointed. She has fancy shoes on. Who Christy? I it was audio. They didn't show her. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, you've done a good job. I correctly know how to say it. So people people have been arguing about the hours in between and saying that it should be 10 days because of the hours in between. And if you do the math on the hours, it's actually 247 hours, which is greater than 10 days. Yeah, these are the nerds that are arguing that we've decided to go down. Yeah, people that just can't admit they're wrong. Like, I know you're right. I'm sorry. I'll correct it going forward. They can't admit that they're wrong. And they're trying to convince me in hours. And it's still greater than 240 hours. And if it's greater than 240 out 240 hours, what does that mean? It's greater than 10 days. I admire, you know, your resilience. I was a math major for semester. Okay, I had to drop out. Well, yeah, so I mean, you know, less under stress than the bi week this late. I'm going to mildly stress it because I think it hasn't really been pointed out that much. But the Houston Texans started the season the earliest in the league and have the latest buy. That was because of that extra preseason game with the Hall of Fame game. And I really think it affected us in that Tennessee Titans game. I'm not like, you know, for excuse making, but we came off a short week with that Monday night football game against the Cowboys, come home against the Titans kind of sleepwalk through it. And I think like over time going that long, you know, even if like in that preseason game, the Hall of Fame game players didn't play like it's still like a mental strain on the players and coaches alike. So you're practicing. You're at camp. Yeah, like, could you imagine like being in that rut is nonstop? So, you know, I was stressing it for that, but it couldn't come at a better time now, obviously. I don't like it simply because of the fact that if it had happened earlier, whether to your points with the schedule and the fact that remember, because, you know, you'd like to find it worked in somewhere where you have a short week that maybe you would have been better coming out of it to get even more time off or some ways to wear from an injury and recuperation standpoint and from getting ready from game to game that you kind of like it to have it closer towards the the middle point of the season to the first like five to seven games. And then you get a really nice clean break to get refreshed for that second half of the season. I think this is too late. I think it comes at a late time and it's like, it's a tough time. Everybody's clamoring for changes and doing, you know, what are you going to do? And what are you going to do differently? It's not like it happened right before mid season where you've got a whole second half of the season to get ready for you got, you know, four games. If you told me at the start of the year, when do I want my buy? I want it as close to the middle as possible. But now that you've been able to climb to the apex and now really it's downhill from here, I'm blessed in it. I'm blessed in now because because you're you're actually going to experience it now. And now you just get ready for the stretch of three games and 11 days. But no, no, I think that if you can survive it, it's good and beneficial that it happens later in the year. Like if you if you're the season's toast, right? Like you buy comes in week 14 and you haven't had the buy and you can't regroup and you can't get healthy and you're going into the buy with a record of let's see there 13 games. Let's just call it five and eight. You're the Jets. Let's say you're five and eight. Like the buy is awful and it's ruined your season. But if you can get to the buy with where the Texans are and have a two game lead in the division, it's it actually helped you that it's later in the season because if you use the buys like a way to like, you know, just to fuel up the tanks and other teams haven't had that opportunity like thereby came in week nine. Well, they're going to be closer to being on fumes by the end of the year or in the playoffs than you are because you've had your buy later. You could also use the analogy kind of like, you know, a race and F one race, right? Like they're changing their tires, right? And then whenever you change your tires, when are you your fastest? When are you your freshest amount of tread? Immediately after you change those tires. So they're going to they're going to be on better tires whenever they get into the postseason than a team that's in the postseason when they were in week seven. I think that traditionally I look at it and say I never want it too soon. And I never want it too late. But at the same time, you want it at a time where when you think about when Nico was hurt, you think about when Will Anderson Jr. was hurt. If it would have come in a little earlier where maybe you would have bought an extra week for one if both of those guys are Joe mixing that maybe could that yet that was where I was going. It couldn't have all, you know, turned into an extra win here or there. You're right that now that they've got it right now because of all the things that they're just getting by and having to deal with coming forward with the condensed amount of games, it doesn't hurt them per se. No, no, no. I just ideally, I think I would like it a little early. It depends on when I'm being asked. Like we have the we had the luxury of hindsight now because if you would have asked again at the start of the season when I think we talked about this, how do you like to buy in week 14? I hate it. And I'm with you. Like it started the year you see a buying week 14. You do not like that. But if we would have had the conversation before the season that you get to the buy, you're at eight and five, you're two games up on the Colts. You swept the season series. Would you take it in that sense? I think it would have been clearly. Yes. So yes, we do have the benefit of hindsight, but we're currently living in this moment. So I think that the buy because of hindsight, because of what the Texans did in the first 13 weeks actually is coming at a good time. And hopefully they have more tread on the tires later in the year and into the postseason. Well, it makes that record we have now that much better. Like he says, I mean, we went through this, you know, long drudge of no rest and we made it out on top. So I'm definitely with you on that part. Next up, I mean, this is a topic we've all been talking about