00:00This is Star Up, Star Down with Sean and Bobby Choppy. We'll be back tomorrow. It's brought to you by
00:05Wild Fork Foods.
00:06As you're flipping around, we're the home of everything. That's what we are. I mean, literally, if there's something, we
00:10got it.
00:11And if the Stars win, maybe we'll take them, too.
00:14First drive, man. The return of Nico Collins. And you're like, uh-oh. 45 yards.
00:22First play. First pass play.
00:2445. They go right down the field. Nico right there against Deron Bland.
00:31Where's Joey Porter Jr.? It's 7-0. The first points of any kind on a Texans opening drive this year.
00:41We'll get to a star down in a little bit, but it leads us to Joey Porter Jr. and the
00:46debut.
00:47Jeremy Fowler made my early Sunday morning when he goes, yep, this looks like it's going to be about 30
00:51snaps.
00:52And then the great Christy Scales, our Cowboys sideline reporter who took the field video in Brazil that got like
00:5810 million views,
01:00she reported on the pregame show that we are going to see Caleb Downs play more safety with Reddy Stewart
01:07in the slot.
01:09So, secondary adjustments.
01:11Joey plays 24 of 52 possible defensive snaps in the debut.
01:17That included 19 snaps in coverage without allowing a single reception against one target faced.
01:25I think there were five times he lined up against Nico Collins, and there was no targets over there.
01:31How close of attention were you paying to Joey?
01:35And what did you think the game plan was going to be?
01:38So, he was on the field about half the time.
01:4246%.
01:42Yeah, he was on the field about half the time.
01:44And so, whenever the defense breaks the huddle, like, the first thing I look at generally is, like,
01:49I'm looking to see how their front is lining up and seeing, all right, what else here?
01:53And then you kind of, like, make your eyes back.
01:55So, if nothing really, like, catches my eyes up front, then, like, I'll start noticing corners and different things like
02:02that.
02:02And so, there were a few different times where I had circled around to him, and I was like, all
02:06right, I'm going to watch him on this play.
02:08He looked competitive.
02:10There was one time he was really slow getting off the field.
02:12And he was, like, he was sitting there, and I was like, oh, he may be done today.
02:14Because I didn't know what he was, what the issue was.
02:16But he kept stretching out his leg.
02:18It looked like they were messing around with his, like, thigh pads.
02:20Like, they were worried about his quad or something like that.
02:23But he was fine postgame, looked healthy postgame, said he felt good.
02:26And so, this was a really good performance, and the fact that he was able to essentially do what they
02:32planned on him doing,
02:34which is just, hey, let us funnel things away from a side of the field we don't want to mess
02:41with.
02:41Just take that away for us.
02:42And he did that in a lot of ways.
02:43A couple things.
02:45Number one, Cowboy fans were saying, why is anyone but Joey Porter Jr. on Nico Collins?
02:52Why is he not just following him?
02:54Get De'Ron Bland the hell up out of there.
02:57Get anyone else away from Nico and just have Joey follow him.
03:01There was a moment, and Pepe, you know, you were actually working the game as well, so both of you
03:06may have missed it.
03:07But there was a moment that I loved in the game that Greg Olsen highlighted.
03:11When Nico comes out, the Texans break the huddle.
03:14Nico lines up opposite of Joey, and Joey rolls his head like, daggone it, not again.
03:21Dude, I couldn't stand up.
03:25Because I love the dog nature of Joey Porter wanting to be right there on Nico.
03:32But y'all text in if you know what I'm talking about with Greg Olsen on the TV call.
03:36Joey kind of rolled his head back, and I was like, oh, he wants to smoke.
03:39And then it felt like a heavyweight fight that had built up in round 10 at the end when Olsen
03:46highlighted it,
03:46and he goes, Joey Porter is going opposite of Nico Collins.
03:50Like, here we go.
03:51This is game-deciding moments.
03:53This is nut-cutting time, as Jerry Jones would say, and Joey Porter wants the damn smoke.
03:58So that got me freaking hype as hell.
04:01Yeah, I saw the—I didn't hear the Olsen commentary on it.
04:04I saw somebody had, like, filmed it and put it on Twitter.
04:07So I, like, I saw his body language and them commenting on it.
04:10And so—
04:10God, I love that type of stuff.
04:12And he's—like, if anybody remembers his dad and the way that he played—
04:17His dad was a beast.
04:18His dad had a big edge to him.
04:20And his dad was a wanted-the-smoke guy.
04:23And so it doesn't surprise me that he's that way.
04:25I think he's a little more—he's not as brash as his dad was, at least in the little bit we've
04:31seen him speak so far.
04:32But he's just—he's confident, and he wants the moment.
04:36He does want—like, he's somebody who wants to get paid because he feels like he should be out there on
04:41the island locking people down.
