- 2 days ago
The Houston Texans delivered an impressive performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, and ITL is fired up about what they saw! The guys react to Houston's big victory and break down just how good the offense looked throughout the game. After so much criticism and frustration surrounding the Texans' offensive struggles, has Houston finally figured things out? Could this performance be the spark that changes the direction of the season?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Look, man, just two weeks ago, we were wondering, I don't know about this team.
00:04It sure is funny how things can change on a dime, and especially when they change this way.
00:09And the this way is what really has changed my mood.
00:13You know, you often say that sports stink.
00:18Really, truly. Why do we do this to ourselves?
00:21Why do we do this to ourselves?
00:22This is the why. This is the why.
00:25Like when the Texans are losing and the Aggies are getting blown out and, you know, just life is miserable,
00:31you know, you're like, I quit.
00:33I wonder who you're talking about.
00:34Me.
00:36Like, you're just like, I quit. Why do I do this? I don't want to do this anymore.
00:39But this is the why, man. This is the why.
00:42What I saw last night, and there's plenty to talk about over the next four hours and so much to
00:48unpack.
00:49But the big thing for me is I see hope.
00:55I see hope.
00:56I mean, it was live and in person in the person of C.J. Stroud yesterday afternoon.
01:02Yesterday morning.
01:02What am I saying?
01:04Yesterday morning.
01:05Yeah.
01:05No, 100%.
01:06Again, a 34-31 victory for your Houston Texans.
01:09Came down to a last-second field goal salute to Kaimi Fairbairn.
01:13A lot of salutes will be necessary.
01:14Get involved with the program with your various salutes.
01:17713-572-4610 is the number to text.
01:20We always have great appreciation for the Mo'Kam injury lawyers for the live streams.
01:23We keep it 100.
01:24The YouTube page and Twitch chat are both 95-7 the fan.
01:29And, John, let's go ahead and do that.
01:30As I turn this over to the fans, man, on the text line, what about this game gave you the
01:36most hope?
01:37Because I feel like the answer will resoundingly be the same, but, you know, maybe just maybe someone else comes
01:42with something different here.
01:44But I am reminded of a film that I think we all enjoy.
01:50It's a great film.
01:51Digger?
01:51In the American.
01:52Not Digger.
01:52Although I enjoyed Digger.
01:53We can talk about that at a later date.
01:54I have a feeling that's not a today topic.
01:57But are you all familiar with Bad Boys 2?
02:00Yes, sir.
02:01There is a moment in Bad Boys 2 where Martin Lawrence's character is behind the wheel of a, I think
02:06it's a Porsche 911.
02:07I don't remember.
02:08It doesn't matter.
02:08But he just drove through a mess in Cuba.
02:11And he ultimately makes it to where he needs to be.
02:15And Will Smith's character, Mike Lowry, turns to him and goes,
02:19Now that's how you drive!
02:20From now on, that's how you drive!
02:23And that is 100%.
02:24Precisely how I felt.
02:26Yeah.
02:26Watching this offense absolutely handled it.
02:28So are you saying that to Nick Caley?
02:30Yes.
02:31Oh, we will get home.
02:32I'm saying it to Nick Caley.
02:33Yes.
02:33Let's get to it.
02:33Who are you saying that to?
02:35No, we know the answer.
02:36Are you saying that to C.J. Stroud?
02:37No.
02:38He know how to drive, right?
02:39Yeah, I mean, I'm so confident about him driving.
02:40Is C.J. Stroud saying that to Nick Caley?
02:41But there's elements of that as well.
02:43There's elements of it for C.J. Stroud.
02:45And I know people are saying, Reggie, you're crazy.
02:47You sound like these national people that have parachuted in and just found out C.J. Stroud
02:50is hooping.
02:50No, no, no, no, no.
02:51There's certain things about his game that you can point to.
02:54But yeah, I think primarily it is Nick Caley.
