Payne & Pendergast react to the Texans beating the Cowboys on Monday Night Football.
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00:00I'd like, I'm, I think I'm in the same boat as a lot of Texans fans where we've been through
00:04this before. Hey, I'm going to enjoy this victory. There's a lot of questions that you
00:08still have. You have doubts about, and the Cowboys are simply such a bad team that you
00:14can't, you can't really say, Oh yeah, we fixed this or we fixed that. Hey, they scored us.
00:20The Texans scored a second half touchdown glory be at the very end of a blowout, but
00:26it's, but, but there are a lot of really good things left. There are, no, there, there
00:30are look at the, at the, at its core, it's a 34 to 10 win over the Cowboys in Arlington.
00:35This Seth, I, my comparison going into the post game show last night, which feels like
00:40it was an hour ago, was, this was a lot like the Patriots game in that it's close.
00:47It's literally, it's a touchdown game at the half, like the Patriots game. You're feeling
00:51like, man, we left some things out on the field there in the first half, like the Patriots
00:55game, like the Patriots game early in the second half, literally on the second play
00:59from scrimmage, Daniel Hunter gets a sack to kind of diffuse a drive in the Patriots
01:04game. It was an actual turnover. This was just as forever, but Daniel Hunter makes a
01:09play and then you kind of get your legs under you a little bit.
01:13The defense starts to figure a few things out like Drake may did Cooper rush gets a
01:17bunch of meaningless yards throwing underneath. He threw for 354 yards, but it was less than
01:22six and a half yards per attempt. He threw the ball 55 times last night. And then in
01:27the end, like the Patriots game, you get to check off a box that your franchise has never
01:32done before winning in Arlington the same way you ever won in Gillette stadium. So you
01:37beat up on a bad team. You won by 24 points. It's a hated rival. I am not here or at least
01:43early in the show.
01:44I'm not here for this text to the five hour energy fan line. Don't want to hear it that
01:49we got the W and kept their losing by 20 streak to six Bobby's play calling in the
01:54red zone. I like I'm not early folks, not early. They beat the Cowboys in the second
02:00half, like a drum. And I, and I love that the fact that, that the defense, like they,
02:05they took advantage of, they took advantage of some key injuries along the offensive line.
02:10You know, Tim settle made Zach Martin look like an old man. And then he limped to the
02:13sidelines and what happened? The play, the crucial play, the crucial turnover that turned
02:20this game, the Derek Barnett scoop fumble touchdown was because the Texans rushed over
02:27that right replacement guard and took advantage of a situation.
02:31And that's where the pressure came from. I'm excited about this win today. There's seven
02:34and four. You keep your lead in the division and you got to what should be divisional cupcakes
02:41coming up for you here. Titans at home, Jacksonville on the road. So when you look at it, I mean,
02:48there's going to be broad spectrum. And you know, yesterday somebody asked me, Seth, do
02:51you think, do you think the Texans are safe? Can they eke out three more wins? Like, listen,
02:57yes, they've got issues on offense. It's clear. You're not a football genius to point that
03:02out, but like they just slugged it out with Detroit last week.
03:07And then they just, they beat the game. Yes. They're going to win more games. So it's all
03:11a question of, all right, no, you want to see, can they get to super bowl contender?
03:15I think that right now you're in a stretch of games now where you're really not going
03:19to find out until you start to, until you start to hit the actual competitive teams.
03:23The really promising thing about last night was Nico Collins. Boy, I mean, how many yards
03:29would Nico have if it weren't for Laramie Tunsil? And if it, gosh, if you'd be able
03:33to scoop up that one at the end, that's a, that's a bigger, he had 54 yards on the game.
03:38The play that he, and obviously the world changes. If that touchdown happens, the entire
03:41game looks different, but that touchdown would have been 77 yards right out of the show.
03:46Nico would have been in a spot where if he had scored that touchdown, the last two plays
03:50that he will have had for the Texans would have been a 67 yard bomb against the bills
03:54and a 77 yard catch and run to open the game against the Cowboys.
