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Shock the World
42 Plays1 year ago
The latest episode of Born on the Bayou Sports kicks off with a breakdown of the Houston Texans' dominant win over the LA Chargers on Saturday. Tim and Scott then shift focus to the Texans' upcoming playoff matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. The conversation moves to the Rockets, who are holding strong as the 2nd seed in the Western Conference. The hosts debate whether the team needs to make a move to maintain their position. They then mock Scott Boras for mishandling Alex Bregman’s market during the offseason. The episode concludes with the signature segments: "Horses Ass of the Week," "Tips of the Cap," and "Scumbag of the Week."
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Transcript
Introduction to Born on the Bayou Sports
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to Born on the Bayou Sports, a Houston sports show made for Houstonians by Houstonians. Join Tim Costello and Scott Barzilla every week as they break down the latest in Houston Astros, Rockets and Texans news. Tim's a former minor league broadcaster and Scott has written two books on the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Baseball Talent and Development Talk
00:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, if Hobby Eric could get it figured out, it would make things a lot easier because he was that guy everybody was counting on this year to be a Cy Young candidate, take that big step forward and and help anchor this rotation with Pomer.
00:00:45
Speaker
Since he's come to Houston, you can look at the development of guys like Carlos Correa defensively and Jeremy Pena defensively. You can know Alex Bregman, you know, certainly I think I'm better than average third baseman. And now you're putting teams in third and eight, third and seven, third and nine. Now he'll come to Will Anderson, pin back your ears, let's go. So if you're by you, born and bred, or just like spending time in the age, sit down, relax, and stay Houston strong.
Humor and Idioms in Sports Context
00:01:24
Speaker
Welcome back in born on the bayou sports Tim Costello Scott Barzilla coming to you hot here on a Cool evening. I wish I was a little bit warmer, but here we are Scott fighting on through I was gonna say I don't know about hot and you know, I've often heard it said I can't our takes are hot I can't yeah, I can't I've heard it often said I don't know about you. I can't speak for you Tim, but I You ever heard people refer to the phrase, it's hotter than shit or colder than shit? I have. and That brings two questions immediately to my mind. Number one, what is the temperature shit? And number two, who takes it? Um, doctors, I think have taken temperatures of poop that come out. I think so realistically, I can break this whole thing down for you. I think it comes back to the phrase hotter than hell.
00:02:18
Speaker
or cult really, which is cold, people say colder than hell, which doesn't make sense, right? Because that phrase is actually colder than hail. So I think people just say curse words instead, because none of it makes sense. Although if you've read Dante's Inferno, there's a part of hell that's cold. So who the fuck knows what's going on, Scott? Well, I would think that, you know, going with my biology that as soon as it leaves the body, it would be body temperature, I would think. I feel like OK, but let's look at like dog shit as an option, right? Like, um you know, there's ah a line in Billy Madison where he's like a fresh steaming pile of poop. And so, you know, it's steaming because it's warmer than the temperature of the air. The steam is rising, correct? i would You would think so, yes. So based on my limited knowledge of science and my massive knowledge of poop, I think it comes out of warmth.
00:03:18
Speaker
Well, so, you know, you were speaking to cold temperatures.
Cold Weather Sports Adaptation
00:03:21
Speaker
So can you recall the coldest that you've ever played golf? 29, 29. I think I went in the teens, but I didn't, I didn't make it very far in that day. We got to like the fourth hole. We all looked at each other. We're like, what the fuck are we doing? Well, you tell me what, he went thin and you feel it the rest of the whole day.
00:03:44
Speaker
Why were you like, I don't even know why I was like, you had to have been in your, your younger years. I didn't, I didn't like two years ago. And then we all looked at each other like we need to be better than this. I was like playing with my dad. So, I mean, this is back when I was a kid, you know, way back in the day. And I think we were on vacation, you know, at our, we had a little condo in Trinity, Texas. And so we're just like, we're here. We're on a golf course. We're doing this.
00:04:11
Speaker
our Our thing was like we prepaid for a membership Courses open we're doing this and on the fourth hole Augusta wind came through that like went through my pants and I was just like nope I'm done and That was that and that's why you know last week and this week as well My foursome is we've taken to the screen golf world Scott We have replaced the out the great outdoors with the great big television Not quite as nice as the TGL But, uh, you know, still get the job done. Yeah, I could see that. That's, you know, it's an option we certainly didn't have when I was a kid. It's fun. It's different. You know, it's like, I, it had me go like going off the tee at like two 15 at one point, the one we went to, um, this Sunday, they we're going to a nicer one this week. The one I found the first week's in a bowling alley and it's only 30 bucks an hour though for it like, so for four guys for two hours, 15 bucks a man, we had, you know, nine holes of golf. So.
00:05:09
Speaker
Um, it was fun, but it, you know, it's more about when you have a group of guys that you play with, right. It's the camaraderie and just be able to hang out. Uh, and just so happens that we all like playing golf while we do
Texans vs Chiefs: Cold Weather Impact
00:05:18
Speaker
it. So, um, it's nice to be able to get, get some swings in, uh, even when there was literally, you know, last week's snow on the ground. So speaking of cold temperatures, Kansas city this Saturday is set to be 19 degrees.
00:05:37
Speaker
I don't know anything about precipitation or wind or anything like that. I just know it's going to be damn cold. As I used to say when I was a kid, there's cold and there's damn cold. Yeah. So how how do you see that affecting our Houston Texans? I mean, it's going to be ah about a game of running the football, right? Like at that point, uh, something the Texans would sell at, you know, and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. We see, we haven't even talked about.
00:06:06
Speaker
What, again, I was sitting here thinking before the show, Scott, we haven't even talked about what could be literally a historic defensive performance last week. So, you know, the cold weather, I think favors that. I don't know. Is it crazy to think the cold, even though we're not cold weather team favors the Texans? Well, if you're going to assume there's no running, I want to know what the wind conditions are. Cause you know, my, my understanding, you know, and tracking CJ Strauss career,
00:06:36
Speaker
So he does fine and cold is when you get precipitation and wind and where things start to get dicey. Which would make sense for any quarterback, for the most part, like what is snowing and windy, it's pretty hard to throw the football. Well, I think like you have certain guys like like a Josh Allen has a cannon so he could probably play through high wind where CJ Stroud's not, he doesn't have that high end, you know, just,
00:07:06
Speaker
strong arm. He makes all the throws, but he doesn't necessarily do it at 90 miles an hour. He's not Brock Osweiler, right? but He has more than one. He is. He really is. Brock could play the wind. Nowhere else, but the wind, hey, bring him out. no let's but before we Before we talk about next week's Game Scout, I do want to talk about last week because to me that was full Bulls on Parade defense.
00:07:36
Speaker
balling out, you know, I said it just before, I truly think that was a historic defensive playoff performance that D'Amico Ryans and Matt Burke put together in our usual fucking time slots, Saturday at 3.30. We got it again this week. And, you know, it was amazing. It was the defense was so good. They overcame, you know, slow CJ Stroud start and and truly made CJ look good by the end of the day.
00:08:06
Speaker
Well, and and I ran an article today about red blog and, and this is what kind of, you know, kills me. Cause I do, I listen to satellite radio, so I get the national outlook on things. And so the narrative is that Justin Herbert shit the bed and he's not a, he's not in the elite quarterback, but that's what we take away from Saturday's performance. When you look week by week, this season,
00:08:36
Speaker
I counted it till through 18 weeks. Five of the 18 quarterbacks had their worst rated performance of the year against the Houston Texans, including Justin Herbert, three interceptions in the regular season, four interceptions on Saturday. And, you know, maybe, I mean, I can't think if we dropped any, but, you know, it could have been, you know, maybe an extra one.
00:09:01
Speaker
I know Caitlin Bullock probably should have picked that ball that ended up being their lone touchdown there in the second half. So, you know, it could have been easily five. Yeah, the McConkie play was crazy. and a lot of A lot of like guys running into each other trying to make a pick. But yeah, like, don't pardon me, you go down the line. Five picks off of Goff. Richardson looked terrible twice. Josh Allen, who's possibly going to win an MVP this season, had maybe the worst start of his entire career against the Houston Texans this year. um Caleb Williams looked we rough. I get he's a rookie, but he still looked rough. It was worst effort of the year. And Trevor Lawrence, the one start, we knocked him out. This is worse rated. But yeah, I mean, this defense has forced bad performances all year long from quarterbacks.
