The Josh Innes Show - Texans Loss Proves Two Things Can Be True

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

First off, the snow in St. Louis has become ice and it's impossible to walk my dog anywhere. Second, the Texans game sucked. The refs blew multiple big calls that did play a factor in determining the outcome of the game. That said, the Texans didn't lose because of those calls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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to learn more. All right, everybody. I know I'm a little bit late here. It's almost one o'clock in the afternoon. I apologize. Basically, here look, basically here's what it comes down to. Truth right here. Truth bombs for you. Not that it's anything controversial, but it's just the truth. No bullshit around it. It snowed here about two weeks ago. And I know you guys are sick of hearing me talk about the snow and Houston people are supposed to get some snow.

And I get all that. I'm not bitching about the fact the snow exists or that it did snow or that the city was ill prepared for it. I'm done doing all that. But here's what's happened. A, as we discussed, a lot of people never shoveled the sidewalks. B, we've only had like one or two days where there's a possibility for this shit to melt. And some of it has. The problem is the day after some of it melted we started getting like 15 degree temperatures so now whatever was there is now just ice so like if you walk into our backyard right now what looks like snow like you'd look at that from a distance and go oh you got a snow covered

backyard no i've got a treacherous ice luge in my backyard that is impossible to walk on so my dog can't run around in the backyard. My dog can't go for walks, A, because there's nowhere to walk in the neighborhood because many of the sidewalks are either ice covered or still old snow covered because these people have no concept here of how to shovel their sidewalk when there was snow on it, which is absolutely preposterous. I don't care if you live in the Midwest. I don't care where you live. It is preposterous that you don't shovel your sidewalk. Ours is shoveled. Most of the sidewalks aren't. So it's just ice. There is no more snow. The snow has become flat out ice. So that's what we have, right? So I can't walk the dog. Then you throw in the fact that it's like 10 degrees today,

so it's dangerous for a dog to be outside, so what do I have to do normally when we first got Ross you know a couple weeks ago about a month ago weather was nice during the day I'd get up in the morning take him around the neighborhood for a nice lengthy long stroll to get him worn out we'd come home I'd record the podcast and life was good well what has now happened because I can't take him around the neighborhood because this ice has not melted and it seemingly will not melt. And today he's not going to his training at the daycare. I had to find alternate ways to entertain Ross. So what do we do? I took him to fucking Lowe's and we walked around Lowe's for about half an hour to get him some exercise. It's actually pretty good in the Lowe's. we walked around Lowe's for about half an hour to get him some exercise.

It's actually pretty good in the Lowe's. He did a good job, you know. On our actual walks, he's kind of a menace in that the second he sees someone, he wants to go see those people. And he's not mean in any way. He just wants to see all these people. And I'm like, Ross, we're trying to walk here. And he's like, fuck, we are. So, like, it's kind of tough at times to walk him, although we're working on it and he's

a wonderful boy, but he got all sorts of pets at the Lowe's and it was great. But then you throw in the fact that I had to go in because today's a holiday. There was an opportunity to go bet on the total goals being scored in hockey games today. And that started at noon. So then after I took Ross to Lowe's, I had to go across the river to go bet on that and go bet on an early Grizzlies basketball game, which starts here in a little bit. So I had to get that in. Then I had to eat lunch. So by the time I get back, this is where we are right now. I know you have your own problems. I know you listen to this and say, buck up little camper, what the hell? But this is the situation.

The snow was one thing, but at least in snow, you can walk without fear of slipping. This is no longer snow. This is just flat out thick sheets of what looks like snow, but as ice, when you step on it, it's not like snow where you leave a footprint. Nothing happens other than you hear a cracking sound. And sometimes the ice will splinter a little bit and that's it. That's what we're dealing with in St. Louis right now. And it's like 15 degrees today. And it's going to be colder tomorrow. And it's a pain in the ass. Know you got your own problems.

Know you're living your own lives. Totally get it. Totally respect it. I'm all for whatever. Not trying to bitch. But the reason I'm late today is because my whole damn system has been thrown off by this ridiculous weather, this snow that started like 17 days ago, and it will not go away, and it has somehow gotten worse, absolutely worse. And I got people

sending me messages in my DMs of them enjoying the snow. My buddy lives in Louisiana, and they're supposed to get snow, and he's like, oh, my God, snow. And my other buddy's got like four young kids, and they're looking for mittens and gloves so they can go play in the snow. And, like, I don't want people to think that I'm some miserable anti-snow person. I'm with you. Snow is pretty. Snow is nice when it first falls.

