00:00As D'Amico Ryans, in answering questions about what this offense looks like,
00:05has basically just kind of said they need to execute better.
00:07Obviously, he's talked about the idea of making changes.
00:10What changes exactly, we don't know.
00:12But generally, you seem to do a little bit of a numbers deep dive here, John Lopez.
00:16A little bit.
00:18So, D'Amico, actually, let's listen to cut one here from yesterday,
00:21and it'll kind of set up what we're talking about here,
00:23because you mentioned it, just execute better and maybe some tweaks.
00:27For us, we've got to look at it and see where we can be better offensively.
00:30Of course, we want to move the ball better,
00:33get out of some of those quick three-and-out situations.
00:35We can move the ball better, just execute a little bit better,
00:38coach a little bit better.
00:40Just everybody just staying together, finding a way on offense to do more.
00:45Execute better, coach better, stay together.
00:48All right, so that's it, huh?
00:50Let me bounce a couple things off of you guys here.
00:53And I know you saw some of these numbers.
00:55They were sort of making the rounds in our world yesterday.
00:58But David Montgomery and Woody Marks, of all the running backs in the entire NFL,
01:02all of them, they rank first and third in terms of being hit at or behind the line of scrimmage.
01:10Yeah.
01:11That's, eye test does indeed validate that.
01:14First and third of all the running backs at or behind the line of scrimmage.
01:17Is that tweaks?
01:18Is that execution?
01:20Well, it's definitely execution.
01:21Is it?
01:22Yeah.
01:24I mean, well, to some degree.
01:25Because you might just not be good.
01:26Well, I think that's part of it.
01:28But I think there's varying parts of this.
01:31And I talked about this coming out of week one, a little bit coming out of week two,
01:37where oftentimes in these runs, like, if you just get a hat on a hat,
01:42this number won't be nearly as bad.
01:43It just feels like there's always one person who's a little off or doesn't hold their block
01:48or something to where that helps the stuff.
01:51Now, sometimes it is just you do get a hat on a hat and there's no push.
01:55And I think that's what you're thinking about.
01:56But more often than I care to acknowledge, it is one block gone awry that just gets you to a
02:04place where now you have somebody blowing up the run
02:06or you have someone fitting a gap that then does not allow these guys to make a little bit more
02:12out of the runs
02:12as they kind of are good at doing or at least pretty solid.
02:15Yeah, I don't agree because, you know, they like to say hat on a hat.
02:19D'Amico says it all the time.
02:21But my question is, if that doesn't happen, you know, if they do get the angle on you,
02:26they do get, you know, penetration and, you know, blow up plays.
02:30The question is, why?
02:31Is it because you were not in the right spot?
02:34Sometimes, of course.
02:35Sometimes, of course.
02:36But I think a lot of times these guys have been working on these things.
02:39It's been hammered, you know, into their minds, into their heads to get to the right spot,
02:44especially after the first two weeks, and then it happens again week three.
02:48To me, I don't think it's necessarily they don't know where to go or what angle to take
02:52or how to get in front of a person.
02:55I think they're just getting beat.
02:57They're just not good.
02:58That's why I'm like, is that execution for me not overall?
03:02Sometimes they are getting beat, and some of that is sometimes putting guys in positions
03:06where they're not built to succeed.
03:09I think sometimes when you're running some of these zone plays where you're having these guys
03:13need to be more quicker, right, on the offensive line, you didn't bring in a whole bunch of quick dudes.
03:19You brought in big dudes that maybe lean towards more mushing folks rather than picking them up,
03:25putting them down, and moving laterally to get past or get around or seal defensive linemen.
03:32Sometimes it's that.
03:33But sometimes it is really just, I mean, getting your hands right
03:37and having the right approach angles with some of these guys.
03:40And some of it is getting beat, but I'm telling you as I'm watching this,
03:43there's a decent amount of this where it's just like, hey, man,
03:45if you execute a little bit better on that one, you have an opportunity,
03:48not necessarily to break a huge play, but at least not have contact in the backfield
03:53or at the line of scrimmage, which I know sounds very minor,
03:56but with what we're talking about here, the margins are really thin for you
04:01on making this a little bit better.
04:02Yeah, I'm just curious.
04:03How much better could they be?
04:04Let's say they did execute better.
04:07I mean, would they be one of the best offensive linemen?
04:09Oh, no.
04:10I mean, how much better could you be?
04:13I mean, are we getting maybe three yards a carry, four yards a carry?
04:17Three yards a carry is very different than some of the – I mean, hell,
04:20we were talking about a game last – not this past weekend,
04:22but the weekend prior where you were about one yard a carry.
04:25Like three yards a carry would be a godsend in that circumstance.
04:28Yeah, I'm just curious, like,
04:29how much is that execution going to help this team at this point?
04:33Because, I mean, you played the Colts, man.
04:35I think you guys know how I feel about this.
04:38Like, I get it.
04:38It can be execution sometimes.
04:40But sometimes not getting to that spot, Reggie, not getting that angle,
04:43not getting your hands right is not necessarily coaching
04:47or just the pure execution of it.
04:48It's like you're not capable of doing that.
04:51It is not in you.
04:52Maybe you are a musher, you know, a guy that can go straight ahead.
04:55And they're asking – and you're trying to do things that you just cannot do.
04:58And let me illustrate it with this.
05:00Yeah, but then how do you square that then with seeing them in training camp
05:03looking better?
05:04Because they did look better.
05:05And then you get to a place where – are you just saying that the Texas D-line
05:08is not as good as these other D-lines?
