The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Aaron Reiss Joins Matt and Ross to Discuss The Texans Ahead of KC

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

Aaron Reiss of The Athletic joins Matt and Ross to discuss the Texans recent blowout win over the Falcons and the upcoming road trip to Kansas City

Hey, this is Joe Green. Sports Top 790 is your home for Houston Rockers basketball. Time is 132. I'm Matt Thomas here in St. Petersburg with the Astros. Ross and Nick are back in Houston. Let's say how to our friend Aaron Reese from the Athletic. And I'm going to let Ross kind of handle this because he was the one watching that firsthand. Aaron, you were there as well.

Help me out here with the audience. Look, the Texans offensively were prolific on Sunday, and they got their mojo back. But how bad was Atlanta football? ball team. Tell the God's honest truth, please. Yeah, you know, I think that it really weren't great. The Lillianna's defense was the lack of blitzes, just given how much the the Texas had kind of seemed that seemed to be their Achilles heel on offense, dealing with those blisters. But Atlanta had really brought a lot of extras from previous games.

Maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised. But that was kind of a huge thing. A huge difference in the game, ultimately. You know, Sean Watson only not sacked and hit one. for the second time in his career, the other being against Miami last year, and the results showed himself. And I mean, so that's the thing, Aaron, it's how much of this, I mean, we want to say, you know what the Texas look great, which they did. And absolutely, I mean, scoring 53 points, you're not against an actual NFL team. You're never going to be upset with that.

How much do you think was it the improvement on offense with the Texans, with Deshaun Watson getting the ball out faster, or how much it was it, you know, the Atlanta Falcons are just bad or probably just some mixture of both? Definitely makes your bills. I mean, the NFL next-gen stats tracked him at, August time, release the ball 2.4 and 3 seconds,

which is the fastest time of his career in a single game. So, I mean, he was making quick decisions, which obviously neutralized the few times of Atlanta did blitz. But to general, he was making quick decisions, get rid of the ball and not protecting himself. And so that,

they do get credit for that. But I do think that this is an Atlanta team that seems to be, you know, kind of spiraling and just have no, some of the defensive lapses are, you know, it was just the plan, but the way they're, you know, one of the whole of four touchdowns, three people won't be under Hopkins in one direction, and left this one for one guy at the outside of the other direction you've got a touchdown, of course. I mean, I don't know if it will look that easy for the Texans in future weeks, but they were,

they were signs of progress for the offensive line, which also featured the same starting line for the, only the first, repeating starting line for the first time that season. Yeah, that was going to be the next direction I was going to be the next direction I was going with, I mean, just your thoughts on the progress of the offensive line. And like you said, getting a consistent starting rotation is seeming to help from them. Do you think, I mean, if I were to ask you to rate them, I don't know, just give them a grade or at least the last couple of weeks. A, B, C, D. What would you give them? Oh, man.

You know, the last couple of weeks is hard because they really didn't do well to balance that out. I mean, I guess we go to the last couple weeks you would say like maybe a B minus, right? Because this past performance is really good. and the week before it was not great. But I think the better way to look at it is how is this line that we saw on Sunday with Larry Tunsell and Max Sharping, left guard, Nick Martin in the middle, Zachwell and the right guard and tights Howard or right tackle. That line, the other time we saw it prior to this was against the Chargers,

and they played really well against Chargers too. So, I mean, I think they have something here, sharpening at some penalties that weren't great, but otherwise they look pretty solid. Aaron Reese of the Athletic here on the Matt Thomas show, and let's keep it on offense for a little bit with the running back situation. I just saw a tweet, Aaron, on Twitter about how Duke Johnson is highly errated in some kind of elusive rating and causing mistackles and yards after catch. And he has all these great stats, but it seems like Carlos Hyde is still getting the bulk of the load, especially when it comes to the running game. Do you think that is the way it should be, or would you like to see more Duke Johnson?

you know i mean i think i think that it's obviously like they view duke johnson as someone they can use on every down what that doesn't mean you use him uh all the time right uh and and and to some degree it seems like the way that they're they view it kind of his effectiveness comes by um by having someone who can also wear out the defense like uh carlos high hand he's more of a ground-to-pound guy i think that you know you'd consider the amount of value they gave up for for duke johnson a fourth or potentially their round pick that maybe you get a little more work But I think that they're figuring out that rotation. It's looked pretty good regardless of our pro-frieside.

He's also played pretty well. But as of right now, both the best of the top-field favorite. I think he has the second highest success rate in the NFL, according to football outsiders. And also his efficiency rate, like how north-south he runs on NFL next-jum stats is the best of his career. So, I mean, they're getting good production of both those guys. All right.

