The Josh Innes Show - Massive Texans Win

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

The Texans win was huge. I think it completely changes the morale vibe surrounding this entire season. Was the CJ Stroud 3rd and 16 pass one of the top plays in Texans history? Can the Texans go to KC and win? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, Jim Oaks, what's happening? It's Josh. How are you? Awesome. Great. Monday after a weekend of some college football. I guess that ended on Friday. So really went a weekend of college football. Although the Texas game did happen. Texas lost. It's funny. Ha ha is what it is. And maybe that's something we can get into but uh the NFL playoffs this weekend for the most part a giant dud outside of last night's game which was compelling at least down to the wire came down to a kick to win it uh the rest of the weekend was dreadful unwatchable for the most part like the Eagles game was just boring and unwatchable and it wasn't because the defenses are so good it's because Jalen Hurts is like not very good that's it we'll get into that uh but for the most part the weekend was dreadful as it relates to exciting football you know it's funny we sit here and talk about how you know how many teams should be in the college football playoff like oh it's 12 too many it's four too many should we go back to the BCS where a computer selects the two teams? No one ever talks about the number of playoff teams in the NFL. And yes,

I'm aware that wildcard teams do win. Yes, I'm aware that wildcard teams can win the Super Bowl. Yes, I'm aware that there are some years like, again, go back to Seattle beating the Saints at home. Seattle was like a seven win division, win a division winning team. Saints had to go to Seattle and got their asses kicked. So I'm aware of all these things. And I love football. Like I love to watch it. I love to bet on it. Although I was terrible at betting on it yesterday, particularly my God, I was terrible. Um, but I love to watch it and I'm never going to complain about having more football to bet on and more football to watch I would be an asshole to do that because we're only about a month or so away from having to rely on the NBA and NHL and March Madness where we gamble on a bunch of teams that no one's ever

watched play and then after that you know what you're stuck with WNBA if you're a real DJ or baseball and then we're stuck in this. And I've never been that guy. I've never been the guy that says, oh, man, here we go. Months and months without football. This sucks. I am that guy now. Especially a guy that has a shitty baseball team he roots for that doesn't know what the hell they want to do.

A guy whose secondary baseball team might be about to slide into a middling funk, that being the Astros. Look, we have until August. So basically we have a month because you've got the college football playoff championship on the 20th. You've got the Super Bowl in early February. Once you get there, it's done-zo. So we essentially have a month of football games to watch and to bet on. So I'm never going to sit there and say, boy, we just, I don't know,

I think we got too much. But I think we're allowing too many teams into the postseason. There are too many, and these games suck. For the most part, these games suck, and you fall into that same issue that people bitch about with the college football playoff, which is the matchups aren't going to work out. You look at the point spreads in these games. Like, again, the closest point spread of the weekend, I I believe was either the Texans, which was a blowout,

obviously, or it was the Washington game. And the Washington game ended up coming down to a field goal. Everything else was a mauling for the most part. Pittsburgh was never in the game against Baltimore. The Chargers really just were dreadful once you got past their first couple of drives of the game against the Texans. Good. I enjoyed watching that. These games were just dull and blowouts. Like that Eagles game, although it was never out of reach, did anybody watch the Eagles game and go, man, I think Green Bay's got a shot?

Nobody watched that game thinking that. They knew the Eagles had it, despite the fact that they are inept offensively at quarterback. You can tell me all you want about Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts is inept, but we'll get into it. We'll get into that. He's just a mediocre, okay, running quarterback is what he is, but you can't do anything with him, so you're kind of stuck there. But when you sit there and watch these games and you watch the blowouts that we're seeing, it can't be good for the league that these games are boring as shit outside of the Sunday night game. And I think tonight should be a good one because I think the Rams are going to pull the upset. Looking forward to watching that because I love watching Stafford and Nakua. I enjoy what, and then of course the Vikings with

Justin Jefferson. So I enjoy that. This should be a fairly compelling game. I hope it's a fairly compelling game. I think this one actually is the closest spread of the weekend. So hopefully we get something. It's played in Arizona. I think, I think the Rams pull the upset tonight, but what the hell do I know out of the other games this weekend? I missed the Texans. And I think I called the Washington game wrong as well. Although it came down to the wire and again, we'll get into all these, but here's what we're going to focus on out of the stretch here or out of the shoot, not out of the stretch. We're not a pitcher with a runner on base. Right out of the shoot, let's focus on what the Texans were able to do in the first playoff game of the weekend.

