It's the hit that was seen and heard around the world. Payne and Pendergast break down the play that knocked Trevor Lawrence out of Sunday's game and resulted in a brawl and Azeez Al-Shaair being ejected.
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00:00Paine and Pendergast with you.
00:01Hey, if you want to weigh in,
00:02Five Hour Energy fan line.
00:04Five Hour Energy, the official energy shot
00:05of Sports Radio 610 and football superfans.
00:08Sean Pendergast, Seth Paine with you.
00:10Text message was at Jacksonville yesterday.
00:12Their fans widely articulated
00:15that they were at the game
00:16only because it was a beautiful day,
00:18not that their team could beat anyone.
00:20So despite negligible contributions
00:23from our vaunted pass rush, we'll get to that,
00:25a dirty hit plus mid-level offensive play,
00:28that was enough to beat an inept team.
00:30Blah.
00:31And honestly, though.
00:34That's someone who went to the game.
00:37Dude, the only thing that kept the Jaguars in that game
00:39was Trevor Lawrence getting knocked out.
00:43It retrospected. He was awful.
00:44Retrospected. He was awful.
00:46Should have thrown a pit.
00:47That first near interception by Derek Singley
00:49was just atrocious.
00:50He was trying to thread the needle on throws
00:52that he had no business doing.
00:55And then Mack Jones, in the second half,
00:59just started, well, a couple things.
01:01They moved the ball well on the ground.
01:02Mack Jones made some nice plays
01:03after some really bad early misses.
01:06Brian Thomas Jr. over the middle
01:08could have been an easy touchdown,
01:09but Mack Jones missed him.
01:11But it was a combination of the Jaguars running
01:14a little ball in order.
01:16After, man, after Kamari Lassiter
01:18whiffed on that fourth and eight
01:20where he got an interference and it was a touchdown.
01:23D'Amico kind of, he throttled back a little bit
01:25and he started playing, not pre-event per se,
01:28but softer coverages with a four-man rush.
01:31And ultimately the strategy worked out.
01:33It's just none of us here in Houston
01:34who have become accustomed to the offense
01:36not being able to score touchdowns
01:37or move the ball in the second half.
01:39It didn't feel good.
01:40No.
01:41Didn't feel good.
01:42Like, oh yeah, we're just gonna ride this thing out
01:43and let the offense, and yet, and yet,
01:45kudos to the offense on the final drive.
01:46They did just that.
01:47They closed the deal.
01:48Yeah, they killed three minutes and 30 seconds off the clock.
01:51That's something that I would not have trusted them to do
01:53over the last couple of years.
01:56So, so here was-
01:58Over the last pre-COVID.
02:00Over the last post-COVID.
02:01Something I haven't trusted
02:02since Carlos Hyde took the field.
02:04Yeah.
02:05So, here was the play from this game
02:09that I would imagine people will be talking about today
02:11on all the football shows, on first take and get up,
02:16on the radio shows.
02:17There's no game to talk about.
02:18Around town.
02:19That's true.
02:19Oh, and Christian McCaffrey's hurt.
02:21You know what?
02:22That's good.
02:23Christian McCaffrey's injury might have taken
02:24some of the attention away from Aziz Alshire
02:26murdering Trevor Lawrence on the field.
02:28We're gonna play some of these.
02:30We're gonna, we'll play the highlight of this,
02:32the Texans highlight.
02:33We've got the Jags edition as well that we'll get to.
02:36And obviously, I wanna give thoughts on this.
02:37You know, was it, was all the vitriol justified?
02:41What'd you think of the fight afterwards?
02:43What'd you think of the other fight after the first fight?
02:45All that stuff.
02:46Yes.
02:48Yes.
02:48Aziz Alshire was trying to fight every human being
02:51in the building.
02:52He was, dude, he was like Clubber Lang
02:53at the end of the first round three,
02:55realizing like everybody's against him.
02:57So here was, here was the hit from Aziz Alshire.