Like before any of the cars are on the road, and you just wake up in the morning, and it's just a beautiful white abyss essentially. And it's gorgeous. And I'm all for you sledding and having a good time. But when you live in it and you're in a place that's ill prepared for it, we're still, by the way, here in St. Louis, they are still having issues getting roads plowed

from two and a half weeks ago because they are not equipped with the proper plows to plow these smaller streets. They have them on order. They're like backordered or something like that, but they didn't arrive yet. They'll be there for next year's snow, which helps nobody now when we had like eight inches of snow and a lot of these neighborhoods in the city, which are very kind of small, narrow streets, there aren't plows that can plow them. So they've been two weeks now, two plus weeks with shitty ice and snow covered streets. So when I bitch about it, if you're in a place that knows how to handle it,

I don't like living in snow, but like in Philadelphia, you can handle it because Philadelphia knows how to handle snow. It happens. But when I was in Dallas for the week of the Super Bowl in 2010 or 2011, whatever year that was, and it snowed and the city was ill-prepared for it, it's a nightmare. But at least I didn't have to live in Dallas. I was just there visiting for the Super Bowl, right? I can't imagine living in places like – well, I can't imagine because I'm doing it right now, living in a place that is ill-prepared for snow that gets a shit ton of snow. Dude, think about Houston right now. Houston, allegedly, I mean, Jim Cantore is in Houston. Shit's going to go down in Houston. And we see it with rain. When it rains too much,

it floods in Houston and the streets are all shut down. Flooding happens all the time. What are they going to do with snow? And I guess the good news in Houston is I wouldn't anticipate them having many, many days of frozen temperatures. So the snow will probably melt relatively quick. When we were on 790, like we woke up one morning to snow. And then by the time I got home in the afternoon, the snow was gone. So like that kind of shit does happen, right? We were there with the epic freeze while we were still living there in our townhouse in Houston, and it was miserable. So I get it. But we're in a place here in St. Louis that you would think would be at least somewhat equipped to deal with this kind of weather.

And they have failed miserably. That's why I'm still angry about this. I mean, it's like right now it's too cold to go take my dog for a walk. We took him to a park that had some kind of open, you know, cleared out sidewalks. It was like when I went to Minneapolis for the Super Bowl and my beard was frozen waiting in line to get into the venue. That's what this felt like today. So it fucking sucks. It's terrible.

It blows. Fuck it. There. How are you guys doing, though though hope your day is great let's talk about some stuff after uh these words all right if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs you got to check out pick six from draft kings when it comes to basketball payouts draft kings pick six posterizes the competition including including prize picks. It's a very simple concept. Hit all your picks and score higher minimum payouts on Pick 6, plus even more

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Voidware 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 picksix.draftkings.com slash promos. All right, so let's start right here. I don't think that the Texans lost the game because the officials sucked, but the officials blew two giant calls that I think

altered the trajectory of that game. Like, let's be real about who the Texans are, right? The Texans got a good matchup in that home game against the Chargers, won that game, things went their way. If you look at who the Texans were throughout the season, they had one win over a good football team and the rest of their wins were against shitty teams, right? Like I saw today where Will Anderson was like, you know, we need to be playing more home games and that means we got to beat teams like the Jets and the Titans. Well, even if you would have won those games against the Jets and the Titans, Will, you'd still be in a situation where you didn't win enough games to have home field advantage. Why? Because you got your dicks knocked off by Baltimore. You got your dicks knocked off by Minnesota. You lost a close game to Green Bay, another good team that you lost to on the road.

You lost a home game to the Lions in which you forced five turnovers and you lost that game. You lost another game to Kansas City. That's five losses against good football teams. The reality about the Texans is the Texans, as they were built and constructed this year, were not a great football team. That's fine. It's okay. You still want a playoff game.