Texans, arguably the most impressive game of the weekend, certainly the most surprising performance of the weekend. The Eagles most surprising performance of the weekend. Like the Eagles grinding out a boring methodical victory with poor quarterback play and really solid defense from the Eagles against Green Bay. Was that shocking? Not really, right? Was it coming down to the wire in the, was coming down to the wire in the Tampa game? Was that a true shocker? No. Two evenly matched teams came down to some late turnovers that were costly and that killed them. Look, by the way, Washington tried to do anything possible to lose the game. They went for it on fourth multiple times and finally it

worked out for them late, but they were trying like hell to pass up on points and find a way to blow that game, but then Baker gave it back to him. Was it shocking that Baltimore kicked the shit out of Pittsburgh? No, it wasn't shocking that Baltimore kicked the shit out of Pittsburgh because Baltimore is exponentially better than Pittsburgh. There was nothing super shocking this weekend. The most surprising obviously would have been the Texans, not that they won, but the way they did it. So let's get into that. Let's play a couple commercials and we will talk about the Texans big victory. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out pick six from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings pick six posterizes the competition, including price picks. It's a very simple concept. Hit all your picks and score

higher minimum payouts on pick six, plus even more cash if you outscore the competition. Pick six is available in most states, including Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia, and more, and I absolutely love it. Look, every night we're going to be having playoff basketball, every night. So when you're sitting around and you might not have interest in a particular game, let's say you're a fan of a particular team, they're not playing that night, here's how you make it a little bit more fun for the other games. Build a little lineup there with Pick 6. It's really great.

Me and my wife do it all the time, so make sure you do it. And new players get 50 in Pick 6 credits instantly on just a $5 entry. Download the DraftKings Pick 6 app now and use code INNES, that's my name, I-N-N-E-S, for new customers to play. $5, get 50 in Pick 6 credits, better payouts, bigger wins, only with Pick 6 from DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org in Connecticut. Must be 18+. Age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick 6 not available everywhere, including york and ontario void where prohibited one per new customer bonus award it is non-withdrawable pick six credits that expire in 14 days limited time offer see terms at pick six dot draft kings dot com slash promos all right so i called the chargers like a lot of the people did across the country and we all look like dipshits but when you go into that and you look at the way the Texans had been playing it wouldn't have been

a shocker had the Texans gone out and lost look at the way they've played they've played terrible for about about two months I tweeted this after the game I said were the Texans just pretending to be a shitty team for two months of course course, I was joking. Yet somehow there are a bunch of dipshits out there that are like, yep, we knew we had the division forever. So we played possum. You're like, well, that's stupid. But you know what? Fuck it.

I'll go with it because there's no other true explanation about how a team goes from looking as inept and terrible as the Texans did for two plus months to looking like they looked in that game. Now, we went into it saying the Chargers really ain't all that. I've said it all year. If you listen to this podcast, everybody loves to talk about the Chargers defense. I'm like, I don't really think the Chargers defense is all that good. Look at the Chargers. I love Ladd-McConkie. Well, what did Ladd-McConkie do? Had like 160 yards receiving. So all the guys that you thought

would do good things for them, for the most part, did good things for them. The difference, of course, being that the Texans' defense was nasty and gnarly, and D'Amico had the right plan for them, and they were fucking savages. The front, the defensive front, the dudes, the front seven, were nasty. It made life easier for the secondary, which was making big play after big play in the secondary. They were getting to Justin Herbert. And by the way, the world's now trying to paint it as Herbert sucks.

Herbert doesn't suck. Now, if you want to question him whether or not he's a guy that can win big games for you in the playoffs, that is a fair narrative to discuss because he has sucked in the playoffs. Very fair. But he's not bad. Don't let them try to take away from what the Texans were able to do. Justin Herbert, especially in the back half of the season, has been really, really good. He's pretty strong. So the idea that now people are trying to paint this as, well, is Justin Herbert

just mediocre? No, he's a player and he's going to win playoff games and he's super fucking talented. What happened is the Texans just went out there and beat the shit out of him. They won at the offensive line. The secondary was outstanding. They made Justin Herbert look like shit. Don't let anybody tell you any different. Don't let anybody sit there today and be like, let me tell you, Justin Herbert just sucks. Justin Herbert is among probably a handful

of the most talented quarterbacks in the league. He's not as accomplished as, say, a Lamar or a Josh Allen or a Pat Mahomes. I would take C.J. Stroud at this point over him as well, just based on the fact that once Stroud got into the playoffs, dudes won two playoff games in two years. You know how many playoff wins Herbert's got? Zilch, right? So I would take guys like Stroud over him. I would take Joe Burrow over him, right? So again, you're not dealing with one of the elites, one of the top guys in the league, right? So again, you're not dealing with one of the elites, one of the top guys in the league, but what you are, I'm not talking about top five or six, but you are talking at least top seven, eight, nine guys in the league. He is a talented dude

who can play ball. Don't let anyone tell you that, oh, that's just playoff Herbert and the Texans caught a break and they got the right matchup. No, they took a good football player and they made that good football player look like shit. And they deserve credit for that. The front were savages. But it didn't start out that way. It started out looking like this was gonna be a nightmare and it was a continuation of the last two plus month of Texans football that we saw.