00:09:56
Speaker
so Yeah. Fucking come at us. Because again, Rex Ryan talked shit last week. And now here's Nick Wright, former 610 host, now out from one of the reigns of being the Texans flagship. Didn't say that we were bi-week, but said we were, uh, you know, the last real practice for the chiefs. Yeah. I mean, the guy started in Kansas city market. I get it. Like he's a bit of a, homeman but he also worked at Houston and now he's a national guy. He's, he's.
00:10:26
Speaker
He's if it is to the bullshit will material that we love so fucking bring it right like Give to me go some shit to get everybody amped up with because this defense Gives you a chance. Will you have a defense like this Scott? You have a chance to win on Saturday at 330 because the NFL is a fucking pain in the ass Yeah, and I and what's and if we take a big step back And you think about this, I think you know, we all knew the Chiefs were gonna be the Chiefs coming into the season and They're always the cheese. We knew the Ravens were going to be the Ravens. I mean, you can't have the Ravens go to the AFC Championship game. Add Derek Henry and not expect them to be good. I think Buffalo being as good as they were maybe was a bit as a surprise. But we all knew and this is, you know, my big question. Have the Texans met expectations on the season overall?
00:11:27
Speaker
I think yes. I think if I told you coming into the season that you would be a top four seed and you're in the second round of the playoffs and the three teams ahead of you are Kansas City, Baltimore, and Buffalo, and you're the fourth seed, you'd go okay, right? Like not knowing what it looked like, not knowing how we got here, but at the end of the day,
00:11:51
Speaker
you're in a good spot. You've got a defense that gives you a chance to go fucking win games. And a quarterback who won healthy and making good decisions is just as good as anybody else on the field at this point, except Patrick Mahomes.
CJ Stroud's Playoff Performance
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah. And I think this is, uh, what really encouraged me in Saturday was really Stroud after the first quarter. Um, because, you know, he had that,
00:12:17
Speaker
After that interception, that interception was about as bad a throw as I've ever seen him make. The only thing I could figure is maybe he thought the receiver was going to come back to the ball. Maybe they got mixed up on the routes or something. But after that throw, I mean, he did have that one that could have been an interception in the second half, but you saw... That would have been a bad throw. That would have been a hell of a pick if it was an interception. You're looking at a guy that made plays with his legs.
00:12:46
Speaker
which he really hasn't done as a Texan. And you're looking at a guy that played a Hutchinson in in this, you know, and that that touchdown drive was the play of the game. Because you sit there, you think if if they somehow get him down around the five yard line, you're just like, fuck it, but we're done. You know, you pump the ball back to them, they maybe score field goal.
00:13:13
Speaker
I mean, Laster pick was also maybe the biggest offensive play of the game. If you think about at the stage that it happened because we had just turned the ball all over. We're down six, nothing. We're thinking, Oh shit. You know, LA is going to, you know, drive, at least get a field goal, not a touchdown. It's going to be a two touchdown, you know, two score game and we're not, you know, and we're not scoring points, but you know, immediately first play Laster pick.
00:13:42
Speaker
That was a huge play at that stage in the game. I don't know about you, Scott, because like when I was watching the game, you and I, as we make, as we often do, we were texting. Um, and that called that play out as soon as it happened. You know, this one going into the second half, right? That, kind that but sparked us. And then post-game D'Amico called the same play out. And it makes me wonder a little bit because after that play, we kind of saw more of.
00:14:09
Speaker
the Stroud of old, right? Like the guy that we saw towards the end of the season last year who gave us so much hope for this year. It makes me wonder if maybe he and Nico came together and was kind of like, you know, fuck Bobby. We going to be, have to be honest this week, right? Like we'll change it at the line. We'll do what we got to do. But Hey, Nico, me and you, we're going to have to go win this thing. Whatever fucking slop he calls, we got to figure out a way.
00:14:34
Speaker
That's my other question. That was my other longing question, you know, a nagging question, I guess I should say, is, has Bobby s slow it done enough to save his job? And, you know, yeah what can he do? I mean, outside of a victory on on Saturday, what do we need to see for us to go, okay, we can bring Bobby back?
00:14:57
Speaker
There's there's nothing that's going to happen that prevents Bobby from coming back other than Bobby being hired somewhere else Scott Like if we but here's the thing though if if we win this week Interview requests for Bobby s slow to pick up interview requests for Matt Burke Have to also how was like Bobby slow gotten interview and Matt Burke has not like that's crazy, right? Like look at this defense and you don't want that guy at least interviewing with you. I that as the real, I mean, they, they seem as defensive coordinator and name only. Okay. You're still help. Like you still are a part of this. They, you still understand it. Like, I don't know. I don't want them to go. I'm just saying like, who looks at Bobby. So he goes, that's the guy leading a team versus, you know, the defensive coordinator of a top five defense of all time. Maybe not all time. That's a stretch, but like a defense that's absolutely balling. Well, you know, I got to say,
00:15:52
Speaker
As soon as I said it, I knew I was wrong. As soon as I said top five all the time, I knew I was wrong. You say, you know, you know, you're, you know, the Jets are interviewing Bobby Slowick supposedly, but there's another, there's another opening up in your neck of the woods. Jay, come on. You don't want John, you want Bobby. How about to last week when they wouldn't let fucking McCarthy go interview for the Bears job just to not end up keeping it. We called it out last week, but.
00:16:22
Speaker
oh My god, that's a bad look another bad look for Jerry Yeah, I mean I don't I don't see anybody taking Bobby I really don't and I don't see the Texans making a move to to rid themselves of Bobby if anything they're gonna bring a new offensive line coach and say that was the problem and You know Bobby's plays didn't work because he didn't have time and yada yada yada You know who the fuck knows but it's not gonna be a new offensive coordinator I think we we kind of have to get that out of our heads and we have to focus on you know, winning this week. Like there's there's nothing Bobby's going to do other than literally taking a dump onto Mikko's car. That's going to get him fired this weekend. Well, I think, you know, if we see the Texans offense from the second quarter on, I think they have a shot. I think they have a shot. Um, I just don't, I mean, I worry, you know, too much. And I think it's going to be a pretty low scoring game, 19 degrees, two really good defenses.
00:17:23
Speaker
So, I mean, you just, you have to minimize mistakes. I think if the Texans pass for us gets after it the way they did this week, um, you got a chance, you have a chance. That's all you can ask for outside of that. We'll see how the cards play. But if you've got 51 and 55 getting after the quarterback all week, um, or all game, it's going to be a long day in Kansas city for, for Patrick Mahomes and.
00:17:52
Speaker
that gives your quarterback a chance. You know, if they're not dropping 45 points on you, if you can keep them 24, 27 points, you have a chance to win that game. Yeah. And and I know it was Dineko Autry had a sack on Saturday. Uh, we've seen Derek Barnett make some big plays this year. Now a lot of it in, you know, quote unquote, um, preseason type action in week 18, but you know, it is what it is.
00:18:19
Speaker
And I'll share was not in that Kansas city game. And it was a one score game that was demoralizing losing your top field stretching playmaker. Uh, you know, at the end of it, wasn't your best part receiver, but tank was the field stretcher tank was the explosion and you lost that and you gutted everybody and you still only lost by eight. Yeah. So yeah, I'd say there's a chance. I don't think.
00:18:48
Speaker
Personally, I don't see it. But then ah I didn't see last week happening either so I mean I saw a path to victory my dad never talked before the game and he's like he said that you know in his mind the Texans had to score on defense for the Texans to win which they didn't and they did but they didn't have to the way it played out but you had To have that level of dominance defensively, right? Because if you didn't dominate the ball defensively the way the Texans offense started you could have been down 17 nothing and
00:19:18
Speaker
You know, before you knew it real, real fast. I'll say this, um, I don't think the Texans have to score a ton to win this game. Cause I think it's, you know, I think the total is going to be probably under 40, um, at least under 45, but we can't, yeah. Did you you know how many plays we ran in the first five drives?
00:19:44
Speaker
So first one was like one or two and fumbles and three and ounce. 12. Well, good guess, but 16. Okay. Five drives, 16 plays. So basically you're averaging a three and out. You can't do that on Saturday. I think you have to be getting at least two or three first downs and then maybe stalling out at midfield because you got to keep Patrick Mahomes on the sideline.
00:20:13
Speaker
I mean, if you're, if you're making this defense play 18, 19 minutes in the first half, they're just going to get bull rushed in the second half. And they, and they have a bit of a two-headed monster right now at the running back position. That's well rested because Pacheco is back and healthy. And you've still got Kareem Hana as well, who's, who's run the ball very, very effectively since being signed off his couch. So.
