- 16 minutes ago
Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast react to the Houston Texans falling to 0-4 after their 34-30 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
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00:00Nine seconds to go, down 34-30, the Texans snap it from the Dallas 48, nobody on the
00:06line of scrimmage for Dallas as CJ takes the snap, this will be a Hail Mary.
00:10Last play of the game, CJ walking around in the backfield, throws it long to the end zone,
00:16it's tipped, and Dallas has no official saying complete, the game is over, the Texans lose
00:24and go to 0-4, defeated by Dallas 34-30, Houston slides to 0-4 for the fourth time in
00:37team
00:37history in a hard-fought battle with the Cowboys, they come up short, allowing four second-half
00:45touchdowns, Tennessee up next on the road, heartbreaking.
00:51All right, let's do this, let's do this, here we are, we didn't think it would happen,
00:55it did, the Texans are 0-4, and we are here for you, we're not going anywhere, man, we're
01:00all in this together, speak for yourself, we are here, you sit right there, you sit your
01:04ass right in that chair, and you're not going anywhere, you sit here, and we're all going
01:08to take our medicine, this team is 0-4, 0-4 in a way that you never would have expected
01:13either, no, and Sean, how are you doing first off, no, I'm not doing well, I'm not doing
01:18well, I'm not doing well, the Texans are 0-4, and a big problem on this team right now
01:25is its defense, yeah, big problem on this team right now is its secondary, we know that
01:29the Texans are down their top three linebackers, and that's an issue, and I don't want to just
01:33glide by that, because that really does matter, but look, I'm guessing CeeDee Lamb in his career
01:38has faced some bad defenses before, bad defenses, oh yeah, he's been around a long time, genuinely
01:42bad defenses, he's been, and he's very prolific, yes, CeeDee Lamb has never had more than 13
01:49receptions in a football game before, 17's a lot, I don't know how many of the defenses
01:53that he went against when he got 13 receptions in a few games in his career, if those defenses
01:59had been talked about potentially being generationally great, that does not happen very often, I've
02:03checked, yeah, but that's, yesterday it was 17, he blew through it, he's like, 14's for
02:09losers, 15's for chumps, yep, I'm going for 17, Greg Olsen, I got to watch the TV copy
02:15of some parts of this game, Greg Olsen for some reason wanted to give him credit for
02:1818 receptions, but I don't, they just let him do whatever he wanted to them, and line
02:26up wherever he wanted, they should charge him with assault, he shouldn't be allowed back
02:30in the city, is there anything we can do about this, maybe the mayor can do something about
02:34this CeeDee Lamb problem, because Kamari Lasseter, and Jalen Petrie, and Derek Stingley, and God
02:40knows Reed Blankenship, weren't doing anything about it, right, hell, he got manned up on
02:44Jake Hansen on one play, yeah, that happens, it was, that's what they did a really good job,
02:51no, they did a great job of moving him around all over the place, phenomenal job, running
02:55him through different zones, and they're in this spot, and you get down to the end of the
02:58game, and look, look, Jalen Petrie is manned up on CeeDee Lamb, and part of the problem
03:06is, you watch and you see, okay, yeah, well, Kalen Bullock is, he's, he's got to give help
03:11to Reed Blankenship, who's on Ferguson, the tight end, because nobody, nobody trusts Reed
03:16Blankenship to cover anybody one-on-one, I don't know, man, I don't know, I don't know.