It is what it is. But you did not lose to Kansas City because of the refs but those two calls were dreadful and one of them I guess technically two both of those calls led to scores I think one was a touchdown one was a field goal that's 10 points that were put on the board for Kansas City on blown calls one of them was a really bad one in the first quarter, the phantom roughing the passer. Because of that play, it extended a drive, and then like one play later, you're throwing a deep ball to Kelsey, and before you know it, they're marching down the field and putting points on the board. The other one was on a second down. It was a bad call, and it extended

a drive, but I think that was a second down play in which that happened. The first one was a third down play in which you were about to get Kansas City off the field in the first quarter, and outside of that big return when you held them to a field goal, Kansas City went doing shit, and that kind of got them going, right? Those were two awful calls. What I don't like is there are basically just two camps. There's the camp of people that believe that you don't bitch about the refs

and the refs didn't cost you the game, and then there's the other group of people that just want to bitch incessantly about the refs. Two things can be true. And I tweeted about this, which we'll get another podcast. We'll get into how my Twitter fucking exploded over the weekend. Holy shit. But I did tweet something similar to what I just said. I don't believe that the Texans lost because of the refs, but I do believe that the refs made some dreadful calls that did alter the trajectory of that game. And that is irrefutable. That is undeniable. That is real.

The problem is a lot of people read that tweet and were like, oh, way to ride the fence, pal. Just call it what it is. The refs fucked us. So the refs are terrible or they're on the take for Pat Mahomes or whatever. Two things can be true. You didn't lose because of the refs, but the refs made two terrible calls that impacted that game in a big way. Rarely is there a situation where you look at the ref and go, okay, the refs cost a team directly a game. As a Saints fan, the 2019 NFC Championship game was lost because of an obvious, egregious call.

You will not change my mind on that. It's not like that was a pass interference that was blown in the first quarter. That was with two minutes to go in the game, and if that's a first down, the Saints run down the clock, kick the field goal, game over. Now, the argument I've heard from people, and now we're going back to an old argument, was, well, they should have just ran the ball anyway. Bullshit. That was a first down.

They would have been able to milk the clock, and the game would have been over, at least been on the foot of the kicker for a chip shot field goal at home to go to the Super Bowl. That is a direct, blown call that fucked a team with two minutes to go in the game. That didn't happen in the Texans game. First quarter, and then I believe that other one was early in the fourth or late in the game. That didn't happen in the Texans game. First quarter, and then I believe that other one was early in the fourth or late in the third. Those were two bad calls, but at the end of all of it, the Texans were not good enough. They didn't finish drives. The offensive line was just dreadful. How many times was CJ sacked in that game? Eight? They were terrible. I don't

believe you can just go, we lost because of that. But you can sure as fuck bitch about it because I think it did change the way that game was going. Would they have won anyway? Well, scoring 14 points, two of which came off of a safety at the end of the game that was just gifted. And by the way, what a miraculous cover for a lot of people. Holy shit. I mean, that's a miracle cover. Like if you're someone that took the Texans plus nine and a half and they don't score on that last play, you're like, shit, we had our chance and they blew it. Then the miracle happened. You talk about the beauty of gambling. Holy shit. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. Imagine

you're one of these people sitting there going, oh shit, I got the Texans plus nine and a half and we had our chance, but all Kansas city has to do is now punt. And then you're one of these people sitting there going, oh, shit, I got the Texans plus nine and a half. And we had our chance, but all Kansas City has to do is now punt. And then you're like, well, if they get rid of one, maybe we'll catch a miracle and they'll return a kick or they'll try a long field goal. I mean, they already missed. I mean, think about the highs of the highs and the lows of the lows. Holy shit. Anyway, we can get into that another time. But the point in all of this is the Texans, there's nothing in their season. If you go back and look throughout this season, there's not a piece of evidence or any sort of result that happened over the course of the year that tells you the Texans are a better football team than the Chiefs. Not one. Are they fairly close? I'd say there's a couple of big key misses that the Texans have and a couple of key elements that they don't have that put them below the Chiefs. The Chiefs are a better team. The Chiefs have caught a shit ton of breaks this year. Okay. They're not as great as

some of the other Chiefs teams. But if you go back and look at what the Texans have done throughout the year, they have been dreadful. I say dreadful. They had a couple of really ugly games against two highly rated, big-time winning teams. Basically, the two teams, well, you take one team that would have, should have had home field advantage but lost the last game of the year in embarrassing fashion to the Lions, and then you did it against Baltimore, who should have, could have, would have been in the next round of the playoffs

if not for a drop. We'll talk about that later as well. Actually, there's a lot more to it than just a drop, but people want to circle that drop and make that like it was the only thing, but it wasn't. Anyway, all that said, the Texans were never an elite football team this year. The Texans were a cool, were good enough to win the AFC South. The AFC South sucks. We're good enough to do that. But when given opportunities, and their schedule was loaded with opportunities to show their worth against better teams, for the most part, they faltered against those better teams. With the exception of beating Buffalo, which again, you talk about how the fuck did that