00:20:40
Speaker
They're ready to pound the rock if that's what you want to do. Mahomes is ready if if you want to let him make plays. They've they've got an OK receiving core they've had better, but you know there are weapons there. Kelsey is still Kelsey. He makes a ton of plays. He's he's going to pick up some key first downs. You don't have P3 right now. So I'm assuming it's going to be Al Shair, maybe one on one with Kelsey and man coverage a lot. That's yeah. And and line any linebacker on Kelsey is not Even as fast as I share you is, I don't like that matchup. I don't either. I don't love it. It's probably going to be a, you know, Murray's probably going to get some help, hopefully help not one on one because again, that's a huge size issue. Um, yeah, you know, you've got to limit Kelsey. I feel like Stingley can, can probably slow down Hopkins pretty well. Um, and then outside of that, Hey, you got a rookie, we got a rookie, your ride receiver versus our corner. Let's go.
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, I like actually the match-ups, the corner match-ups on the receivers. I mean, I think we're in good shape there. The question is going to be Kelsey. And then, of course, you know, those receivers, Pacheco in particular, can catch the ball out of the backfield. You know, so that's a potential weapon as well. Offensively, Scott, how do you see the Texans finding success? Let's say there's not crazy winds. It's just cold weather.
00:22:06
Speaker
Um, obviously you're gonna have to protect the quarterback. You're gonna have to run the ball. Well, you know, it, everybody knows Nico is your best option and yet Nico still goes off for big plays. Can you still do that against Kansas city? Well, the one that hurt and and we're going to mention this story, at least I will later on in the, in the, in the podcast. So don't worry. I'll get to this one, but I don't know if you saw the Kate Stover went out for
Texans' Running Game Importance
00:22:34
Speaker
the year. I did.
00:22:35
Speaker
Um, because I was kind of hoping, particularly after him having a pretty good day on Saturday, I was kind of hoping they could run some too tight insets, you know, with him and and Dalton Schultz on the field at the same time. Uh, but unfortunately that's not going to be a factor. Somebody other than Nico's going to have to show up. I don't know if it's it' Schultz. I don't know if it's Metchie. I don't know if it's Woods, Hutchinson.
00:23:04
Speaker
one other guy, at least, is going to have to make a big play. I think Mixon's going to have a big day, Scott. I don't know about you. He, to me, looked so much like Arian Foster did in his Texans playoff debut just from the sense that maybe you just wear and you wear and you wear until on that fourth quarter here comes a fucking hammer and you just can't stop it because you've been worn on for three quarters the way Aaron you should just pound you and pound you and pound you until you just couldn't take any more in a big hole busted open he was gone for 50 60 yards that's what it seemed like with Joe Nixon uh uh with Joe Nixon not Nixon
00:23:49
Speaker
Um, yeah but it just, you know, on a day where Arian was there to fire off the cannon and run the team out of the tunnel to me, that was the most Arian like performance I've seen since he retired. Yeah. I mean, you're looking at, you know, still in the playoffs, the three top backs available in this off season, if you want to consider Joe mix in a de facto free agent, I know he was a trade, but, you know, more or less. So, you know, and everybody's going to point the finger at Saquon Barkley, you know, 2000 plus yards, great season. Derek Henry, obviously 1700 yards plus, great season. But considering the amount of tiny missed, Mixon was pretty damn close to those two.
00:24:40
Speaker
He gave this team an identity that they just didn't have last year Scott like there was not a lot of changes made up front on this offensive line and Really all you did was plug in single plugged out Singletary and plugged in Joe mixin for the most part and you Automatically got better at running the football just because mixing Understands when to bounce it outside can break more tackles can can do more out of the backfield gives you more a dynamic three down back than Singletary ever was. Yeah, I think the biggest key is that he turns zero into four or zero into three more often than any back I've seen, you know, with the Texan since area. Yeah, I mean, there are times where it does look like Arian again, right? Like I think he's maybe a little bit more physical um at the line of scrimmage, you know, maybe up the middle, but.
00:25:37
Speaker
When you watch someone bounce it outside, it was damn, because Arian is probably my favorite running back I ever watched. you know i I grew up in a different time period. You had some different guys. so I didn't really watch Barry Sanders. I didn't really watch Evan. I didn't watch Earl Campbell. But in my time, Arian just ran it different. When Arian was on, he wasn't running as much as he was just gliding just above the grass.
00:26:04
Speaker
You know who Arian reminded me of as ah stylistically is, I don't know if you you may be seeing clips of them, but Eric Dickerson. Yeah. Yeah, clips. But yeah, I mean, similar style of back, you know, he he could break tackles. You know, he could he could beat you with speed, but he wasn't like a Barry Sanders yeah type of speed. It was just it looked effortless.
00:26:33
Speaker
That is, I mean, that's the best way to describe area and foster was effortless. And while mixing wasn't effortless, um, you put in a great effort and minus the fumble, which what the fuck are we doing? Calling a half back toss pass, Bobby. Um, again, still gotta protect the football, but the play calling again was, was just so fucking terrible. That's where I think at the very minimum, you know, if, if he's going to be around D'Amico, Nick Casario, uh,
00:27:04
Speaker
Too bad Matt Foley's not around anymore. You need to you know sit his ass down and go like, you're not calling this shit in the red zone or near the red zone new anymore. Yeah, I mean, as frustrating as it was to watch Arian, I mean, to watch Andre Johnson have, you know, 16, 1700 yards and seven touchdowns because Gary Kubiak just gave it to Arian every time we got inside the 20.
00:27:28
Speaker
It worked. We had a pretty high red zone percentage area and racked up. It's not as hot sounds that we didn't turn the ball over. It's on the red zone. So at the end of the day, when you got it back, like mix and let them score 14. Well, the thing is you move the ball, however you move the ball, you continue to do it. I mean, the Texans, what, what kills me is that very rarely do we ever see like a 50 yard play. It's usually methodical.
00:27:56
Speaker
10, 15 yards, five yards, eight yards. So you're, you're running plays. They're generally successful. You can still run five, eight, 10 yard plays inside the 20. I don't, I mean, if this, if it was a case where you threw one bomb and that's how you got inside the 20, I'd be like, okay, you know, I could see where you can't do that again. But this team generally runs eight, 10, 12 play drives.
00:28:26
Speaker
to get inside the 20. And then we were doing, you know, whatever the fuck, you know, he, at the end of his playbook. Yeah. It's like, he's, he's got this whole special section of red zone plays drawn up, but like his, his kids swapped him out. Right. Like he actually had some real ones. And then like Bobby Jr. is actually like, ah, daddy going to work day. it growth Football for dummies, like, you know, get the water boy.
00:28:53
Speaker
But it actually is drawn up by dummies, though. It's not like football for dummies like teaches you, this is football by dummies. And that he bought the wrong book. That's the problem. He bought the wrong thing. If we do it backwards, would that work? All right, Scott. let's let's um Let's transition on as the Texans are you know looking to continue to blast off and play great football, though Houston of Rockets are playing great basketball, continuing to stay second in the West, fourth in the NBA.
Rockets' Trade and Free Agency Strategy
00:29:30
Speaker
And here we are, you know, less than now a month away or not, I'm not'm sorry, probably a month and a half away from the trade deadline. And you have to wonder, do you make a move or do you hold steady? Because I have, I have a list of pending NBA free agents. And that's kind of maybe the direction I would want to go. I don't want to blow up this whole team, but
00:29:50
Speaker
You know, Jimmy Butler is a free agent. James Harden is a free agent. Brandon Ingram is an incoming free agent. Julius Randall is going to be a free agent. Chris Middleton is going to be a free agent. Those are the kind of guys that I think you should be targeting, not the Kevin Durant's, not the trade multiple first round draft picks to go get somebody. Let's go get an expiring contract and let's try and win a title this year. If not, he walks and we still have the majority of our core for next year.
00:30:19
Speaker
Well, the, the two questions I had coming in, number one, uh, we saw Jabari Smith broke his hand. We seen the team absolutely, you know, not skip a beat since he's been out. Has your longterm, I guess prognosis for him changed your thought process around him change any? No. Cause I still think at best he's a good role player.
00:30:45
Speaker
But I think my thought process around A-Men Thompson has continued to change more and more so this season because he's the reason we haven't missed a beat, right? Like you plug in Dylan Brooks at the four instead of the three, you're basically getting a similar output points wise. You still get the same level of shooting from the four that you would get from Jabari. But now you're getting a second lockdown defender in A-Men and another creator and another guy who could feast and live in the paint. And you've now got again, a good,
00:31:16
Speaker
driving dish opportunity for the guys who are good shooters and Jalen Green and and um Fred Van Vliet and and Dylan Brooks off of the Amen Thompson playing in the wing and again, you know their defense all around Second question and this is more trade deadline. You know, we talked about the fact of having the assets to go after a player that suddenly things sour and And, you know, and, and where they're at. And we might have that player. Do you have any interest in deer and Fox?
