It was a bad loss for the Texans on Thursday Night Football against the Jets. But there were some positives. In The Loop goes through the silver linings.
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00:00Let's try and find a little positivity within this with the silver linings, if there were any,
00:04and shout out to the 281 who says no, none, none, no silver linings. I think there were some,
00:10I think there were some. So let's see if we can find some positivity within this. I'm not gonna
00:15lie. I'll come back around to my rabbit hole. We'll do that in the next segment because I don't want
00:19to take away from the positivity here. Can I go first? Can I steal first here? I don't know if
00:24we're necessarily going to go, you go, I go. I don't know if that's how it is, but I'm just
00:27going to go first. Okay, cool. Can I start with the man in this particular play that everybody
00:34was wondering, can he step up to the plate? And he sure as hell did. First down Texans from their
00:4126, down 4, 1249 to go in the fourth quarter. Here's CJ Stroud under center with two receivers
00:47left, one to the right, Joe Mixon in the backfield. Stroud fakes the give, steps out to the left,
00:53squares up, throws deep down the left sideline. Tank Dell with the catch inside the 25-yard line
00:59at the 24. And just like that, here come the Texans. Yeah, it felt like that was going to be,
01:06it felt like that was going to be a catalyst. Where they at? Where they at? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:10That, although I will say, you can hear the energy there. That was your five-hour energy,
01:14high energy play of the game. Five-hour energy, the official energy shot of Sports Radio 610
01:19and Football Superfans. Tank Dell, man. 50. What, 50 on that one? 50 yards right there. And I mean,
01:24that wasn't the entirety of his receiving. 126 yards on six receptions. Did not get into the
01:31end zone, but not very many people did in this game. But yeah, like Tank Dell, the idea of can
01:37he be that high, low where he can in a day where I don't think this team looked very good past the
01:42football. CJ Stroud completed 36% of his passes, but he damn sure completed them to Tank Dell.
01:47Yeah, and missed some to Tank Dell. There were nine targets and I don't think Tank necessarily,
01:52unless I'm forgetting one, like had a drop per se. I think it was just misses. No, that is a
01:57true silver lining. Nico Collins is coming back. We're not saying there's going to be a magic
02:01elixir for the Texans' issues, which we know now run very deep. But I think it's a good thing to
02:08have Tank, you know, stepping up like that. Yeah, and in a game where I was worried about, okay,
02:13if he's the only option that is like, that's tried and true, and that maybe is trusted,
02:18will the Jets be able to take him out of it? And the answer was no, right? They were not able to
02:22take him out of the game. Now, you didn't, you didn't cover yourself with glory all the way
02:25around. But they weren't able to take him out of the game. I thought that was a silver lining.
02:29I got a question for you on a silver lining that I think it is, but I could certainly hear the
02:34argument against it after the way the game ended. And I know there was some Jalen Petrie debacles,
02:40two in particular, et cetera. But I felt like especially early on,
02:45the Texans' success against an opposing quarterback was still there. The secondary
02:49was early on. And I know in the second half, Aaron Rodgers was really just, you know,
02:54using that big brain of his and picking you apart and taking advantage of some advantages.
03:00But he was out of sorts. He was turned out of sorts by some of the things the Texans were doing
03:04in the second half. But then it just flipped in the second half. I don't know, man. There was
03:08quite a few times where you saw D'Amico Ryans and this defense bring five and not get pressure.
03:14Now, I'm talking about like just a success passing. Well, even that, when I talk about
03:20chickens coming to home to roost, this is one of the ones I forgot to make note of.
03:24How many times have we looked at this secondary and been like, oh, they're getting away with it.
03:28And it was to a point where it was happening a lot. And you were like, well, maybe they just,
03:31maybe this is something that they do. And obviously some of that you give credit to
03:35the defensive line getting back there. And that's why I brought up pressure. But it was like,
03:39even the first half, I was like, oh, there's got to be bad juju. Aaron Rodgers had a shot to Devontae
03:44Adams that hit him in the hands that he dropped. And I was like, okay, so these guys just have
03:47some level of like Lasseter, I think. No, that one was on sting. On the right side. On the right
03:53side. There was another one of Lasseter. There was one over Lasseter's head as well that got
03:56dropped. Like I was like, okay, so guys just drop deep shots on this team. And then the second half
04:00happened. I was like, okay, maybe not. Maybe that is one of those chickens that come home to roost.
