The Josh Innes Show - Is The Texans Defense All-Time Great?

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

I saw one of the dudes from the Pat McAfee Show ask if the Texans defense is an all time great defense? I dismissed this at first. But, after thinking about it...it could be. Let's break it down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for five. Buy yours at gotransit.com slash tickets. All right, let's see here. I see this headline. And this headline says, film study, how Houston Texans defense shut down and frustrated Kansas City chief star Travis Kelsey. Well, I don't need to watch film to tell you how it happened. It happened because most teams shut down Travis Kelsey. And yes, I'm fully aware that the guy might get four or five catches a game, 30, 40, 50 yards a game. And every now and then might bust some big play that stretches his numbers out and makes him look like he's still some sort of elite star when in reality he is not an elite star he is just a dude and that's all he is and that Kansas City offense is just a basic offense and they ain't good and basically what you've got here is you've got a dude that isn't good anymore is holding on for whatever reason and he's cooked he's finished he's not very good and he might go out there and have a game that he goes for 60 yards and score touchdown and do his little dance and that's all well and good

at the end of it, the dude is cooked. So I think the Texans defense is great. The numbers bear that out. The games they've played have bared that out. This defense is elite, possibly the best in the league. Actually, it is the best defense in the league. They are fantastic. But they didn't have to do much to shut down Travis Kelsey because most teams shut down

Travis Kelsey because Travis Kelsey sucks. That's not to bang on the Texans. That's just a little piece of reality. The only reason people even talk about Travis Kelsey is because he fucks Taylor Swift. If he was fucking somebody else, nobody would talk about it. If this dude were out there fucking Christina Million or something, that's a dated reference. But if that dude were out there fucking Christina Milian, nobody would give a shit about Travis Kelsey. He'd be out of sight, out of mind, and he would just be toiling around.

But because he's banging Taylor Swift and they're going to get married, the mom is up in the press box and the sweets, and she's all over the TV and in the holiday movies, and his brother's a doofist, and now they're big celebrities, and his wife's got a big podcast. people have to still write stories about how Travis Kelsey had got shut down by the Texas. Travis Kelsey didn't get shut down by anybody. Travis Kelsey shuts himself down because the guy sucks and he drops passes and he's just not very good.

Let's play a couple commercials and we will continue. I mean, look at some of the passes the dude dropped, you know? Like he's just not good, man. And I fall for it every time and take him because his number ends up being low. Like, the dude will probably have a game or two that he still puts up 70 yards, but it's the NFL. Like, a lot of dudes put up 50 or 60 yards. Like, here's what I'd like. As opposed to telling me how the Texans shut down Travis Kelsey, I'd like to know how the Eagles were able to shut down Ladd McKinney, Ladd McKinney, Ladd-McKonkey, who had one catch for 12 yards, and that didn't come into, like, the fourth quarter last night.

Like, that's more interesting to me than how they shut down some basic. bitch, Travis Kelsey, who stinks. Speaking of the Texans, I mean, the chiefs are washed, they're done, and their dynasty's over, and it's a thing of beauty. Finally, ding dong, the witch is dead, goodbye. They're not going to make the playoffs. It's finished goodbye. But if you look at the Texans, and I know we've talked about this, and we looked at

it last week, or yesterday, rather, and you start to look at the standings again, that was a big win for the Chargers last night, by the way, as they sit in the five-seat, they're tied with Buffalo right now. And then the Texans sit there at the seven. As we mentioned yesterday, the Texans are a lock. Unless the Texans fall off a cliff, there's no way they don't make the playoffs because there's no way the Colts make the playoffs. They're in desperation mode so much that they are bringing in Philip Rivers for a workout. And look, feed me more of that. I would love to see 44-year-old Bolo tie wearing Philip Rivers roll in and sling it. Like, that would actually kind of, honestly, and they still have to.

face them? Like, that would worry me a little bit. Like, if Riley Leonard is the guy I have to face, like, fine. And do I think that Philip Rivers can roll off the couch after like four years or ever long it's been of not playing football and just roll out and sling it? Probably not. But I'm intrigued. Like, look, it's easy to make fun of and laugh at and scoff at, but I'm intrigued. At least it piques my interest a little bit. Not a time, but look, I mean, look at Joe Flacco can go out there and keep you competitive. Now, Flacko never you know, stop playing for three years or however long Philip Rivers has been out. But I'm intrigued.