00:31:55
Speaker
ah I don't, like I don't know. Just because I don't know where he fits on this roster. Well, the the traits proposal I saw now, this is a lot granted, but I saw somebody make a proposal of.
00:32:13
Speaker
Fred Van Vliet, Reed Shepherd, and Cam Whitmore, and picks for Fox and one of their forwards.
00:32:31
Speaker
Interesting. Now Fox, for those who are you know uninitiated, since you know nobody's really watching the Sacramento Kings these days, is averaging 26.5 points a game.
00:32:42
Speaker
about seven assists at their point guard. So, you know, you plug him in for Fred van Vliet. Um, I could see him running a really good two man game with, uh, sin goon. Um, now the question that we're limiting Jalen with that, right? Because I think yeah what Fred is willing to take a step back offensively and almost become more of a spot of shooter at times where De'Aaron Fox is not going to do that.
00:33:11
Speaker
He's not going to be, he's a ball dominant point guard or I, I honestly, with the way that this office is built with the name end tops and with the Jalen green, you need a guy like Derek Fisher, right? Yeah. guy Who's willing to just knock down open threes and play good defense. And when you need me to bring the ball up, I will, but I know Kobe's over there and Kobe wants to fucking ball in his hands. Yeah. the The negative, the negatives are what you basically point out and, and I don't, his, uh, three point percentage is around 33%.
00:33:41
Speaker
which is not helping this team because this team needs more three-point shooting. um But the advantages over the guys that have been mentioned, he's only 27 years old. So you'd be getting a guy in his prime. So that would be the one positive over all the other names that have been bandied about. But see, here's my other, and I was taking a look at the Fred Van Vliet contract. I don't know if you knew this, but next year is a player as ah a club option.
00:34:13
Speaker
Yeah, I did know that. Do you bring Van Vliet back?
00:34:20
Speaker
Probably not. Not at that price tag, right? But you don't have a point guard, because I think what we've realized, Amen is not a point guard. He's a forward. He's going to be a star in this league, but he's not a point guard, even though that's what he thought he was going to be when he drafted him.
00:34:36
Speaker
Do you maybe read is that guy maybe read is gonna be your point guard of the future and he becomes more of a floor spacer a spot-up shooter a defender I'm okay if that's what you're gonna try and sell me, but I need to see more of it before I decide to not bring fried back I think maybe they they work on maybe a two-year deal and And bring him back at maybe a reduced number if he likes being here, but I don't see him getting that same check net rockets Well, you're mentioning some of those other names of guys who are free agents. And so, you know, are you a better team if you subtract Fred van Vliet and then add one of those guys that you mentioned? I haven't mentioned any point guards though, right? Like well no for attract do you subtract Fred van Vliet and add James Harden? Are you a better team? Probably not. Um, are you a better team with Lonzo Ball at your point guard? Probably not.
00:35:34
Speaker
Um, are you a better team with Ben Simmons playing point guard? Probably not. Are you a better team? The only one you can maybe make an argument for, I think is Kyrie. Well, I don't want that. I don't want that ball dominant guard who needs to just play ISO ball. That's not the way this team is built. Well, you would have to, what you would have to do is have to say, read shepherd is our point guard. And he's that kind of point guard that you're envisioning where he's not running the two man game. He's spotting up and and nailing, you know, open shots.
00:36:04
Speaker
and kind of hoping he can do enough of the other things and then adding a player at another position that makes you better. And I'm okay with that, right? Like if you tell me that we brought in Julius Randall at power forward to pair next to Sengoon and that means we don't bring back Fred Van Vliet and Shepherds to starting point guard next year.
00:36:30
Speaker
That's a pretty strong front court, is it not? And then you've got your barry Smith coming off the bench. You've got, uh, Whitmore probably gets more minutes coming off the bench in that scenario as your, as your heat up guard, as your six man. Um, you know, that's a strong lineup right there. So I don't know, Scott, I I'm intrigued with that opportunity. But again, all these guys have options too, right? There's, there's very few pure free agents in the NBA. There's team options with player options. We have to see who ops in who ops out.
00:36:59
Speaker
i Just don't know if I'm willing to to sell the farm right now to go get a guy because this team is so young They need playoff experience period Even even if you wouldn't got LeBron James, this team's not going to the finals so why spend the money or or why spend the repertoire or why spend the the treasure trove of picks and talent that you have and to go get a guy who doesn't put you over the edge this year when your team needs to learn how to win in the playoffs period. And the only way to do that is being in the playoffs. To me, this is a learning year. It kind of sucks as a fan, knowing that like, you know, it is a learning year of playoff basketball, but you and I both know you got to learn how to play in the playoffs before you have a chance to go win. And you've got to have that seasoning before you bring in the guy. That's going to take you to that next level.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah. The, the one thing I want, and this is why, you know, that the only thing that really bugs me about a Fox deal. Cause I think you could learn to play with, you know, you could learn styles and all this, that and the other. And he's young enough to where you could sit there and say like, okay, we're not going to win this year. We know we're not going to win this year, but maybe, you know, we could design a system. I don't like the lack of three point shooting. You need a 40 point 40, 40% shooter somewhere.
00:38:23
Speaker
that you can put in the game. Because if you look at this team, that's the one thing that without Reed Shepard being a consistent shooter yet, you don't have. Ken Whitmore is streaky. Jalen Streakey. Brooks is streaky. Van Vliet is streaky. We don't have a consistent knockdown shooter. I don't disagree. That's why a guy like Chris Middleton intrigues me.
00:38:53
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know if, uh, I don't know if Milwaukee be willing to give him up, but, um, they moved into their bench. It'd be interesting to be able to bring a guy like that up, but again, his cap hit is, um, $31 million, dollars I think. So 34 million this year. And he's got the 31 this year, he's got a player option at 34 next year. So he's probably opting in. I would bet the bucks would maybe you want to get away from that.
00:39:21
Speaker
um yeah We'll see. you know We'll see what the rockets do. But adding adding some depth pieces, some fringe pieces, some shooters, I think that's the better way to go than than blowing this thing up. you know This is where Derimori would feast. Derimori wasn't looking to bring in the star player at the deadline. He was looking to complement the roster that's already there with maybe the the missing seasoning. And that's what this team needs. They're dying for three point shooting. They've been dying for three point shooting for three fucking years. Go get a shooter. Go get a shooter, Raphael. Yeah, I agree. All right. Is one tiny little bit of housekeeping or just maybe I guess staying on top of a prediction that
MLB Contract and Hall of Fame Speculation
00:40:07
Speaker
we made. There was a time, Scott, where the Astros made a pretty competitive offer.
00:40:14
Speaker
to what some would say is an aging third baseman. I bet 31 other teams are now saying an aging third baseman. We're all aging. Six years, $26 million dollars per year the offer was. And we were told that offer wasn't good enough. Not good enough, they said. Alex Bregman's still on sign. And now the rumor is he'd be willing to sign a three-year deal with opt-outs after the first and second year, which is exactly what I said was going to happen. He's going to get a Correa-type deal.
00:40:42
Speaker
After he turned down the Astros offerings gonna be right back out there again next season because Scott Boris didn't have time To give him the attention. He needed at the beginning a free agency because that was going to Juan Soto Did you see the team that might be joining into that fray? Who's that? You might be joining a teammate in Minnesota now, Chicago You can fit on the Cubs. They need a better baseman. We just got him Well, the Cubs basically, you know, has said that they, they can't go six, seven, eight years. They can go one or two, you know, and if that's, that's the situation. So they're basically waiting. Cause I've heard, I read the same thing. oh well I read the thing on, on a major league baseball trade rumors. And they said that he is not giving up the ghost yet on that long-term contract. But where are the suitors? That's, that's the problem that Boris has.
00:41:39
Speaker
that he doesn't, you know, I don't think he, I don't know if he cares or if he doesn't think about it, but all these teams are doing what the Astros do. You're not going to make a decision. I'm going to build my team. And now my team's built. Where am I going to put your guy? Where's the budget for your guy? And there's going to be fewer and fewer teams that ah have that available money because the Yankees The Yankees are going about building their team. They're going out and getting, you know, Devin Williams, they're going out and getting Cody Bellinger of trade. They're going out, you know, they signning ma free they're They're doing all these, they they went and got Paul Goldschmidt. So they're making these smaller moves. I missed that one. Yeah. Paul Goldschmidt's a Yankee. One year, 14 million. Okay. So, you know, you're, you're getting all these smaller guys.