03:02If you watch the game,
03:03you already know what we're talking about.
03:05This is the hit that knocked Trevor Lawrence
03:06out of the game.
03:07This is the call from Mark Vandermeer and Andre Ware.
03:10One back ETN, Lawrence under center this time.
03:12And he fakes to give, boots out to the left.
03:15Lawrence wants to run.
03:16He will, 50 and slides down across the 45.
03:19And here's Aziz making a late hit.
03:20Flags come in from everywhere.
03:22And there's a lot of extra pushing and shoving
03:24as Ingram and Aziz and other Jags get into it.
03:27And Aziz hits the ground.
03:28They got to throw another flag here on the Jags.
03:30And Trevor Lawrence has got a concussion.
03:33He is out.
03:34Yep.
03:35He took a bad hit and Jimmy Ward's in there.
03:38They're going to,
03:39I think people are going to leave this game.
03:41They're still going.
03:42Yeah.
03:43There's still a host of Liberty White and Teal
03:45tangled up in front of the Jaguar bench.
03:47Two different groups, pushing, shoving.
03:49There's a player down maybe,
03:51or are they just trying to unpile near the 45 yard line?
03:56And then finally, and here's another flag.
03:58We got laundry everywhere.
04:00Okay. So I would say relatively calm,
04:02Mark Vandermeer and Andre Ware, right?
04:04I mean, they're very matter of, not matter of fact.
04:06I mean, they understand the urgency of the situation.
04:08My favorite part of the whole thing,
04:10as just an aside, is Vandy about 15 seconds in going,
04:14hey, they got to throw a flag on the Jags.
04:16Like.
04:17Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:18Good job, Vandy.
04:19Hey, Vandy.
04:20Evan Ingram doesn't get a free pass for vigilante justice.
04:22Team guy, yeah.
04:23We have, this is a society of laws and rules.
04:26I mean, Trevor Lawrence is sprawled out.
04:29Like there's this fight going on
04:30and there's a dead man over about 10 feet away.
04:33And Vandy's like, they got to throw a flag on the Jags,
04:37right there.
04:38There was a viral video.
04:39I mean, it was an awful, awful, awful incident
04:41a few years ago in Texas where somebody got shot.
04:45This woman's husband gets shot right next to her.
04:48He's down on the ground.
04:49He would eventually die.
04:50And she was just still fighting.
04:53Like she wasn't even like zero,
04:54like zero concern for her husband or anything.
04:57Which I, look, I don't blame anybody
04:58in any situation like that.
04:59I don't know how I'd respond.
05:00How do you react?
05:01That was the first thing that came to my mind.
05:02It was like, yeah, the poor guy's bleeding out
05:04right there on the field.
05:05He's fighting.
05:06Yeah, just, yeah.
05:07His brain is turning to mush as we sit here.
05:09Yeah.
05:10Yeah.
05:11The doctor's got this.
05:12Evan Ingram wants to fight everybody.
05:14Nice and class, Evan Ingram.
05:15Yeah, yeah.
05:16So that was, that was the Texans call.
05:18I would say the demeanor on that call,
05:19relatively calm, knowing that, okay,
05:21there's about to be some,
05:23there's about to be some penalties handed down.
05:25Like this is, you know, it's a big fight.
05:28Just so that we don't lose the vibe
05:30of the Texans call on this.
05:32Yeah.
05:33Back to back here.
05:34Here is the, and this, this is a long,
05:36Ben, I'll down cue you on this
05:37because this is one of those,
05:38this is one of those online clips.
05:40It's like two and a half minutes long.
05:42It's pretty entertaining though.
05:43Here is, who's the play-by-play guy, Seth,
05:46for the Jags?
05:47Oh, I don't know.
05:48The guy that's with Moose Jett.
05:48Oh, the, whoa, that's, I believe it's Frank Frangie.
05:51Frank Frangie.
05:51Yeah, Frank Frangie.
