We Didn't Jinx the Texans: The Problem Is Much Simpler

I think this is another sign, and you've been down this road with me before, and I know you agree with me on it.

Shane Stein is so freaking good and like he did, he's done such a good job of making it work with what he has, you know, they, they, they, they complete two passes on the drive to set up the game-winning field goal.

Do you know who they were too?

No, Laquan Treadwell and Keenan Allen.

It's awesome, by the way, that Laquan Treadwell is still in the NFL.

Like when, when, when that happened last week against the Chiefs, I was like, hold on, because my wife was like, I, I think she had a Colts receiver in fantasy, and she's like, Oh, who was that?

And I was like, that can't be Laquan Treadwell, but it was, it was Laquan Treadwell.

Yeah, yeah, so I gotta check if my, um, by the way, I gotta check if my, my, uh, my line, if editor Mitch kept my line in the story, can I read it to you for sure, OK, so I said, obviously with the shift in ownership there are lots of questions about the direction of the franchise, and new boss Carrie Irsay Gordon is clearly getting a closer look at how the steak is made and not in the words of Bill Big Tom Callahan taking the butcher's word for it.

Just really quick, I I, I'm, I'm hoping that that like I'm, I, I, I'll, I'll check after, but Mitch, I hope you kept that in there, maybe with a hyperlink.

The, um, I wanna get to the Texans here, uh, but the, the Carly Irsay Gordon discourse is so dumb and everyone's like, oh, what's she doing there with a notebook?

Do you, do you, I don't know, man, like if Jerry Jones was doing that, we'd be all over him.

Do you want An absentee owner .

No, I mean, I think there's a happy medium though.

Like, I think the optics of it, I mean, look, like, I, I know of owners that have the headset in the owner's box, right?

I've seen that, um.

I, I think we're giving her a pass because she's new and if like Jerry Jones or Arthur Blank or one of these guys was doing it, if Robert Kraft was on the side, I think we would be absolutely destroying them for it.

I think it's different.

I think it's different if you worked in like that you've worked for that organization for 40 years and you didn't just come in and buy it, you know what I mean?

I, I think it's different and, and, and I think that you would behave a different way, and I think that.

Uh, you know, let's call it what it is.

She's punching from a different place, uh, optically, because I think you're, you're a woman in a position where there aren't a lot of women.

And so how do you sit at the table with, with a whole bag full of receipts?

You, you sit there and you, and you figure out what's going on, um, but I don't know, and she could afford to play, to, to take a, to be like lower profile on the sidelines too, you know what I mean?

Like, but that's just.

That's just me.

I think the optics of it are tough.

Um, and look, like I think, but I would say this, right?

I think she has the right coach.

Like, I, and I think like, and I, and I think it's like a Kevin Stefansky situation again, um, where if Because of the point they're at in this contract, it's tricky .

Did you extend them if the year doesn't go the way you're hoping?

Like, I just think they have the right coach.

I think you change GMs and, and you know that the, uh, you know that the GM is probably gonna be smart enough to keep him, or at least you hope he is.

Um, let's flip over to Houston.

Uh, listen, this causes me great angst because I, every part of me thought that this was gonna get turned around.

And I think a lot of it is our, our, our personal issues that you're coming back to, but I also think that there is mounting evidence that Houston, like the, the like the situational play calling.

And we can get to Damio Ryan's too.

His timeout usage was not good on, on Sunday, but from the offense, it, it doesn't look right, Albert, and it, it doesn't look right.

The right plays don't seem to be called at the right time.

CJ Stroud was out there begging for them to have a less conservative approach.

You're running 4th and 1s into the same spot where you can't block anybody.

And again, is it a chicken or the egg thing?

Is the offensive line so bad that the play caller can't function, or is the play caller not, you know, I think this is such a great example of Like your offensive, like you, it, it like it's really, really hard to, to win if you have an offensive line deficiency, and I, I don't know that there's any way around the offensive line deficiency here.

Um, you know, they made a decision two years ago to trade away one of the best tackles in all of football, um, because the culture in the offensive line room wasn't right.

And I agreed with it at the time, I still understand why they did it.

But there is an element of, you had an all-pro left tackle, and like you had invested a lot in the guys around him, and, you know, two years later, it's still not fixed.

And so, like I, Uh, I don't, I don't know how you, I don't know how you solve this, you know, that's the problem.

Like, and I don't know where the light at the end of the tunnel is.

Now the defense is still really good.

Um, you know, I, I, look, Will Anderson is just out of this world, outrageously.

Uh, he is fantastic.

And that whole defense remains really good.

It's not like the Colts were We're lighting the Texans up.

You also, I think, have to wonder when it gets to a point of frustration for a defense that's capable of playing at the level of Texans defenses.

The Demio Ryan's and, um, Oh my goodness, uh, this is a Monday morning brain fart, uh, of all of Bobby Slowe relationship.

It, it got heated, right?

It got hot before, um, and, and I think that there was a lot of mounting frustration there.

At what point do you look at what you have and say, like, uh, you know, Bill Lazer's on the staff, he's called plays before, like, I, I don't know.

And, and I, and I think that Nick is gonna be one of the great play callers in the league.

I thought he did a good job last year, despite some really bad circumstances, and I think the circumstances are still bad.

But at what point, If you're D'Amico, like, do you pull a lever, something, right?

Because you can't, you can't go from, you can't depend on coming back from 0 and 3 again, you know what I mean?

And at some point, you're affecting the evaluation of your quarterback.

And again, I hate to do this because I think this is, it was almost, this is just a less violent version of what Philly did.

With Petullo and Hurts last year.

I don't think Peullo was nearly as bad as, as he was labeled, and I don't think Hurts was nearly the savior, and, and I don't want to tear these two people apart and put them on divergent paths.

But Strout is playing well.

Like he's, he's playing well.

And so it's like, who's not seeing it is the question.

And it's driving me nuts because Kayle will have some great play calls too.

There's a great short.

Yardage, um, sweep, and he got the ball to it, and I forget who it was, one of their, uh, faster wide receivers, kind of broke them out of a little funk.

You know, there are good play calls.

And so, I don't know, this one is just mind-numbing to me, mostly because everyone's pounding the table and telling me I'm a giant jinx, but anyway, so, I don't know what you do.

I, I don't like, I don't know.

What do you think, Albert?

Like, what, what, what happens here to the Houston Texans?

What, what is the next lever that you pull?

I mean, I I don't know.

And I know that sounds like a cop-op out, but I don't know.

Um, I mean, I, I guess it might be reshuffling on the offensive line, you know, and we'll see, you know, what they're, I mean, I'm just like looking at the guys who are up like last yesterday, and you have Blake Fisher, um, you know, Jake Andrews, like I don't know if there are answers here.

And unfortunately for the Texans, like, this is one of those positions.

That it's really hard to get help in the middle of the season, you know what I mean?

Like this isn't like a, like, oh, we can go get somebody's nickel corn.

We don't get like this isn't like that.

We get a left tackle.

No one has enough offensive linemen, and, and so if you have any semblance of depth there, you usually don't trade it away, um, again, you know, like not having, you know, not having Nico Collins doesn't help for sure.

And compounds the problem when you lost a guy you were expecting a lot of in Jaden Higgins.

So, like, they aren't playing with a full deck right now, but I don't know that the, the fundamental issue here goes away when you get Nico Collins back.