04:43Look, I will say this.
04:44When I look at the stat line and totally forget that Joey was playing, which is a good thing for
04:51a corner because they're not throwing at him,
04:53I'm like, all right, I feel better about giving him the second-round pick, but is he this good?
04:59Not to target him more than once?
05:02Like, how much—
05:04The discrepancy might be that big.
05:07Oh, yeah.
05:07He may be good, but the discrepancy might be that big on the other side.
05:11I'd like to know, though, in the five Nico matchups, how many times Houston actually threw it?
05:17Because I was like, are y'all telling me that—is Houston staying away from Joey Porter Jr.?
05:23Is Houston staying away from Nico Collins, or did they just run it three times there?
05:27Was there a better matchup?
05:29Did they have a bigger completion down the field?
05:31Because if that's the case, I'm like, is he better than I even thought?
05:35Joey had five routes that he picked up on Nico.
05:38So he was in on—he had coverage.
05:41Do they count it not as when you line up?
05:43It's actually, like, passing routes run?
05:45Yeah, he had coverage snaps.
05:46He had coverage snaps.
05:47He had five coverage snaps against Nico Collins.
05:49Okay, and they didn't target, and they didn't throw to Nico.
05:51Nope.
05:51I can't wait for the post-hunt clarity tomorrow at 720, whether it was straight lockdown.
05:56And I was like, are they even—forget about the lockdown.
05:58Are they showing that much fear slash respect?
06:00Because I didn't think we were talking about Joey in that regard, that he's a one to the point of
06:08them not targeting their guy who's actually murdering out there in Nico with seven for 118 and two touchdowns.
06:14And he's played well at times against Nico in the past, and so that's one of the big things that
06:19when we put that cut-up out last week of him covering, in those clips, he's against Alec Pierce, he's
06:27against T. Higgins, he's against Amon Ross, St. Brown.
06:30Like, he does generally meet.
06:32Like, he likes to level up and like, all right, we got—Christian Parker mentioned it last week.
06:36Not only does he play well, like, we know he plays well against big-time receivers.
06:41Like, they've seen him do it against guys who it's like, hey, mano a mano, lock it down.
06:45Joey Porter Jr. catching up with the media afterwards.
06:49Joey, just first and foremost, just talk about how it felt to have your debut for the Cowboys and just
06:53to get back out there and play football.
06:54Man, that's the main thing I was missing, to play football.
06:56So, the fact that I got out there, got the dub with the guys, man, it's a blessing.
07:00It's a blessing, and they was happy for me.
07:01And just, what does it say about this team?
07:03You just got here, but the first game that you have with the Cowboys, they come out in the second
07:07half with their hair on fire.
07:08Just talk about the resiliency of this team.
07:10Man, we got a finish, and that's exactly what we did.
07:12When the ball was on us, when it was on the defense, we kind of were shaky towards the end,
07:16but we came back and made a good stop for the team.
07:19So, man, it's stuff to work on, but we'll take the dub.
07:22You were 1-0 as a Dallas Cowboy.
07:24Yeah.
07:25You became a Dallas Cowboy, like, at 11.30 p.m. Wednesday night.
07:28How can you put this week into words?
07:30I really can't.
07:32Hectic, probably.
07:33Hectic.
07:33But, you know, it came out with a win, and that's all I'm happy for.
07:37Were you playing just based on instincts, or did you understand enough of the calls to be able to, you
07:41know, understand what you're doing,
07:42or just kind of feel like backyard football at times?
07:44I mean, it was kind of a little bit of both.
07:46That's why I wasn't really out there too much.
07:47But all the times I was out there, I was comfortable with the calls.
07:50The defense was helping me.
07:51Downs, hook, they was talking to me all game.
07:53So, shout out them boys, because without them I wouldn't even be able to play out there.
07:57Joey, what did it take to get ready for this week?
07:59It took a lot.
08:00But, you know, I'm a dog at the end of the day.
08:01I want to be out there with the guys.
08:02So, I have to prove why they got me here, and I feel like I did that today.
08:05What was the challenge for you, not only with just two practices under your belt,
08:09but for the rest of this defense to work around you being so new when we're out there?
08:14Communication.
08:15That's the biggest thing, communication.
08:16And, like I said, hook and downs were communicating with me all game, all throughout the whole week.
08:21So, when we got on Sunday to the game today, it wasn't really a stress because we've been talking all
08:25week.
08:26Good questions by the Cowboys beat, and you've got to have a lot of them.
08:29Because I'm going to use some brash corner, get out there, and give it all these headlines.
08:33Now, Joey, so far in the two interviews, he's boom, boom, short, quick, concise.
08:38It's going to be about four or five words.
08:39Yeah, and he's confident.