04:04So I don't know if I can fully go to that place. But they've had such success, especially at home
04:08against opposing quarterbacks playing under what their normal standards are. I thought early on,
04:13they were pretty good. And then of course it unraveled. And they definitely, it was weird
04:16because this Jets team does, they have the lowest quarterback pressure rate of any team in the
04:22league. And so you didn't get that pressure that you typically get where you collapse the pocket
04:27and make it tough on the quarterback. But you did get a couple of sacks still. And I would like to
04:30give that man, that is a silver lining. Danico Autry is here. He's one of mine, right? He needed
04:35to warm up a little bit, right? We were hoping, oh, he's back from intramural reserve. It's going
04:38to turn up. Yeah, maybe not. Needed to get the rhythm of the game. But when he got in there,
04:43like actually applying pressure, it was good. And I think it was also really necessary because you
04:48lose Will Anderson for a point during this game. And they keep going like, just push him outside.
04:54That even works even better because it felt like you were having a little bit of a tough time
04:57finding the place to speak to another silver lining. I mean, we thought Mario Edwards when he,
05:04when he was suspended, okay, well, you know, that's, that's going to be a hit. Tim Settle
05:07just keeps playing, man. He makes some good plays in there. Yeah. Even while being entirely like
05:12double team, he just knifed, he put his helmet down on that one tackle for loss and just threw
05:17his body back there. Torpedo in there and got a tackle for loss. Yeah. Tim Settle has thoroughly
05:23impressed me this year. Not that he needed to impress me personally, but he's been doing the
05:27damn thing. And so Tim Settle definitely has been a silver lining in this. One of the silver
05:31linings that's come up a ton, especially considering how poorly the offensive line showed.
05:34CJ Stroud is still healthy. Is that the best we can do? Is it not? Like, I mean, seeing,
05:42maybe it is. Seeing the way that Quendon Williams was out here whooping people's keisters. Yes.
05:47The fact that CJ Stroud walked out of this game on his two legs is a level of silver lining. And
05:51I hate to have to say that. Any other silver linings for you that you'd like? Well, we've
05:55forgotten the most obvious one, and that is Kirk Herbstreet said this during the game.
06:00Kirk Herbstreet, silver lining for you. No, no, no. My bad. My bad. My bad. And I thought,
06:04you know what he is? He called Joe Mixon an all pro. Yes. And I'm like, yes, I'll be damned. He
06:10might be an all pro. And you know what Joe Mixon, or not Joe Mixon. Now I'm just switching these
06:14guys. Yeah. Joe Mixon on the broadcast said about Kirk Herbstreet. No, Kirk Herbstreet literally
06:19said the thing out loud. Like he said the quiet part out loud. No. Joe, Joe Mixon is out here,
06:24you know, getting yards, whether it's blocked up or not. Yeah. Yeah. He got another, another
06:29century mark. Now, of course he had 91 of those in the first half and then he ended up on 106.
06:34Right. Like the second half. That's tough. But the idea that again, this is where things are,
06:41but he just took or by crook. A bad dude. And by the way, I think you, you will get as much
06:47pleasure out of this as I did right now. Today, the games haven't been played on the weekend yet,
06:51but right now, right now today you missed them. Uh, four of the NFL's top five rushing leaders.
06:58And that doesn't figure to change this weekend. Uh, four of the NFL's top five rushing leaders
07:02are on new teams. Three of them were free agents. So the, the era of the running back and I, you
07:08know, uh, you can't give them another contract. Uh, you know, the risk reward isn't there for
07:13acquiring a proven running back. Well, Derek Henry, Saquon Barkley, and Joe Mixon are the
07:18top three yards per game rushers in the NFL. Another, uh, sub, uh, silver lining with Joe
07:24Mixon is that we learned that you probably should not have him play quarterback.
07:27I know we did. We did. We learned something. I mean, he didn't look bad. I just think the
07:33problem with that play was the play, you know, you're, you're desperate. It's a sign of desperation.
07:37You're spit balling. No, I'm, I'm, I'm never blaming the non quarterback when the trick play
07:42gets called, because you know why I've been a wide receiver and I didn't know high level,
07:45right? High school or whatever. But when that trick Blake play gets called for you, especially
07:49like as a receiver, I'm throwing the football, right? If he's covered, I'm not throwing the ball
07:54away. What do you think? I am a quarterback where I'm going to have another down. This is my shot.
07:57Yeah. We don't call these off and I'm throwing a football. Right. So I'm not actually going to
08:00blame him there, but yeah, that was my cheeky way of getting back around to reminding us that. Yeah.
08:05Even, even with Joe Mixon having a great game, really stupid play call. That's the call. It's
08:09the call more than anything. Kendrick green. I think so. There was some fight in there,
08:15right? I think so. It's fight contagious. Cause now look, that would be
08:19so overlying holes changes. I've just said that I said at the start of the show,
08:22there's no more options. You gotta be, you gotta be act like you're desperate.