00:42:31
Speaker
who are, you know, solid baseball players, max freeze more than solid. And there's no money left for your guy, because that's what they did. Instead of sending Soto to 700, whatever million, they went and signed about or acquired four or five guys for, you know, maybe half of that. Yeah, bill it's, it's a different world, Scott, like this isn't a rod anymore. We're,
00:43:01
Speaker
Teams have money and it doesn't matter what they spend because there's no luxury tax, right? Like when you when there's a competitive balance threshold. a CBT that you get tantalized for going over, everybody knows how much money they have to spend and everybody knows where they're at. And when you wait and wait and wait, there's not just going to be money that mysteriously shows up. The only thing that could happen is someone gets the Jeff Kent injury falling, you know, trying to ride a dirt bike, falling off the back of their truck and now they need somebody. That's the only thing that could save Alex Bregman at this point.
00:43:32
Speaker
Well, I don't even think it's the money ah difference. I think in on all deference, and and I apologize if if any either of these two guys are are listening, but there are no Ed Wades or Cam Boniface anymore. There are no idiots. Well, I'm not going to say there's no idiots, but there's fewer idiots in baseball. And so, you know, Boris can't do that whole, well, there's a mystery team that's offering him $300 million. dollars What are you going to do? These guys know how to count noses.
00:44:02
Speaker
They can look around the league, they can sit there and go, okay, who's got a third base opening? Oh shit, there's one or two teams. Who's got $200 million dollars lying around? Shit, that's no teams. All right, Scott, go ahead, sign with that team. And what do we notice? He isn't signed. And I guess the question is, because now he's probably going to sign that short term deal, is Scott Boris' agent next year?
00:44:30
Speaker
Again, you and I continue to ask the question if you're not Juan Soto if you're not the number one free agent of your class Why do you have Scott Boris as your free? Why why? Because all he does is put you in situations where you're gonna be unhappy you can go ask how Colorado is treating Chris Bryant because I think he's fucking miserable You can ask how a rod enjoyed playing in Arlington because I'm pretty sure as hot as balls in that ballpark And I'm pretty sure he could not wait to get out of there and go to the Yankees. the moment he had the person If you remember, he did change agents. huh A-Rod changed agents right in the middle of the contract. If you want to ask Matt Chapman how he feels about turning down all that money in Toronto.
00:45:17
Speaker
yeah where yeah got be He got a big time deal afterwards, but again, he he had to bet on himself. yeah And you know Alex Brightman turned out $26 million dollars a year for six fucking years.
00:45:29
Speaker
In a place that you already live that doesn't have a state income tax. How does Jordan Montgomery feel these days? hu How does Jordan Montgomery feel these days? Yeah, ah he fired his agent too. I mean, to me, it's, you know, and that's the other part of it is that I don't think, and of course, Boris doesn't give a shit. But, you know, think about the advantages that guys like like Walker have. Walker signed in December.
00:45:59
Speaker
He's got, you know, a full, you know, two months between when he signed and when spring training begins. That's two full months to find a place in Houston to kind of get settled. You know, maybe he starts his, you know, off season workouts, finds that, you know, a routine versus signing in like, say March 1st, when spring training's already started, you've missed the you know first two weeks. You're playing catch up, especially if you're an arm.
00:46:29
Speaker
You're really fucked. I mean, look what happened to Blake Snell. I mean, he had a nice second half, but he was, he was dog shit in the first half this year. Well, even to a lesser extent, look at Josh Hader, right? Like feeling comfortable in your home is important. And when you get there at the end of February and then spring training starts a week or two later, like That's a lot of pressure outside of the game of baseball that you're now facing. You know, regardless of what your job is, there's a work-life balance, Scott. I think you and I would both agree. And even as a Major League Baseball player, you have to find that work-life balance. And if you're home shopping and decorating that home and moving and getting your kids enrolled in school and also, hey, I got to get ready to pitch.
00:47:15
Speaker
That's a lot of stuff jammed into a two, three week period. So yeah, there is an advantage to getting signed early and Bregman has two young kids and Bregman is married. So it wouldn't surprise me to see the news that Scott Boris is out. You know, I wish.
00:47:30
Speaker
I wish agents were more honest with their clients because I think you and I would have told Alex Bregman at the beginning of this offseason, hey, it's not the market that you think it is. We're going to give you a competitive offer because we respect you and we want you to retire as an Astro. We're going to give you to the state. If you don't want to be here, hey, we get it. We appreciate the time. But at the end of the day, this offer is here till December 5th. Let us know.
00:47:58
Speaker
So I'm going to switch gears here because I got an article running on Friday on crawfish boxes. Um, so I'm going to give you a choice and I'm going to take Santander Santander. Uh, I can't even say that name. I'm going to take him off the board. I'm going to give you names of three lefty outfielders. And I want you to pick one and then I'll turn around and I'll do the same thing with right-handed outfielders.
00:48:28
Speaker
if you want to make a platoon partner. So I'll give you a choice between Jesse Winkler, Alex Verdugo, and Jason Hayward. Take Hayward. Assuming you get them at the price you want, because we're going to come in at different price points. I take Hayward.
00:48:52
Speaker
I think he meshed well with the guys. I think he gives you more um versatility. I think he's a better leader in the clubhouse than maybe what Verdugo offers. I think Verdugo offers a lot of the same defensive versatility that Hayward does. Maybe a little bit better bat, but he's going to cost more money and he's a little bit more volatile, um susceptible to some ups and downs. Yeah, I think defensively they're they're on par.
00:49:17
Speaker
Um, there was some rot and, and some of the Hayward numbers that kind of concerned me and he's, you know, 35 and he might be an old 35 considering I think he came up in the big leagues when he was like 19 or 20. Pretty sure he debuted at 19. So, I mean, he's an older 35. Um, I like Winkler a lot, uh, as a hitter, as a fielder, not so much. Uh, he's probably just a left fielder at this stage.
00:49:46
Speaker
Um, so if I were to throw some right-handed hitters at you, um, jerks and pro far is still available, but I'm gonna take him off the board because he's, I think considerably better and more expensive. So I'll give you Tommy fam, Mark Cana, or Randall Grootchick. Hmm. Probably Grootchick out of those. Cana is a little bit rundown. He's probably playing more first base than anything else at this point in his career.
00:50:16
Speaker
Um, Tommy fam, you either get. Uh, uh, uh, a bottle of energy who comes out of nowhere and has 300 for you. Or you get a guy who hits a buck 20 and strikes out all the time. Right? Like, I feel like when he signs, it's just such a roll of the dice. If he's going to be a fit in your clubhouse or not, he was also minus 10 fielding runs combined at all three spots. So that that's a bit rough. Uh, one thing I will say about group chick.
00:50:45
Speaker
And I don't know, and and he kind of flew underneath the radar cause I was looking at their splits. I think the Diamondbacks found something and what they found was we can't play this guy every day. We're going to play him mostly against lefty lefty and his OPS against lefties last year was like nine 30. So could you imagine bringing in like a, if you say we're going to rest on Hayward or winker.
00:51:15
Speaker
And we're going to bring in group check to play against just lefties. You know what that combined production could look like? Yeah, I'd be, I'd be on board for that. The only, I'm okay with a platoon situation. The only question with group check is going to be, cause I saw some, uh, prognosticators say that he's going to get $10 million. dollars That's way too much money for a guy that's strictly playing against lefties.
00:51:44
Speaker
But if you were willing to take like three or 4 million, I'd be all over that. Uh, and the, and the same thing you can, if you could get like, say Hayward and grew chick for a combined 10 million dollars, would you do that? Yeah, absolutely. Any day of the week. Cause then, you know, you got Chaz starting at the other spot and if Chaz completely falls off the table, you got, um, I was looking at Shay Wickham's numbers.
00:52:14
Speaker
Um, his expected weighted on base average was actually 342, which is better than what L2 base was last year. His actual weighted on base average was under 300. So he has, he ran into some some badted bad, uh, bad, bad at ball luck, where if you had him as a, you know, right-handed against lefty option guy on your bench.
00:52:41
Speaker
yeah You know, I could see them sitting there saying, you know what? No to Grichik. We're going to use Wickham in that role. And I actually might be OK with that, too, if you know if you want to go in a different direction. But they they're going to have to bring in a left hand at that. Yeah, i just I don't disagree with that at all, Scott. I think that's that's right on par with with what's needed and where we're at at this point. Because well this isn't a complete roster.
00:53:10
Speaker
this is a This is a, a need at this point. Yeah. I got a friend of mine who also writes for crawfish boxes. He wrote a piece today with some similar names and similar ideas, but basically projected 80% of our at bats are going to come from right-handed hitters where last year we were above the league average and we were at 68% and above the league average. So being predominantly right-handed hitting team because you traded Tucker.