03:58I wonder if that's maybe what we should just start using him as, you know, given as a,
04:03as him as a hamstring issue, just let him come in, get his big play. Maybe Laramie Tunsil
04:08can, can stay, stay within a invisible electric fence this time. He's like, we need a, we
04:15need to like one of those dog training devices, collars and things. Yeah. Let him know when
04:20he's allowed to get out of his stance and where, how far past the line of scrimmage
04:23he's allowed.
04:24Your take on Nico is similar to mine, where he had catches for 54 yards, which is easily
04:31his most pedestrian day that he's had statistically since coming back. And yet I feel phenomenal
04:36about how Nico Collins looked last night. It's not his fault. That play didn't count.
04:40Like he looked, he looked like Nico Collins last night.
04:43Oh, on one of the, of the third and longs that they tried to convert where they threw
04:47one of the blessed screens and Nico only got about five yards. It was, it was, it wasn't
04:54his fault. He ran into a sea of people. I, that was honestly more so than the first called
04:58back touchdown. He looked like he was shot out of a cannon. I thought it was one of the
05:02smaller guys. At first I kind of had to do a double take like, wait, I thought that was
05:06Nico. He looked more like tank. So physically I don't have any concerns about him. I haven't
05:11looked at the snap counts yet because he kind of went quiet for a good chunk of time. And
05:16I think took a couple of series off. So I don't know if they had him on a pitch count
05:18of some sort, but so far, so good with Nico's return at the end of the game when they were
05:24up by, you know, however many touchdowns, when they, when it, when the game was clearly
05:26out of reach, they had Robert Woods and Xavier Hutchinson in there.
05:29They didn't even have tank at the end of the game last night, which I'm totally cool with
05:33by the way. Parsons trying to body slam Robert Woods, your elder and a much smaller man,
05:39Micah. Don't let the frustration turn you into that guy, man. I liked the chippiness
05:44of this game. I liked that the Texans kind of dictated the chippiness of this game. Clint
05:49Sterner's observation was he thought that the, he thought that by the second half, the
05:53Cowboys just weren't, they weren't into the Texans physicality anymore on either side
05:57of the ball. Like they, the Texans kind of made them tap out last night.
06:01Yeah, no. And I thought, I mean the special teams, they got into it right off the bat,
06:08but then the Cowboys, even in the first half they were getting, they were getting offended
06:13about getting hit. It wasn't like dirty hits or anything on the one punt return or the
06:18kick return. It was like, nobody did anything. Kymie Fairbairn like almost hit you and then
06:25an actual football player hit you. Settle the hell down. Yeah. No. And then in the second
06:29half, Sean, the back-to-back series of Jalen Petrie just hurling himself against other
06:36human beings. And who did in the first instance, the offensive lineman that he caused the fumble
06:43after the second phone guy. Yeah. Yeah. Guyton. I mean, that's us. I knocked him out of the
06:50game, Seth. He didn't come back in after that play guy. Oh, that was how Guyton went out
06:53and went out on that play. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is swarm baby. Pete, I'm going to tell
07:00you right now, Petrie is a lock for the circle of swarm this week. That, that second half
07:06was swarmy. It was so me as hell. It got really, they were out there. There were, they were
07:11looking for the, the, the trophies of the day were kidneys and spleen. They were just
07:16going to go out and just try to damage internal organs. That's just good old fashioned football
07:20fun. The is it, this is a super bowl defense right now, right? Like this is a defense you
07:26can absolutely go with. I think that it's going to be one of those things where, because
07:31especially last night they were playing so much zone and look, they have to, they don't,
07:37I get it. I get people's frustration and you're going to be frustrated when they're
07:41not getting a good pass rush. And in the first half they weren't consistently getting a good
07:45enough pass rush. There was all the poor, there was poor discipline on the perimeter
07:51at times. And yeah, it was when the Cowboys were able to have a couple of scoring drives,
07:56it was really, really uncomfortable because it felt like you were bend, bend, break. They
08:01cleaned all that up in the second half. The injured offensive lineman helped for the Cowboys,
08:05but they got more. First and foremost, you're going to play that much zone. Yeah. You got
08:08to get a four man pass rush. And that really started to click in the second half. And then
08:12you see the opportunistic big hitting side of, of what the Texans can be. The, the part
08:17to be optimistic about with there is that you didn't have Kymie Lassiter and you didn't
08:22have Will Anderson.
