Talkin' Houston Sports: Texans vs Chargers, Rockets season starter

All right, welcome to another special edition of the Texas Football Panel. And we're also going to talk a little Rockets, but I got my guest, Reggie Atutula, in the loop, 957, the fan. And we got my guy, Brian Bearfield, Big Sarge, also Texas tailgate show fellas. It's been a while. Thanks for joining me again. Hey, thanks for having me back, man. Always a pleasure, man. Okay, okay, so Texans, we're going to start there. So much has happened. They just got off a bye week. I'm just curious because it's been quite of a gap since the last time we talked. What are your initial thoughts, positively, because we're going to talk about the negatives as well, but for you, Reggie, starting off, what are your positive initial thoughts with the Texans preparing for a winless Chargers team? I'm going to get positive. Just bear with me for a second. The clear negative is that this defense was supposed to be the front porch of what this team did, and that hasn't been that. The positive is, you look over at the offense that D'Amico Ryans and everybody that talked about this team said they just need to be complimentary to do this. They went to London. They played against a Jaguars team that looks like one of the best teams in the AFC, and they demonstrated that they are capable. Behind C.J. Stroud, a dude who had a really rough... But postseason, they're capable of being an offense that carries the load and is the front-facing portion of this team. And so that is very encouraging for a defense that's still trying to find itself, that still has talent to be able to be a good defense if they can figure it out. You can lean on C.J. Stroud. You can lean on this offense. And I think that that is endlessly encouraging for a team that needs to find wins right now. Okay, sorry. I'm going to follow up on that with the offense as well. And I say that, you know, You know, the one positive, the one positive about the Houston Texans is C.J. Stroud. That's it. I can't say anything else but C.J. Stroud. He's a young man who bet on himself. You know, we all know about the contract talks, the contract extension. But he bet on himself, something that he has done his entire life. Like there's been a lot of times where people have counted him out. And he came into the season counting on himself, and you can see the maturity and the growth. One of the things that I was telling people last season was that you've got to give him time. This is his third year in his second offensive system in his third year. Now he has another year inside of this offensive system, and now he's navigating it. Earlier this week, they had a clip where Nick Cayley was talking about how in London, That play to Woody Marks where they sealed the game basically at the end, that play was done in practice by C.J. Stroud who said, Woody, do this. And if you do this, it'll make the outcome maybe a little bit different. And so I like the fact that earlier this week C.J. Stroud talked about the command that he has over the offense. So everything about what C.J. is doing outside of betting on himself, taking full control and command over that offense is what has literally – Still kept the Texans in playoff contention. I know Reggie didn't want to hear that, but they're still right there in playoff contention. No, that's true. That's true. I mean, they were 3-5 last season if they get the win this Sunday. One thing I was really excited about was the Marvin Harrison Jr. trade. I mean, we were, me and you, were there in, you know, was it Nashville? Yep. And they announced that trade. I thought that was pretty cool. Thank you very much. So, going over to the negatives, you know, Sarge, we'll start with you. What'd you say in your mind when you wake up and think about the Texans as a negative outlook? One of the biggest outlook, one of the things that we've been talking about on a consistent basis to defense coordinator Matt Burke. We talked to Will Anderson Jr. about it. I had an opportunity to speak with Kamari Lassiter about it as well, is tackling. Something that these young men have been doing since they've been playing peewee football. And now D'Amico has them doing Tackling drills all over again and my mind could I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that this is something that you've done This is something that you all did well last year. How did you forget how to tackle within an entire season? It's almost like they came back and it was like, okay cool. We got defense Hey, what's this thing we're supposed to do again to stop the opposing team? Oh, yeah tackle and so I When you look at them, and these are guys playing creme de la creme. They're in the top of their field, and you can't forget the one basic fundamental that you've done. Aziz Alshair said that he went back and he watched the film, and he said, it isn't so much that we forgot how to tackle, we're just not in position to make the right tackle. Reggie, that's a tough act to follow there. I will do like Sarge did. I'm going to build on top of it because the tackling, There are defenses where If you're getting things right and you're missing some tackles, you can make that shake. For me, the real negative is that outside of the tackling itself, this is a team and a defense that's been very strong in the NFL, and other teams are finding... It's like a hot knife through butter with this defense a lot. I mean, explosive plays, something that this defense is not supposed to give up at all. Even stopping the run, they've been able to do it to some effect, but not nearly good enough. And the question that I'm asking after how many weeks of football at this point, eight weeks of football, seven played by the Texans, is do they have an answer of how to fix it? Because last year, they started a little slowly, but they got on their grind. Now, that was maybe more offense. The defense was still pretty good. The year before, they started a little slowly. This one's more than a little. And usually, I mean, I imagine that D'Amico Ryans isn't sitting there saying, well, you know, it's just seven weeks. It takes a little while to rev up. The questions I'm having are, do they know how to fix it? Because they have guys that are talented that don't look talented. Whether you talk about Aziz, whether you talk about Kamari Lassiter, we can roll on the list. I don't think we have the time to do all of that. And that's also part of the problem. You have a lot of guys that are good at football. That aren't tackling. That aren't playing up to their capabilities. And you're seeing teams find ways to really manipulate a defense