And how about evaluation of the defense? I mean, at the end of the day, we were focusing on the 53 points and the Texans getting a win, a double-digit win, but they did give up 32. How do you think they performed on Sunday? You know, I thought they were okay. Obviously, they gave up one of those touchdowns after that, that muffed pun, right? And at the end, toward the end, they were kind of dealing with a game in control for a while.

I thought they did, I thought they did it okay, not great. You know, Atlanta, for all of its folks, does have some really good receivers, and a quarterback who could be pretty good at times. So I think they were going to give up some points, but they ultimately were not that big of a problem this game. And finally, a decent defense back got an interception. And how about a DJ reader in the middle? I mean, that guy, to me, he has just been the engine for the defense.

The push that he gets, and now he has a couple of, he got a sack on Sunday. He has two and a half on the season. To me, I mean, one of the guys saying about him, or Romeo Cornell, whoever. What are the other guys on the defense saying about the impact that he has? Yeah, I mean, I think everyone you talk to or hear talk about him. I mean, they all kind of say the same thing, which is that, you know, he's incredibly reliable at his job.

He's always going to make problems for the opponents and always going to open up to him to other people. And he's done that basically every single week. And to some degree, he's been so dominant in doing so that he's obviously, like you mentioned, created some opportunities for himself. I don't think that shot costs all that much higher. but, you know, also me. But he's certainly that, you know, he's played had his best season in his career, and it'll be interesting

because, you know, they didn't sign up to an extension before the season. I imagine the price for him is only going to go up, if it keeps us up. Yeah, it seems like it's going up every single week. Aaron Reese of the Athletic here on the Matt Thomas show, and let's go ahead and move it to this week. A tough task, obviously, I mean, when you see this one on the schedule coming in,

you probably thinking you're counting L's and Ws, you count this one as an L, but, I mean, looking at the cheese, They lost at home last week to the Colts. They've had a couple of close games against the Lions and the Ravens who are turning out to maybe not be that great. Do you feel like the Chiefs are more vulnerable now than you thought going into the season? Yeah, for sure. I mean, for one, the Chiefs obviously are really banged up, right?

So that's part of it. And additionally, I think that that run defense has been really bad for them. So, you know, we were talking earlier about Duke Johnson and Carlos Hyde, you know, If those guys can both get gone against the chiefs that allow Texans a whole little ball for a lot of all. Keep Patrick Jones off the field, which is kind of obviously a cult recipe for success. And beyond that, you know, if Patrick Holmes has banged up a little bit with his ankle, if you're not super mobile, and the Texas pass rush that's been, you know, pretty good so far this season

and then get after a little bit. And those are kind of the things that need a Texan's way to make a good game. Yeah, so, I mean, yeah, what is this scenario you see? I mean, I'm looking at the line. The Texans are five and a half point dogs. 55 is the total on that one, which is the biggest total of the entire weekend slate. So, I mean, I guess you're thinking, you have to think there's just not much, many ways that the Texans are going to be able to stop the Chiefs, so they're going to have to win this one in a shootout. Is that how you see it?

Yeah. Yeah, when in a shootout or just, or, you know, run the ball incredibly, incredibly well and control the time of possession, because I think, you know, the Texans fast rush has been pretty good. But, you know, we haven't, I think, not many instances of the second-secondary really costing them games just because of the nature of the quarterbacks they've played and the nature of the sort of games they've played. But this is the sort of game where I think

a secondary that's been kind of concerning at times could look really concerning, obviously, against the best quarterback in the world. Yeah, and last thing before we get you out, Bill O'Brien, we obviously, when the Texans lose and he's making bad challenges or we think he's making bad play calls, we like to crush him.

So you tell me, What did he do right on Sunday and the good qualities of Bill O'Brien that came out with the 53 points scored? Yeah, I think that the quick passing game was really good. I think that he had the right – you know, he kept off the balance of his running, and that kind of kept the pass session getting to Sean Watson. And, you know, I think that, too much, obviously people can criticize the trade itself and the value he got back for it. But Larry Thompson, if you're like a pro football-focused person, his grades have gone up every single week.

He's like, he's starting to settle in now a little more. You're finally seeing a line that has taken shape with the two rookies. And, you know, I think everything's coming together as it's supposed to be or how they helped. At least he did, Matt one game, we'll see if they can continue. All right. Aaron Reese of the athletic here on the Matt Thomas show. Go ahead, Matt.

I was just going to say, thank you, Aaron, for coming out. I was enjoying listening to conversation, catching up on the text and stuff. I've been so astrocentric here that I was listening to Brung at Mindsock NFL football. And I couldn't believe it was on my show. It's just normally not that way. So congratulations to you both. Well, thanks for all of me, guys. You got it.

Thank you, Aaron. Appreciate it.