I'm interested. But I'm going to still operate in the world that the Colts are dead. They were dead before the quarterback got hurt. They were dying before the quarterback got hurt. Now the quarterback's hurt and they're dead. So I think we pretty much know six of the seven teams that are going to make the playoffs and the AFC and the Ravens could flip-flop with the Steelers. But there's basically eight teams that are.

battling for seven spots and we know the we know that there's one possible flip and that one possible flip would be with the Steelers getting bounced from the playoffs and the Ravens getting into the playoffs but everybody and I don't buy that Indianapolis is even a remotely viable threat anymore so they're out can the Texans win at all like who in the I know we talked about this yesterday but now you watch the Chargers Chargers I mean they were fine yesterday They beat the Eagles. I think at some point we have to stop acknowledging or start acknowledging that beating the Eagles isn't an accomplishment. The Eagles aren't very good.

Like everybody says, like, who was it the other week? Oh, the Bears. Well, the Bears were able to line up and go to Philly and beat the Eagles. Great. The Eagles suck. Tell me who the Eagles have beaten that is overly impressive this year. Oh, what? They beat the Lions.

Cool. Like, who have the Eagles lined up against and beaten that you go, well, that was a good quality win for the Eagles? What an early season win over the Cowboys before they. The Cowboys figured shit out. Oh, they beat the Chiefs? Oh, the Chiefs are under 500. I guess the Rams, who are the best team in the NFL, but they also pulled off a miracle to beat the Rams, right?

They were down 20 in that game and rallying, blocked a field goal. They should have lost. Fine, they won it, whatever. But, like, who do you circle on there and go, damn? Oh, well, they beat the Packers. Great, they beat the Packers. Again, 10 to 7. So, again, they've beaten teams that are decent in record, but I am impressed by the Eagles.

So you start looking at teams around the, the AFC and you go, who do you look at in the AFC side of things? Who do you look at as a viable team? Who do you look at as someone that you can go, all right, Super Bowl, can they win it? And I look at the Chargers. And I said last night, beating the Eagles is not some sort of great accomplishment. Like the Eagles, defensively, they're fine. Look, the Eagles turn the ball over five freaking times.

The Eagles are not very good. So beating them is not some sort of great accomplishment, at least at this point in the year, it's certainly not because now everybody's beating the Eagles. So I'm not writing off the Chargers. I still don't buy their offensive line. I think they still have big issues. I don't think they're going to win the whole thing. So an update from our playoff talk from yesterday.

Chargers. Now, do I think if the Chargers are at home and they line up against the Buffalo bills at home? Could they win a game against the Bills in a dome? Yes. Could the Chargers go to a Buffalo and win? No. Could the Chargers go to New England and win? No. Could the Chargers go to Denver and win?

No. If it's a cold weather game, I don't buy that they're going to go. And it's not just the weather. Like I'm sure that guys can play in the elements, but I don't buy their offensive line. But again, you look around the AFC and my God, who do you circle and go look out for them? Honest to God, maybe it's recency bias, but it is the Texans. If the Texans' offense were even decent, the Texans would be in the Super Bowl. There's not one team that I look at and go, they're better top to bottom.

If the Texans had a remotely decent offense, they'd be in the Super Bowl. And they probably wouldn't have started 0 and 3 because they were in every one of those games. Their offense just sucked to start the year. Their offensive line play sucked. Their quarterback play suck. That's why they started 0.3. Their defense was really freaking good in those first three games. The scores were 14 to 9, 20 to 19, and 17 to 10.

They gave up like 13 points a game through the first three games of the year and lost them all. For the most part, their offense is very LSU. they've had two games this year, three games that they've gotten over 27, actually two games in which they've scored more than, let's see, 26 points, three games. They've won five games in a row outside of the 36 points against the Jaguars that they had to score to rally, 16, 23, 20, and 20. If the Texans had any offense, if C.J. Stroud found what he was two years ago. If it were rookie season, C.J. Stroud, offensive line and everything. If it were the offense, the Texans put on the field two years ago, and C.J. Stroud was a rookie, the Texans would be in the Super Bowl.

Because there is nobody in the AFC that scares me. Oh, what about Josh Allen? Oh, I'm sorry, Josh Allen. I forgot. How many Super Bowls has Josh Allen been to? Josh Allen has lost to the Texans as many times in the playoffs as he has been to the Super Bowl. Do you really believe that Drake May is to take? taking the pads to the Super Bowl? Do you really believe that Bo Nix is taking the Broncos to the Super Bowl? Do you really believe that the Jaguars are going to the Super Bowl? Do you believe that old-ass broke dick Aaron Rogers with that bad

defense is going to the Super Bowl? Do you believe that the Chargers with no offensive line are going to the Super Bowl? Who the fuck is going to the Super Bowl from the AFC? Who? Find them! That's what makes it infuriating about the Texans. The infuriating thing when you watch this defense. Someone asked the question, I forgot who it was, I saw the question on Twitter. It was from some famous person. I was one of the doofuses from the McAfee show.