05:52This is the Jags call with Tony Buscelli,
05:53your former teammate.
05:54Here we go.
05:55Play fake.
05:56Rolling to his left, looking downfield.
05:57Trevor's looking.
05:58He wants to run it to midfield.
05:59Slides it.
06:00Whoa, he got drilled.
06:02What in the world?
06:03He absolutely got drilled and there's a melee
06:06and I don't blame him.
06:08He slid to the ground.
06:09He's still on the ground.
06:11That's about as cheap a shot as you'll ever see
06:13in the NFL.
06:14It's a flat out brawl.
06:17And Evan Ingram went at the linebacker.
06:20The linebacker, Aziz Alshair, hits Trevor Lawrence
06:25as he's going feet first down to the ground.
06:27And I think Trevor got KO'd.
06:30I mean, he is still on the ground.
06:31What a cheap shot that was.
06:33And they're still going on the sideline.
06:36They are.
06:37Let me tell you what.
06:39That was ugly.
06:39Here's another flag.
06:41There's going to be a ton of flags.
06:42It was, Trevor Lawrence is clearly sliding.
06:45You could argue maybe a little bit late,
06:47but not late enough to take the shot.
06:48Not that hit.
06:49No, it was uncalled for.
06:51And hats off to Evan Ingram.
06:53Absolutely.
06:54He did exactly what you're supposed to do.
06:55You do not allow that to happen to your quarterback
06:59at any point in any game.
07:01And he took exception with it.
07:02That's good, that's good.
07:03They would go on to call it hockey justice, you know?
07:07That was Jeff Loggaman and Tony Bozzella.
07:08Okay, Loggaman was the other one.
07:11Loggaman's old school.
07:12Loggaman played with Dennis Bird, you know?
07:14With the Jets.
07:15Yeah, he's old.
07:16Old school.
07:18He had a Harley back before everybody had a Harley.
07:20Tattoos before everybody had tattoos.
07:22So yeah, he's a fan of the frontier justice.
07:26Okay, there's my new rule
07:28that I'm working on for quarterbacks.
07:30Slide before somebody's in a position
07:32to make a hit like that.
07:33That's where I'm at too.
07:35Clint and I were talking on the show yesterday.
07:37We had people calling in.
07:39You were asking me before the show,
07:40how did people feel about the win?
07:41How did people feel about the Texans?
07:43I'm like, there were more people calling in about this hit
07:45than were calling in about the game.
07:46And we're doing all this rigamarole of everybody saying,
07:50well, maybe you do this and maybe you do that.
07:52Maybe you do two-hand touch on the quarterbacks.
07:55And this, I go, maybe you just keep the rule the same
07:57and the quarterbacks are the ones
07:58that need to adjust to this thing.
08:00Did you say rigamarole or rigor mortis?
08:02Because both were setting in at that point.
08:05It's a miracle I didn't say rigor mortis.
08:07No, I'll tell you what.
08:08My dumbest take about it immediately was,
08:10I honestly hoped for Trevor Lawrence's sake
08:12that when his arm went stiff like that,
08:15Aziz, it looked like he was targeting
08:16his separated shoulder, honestly,
08:18which I would respect.
08:19Oh, I didn't even think about that.
08:20But I thought, because Trevor Lawrence's sake,
08:23I hoped he wasn't concussed.
08:24I hoped it was just his separated shoulder
08:27because this is an on-throwing shoulder.
08:28And it went stiff.
08:30And I mistakenly tweeted it out immediately
08:32before I had watched the replays.
08:34Oh, I got all this hate from Jaguars people
08:36who thought I was in denial
08:38or defending the hit or something.
08:40I'm like, no, I was hoping that he didn't actually,
08:43because when your arms goes,
08:44I didn't see that his right arm went stiff, too.
08:46That's a fencing posture.
08:48That was a two-a situation.
08:49Yeah, very clearly it was a head injury.
08:52I was just hoping for his sake that he wasn't concussed.