in Houston. I know Jeremy's been all over this, you know, another topic that he's the lead soldier on. But are we blessing or stressing the Aziz three game suspension? I know you were talking about, I believe it's Karen Runyon is his name. She referred to him as. Obviously, the letter was, you know, none of us really enjoyed the letter, but I'm, you know, I'm sure we're all on the same page, but I'm big stress in the fact that it's a three game suspension. I know he's doing his appeal today on if it's still going on or what, but hopefully gets reduced to two, maybe some way, somehow it's down to one. You know, I, and I think you pointed this out too. A lot of it is sensationalism, in my opinion. And I think it all started from the broadcast, honestly, I felt like they just wildly overracted to it. And then from there, it just hits social media. And, you know, next thing you know, you got this big problem on your hands, but yeah, like Nick Casaro yesterday, like that is a silver lining him and D'Amico, Ryan's coming out. Like, I think this could be a net positive for us as far as rallying the troops and solidifying the team. But I agree 100% with Nick Casaro in the sense that they're just super inconsistent and it's not fair. I mean, you see all the stuff that happened last year to our quarterback with CJ, Quinn and Williams, other players getting, you know, fines and then not getting suspended and then Aziz has never suspended and then all of a sudden suspended three games. So that's why I'm big stress in it. Yeah, I think you should be. I think that, you know, the hope is, as we've discussed at nauseam, the fact that the hope is that the suspension gets reduced, but you can't erase the fact that they went way too far, that they tried to make him the poster child for encouraging the rest of the league to not do anything like this again until they can try and hopefully change the rule and do some things to better curtail it, make it a little bit more fair for the defensive football player. But overall, I thought it was way too, way too long of a suspension. I would think that as we talked about it, they're probably going to take one game off of it. But what it surprised me if they didn't, because it's of all the national attention, it's gotten and the fact that people are so focused on this right now. No. Yeah. I think you're right that the reaction immediately in the after plus the injury, like the the injury makes this a far bigger deal. I just came across on IR. Yeah, I just came across the tweet, which Trey Wingo and Trey Wingo is saying, well, why should a Z is out shy or be allowed back before Trevor Lawrence is allowed back, which is always those, you know, an injury or a hit that causes an injury that the player that delivered the hit on a player that gets injured that they should miss the same amount of games as said injured player. But yeah, you're right. The sensationalism of it was was a lot very, very quick. Moose is talking about how despicable it was. Rob Gronkowski spewing nonsense. And like he does this stuff in the past, Michael Strahan's talking about how a Z's got himself ejected because he didn't want to face the repercussions of the rest of the game. He got ejected because of the hit Michael Strahan. What are you talking about? I think this is a classic case of kind of mainstream media controlling everybody else's opinions of what they're supposed to believe on it. Late hit. Absolutely. We can debate like the dirtiness of it. But in terms of him missing games and I'm with you, I think it's going to end up being a two game suspension, which I still feel like it because the game too many. Yeah, I'm stressing the absence of a Z's outshire. And I know that Christian Harris might return in all of that. But how much is he going to actually play who they're playing matters to like first game. We all think it's going to be at least a one game suspension. Okay. Well, now you're going to be looking at a combination of Henry toe toe and novel Hewitt and Devin White who got cut by the Eagles having to defend the middle of the field against Toa, who's one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the NFL with a receiving core of Tyree kill Jalen Waddle. John who Smith is really good. And don't forget about Devin Achan, who's a local guy too, who's been who's been wreaking havoc on the rest of the NFL. If he misses beyond that, then Kansas City's into the mix Baltimore's into the mix. So not only is missing him. Am I stressing? But also the opponent that you're playing during the course of his projected suspension. Yeah. So that was actually going to be one of my next topics that we can skip over. I was going to talk about would we be blessing or stressing the linebacker position during his absence. I mean, I think we can all say that would be stressing on that. Oh, yeah. You know, we were talking about who gets motivated the most by the way that the organization is kind of galvanized behind as these I'll show you. Well, damn well, better be the linebackers that are filling in for him because they need all the motivation they can get because we already questioned the lack of depth at the linebacker position or the abilities behind the starting linebackers. And that's with Christian Harris being out the whole season so far. But now you're going to expect these guys as it currently stands to do this for the next three games against above average upper echelon opponents. That's going to be a tough sell. Yeah, stressing. Well, we had we had a glimpse on that too. I mean, he's already missed three games earlier in the year with injury, I believe. And we went to and won during that stretch. But like for my like brief dive into it, I think one area we definitely suffered was the run game. I think we allowed at least 100 yards rushing in each of those games. One was like right at 100. And then to me to like live in the game immediately after he was ejected, what stood out to me was the Jaguars with the backup Mac Jones just ran the ball straight down our throats and we couldn't stop it. And my immediate place in a row, I think it was where they didn't even pass the football early on. They just were jamming it right down the middle of the line. Yeah. So I was on Twitter, like, why is this happening? And people were like, it's because of zeez is out. I'm like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. They were one and two in that stretch. We were one and two. They lost to Green Bay. They beat Indy by three and then they lost that that game to the Jets on