03:22This was, hey, let's skip down to the CeeDee Lamb part, Sterling, let's, this was D'Amico
03:26around, that was the, to me, there's two stories, there's a big picture story with
03:30this game, and then there's the game itself, so let's start with, Seth brought up CeeDee
03:35Lamb, so let's start there, what the hell was going on with that, 17 catches, 189 yards,
03:40the game-winning touchdown, which, there's some, I saw some discussion about D'Amico's
03:45handling of the clock at the end of regulation, I didn't have a huge problem with it, I saw
03:49what he was trying to do, which was leave his team some time in case they got the ball
03:53back, either tied, I don't think he was planning on getting the ball back,
03:56being down, the last time out that he called with about 50 seconds, right before the game-winning
04:01touchdown, I had said to you, I'm like, that one, that one feels like he might be doing
04:05Dallas a favor right here, you know, he kind of let them breathe a little bit, right, right,
04:10and that's right, yeah, when they got down into touchdown territory, I suppose, as opposed
04:13to, long field goal, yeah, like, it does, how do you, how do you balance those two out
04:18where, okay, there, there, there's a good chance they'll get into field goal range, we want
04:22to preserve time in case we need to do something, yeah, but the, once they're, once they're down
04:27in the red zone, I, it's, it's a much harder decision, it's, it, it, the, the, the timeout
04:33he called that I'm talking about, he called with 51 seconds to go, and I remember saying
04:36to you, I'm like, that, that one feels a little weird, that one feels like Dallas might have
04:39liked that he called that one right there, because if you let the clock run, then Dallas
04:44probably plays a little more conservatively and plays for a field goal, as opposed to, okay,
04:48well, now we get a timeout here, and now we can kind of plan some things, on a day where
04:52their planning was way better than the Texans, their offensive planning was way better than
04:56the Texans' defensive planning. Yeah, at that point, I mean, ultimately, in the second
05:01half, they would, the, the Cowboys scored four touchdowns on five drives. Yes, yeah. You couldn't
05:05expect that you're going to just stop them. Them, them only going for a field goal there
05:10probably is doing you a favor if they're playing it somewhat close to the vest, you know, based
05:14on what they've done in that half, you're right. Here was D'Amico Ryans on the difference
05:17in the first half and the second half defensively yesterday. I have to look at it to see exactly,
05:22you know, what happened for us. I know they, they came out, they had the, we had the, we
05:27gave them the big return to start the second half, which we can't do, right? We got to cover
05:32better there on special teams, and then we allowed them to go down and score. They're in
05:37range, so I have to look at it again to see we gave up. I know in the second half,
05:42we gave
05:42up way too many explosive plays. And if we want to stop an explosive offense like that,
05:48you can't allow the ball to be completed, right? 20 yards more down the field. And we
05:52gave up way too many of those to good players, did a good job in the first half. But for
05:57whatever reason that is, I'll have to examine it on the, on the video this evening and see
06:02what happened. Yeah. There was an explosive play on each of those touchdown drives. I remember
06:07in the preseason, one thing they talked about was man last year, they didn't let up a touchdown
06:11on a drive that didn't have an explosive play, or it was a very small number of them.
06:16But it was explosive play after explosive play. George Pickens with the 50-yarder on one of
06:21them on that contested catch. Went over Kamari, yep. You had CeeDee Lamb on that one out to
06:28the left where either Derek Stingley or Jake Hansen or Reed Blankenship amongst those three,
06:34one of those guys just decided to let CeeDee Lamb run free again. That turned into a 21-yard
06:40reception. There was just, the miscommunications have reached epidemic level. At any given
06:50time, there's somebody out there that's confused. They got lucky a couple times when guys bid
06:57on double moves. Stingley bid on the double move the one time. And was it Pickens or CeeDee Lamb?
07:01It was Lamb. Yeah, Lamb would have been wide open for a touchdown. Yep, yep, yep.
07:04Dak Prescott luckily didn't see it. Checked it down instead, yep. So that is a sobering reality
07:11that this defense is not even in the same neighborhood as what it was being touted as
07:16before the season started. Kamari Lasseter had a really bad day. Well, that stretch, I mean,
07:24within 10 plays, the turning point to me, and we'll get to CJ in a second here because I think
07:30there's a big picture take on the Texans that we need to talk about. The turning point in the game
07:38was Kamari Lasseter gives up the big play to George Pickens. And I feel like, man, that's a play that
07:44it just feels like last year. That was one that Kamari made last year. Goes up, contested, breaks it up,
07:49or brings it down. Kamari picked off a bunch of passes last year. So he gives up the big play
07:54for the 53 yards. It puts them in position to score a touchdown. The score is 23-13 at the
08:01time.
08:01So Dallas had scored a touchdown out of the locker room, right out of the locker room to make it
08:0516-13.
08:06Texans answer. They get a touchdown to make it 23-13. CJ to Nico on that play where Nico got
08:13bulldozed at the end in the end zone. So Kamari Lasseter gives up the big play to Pickens.
08:17Third and seven at the eight. You're trying to get off the field to allow a field goal attempt
08:22to keep them at a touchdown, you know, arm's length. And you get a play in the back of the
08:28end zone that looks like it's a pass breakup. And they call Kamari for pass interference.
08:32I thought that was a 50-50 call. Could have gone either way. He did have an arm kind of
08:36wrapping the waist of Pickens. But I thought that was a call that was, that one I don't think
08:41was a great call. So they get first and goal at the one.
08:45It was a legal contact. It was a bogus call because it was a legal contact. It was Pickens
08:48ran right into him. Yeah.
08:49Oh, I thought it was pass interference because they put it at the one in the end zone.
08:53Yeah, they put it at the one. They put it at the one. So first and goal at the one.
09:00First and goal at the one. Clowney gets a TFL. And now you're like, okay, we've got a shot
09:04here.
09:05They get to fourth down. The Cowboys go for it on fourth and goal, like at the two
09:09or the three. And they get a pass breakup in the end zone. But Kamari is off to the
09:14side with Pickens. And Pickens was about to break to the outside and get wide open.
09:19And that was a good call. I mean, Kamari did hold him. He bulldogged him. And that was the
09:23turning point in the game. Because the Cowboys scored the very next play. And it's 23-20.