08:55Boy, that's got to hit different for you
08:56when Jags fans come after you.
08:57That's not like the other 31 teams.
08:59Oh, no, I'm over it.
09:00Are you? Okay, okay.
09:01They're dead to me.
09:02Fair enough.
09:04I made my decision long ago, Sean.
09:06I walked through this world alone
09:10when I'm outside of Houston.
09:11Sure, sure, sure.
09:12Here was D'Amico Ryan's when asked after the game
09:15about the Aziz Al Shire hit.
09:17Yeah, it's not unfortunate with the hit with Aziz.
09:20That's not what we're coaching.
09:23It's just want to be smart in everything we do
09:27and not hurt the team, get a penalty there.
09:29We just have to be smarter
09:30when the quarterback is going down.
09:33Just an unfortunate play.
09:35It's not really about who Aziz is.
09:37Aziz is a smart player, really great leader for us.
09:40And we felt his presence not being there,
09:45not his loss.
09:46It really affected us on the defensive side.
09:49Just not what we're coaching.
09:51I didn't want to see the melee and all of the aftermath.
09:55That's not what we're about.
09:56Just not representative of us.
09:58So I'll talk to Aziz, address him personally,
10:01and we'll move forward from it.
10:03Okay, this is the problem.
10:05If this was somebody else,
10:06let's say if this was Henry Toetoa,
10:08I would have a slightly different opinion about all this.
10:11The problem is you can look at the play in isolation
10:14and you can make arguments this way or that way.
10:16The problem is that Aziz Al Shire is very much
10:20one of the trusted, venerated leaders of that defense.
10:24And we love the way he plays.
10:25The problem is he's got a history of stepping over the line.
10:29He had a late hit last week.
10:30It was just a stupid late hit.
10:32Stupid.
10:32That was three yards.
10:34That was almost past the white of the thick boundary
10:37on the sideline last week.
10:38Earlier in the season,
10:39he punched a dude in the face on the sideline.
10:41Like, part of your responsibility as an older player
10:45is to teach the young guys how to harness
10:46and channel that aggression.
10:48So I can't, like, I don't think it was as dirty
10:51as a lot of people are framing it on social media,
10:54where it's easy to be a white knight and a hero
10:56and talk about how it was just so vile and disgusting.
11:00It was borderline because Trevor Lawrence was,
11:02Trevor Lawrence was trying to get the first down.
11:04Let's not, let's not mince words here.
11:06He knew where that imaginary yellow line was,
11:08and he was trying to start his slide as late as possible.
11:11So, like, let's not act like he wasn't partly culpable
11:13in all this, but he's just gotta know better.
11:16You know, like, you just, he's,
11:19Mike Meltzer said the V word yesterday.
11:21Vontaze perfect.
11:22So, like, there's some Vontaze perfect elements there,
11:25where, all right, yeah, man, like, it's awesome
11:27that you got this lust for violence,
11:29but you gotta know how to toe the line.
11:31And Al Shire's just a little too far over the line,
11:34especially as a leader on the defense.
11:35Yeah, look, I can get with an argument
11:37that Trevor Lawrence slid late,
11:39and what are you to do as a defensive player?
11:42To me, the thing that is, and again, I'm not a,
11:46I don't know what happens in that.
11:47You know way better than I do, Seth,
11:49what happens in the moment and how fast the game is.
11:52The thing that's gonna, I think, hurt Aziz Al Shire,
11:55other than his priors, with that play in a vacuum,
11:58forget about priors, was the fact that he came through
12:01with that left forearm, with a metal brace on it,
12:05and drove his head into the ground.
12:07This is the thing, look, as a previously violent
12:10young man myself, Sean, who luckily had the game
12:13of football to channel that aggression into.
12:16I've always, when people say, well, it's impossible
12:20to make a decision in that moment,
12:21I can tell you every late hit I ever had,
12:24other than one where I was out of control.