00:53:41
Speaker
And, you know, that's, yeah. Let's, let's shift gears real quickly. Scott, the first timers are out for the hall of fame ballot. Um, a lot of, I think very good, but nothing, you know, a couple guys that I think may have some opportunities, but you know, there's a lot of guys, I think you're going to fall just short here. Um, of maybe even staying on the ballot long-term for major league baseball. yeah Okay.
00:54:12
Speaker
You know guys to me like Troy Chula whiskey very good He's probably gonna fall off Ian Kinsler pretty good gonna fall off Handley Ramirez was good. He's gonna fall off Adam Jones gonna fall off Carlos Gonzalez gonna fall off Fernando Rodney shouldn't be there in the first place um Dustin Pedroia might hang around a little bit, but I don't think he has the staying power and He just didn't stay healthy long enough at the end of the day. I think each row should be in yeah, you can argue with me on CC I think he should be in and I think Felix Hernandez should probably be in as well. I'm Maybe not first ballot though on Felix. I'm not sure on Felix. I know you're not we've we've had that one before but So you see I agree with you each row. I think anybody that argues against each rows an idiot
00:55:12
Speaker
Uh, each row should be first ballot. Well, each row, cause this is the argument that I, uh, the argument that I made. It's the baseball hall of fame. It's not the major league baseball hall of fame. So do you consider combined contributions? You know, from, but you don't even have to, he's got 3000 major league baseball, first ballot hall of famer. If you don't touch Japan, stop at all.
00:55:39
Speaker
Well, I'm about to, I'm about to hit a guy in my next article on, on the Hall of Fame index. Um, a guy that might surprise you, uh, Robinson Canel. Um, did you see a lot in the foreign world? That's for sure. Yeah. I was like, have you see what he numbers he put up last year? Yeah. And Mexico, he, he mashed. He was like four 30. I mean, that those are cartoon numbers, but he's not going to play it majorly baseball again.
00:56:09
Speaker
So, you know, see a guy that hangs around kind of like Julio Franco, or he just keeps playing, you know, you mentioned those guys, um, two Lewicki and Pedroia are almost, you know, the same player guys. If you had two more years, I'd go, yes, but they just didn't. Kinslers close a different kind of guy. Um,
00:56:37
Speaker
I don't particularly, Adam Jones doesn't really do much for me. Um, Fernando, yeah, Fernando Rodney, is that the one name was on there? He doesn't do much for me. Um, yeah, I don't know why he's on the ballot. Uh, the guy, and ah another guy that was on the ballot last year that only got 28%. What do you think of Chase Utley? Chase Utley? Yeah.
00:57:05
Speaker
ah I think he's just short of a Hall of Famer for me. Yes, I have him in, but that's you know, that's me. I'm very similar. He's kind of a kind of a Bobby Grich kind of player. Doesn't have the counting numbers, but. con Fielding and hitting combined, he's you know, he's a a good player, but 28%. I don't know if he's going to gain enough traction to get in. Do you think Billy gets in this year?
00:57:36
Speaker
If he doesn't, we riot. I have a, you know, closers, I have a hard time with, to be honest with you. ah But if you're going to have closers as a separate category, I don't see how you don't put them in. I'm with you, Scott. We'll keep an eye on it. We'll pay close attention, but let's move on. It's time to give out some awards, Scott. Who do you have this week?
00:58:01
Speaker
for your horse's ass. Okay. Horse's ass. When we started this show and this guy actually might be the bigger award, but we started off with the premise that the horse's ass was going to be somebody from the sports world. Okay. So another favorite movie, I think of both of ours. yeah We, we quote major league in this, in this show quite often. Uh, you're a big bull Durham fan as well. Right, Tim? I love it. So,
00:58:30
Speaker
When Crash Davis walks into the office and he finds out he's been back in A-ball and they tell him that nuclear leaders could go all the way and he asks, where can I go? What was their answer, Tim? I can't remember. You can keep going to the ballpark and keep getting paid to do it. Oh yeah. Yeah. So my horse's ass is one Deontay Johnson. So Deontay Johnson,
00:58:59
Speaker
Because we were talking earlier in the show, hey, we need somebody to step up this week. It's not going to be Deontay Johnson because your Houston Texans waved him earlier this week. And reportedly, why did they wave him to him? Because reports are that in the locker room when everybody else was celebrating a hard earned victory over the Chargers, he was sitting in the corner pouting like a little girl because he only got a few snaps and only got one catch.
00:59:31
Speaker
It's like, read the room, dude. What team do you think you're gonna go on? In December? That they're just gonna say, oh yeah, yeah, it's just, start for us and and lead the team at targets here. Go ahead, just, you don't know our playbook, but that's okay. Get on the field and just, you know, run around and we'll throw you the, what the fuck does he think? Anybody who joins a team in December you're going to be in a supportive role. Because number one, by definition, it's after the trade deadline. So you're you are available because another team lets you go. And then also there's no way that you can learn an offense in the span of a week. It's just not possible. And this team already has a Pro Bowl caliber wide receiver in Nico Collins.
01:00:30
Speaker
So where are the targets going to come from, Deontay? And again, who the fuck do you think you are? Now, what you could have done is you could have gone on the field in some select packages. You could have maybe played 15, 20 plays in the cheese game. Maybe you could have made two or three catches. Maybe one of them is a touchdown that wins you the game and you're a hero. But no, I got to pout. I got to make it all about me.
01:00:59
Speaker
So I don't know if you saw this, the Ravens signed him again. No, Jesus. But he's not going to play for them in the postseason. So I'm not even sure why they did that because he's going to be a free agent. So, you know, what the hell, but maybe getting him in the building, maybe they can talk to him and convince him to behave. I don't know. Uh, that, that move kind of mystifies me, but I mean, I don't know about you Tim, but if somebody pays me league minimum,
01:01:30
Speaker
You can let me sit the bitch the entire game. I don't give a shit. League minimum's more than I'm getting paid right now. Or, let's even take it the fucking opposite, because I agree with you and I have him in the horses ass category as well this week.
01:01:46
Speaker
You look at it and they've only got one good wide receiver. Everybody knows it's going to Nico Collins. If I just show up, learn the fucking playbook, I can make plays. The ball can come to me because there's nowhere else for it to go because Nico's gonna have triple fucking coverage. So all I gotta do is shut up.
01:02:04
Speaker
Not be a malcontent learn the playbook and get open and do what I'm supposed to do and make fucking plays And instead you bitch and now you're out of a job. I i couldn't agree with you more Scott This is the definition of horses ass like this is it. This is why this award was created was for shit like this because Who's pissed in a playoff win?
01:02:26
Speaker
Like and also his one catch was a big catch because it got it back it got us back into field goal territory Like you could even hang your hat on the fact that like I don't know the playbook and I had a pretty big catch that got us back into field goal territory After a series of false arts sacks holds whatever that made it like second and 40 Well, and the other thing too, you know, if you look at it from a personal angle He's going to be a free agent What is the biggest question about Deontay Jones?
01:02:55
Speaker
Can you not be a malcontent? Well, he filled that test miserably. Yeah, you could not have made. ah I guess not even like you've cost yourself so much money this year, right? Like you had a chance to go to Carolina, be Bryce Young's number one ride receiver, help him get off the ground as a young quarterback. I don't know if you noticed when Carolina turned things around Scott, but it was pretty much after Deontay Johnson got the fuck out of town. You go to.
01:03:25
Speaker
The Ravens, you know, all you got to do is play your role, get open, make a few plays a game. Couldn't do that because you had to run block too much. You come to the Texans where they're receiving cores decimated. All you have to do is learn the playbook and you can make plays. You can't do that. You bitch. You're out.
01:03:42
Speaker
And, you know, the only thing I can think of is the Raven signed them in case the Texans win and they win and they get some side of inside information off of Deontay Johnson. That's the only thing I can think of. But he doesn't have a playbook. That's a fair point. He doesn't have a playbook. I can't help it, coach. But if you want to know what was in the vending machine, I can tell you. release that item They had a really nice post-season post-game spread, coach. You know what I did get?
01:04:12
Speaker
Coach Harbaugh, I know you wanted me to grab the playbook, but what I accidentally grabbed was the Texans brisket recipe. So what we can do, have a really great develop coach I grabbed the cookbook coach. I didn't grab the playbook, but we're going to be eating good tonight with some real Texas barbecue. Oh my goodness. All right. So who who you got? I am going to go with a more hypothetical one since you got the best horses ass of the week.