Halloween. Oh, one and two with that. And now you got a tough respect to you for correcting me. Yeah, I just let me just pull it up. Yeah, it's a good idea to see what their record was. Yeah. And then if you look at like the rush yards, I think the Jets had a lot of rush yards and then Green Bay, they didn't do good in the first half, but they won that game, in my opinion, the second half because the run game stepped up. I mean, Neville Hewitt had a pick in that game, but it's going to, in my opinion, it's going to be like a platoon or a committee. Yeah. I think Neville Hewitt's a decent runstopper, but you know, now that we didn't have Devin White before, I think now we can kind of platoon him in at Mike or outside on passing down. So what's, what's interesting about it though, is like, I wonder how much they trust either Henry Toa Toa or Devin White with the green dot. I think I think that's the reason we saw more Hewitt in the second half than we did Devin White is because they trust Hewitt the most to send in the play. That's probably true. And then communicate. Because I think the only other guy that the Demico trusts more than El Shire just regardless of position would be, I think Jimmy Ward, because Jimmy Ward's experience playing with Demico all these years that Jimmy Ward, but Jimmy Ward's not going to be calling. I don't think he's going to be wearing the green dot slot. Sometimes they take, I mean, not a lot, but they did play some four three against Jacksonville, probably trying to compensate for not having a Z's. I don't know if they did that. Yeah, they did do it actually after a Z's got ejected because I remember seeing it in the second half. But yeah, I don't think they would give the dot to the other thing that you have taken consideration is, you know, the Jets were turns out to be way lesser than what you thought and you lost that game. So all those three games you went one and two and the only opponent that looks like it could be a playoff team right now is Green Bay. And now you're facing a stretch where you're playing three power, you know, Miami's trying. And now that two is back, that's a whole different ball game. And then you got, you know, the two best teams in the AFC. So it's, that's a gauntlet for anybody. And they're going to have to step up big time. 11 day gone, but you're 11 days. But you're a point about the green dot. No, you didn't know the green dot points are a great one because actually Nick Cassario brought that up when on coffee with coach or, you know, his interview with Mark Vandermeer. So they're definitely aware of that as well. So I had one more about it. That can kind of get one more if you got it. I mean, the last one just going to be blessing or stressing the Texans making a legit playoff run at this point in the season. It's been a roller coaster of a year highs and lows, you know, obviously sky high expectations before the year. I will say that I'm mildly blessing it. I think there's a chance that we can reach the AFC championship, which is probably a lot of our fans goal, like for us to reach. You know, I think the big thing is the offensive line has started to play better in the past game and in the run blocking game. I was very encouraged against the Jaguars to close that game out. We, you know, ran the ball towards the end to seal the game. And I know people can say, well, that's against the Jags, but you have to think like it's still the NFL, even despite the record, it's still a good team. They're still trying and you would have to think that helps our confidence. So because of that, I'm slightly blessed. I'm stressing it. I think there's a good chance this team could be one and done. I think you mentioned it. I think you can call it a roller coaster ride. You can just, mine is a tale of everything is a tale of two halves. It's a tale of the offense versus the defense. When one is good, the other seems to be bad when, you know, you play good in the first half, you don't in the second half with the offense scores in the second half and the defense doesn't play great. And there's just too much talent on this team. Yes, for the simple standpoint, I understand where you're coming from that the talent is enough on this roster that they should be able to compete with just about anybody they met facing the playoffs. But overall, the inconsistency this team has shown all season long worries me to the point where I just don't know if they're ever going to put it all together and kind of get it all going for a game or two. So I'm stressing it. Yeah. If we're, if we're using the bar as the AFC championship game, I'm going to, I'm going to stress that one too. I think that they're capable of beating anybody in the NFL, but I also think they're capable of losing to anybody in the NFL. So it's almost a coin flip anytime that they play, especially against playoff caliber teams. So like, if you're going to get to the AFC championship game, and if I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt saying that anybody they play is a coin flip, they have to win two coin flips to get to the AFC championship game. I think they've been too inconsistent. It's a conversation you and I had yesterday. It's one thing to say, could they beat the Chiefs? Could they beat the Ravens? When we're sitting here debating, could they beat the Broncos? Could they beat the Chargers, you know, on a neutral field or a home field advantage situation? Who are the teams in the playoffs that you feel most confident? You basically don't feel super confident against anybody that you would face in the first round of the playoffs. The frustrating thing about this team is like y'all alluded to, we played down to our competition and up to our competition. And I don't know if that's like an overall philosophy from Demico Ryan's like, we've never had a blowout win. Like it's like we just hang on for wins and like find a way to win. So like that, you know, kind of stresses you out going in the playoffs. Yeah, it doesn't bless you. You can say that for sure. Garrett, a blessing or stress and check out his stuff at Houston stressons.com on IG at Houston stressons, Texan commenter on TikTok and Twitter for all your Texans news. It's right there with Garrett. When we come back, what are your week 13 overreactions in the NFL? 713-780-3776. It's the BZSPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. Guys, the word right now from a good friend, Doc Linville. Doc Linville best in the business at getting your hair back. 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