And as it went on for basically the first 25 minutes of the first quarter, you're watching this play out and it's like, shit. I mean, all these guys on TV, the Joshes on the podcast of the world were right that the Texans just stink. They're just not a very good football team. But then a miracle happened. And like, you don't see this very often where they're, I mean, at this point in the game, it looks like they're on their way to getting crushed it's six nothing so the defense had already played well enough to keep you in the game for the first 25 minutes of the game if the defense doesn't keep you in it you're down 14 17 points and the game's over like it very well could have been a 14 17 nothing game with how mediocre

the Texans had played offensively but then you look back on it and you look at one play that not only changed the trajectory of that game, but at this point changed the trajectory of the season and at this point changed the trajectory of the entire franchise. I think Mark Vandermeer, who sometimes does speak in hyperbole, he works for the team, I get it, but even our buddy Mark was like a franchise altering play. And when you look back on this play with about three minutes to go in the first half and you know what play I'm talking about because it's going to live in Texans lore. There aren't that many plays in the

history of the Houston Texans that you can look back on and go, that was a franchise altering play, like a play that the whole world remembers in terms of Texans fandom. You've got the big catch in week two against Washington back in 2010 when Andre makes the catch and spikes it and the still shot looks like Muhammad Ali. You've got, you know, Andre Johnson kicking the shit out of Cortland Finnegan. You've got, let's see, I mean, there's a bunch. I mean, I wouldn't say there's a bunch, but there are some moments that you look back on in Texans history. T.J. Yates, who I believe was an Owen Daniels that locked up the first playoff appearance. J.J. Watt with the pick six in the first ever playoff game

to end the first half against the Bengals. That's just, you know, the early examples of it. There weren't a ton of those great moments in the Bill O'Brien era. You look back on marquee moments, moments in a franchise's history that you can say, okay, that altered everything, that changed everything. You look back on that play on third and 16, I believe it was third and 16 at the time, wasn't a bad bad snap CJ just misses the snap deep in his own territory goes back picks up the fumble and just heaves it down the field to Hutchinson who makes the catch for 34 yards and that got them going and at that moment you started seeing CJ kind of come back around again then CJ

was able to run the ball some after that he had a huge like 20 something yard run at one point and he's getting kind of cocky again. He's feeling good about himself again. And it's those kind of moments that I think have not just altered that game, but may have altered the season and may have altered the trajectory of the franchise. Because the way things were going, they were about to get blown out of that game. Maybe not blown out, but they weren't showing anything. And if they are forced to punt again at that point, and they're punting from their own end zone, essentially, you watch

that and tell me how much confidence you would have had late in the first half of that game that the Texans were going to come back. The whole world thought offensively, they were just the same old team that had looked like shit for the last two months. I did. I tweeted out, look at the way, I mean, did that first drive really help them against the Titans? Good to see that that worked out. Sarcasm, LOL. But then you go back and look at that moment. You know, the Texans do not have a history of those kind of moments that you look back on and go, whoa, that altered the franchise.

You don't get that many of those if you root for the Houston Texans. They are few and far between moments that you look back on and you go oh that's that like a lot of teams have those especially in cities like if you go to Philadelphia they have a name for virtually every damn game and every play fourth and 26th fog ball I mean they have names of games and plays and everything oh this was the blank game this was the fourth and 26 game. The Texans are not a franchise that is loaded with those kind of moments. But what you saw was one of those moments. That is a play that you will not forget, especially if somehow they go to Kansas City

and somehow upset the Chiefs, which at this point doesn't seem likely. It's going to be cold. It's going to be miserable. But that's a gettable team. I know that the spread would indicate that they're a heavy favorite, and they are, and rightfully so. And I would love it more if this game were being played in 50-degree temperatures and a nice day.

I don't want to see the Texans play the Chiefs in 10-degree weather. It's going to be miserable. It's going to be terrible. You saw what happened to the Miami Dolphins when they went there and tried to do it. It is a miserable experience. However, that is a gettable team. And that is, look, am I going to say it's a winnable game? I think they could. Are the Chiefs gettable? Yes. I saw some statistic about the Chiefs. If you reversed every team's one score games, which obviously you can't, but if you took the results of one score games and you flipped the result, so instead of if a team won 10 one score games, if you flipped it and they lost the 10, the Chiefs would have the worst record in the AFC if you flipped, or one of the worst records, if you flipped one score games, which tells me

that the vast majority of their games are one score games. We know this about them. We also know that the Chiefs could have, should have, would have lost to Cincinnati. We know that they should have, could have, would have lost to Baltimore. We know that they should have, could have, would have lost to Denver once. They should have, could have, would have lost to the Raiders. And a lot of these are plays that were one play that turned the game at the end of the game. This isn't just like, oh, they were a one score game and they were within arm's reach and then they scored late.