01:04:41
Speaker
I traveled for business this week, and um I don't know about you, Scott, but I can't stand the people who the moment it lands, the plane lands, it's time to stand up. I was in the back back porch of the plane because to me, the aisle seat is more important than being further up on the plane, right? So I'm willing to sit a little bit further back if I get the aisle where I can hang my legs out every now and then.
01:05:10
Speaker
but That means it's going to take a minute to get off the plane. So I'm going to sit in my seat and go to let everybody go and then I'm going to get my thing. Well, I now had 25 minutes of somebody's ass just right here, right here, because he needed to stand up and wait the entire time. And because there's some old people on this plane, they need assistance getting off. So it literally took 25 minutes and this guy's ass was just like right here the whole fucking time. Like,
01:05:39
Speaker
Understand how planes work. Understand how help people get off. And you know what? I think I solved the situation. Planes need a Catholic, usher, Eucharistic time situation. You need to have row by row.
01:05:56
Speaker
Okay, this row right here, you may come. Let's take it back one row. You may come. That's what we, what are the the flight attendants need to under, go to one bass, get a little training from the ushers and then understand how to properly get people off this plane. Yeah. Yeah. And if you need to, you can do this. if If you have some luggage that's further back on a carry-on, just throw one of these over. So we know we need to let some people out before you can get to your carry-on.
01:06:24
Speaker
But you know if if if an usher can get an entire fucking section through Eucharist and back in their seats in less than six minutes, what are we doing? I don't know. I don't know, Tim. I've wondered the same thing myself. Also, here's my other question. Why do you sell luggage in an airport? If you're tired of carrying one around, you need something with wheels.
01:06:50
Speaker
I mean, but you've already, you've had to check your luggage, you know, to get to the stores that have luggage. No, it's carry on to carry on. Yeah. I mean, I guess, but, but, you know, why would, why would you buy like a big, huge you know luggage thing when you can't carry that on? I wonder if you could ship it. I mean, you'd have to be able to ship it straight to your house would be my guess. I don't know. That's a good question though. A lot of the,
01:07:15
Speaker
There's like Ralph Lauren and all this other stuff. Like who's doing massive amounts of clothes shopping inside an airport before you're about to be on a plane? Yeah, I can see a little carry-on bag. I could see that making sense. Like if you had a carry-on that was just a piece of shit and you're like, you know what? That guy's got a nice one with wheels. I got an hour and a half. I'm going to buy this. But you also know you're paying a premium, right? Like you can get that bag cheaper anywhere else. That's not in an airport. Exactly.
01:07:45
Speaker
All right, Scott, let's tip a cap. I think you and I, um, we're going to be in unison on one together, and then we're each going to have our own hat tip this week.
Texans' Defensive Coaching Praise
01:07:54
Speaker
You want to introduce our combined hat tip? Absolutely. Um, we, there's lots of players that had great plays in that game, but it's time. And and and this is what kills me. Uh, how many times do we hear how much of a genius Sean McVeigh is or Kyle Shanahan?
01:08:16
Speaker
Nobody's, you know, very few people are calling these defensive coordinators geniuses. Well, I happen to think that D'Amico Ryans and Matt Burke and the whole defensive staff came up with just an absolutely tremendous game plan, again, against your Los Angeles Chargers. And it's time for the football world, instead of saying that, you know, Justin Herbert's a fraud, he's not, you know, elite.
01:08:44
Speaker
Can we tip our cap to the coaching staff that came up with the game plan against that guy? It's high time. I mean, and and he's dealt with injuries all season long. I mean, Will Anderson missed a couple of games. We know Laster missed, you know, a few games. We know that Shires missed a few games. We know that Christian Harris was, you know, AWOL until December. Yet this guy finds a way.
01:09:15
Speaker
to make life miserable for offenses almost universally throughout the season. There's only been a couple of games where I could sit there and say that the defense did not play well. And that's pretty remarkable in an 18 game schedule if you count the wildcard game. It's been an unbelievable season to watch defensively. You know, the the plug and play aspects that you've mentioned, the slew of quarterbacks having their worst start of the year, if not career, against the Texans has been unbelievable. Watching Stingley become the guy that we were told he has the potential to become. That never happens with Lovey Smith if he's there two, three years later, right? Because Lovey doesn't understand how to use a guy like Devens, sorry, how to use Stingley. um Watching Lasseter become a lockdown fucking corner in his rookie year
01:10:13
Speaker
Again, credit to the defensive staff for putting these young guys in positions to make plays early in the season, that their confidence grew to right now. They're not rookies anymore, right? Bullock's not a rookie out there. That's just ah a playmaker in the back end. Lassiter's not out there as a rookie. That's a playmaker on the outside.
01:10:32
Speaker
These guys have done such a great job schematically to bring heat on every single quarterback, every single week, that they're just putting their defensive backs in and great position. This is the playoffs. Everybody knew um what was coming, and yet we still out-skeened a guy that everybody assumes is just one of the best coaches in the NFL, and in in Jim Harbaugh. Well, and let's bring in another name into this.
01:11:01
Speaker
Uh, Nick Casario deserves a part of this hat tip as well, because to me, as soon as D'Amico entered the building, he, you know, he. Put his ego aside and said, I'm going to work with this guy. Cause let's look at all the defensive draft picks this team has had. So you mentioned last year, what about Kalen Bullock? I said, bull oh, five, five picks. And so, and then bringing in Al Shair bringing in Daniel Hunter.
01:11:29
Speaker
Because I guarantee you, D'Amico Rhys is in a room with him and saying, I want this guy, I want this guy, I want this guy, and Cassario made it happen. So these these are two guys that are putting their heads together, finding the right guys for D'Amico's system. Absolutely, Scott. I think the whole front office staff has done a great job.
01:11:53
Speaker
For the most part, we'll take the anti Johnson out of that. But again, that was a need. He was a talent that was there. And it was it was a roll of the dice. And what tipped the cap to them for cutting, cutting quickly. Right. Like if you're going to be like that, there's no room for it. So, um, every, pretty much every coach except Bobby slow, it gets a hat tip from me this week because the special teams play was phenomenal. We still haven't mentioned the fact that there was a blocked punt and a blocked extra point return for a two point conversion.
01:12:20
Speaker
where Dicker the kicker got absolutely fucking leveled. his ah his His decision to like protect himself and smack the ball away instead of just grabbing it and he still got fucking trucked afterwards. So that would be Frank Ross, your defensive, your special teams coordinator there, Frank Ross. He had a great game. He had a great game. I'm going to tip my cap. I know I just said he got out schemed, but ah Jim Harbaugh in his postgame comments, Scott, I don't think could have been more complimentary to the Houston Texans and more just straight up admitting like, I didn't think they were going to do this. And they did, which is interesting to think that you're going to underestimate a team in the playoffs. However, he e made no excuses. he He said that that was the best pass for us that they've seen all season. Anytime they tried to get him to to you know say something negative about his team, he turned it back around and said,
01:13:15
Speaker
I got out schemed. D'Amico did a better job than I did. I tipped my cap to a really good team over there at the Houston Texans. And so I tipped my cap to Jim for being able to to handle that line of pressure, to handle that line of questioning and, and you know, take the routes that he took, which is the high road and say, you know what, I got beat today. That coach did a fantastic job. Go Texans. And that's a team, you know, it's a team, you know, he was basically living on borrowed money. I mean, they were,
01:13:43
Speaker
I don't think anybody really expected the Chargers to win 11 games this year. So, I mean, you know, good on him, you know, forgetting to turning the team around in one year with basically no established wide receivers to speak of. And one thing that I think that Andy Reed has noticed that, you know, maybe Harbaugh didn't, this team is on defense is fast. I mean, there's just a ton of team speed there.
01:14:15
Speaker
There is. But on a side note, if I told you there's a football player laid named Lad McConkey, I got to think wide receivers, the last position you think that guy would play. Like I'm thinking linebacker, some like defensive tackle, somebody's banging his face. Maybe special teams may then, you know, some gunner. Lad McConkey has a special teams gunner would be an interesting, uh, interesting name. All right, Scott, who's your, who's your final tip? So we mentioned them.
01:14:41
Speaker
Uh, and we didn't talk much about him because I knew it was going to bring him up again, Derek Stanley. So think about let's trace this guy's career. he He basically missed most of his last season in college. The Texans pick him anyway, third overall, which is higher than you normally take a quarter. I mean, let's be, uh, let's be Frank. And then soft gardener just taken immediately after him. Soft gardener goes on, I think to win the defensive, uh, rookie of the year award that year.