09:27You were getting off of the field up 10 with the ball. And now the Cowboys are down three
09:32in that instance. And they would go on to take a lead. They'd seesaw back and forth.
09:36And we know how that game ended. Kamari's had a rough year, man. Between this game and
09:41the Buffalo game. Think about the Buffalo game, Seth. It's almost like a hat trick of
09:46things going on in each of these games. We just outlined the three plays that Kamari
09:49had that were rough, among probably others that, if you go back and watch, he probably
09:52had. These are ones he was directly involved in with Pickens. But you go back to that
09:57Buffalo game, he had the pass interference in the end zone on DJ Moore. He had the dropped
10:01interception that would have ended the game. And then the very next play, he gives up the
10:05touchdown to Josh Palmer. It's been a rough one for Kamari Lasseter, who's a guy who I
10:09was arguing should be considered among the top 10 cornerbacks in all of football. And
10:15I don't know. Everybody's going, OK, well, D'Amico, you've got to make some changes.
10:18You've got to make some changes. What are you doing? Benching Kamari Lasseter for Traymond
10:21Smith? You're riding or dying with some of these guys.
10:24I mean, the numbers in that Pickens one was really devastating in terms of the total stat
10:27line, because that was a 50-yarder. Kamari Lasseter allowed eight receptions
10:31for 136 yards on 11 targets over 50 coverage. Plus three penalties. See, he had three penalties.
10:37The illegal contact I was thinking of was on a completely separate drive. It was still
10:41a touchdown drive. But that was, it's, I mean, you look at the defense this year, CJ Stroud
10:51in three games has had a go-ahead scoring drive in the fourth quarter. And the defense has gone
10:57on to squander it. And this is something that goes back to last year, where as elite as the
11:02Texans defense was, they had some fourth quarter letdowns last year. And it lends speculation
11:06to, OK, are you guys, are you guys just predictable enough that by the fourth quarter that, yes,
11:14you keep things simple. You don't do a whole lot of disguise and chicanery. But by the fourth
11:19quarter, the smart quarterbacks know what you're going to do. And Kamari Lasseter on that in the
11:25fourth quarter, tried to drive hard on that slant to George Pickens and got hit with a slant
11:30and go, you know, where, all right, Dak and George Pickens understand and know how aggressive
11:36these guys are. And that's kind of the kind of stuff that good quarterbacks set you up
11:40for in the fourth quarter. And you have fourth quarter letdowns. I mean, three times, you
11:44know, we've been saying up to a certain point, well, you can't blame the Texans defense for
11:48them being 0-2 or 0-3 or whatever. You can now. They're complicit. There's multiple reasons
11:56that the team is bad right now. And you can find a big chunk of them on defense. You can
12:02find a huge boatload of them on special teams. Offense, it's, you know, pick the game. Pick
12:09the game and the moments where, OK, the offense either lets you down. They scored 30 points in
12:14the first game and the fourth game. It wasn't enough to win. D'Amico uses finishing as the
12:19excuse for everything when something goes wrong in a game or when something goes right. Also,
12:24like he's, well, in this game we finished. And then, you know, this season it's been,
12:28well, we just got to finish. When the problems are pervasive throughout the game. Yeah. Like
12:31he's going to say, he said yesterday, you know, like it's, you know, another game where we didn't
12:35finish. He also gave up three touchdowns in the third quarter too. It wasn't that great at the,
12:40you know, in the middle part of the game either. So if that's what you're going to lean
12:43on as the head coach for the reason that you're telling the fan base that your team is failing
12:47right now, then it's the deep, like it is the defense, not just in a game where they're giving
12:51up 300 and something yards to Dak Prescott in a game last week where you lost 19 to 17,
12:57because you gave up a late field goal. That's your fault too. Even in a game where the stats
13:01were OK defensively, this is my biggest takeaway of all of this. Like, this is the thing that was
13:05on my mind when the game ended yesterday. And yesterday's just one component of this takeaway
13:11for me is that, and I'm part of it. I think a lot of people are part of it, but
13:16definitely
13:16nationally, the narrative on the Houston Texans coming into the year was the preseason analysis
13:24was they have an elite defense. They've got great special teams. They've gone out of their
13:28way to become a more physical, tougher team in the various areas of the offense, like offensive
13:33line, running back, things like that. If only CJ Stroud can be average, if he can just be
13:39average, then this team can get past New England or whoever they're playing in the divisional round
13:44and get to the conference title game and get to a Super Bowl. That was the standard Costco take out
13:49there. If CJ Stroud, every single one, we did a power ranking of the power rankings the week before
13:54the season started, and we joked about it, you and I, that every single analyst, whether they had
14:00him fourth or whether they had him 13th, they're all saying the same thing. If CJ Stroud can just be
14:05average, and I got to imagine CJ heard all this for the last six months heading into the season,
14:10like, okay, I had a bad game in New England, but I'm the big problem here on a team where
14:14we haven't
14:15been able to run the football since I got here on a team where I'm running for my life. The
14:18actual
14:19occurrence has been the polar opposite. I'll go through the checklist again quickly. Elite defense.