No, these were games that arguably they should have lost, that the probability of a loss was gigantic. The Raiders game where the Raiders effed up the clock in the field goal situation. When Denver had a chip shot field goal block, which is something that does not happen. Whenever the Bengals were robbed on a shitty call at the end of the game. When I think it was Isaiah Likely's toe was out of bounds at the end of the game against Baltimore. These are not just, well, they were a one score game, but it's because the opposition scored late to make it closer. These are games in which the Chiefs were, like, butt-puckered going to lose these games. So, if you look at the Chiefs and you question whether or not you can beat them,

look, that defense travels and does what they did on Saturday? Fuck yeah, you can beat them. Like, people are still trying to figure out how the Chiefs are winning the games they're winning. They've got Mahomes. He's got some weapons, but that team has pulled off a lot of miracles. Games that you would call flat out miracles. Blocking chip shot field goals is a miracle. The Raiders being so inept that they fucked up the clock late in the game is a miracle. Those are football miracles. So if you look at the Texans and you say, can this team go out and can they go to Kansas City and win that?

You bet your fucking ass they can. Would I pick them to do it? Probably not. But I think you can go, especially with the vibe I saw from them. Even when they were winning games late in the season, it didn't feel like a team that believed the season, it didn't feel like a team that believed in itself. It didn't feel like a team that had any sort of confidence. It didn't feel like a team that had any kind of, and I hate this word, but swagger. They didn't feel like they had that. But what I saw was CJ being CJ again, especially when he's able to run the ball. And I

don't know if you heard him after the game, but when he talked about how he was able to run so effectively, said he watched a lot of film, San Diego doesn't spy, he knew he'd been able to run in that game, and he ran for a lot of yards. And there was a big running play, and I don't recall when it was in the game, but CJ had a huge 20-ish yard run that was gigantic, and he had that swagger about him again, something that he has lost for a while. It seems like he's got a little bit of his juice. Looks like the Texans defense really does. You have a chance going into Kansas City. It ain't easy.

It's cold. It's miserable. But now you're kind of playing with house money, right? Like, let's think, like, go back to the beginning of the season. This team was projected to easily win the division. Ultimately, they did easily win the division. But because of the fact that they won a playoff game last year, because of the fact that they were projected to win the division by a ton,

the expectations were rightfully or wrongly very elevated for this team. So considering they played as poorly as they did for most of the season, most people viewed this season as a regression, right? It was viewed as a shit step back. They got into the playoffs, won a shitty division, lose a playoff game. This game, this whole season kind of feels like a dud. D'Amico steps back. Now people are questioning him. People are questioning Stroud because he hasn't played as well. Blah, blah, blah. Now by winning that game, you've completely changed how this season is going to be viewed. It's not like the Texans have a buttload

of playoff victories in their existence. They don't have many. So this season completely changes. I think that Texans fans, knowing that they're going into Kansas City, knowing that they're facing Mahomes, back-to-back champions on the road, freezing fucking temperatures. I don't think fans are going into this saying, win or we're pissed. I think now you're in house money territory. Now I think in year two again, CJ Stroud made a huge stride in a playoff game. I don't think you go into this being super pissed if they play tough and lose to the back-to-back champions. It's a house money situation. So they go into this game on Saturday, which again, they're playing in the Texans slot, that 3.30 on Saturday. If you go out and win, just play your ass off and be competitive. Now, it can't be a situation like the last time you were in Kansas City where you're up 24 to

nothing and lose. It can't be one of those. But if you go toe-to-toe with the defending champions and you get a Chiefs type of win where they miraculously get something or miraculously get a fucking call, I think you leave that game feeling good about this season, particularly because of the players you lost to injury and other factors in this year. So I think you're in house money territory.

I think you've got the city back on board with you. I think nothing gets a group of fans rallying like being an underdog. It's one thing to be the favorite. I think when you've got an us against the world, but an us against the best team in the league type of thing going on, I think that alters the way the city thinks. And I think you're going to get the people on board with you. There's going to be great mojo this week in Houston. I've been there enough to know how the mojo in the city works. So you're going to get that. I think you're sitting in a position right now where it's house money.

You're a heavy underdog, but you've got a good quarterback. You got a shot. You got a fucking shot. And it all changed because of one play. That one play, that third and 16 where CJ drops the snap and it's looking like disaster, but he steps up and makes the throw of his life. And he makes arguably the biggest throw in the history of the franchise to this point. That's gigantic.

And as it stands right now, that is completely altered. This season, that game, and maybe the franchise. That was gigantic. I actually cannot wait for this game on Saturday. I want to see how they bounce back after that game and how they respond. Awesome shit from the Texans. We'll do more here in a bit.