02:56And I say that, obviously, in some ways of a release of frustration, but in some ways
03:01of congratulations to him because he did something that I was not anticipating him being able
03:05to do, which is evolving in a way that puts this offense in a place where they can
03:09contend against one of the better defenses that they've faced this year.
03:12Oh, that's the best team they've faced.
03:14Well, them and Buffalo, I would say, are the best teams.
03:17The best defense in Buffalo ain't comparing.
03:18Exactly.
03:19That was a legitimate win, and context always matters.
03:23You know, that was a game where going into that game, you could just feel Jacksonville
03:28Jaguars were legit.
03:29You just said that.
03:30They had every element, both sides of the ball.
03:33They had the coaching.
03:34They had been in London for two weeks, so they were comfortable with the surroundings.
03:40They had passing game.
03:42They had receivers, except for Brian Thomas Jr.
03:45They had the run game.
03:47They had it all.
03:49And you go in there, and you go toe-to-toe, swing for swing, and you end up taking that
03:56game.
03:56That is why I feel there's hope, and that's why I feel the story of the day, the story
04:02around the country today will be C.J.
04:04Stroud.
04:04But I'm with you.
04:06Air Kaylee, man.
04:08I mean, that was not a...
04:10Oh, we're giving them a nickname now.
04:13That was not...
04:14I don't even think I like Air Kaylee.
04:15I don't either.
04:16Okay, wow!
04:17For the first time ever, you're like, I actually don't like this.
04:197-1-3-5-7-2-4-6-10.
04:22Do you have a nickname for Nick Kaylee after this game?
04:23I don't like it either, but let's run with it for now until we have a better option.
04:27No, that was not off script.
04:30It was not second option, you know, or third option, which has been the case in the past.
04:36Hey, if you see this, and there's man-to-man coverage on Nico, then maybe go over there
04:40and throw the ball.
04:41Or if your first and second options are not open, then maybe take that shot.
04:46No, no.
04:46This was scripted, designed, shot plays, throwing the ball.
04:51This is a pass-first offense.
04:52And the text line, of course, coming through and making sure to keep me clean.
04:55I always appreciate that that's the case.
04:57The driving one was in Bad Boys 1.
04:59It was the shooting that was in Bad Boys 2.
05:01Oh, okay.
05:01Where they, you know, harken back to that same line saying,
05:04that's how you shoot from now on, that's how you shoot.
05:06But yes, someone said in that analogy, C.J. Stroud is the car.
05:10C.J. Stroud was phenomenal.
05:12Like, we'll actually get to some of the audio of this.
05:15But the reason why that same quote applies to C.J. is,
05:19I thought that the pressure, the handling of pressure was absolutely phenomenal in this game.
05:24And there was moments in this game where you might have imagined that C.J. Stroud,
05:28even if C.J. Stroud earlier in this year might have looked just a little shakier,
05:32100% on point.
05:33Whether it was the zero blitzes, I know D'Amico Ryans talked about this with John Harris after the game.
05:39But the way that he handled zero pressure, like there was just an answer very clearly baked in
05:44that he immediately knew what to go to.
05:47It was immediate call and response as opposed to, oh, no, now I need to make something happen.
05:51You understand the distinction I'm drawing here, right, as opposed to, oh, no, now I'm seeing a problem.
05:56Let me see how to fix it, as opposed to, no, we have something for your ass when you throw
06:00this blitz at us.
06:01And it is Foster Moreau sneaking in right behind.
06:04It is Dalton Schultz right there in the middle of the field, right?
06:06It is getting the ball out quickly to this answer that is very much already built for me in this
06:10offense.
06:11And that also comes back to Nick Cayley.
06:13I heard Seth talking about this this morning.
06:15He is right.
06:15You know, no offense is built without some level of answer to blitz.
06:20But previously, it felt like whether it was on the player level or the communication level
06:24or whatever level you want to talk about, there was a disconnect when you saw pressure
06:28to ultimately getting it to the answer.