08:23That's exactly right. And that's what I'm saying. Fully loaded. This is a super bowl
08:28defense, right? And that's a big F these cornerbacks, the Texans cornerbacks, the two guys that
08:33start for you, they've missed some time, you know, this year and last year with Derek
08:38Stingley. But yeah, it's a, and then with Lassiter back, then you can play more aggressively
08:44with coverages and blitzes. But I, I know it's frustrating and people get upset because,
08:48Oh, you're just playing conservative versus a backup quarterback. Yeah. And you end up
08:53allowing 10 total points, which against any team in the NFL is a really good performance
08:58defensively.
09:00Yeah. I'm, I'm with you on that boy. These, these last couple of games, you know, nationally
09:05televised games will can, can do one of two things can either expose you or it can showcase
09:12you. Yeah. What Derek Stingley jr. Has put together two really nice games in a row here.
09:17If he's trying to become a, an all pro or a pro bowler for the first time. Oh, good
09:20call there. Yeah. He, he was, I mean, he might've been the best player on the field, almost
09:28in that way where he just, the way he operates, it just looks like he's in complete and total
09:34command of his business. Yes. You know, like a certain spatial awareness, there's certain
09:39cornerbacks that throw out there 40 times or their verticals or any spectacular acrobatic
09:45plays to make.
09:46They just like, they, they look like they command their entire space and they're just
09:51in complete and total control. And they have such awareness of where the ball is and when
09:55it's going to arrive and all that. And it's really impressive. Yeah. He's really, I mean,
10:02he's been coming into his own, but it just does feel like he's operating at a different
10:06level. The most impressive play I thought he had last night and don't get me wrong.
10:10He had some really impressive plays on the ball. He probably could have had three interceptions
10:13in that game last night. He wound up with one, but that play that he made, I believe
10:17it was on a third down where they hit, he was ISOed on CD lamb and they hit CD lamb
10:23on that crosser. And he made the tackle short of the sticks, like closed on CD lamb. Like
10:29it was, it was an impressive tackle. It was impressive burst in short space to tackle
10:36and CD lambs, a bigger guy. And he was able to bring him down to the ground. Like, I mean,
10:40Derek Stingley, they had some imprint like Danielle Hunter in the second half of this
10:43game.
10:44I'm you're like, if I'm watching that game, I haven't watched a lot of Texans this year,
10:46but I'm watching these nationally televised games. I'm watching one. Okay. That's a new
10:50Hunter signing, you know, free agency. It doesn't often work out. Sure as hell did with
10:53the Neil Hunter. He was excellent in that game last night.
10:56And he's a, and he's another one. He's just fun to watch because he doesn't, I, there's
11:00very few human beings that move the way he does it at his side. He's like Mario Williams
11:05size, but with a lettuce ism and just as he's so technically skilled, he's just so smooth
11:12with his hands. He's just, he's a lot of fun to watch. Yeah. The, the defense in general,
11:20they are, yeah, they're as far as, okay. Is that a super bowl caliber defense? Yes. Yes.
11:25I don't know. They still, they still have glitches here and there. And like, I just,
11:29the safety place sometimes where there's too many times where I can't figure out like,
11:34all right, wait a second. Was that, was that really supposed to be like cover zero there?
11:38Because that doesn't let it just, there's, there's a little, there's a couple of glitches
11:41still that they got to figure out, but the big playability and the ability to create
11:46turnovers and everything is just awesome. Yeah. There's nothing fluky about it, man.
11:49Like this is a, this is a defense that has turned itself into a turnover machine here
11:54in the middle part of the season.