- 17 hours ago
The Houston Texans are 2-5 after another fourth-quarter collapse against the New York Giants. Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast listen to and dissect postgame comments from GM Nick Caserio and HC DeMeco Ryans, explaining why leaning on the "one-score game" excuse simply rings hollow. From being the most penalized team in the NFL to ranking near the bottom in tackling efficiency, Seth breaks down why Houston is fundamentally broken right now and what must change over the bye week.
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00:00We were doing our setup for the pregame. I was talking to James, our guy out there.
00:04Our engineer.
00:05Our engineer.
00:05Yeah.
00:05And I was like, oh man, you know what this is, James?
00:08This is the first time every year when all of a sudden you're out.
00:11You're warming up for practice, and you're looking around, and you think, oh yeah, I actually enjoy this game.
00:21That's like the first time all year you enjoy playing football.
00:24Yeah.
00:24You're like, oh, this doesn't have to be misery from the time I step my fat butt outside.
00:29Nice, crisp little snap in the air.
00:31Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:33It's good.
00:34I'm like a gazelle.
00:35Right.
00:36Could run forever.
00:37That's you as the former player.
00:38Me, I'm like, this is the talking weather that I've been seeking.
00:42I love talking in this weather.
00:44Yeah.
00:45And moving my lips.
00:47Sterling, you had to play high school football down here, and I respect you guys so much.
00:52You know who I respect?
00:53You guys, the high school football players, and the marching bands.
00:57I don't understand.
00:59Those polyester unis?
01:00I drive by a high school marching band practicing on a blacktop somewhere at 3 p.m. in August,
01:07and I feel like that's the worst form of child abuse imaginable.
01:11I just, so kudos to you, Sterling the high school, the former high school football player,
01:18and all the marching band members.
01:20Yeah, tough, smart, dependable, Sterling.
01:22That's what I think.
01:23When I, every morning I wake up, I'm like, thankfully we've got a tough, smart, and dependable
01:27producer.
01:27Were you ever lucky enough to pass out during a football practice?
01:30Um, full body cramp.
01:31Oh.
01:32Not a pass out, though.
01:33That's good fortune.
01:34Full body cramp?
01:35Full body cramp.
01:36That was your go-to fake injury?
01:37Full body cramp?
01:38No, my asthma was my go-to injury.
01:40Oh.
01:41Like, I can't breathe.
01:43Oh, yeah.
01:43Yeah, that was the, if I didn't feel like running because it was too hot, yeah, fake
01:46the asthma.
01:47Oh, you were joking.
01:48I thought you were joking.
01:49Oh, okay.
01:49No, dead serious.
01:51Sean, you don't know what it's like to just hope to pass out.
01:54You're like, you're just like, I gotta, I'm not gonna, I gotta win this wind sprint,
01:58or, I hope I pass out.
02:00I do.
02:01It's one of those two things, but I will not.
02:02I'm gonna compete, but God, please, take me down.
02:04Sean, take me down.
02:06I do know how it feels to wish to pass out.
02:08It just has nothing to do with sports, but I'm wishing to do it.
02:10You know, like, I've had a lot to drink tonight.
02:14You're talking about, yeah.
02:15I just want to pass out.
02:17This is like watching the Texans.
02:19Yeah.
02:20That's funny.
02:21Take me down.
02:22So, we had somebody text in, hey, Sean and Seth, you need to change your opening show
02:26jingle.
02:27There's nobody coming to H-Town to get work in.
02:29It's not a great day.
02:31No one is giving juice, baby.
02:33No one is doing it.
02:34Nothing to say, oh, yeah, about.
02:37Maybe just give a toilet flush because the season is down the crapper.
02:40I don't know.
02:414.6% chance of making the playoffs.
02:42Nick Casario and D'Amico Ryans told me multiple times yesterday that, hey, man, it's a bunch
02:48of one-score games.
02:49These things could go either way.
02:51Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:53That got me triggered a little bit yesterday.