06:31This game, it was abundantly clear.
06:33You could try and heat CJ Stroud up.
06:34Do it to your own detriment.
06:36And it happened again and again and again in this game.
06:39Talk less of the way that they were very, very explosive and aggressive in this game.
06:42So I was, you know, jotting down my passing thoughts, which we will get to later,
06:46but also my notes over the course of the game.
06:49And it just, you could just see the progression and the confidence,
06:53the progression in confidence as well that CJ Stroud was gaining.
06:58And there was a point in the fourth quarter, even after the interception to Travis Hunter,
07:04which was just a spectacular play by Travis Hunter.
07:06I kept thinking, Reggie, I don't think CJ Stroud made a bad decision.
07:13There was one all game.
07:14I'm sure they're going to break down film and come up with six or eight, you know.
07:18But what I'm saying is...
07:19Actually, there might have been two all games.
07:21That's coaching, that's picking nits, that's all, you know.
07:23But generally speaking, with the bullets flying, shout out to bad boys.
07:27Hey!
07:29With the bullets flying...
07:30Why do we never consider bad boys for our Halloween costumes?
07:32Exactly.
07:33We're not doing that.
07:34And so I thought, I don't think...
07:39And again, we can parse and we can nitpick.
07:41But just generally speaking, he didn't make a bad decision.
07:44Like one of those, oh, what are you doing, CJ?
07:47Why would you do that, CJ?
07:48Why did you throw that ball, CJ?
07:50I don't think, like, just generally speaking, he made a bad decision.
07:54The only one was the interception.
07:55The only one was...
07:56I thought the interception was the right decision.
07:58Just a spectacular play by Travis Hunter.
07:59Nah, he threw that.
08:00Undercutting it.
08:01It was behind your receiver in that moment.
08:04Again, that's a difference of opinion.
08:05That's...
08:06I don't think...
08:07Well, okay, it's going to be a difference of opinion.
08:08So you think that's a fact.
08:10I think it's a fact that that was a bad throw.
08:11But I think even then, you can bring that back into the general conversation we're having
08:15here because I was in that moment, I was dreading what the conversation would be if this was
08:20a loss.
08:21Because with all of the great play that you'd seen to that point, with all the great play
08:25that you've seen thus far in this season with CJ Stroud, where he has been an absolute
08:28maestro, there was going to be an opening for people to go, see, big moment, CJ Stroud can't
08:34do it.
08:34And then what happens is, the defense does enough, right?
08:37And then the game is tied.
08:39Liam Cohen does enough.
08:40And then CJ Stroud gets an opportunity with the football again, and he again marshals his
08:44team into a position to have success, and you kick a field goal to win the football game.
08:48So again, he's able to rebound in that moment in a way that we definitely did not see in
08:54the postseason because he compounded instead of rebounding on bad mistakes to make more
08:59bad mistakes last postseason.
09:01This game, he made a bad mistake, and it's one of those things where if you do believe
09:05CJ Stroud to be some level of mentally or emotionally unstable, you would say that's
09:09where he crumbled.
09:10Nope.
09:11Came back, immediately did the right decisions, right?
09:13It wasn't coming back on that next drive and chucking it down the field.
09:16It was making the right decisions, taking what was available to them.
09:19Honestly, the biggest play was a check down of sorts.
09:22I don't even know if they'd call it a check down because it was a release out of the A
09:25-gap to
09:25Woody Marks in space, but getting it to him, time, space, and Woody Marks goes and creates
09:29all of those yards for you to ultimately set up a field goal.
09:32It was being the same CJ Stroud that he's been all year, the right decision maker, but
09:38ultimately the right playmaker that got you back into success even after he made an interception.
09:43So even still, if we disagree on whether or not that was a bad decision, he ultimately
09:48still made good in the same way that puts him in this place where you go, CJ Stroud is
09:52and this ultimately puts you back in the place where you feel hope for this Texans team
09:56in the way that they play.