happen? That was, I guess, the wake-up call for Buffalo because they've been basically a machine since then. So good on you. But blowing games in mighty fashion, getting blown out by the Vikings, getting blown out by the Ravens, losing by eight points to the Chiefs, blowing the game at home against the Lions, losing the game on the road to Green Bay. Every time you faced a good team, for the most part, you faltered. So there was no reason for

any of us to believe that the Texans were some elite team. Again, no evidence shows that if the refs wouldn't have fucked this game up, the Texans would have won. But the refs did fuck things up. The Chiefs went down and scored after what should have been a stop and a punt because of a terrible call. The Chiefs scored again on the bang-bang slide play with the quarterback or the unnecessary roughness that screwed them as well you just have to be willing to acknowledge that two things can be true and a lot of people struggle with the idea that two things can be true but two things can be true and in many cases are true Texans didn't lose because of the refs, but the refs sure as fuck helped out the Chiefs a lot.

And it doesn't help the idea that Pat Mahomes is the glory boy that gets all the love and like everybody makes jokes about it. But when you see those kinds of calls, and then of course, the call that wasn't made was the flop. And that one is the one on the sideline that's going around as well. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are a team and their fan base are easy people to hate. Why? Because before Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs spent about two decades as that team that always found a way to have a good regular season and then bottom out in the regular season. That's who the Chiefs were. When I was a kid growing up, I was born in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. There was no NFL in St. Louis. My dad was a Chiefs fan when I was a kid. My mom is still a Chiefs fan. We lived in Springfield, Missouri, which is in Southwest Missouri. It's more Kansas

City Chiefs type of territory over there. Fine. Growing up, we were Chiefs people. My favorite player was Derek Thomas. I had a number 19 Joe Montana Chiefs jersey. I had Chiefs starter jackets. I cried when Joe Montana retired. When I was a young kid, I was really into the Chiefs. And every year that they'd make the playoffs, they'd be like 13 and three and they'd lose like nine to six in a home playoff game. That's who they were. They were the team that could have had Rich Gannon playing a playoff game, but instead gave the ball to Elvis Gerbach and lost. And then Rich Gannon goes on to a Super Bowl and an MVPvp with the raiders like that's who they were so their chief their fans knew misery and their fans also knew

misery before they were able to get past new england and they were the people that would sit around constantly and bitch about how tom brady gets all the calls and they fucking hated it now they are those guys they are the insufferable fans. They are the new money fans, the people that aren't used to winning, but now win all the fucking time and you hate them for it. That is who they are to me. That is who Kansas City is. And I hate the fans. Fuck them. Because a lot of them have this mindset of, oh, losers bitching about the refs. That's all you sons of bitches did when Tom Brady would beat you in games. You just bitched about the refs constantly. So go fuck yourselves, Kansas City. I hate you. And if some miracle happens that Buffalo finally

beat you, I would be happy about that. I would really be happy if Washington would win. No offense to my Philadelphia people, but I can't stand the idea of like a house divided Kelsey storyline for two months. I may drink or two weeks. I may drink Drano at that point. It just, it, the idea we can get into that too. But anyway, just to kind of put a button on the Texan side of things, the season was ho hum. They got a playoff win. So it kind of made this game house money.

I never really felt like they had a shot to win it. Not to mention the special teams was dreadful from the opening kickoff where you give up a long return. Throw in the fact that you had a missed extra point. Throw in the fact you had two missed kicks, which, by the way, D'Amico choosing to kick the 55-yarder was also stupid. The conditions were not there for that. Just punt. The game is still a game at that point.

You've done a really good job. I want to say it was still 6-3 at that point. There was no reason to kick that field goal. You should have called the timeout before the fourth downplay. Like I wasn't against you going for the fourth downplay late in the game, but instead of calling a timeout and getting set, you just let them run with it. And it was a sack and it was terrible. So D'Amico didn't coach a good game or at least had some really egregious moments that you'll look back on and go, shit, we blew that one. The special teams was awful. The offensive line was just abysmal.

So you throw all that on top of the fact that you had a really shitty day for the refs with two blown calls, and it was a perfect mix to lose. But those other factors were far more important than the refs. But I don't blame you for bitching about the refs because those calls were egregious and were obvious, and it did alter the trajectory of the game. All right, we'll do more in a little bit.