02:54The problem is, you know, like the whole one-score game thing and how it's just kind of random
03:00from one year to the next and all that.
03:04There's some truth to that.
03:05And yet, at the same time, sometimes there's like actual substantial things underlying and
03:10underneath it.
03:11That's this team.
03:11Yeah.
03:12What you just said.
03:12You look at that Giants game.
03:14I mean, that was the three quarters of battling and fighting another team.
03:22Neither team was actually playing all particularly that well.
03:25I mean, after three, when it was 14 to 14, I'm like, man, I'm really PO'd at this defense
03:30right now.
03:31And they got lucky by having to face a bad field goal kicker.
03:34But they have held them to 14 points.
03:36But then in the fourth quarter, the physicality started to take its toll.
03:41And you can start to see, all right, well, wait a second.
03:43This Giants team is operating differently than this Texans team.
03:46But think about the bar right now.
03:48Yeah.
03:48Think about what you just said.
03:49Yeah, it's the Giants.
03:50They held them to 14 points.
03:52Right.
03:53A, it's the Giants.
03:54Right, right, right.
03:54B, 14 points and a half means 28 points for the game.
03:58There's only five teams in the league averaging 28 points a game offensively.
04:02And it's the Giants we're talking about here.
04:04And it should have been 20, like you said.
04:06Like, they missed two field goals in that.
04:08I mean, it should have been 17.
04:09One of the field goals would have been a career long.
04:11The one right before the half, there's just no excuse.
04:14I want to play some of the audio from yesterday.
04:16We have a ton of audio from Nick Casario, D'Amico.
04:18Nick met with the media for over 30 minutes yesterday.
04:21And D'Amico met with the media for 18 minutes yesterday.
04:24The actual, sorry, I was doing it historically with a two and five.
04:27Sorry, I just wanted, before we move on.
04:28The, it's between, the actual playoff estimators have the Texans between 18% and 31%.
04:34Really?
04:35Yeah.
04:36At two and five, huh?
04:37Yeah, apparently.
04:38Okay.
04:39ESPN Research says 31%.
04:41Wow.
04:42That, that is, that's optimistic.
04:44I mean, look, losing to the Giants, I guess, doesn't change the fact that you do have some
04:48games coming up that are winnable games, you know.
04:50Cal, she's at 30%.
04:51Okay.
04:52I don't think that's great value, but all right.
04:54Athletic Simulator's at 18%.
04:56Yeah, this is just, this is a different team with five losses than last year's team, man.
05:01And I'll talk more about that later in the show.
05:03Like, this, look at who their five losses were to last year and how they lost.
05:07And look at the five losses and who they're to this year.
05:09Last year's team, you could hang your hat on the defense still.
05:12Yes.
05:12It was just.
05:13Yeah, you were on one side of the ball.
05:14There was, like, right from the Rams game, they were playing well defensively.
05:17Yep.
05:18And there's nothing you can hang your hat on right now.
05:21No.
05:21And that's why, like, some of this stuff about Nick and D'Amico with this whole, hey, it's,
05:26you know, we lost a bunch of one-score games.
05:28When you, well, let's play the audio and then we can talk about it a little bit.
05:31This was, this is, it's a little long.
05:33It's a minute and change.
05:35But Nick says a lot.
05:36This was his opening statement.
05:37So this is before he took any questions yesterday.
05:39This was, so this is sort of, this is sort of Nick Casario's 82nd view on where they're
05:47at this season.
05:48So there's some things in here that just, that, that, that maybe, I don't know if they
05:52contradict, but take a listen here.
05:54Here is Nick Casario's summary on where the Texans are at right now, seven weeks in.
06:02Lucky me.
06:03Morning.
06:03I appreciate everybody being here.
06:06Yeah, I'm really, I mean, I'll kind of open it up to questions.
06:09So, you know, two and five, we are where we are.
06:11Definitely can play better.
06:13You know, we certainly do a number of things better collectively, you know, myself included.
06:17So try to take advantage here to buy a week.