09:57So I think the most important thing and everything that you just said, I think speaks to one
10:01thing.
10:02We have wondered and wondered and wondered if CJ Stroud was mentally tough enough, if
10:07he was mentally tough enough.
10:09He showed yesterday he was mentally tough enough because that was a horrible play, no matter
10:13how you looked at it, that could have easily turned the game the other way and turned it
10:18into a loss, but despite Liam Cohen, you know, going for the field goal, they were still in
10:24a bind and he came back and answered it.
10:27He was mentally tough enough to make that.
10:29And I want to mention one other thing too, that has to do with, with Nick Cayley, which
10:32we've been talking about here as well.
10:35I think one of the biggest things that they, that, that he's sort of evolved with is when
10:42things weren't there, the check down usually was a little toss to the running back in the
10:46flat, the hot read, so to speak, the hot reads now were different.
10:50Like they, like they, he's adjusted to over the middle to maybe taking a shot down the
10:54sideline more often.
10:56And, and that, that's competency in CJ Stroud.
10:59And that's, that's development by Nick Cayley.
11:01Both those things were very evident yesterday.
11:03It wasn't just, Oh, Oh, got to throw it out to the flat.
11:05No, it was like, all right, here's, here's the place.
11:06I'm going to take the ball.
11:07The play that really made me go, Nick Cayley's in his bag was ultimately the touchdown that Jalen
11:12Null scores, which can I take a quick pause in the middle of my own thought to say, everybody
11:18knew that your touchdown scores would be Foster Moreau, Foster Moreau again, Jalen Null and
11:22Jawar Jordan, right?
11:23We all called that one.
11:24That was on your bingo card.
11:26What, what, I think that also is another place where you give credit to these guys.
11:30Cause it was not, it was not a predictable in any way, the ways in which you ultimately
11:35scored your points and you did indeed score your points.
11:38But, um, yeah, man, I think it was the Jalen Null play where you see him kind of run a
11:44hook on the outside.
11:45You have a, you have a post to draw the safety paired with it.
11:49And then with that hook, he then goes.
11:52And so that, that keeps that, that one, um, I guess cloud or, uh, you know, flat defender
11:57there.
11:58It keeps him, it slows him down, stops his momentum.
12:01And then it allows Jalen Null to explode with his, with his, you know, pace past the defender
12:06and there's no safety help over top, boom, easy pitch and catch.
12:09And that's one of those things where that's what we've been hoping for.
12:13That's what we've been asking for, Nick Cayley.
12:14When we say, why are you not using Jalen Null?
12:17It's not that he's on the field.
12:18It's, can you create a situation in a scenario where he can use his speed and his ability
12:23to get open, um, in what you've designed.
12:26And that was one of those key moments where you see it point blank period.
12:29This was a well-schemed play.
12:31It's a well-executed play.
12:32And ultimately it scores a touchdown that you need.
12:34And I, and I want to make one more shout out for lack of a better way of putting it
12:39to the real reason.
12:40We saw the things we saw from, from CJ Stroud in the way that we saw him.
12:45Uh, and we saw the things we saw from Nick Cayley in the way that we saw them.
12:49This is an organizational decision.
12:51This was credit to the organization saying we have to trust CJ Stroud.
12:57CJ Stroud is our best path.
13:00Uh, we, we, we are not a good running team.
13:02This was probably done two weeks ago, at least where they said, we have to change who we
13:08are.
13:09You know, we came in talking about being a running team and, and smash mouth and all this
13:12other stuff and hat on a hat, which I hate.
13:14And, and all this other stuff.
13:16You hate blocking, correct?
13:17I hate hat on a hat.
13:18I hate the term hat on a hat.
13:20Anyway, no credit to D'Amico Ryans and Nick Casario.
13:23Cause they, they had to have sat in a meeting and just said, all right, this piece of paper,
13:28let's wad it up and throw it away.