08:41Like, he's clearly very confident.
08:42It's just it's not going to be his, you know, it's not going to be Jalen Ramsey.
08:45Right.
08:46But he is.
08:47And downs was talking to him and the TV shots there on the bench.
08:51And I think that's an important thing he highlighted, and he did it twice.
08:55So, when people say, what is downs bringing to the table?
08:58That's one of them.
08:59Like, you're talking about Joey Porter said, I wouldn't have been able to play today without those two guys.
09:03So, like, downs being in his ear, he wouldn't have been.
09:05That's what the Cowboys want Caleb Downs to do in terms of communication.
09:08And then for all of the replace Malik Hooker crowd, like, this is the thing that the guys on defense
09:13feel like Malik Hooker gives them.
09:14Like, that he is in command of what they're doing.
09:17Malik Hooker played well yesterday.
09:18Yes.
09:19He had a big pass breakup.
09:20Even Broadus gave that credit and those props.
09:23Brian Schottenheimer on his new corner.
09:25Yeah, I want to watch the film.
09:26What I loved about Joey was how excited he was to get out there.
09:29He wanted to play in this game, even on the pitch count.
09:32He wanted to play.
09:33He worked like crazy with Derek Ansley and Christian Parker and those guys to get out there.
09:38But we weren't going to throw him into a situation where he didn't know some of the calls and defenses.
09:43So, we were limited with what we could use him.
09:45But we'll see the film.
09:47Incredibly talented young man that we're very, very fortunate to have.
09:50Star Up, Star Down brought to you by Wild Fork, your elite game day grilling.
09:54More on what sent Joey Porter out of Pittsburgh at 8 o'clock as we got some very important details
10:01that Jerry and Steven will have to react to as this contract negotiation possibly takes place.
10:09Other Star Ups that I wrote down, I noticed Kenny Clark and Rashawn Gary in this game.
10:15Kenny Clark flushing CJ Strout on the first stop, which is a big thing I always write down.
10:19The Cowboys actually get a daggone stop.
10:21And it was on the first one he flushed CJ with Rashawn Gary cleaning it up.
10:26I wrote down Rashawn Gary on a third and three.
10:29I think he was actually credited here with a sack.
10:33Quinnen got one, yep.
10:34And Rashawn Gary got one.
10:36So, I wrote down those two guys, Bobby, in addition, obviously, to Quinnen Williams making the humongous play.
10:43I tweeted it.
10:43Bam!
10:44He delivers with the sack.
10:46And then he had another big run stop right after that.
10:49Yeah, the sack was, I mean, because that was third and three.
10:52Monster.
10:52Like, and he...
10:53Third down sack in the fourth.
10:55You have the 27-23 lead.
10:57And he won that rep fast.
11:00Like, he just...
11:00That was explosive.
11:02Getting to the quarterback.
11:03And then had the nice dance moves, too.
11:05The little shimmy that he gave there in the backfield.
11:08But he is playing much better than some of those questions that existed the first two weeks.
11:14I think Quinnen Williams has been really, really good.
11:16You mentioned Kenny Clark.
11:17Clark was somebody who I think, when we go back and look at it, we're going to say,
11:21all right, this is back-to-back weeks.
11:22He's, like, really stacked, good game.
11:23So, trenches are huge for them and the way that they've been able to perform there.
11:28I will say the guy that...
11:31And I just mentioned him.
11:32I think that Hooker deserves a start just for, in general, being in command.
11:36Like, I do think you can see there's a difference when he's back there versus other guys in the secondary.
11:41And that it's so subtle because it's not plays that he makes.
11:44It's more plays that don't get made when he's back there.
11:47Brian Schottenheimer on how he sees the defense improving.
11:52You know, I thought they, again, I said it this week on Tuesday or whenever we talked,
11:57they're getting better.
11:58You know, they really are.
11:59They're getting better.
12:00And I thought the third down stuff was really good.
12:04You know, what, we held them 3 of 10 on third down.
12:07You know, we gave up a couple big plays.
12:08I mean, the big play to Nico Collins early in the first play of the game, actually.
12:13That is what it is.
12:14But I thought, again, we held them 3.3 yards rushing.
12:17But, again, we need to take away the guys that we say we're going to take away.
12:21And we knew Nico Collins was coming back.
12:23We knew he was a great player.
12:26And we didn't do a good enough job on him.
12:28But, again, it's – you see it coming.
12:31You know, you see these guys getting better.
12:33And, you know, Quentin Williams, you know, some of the pass rush, you know,
12:37we really wreaked havoc on C.J. Stroud late in the game there
12:40and kind of made him uncomfortable, which was good.
12:42First half, not quite as much.
12:44But very proud of those guys.
12:46They're getting a lot better.