And the question was, is the Texans defense one of the greatest all time? And like, it's hard for me to say that. I don't think so. Like, you don't want to buy that. But maybe. It's not totally ridiculous. Like, at first thought, I said, well, that's fucking ridiculous. Is it?

We're in the golden era of offensive football. And the Texans are just holding people to 13, 17, 16. They are dominating cats. forcing turnovers, if their offense were at all decent, they'd be in the Super Bowl. I mean, look at this up. Let's see, best points per game, defense, NFL, all time. Let's see. I would imagine the Bears in 85 were pretty low, and I would imagine that 2000, I think that 2000 team of the Ravens.

Do people forget this, but the St. Louis Rams only gave up like. 12 points a game in the year. The Greatest Show on Turf dominated as well. Let's see. I need to find best points per game all time. All time defense by points per game allowed. 2000 Baltimore Ravens. They gave up 10 a game. The Pittsburgh Steelers in 2008. Let's see. Their number was somewhere. It says around 17. The 85 bears gave up 12. And those were in eras, by the way, that we're not offensive friendly like now. You have to take that. into consideration. Like this is an era where the offenses are allowed to do whatever, and they get every call.

Do you think the offenses were allowed to do whatever the hell they wanted against the bears? The bears could cripple people. All teams did was ran the fucking ball against them, and they crippled them. So not to shit on the 85 bears who gave up 12 points a game, or the 2,000 Ravens who gave up 10 points a game. But they ain't doing that in this era. Let's look at the current points per game. Let's see, 2025 NFL defense rankings. I want to see the points per game.

All right, NFL team stat leaders. Defensive leaders. Yards per game they lead. Let's see. Where are the points per game? Points per game? I want to see in this yards. Where the hell are my points per game?

Let's see, complete leaders. Here we go. So the Texans are giving up 266 yards per game. Points per game is at 16. The next closest is Seattle at 17.4, the Rams at 17.5. So the difference is fairly negligible. But if you factor in the fact that this team is playing in the golden era of spread offense, every team gets every call on offense, the defenses have no advantages,

helmet to helmet hits all that shit, 16 points per game may as well be 12 points per game in 1985. May as well. yards per game 266 they're a top there like you're looking at me it's ridiculous to say because there's no huge name on the defense there's not like a fun nickname it's not the legion of boom or the legion of boom there's no j j watt on the defense that's a sexy guy that that people know it's i thought it was ridiculous when i saw it but factoring in the era Which matters.

Like, it's like when people talk about baseballs, Babe Ruth, the greatest baseball player of all time? Well, probably fucking not. He was hitting balls off of truck drivers. But then again, he was also swinging a tree trunk, which probably a lot heavier in the ball was probably harder to hit 500 feet than it is now. So maybe he was. Guys today have all the advantages.

Much like the offense has the advantage in football, baseball players have the offensive advantage now. So who knows? But it's not overly ridiculous to say that what we are witnessing is one of the all great defensive seasons from a team. Then you have to also factor in things like number of turnovers and stuff like that. Like, where do they rank? Currently, the Texans are plus 12 in turnover differential.

They are currently fifth in interceptions. They are currently, let's see, where do they fit in the fumbles? Fumbles-wise, they're closer to middle of the pack. They might be closer to bottom of the pack. Where the hell are they? They're middle of the pack. They have seven turnovers. The leader has 12.

That's fumbles takeaway. Total takeaways. The Texans currently sit at fourth in total takeaways at 22 takeaways. So you're talking 22 takeaways. You're talking 16 points a game. You're talking 266 yards per game in the most explosive era in the history of offensive football. Is it the greatest defense ever? Probably not.

But is it a ridiculous question? Are they Mount Rushmore? Probably not. But when you think of all-time great seasons, I mean, look, you could argue it. I brought up that 2,000 St. Louis Rams team that won the Super Bowl. People talk about their offense, right? And they talk about how great the offense is. Go and look at the 2000 St. Louis Rams and look at the points they gave up and the defensive stuff they were able to do.

And people don't realize this, that their defense was, sorry, the 99 team rather, the 99 team that won in the 2000 Super Bowl. You know, they had the number one offense. They also had the number four defense in the league. You know, so, like, there were some really good defenses that people don't really think about because they think they're overshadowed by their offense or whatever. That was a great defensive football team. They gave up, you know, they were fourth and points per game and sixth in yards per game, and they were very good.

So is this an all-time great defense? Maybe not. But is it an all-time really freaking good defense? Yes. Is it an all-time like, hey, this era lends itself to the, this type, like, like this defense looking even better because the era we're in, absolutely. So it's not a totally ridiculous question. Not the best defense of all time, certainly in the discussion of one of the all time great seasons of all time.

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