13:30We're going to do have to do it a different way.
13:32If we're going to have any success and we're going to get back in this race.
13:34And they did.
13:35And you know, it's funny, like, cause you're absolutely correct as, as you can even evidence
13:38by clearly them going and acquiring a wide receiver for high draft capital.
13:42Right.
13:43Um, they clearly did lean into passing the football, but this is again, bringing you
13:48back to my general thesis.
13:49That is bad boys.
13:51Uh, from now on, that's how you drive.
13:53They passed to set up the run.
13:54Cause if we were talking about this game and we were like, man, clearly they made the right
13:58decision to pass.
13:59How many yards rushing do you think would be talking about?
14:0230 some, 40 some yards.
14:03They ran for 114 yards, including a Juar Jordan touchdown.
14:08That was 25 yards.
14:09Your longest rush from scrimmage this season.
14:11And that was clearly not the focus.
14:13Clearly the focus was not running the football, but they were able to do it when they, they
14:17were leaning all their efforts on, we're going to put the ball in CJ's hands.
14:20That's going to push the defense to defend us in a particular way.
14:23And then we'll hit them, uh, with the counter punch that is being able to run the football
14:27just enough to make them uncomfortable.
14:29Like this, this is the formula very clearly.
14:32And I could say that not after a Tennessee Titans game versus a team that you go, I don't
14:36know if they're any good, but against the Jacksonville Jaguars team that had the advantage
14:39of, uh, of, I guess some level of rest being in that place already that you were traveling
14:43to the advantage of being a team that probably had more confidence when it comes to their
14:48role in the advantage of a team that I think right now is playing a better version of defense.
14:53And I know we'll talk about that a little bit more.
14:54And none of those things saved them.
14:56No, uh, no, they were a better defense.
14:59So that, that defense had not given up a 40 yard rusher all season.
15:02They gave up two yesterday to the Texans into our Jordan and Woody Marks.
15:06So no, this was, uh, I'll say it again.
15:10We've, we've had our doubts, I think fairly after the Titans game and the Titans win, we've
15:14had our doubts all season, but yesterday I saw legitimate hope on the field.
15:19It would not be done, not just because of what the Texans were doing, but because of who
15:22they were doing it against.
15:24Yeah.
15:24So, uh, I mean, really and truly a hope inspiring game, uh, and just a really fun one.
15:29Like, can we just talk about that?
15:30We were talking about earlier on talking about all the bangers on the European game on the,
15:33on the foreign games.
15:34There's another banger.
15:35Yeah.
15:3634, 31.
15:37Like we're just now we went from exporting pure garbage to giving them just a class, pure
15:42classes.
15:43They would say rubbish.
15:44Yeah.
15:45Rubbish.
15:46Look at you picking up the language.
15:48A lot of texts coming in.
15:49People have nominated chef Kaylee as a possibility.
15:52Somebody said the hurricane defense, uh, offense rather.
15:55Um, and then one more here.
15:57Somebody said, uh, that they're listening to us from London.
15:59Shout out to the eight through two.
16:00They said they watched the game in person to takeaways.
16:02The crowd was loud and didn't know if that came through on the TV.
16:06Also the fact that between time timeouts, Kaylee was literally on the field practicing,
16:10uh, in the second half going through his motions, which of course we paid off, uh, paid off in
16:16great dividends with a game winning field goal.
16:18That ultimately puts you up 34, 31, gets you a big victory, much needed victory versus
16:23the Jags.
16:23If you lost this, you were not going to have, you were giving them the opportunity to have
16:27a, the tie break against you.
16:29You were giving them a, a prohibitive lead in the AFC South.
16:32And none of those things are the case.
16:33You are now two and four, just two games back of them.
16:36And you are well on your way to possibly having the tie break between them much, much needed.
16:41If you indeed want to play playoff football this year, which of course that game pushed
16:45you a lot closer to war.