The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Aaron Reiss Joins Matt Thomas To Discuss Texans' Injury Concerns

Episode Date: October 29, 2019

Aaron Reiss Joins Matt Thomas To Discuss Texans' Injury Concerns

Hey, this is Joe Green. Four three. Yes. Listen to Sports Talk 790 at home on your smart speaker. Just ask. Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. Red Rowdies, Bulls on parade, and Astros fanatics. Sports Talk 790, your radio home for your home teams.

We will certainly get the Texans there due when the Astros World Series run is over, which is sadly in a couple days. It's coming down to the last two days of the baseball season. But right now I do want to get a little bit in on the Texans. We'll do that with our friend Aaron Reese from the athletic, who is traveling with the team to London for Sunday's game. The team Aaron is leaving on Thursday. From what I understand that is atypical of most NFL teams.

Bill O'Brien wants to keep the guys in a good routine. Is this the right decision in your mind? Yeah, you know, I... So far, the trend this year, I believe, has been that the team that's arrived late has always lost. I actually am not sure with the last round of games, which team came later, and all that. But, yeah, I mean, the detectants, they said that they put a lot of research in before this in terms of how much effect it really has, and just in the whole history of these winning games, and they found it doesn't make a ton of difference between when you arrive,

and that, I know Brian's mind sticking in the routine and disrupting guys' routine is what's most important. So I guess we'll see soon enough. The Jags have more practice with this, and I think traditionally they've gone up a little bit earlier. But, you know, who knows, I think everything with this lending game is kind of a wash in terms of what happens. Like, you could blame anything on the guys being tired, or it could just be that, you know, a flaky game or whatnot. It's kind of hard to determine how much that really makes a difference. And the reality is they could play the game in Houston, Jacksonville, in Las Vegas. This Texans defense has beat up.

How bad is it? Is it going to get any better for this week? And what are the next two to three weeks look like, especially? after the buy. Yeah, you know, I think, I don't know how much better it's going to get this week. Maybe you get Jonathan Joseph back to this week. O'Brien sounded less optimistic about getting Tashon Gibson the safety back. And Bradley Roeby, the team does not expect back in top of the buy.

I think after the buy, things would maybe be a little bit better. They'd have Roby that have Joseph that presumably or hopefully have Gibson, and you still just to read back there. But, you know, Lani Johnson now is a concussion protocol. those things can go on forever. Greg Mans has been in concussion protocols, basically for most of the season now at this point, the Office of Lyman. And, you know, Gary and Connolly, he made the play at the end of the game. That was pretty big and helping him get the win. But he didn't look great for a lot of the day. So I think they're going to have some problems, and they'll especially have some problems when, you know, JJ Wilde up there messing up quarterbacks worlds. And they don't really have a ton of other pass rushing presents. And obviously, these things are they build off one another. So I think they're in some trouble on defense. Let me ask you this. Is it too simplistic to say, all right, Whitney Maristols in a contract year? Whitney's thought about having a little more room to maneuver and do what he does best now that with JD gone.

Is this the most important stretch not only for Whitney as a Houston Texan but determining his future and what he can get paid depending on how disruptive he can be over the next handful of weeks? Yeah, for sure. You know, it's actually funny. I was talking about this with some of the other reporters yesterday. like was this I mean obviously for the sake of the Texans like the Watt getting hurt is

obviously bad for the Texans but like was the Watt injury is that a good thing or a bad thing for Merciless like on one hand you know he has to like he said he carries now all this load and the attention on him on the other thing you know he's getting he was playing so old to be in the air in part because he didn't have a lot of attention on him right

because JJ Watt was getting double teamed at at a rate second only to Jadaubian Clani and you know it's just math right it's just numbers like they that that created opportunities for Mercilis and other guys, the rest of the defensive front. And now if those double things are shifting over to Mercilus,

then he's going to have a harder time to get in those sacks. And I wonder if it actually hurts his overall, you know, his raw stat line and how that affects how much he can earn. Maybe he comes in in a more affordable price, and he sticks with the Texas after this year. Visiting with Aaron Reese from The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter for all Texans coverage, and Aaron will be going with the team to London this weekend.

Aaron J. Reese, R-I-S-S-S-S-S. Aaron, what got Kiki Kootie into the Texans or Bill O'Brien Doghouse? Yeah, I know they said on the broadcast. It was, from what was related to me was, you know, like a lack of attention, right? In meetings or something of that sort of things, what they said on the broadcast. You know, Brian was pretty blunt about it, though, that he, you know, basically it was just a decision. He wasn't heard or anything like that. And you kind of just look at a – you look at the production of Kutti.

happening inside the numbers. They had some trouble getting stuff to them outside the numbers, and you wonder if that's some result of maybe him not running their routes the way they want on certain parts of the field or whatnot. I'm now thinking of that. There's that one throw that Watson missed, and towards the end zone, I guess it was against, not the Raiders, but, oh, my gosh, how much spacing on this? They played before the Raiders. Kansas City? Yeah. Indianapolis.