that used to be a come and get us. You know what we're doing. We know what we're doing. But we're going to whoop you. It's not going that way. And that's really scary. Because that is D'Amico Ryan's bread and butter. It's been the Texans' bread and butter. And there's no bread or no butter right now. And if I can add on to that real quickly. One of the things that is causing a lot of the missed tackles is the fatigue. And that fatigue comes from the fact that. Going back to the offensive side of the ball, the Houston Texans have no rushing attack. And I understand that they're without David Montgomery. I understand that they're without Juward Jordan and they have to lean heavily on Woody Marks. But even when David was in there, it's just one of those things where what is going on in that offensive line? I've talked I've asked D'Amico on numerous occasions. Where's the want to and the physicality from this offensive line? Run blocking is all just about mauling the other guy that's in front of you, and they're not getting that done. And we've seen that in the last game. The Giants' defensive line just totally controlled the Texans' offensive line. And you know what else is going to prevent any team from beating their opponent? Ten penalties for 80 yards. I mean, that's tough when the Texans are in their own way. So hopefully that's not the case this Sunday against a winless Chargers team. But we've got to talk about the Rockets. We've got to give them some love and respect because they're off to a really good start, 7-2 right now. Reggie, what are you seeing from the Rockets right now? I'm seeing a fun basketball team, right? Compared to last year, this offense, without Fred VanVleet, without point guard play in a true sense of it, It was a slog. It was really hard to get through things. And this year, it has been downright fun to watch them get into basketball. And Fred VanVleet deserves a lot of credit. Marcus Smart deserves a lot of credit. And I think Ime Udoka and his staff deserve a lot of credit. You're seeing more advanced offensive sets, more advanced actions, getting into things quicker, getting up the floor quicker. It's just a more fun version of basketball that allows the more depth that they now have to flourish, whether it's getting open shots for guys that are maybe not the best shooters. wide open practice shot, you'll knock it down and then on top of that, not to take all the points, Alperen Sengun has been fantastic to start the season, and so if you have a guy who's like a center point like that, that can get into the chest of Victor Wembanyama and anything like that, and you have Fred VanVleet orchestrating the whole thing, it's going to look as good as it has to 7-2 right now. When I look at the Houston Rockets, I look at... The talent and maturity of these young guys finally starting to blend together, come together. You can see the next step. They have a lot of young guys on that team as far as age is concerned, but as far as NBA experience is concerned, they have a lot. And so they used to have a guy that played here in Houston that they called Big Shot Bob, Robert Horry. And when Robert Horry was playing with the Houston Rockets, they didn't run any plays for him. So everything Big Shot Bob got, he just got it, right? Mm-hmm. We have big shot Bob 2.0 here in Jabari Smith Jr. And the way that Jabari, because, you know, when you have a Fred VanVleet, when you have an Alperen Sengun, when you have a Kevin Durant, you know, you have these guys that they have the ball in their hands. They have to have the ball in their hands. And now you're looking to hopefully get a rebound, put it back up, be in the right spot to take the shot. And all that Jabari Smith Jr. has done this season was take that next step as far as that role is concerned. And when his number is called, he's always ready. Two 30-point games this season, I think, even in the loss to the Dallas Mavericks. I mean, he came down, he put them in a position to be able to win the game by hitting a huge three at the end of the game. But when I look at them, I'm seeing that next step. Alperen is taking, take. I've seen that Reed has gotten a lot more confidence in his third season. You know, he's pulling now from, you know, I was like, you must have put on a lot of muscle. And, you know, you must have done a lot of weight training in the in the offseason to be able to shoot those shots. But, yeah, that's that's the one. The way I look at it is that talent and maturity blending together. And the Rockets poured out some big bucks as well. They gave Iman Thompson a five year, 200 plus million dollar deal. We saw that coming, but Tari Eason, 81.5, not saying he's not worth the money, but is he worth the money? Go ahead, Reggie. Oh, now I got to answer. I thought you were excited to answer this. Oh, I am. Ultimately, the way that this team is built, I think the depth matters. And guys that are catalysts, like Tari Eason, it all works together. It is the ability to have switchability. It's the ability to have guys that can really get dogged on defense. Tari Eason represents that, but also Jabari Smith Jr. represents that. I mean, all the way down, Bogdan Bogdanovich, they've built a nice... Rotation of guys where they feel comfortable putting these guys in and be bonafide NBA players and it keeps them fresh It keeps everybody playing at a high level and that's why the Rockets look like one of, if not the best team in the NBA Right now. Yeah on some teams, you just got to have a gym rat This is that guy that's gonna go out there and do any and everything that you need him to do Because he's constantly in the gym just working working working Working, working. former Houston Rockets head coach Stephen Silas used to say that a Tari Eason is a ball magnet. The ball finds him wherever he is. And so on the offensive side and on the defensive side. Tari is well worth the money that the Houston Rockets gave him because of the things that he does, the dirty work that he does, the way that he doesn't ask for the ball a lot on offense, but he's able to do the things that they need him to do. Yeah, I can honestly agree. I mean, on perimeter shooting, looks really good and it's only going to grow. And then defensively, I mean, he showed that he could give LeBron James a run for his money regardless of his age. I mean, he showed up when they needed him for the Lakers last season with all the adversity they were going through. Fellas, I appreciate you so much for your time. But this is all the time that we have. But we will definitely keep this going, man. I appreciate you so much. I'm Leonard Davis Jr. with Fox 26 Sports.