01:15:11
Speaker
And, you know, everybody's saying, Oh, you know, the Texans should have picked Gardner. What's he done in the two year sets last year? I think he should have been a pro bowler this year. He is a pro bowler and he's first team all pro. And so basically he's a guy with all the talent in the world. And he's lived up to it.
01:15:30
Speaker
How many times do we honestly see that, Tim? How many times do we see a guy come in who everybody's saying, this guy is the most talented guy on the field, and then the guy actually comes through and proves it? It's pretty rare. And it's rare at the cornerback position, too, right? And especially to have not a great first year and still continue to be that guy in year two and year three and get better and better, it's it's absolutely rare. So a sting was a great choice there.
01:16:00
Speaker
Two interceptions on Saturday. i mean and And the second one was just absolutely one we've seen all year long. And we mentioned you know very briefly, do we want to see this guy on offense? Because you know he plays the ball better than most wide receivers. Yeah, he's and he's great with a ball in his hands, too. So good choice, Scott. Let's move it on. Scumbag of the week, what do you have for us?
Critique of Amazon Prime's NFL Coverage
01:16:23
Speaker
All right, so this is sports related. Actually, on both counts.
01:16:29
Speaker
So Janet had a birthday on Sunday, you know, happy birthday to her. Um, and so I was going to do something nice for her. I wanted her to have some things from her automater. So I went on Amazon and I ordered myself a two lane sweatshirt for her and a two lane blanket. Now, unfortunately, the two lane blanket arrived after her birthday. You know, well, thanks Amazon. That wasn't very helpful, but,
01:16:57
Speaker
yeah it' and Saturday before the Sunday, here comes the sweatshirt. Okay, we're opening up. It's green. We're like, okay, this is great. And we look on it. Why is there a dragon on it? Wait a minute. Why does it say UAB? And so to make a long story short, you know, I ordered a two-lane sweatshirt and somehow I Somehow they had switched it to UAB. I was like, okay, stuff happens, right? So we go I will go in to you know just do a return. Amazon does returns fairly easily. And I was able to go to the UPS store and return the sweatshirt. um But I go in to order another two-lane sweatshirt. And this time I catch it whenever they go from ordering it to the shopping cart
01:17:54
Speaker
to completing the order, it has already switched from Tulane to UAB. And I'm like, what the hell? I don't know. But to bring this back to the sports world, the NFL, for God love them, they wanted to do a playoff game on Amazon Prime. So they made the Sunday night game or the Saturday night game between the Ravens and the Steelers their Amazon Prime game.
01:18:24
Speaker
So, you know, you know, pretty geeked up wanted to watch some football, especially after the Texans have whipped up on the Chargers like, okay, I'm getting into this now. So let's going to see what happens. Flip it on. and And we've watched games on Amazon all the time. And so I'm assuming this is because of higher watch volume. Turn it on. I could see the game. There's like a little preview screen before it goes into the game.
01:18:54
Speaker
I could see the game being played. Click on the watch and you get that spinning wheel.
01:19:08
Speaker
Spends for like five minutes. So I was like, okay, let me see if I switch to the other feeds. Like maybe, maybe like the, the other feed maybe doesn't have as many people watching the alternate version. So do on that one.
01:19:24
Speaker
Five minutes, nope. So then I was like, okay, we'll try the preview screen. At least I have a fourth of my TV on the game. So I turned it on that. And of course the preview screen doesn't let you watch that for very long. So I'm able to watch like maybe five minutes at a time and turns it off and it's right. Okay, damn it. Yeah. So.
01:19:49
Speaker
Get Tim back here as I was telling the tell them i' turn down Amazon Prime for the game I don't know if you watched the Sunday night Saturday night game between the Steelers and the Ravens I Watched it enough to know I didn't need to watch much more, but I got the spinning circle white circle dot for five minutes and It never loaded. I went to the alternate version Never load it. I was able to see that preview. You know how you get like the preview like yeah I was able to watch that, but then it cuts off after about three or four minutes and stops. And so finally we watched some health kitchen, I think, cause it's like, you know, damn it, we just can't, I can't watch anymore. Um, so Jeff Bezos, thanks a lot. You know, and and NFL, your secondary scumbag, thanks for giving it to Amazon prime so that I couldn't watch that game. Well, I'm going to necessarily piggyback, but, um, the NFL is my scumbag this week, Scott.
01:20:49
Speaker
What is the only thing that could take the Kansas city chiefs out of prime time? That's your Houston Texans, because we have to play Saturday at 330 the NFL. And I'm convinced that they just don't like football in the league office, because not only that they're now talking about.
01:21:09
Speaker
Well, we need to reseed the playoffs. You know, if you're a higher, you know, if you're a better wrecker than the team that won the division, you should get the home game. yeah Who the fuck cares every now and then you have a weird year where you've got some good wildcard teams. It happens, but you know what? There's a, there's a benefit for winning your division and that's our first home game in the playoffs. That doesn't need to change. It's been that way for years. You and I have talked about, uh, with, with Rob Manfred, you know, one of the,
01:21:36
Speaker
Aspects of being a league commissioner should be that you love the sport And I'm convinced Roger Goodell doesn't love the sport because we did all the fans would be able to watch the game They wouldn't be putting them on Netflix and they wouldn't be putting them on Amazon Prime and they wouldn't be putting them on Paramount Plus and there wouldn't be Spongebob Squarepants running down the sideline instead of the actual player like we just have really good quality football and Instead you have gimmicks you have three games at 11 days which leads to fucking slop and injuries on the field you have multiple channels that you have to subscribe to to be able to even see the games at this point you've got um Terrible rules and rules changes every single year. It's you know, what do we have to look forward to this offseason? What's Roger Goodell gonna change this year like back off man?
01:22:25
Speaker
Like football is football. We know what we're getting into. Baseball was baseball. We knew what we we're getting into. Let the game play. Let it play out. You don't have to recede. You don't have to change everything. You don't have to give the Chiefs a ref, but there's six and O with this, this season and the playoffs to make sure there's seven and O, right? Like fuck, man. It's so transparent. You want to see, you want to, who deserves to be pissed off. I'll tell you, he deserves to be pissed off.
NFL Scheduling and Playoff Format Debate
01:22:52
Speaker
Think about the Rams.
01:22:53
Speaker
They just finished playing a game on Monday night where they've been displaced out of their homes, right? So they're going to have to travel across the country and find some place to practice because they can't practice in LA. So they come off of a Monday night. They're playing on Saturday town. How does that make sense? It doesn't, it doesn't make sense.
01:23:17
Speaker
And in the AFC South, whoever is the champion of the AFC South is going to get that Saturday afternoon game every year. It doesn't matter. And, and I get it. The Ravens bills is a more marquee matchup. I got that. But you can't tell me that Texans chiefs is any less than what is it? Commanders, is it commanders lions or so? Yeah.
01:23:47
Speaker
No, no, no, it's Rams Lions commanders Eagles commanders. Oh, you're right. You're right But you're you gonna tell me that the Texans Chiefs is less than commanders Eagles Good you know the commanders were the wild card so they'd be playing the the Lions and then the Eagles would be playing the Rams but either way you're right like the Eagles aren't necessarily like a fun watch like they're kind of a boring team They run the puck on the football because they've got the best running back in the league and a quarterback who runs I guess they want to see, you know Want to see Tay Tay in the daytime? Is that you know what? We're she her eyes are sparkle her eyes sparkle Scott Is that what we're talking about? I don't know. It's but it's just dumb. It's just
01:24:38
Speaker
I don't know. Every year it's something, you know, if we're going to be starting to reseed in the playoffs, like what's the point? What's the point of winning your division? Right? division Division games matter. Winning your division matters. Some years you have, you know, the AFC West with three playoff teams. Some years it's it's the AFC East or some years it's the NFC West. You know, things change. Teams rise and tides rise and fall in America. um And it's just silly to change everything because one year you had three teams with better records being on the road. Okay, win your division. End of story. Win your division. We won ours. Doesn't matter, Brian. AFC South champion.
01:25:22
Speaker
That'll never get old. Yes. And you even talk about a guy who lost himself a lot of money in the last two weeks is Sam Darnold. Oh, yeah, for sure. All right, Tim.
01:25:36
Speaker
That's going to do it for us here this week, Scott. We appreciate everybody who came, who joined us, who was a part of the program, who made us a part of their week. Cause it's been a fun one. Let's hope the Texans pull off another miracle that shocked the world. Um, I'd love to see it. I wouldn't put any money on it, but I'd love to see it. Absolutely. All right. Be sure to check out the sub stack thoughts of a native Texan. Join us next week. Same bad times, same bad channel here. I'm born on the buy you sports.