05:11No.
05:11No, I think it's the offensive line.
05:13They can get some of these things done.
05:14They're not.
05:16And again, I think some of that is they just cannot.
05:19I think we're looking at it the same thing.
05:21It's two different things.
05:22Is it coaching it or is it on the players?
05:24Well, because –
05:24A little bit of everything.
05:25That's the part that sucks.
05:26But that leads to the next point I was going to make is this execution.
05:30The Houston Texans offensive line grades via PFF,
05:33and this is where you inject the qualifier, disclaimer, or whatever about PFF.
05:39Nevertheless, they're grading all the offensive linemen in the NFL the same way.
05:44So if you're going to say, well, they might not know what these guys are doing.
05:47They also don't know what the guys at the top of the list are doing exactly.
05:50You know what I mean?
05:51In terms of assignments and such.
05:52So, taking it into account, yes, you can put a disclaimer on it,
05:55but they're grading them all the same way.
05:57Ariante Urseri, 62.6 overall grade.
06:01Evan Brown, 62.3 overall grade.
06:04Wyatt Teller, congratulations.
06:05We've been bashing on you, and you're leading the class, 72.3 overall grade.
06:09Not sure how I feel about that grade.
06:11Trent Brown, 59.9 overall grade.
06:14Keelan Rutledge, the one we've been all about, 48.1 overall grade,
06:19bottom of the list.
06:20Ah, screw this list, man.
06:21None of these guys, but that's kind of my point.
06:24Is that execution, or are these guys just not good?
06:28I think it's easy to just go, these guys aren't good.
06:31But I'm telling you, I'm watching this, and I go,
06:34I watch it too.
06:35I'm going back and watching it the second time.
06:37I'm looking at it in depth.
06:38I'm running it back.
06:39You're watching more tape than you, Lopez.
06:40I am.
06:41I'll be honest, I am.
06:42It's not just, these dudes, they're not nearly as good as they should be.
06:46That is clear.
06:47But there is an execution element of this.
06:49There is.
06:51I think it's too easy to just go, well, they can't do it.
06:53I think that that...
06:54No, no, no.
06:55What I'm saying is, look, I know there's an execution element to this,
06:58and that is coaching.
06:59And maybe we should be looking at the coaching more, and I think we should.
07:02You know, we've talked about the coaching.
07:04Cole Popovich just isn't getting it done, you know, anymore.
07:07He was here with Strasser, then he took over, and now he's doing it again.
07:10And I thought it was going to be better with Cole Popovich.
07:12I'm not saying there's no execution element here.
07:15What I'm saying is, these guys, graded the same as everyone else in the league,
07:20whether it's execution or whatever you're going to lean at,
07:23they are not getting it done.
07:25They are not capable of getting it done.
07:27Wherever you want to point that, I think there's a lot of blame to go around.
07:31But they're not getting it done.
07:32They're not physically capable of getting it done,
07:35whether it's because of the coaching or because a combination of that,
07:38and they are not capable of getting it done.
07:41They're not getting it done.
07:41I don't think that I agree with the assertion
07:43that they're not capable of getting it done.
07:45Now, getting it done to what degree, I think, is a question.
07:47Because, again, we were asking this question before we even got to camp,
07:50where we go, how much better can this run game be,
07:52even with the acquisitions that you had?
07:55And I think there's clear that there's a cap on it.
07:57Like, I don't think that this is going to,
07:58even if they started kind of tinkering and getting this to a different place,
08:01I don't think this is going to be the best run game in the land
08:04by any stretch of the imagination.
08:06But it does not have to be 29th, right?
08:09It does not have to look like what it has looked like.
08:11And I think that's a lot about execution and play calling
08:14and the places that you put these guys in as well.
08:18And I refuse to believe it's just all these dudes stink at this
08:22because we've been doing that for a long time,
08:25of just going, all these dudes stink at this.
08:26Yes, we have.
08:28And that points to the guy that's buying the groceries.
08:33You know, if you're going to have this system
08:35and you're going to have these coaches
08:37and then you're going to consistently say,
08:39just coach it up, man.
08:40Just coach it up.
08:41For three years?
08:44That's groceries as much as anything.
08:45It's coaching, but that's groceries as much as anything.
08:48These guys.
08:48And I'm not disagreeing that that's part of it.
08:51But I think it's absurd to just flatly put that there
08:53as if it's just groceries.
08:55I never said that.
08:57I think that's an intimation when you go,
08:58these guys just can't do it.
08:59But see, it's been the same conversation for the last three years, though.
09:04Like, I think these players are better than what we had before,
09:07but it's still the same thing.
09:09And the thing about it is, let's say you're right there,
09:11and I know that I'm going over here, but we'll deal with it.
09:13Let's say you're right, and these guys just aren't that good.
09:15I've seen a number of instances where a team takes a bad offensive line
09:21and finds a way to make a little something out of nothing.
09:23And that's not what you're doing here at all.
09:25Well, let me take your side then.
09:28Let's say it is technique and execution
09:31and just coach them up a little more.
09:34It's a little late in the game for that, too.
09:35It's the same coaches.
09:37How do they get there, then?
09:40I'm with you there, as well.
09:41Same general manager.
09:42I think that is very much a question that's worth asking.
09:45That's very much a question that's worth asking.
09:47I think that's a deeper question that's worth asking
09:48that gets a little bit further into the root of the problem
09:51than just going, well, they're not good enough.
09:53And they're not.
09:54That's the final end point.
09:56But if we want to dig into it, I think there's other parts.