06:19Look at some of the things that, you know, we're doing well.
06:21Look at some of the areas that we can improve.
06:24Some of them, I mean, honestly, and not to boil this down to simplicity, but I mean, it
06:29comes back to basic fundamentals and techniques.
06:31I mean, tackling is tackling.
06:32So you're either a good tackler or you're not.
06:34I mean, we can do some things relative to hitting yardage in some of the areas.
06:39But, you know, one of the worst penalized teams in the league, one of the worst tackling
06:43teams in the league.
06:44So, I mean, if we can make some incremental progress in some of those areas, then, you
06:49know, it could potentially lead to a better result.
06:51I mean, the reality is, look, we're two and five.
06:53We lost four games on the last possession.
06:55So what are some of the things that we can do on a margin to potentially improve to see
07:00if we can finish those games?
07:01So, you know, we're one and four in one score games or whatever it was.
07:04We're able to pull out the Jacksonville game because we executed, you know, critical situations.
07:09So that's where we are.
07:10So, I mean, there's no reason to mope around and, you know, wallow in our sorrows.
07:15I mean, this is the NFL.
07:16I mean, a lot of good teams, a lot of good players.
07:19We can certainly make some improvements.
07:21If we make some improvements, we'll see if the results are better.
07:23So, I mean, I think that's what the focus is going to be here, you know, this week.
07:26And D'Amico, D'Amico talked about one score games also.
07:29We'll get to that.
07:30Well, let's play that now and then we can dig into both of them.
07:32Here was D'Amico Ryans yesterday echoing some of the things Nick Casario said,
07:36said disappointed in the fundamentals.
07:40We are where we are right now, right?
07:43And as where we are, it's not good enough.
07:46And it starts first off with me.
07:48So, obviously, I got to coach it better and got to do a better job of getting across to the
07:52guys
07:53that, you know, things are there for us or we can make a few plays.
07:57The games we've been in, we've been in some tight ball games.
08:00That's what the NFL is.
08:02I think five of our games came down to the last possession, right?
08:06And we've won one.
08:07We lost four of them.
08:08So, there are a few plays out there.
08:10We can find a way to make those plays.
08:12We can be sitting on the other side.
08:13We didn't make those plays.
08:14So, we are where we are right now.
08:16And it is what it is.
08:18How do we press forward?
08:19How do we move ahead and find a way to make those plays?
08:21This is where the whole play here, play there thing rings hollow for me, Seth.
08:27And you tell me if you agree or disagree with this.
08:29Where that part rings hollow to me is something that Nick Casario himself said in that cut that we just
08:36played.
08:36They're the worst penalized team in football.
08:39Nobody's been penalized for more yards than the Houston Texans.
08:41Nobody.
08:42They're one of the worst, if not the worst, tackling teams in football.
08:45And that reared its ugly head in the second half of a loss to a Giants team that you have
08:49no business losing to.
08:52That when you are the worst at basics, when you are the worst at tackling and the worst at penalties,
09:00the whole a play here, a play there thing just rings so hollow to me.
09:04You're a bad football team right now.
09:06You're a poorly coached football team right now.
09:10D'Amico and Nick are in lockstep on how they're talking about this season right now.
09:14You could have read the transcript of either of these guys,
09:16and I wouldn't have been able to figure out which one was saying these things.
09:20They give a kind of a cursory blame to each of themselves off the top
09:24and then proceed to talk about how fundamentals, tackling, penalties, all of which is true.
09:28I mean, neither of them said anything that's untrue.
09:31I just, you know, like the whole notion that this team is close right now.
09:36You're the worst in the league when it comes to being penalized
09:41and when it comes to not bringing players to the ground.
09:44Right, right.
09:45Yeah, the fundamental value of tackling.
09:48That's kind of a big deal.
09:49Yeah.
09:50And they've been talking about it for a while.
09:51Do you feel like this team is four plays away from being a good football team right now?
09:54No, no, because they've relinquished so many of these leads in the fourth quarter.