14:25Hey, Sterling, get the buzz ready for me here. All right, get the, get the buzz ready for me.
14:30Um, elite defense. No, no, no. Buzz, not a ding, but thank you. Uh, elite special teams.
14:37Um, physical, grimy, mean offensive line that can run the football. No, yeah, they've got the,
14:43they are the fourth lowest in total rush yards right now. Yeah. Wow. There's people lower than
14:49the Texans. They rushed for like 50 yards a game. That's bangles and saints. They did.
14:54Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. That's bad for all those teams too. Yeah. CJ Stroud. See the actual,
15:02the actual occurrence has been the literal opposite of that. Not only has CJ Stroud been
15:06excellent, but everything that the Texans were forecasted to be in those other areas
15:10could not be further from the truth. Could not be further from the truth. CJ Stroud has been
15:14excellent in every way, running the offense, running for his life, throwing accurately to all
15:20levels, uh, ball security, ball, sick, ball, secure, ball. Give him another ding for ball
15:25security. Definitely. And there's a throw, like he had the fumbles in game one, but then
15:28is a passer, no interceptions and very, very, very few, even risky passes. The Hail Mary yesterday
15:35was probably the one that came closest to an interception. There was a guy who's a former
15:39Cowboys scout. He's a podcaster up in Dallas who was doing a classic drive by analysis on this
15:45matchup. And I was watching it before on Saturday and I got pissed because he's like,
15:49you look at CJ, he hasn't been accurate. He's got a 60% completion percentage. And you know
15:54who they actually got to, you know, they've really been trying to run the offense through
15:58Jalen Noel. I'm like, you son of a few freaking hack. What the hell are you talking about?
16:02No, CJ has been very accurate. He's just, he's been throwing until without Nico Collins on
16:07the field, he's throwing the blanketed wide receivers into tiny, tiny windows. Nico gets
16:11out there and man, holy crap. Look at all the separation elsewhere. First, first throw to
16:17Nico, 45 yard catch and run. You know, the other thing though, too. So Jalen
16:20Noel, Jalen Noel got more involved. Yeah. They involved him in more. He ran more routes.
16:25Yeah. It was the first time in his career that he ran a route on more than 70% of
16:30the
16:30team's dropbacks. Why this, this, even as the oven scores 30 points yesterday, there are
16:37things about this offense where you look at him and say, okay, cool. Good, Nick. Oh, good.
16:41Good job, fella. Pat him on the head. Give him a little, you know, rub his back gently
16:46and say, Hey, good. You're starting to do things the way other offensive coordinators
16:49do. And then you watch the Cowboys, you watch other teams, you turn on the television or
16:53you're like, Oh, Nick is still, Nick is learning his multiplication table.
16:58Panthers tables. Well, other guys are out there doing calculus. Yeah.
17:02The Panthers last night. Oh, Hey, yo, explosive play to Nico Collins.
17:05That's Blake Fisher reports as an eligible receiver. It was, it was the first series
17:10of the game. And you and I sit next to each other at every game. And, and we're both
17:13like Nico gets a 45 yard catch and run. Like, all right, this is opened up. And the
17:17very next thing we hear on the overhead speaker, 57 is eligible. And we just look
17:22at each other. Like, what, what are we doing, man?
17:26No fear of like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. And here's this, get up to the line quickly.
17:31It's the first drive, fellas. No, we got some time here.
17:34Get Blake Fisher out here. Did you hear, did you hear D'Amico's answer in the press
17:39conference when he was asked about the running game, which stunk yesterday, the
17:42running game was not good. He just looks at whoever asked and said, we scored 30
17:45points. Yeah. That was his whole answer. He was in the mode of not wanting to blame
17:49the offense for anything. Probably. Probably. It is. I hope he's a little more
17:54introspective today when he talks to the media. Yeah, no. And I think so. I mean, the
17:58problem is, yeah, you did score 30 points. It wasn't enough to win. And I'm not, I'm not
18:02here to crush the offense today, but you didn't, that's a, that, that has been an awful defense
18:07and you couldn't run the ball at all. Nope. Like this has got to concern you when you're
18:110 and 4. If this was, if they were three and one right now, and they lost this game
18:15in a heartbreaker and they'd been able to run the football at all previously, then I might
18:19say, yeah, it's a weird week. Yeah. They did some things to stop us. No, they haven't
18:24been able to run against anybody. This is, you're a bad football team. This is not, it's
18:27the NFL, your bad football team right now.