08:26You gotta make big changes. You gotta go hit the trade market. But in this game, Kendrick green
08:31fought like he fought and he had more success than Kenyon green. To me, this is, this is like the
08:38Damien Pierce versus cam Acres argument, man. Like, yeah, maybe cam Acres is a little better,
08:44but it ain't that big of a difference. No, no. And that's the thing about the play, right? The fight
08:49matters so much because the play was just about the same. And that's the thing that's really
08:53frustrating. Right. Um, it's still though, considering that the play was about the same
08:57and the fight was so different. I still think you have to look up at the team and go, yo,
09:01so why didn't this? And I, I say this raising my hand, acknowledging that I, I on the front
09:06side of this game was like, yeah, I don't know if they're not going to them. I think that,
09:10that they might look really bad, know a little something more than we probably do. And it didn't
09:14look bad, but it also looked bad with at least a dude who looked like he was willing to give it
09:18everything he could possibly give for a moment. Boy, that one for a moment. No, there was some
09:23times where Kenyon green got, we were talking about this. We were talking about this in one
09:27of the breaks, the idea that, uh, I mean, technique, cause somebody was asking how
09:31long until Chris Strasser is held accountable. And I don't, I can't really get to those depths
09:35necessarily. Not because I don't want to, but because offensive line play is a world of its own.
09:39And I think you have to, I, I try, I really do respect the level of work that it takes on that.
09:44And like, I mean, even Seth, right. Played in the league, played against those guys. He, he
09:48defers to the guys that he knows that played offensive line. It's not, it's not the easiest
09:52thing in the world to, uh, to, you know, kind of break down. But even within that, right. I,
09:57I know enough to not do the right shoulder, right? Like dude should not be in on your body. And I
10:03know Kendrick green has the short arms, the T-Rex arms or whatever, but even just still like
10:08technique, I do wonder, right. How much of this is technique for this offensive line and how much
10:12is this them just getting their asses beat. And it's really a problem that you can, that you can
10:16look up and say, yeah, they might, that might not even be technique. They might be given all the
10:19game in the world and they're just getting their asses beat. Uh, one more name with an upward
10:23inflection, JJ Taylor. Yeah, no, no upward inflection. I have liked pretty much every JJ
10:29Taylor rep that I've seen 7.7 yards per carry. Now he only had three carries, but 23 yards,
10:34but remember this goes back to in that time period where you were, where you were missing,
10:38uh, Joe Mixon and, uh, Damian Pierce was that week three through five thereabouts.
10:43If my memory serves me correctly, JJ Taylor, when he got those reps, now he's not a guy.
10:47There's not a guy you can have all the time, but he has some juice to him, right? And he has a
10:51little bit of something else. There's a little bit of a lightning to the thunder of whoever else
10:56looked the part looked like he wasn't overwhelmed. That's for sure. Yeah. Shout out to the eight,
10:59three, two, who also said that before we got to JJ Taylor, a little bit of a silver lining.
11:04Yeah, absolutely. Paul on the YouTube, JJ Taylor has shown up with limited opportunities.
11:08The problem is, I don't know. I don't know what that actually means for this team. Cause it's not
11:12like, it's not like you can put back and put them back there consistently or anything, but you
11:16wouldn't blink if you had to. Yeah. I wouldn't blink if I had to, that's a fair way of putting
11:23it. And then one more, you wrote this down, Danil Hunter remains as a very, very good player,
11:29but it felt like this feels like a weird game to even throw any accolades at the
11:32defensive line just because they were not able to do the thing. And admittedly,
11:36I think the cards were stacked against them to do the thing. They typically leading pressure
11:41to the quarterback, but they didn't, they didn't get to the quarterback nearly as much.
11:45And he had, he had opportunities. This time they had sacks. They did have a couple of sacks,
11:48but that's the thing. Most of the seasons they've had pressures and no sacks. Last night was a
11:52couple of sacks and no pressures. And here's the thing. Like that's, that's what the jets do.
11:57Weirdly enough, they don't allow a lot of pressure, but when they do, it's a sack and
12:00that played out just the same. Sometimes the advanced numbers tell you a little something,
12:03but those are the silver linings that we came up with in this particular game,
12:08where the Texans did not look good. It was no good, very bad game for the Texans
12:11on Thursday night football. What I've, what I've been calling a Thursday night football
12:14ass game, just some slop. And ultimately it, it bared out to 21 to 13 in favor of the jets,
12:20your Texans fall to six and three with a nice long week. Although that nice long week doesn't
12:25feel very good because it's leading up to probably the best team in league in the Detroit lines.
12:29So as we continue barreling towards that, I don't know, do with that what you will.