09:57They're not a defense that you can trust in the fourth quarter.
10:00That's right.
10:01Like, there's a, these are not flukish, weird situations that have led to like,
10:05oh, it's a coin toss.
10:07Even when the offense is, you know, even when the offense has taken the lead in the fourth quarter at
10:12times,
10:12it's after three quarters of insignificance.
10:15And then all of a sudden they figure something out and the defense relinquishes a lead.
10:19Yeah.
10:19There's just more to it than just, oh, hey, you win some, you lose some.
10:23Yep.
10:23It's not, it's, you know, they haven't lost a bunch of shootouts or something where at least,
10:28okay, the defense is no good, but the offense is awesome.
10:30So the tackling part is the part that bothers me just because they've been talking about it for seven weeks.
10:36And this is something that, you know, you know, people always ask the question, well,
10:40how much can you work on it when nobody has pads on?
10:43Here's the thing.
10:44Or when nobody's tackling in practice, here's the thing.
10:46Nobody's tackling, like nobody in the NFL is tackling in practice.
10:50There are ways to work on it and there's a way to emphasize it and ways to get better at
10:54it.
10:54And whatever they're doing, it hasn't been enough.
10:57And this is where you go back to just the same old cliche thing that happens all the time.
11:02Man, when people start talking about wanting to be the best ever and you're going to be the greatest defense
11:07in the history of football and all of sports and all of that,
11:11sometimes the fundamentals start to slide.
11:13And some of the things that you need to be emphasizing in practice, just taking the proper angles.
11:18Like in practice, you simulate making a hit.
11:21But usually what will happen over the course of time, over the course of an NFL season,
11:24if people just start kind of, they don't lower their pad level and they just, you know, tap off and
11:29all that.
11:29And I don't, I don't know how these guys are practicing out there, but I wouldn't be surprised if, yeah,
11:33there's a lot of lackadaisical just kind of tagging off and I would have made the tackle there.
11:38Like, oh, would you have, would you have Tremont Smith?
11:40Yeah.
11:41Would you, because that turned, well, it should have been an 11 yard reception by Malachi, not Lemon.
11:47Fields, right?
11:48Malachi Fields.
11:49Ends up being about, what, a 47 yarder?
11:51Yeah.
11:51Because he, because he didn't, because he didn't make the play right there.
11:54It's just, yeah, it's, it's, it's concerning.
11:57Well, and, and D'Amico's getting asked a lot, like, Hey man, this is the same group of guys that
12:03you had last year where I,
12:05and they weren't a perfect tackling team by any means last year.
12:08I know they had their issues tackled.
12:09And some of that's, some of that's inherent with their style of play.
12:12You know, they, they, they play very aggressive style of play where you're going to miss some tackles.
12:16This is a bad tackle team though.
12:18Now it is, but especially too, when they miss tackles, the whole swarm mindset's supposed to make up for it.
12:23And you're supposed to have multiple guys rallying the ball.
12:26And we just haven't seen that.
12:27It just, the same level of ferocity.
12:29It's just not there.
12:30Well, and, and D'Amico gets asked about it and, and multiple times.
12:33And he, he, it feels like he uses this as a defense mechanism where people say, look, you were so
12:39good at these things,
12:40whatever it may be you're talking about, because they were good at almost everything defensively last year.
12:43You were so good at such and such last year.
12:46Why is that a problem this year?
12:47Because pretty much everything they were good at last year, they're bad at right now defensively.
12:51And, and his, his answer is this year's this year and last year's last year.
12:57And, and it's frustrating.
13:00Like, bro, we just want some insight, man.
13:03Like what is going on with your defense?
13:05Like fans deserve an explanation better than it's a new year and we just got to coach it.
13:09I think Casario came the closest to, to really laying it out when he said that some of the players
13:18who played well last year,
13:19aren't playing well this year, aren't playing as well this year.
13:21Yeah.