Yeah, I'm sorry, Indianapolis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was the one where, It looked like Watson and him weren't on the same page on the outside in the end zone in the fourth quarter. And that made me, you know, wonder if maybe, you know, he's not running the right route there. There's miscommunication. So, you know, I think he clearly looks like the more talented fly receiver than the Adrire Carter in terms of physical intangibles and stuff. But Carter, you know, he's stuck around here. He's still now for a while after kind of a journeyman start to his career. Coaching staff here clearly likes the way it works and like the way he carries himself.

He didn't get a shot, and I don't think he did anything to lose that opportunity in the game against the Raiders. The running game has just not been nearly as fluid the last few weeks. Is that a byproduct of Titus Howard being gone and the different guys are moving around? I mean, where has the five-and-six-yard burst of Carlos Hyde been the last couple of weeks? Yeah, you know, I think you're right in that regard. When it came to the Raiders, they were much better against the run than they were against the past of the defense. So I think maybe it wasn't quite as much of a point of emphasis for the Texans in that regard. What we thought, when we see it as best, it seems like those RPO's really working for the Texans,

and that creates these wide open holes for Carlos Hyde to burst through. Because I think if he doesn't have that, then he's not really the sort of guy who has the raw speed to just get to gain a bunch of yards. He tends to fall forward. He gets them enough. But I think he really needs some of those larger holes. Yeah, I imagine Titus Howard didn't help. And also for a lot of that game, they were playing without Larry Thompson, too, yesterday. So, you know, they're banged up along the offensive line, too, and that's a problem for them as well.

I think Tubbs will should be back this week. Howard still a little ways away. I'll be interested to see what they do at Wright Tackle. They had Chris Clark there in place of Rod Johnson. Rod Johnson has suffered a stinger against Indianapolis. Maybe Rod comes back and starts because Kristen looked that great at right tackle. That's a really kind of an understanding. We're visiting again, Aaron Reese from the out of money.

So Garner, Mitch, you put up huge numbers. Granted, it was against the Sucky Jets. You mentioned there a familiarity with London. I don't want to say a trap game, but I could go about 100 different directions in this contest. What does your gut tell you about Sunday in London? No, I completely agree with you. I think that, you know, the thing is kind of every single one of these games with the Texans now, with the way the defense is, the way the defense looks.

It's kind of up to will Deshaun Watson be able to outscore the other offense? At least my mind, I don't know how much you can really rely on the defense to win you a game the rest of the year. You know, I guess if you're going Gardnerner-Mitchie against Deshaun Watson head-to-head, you like Deshaun Watson in that match-up. But I do think this is kind of a fluky game, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Texans lost. And I will actually, I will go ahead and say that I think the Texans will always. Yeah, and I meant to ask you about the RPO. the Watson to Fell's combination.

I mean, I don't understand it. They've been doing this for like three straight weeks, and no one's been able to stop it. So is that a, is that little, you know, adjustments that Bill O'Brien's making? Is it just the fact that Watson is just picking the right play every time? But that has been really a very nice combination for the Texans offensively the last couple weeks. Yeah, certainly. I think it is a large part of Watson kind of, you know, making the right read there.

But there's a lot of things that go into it. like O'Brien was gladly tell you. But the main things are, of course, that, you know, Watson is a threat to run. Hyde, obviously, is running, and then Fells can leak out, and they can also have other guys crossing deeper and deeper downfield. And all that stuff together.

I mean, I think at the end of the day, no matter how much well Fells plays this year, he's still going to be like the fifth or sixth guy for opposing defenses to be worrying about, you know? So he's life is good for Darren Fells. He's like he just finds a lot of open field in front of him, seemingly every time he catches ball. All right.

So you got the Jacksonville Jaguars winning. I try every week to pick a winner, and I'm wrong every single week, except last week I did the Texans winning. It's just because I felt like the Raiders can put up a boatload of points but can't stop anybody, and that was indeed the case. Aaron, have a great trip. I don't know if you've been to London before, but I've never been to a football game there. I've been, what are you hearing about how many Texans fans are going?

Does Jacksonville have any sort of home field advantage over this, or is it kind of a pulpery of NFL fans that will be there? I really, at least when I've watched these games, it seems more like the ladder, just kind of a mix of people. I don't, Matt, maybe Jacksonville has a little bit of a foothold there, but that doesn't seem like it would be that outrageous. I don't think that the crowd is going to be much of a factor either way. All right, we'll leave it at that. Safe Travel, Mamma, we'll talk again next week. Thank you for the visit as always. Yeah, thanks for having me.

You got it, Aaron Reese from The Athletic with us here on The Matt Thomas Show.