12:26I was kind of out of control when I tore a kid's ACL
12:28in college, that one I was completely,
12:29I have no regrets over, because I was on the way
12:33to the ground, there was nothing I could do,
12:34I couldn't control my body.
12:35Every other time I've ever had a late hit,
12:37or anything like that, there is a moment
12:40when you make that decision in the heat of the moment.
12:43Really?
12:44Where you're like, I'm gonna do it.
12:48At least for me.
12:50Where you just, you let the psycho take over,
12:53and there is that, and afterwards,
12:55you have to dial it with yourself.
12:56You're like, well, look, I'm a sentient human being,
13:00and I definitely made that decision
13:01to make that hit that I knew was wrong,
13:02and I can't explain it, I let the psycho
13:06take over a little bit.
13:06So I want you to take yourself and put you
13:10in place of Aziz Alshair on that play yesterday.
13:13You've watched it 15 times, given the distance
13:16between the two guys, would that have been
13:18a decision-making Seth Payne right there?
13:20It's open field, it's open field,
13:24and this is where I'm more forgiving, perhaps,
13:25than some people, it's open field.
13:27Trevor Lawrence has a history of taking hits
13:30where other quarterbacks might slide, so you know that.
13:33The guy's got a separated shoulder
13:35because of a hit he took while running.
13:37Both Aziz Alshair and Trevor Lawrence
13:39are very aware of where the first down sticks are,
13:42and they're trying to, that's what they're both
13:47going for, defending, and Aziz Alshair
13:51has that first down stick in his mind,
13:53and right up until that last step that he took,
13:58he's not sure if Trevor Lawrence
13:59is actually gonna go down or not.
14:01It's in that last lunge where you end up
14:05throwing the forearm, that's the point where like,
14:08all right, we've seen this enough now, we know this,
14:10you gotta try to glide over the top of him.
14:12The problem with gliding over the top of him
14:14is half the time, guys end up hitting
14:15the quarterback in the head, you know?
14:17Yeah, they glance and the helmet goes back, yeah.
14:20And I think he still would have gotten flagged
14:21if that had happened, but I think people
14:23would have been more forgiving,
14:24because they would have seen like, okay,
14:25well, what's he gonna do there?
14:26He's trying to go over the top.
14:28It's that last little extra oomph
14:29that you gotta know better.
14:31Yeah, dude, it was a scene.
14:32I mean, coming back from break, and they're like,
14:34hey, here's what happened, we're gone,
14:36and Aziz wants to fight Brandon Scherf
14:38and everybody else on the Jaguars.
14:39The melee afterwards, too, is I think the part that,
14:41that honestly bothered me more than anything
14:43from a Texans perspective, because all right,
14:45this is, again, man, you're a veteran leader,
14:48we love all these things that you do,
14:50but there's just like, you gotta know
14:52when to dial back the cycle a little bit.
14:54That's what the game of football is.
14:56Play it up to the limit of where you're allowed
14:58to be psycho.
14:59Controlled psycho.
15:00Two quick texts, and then we gotta hit headlines,
15:02but we're getting a ton of texts on this
15:04on the 5-Hour Energy fan line.
15:06Back to back.
15:07Fellas, I love y'all, and I love old school football,
15:09but that was a seriously dirty hit by Aziz.
15:11He deserves a suspension.
15:12You can't sugarcoat this.
15:14Next text, it was a bad hit,
15:16but all the negativity on Aziz is not justified.
15:19He'll move past this, and as a fan, dot, dot, dot,
15:22really happy to have a guy like Aziz on this team.
15:24No, no, no, I'm really glad that they have a guy
15:26like Aziz on the team.
15:27I think I agree with, I could agree with both those texts,
15:30except for the dirty part.
15:32Like, honestly, quarterbacks, you gotta know when to slide.
15:36Like, you gotta protect yourself, man,
15:38and if a guy's in a position to make a hit like that,
15:40slide earlier.
15:41You were trying to go for the first down, Trevor.