13:21And I think you can look across the board at the secondary and for whatever reason,
13:26and whether there are legitimate excuses and explanations,
13:30those guys in the secondary aren't playing as well as, as we expect them to.
13:34And then the lineback, the linebackers aren't playing as well either.
13:36And maybe it's because of injuries or what have you, but they're just, they're,
13:40they're not putting the same performances out there.
13:42Will Anderson's the only one that's playing to the level he played at last year on the defense right now.
13:46I mean, can you think of any, Daniel's play, but he hadn't, but, but Daniel was a second team all
13:51pro last year.
13:51Like he's not playing at a second team all pro level this year.
13:54I, yeah, I'm not saying Daniel's not had a good year, but I am saying he hasn't been as impactful
13:58as he was last year.
13:59I think honestly, the, without, because all of these things, you know, it's all interrelated.
14:05And if you go by PFF scores and everything, yeah, look, you end up being better when you're playing next
14:09to people who are playing better.
14:13But the, the linebackers, because of health and absence and just haven't been the same guys.
14:21And I think especially like, I know it's, it feels weird to be talking about EJ speed right now,
14:27but this is a team that when they, they've barely played their base four, three defense until the last couple
14:32of weeks.
14:33And when they have, they haven't been able to stop the run.
14:36So, I mean, and this goes all the way back to things that we were talking about.
14:40You know, we were talking about EJ speed's absence is a bigger deal than people realize.
14:44He played about half the snaps last year and they had five guys, six guys competing to replace EJ speed.
14:50And not a single one, neither of your draft picks, nobody stepped up and basically took that role.
14:57Jake Hansen almost won it by default.
15:00And that's, that's a problem.
15:01That kind of has a trickle down effect into just the way they have to play.
15:05They're out there playing with five defensive linemen on the field, a bunch last week,
15:09because they just don't trust their base four, three defense to get it done.
15:12And, and then in the secondary, look, I know, I know that people get tired of hearing D'Amico say
15:19that, you know,
15:19it's not the scheme, it's the execution, but it's true.
15:22They're simple things like, I don't care what scheme you're running, like when two wide receivers run a switch route,
15:28you know, when they're aligned next to each other and they just switch at the line of, at the snap,
15:33like that's, like, that's not some big mental mystery.
15:37The guys need to be able to figure out and like, oh no, now they're on to us.
15:42They, they're just going to swap receivers.
15:45Oh, we've never seen this before.
15:47What are we going to do?
15:47Yeah.
15:48But they're not executing it.
15:49This is going to take at least seven weeks to fix.
15:52What is this?
15:53A post route, you say?
15:54Never have I seen such a thing.
15:56I thought we banned these.
15:58We didn't ban the post route?
16:00E-gads, Kamari.
16:01E-gads.
16:03What, what devilry are they up to over there?
16:06Con sarnit?
16:07A post route.
16:07I had no idea J.J. McCarthy was up to such magic, magic, magic, magic imaginations.
16:12Uh, all right.
16:13So we, we've got plenty to get to with Nick Casario and D'Amico Ryans throughout the show.
16:17C.J. Stroud's contract was another big talking point with, uh, with Nick yesterday.
16:22We'll, we'll get to that a little later on here in the six o'clock hour.
16:25Um, we asked Houston Stressons to put up the poll that he's put up at least three other times this
16:31year, which usually after losses, which is okay.
16:35Who's to blame for this debacle right now?
16:37Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:37Who is to blame for the two and five start?
16:40This has been a fascinating shifting of the fan base throughout the season as to who they see as the
16:47most culpable as to where the Texans are right now.
16:51He put the poll up about this time yesterday.
16:53So we're about 24 hours in.
16:54You have not looked at it yet.
16:55No.
16:56But I have, uh, yeah.
16:58You've got your guess ready.
16:59Yeah, I had my guess from yesterday and I've, yeah, yeah.
17:01Okay, well, Seth is going to guess the four choices are D'Amico, Nick Casario, Nick Kaley, and the players
17:06who is to blame for the two and five start.